Inheritance (The Dark Gifts) (2 page)

The Jason thing intently watched her move, but remained still.

“Okay.  So you’re being good now.  Are you all right?”  A nervous giggle erupted from her chest. 

Jason shifted and cocked his head to the side.  

Sarah took a step toward the cage.  “It’s okay.  You don’t have to be afraid.  We’re going to be all right.  Everything will be fine, just stay calm.” 

The Jason thing whimpered again. 

As Sarah guardedly approached the door of the cage, a low growl rumbled from his chest.  Her body jerked in reaction.  She hesitated.  “Don’t get prickly on me.”  Her voice remained calm, but shivers continued to run through her body. 

Sarah rolled her shoulders and neck and shaking her arms, tried to release the tension built up in her muscles.  This was happening and she would deal with it.  End of story.  As questions, doubts, and fear sought to reenter her mind she squelched them. 
Always logic, Sarah.  Mind first, emotions later.
  She almost laughed at herself for repeating her favorite mantra in this situation.  Luckily it worked as usual and her heartbeat slowed.

The creature yawned and stretched to its full length.

“There’s a good boy.  See?  You know me.  You know you love me.”

Sarah wasn’t positive, but she thought the wolf actually rolled its eyes at her before turning on its back.  Certain he had control of himself, she took another step forward.

Jason remained calm.  His jaw dropped and a long red tongue plopped out as he panted and watched her.

She took a deep breath and slowly released it.  “See?  You’re fine.  I’m fine.  We’re both fine.”

This time there was an obvious, exaggerated eye roll. 

Oh yeah, this was definitely Jason.  “Well, what do you expect?  I don’t know how much of you is in there.  I mean you seem to be doing fine, but how do
I
know
?  It’s not like I’ve read, ‘So Your Brother’s a Werewolf for Dummies.’  I’m pretty sure nobody’s written that one, yet.”

Sitting up, he barked.

“Okay, let’s see how smart you are.  Come sit by the cage door.”

The wolf stood, shook out his coat, and trotted up to the door. 

“Good boy!  That’s good.  See, I knew you were still in there.”

Sarah paced the floor.  “What am I supposed to do with you?”  She stopped in front of him and gazed into his eyes.  “I didn’t believe you, you know?  How could I believe you?”

“Woof.” 

“Oh that’s easy for you to say.  You’re there, and I’m over here doing all the work.” 

“Woof.”

“And I was so worried about getting you a counselor.  They don’t even have therapists for this,” Sarah muttered and began pacing again.

The wolf watched her as she thought.  Its eyes had grown luminous, almost intelligent, and it appeared to be thinking as well.  She sat on the floor cross-legged and stared into its eyes waiting for something to happen.  Although she had somehow managed to gain control of her nerves, her right knee bounced up and down.  She placed her hand over it, pressed down, and stopped the movement.  “Can you speak?  Do you still have your voice?”

The animal let out another slow growl.

“If I touch you, will you bite me?”

It rolled to its back.

Sarah paused, and then inched forward to the iron bars.  A beam of moonlight cascaded through the basement window illuminating the cell as she reached toward him.  The Jason thing let out a rage-filled roar, and beat at the bars.  She recoiled and fell backwards. Leaping to her feet, she watched for any sign that the bars would give way this time.  A few moments later, certain they would hold, she yanked the notepad from her pocket.  When she reached for her pen and discovered it missing, her eyes darted over the concrete floor.  It lay several feet away resting against the side of a box.  She retrieved it quickly and jotted down:  Moonlight has aggressive effects on subject. 

As he began to calm, Sarah glanced at the small window.  The beam had disappeared.  Not a speck of light filtered through the dirty glass.  Jason sat at the cage door looking like a scolded puppy.  His size still intimidated, but he seemed completely docile. 

“Okay, are you going to behave yourself this time?” 

His eyes remained fixed on her as his head lowered. 

“It looks to me like the moon is bringing on a wildness, Jase.”

He sniffed in her direction before lowering his body to the floor.  His head moved back and forth as he watched her once again pacing the small room.

“I don’t know what to do with you.”

The wolf stood up and went round in circles.

“Yeah.  That’s what we're doing, chasing our own tails.”

It sat on its hind legs and whimpered as it peered at the basement window.

“I know, hun.  We’ll just hang out here 'til morning.  Once you’re back to normal we'll figure out what to do.”

Sarah woke with her face pressed against cold concrete.  It took a few seconds to remember exactly why she was there.  As memory ignited, she rose and made her way over to Jason.  Curled in a ball and shivering, he appeared to be sleeping.  She unlocked the cage and threw a blanket over him.  Using her foot, she pushed his shoulder.  “Wake up, Jase,” she said and gave him another nudge.  “Dangit, we don’t have time for this.  Wake up.”

Jason groaned as he stirred, opened his eyes, and then shot up off the floor with the blanket held tight around him.  “What happened?  Are you okay?”  The words tumbled from his mouth.

“I’m fine.”  She brushed a strand of hair from her face.  “It happened just like you said it would.  Did something bite you?”

“What do you mean did something bite me?  No.  I haven’t even had a mosquito bite this year.”

“Well, if movies are correct, then something had to b--”  

The shocked and appalled look on her brother’s face as his eyes locked on something just to the left of her, stopped her mid sentence.  Sarah turned her head to follow Jason’s gaze.  About midway up, the bars on that side of the cage curved out and down, making the door look like an old bicycle rack. 

“I could have killed you,” he whispered.

“You were fine when the moonlight wasn’t shining in the window.  You need to board the window up today so it can't get through.  I have an idea; there was something I noticed about you last night.  Tonight, I want to try an experiment.  When it takes you--” 

Jason turned and grabbed her by the shoulders.  Face pinched, tears filled his eyes.  “You won’t be here tonight, or any night, ever again!  Don’t you get it?  I could have killed you.” 

