by Tina Smith
“I’ve been thinking about it. I can’t help Narine, but I can do this and stop them taking others,” she said, decided.
“Thank you.” I wasn’t always convinced she would help us. “We need your help.” She had never wanted a fight.
“Things will happen that will inevitably draw me into it. It’s one of those things. I’m swept up in a tide.”
Now I guess she knew a little of how I felt. If you were privy to this world, you couldn’t escape it. Tisane had her own duty. It meant a lot that she would put aside her own convictions to help us.
Suddenly, there was a presence in the house and C.J pulled her gun. I was less quick to draw. I’d had a feeling we were followed. Jackson stood in the lounge room bare chest rising and falling.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” he glowered.
I breathed out, frustrated. “Jackson, Tisane, Tisane, Jackson,” I introduced them.
“Hello.” Tisane said with a little surprise to her tone at the naked, panting young man standing in her house. I tucked away my gun.
“Did Reid send you?” I asked, my glance sharp.
“No,” he admitted, dropping his head.
“Angele then?” I looked at C.J and Tisane, with eyes wide.
“No, I decided it would be smart. I’m not putting my life on the line for someone who has secrets, Lila, and where there’s one there are many more.”
“Fine, did you hear what we said about your girlfriend?” I asked.
“She’s not on their side,” he persisted. He looked ready to pounce.
“How can you be so sure?” I challenged, seething. My hand tensing for my gun.
“How are you so sure Sky hasn’t been turned? He didn’t come for you?”
“That’s just… so damn different and you know it,” I scowled. “They kept him in a cage.” I gritted my teeth.
“Is that so?” He turned to leave.
I rushed to stop him as he went. “Are you going to tell her?”
“I’m not going to fight your fight, Lila.”
I panicked, following him a few paces. “Jackson. Please. Just come inside to talk?”
“With who? You and that hunter and that other woman,” his face bunched angrily. “Who is she, a wolf?!”
“No.” My tone was incredulous.
He came a few steps closer and stood facing me leaning in angrily “What does she know about us?”
“She’s a witch,” I admitted.
“What? Ha!” His face screwed with scepticism.
“Jackson at least let us explain...” I urged him to listen.
“No, do you think I’m stupid?” His mouth contorted bitterly.
“Jackson please, I’ll tell you about what’s going on.” My eyes were wide.
“No you won’t, because you’re worried I’ll tell her. I heard what you said.” He glanced at us. “You know something, Lila, I never wanted to be in your war – if it were up to me I’d be out there free, away from all your death.” He hit a nerve.
“My death. What? I save the innocent from being infected by creatures like you, idiot,” I glared.
“Then take aim Lila, here I am. Don’t look out for your little minion. That’s right, decide, Lila, what side you’re really on? Or is it that you just use some of us for your purpose and the other wolves, are they really so different from me? Because I’m not so sure. You stand there all self-righteous and plan to kill. How many have they killed?” he taunted venomously.
“They took my sister.”
I turned to see Tisane moving in front of C.J.
“You’ve even convinced the innocent to help you. Stay away, witch. She’ll get you killed to achieve her twisted purpose,” he warned as his face twisted with hatred.
“Jackson, I believe you,” Tisane said calmly.
“Good, then let her do her own dirty work,” he hissed.
“No, I know the Cult pack’s intentions,” Tisane urged.
“What could you know?” he challenged, but he began to cool.
She swallowed. “My sister is now the leader.”
He looked in shock at me. “Is she bitten?” he asked.
“No, she is human,” I said darkly. “Her mother was a Hunter. Literally her last name is Hunter.”
“So what? There are three of you now?” He looked back a forth between us.
“No, only C.J and I are Hunters.”
“Jackson, if you believe Angele isn’t a spy, I trust you,” Tisane urged as she tried to placate him.
“Ha, the witch listens and do you listen to her?” he scoffed.
“She’s got me this far,” I admitted and raised a brow.
“I won’t be part of your war,” he said vehemently.
“Are you against us?” I held my breath in anticipation of his answer.
He winced. “No, not exactly.”
I reacted with surprise. “So - you don’t agree with the Cult’s plan?”
“To be honest if it’s true what you say Lila, then no, I don’t. I don’t want other kids or my parents being turned. They are mad, and we will be killed. There will be more like you to control us,” he argued.
“And we won’t be controlled,” I replied icily.
“That’s it though, Lila, neither will they,” he stated.
“Jackson I don’t want to eradicate your kind,” I said with an uneasy shrug.
“How can I trust you?” His eyes were pained as he folded his arms.
“I know you love Angele.” I my face pinched slightly.
“Yeah, yes I do.” He straightened his back and gave a suspicious frown from under his fringe.
I relaxed a little. “Then you know how I feel about Sky,” I confirmed.
“Ha.” He tried to laugh, “What is this?” His eyes darted disdainfully between us.
“And Cres and Reid,” I added convincingly. He knew I cared about them.
“Why, though? Why are the hunters suddenly in love with the creatures they hunt? You can’t be on both sides of the fence, Lila.” His tightly closed mouth seemed to retain the truth of what he had just said.
