Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend Read online

  “Is she hurt!?” Giny screeched. In hindsight I wasn’t sure if her concern was for the animal.

  “Damn!” Bianca said, kneeling near me and then she was gone. Giny gulped a sniffle. The immediate danger was over. “She’s winded!” Sam said, crouching beside me, inspecting my chest. “No injuries,” she confirmed. Checking for wounds, I realized.

  “Calm down.” Sam waved a look around. “Go and get her!” she screeched venomously at Bianca. I could see her run immediately out of the double doors, into the hall, whilst I shuddered and gulped, trying to bring air into my deflated lungs. I thought as she bent at my side that she was so calm she might have wanted to end my misery. She looked angry. “Just calm down,”she almost whispered. Slowly some air slipped into my rib cage and I was able to adjust. I sat up under my own strength. It seemed I was otherwise fine, though shock numbed the bruises. Sam inspected me. “Come on.” She lifted me up.“Giny, get the car!” she ordered. I felt the ache in my elbow. I was pulled up and dragged out from under the furry carcass to the left hall door, rather than the one into the school. Sam kicked it open. I was sure it was bolted, some wood from the frame cracked as I was half carried and dragged out. In my periphery I could see a girl’s naked body slumped on the floor, red hair sprayed out and blood splattered across the wall and pooling at her head. A car appeared on the lawn. It stopped inches from us and I was plunged into the back as the familiar acrid smell of Giny’s hatchback hit me.

  “What do we do about the body?” Giny pleaded.

  “She caused it, she can clean it up, we weren’t here! Go! I’ll meet you at the cabin!”

  With that the car door was slammed, the tyres spun and we careered off the school grounds, bumping over the gutter and onto the road.

  She drove briskly but as far as I could tell in my daze we weren’t speeding. I looked back to Sam as we hit the asphalt. She was taking off her jumper as she headed back into the hall.

  I was notably in shock. I began to shake uncontrollably. “Are you bitten?” Giny called from the driver seat. What? I thought. “No, I’m not hurt,” I said through chattering teeth, if that’s what she meant? She glanced at me, concerned, her brows were furrowed deep and her eyes watery. “There’s a blanket at Sam’s,” she gulped. I couldn’t be sure but I think she was crying. I struggled to breathe, I couldn’t feel my face or my hands. We sped up the Agapanthus-rimmed dirt driveway and stopped with a jolt too close to the front door. It wasn’t locked. Giny grabbed my hand gently and led me in. She was panicky. I felt her thin hand tremble. The crack, it was a gun shot. “Giny, is someone shooting at us?” It didn’t make sense.

  “Um, no, yes,” she winced and then corrected, “I don’t know.” She frowned, sounding annoyed, but I saw she was distressed. “Not at us.”

  I recalled the wolf. I’d felt its fur and warmth. “Are there wild animals lose?” I knew my questions sounded ridiculous, they didn’t make sense to me. We both just stood stagnant, astonished. The phone rang loudly for what seemed like minutes. It echoed in the large empty house.

  Giny, still panicky, rushed to answer it. Her words were fast. “I know - I know. Sam said she’d follow us, her car is still there, yes I took mine,” she wailed. “I know!” she retorted with a hint of guilt. She sniffed loudly and began to sob.“Yes,” she answered and looked me up and down through tear-stained eyes “She’s okay, no, no cuts, she was lucky.” Lily wasn’t and she sobbed. “I will,” she said forcefully, hanging up the receiver, and hung her head, defeated.

  Pale, she looked at me for a moment and then summoning strength started toward the back of the kitchen. She disappeared down the stairs to the basement area and came running back, shoving two white pills in my hand and then filled a glass of water.

