by Mark Tufo
“Tell her you’re kidding,” Azile said.
“What are you talking about?” I feigned.
“Take the children, we need to get off the path.”
I reached down and tenderly took the small bundles.
“They will not break, Michael.”
My heart pooled into a puddle as I made my first contact with them. “My life for yours, always,” I told them as I kissed their foreheads. Mathieu helped Azile shakily get to her feet.
“The blankets must go,” Azile told the midwife.
“Horses?” Bailey asked.
Azile shook her head curtly. “I cannot hide them.”
“We’re going to do that hiding out in plain sight shit?” I asked. She nodded. “I hate that crap—you know that right?”
“It is out of necessity.” I followed close behind her as Mathieu more carried, rather than escorted, her off the path and about fifty feet into the woods.
“Do you wish me to stay?” he asked.
“It will be all I can do to mask myself, the children, and Michael. But thank you, Mathieu.” She touched his arm as he helped her to sit with her back against a large oak.
“I don’t want you to overburden yourself,” I told her.
“You’re staying,” she warned me; the joke would go no further.
“Michael, how can you expect me to leave you?” Mathieu damn near pleaded.
“Do not doubt in Azile’s powers my friend. Go with Lana, get your ass back to Denarth, please do not stick around. I could not take it if something happened to you.”
“You mean my beer recipe.”
“Let’s not make this awkward,” I told him.
“You are a sphincter, Michael Talbot.”
“It’s asshole, not sphincter. Dammit, that sounds so much worse. Now I have that to think about all day.”
He hugged me tight. “Do not die on me again, my friend.”
“I’ll do my best,” I told him as I hugged him back.
“Mathieu, we need to go,” Lana was calling from the edge of the woods.
“I will see you again,” Bailey said as she came up next to me.
“At some point, we will,” I told her truthfully. I had my soul; if not on this plane then we’d meet on another. And again, I was okay with that. I hugged her as well. She pulled a reluctant Mathieu with her as they went to their horses.
“Good luck,” Lana shouted, and within five minutes the entire column was out of sight; another five and they were out of earshot. The woods got pretty quiet, pretty fast. Well, I mean, except for the normal sounds, devoid of man. Crickets, birds, laborious squirrels, the occasional caw of a distant crow…it was all there, and that was good. The more of those sounds, the less of the approaching enemy.
I didn’t stray far from Azile, just enough to scope things out. She and the babies were resting comfortably and I didn’t want to throw a wrench in the works. I mean, it was already a foregone conclusion that one or another of the babies would cry out at the most inopportune of times. I could only hope Azile had a nullifying spell for that. It was an all-encompassing quiet, an unnatural silence that gave me the first indication all was not right with the world. It’s one of those things you don’t immediately pick up on, then your body begins to give you clues that your mind was too busy to pick up on. There’s the cold finger up the spine, the tiny vibrations of hair standing on the back of your neck, heart beat acceleration, and even the butterfly movement in your stomach.
If I’d taken a second or two longer to pay closer attention to what was happening inside of me, I wouldn’t have nearly been spotted as that first werewolf came into view. I’d almost blown the whole cover. Azile was frantically motioning to me to come over to her. God, she looked so tired. For the first time this day, I was absolutely petrified. She was most certainly not going to be able to get up and fight, and sure, she had two Talbots with her, but they weren’t quite at the ready just yet. I had a rifle, four full magazines, a sword, and my axe. It would not be enough if I had to use them.
“You are going to need to stay still; this is more of a camouflage than an invisibility. It won’t do if the trunk of the tree is moving.”
“What about the scent? We’re dealing with something that is part dog.”
“I have that covered,” she whispered. “Now if you could just go against your very nature and be quiet as well, we might just make it through the day.”
I watched her do some incantations and mess around with some herbs. She could have been reconstructing Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe she had so many of them. I thought we would be better served if I kept an eye out on the enemy in case her methods didn’t work. Three werewolves passed by at a trot; none of them spared even the remotest glance in our direction. So far so good, though I was convinced they were entirely too focused on the main column to give any sort of second glance around them.
