Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3)

by Tina Smith

  I pushed off the bench and walked outside, my boots clomped over the verandah. I looked out into the night for reflective eyes lurking in the trees around us, suspicious as adrenaline lingered warm in my veins. We left the door wide open. I turned to look our guest over in the light of the lounge room. My eyes traced her from our distance. “Are you sure about this, she’s not a spy?” I said low when Tisane joined me, her long hair catching in the wind.

  “I cut her finger...” she admitted.

  Blood was a definite sign, “And?” I was curious to know what she thought.

  “There was no trace of gold in the blood,” she urged, convinced as she grasped her hair from her face.

  “Maybe you didn’t cut deep enough?” Though I had examined it myself, and she was right. I wondered exactly what was going on here with growing confusion.

  “I don’t think she is a wolf,” Tisane insisted holding her wayward hair.

  I narrowed my eyes. “What is she then? They haven’t got to you have they?” My voice low and my steely gaze boring into her blue eyes.

  “No.” She breathed, stilled by the accusation.

  I considered the circumstances, growing frustrated. “What the hell do you expect me to do?”

  “Lila, do you see what I see here?” she asserted. “She came for a reading once before, months ago. She knows she is strange. She had nowhere to go, she came to see me, unannounced because I haven’t been taking readings.” Tisane’s tone suggested this was as I well knew. “Be grateful Lila,” she concluded.

  Tis had decided that she was on our side. I couldn’t be so sure. No one was above suspicion.

  “Tisane, don’t tell me not to be wary,” I whispered with a harsh tone. I couldn’t afford her kind of blind obedience to the goddess. I decided to give the theory the benefit of the doubt, albeit while on guard. I began to consider that if she was somehow a new huntress, she was very young and something I definitely had not expected.

  “What do you think?” she asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “I’m not sure what she is.” My words were distant. “I prefer to know what I am walking into,” I said. Perhaps taking a dig at her, though she couldn’t have known herself that another huntress was coming. Only Shade knew. I looked out over the balcony.

  “You’ve looked at her? What else could she be?” Her insistent expression urged me to listen as my eyes rested on the moon.

  I pinched my lips assessing the implications, “No...No. I won’t train her.” People tended to bring more problems to my life than they had solved. I liked being lonely for a reason. I wondered if Cres knew about this, she had spoken about a girl in her vision, but she had spoken of betrayal, so I wasn’t about to trust anyone, except maybe Cres.

  I turned to see the girl had sat back down on the lounge room sofa.

  “It doesn’t mean she isn’t a gift,” she persuaded tentatively.

  I wasn’t Cres. I wasn’t prepared to train another huntress.

  “She’s too young.” She can’t be. Shock stilled me and then I decided it wasn’t possible.

  “She’s all you have been sent. The Goddess wouldn’t give you something for you to ignore it.” She implored me.

  Deep in thought, I didn’t hide my annoyance. “Christ, Tisane.” I frowned.

  “She is looking for someone to trust and help her,” Tisane argued with wavering conviction. I took a moment to despondently pace the implications in my mind. Tisane’s meaning was clear; our visitor was just as I had been once. I looked away.

  “Okay.” I gathered myself. “I got it.” Still unsatisfied I looked towards the house. “I have to ask some questions.” I worked my jaw.

  “Then ask them, don’t accuse her.”

  “Stop answering for her then,” I rebutted with attitude.

  “Fine,” she agreed easily with a sway of her chin.

  I shook my head “I can’t believe you cut her.” I gestured to go back inside the open door.

  I walked over to the girl. “Listen to me,” I met her eyes. “What’s your name?” I asked taking the bow off. I knelt in front of her.

  “Caroline Doil.” She stated wide-eyed, “C.J.”

  “C.J?”

  “Caroline Jane Doil.”

  “Okay C.J, I need to explain a few things,” I said steadily as I removed the arrows from my back, resting them down on the floor. I reached to pull my gun from my hip. “Do you know why Tisane cut you?” I rested the revolver on my thigh.

