Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3) (4 page)

“She’s too
young.” She can’t be. Shock stilled me and then I decided it wasn’t
possible.

“She’s all you
have been sent. The Goddess wouldn’t give you something for you to
ignore it.” She implored me.

Deep in
thought, I didn’t hide my annoyance. “Christ, Tisane.” I
frowned.

“She is looking
for someone to trust and help her,” Tisane argued with wavering
conviction. I took a moment to despondently pace the implications
in my mind. Tisane’s meaning was clear; our visitor was just as I
had been once. I looked away.

“Okay.” I
gathered myself. “I got it.” Still unsatisfied I looked towards the
house. “I have to ask some questions.” I worked my jaw.

“Then ask them,
don’t accuse her.”

“Stop answering
for her then,” I rebutted with attitude.

“Fine,” she
agreed easily with a sway of her chin.

I shook my head
“I can’t believe you cut her.” I gestured to go back inside the
open door.

I walked over
to the girl. “Listen to me,” I met her eyes. “What’s your name?” I
asked taking the bow off. I knelt in front of her.

“Caroline
Doil.” She stated wide-eyed, “C.J.”

“C.J?”

“Caroline Jane
Doil.”

“Okay
C.J
, I need to explain a few things,” I said steadily as I
removed the arrows from my back, resting them down on the floor. I
reached to pull my gun from my hip. “Do you know why Tisane cut
you?” I rested the revolver on my thigh.

She nodded
slowly. Placated I rose and sat on the couch chair across from her,
glad to be off my sore feet for a few moments. I curled up my legs
and sighed. Tisane sat in the other lounge chair.

“She was seeing
if I had the wolf blood?” I turned my eyes back to her.

“Have you been
bitten?” I asked again in a less accusatory manner.

I had to be
certain.

“No,” she
frowned looking towards Tisanes face for answers.

I questioned,
“Has someone asked you to come here?”

“No,” she
looked muddled.

I took a pause
and pinched my lips. It seemed as if she was telling the truth. I
sat up again. “Tisane did what I would have wanted her to do. We
have to be sure. I am a huntress - our kind track and kill wolves.”
She appeared to be focusing on my explanation. “But mostly we just
keep them under control.” I neglected to say we were losing the
battle. “We need to know if you have been in contact with them.” I
tilted my head.

“Is that okay?”
Tisane asked timidly from across the lounge room. I was mildly
annoyed by her interruption.

“Aren’t the
wolves protected?” The girl’s voice trailed, her glance darted
between us. “I haven’t seen any wolves,” she said shaking her
head.

I caught her
eye. “Not the kind we hunt,” I assured her bitterly. “Tisane seems
to think you are a huntress?” I waited for her response.

“Like you?” The
girl confirmed.

I glanced with
annoyance over at the clock and then at Tisane. I was tired.

“Well, it’s
been a long night.” I put my feet down, “I guess you have parents
who are wondering where you are?” My expression was pinched. “They
don’t know where you are, do they?” I asked carefully watching her
response.

“No, no, they
wouldn’t let me come.” She swallowed rigidly. “I snuck out. But
they might guess if I don’t come back,” she added hurriedly.

“Right, well, I
think I will take you to your home? Right?” I confirmed, glancing
over at Tis with raised brows. Surely she wouldn’t stay here?

The girl
nodded. I rose heavily, ready to slog it back into Tarah and leant
on the arm of the couch.

“I have to take
a piss first.”

Relieved, I
walked back out into the living area “Are you ready to go?” I
tucked the gun back in my belt where it pressed my hip,
uncomfortably and reached for the arrows. I guessed I would see if
she did indeed live where she claimed to.

She nodded.

Tisane assured
her. “You can come back tomorrow, don’t worry; Lila will keep you
safe Caroline.”

I grabbed up my
bow and shot Tisane a pained look, at the last words. Hopefully she
would not return.

We walked for
nearly an hour before reaching Tarah and the lightning subsided. I
took the chance to test her. She seemed to be able to easily keep
up, jumping over old fallen logs with me, ducking under tree
branches and dodging animal burrows. Just to be sure I took some
harder routes, purposefully hitting landmarks and areas where I
knew there were rocks and knotted tree roots, easily tripped
upon.