Tisane spoke. “I can answer that. Times are changing. Apollo is gaining power, his planet is dominating the universe, and he opposes Artemis. It’s reaching its peak.”
I noted C.J listening intently.
“Why?” I asked Tisane. She turned to me.
“The Thunder River rises and it is swelling. Soon the roads will be trapped, and Apollo has wielded to undo her legacy by turning it against her with lust. The wolves are only separated from other creatures by a conscience. If the enemies care for each other they are no longer enemies…”
“Do you believe this?” Jackson asked towards me with a flick of his chin.
“Tisane knows more about this world of ours than anyone,” I admitted in a distant tone.
Tisane continued, “But there are those who will never respect the laws.”
Jackson was still vexed. Unconvinced, his eyes flared and he asked Tisane, “Are you one of us?”
“No,” she replied.
“Do you believe in bloodshed?” he asked her with a threatening sneer.
I saw his neck tense and I readied to protect Tisane.
“I believe in natural law,” she retorted.
He narrowed his eyes. “I mean, will you actively participate in your sister’s death?” He hissed coolly.
“Jackson, it would seem I already have. My sister doesn’t follow any sacred laws. She makes her own, and she has no fairness in her heart. She is angry and it has twisted her.”
“So, you will kill her?” he asked directly, lips pursed.
Tisane met his glare. “I will do what needs to be done. It seems to me Artemis has called on us to correct the balance in her land. She hasn’t chosen me for a hunter wisely, I have another path and I accept that,” she pleaded in a hushed tone.
“And what is it that I am supposed to do for you?”
“Follow yours.” I knew that her conver
sation with him had been constructive.
Inherent in all of us, in the human part, is the desire to trust, to believe what we are told. Even the wolves weren’t immune to this. Neither of us had concrete reason to disbelieve, so I was trusting Angele, and Jackson was trusting me. Something I’ve learnt since is never over or under estimate your opponents.
Nature was usually at our mercy, but it was becoming apparent that today that the tables had turned. The back creek was coloured with sediment and coming up fast. In the heart of Shade, the river had swollen to encompass the statue of the huntress, her grey feet disappearing under the water. A flood warning was issued, reporters fled the town by helicopter and Shade buckled down for the Artemis River to break its banks and claim back the lowlands. Some were advised to evacuate. The next story to hit the nightly national news was the impending natural disaster. Some houses in Shade were already flooded. We were on the brink of a full moon as the river rose higher.
As Sky watched the media outside the wall through the windows, he wanted to escape. He would have talked to the reporters had he not been certified as dead. He knew things weren’t looking up when Blair introduced his lead officer, Sutton, as the new member to the pack. He knew Narine had the upper hand now and her claws were digging deeper into the valley. They were worried about Sutton causing problems and they had dosed him with Ketamine, an animal anaesthetic. He sat on the couch with pin prick pupils. But at least he didn’t add to the drama.
Lila was biding her time, probably because reporters staked the compound. The house was in lock down. Aylish was still the only one on the loose allowed to come and go as she pleased and Lonnie was worried about her. In frustration he had smashed the Nintendo, which caused an argument with Tyler. Sky stopped the fight, and then he paced the lounge. Blair was allowed to come and go as he wished. The rest of them went stir crazy in the house.
Sam was busy torturing Cres for Lila’s whereabouts and Sky was growing very impatient for action, he was jumpy. Bianca was keeping an eye on him, while reading an old Mills and Boon. Her subtle observation made him nauseous and the mountain pack grew restless. Unused to being so civilized, they were all acting cagey. Sky could feel they were heading for something.
Narine was in denial, subtly taking control, but the likes of Agnes and Greta were not easily swayed. They were old and Sky suspected there was a reason they chose to live in the wild as creatures of the forest and not as humans.
He wasn’t in position to convince them Lila wasn’t a threat to those that followed the law. Narine was slowly brainwashing them into a state of fear. Everything was heard in the house, all murmurs behind closed doors could be deciphered. A pack had no privacy. They were to wait in the forest tonight. He watched the lithe skittish members of the mountain pack poke at the gadgets the modern wolves took for granted. The males were subordinate to the female, Greta. Agnes and Dahlia played Uno quietly in a corner of the lounge. Sky, somewhat subordinate himself, began to find a bridge between the males, Christian and Bert. They sat together on the balcony facing the back of the house overlooking the trees. Uneasily they waited, for exactly what they weren’t sure.
C.J and Jackson drove back to show them the way. It was the first time she had been out on her own with them. I was worried about what might happen on the drive, but she knew we needed him for the attack. I warned her not to kill him and I knew he could have easily overheard as he caught my eye.
But after they left, I worried about what they might say to each other alone on the way to the cabin. C.J didn’t know them and I knew she was anxious to find out about my history with them. C.J had to call her olds first to confirm she was alive and well and not another victim of Shade’s growing missing persons list. They were livid but she remained calm and explained she was safer where she was because of the impending floods and they were powerless to act. We were all supposed to stay put as a high level flood warning had been issued. But I worried we were already out of our depth.