  Sky rattled the glass door. Giny jumped, visibly shaken and hurried to unlatch it as he flew through the lounge up to me, breathing heavily. It was the first time I’d seen him out of breath. He was shirtless and his muscles were tense. He was wet as it had begun to rain more heavily. Water cascaded down his toned arms and I admired his physique. I noticed my shirt was wet, though I’d not been in the rain. I looked down my t-shirt. It was wet through with dark water. Touching it I looked at my palm. It was dark red. My breath stopped.

  Sky looked at my palm. “Is that hers?” he yelled at Giny who stood near me. I started to wobble and I began to slump. I fainted then and warm wet steel arms grabbed me and held me up. I felt weightless as he carried me somewhere - upstairs? I faded in and out of consciousness.

  “It’s Lily’s,” I thought I heard her sob. Everything was black, consciousness reared in on me intermittently. “She’s fainting.” I thought I heard him utter. He laid me gently on the bed and touched my chest. “Are you hurt?” He spoke soft and hurriedly. I didn’t answer, he grasped my palms and opened my hand. I scrunched it, resisting automatically. I frowned.What was he taking from me? I gave up my resistance under his warm gentle grip and my fingers relaxed as his large fingers pinched the capsules from my palms. Giny followed and sat on the bed.

  “What’s this?” he asked her.

  “Oh,” she sounded annoyed, “sedatives. I’ve got to take two as well. I’ll get some water.” She blew her nose on the way out sniffling. He immediately followed her; I could hear them talking in rushed tones out in the hall. I faded out again I felt his weight on the bed as his warm hand pressed my face, feeling my temperature, I assumed. My head was lifted then and I woke.

  “L- Lila – here,” his fingers pushed two capsules into the gap between my lips “drink these down.” He tried to put the water in my hand which didn’t cooperate and fell back to the bed. He held the glass up to my lips.

  “What did I see?” I croaked not opening my eyes which I realized were wet. I blinked, a little tear rolled down my cheek, then and I opened them. He was a blurry shape as he held the cup to my lips and I swallowed. My mouth was coarse and dry, the capsules went down hard. I rolled to my side then and his warm hand rubbed my back. I thought to ask where Reid was and then thought better of it. Tears flowing from my eyes, I fell into unconsciousness.

  I woke to find a blanket wrapped around me. Drowsily I realized where I was. As I struggled up I felt the dry blood on my shirt. It was still light out, although it was dim, either because it was overcast or because it was late in the day. I cringed as my head pounded. I lifted myself and I winced as I recalled with disbelief the body in the school hall and the last moments at practice. Was this how Cres had lost her mind? I wanted them to go away. Like a bad dream I was filled with dread, which dragged through me like sand.

  As though they heard my movements the door opened. In walked Bianca with a tray of food.

  “Oh you’re awake, good, we were starting to worry.”

  She sat the tray tentatively on the bed at my feet. “Do you want to talk about it?” She didn’t want to press me, I could tell by her tone, as she was calm but cautious.

  Giny came in. “Here’s a new shirt, oh good, she’s up.” She sounded even more relieved; she thought a moment. “Do you feel like a shower?” she asked, pointing into the doorway behind me. It must have been the guest ensuite.

  I breathed shakily. “Yes,” I croaked nodding.

  “We’ll leave some fresh clothes on the bed.” Bianca patted the bed coverlet and left, then, her eyes avoiding the sight of the crimson patch on my shirtfront. I peeled the shirt off and gave it to Giny who pinched it in her fingers and put it in a bag. Her hand was trembling.

  “We’re going to burn it,” she offered apologetically. She shook her head in disbelief. I could tell she’d only just woken up herself. Her hair was messy and eyeliner smudged. Perhaps the others couldn’t do this job. I didn’t fully understand why. “Just go and shower and come downstairs, Sam wants to talk to you.” I must have looked apprehensive. “It’s okay, I was scared, too, when I found out,” she said and then her mouth pulled down at the corners.

  “What about Lily?” I blurted.

  She looked at me i
n horror and the strain of the last day suddenly became evident in her red-rimmed eyes. She put her head in her hands. She had all too much time to process the horror, while I was in denial. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what had happened. Everyone else did.

