I brought my MP88 around, but with Muluku no longer powering the staff, the death dogs had rediscovered their ferocity. They slavered and climbed over one another to get at the invaders. I would need the ammo to get out of here. Giving Muluku’s head a final shove, I jumped down and blew open an exit route. I broke through the smoke to escape what was turning into a massacre.
When I reached the valley wall, I found Yoofi pushing himself up from the rubble. I helped him to his feet.
“You all right?”
“Yes, Dabu softened the landing.” He gazed up the cliff wall to where he’d been perched and shook his head. “This is why we do not like heights, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Here,” I said, handing him the staff.
He stared at it for a moment, then took it and stroked the dark length of wood. Back at the battle, the dogs had reached Muluku and were tearing him from his perch. The god looked over at me, his eyes wide in terror. A moment later, he and his animals disappeared in explosions of white smoke. The assault on Dea-Dep had ended, prompting Yoofi to giggle.
“Dabu must be happy,” I said.
“Very happy. He would like us to feast with him now.”
“There’s no time. We have to get back.”
Yoofi lowered his voice. “Ooh, very insulting to refuse a god’s feast.”
“Then tell him we’ll take a rain check. He still needs to help us, and right now that means getting us back to the others.”
Yoofi closed his eyes and communicated the message. I eyed the valley. With the intruders gone, the death dogs had begun to take an interest in us. Their twin faces shook with snarls as they stalked in our direction. I could see why Yoofi didn’t enjoy coming here.
Without warning, Yoofi seized my hand and we were spinning again. This time we did land—hard. I opened my eyes to find us back in the basin. We had missed the blankets by several feet and were lying in snow. Thinking we were in the Cree realm, I brought my MP88 into position in case the warriors were still around, but a moment later I smelled Rusty and Takara.
Rusty hustled up from behind. “Did you get it, boss?”
Though Yoofi was covered in snow, he held up the staff triumphantly. Then he grimaced and rubbed his tailbone. “Dabu did not take the refusal to feast with him very well.” He struggled to his feet and pulled the idol from the snow. He clucked at it before dropping it into a pocket.
“How long were we gone?” I asked.
“About an hour,” Takara replied.
“You didn’t miss much,” Rusty said. “The system’s still down.”
“Any word from Olaf?”
Takara nodded. “He called to say they were at the mayor’s house. No sign of Austin.”
“Then it’s time we got to Cavern Lake.”
We were climbing from the basin when I heard something large crunching through the snow beyond the rim. I raised my nose, but the wind was gusting in from the other side. The footsteps sounded wolfish. Had Aranck returned?
Signaling for the rest of the team to remain behind me, I switched my salt mag for a silver one and advanced in a hunker. When I reached the rim of the basin, I peered into the trees.
Gold eyes peered back at me.
“What do you want?” I demanded, raising the MP88 into position.
Something flickered in my mind before filling with a familiar voice.
It’s me, Wolfe.
I stopped, heart thudding. Nadie?
I stepped from the basin, and she trotted toward me. I could see her markings. It was her. When she reached me, I knelt and let her push her head against my face. She was solid, material. I brought an arm around her neck, the wolf in me overcome by her sudden return.
What happened? I asked. Your father said you were gone, that you’d returned to your realm.
It was close, she said. The Cannibal almost destroyed me.
I noticed that she still wouldn’t call the Wendigo by its name.
As our connection continued to reform, I could feel her opening herself until I was experiencing what she had. Darkness. My body jostling in the grip of something hungry and powerful. Side burning where the silver bullet had torn through. Eyes opening to find myself in the foul arm of the Wendigo, Sarah in its other arm, head gashed where the being had struck her. The Wendigo was carrying us through the forest, the world beyond its aura seeming to bend and distort. When it sensed I was awake, it brought the pits of its eyes toward mine and stared. Their hunger stole my consciousness. Everything went dark again.