In the car C.J asked him what she was curious to know. “How does it feel?” She was nervous to be alone with him. Her heart pounded and her hands were a little shaky, but she pretended he didn’t scare her.
“What?” He glanced at her, with a perplexed squint.
“To be a wolf?”
“Um, it hurts to phase but then it’s completely surreal - we don’t have weakness or illness. I guess it would be different if we weren’t immortal,” he admitted.
“Do you like it?”
“Ahh, yeah, it’s nice. A little scary at times, but mostly it’s good.” He scratched his head. “It’s strange though, it’s like when time doesn’t matter that somehow it makes everything matter more…if there was an expiry on my life everything would taste better and be funnier – you know?” He chucked for a second. He had to try and find the appreciation of life that mortality brought with ease.
C.J knew that the rivers ran deep with him and she couldn’t really relate to anything he had described so she replied with the only thing that had struck a cord with her. “How is it scary?”
“When Lila shows up for instance.” His lip curled. The serious Jackson disappeared for the moment.
“Ha, ha,” she laughed. She wondered why she didn’t scare him.
“And when you know you will have to watch your family get weak and old,” he said more quietly.
“You love them still?”
“Yes, of course.” His brow gave away a twitch.
“Sorry, I just wasn’t sure.”
“It’s the age old question, are we monsters or are we men. In fact we feel more, I think. Emotions are all we feel and all we have,” he sighed. “Because we don’t feel physical aches and pains unless they’re extreme or we really overdo it. But even then it’s not like when we were human,” he muttered almost to himself his fingers splayed on the steering wheel as if to emphasise his point. He knew he could hardly remember it though, what it was like to be tired and sore.
“I thought you said it hurt?” she offered. Thinking it must be nice to be forever in your prime and not ever suffer.
“It does, to phase, but it only lasts a second.” Eventually it was a feeling you just got used to.
“It must be cool to never age. Would you change it if you could? Be normal again.”
“Me, no. I think it was destiny. I mean, like all humans, we suffer for the path we have chosen at times. Life is life,” he shrugged.
“Chosen?”
“Well that’s it isn’t it? Did we choose it or did it choose us?”
C.J thought about how she was impressed with how eloquently Jackson expressed himself. “Who changed you?” She finally asked.
“You don’t know?” He glanced at her.
She shook her head steadily.
“Reid, though it was meant to be Sky.”
“Yeah?”
“Mm, I saw too much one night and they had no choice. It’s my own fault, I’m a snoop,” he chuckled a little.
“Is that your talent or something?”
“What, no, I mean not that I know of...”
“We didn’t see you follow us to Tisane’s.”
He smiled. “Hey, well I didn’t have a gift - so maybe – who knows. Hey kid, how’d you find Lila?”
C.J didn’t like being called kid, especially because he was barely older than her, but she was beginning to like Jackson so she let it slide. It was better than ‘doll face’.
“I was looking for Tisane actually. She saw what I could do and she told Lila.”
“And what was that? What could you do?” He scratched his encroaching stubble.
“Oh, I’m strong,” she clarified giving him a smile. The goddess had given her strength.
“What!” A grin broke across his otherwise boyish face.
“Yeah I am.” She shrugged, smirking back shyly.
“Show me.”
“With what?”
“I don’t know, flex or something?”
“Oh no, you can’t see it,
it just sort of happens.” She looked at him and he frowned. “I can, you know, bend things, lift things, that sort of stuff. I’ll break something for you, when we stop,” she added.
“When we get to Sam's place you can give us a demo.” He smiled.
“Okay.” She was silent. Thinking maybe Lila wanted to keep her power under wraps. “Jackson?”
“Yeah?”
She was more serious for a moment. “Don’t tell Lila I told you about it.”
“Sure.” He squinted. “Hey, how old are you anyway?”
“Sixteen,” she admitted. She was only a few months off her birthday, so it seemed truthful enough.
“Don’t take this the wrong way but you look younger.” He smiled back.
“Do I?” she stifled a smirk as his smile became infectious.
They drove along toward the cabin Jackson flicked on the radio. C.J saw him differently than she had before.
After a few moments Jackson asked, “What do you think of this Tisane character?”
“Um, in what way?”
“I mean, do you trust her?” He was being cautious.
“I only trust Lila,” C.J said softly to the window.
He shrugged.
She clarified turning to him. “I mean, yeah I do, I guess.”
“You guess?” he said with a squint.
“That’s right.”
“Don’t you think you should trust her one hundred percent before you lay down your life for her principles?”
“She seemed to convince you,” she quipped. “Actually I am giving my life to the huntress.” She shook her head. “Tisane is a pacifist.” Though she was one caught up in war.
39. Blood Moon Rising
Tisane and I looked at each other across the table. I was concerned. “Do you think it was a wise move to send her out with him?” I asked with an unsteady breath.
“You can’t keep her behind you at all times.” Tisane advised.
“I’m worried he’ll get into her head.” I complained as she sat a slice of the orange cake in front of me.
Tisane caught my eye. “She’s going to have to find her feet and form her own opinions and now’s as good a time as any.” She gave a delicate smile. “Eat.”