The Mountain's Shadow (20 page)

Just when I thought I could rest, I heard a low chuckle, and it was upon me—sharp claws in my shoulders and hot breath on my neck. I rolled and grappled with it into another clearing, and as I lay on my back, pinned by its weight, I could see the sharp fangs in the moonlight, the tongue lolling as it panted over me. The black wolf, but this time it was a wolf-man in ragged khaki trousers, its chest finely muscled and furred.
 

I struggled, but it held me with one claw/hand around my throat. It reached into its pocket with the other paw and drew forth a long silver wand. The thick needle flashed in the moonlight, and I knew if he jabbed me with it, I would become one of them. I opened my mouth to scream as he pointed it at my left shoulder, but no sound came out. I woke covered in sweat.

“Joanie?” Lonna knocked on the door and poked her head in. “Are you okay? I heard a whimper.”

I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyeballs until I saw stars. “I just had a weird dream.”
Why are they always after me?

“Tell me about it.”

I recounted as best I could, and when I got to the part with the needle, I jumped up. “That’s it.”

“What is it?”

“Hang on.” I pulled the computer out of rest mode and collapsed some of the data so I had two columns side by side: Tdap vaccination date and symptom onset date. The symptom onset was clearly two to three weeks after the Tdap, or tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis vaccine, commonly given around age eleven. “That’s the dream. The CLS—it’s getting to the victims through the vaccines.”

She clapped her hands. “Brilliant! Who would suspect the vaccinations?”

“But it’s not common enough to be showing up in every single pre-adolescent. There have to be some other factors.” I stood up. “I’ve got to get out of here—I can’t breathe. I’m going to take a walk.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, but thanks for offering. I need to be able to think out loud and talk to myself to work this out. Having company would only distract me.”

“Be careful, then.”

I looked at the clock. Two thirty. I had only been asleep for an hour? It had felt like several. “If I’m not back by four, send a search party.”

“Right. Werewolves to the rescue. Are you sure you’d feel safe with that?”

“It depends on which one you send.”

The puzzled look on her face as we walked out of the office told me she would ponder what I meant for a while, but I didn’t care. I felt like I had finally made progress in solving the mystery of the missing children.

I walked across the lawn and resisted the urge to look back and see if I was being followed, or at least watched. I found the trail leading into the woods and took the north fork, which would bring me to a bluff over the river and my grandfather’s “thinking spot”. It was amazing how quickly my feet remembered the terrain, the dirt path with underlying rock exposed by the rain and erosion. I wondered if anyone else had been this way recently, if my grandfather had gone out to his thinking spot soon before he had disappeared. The sunlight made dappled patterns through the leaves, but the slight metallic smell in the air told me a storm was building close by. I didn’t care—a little rain wouldn’t hurt me.

I stepped on to the bluff and walked to the front, where a boulder with an indentation that was just the perfect size for an adult bottom stood and looked over the woods and the land below. To the left, a few small trees held on, but there was mostly a drop-off. I could see across the hills, the trees a patchwork of green with fading that hinted of autumn. Below me, the river whispered, but I could only see glimpses of it through the greenery. I sat on a rock and just watched the clouds, felt the space, and was reminded this was the first time I’d been truly alone in almost a week.

I let my mind wander over the past few days, the revelations about the guys and the suspicions I had about my own family and the Landover Curse. Up there, alone, I knew I would have to face memories I’d avoided for years. I would have to read the contents of the box my grandfather had pointed out to me as well as the letters from my childhood.

“Oh, Andrew,” I moaned, and a drop plopped on my jeans. I went to wipe the tear from my cheek, but another one fell, then another. I buried my face in my hands as all the grief from the past—and the past week—welled up and spilled out in great, heaving sobs. The biggest insult was that Robert wasn’t there to hold me and comfort me, to let me cry on his shoulder.

When I raised my face to the sky, I saw the clouds had turned dark gray, and an ominous rumble was enough to send me scurrying off the bluff and back toward the Manor. Soon sheets of rain fell, and I had to stop to get my bearings as the path seemed to taper off into the woods. Had I taken the wrong path off the bluff? I didn’t know if there was more than one, but then, things may have changed since my childhood. Righteous indignation welled up. I’d been through enough, and now the forest would betray me? I picked a direction that felt right and headed that way, picking my way through the underbrush.

I walked along, pelted by raindrops so big they may as well have been small water balloons. My clothes were soaked completely, and I couldn’t help but ponder how miserable I was. It was all Robert’s fault. If he hadn’t screwed up my appeal to keep my job, I wouldn’t be in this mess.

But then
, the little voice at the back of my head told me,
he would be the most welcome person to you right now
,
and I had to admit it was right.

I continued to walk through the forest, completely lost, and then the rain let up enough for me to hear something behind me. It matched me step for step, only a beat behind. I quickened my pace, and it did as well. The image of the black wolf came to mind, the way it had stalked me and driven me into hiding on the night of the fire, and then how it had reappeared the night of Louise’s death. Had it played with me enough? Was it waiting to finally drag me to my doom?

Strong arms wrapped around me and tackled me to the ground on a bed of pine needles. The smell, the same as in my dream, burned my nostrils. I screamed at the top of my lungs and brought my knee up to my attacker’s groin. He grunted, but laid on top of me, which completely immobilized me. I squirmed anyway.

“Will you be still?” asked a familiar voice.

I stopped writhing. “Leo?”

“Who else?” He raised himself up on his hands and looked at me through rain-soaked hair. I became acutely aware of his thighs across mine, his face only inches away, and his hair dripping into my eyes.

