Wolf Dreams

by Aimee Easterling

  “Of course, dear. Let me help you back to my office.” It was embarrassingly easy to get Suzy off the trail of sleuthing. Her hand on my arm was steadying, her warmth tangible despite the bulk of my sweater in between.

  “No, here’s okay.” I took a step into the room, leaving Suzy’s warmth behind me. “If you don’t mind, I need a minute....”

  My voice cracked and Suzy bustled into action. “I’ll be right back,” she promised, rushing down the hall away from me.

  And the moment she turned the corner, I headed in the opposite direction toward the stairs.

  I CONSIDERED LEAVING Adena behind also. But the bird was more likely to create a ruckus if I left her than if I carried her along with me. Plus, she’d once nipped Dick’s nose when he got too close to my personal space. The raven might prove an asset if there was a fight.

  So I padded down the hall with the bird on my shoulder, pondering the weaknesses of the vault I intended to protect. It was more of a walk-in laboratory than a household safe, akin to what you might find in a museum. There were shelves and drawers and an airlock feature intended to dehumidify the room once researchers left.

  “Don’t forget to check your email—we change the code once a month,” Suzy had warned me during the facility tour precipitated by my arrival in the department a few months earlier. “And don’t push this button with anyone inside either. It locks the door for at least thirty minutes while the air inside is climate-controlled. If you get stuck, you’ll just have to wait it out.”

  If the person who’d rifled through my office had access to the passcode, he could be inside now, stealing artifacts that might otherwise change the face of science. There was a Roman shield in there that a colleague suspected dated to a millennium earlier than similar findings. An array of Asian pottery that could rewrite our understanding of ceramics’ birthplace. Dozens of similar artifacts gracing the extensive shelves.

  Of course, each important artifact was locked within a case inside the vault chamber. Assuming the thief didn’t have a way to cart large cases off to be opened later, I really could have left the matter to Security.

  But—ours, my monster muttered. And this time I agreed with her.

  No, we wouldn’t wait for assistance that might or might not be forthcoming. I’d lock the thief in the vault and get him stuck in the dehumidifying cycle. Given the strength of the display cases, he likely couldn’t do much damage before Security arrived to cart him off.

  I had second thoughts when I opened the stairwell door and stepped out into pitch darkness. Never mind that it was after hours, the lights in the hallway should have been on.

  At the end of the hall, the open, fully lit vault door beckoned. A footstep, a hummed murmur. As suspected, the thief was busy inside.

  I was halfway down the corridor when Adena—the traitor—opened her mouth and rasped out a greeting. Ignoring my frantic patting, she lifted off my shoulder and flew directly to the vault chamber as if drawn to the light.

  I should have remembered that even though she hated Dick, the raven loved strangers. Fortunately, strangers were generally less thrilled at being greeted by a four-pound bird.

  A male voice swore even though I couldn’t see him. From inside the vault, there emerged a rustle of wings and the susurration of dropped papers. So maybe Adena would be a distraction rather than a guard bird. I could work with that....

  Reaching out, I tapped the first button on the keypad. Nine....

  The resulting beep was as loud as a gunshot in the darkness. Fumbling to cover the speaker with my palm, I continued typing, hoping Adena’s cawing had covered up the noise.

  Four. Eight....

  I was seconds away from victory. But before I made contact with the final number, an arm looped around my neck, a torso slammed into my shoulders, and my glasses pressed hard against my nose as my face made contact with the wall.

  “WHERE IS IT?”

  The grip on my neck was strong enough to cut off my breathing. Still, I struggled momentarily, flinching as fingers slid into my jeans pocket.

  Keys, pen, and tape measure clattered as they hit the floor. But he didn’t release me, clearly uninterested in what had been uncovered thus far. And, despite my terror, I got stuck on that discrepancy.

  The thief didn’t want my keys? The ones that fit into the artifact cases? “My wallet’s in the other pocket,” I gasped, unsure what else he might seek.

