“You can’t sell this,” I started. “This is the find of the century. It could totally change our understanding of Bronze Age art....”
“What it will totally change is the size of your inheritance,” Dad countered, jumping straight into the argument he and I had rehashed so many times it was clear we’d reached an impasse.
My inheritance? Who cared about an inheritance?
“Some things are more important than personal gain,” I told him. But even as I spoke, I thought of the President’s erratic behavior and my recent refusal to help.
I was such a hypocrite. I should be at home, studying the saber-tooth fang then giving Claw a call, not holding a discussion that my father and I had already re-hashed more times than I could count.
“You didn’t argue when finds like this paid for your bachelor’s and six years of graduate school,” my father countered. “You didn’t argue when finds like this paid for your first car.”
He was right. But I’d been young then, and stupid.
And now...my monster was abruptly too close to the surface for me to put a reasoned rebuttal into words.
She didn’t understand our conversation, but she did understand the blood pounding in my ears as I imagined science losing out on yet another astonishing discovery. She knew there was danger even if she didn’t understand why.
And this time, the vision didn’t even give the monster time to offer assistance. Instead, it grabbed me with the force of a whirlwind, sucking me down into the past.
MEN POURED INTO THE cave woman’s chamber, smoke from their torches darkening the walls. Blood pounded in the painter’s ears, fear transcending the need for language. We pushed the girl behind us, slid the sleeping fur over her, then stepped away to leave her hidden in the dark.
“What do you want?” the painter seemed to be saying. Whatever the meaning of the harsh syllables spilling from her lips, most of the intruders responded with unexpected submission. She barked a single word and a youngster jumped three feet sideways, peering up in worry at the scorch mark he’d left on the nose of a painted horse.
So the painter possessed status in their society. She was a shaman maybe, a feared but honored clan member.
Still, she was unable to fully quell the shiver in her hand as she pointed at the entrance. This was an order for the party of hunters to file right back out...and one she was afraid they wouldn’t obey.
From the rear, a wolf trotted forward. Not a modern wolf, but a dire wolf—as bulky and heavy as a man. How they had trained it to do their bidding was a mystery. But the animal’s purpose was clear as its nose lowered, leading the beast along the path the girl had followed when she crept into the cave.
The painter’s breath caught, and for a moment I thought she might abandon the fugitive to the dire wolf’s mercy. Instead, she expressed her demand for solitude in a feminine scream. She was scared now, I gathered. Was scared for herself as well as for the hidden teenager. Inside her body, I could do nothing other than watch.
In the end, it happened too quickly for anyone to do anything. The wolf pounced, the blanket slipped, the girl appeared.
Now, in the torchlight, I could see the girl’s body clearly. She was barely dressed, as if she’d wrapped a discarded skin around herself before running for cover. It was hard to miss the way her belly ballooned out in the timeless shape of a mother-to-be.
This child wasn’t just in danger, she was also pregnant. The wolf, uninterested in human gestation, grabbed one thin arm and yanked the girl forward without regard to pain inflicted by sharp lupine teeth.
The body I inhabited had gone still around me. But now we lunged forward, something gritty clutched in one hand. I expected an age-old trick—sand in the wolf’s eyes maybe. Instead, we ignored the beast and painted seven quick strokes on the pregnant girl’s bulging stomach.
Protection? Mysticism? Whatever the purpose of the painted lines, they turned the tide in our favor.
Behind us, someone barked out an order. The wolf released the girl and slunk back between the men’s legs.
Neither painter nor girl relaxed however. Instead, I got the distinct impression we’d merely bought a short reprieve.
I CAME BACK INTO MY twenty-first-century body on cold floor tiles, shamed by my own response to the cave woman’s dilemma. For half a second when the men entered her chamber, my only impulse had been to flee.
We’re strong, my monster murmured. But how could we be strong when I was constantly at war with myself? Now more than ever, I needed Dad’s help getting my trances under control.
And maybe I also needed to learn more about that pre-Clovis find he’d mentioned. Was it a coincidence that Claw’s gift and my visions all seemed to date from the same, largely unstudied era? The controversial colonization that might have preceded travel of humans across the Bering land bridge?
To that end, I lay still for one long moment, giving my father time to gather up his notes and his thoughts. Surely he’d respond to this evidence of my returned problem by offering his assistance....
When I finally blinked my eyes open, though, I found myself alone save for Adena. My neck ached, the awkward angle suggesting I’d been allowed to crumple without being helped to the floor.
Dr. Hart wasn’t busy tearing through his notebooks. He hadn’t even caught me when I fell.
I’d forgotten this part about my involuntary trances. Had somehow blocked out the way Dad gave up on finding a solution after a certain point and expected me to deal with the weakness on my own. Despite having achieved independence, the reminder of my only relative’s complete indifference stung.
“Moving on,” I said aloud, settling Adena more firmly on one shoulder before climbing the stairs to an empty study. Only after I closed the bookcase behind me then opened the door to the hallway did I hear Dad’s voice at last.
“I’m afraid my daughter won’t be staying for lunch. She was called back to the office unexpectedly.”
