Robert Garland held his right arm with his left. It helped to hold back some of the pain he felt in it, but he knew that only time would heal the freshness of the hurt. When he heard Rachel’s voice, he sighed. She said my name. He even smiled some. However, the smile vanished when he looked at the wolf standing behind her and gasped. “Kalima?” He could see the white under his jaws. He could see the hint of the animal that he once knew. He looked back to Rachel and sighed, long and deep. “Hi Rachel.” He smiled.
She must have seen enough, because just after hearing him, her world went blank, and she lost everything else. Her body went limp. Her knees gave out, and with one graceful motion, she passed out.
Jimmy looked to the man and tilted his head to his left. He understood that the man recognized him, but there was more. He recognized him too. He recognized a very old friend.
15
Jimmy opened his eyes. He saw wood planks strung out over his head. He sat up, realizing that he was lying on a bed. He looked towards his feet and saw a doorway and a hallway behind it. He looked left to a bright light shining at the side of his face, and saw a window standing there silently, showing him that the night was over and that a new day has begun. He turned back to the foot of the bed, and pulled himself up to a sitting position. He pulled himself to the foot of the bed, let his feet fall to the floor, and stood up.
Standing, wobbling some but not much, it suddenly dawned on him where he was. He recognized the room. He looked back towards the bed, looked to the wall on his right, and saw pictures of Brandon as a small boy all over the dresser under the window. He nodded as he looked at them closely. This is the cabin of Brandon’s parents. He looked back towards the door. Why are we here? He left the room and thought of nothing else.
Following the hallway, he came out into the living room and stopped just inside the doorway. He looked to the center of the room, and saw the man from last night sitting there, looking at him. He was the man that saved his Rachel. He was the man that saved his very reason for living.
“I know you, don’t I?” He did looked familiar, but he couldn’t place his face. He just knew that he did. He nodded and took a deep breath, breathing in the room. The hint of a pale lavender flowed throughout the air with a dank freshness. He of course knew the smell too. “You’re a wanderer aren’t you?” He met his eyes.
The man stood up. “And I know you.” He put his hands into the side pockets of his trousers. “The question I have is how. How are you still alive? How are you even here?”
“I get that a lot lately.” Jimmy looked around the entire living room. “Where’s Rachel?” He didn’t see her there. He didn’t see anyone.
“She’s in the other bedroom. She’s resting. She went through a lot last night.” The man took out his hands from his pockets and exhaled everything he just said.
“Where are Brandon and Sasha?” Jimmy looked back around the living room and tried to focus his thoughts. It looked exactly the same way that he remembered it when he was a kid. It smelled the same. It felt the same. He spent many summers there, hanging out with his best friend, and doing nothing but wasting time.
“They’re outside making sure we’re alone here.”
Jimmy nodded. The house, he remembered, was way out in the woods, just north of town. He used to love running and playing in the trees back then. They even built a fort there, somewhere, in one of those trees. It’s been years since he’s seen it. By the looks of the place, it felt like standing in a memory. It felt rather odd being there again. In fact, it actually looked a little smaller than what he remembered it. That surprised him some. He just didn’t expect feeling it.
“I have to admit, I never thought I’d see him again…Kalima. The last I’d heard it, he died in Ireland a few centuries ago.” The man looked nervous, but didn’t sound it. He controlled himself well. “So how is it that you’re here?”
Listening, Jimmy blinked. “You knew him, back then?”
“I did.” The man nodded.
“He recognized you…Kalima did.” Jimmy could feel the recognition when he was the wolf. He remembered everything now. Kalima did remember him, but for some reason, he didn’t seem to remember his name. He didn’t even have a memory to go by with it, but just knew him. He felt both things, as being just a little strange. After all, he remembered Kenny before he met him again. He remembered Michael the same way, but with this man, it all felt so different. All he could do was wonder why. “How is that I do remember your face? I thought you wanderers passed onto other bodies after you died. If that’s true, then how could I?”
The man laughed some. It sounded a little subtle and subdued. “We carry the gifts of the walkers. That means that a walker can see us. It’s the same way that I recognized him, Kalima, when I saw you last night. It’s the white around the snout, I think. Besides, we all see each other in the crowds, and every one of us is unique when we do see us.”
Jimmy stepped into the room further, approached the back of one of the two easy chairs closest to him, on the other side of the coffee table from the sofa and him, and stopped behind it. “That makes sense, I guess.” It’s the same way that Kenny knew me. It’s the way he looks. It’s the inner glow. It’s completely unique to who the person is. He took the back of the chair into the palms of his hands. “It’s just a little crazy some times.”
“It does get weird, I know. I can understand that if you do too.”
“You have no idea.” Jimmy nodded. He had nothing to counter the guy with, so he didn’t try to. He just knew too little for that. “Rachel called you Bobby. She knew you too?” It’s nice how much he could now remember when he’s the wolf. Being it, living it, felt almost like being a spectator watching an event from the stands. It made life so much easier to live too, when he could remember what he did. Without it, he knew he would go insane.
