Witch's Hunger

by Deborah LeBlanc

  Exhausted and hurting and trying to contain the ache in her heart over Aaron’s death and frustrated over all she was unable to do, Viv didn’t think she could feel one more thing. Still, Nikoli had piqued her curiosity. If there was a way to amplify the sensation, maybe that would help her find the missing Loups.

  She turned to him. “Show me how you do it with your hearing.”

  Nikoli stood upright and patted his chest. “Back up against me. Put your back to my chest.”

  Viv eyed him suspiciously.

  “No funny business. Here.” He patted his chest again.

  “Okay.” Viv turned and backed into him. The moment her body touched his, she felt something spark inside of her, and she quickly squelched it. Something had to be seriously wrong with her for her to react the way she did every time she was near this man. The entire world could be coming to an end—much like hers was now—and she would still want to have sex with him. She couldn’t help but wonder if all the hell breaking loose now had something to do with her sleeping with him earlier.

  “Hold your arms out a little so I can get my arms around you without hurting your injured arm.”

  She did as she was told, and felt his hands wrap around her waist and settle over her diaphragm.

  “Now, breath in deeply. Take in all the air your lungs can hold.”

  Viv drew in a deep breath through her nose. She smelled muddy water, gasoline fumes from the city and the rot of street garbage. She held that breath, waiting for Nikoli’s instruction.

  “While you’re holding your breath, think about what the sensation feels like when an out-of-sight Loup is near. Think about it—concentrate on that tingling sensation that starts at your spine and works its way up your neck. Feel the ringing in your ears.”

  Viv felt herself grow calm under the sound of his voice, her body tuned to her Loups. She focused on the tingling that made its way up her spine, like a hundred spider legs jittering their way up her back.

  “Now slowly let out that breath through your mouth. Release all of it, still thinking about that tingling sensation.”

  Viv released her breath slowly. As she came to the end of that breath, Nikoli pressed in and up on her diaphragm and another puff of air escaped her lips.

  “See?” he said. “There’s always a little left over. You need to make sure that entire breath is released. So just when you think you’re at the end of it. Push a little harder. There’s always a little more.” He eased the pressure off her diaphragm and slowly removed his arms from around her waist. He turned her to face him. “That’s the trick,” he said. “It’s all in the breathing, letting the oxygen go all the way to your core, and concentration. Once you tune into that sensation, you can turn slowly left or right, and the sensation will grow stronger, just like sounds grow louder for me, when you’re facing in the right direction of the target you’re looking for. When I do that, it feels like all of my senses suddenly wake up, especially my hearing. Now, let’s try it again, only this time I won’t touch you so nothing will distract you.”

  Viv was a little disappointed she’d be doing this on her own. She liked having his arms around her and having his body pressed against hers made her feel safe.

  “Does it make a difference if they’re in a location they’re supposed to be in, like the compound,” Viv asked, “versus them just taking off, nobody knowing where they went or how they got there?”

  “It doesn’t. They are your Loups. The who, what, when, where and how don’t figure into the equation. Remember, it’s all about feeling, breathing, concentrating. Don’t let all of the other stuff muddle your thoughts. Don’t think about why they’re not heeding your call. Just feel them.”

  “What if I can’t?”

  “At least try it. They are your Loups. It’s not like you’re trying to zero in on vampires or werewolves whose lives were never a part of yours. Those Loups have been a part of your life since the day you were born. They’re part of you. So go ahead, give it a try. See if you pick up anything. Lean against the truck and close your eyes if it’ll help you.”

  Viv felt a little foolish, standing at the end of a dock, near her truck with her eyes closed. You never closed your eyes at night while on the streets of New Orleans. Still, she heeded his advice, leaned against her truck and closed her eyes.

  She drew in a deep breath through her nose and held it, the way Nikoli had shown her. She thought about the tingling, prickly sensation she wanted to feel, the spider legs that always started at her spine. She thought about how the spider legs traveled up her spine to the base of her skull. Then the ringing in her ears, almost like an alarm, letting her know a Loup was nearby.

  She allowed herself to get lost in that thought and released her breath slowly, still thinking about the spider legs, forcing more breath out of her lungs. Thinking about the tingling up her spine—the ringing in her ears—spider legs.

  Viv suddenly froze, holding back what little breath she had left in her lungs. She felt it, tingling at the base of her spine. Only this wasn’t in her head. It was for real.

  She remembered what Nikoli had said about slowly turning from left to right to see if the sensation grew stronger when she faced one direction versus the other. Keeping her eyes closed, Viv turned slowly to her right. The tingling at the base of her spine remained at a constant, but oddly enough, she felt a different, disconnected tingling in the middle of her back when she faced east.

  Feeling her heart rate triple, Viv turned slowly to the left, and the tingling at the base of her spine grew stronger. The one in the center of her back now the constant.

  “I feel something, she whispered, afraid to open her eyes. Afraid she might lose the sensation if she did.

  “Think about your Loups,” Nikoli whispered softly in her ear. “The ones missing. See them in your mind’s eye. Let the sensation build. Grab on to it and hold tight, like it’s a physical object.”