The sun began
to sneak over the horizon.

“Aren’t you
frightened of the curfew?” I asked as we trekked mutely through the
bush. The clouds were streaked brilliant pink and silver above. I
concentrated on the underbrush crunching under foot. She shook her
head.

As we
approached the edge of the bush my voice broke the monotony of our
footsteps, “How did you find your way in the dark?”

She
shrugged.

I swallowed
with a dry throat. “Do you…wander a lot?”

“No.” She
contemplated “I mean, I didn’t – not until lately.” Looking at her
feet, contritely. Shade was a landscape hunters just knew. “I was
scared at first, but I needed to get out. I can’t explain it,
really.” She breathed nervously.

I pulled up.
“Why go to Tisane?” my face turned through the tree branches.

“Umm, she read
for me once, told me things.” She had come to the town Sage for
answers, her eyes looked upward to follow mine. I thought maybe I
would have done the same, if I didn’t have Cres. I found a plant on
a wide gumtree branch that was hollow, designed to retain
water.

“What did she
tell you?” I asked as I pulled off my bow, handing it to her. I
swiftly climbed the smooth trunk to reach it.

She tilted her
head to watch me. “That I would change.”

I reached for
the plant and cupped the water in my palm and slurped it up.

“That’s it? For
that you walked alone through the most dangerous forest in the
southern hemisphere, at night like an idiot?” I quipped towards the
tree branch that I balanced on.

Her voice
lowered as I descended “She told me other stuff.”

“Like what?” I
said pointedly as my feet landed on the ground. I snatched back my
bow.

“That you had a
sharp tongue.” She pouted.

I turned and
kept walking. “I tell it like it is,” I replied tersely over my
shoulder.

When we seemed
to be nearing Tarah I asked her “Will you be in trouble?” As I
slowed my eyes wandering the surrounds for would be assailants.

“No.”

We walked on
silent, approaching a yellow clad house. I wondered who was inside
it.

Caroline’s
voice was hushed “They will be asleep. No one should have noticed,
except maybe my brother, but he wouldn’t say anything.” She
shrugged. I thought to ask her if she felt tired, but she looked
far less peaked than she had appeared under the yellow glow of
Tisane’s house lights. Maybe she was partial to the air like me.
Hunters loved the feel of Shade under their feet.

I wasn’t
comfortable with her comment about her sibling. “How much does your
brother know?” I frowned as we approached a clearing.

“Nothing. No
one knows.” She tried to smile “I thought I was a mutant,” she
admitted as we snuck along the outside of the house. I followed
her.

She stopped, I
crouched and pointed to a window “Is this yours?” I whispered.

“Yep.”

She nodded and
pressed her lips.

“Is that why
you asked Tisane for help? Because you thought you were a freak?
What did she tell you?”

She quietly
continued, “I hoped she might know about it. I’m relieved that I’m
not like mad, or a mutant.” There was an uncomfortable silence.
No she was just cursed
. “What will I do?” she asked
concerned.

“Some of the
wolves are way out of hand; it’s my job to take them out,” I
disclosed truthfully, straightening up now that the coast looked
clear.

She looked
contemplative. “Like Artemis?”

“Yeah. Get some
sleep. We will be in contact.” I went to leave. “Oh, um, and I
don’t have to tell you, do I, to keep this quiet?” My eyes hardened
in her direction. What happened in the underworld stayed there.

She nodded and
finished carefully sliding the window across. I watched as she
climbed inside. I picked up the fly screen leant on the cladding
and passed it to her. It seemed this was her house. My eyes scaled
over the soft toys on her bed, including a unicorn wedged between
the bunched frills on her pillows. Against the soft chirp of
crickets she turned to me and whispered, “Lila what will happen if
I am like you?” she waited for my answer.

You will
have to kill
. “I don’t know,” I replied emotionlessly, flicking
my hair from the side of my face. I gave a stiff automated smile.
“We’ll be back for you soon. Until then train, get your strength
up.” I stopped suddenly interested. “How strong are you
really?”

She shrugged.
“I can beat my brother.” She smiled, but there was something broken
in the way she said it.