“He’s my brother.” Rachel woke up in the bedroom of a house that she’d never seen before, but she wasn’t scared. After hearing Jimmy’s voice, it made that small fact moot. What she didn’t expect was to hear the other voice talking with him. It’d been years since she heard it—heard him. She didn’t know how to feel about it either. Thinking back to last night, a part of her wished what happened was nothing but a nightmare, a dream. Hearing the voices told her that it wasn’t. It did happen. Everything she saw—the man she saw—was real. He was really there, and now, she knew it.
She stepped out to the obvious living room, coming in just behind Jimmy. She looked past him and saw Robert there, standing, breathing, and alive. She just didn’t understand. She didn’t comprehend it—him.
Jimmy turned to her, and when he did, the door to his right opened, and he watched Brandon and Sasha step inside. He then turned back to Rachel with wide eyes, hearing her. He of course remembered what she told him about her brother, that he died from cancer many years ago. It’s what brought her to study a cure for human illness. It’s what led her to work at Ravenswood. It, in effect, is what brought her and him together in the first place.
Seeing everyone up, made Brandon smile, “Good, everyone’s awake.” He closed the door behind Sasha. He, of course, had no freaking clue to what was going on. When he and Sasha reached Jimmy’s old job, he found him there with Rachel and this wanderer guy. When they needed a place to go that no other walker would know about, he gave them the idea to come to his parents’ house. They were in Florida now and won’t be coming back until September. Their place would be quiet. It seemed like a good place to be alone.
Jimmy’s heart broke some, listening to the mixed emotions in Rachel’s heart pound away. Seeing the tears in her eyes didn’t help.
“You’re alive?” She didn’t know what to think. Part of her hated him for leaving her. The other part felt happy that he was alive. She didn’t know how to think or feel about seeing him standing there again, or why he even was.
“Yes. I’m alive.” He bowed his head.
Jimmy heard Robert’s heart flutter. He felt Rachel’s heart
doing the same thing. He suddenly felt for both of them. Truly, there was no other way to feel about what they both must be going through at that very moment. In a way, he understood everything, but nothing at all.
“How?” The tears only grew in her eyes. A solemn one streaked down her left cheek. “Why?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
The man, Robert, bowed his head. He couldn’t look her in the eyes when he answered her. “I’m a wanderer. I had to leave. They got too close to me, and with doing that, they came too close to you.” He looked up. He too now had tears in his eyes. “I had to protect you. Dying seemed to be the only way to do that completely.”
“I see.” She sniffled some, trying to keep herself from choking on her own tears. “So to protect me, you felt that you needed to die. You thought by putting me through that it was worth it?”
Robert kept his head down. “I know it’s hard to understand why I did it. But yes, I do believe that it was worth it.”
“I see.” She looked to Jimmy. “And you too, huh? You also needed to stay away to protect me?” She puffed some too.
Jimmy’s heart broke even more. He too had to bow his head. Suddenly, he didn’t want her to look at him. He didn’t know why, he just didn’t.
“You know.” Rachel’s arms flew down to her sides. “I wish one day, just one time, the men in my life would allow me to take the chance to be with them. That, they would allow me to love and make that choice just once.” She turned quickly, and headed back to the hallway. She went back to the small bedroom that she woke up in and slammed the door. She needed more time to think. She needed some time to be alone.
Jimmy felt shattered. “Rachel?” He left the back of the chair, but suddenly Sasha blocked his path to the hallway. She took him by the arms.
“Let her be alone.” She begged. She felt for her friend. She felt for all of them, but she was the only other woman there, so it was up to her to defend the other one. At least that’s what she thought about when she blocked Jimmy from doing what he must one day do—apologize for everything. But right now, right at that time, it wasn’t the time to do it. “You have to give her time to take in all this.” She gave him a smile, broad and strong.
Jimmy nodded. He understood, somewhat, but in the end, he didn’t. He just went along with what Sasha said. In all honesty, he appreciated her more for it.
Sasha let him go and brought her arms back down to her sides. “I’m going to go and check on her.” She turned and walked down the hallway, knocked on Rachel’s door and then let herself in side. She closed the door behind her.
Jimmy turned back to Robert. “I guess we have to wait some then.” He looked to Brandon.
Brandon stood there completely lost, completely amused some too. “I guess you guys fucked up some huh.” He smiled and shrugged too. He didn’t know what else to say.
16
Arthur waited in the motel. He hated doing it too. He hated it when he was left alone. He hated it more than his thoughts of dying, but unfortunately, he had to do it. So, when the girls came back, he felt more than happy that they were with him again. “You found her?” He moved to the door as they came to it, and opened it up. When he saw that one of them, Michelle, had four long gashes across her face from her ear to her chin, his question, it seemed, was answered for him. “What the hell happened to you?”
“The wolf is here.” Danielle, the only blonde-haired woman of the group, helped Michelle through the door, and walked her to one of the two beds closest to her. She helped her sit down there. “And so is the wanderer Rochie.”
