B0079G5GMK EBOK (28 page)

“Unfortunately, you have no choice,”
said
an
older, sulky woman
and looked at me with a contemptuous smile on her lips.

David grabbed my hand warningly, but I shook him off.

“Where can we complain?” I asked.

The social workers looked at each other, confused. The mousy one coughed and spoke blushing. “
Like I said before, it's for
Marie's sake. She will be given the best care and round-the-clock nursing. And that's what she needs the most now.”

“Who's in charge here? Give me a name! Where can I complain!” I screamed and felt David get up and take me in his arms.

“My wife just asked you a question. Where can we
complain about this?” he asked calmly with a deathly storm raging
in his eyes.

The social workers were all quiet. I tried to struggle away from David. I wanted to tear their throats open and watch them falling on the floor, one by one, drowning in their own blood. I wanted to destroy them, and if David hadn't been there, I would've. The madness inside of me would have reached me and I would've become the beast I had run from centuries ago. However, David's grip was tight. He didn't let me turn into a coldblooded murderer. He kept my head together and even though I was moaning quietly I let him handle the situation. After all, he was human. I was not. And this was a human thing. Eventually, a silent voice spoke, with a hint of apology in her voice. “This is the final decision. You cannot complain.”

David stared at the women in the room and a coldness reflected from his eyes. Half-dragging, half-carrying me, he looked threateningly at the women. “Our lawyer will contact you today. You can be sure this is not over.”

Then he pulled me out of the room and half carried me to the car. We sat there quietly. I felt my mind rocking on the edge of craziness and how bad
ly David wanted me to let
my madness
loose
. However, we couldn't do that. As if in a trance, David started the car and drove towards our home.

“Stop!” I yelled after ten minutes
,
and he stopped the car.

“I have to get out of here,” I said and looked at him apologetically.

I jumped out of the car and disappeared to the thicket beside the road.

I ran like a lunatic. How could I face my pack? Or meet Tiamhaidh's eyes? There had to be a way to solve this. I couldn't let them just take my child. That was not a solution and I swore in my mind that would never happen. I ran until my eyes found a familiar place. A place where a big stone stood in the middle of a swamp, surrounded by a small pond. The stone was majestic and it spread relaxing atmosphere around it. My Seita-stone. I could imagine how a sorcerer once stood there and made his magic or h
ow an alpha wolf stood there to look
at its kingdom. This had always been a special place to me and I felt such a great relief, I nearly crawled to my stone. I was exhausted. I had run the whole trip as a human and now my lungs
were screaming
for relief and my muscles were about to explode. However, I didn't want to change my shape. It would have been a lot easier for me as a wolf, but I needed to feel the pain. I wanted my body to suffer with my mind, and there was no way I would've let myself get away from this the easy way.

I stood on the Seita-stone and hoped the spring rain would flush my anger away. How dare they even suggest sending Marie to that horrible institution! Yes, it was true that Marie was getting worse all the time, but still! There was no doubt that home was the only place for her. She belonged at home, with us and with Tiamhaidh. Anyone who said the opposite was wrong and didn't know Marie at all. I felt the rage floating in my mind and I wanted to destroy everything around me. I realized how the power radiated around me, just waiting for a silent order from me. I looked at my wet hands and I could see an enormous amount of energy that surrounded me. I could see through my hands and at times a blue electric current ran in them.

This was new. I realized I could destroy our small city in a few minutes. I could easily control the human minds and could turn them into marionettes for my wolf pack. I touched the minds of the humans lightly. How small and limited they seemed. A few, focused thoughts and my pack could walk o
n the streets as wolves, and no
one would ever question us. I whined quietly. David was there and so were all our relatives and human friends. I saw Marie's fragile figure being walked by Tiamhaidh in my mind, and was startled. I couldn't let them destroy Marie! I would do everything I could to stop them. Even if it cost me all my human friends. I was pretty sure I could separate the minds of my loved ones. And at this point, I didn't care who else I would destroy. Anyone would do.

My eyes
darkened from the anger. I stood in the rain like a virago from the ancient times and cursed in Gaelic. At once, an image of David holding Marie in his arms flashed in my mind. David's mom watching over Marie, while she was sleeping. Emma, Marie's best friend, crying on our sofa, her hands tightly wrapped around Flow's soft fur. I screamed with pain.

A gentle touch wiped my mind. “Sofia, stop,” Mom's soft voice ordered me. I didn't bother to answer. Who did she think she was? What right did she have to interfere with our lives? She had kept the distance
for
almost two
hundred years
now, so why should I listen to her? “Sofia, you are not allowed to harm them,” she reminded me. I could almost smell the fresh mountain air and I knew she was sitting, magnificent as always, on the top of Mountain Breitinden
,
watching over her valley as a wolf. I snorted and turned my back, even though I knew she couldn't see me. “Sofia! Listen to me! Wolves can never attack humans, and you of all should know that!
” Mom's voice echoed in my mind
demandingly.

“But humans are allowed to attack wolves,” I mumbled to myself, pissed
.

I lifted my face to the grey rain clouds and prayed quietly. The storm raged inside of me and my eyes were almost black with anger. My child was suffering and there was nothing I could do to help her. I felt
Marie slipping
further and further away from me. She was slowly drowning in her own world, and she didn't let any of us enter. “Sofia, you have always had your gift, but you
have no idea how to use it. So
keep yourself together and let me help you!” Mom yelled at me, frustrated. Yes, it was true, I didn't know what I could do. Mainly because I had always wanted to keep a low profile, and didn't even bother to find out about it. However, I didn't think that even my gift would be enough to save Marie. I knew, deep inside of me, that destroying the minds of the humans wouldn't help anybody, but I wanted to destroy something. Mom sniffed in my head. “You can start by destroying that tree in front of you.”

