Ice (18 page)

“I should’
ve known you two were more than just mere acquaintances when you let the wolf-dog answer the question for you.”

It was Doug.

I slowly shifted, Kavick turning with me. We looked at each other for a brief moment just before we faced him, mirroring each other’s expressions. Our eyes were wide like guilty perpetrators being caught red handed.

I faced Doug with the calmest expression I could muster. Doug had his rifle aimed at us, ready to shoot. I held my free hand up, never letting go of Kavick’s hand. Kavick did the same.

Doug had a pained expression on his face, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the blow to the head I had given him earlier, or if it was because of what he said next. “I was so quick to believe you weren’t involved with them because of Justin. I suspected you when you didn’t say anything about his hair, but I didn’t want to believe it.”

I was careful to make
my voice even when I replied. “You didn’t say anything about his hair, either. Besides, it’s really not that unusual for teenagers to dye their hair different colors.”

“No,” he said with a hal
f grin that was far from nice. “But it always draws attention.”

I felt myself start to panic
, because I couldn’t think of an argument for that. If only I could stall until the others left the Factory, maybe they would come across us and then we could overpower him and escape.

He squinted as he aimed the gun more precisely at Kavick. I felt even m
ore panic rise up in my chest. “I don’t want to shoot you, Christine...but I will do what I have to. Just step away from the wolf.”

Even though I wouldn’t, Kavick let go of my hand. He raised both of his hands and sidestepped to the right. I looked at Kavick, feeling desperate. I wasn’t about to let him go back to that horrible place, but Kavick had no choice; Doug had a gun pointed at him. If he didn’t cooperate, he would die.

I looked back to Doug, trying to think of a way to save Kavick, and all I could come up with was trying to speak reason to him. “You’re a good person, Doug. You’re my uncle’s friend, and mine, too. I know you, you’re not a killer.”

“Yes, I am!!” he hollered
, giving me a crazed look.

I felt my eyes widen again. I wasn’t expecting such a passionate answer. He seemed almost angry, but he struck me as more conflicted than anything.

“I hunt every year so it was easy to take out the mother and the two boys…in fact, I almost got Kevin here, too. I took out Mark and his other son, Thomas, later. Mark wasn’t so easy, though. I couldn’t ever catch him as a wolf. He was smart, more experienced...so I had to kill him like a murderer. I still don’t understand why he didn’t turn into a wolf when I attacked him. Why didn’t he try to fight back?”

I was surprised to see Doug actually fighting back tears. He shifted nervously and kept re-gripping the gun.

“Because my father wasn’t a murderer,” Kavick said in a low voice, his expression hard.

“Yes, he was!
!” Doug argued in the same furious voice as before. “He was a monster!! Just like you!! Just like your brothers and your mother, and even that little Miller girl!!”

If it hadn’t been a life or death situation, I would’ve laughed; the small, vulnerable teenage girl with the big eyes and quiet temperament hardly seemed like a murderer.

And then Doug seemed uncertain. He spoke in a softer, more controlled voice. “He was one, too…wasn’t he? He was still human when I killed him, so I panicked…I had only killed your kind after they had changed into wolves, when I was sure that they were monsters…so I couldn’t tell….Was he one? It’s haunted my conscience for so long…tell me.”

He seemed more confident now, squinting again behind the gun.

Kavick raised his chin defiantly. “Good, because it should haunt you. I hope it haunts you for the rest of your life.”

“Tell me!!” he yelled, seeming crazier than ever, but not hollering at the top of lungs like before. “Tell me, or I’ll shoot you and the girl!!”

He turned the gun on me then. My hands shot up even higher, trembling in the air.

“Don’t!” Kavick shouted furiously. Suddenly, he
was crouching like he was about to pounce at Doug and claw his face off. The look in his eyes was wild. It startled me just as much as Doug aiming his gun at me. I had never seen Kavick like that before. “I’m the monster!! I’m the one you want!! Shoot
me
!! I dare you!!”