  But he’d already passed over my wallet. Instead, his free hand slid up under my shirt, hesitating between my breasts like cold, slimy octopus appendages. I tensed, preparing for the inevitable. But the fingers were gone as quickly as they’d intruded, now patting over top of my clothes.

  And maybe it was the adrenaline of thinking I was going to be molested as well as manhandled. Or maybe it was what it felt like—my body being taken over by the monster in my head. Whatever the reason, I used more strength than I thought possible as I threw myself sideways, hoping the shift of weight would make the mugger lose his grip.

  His arm tightened around my neck, forcing my head back against his shoulder. I wheezed. Lights erupted behind my eyelids, suggesting that if I didn’t get a breath soon I was likely to pass out.

  I’d pass out...and leave the department’s most precious artifacts unlocked and ready to be stolen.

  Calm. Focus. The words emanated from the pesky monster, but she had a point this time. So I stilled my frantic attempts at breathing, purposefully holding my breath as I ran through potential avenues of escape.

  Adena, darn the bird, was doing nothing. I could hear her inside the vault, probably chewing a pencil into splinters. I shouldn’t have counted on her for anything in the first place, and unfortunately my own experience was no more help.

  Legs are his weakness, the monster whispered. Let me.

  No way, I replied even as the pretty light show behind my eyelids began fading into gloomy dark spots. Regardless of the physical risk to my body, it felt twice as dangerous to relinquish control to the monster as it did to let myself pass out.

  But she didn’t ask a second time. Instead, monster-like, she took.

  One arm lashed backward low and hard, spurring my assailant to twist and protect his family jewels. Which gave us the opportunity we needed to drive our heel downward across his shin.

  He howled. Released us.

  I hit the final digit on the keypad in a frenzy. Dove inside. And yanked on the door.

  Chapter 5

  I was blinded by the glaring fluorescents inside the vault as I tried to slam the door closed behind me. Adena plowed into my shoulder, windmilling in an effort to stay erect.

  Four fat fingers slipped into the gap between door and frame. I pulled against the handle with my full weight even as Adena buffeted me with her wings.

  The man outside bellowed. The keypad beeped, complaining about the fact that the requested dehumidifying cycle had been delayed.

  I really should have just yanked the door harder. What did I care if I broke a cat burglar’s hand in half?

  But the protruding fingertips were turning purple. And, despite myself, I relaxed my grip.

  Stupid, my monster noted. And she was right. Because rather than retreating, the mugger ripped open the door and bore down on us in a homicidal rage.

  I couldn’t see his face behind the ski mask, but somehow I smelled his intentions. He wanted an object I’d yet to give him; that much was obvious. But now it seemed he also wanted me.

  As one, the monster and I both bid for survival. I backpedaled desperately while she raised one hand with fingers spread as if intending to poke out our attacker’s eyes.

  The combination, unfortunately, came across more like a drunk woman’s wavering than like any sort of self-defense maneuver. No wonder the mugger grabbed the neck of our shirt as easily as if we were a kitten. Raised us off our feet....

  ...Then paused as someone roared: “On the ground!”

  It was the security guard, arriving sooner than expected.
Unfortunately, he was too far away to make any difference in my survival now.

  Still, the man hidden by the ski mask hesitated. From the top of his head—was she finally helping me or just escaping the tussle?—Adena cawed out commentary.

  And maybe my raven’s presence made a difference. Or maybe reality intruded upon my opponent’s anger. Whatever the reason, the thief turned and sprinted in the opposite direction even as the aftermath of the monster’s actions consumed my brain.

  Not now, I begged, clinging to reality. The danger was over. The monster had subsided of her own free will.

  But the vision was adamant. We needed this rejuvenation. Already, I could smell the dank cave coolness. My future was predetermined.

  Stumbling, I accepted the fact that I couldn’t fight the trance, but I could decide where to succumb to it. Falling apart in front of the security guard was not a viable option.

