Dark of Night

by T. F. Walsh

  “You love this man?” Sandulf scratched his chin.

  “Yes.” I staggered to my feet.

  “And he loves you?”

  I flashed Connell a quick look. Behind his mask of fear, affection reassured his love for me, and I nodded.

  “Good. Once you turn, convince him to never speak of us again. If the police start sniffing near the pack home, I will hunt him down. Will that arrangement make you happy?”

  The sudden change in Sandulf’s demeanor and the compassion in his words caught me off guard, and I stared at him for a long while. My insides burned, but he was giving me what I desired, Connell’s freedom.

  So why didn’t I believe him?

  A slice of moon dangled in the sky, and my legs wobbled beneath me. The unsettling sensation resurfaced and raced through my veins.

  Sandulf marched toward Connell and spoke with his back to me. “By your silence, I take it you agree. Then you won’t mind if I use him a bit first.”

  Tightness gripped my skin and my balance rocked. “L … Leave him alone.”

  Connell’s legs kicked at Sandulf.

  “I won’t hurt him much.” The alpha snatched Connell’s arm, causing the chains decorating his wrist to clang. Sandulf transformed his arm into the furry kind and slashed my beloved’s forearm. “Lutia,” he said. “The cup.”

  She scuttled to a tree and seconds later, appeared with a mug. She pressed it into Connell’s flesh, collecting the sweet nectar that already laced my nostrils.

  A long, throaty growl hugged my words, and I refused to succumb to the heaviness of my limbs. “What are you doing?”

  “Fresh blood helps wulfkin through the Lunar Eutine. It’s not smooth sailing for us, you know.” His words and body shook as he raised the mug to his mouth.

  The other wulfkin also writhed and fought to control their bodies. Matias lay on his back, a faint wail floating from his mouth. Botolf’s body jerked, yet he held my stare.

  Lutia’s slurping sounds engorged my own hunger. The desperate urge to tear free and rip her apart was excruciating. The blood belonged to me. Long breaths blew past my lips. Despite Connell’s gaze sealed on me, I salivated, tugging against the chain.

  It became too much, and I collapsed onto my side. I yearned to rip Sandulf and Lutia apart. They had tasted my Connell.

  Botolf’s voice floated on the breeze. “Daciana, the Lunar Eutine is here.”

  I glanced over as he threw the vial at me. I snatched it out of the air.

  His words spilled into a howl, and soon Matias joined in on the wolf’s song.

  I pushed myself to my knees and pulled the cork off.

  “Don’t,” Sandulf cried and ran full tilt toward me.

  I ripped a handful of petunias and grass, stuffing it into my mouth and swallowing it down with the tonic.

  Sandulf’s foot collided into the side of my head, throwing the bottle into a tree. I flew backward and hit the ground.

  The sky was changing, shrouded by blackness and descended around me. Sandulf’s half-growls, half-murmuring words fell into the background.

  I’d never wanted anyone as much as I desired Connell — his love, his affection, his blood, which was sweeter than I thought. No more crying, no more regrets, and no more guilt.

  I opened myself up, releasing the wolf, welcoming the tearing of my flesh. Pain flowed free, and it concentrated around my hip. Rawness spread through me, unnerving and familiar at the same time. It called to me, hauling me inward like previous transformations, except that this time, something other than my wolf waited inside of me.

  Chapter Twenty

  It was too late to hide. The Lunar Eutine grasped me in her hold. One moment I streamed deeper into my mind with blackness veiling my vision, and the next thing, I stood naked on a dirt track in the middle of the woods, studying the endless passage weaving into the distance on either side of me. The tops of the pine trees swayed in the winds and the branches creaked like forgotten ships anchored in the sea and ravaged by storms.

  I remembered Botolf’s words, and knew I was inside my head. A hallucination maybe, a vision, or something more spiritual.

  The last fragments of light faded from the heavens, and the breeze died away. A heavy stillness swathed the woodland. Then a cloying stench of wet dog fur hit me.

  “Hello?”

  The beat of paws against the earth echoed all around me. Trees crashed to the ground. A glowing, vermillion silhouette moved back and forth amid the trunks next to me, encroaching ever so close.

