Nadie’s and my footsteps swished through the snow. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel the question in our collective: Why had I given up command? The question triggered her father’s assertion that Nadie and our offspring would never survive with me leading them.
Because it was the only way I could take back control, I snapped.
Nadie looked over at me but remained silent.
When we reached the truck, I swiped the snow from the driver door and opened it. A riot of smells hit me: grease, metal, something tar-like. I sniffed across a floor littered with drink cans and old clothing and then opened the glove compartment. I was searching for the missing pages from the Cree notebook, but that particular blend of paper and ink wasn’t in here.
Sliding open the window between the cab and covered bed, I stuck my muzzle through. The bed was empty except for the remains of hauled firewood and some camping gear. Underneath that layer, I picked up the metallic scent of old blood. Human blood, and not from just one person.
With a grunt, I got out of the truck and closed the door.
Nadie claimed this version of the Wendigo was indestructible, even in human form, but as the faces of the victims scrolled through my mind’s eye, I’d never wanted to take someone down more.
“I’m not smelling him,” I said when we returned to Takara and the others, “but there’s traces of human blood in the bed. I’m picking up a tar-like scent going off that way. Those depressions look like old tracks.”
Takara shifted her gaze to Nadie as if debating whether to have her follow the trail. “We’ll stick to the plan,” she decided.
We moved off in formation. Before long we were entering the valley Takara had indicated on the map. I kept vigil on the terrain ahead, periodically checking in to see if Nadie was picking up anything.
With Takara in command, I focused on balancing against my wolf—not pushing too hard, but not yielding too much, either. After the first mile, I found the two entering into a kind of equilibrium, one side no longer struggling against the other for control. That’s what I’d hoped would happen, but having to give up command smarted like hell. I reminded myself that it was temporary. I would be ready to lead the next mission. Had to be ready.
But for this one, I’d made the right call.
We arrived at the opening to Cavern Lake without incident. Nadie and I scouted ahead, passing through what looked like a narrow doorway in the rock wall. Within a few steps, we were out of the snow. After several more, we were stepping into a humid enclosure with a high ceiling. I could smell the lake ahead. The Wendigo’s hunger seemed to echo through the space, but it was just that—an echo. I couldn’t sense its presence.
I looked over at Nadie, who indicated the cavern was clear.
I signaled back to the others. Rusty, Yoofi, and Takara entered while Nadie returned through the opening to keep watch outside. My team and I crossed the cavern together. Near the lake, we passed a large circle of stones. Old blood stained its center, and I smelled traces of human remains. They matched the scents from Austin’s truck bed.
Yoofi moved to the front of the formation and stood at the water’s edge. The rest of us took up defensive positions, flamethrowers ready. Raising his staff, Yoofi began to chant.
Dabu better keep his end of the deal, I thought.
I didn’t have to worry. In the next moment, a dark orange light, like the color of the sky in Dabu’s realm, pulsed out. I felt it as a warm breeze. The surface of the lake rippled. A second force emerged behind the first, this one reaching toward the edge of the lake and … peeling it back.
Where there had once been water, crude steps descended into a subterranean chamber.
Yoofi waved for us to hurry. I could see by his straining face he wouldn’t be able to hold the spell for long. I moved to the lake’s edge and peered down the sights of my MP88. The smells emerging from the lair were dark and rank with death. If the Wendigo was down there, I wasn’t picking him up. But I wasn’t picking up anything else, either.
C’mon, Sarah, I thought. Be okay.
I signaled to my teammates. Takara took lead, Rusty hesitating before he started down after her. I fell in behind them, and the three of us descended into the Wendigo’s lair.
24
The steps deposited us into a large cavern. I couldn’t tell when we’d passed into the realm between our world and the Cree’s, but when I glanced up, the underside of the lake’s surface glimmered overhead. I straightened my gaze and peered around. The smell of death had only thickened with our descent, and I noticed scattered remains of the Wendigo’s victims.
Through the stench slipped a familiar scent.