  Instead, I half walked and half fell backwards. Retreating into the vault and slamming the door shut behind me, I finally relaxed and let the vision consume my world.

  I EXPECTED THE USUAL—A quiet reprieve, time to pull myself together. Instead, as the painter’s eyes opened in pitch darkness, adrenaline flooded our shared veins.

  She’d been sleeping. I could feel the grit at the corners of her eyeballs. She’d been sleeping somewhere safe...then woke to the sound of a stranger creeping into her resting space.

  In all my visits with this prehistoric woman, I’d never seen another human. Somehow, neither she nor I thought the intrusion was good news.

  The clatter of a rock kicked by the unwary. An indrawn breath. A murmured explosion that, from its cadence, might have been a curse.

  Despite my own wariness, the painter relaxed her shoulders and spoke a flow of syllables I couldn’t decipher. At the same time, she rose, pushing back furs so she could pat around the cave floor in the darkness. Was she looking for a weapon? If so, I thought she could have moved a little faster than that.

  Somewhere not far distant, a young female voice answered. The conversation pattered back and forth between them, drawing the intruder forward. And I got the distinct impression it was the girl now, rather than the woman, who continued to be scared.

  Then our fingers were making familiar movements. The lamp flickered to life as a hidden coal was tipped inside it. Our neck tilted up to take in the intruder, peered into a face that looked remarkably similar to my own.

  They say that everyone in your dreams is really an aspect of your own character, and my psychiatrists had made that same argument about the visions that consumed me. But I hadn’t expected to see a doppelganger here in my trance state. High cheekbones, dark irises, a single dimple in the center of only one cheek.

  The primary difference was that she looked closer to fifteen than my mature twenty-eight. At that age, I’d been enrolling in college classes while being treated as a pet by more traditionally-aged freshmen. They’d considered me doll-like, to be studying away from home so prematurely.

  This girl, I suspected, had followed a more ancient timeline. Because her eyes were old, the bruise on her cheekbone suggesting she didn’t enjoy an easy life.

  The woman I inhabited, however, was far less interested in the girl’s appearance than in the current conversation. Too bad my subconscious was such a stickler for scientific accuracy that it didn’t give me any recognizable words.

  I didn’t need a translator, however, to understand the shout that halted the women’s exchange of information. Masculine, angry, and repeated by others, as if half a dozen men were following in the girl’s footsteps.

  Then the howl of a canine. Dog or wolf? Wolf, I decided. Dogs wouldn’t have existed at this point in history. Still, it made no more sense for a wild animal to be hunting alongside this prehistoric clan than it did for dogs to have popped up in the distant past.

  Because the canines in question were hunting. The fact was easy to determine as the girl jumped to her feet, eyes wide with prey terror.

  Torchlight filtered through the cave entrance. And now I heard the stomp of booted feet preparing to follow the girl inside.

  I WOKE TO ADENA PICKING at my glasses, knocking the metal rims repeatedly against my nose. She cawed loudly, inches from my eardrums. No wonder I’d ceased inhabiting the vision at its most interesting point.

  By my estimate, I still had nearly half an hour to kill until I could escape from the vault chamber. But it was just as well I’d regained my senses. Because the monster was now sleeping soundly, and Suzy’s frantic voice slipped inward, muffled by the thick steel door.

  “Olivia!” Her intonation gave me the distinct impression she’d called my name several times previously. “Are you in there?” Then as an aside: “We have to get her out.”

  I half expected a blow torch to cut through the thick metal if I didn’t provide proof of life in the near future. Suzy wasn’t one to wait in the wings while someone she cared about lay trapped.

  Even though my throat was as dry as sandpaper, I leveraged my aching body to sitting then standing. And I set her mind at rest.

  “I’m fine,” I lied, wincing as I set my bruised heel on the ground. The monster had been right about that escape maneuver, but the aftereffects weren’t as harmless as expected. Still, rehashing the preceding altercation reminded me of a more important matter.