Although she was four years younger, Sarah had always seemed more like an older sibling than a giggly younger sister.  Keeping her voice smooth and steady, she answered him calmly,
“You need to listen to me.  We don't have time for you to crack up.  You have to fix this cage, board up the window with one large piece of plywood, and bring the couch or recliner down here. I am not sleeping on the floor tonight.”

He gave her a gentle shove as he spoke, pushing her away.  “There will be no tonight.  You will lock me in this cage and you will leave.  Period.  I’m not arguing about it!”

Already irritated, and knowing they were running short of time, her temper overrode her mouth.  Her shoulders squared as her hands settled on her hips.  Even if he hadn’t seen the glare in her eyes, her voice was a dead giveaway that she was done playing nice.   “Well if you would stop going all big brother on me, shut up, and listen…I could explain
why
I can be here and why you
need
me to be here!”

Jason met her gaze for a moment.  The muscles in his jaw clenched as he returned her scalding look with one of his own.  Without saying a word, he sighed and lifted his chin in defiance.  Stepping around her, he made his way up the stairs.  He was starving, felt like hell, and was in no mood for her crazy logic.  She wasn’t staying and that was all there was to it.  End of argument. 

Sarah followed behind.  No one knew her brother like she did.  Once he'd eaten and drank some coffee, he'd settle down and listen. 

It felt strange to be cooking eggs and toast in h
er aunt’s quaint, sunny kitchen after what had transpired the night before.  Jason slammed his fist against the table three times without uttering a word. 

“Why don’t we just have the conversation instead of you making it up in your head?” she laughed.  “You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

“I don’t need to know what you’re going to say because you’re not staying.  You're going to lock the cage and leave.”

“Quit griping and eat.”  The plate clattered on the table sending a few small bits of scrambled egg flying as she dropped it in front of him. 

They sat in complete silence for nearly twenty minutes while Jason drank his usual three cups of coffee.  Seeing he was finally caffeinated and had calmed some, she broached the subject for what she hoped was the last time.  “Okay, before you say anything else, or start yelling again, I want you to listen to what I have to say.  First of all, yes, you are very dangerous when you’re in that…condition.    But when the moon isn't shining in the window, you’re docile and sweet and seem to know exactly who I am.  You listened to me and even tried to communicate.”

“Oh
, my God.  Sarah, it’s not a pet you can train.  I know you’ve always wanted a dog, but this is ridiculous.”

“First off, you turn into a wolf, not a dog.  I’m not a complete moron, and I didn’t say
I
could train you.  I said you were reasonable and intelligent.”

Jason’s face turned pink as the muscles in his neck began ticking out an erratic rhythm.

“I think if you spend several nights caged with the moon shut out, you can learn to control it.  I’m not talking about letting you out of the cage, Jase.  I’m talking about giving you time to get control so you don’t have to spend three nights a month locked up.”  He looked so sad and depressed, it nearly broke her heart.  Sarah leaned forward and took his hand. 

“I'm a monster.  I killed people.”  Jason‘s voice shook as his eyes pleaded with her to understand. 

“You are not a monster.  The other thing isn’t even a monster.  Even changed, you are still Jason, just a really hairy version.”

It took thirty minutes to talk him into letting her stay and watch.  She could hear Jason banging away in the basement making repairs to the cage.  When the kitchen was tidy, she headed up to the attic to find their old video camera and do some research.

The stuffy attic smelled like must.  Boxes were stacked and scattered over wooden planks that served as a floor.  Neither of them had spent much time in the attic.  Answers lay in those boxes.  Answers to questions they were afraid to ask, although Jason would never admit it.  Not that she had a lot of room to talk; she hadn’t wanted to look either.

Neither of them knew much about their ancestry.  As children, they had been orphaned and placed in foster care.  They were luckier than most, because they'd been able to stay together.  When Jason turned sixteen, he found a job and started saving money.  By the time he was eighteen, he’d saved enough to rent his own place and take his little sister with him. They lived in the tiny, two-room apartment for six months before receiving notification from the probate office that an elderly aunt had died and left them her home and assets.  It was a huge shock because they’d never known they had any family.  There was no information available to them about what had happened to their parents, or how they had ended up in foster care.  Jason had vague memories of their parents, but Sarah had none.  She was only two when they were placed in the first
foster home.

The only information they had ever been given was a short cryptic letter written by the dead aunt.  The message read:

Dear children,

Sorry I wasn’t around to help you.  I didn’t have the time or energy.  Sorry I won’t be around for what follows, you will figure out what to do.  Know your parents loved you, and in leaving you this house, I hope I at least did my part.  When the darkness comes, hide.  It is all you can do.

That was it.  No muss, no fuss, and it didn’t make much sense at all.  Until now.  Now Sarah wondered what kind of ‘darkness’ her aunt was talking about.  If there was a clue, it could be in the attic.  And if it was up there, she would find it.

As she rummaged through boxes and numerous old trunks, she found links to their past.  Photo albums filled with pictures, several legal documents, even an old genealogy chart dating back to the fifteen hundreds.  Glancing over it, she noticed the main part of her family had lived in Romania until the late eighteen hundreds.  She sat it aside with the albums and two small boxes containing paperwork.

The heat of the day warmed the dust-filled room making it hard to breathe.  Sweat oozed from her pores leaving trails of clean on her dirt-smudged face.  As she continued working through the mass of boxes, an eerie silence settled in the small house.  Sarah poked her head out of the small rectangular opening to the attic, and called, “Hey!  What are you doing?  Did you get everything done?”