I gave Kavick a bewildered look. I couldn’t believe my ears. Kavick slapped his chest, right over his heart, daring Doug to kill him.

It turned into a mad yelling match between the two, throwing out threats and commanding the other to back off. They both seemed so unstable; I was afraid Doug was going to shoot Kavick any second. I saw Doug’s finger wrap around the trigger, so I had to act fast. I held my hands out a like a referee, trying to get control of the situation, still keeping my hands where Doug could see them. “J-just calm down. Let’s just calm down, he’ll answer your question. We’ll tell you anything you want.”

It went quiet and Kavick narrowed his eyes at Doug in a glare. I watched him carefully, waiting for him to speak; his very life depended on it. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then he opened them. Somehow they were shining in the darkness. “Answer a question of mine first…if you killed Thomas when you shot him, why did you take his body away?”

Surprisingly, Doug didn’t hesitate to answer. “Because when I shot him, he was still alive. They tried to save him in the Factory, but he didn’t last the night. Apparently, the bullet was lodged in an organ and, well, there aren’t many canine organs on the black market, you know? He wouldn’t turn back into a human…or maybe he couldn’t. Who knows.” Doug shrugged like he didn’t care. “Now answer my question, dog.”

Kavick’s glare worsened. It was positively deadly. He took a deep breath before he spoke. “My father was a black wolf, just like Maguyuk.”

I felt myself stiffen; Kavick had made a mistake. He had slipped up and used his brother’s Native name that only the Wolves knew about. I wondered if Kavick caught his mistake, because his face never changed.

Recognition flashed across Doug’s eyes as he put the pieces together. “…He was
Mark, Jr., wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” Kavick said in a bitter voice. “He was known to the outside world as
Mark, Jr.,, a name he hated until the day he died, but he was known as Maguyuk to his family and close friends. Maguyuk wasn’t a monster, or a killer, either; he was just a teenage boy who wanted to leave Riverton and become a racecar driver. He loved fast cars, but never got to own one. When we were little, we would build model cars together…”

“Shut up!!” Doug seemed unstable and conflicted again. “You can try to convince me all you want that he was human, but he wasn’t, and you’re not, either!”

“But he is, Doug!” I pleaded, somehow hoping if I used his name more he would be more likely to listen to me. “Just like I know you, I know Kavick. He
is
human. He’s just like me.” I realized I had slipped up, too, in the heat of the moment. I tried not to act like I had made a mistake, hoping he would think I had said “Kevin”. But what did it matter anyway if he did know their Native names? He already knew Kavick could change into a wolf-dog.

“No, he’s not, Christine. He’s deceived you just like he’s deceived the whole town. They even use different names. I know all about him from when I was in
Nome. I found out about them from one of my friends who’s Yupik, too. He told me about the Skarlings and the other ‘Wolf-People’ who used to live there. They’re always moving around, because even their own people don’t want them!”

I shook my head helplessly. I felt tears in my own eyes this time. I had dropped the act and I was desperately pleading from the heart, hoping it would somehow get through to him. “He is human. He is. He’s my best friend, Doug. Please, don’t shoot him. He’s my best friend, my only friend here…
.”

I felt a tear fall
down my face as I lost my calm demeanor, along with my voice. I couldn’t think of anything to say, anyway, even though there were so many good things to say about Kavick.

“Christine, I’m sorry, but this is for your own good, and your uncle’s, as well. He’s a threat to the whole town.”

Even though Doug had somehow managed to become calm, I couldn’t. I just shook my head at every twisted thing he said.

“I’m going to call your uncle and tell him to pick you up.”

I felt my eyes widen and I shook my head faster, more desperately.

“Yes,” he said more firmly. “I’m going to tell him where you’re at and what you’ve done. I’m going to explain the whole thing, including
him
,” he moved the gun a little closer to Kavick for a second, “and what he is. But, first, I’ve got to eliminate the threat.”

He flexed his hands, his trigger finger, and squinted again, carefully aiming at Kavick.

