by J. K Harper
I felt pretty useless waiting for them to come back, but I stayed at the side of the door, peeking out the window.
What seemed like an eternity later, I could see some movement coming from the forest.
I held my breath until I saw Pyotr floating while carrying Viktor, who was still in wolf form.
I flung open the door and rushed out, but before I could go very far, Pyotr had zoomed to the porch.
“He’s fine,” Pyotr reassured me. “Just needs a little recovery time.”
Pyotr floated past me into the house before putting Viktor down on a bed.
“Is it okay if he stays in wolf form? Will he get stuck?”
“No. He’ll heal faster like this.”
Viktor twitched. He put his head over the side of the bed while he threw up.
I watched helplessly as a bunch of bullets came out of his mouth.
“Holy shit,” I said. “What’s that?”
“Bullets don’t slow him down, but they have to go somewhere. His body holds onto them until they can be disposed safely.”
The wolf closed his eyes and went back to the bed, seeming exhausted.
“What can we do for him?” I had ideas about basic first aid for humans, but I had no idea how to care for a shifter.
“We need to find a source of protein. His body needs a lot of energy to heal. He’ll be fine.”
“We don’t need to call a vet or something?”
“He heals at an accelerated rate that would freak out any vet worth anything.”
Viktor had only been in the house for a half minute, but he seemed like he wasn’t in pain anymore, just tired.
“If he’s still like this tomorrow morning, we’re taking him to a vet,” I said firmly.
“It’s not going to be an issue.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise that if he isn’t better by tomorrow morning, we’ll get help. Happy?”
“Yeah.”
I went to the fridge to try to look for some protein for him. He wasn’t even awake, so I knew that it was sort of futile…but I hated being totally helpless.
In the fridge, there wasn’t much meat. When I opened the freezer, it was packed from top to bottom with fish.
“Do wolves eat fish?” I asked Pyotr, who was washing his hands extremely thoroughly. He might be impervious to fire, but he had soot all over him.
“They do. And this is mostly a fishing cabin, so…”
“Let’s just use what we have.”
“We have to defrost the fish.”
“Let’s just do it now, while he’s asleep.”
Fish
Nastia
After defrosting the fish, I sat next to Viktor’s bed until I saw him open his eyes.
“Hungry?”
He growled, not in an aggressive way, but the growl was loud enough to tell me that he was hungry.
I’d put the fish into a big bowl that looked like it could hold enough to feed an army.
I’d partially cooked the fish, but I didn’t know if wolves preferred the fish cooked or uncooked. I settled for undercooked.
I watched in shock as he demolished all that I’d prepared in a matter of minutes. In less than five minutes, the bowl was licked clean.
He seemed to have more energy, but he nudged my thigh with his head.
“You want more?”
A very un-wolfish nod confirmed that he wanted more.
I went for the quick defrost route using the microwave. The texture wouldn’t be as good, but I didn’t think that he cared at the moment.
I didn’t cook the second batch, just gave him the defrosted fish.
After a second helping, he seemed okay. He went back to lie on the bed, his stomach distended from the quantity of food that he’d eaten.
He closed his eyes. This time, he seemed to be breathing a little more easily.
He was going to be okay.
I went to look for Pyotr, who’d left me alone with Viktor. He was in an office at the back of the house.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking at our security options.” He got to his feet and pulled me into his arms, kissing me hard before letting go.
“Thank you for taking care of Viktor.”
“No problem,” I said, even though it was nerve-wracking to take care of a patient that I had no clue how to take care of.
“Are we going to stay here?”
“We can’t. They know where we are.”
“Where are we going to go?”
His pale face got even paler.
“I have a safe house. It’s an underground bunker…if you feel comfortable being completely locked away from sunlight, we can go there.”
“Do you have food?”
“Yes.” He blinked.
“Why?” I raised a brow at him.
He shrugged. “Well, you never know what can happen. I have enough provisions for a zombie apocalypse.”
I snorted. “Why would you have provisions for a zombie apocalypse?”
“I’m not the scariest monster out there,” he said calmly, although his eyes were flames. “It was definitely possible for me to encounter a human who needed my protection for an extended period.”
“Well, neither of us is human. You’ve got a shifter and a witch.”
“Both of you eat.”
He had a point.
“What about you? Do you have blood stored?”
“Of course.” He looked at me. “I can’t live without it.”
I didn’t know how to handle the way that he was eyeing my neck at the moment, so I just pretended that it wasn’t happening.
“How quickly can we go there?”
“I was waiting for Viktor to heal somewhat.”
“He woke up.”
“Good. That means he’s probably healthy enough to move.”
“How are we getting out of here? We’re in the middle of nowhere, and the soldiers could easily ambush us on the road out. This area is pretty isolated.”
