Walking Wolf Road
By: Brandon Herbert
Chapter 47
“So, explain this whole ‘shifting’ thing to me again?” Bo asked.....
I paused momentarily from memorizing his Government notes to answer him, “There are different types. Most Therians can only shift in one or two ways; the most common is the mental shifts in which the animal spirit comes up to the surface in the mind. You cease to think like a human; you think more in images and emotions than in word forms. But you remain yourself throughout, remember that your animal self in just a facet of who you are as a whole; not a separate uncontrollable being. Sometimes there are minor physical changes that accompany a mental shift, usually a change in eye color, sometimes an increased metabolism or hair grown through the duration of a shift. Also, a mental shift accompanies or preludes almost all the other kinds of shift.....
“The next most common is the etheric or astral shift. That’s when someone’s energy body shifts over to that of the animal; they usually experience a variant of phantom-limb syndrome, and in the case of astral shifting, sometimes leave the body and travel the astral plane in a wolf’s form. This can happen to varying degrees, usually with at least a light mental shift, but even then not always. Hey, what’s this word?”....
He leaned over to check where my finger pointed, “Corruption”.....
“Your ‘R’s seem to be rather mutated…”....
“Just keep talkin’…” ....
I rolled my eyes, “Finally, there are the physical based shifts. These usually only accompany the deepest of mental shifts. There are some who exhibit almost superhuman, berserker-like strength and speed; and then there is also the supposed full physical shift where your flesh actually metamorphoses into the body of a wolf.”....
“But that’s just myth right? You don’t really believe that’s possible do you?”....
Yes, I do…....
I censured myself just in time, “It’s up to you to decide what you believe in regard to that. Any physical shifter, who expected to survive, wouldn’t advertise their ability; not even to others of his own kind. I wouldn’t even expect them to socialize with others if they held a secret like that; something that would truly prove to be a risk to their life…”....
“Wow, so where do you fit into all that?”....
“My pack is… something of an oddity… Judging from what I’ve been able to learn from the Internet and from books; we actually sorta skirt the line of what’s ‘normal’ for other shifters. Most others don’t have as many psychic quirks as we do, and they don’t feather the lines between what phenomena occur with what kind of shift. Fen’s eyes were amber twenty-four-seven; but that wasn’t their natural color, and he wasn’t always shifted. We’ve all tapped into some of that berserker strength and speed, usually with just a light mental shift. We walk between the worlds, so we can communicate more easily with the spirit world than even most mediums; but at the same time we end up with this sort of wall between us and other normal humans. I think they can sense the wildness in us, and it sets off some primitive subverted part of their brains.....
“Also… I haven’t found mention of any other packs of Therians that actually had some sort of patron spirit, much less a territory belonging just to us in the spirit realm. Yet we always have; she was the one that told Fen that I was coming, and foretold that I would join his pack.”....
“Has she told you about anyone coming?”....
“No, that’s not what she normally does; it seems like there was something particular about me coming here; but I still haven’t been able to figure out exactly what…”....
“What would you say if I asked to join your pack?”....
I laughed, and immediately apologized for my rudeness, “I’d said ‘Wait your turn, Pup!’ You’ll need to prove your devotion to the pack and to our secrets before I’ll even consider changing you!”....
“So how does the change work? Is it like in the movies, with a bite? Or is it more of a ritual, like in the old legends?”....
I shook my head smiling, “Sorry, that’s all for today! I won’t tell you more until I feel absolutely confidant that I can trust you with what you already know.”....
“Bastard…” he glowered at me and snatched his notes back, it was alright though; I’d already memorized them, “Who the fuck am I going to tell? You and your girlfriend are about the only people who still talk to me anymore…”....
“Oh? What happened to all your sports friends?”....
“Well, most of them stopped talking to me when I dropped all my sports at the beginning of the year. I decided to focus on my grades for the last stretch and to be perfectly honest… I’ve been bored out of my fucking mind! I used to hang out with Malcolm and Jack because they didn’t wig out on me like the others did; but lately… I dunno, Jack’s been acting weirder and weirder. It’s really been creeping the shit out of me, and even Malcolm too… God, and he’s such an follower too; I figured he’d follow Jack to the ends of the Earth if he told him to… But lately I see Jack sitting at the lunch tables alone more and more often, I… I think he’s even talking to himself…”....
“Graduation stress?” I ventured.....
