I straightened my shoulders. It didn’t feel like much of a decision. Dangerous hardly mattered when weighed against the possibility of losing Vali forever. “Okay. So. Where do I go?”
Diana looked out the window, her brow furrowed in the pale morning light. “I’ve tried to find that cave for five years. The dragon moves. It hides its den.”
“I’ve had similar experiences,” Loki said. “Artemis and I can both sense Níðhöggr’s presence, although we can’t get close.” He raised his eyebrow at me. “But you can also sense it.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess. I can smell something, at least.”
“Then you may be able to find Vali,” Loki said.
“But didn’t you say it’s far away?” I asked.
Loki shrugged. “I’d guess it’s at least ten miles from the road.”
“Great,” I muttered. “So, I have to follow the smell of smoke for ten miles. Across the backcountry of Yellowstone. In January. Piece of fucking cake.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
I sat down heavily at Diana’s kitchen table and reached into my pocket for my phone. Exhaustion pressed down on me as I scrolled through my contacts, and I reached for my coffee mug, scowling when I discovered it was empty. Ten miles through the backcountry is a big deal. The snow could be five feet deep in the valley, and I’d never make it on foot. I’d need my skis, warm clothes, food, and water. Damn, I might even need my tent and sleeping bag. I shivered. Diana’s house was at least three hours from Bozeman; if I drove home, got my skis, and came back to Yellowstone, it would almost be dark.
No. I couldn’t wait; Vali needed me now. So I needed someone in Bozeman, someone I could trust to grab a few things and meet me in Yellowstone. Susan was the obvious choice, but she was in Wyoming with her family until the semester started. I bit my lip. John? No, I had no way to explain what I wanted that didn’t make me sound like a lunatic. Well, damn. That really only left one choice.
I sighed and tapped my phone.
Dialing Zeke, the screen read.
“Boss Lady!” Zeke was pretty damn cheerful for nine in the morning. “What’s up?”
“I need a favor,” I said. “A big one.”
“Yup, no problem.” He didn’t even hesitate.
I took a deep breath. “Okay. My spare keys are under the flowerpot on the front porch of my house. I need you to go into my garage and bring me a few things. My cross-country skis and boots, my down jacket from the hall closet, my backpack, a couple of water bottles.” I paused for a breath. “Are you writing this all down?”
“Oh, I got it.” He sounded disturbingly cheerful. “You going somewhere?”
“Uh, yeah. Do you think you can get that for me this morning? Don’t worry about getting any work done, okay? Just call me when you leave Bozeman, and I’ll meet you in Mammoth.”
I paused. This was going well.
“Awwwww, hell yeah!” Zeke cheered. “This is about Wolf Man, isn’t it?”
I groaned.
“You know why the wolves are leaving the park, don’t you? Well fuck me sideways and call me Betty, Boss Lady, you’re gonna do something about it, aren’t you?”
“Just bring me my stuff. Please. And I’ll...” I took a deep breath. “I’ll explain when I see you. I’ll try to explain.”
Zeke whooped over the line. “Fucking yeah, this is awesome. Just wait till I tell Colin. Don’t worry, Boss Lady, we’ve got your back. One hundred percent.”
“Colin? No, you don’t have to—”
But the line had already gone dead.
“Shit,” I muttered, cupping my head in my hands. The dull thud of a coffee mug on the table made me look up.
“Got you a refill,” Diana said.
Diana set a coffee mug on the table as I shoved my phone back in my pocket.
“Thanks. I guess this could be my last cup of coffee for a while,” I said, trying to sound like I was joking.
Diana gave me a small, sad smile. I turned away, not wanting her sympathy. Or anyone’s sympathy. Exhaustion hovered somewhere on the edge of my consciousness, like a black cloud just beyond the horizon. But I couldn’t afford to rest, not right now. Not when Vali needed me.
