Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (12 page)

Not toward the food, but toward the thin man sitting in the plush chair.

Chapter Thirteen

The black wolf flew through the air, her wild amber eyes locked on her target. A blur of white met her charge and knocked her out of the air, and the wolves tumbled across the hut. In a flash the black wolf was on her feet. The white wolf lunged for her but she dodged the flashing teeth and ran toward the seated male.
Stop! Stop!
She could hear the other, the human who locked her away just as this scrawny male had done, trying to keep her from her attack. But the wolf would not be denied, not this time. She was free of the cage, free of the other, and soon she would be free of this place.

The fury of her charge took the humans surrounding her by surprise. The underfed male with the fur on his face started to rise and then the wolf was on him. She drove him back into his chair with her weight. The other was fighting for control but was too weak to stop the wolf. Her muzzle arrowed for his throat, her jaws opening wide in anticipation of the first bite.

A crackling sound, liked autumn leaves under her feet, filled her ears and cold lightning shot through her body. The wolf yelped with pain. Her muscles locked, refusing to obey her. The seated male pushed her away and the wolf fell to the hard concrete floor. She struggled to regain control. Her paws scrabbled at the unyielding surface.

The white wolf was suddenly there, slamming into the black wolf with such force that she slid across the floor. The wolf’s fury was absolute, a raging fire that burned away everything around her. Through sheer force of will she found her feet and whirled to face her opponent.

The white wolf snarled and lunged. The black wolf braced to meet the challenge, and instantly saw her one advantage. She was still fighting the after-effects of the shock; the trembling weakness that turned her limbs to dead weight. The other wolf could kill her in seconds - but the other wolf wasn’t trying to kill her, just keep her off-balance long enough for the humans to intercede.

The black wolf had no such limitations.

She waited until the last moment and then, when the other wolf filled her vision like a wave of snow, she moved. Her rigid front legs pushed off the concrete floor like pistons and she rose on her hind legs. For a moment the wolves were night and day, light and shadow, twins different only in their color as they slammed chest-to-chest. The black wolf reached for her target.

The white wolf screamed and threw herself backwards. She was changing even as she fell, and when she landed it was as a human. Her long white hair sprawled across the floor, her pale hands clamped to her throat, her blood flooding through her fingers and pooling on the floor. The black wolf spit out a mouthful of fur and flesh and swung her head to face the humans.

The thin male was shouting. She grinned.

Without warning the wolf’s body lurched to one side.
You have to stop this! Now!
Tremors raced through her limbs as the other tried to take control from her. The wolf turned her attention inward to where the human female was, the human that kept her from running loose, kept her caged, kept her in the company of other humans when even she herself wanted to be free.

In her blood rage and madness the wolf tore at the chain that kept her attached to the other. When the chain didn’t break she attacked the anchor, the human female, driving the other back into the darkness deep inside. The other called to her but the wolf was past the point of insensibility and she ravaged the human until finally the other was quiet and still.

The wolf came back to herself and focused on the thin male, but the handful of seconds that she had spent on her internal fight had cost her. Even as she gathered her body to leap at the male another human stepped up next to her with a long pole and slipped a wire noose over her head. The noose tightened and dug into her neck. The wolf lunged forward anyway, dragging the human behind her. Her claws scratched furrows in the concrete as she pulled herself forward.

She was within three feet of the seated male when she collapsed. The noose didn’t loosen and she drew ragged half-breaths down a throat slicked with blood. The thin male rose from his chair and walked toward her. She locked her eyes with his and managed a weak snarl. The male stood next to her, looking down where she sprawled on the floor. He drew his foot back and slammed it into her side.

The wolf yelped. She tried to fight her way to her feet but the human holding the pole and noose twisted it and she fell back to the floor. The thin male kicked her again and again until her sides flamed and blackness shadowed her vision. Finally he stopped and crouched down next to her. He sank his hand into the thick fur of her neck and dragged her head around to face him. When he spoke his voice was dripping with venom.