  She nodded slowly. Placated I rose and sat on the couch chair across from her, glad to be off my sore feet for a few moments. I curled up my legs and sighed. Tisane sat in the other lounge chair.

  “She was seeing if I had the wolf blood?” I turned my eyes back to her.

  “Have you been bitten?” I asked again in a less accusatory manner.

  I had to be certain.

  “No,” she frowned looking towards Tisanes face for answers.

  I questioned, “Has someone asked you to come here?”

  “No,” she looked muddled.

  I took a pause and pinched my lips. It seemed as if she was telling the truth. I sat up again. “Tisane did what I would have wanted her to do. We have to be sure. I am a huntress - our kind track and kill wolves.” She appeared to be focusing on my explanation. “But mostly we just keep them under control.” I neglected to say we were losing the battle. “We need to know if you have been in contact with them.” I tilted my head.

  “Is that okay?” Tisane asked timidly from across the lounge room. I was mildly annoyed by her interruption.

  “Aren’t the wolves protected?” The girl’s voice trailed, her glance darted between us. “I haven’t seen any wolves,” she said shaking her head.

  I caught her eye. “Not the kind we hunt,” I assured her bitterly. “Tisane seems to think you are a huntress?” I waited for her response.

  “Like you?” The girl confirmed.

  I glanced with annoyance over at the clock and then at Tisane. I was tired.

  “Well, it’s been a long night.” I put my feet down, “I guess you have parents who are wondering where you are?” My expression was pinched. “They don’t know where you are, do they?” I asked carefully watching her response.

  “No, no, they wouldn’t let me come.” She swallowed rigidly. “I snuck out. But they might guess if I don’t come back,” she added hurriedly.

  “Right, well, I think I will take you to your home? Right?” I confirmed, glancing over at Tis with raised brows. Surely she wouldn’t stay here?

  The girl nodded. I rose heavily, ready to slog it back into Tarah and leant on the arm of the couch.

  “I have to take a piss first.”

  Relieved, I walked back out into the living area “Are you ready to go?” I tucked the gun back in my belt where it pressed my hip, uncomfortably and reached for the arrows. I guessed I would see if she did indeed live where she claimed to.

  She nodded.

  Tisane assured her. “You can come back tomorrow, don’t worry; Lila will keep you safe Caroline.”

  I grabbed up my bow and shot Tisane a pained look, at the last words. Hopefully she would not return.

  4. Moon Chosen

  We walked for nearly an hour before reaching Tarah and the lightning subsided. I took the chance to test her. She seemed to be able to easily keep up, jumping over old fallen logs with me, ducking under tree branches and dodging animal burrows. Just to be sure I took some harder routes, purposefully hitting landmarks and areas where I knew there were rocks and knotted tree roots, easily tripped upon.

  The sun began to sneak over the horizon.

  “Aren’t you frightened of the curfew?” I asked as we trekked mutely through the bush. The clouds were streaked brilliant pink and silver above. I concentrated on the underbrush crunching under foot. She shook her head.

  As we approached the edge of the bush my voice broke the monotony of our footsteps, “How did you find your way in the dark?”

 
She shrugged.

  I swallowed with a dry throat. “Do you…wander a lot?”

  “No.” She contemplated “I mean, I didn’t – not until lately.” Looking at her feet, contritely. Shade was a landscape hunters just knew. “I was scared at first, but I needed to get out. I can’t explain it, really.” She breathed nervously.

  I pulled up. “Why go to Tisane?” my face turned through the tree branches.

  “Umm, she read for me once, told me things.” She had come to the town Sage for answers, her eyes looked upward to follow mine. I thought maybe I would have done the same, if I didn’t have Cres. I found a plant on a wide gumtree branch that was hollow, designed to retain water.

  “What did she tell you?” I asked as I pulled off my bow, handing it to her. I swiftly climbed the smooth trunk to reach it.

  She tilted her head to watch me. “That I would change.”

  I reached for the plant and cupped the water in my palm and slurped it up.

  “That’s it? For that you walked alone through the most dangerous forest in the southern hemisphere, at night like an idiot?” I quipped towards the tree branch that I balanced on.