It was the next two humans that began to send some alarm bells off in my head. It was the same two creepy fuckers I had encountered back by Denarth. They were important puzzle pieces for Lunos and if there wasn’t so much on the line at the moment, I would have risked offing them and putting my fist in Lunos’ plans. The one on the left stopped, roughly where Azile had given birth. He seemed mighty curious, the other one, with the paler eyes, came over to see what his compatriot was looking at. His eyes swept over the entire area, but there was nothing overtly suspicious in his behavior, and before long, they also left. There was something more to those two than met the eye and I was going to make it a personal quest to figure out what it was.
Then came the people. They were mostly serious, but there were more than a few that were talking animatedly, maybe even joking with the person they were walking next to. None of them seemed all that distressed about what was happening. They were soldiers, and not the reluctant sort. I couldn’t even begin to figure out why they were fighting with Lunos against their own kind. I guess in reality it really didn’t matter who you were fighting for, as opposed to what you were fighting for. And in this particular instance, they thought they were fighting to improve their own lot in life. Whatever the case, they were the enemy, though they did not look like it. They were moving at a brisk pace—forced march would be a good description. Whatever you wanted to call it, it didn’t look too taxing on them.
None of them so much as glanced at our impromptu birthing station or, more importantly, our current location. A couple of times a few people left the ranks to take care of some baser needs, but none came in as far as we were. It got dicey only once, when one of the women had to take a very unladylike shit. She’d come about half way, wanting to get away from the eyes of her comrades, but she was directly in my line of sight. Yeah, I got to watch a woman take a five pound brown. Have to admit, it wasn’t the highlight of my day. I wasn’t completely sure, and no time soon was I going to check it out, but I was very much under the belief that the leaves she used to clean herself with were rubbing up next to a poison sumac.
“Serves you right,” I hissed. “You are going to be one miserable s.o.b. soon enough.”
Azile punched my thigh. I got the hint. She quickly finished up and returned to the troop, vigorously wiping her hands on some poor unsuspecting slob who probably thought she was flirting with him.
“I wonder if that’d be considered an s.t.d.?” I’d meant to think it, instead, it came out verbally.
“You just can’t shut up, can you?” Azile whispered.
I shrugged but did not turn to look at what I am sure was a stern look. I did, however, shut my trap when Lunos came into view. He was about three-quarters back and had four very large men surrounding him along with the weirdest thing I’d seen all day. A very tall, gaunt man in garb that was reminiscent of a 1970s prom—an exceedingly green, crushed velvet tuxedo, replete with tails, cane, and a top hat. Unlike a pimply faced teen, who was hoping to lose his virginity card that night, this man looked ancient, like maybe he had actually worn the hideous suit during that aforement
ioned time. Wrinkles so deep they had individual canyon names lined his face; his hands so dark from liver spots, I’d wrongly thought he was wearing gloves.
If I had to pick a number, I’d peg him as a hundred and ten, were he mortal, though he strode easily enough and his back did not have the slightest curve from the accumulation of years. Here was someone, or something, that was definitely more than was presented visually. There was a gasp from Azile that clued me in to all I needed to know. The kicker was when he stopped abruptly, yeah…you don’t need to be a mind reader to figure out exactly where. His caterpillar-thick eyebrows raised up in question; even thicker ridges formed across his brow. I could not even conceive of how all that skin stayed in place. It should have hung low on his chest like a decades old beard. I slowly brought my gun up; this one most certainly deserved and needed a bullet.
“It won’t work,” Azile said laboriously. If I had not known better, I would have thought maybe a triplet hanging safely back in the womb thought now was a good time to show his face to the world. Come to find out she was working overtime casting spells to keep our location secure.