I got Takara’s attention and signaled to a smaller cave across the cavern. She had me take lead while she and Rusty moved in behind me. When we reached the opening, I peered inside. Sarah was sitting against the far wall of the chamber, alive. She was tending to someone on the floor beside her. A moment later, I picked up Ms. Welch’s scent too.
While Rusty hung back to guard the opening, Takara and I rushed over to them.
Sarah’s head turned slowly, her hairline matted with blood where she’d been injured in the Wendigo’s attack. When she flinched away, I realized she couldn’t see a thing in the darkness.
“Sarah,” Takara whispered. “It’s your teammates.”
She blinked, and then her eyes did something I’d never seen. They glimmered with moisture. She nodded quickly and looked down at Ms. Welch, whom she’d wrapped in a foil blanket. The woman was younger than she appeared in the photo. Mussed blond hair hung over a dirty face.
“She’s not doing well,” Sarah whispered. “I’ve been trying to get her to drink water, but she’s in and out. Knows who she is, but otherwise she’s incoherent.”
Dehydrated and in shock, I thought. “I’ve got her.”
While I knelt and lifted her into my left arm, Takara asked Sarah, “Can you walk?”
“Yes.” She used the wall to pull herself up. I noticed she’d lost her weapons and helmet and that her pack was hanging on by a single strap. Wasting no time, Takara guided one of Sarah’s hands to her shoulder to lead her. She then signaled that we were heading out.
I led the way from the cave, one arm cradling Ms. Welch, the other sweeping my sixty-pound MP88 across the cavern. I half expected to see a hoard of nightmare creatures, like what we’d encountered in the Chagrath’s realm, but this domain was exclusive to the Wendigo. Like Megha had said, a place to hide its victims from the two worlds it inhabited.
We reached the steps and began to climb. Above us, the opening in the lake trembled. I could see Yoofi beyond, his bared teeth shining white, sweat pouring down the sides of his face.
How’s it looking outside? I asked Nadie.
Still clear, she replied through our collective.
We’ll be there shortly, I told her.
I emerged beside Yoofi, set Ms. Welch down, then returned for Sarah.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered, and took her into my arm. Sarah clung to my neck as I bounded up the steps. I wondered how much the experience reminded her of hiding from the zombies as a child.
I emerged again and stood over Ms. Welch. Rusty had just cleared the final step when Yoofi gasped and staggered back. The edge of the lake closed with a slap, throwing up a wave that caught Rusty in the back. Rusty swore under his breath and shook the water from his right sleeve.
I positioned Sarah behind Takara, then lifted Ms. Welch again. When I looked over at Yoofi, I found him stooped forward with his hand and staff on his knees, breathing heavily. I got his attention and gave him a thumbs up, then waved him into motion. Time to get the hell out of there.
He staggered into position, and we moved toward the cavern entrance in formation.
Someone’s coming, Nadie called through our connection.
I signaled the information to Takara, and she motioned for us to take positions in the recesses on either side of the entrance. I found a place to prop Ms. W
elch while Takara guided Sarah to a crevice in the opposite wall, maybe the same one Nadie had hidden inside earlier.
Can you see who? I asked her.
It’s the young man whose truck we searched. I can smell the tar. He’s coming toward us.
Austin, I thought. Or should I say, the Wendigo.
With Sarah blind and unarmed and Ms. Welch unconscious, we were in a piss-poor position to fend off Austin if he transformed. I signaled to Takara. After a moment, she signaled back. She wanted us to remain out of sight. When Austin passed us—presumably to go to his lair—we were to exit. Yoofi, Rusty, and I would take Sarah and Ms. Welch back to the van.
Takara’s next signal surprised me. She would stay behind to engage him. I didn’t like the idea of her facing the creature alone, but she was in charge. Besides that, it was the right call. Whether or not we could destroy the host, we needed to take a shot.
Is he armed? I asked Nadie.
He’s carrying some sort of stick.
I wondered what he was doing with a stick.
Don’t let him see you, I told Nadie. We’re going to let him through.
