by Cheree Alsop
She turned her face my way, but didn’t say anything when I led her into the gas station and asked her to wait near the door. Only two other customers were in the store at the early hour, so I waited until the cashier was busy talking to one and slipped a couple packages of honey baked peanuts, a few candy bars, and a bottle of root beer into the convenient pouch of my borrowed sweatshirt. I also lifted another pair of sunglasses for Grace to help her look more casual.
I was about to leave when a newspaper near the soda pop machine caught my attention. I glanced at the date, then froze. According to the paper, I had been at the lab for four months. I set a hand on the counter to steady myself. A cold, hard knot formed in my stomach at the thought of my family and the pain I had put them through.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to focus on the task at hand. By the time the cashier was done with his customer and looking around for me, we were out the door and down the street.
“Do that a lot?” Grace asked, chewing thoughtfully on a handful of peanuts as we walked down an empty farm road.
“I did, more often than I care to think about,” I replied honestly. I opened the bottle of root beer and handed it to her. She took a sip and handed it back.
“So you’ve changed?” she asked.
“A lot has changed,” I said with more bitterness than I could hide.
She stopped and her fingers, so light on my arm, made me stop, too. “Being a werewolf's not so bad.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said before I could stop myself and take the easy way out.
She fell silent for a minute, then asked, “Are you ever going to tell me what happened to you?”
I shook my head and started walking again so she had no choice but to follow. “Probably not. It’s not pleasant.”
She swept her free hand to indicate our surroundings. “And this is?”
I shrugged. “Green stuff waving in the wind, the sunlight in my hair, and the sky a bright shade of blue I’ve never seen before? It's not so bad.” Then I remembered she couldn't see and glanced at her. “Sorry.”
She gave a smile that touched her eyes. “Don’t be sorry, just describe it to me. I expect more from the son of an English teacher. Oh, and the green plants are alfalfa; I can tell by the smell.”
I fought back a smile. “Okay, farm girl. Wind blows through the alfalfa,” I threw her a look and she smiled as though she felt it, “Making the dark green tops with purple flowers dance like waves before an ocean breeze.” Her hand tightened on my arm. I continued, “The blue of the sky is lighter than a robin’s egg, but it glows as though reflecting back the warmth of the sun from the purple mountains in the distance. Golden sunflowers sway along the sides of the road as if listening to music only they can hear, and the closest mountain, a little one we’re walking toward, sits like a toad emperor surveying his kingdom of cows and fenced farmland.”
She gave a little sigh with a sad smile. “I really miss it.”
“Maybe doctors can help you get your sight back,” I replied.
She gave me a heartrending look. “I don’t think many doctors’ll be lining up to operate on a werewolf.”
“You never know,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring tone. “This Jaze sounds like a good guy. He might know someone.”
We continued on in silence to the barn. My calf throbbed and a shiver ran down my spine as the fever from the infection started to catch up to me again from all the walking. It felt like my body kept trying to heal, but it couldn’t with the bullet inside. I was shaking with exhaustion by the time we made it back to the barn, but I tried not to show it. Grace didn’t say anything, but I could see the concern in her expression when I sank to the rotting wooden floor.
“Now what?” she asked.
“We wait.” The prospect of resting after the long walk with the bullet felt like heaven. I touched my leg, wondering if I could get the bullet out myself, but the skin was so hot and swollen that it was all I could do to keep from crying out when I touched it. I hoped that Jaze really did have contacts with a medical background.
***
“You’re driving too fast,” Colleen said from the passenger seat.
“We’re fine,” I replied. My voice slurred and Colleen’s friend Debra giggled from the back seat.
I stepped on the gas to emphasize that I was in control, when in fact headlights and reflectors blurred together on the freeway until they looked like solid lines and I couldn’t tell which was which.
“You’re going to get pulled over,” Colleen said, a touch of panic to her voice as I swerved toward what I guessed to be the reflectors.
“Calm down,” I told her. “I promised Dad we’d be home before midnight and I’m gonna keep my promise.” I squinted at the glaring lights and felt patterned thuds under the tires. A warning voice went off in the back of my head. I ignored it and stepped on the gas, intent on a set of bright lights heading toward us.
“Kaynan, look out!” Colleen shouted. Debra screamed.
The lights towered above us a second before the semi slammed into the front of the car. Our vehicle rolled and glass shattered close to my head. The girls shrieked with fear and I locked eyes for one brief second with Colleen, my best friend, my confidant, and the only person who understood my rebellious nature even if I didn’t. Her soft blue eyes filled with tears, then the car started to flip.
We rolled at least a dozen times as the semi braked, then the car spun upside down in circles with the roof as a pivot until we were slammed into by another vehicle. The force jarred us off the road and into a ditch. I was flung through the windshield and landed on the grass ten feet away on my back.
I stared at the stars. They were so bright and twinkled down on me like nothing had happened. Something warm dripped into my eyes.
***
“Kaynan, Kaynan, wake up!”
I gasped and opened my eyes, shaking and covered in sweat. “What’s wrong? What happened?” I asked, my voice raspy.
