by E. A. Copen
“It’s stupid cold, man,” he said, patting his arms down, “even for paws and fur. You shouldn’t be out. Hell, I don’t want to be out. Wouldn’t be if I hadn’t had a delivery tonight. You guys want me to give you a ride?” He pointed a thumb at the side-by-side behind him. “She ain’t pretty, but she’ll get you wherever you need to go. You weren’t headed out to the point, were you? Too cold to be out there tonight.”
Yet another reason Nic could never be suspicious of Justice. He never stopped talking. Someone like him, if he were up to something, he’d never stop yammering about it.
Jackie trotted past Nic and hopped into the side-by-side, taking up the front passenger seat and looking expectantly at him. Dammit, he should have told her not to oblige Justice. Not that he didn’t trust him, but the pack had an unspoken policy about dealing with Justice. They didn’t. Mostly, they ignored him. Didn’t speak to him, didn’t answer his calls, didn’t buy from the shop if he was the only one on duty. Because of how things had gone down, Nic had decided it would be best for everyone if they just didn’t interact.
Justice, though, thought differently. For several months after his expulsion from the pack, he hung around. He called constantly. Dropped by unannounced, sometimes even in the middle of the night. It got so bad, Nic had threatened to get the human authorities involved if he didn’t back off. It took a while, but Justice finally got the message. Out was out, and there was no getting back in. Since then, Nic had only a few very limited interactions with him, and the rest of the pack had steered clear.
Jackie hopping into his vehicle would give the appearance that they were on speaking terms again and, if they showed up at the pack’s residence with Justice, it would cause a lot of undue stress, especially for Bryce. But what was Nic going to do? Leave Jackie alone with Justice? He didn’t think Justice would do anything, even if his wolf was screaming not to leave them alone together. If anything, Justice was in more danger than Jackie. She was fiercer than her wolf let on.
“I get it, man,” Justice said, nodding. “I got the message. You don’t want the pack to see me hanging around. I totally get it. Thing is, whatever bad blood there is between me and certain members of the pack is between me and that member of the pack. I ain’t got no beef with you, and I don’t want no one to find your frozen corpse out on the ice come spring.” He paused to draw a breath. “But, so I don’t cause you and the pack no undue stress, how about I take you guys back to the store? You can shift back, we can have some soup and cocoa. You’ll love gran-gran’s stew. Besides, I had something I wanted to run by you anyway. Something that might help the pack with…uh…whatever’s going on.”
Nic narrowed his eyes. Justice would have heard about David, probably from the neighborhood people who liked to blab just like him. It rubbed him the wrong way, though, that Justice was keeping such close tabs on his old pack, despite his previous warnings. Maybe a chat with Justice was warranted. He sure wasn’t going to leave Jackie alone with him.
He hurried to the side-by-side and waited for Justice to open the back door before he hopped inside. Even with the doors open, it was warmer in there than outside. Nic hadn’t realized just how cold his paws and nose were until he was sitting in the back seat, thawing out. The heater ran full blast, but even with the doors closed, it probably was still close to zero inside.
Justice talked as he drove because Justice never stopped talking. “Heard there were some visitors in town.” He didn’t take his eyes from the road, but bobbed his head toward Jackie. “Probably come because of what happened with Anabelle and Peter, eh? Was sorry to hear about that. Especially Peter. He was a good guy. And now David?” He shook his head. “And before you get your tinsel in a tangle back there, Nic, I ain’t stalking your pack. Barrow’s still small enough I hear things almost as soon as they happen. Strangers rolling into town on a private jet in the middle of the long night is big news. Ain’t a soul in town who isn’t clamoring to get a look at the two that come off it. Well, maybe Osha, but you know Gran-Gran. She still thinks telephones are news.”