  Viv drew in another deep breath and the tingling she felt in the base of her spine grew stronger, more pronounced. So did the one in the center of her back. Two separate places. The tingling didn’t inch its way up her spine the way it normally did.

  She released her breath and said, “It’s still there, only stronger. I feel the tingling in two separate places. It’s not crawling up my spine like usual. And they must be stationary because the tingling in both spots doesn’t move in any direction. My ears aren’t ringing, but I know it has to be them.”

  Nikoli whispered, “Now let your instincts take those feelings and guide you in the direction of your Loups.”

  “One’s east, the other west,” Viv said, already knowing the direction. “I think the ones in the east are a bit farther away because the sensation doesn’t get as strong as the one to the west.” Viv opened her eyes, pushed away from the truck and faced him. “Now what do I do with that? If we head west, how far do we go?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” he said. “Hop in the truck. We’re heading west.”

  She didn’t argue when Nikoli opened the passenger door for her, helped her inside, then ran around the truck and jumped into the driver’s seat. He turned the engine over, lowered the window at his side and set the truck into motion.

  “You concentrate on that sensation while I drive,” he said. “Tell me when to turn left or right.”

  “How am I supposed to know which way to turn?”

  “Your instincts will tell you and the sensation will confirm it. I’ll keep an ear peeled for any of the sounds you said the Loups make when they’re together. And considering you heard the pop from the scabior, I’d say your hearing is like radar. So ear alert.”

  Viv looked out through the windshield but didn’t see anything in front of her. She kept her mind’s eye focused on her Loups and the sensations in her back.

  Ten minutes into the drive, she directed
him to head north on St. Peter Street, which brought them through the French Quarter. As they closed in on North Rampart, the tingling at the base of her spine grew stronger, and she knew they were getting closer to some of her Loups.

  “Take a right,” she said. “Here on Rampart.”

  Nikoli turned right as she instructed. He drove slowly. There weren’t many people out at this hour, not in this part of town. Even the tourists knew to stay clear of this area late at night.

  By the time they reached Ursulines, the tingling at the base of her spine was so strong, Viv felt as if a live electrical wire had been placed beneath her skin.

  “Take a left, take a left,” she demanded, sitting at the edge of her seat.

  He did as she asked.

  Three blocks later, Viv could barely sit still. They were now at the corner of Treme and St. Philip, one of the most dangerous parts of town. “They’re around here. Park, park!”

  As soon as Nikoli pulled the truck over to the side of the road and killed the engine, Viv jumped out of the truck, paying little heed to the pain shooting through her injured arm.

  She began to walk down Treme, concentrating with all her might, stepping slowly, carefully so as not to lose the radar now so alive in her body.

  Viv heard the beep of the automatic lock on the truck, and Nikoli called after her.

  “Wait up!”

  She didn’t want to wait. If she had this tight of a bead on her Loups, she didn’t want to take a chance in losing it. Viv kept walking and heard the thud of footsteps running toward her.

  When Nikoli reached her side, she saw he had a large coil of guideline cable resting on his shoulder. It was the same type of cable they used to repair the cattle pens back at the ranch. She’d had some left over in the back of her pickup, along with miscellaneous tools from the last repair job Charlie and Bootstrap had done. She meant to bring it to Jaco so he could cordon off a breeding area—something he’d asked for.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you can be a little hardheaded at times?” he asked.

  “What are you doing with that?” she said.

  “Just-in-case supplies.” He hefted the coil of cable higher on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  She shook her head in bewilderment. “Something feels odd around here,” she said, training her eyes straight ahead. “Gangs hang out around here. Drug dealers. They all come out at night but look, the streets are empty. That’s unusual.” What was even more unusual for Viv was that her clairvoyant abilities seemed to have gone by way of the dodo bird. She may have gained a new radar, but her tried-and-true abilities had somehow fallen asleep.

  Nikoli put a hand on her shoulder and held tight to keep her from walking any farther. “Hold up a second. Wait. I hear someone screaming for help. It’s really muffled but I hear it.”

  Viv had been so focused on keeping her radar alive she hadn’t heard anything but her own breathing and voice. She tilted her head slightly, strained an ear and finally heard it. The muffled cry of a woman. There was a short scream, then a loud gasp.

  Breaking free of Nikoli’s grasp, Viv hurried toward the sound. “There,” she said, coming to a stop in front of two run-down, shotgun houses. Trash was strewn about their yards, and it looked like the mailboxes had been demolished with a baseball bat.

  The woman’s voice led them through an alley between the houses into the backyard. There sat an old beat-up sedan, its tires missing. Someone had propped the chassis up with cinder blocks. And three of Viv’s missing Loups were beating on the windows of that car, trying to get to the woman trapped inside. The Loups were scraggly and scrawny, like they hadn’t eaten in days.

  Nikoli squeezed Viv’s shoulder and whispered, “If we don’t get them away from that woman—”

  “The Loups will break the glass, and she’ll be toast,” Viv finished. “I know.”

  “Try a holding spell.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him and whispered, “You’re telling me how to do my job?”

  He gave her shoulder another little squeeze. “No way. Your ball game.”

