The Persecution of the Wolves

by Lucy Felthouse

  Nathaniel raised his eyebrows. “You two have a fight or something?”

  “You could say that. I’d better answer the door before he breaks it down.”

  “Be my guest. I’ll give you two some privacy.”

  “Oh, don’t worry.” Isaac’s smiled tightly. “I’ll be taking this outside.”

  This time, Nathaniel’s eyebrows almost shot into his hairline. “Um, okay…”

  Isaac flung the door open. Matthew stood there, red-faced and wild-eyed. “Get out here,” he all but growled.

  “For fuck’s sake, you’re my brother, not my dad.” He threw an apologetic glance over his shoulder at Nathaniel, then stepped outside and gently closed the door behind him. There was no reason to take his anger out on Nathaniel’s property. Breezing past his brother, he headed to the end of the garden path and out into the road. Turning, he said, “What the hell do you want? I told you I was going for a run!”

  Looking Isaac up and down, Matthew sneered, “Doesn’t look as if you’ve been doing much running. Another kind of exercise, maybe.”

  Ignoring his brother’s snarky comments, Isaac replied, “How did you know I was here?”

  “Call it a lucky guess. I’ve known you for over four hundred years, Isaac. It didn’t take much brain power to work out where you’d go when you were pissed off with me. I mean, what better possible way to get your own back?” He jerked his thumb at Nathaniel’s house. “Good, was it? Didn’t last long.”

  The arousal that had been coursing through Isaac’s veins only minutes earlier transformed into pure, unadulterated fury. An uncontrollable urge took over his mind and body and, hardly knowing what he was doing, he rushed at Matthew, arms outstretched.

  Matthew, clearly not expecting his usually placid brother to attempt to knock seven bells of hell out of him, didn’t react. So when Isaac let his fist fly at Matthew’s face, he took the full brunt of it. His head snapped to the side, the sound of impact almost deafening in the quiet street. Automatically, he cupped his face and turned back to Isaac.

  “What the fuck was that for? That fucking hurt. If I was human, that probably would have killed me. Snapped my damn neck!”

  “Good. I’m glad it hurt,” Isaac replied, much more coolly than he would have thought possible given the rage that still filled him. “It was meant to. I was hoping it would knock some sense into you, but that’s clearly not the case. It’ll take a lot more than one punch, I suppose.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you? Have you lost your damn mind? I just came to find you, that’s all, to let you know Richard is calling a meeting in the church. About, uh, you know…”

  A little bit of the anger seeped from Isaac, to be replaced by curiosity. “So why did you have to make snarky comments then? You deserved that smack just for what you said—never mind what else you’ve been up to today.”

  Matthew sighed. “All right, all right. I did, I know that. I’ve already apologised. But even so, there was no reason for you to come round here and put us in even more jeopardy, was there?”

  “Shut up,” Isaac barked, his fury boiling up again. “Just shut up, all right? Stop going on about that, as we’re never going to agree. Just tell me what’s going on with Richard.”

  There was a creak, and Nathaniel stepped out of his front door and onto his garden path. “Everything all right, guys? I don’t mean to interfere, but I could hear you from in the house. And I’ve got double glazing…”

  Isaac gave Nathaniel another tight smile. “We’re fine, thanks. Just having a bit of a brotherly discussion. Sorry we’re so loud. We’re done now, I think. We won’t disturb you any more. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  Looking doubtful, Nathaniel stayed where he was. “Only if you’re sure…”

  “Seriously, I’m sure. We’ll be fine. Go on inside. We’re leaving.” He turned and headed up the street, then waited for Matthew to fall into step beside him before speaking again. “So? Tell me what’s going on.”

  “A meeting. Right now. Richard called me not long after you’d left. He’s getting in touch with everyone in the know and calling an emergency meeting in the church—though he couldn’t get through to you. Nor could I, for that matter. People are heading there now. We need to be there.”