Nic stretched out in the back seat, suddenly remembering the good old days when he and Justice would go out to Barrow Point in the summer. It felt like a magical place, and Justice always had a story to tell. Used to be, the Inupiat were fond of their stories, believing the whole world was alive with them. It was Justice and his gran who had told him the story of how Igaluk, god of the moon, chased his sister across the sky. When Gran wasn’t around, Justice loved to tell stories about ravens who ate parts of men, and animal spirits who could use their beauty to lure men into the ocean to drown. He had dirty jokes and stories that would make for great bits of crude humor on a dark, drunken night. How many evenings had they passed just sitting around, listening to Justice tell his stories?
In a way, Nic missed it, but not enough to rescind the order. Justice was out of the pack and he wasn’t coming back, no matter what.
About five minutes into the ride, Nic decided that dealing with Justice would be easier as a man than a wolf, and began to Change. The backseat of a side-by-side wasn’t ideal, but at least the backs of the front seats provided something of a barrier that would keep eyes off him while he shifted.
Justice glanced back at him once and shook his head, muttering, “Always impatient.”
He still hadn’t completed the Change when Justice pulled up in front of his store. The second change would take even longer because he didn’t dare draw on the pack so soon after doing it the first time. They’d worry and come looking, exactly what he didn’t want.
Justice got out of the vehicle as soon as it was parked and left the heat running. He opened the door for Jackie to jump down. “Shut her off when you’re ready to come in,” he said. “There’s an emergency change bag under the seat there. Might not fit you well, but that’s what you get for not waiting.” He shut the door and went inside with Jackie trailing him, leaving Nic to finish the Change in peace.
Except there was no peace to be had. Something dug at him about letting Jackie go off alone with Justice. Maybe Justice wasn’t the good guy he remembered. After all, his objections to Bryce taking his spot as second seemed to come out of left field. Nic sure hadn’t expected him to react violently. Justice had never been particularly violent before. If Nic hadn’t stopped him in time and let him carry out his plan to kill Bryce, he’d have been forced to kill Justice instead of just expelling him from the pack. But Justice had never shown signs of being violent with any of the female members of the pack, nor did he have a history of behaving badly. So why did the thought of Jackie alone with Justice make his teeth grind and his heart pound?
The Change finished, Nic lay in the back seat, naked and shivering a moment before searching for the bag Justice had mentioned. In it, he found a gray cotton sweater and matching sweats along with two pairs of socks. Nic pulled all of it on before sliding into the front seat to switch off the vehicle. His finger lingered on the switch as his eyes picked up a crumpled bit of paper on the floor of the front passenger side. Normally, he wouldn’t even notice something like that, but he caught the faint whiff of Tara in the front seat at the same time. What had Tara been doing with Justice? Nic switched off the side-by-side and resolved to go inside to find out.
The general store was a staple of the town and had been since before Alaska was a state. Once, it was a hut of ice and hide. Now, the walls were timber cut in southern Alaska and flown north. A wooden sign hung from a post outside. Underneath a layer of ice and snow, the sign welcomed patrons to the North Pole General Store. Nic trudged up the stairs and pushed open the door. He couldn’t help but relax a little as the warmth from inside hit him.
Inside, the general store was made up of lines and lines of produce, dried meats, and hardware. A refrigerated section lined the walls of the store, holding a small selection of dairy and meat. Nic walked past the display of three seedless watermelons, a rare treat so far north because they cost over thirty dollars each. Justice and Jackie would be upst
airs, in the little apartment where Justice lived. The stairs were in the back near the office.
His feet left puddles behind on the floor as he made his way to the office in the back. Wooden stairs creaked and groaned under his weight as he pulled himself along the banister. Moving so soon after the shift had left him sore and grumpy. Finding Tara’s scent in Justice’s ATV hadn’t done anything to brighten his mood, either. By the time he reached the top of the stairs, he was grinding his teeth.
The door stood open, but he knocked anyway.
Justice appeared with a mug in hand. He’d taken off the cold weather gear and now just wore a bright green sweater and jeans. “Hey, man. You know you don’t have to knock.” He held the mug out to Nic.