Movement startled me from the experience. I turned to find Takara peering from the basin, M4 in firing position. My head swam a little as I rose from Nadie.
“It’s okay,” I said to Takara. “She’s an ally. Everyone can come up.”
Takara strode toward us and gave me an inquisitive look. She had seen me holding the she-wolf. Moments later, Yoofi and Rusty came hustling over the rim of the basin.
“This is Nadie,” I said. “She was captured along with Sarah, but she escaped.”
“How?” Takara asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.
“She’ll tell us on the way to the van,” I said.
Nadie walked beside us as we made our way through the snow. The tracks we had created on our arrival were mostly filled in now.
“What happened after you lost consciousness again?” I asked.
“I slept and dreamt nightmare dreams,” she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Dreams of being attacked, but not being able to fight back. The stare of the Cannibal stole my will, among other things.” She was referring to our connection, which explained why Aranck and I hadn’t been able to sense her. “When I felt my body turning to mist, I knew I was crossing over. That awakened something. It wasn’t my time to leave. I fought with everything I had until I was back in the Cannibal’s clutches. I found myself tearing into him, ripping out mouthfuls of his arm, his body. We were in a cave, near water.”
“Cavern Lake?” I asked.
“I’ve heard it called that, yes,” she said. “The creature had placed Sarah in the water and was about to do the same to me.”
“The veil is over the lake?” Yoofi asked.
“Yes.”
Yoofi’s brow wrinkled as he appeared to ponder that.
“The Cannibal and I fought furiously,” she continued, “but I couldn’t hurt it. Seeing a narrow cave in the rocks, I sprinted to it, then shifted to my human form and wedged myself into the very back, where the Cannibal couldn’t reach me. It tried for a long time, its talons coming within inches. Eventually, it returned to the water. When it passed through the veil, I made my escape.” She looked us over before her eyes returned to mine. “What do you intend to do, Wolfe?”
“Yoofi’s magic can pull back the veil. Then it’s a matter of keeping the Wendigo at bay with fire until we recover Sarah and anyone else it’s taken captive. Is there anything else we should know?”
“The being is more than just a Spirit That Devours Mankind,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“I felt its essence. The ceremony that brought it into being was not a traditional summoning ceremony. It is what’s known as a celestial ceremony. Whoever performed it called down its primal form.”
I remembered the beam of blue light the old man at the bar had described. That would have been about the time the Wendigo had come into being.
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
“Its primal form is the most powerful expression of the Cannibal.” Foreboding shook through our connection. “Even if you destroy the human host, the Cannibal will continue to hunt and kill.”
23
“How was it stopped in the past?” I asked, refusing to believe that anything was indestructible.
“It’s never manifested down here before,” Nadie replied. “Not like that. Only the Cree masters knew the primal ceremony, and it was highly secret, requiring very powerful magic.”
I thought about the Shaking Man, who had described the ceremon
y to Mrs. Grimes. If there’s a way to send it back, he would have known. We need to find the missing pages from Mrs. Grimes’s notes. Could be something in there she didn’t remember taking down.
“But the person who summoned it is just a boy,” Takara said.
“Things have changed,” I pointed out. “A being tried to invade last summer. Chaos. Croft’s magical order kept it from breaking through, but it created tears around our world. That’s how the Chagrath was able to get through in El Rosario. Might also explain this version of the Wendigo.”
“I’ve felt the changes,” Nadie agreed as we arrived back at the van.
“It doesn’t alter the basic plan, though.” I said. “Expose the lair and recover the vics. Destroying the Wendigo is a secondary concern right now. We’ll figure it out once Sarah and Ms. Welch are safe.” I opened the cargo hold and handed flamethrowers to Rusty and Takara. Then I lifted out the medium machine gun and mounted it atop the van. I checked my sat phone, but Croft still hadn’t called back.
As my teammates climbed into the van, Nadie arrived beside me. “I’m coming too.”
“Go back to your father.”