  Her voice lowered as I descended “She told me other stuff.”

  “Like what?” I said pointedly as my feet landed on the ground. I snatched back my bow.

  “That you had a sharp tongue.” She pouted.

  I turned and kept walking. “I tell it like it is,” I replied tersely over my shoulder.

  When we seemed to be nearing Tarah I asked her “Will you be in trouble?” As I slowed my eyes wandering the surrounds for would be assailants.

  “No.”

  We walked on silent, approaching a yellow clad house. I wondered who was inside it.

  Caroline’s voice was hushed “They will be asleep. No one should have noticed, except maybe my brother, but he wouldn’t say anything.” She shrugged. I thought to ask her if she felt tired, but she looked far less peaked than she had appeared under the yellow glow of Tisane’s house lights. Maybe she was partial to the air like me. Hunters loved the feel of Shade under their feet.

  I wasn’t comfortable with her comment about her sibling. “How much does your brother know?” I frowned as we approached a clearing.

  “Nothing. No one knows.” She tried to smile “I thought I was a mutant,” she admitted as we snuck along the outside of the house. I followed her.

  She stopped, I crouched and pointed to a window “Is this yours?” I whispered.

  “Yep.”

  She nodded and pressed her lips.

  “Is that why you asked Tisane for help? Because you thought you were a freak? What did she tell you?”

  She quietly continued, “I hoped she might know about it. I’m relieved that I’m not like mad, or a mutant.” There was an uncomfortable silence. No she was just cursed. “What will I do?” she asked concerned.

  “Some of the wolves are way out of hand; it’s my job to take them out,” I disclosed truthfully, straightening up now that the coast looked clear.

  She looked contemplative. “Like Artemis?”

  “Yeah. Get some sleep. We will be in contact.” I went to leave. “Oh, um, and I don’t have to tell you, do I, to keep this quiet?” My eyes hardened in her direction. What happened in the underworld stayed there.

  She nodded and finished carefully sliding the window across. I watched as she climbed inside. I picked up the fly screen leant on the cladding and passed it to her. It seemed this was her house. My eyes scaled over the soft toys on her bed, including a unicorn wedged between the bunched frills on her pillows. Against the soft chirp of crickets she turned to me and whispered, “Lila what will happen if I am like you?” she waited for my answer.

  You will have to kill. “I don’t know,” I replied emotionlessly, flicking my hair from the side of my face. I gave a stiff automated smile. “We’ll be back for you soon. Until then train, get your strength up.” I stopped suddenly interested. “How strong are you really?”

  She shrugged. “I can beat my brother.” She smiled, but there was something broken in the way she said it.

  “Right.” I breathed. I felt awkward then. I winced another unhappy smile, though whether it was meant to reassure her or myself, I wasn’t sure. I went to leave.

  “Did this happen to you?”

  I stopped. My gaze met with hers, through the fly wire.

  “Yes.” I admitted. My words didn’t do the magnitude of my meaning justice.

  I trudged faster through the bracken as the branches whipped my arms. I decided I wouldn’t go back for her, ever. If I was killed she could take over then.

  I arrived back after sunrise, scratched and nicked. Tisane was still sitting on the couch. “I don’t want to train her,” I said bluntly as I passed her.

  It wasn’t up for discussion. Even sleep was different than it once had been as I struggled to find it. If she was a huntress, I knew first hand there was nothing I could do about it.

  A few hours later, I found myself on the verandah quietly overlooking the scenery from the front of the cabin; the air inside the house was too warm. Tisane came quietly to stand with me. She looked at the soft silver sky. I remained distracted; spellbound to a life I didn’t want.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked languidly beside me, her hair a messy halo around her pale face. Evidently, neither could she. We had been up nearly the same amount of hours last night, but her pale skin was clear, unhindered by the deprivation. There was something otherworldly about Tisane Hunter, and not just the strange gift of sight and empathy she possessed, or the way she lived in solitude, or even her beliefs. I wondered what else she could tell. Clouds were gathering.

