by Tim O'Rourke
“What is wrong with you?” I heard Calix say with more irritation in his voice than concern.
With my chest rising up and down in spasms, I looked around to see that I had cleared the alley and was standing in the cobbled street outside The Weeping Wolf. “I just feel short of breath,” I stuttered, one hand pressed flat to my chest.
“That’s not the only thing I think you’re short of,” Calix said, turning toward the door of the pub.
If I had the breath in me, I would have told him to piss off. What right did he have to keep acting as if he was in some way superior to me? He wasn’t even that much older – no more than two or three years. But with my lungs feeling as if they had been wrung out to dry, I thought better of stooping to his level, so I therefore bit my tongue.
With the fall and rise of my chest slowing, I glanced back into the alley. Once again it looked as if it had been filled with thick, black ink. How the walls had seemed so tall defied me. The pub that stood on one side had just the two levels and the building on the other side of the alley was a derelict-looking building which I guessed had once been a shop. The painted letters across the wooden board had long since flaked away.
“What’s the problem now?” Calix seemed to groan.
“No problem,” I said, my breathing near to its normal rhythm once more.
“Good,” Calix said, pushing open the door to The Weeping Wolf and stepping inside.
Rea stood on the other side of the bar, which was lined with flickering candles. The row of crucifixes hung above her head. Rea wore her hair loose, and it framed her face and hung over her shoulders in thick, lush streams. Her face seemed to have softened somehow since I’d last seen her and she really did look quite beautiful as she stood, elbows propped on the bar, wearing a tight-fitting black T-shirt. I was surprised to see that Calix wasn’t standing with his tongue hanging out and drooling at the sight of her breasts straining against the fabric. But perhaps he had seen them all too often – perhaps without the T-shirt covering them? Rea’s face, although still very pale, glowed in the candlelight and made her dark eyes sparkle. I still had no true idea of her age – it seemed almost impossible to tell. Her perfectly smooth skin seemed ageless. Calix stood beside the bar and flicked rain from his coat, although he kept it on.
“Good morning, Mila.” Rea smiled at me for the first time since meeting her. She came from around the bar, the scuffed hems of her jeans almost covering the boots she wore. She took me gently by the elbow. “Come and sit by the fire. You look cold and soaked through.”
She sat opposite me at one of the wooden tables scattered about the pub. I rubbed my hands before the fire.
“Thirsty? Hungry, perhaps?” she said.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. “Sure,” I nodded.
“Calix, get Mila some coffee and toast,” she said without looking at him.
“Really?” he moaned.
“Really,” she said back, her eyes never leaving me.
“It’s okay, I’ll be fine…” I started, not wanting to be beholden to Calix for anything. Besides, he’d probably just spit in the coffee to spite me.
“Nonsense,” Rea said. “You must eat.”
I heard a door open. Looking back over my shoulder I saw Calix disappear behind a door on the other side of the pub. I looked back at Rea. She seemed a lot more relaxed with me than before, but did that mean I could stay in Shade? Needing to know, I came right out and said, “So, can I stay in Shade?”
She didn’t say anything at first. With thumbs hooked in the belt loops of her jeans, she leaned back in her chair, studying me. “Why do you want to stay?” she eventually asked.
“Because I can’t go back.” This was only a half lie, as I couldn’t go back, not without finding out what had happened to my parents. Had they sat in this very pub and sought permission to stay in Shade? Had they sought permission from Rea?
“Why not?” she came quickly back at me. Rea took a long, thick-looking cigar from her pocket. She rolled it between her thumb and forefinger, then popped it into the corner of her mouth. Taking a candle from the table, she lit it, drawing deep lungfuls of grey smoke until the end of it glowed red.
“I have nothing to go back to,” I said, watching Rea through the smoke as it wafted about her. Now this was a lie as I knew very well that I had my Uncle Sidney and Flint waiting for me back in Maze. “I’ve already told you that I had to escape from Twisted Den because it was…”
“I remember what you told me,” she said. “But you also told Rush that you had a boyfriend…”
“She told me the same thing,” Calix said, reappearing from the other side of the door, a mug of coffee in one hand a plate in the other. He dropped them both down onto the table before me. Coffee sloshed over the cracked rim of the mug. The slice of toast was as thick as a paving stone and there wasn’t any butter.