The surprisingly loud cries of newborn Adelina filled the kitchen in sharp and angry bursts as I finished my coffee and Diana turned on the tap, filling her sink with hot water and lemon-scented suds. Adelina’s sobs felt like little needles across my skin, pulling my heart in strange directions. I pushed back from the table and walked to Diana’s coffee maker, biting my lip as I refilled the mug yet again. God, I missed Vali. What I wouldn’t give to curl up in his strong arms right now, to forget about dragons and babies—
I jumped as my cell phone buzzed against my leg. It was a new message from Zeke: Boss Lady - headed out. See U @ Mammoth. My heart jolted sharply against my ribcage.
“Well, shit,” I muttered. “That’s the first time Zeke’s ever been early. For anything.”
“Your companion?” Diana asked.
I shook my head.
“No. Just my graduate student. He’s meeting me in Mammoth with my gear.”
Diana nodded thoughtfully. “Good. It’s easier when you aren’t alone.”
I took a deep breath and then another long sip of hot coffee, hoping caffeine and adrenaline would counteract the sleepless night. “Guess I’d better get going, then,” I said.
Diana nodded once, curt and professional, and my heart gave a strange twinge. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been hoping she would have some last minute plan.
But that’s me, of course. I was the last minute plan.
I set my mug in the sink and left Diana to the dishes.
CAROLINE GAVE ME A wide smile when I walked into the living room. She was breastfeeding Adelina, and I was surprised I didn’t feel uncomfortable at the sight of her bare breasts. Maybe watching her give birth had moved us past the awkward discomfort stage. Or maybe my growing sense of impending doom was drowning out any squeamishness about nipples.
“Well, that was a hell of a way to have a baby,” I said, running my fingers through my hair.
Caroline laughed. “Yeah. I just wish I could think of some way to explain it to my mom. She’s going to kill me if she finds out I’m in freaking Montana.”
Adelina grunted loudly, and we both smiled.
“It’s hardly the first thing in my life that’s failed to go according to plan,” Caroline said, shrugging as she adjusted her arm under Adelina’s tiny body. “I’m so sorry I’m not more help. I wish I knew more about Níðhöggr. I wish I could do something.”
I opened my mouth to say don’t worry about it, and then shook my head. “Honestly, I don’t know if anything would help at this point.”
“Still,” Caroline’s cheeks flushed. “Listen, about November. I’m really sorry. I never should have... I mean, I should have been straight with you. From the beginning.”
Diana’s black coffee churned uncomfortably in my gut, and I shook my head. “It’s okay. I can understand. I mean, you could hardly tell me you were looking for the son of a Norse god.”
She smiled. “Still, for what it’s worth. I’m sorry.”
My throat went dry. This all sounded uncomfortably like what you told someone you didn’t expect to see again. “It’s fine,” I said, swallowing. “We’re cool.”
Adelina grunted and squirmed, and Caroline shifted to pull the robe back over her breasts. She gave me an apologetic smile as she moved Adelina to rest on her shoulder.
“You know, I don’t have a lot of, well, friends,” she said, her voice low. “But, after everything that’s happened, with November and yesterday, I’d like to consider you a friend. If you, um, don’t mind.”
My shoulders relaxed somewhat. “Listen, if we survive all this, there’s a great wine bar in downtown Bozeman. I’ll take you out.”
She grinned. “Good plan.”
THE ROADS WERE CLEAR and empty, so I figured I’d arrive in Mammoth at least thirty
minutes before Zeke and Colin. It was the off-season, and the whole town would be shut down, but if I were mildly lucky I’d be able to buy a topographical map at the Visitor’s Center. It couldn’t hurt to get a few maps, even if what I was looking for was almost guaranteed not to be on any of them.
But, forty-five minutes later, the Visitor’s Center was closed, and Zeke’s banged up Camaro was parked at the base of Mammoth hot springs. I pulled up next to him and saw Colin in the passenger seat. Also odd. Both of them jumped out of the car, smiling. They were wearing snow pants.
My heart jumped, and I tried to tell myself that snow pants didn’t necessarily mean anything. Zeke wore a wool hat six months of the year, indoors and out. And Colin wore long underwear to work because he went skiing in the Bridger mountains before coming to lab.
“Hey, Boss Lady!” Zeke called.
I raised an eyebrow at his filthy Camaro. “You’ve got my skis in there?” I asked.
“Hell yeah,” Zeke replied. “We’ve got everyone’s skis in this rusty baby.”