A female giggle, then Justine’s breathy voice answered. “A workaholic like her father. I’ll look forward to getting to know her better at a later date.”
As if Dad’s lie wasn’t bad enough, Justine’s final word broke off into a moan that made me certain my father had slid his hands beneath her clothes to derail further conversation. Ew. I really didn’t need that image in my head.
I hesitated for a moment, still needing my father’s wisdom. Leaving without a farewell felt like failure. Staying, though, would have been worse.
I slunk down the hall like a wolf with tail tucked and ears pinned. I shushed Adena when she tried to caw a farewell to the household. Then I slipped behind the wheel of my car alone.
Chapter 9
By the time I got home, I was more than ready to use my skills for the good of the nation. I couldn’t quite imagine how a saber-tooth-cat fang might relate to the President, but a close examination of the object in question was bound to remedy that fact.
I drew out the artifact and ran it through my hands cautiously. The tooth was hotter than I would have expected, just as Stonehenge’s bluestones often feel warm to the touch.
Temperature discrepancies, though, were rarely mystical. Instead, they were likely due to differences in thermal conductivity and the object’s ability to hold onto heat. Still...there was something strange about the tooth. I raised it closer to my eyes and a roughness to the enamel materialized into a long, straight crack.
Slipping my thumbnail into the indentation to ensure I didn’t lose its location, I strode over to a lamp then examined the discrepancy under the light. The tooth was real, but it wasn’t entirely natural. Someone had carved out a small door into one side so artfully that the manipulation wasn’t evident at first glance.
Secrets, the monster whispered. And I was so intent upon my examination that I didn’t even tell it to shush.
Instead, I pried open the compartment, sliding the door all the way out. There was a hollow core at the center of the cat tooth. I’d guessed that wa
s the purpose of the carving as soon as I saw it in the light.
What I hadn’t been expecting was the tiny electronic gadget stuffed artfully inside.
For one long moment, I stared, trying to make sense of the object that could never have coexisted with my cave woman. Was the voice in my head due to some kind of science-fiction brain manipulation? The effect of neuron-altering sound waves, perhaps?
I’m not an alien, the voice protested even as I tapped the tooth hard against the edge of the counter to disinter the mass of plastic and metal. But I ignored my intrusive brain parasite, instead stomping the device against the tiles until it splintered beneath my heel.
Still here, the voice noted as my brow furrowed in anger. Because now that I’d dismissed unrealistic flights of fancy, I could see a tiny microphone lying on the kitchen tiles, broken off by the action of my foot.
This was a bug. A recording device meant to keep track of my actions.
So Claw wasn’t some knight in shining armor requesting my assistance. He was...what? None of the other options made any sense.
Despite my saner side telling myself to bow out of further drama, I set the tooth back on the counter and grabbed a flashlight off the shelf. Outside, the ground was still damp from the previous evening’s rainstorm. But Claw’s card lay, nearly pristine, exactly where it had been dropped.
Picking up the card I’d gotten from the same person who’d handed over the Trojan-horse artifact, I pondered further options. The smartest reaction would have been to cut my losses. But after my recent run-ins with my father and the head of my department, I was sick and tired of letting men treat me like dirt.
So I made my decision, never mind the consequences. Tomorrow morning, I’d travel to the location printed on the business card. Then I’d give Claw a piece of my mind.
“IDIOT GPS,” I GRIPED, pulling over to the side of the pre-dawn country road. I’d inserted the address from Claw’s card and the device had guided me nearly all the way to my destination...before abruptly flaking out.
Luckily, handwritten directions were an acceptable backup. All I had to do was keep driving forward like the idiotic heroine out of some subpar horror movie—alone save for a raven and without sufficient brain cells to realize I should flee or at least call for help.
The trouble was, I was angry enough to risk horror-movie stupidity. All night, I’d tossed and turned, Claw’s strangely appealing features floating in front of my eyes like a mirage in the desert. Meanwhile, the monster had been full of witty banter that kept circling back around to the shape of Claw’s butt. Even though we shared the same eyes, she must have been paying more attention to certain portions of the male anatomy when last we’d met.
“He’s a liar,” I reminded my monster. What proof did I have that Claw worked for the President? It seemed much more likely that he was in cahoots with the thief who had broken into the department vault two nights before.
You’re disappointed, the monster noted.
“Yes, I’m disappointed. I wanted to do something for the greater good. I wanted to be more than my father thinks I am.”
And that was a sad reason for driving into danger. So I focused hard on the other half of my purpose—throwing the eight-inch tooth back in Claw’s handsome face.
Well, I focused on that satisfying image...and on finding the proper turnoff in the nearly nonexistent pre-dawn light. Driveways branched off to the right and left at widely spaced intervals, but none appeared to be labeled. Or...wait.
There it was—4365. A small white sign tacked to a broad oak tree. It was time to make a decision. Was I really going to engage in a secluded meeting with an evasive stranger just because I liked the symmetry of his features? Or was I going to toss his necklace out the window and return to my regularly scheduled life?