I felt myself gasp. This time the panic made me react; I ran at him, grabbing the gun. Really, I don’t know where I found the courage to do it; I was running on pure panic. We struggled as he tried to shake my grip from the gun. I wouldn’t let go. I focused all my strength on gripping the gun as tight as I could. I silently promised myself I would never let go. He grunted and cursed at me. “Let go, or I’ll put you out!”

I didn’t say anything. I just continued to hold on and tried to yank it out of his grasp.

And then it happened. He pulled the rifle up. I didn’t see it happen—or maybe I did, but it happened too fast for me to remember—and then there was pain. I felt myself lose all my strength. I instantly let go of the gun and fell, losing my sight along the way. Everything went black.

The first thing I was aware of was voices. When I regained consciousness, all I could do was listen. I couldn’t even open my eyes.

“
Christine! Christine, wake up! I’m so sorry, Christine!”

The voice sounded like it was crying, and it was familiar. I couldn’t place the owner of the voice, though. It was like I was dreaming.

“Leave her! She’s probably dead, anyway! Now let’s get out of here!”

“No!!”
the crying voice screamed.
“I’m not leaving her! Check her pulse, I can’t feel anything!”

“Because she’s dead! Now let’s go! The police are coming!”

“I think my hands are numb from the cold…that’s got to be it, it has to be, it has to be…”

Then I was able to feel again. I couldn’t move for a moment because my body felt heavy like lead, but I thought I felt something cold touch my neck. Then my body shifted.

“Don’t try to move her!”
the colder voice argued more vehemently.
“You’re wounded and we can’t afford to slow down!”
  He then hissed, “
Let’s go!!
”

The voices became more familiar each time I heard them speak, and it started to come back to me.

“I’m not leaving her!!”
the crying one said again.

Suddenly, I knew who it was. It was Kavick. He was the one crying, and Tartok was the one trying to convince him to leave me for dead. Just when I had been starting to warm up to Tartok a little, I realized he really was a cold SOB. But, if I couldn’t move, maybe it would be better for them to leave me. I could hear police sirens in the distance.

My eyes fluttered open and I focused my eyes on the face directly above me. It was Kavick’s pale face, and it looked as white as the snow around us. His black brows relaxed in relief. I blinked as I felt the tears drop onto my cheeks from his face. His blue eyes were shining with more unshed tears. “Christine! Oh, thank God! Are you alright? Can you move? The police are coming for us.”

I blinked a few more times and looked around. My mind was blank as I struggled to get myself together
. I saw Tartok giving me a wide-eyed stare that I decided to assume was because he had genuinely believed I was dead and not out of wondering if I heard him trying to convince Kavick to ditch me in the bitter cold to die. Speaking of which, Kavick was hurriedly slipping his glove back on his hand.

Then I saw a body lying face down in the snow nearby. There was a rifle lying next to him. As I struggled to stand up with some help from Kavick, I continued to stare at the body. And then I realized who it was.

“What happened to Doug?” I asked, unable to remember. It must have happened while I was unconscious.

Kavick gave him a quick, nervous glance. Then I noticed the red blotch of blood in the snow surrounding his body. I felt my jaw drop, shocked at what I saw. Kavick noticed my reaction and quickly grabbed my hand. “I’ll explain it later, but we have to go.”

“
Now,
” Tartok stressed with a motion for us to follow him, no longer holding the rifle he had back in the Factory. Suka and Adrik weren’t with him, either, but I didn’t bother with questions.

We ran through the trees and snow and soon came to the road. After a few moments of running down the curved, icy pavement with a couple of slips along the way, the black SUV finally came into sight. We ran even faster for it. Seeing it gave me hope
, relief, and excitement all at the same time. I slipped again, almost going down and taking Kavick with me, but he pulled me close to him and steadied me, never missing a beat. We hurriedly crawled into the back seat of the SUV. Suka was at the wheel and Adrik was in the passenger seat. As soon as Kavick was in, before he had even shut his door, Tartok said, “Go!”

