Dunstan didn’t finish what he was going to say, and Amber didn’t ask him to. She was lost in him.
Couples were announced one after the other and everyone got in line. The whole town cheered and applauded as they saw each couple. The noise was almost too much.
Arching her neck, Amber gazed up at her handsome date. His strong nose, chiseled jaw line and hint of the dimples that became visible when he flashed his million dollar grin, took her breath away. His long, normally touseled hair was finger-brushed into a semblance of order but a thick lock fell down over his forehead. He was dressed in an immaculately cut grey suit that barely contained his massive biceps. He was beautiful to her. Yes, there were other handsome men in Bruton, but Dunstan was simply magnificent.
Amber no longer wanted to go to the dance. She just wanted to go somewhere and be alone with Dunstan. He was beyond dashing— easily the best looking man she had ever seen or known.
She was blessed to be the girl on his arm.
And… just looking at him and being touched by him sent tingles straight to her core.
The mayor called their names and they walked out to falling confetti and oohs and ahs.
“Where did he get that corsage? It’s beautiful!”
“She’s so pretty!”
“My, he’s a handsome fella!”
“They look great together!”
Amber couldn’t help but blush. Tonight, all the single ladies were jealous of her!
The mayor called out a few more couples’ names and then the music started. Francis Mitchell played out a few happy jolly notes on his flute, Edward Linden joined in on his drum, and then Alice Gorman came in with a steadier, more confidant harmony on her fiddle than the other night. Everyone agreed she was quite remarkable considering she just started studying not too long ago and was only eleven years old.
With Francis and Edward’s tutelage she would be leading the melody before too long!
“Would you like to dance with me?” Dunstan asked her.
Amber nodded quickly, bouncing on her heels.
Dunstan grinned a charming, white toothed smile. His eyes were glowing a soft, emerald green.
He took her hand and led her to the center of town square, she tried to look as elegant as possible.
Where he learned to dance was beyond Amber. He knew the proper steps. When to lead and when to be led. Where to put his hands and how to hold himself. He even twirled her, and never once stepped on her feet— though the same could not be said of her. And the strength she felt in him as he dipped her! She put her hand on his chest as he brought her up.
She had never touched his chest before. Her heart was beating in her throat!
Amber noticed that more than a few eyes were watching them. The dip had been a little risque, but worth it. She didn’t care what people thought. Not tonight.
“Where did you learn to dance?” Amber asked after the first song was over, trying to catch her breath.
“My mom. She used to dance with me every day. My father was a horrible dancer, and she made it her personal mission that I knew how. ‘I love your father,’ she said, ‘but I’ll be damned if you repeat his mistakes and embarrass some girl at the Spring Festival!’”
“She taught you well,” Amber giggled. “You’re not embarrassing anyone tonight. Did she teach you how to dip, too?”
Dunstan laughed. “No, that I just felt compelled to do.”
Amber’s heart fluttered.
Francis Mitchell began playing a slow, beautiful song on his flute. It took everyone a moment to place the song, but Alice Gorman put down her fiddle and began singing the lyrics to “She moves thro’ the fair.”
“I once had a sweet-heart, I loved her so well
I loved her far better than my tongue could tell
Her parents they slight me for my want of gear
So adieu to you Molly, since you are not here
I dreamed last night that my true love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
She stepped up to me and this she did say
It will not be long, love, till our wedding day.”
Alice picked up her fiddle to play the next verse while Francis sang.
“Put down that fiddle and keep singing!” someone shouted at her. Alice smiled, but carried on with her violin.
Her voice had been so angelic that not a single couple thought to dance.
“She needs to leave this place,” Amber said. “She should be singing in the big city.”
“But then we wouldn’t have her,” Dunstan said. “It’s okay for small towns to have a few gems. If they didn’t, I would have left a long time ago.” He stoked his thumb down the side of her cheek. She blushed.
The night was turning out to be beyond perfect.