“You had a nightmare. You screamed and it woke me up.” Grace’s voice trembled as badly as her fingers that touched my shoulder like a skittish butterfly. “What were you dreaming about?”
I shook my head, my mind still filled with the smell of burning rubber and the shattering of glass. “Nothing. It was a nightmare, like you said.”
She sat back on her heels, her expression doubtful, but I was grateful she didn’t press further.
I glanced out the crooked door and saw that the sun was rising. “Guess we should head out.”
I handed her the last candy bar and offered her an arm. “Your skin’s hot,” she said, concerned.
“I usually sleep warm. Guess werewolfism added to that.” But by the time we reached the library, my limp was so profound Grace was holding me up as much as I was leading her.
We waited against a tree near the library and I must have dozed off with the weakness of the fever because I awoke to Grace tapping my arm. “Kaynan, someone's close by.”
I looked around groggily and spotted four men climbing out of an SUV not far from us. A wave of suspicion surged through me; I fought back the urge to bare my teeth.
“I think they’re from the lab,” I said, rising carefully to my feet.
“What should we do?” Grace asked, her voice tight with terror.
Instinct tickled at the back of my mind and I turned; four other men crossed the lawn toward us with guns raised. A family having a picnic on benches near the library’s manmade stream stared at them in fear. “Run!” I shouted. I grabbed Grace’s hand and ran south across the lawn. Shots rang out behind us and Grace screamed in fear, but she gripped my hand tighter and kept up.
“Curb,” I said. She stepped down smoothly and we darted across the street. A red truck barely missed us and slowed the four men who followed on foot. The others jumped back in the SUV and barreled across the lawn after us. “Curb,” I shouted again. We stepped onto the sidewalk and ran down the next road. A man walking a dog stared at
us, then ducked behind a parked car when the SUV bristling with armed men thundered our way. I pulled Grace behind me through several unfenced yards, but the pain in my leg and Grace’s blindness slowed us down. They were catching up.
Adrenaline surged through my system. My soul cringed at becoming the beast again, but I knew it was the only way. “Phase,” I shouted to Grace.
Her eyes widened, but she phased beside me into a sleek, light gray wolf. I tore off my sweatshirt and phased next to her. The men on foot slowed and aimed their guns at us. I bumped Grace’s shoulder with my own and she ran beside me, her shoulder against mine.
She stumbled over a curb, then a small shrub, and we were past the rows of houses and into scrub brush and sand. She stumbled again and I growled in frustration when the SUV drove over the last curb and pursued us across the flat stretch of land. I couldn’t tell Grace where the obstacles were and she fell again and again. The vehicles roared and I flattened my ears and snarled at them with the rage that filled my chest.
Grace bumped my shoulder and I wanted so badly to show her the expanse of open ground ahead of us dotted in sage, crevasses, and rocks which would trip her up. I pushed the image toward her in a desperate attempt to help her see. She brushed my shoulder again and I felt the image pass from me to her with the contact. She fell back in surprise, then surged forward and ran so that her shoulder was constantly against mine. I passed what I saw to her through our contact. I don’t know how it worked, but I was grateful that it did.
With the images showing her the obstructions in her path, Grace picked up speed until she practically flew over the ground, missing the objects with ease and cat-like litheness. I kept pace with her as we dipped into a large gully, darted up a sandy bank a few turns down, then disappeared into another crevasse. The sounds of pursuit faded, then died away altogether, but we continued to run until we had left them far behind.
Grace slowed when I did and I passed her images of the setting sun seen through the grays, blacks, and whites of wolf vision. We walked across caked, hard dirt that our wide paws crossed easily without leaving tracks. A thump sounded in the distance and a desert hare darted between prickly bushes leaving only the scent of dried desert plants, a dark, cool dirt lair, rabbit musk, and fear when we passed.
We walked slowly toward the mountains as the moon rose and cast the land in a ghostly gray. My animal eyes picked out every detail of the darkening night, and my nose categorized scents I had never smelled before while my brain filed them away for later reference.
I had forgotten about the bullet in my leg, but as the adrenaline began to fade, the constant ache returned and I began to limp again. Grace pushed against me to help me keep my weight off it, but we finally had to stop about a half mile from a small town nestled against the mountain. I looked around and Grace leaned against me to follow my sight. A truck with only three wheels sat axle deep in the sand about twenty feet away. Rust ate at the faded blue paint and it was obvious no one had been there in a long while.
Grace left my side and walked slowly in the direction of the vehicle, her nose outstretched until she touched its side. She then followed the edge of the harsh metal around to where I couldn’t see her. I settled on the sand still warm from the absent sun and waited.
“Okay, you’re turn,” Grace called from inside the truck. She sat up and pulled the edges of a ragged coat closer to cover her bare skin.
I stood up uncertainly and glanced at the truck, not sure how to start. Grace listened for a minute and when it was obvious I didn’t phase, an understanding smile touched her lips. “Just remember what it feels like to be human. Remember your hands, your lips, your fingers, the things that separate you from a wolf. Concentrate and your body will remember them also and want to go back to that form, then you just let it.”