“Turn left,” the GPS demanded as the satellites finally reconnected. But I didn’t obey the order. Just paused there on the deserted gravel road and picked up my phone.
The smart thing to do was to tell someone where I was going. Too bad I had no one to tell. Dad wouldn’t care—his actions yesterday had proven that point far too soundly. Suzy would fall into a tizzy if I filled her in on a tenth of recent happenings. And I wasn’t even sure I still had an up-to-date number for any of my far-flung graduate-school friends.
As if responding to my hesitation, a text floated up on the screen before me. From Dick. I sighed and opened what turned out to be an automatic message generated by the university’s shared calendar app.
“Performance review,” I read aloud, before noting that the time was next week, one hour after grades had to be inputted into the system. The jerk was going to fire me—I just knew it. But he wanted to make sure he wasn’t stuck completing any of my duties if I stormed off in a huff.
“I can’t handle Dick right now,” I told Adena, shunting the text message to the side to be dealt with later. But my boss’s use of the calendar app had given me an idea about how to make my rendezvous a little safer.
Before I could change my mind, I tapped out a request for Suzy to meet me that afternoon, hiding my location and who had drawn me here in the “extra information” box that was so overlookable. If I canceled in a timely manner, Suzy wouldn’t have to be bothered on a weekend. If not...hopefully she’d discover the pull-down menu and contact the police.
“There, see, our butt is covered,” I told the watching raven.
Let’s hope Claw’s butt isn’t, the monster countered as I turned down the indicated road.
DAWN BROKE OVER A SEEMINGLY empty airstrip. It wasn’t even an airport. Just two paved lines that ended in mowed grass on either side.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the airstrip’s emptiness, Adena was in bird heaven. As soon as I rolled down the window, she leapt to the ledge then pushed off to beat her way into the sky.
Which was all well and good until I noted the distant hum of an incoming airplane. “Adena, get back here!” I called.
Of course, the one time I needed her safely on my shoulder, the raven ignored me. She beat her wings harder, ascending higher and higher until she was no more than a dot in the sky. Freedom apparently called more strongly out here in the boonies than it ever had above city avenues. Why had I never paid attention to my gut and bought the bird a leash?
Squinting, I opened my mouth to call a second time...then changed my mind as I imagined Adena descending into the plane’s flight path while trying to obey. I couldn’t be the one to summon her into danger. So, ignoring the wrench in my middle, I stood there clutching my cell phone like a life line as a mid-sized plane came in for a landing.
The craft rolled toward me, looking vaguely familiar despite the fact I knew nothing about airplanes. Meanwhile, Adena reappeared, swooping so close to the fan-like blades that she risked getting sucked inside.
As if sensing my concerns, Adena cocked her head to look down at me, her flat stare suggesting I make an effort not to be such a drama queen. Banking her wings to turn back in my direction, we met at the side of the aircraft just as a retractable staircase lowered its way toward the tarmac from a door near the nose.
Talons clicked together as Adena landed on the railing, and her safety released all of the pent-up frustration I’d been hanging onto over the last twelve hours. No wonder I was halfway up the steps before I even realized I was moving, lacking words to express the feelings that bubbled up inside me at the sight of Claw’s emerging face.
This man’s presence had set off my monster, making me look like an idiot in front of my students and my father. He’d picked at a scab I’d thought healed over. Then he’d had the temerity to saddle me with a bug.
And, okay, so I had no evidence to suggest Claw was responsible for the visions or for the strange hyperactivity of the monster, who was even now humming her satisfaction at his proximity.
But the electronic device in the tooth? That was definitely his fault.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t pay attention to our surroundings. Didn’t
acknowledge Adena or spare another glance for the aircraft as I approached it. Instead, I reached into my pocket and flung the hollowed-out tooth as hard as I could at the face of the insufferable man who’d shaken up my universe.
Only he dodged; of course he dodged. Instinctively slid sideways out of the path of the saber-tooth-cat fang...and let the hard object smack straight into the forehead of the President of the United States.
Chapter 10
“Oh my goodness, Your Honor....” No, that’s how you address a judge. “Your Excellency.” Am I suggesting the President of the United States is a sultan? “Sir.” Okay, that’s just plain sad.
No wonder the injured head of state turned away without speaking, his face contorted with what at first appeared to be pain before settling into the red-cheeked bluster of anger.
And, yeah, I’d just tossed a prehistoric cat tooth at him. But the President I’d seen interviewed on 60 Minutes was soft-spoken even when discussing genocide. There was definitely something wrong with Jim Kelter, something that filled the air between us with a strange sort of electricity that prickled at my forearms and raised hairs along the back of my neck.
My instincts told me to run away from the airplane, back to my car, then drive away as far and as fast as I was able. My monster, on the other hand, was curious. Perhaps that’s why we obeyed when Claw motioned toward the interior and ordered, “Come in.”
Adena and I made it inside just before the stairs retracted and closed behind our backs. Then I stood there numb and confused as both men strode deeper into the aircraft, leaving me alone in the entrance of the opulently furnished plane.
This isn’t just a plane. It’s Air Force One.
Wolf Dreams Page 5