“True. We’re getting a helicopter.”
Helicopter
Nastia
I heard the sound of a motor coming closer.
“That’s our ride.”
I wondered how he could be so chill when I was still freaking out about a bunch of guys coming and nearly killing me and my…well, I wasn’t sure what they were. Maybe childhood friends?
I’d stick with that.
“Viktor, are you ready to go?”
Viktor walked into the office.
“Yeah.”
His voice was a little quieter than usual, which worried me, but we’d be able to keep him in bed for a little while in a safer location.
“Let’s go.”
Pyotr put his laptop under his arm and walked purposefully out of the room, past Viktor.
Viktor and I walked more slowly.
“Are you sure that you’re going to be okay on the helicopter ride?”
He winced a bit, but he said, “I don’t think that we have another choice.”
“Right…okay.”
I walked in front of him to get into the helicopter. I’d never been in one before.
I got inside and took a pair of noise-canceling headphones that were with my seat. Viktor followed me into the helicopter while Pyotr was already strapped in and ready to go.
I was glad that the headphones were there. The roar of the helicopter was nearly deafening.
When Viktor had fastened his harness, I heard Pyotr say, “Clear.”
With that, we took off and went into the sky. As we gained altitude, I could see a few flashes coming from below us.
“Can they hit us when we’re this far away?”
“They can try, but it’s just a waste of bullets.”
I knew that the soldiers — at least some of them — were still down there. I didn’t know what they wanted or why they’d attacked the house in the woods, but I was very glad that my…childhood friends and I were going to be able to go so
meplace safe.
We flew for a while. I liked looking down. We were a little lower than normal commercial planes, which was fine. I hadn’t been on that many flights, just a few when my father had let me out for special occasions.
Finally, I noticed that we were descending and losing altitude toward a spot with a big H on it below us. It was on top of a rectangular building which looked like it was a government building.
When we landed, I unbuckled my harness. In a helicopter, no stewardess was going to yell at me for not sitting down as the plane taxied to the gate.
Viktor was pale, a little paler than I’d like him to be. He was almost as pale as Pyotr. His eyes were closed, but I didn’t think that he was asleep.
I buckled his harness, and I pulled him up and out of his seat. He was much heavier than me, and he fell out of my arms straight back onto the seat.
“Here.” Pyotr gently pushed me aside and pulled Viktor up. He floated up and gently landed outside of the helicopter, still holding Viktor’s forearms.
I scrambled down to the landing pad.
“Where is your safe house?”
Bunker
Nastia
He didn’t answer me. Instead, Pyotr shifted Viktor so that Viktor’s arm was around Pyotr’s shoulders. He half carried him towards the elevator as I followed.
After using a thumbprint scanner, Pyotr pressed some buttons. The elevator began to descend.
After we had been inside for more than a minute, I asked him, “How far down are we going?”
“Far.”
I raised my eyebrows at him, but he didn’t say anything more.
I looked at Viktor, leaning against a corner of the elevator with his eyes closed.
“I don’t know if we should’ve moved him.”
“We needed a secure facility. Don’t worry. Shifters have excellent healing abilities.”
Viktor was still paler than I’d like, but I hoped that if we put Viktor in a bed, he’d feel a little better.
After what seemed like forever, the elevator stopped.
“This is our floor.”
The doors opened. Pyotr indicated that I should go first.
My jaw dropped as I looked at his underground bunker.
“Wow…this is…”
It looked like something out of a movie.
I’d seen pictures of an underground mansion in Los Angeles once, and this area looked like that.
“I thought that we were going to be in a bunker?”
“This is my bunker,” he said, as if it were totally normal for there to be an opulent home far underground.
“I, uh, wasn’t expecting this.”
I felt shy suddenly. Of course my father was quite wealthy, but he got that way by pinching pennies and investing every spare cent. I’d been kept inside of a gated estate, but it was nothing like this.
“Let’s put Viktor to bed.”
I turned and saw that Viktor was still leaning against the corner of the elevator.
I put his arm around my shoulders just as Pyotr had earlier.
“Come on. Let’s put you to bed.”
He staggered slowly and I struggled under his weight. He was so much bigger than I was.
Pyotr came to Viktor’s other side and helped me get him to the nearest bed. I had no idea where it was, but of course Pyotr did.
The two of us finally got him onto one. Pyotr let go of him. I was disentangling myself from his arm when he pitched forward on the bed.
“Viktor!”
But he was okay, because he was wrapping his arm around me, pulling me close to his warm body.
“Stay with me.”
I didn’t know what to say. I went and looked at Pyotr, who said nothing.
“Yes, okay.”
He nuzzled my neck before burying his face in my shoulder.
I felt warmth spreading through my chest. I held him a little closer.
“Sleep. Rest. Heal.” I was just a breath away from his ear.