“Right.” I
breathed. I felt awkward then. I winced another unhappy smile,
though whether it was meant to reassure her or myself, I wasn’t
sure. I went to leave.

“Did this
happen to you?”

I stopped. My
gaze met with hers, through the fly wire.

“Yes.” I
admitted. My words didn’t do the magnitude of my meaning
justice.

I trudged
faster through the bracken as the branches whipped my arms. I
decided I wouldn’t go back for her, ever. If I was killed she could
take over then.

I arrived back
after sunrise, scratched and nicked. Tisane was still sitting on
the couch. “I don’t want to train her,” I said bluntly as I passed
her.

It wasn’t up
for discussion. Even sleep was different than it once had been as I
struggled to find it. If she was a huntress, I knew first hand
there was nothing I could do about it.

A few hours
later, I found myself on the verandah quietly overlooking the
scenery from the front of the cabin; the air inside the house was
too warm. Tisane came quietly to stand with me. She looked at the
soft silver sky. I remained distracted; spellbound to a life I
didn’t want.

“Couldn’t
sleep?” she asked languidly beside me, her hair a messy halo around
her pale face. Evidently, neither could she. We had been up nearly
the same amount of hours last night, but her pale skin was clear,
unhindered by the deprivation. There was something otherworldly
about Tisane Hunter, and not just the strange gift of sight and
empathy she possessed, or the way she lived in solitude, or even
her beliefs. I wondered what else she could tell. Clouds were
gathering.

“What does this
look like for you?” I asked her, still gritting my teeth with
frustration. “You believe that she is like me?” I said to the
trees. I wondered if it was because she was born and raised here or
if she really did have some special gift passed down from her
ancestral tree.

Tisane
whispered, “Yes. I do.” Her eyes were cast down, shading the
circles under her eyes.

I felt then
that Caroline was what we suspected. “What? Because we think she is
a hunter, I’m supposed to endanger her. Take her from her family.”
I thought about how I had left Sophie and shoved the thought
away.

“Lila it’s no
one’s fault.” She recited in a way meant to temper my frustration.
She frowned a little. Her eyes glistened with emotion that her face
failed to convey, her hand reached for my back. I shrugged her off.
I had a gut feeling it was true.

“Urgh.” I knew
with defeat that she was right. Caroline was now in danger anyway,
when the wolves found her. “I don’t need her life on my shoulders.”
I lowered my head to rest between my arms. We were both silent. I
looked up and admired the unusually dry earth in front of us, deep
in thought. A raven cawed from the trees.

“Why would
Artemis want this? Do you think they are all up there laughing at
us?” I asked, wiping an involuntary tear from the side of my face.
I still didn’t know where I stopped and the huntress began.

“Who?” She
looked ahead as I did. Robins chattered in the nearby forest line
as they often did in the morning as a flock of ravens swooped into
the tree branches.

“The Gods.” I
turned my eyes to the streaked late morning clouds. Enjoying our
suffering.

“Hmm, not
technically.” She turned her face a little to me and smirked a thin
crooked line - humour. It seemed I had forced Tisane to develop a
wry sense of it. She cried so often I guess tears weren’t to be
taken too seriously. She was happy about this I reminded myself.
Thunder roared twice, ferociously above like an angry lion backed
into a corner, brushing aside Tisane’s playful smirk. More rain was
coming.

“I feel that if
I had a conscience I would turn her away,” I admitted. She looked
at me. But she didn’t speak. “But I think we both know,” I rubbed
my brow, “that we have to just go along with the game. Whatever
game it is.” My expression did not hide the defeat I felt. The
birds where darting in the branches. I looked at the dark trees
thinking. “What’s with the commotion?”

She focused on
the tree line “The ravens are attacking the nests. They eat the
robin’s eggs.”

I glanced at
her and saw that her eyes were sadder than when I had accused her.
The sky beat again deeply like giant fists on a galvanized
shed.

She drew a
quick breath; I noticed she took her hand off the railing. “Lila,
whatever we do and suffer in this life is for a greater purpose,”
she assured me.

I contemplated
her argument “We are heading for something aren’t we?”