  Typical. He hardly ever put his phone on do not disturb, and the one time he does…

  “Right, okay.” He was still furious with his brother, but this took precedence. Over everything, up to and including his non-existent love life. “Let’s go.” Picking up his pace, Isaac tried hard to force the anger away. He couldn’t turn up at the church still pissed off—he’d probably scare the shit out of the villagers and give totally the wrong impression. And what they needed right now was to get them on side, remind them they were nice guys.

  It was tough, though, as he was angry about that situation, too—the fact he and Matthew had to play especially nice because someone was framing them for something they hadn’t done. What the hell happened to being innocent until proven guilty? Obviously, it didn’t apply to werewolves.

  He flinched when Matthew put a hand on his shoulder, then softened slightly as Matthew’s arm came up in a defensive manoeuvre. “It’s okay, brother,” Isaac said, starting to walk again. “I’m done fighting. You made your point, I made mine. We need to forget all that for now and focus on this meeting. Getting this sorted is the most important thing.”

  “We agree on that at least. That’s progress.”

  His tone was inflected with humour, and Isaac turned to see a small smile on his brother’s face. Allowing his own lips to curve up slightly at the corners, he replied, “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

  They fell into a sort-of-companionable silence as they walked through the village and into the church. A handwritten sign stuck to the wooden door read, Closed for Private Meeting.

  “Huh,” Matthew said, pulling open the door and stepping over the threshold. “Richard thinks of everything, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah, we don’t want any tourists crashing the meeting, do we?”

  As they entered the building, they saw there was already an impressive turnout, considering it was a last-minute thing.

  “I guess more people are on our side than we thought,” Isaac whispered, knowing his brother would still hear him.

  “That or they’re here for Richard. Or because of their fear of God or something.”

  “I don’t think people have that anymore.”

  “Whatever’s brought them here, I’m grateful.”

  “Mmm,” Isaac agreed.

  Smiling and nodding at everyone he passed, Isaac followed Matthew up to the front of the church, where Richard stood looking as though he was doing some kind of head count.

  “Hey,” Matthew said, moving up beside the vicar. “I found him. So, uh, can you bring us up to speed?”

  The other man clocked the angry red mark on Matthew’s face. His gaze slid momentarily to Isaac before shifting back. “Hi, guys. Sorry about this—I just thought it would be easier if I called a meeting. After coming up with diddly-squat on the moor, I’ve been racking my brains to try to figure something out. I know we’ve got the tranqs and cameras plan, but we need more. Plus, people kept asking what was going on, so I thought the best way was to get everyone here and tell them all at the same time. You never know, someone might come up with something we haven’t thought of. Not to mention, it’s a good way to tell your side of things, make people realise this isn’t you.”

  Matthew clapped Richard on the back. “And I always thought Isaac was the brains of the outfit. Thanks, mate. We appreciate it.”

  Isaac nodded in agreement. “Yes, we do. Seriously.”

  The church door swung open and a few more villagers came in. Richard moved his attention to them, his head moving a fraction as he counted each one. “Okay,” he said after a few seconds, “I reckon we’ve got at least one member of every family in the know here. That should be enough—they can be in charge of telling everyone else. There’
s no way we can get every single person here—it’s just not doable. People are away, at work, ill…”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Matthew said. “This is brilliant. So, what do you want us to do?”

  “I hadn’t quite thought that far ahead, to be honest. This is all moving so fast. I guess I’ll speak first and tell everyone why we’re here, explain what’s going on and what we’ve done about it so far. Then you can both take it in turns filling in any gaps.”

  Richard was on the money about things moving fast. Isaac’s brain had only just clicked into gear with what was about to happen and what the ramifications could be. If he was right in his suspicions, then the very person targeting him and his brother, or a member of that person’s family, was in the room. Was it a good idea to tip them off? Let them know they believed it was one of them who was doing this?

  Isaac cleared his throat. “Hey, guys? You got a minute?”

  Richard frowned and Matthew shot him a querying look. “Yes,” the vicar said, “let’s go into the vestry.”

  Once there, Richard asked, “What’s up?”