Around them, the crowd slowly resumed dancing.
With a fire in his eyes, Dunstan cupped the back of her head in his hand, leaned down and gently brushed his lips across hers. His lips were soft and warm, and she uttered a small moan as his other hand scooped around her waist pulling her closer, crushing her against his hard chest. Her legs felt numb, and she was no longer certain she could stand on her own. She felt like she was at the top of a tall tree, shifting in the wind. A warmth shot through her body and there was that tingle in her belly again.
Abruptly, Dunstan pulled back and craned his head as though he sensed something.
“What is it?” Amber asked. “Is something wrong?”
A few seconds later, people started murmuring and Amber craned her neck to see what they were talking about. Though the music persisted, everyone’s dancing came to a stop.
Two strangers stood on West Maple Street looking into Town Square. They were covered in dirt. Leaves and grass lay askew in their hair and beards, and their eyes were wide and locked on the crowd as they scanned and muttered to one another. Though it was clear their presence had an effect on the town, they neither seemed to notice nor care.
“Who are those guys?” Amber asked Dunstan. “What are they doing? They’re scaring me, Dunstan.”
“He’s here,” one of them growled. “I can smell ‘im.”
“This way,” Dunstan said, and steered Amber to the opposite side of Town Square near East High Street.
Amber looked at Dunstan and asked, “What’s going on? Are they looking for you? Why are we running?”
“Be calm,” Dunstan said. “Whatever you see, don’t be afraid.”
“What?”
The men began to shake and convulse in seizures, but they remained standing. The crowd screamed. Only one person ran forward to see if they were sick, but stopped short. Their arms suddenly lengthened, their hips swiveled forward. Hair sprouted from their faces and arms, and their noses became snouts.
Twitching, they hunched over until they were on all fours and stomped on the ground with great clawed hands and feet.
“Dunstan!” Amber shrieked.
“Run! Stay with the crowd!” Dunstan yelled over the screaming.
She didn’t go anywhere. “What’s going on?” she pleaded.
“Run! Please!”
The wolf-like creatures sniffed the crowd and growled. There was still a semblance of a humanoid shape to them, but not much.
“HowOOOooooOooooo!” the grey wolf howled.
The brown wolf stood up on two legs and pounced high into the air and landed on Jasper Harrington. His bones snapped and crunched beneath the creature’s weight.
The grey wolf sniffed the air and went running towards Ed Gass. He held up his hand defiantly and shouted, “I’m not afraid of you! Come to finish what you started?” The wolf opened its jaws and struck him down before leaping away. Collapsed on the cobblestones, Ed gave one final garbled noise before going still.
Dunstan picked up Amber and ran with her to Clark Atwell’s store. He kicked open the door as if it were merely resting against its latch.
“The herbs in the back!” he whispered and pointed. “Go sit there and
don’t move!”
He put her down and closed the door.
Amber ran to the window and saw him suddenly leap forward to avoid being tackled by the brown wolf. The wolf raised its snout and sniffed quickly, bearing its red stained teeth and howling into the air. Dunstan managed to stand up as the gray one landed beside the brown wolf.
They split off and encircled Dunstan— both guarding the openings.
“No, no, no!” Amber said at the window. She should be at the herbs like Dunstan said, but she was damned if she was going to let Dunstan die.
Clark had a small gardening section beside his check-out desk. She grabbed a hoe and went out the front door.
The grey wolf sailed into the air and knocked Dunstan down onto the street, but it did not stand on top of him and pin him down like it had Ed Gass. It lay collapsed on him until Dunstan pushed it off of him and rose up.
He pulled a short black blade out of the creature’s chest and looked at the other monster.
The brown wolf growled angrily, but dared not leap at Dunstan as its brother had.
It stood up on its hind legs and walked steadily towards Dunstan and shifted back into a man. The man was naked as a jay bird. “How many of us do you plan on killing?” he asked in a deep, low rumble of a voice.