“You have cost me dearly, you feral bitch. I should kill you now in recompense for the death of my Livia. But I will not.” The male paused and drew in a breath. “I still have need of you.
Vukodlak
do not reproduce easily. There are always more males than females. And for my plan I need many, many
vukodlak.
So by virtue of your gender you live. There is a saying where I come from: With suffering comes learning. And you have so much to learn.”

The wolf lunged against the noose. Her teeth snapped shut just inches away from the male’s nose. He threw himself backwards and she could smell the fear that rose off him. One of the other humans helped him to his feet, and he motioned to the human who was holding her down “Put her back in the cage. No food. Only water. Tomorrow, her lessons begin.”

The noose tightened even more, and she gagged against the restraint as her limp body was dragged into the cage. Unconsciousness swallowed her and the last thing she heard was the slamming of the cage door.

The wolf paced endless circles inside the cage and fought the urge to howl. The small black box which was the source of her agony was impossible to ignore and impossible to reach. She had tried again and again that first day, when the humans had brought it and placed it in front of the cage. They had touched it and the noise had started. Metal on metal, electricity siding down wires, high-pitched mechanical whines - a maddening jumble of sounds that spiked her nerves with acid and fire.

With the noise came the lights, searing sunspots that hovered over the cage and chased away every shadow. The heat was intense and the wolf panted beneath her heavy coat. The only relief was the hose that fed a small but steady drip of water into her cage. It was never enough to quench her thirst completely, and it did nothing for the constant hunger that gnawed at her.

The wolf had no real concept of time, but just as some of her instincts had crossed over to the other, so had some of the human bled through to the wolf. And even though the other was locked away and unresponsive, the wolf still thought like the female human sometimes. She thought it had been a long stretch of days since the noise and the lights had started.

The underfed male came each day. Hours would pass with the torment battering at her body. Then it would stop and her captor would enter the hut. The male would sit in the chair and talk to her. Thanks to the influence of the other the wolf understood the human. He would issue orders that he wanted her to obey. The wolf responded by throwing herself against the cage in the vain hope that the bars would give way.

Next, a pile of raw meat would be set in front of the cage door. The male would issue orders, and she understood that if she complied she would be fed. She gnashed her teeth against the bars until her gums bled, but she and the male knew that it wasn’t the food she was after.

It was him.

Or, at least, it had been at the beginning. The longer the other was gone the more the wolf could feel her influence wearing away. She still fought the thin male with the determination of the other but she was beginning to forget why. The meat that was placed in front of her once a day began to subsume her thoughts.

The sounds stopped and the lights turned off. The sudden surcease startled her from her thoughts. The wolf rose and looked toward the front of the hut, where the door was slowly opening. But it wasn’t the thin male who entered.

It was the one called Anton.

The wolf bared her teeth and growled as Anton looked furtively around the darkened interior before scurrying over to the cage. He dropped to his knees by the door. She lunged at him and he flinched, raising his hands defensively.

“Listen. Listen!” he whispered. The wolf’s growls grew louder, and Anton looked behind him as if expecting the other humans to come running through the door. He turned back to the wolf. “Please!” he continued in a hushed voice. “We don’t have much time! I’m going to get you out of here, Nowen. Just trust me.”

The wolf slicked her lips back over her teeth and snapped at Anton. He looked at her, startled. “Nowen? Are you in there? God, what did they do to you? Do you even remember me?” The wolf snarled and speared him with her eyes. She knew this one. He had lied to her and the other and led them into this trap, and if she were free she would gladly kill him.

Anton pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket and began to try each one in the lock that kept the cage door shut. “Nowen, if you can hear me, I’m sorry. I used you. For what it’s worth, Isaac used me. Almost everything I told you was a lie. Isaac’s been looking for you for a long time. Zoe
did
tell them about you, and I did meet them in our little suburb...but they’re not as nice as they name makes them sound. They rolled into our street like invading soldiers. They killed a lot of people; the Kaminski brothers, all the elderly people, and anyone who was sick or tried to fight back.”