  Isaac outlined his concerns, also filling the vicar in on the part about it maybe being a woman Matthew had upset over the years.

  Richard gasped. “Goodness, you’re right, Isaac. Absolutely right. That hadn’t even occurred to me. So, what do we think? Just tell the story, but leave out the part about us thinking it’s one of the villagers and possibly a woman, um… spurned? Most of them will come to that conclusion—the part about the villagers, not about the women—by themselves. We don’t need them to know we already think that. Hey, it might even make someone fidget in a pew and point us in the right direction.”

  “We can only hope,” Matthew said.

  Isaac nodded. “Agreed. Okay, now we’re all on the same page, shall we get this over with?” His anger had gone now. Instead, a sick feeling sat heavily in the pit of his stomach. Christ, he wished the whole thing was over with.

  “Yes,” Richard said, pushing open the vestry door and returning to the main body of the church. “Let’s do it.”

  *****

  Isaac wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he heaved a sigh of relief when Richard, Matthew, and he had all spoken. It felt better to have it off his chest and out in the open. Now he just had to hope the vicar was right, that someone might come up with an idea, a solution, anything. Because anything was better than the nothing they had at that moment.

  After Isaac had finished speaking, the church erupted into a mass of voices, the volume growing higher and higher as everyone attempted to say their piece or simply express their disgust or disbelief at what was happening. He couldn’t understand a single word, couldn’t pick anything out. Staring at the crowd, he quickly came to the conclusion that fidgeting and body language was a no-go area, too. Everyone was moving, standing, shaking fists. The people in front of him were like a bag of cats.

  Fortunately, Richard took charge. He moved to his lectern, switched on the little-used microphone—in such a small church, it wasn’t really needed—and tapped on it heavily a few times before saying firmly, “Quiet, everyone, please.”

  The silence wasn’t instantaneous. Instead, the din reduced slowly, voices dying out one by one until they simply stopped.

  “Thank you. I’m sorry, but all that racket wasn’t helping anyone. And that’s why we’re here—we need your help. Now you know exactly what’s going on and what we’ve got planned for the next full moon, we need you all to put your minds to finding out who’s doing this. These two men have lived in this village for over four hundred years. They knew your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents… you get the idea. And that entire time, they’ve done nothing but protect this village, help it. Helped it during its darkest time, too.

  “So you must ask yourselves, why would these two villagers—who are more a part of this village than you or I—turn against it? Eyam is their home. Why, tell me, would they put so much at risk? Their relationships, their jobs, their very lives? It just doesn’t make sense, and I don’t believe for a millisecond those poor creatures on the moor were killed by these men, in any form. Someone else is doing this, someone else is slaughtering sheep and trying to point the finger at Matthew and Isaac Adams. And I for one won’t stop until that person is uncovered and brought to justice. So if any of you know anything, it’s your duty to speak up. Your duty as people, as villagers, as God’s children. That’s all I have to say.” Richard stepped away from the lectern and walked back over to Isaac and Matthew, his eyes glinting with passion and conviction. “Huh, that’s better. Seems I’ve been wanting to say that very badly.”

  Isaac raised his eyebrows, then smiled. “I’m glad you did, mate. You said it very well indeed. Nice touch about the duty and the God’s children. Playing the Christian guilt card is always a good plan.”

  Even the vicar had to smile at that one.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Matthew watched the congregation with interest. Nobody was behaving peculiarly, so they had to assume the sheep slayer was not in the room. The villagers were all chattering excitedly, angrily in some cases, and in spite of the circumstances, Matthew felt good. The meeting had been a brilliant idea. Bringing the villagers up to speed and making them realise it couldn’t and wouldn’t be Matthew and Isaac killing the sheep had turned them back around, regained their confidence, their trust. Of course, it was crap they’d lost it in the first place, but when he tried, really tried, to put himself in their shoes, he could see how bad it looked for him and his brother. Without the full moon factor, it likely wouldn’t have been an issue, but with that big fat coincidence thrown in their faces… well, he got it. He got why people might have thought it was them.

