The Witch and the Werewolf (14 page)

“
Hiya,” Dutch said with a
wave. “I’m looking for Eleanor Kent. Would she happen to be
home?”

Cassandra walked backwards carefully down the
stairs and kept the rifle on the man as he followed her down into
the basement. He wasn't looking at her, though, and instead was
staring out into the dark wastes, sighting through the scope of his
rifle. She wasn’t exactly sure what to think of him. He was very
cute from what she could tell through all the muck and grime he was
coated in. The bulky winter gear hid what she was sure was a lean,
fit body. The man was a soldier, no doubt, and had taken three of
the wolves with silver laced ammunition. That fact alone indicated
they were, at least in some part, on the same side.

"Who sent you?" she asked,
wishing he'd look at her and acknowledge the danger he was in. She
was the one with the gun on him. "Hey, look at me when I'm talking
to you."

The soldier turned to her
and smiled. Beneath the grime, icicles hanging from his clothing,
mud and blood, he could have been pretty cute. Stop it, she ordered
herself. This isn't the time for that. And then he smiled a smile
that melted her.

“
You’re cute. I’ll give
you that,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But it's hard to look at
you and keep watch at the same time. Now if you'll get your stuff
together, we'll get out of here before the big bad wolves come
back."

"Who are you,
exactly?"

"Oh, sorry," the soldier
said, smiling again. "You can call me Dutch. Father O'Leary sent
me. I’m here to rescue you.”

The schoolboy hero tone
ended any creeping curiosity she had about the soldier out of
uniform. “I don’t need rescuing. I was doing pretty well on my
own.”

“
You were,” he agreed
without reservation. “But they were coming in before long. I don’t
know how long you could have held them off. I’ve fought one
already… they are tough.”

“
I’d have been fine,” she
said, unsure why she was so miffed.

“
Where's your mother?”
Dutch asked, changing the subject. “We need to get out of
here."

"You're here for my
mother?"

"Yes, and you. Is she
near? We’re in a bit of a time crunch here.”

The priest from the Church
of the Dead Wolf had sent someone to get her mother. What sort of
plan did had they hatched for the end? For the thousandth time that
day she wished her mother were still alive to guide her.

"And if you wouldn't mind
not shooting me, while you get her, I'll keep an eye out here just
in case they come back.

"She's dead." She wanted
to cry. Helping Jeremy had kept her focused, kept her strong. But
now she just wanted to sit down and cry and forget everything that
had happened.

"Oh," he said, turning
back to the dark wastes. “I’m sorry.”

"That's it? Oh? That's all
you’re going to say?” She was angry. Her mother was dead, the world
had ended, and all this guy had to say was ‘oh’. He was cute, no
doubt, but he didn’t have the right to blow off her mother’s
death.

“
Cass,” Jeremy said
softly, bringing her tirade to an abrupt stop by using her
nickname, something he hadn’t known. “It’ss okay.”

Her hands shook, both from
the werewolf attack and from the appearance of the armed stranger.
It was reaction, nothing more. Strangers were quite literally
danger now and her body had responded in kind.

“
I’m sorry,” she said
sullenly, not lowering the gun. “But the world’s over and all you
can do is stare out there into the wastes. And you come in here
asking about my mother…”

“
I understand,” he said,
still not looking at her. “And I am sorry about your mother. But
I’ll be honest here. A week ago I was just an ordinary working
guy,” he began. “I’ve got a job, bills… you know, life. Then I’m
hired by this crazy Irish priest to capture a werewolf. I didn’t
actually believe in werewolves. It doesn’t really matter why I took
the job. I did. And you know what? The damn thing was a werewolf.
Eight feet tall and full of teeth and angry. A werewolf. I couldn’t
believe it. But I did my job. I got the werewolf to the priest and
then we weathered the end of the world. So here I am, end of the
world, and in need of a job. So he sends me for your mother. I get
here across a ruined city, get shot at, nearly eaten by the
aforementioned wolves, come to rescue you, and I get lip. I’m sorry
that I don’t cry with you for your dead mother. The world died last
night. It’s a bad ol’ world that’s just gotten worse. Everybody’s
lost someone.”

“
Why I…” she was in shock
that he’d talk to her like some spoiled little rich girl. All she
wanted was a little sympathy. But deep down she knew he was right.
She’d taken the wrong time to lash out at someone who’d gone
through god knew what in order to come help her.

“
I came here for your
mother. She’s dead, so there, mission done. I’ll just be on my
way.”

“
Cass,” Jeremy said again.
“He really is a good guy. I can see it.”

That drew a glance from
the man but he didn’t question he boy’s ability to see without
eyes.

Cassandra took a deep
breath. “I’m sorry. I understand you’ve been through as much as we
have. It’s all…”

The man looked around at
her, eyeing her up and down once before forcing a smile. He looked
exhausted. “No, I’m sorry. Let it go. We do need to move, though,
if we’re going to get out of here before they come
back.”

Jeremy stood, holding the
blanket around him, and went to the door, staring to the south.
“They’re regrouping. I think they’re going to bring the females
this time. There are…” he paused, counting, “thirty five of them,
including the little ones.”

“
How in the world can you
know that?” the man asked.

“
I can see
them.”

“
You don’t have eyes,” he
said, perplexed.

“
It’s a brand new world,”
Cassandra said, scrambling to find the boys clothes. “What do we
take?”

The soldier turned around
once more and quickly scanned the basement. “Ammunition, water, and
a few of those MRE packs. Put on as many layers of clothing as you
can get on and still move. Oh… hey… is that silver
ammunition?”

“
Yes,” Cassandra
replied.

“
Pass me a few mags. Get
the boy dressed and let’s go. They’ll be back soon.”