Arthur closed the door and liked nothing of what he heard. “How is that possible?” His anger grew and it showed. “He was supposed to be in the city. She was supposed to be alone.” He clenched his fists. He tried hard to remain calm. He failed fast. “How the hell did Rochie know we were coming here? How did any of this happen?”
“He must have left the city when Samantha failed to get the answer from the new one. He must have told him. He attacked us just after the wanderer came.” Felicia, the oldest of the group stopped at the foot of the bed. She kept her arms over her chest. She felt angry, that much was obvious, but she shared none of the fear that Arthur always showed them when Vincent was involved. She was better than he was, and she knew it.
“How am I going to explain this to him? How am I supposed to tell Vincent that we weren’t able to take her?” He walked over to the dresser at the opposite side of the bed and leaned up against it with both hands. He now had to think about his next move. He promised Vincent that he would get to the woman and bring her to him. And now that he failed, he feared for his reaction to it. In fact, he feared for his life. He now felt more alone than ever.
“We didn’t have the choice to leave Arthur. We couldn’t take on both of them. We couldn’t fight the black wolf and the wanderer too. Our deaths wouldn’t have accomplished the task either.”
He turned to Danielle. “He’s just a walker like the rest of us. He’s still vulnerable.”
Felicia laughed with that one. “Then you should have come too. You should have fought him. You should have fought them. Or have you forgotten Arty?” She met him at the side of the dresser. “Did you forget the last time you met him? Did you forget what he did to you all those years ago?”
Those words made his blood boil. Just by the ridiculousness in her voice. “You know that she wouldn’t have come with me. She would have been more comfortable with the three of you.” He looked back to the others and then back to Felicia again. “And what happened has nothing to do with this.” He turned back to the dresser. “I must tell Vincent the news. I have to see what he would like us to do now.”
“You do that.” Felicia walked to her friends at the bed.
He turned and walked to the door. He paused as he grabbed the knob and turned it. “Fix her as best you can. We can’t be sticking out like the way she looks around the humans. Not until we’re ready.”
“We’ll fix her up.” Danielle looked to the gashes on Michelle’s face. Through two of them, she could even see the bone of her cheek and chin. How she was going to fix her, she had no idea, but she would try to do the best she could.
He nodded, opened the door, left, and closed it behind him. He walked down the front of the motel, stopped on the corner of it, at the side of the building, and took his cell phone out from his jacket pocket. He made his call.
“You’re news?” Vincent asked. He’d spent the entire day with anticipation. He had trouble with containing himself. Now that he had finally received the call, he couldn’t wait to hear how it went.
“The three failed to gather the woman. The black wolf came.” Arthur swallowed dryly. He fought the words, even though he knew that he had to speak them. Now, he was ready for the chips to fall where they may.
“I see.” Vincent fell silent.
Arthur hated the sound.
“We will come then. We have no choice.” The phone fell silent again.
The silence was deafening, but thankfully, it didn’t last long.
“Find out where they have her. Plan how to get her.”
“I will.” Arthur looked around the front of the motel. From where he stood, he could also see down the right side of the building. In both areas, he saw no one watching him. No one was listening either. Seeing it, feeling it he breathed, and that made him relax some. “My lord?” He paused, tried to swallow but couldn’t. “The wanderer is here…the truce keeper.”
Again, the phone fell silent.
Again, he hated the sound. Again, it didn’t last long.
“Very well. I will tell him. In the meantime, prepare for taking her. Gather as many as you can to assist you if you need them. I will send Samantha up there with some of her group.”
“Yes my lord.”
The line went blank.
He took it off his ear, and brought the phone in front of his face. Suddenly, seeing the screen, he felt like throwing it, but didn’t. He also felt like screaming,
but stayed silent. Instead, he turned from the corner of the building and went back to their room. He now had work to do, and he had to plan how to do it. But first, he had to find them. To do that, he did have an idea how to do it, but it would be risky. Again, he felt lonelier than ever before.
17
“So, you’re her brother then? That’s cool.” Brandon sat down on the easy chair next to Jimmy. With Sasha now outside, he felt very alone being in the room with silence surrounding it. He had to say something, anything, to break that silent mood.
Jimmy stayed quiet. He couldn’t get Rachel off his mind. He could still see her face, the tears swarming over her eyes as she stood there looking at him. He could feel her heart as it burned with anger for him. He hated feeling her like that, but more importantly; he hated himself for causing it.
“I am yes.” Robert did the exact same thing. He didn’t know what to say so he stayed quiet. He knew that he was going to get the reaction she gave him, but now, after getting it, he hated himself for doing it. He should have told her the truth from the very beginning. He should have done things differently, but still, he knew he couldn’t. He had to stay to the plan. He had to keep to what he started. He didn’t have the choice. They wouldn’t give him the choice to do anything different.
“Good.” Brandon looked to Jimmy and then back to Robert again. “I just have one thing to say about all of this.” He put both hands between his knees. He cupped his hands together there gently. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
Robert looked to him, and winced some. “I guess so.” He looked back to Jimmy. “I wished I knew that you were still alive. It would have made a difference in so many ways that I can’t describe how many.”
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 8