  I readied for whatever lurked to pounce out.

  Instead, a lone wolf with fur brighter than the blood moon emerged and sat in front of me. Its pupils were frosty white, concealing what lay beneath. Sanguine lights sparked from beneath the animal, spreading and illuminating every inch of the ribbon trail that entwined through the forest farther than my sight allowed.

  The red wolf’s head tilted as if it considered me and trotted closer, nudging my hip in the exact spot where Enre had left a scar. For that split second when we made contact, everything made sense. A new future lay ahead of me, it was shrouded in black, but it was mine. A serene calmness fell over everything, and not a single thing worried me.

  Out of nowhere, a swarm of itchiness spread over my body. Invisible fangs sank into my skin, and the insect-like bites slithered across my arms and legs. I scratched and ripped my flesh. Screams bellowed past my lips, and I clawed myself, unable to reach the burning inferno. I fell to my knees. “Make it stop!”

  The wind rushed past, and the red wolf vanished in a blur from my sight, along with the path, replaced by more trees. My gaze dropped to a red fur pelt around my feet and I wrapped myself in the blanket.

  Inside my head, the blur cleared. The red wolf represented the blood moon, my spiritual guide, and with her pelt around me, I’d embraced my new life. My future was neither as a wulfkin or human.

  “Child, rest a while as I have unfinished business,” a female voice sang in my head.

  Somehow I knew it was the red wolf speaking to me.

  “I will take over your body and mind for a short while,” she continued. “And you will have no control, but no harm will come to you. Don’t resist me, child. Your new path needs to be wiped clean, and I cannot allow his death on your hands.”

  A wolf’s howl cried behind me, and I spun to find myself thrown into darkness. Something new lived inside me now; the red wolf. I embraced the warmth spreading through me like my life depended on it, and I faded into the background of my mind, where everything was calm.

  • • •

  A wailing sounded, and I snapped open my eyes. The Carpathian woodland gleamed beneath the sickle-shaped moon radiating copper from the heavens. A new time. A new world. It had been a long while since I last walked the earth.

  Climbing onto my feet, I stretched my wulfkin form. A shattered fetter lay on the ground nearby. I resisted Daciana’s desperate memories pushing forward. I was eager to rid my head of useless emotions. Instead, I savored the purity and power humming through my veins.

  Wulfkin scents encircled me, along with a human’s sweet tang. Perfect. I needed something to eat.

  A shrill voice rang in my ears. “You’re too stupid for your own good, Daciana.”

  I coiled around to see a thin, white-haired female grinning foolishly. Her tart scent, a poisonous berry on my tongue, left pinpricks on my throat. One swift movement of my paw, and she crumpled to the ground, gripping her bloody cheek.

  Behind me, an aging wulfkin emitted a fire’s heat and filled my lungs with fresh kindling. He carried a strong heart. Alongside him stood a fighter baring teeth, yet he trembled. I inhaled his concoction of earthy fungus and tree sap, a pure soul who’d lost his way.

  Someone else approached from behind me. It swam in an odor of decaye
d animals and briny lichen. I faced the black-eyed man whose betrayal foamed in my mouth like methane gas rising through water. He was beyond saving. His heart had turned the color of burned wood, drowned in sorrow long ago. The alpha.

  He studied me as he pulled off one boot. “You went against my order, in a direct violation of pack law.” The other boot fell to the ground. “I shall deliver your death swiftly and show you I am still a compassionate alpha.” In one abrupt movement, he peeled off his shirt. “But it’s my fault.” With his pants removed, he gripped his hips. “I should have finished you before the ceremony for going behind my back with the elixir.” He smacked his hand into the side of his head. “The moment I knew someone took my books, I should have stopped you.”

  The young, warrior wulfkin left his post by the tree and loomed closer to the alpha, his body tense and ripe for combat. The older one’s voice called out, “Sandulf, please don’t do this. Let her be.”

  The alpha’s lips pressed tight into a smirk. “Too late.” He shed his human form and slipped into a pelt the color of sludge and delivered a trembling howl that proclaimed to the group his reign over them.