I could hear the sound of Suka’s boot slamming down on the pedal. The SUV took off, making me fall back against my seat. Kavick fell over, but managed to shut his door. For a moment, the three of us just sat in silence, panting, trying to catch our breath. It seemed unreal that we had actually gotten away, but I didn’t feel safe. I was surprised the police never found us. I kept looking behind us, but the only thing following us was the empty road.

Suka told Tartok that she had contacted Jonathan, and that he had gotten away with most of the people that were held hostage there. However, some had been killed by the hunters.

When we hit the next town, I raised the sleeve of my coat to check my watch. It was well after
midnight. Suka was still driving like a crazy person through the heart of a town whose name I had already forgotten. Luckily there weren’t any police around, because she was taking Adrik to the hospital and we couldn’t afford to be delayed.

Once Adrik was admitted, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I had heard the nurse ask Adrik how he had gotten the wound when they were wheeling him away. He had said he had been cleaning his gun and hadn’t realized it was loaded. The female nurse had looked skeptical, but wrote it down anyway without question.

Kavick and I sat in the waiting room while Tartok got us some food from a vending machine. I finally felt calm, but I was still a little worried in the back of my mind if the police would find us, or if Adrik would be okay.

I finally looked over at Kavick. It felt like we had been sitting there in silence for hours, when it wa
s really only about five minutes. He didn’t look tired, like I felt. He looked wide awake, watching the news intently on the waiting room Television. I whispered, “Hey,” daring to break the silence.

He only turned his head
halfway to see me, looking at me more from the corner of his blue eye. “Hey,” he whispered back. A tiny grin curled the corner of his mouth at me.

“How ya doin’?”

“Good, considering everything. You?”

Same here,” I said, holding my head for a second. “Just sore.”

He furrowed his brow in concern. “You should have that looked at.”

I raised my eyebrows at him and fought back the urge to scoff. “It’s not nearly as serious as yours.”

“I’m fine,” he said, looking back at the TV in front of us. I knew he would be adamant about that.

I grinned, trying not to laugh. “C’mon…you could say you had an accident cleaning your gun, too.”

He gave me a funny look, much like the nurse had given Suka’s father. “As if it isn’t fishy enough with one of us saying that…couldn’t he have thought of a better excuse?”

We shared in a hushed laugh.

“The people at the Factory took the bullet out, anyway,” he added. “I’ll be fine. You should go. You don’t have anything nearly as incriminating as a bullet wound.” He looked down at his arms for a moment, rubbing them in a strange way, like they were sore, or he was nervous.

“It’s just a bump to the head,” I said, being just as stubborn as him.

His jaw dropped and he laughed at me. He turned in his seat to face me fully. “Just a
bump
?! He
bumped
you unconscious!”

When he phrased it like that, I couldn’t help but laugh a little myself. “Okay, so maybe that was kind of understating it a little….”

“You think?” He was still laughing at me.

We shared a few more chuckles and then I said, “But I can’t. Just like you can’t have certain people learning about yours, I can’t have Justin learning about mine.”

Kavick nodded, turning serious and clearly understanding. “I’ll make sure you don’t fall asleep anytime soon.”

I felt my eyes get heavy and tried to stifle a yawn. I was unsuccessful, earning a worried look from Kavick.

“Oh, no. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Don’t fall asleep! Please, I’m begging you!”

Even though I was saying I wouldn’t, I couldn’t help but wi
sh he and the others hadn’t left their fur capes in the vehicle to keep from drawing attention, because I would have loved to rest my head on his shoulder covered in that soft bear fur.

We heard someone clear his throat loudly next to us and noticed it was Tartok. As strange as it may sound, I don’t think th
e rude gesture was necessarily for me, because he was narrowing his eyes at Kavick. I think whatever message he was trying to send Kavick was lost, though, due to the mountain of food and cans of pop he had stacked in his arms. I was dumbfounded by the large mound of pastry packages and bags of various chips. Finally I said, “Uh, you guys eat a lot?”

Kavick gave his brother a bewildered look, clearly just as shocked as I was. “Did you shake the vending machines empty, or did you spend all our money on a bunch of junk food?”