  “What does this look like for you?” I asked her, still gritting my teeth with frustration. “You believe that she is like me?” I said to the trees. I wondered if it was because she was born and raised here or if she really did have some special gift passed down from her ancestral tree.

  Tisane whispered, “Yes. I do.” Her eyes were cast down, shading the circles under her eyes.

  I felt then that Caroline was what we suspected. “What? Because we think she is a hunter, I’m supposed to endanger her. Take her from her family.” I thought about how I had left Sophie and shoved the thought away.

  “Lila it’s no one’s fault.” She recited in a way meant to temper my frustration. She frowned a little. Her eyes glistened with emotion that her face failed to convey, her hand reached for my back. I shrugged her off. I had a gut feeling it was true.

  “Urgh.” I knew with defeat that she was right. Caroline was now in danger anyway, when the wolves found her. “I don’t need her life on my shoulders.” I lowered my head to rest between my arms. We were both silent. I looked up and admired the unusually dry earth in front of us, deep in thought. A raven cawed from the trees.

  “Why would Artemis want this? Do you think they are all up there laughing at us?” I asked, wiping an involuntary tear from the side of my face. I still didn’t know where I stopped and the huntress began.

  “Who?” She looked ahead as I did. Robins chattered in the nearby forest line as they often did in the morning as a flock of ravens swooped into the tree branches.

  “The Gods.” I turned my eyes to the streaked late morning clouds. Enjoying our suffering.

  “Hmm, not technically.” She turned her face a little to me and smirked a thin crooked line - humour. It seemed I had forced Tisane to develop a wry sense of it. She cried so often I guess tears weren’t to be taken too seriously. She was happy about this I reminded myself. Thunder roared twice, ferociously above like an angry lion backed into a corner, brushing aside Tisane’s playful smirk. More rain was coming.

  “I feel that if I had a conscience I would turn her away,” I admitted. She looked at me. But she didn’t speak. “But I think we both know,” I rubbed my brow, “that we have to just go along with the game. Whatever game it is.” My expression did not hide the defeat I felt. The birds where darting in the bran
ches. I looked at the dark trees thinking. “What’s with the commotion?”

  She focused on the tree line “The ravens are attacking the nests. They eat the robin’s eggs.”

  I glanced at her and saw that her eyes were sadder than when I had accused her. The sky beat again deeply like giant fists on a galvanized shed.

  She drew a quick breath; I noticed she took her hand off the railing. “Lila, whatever we do and suffer in this life is for a greater purpose,” she assured me.

  I contemplated her argument “We are heading for something aren’t we?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. Tisane could tell by the clouds and how they crowded the mountains if rain would come, her eyes narrowed at the greying sky. She changed the subject. “How was Cres?”

  I recalled we hadn’t had time to discuss our meeting. Lately I had been like a ship in the night passing in and out of the house. I paused. “Same old, same old.” Then I recalled, “She predicted a girl and a betrayal.” I resisted to mention the man on the news.

  “Same shit different day?” I looked at her surprised and she smiled. “It wouldn’t necessarily be Caroline,” she suggested with a shrug.

  I noted with annoyance that she was quick to defend her. “I didn’t think it was. I take this stuff with a grain of salt.” I turned my face away. “Did you tell Caroline I had a sharp tongue?”

  “I knew you would be defensive.”

  I looked at her.

  “You did pull a gun,” she reminded me. I knew with a twinge it was true.

  We fell silent. I knew with a broken laugh resistance was futile. I cracked my neck “Why do they toy with us?” I said as it cracked.

  “Who, the Gods?” she guessed, watching me stretch. She sighed, “If I was up there I would eat every kind of chocolate and sweet food and never gain any weight,” she smiled crookedly.

  “Really?” I said bemused. I laughed under my breath as a weak smirk twisted my lips. “Is that what you think about?”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “Ummm,” I chuckled under my breath. “I would wish to be - I don’t know, to change places with a God,” I tapped my hand on the railing. “It might just be good to be free, normal again.” I looked at the carving over the door. “Maybe I would have…wings?”