  I swept my gaze toward the encroaching alpha. My head lowered, and I leapt for him, snatching his neck between my claws and constricted. Too many lives had paid for his treachery. The warrior recoiled.

  The alpha’s rock-hard fist connected with the bridge of my nose, but I clenched my muscles and held him, peering into his cavernous soul. I sneered. Heat tumbled off him, stuffed with ferocity, rage and regret. There, deep in the depths, the real wulfkin lingered. He was too far-gone now, his mind snapped, and I pitied what he had become. But he’d suffered enough. I’d seen his true heart and that left me with one option. I called to the spirit world in my head and demanded his swift end.

  He kicked and squirmed. I released him. Toppling backward, he lost his footing and fell. A growl choked in his chest, and he pounced from a crouched position, latching onto my shoulder, ripping into me.

  I stumbled against a tree truck, the alpha clawing into me. His slurping and sucking noises sickened me. I endured the agony and did nothing. His torso slid against mine, coated in blood. Nausea tested my balance and patience. Yet I waited.

  He started to flinch. He jerked and shoved me into the arms of another tree.

  His paw dragged across his muzzle, wiping the blood that I knew scorched him. He gurgled, foaming at the sides of his mouth and clutched his chest. Dropping to his knees, he slid back into human form, his body slackening. His breath grew raspy, and his torso slumped forward. “What have you done?” An unrecognizable voice hissed. He gripped the shrubs nearby to steady himself.

  The blonde rushed to his side. “No, Sandulf, get up.” Arched over the alpha, she pried his chin up, then shrieked and recoiled.

  Around the alpha’s mouth, the flesh peeled from the bone, exposing a skeleton jawline. Threadlike capillaries caged his back teeth. His pupils rolled back, and he screeched a sound engorged with a torment no living creature should ever endure.

  The young female looked at me with fierce eyes. “Stop it, you’re killing him!” She knelt near, but was too afraid to touch him, and sobbed in her hands.

  Red blotches dotted the alpha’s torso, widening and dissolving the skin. The girl wailed louder. He collapsed face first into the earth from which he came, his body limp and unmoving.

  Despite the gasps and moans from others, I felt no sympathy, no grief, nothing. In my mind, a perfect image of the alpha materialized. He stood in the path between the parted forest, and a bright smile curled on his lips. I glimpsed a silver wolf trot out from the woodland, and happy tears trickled down the alpha’s cheeks. The silver wolf spoke to him and while I couldn’t hear the words, I sensed a tremendous flame radiate from them, and understood — a reunited love.

  The warrior’s voice dragged me into reality. “Oh, Daciana.” His cheeks were ashen, his hands trembled, and he held his arms against his chest. “What have you become?”

  A sweet scent teased me, and my snout jerked up. In the distance, the old wulfkin squatted next to the human man, fumbling with something. The human shot to his feet and stared my way with huge eyes, gasping for air, then sprinted into the wooded forest.

  I went dashing after him. The voices and shouts fell behind me. Inside my head, Daciana pushed forward, her scream deafening. She begged me to stop. I couldn’t. I craved meat, and my meal just bounded away. Someone crash-tackled into my side, and we collapsed. Jumping to my feet, I shoved the warrior off me, and bolted after the human.

  Stomping footfalls chased me.

  The faster I pursued my prey, the stronger his succulent aroma teased me. Deep inside me, Daciana pleaded for me to stop, that it was wrong. But how could it be? Humans were meat.

  A blanket of mist unfurled on the mountain, masking the man but not his scent. The trees swiped at me and the debris pinched my legs, snagging on my fur. I salivated and skidded to the right where the aroma strengthened. The ground beneath my feet sloped downward, and I stepped into a clearing.

  I spied the human in the distance, huddled near a tree, his hands fiddling with his leg. His quivering arms rose, and he clasped a black object, pointed at me. In the man’s aura, valor lingered, and I halted. My entire body buzzed with adrenaline.

  Daciana was saying he, a human, would help the wulfkin. That couldn’t be, but he was part of her future. A heavy feeling in my stomach confirmed what I sensed. No, I refused to believe it.