  The villagers might be on their side now, but unfortunately nobody had yet come up with a genius plan or any information that might help them find the actual culprit. Or perhaps they had, but they were so busy chattering amongst themselves they hadn’t yet divulged anything to the group as a whole.

  Matthew gave Richard a nod, and the vicar moved back to his lectern, tapped the microphone again. “Okay, everyone. The three of us would very much like to thank you again for being here and for your support. This has been a really tough couple of months, especially for Matthew and Isaac, and we’d really like it to come to an end. So, on that note, does anyone have or know anything that might help us?”

  A hand went up about halfway down the rows of pews. Dorothy Smithers. Matthew grinned. He hadn’t spotted their neighbour until now, but he should have known she’d be there. He was surprised she hadn’t already started beating up doubters with her walking stick.

  “Yes, Mrs Smithers?” Richard said.

  Her voice, surprisingly strong and confident, filled the church. “Firstly, I want to say thank you, Vicar, for your support of these men. I’ve been behind them ever since I found out about this, but I don’t have the resources or influence you do. You’re a good man and this village is lucky to have you.”

  Matthew glanced at the vicar and saw he was blushing, as much as he tried to cover it up. “T-thank you, Mrs Smithers. And secondly?”

  The old lady looked surprised for a moment, as though she’d forgotten there was a second thing. She probably had, bless her heart. Soon, though, her brain kicked in. “Yes, of course. Anyone who ever doubted Matthew and Isaac should be ashamed. Everything you said about them, Vicar, is exactly right. I’m very old, as you may have noticed, and I’ve known the boys for a very, very long time. It’s infuriating that they’ve barely aged a day, but that’s by the by. Anyway…” She shot a stern look at someone in the row in front of her, who was whispering. “I think in addition to the plan of having cameras and protective measures and following Matthew and Isaac to the caves, we should situate people on the moor, too. Cameras and tranquiliser guns up there as well. We don’t know who or what we’re dealing with, so while we need to put this whole sorry business to an end, we also need to protect ourselves. I’m just disappoin
ted I can’t help out myself. My old bones aren’t up to the job, unfortunately.”

  Richard smiled kindly. “You do more than enough for this village, Mrs Smithers. And thank you, that’s a fantastic idea. Pretty annoyed I didn’t come up with it.” He tipped the old lady a wink. “So who’s in? We need a minimum of four people at the caves and as many as possible on the moor. There’s a very large area to cover.”

  Another hand went up.

  “Yes, Alexander?” Richard said, speaking to the village shop’s owner.

  “I’m in, obviously. For whatever needs doing. But I just wanted to say, was the other sheep found near a path, too?” He addressed the congregation. “I was one of the people who found the first carcass. It was very close to one of the paths skirting the edge of the moor.”

  Matthew and Isaac exchanged a look. What was he getting at? Why did it matter whereabouts the poor creatures had been found?

  “Yes,” the vicar said. “It was in a different place to the first, but still near one of the paths. We didn’t have to fight through any undergrowth to find it.”

  “Okay.” The man fell silent for a second or two, looking thoughtful. “Here’s what I think. You say you’ve ruled out other werewolves, and I’d second that. There’s no evidence, and the fact the two sheep have been slaughtered by paths supports the idea that it’s a human, too. An animal wouldn’t care about rough terrain, about some heather and gorse. It would kill wherever it wanted to. But a human wouldn’t want too much hardship, and it would take much longer to get a sheep off the beaten path to slaughter it. Whoever is doing this would want to get the job done and leave as quickly as possible, to avoid being seen or caught. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that this is the work of a human, and somehow they know who you are, boys. What you are.”

  Matthew pressed his lips together to avoid smiling. It wasn’t a smiling matter, of course—none of it was. But he was pleased that neither he, his brother, or the vicar had had to put the idea in anyone’s head that it was a human doing this—and a human in the know at that, which narrowed the suspect list considerably.