Snow: The White Crow (13 page)

I nodded. “The most gorgeous red fur, like a fox's.  And you are huge.  Not Daria huge, but as big as any male wolf.”  The I added, “And mine.”

Daria tapped something and I chuckled.  I hadn't noticed that one on the tarp, 'Gag'.  I pointed at her and squinted. “Hey you two are just as bad so zip it, woman.”  She chuffed in amusement.

Rachel was moving around the table to Daria's side.  Her eyes on the wolf, they were narrowed in intent.  Daria started to narrow her eyes.  I could tell that no matter how relaxed Maireni looked, sprawled on the couch, that she was ready to respond to any threat; the fact that I couldn't see either of her hands attested to that.  They were probably holding weapons.

Rachel noticed the building tension.  Then looked around to all of us then held her hands up, palms out.  “Sorry.”  She locked eyes with the wolf.  “Sorry Daria, I was just curious.  Believe it or not, I have never seen a werewolf up close that wasn't eating my insides.  Being one myself, I have only seen pictures.”

Red absently said, “Not a werewolf.”  Then added, “Technically.”

Daria made a far too human looking smile.  It looked so out of place on a canine face.  Then she stepped down from the table and stood to give Rachel her full profile.  Holy crap she was huge and beautiful.

Rachel reached out and asked her, “May I?”

Daria whined and Red said, “You don't want to be touching her.  She embodies the silver anathema.”

Rachel shrugged and ran her hand through Daria's ruff.  I could hear sizzling and smell the silver burn of flesh.  She didn't seem to notice, just like when she held my silver weapons.  She smiled hugely and said, “Your fur is so soft, like down.  I expected it to be coarse.”

She took her hand away and came back to sit by me.  The rest of us watched her bubbled and red skin heal.  Red voiced it,  “Hell Rachel, are you a masochist or something?”

She looked down at her hand to see the last of the redness fade then chuckled. “Oh that?  No.  I don't really feel silver burn anymore unless it is severe.  I was once pinned beneath a wolf containment cage for twelve hours when my rescue vehicle got caught in an avalanche up by Snoqualmie Pass.  By the time they located me and dug me out, the silver of the cage had eaten most of the flesh on my back and had burned through half of my spine and ribcage.”

She shrugged.  I didn't know this story yet, so I sat in rapt attention as she finished.  “They didn't think I'd survive, too much silver poisoning.  It seems the receptors from the curse that transmit the pain of silver contact sort of either burned out or overloaded to the extent that it takes a lot of silver for me to feel it now.”  Both cool and disturbing.

We were all silent for a minute then Daria put her paws back up on the table and started pawing out, “3 questions”.  Then she stared at Red expectantly.

Maireni nodded at her and held up a finger to us and asked, “Why are you two here?”  A second finger.  “Did you dispatch the other group of witches?” Then a third.  “Why did you call?”  She cocked an eyebrow at Daria and the wolf huffed agreement with the three questions.

Then Red held up a fourth finger. “And do we have time to eat before we get too deep into it?  I'm craving meat right now after being on the hunt for over twenty-four hours.”  Daria chuffed in agreement and we all smiled.  Rachel and I headed out to the vehicle for a dozen ration packs from the cooler. In it, the ice was almost melted and the packs floated in icy water.

I chuckled when she held up the common black foil pack with the little wolf head in the corner in one hand and a silver pack with a human head in the corner.  Red rolled her eyes and said, “I like my meat raw.”  My girl smiled at her then threw six packs to her to share with Daria.  Any meats in a wolf package would be uncooked.  Then she comically plugged her nose and handed me three silver packs.  I slapped her shoulder. “Hey!  I'll eat anything.”  Everyone laughed at me.  Friggin wolves... and whatever Red is.  I blushed.

We talked about the mission we were on and my failure to stop the old crone.  Her scent was all over here so she must have joined the lead lamia.  They explained they had the same trouble with the other crone, she seemed to have real power instead of relying heavily on talismans, even though she used them too.

Maireni, or Mari as she asked to be called, said, “If it weren't for the curse, she would have taken us out with that blast.  We had ripped through her werewolves and were taking out the lesser witches she seemed to be channeling power from.  She panicked then released a huge amount of dark magic that vaporized the closest bodies to her and killed her own allies.  It stunned us long enough for her and a couple werewolves to get away.”

I opened my mouth to ask about her reference to the curse when speaking of herself and Daria, but  Rachel spoke instead,  “Yeah, good question love.”  Then she looked at the two expectantly.

Mari's brow furrowed. “What question?”

My wolf looked between them and me then said, “Oh crap.  It happened again didn't it?”  I nodded.  She looked at Red apologetically.  “Sorry, since my wolf claimed the bird girl here I've been hearing snippets of her thoughts.  I can't tell if she spoke them out loud or not.  I've never heard of this in any other wolves.  I think the mating bond is broken.”

