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“Don’t fret over the loss of your doctor, my doll dearest.” His hands remained bound together; he tapped one pointed, blackened nail against another in contemplative patience. “I won’t allow something I’ve worked so hard on to spoil so quickly.”
Jaz started to stand.
Caelan's voice sounded muted as he cautioned everyone to remain as they were. Beside me, Calico’s hackles rose. She stomped one paw onto the concrete. I set my hand against her leg; the alpha was shaking and whale-eyed as she regarded Zakar.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
With a dry creak, Zakar’s head turned. “Requesting the timely deliverance of you, my final fiancée. I confess being with you tonight has lit a fire beneath my skin. We’re moving fast, I know, but I simply cannot go on without you. So, I gift you this to mark our upcoming engagement: come home of your own accord and bask in the warmth of my love, or I will burn your world to the ground.”
“Where’s home?”
“Way down below,” he whispered, and the smile turned to the lanternlight was gaping crimson and filled with razor teeth. Raising his bound hands, he snapped at the twine. As he did, his limbs lengthened and the skin of his throat tightened; unlike a werewolf, the man did not shed skin; it simply stretched and contorted with his rising form, thinning to translucency over a tall, gaunt skeleton. Within seconds it had snapped its wrists free and slashed through the twine of its waist.
Caelan jumped on the transforming creature’s back as its bony spine attempted to straighten, blood spilling through the cracks between his fingers as the wolf clawed through. “Appreciate your assistance, Mrs. Finn!” the sheriff yelled, struggling to hold the wendigo’s arms to its sides. Jaz threw his weight into the fray.
Calico shook as if emerging from a nightmare. Wide-eyed, tail tucked, she sprang for the creature, locked her jaws around its neck and wrenched its head off. The head hit the door frame and landed at my feet, screaming in a pitch that made Rhetta shriek and cover her ears.
Werewolf and headless corpse smashed the men into the concrete. Cal yelped as it wrapped her into its dead embrace, knifelike claws driving again and over into her flanks. In a panic, she whipped left and right to bite at its limbs, seemingly unaware she was crushing them.
“The head!” Caelan grunted, ducking the alpha’s wild snaps as he worked to free his leg.
On the floor, Zakar’s misty eyes were fixed on the scene. I grabbed it and ran for the bonfire. I’d lifted the skull to the flames, when a long tongue lashed across my fingers. “Dinner’s at eight,” it purred. “You’re in charge of dessert.”
As skin melted away from bone, the flames took on an otherworldly cast. The scuffle in the shed quieted to a dull whine. I returned to see Jaz shoulder-to-shoulder with his wife, their hands on the soft flesh and fur of her belly as she whimpered against the wall. Calico was down on her side, growling heavily at the sheriff, who had his hands raised and was trying to explain he just wanted to look over her injuries.
“What the hell was that?” Jaz panted. Sweat streaked his face alongside a darker substance that must have poured from the creature’s corrupted veins.
“A wendigo, I think,” I said, edging nearer Zakar’s remains. I'd seen a few bodies now, and experienced my fair share of gore, but the violence made my skin crawl. Absent the head, having been destroyed mid-transformation, Zakar’s body was still in the state of change, but it was clear to see that, whatever its final form, the lean muscle and blade-like claws were designed for the speedy, efficient annihilation of its prey.
“You talked to it like you understood,” Jaz said.
“You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “Not a world off its wretched tongue. It wasn’t English, wasn’t any language I recognized.”
“I heard every word,” Rhetta whispered. A tiny paw pressed outward from within her belly. She winced. “He’s going to take my baby.”
“We’ve gotta get you out of here,” I said, not quite able to look at her. “Tonight. As far away as possible until this gets resolved. You saw what happened in Avon. For all we know, that was a test."
“So were the women my team uncovered on Ingram’s trip northeast,” Caelan said, touching my shoulder. “He may be interested in Rhetta and her baby, but he aims to take you for his bride. Seems to me Ingram’s been prepping for the ceremony, and he might could just be ready.”
Standing on wobbling legs, Calico nipped the sheriff’s hand on her way past and sauntered out into the open air. He cursed and flipped her the bird.
I turned to my partner. “I've got to make a call.”
His eyes, human and concerned, were fixed on the wendigo’s corpse. “You shouldn't go alone.”
“I'll be by the fire with my pack,” I assured him.
I could've made the call right there, but needed air. I craved brightness and warmth and the mesmeric sway of flame. The pleasant crackle of the fire was as comforting as it was impersonal. Sparks danced into the night sky.
Wolves crept through the glass door one by one, monochrome shadows headed toward the shed. Several eyes flashed as they passed.
Sitting on the grass with my arms around my knees, I watched them. When the fire's heat melted the lingering icy touch around my soul, I found the strength to call the number.
“You've got Ronan.”
A wolf the size of a husky, lanky with grey fur and Mila’s sad eyes, padded beside me and sat. Hesitantly, I stroked her neck. “What kind of work did Gram do for the shaman who saved me?”