“Maybe, God knows he doesn’t have the brains necessary to outwit a sloth. He’s better suited to the Paleolithic than a computer lab. He’s all about macho shit like hunting and the Army and stuff; but I don’t think even the grunts would take him with his grades…....
“But… I dunno, it doesn’t really bother me. You may have judged me when we first met, but once you got a chance to actually get to know me, you’ve been really accepting of who I really am. I dunno, it’s weird; I’m just really comfortable around you. I don’t have to pretend to be some big dumb jock just so I don’t threaten your world-view. I always had friends when I played the part; just be strong and good at sports and they’ll love you for it. It’s fun and all, but… I wasn’t happy pretending to be stupid… And then everybody felt threatened when they found out ‘Oh my God, the jock can read!’…”....
“Well, to be honest Bo, I like you better when you’re true to yourself. And don’t care so much about what everybody else thinks; I’m a bigger freak than anyone else at school, and you’re always welcome with me!”....
He threw his arm over my shoulder, “Thanks Jimmy, that means a lot…”....
Feeling the solid granite of his muscular arm over my shoulder prompted a cruel little thought, “So, what if I told you the metabolism boost from becoming a werewolf might burn off most of your muscle?”....
His face looked stricken, and I laughed maliciously.....
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After Bo and I finished ‘studying’ (me ganking his notes, while he pumped my brain for information about werewolves), we headed over to Loki’s where his drum kit was still set up in the garage. We screwed around a little while, then I had Loki start teaching me her song, Bo throwing out drum ideas every now and then. I’d been in a couple garage bands when I was younger, but it had never felt so… natural, to make music with other people, as it did now. I had never cared about my band members back then anything like I cared for these two; my lover, and my unexpected friend. We played until the sun set and got most of the song put together before Loki’s Dad came out to enforce noise curfew. Bo took off with the promise to get back together soon and finish the song.....
I felt so proud of her when I heard her play, especially her song; it was a little piece of herself that she had offered to us in good faith, and I was honored to play it with her. We went inside to hang out in her bedroom for a while, just chatting like any other couple out there in the world, except I knew that at least one of us had a phantom wolf tail that would wag happily at random intervals.....
“Oh, did I tell you I got an email from Geri?” She twisted around so she could look at me.....
“What? No, you didn’t!”....
“Yeah, he told me he was going to try and make it back down this weekend; right around Prom!” she said excitedly.....
“That’s funny, why didn’t he email me?”....
“I don’t know, I didn’t even think of that…”....
I was quiet a moment, thinking. “Hey Loki, can I talk to you about something?”....
“Sure hon, what’s on your mind?”....
“It’s about Geri… I feel weird even thinking this, but before he left I went over to Geri’s house. That was when he told me he was leaving, and he also told me… about how Fen used to treat him…”....
Loki dropped her eyes from mine, “It was pretty bad… He took out all his frustrations about… someone else and I… He internalized all of it, but it would sometimes come lashing out, and Geri was always the Omega, always in the Alpha’s line of fire. That was his ‘job’ in the pack but… I never liked it. And I wasn’t able to do much to help it.”....
“Loki… I know about Corwin…” I whispered.....
She reeled from his name like a slap to the face. “What?” she gasped, “How?”....
I shook my head and rubbed my temple, even with her this was going to sound crazy, “I’ve been uh… talking to him for a while now…”....
She gaped at me speechless, so I plowed onward “It started just before Halloween; I heard someone calling me into the Auditorium. I went in and met him, though I couldn’t tell at the time that he wasn’t… there… He made me promise not to tell any of you about him yet though. He was trying to reach to Fen through me—“....
“He what!” she squawked, and I winced.....
“That sounded bad; he’s been trying to talk to Fen for a long time, but Fen is pretty much a psychic null, he tried to reach you before, but that didn’t work either…....
“Finally he found someone who could speak to Fen, perceive beyond the veil, and who wasn’t… blocked by memories of him.”....
“So he tried to use you to get his revenge on Fen?” she asked coldly.....
“What? No! No, that’s just the thing, he doesn’t blame Fen; he wants to apologize to him for the pain he caused.”....
“That’ll be a little harder to do now, won’t it…?” she whispered sadly.....
“Well, I’m not out ideas there yet; but I got off track. Geri, he seemed to resent Fen very much and only stayed because it was all he had in this town. Anyway, you know better than I do what it was like for him, do you think Geri would have… Do you think he could have been angry enough to… murder Fen?”....