Mari looked amused. “That's what I have been smelling!  Bird!”  Oh good lord, not her too!  Then she shook her head. “It might not be anything wolf.  Gretta here is... well, something... else.”  She added, “Since we met her she has changed a lot in a day.  Her hair, those antlers she is trying to hide, and her power is an almost tangible thing now.  She smells like forest, bird, predator, and power.”

I waved my hands at everyone. “Hello?  Right here.”  Red crinkled her nose at me and Daria huffed a doggie laugh.  I pointed at her. “Watch it Fluffy!”  She snuffed at that and I gave her a neener neener look.

I looked around then said, “Apparently my life force is tied to and part of Perchta.  It is a little confusing to me.”  Then I admitted, “I keep getting glimpses through Rachel's eyes along with her feelings at the moment.  It was surreal when she was breaking down the doors to attack me last night.  I felt what a werewolf really was, all rage and hunger, it is like the human and humanity is sealed away in a cage with no awareness.  But the odd mating bond Rach and I share, somehow put a crack in that cage and an infinitesimal part of her awareness bled through.”

I looked at her and she was pale from my description of her wolf, I grabbed her hand and smiled. “It was you.  You let your wolf know we were mated and that sang to the primal instincts of your wolf.  The last thing I got from the flash of vision was a resounding word from you, your werewolf aspect thought in English, 'Mine!', and a dare to the world.”  I chuckled. “Then you proceeded to protect me... from nothing... the entire night.”

I kissed her nose then turned to the others.  “The question was that when you refer to the lycan curse, you apply it to yourselves too.  Why?  I guess I can see it in Daria's case.”  I reached out my senses as I spoke.  I could see a the darkness and black magics of a demon pulsing through Daria's veins, but it was bound by chains of pure light magic.  The magic had an almost nature taste to it as my own.  Whatever it was, was more powerful than me.

I turned to Red as she answered and I was almost blinded, I had to drop my senses and I was truly blind for a second as my vision returned, spots of light dancing in my vision.  Holy shit.  I knew what the power source for Red and Daria was now, the focus for the magics.  That cloak was something I had never come across.  I don't know how to explain it.  It was like nature... no, it WAS life.

She shrugged as she squinted at me, I think she knew I was peeking, she seemed satisfied I had blinded myself momentarily.  “The curse that made the werewolves also made the Red Hoods... it made me when it was my time to don the Cloak of the Innocent.  All things must have balance, and I am the balance to the werewolves.  I received all that the Marcus brothers sought, in order to stop them.  Unfortunately, I received some of the drawbacks too.”  She held up some raw beef as an example and popped it into her mouth.  Red Hoods?  There are more than one?  She said Cloak of the Innocent like it were a name.

She finished with, “Since I share the curse, only one of the cursed can kill me.  Though I'm pretty sure something like a beheading would as well, you'd be surprised how many things that kills. Sure I can be hurt but I heal faster than a wolf, so does Daria since I accidentally bound her to my magics when I tried to save her when she was bitten.”

She paused and looked at Rachel and me. “I share this only because you shared your secrets as well.  I feel kindred spirits in you.”

We all shared looks of agreement.  Their secrets were our and ours theirs.  It has been so very long since I truly had... friends.  I have always tried not to make attachments because of my long life.  I nodded.

Then Rachel was all business, in cop mode.  We all agreed the lamias were searching for the same thing the missing men were, this Black Crown.  It was obviously in the area somewhere.  I had already destroyed a talisman that specifically targeted the wolf curse that Red had so we decided to split up again to cover more area.  We would attempt to find the missing men and the Black Crown first.  If we came across the gypsies first, Mari and Daria have proven a match against the lead witch, and I wanted to pit my newly found reservoir of magic against the lamias.  It was a primal instinct to hunt, my animal nature.  I knew now why Perchta sometimes led the Wild Hunt.

It was almost comical as we all geared up, we had a ridiculous amount of weapons.  Except Daria, who was a weapon.  Mari strapped the pack on the wolf and they stepped up to us.  Mari clasped our forearms and said, “Good hunting.”

Rachel responded in kind, “Good hunting.”

Then I felt a wet warmth on my feet and looked down as Daria lowered her hind leg, she had peed on my shoes!  Mari started laughing hard as they stepped outside and called back, “She did warn you not to call her Fluffy.”

I yelled out, “Bitch!”  Daria turned her head back and gave a doggy grin, her tongue lolling out.  I had to chuckle, but... ewwwww.  Rachel was just looking down at my feet and comically took a step away.

I shook my head.  “I'll never get the smell out of them.”  Then we headed north as they angled southeast.

We did a quick sweep of the immediate vicinity then we slowly spiraled out for an hour before I pulled us to a halt.  Our noses couldn't differentiate from the false trails the magic made and the real trail.  I assumed the magic overlaid the real trail as well so they all smelled the same.  Rachel inhaled one last time and shook her head.  “There's something wrong with all the trails and I can't pick out one that doesn't have that different tang to it.”