  “Did they catch him?” I asked while eying the vault’s interior. The glass cases all appeared to be locked and accounted for. The only damage was the pile of poop Adena had deposited on the workspace itself.

  So it had been worthwhile to dive in unassisted. The security guard, it turned out had enjoyed considerably less success.

  “I put out a bulletin alerting all officers,” an unfamiliar male voice answered. “But I didn’t have much of a description. Do you remember what they looked like? Tall? Short? Race? Sex?”

  All I remembered was the thief’s ski mask—plain and black with three holes for the eyes and mouth. Still, for the next half hour I answered all of the security guard’s questions, an exercise in frustration for us both. Finally, the vault door opened, allowing me to be fussed over by Suzy herself.

  “I’ll drive you both home,” the security guard suggested once he was able to get a word in edgewise. But I shook my head, preferring to use my own set of wheels so I wouldn’t be stranded the next morning. Suzy, similarly, dismissed him. And we parted in the parking lot with promises to text each other once we were safely behind locked doors.

  Still, I jumped at every shadow as I drove the mile from campus to the residential neighborhood where I rented. I ran from car door to house door and hunched my shoulders as I thrust the key I’d readied into the lock.

  Inside, I turned the deadbolt and latched the chain before retreating into the kitchen. A text to Suzy, hot chocolate to lower my own stress levels, then finally bed.

  Well, hot chocolate for me and an egg for Adena. The raven had waited patiently through the intervening hassle, but she still very much needed her snack.

  We were just starting to feel normal half an hour later, Adena atop her place mat on the table and me cradling a mug that was now empty but warm enough to continue clutching. I’d almost talked myself into braving the short walk down the hall to my bedroom when fists pounded on my front door.

  Chapter 6

  I barely recognized Patricia when I yanked the door open. Her hair was soaked and her eyes were wild, nothing like the self-possessed beauty I was used to seeing in my class. “There’s something out there,” she squeaked, brushing past me without waiting for permission to enter.

  Sometime in the last fifteen minutes, it had started pouring. But the night was less dark than I would have expected, even though the closest streetlight was halfway down the block.

  Danger, the monster warned. And I could have sworn something large and four-legged slunk past the edge of my vision, disappearing behind a parked car.

  I blinked against the voice in my head and focused on my student. “Are you ok
ay? What happened?” Twisting both the lock and the deadbolt for the sake of our shared sanity, I slipped into the bathroom and came out with a towel. “Here. Should I call the police?”

  Patricia shook her head so vigorously water splattered against the wallpaper. “No, sorry. I just got spooked by a big dog. I’m fine now. Really, I’m fine.”

  A big dog. Those campus legends were getting out of hand. I resolved to have a word with the school newspaper, perhaps pen an editorial about the difference between mythology and fact.

  Here and now, however, I had a student so skittish she nearly leapt out of her skin when Adena winged toward us from the living room. No wonder it took five minutes of hot tea and cookies before I figured out what she’d come about.

  “It’s the paper,” Patricia told me finally from the other side of the kitchen table. “I have no idea what to write about....” As was typical with insecure college students, her words trailed off rather than completing the thought.

  I took a sip of my tea to prevent myself from saying something snarky. I did care about my students...but I cared significantly less after ten o’clock at night.

  Still, Patricia was here and she clearly needed a pep talk. “The assignment is pretty open-ended,” I said after I’d swallowed down my tea and my disappointment. “Just pick a topic from the class and do some research. Surely something caught your interest over the last three months.”

  “Well....”

  She did have an idea. I sat up straighter. Every time I’d let my eyes slide over Patricia in class, she’d been on her cell phone. I hadn’t thought she heard a word I said.

  “Tell me,” I suggested.

  And, for the first time in our acquaintance, Patricia’s eyes sparkled with an emotion other than fear or orneriness. “Yeah, the dire wolves were cool. I mean, what if they were really werewolves? What if humanity didn’t come from Africa to Europe to Asia then to North America but went the other way and we didn’t know about it because they always died in the form of their wolves?”