It sounded easy, but my wolf form was reluctant to let go. Images of the running hare flashed through my mind with its scent, begging me to give in to the thrill of the chase. A warm breeze tickled across my nose, telling of a small herd of deer in a valley not far from us. The moonlight warmed my fur like the sun did my human skin and I closed my eyes and basked in the warmth for a brief moment.
“Kaynan?”
I came back to myself at her voice and pushed the images from my mind. I took a steeling breath and called forward the things she had told me. I pictured my hands, the way they held a pool stick and hit the ball with a proficiency I was improving with each match against my friends. I remembered Renee’s fingers on my arm, tracing a scar I had gotten playing in the lot behind our house. I felt my feet in cleats, tearing into the turf during football with my high school team before I dropped out to hang out with my friends instead. I felt my sister Colleen’s hair under my fingers when I hugged her and told her that she was better off without a boyfriend who cheated on her.
A tear rolled down my cheek when the phase was complete and I curled in a fetal position on the warm sand in my human form. As much as my leg ached, my heart hurt worse. I wiped the tear away and rose, realizing that yet again I needed to find clothes. This was going to get old.
“You decided not to stay in that form?” Grace pushed open the creaky driver’s door of the truck. The old brown coat she had found was ragged and torn, but with the buttons done up it protected her for the most part. I tried for once in my life to be a gentleman and pretended not to notice anything that wasn’t covered.
“The beast inside me now matches the one without, so I guess I was getting comfortable.” I grimaced and pulled a spiky burr from my arm.
“You’re not a beast, Kaynan.” She paused. “How did you do that, anyway?”
“Do what?” I asked, distracted by our location which looked to be as close to the middle of nowhere as we were before.
“Show me what you were seeing. That was amazing.” She gave me a tentative smile. “Does it work when you’re in human form, too?”
“I’m not sure.” I took her hand and tried to pass her the image of the scraggly tree directly in front of us, but I couldn’t find the link we had before. I finally gave up. “Guess it only works when I’m a wolf.”
She sighed. “Well, it was wonderful anyway.”
I glanced at her. “Other werewolves can’t do that?”
She shook her head. “None that I’ve ever met. It must be something from the lab, a chromosomal alteration or something.”
“Great, I’m a freak even in the werewolf world.”
“You’re not a freak; you’re a good person,” she said sincerely.
I rolled my eyes and studied our location. The town was still a half mile off, which was a long distance to be traveling naked at night. “Any more coats in that truck?” I asked hopefully.
“No, but there might be something behind the seat. I was afraid a raccoon or something would jump out if I searched there.”
I fought back a smile when her voice tightened at the thought. I walked to the truck and she got out the other side, her hand on the cool metal. I peered behind the seat, but found only an old gallon jug of water and a flashlight with dead batteries.
I climbed back out. “Two mostly naked people are going to be quite suspicious.”
She gave me a half-smile. “Did you find some clothes then?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Not even a hat.”
Her lips pursed. “Hmm. That would've been useful.”
“As it is, I’ll have to go back and find the rabbit.”
She laughed. “I don’t think he’d appreciate being used that way.”
“Isn't that how the Scottish do it?” I pressed.
A soft blush stole across her cheeks and she rewarded me with another laugh. “I’m pretty sure the animals are dead, and you’d have to wear a kilt.”
“Well, I’m out then. Hopefully the people here have an open mind.”
She smiled again. “I doubt anyone’s that open. Maybe you could be my seeing eye dog.”
I snorted. “People would run in terror. I’m not exactly a mi
ld looking creature.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have red eyes and dark red fur. I’d probably scare myself if I found a mirror.”
If that worried her, her expression didn’t show it. “You could borrow my coat and I could hide here until you get back.” She said it bravely, but my keen ears caught the tremor in her voice at being left alone again.
I shook my head. “Separating isn’t an option. We’ll figure something out, even if I have to ransack another house.”
Luckily, that wasn’t necessary. We happened across a backyard with laundry drying in the night breeze and I helped myself to a pair of loose jeans, a red shirt I chose for the ironic fact that it matched my eyes, and even a thick pair of woolen socks for which my feet were very grateful. I took a soft blue shirt, black casual pants, and another pair of socks for Grace.
“Sorry they didn’t have any, um, bras, or anything,” I apologized while Grace pulled on the clothes behind a bush.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I’ll just wear the coat and hope no one notices.” She stepped around the bush and I took her hand. She had braided her long brown hair and tied it with a scrap of cloth from the coat; a stray strand brushed her cheek. She swept it behind her ear with her free hand. “Where to, oh fearless leader?”
“You can call me fearless until we run into something really intimidating like a spider.”
She laughed. “You’re afraid of spiders?”
“Got bit when I was a child and haven’t liked them since.” I led her over a log and across a bare patch of earth.
“I’m the same way with bees. What kind of spider was it?”
“Black widow.” We walked around the house where fewer clothes now fluttered in the darkening evening. I led her up the sidewalk and onto a paved road. “I had stomach cramps for three days. Not pleasant.”
She gave a teasing smile. “Well, if I see a spider, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks,” I replied dryly. I limped painfully on my bad leg and it was hard not to focus on the persistent ache. The heat that ran up my limbs stole my breath and it got harder to put one foot in front of the other.