  In the shower I knelt with my head in my hands. Was I in a nightmare? I contemplated running and hiding but it would be futile. The visions spun round in my head of Lily as a wolf, bounding with her fangs out for my throat. I hadn’t imagined it. Cresida was trying to warn me and it was far too late, though maybe I’d never had a chance. I recalled the blood on my shirt and saw flashes of the body, pale, slumped on the hall floor and the pool of dark blood. I wished I could reverse it all; take back the last few weeks. It began to occur to me that I had narrowly avoided death - I’d felt the animal’s hot breath on my face, its last breath, touched its red brown fur and I remembered it brushing my skin as it died with its full weight against me. Somehow someone had shot it through the head with precise aim, like a sniper waiting and watching for the creature to threaten my life. Giny waited for me to finish. She insisted I eat something, and I was starving. The sight I saw in the bathroom mirror was macabre. I was so pale I was green.

  “What is…happening? What happened after we left?” I recalled Sam heading back into the hall as we sped away.

  “Sam dressed her and took away the rags,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “Lila, Lily’s dead,” she whispered touching my back gently.

  I numbly chewed and swallowed the cold toast and eggs. My salty tears had dried on my face.

  After I had washed the dried blood from my chest and hair, cried and shook, dressed slowly in the pile of clothes left for me on the bed and forced down food I could not taste. I found my way to the lounge area down the hallway. I could hear shuffling and the murmuring of voices. It all felt surreal. They were all there, minus Lily, waiting for me in various poses of grief; some part of me hoped it was a still a sick joke. And that she was still alive and that werewolves didn’t surround me like a scene from a horror film.

  I was standing freshly showered, waiting for some kind of explanation for our dead friend and a giant wolf lunging at my throat. I wanted to ask them if I was crazy.

  I braced myself. “Give it to me straight- are you going to kill me?” I swallowed trying not to look stunned at the bravery of my own words.

  “No Lila,” Sam replied from the opposite corner of the room. Muffled giggles and then laughter spread through the group.

  “Reid!”Sam scolded glaring at him for a moment. It was the kind of mad awkward laughter you’d hear at a funeral. “Come in,” Sam said warmly coaxing me closer.

  “I’ll stand, thanks,” I replied pale-faced and serious.

  She looked annoyed but not surprised as she huffed, “Fine, let me fill you in and, remember, there is nowhere you can run to hide from us and no one will believe you - you will end up crazier than Cresida

  - or you can stay here, learn the truth.” She looked around. “We won’t hurt you. We are werewolves.” She said it so simply to me, like she had asked me to pass the salt. I thought I imagined the word werewolf. She gestured casually to the rest of the group. “All of us are.” They all let it sink in. I looked for signs of humour, waiting, as I searched their expressions for anything but the soft stares of truth.

  12. Life Eternal

  “Come, sit.” She patted the lounge seat beside her. Bianca, Reid, Sky and Jackson, all watched wideeyed for my reaction.

  “What do you want to ask?” she inquired; I shifted uneasily in my stance, but didn’t reply.

  Reid met my eyes.“It’s alright.” He smiled reassuringly. He stood up and moved towards me. I let him hug me, he was so warm, but more rigid than normal.

  My eyes looked at the carpet as his voice rumbled, “I thought you’d never wake up, you were out the whole day.” He sounded concerned, he smiled tentatively. I looked at the rest of their faces and at Sky’s sultry sapphire eyes as he sat watching, obviously troubled.

  “Can I show you something please?” Reid said breathlessly in my ear. Loosening his arms he gestured. “Come outside, don’t be scared, just watch.” “But, Lily?”