“
So what’s the plan?”
Cassandra asked, after her initial anger faded relieved to have
someone else in charge for a change. She was also relieved that
there was no mention of leaving Jeremy behind.

“
We can’t go the way I
came. The ship channel is frozen now and, even it wasn’t, the
water’s running the wrong way. I don’t think the Washburn Tunnel
will be any better. I’m guessing it’s a solid block of ice by now.
So that only leaves the 610 bridge over what’s left of the ship
channel.”

“
It’s still standing?”
Jeremy asked.

“
Yup,” the soldier
responded. “But it’s not empty and there’s going to be a problem
there.”

“
What problem?”

“
The bridge is being held
by bad guys. But it’s the only way through.”

“
How do you know they are
bad guys?” she asked.

“
I watched theme execute
survivors. I can only imagine they’re thinning the ranks so
whatever supplies they have will last longer. I took a couple of
them out, in the process, but there were a lot of them. It won’t be
easy, but it’s dark out, now. And I think it’s going to stay that
way. That and we have the element of surprise. I doubt they’ll be
expecting me to come back.”

“
But they’re just regular
people?” Cassandra asked. “Not werewolves?”

“
Yup,” the soldier tapped
the rifle in his hands. “Bring regular ammunition too.”

Bridge Town Blues

She sensed fear and panic among the males as they
returned to where the females huddled with the cubs against the
bitter cold in a hollow, trying to keep out of the raging wind. Ice
was forming in their fur and the cold was all penetrating. The
alpha was furious, though, and she watched as it tore into several
of the defenders.

The other wolves cowered,
tails between their legs, heads held low.

The alpha was angry that
one little girl had held them off. The hated silver had torn
through their ranks and many of the newer pack members had
fallen.

Dutch paused a quarter mile out from the slaughter at the
base of the bridge. He’d been maintaining a furious pace through
the ruins, barely allowing the young woman and boy a chance to
catch their breath. The wolves were near, howling in the night, but
they were going to have to rest before they attempted what he was
planning. If he got lucky, he thought, maybe both problems would
take care of themselves without him having to do much. The lights
of the bridge glowed in the distance and the girl stared at them
longingly.

“
I’m Dutch, by the way,”
he said, offering his hand. “We haven’t had much of a chance to do
a proper meet and greet.”

“
Cassandra Kent,” the girl
responded with a heartfelt smile, taking his hand. “I guess it’s
nice to meet you.”

Cassandra was exquisite,
he thought. In another time and another place he’d be interested in
the girl. The way her dark black hair whipped about the pale skin
of her face took him aback. Her piercing blue eyes were bright,
even in the dim light they found themselves in. The girl hadn’t
done much to change his initial impression that she was a spoiled
little princess more concerned about herself than anything else.
That she hadn’t whined during his forced march through the ruins
was a plus.

“
And you are?” he said,
turning to the eyeless boy. The kid creeped him out to no end. How
the boy could see to take his hand, however meekly, was beyond
him.

“
I’m Jeremy,” the boy
said.

“
And somehow you can see,
Jeremy,” Dutch said. “Even though you don’t have any
eyes.”

The boy shrugged.
“Something happened during Worm Fall. My dad made me look at it and
then, well, this.”

“
You said I was a good
guy. How do you know that? How do you know I’m not taking you
somewhere to kill you?”

“
Are you taking us
someplace to kill us?” Cassandra asked, though the even expression
on her face didn’t change. “You could have tried that in the
bunker.”

He liked how she said
‘try’, implying that though he might have tried, he might not have
gotten away with it. “No, of course not. I’m doing exactly what I
told you I was doing. But there’s no way for the kid to know
that.”

“
I’m not a kid. I’m almost
nine.”

“
Right. So how do you see
me?”

“
What does it matter?”
Cassandra asked, becoming annoyed. “You said it yourself. Three
days ago you didn’t believe in werewolves. Now you do and there are
more than just the wolves. I’m apparently a witch. Jeremy… he’s
some kind of wizard or something.”

“
I like that,” the boy
added. “A wizard. Like Harry Potter.”

“
Right. So there are
werewolves, witches, and wizards. It is what it is. We can’t do
anything about it now,” she continued.

“
Whoa there, missy,” Dutch
said. “I wasn’t trying to start an argument. I was just asking how
he did it. Calm down.”

“
Don’t tell me to calm
down.”

Dutch threw up his hands.
“Look, I’m sorry. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot here.” It was
always his luck. He was forever getting tied up with the wrong sort
of girls. Cassandra Kent had bad idea written all over her and yet
he couldn’t get over how cute she looked angry. “Let’s just stick
to the plan.”

“
Which is what,
exactly?”

“
We’re going to start at
this end of the bridge and shoot our way to the other end. Easy.”
He knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as he made it out to be. It
was going to be a tough slog up the bridge and over, but hopefully
the ruckus would draw the wolves out and then the survivors on the
bridge would be more worried about the wolves than they would be he
and the kids.

“
And why should I shoot
these people? They’ve never done anything to me.”

“
I told you they were bad
people.”

“
And all we have to go on
is your word.”

“
He isn’t lying, Cass,”
Jeremy said. “They aren’t just bad people. They are evil people. I
can see them from here.”

The girl hesitated. She
obviously put great stock in the boy’s words. “I don’t know. It
doesn’t seem like the best plan there is. Maybe we could go across
the river, instead. It’s iced over.”

“
Who knows if that ice is
stable? I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any desire to go
for a swim in the drink,” Dutch told her and then sighed. “Look,
you don’t have to like me. But you can trust me here. I’ve been in
this business a long time. Over that bridge, through these clowns,
is the best way. They aren’t professional soldiers. If they were, I
wouldn’t have it made here this time. We get over that bridge and
I’ll have you at the Church in less than a day. Then we can go our
separate ways.”