Tartok narrowed his eyes at him and threw him a hand full of snacks. Kavick caught them, smashing one of the cheese danishes in the process. “I don’t know if they gave you food in that factory, but I have not eaten in twelve hours,” he whispered in an irritated way.

Kavick took a can of pop from him and said, “So, you did just spend all our money. Did I ever tell you you’re a little on the extreme side?”

“Shut up,” Tartok said casually, like it wasn’t rude at all. “I didn’t go to the grocery store because I was searching for your ass all day, so we’re out of food.”

“Great,” Kavick sighed as he opened a bag of chips.

Tartok walked over to me so I could take what I wanted. I took a can of orange soda, and grabbed one of those delicious danishes. Seeing the food reminded me how hungry I was. I thanked Tartok for the food and he muttered, “Don’t mention it.”

Tartok sat down beside Kavick and placed the remaining food in a pile on the low lying coffee table in front of us, which had a Holy Bible and gossip magazines on it. The Bible reminded me of Justin, so for the first time since I could remember, I willingly prayed over my food. I felt extremely fortunate and grateful after everything that had happened.

When I opened one of the danishes a few seconds later, I looked at Kavick to see if he was giving me a strange look. But he wasn’t. He was lifting his own head from prayer. He grinned sheepishly at me. “You reminded me there have been a lot of miracles tonight.”

“You’re right. How many times did we cheat death? I lost count.”

He laughed, but Tartok gave him a serious look, quickly squashing out the laughter. Apparently, he didn’t find nearly dying amusing in the least. Kavick awkwardly took a bite of his danish and whispered to me, “Sorry. He never can take a joke.”

I nodded and whispered, too, hoping Tartok would be
too engrossed in the TV to hear me. “I noticed that.”

And Tartok really did appear to be just that engrossed in it. I began to wonder what had his attention, so I looked to the TV. There was
live footage of the leather factory. Fire trucks were scattered around the white building that was completely engulfed in flames. The female reporter on the scene was speaking loud and hurriedly, saying,
“…I spoke to an officer just moments ago and he was saying he was certain it was arson, especially since it has now happened a second time. Once again, all the security footage will probably be ruined by the fire, but they’re hoping there will be some kind of evidence this time to point them to who is responsible. As for motive, nobody can figure out why someone would want to burn the Manheim Leather factory. As the mayor said before, it has brought jobs to the otherwise failing community of Riverton. All the employees were interviewed after the last fire and had been ruled out as suspects...”

Just then
, Suka walked up beside Tartok and watched the news report. I wanted to ask her how her father was, but she seemed to be listening just as intently as Tartok and Kavick. She finally looked down at Tartok, her gray bangs falling over one side of her face. She whispered in such a low voice I almost didn’t hear her. “So this is what you meant by handling it? You think this will really stop them? It didn’t work last time.”

Tartok looked at Kavick and motioned his head toward me. Kavick muttered, “She already knows about all of this.”

“Take her home before her uncle realizes she’s gone. And make sure she doesn’t tell anyone,” Tartok said in a low and firm voice. “Not even her uncle.”

Kavick let out a heavy sigh, and just as he began to stand, Tartok grabbed his arm. “And stop seeing her. You’re supposed to marry Anana.”

Luckily, there wasn’t any food in my mouth at that moment because my mouth fell open at those words. Kavick didn’t say anything to Tartok. He just pulled his arm out of his brother’s grip. “Suka, can I use you’re dad’s SUV?”

She pulled the keys out of her coat pocket and gave them to him. She gave him a warm hug like they were already family. “I’m glad you’re okay. You should see Anana. She was really worried about you.”

“I will,” he mumbled in an almost guilty manner.

“How’s your father?” I asked as I stood, finally managing to compose myself after overhearing Kavick’s wedding plans. I grabbed my can
of soda and another danish, ready to leave.

She moved her hair away from her eye and smiled kindly, much unlike her father’s behavior. “He’ll be fine as long as he stays off that leg. Thank you so much for all of your help. We couldn’t have gotten out of there without you.”