  Viv inched closer to the vehicle, her arms stretched out in front of her, hands up, palms out.

  “Heed my voice ye creatures three,

  I bind thee now to follow me.

  Inside out it makes no matter.

  Boshnah, morva, benlu, sonah!”

  The three Loups stopped beating on the windows, turned toward Viv and snarled.

  “Oh, shit,” she said. “It didn’t work.”

  “Yes, it did,” Nikoli said. “You got their attention away from the woman in the car.”

  “Yeah, but now they’re going to come after us.”

  “Perfect.” Nikoli removed the cable from his shoulder and held the coil in his right hand. He stuck his bottom lip between his teeth and let out a loud whistle. “This way, you ugly sons of bitches! You want dinner? Come get it.”

  He quickly turned to Viv. “For once, please, hear me and stay put. I’m going to call them out toward that big metal utility pole over there. Once I get them there, I’m going to use this cable like a lariat and lasso them to that pole.”

  “When did you suddenly become Roy Rogers?” She stared at him, wondering if there was any limit to the number of talents he possessed.

  “Who’s Roy Rogers?”

  “Never mind. You’re talking about taking on three Loups. That’s like you trying to take on twenty men. You can’t do that alone.”

  “I don’t exactly have a cavalry to call. Look, when I see them running in my direction, I’m going to let them close in just enough to get the cable around them. The idea is to trap them between the cable and that pole. When I toss the cable, you start a holding spell. By the time the cable loops back to me, you’ll be done and the cable will be locked to the pole.”

  “I tried a binding spell, and it didn’t work.”

  “We’re talking holding spell with two inanimate objects. It’ll work. Don’t cause the cable to meld with the pole like you did with the bloodstones back at the compound. Just make it tight enough to hold the Loups until you can get one of your alphas out here to scoop them up.”

  “Got it,” Viv said, amazed once more by his brilliance.

  The three Loups howled, then growled. They moved a little closer to Viv and Nikoli, bumping into one another, like they weren’t sure whether to leave a sure thing trapped in the car that they’d already been fighting so hard to get to or head for the two humans on foot.

  Nikoli stepped away from Viv and walked a few yards away toward the utility pole, whistling for the Loups as he went. For once, she did as he asked and stayed put.

  One of the Loups kept eyeing her, but each time Nikoli whistled, it whipped its head back in his direction.

  “Here,” Nikoli shouted. “Over here! You want dinner? Come get it.”

  The Loups rolled their heads from shoulder to shoulder and sniffed the air. They huddled together and as a group moved toward Viv, then lagged left and headed for Nikoli. They moved cautiously, evidently suspecting a trap.

  Viv could tell by their actions there wasn’t an alpha among them. All three were followers with no leader, so they were unsure of the direction to turn.

  Nikoli, who’d finally reached the utility pole whistled louder and let the guideline cable unfurl. It looked to be about eight feet long. Keeping hold of one end, Nikoli whipped the cable with one hand and it whistled through the air like a bullwhip.

  Viv watched as the Loups drew closer to Nikoli. She was out of their line of sight. Now they were dealing male to male, and Loups never gave up territory without a fight.

  Nikoli suddenly growled at them, mimicking an angry Loup, one ready to fight. The three Loups growled back, and their united voice was deafening. They spread out in an attack formation, ready to encircle
their prey. Had there been a fourth Loup, Nikoli would’ve been screwed. Viv didn’t know how on earth he’d handle those three.

  The Loups lowered their heads and hunched their shoulders, preparing to spring forward. Viv kept her eyes on them, hoping the woman in the car had had enough sense to get out and run while the Loups were preoccupied with Nikoli.

  She’d barely finished that thought when the Loups charged. Nikoli moved behind the pole, letting them draw closer. He seemed to be counting. When the Loups were about fifteen to twenty feet away, he tossed the length of cable out wide, snapping his wrist so the flying end of it would return to him, like a boomerang.

  The second Viv saw him release the cable, she yelled quickly:

  “Cord of steel, home anew,

  Bind thyself, firm like glue.

  Cord of steel, binding real,

  By my command, ye shall cling to steel!”

  The Loups never knew what hit them when the guideline cable looped back to Nikoli. He released his end of the cable, and the thick guidewire caught the Loups from behind and slammed them against the utility pole. The cable held fast and the Loups yelped and howled, struggling to get free.

  As much as she hated to, Viv cupped her hands around her mouth and howled for Jaco. She hated to disturb him, but he was the only one she trusted to come and get the three Loups.

  From a great distance away, she heard Jaco’s response. He’d heard her and understood.

  A streak of lightning suddenly lit up the sky, and thunder rolled up behind it. A thunderstorm was about to let loose over their heads. And one thing that kept Viv from connecting with her Loups was a strong electromagnetic field. Lightning the greatest one of all. If they didn’t hurry, she’d lose the connection she had with the Loups she’d felt in the East.

  She saw Nikoli walking toward her. His hair was tousled, his face weary. Her heart still lunged at the sight of him. The connection she had with him had gotten too far out of hand. Viv wondered if her intimacy with Nikoli had been the reason for Aaron’s death, for the missing Loups, for her own attack.