by Cynthia Hart
I shook off the thought and got up. I climbed into the shower, turning on the hot water and stepping under the spray when the heat was almost unbearable. Getting rid of the thoughts and emotions I wrestled with wasn’t going to be as easy as stepping under a hot spray, but I had no idea what else to do.
I stayed under the water until it ran cold before I got out. I squeezed the excess water out of my hair before wrapping the towel around my body. I carefully combed my hair. In the bedroom, I opened my closet door to look for clothes.
“Alice,” a deep voice said behind me, and I cried out and spun around. Hem stood in the middle of the room. I screamed, clapping my hand over my own mouth to interrupt the sound. I tasted my heart in my throat. My legs felt like jelly.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?” I asked, finding my voice. Hem took a deep breath and blew it out again. I eyed him from top to toe, searching for the monster I’d seen last night. He looked normal, the way he always had. At least, since he’d come back.
“I can’t be seen right now. I’m sure you understand that.”
I wasn’t sure if he was asking me to keep quiet about him being here. Fortunately for him, my first reaction to shock was freezing up, so even though I wanted to, there was no way I was going to run outside screaming that there was a killer in my house.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, and my voice was thin.
“I had to see you. I want to explain.”
I covered my face with my hands and shook my head again and again. He could come at me now. He could kill me, and I wouldn’t even see him coming. If I did, though, it wouldn’t make him any less capable of killing me. I had no doubt about that. I just wanted all of this to go away. I was acting like a child, believing that if I couldn’t see Hem, he wouldn’t be able to see me, either.
“Alice, please,” he pleaded. I lifted my hands and looked at him. His eyes were a stormy gray, like a restless ocean. I remembered how silver they were shining out of the wolf’s face last night.
“I don’t want to hear it,” I said. “I can’t do this.”
“Just hear me out,” he said. And suddenly, I was angry. I didn’t want to hear him out. I didn’t want him to tell me how this wasn’t wrong, how he was innocent. People had died, for God’s sake.
Anger was good, too. It trumped fear, and suddenly I could move again, breathe again. I was still in my towel. We were going to do this with me in the most vulnerable state besides being naked? Fine.
“Did you kill them?” I asked.
Hem frowned.
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about,” I snapped. “It might not be public news, but I’m pretty sure you’re aware of the attacks that have been happening around here. Did you do it?”
Hem hesitated and then shook his head.
“Don’t lie to me!” I shouted. I was on the verge of losing. My body trembled lightly, the anger only barely covering the underlying panic. “So many people have been hurt or even killed, you’re a monster, and you’re telling me it wasn’t you?”
When I said, the word ‘monster’ Hem visibly flinched. He had a problem with the word? Ironic.
“I didn’t do it,” he said again. His voice was strong, carrying conviction. I swallowed, hard. I didn’t have any other accusations to sling at him. I couldn’t find anything else. I was starting to freak out.
“They’re why I’m here, but it wasn’t me.”
None of it made sense. I glanced at the bed. I would have to come closer to Hem if I wanted to sit down. It was safer to stay where I was, but I felt like I was losing control of my limbs. As if Hem knew what I was thinking he moved away, backing up the wall without showing me his back. I walked to the bed, keeping my eyes on him, and sat down.
At least, now, I wouldn’t faint.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. I was starting to calm down. Hem wasn’t an immediate threat the way he kept far away from me so I would feel safe, and my adrenaline could only surge that long before it started subsiding. As I calmed down, I became aware of the magic around him. It was the feeling I had come to associate with Hemming, but I had always thought it was what it felt like to be around him – something akin to being in love. I had been wrong. I recognized it now for what it was. His power oozed from his skin, and I thought about Embermane, the alpha in my stories and the way Maria felt when she was around him.
Could all of this really be real?
He took another breath.
“I’m not the only werewolf out there.”
Hearing the word over his own lips made me feel like I’d been punched in the gut.
“There are more, and I followed a rogue wolf out here. I left my pack in Washington to take care of him. He’s attacking people as far as he goes and he needs to be stopped.”
It was an information dump, and I couldn’t concentrate.
“There’s a rogue wolf out there. Humans can’t stop him. I had to come after him to do it – he used to be one of mine. That’s why I’m here. I haven’t been able to, but I will.”
I blinked at Hem. More wolves? The attack was someone else? But how could I believe him? What if it was all a big lie and he had been the one to attack them all? But he had been good to me, always treating me like I was delicate, like I needed to be respected and even protected.
I didn’t answer him. I was suddenly extremely tired. My body was shutting down. When something was too much for me, I slept. It was a bad coping mechanism, but there it was.
Hem didn’t expect me to say anything. Instead, he nodded as if I’d verbalized my inability to converse right now.
“Stay away from the forest, okay? I need you safe.”
He walked out of my bedroom. I didn’t hear him leave the house, but I knew when he was gone. The magic that had come with presence was gone. I was cold and utterly alone. I lay down on the bed, curling into a ball, and fell asleep.
Chapter 8
I stayed cooped up in the house, too terrified to go out. It wasn’t about Hem, though. I believed him. My mind shouted all sorts of obscenities at me, telling me how stupid I was for believing him when he’d lived a lie right in front of me, but that didn’t change how I felt.