I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. “No,” I said. “No. No. No. What the hell are you talking about?”
Zeke walked over to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “Boss Lady, listen to me,” he said. “Colin and I talked it over, and we cannot, in good conscience, let the woman who signs our paychecks head off into the wilderness of Yellowstone, in January, by herself.”
I shook my head. “I said no. You’ve got no idea what you’re dealing with. I mean, I hardly know what I’m dealing with.”
Zeke gave me a huge grin. “You’re saving the world,” he said. “And we’re coming with you. Can you deal?”
Zeke and Colin followed my Subaru out of Mammoth. Zeke’s Camaro backfired as we left and terrified an entire herd of elk. An hour later, when we pulled off the side of the road and parked along the hill Loki and I had climbed at daybreak this morning, I still had no idea what kind of story I could possibly tell Zeke and Colin.
Thankfully, they didn’t ask. Both Zeke and Colin just grabbed their backpacks and strapped on their skis, moving with the smooth efficiency of people who’ve spent much of their life outdoors. My fingers fumbled with my ski bindings in the cold air, and Colin spent his first fifteen minutes gliding across the snow telling me exactly how much I needed to upgrade my cross-country ski gear.
By the time Colin had finished lecturing me about various backcountry ski bindings, we’d crested the hill. I could no longer see the highway; the frozen plains of Yellowstone stretched before us, bordered in the distance by the lodgepole pine forest. The cold knot of fear in my stomach spread thin tendrils to my spine, legs, and finally my heart.
Zeke cleared his throat and spat loudly into the snow. “Well, Boss Lady, where now?”
I smiled, and the fear in my gut retreated a tiny fraction. “Just a sec.”
Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back and tried to open myself like I’d done when Vali asked if I could sense it.
Vali... The winter sun caressed my face, warming me in spite of the cold air. I remembered his touch, the sweet, wild tang of his scent, his hungry mouth against mine.
There. I’d found the smoky, burnt smell in the air. And, hiding somewhere within the smoke, was a hint of Vali’s wild scent. My heart stuttered as I opened my eyes.
“That way,” I said, pointing with my ski pole.
“North-northwest,” said Colin. He’d pulled a compass from his chest pocket, and he was studying it intently.
Zeke and Colin skied into line behind me, and for a long time we said nothing as we traveled over the snow. It was a perfect day for cross country skiing. The sky was clear, and the temperature hovering just below freezing. It was warm enough to be comfortable, if you kept moving, but cold enough to keep the snow slick and fast.
An enormous herd of buffalo ambled across the far end of the valley, using their massive shoulders to clear snow from the frozen grass. I sniffed the air again. Above the rank, animal smell of the buffalo was the thick, burnt scent of the monster I was tracking.
“We’ll have to go around them,” I said, staring at the buffalo herd. They looked much bigger out here, so far from the safety of my car. I tried not to imagine how easy it would be for one of their sharp horns to tear through my jacket, and my skin.
Colin took another reading on him compass. “Still north-northwest?” he asked.
I nodded. “It’s in the forest, I think. Past the buffalo.”
Zeke gave me a crisp salute. “Roger that, Boss Lady. Ten-four and around the buffalo.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked as Zeke pushed off, sliding across the snow with an odd level of grace for such a burly man.
Colin grinned at me. “I don’t understand what he’s saying at least half the time.”
Then he slipped off, following Zeke’s trail and leaving me shaking my head.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
We didn’t speak again until we were past the buffalo herd and under the fringe of the lodgepole forest.
“Okay, guys,” I panted as I skated to a stop under the trees. “Let’s take a short breather.” My legs were shaking, and I felt giddy after coming so close to the buffalo herd, although I’d never admit that to Zeke and Colin.
“Good plan, Boss Lady,” said Zeke.
He pulled off his backpack and took out what looked like a chunk of Swiss cheese wrapped in tin foil. They he pulled out a dried salami, took a bite out of both, and handed them to Colin.
“You guys didn’t bring a knife for that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Why’d we need a knife for this?” Zeke asked around a mouthful of salami.
I shook my head and gave up yet another futile attempt to civilize my graduate students. When Colin handed the block of cheese to me, I tore a chunk off with my teeth.