“Fine.” I moved my barrel an inch to the right, placing Lunos’ ugly mug square in my sights. I could only hope that with the assassination of their leader, they would run for the hills. To think otherwise was not a pleasant thought; there was always the chance they would scour these woods for his killer and rip us apart, then head for the hills. I could deal with that happening to myself well enough but Azile? The babies? I could not even entertain that thought; it made me want to stalk out of here and kill every one of them where they stood. I stayed the hand of execution; the outcome was entirely too uncertain. But if Daddy Long Legs was already on to us, then he was definitely forcing my hand. I wasn’t…we weren’t going out without a fight. And like the prescient little fuck that he was, Lunos immediately backed up a few steps and was surrounded by his four bodyguards. That window closed; getting a clean shot off now was out of the question.
“We’re in a bit of a pickle.” If scampering off had been an option, I would have been all over that one. Sitting tight and biding my time? Well, that ranked pretty fucking low on my all-time choices-and-decisions list. Usually, my credo was: is it broke? No? Then let’s fuck it up. Yes? Then why not? What more can go wrong? I generally got the results one would expect from this sort of rationale. I turned back to look at Azile; the babies were miraculously sleeping and she had a fresh bead of sweat on her forehead.
“He’s so powerful,” she said through clenched teeth.
I looked back to Daddy Long Legs; he was looking around, but not in any one direction more than another. Things took a downward turn the moment Lunos put his troops on hold. It looked like they were going to park here for the night.
“You have got to be shitting me,” I mumbled as I watched some of the troops begin to gather firewood. They were most definitely going to come out this far in search of wood as they began to clear the area they were in. Had a feeling that might have been the plan all along. We would show ourselves the moment we had to go on the defensive and not a moment sooner. This might be the kinder, gentler werewolf military, but Lunos was still not above sacrificing a couple of them for the greater good.
“What?” Azile whispered to my statement.
“We’re having guests for the night,” I told her, my anger spewing out with the words.
“Mike, I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”
I knew what she meant—she was exerting all of her power to keep us hidden.
“How much easier does it get if I’m not within your sphere of influence?” I asked. She answered before she thought of the repercussions of her words.
“Much,” she said quickly. “No, wait,” she added, though the damage, in her mind, had already been done.
“They’re here for the night, Azile. How long do you think you can ward off Long Legs?”
“Who? Never mind. I’ll hold him off for as long as it takes. I just got you back; please don’t make me go through that again.”
“I won’t, but if I stay here like this, we all get discovered. Let me just set up a distraction that takes the heat off of you.”
“And what if one of those people walks over here? I’m in no shape to fend them off.”
“That’s exactly why I need for them to have something else to do.”
The fact that she acquiesced told me just how much energy she was burning through and just how long she could do it for. Or just maybe she’d thought she was finally rid of me, only to have me come back and ruin it all, and with so much more at stake this time. That was always a possibility, and maybe not that far from true.
“Wait until it’s dark. And yes, I can keep us safe until then. Now let me concentrate.”
Chapter 8
MIKE JOURNAL 8
*
THE MOMENT THE sun dipped, I leaned down, kissed Azile tenderly on the lips, and removed myself from her circle of protection. She almost sighed in relief as I did so. I’d no sooner placed my foot on the unhallowed ground when I heard a commotion within the campground. I hoped it was purely coincidence, but that didn’t seem likely. There were two perimeter guards not more than twenty-five feet from me, but I did not want to engage anybody this close to the area I was trying to keep them away from. I headed deeper into the forest before cutting a line horizontal to Lunos’ location. When I was almost to the soldiers’ front perimeter, I decided to make myself known. I landed two very well placed shots into the chests of those nearest me. I could hear the wheezing of their lungs as the air bled forth from them even as I dashed off. The cries of men turned almost immediately into the guttural callings of werewolves; they’d changed over in less time than a typical television commercial used to last.
“Leave the circle, you say. It’ll be fine, you say. Talbot, you’re a dumbass.” I found another gear as I bolted deeper into the woods. I could hear multiple feet/paws crashing through the woods behind me, though I wasn’t completely sure they were tracking me just yet. It wasn’t looking good, though. They were bigger, stronger, faster, could see and hear better than I could…. Hell, I couldn’t even claim I was smarter. Maybe I had better looking in my pocket, but that was only going to get me so far.