He stopped speaking for a moment, staring absently at the key he was trying to force into the lock. The wolf sat, listening to as much as she understood of what the blonde-furred man was saying. He continued. “They gathered together those of us who were left, and said we were coming with them. No ifs, ands or buts. Isaac pulled me aside and said he had a job for me. He took me into one of their trailers, and showed me what that white-haired woman could do. I thought I was going crazy. He introduced me to Zoe, and told me that I would be responsible for bringing this black wolf to New Heaven.”

Anton looked at the wolf. “They had been watching you for a while. They thought the best way to you was to use a single person, and entice you with the chance that someone knew who you were. And that you weren’t the only one out there.” He dropped his eyes. The key ring fell with a jingle to the concrete. “I didn’t have a choice! Isaac had my mother. He said he’d kill her if I didn’t do what he wanted. I’m sorry. I couldn’t...my mother was everything to me.” Blindly he groped for the keys. “But when I got you here, and even brought those extra guns because I thought it would make them happy...she was dead. Isaac killed her not long after I left them in Colorado.” Anton looked at the wolf and she knew the rage in his eyes was the same as in hers. “So. I’m gonna let you out, and we’re gonna kill that bastard.”

The burning lights snapped on. Both the wolf and Anton flinched in surprise. The door to the small hut swung open and the thin male entered. He was alone, and as the door swung shut behind him he walked slowly toward the cage, his arms tucked behind him. He halted in front of Anton, and the blonde-furred human didn’t even try to rise. The thin male shook his bony head slowly from side to side.

“Oh, Anton. What
do
you think you are doing?”

The wolf watched as Anton’s hands clenched into fists. Tears were in his voice as he looked up at the other human. “I did everything you asked! Everything! I convinced her to come with me, I made sure that she could turn into a wolf, I-I-I brought you guns-”

“Anton.”

“-and you
killed
her! Why did you do that?”

“Anton.”

“She was counting on me, and I let her down. And now I’m going to let Nowen loose and watch as she rips your throat out like she did that white-haired bitch!”

“Anton. You are so foolish.” The thin male nodded at the wolf. “You plead with a wild animal. Nowen is gone. Perhaps she was weak, and found an escape the only way she knew how - by losing her human side in the wolf side. But even if Nowen was there, what makes you think she would help you? Do you know that she never even asked about you, or that red-haired woman, or that little girl? Did you learn nothing in your travels with her? Nowen cares only about herself. It is probably a good thing that she is gone. The wolf, while baser in her desires, is more honest.”

Anton looked at the wolf. She stared back and then her attention turned to the thin male as he stood behind Anton. He was bringing his arms out from behind his back and something long and pointed gleamed with a metallic shine in one hand. He spoke. “Anton, you are a fool, and you are no longer useful.”

A look of puzzlement crossed Anton’s face and was suddenly chased away by waves of pain. He grunted, softly, and raised trembling hands to the sharp point that protruded from his chest. Blood dripped from the metal. The thin male took a step forward and more of the metal slid out from Anton’s body. He looked down at his chest and then back up at the wolf. Thick red blood ran from his mouth and nose. His eyes grew distant, and his head sagged forward as his body collapsed to the side.

The thin male pulled the sharp object free of Anton. He looked at the wolf. She snarled and bit at the cage bars, her hatred of this human stoked to fever pitch by the smell of blood. He smiled. “It has been almost two weeks since you fed, yes? You are very hungry. I will give you a little gift.”

The thin male called out, words that the wolf didn’t understand. Two other humans entered the hut. The thin male directed them to the body, and at his orders they positioned it so one arm lay over the head. This arm they slid through the bars of the cage. The humans left and the thin male looked down at the wolf. He raised the sharp object and ran the point down Anton’s arm. The skin split and blood oozed slowly from the cut. “There.” he said, and stepped back. “You are hungry. There is food.” The thin male laughed and walked away. As he left the hut the bright lights winked out.