“Don’t worry, Professor,” Colin said. “What happens in the backcountry, stays in the backcountry.”
Grinning, I felt a surge of gratitude so sudden, unexpected, and fierce it brought tears to my eyes. “Thank you,” I said, the words catching in my throat. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Colin shrugged. Zeke let out a tremendous belch.
“Let’s keep moving,” I said, zipping up my jacket. It felt colder under the trees.
Zeke frowned. “Isn’t, uh, Wolf Boy going to meet us? Or something?”
I sighed. “Okay, first, he has a name. It’s Vali, not Wolf Boy. And second, he’s not a wolf anymore.”
“And is Vali going to meet us?” Colin asked, gently. “To explain why the wolves are leaving Yellowstone?”
I glanced into the woods. They seemed dark, as if the trees were somehow swallowing the bright sunlight falling across the valley. The burnt scent was stronger now; I could sense it even with my eyes open.
“Can you smell that?” I asked, ignoring Colin’s question.
Zeke and Colin glanced at each other. They were silent long enough for me to worry they’d both decided their doctoral advisor had completely and totally lost her fucking mind. Then Colin nodded, and raised his arm.
“It’s coming from there,” he said, pointing into the trees. “And it’s getting stronger. We’re following it, aren’t we?”
My chest tightened. “I’m following it,” I said. “You don’t need to. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it’s probably seriously dangerous. And no, Vali isn’t coming to us. I’m going to him.”
Zeke grinned. “Hey, Boss Lady, don’t worry about it. We’ve gotcha covered. And Wolf Boy, too.” He winked as he pulled his backpack off the snow and shrugged in onto his shoulders.
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for the forest to become strange. The trees grew tall and dense. Too dense. Yellowstone doesn’t get much rain, and the volcanic soil in this part of Montana is thin and nutrient poor. It’s not an ecosystem that can support dense vegetation. But those trees...
“I don’t even think these are lodgepole,” I said, pressing my mittened hand against the dark tr
unk of an enormous pine.
We’d stopped again to pick our way around a windfall of dead logs, which meant taking off our skis, climbing over tree trunks larger than any I’d ever seen in Montana, and then knocking the ice off our boots to put our skis back on. It was slow, cold, tedious travel. My calves spasmed with cramps, and my arms trembled with the effort of lifting my skis. Even my shoulders ached from pulling myself over fallen logs.
“No, they’re not lodgepole,” said Colin. His voice was soft and hushed in the darkness of the forest.
Zeke clambered over the tree trunk and stood next to us. “You think that’s weird,” he said. “Check this out.”
He unzipped his pocket and pulled out a small compass. I leaned toward him to look. The red compass needle ticked and swung wildly, making a full circle in his hand. It settled for a moment between E and S, skipped, and spun again. Colin whistled.
“You should go back,” I said. “You should both go back. Now.”
Zeke shook his head. “Are you kidding? This is the coolest shit I’ve ever seen. Colin, did you get a load of this?”
Colin nodded. “I don’t think this place is exactly normal.”
I knocked a clump of ice off the bottom of my ski boot and hesitated. My foot hovered in mid-air as I watched Colin and Zeke stare at the still-spinning compass needle. My chest ached. I was torn between telling them to get the hell away from here as fast as they could, or tearing up again as I thanked them for coming this far.
Colin met my eyes. “I think we should keep moving. This way, right?” Colin asked, raising a ski pole.
I nodded, my mouth dry. The scent was so strong now I could almost see it, like a dark haze hovering over the snowy ground, snaking between the massive trees. Shaking myself, I clicked my boot into my ski binding. By now I could have followed the scent blindfolded.
“I think we’re getting close,” I said.
I pushed my skis through a narrow gap between two pines so tall their crowns were lost in the gathering darkness. Beyond those pines was a meadow. The last of the day’s light was just fading from the periwinkle sky above the trees, leaving the clouds streaked with pink. Snow lay thin on the ground in the clearing, and there was another scent in the air, the low, sulfur tang of geothermal features.
The Wolf's Lover_An Urban Fantasy Romance Page 16