“Stepped in a big old pile of rhino shit this time, Talbot,” I said as I dodged trees. I thought my back was going to compress down to half its size when a misplaced step fell through a small hole. My entire body was jarred, and if I had still been talking, I would have sheared my damned tongue off. I’d hyper-extended my knee and I was going to need a chiropractor something fierce. It was ten more steps before I got a decent gait back, and I was now hampered with a sore knee.
“Being human sucks sometimes.” I wanted to laugh right now but could only shake my sorry head. I’d been bitching about not being human for a century and a half and now I’d done a reversal in a matter of a few weeks being back. The footfalls should have been dropping off as I moved farther away, but that wasn’t the case. There was at least one, although it sounded more like two, werewolves following me. Being viciously dragged down from behind had been scratched off my list of things I wanted done to me. I dove to the side and behind a tree, whipping around to get into position as fast as I could.
One of the beasts had been a lot closer than I’d been expecting. It was all I could do to flip the safety and bring the barrel up. I shot two rounds off fairly quickly. The first blasted through his right knee, bringing him down quickly; the second bullet caught him square in the bottom of his muzzle. I felt his hot breath on my lap as he came to a skidding halt not more than a foot from me. He had a look of murderous intent in his eyes; fortunately, it was a notion his body could not collect on. The next werewolf had sufficient warning that he did not follow his partner straight down the same dead end. I should have suspected something; I was just caught up in the moment. The pain that blazed across my back brought with it the crystal clarity that I had been caught off my guard.
; A claw raked across my spine, splitting me wide open like I was a can of tuna and he was the opener. I could feel a chill breeze soak deep into the exposed tissue. I spun around and was falling back just as he was coming in to finish what he started. I cried out when my back struck the ground; each small twig and leaf felt like a hot coal as it got stuck and embedded itself within me. Fetid breath and hot slobber coated my face from one cheek to the next as he swept past, narrowly missing removing my features as easily as if he were a belt sander. He still had the presence of mind to stick a balled up fist into my midsection as he whistled past. My eyes involuntarily shut as the air blew forcibly from my lungs. He’d struck hard enough; there was a fair chance he’d also forced my bladder to evacuate, although if called on, naturally, I would blame his drool for the stain. That was provided I survived the next few seconds.
He took his advantage and slammed himself into me as I lay on the ground. Four hundred pounds of pure furious, murderous muscle and matted fur had me almost completely pinned down. Panic would have set in, had my brain had the time to catch up with the events that were unfolding at breakneck speed.
The instinct for survival is a powerful one and thankfully it takes over when higher rationale and faculties get tossed out the window. We were entirely too close for the rifle to be used effectively as it was designed; I had my knife in my right hand and was using the rifle in my left like a club to keep Chompers from ripping my arm off. My arm shuddered as I struck out with the blade; I punctured his chest and he howled deeply, letting me know just how pissed off he was about that. The blade had not gone deep enough to inflict a lethal wound, but it had given him pause that I could cause pain. He definitely seemed averse to that. A long canine tooth dragged across my shoulder, simultaneously shredding my jacket, tearing my skin, and snapping off as it collided with my bone. I dropped the rifle as the pain erupted; I felt as if someone had dropped liquid magma all along my side.
I blindly started thrusting out with my arm, I mean, my eyes were literally closed tight as I tried to block out all the pain I was feeling. I felt a hot spray of blood across my face. At first, I just assumed it was mine; I had no reason to think otherwise, especially after the crushing blow to my mouth and nose. Then, instead of recommitting to his attack, the werewolf actually crawled off of me and was stumbling away, one giant paw clamped over a gushing wound on his neck. I’d driven my knife through his carotid artery and he was quickly bleeding out. He was already dead, we both knew it, the problem was I didn’t know how far behind him I was. I could not tell how grievous my own injuries were, but I knew it might not even matter. I was in serious danger of infection with so much of my insides exposed to the outside; the only thing not laid bare that night was my soul.