I’d believed him when he’d told me that he hadn’t been behind the attacks, even when he had proven to me that he was a monster. The whole town had seen that after he’d shifted, right in front of us, at the Moon Festival.
The house was a mess. I hadn’t cleaned or done any chores, I hadn’t stepped outside to run any errands. Another wolf was out there, a dangerous wolf. He had said so himself, the one behind the attacks. He’d only told me to stay away from the forest, but I didn’t have the guts to face this new reality that was suddenly all around me. I rather stayed in.
On the third day after the Moon Festival, after my whole life had been turned upside down, a message on the radio caught my attention. I heard it first when I switched it on just after noon, but judging by the way it had repeated a few times after I was guessing it had been airing all day.
There was to be a meeting in the town hall late afternoon – before sunset – and at least one adult member of every family had to attend. There was news. Seeing that I was alone, I was the one that had to go. I was anxious to leave the house, curious to find out what had happened, and dreading the outcome, all at the same time. I didn’t have the feeling that any of this could be good. None of it had been the past while.
The town hall was busy, people milling about, everyone feeling the anxiety that caught on like an infection. Everyone kept glancing around as if we weren’t safe, weren’t alone. I guess, after an event like that one that had taken place at the Moon Festival, after seeing a man shift into a werewolf, no one could be sure that we were safe anymore. Especially not after the attacks that still hadn’t been announced.
The sun was real low, but it was still daylight – as if the vill
agers had started to fear the dark like children who had realized the monsters under their beds were real – and the sun fell in through the windows, touching the hall we were gathered in with gold. Bob stepped up in front of everyone and cleared his throat. Despite the mumbling everywhere, the room heard it and fell quiet.
“Thank you all for coming,” he said. “These are trying times, and it means a lot that Milford pulls together during times of need.”
I heard grunts of approval and support. Bob carried on.
“I have news.” He took a deep breath as if he was bearing heavy news. “The werewolf has been captured.” He paused for effect as it took a moment for the words to sink in. The crowd burst into abrupt talking, everyone saying what was on their mind. Not me. My body ran cold. Blood drained from my face leaving me lightheaded. They’d arrested Hem?
There were questions – what, where, when. There were no why’s, that was obvious. Bob went into an explanation of what and where. I couldn’t focus on the words that were being spoken. A ringing started up in my ears, reverberating through my ears until they were so loud it was like a scream banging around my skull. I had been torn about Hem and what I felt around him considering he was a werewolf. I was terrified about the other wolf. I didn’t know what I felt now that I knew he was caught. I had to do something about this. I had to see him.
When the meeting finally adjourned, and the villagers filed out in clusters, relief painted the air. Everyone was happy about the news – the attacks were over, Milford was safe again, we could carry on with our lives. Once again, Sheriff Robert had kept us safe. Everyone said it. Everyone, except me.
We weren’t safe. We were in more danger now, if what Hem had told me about having to stop a wolf that attacked everyone was true.
Outside, the crowd dispersed, everyone, going home to spread the happy news to their waiting loved ones.
I didn’t go home. I had nothing to go home to, and I had business to take care of. Instead, I got on my bicycle and made my way to the station. I waited on the steps that led up the porch until Bob pulled up in his sheriff truck.
“Alice,” he said, surprised. “What can I do for you?”
I looked from one side to the other much the same way he had done when he’d come to my house. I didn’t want to be overheard.
“I was hoping I could see Hem,” I said. “If that’s okay?”
Bob looked at me without answering for so long I was almost certain the answer would be no.
“Why?” he finally asked.
I took a deep breath.
“It’s no secret we’ve been spending a bit of time together,” I said. The people wouldn’t have kept that kind of gossip to themselves, and I had been the one dancing with Hem just before he’d turned. Bob nodded.
“Okay, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” he said. “I don’t know how dangerous he is. I can’t let you go in there, alone.”
I wanted to protest, but this was as good as I was going to get. I would rather agree than lose it all. I nodded and followed Bob to the front door. He held it open for me, and I walked into the station.
“Hey, Alice,” a young kid named Alfred greeted me. I didn’t know him very well – he was Bob’s nephew, and he’d come from Dunfair early last year.
“I need you to go in there with her,” Bob said to Alfred. “And take the gun with the silver shot.”
I whipped my head around.
“Silver?” I asked.
Bob nodded. “We did a bit of research on werewolves. Turns out, the myths were right. He can’t handle silver.”
I swallowed hard and tried not to look as horrified as I felt.
“Right,” I said with a thin voice. Either the two law enforcement officers didn’t hear it or ignored it. Alfred got up and took a shotgun from hooks on the wall behind the front desk. He loaded, pointing the barrel up, and smiled at me.
“Ready?” he asked.
God, with a shotgun, loaded with silver and an escort to see the man I’d been sort-of dating I didn’t feel ready at all. I forced a wan smile and nodded.