Though everyone went still, the breaths of my teammates sounded too loud in my lupine hearing. I hoped Austin’s hearing wasn’t acute in his human form. After several long minutes, I heard his footfalls transitioning from the snow to the rock-strewn floor of the entrance. My nostrils flared. Yeah, same tar-like scent that we’d picked up in his truck.
His footsteps stopped. My finger moved over the trigger for the flamethrower.
In the next moment, a flashlight beam shot through the opening. The hell is he doing with a flashlight?
Across from me, Takara and Rusty had drawn back until they were behind a stone protrusion. Our own concealment wasn’t as complete, but Austin would have to turn most of the way around after entering to see me, Yoofi, and Ms. Welch. The flashlight beam wavered as Austin resumed walking.
At that moment, Ms. Welch jerked and let out an unconscious murmur.
Shit.
I got Yoofi’s attention and turned up a hand in question.
Yoofi nodded wearily. Holding the trembling staff over Ms. Welch, he mouthed a silent incantation. Smoke dribbled from the staff and fell over the woman’s blood-knotted hair. It didn’t look like much, but her next murmur was an exhalation of breath as she seemed to relax into a deeper sleep.
Whether Austin had heard her, I couldn’t tell. He was still coming. In a few more steps, he limped into my field of vision. I didn’t recognize him at first. He’d smeared something black over his face and much of his winter hunting clothes. Though a rifle was strapped across the top of his backpack, he was wielding the stick Nadie had mentioned. Faces had been carved into the length of wood, some human, some animal.
Austin’s flashlight, which had been playing out ahead of him, shot to either side. Fortunately, he was already past our position. The beam hit the walls a good ten feet from us before steadying ahead again.
When he was halfway to the lake, Takara motioned for me and Yoofi to move. Carefully, I scooped up Ms. Welch and followed Yoofi from our concealment into the narrow tunnel that led outside. Rusty came in behind us, leading Sarah. Takara took up the rear.
With every step, I listened back, but Austin didn’t seem to have heard us.
One by one, we emerged outside. The whooshing wind covered our hustle toward the trees. In the snow’s dull glow, Sarah no longer needed someone to guide her. I handed her my sidearm and peered back to find Takara framed in the entrance to Cavern Lake. She had swapped the flamethrower for her M4 and already had it to her shoulder. She motioned at us to keep going. She would give us enough time to get clear before taking her shot.
We moved in a line toward the distant van. Despite her head wound, Sarah was kicking through the knee-high snow with surprising strength. Rusty appeared to be laboring to match her pace, but Yoofi was struggling. The effort to open the portal had exhausted him. Only one hundred meters out, and he was already falling behind. I was about to offer to carry him when Nadie appeared at his side.
“Climb on,” she said.
Yoofi nodded wearily and threw a leg over her hunkered back. He wrapped his hands in her thick hair as she stood. We picked up our pace, Nadie and I taking the lead, Sarah in the middle, and Rusty watching our six.
That was the Cannibal? Nadie asked.
Yeah, I replied, but doubt was gnawing at me. Why had he appeared in human form? And what was that stick he’d been carrying?
It was a totem stick, Nadie said, picking up the thought. Used by the old Cree medicine people.
What about the black stuff on his face, giving off the strong odor?
“Ikwe sap,” she replied.
I stopped as the name lined up with something I’d read in the Cree notebook. “Can you carry one more?” I asked, already setting Ms. Welch on Nadie’s back. “Hold on to her,” I told Yoofi.
I wheeled toward Rusty. “You’re in charge of getting the group back to base. Don’t wait for me.”
“Wh-where are you going?” he stammered.
“To stop another innocent from being killed.”
I fell to my hands and raced back the way we’d come. While searching through Mrs. Grimes’s notebook earlier, I’d stopped on a page when I’d spotted the word “Wendigo.” But the notes only described a substance that, rubbed over the body, was believed to disguise a person’s scent from various mythical creatures, including the Wendigo.