Nic didn’t even check to see what was inside it. He cared only that it was warm and he was half-frozen. He took a big gulp, pausing at the tartness of unsweetened, hot tea as it burned his tongue.
Justice pushed the door open further. “I’m making cocoa, but it’ll be a few. I figured microwave tea was better than nothing.” He gestured for Nic to step inside, so he did.
Justice’s efficiency apartment was cozy and done up to look like a hunting lodge. There were stuffed animal heads on the walls and a bearskin rug on the floor. A space heater disguised as a fireplace sat in the center of the room, the faint orange light brightening the whole room. Behind that, Justice’s bed was made with a fluffy, brown comforter on top. Jackie sat on the floor near the bed, directly in front of the heater. She hadn’t bothered to change back yet. Maybe it was for the best.
Nic stepped inside and turned to face Justice. “Justice, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. You still can’t hang around the rest of the pack.”
“I get it.” He shrugged. “But the alternative was me taking you back to your place and the whole pack seeing me with you. Pretty sure you didn’t want that, either.”
“I’m going to have to go back, and not long from now.”
Justice’s only response was, “Cool. I’ll drop you at the end of the street or something. But first…” He trained off and jerked his chin toward Jackie. “She got a name?”
“Jackie. Her name is Jackie Wheeler.”
“So you know what killed Anabelle, Peter, and David?” When Nic glared at him, Justice raised his hands in defense. “Hey, man, ain’t like I’m watching you guys or anything. Barrow’s a small town. Three people die close together like that, especially werewolves, people talk. People especially like to gab to the guy running the register at the general store. Man, what happened?”
Nic debated not telling him anything. It really wasn’t his business, since he wasn’t part of the pack, but as Justice had pointed out, people talked. It’d get around eventually that Anabelle and David had died of the strange laughing sickness, if it hadn’t already.
He sighed and walked further into the room so Justice could shut the door. “I was actually hoping to talk to you and your gran tomorrow about it.”
“Well, Gran’s asleep by now, especially since she hasn’t been feeling too well.” Justice rushed to clear off a chair for him and ushered him to it. “But maybe I can help. I heard David went crazy. Did you have to kill him?”
Jackie stood and wandered over to lie next to him on the floor, her side against his leg. Something about the gesture was comforting.
“No,” Nic said. “Whatever was making him crazy killed him before it came to that.”
He turned the cup around in his hands, debating how much to tell Justice. He didn’t want to tell him anything, but maybe Justice could help. He did, after all, know a lot of stories. Maybe he knew something about this strange laughing sickness, something that could help. He’d hesitated in asking for help before and it had cost another life.
“Hey, Justice, do you maybe know anything about a laughing sickness? David laughed until he suffocated on his own laughter. I thought maybe you or your gran knew of a story or something that might help.”
Justice pulled up a stool and sat on the edge of it, hands on his knees. “Well, sure, but it’s just a story. Like everything else.”
Nic sipped at his tea. “Used to be people thought we were just stories, too, Justice.”
“Yeah, but up here if any of these things were real, someone would’ve seen something. I mean, how many expeditions to the arctic took off from Barrow Point? Dozens. This place is a hotbed for archeological research ‘cause of the way stuff gets preserved up here in the cold. If any of these creatures were real, wouldn’t there be corpses or prints or sightings…or something?” He shook his head. “Nah, man. It’s like the folklorists over at the college say. The Inupiat made this shit up to explain things they didn’t understand or teach kids taboos. Werewolves have been around forever and people found dead ones long before we went public. Just Lou Ganner and his gang were good at making sure it never hit the press. Well, except for a couple of instances where they failed, but you get the picture.”
Nic’s eyes drifted down to where Jackie lay, head on her paws, ears perked, listening intently. Justice must not have known who she was after all. Maybe that was a good thing.
“Well,” Nic said after clearing his throat and turning his attention back to Justice. “If you know anything, even if it is just a story, it might be a helpful jumping-off place. Maybe somebody’s using magick to impersonate something from a story, or maybe there is something out there we just haven’t seen yet.”