“I would ask the same of you. Only the ones who prey on Bruton,” Dunstan said. “You’re supposed to stay in Bowland Mountains. Or did you not know that?”
“We go where we please,” the man said. “We have no reason to hide. Not anymore. But you …,” the man sniffed the air. “You on the other hand have been in hiding. She was right. She said it was the only way so many of us would fall.”
Dunstan scanned the horizon, making sure more weren’t coming.
“I don’t like to fight my brothers, but with you I see there’s no other way,” the man said and shifted back down to all fours. Dunstan lurched and swung his knife at the creature’s snout but missed. It seized the opening and sank its teeth into Dunstan’s shoulder.
Dunstan howled and dropped his knife. The creature stood up and swung one of its mighty fists down into Dunstan’s chest, knocking him into the street. Amber heard him futilely trying to catch his breath, but then the creature hopped on top of him and snapped at his neck quickly. Amber shut her eyes, and only opened them when she heard Dunstan still struggling against the monster. He had his hand underneath its jaw and was keeping its muzzle pinned high.
Amber ran towards the creature with her garden hoe raised.
If he couldn’t kill it she would!
CHAPTER 7
“Stay back, Amber!” William Haven shouted. He shot a crossbow bolt towards the monster, piercing deep into its right shoulder. The creature yelped in pain and Dunstan was able to kick it off of him and stand up.
William put the crossbow between his legs and began pulling the lever up to load it with another bolt.
Dunstan went to pick up his knife and was slashed across his chest by the monster. He collapsed back down to the street, arms crossed over his chest. The wounds were thick and bleeding heavily. Amber made her way to him, not caring that the wolf stood nearby. “Amber!” William yelled and quickly picked up his crossbow to shoot another bolt— this time striking the creature square in its back, piercing its ribs and puncturing its lungs. Surely it’s dead now, Amber thought, but it gave one last menacing growl at all of them and leapt clear into the night.
More men came running behind William, all armed, asking where it had gone.
Amber ran to Dunstan. He was bleeding everywhere.
“Dunstan! Dunstan!” Amber screamed.
*
He was so heavy it took three grown men to carry him to Mrs. Sadler’s. Several people recommended they get a horse to take him just down the street, but they all agreed that would waste too much time. William was apparently a lot stronger than he looked, as he carried a majority of Dunstan’s weight. Arms locked under Dunstan’s, he held him up to his chest as they staggered down Main street.
Mrs. Sadler was waiting and ready for him when they arrived. She forced everyone out but Amber.
“Close the door, draw the shades,” she said quickly. “They don’t need to see this.”
Amber did, and when she turned around saw that Mrs. Sadler had already cut off Dunstan’s shirt.
Amber gasped.
He had four deep, long gashes across his chest that appeared as if they went all the way to the bone.
“Yes, dear, it’s bad, but we’d have even more problems if they went past his ribcage,” Mrs. Sadler said. “Still bad, though.”
“Will they stitch?” Amber asked.
“We’re not there yet,” she said, but added, “Here and there, but we got to disinfect them first. Put your weight down on his shoulders. You’ll be stoppin’ the bleeding and keepin’ ‘im down for me.”
Amber stood on her tippy toes and pushed down on him.
Mrs. Sadler took out an orange ointment, and began filling his wounds with it.
Dunstan jerked in pain, but didn’t open his eyes.
“This will help ‘im heal. It hurts, I know it does, but it must be done. It’s cleaning the wounds and slowin’ the bleedin’.”
Amber nodded. Tears were falling from her face, but she was in control.
For now.
“Now Amber you might see something that will scare you, but just know that both I and—”
“How is ‘e?” Old Abbie said, hobbling in. She found a seat pushed against the wall and sat down, wiping her brow with her handkerchief.
“He was worse than this the first time,” Mrs. Sadler said. “I’m confident he’s going to be okay. Given time.”