“What has my boyfriend got to do with anything?” I asked, wondering now whether I could trust Rush as I’d first thought. It appeared that he had been quick to report back to Rea on what I’d told him. I sipped the coffee and winced. Its taste was very bitter. Perhaps Calix had spat in it after all.
“Isn’t a boyfriend something to go back for?” Rea asked, watching me as she drew on the cigar.
Calix stood just a few feet away, his arms folded across his broad chest, guns strapped to his thighs and glinting in the firelight. He had that arrogant look on his face – the one that made my blood boil. Ignoring him, I met Rea’s stare and said, “If you must know, I asked my boyfriend to come with me but he refused.”
“Young love,” Calix tutted.
“You’re not so much older than me,” I snapped at him. “So quit with the bullshit comments already…”
“Don’t get your knickers all twisted up,” he smirked back. “It’s not my fault lover-boy gave you the push. He probably threw a freaking party the day you left…”
“Wrap it up, Calix. Your comments aren’t helping,” Rea suddenly warned him, blowing sweet smelling cigar smoke from the corner of her mouth.
Was she as sick of him as I was becoming? I wondered. He had put me off eating the toast. However hungry I now felt, I didn’t want anything from him. I pushed the plate and mug away, out of reach.
“Trusting her isn’t helping,” Calix shot back. “Letting her stay is a bad idea…”
“I can stay then?” I cut in.
Rea narrowed her eyes at Calix, then back at me. Was she pissed off because Calix had let slip her decision before she’d had a chance to tell me? Perhaps she hadn’t yet made up her mind and had wanted to question me further. I felt a nervous twinge of apprehension as I awaited her answer.
“You will teach the children,” she said.
“Sorry?” I frowned.
“You will be Shade’s school teacher.”
“But I didn’t come to Shade to be a school…”
“What did you come to Shade for?” She eyed me, now sitting forward on the chair, wrists dangling over her knees, cigar smoke trailing up from between her fingers. Flames danced in the hearth and in her eyes.
“But…” I started, knowing that if I had to teach the village children each day this would only prevent me from searching for my parents.
“You said you can read and write and the children can’t, so you will teach them,” Rea said, pushing back the chair as if the matter was already decided. She took one last deep draw on the cigar, then flicked the remainder of it into the fire.
“I don’t need a job, I have brought some money with me,” I said, getting up from my chair.
“Your money has no worth in Shade,” she said, whirling around to face me. Her earlier smile long since gone, replaced by that near grimace she so often wore on her face. “Each of us has a role – a job that we do – and in return we each receive food and shelter. To earn the roof over your head and the food that you will eat, you will teach the children.”
Calix, arms still folded across his chest, looked at
me and I could guess what he was thinking. He was hoping I would refuse to become Shade’s new school headmistress. He was hoping that I would just fuck off.
“So what is your job – what is it you do in Shade, apart from sniff women’s underwear and perv on them while they shower?” I asked him. Now it was my turn to smirk.
“I help to protect Shade,” he said, puffing out his chest, one hand lingering over the butt of his pistol.
“More like the village idiot,” I muttered under my breath.
I knew by the scowl on Calix’s face that he’d heard what I’d said, but before he’d had a chance to hit back at me, Rea said, “So take it or leave it.”
“I’ll take it,” I said, straightening my back. “How many children are there?”
“Ten,” Rea said.
“Ages?”
“Between six and twelve years.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to cope?” Calix asked.
“Don’t concern yourself about me,” I said back. Then looking him up and down, I added, “I’ve had a lot of practice dealing with children recently.”
“Very good,” Rea said, stepping in before Calix and I were at each other’s throats again. “You can give your first lesson this morning. The children are waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me? But how did you know I would agree to…?”
“Believe me, Mila Watson, I know more about you than you think,” Rea said, that smile back again. But it didn’t look friendly – more knowing than anything else.
“What do you mean?” I asked. Did she know more about me and the reason I had come to Shade than she or Calix were letting on?
“I know what it was once like to be young and naïve. What else could I have meant?” she said.
“Nothing, I guess.” But I wasn’t so sure about that. I couldn’t help but feel deep down that I was being toyed with by her. But why would she want to do such a thing? If she didn’t really trust me, why would she leave me in charge of the village children?
“Where is the school?” I asked her.
“On the other side of the park – near to where you’re staying,” she explained. “It’s nothing more than a small hall, but you’ll find everything you need.”