Alfred walked first, unlocked a steel-enforced door to a corridor. Windows on the one side were all covered with mesh. We went through two more to a room that had a door made solely of steel. When he unlocked that one as well, he stepped just inside and waited for me to come through. He closed the door behind me but didn’t lock it.
I lifted my hands to my mouth.
Hem sat in a silver cage, right in the middle, on the floor, careful not to touch any bars. I wasn’t sure how they’d managed to organize all this silver in such a small timeframe, but they were playing the game right.
I kneeled in front of the cage. Hem’s elbows rested on drawn up knees, his head looking down. His body seemed thin and frail, nothing like the heavy muscled male I’d seen two days ago.
“Hey,” I said.
When he lifted his head, shock jolted through me. He looked like he’d been starved for months. His cheeks were hollow, dark circles beneath his eyes and his gray eyes were listless.
“Alice,” he said, and it looked like he needed to dig deep to remember more about me. “What are you doing here?”
“I just came to see how you were,” I said. There was no need to ask. He wasn’t doing well at all. The silver… it was killing him. I’d read it in books, but I didn’t think it would be true. Full moon and silver – so far Hem was right on track.
He shrugged his shoulders, and the small act alone look like it cost him a little energy.
“What are they going to do to me?” he asked. His voice was hoarse as if he’d been screaming a lot.
I didn’t know. The question hadn’t been one of fear but rather mild curiosity, maybe even just conversation. I didn’t get the feeling Hem feared anything. I didn’t know if the silver let him feel anything, as that took too much energy.
“I don’t know,” I said, even though I was sure he knew that. I couldn’t even tell him that I thought they wouldn’t kill him. If they didn’t kill him first, though, the silver would do the job.
Something inside me turned to stone.
“I have to go,” I said. “But I’ll be back.”
Hem looked at me, and his eyes changed ever so slightly. It was just a hint of silver gleaming through, but it was enough. I hoped he knew what I meant. To Alfred, it sounded like I would visit again. I hoped Hem understood.
I stood up and nodded at Alfred who opened the door for me again. We retraced our steps to the front of the station again, and I thanked Bob. Alfred put the shotgun back onto the hooks and hung the keys on a hook beneath the shelf. I took a mental note. The windows were clear here, no prisoner mesh the way the corridor had been secured.
“I’ll see you guys around,” I said and left the station.
Once home, I waited until midnight before I got dressed in black and headed out again. When I reached the station, everything was quiet and dark. Bob’s truck was parked outside the station, the golden sheriff’s star only dimly visible against the white paint the light from the moon.
I crept around the side of the building to the windows next to the front desk. I took off my jacket and rolled it around my fist. I had to punch the window three times – it looked so easy in movies – before it broke. Pain bloomed in my knuckles, shooting up to my wrist. The sound of glass shattering was like a scream in the night, and I paused, waiting, listening.
Nothing. It was quiet all around me.
My breathing came in harsh, ragged bursts. It was crisp, freezing me from the inside out. I looked around, hoping that a town full of a thousand eyes wouldn’t see me. I hoisted myself up and through the broken window. My pants caught on a shard of glass that hadn’t broken free of the frame and ripped. I cursed under my breath and lowered myself on the other side.
The station was so dark I could barely see, but it wasn’t a very decorative room – a desk to the side, a chair behind it and the hook below the shelf. The only one I was looking for.
; I walked around the desk, careful not to bump anything, tracing outlines of the furniture in the dark. I felt along the bottom of the shelf in the near-dark until I found the hook.
It was empty.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I spun around. If I didn’t have those keys all of this was for nothing. Where was I supposed to begin, now? What if Bob or Alfred had taken then home with him? Not knowing what else to do, I felt for the desk and found the handle of the first drawer. I pulled it open carefully and felt around. Paperclips. A notepad. Pens.
The second drawer only held files.
In the third drawer, I felt thumbtacks that pricked my fingers, a book, a packet of chips, and way at the back a set of keys. I pulled them out carefully. I didn’t know if this was the right set of keys, but I had to try it. If this wasn’t it, I was out of ideas. Before I closed the drawer, something glinted in the dim light from the window. The shape of a gun made me shiver, and I closed the drawer.
I tiptoed toward the iron gate and tried the keys one by one. As each of them didn’t work my heart sank a little more. The idea had been an escape plan. It was failing.
With the second to last key, the lock sprang free. It was a loud clang in the night, and I jumped a little. I stared at the gate as it slowly swung open. I was in. A few more doors to go, but I was in.
I made it through all the doors in the corridor. Each door had a different key, but they were all in the bunch. If I hadn’t found the right set of keys, I didn’t know what I would have done. Finally, I opened the door to Hem’s cell. When I pushed the door open, I was greeted by a low, throaty growl.
“It’s just me,” I whispered. Hem was still in human form, but his eyes were silver in the night.
“Alice?” he asked. He sounded worse than he had when I’d come to see him.
“I’m here to get you out,” I said and started fiddling with the lock.
“Why?” Hem asked.
I couldn’t answer him. A part of me just didn’t know. Another part of me believed in him, who and what he was, and I didn’t want to admit to that. I went through the keys one by one, even trying the ones I’d used in the doors on my way here. None of them worked.