I could feel his breathing gradually slow down. I looked for Pyotr, but he was gone.
When I was wrapped in Viktor’s arms like this, I felt as if his scent was surrounding me and saturating the air so that all I could smell was him.
He smelled woodsy and like springtime. He smelled like sunshine on an April day.
My eyes fluttered closed. I didn’t think that I was sleepy, but being so warm on a bed was making my body relax.
Unexpected Visitor
Nastia
I must have fallen asleep, warm and wrapped up in Viktor, because all of a sudden I woke up to the sound of sirens blaring.
I put my hands over my ears. Red lights flashed everywhere and Viktor let go of me so that he could put his hands over his ears. His face showed that he was in pain. I guessed that if shifters had super-hearing, alarm sirens would be even worse for them.
With my hands still over my ears, I went to look for Pyotr.
I finally found him in front of a control panel, which looked like it was an alarm pad.
He was keying in something. After what seemed like forever, the alarms went silent.
I took my hands off of my ears. The resounding silence felt very strange.
“Sorry about that, we have an intruder.”
“What?” How could he be so blasé about an intruder?
“Don’t worry, she doesn’t mean us any harm.”
A door opened to my right.
“Hello, darling.”
There was a lady who was wearing a shawl that was red, orange, and yellow…all in screaming neon. I had the urge to shield my eyes from how loud her shawl was.
Squinting, I could see that there was some kind of enchantment on the shawl.
“What’s on your shawl?”
She cackled happily. “Oh, you can see it, can you?”
“See what?” Pyotr asked.
“She has a spell on that shawl.”
“It erases some of your caution…some of your skepticism. In Pyotr’s case, he came in with so much that the shawl didn’t have a big effect on him. But in your case, my dear, it might tip the balance.”
“Tip the balance? What are you talking about?”
“They’ve been telling you about my prophecies.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“So you know what you’re meant to do.”
“I don’t.” I shook my head firmly. “Nope.”
“Didn’t you ever wonder what the prophecy was, the one made at your birth?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m that seer, dear one.” She sighed. “I’ve known your father for a very long time. You have no idea how long he waited to have you.”
“And?”
“And he was terrified that something would harm his long-awaited child, so he brought me to you on the day you were born. Birthdays are important. The day of your birth is the most important of all.”
“And what did you see?”
“Something he didn’t want to hear about…”
“What is it?” Had she told him that I would become a serial killer?
“I told him that two men would take you from him and that you’d leave your past behind in a fire.”
“A fire? Are you saying that my…his…home is going to go up in flames?”
“No. I think that he didn’t understand what I was saying, because I haven’t seen him since then. Pity. He’s a very handsome man. You look like your mother, little Nastia.”
I tucked a strand behind my ear. “I get that a lot.”
“I liked her a lot…I’m sorry that she’s dead.”
I shrugged. “I never really knew her.”
“Yes, yes.”
“What are you even doing here?” Pyotr said. “Did you come to tell Nastia about her destiny? You know that she doesn’t really believe in prophecies and the like, right?”
“Well, I think that I can convince her.” She pulled something out from behind her shawl.
“Come here, child.”
There was something shiny at the end of her necklace, but it wasn’t a diamond.
“What is that?”
“Crystal ball…the portable kind.”
I raised my hand to touch it.
Suddenly, I was sucked inside.
Inside
Nastia
“What just happened?” I looked around. I stood beside her, but we were in a hospital room, not the underground bunker.
“I’ve taken you into my memory. I knew that you had witch-sight as soon as you saw the enchantment on my shawl. I knew that you could come here.”
I noticed a baby in a crib.
“That’s you.”
I walked over to look at myself. My face was all wrinkled. I seemed so tiny as I slept.
“Can you tell her future?”
My dad was behind me, and I spun around. I could see two versions of the seer. The one that I’d met today was wearing the shawl. The one in the past had fewer wrinkles.
“I can try. That’s all I can promise.”
She crossed the room and took the baby’s hand in hers. She pulled her portable crystal ball out and put the baby’s hand around it.
She closed her own eyes.
“Will she be safe?”
“I see fire,” the seer said.
“Fire?”
“I can feel the heat below her, but not burning her.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“She’s over a fire.”
“She’s being burned at the stake?”
“I can’t tell.”
My dad’s face was ashen. “Anything else?”
“She’ll be taken from you.”
“No!”
“Two men…” the seer whispered. “She will leave your home and be theirs forevermore.”
“No!” My father’s face contorted with fear. “I won’t let them steal her. I’ll protect her. I’ll keep her home forever.”
“I already can see that you won’t. What are you going to do, wrap her in cotton-wool until she comes of age?”
“Her whole life,” my father said firmly. “I don’t want her burned as a witch.”