“Is my teaching the children the reason why Rush took me to that house last night?” I said, knowing that it had once belonged to the previous headmistress.
“Perhaps.” Rea shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but I secretly wondered if it did.
“Where is Rush?” I asked.
She gave the exact same reply that Calix had given to the same question earlier that morning. “Busy,” she said. “Now perhaps you should get going, the children will be waiting for you.”
I turned for the door. Pulling it open, I stopped and looked back. Rea and Calix were standing at the bar and watching me. “What is your role in Shade?” I asked her.
“It is my job to protect the village from werewolves,” she smiled back.
Chapter Thirteen
Back outside and in the rain, I turned up the collar of my coat. I looked into the black well of darkness that filled the alleyway. The thought of stepping back into it made my chest hitch. There must be another way of reaching the other side of the village without having to pass down the alley, I wondered, looking left then right along the street.
With my hands in my pockets, and head bowed against the wind and rain, I made my way along the street in the direction I had walked with Rush the night before. Reaching the end of the street, I followed the bend. I hadn’t gone very far when I looked up and saw the hill in the distance. The street I was on was only leading back toward the hill and woods and the opposite direction I needed to head. Turning on the heels of my boots, I made my way back along the street. I headed back past The Weeping Wolf and the alleyway. I followed the street as it curved to the left. With the wind gusting all around me and my hair hanging limp and wet against my face, I groaned out loud and stamped my foot down hard when discovering that the street only led to a dead end.
“There’s got to be another way to the other part of the village!” I said out loud.
Frustrated, I marched back in the direction of the pub. Rea and Calix must know of another way of reaching the other side of the village. But wouldn’t they just tell me to take the alleyway? Wouldn’t they ask why I wanted to take another path when the most direct route was right beneath my nose? Wouldn’t they think I was mad for wanting to take a longer route in the pouring rain? In my mind’s eye, I could see Calix leaning against the bar with that arrogant grin on his face. But did I really give a damn about what he thought of me? I’d rather see him laugh at me than head back into that alleyway.
But perhaps he would have every right to laugh at me? Wasn’t I being stupid? Wasn’t my fear of the alley irrational and immature? But there was something about it I didn’t like. It was as if the walls stretched, leaned in, wanted to smother me – suffocate me. Perhaps it was the wolf? I tried to rationalise, as I headed back toward the pub. Was I scared that it would be lurking in the darkness like it had been before? Wouldn’t the memory of that creature be enough to scare the life out of anyone?
Reaching the pub, I gave the alleyway a quick sideways glance, then pushed against the door. It didn’t move. I gripped the door handle, twisting it from side to side. The pub had been locked. Had Rea and Calix left soon after me, locking the door behind them? I stepped away from the building and looked up. There were no lights I could see in any of the upper rooms. I went to the nearest window, and cupping my hands, I peered inside. The fire was still lit but the candles along the bar had been snuffed out. I couldn’t see Rea or Calix. Driving my hands back into my pockets and shivering more at the thought of heading back into the alley than the chill wind, I turned my back on the pub. It was then that I heard a noise. It was faint at first – little more than a murmur. When the sound didn’t come again, I thought that perhaps it had been the wind I had heard. I glanced back over my shoulder and the sound came again – this time louder. Then again and again. It was like the murmuring had a rhythm to it. With the rain driving down into my upturned face, I looked at the pub at where the sound was coming from. The sounds became deeper – harsher – more intense somehow. And as I stood in the rain and listened, I knew I recognised those sounds. Flint and I had made similar noises during the nights he had crept into my bed while my uncle had been away on one of his trips. They were the undeniable sounds of two people having sex coming from one of the upper rooms of the pub. I lowered my head and turned away. I didn’t need to be one of those detectives in those books I had found to figure out who was having sex. So I had been right about Rea and Calix – they were together. So what? It didn’t matter to me.
Not wanting to be discovered listening outside as they had sex, and knowing that without their help I wasn’t going to find another route to the school, I took a deep breath and stepped into the slice of darkness that was the alleyway. I hadn’t taken more than a few steps when I heard someone call my name.
“Mila, run!” the voice said.
This time I thought I recognised it.
“Flint, is that you?” I whispered, turning around and peering into the dark.
To be continued…
‘Werewolves of Shade’ (Part Three)
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More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2