  An explosion erupted in my ears.

  I sensed nothing. The world under my feet slanted. Suddenly I was on my knees, then on my side. The man dashed from my sight.

  Had I imagined it? A thick weight on my chest made breathing difficult. I shut my eyes and let myself slide back into my world.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The caress of fingers along my cheek awakened me, and Botolf’s timber scent teased my nostrils. He looked down at me. For a moment a honeyed glow encased him, then it faded. Darkness circled his eyes and sorrow consumed them.

  “Good to see you’re awake.” His voice was chirpy. I liked that.

  I lay in my bedroom in the pack house and breathed in the cool air, tasting the crispness of dawn on my tongue like sharp stings. Light seeped in around the drawn curtains, and I tried to recall the ceremony. Memories of the vermillion wolf calmed me at first, and then everything else came flooding back.

  “God, I … the red wolf tried to eat Connell. She controlled me.”

  Botolf wiped my forehead with a moist towel. “But you didn’t.”

  “Because he shot me. But it wasn’t me doing it. Where is Connell?” I blurted out all at once.

  “I let him go, even though he might come back to kill us. He’s your friend, and I did what I thought you’d want. I tracked him to the city. He’s safe.” Botolf’s face paled. “Every small noise makes me jump. I keep thinking he’s coming for us. He knows what we are.”

  The idea whirled in my head. Would Connell come back with guns blazing and the whole police force behind him? After I betrayed him, there was a slim possibility of such a return, and I prayed it didn’t happen. Worse yet, I might have lost him forever. Never to feel his touch, his soft lips on mine or the loving words he whispered in my ears. Sadness weighed heavy inside my chest. If I were braver, I might have told him about the wulfkin, about me, and convinced him none of it matter because of the love we shared. But with a bunch of lies thrown in, why would he take me back? Something gripped my throat, and refused to let go.

  I remembered seeing everyone the previous night as if through someone else’s eyes. I had lost control. Connell was nothing but meat to me. I killed the pack leader and felt satisfaction. How the hell did my blood burn him up like that?

  “Sandulf.” The name dripped off my lips. He’d returned to Alina’s arms. Happiness had radiated from them as they
united, and yet their reunion did little to squash my guilt. Where was the grief and sorrow death promised? I felt none of it. Instead, I lay broken with jumbled emotions. And after all that hassle with the elixir, I still turned into a wulfkin.

  Botolf looked away. Sandulf had been his family for more years than I’d been alive, and I took him away. I opened my mouth and three hushed words rolled out, “I’m so sorry.”

  He wiped his tears. “It’s done now.”

  My gut stung. I was a full-blown wulfkin, except something was wrong with me. I felt what lay in others’ hearts. Not to mention my blood burned Sandulf from the inside out. I was a freak. Uncertain how much of my recollections I could trust, I prayed the incident was a singular event, yet I doubted it. Knowing my luck, I’d probably start zapping people dead with my gaze next. “I’m not right, am I?”

  “Being a wulfkin is different from a moonwulf. You have more power and control. That’s all you’re feeling.”

  “No, it’s not all I am feeling. You saw it last night. What I did to Sandulf. Don’t tell me that’s normal.”

  He said nothing for a little while. “You smelled like pure wolf with no hint of the Daciana I knew. You behaved as if you didn’t know us, and your blood — it was acid.” A pained expression conveyed his repulsion.

  That hurt. “It wasn’t me. I watched the events unveil and couldn’t stop myself.” I lifted my chin higher. “Did the red wolf visit you in your ceremony?”

  His gaze drifted to the ceiling. “No. A path lay between the forest and the city, and I crawled out of a warm fur blanket, then walked into the woods.” He dry-washed his hands. “The red wolf symbolizes the matriarchal soul of the moon. Maybe she wanted it this way.”

  I pushed myself to a sitting position, noticing I wore pants with tears up the legs and a faded sweatshirt. I was the she-Hulk again. If anyone knew about the matriarchal moon, Radu would, and then I remembered Sandulf had punished him.