Justice shrugged. “Sure, man. Whatever. You want to hear a story, you got it.”
The kettle on the cooktop on the other side of the room whistled. Justice stood, clapping his hands together. “Just let me get you something better to drink than that half-rate tea I made.”
He collected Nic’s mug on the way through without asking and tossed it, still mostly full, into the sink before grabbing another and mixing up some hot cocoa. He returned, offering Nic a steaming mug and keeping one for himself. “I’d offer her one too, but might be she’d burn herself in that form before getting any of it down her throat.”
Jackie wagged her tail in response.
Nic sipped at the hot cocoa, which was indeed much better than the tea, while Justice sat back on the stool. He crossed one leg over the other and then crossed his arms.
“Now,” Justice said, “this is a story that Gran told me. Her gran told her and so on, all the way back. A long time ago, there was a husband and wife who lived in their igloo. Now, the man went out to hunt one day on a long trip with the other men of the village, leaving his wife alone. Now, as she was sleeping, she heard a sound, a little scrape-scrape against the ice. ‘It’s the wind,’ she thought and tried to go back to sleep. But the scraping sound didn’t stop. It only got louder and louder.
“Very soon, it sounded like it was right next to her, but the woman was too afraid to look. ‘It’s only the wind,’ she told herself again and lowered the hide from her face. There, peering back at her, was a demon unlike any other. A thin creature of sinewy muscle, ice blue in color and naked, despite the chill in the air. Long, stringy hair hung from its shrunken skull, but it didn’t cover the creature’s white eyes as they bore into her soul. The demon’s fingers were as long as my arm.” Justice gestured with his hand a length that would have been impossible. “And it had fingernails twice as long.
“The woman screamed, thinking it meant to slice her open with those long fingernails, but this demon had a more sinister plan. It reached down and tickled the woman.”
Nic raised an eyebrow. “Tickled?”
Justice nodded. “At first, the woman laughed. She laughed until she cried, until she wet herself, until her sides hurt. The demon’s fingers were ice cold and it was very painful. She begged it to stop, but the demon didn’t. All night, he tickled her until she lacked the strength to breathe and expired. Then the demon left in search of other prey.”
Nic rolled his eyes and shook his head. A story, indeed. There was no way something like that was real. “I don’t suppose this demon has a name?”
Justice made claw gestures with his fingers. “The Inupiat call it the Mahaha!” he said, wiggling his fingers menacingly.
“Well, that story might scare little kids, but I don’t think there’s anything like that sneaking into the pack house at night. For one, neither Annabelle nor David were left alone in the house. Second… that just sounds ridiculous, Justice.”
He shrugged. “Hey, man, I told you it was. Gran tells it better anyway.”
They sat in silence for a little while, listening to the heater run. After a time, Nic figured he should just say what he wanted to say. There was no reason for him not to. He owed Justice nothing, after all.
Nic tapped his fingers on the nearly empty mug of cocoa. “What was Tara doing in your ATV, Justice?”
Justice paused in reaching for his own cup, which he’d placed on top of a pile of books. He looked like a child caught reaching into the cookie jar.
“I know she was there. I smelled her earlier. You know you can’t lie to me, so just answer the question.”
Justice slowly retracted his arm and placed his hand back on his knee with a sigh. “Look, man, I didn’t go looking for her. She came to me. Cornered me at the store and told me you let David die. She was real upset, so I closed down the store and let her sit in my car for a little while to get her bearings, is all. She’d been drinking, so I offered to take her home, but when we got there, I didn’t think she should be alone.” He glanced at Jackie and turned away, rubbing the back of his neck. “Aw, man. I knew I shouldn’ta done that, but I felt bad for her, you know?”
“Did you know Tara was on anti-depressants?”
Justice didn’t answer right away, but his silence said enough. He knew. And now he knew that Nic knew his story wasn’t completely true.