Loki was speechless for a moment, “Jimmy, how could you say such a thing? Your own Packbrother!”....
“He’d already stopped considering himself part of the pack long before he left Just answer me, do you think he could have hated him enough to kill him?”....
“I—I don’t…” The fact that she couldn’t immediately say ‘no’ said it for me; and as she realized this as well she looked at me, afraid.....
“When I was leaving his house, I saw hunting rifles hanging over the fireplace in their living room… within easy reach… And who else could have known where the Den was?”....
“Oh my God… Jimmy, oh my God!” she whispered, shocked.....
“Loki, let me ask you something; it’s very important. Do you think Geri ever had a crush on you?”....
“What? Why?” she stuttered.....
“Please, it’s important!” I urged her.....
“I… I don’t know, it’s possible I guess… He never said anything about it to me…”....
“Do you really think Fen would have let him?”....
Loki started banging her head against the wall, “Goddamnit! As if high school drama wasn’t bad enough; we have to have ‘Days of our Freaking Teenage Werewolf Lives’ going on here…”....
“Easy hon. We don’t know for sure yet, but when we see him this weekend; we’ll just have to get him alone somewhere and get our answers from him. I really hope I’m wrong…”....
“And if you’re not…” her question was open ended, but I neglected to answer it… I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hand him over to the authorities. Intact anyway… And then there was the other problem; if Corwin was still catching murderous thoughts directed at me, and Geri didn’t email me, only Loki, what if he was coming down this weekend to do to me what he did to Fen…?....
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes…” I said to both her question and my own thoughts, and a picture on her dresser caught my eye, “Hey, when was this taken?” I asked, picking up the picture and looking at it. In it was a much younger version of my Loki, with milk chocolate brown hair, smiling with a bright blue sky overhead, a couple other girls her age with her in the picture.....
“Oh, that was seventh grade. Those were friends of mine in ....Montana...., the one on the left was Adriana, Kim’s the spastic one. We promised to keep in touch when I left, but they never did. Not a big loss…”....
“Your hair’s not black?” I asked, feeling rather stupid.....
She just laughed though, “No, that’s my real hair color there. I’ve been very diligent about maintaining my color for the last three years or so, so I’m not surprised you didn’t know. I don’t think anybody here even remembers me with brown hair…” she quirked an eyebrow thoughtfully. “Nope, doubtful…”....
“That’s strange…” you look so familiar from somewhere… somewhere I can’t quite place…....
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That night I dreamed familiar dreams, more remembered than dreamed; dredged up by my subconscious…....
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I darted through the leaves and the underbrush. He was hunting me… Somewhere out there where I couldn’t pinpoint his position.....
He had told me that if I could touch that old maple tree, he’d let me leave alive.....
I could smell the sweet sap of the tree with my powerful olfactory sense, the scent leading me straight up to the house I grew up in. Except, it wasn’t any single house; it was all the houses I grew up in, but at the same time, only one house. ....
In a burst of speed I made it up into the house, feeling the crosshairs of the hunter’s rifle on me the whole time. Inside, Loki and Taylor and the rest of my family where there; they were all trying to help me. They tried to tell me where the hunter was, tried to distract him so I could make my final run… I could see the old maple tree there, not fifty feet from the back door. And somewhere with a perfect vantage point of that gap was the man with the gun. Unwittingly I had trapped myself.....
I readied myself, there was no easy way to do this than to just make a break for it, and hope that my luck was better than his.....
I launched myself over the back fence, shifting form in midair and landing on four paws. I zig-zagged and changed speed as I ran, bullets pinging all around me.....
Not ten feel from the bass of the tree, something hot and agonizing tore through one of my hind legs. I tried to drag myself those last few feet to the safety of the tree’s roots, but a shadow fell over me.....
The hunter kicked me over onto my back and I stared up at him past the barrel of his gun, his face silhouetted by the sun, unrecognizable.....
I was so close…....
My world ended with a bang, my blood sprayed all over the trunk of the tree.....
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I tossed restlessly, nearing the surface of consciousness, and then submerged again.....