  “-Lily tried to kill you,” he interrupted sternly, on his way to the open sliding door. He turned when he got out onto the slate patio, wanting to reassure me. When Sky passed me, he jumped down the stairs and walked out toward the lawn. Leaping in the air down the next row of stairs he morphed into a huge animal and landed on all four enormous paws. He turned from the distance and looked at us, through blue canine eyes. Reid smiled. “Stand here.” He squeezed my hand. As he let go he ran a few wide steps leaping into the air and jumping over Sky as he did, landing transformed. They were enormous. Sky was golden brown and Reid was a dark brown shaggy velvet. Sam came out then onto the patio as far as possible from me. She took her dress off over her head; naked she watched me from the corner of her eye as she shivered and burst into fur. Bianca joined us already formed. Her hair was wavier than the others and tanned, Sam was white like snow. Her large blue eyes contained smatterings of gold brown, still. Giny came to stand beside me; all around us were giant furry wolves with their sharp glowing eyes watching for my reaction. The hair on my arms stood on end. Reid and I walked across the manicured lawn.

  “Why is Sam so rich?” I asked.

  “What makes you think that?” he replied.

  I shrugged.

  “She’s old,” he confessed.

  I swallowed. “How old?”

  “I don’t know exactly.” He smiled. “Fifty or a hundred, probably.” He squinted. “Eighty-ish,” he guessed. Due to his newness himself to the situation he failed to be as accurate an adviser on the subject as he would have liked. I was later to learn Reid was just a pup.

  “Well, she looks great.” I made light.

  He chuckled under his breath and hugged me, resting his chin on my head.

  “I guess her parents won’t be showing up anytime soon?”

  He laughed.

  “This is all far - way too weird for you.” He sounded apologetic.

  And, really, I didn’t know what to say. It was.

  “It’s all going to be alright.” He sighed.

  I looked up at his sympathetic eyes.

  “Tell me about her.” I wasn’t frightened.

  “Who?” he asked.

  “Sam,” I said. We walked to the gazebo at the far corner of the back yard.

  He continued, “I know this from Sky and Lily.” Reid instantly spoke about her. “Miss Thompson was a teacher in 1976. She taught English and coached. Her twin sister Amy had been in a wheelchair since an accident in her teens, water skiing or something. She never went anywhere her entire life after that. She was stuck in a wheelchair. She and her sister had been dancers, before her Amy was crippled. Sam was a champion medal winning gymnast. Her sister had to watch her win as she sat there unable to participate -she was confined to her chair, it’s not like now, where technology allows you to get about and play sports. Back then being crippled meant confinement. Amy told Sam to win for her; they lived together when they were older.

  “Lily was on the team that Sam coached, a long time ago. Bianca was her friend- Amy died from the bite, the wolf venom. Sam had to quit teaching because she looked so different, youthful.”

  He pressed his lips together. “The rest of it I don’t know much about, they holidayed and did everything

  - Europe, bungee jumping…there’s a picture of them in France, New Zealand, India, America - with rock stars. They had to be careful though not to become too known or famous - someone famous painted Lily. I guess in the end, like everything, they got bored. Sam always wanted to finish the dream, she never forgot her sister, so now they’re here-” Reid’s mouth shrugged- “Doing Sam’s thing. Next was Bianca’s turn and then Lily was last - she would have had to wait the longest. They drew straws, they had five years each.” His voice shook with remorse.

  �
��So, now they are living Sam’s dream?”

  “For her sister who never got to win or perform, this is her chance to do it and next fake life time - it will be Bianca’s.” He smirked and then he shook his head. “Now Lil’s gone I guess Sky or I might get a go. We’d do something wild though, like they did first, so it’s all for one and one for all, but we keep to ourselves, for obvious reasons.”

  “Are there others?” I whispered, as we sat on the bench under the gazebo. I looked out at the ripples on the surface of the pool.

  “Yes, I guess but I haven’t seen one yet.” His brow wrinkled. I felt then that he was younger than the rest of the pack. “We hear them.” He looked out at the tree covered mountain ridge.