“I’m no longer his to command.”
I felt the connection between us pulsing warmly, enticingly. But I stood my ground. “There’s nothing more you can do. You said it yourself—the Wendigo is indestructible. You’re lucky to be alive.”
“A she-wolf hunts with her mate.”
“I’m not your mate. Return to your pack.”
It took all of my willpower to remain cold and formal. Turning from her, I climbed into the van and sat beside Yoofi.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Rusty eyed me in the rearview mirror to make sure we were leaving without Nadie. When I gave a single nod, the van ground into motion.
“Estimated time to arrival?” I asked.
Rusty consulted the top of the dashboard where he’d spread out a map. “Let’s see … eight miles by road and then a two mile walk, and in these conditions?” The headlights were barely penetrating the heavy snowfall. He scratched a cheek. “Forty, forty-five minutes?”
I swore under my breath. It felt like everything was going in slow motion—and with our systems down and against a foe that seemed to be growing more formidable by the minute. I was pulling out the sat phone to try Croft again when something struck the back of the van.
“What the…?” Rusty said, squinting toward the side mirror.
For a moment I thought it was Nadie, but then something else raked the van’s side in a screech of stone on metal.
“What are you seeing?” I asked as I pulled down the machine gun’s controls and turned on the screen. The screen flared white as I toggled to the camera’s night vision feature.
“I don’t know. Just crap streaking out of the snow.”
He recoiled suddenly as something smashed the side mirror. I spotted it before it flipped away. An arrow.
I turned to Yoofi. “That ceremony to get us to the Cree realm—you closed the opening again, right?”
“Closed it, Mr. Wolfe?”
Shit.
As the images on the screen took shape, I could see them—the warriors. White light shone from their eyes as they gave chase. When a warrior stopped to let an arrow fly, light flashed in the projectile’s wake. The van lurched as the arrow struck a rear tire and took off what sounded like a chunk of polymer.
“Can you go any faster?” I asked.
“Going as fast as I can, boss.”
Fortunately, I’d kept the belt of salt rounds in the machine gun. I sighted on the nearest warrior and depressed the thumb paddles. Nothing happened. I checked the controls and tried again.
“Oh shit, boss,” Rusty said. “The firing controls are system dependent.”
Beam had mentioned being able to take control of certain weapons. Swearing, I shoved the controls back into the ceiling and slotted a mag of fresh salt rounds into my MP88.
“I’m going out,” I said. “Keep driving. I’ll catch up with you soon.”
Before anyone could answer, I opened the side door and jumped. I landed in the soft snow and ran with the momentum for several meters to keep my footing. Arrows streaked past. One nicked my arm, sending up a spray of sparks. I brought the MP88 around and unleashed a burst of automatic fire. In flashes of light, the warriors darted behind cover. It wasn’t until I felt my arm healing that I noticed the gash in my protective suit where the arrow had struck.
Damn things can tear through Kevlar?
I moved behind a large tree and hissed out a curse. By using the Cree realm as a stopover to get to Dabu’s realm, we’d left a hole. I could blame Yoofi all I wanted, but the oversight was ultimately on me. Between the El Rosario mission and conversations with Prof Croft, I’d known the risk of moving between planes. I’d just been so damned fixated on recovering the staff and getting to the Wendigo’s lair that I had overlooked it.
The truth was, I hadn’t been myself for a lot of this mission. Neglecting to call for backup at Berglund’s cabin, ordering the system workaround, hunting with Nadie—the list went on.
When I got back to the van, I knew what I’d have to do. If I got back to the van.
The warriors were picking up their attack again. Arrows streaked past me and blew chunks from my tree. I switched triggers and fired a volley of grenades in their direction. As the rounds began to detonate, I went back to the rifle and moved out to pick my attackers off.
I was sighting on one young warrior when something massive plowed into me. We hit the ground hard. Nadie’s masked face snarled down at me.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Saving your life,” she said, pushing herself off me. “Stay down.”