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The war had claimed many lives, and now; we awaited the original seers who would tell us how we would defeat our enemy with the conclusion of their prophecy. The banquet hall on the colony was packed, and I sat off to the corner, sipping my drink and staring out the window at the stars... Friends and fellow warriors would pass by and greet me, a couple of them joining me at the table. Eventually, my commander arrived at my table with a beautiful woman with soft brown hair, and brilliant green eyes. They sat down at the table, the lady to my left, and joined the conversation. She didn’t speak much, but her voice was soft and clear, and gradually the conversation deepened.....
I could not tear my eyes away from her; her very presence captivated me… Whether under the compulsion of drink or not, I leaned over to my friend and whispered, “I think I might be falling for her…”....
Just at that moment, completely unexpected, I felt her arms slide around my chest and pull me into her. My heart started pounding as she inhaled my scent deeply and whispered into my ear, “I don’t know why… but something about you… calls to me…”....
Suddenly we were interrupted by the arrival of the prophets, the Ice Queen and the Queen of White arrived, very late, and after much blustering and grand standing, immediately tried to leave again. We forced them to stay and reveal the rest of the prophesy, that which they had withheld from us. With a sigh, they warned that some of us would not like what we would hear. The Ice Queen drew herself up and pointed across the room at the woman sitting beside me, “You girl! You are the one who holds this fate! The Enemy cannot be slain by weapons or poisons, the only way to destroy it, is for you to go into the very heart of the Enemy, drink the Tea of Eternal Darkness, and use your death to bring death into the Enemy’s heart, then the Enemy will break!” The room erupted after her announcement and I roared defiantly, while she sat silent, still, and cold beside me. Half the room defied the Queen’s announcement, while half shouted for her to get on her way; one death for many lives was a small price to pay… especially since it wasn’t them or their loved ones doing the dieing…....
The Queen of White stood and the room silenced, “The rest of the prophecy, the man who bears the mark of the star; he is the one fated to deliver her to her destiny!” My heart dropped out of me, and all sensation stopped save for a burning spot on my upper arm, where my pentagram birthmark blighted my skin and my hope. None knew about it save me, but it was undeniable… once mere coincidence, now fate… We were drawn to each other before… and now we were bound to each other… “He is the one, who must feed her the tea…” No…....
The Queens turned to depart, and this time there was so much turmoil in the room that they were able to leave. She turned to me and I held her head to my chest against my pounding heart, as we watched the Queens’ ship depart… “I swear to you, I will find some other way… I won’t let you die…” I won’t sacrifice you…....
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I shifted fitfully, almost opening my eyes for a moment, the rest of the dream dissolving into splinters like a half-remembered sci-fi epic; with one image remaining lodged in my mind’s eye… I held her dying body in my arms, trapped in some confined place like a closet or something, while chaos reigned outside. I whispered my love to her even as I held her, and felt the chill creeping into her flesh…
And then the dreams consumed me again, with one far more familiar than the rest…
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It chased me, the dark being just behind me without any face or body; yet real nonetheless, and inescapable. I ran with all my might down the forest path, passed people I knew from school; I ran by Fen, and tried to shake him but he merely gazed into space with empty eyes, and with a wretched powerless feeling in my gut, my body continued running against my will, leaving him behind. I watched in horror as the onrushing wall of darkness enveloped him and tore him away from me all over again.......
I ran and ran, with my chest burning with exertion and my eyes blurred by tears. As I ran with all my might down the path, there again loomed the massive black iron gate, the cold moon hanging with it’s blue halo overhead, almost centered above the gate’s frame.....
I tore open the gate and ran inside my classroom; but the room kept shifting, I’d look one way and it was my old English room, I turned again and it was Mrs. Ashcroft’s Art room. Finally I turned around completely and stood in the middle of a dark cavern; the girl with the brown hair and emerald eyes from my other dream standing in front of me, smiling. I screamed as I ran for her, seeing the darkness crawl into the room behind her. She held out her hand and smiled beautifully at me as my words of warning were choked off by fear; unable to scream, my legs were bound in cement and no matter how hard I fought, I just couldn’t reach her!....
With victorious hunger, the faceless silhouette of darkness reached out to consume her…....
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With a blood curdling shriek I thrashed, fighting free of unfamiliar blankets in a sinister room, until finally falling completely out of my bed onto the floor, hyperventilating.....
I kept panting out one word, and that was how John found me when he came downstairs to check on me. Shaking, disoriented, and weeping; whispering over and over…....
“Loki… Loki… No, not Loki…”....
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