That substance was Ikwe sap.
Austin wasn’t the creature. Far from it.
When the cavern entrance came into view, I boomed, “Takara, no!”
She was where I’d last seen her, head poised behind the sights of her weapon. She stiffened slightly at the sound of my voice.
“Hold fire!” I shouted.
When she didn’t respond, I bounded into the entrance and pulled her down by the back of her vest. She twisted around and landed on top of me, one arm braced against my throat.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she hissed.
“It’s not him.”
Before I could explain further, shots cracked and caromed off the stone above us. Austin had heard the commotion and was firing blindly.
“Stay down,” I whispered.
I crawled forward until I could see the young man. He was almost to the lake, his flashlight hand supporting the rifle barrel. At his distance, though, the light couldn’t illuminate me, and he had stopped firing. By his wide eyes I could tell he was listening for movement.
When I was sure Takara was safely out of his line of fire, I called, “Austin, it’s Captain Wolfe.”
He adjusted his aim slightly.
“Hold your fire,” I said, my voice reverberating off the stone. “I think we’re hunting the same thing.”
“Oh yeah?” he challenged. “And what’s that?”
“A Wendigo.”
Though he continued to hold his rifle on me, a change came over his face. I approached his light cautiously. I was in my full suit and body armor, but I didn’t want to absorb a round if I didn’t have to.
“It killed Connor,” I said. “Your friend.”
During my race to keep Takara from wasting Austin, I’d been working to unpackage why he would be hunting the creature, and why he hadn’t told anyone what he was doing. The revenge motive took care of the first question but not necessarily the second—unless he was worried he’d be laughed at.
But as I stepped into his light, Austin shook his head.
“No, man. You’ve got it wrong.”
“How so?”
“The Wendigo didn’t kill Connor,” he said. “The Wendigo is Connor. But I know how to stop him.”
25
“Connor?” I repeated. “But they recovered his remains.”
“That’s what I’m saying. When the blue light hit Connor, it shredded his body to shit, but his soul became that thing.” He jerked his rifle toward Takara as she arrived from the darkness to his l
eft.
“It’s all right,” I said. “She’s a teammate.”
Takara had gripped his barrel. Now she released it as he lowered it again, his eyes dancing crazily between us.
“Tell us everything that happened,” she said.
“I grew up with Connor,” he began with a sigh, as if relieved to be getting the story off his chest. “We were best friends, always hunting or fishing out on the bay. The day we turned eighteen, we enlisted together. They took him, but not me. Failed the vision part. Connor did two tours in Waristan. On the second, his convoy ran over an IED. The force slammed him into the roof of his vehicle. His body healed, but up here?” Austin tapped his temple and shook his head. “It was like he was six years old again. I just wanted to help him.”
“By doing the Wendigo ceremony,” I said.
“My mom had this notebook on the Cree. I was really into it growing up. She always said the mysticism stuff wasn’t real, but for Connor’s sake, I felt like I had to try. I started with the healing ceremonies. Nothing took. I then got the idea to try the Wendigo ceremony. But it was supposed to make Connor superhuman—not turn him into a freaking man-eater.”
“Whose flesh did he eat?” Takara asked. “For the ceremony?”
“Mine,” Austin said. “I took some of the shit my dad’s been dealing so I could carve a chunk from my left hip. Drugs or not, it was about as godawful as it sounds. I prepared the meat in a dehydrator. When it came time for Connor to eat it, I told him it was jerky.”
That explained Austin’s limp.
“We did the ceremony over there.” He pointed to the arrangement of stones by the lakeside. “Lasted a couple hours. All the time I felt these strange energies circling us. Connor went into a kind of trance. Then I did the last step, and boom. A bolt of blue light shot down and hit Connor. He started screaming.” Austin shook his head. “Worst sound I’ve ever heard. The next thing I know this thing is bursting out of his body, shedding him like he’s its second skin or something.” I could see him reliving the episode in his mind.
Blue Howl (Blue Wolf Book 3) Page 20