“Wait!” I shouted.
But before I could grab her, she was running toward the warriors. They hung back in the trees, watching her with gleaming eyes, bows in firing positions. I raised my own weapon, hoping to hell Nadie knew what she was doing.
As she neared them, she slowed and spoke in what must have been Algonquin. Her voice was strong and steady, without fear. Soon, she was standing in the warriors’ midst.
She turned toward me at one point and I watched the painted faces of the warriors follow before returning their attention to her. The warriors were silent, respectful. As I watched, I noticed the similarity between their face paint and Nadie’s markings. The painted patterns were meant to mimic the Masked Wolf People. After another minute, the warriors began to retreat.
I’ll be damned.
“What did you say to them?” I asked when Nadie returned.
“Those are spirit guardians,” she explained. “I told them you’re not a threat.”
Sounded like she’d said a lot more than that, but I let it go.
“There’s an opening to their realm,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but it’s closing. They’ll return before it’s sealed.”
That would be one less thing to worry about, anyway. “Thanks for your help,” I said, my voice gentler than the last time we’d parted. As much as it killed the wolf in me, I turned again from her intense gold eyes and beautiful markings and set off in pursuit of the van.
“They only agreed to allow you to remain in their lands on the condition I watch over you,” she called.
I slowed to a stop.
Oh, you’re good, I said through the collective.
Those were the terms. She watched me through the falling snow.
She had me, dammit. I blew out my breath and jerked my head for her to come.
She did eagerly and we raced side by side, following the tracks of the van. After a couple miles, I could see its taillights. Rusty spotted me and braked. When the side door opened, Nadie jumped inside and lay across the back seats. She looked at me as if daring me to change my mind. I climbed in after her, took a seat beside Yoofi, and closed the door.
“Is everything all right?” Yoofi asked sheepishly.
I clapped his knee.
“It is now.”
“I am very sorry.”
“No, I was leading,” I told him, which reminded me of the decision I’d come to while facing the warriors. “Listen up, everyone. We’re about thirty minutes out from our target. Mission execution has been uneven to this point, and that’s on me. I haven’t always been in control.” I felt the wolf in me resisting what I was about to say, but I spoke over him. “I’m turning over command to Takara.”
Yoofi made a noise of surprise.
“Uh, don’t you think that’s being a little drastic, boss?” Rusty asked.
From the passenger seat, Takara remained staring straight ahead.
“I’ll provide any support she needs, but she’ll be calling the shots. That all right with you, Takara?”
“I’m ready,” she said.
Five miles later, we slowed on the approach to where we’d be disembarking. Rusty steered the van around a corner, and a vehicle, half buried in snow, glowed into view.
“Were we expecting company?” Rusty asked.
“It’s Austin’s,” I said, recognizing the body and studded tires from earlier that day.
“Keep going,” Takara ordered. “We want to be out of sight in case he comes back.”
We ground past it, continuing until the road turned again. As Rusty pulled off to the side, Takara took the survey map from the dashboard and spread it out on the seat between me and Yoofi. Rusty turned in the driver’s seat. Nadie came forward so she could see it too.
“We’re here,” Takara said, pointing out our position on the map. “We’ll approach the target by this valley. Wolfe and Nadie will take lead.” Smart, I thought. Using our enhanced senses to scout the terrain ahead. “Yoofi and Rusty will flank. No more than five meters separation due to conditions. I’ll take the rear. Commo is still down, so watch and listen for signals.” She went on to outline our approach to Cavern Lake, the recovery of Sarah and Ms. Welch, and then our retreat. She turned to me. “Check out Austin’s truck. Nadie, go with him.”
Though the wolf in me stiffened at the direct order, I liked the way she was taking control. I nodded and climbed out. As Nadie jumped out after me, I heard Takara going over equipment with the others.
Blue Howl (Blue Wolf Book 3) Page 19