“We need to patch him up and get him out of here,” Abbie said. “Case he changes. There’s already rumblings in the town. Many are already blaming him and asking why they came for him. Haven’t stopped to ask themselves what they saw, but will soon enough.”
“What?” Amber said, speaking up. She wasn’t following the conversation too well, but understood the blaming him part.
“Do you know where his hut is, Amber?” Mrs. Sadler asked.
“It’s somewhere near the Grey’s farm,” Old Abbie said. “That much I know.” They looked at her.
“I have no idea,” Amber said. “I just assumed he slept out in the open.”
“He would have taken you to it if he didn’t like you so much,” Old Abbie said. “Plays like he’s tough, but he’s self-conscious. Even though that witch of an aunt of ‘is passed away, ‘e wants nothing to do with ‘er house.”
Mrs. Sadler took out some needles and thread, and began to calculate how she was going to stitch him up.
“Don’t bother, Leslie,” Old Abbie said. “You know there’s no point.”
“What?” Amber exclaimed. “Is he going to die?”
Abbie laughed. “No, dear! No! Those wounds’ll be gone by mornin’.”
“The most pressing thing, then, is getting him out of here,” Mrs. Sadler said.
“Aye. If not from the town, then from any of those creatures who choose to return. This is the first time they’ve openly attacked us for many years. Now that they’ve done so, they won’t be afraid to do it again. Amber, was that William I saw carryin’ ‘im here?”
“Yes.”
“He surprised me tonight,” Abbie said. “There’s a lot more strength in him than I thought. But ‘e is ‘is father’s son. Despite what a lot of people think of the mayor, he’s a good man. Do you think William would help you move Dunstan?”
“Yes, but why? Why can’t he stay here? And where would we take him? His aunt—”
“No, dear! That’d upset him, and we need ‘im somewhere out of sight. The storage shed behind your parents’ tavern? Is there enough room in there for ‘im?”
Amber nodded.
“Good. It will have to do. He doesn’t need long.”
“You must be joking,” Amber said. “Look at these wounds!”
Both Mrs. Sadler an
d Old Abbie burst out laughing.
“A year ago, I would have said the same thing,” Mrs. Sadler said.
Amber looked back and forth between the two women feeling very confused.
“Amber,” Old Abbie said. “First, go and find William. He’s probably still outside. This town’s not going to go asleep for a while. There will be extra watchmen out— volunteers and the like doing it without anyone asking. You, William, and Jessica, with Leslie here, should be able to get him into a wagon. You’re going to have to time it so you don’t run into anyone. This town’s scared, angry, and full of adrenaline— not a good combination. Now I’m going to go talk to the mayor— tell ‘im ‘e needs to put some trusted men out here to protect Dunstan from any drunken fits of stupidity. I know this town, Amber. You need to do what I say. If you truly love this boy, which I know ye do, ye have most of your life, ye need to get him away. If the town wakes up tomorrow and he’s still here, we’re going to have real problems on our hands. And we need ‘im, Amber. This is not just about protecting him, it’s about protecting us.
“He will answer your questions soon enough,” Abbie continued. “Give ‘im time. He doesn’t need much, but ‘e needs tonight.”
Amber nodded. The two women were encircling some ‘truth’ that only the two of them knew, and Amber hated not being in the circle, but a plan needed to be put into action if she were to get Dunstan out tonight.
William was leaning into a tree with Jessica wrapped around his arm. Jessica was crying and still visibly frightened. William wore a brave, calm face.
Amber cut to the chase.
“They say we need to get him out of here,” she whispered to them.
William nodded and Jessica said, “I agree. If he’s stable. We’ve already dealt with a few people demanding to talk to him. They think he’s somehow responsible for those… what were they? Demons?”
“They’re the reason we can’t go into Bowland Mountains. That’s all I know,” Amber said.
“But they weren’t wolves,” Jessica said. “Those were monsters. Demons. Whatever you want to call them. Those were not wolves.”
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