I turned my head away. “Okay, okay, I surrender.” Then a thought crossed my mind, and I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Oh, for God’s sake, what are you laughing at?”

I rolled on to my side, now laughing so hard I couldn’t speak for a moment. He sat back on his heels and watched me.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I sat up. “The thought just hit me that I’m very glad you don’t smell like wet dog.”

His lips twitched. “Actually, it’s a good thing I do smell like a dog, otherwise I wouldn’t have found you. Do you have any idea how far away from the Manor you are?”

I looked around as though I could divine my location from the trees. “I’m completely lost.”

“Well, it’s going to be a bit of a walk back. Come on.” He stood and held out his hand to me. I took it, and he helped me to my feet.

“How is your wrist?” he asked as we walked back the direction I had come.

I held it up. “Fine. You didn’t damage it when you tackled me.”

“Good. I was trying not to.”

“Did Lonna send you?”

“No. I saw you leave the Manor and was worried when the storm blew in and you didn’t.”

“Are you my guardian angel now?”

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Now that is one job I would
not
want. You’re little, but you get yourself into some big messes.”

“This is actually the lesser of the two today.” I remembered Kyra’s running after us at the junkyard. “I think your girlfriend tried to shoot me earlier.”

“Who?” The shocked expression on his face seemed genuine, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Kyra. She came after us today when we talked to Ricky, the junkyard guy.”

“I know Ricky. He’s a good guy. Kyra tried to shoot you?”

“She ran after us yelling something about a man-stealer.”

He brushed leaves off his jeans. “And she had a gun?”

“Not that I could see, but she reached in her pocket.”

“If she was fresh off the hunt, who knows what she was thinking?” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “She lost a lot when she developed CLS. We all did, but it really screwed up her lifestyle.”

I crossed my arms. Was he actually defending her? “And what did she lose?”

“Her business. Her home. Her life. She ran a modeling agency in Memphis and Little Rock. Her main clients were girls whose parents were willing to pay her outrageous fees for classes, but to her credit, she was very good at placing them with companies in New York and L.A. When she started disappearing at night and news of her erratic behavior got around, her contacts dried up, then her clients, and she finally had to close the agency.” His voice became a little hoarse, and I could tell Kyra’s loss echoed his own. “She moved up here, where her parents had a cabin. They’d died the year before and left her a little money, and she found a place where she wouldn’t be bothered and where she could exist as a werewolf.”

“Wow.” My problems seemed a little better compared to having lost everything. “She shouldn’t have come after us, though.”

He turned away and studied the gloom ahead. “Who am I to say what she should or shouldn’t have done? We all make mistakes, Joanie.”

It was my turn to look away as my wrist gave a little throb. Or maybe it was my heart. We walked the rest of the way in silence.

Chapter Thirteen

“Thank God!” Lonna threw open the kitchen door and hugged me close in spite of my wet clothes. “I didn’t know what had happened to you. You were gone for hours.”

“And you didn’t send the cavalry?”

“Ron said Leo had gone after you. I figured he would be best since he knows the woods.”

I looked at Leo, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. It struck me that Kyra was his pack-mate, and who was I? Nothing but an ivory-tower princess who may or may not know the secret to their cures. And if they were cured, would they then live happily ever after?

Lonna distracted me from my thoughts by throwing a giant bath sheet around me. “Go on up and take a shower. Gabriel will have dinner waiting when you get done.”

The butler was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. “Are you okay?” he asked. The concern in his eyes almost made me start crying again, but I felt ashamed for having gotten lost and then for wanting to wallow in my self-pity and grief, especially since others had lost so much more.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Good, then. I’ve drawn a nice, hot bath for you and warmed your robe and slippers.”

“Thank you, Gabriel.”

He inclined his head, and I searched for something more in his smile. His face didn’t change, but he squeezed the top of my arm as I walked past him.

I felt more human after my bath and walked down the stairs to find Leo, Ron and Lonna in the sitting room. Gabriel had retreated into the kitchen and, I found when he handed me a glass of shiraz without saying a word, into his formal persona.

“Galbraith called while you were upstairs,” Lonna said. “I told him you’d call him back when you were available.”

“You didn’t tell him I was bathing, did you? He’s the last person I want thinking of me naked.” I caught Leo’s glance and felt the heat in my chest and cheeks. “I’ll make the call in my office.”

I sat at the desk and looked around. Something seemed different, but I couldn’t place it. I didn’t care. I was tired, hungry, and just wanted to get dinner and go to bed.

“Galbraith.” The clipped tone was the same, but it seemed like ages ago that I’d seen him.

“This is Joanie Fisher. I was told that you’d called?”

“Ah, yes, Doctor Fisher. This is regarding the butler your grandfather retained. He apparently has an interesting background.”

My stomach clenched, and I put the wineglass on the desk. “What kind of background?”

“One of your colleagues is coming into town tomorrow. He didn’t want me to say who because he wanted to surprise you, but he has some interesting information about this Gabriel person.”

“Be straight with me, Galbraith. Are we in any sort of danger?”

“None foreseeable.”

“Right.” Well, this was getting nowhere. “I’d also like any papers my grandfather may have left with you. Are there any files?”

“There is one. He wanted me to hold on to it until you’d seen the Manor and had become acquainted with some of its secrets.”

“Right, and now I’ve got more secrets than I can handle.” We set up a time for me to meet with him and this mystery person at two o’clock the following afternoon at his office in Little Rock.

“What was that about?” Lonna asked as I sat down.

“I’ve got to go into Little Rock tomorrow to meet with Galbraith. He’s been holding on to some of my grandfather’s papers for me.”