I looked wonderingly at the small cracky pine in front of me. I couldn't destroy anything or could I? Now that the rage had passed, I felt quite unsure of my powers. I climbed down from the stone carefully and touched the pine tree. “No hands!” Mom ordered. “Use your mind!” I mumbled, annoyed, but took my hands away from the tree. I walked around the tree and couldn't figure out any way to destroy it without touching it. I sat on the wet ground and concentrated. I let myself feel the warm cover of the tree and the life that slept under it. The tree
was waiting
passionately for the spring and the warm sun. I touched its spirit and I was surprised at how easily it obeyed my will. That small tree was ready to die, just to make me feel better. Unbelievable!

I got up quickly and touched the tree. I pressed my hands against its cold trunk and let it absorb some warmth from me. I begged for its forgiveness and it forgave me. I could never destroy an innocent life. Not in any form. I knew that now, so there had to be another way. Mom laughed warmly in my mind. “You see, my child, you learned something today. If you want to help Marie, listen to Adam. He's wiser than you think.” I could feel how she receded from my mind and even as I tried to reach her, she was gone. Obviously, she knew how to shield her mind better than I did, because no matter how hard I tried I couldn't break her shield or connect my mind with hers.

Mom's words echoed in my mind as I trailed back home. Adam. I had to figure out what she had meant. Marie and Adam were bound somehow, but I couldn't see how he could help me save Marie. But I sure was going to find that out.

The morning mist had almost faded, but the cover of the baffling ice steamed lightly as the sunbeams warmed
it softly. I sat on the mooring
wrapped in a thick down jacket and stared between the islands that loomed ahead with eyes that saw nothing. Adam came to sit next to me. I glanced at him and tried to smile. If I couldn't make up something soon, we would lose Marie to the cold institution that sounded like prison to me. I knew she would shrivel up in there and finally she would die. She hated closed places as much as I did. Mom's words echoed in my mind and I focused on Adam.

All the impertinence and arrogance were gone from his dark eyes as he knew they would give me no comfort now and it was useless to hide behind them. Adam took my hands in his and lifted them to his lips. He pressed his warm lips onto my fingers and let his cheek rest on my palms for a while. I closed my eyes. A diver screeched somewhere and a seagull
answered it. W
in
ter was about to give way to
spring and the wind that caressed my hair promised that summer would be here soon. It was a time to make nests, I thought, sadly. Marie should be planning her future with Tiamhaidh, not lying half unconscious in a wheelchair. Marie seemed to crash more everyday and slipping away from those who loved her. She had seizures daily, sometimes more in one day, and we couldn't contact her anymore. Tiamhaidh's presence seemed to ease her, but at times I couldn't be sure if she recognized the rest of us or even knew where she was.

Adam coughed. “Sofia.”

I looked at him through my teary eyes. So handsome, so young and so full of life. Clarissa would get a magnificent eternity with him. Adam coughed again and I opened my mouth to express how nettled I was. Adam, however, lifted his finger to my lips.

“Sofia, I have a theory.”

My gaze focused on him and he continued carefully.

“I've been watching Marie since Christmas and I'm convinced her seizures are somehow connected to the shape shifting.”

“Go on,” I prompted as he waited for my reaction.

“Well, you can see the change in her eyes. If you look as closely as I have, I'm sure you'll see the same.”

I yelled and pressed my hand to my mouth. A hope twinkled in my eyes and I grabbed his hands so tight, he grunted.

“Please, tell me all, ma´s e do thoil e!” I begged him.

“That's it. I thought you’d know what it means,” Adam said and shrugged.

“Tiamhaidh!” I shouted, as I had seen him watching us from the shelter of the woods.

“Tell him what you told me,” I ordered and pushed Adam towards the man who approached us.

“I'm pretty sure Marie's seizures are a result of change,” Adam said and dodged the fist that tried to hit him.

I gasped
, terrified, but Adam stayed calm and stopped the next punch with his own fist
by
putting his fingers around Tiamhaidh's.

“I'm just tel
ling you what I saw,” Adam said
steadily.

I put my shaking arms around Tiamhaidh and Adam let go of him. Tiamhaidh was about to crash. He hadn't even dreamt in his wildest dreams that Marie could recover, and now Adam was here smashing the truth onto his face. Tiamhaidh fell down to the bench and Adam started all over.

“The first time I saw it, was at Christmas, and I was stunned as none of you reacted to that.”

Tiamhaidh stared at the planks in the mooring, his head buried in his hands. I fondled his short, dark hair and nodded to Adam.

“A fraction before she gets the seizure
her eyes change to a wolf's
. It's not much, I admit, and it's really shorter than a breath, but still.”

I was speechless. How could we not have noticed? Adam was wrong. We would've noticed something so important. At least some of us would have, right? Tiamhaidh moaned quietly. Adam stared at me in the eyes and he was stunned.

“Are you telling me none of you have noticed that? Not a single one of you?”

I shook my head
slowly, and Adam got up. He leaped there and back on the mooring, growling silently. Finally, he stopped in front of me with a wild look in his eyes.

“I'm sure about this. Sofia, you have to believe me!”

“I do,” I said quietly. “I just can't believe we didn't notice that.”

“Tiamhaidh,” Adam growled.

Tiamhaidh said nothing.

“Tiamhaidh!” Adam thundered, forcing him to lift his eyes.

The anger against Adam's words and a hope that they had caused flickered in his face. A self-abuse and doubt had filled his eyes and when he stood up, I was sure he would attack  Ada
m. Adam, however, didn't back away
at all. He held his eyes on Tiamhaidh and for once, I saw compassion in his eyes.