I nodded. “That tang that seems off to you, is the black magic.  Most wolves can't smell magic.”  I looked around.  “I could unravel the magic, it is delicate but complex.  We'd lose about another hour and since they laid it over the original scent as well, it may destroy the trail. What do you say we cast a wider net?”

She squinted at me then she smiled in realization. “You sing, the cartoon birds come?”

I twapped her nose with a finger.  “Bad doggie.”  Then I kissed the tip of her nose to keep her off balance.  It was such fun to mess with her.  While she grinned, I defended myself. “I told you it isn't like that.”

She had a smug look on her face and made a sweeping gesture for me to continue.  I crinkled my nose at her then relaxed and just let myself flow out to forest, to become part of the forest.  Again I was amazed at how much quicker the response was now like I was simply waking up part of myself that was always there.

The feeling was much stronger and I could feel further.  The forest welcomed me into its embrace.  I could feel every insect and animal, every plant and tree, the wind rustling the pine needles in the trees, the water flowing in the streams for a couple miles around.

I asked a simple favor and I could feel the world respond.  Damn, it was so seductive, I really liked my new awareness.  I glanced at Rachel and she looked flush.  I tilted my head in question and she actually blushed then said breathlessly, “It's like that?  Every time?”

I realized she must have flashed into my head again.  I was glad she got a glimpse of what it was like for me.  I shook my head. “No. Just since I antlered out.”

She glanced at my feet to observe the carpet of moss that seemed to flow under my feet.  We exchanged smiles and hiked to the top of a ridge.  I said, “This is a good place to wait for a reply.  If anyone has seen anything in the past day, they will find us.”

I shouldered my M4 and popped the caps on the scope and scanned the valley that was bathed in the afternoon sun. She pulled a small set of binoculars from one of the pockets on her black cargo pants.  She mused, “You talk as though the animals are people.”

I thought about that. “I guess I do.  They have personalities and intelligence and a wide range of emotions people don't give animals credit for.  I see them as my friends, my family.  It is no different than your wolf aspect.  You reasoned and acted, using your instincts to guide you.”  Then I looked away from my scope and grinned. “You're just lucky your wolf was sweet on me.  I really didn't want to hurt you.”

She crinkled her nose cutely and shot back,  “Like a bird girl could hurt me.”  Even through the playful tone I could tell she knew I could and it would devastate me if I did.

I was pulled away from her eyes by a feeling and I said, “Looks like we have a taker.” I scanned the sky.  Then there he was, soaring majestically, swooping up on a thermal.  A red-tailed hawk gracefully back flapped and spread his feathers wide, absorbing his momentum as he landed on my outstretched arm.

I pursed my lips and looked over at Rachel who looked overly amused and I warned, “One word about it being a bird to answer my call first, and all you're getting after this mission is over is a cold shower.”  She held up her hands in surrender then zipped her lips and locked them, throwing the key away.  Though her twinkling eyes and smarmy grin told the whole story.  Was it wrong I wanted to kiss the smartass?  I kissed the smartass.

The hawk half spread his wings in protest and impatience.   I turned to him.  “I'm sorry handsome.  What was it you saw?”  I heard a bugle approaching.  Oh, this was going to be a treat.

I got flashes of something dark moving methodically through the woods.  Dark, as in it tasted of evil and black magics.  I got impressions of two women.  One was the crone, still burned badly, her hands bandaged.  The other looked just as old but walked more briskly.  There were naked humans... who were not human, wolves... who were not wolves.  It didn't make sense.  The sun, the moon.  A howl.  Werewolves?  Too many to count for the hawk, that could mean five or a hundred.

The images were disjointed because the hawk wasn't interested in them when he had been hunting this morning.  So the lamias and some werewolf bodyguards?  I had the impression this was hours ago when the sun rose.  Maybe that's why he was confused if they were humans or wolves, they must have changed.

I pushed some of myself into the hawk as my thanks for his assistance.  I smiled at him. “Thank you.  You've been a great help.”  He spread his wings wide in a majestic display and screed at me.  With a powerful leap and down-stroke of wings, he was in the air and gliding down the ridge.

Rach said in an amused tone, “And?”

I shrugged. “He saw them moving east into the mountains this morning.  So we have a direction.  An indeterminate number of infected flanking them as guards, who are still subject to the compulsion of the talisman before I destroyed it.”

She squinted. I could see a shadow in her eyes at the memory of how helpless she felt with no will of her own when I demonstrated it for her.  Then she prompted, “Indeterminate?”

I waffled my hand. “Birds brains aren't built for rational thinking like numbers.  They see their prey as many, few, or one.  This was... many.  So it could be anything from like four or five to dozens.”

She looked less impressed with my woodland friends, I think she expected more after seeing what Conrad could do.  I smiled and said, “It is a start, but I think he's going to be more useful.”  I pointed as there was a rustling in the brush.  She was whirling and drawing a weapon in the same instant when the sound finally registered with her.  She had been so intent on the hawk, she didn't hear his approach.

I chuckled and placed my hand on her weapon and made her lower the gun as a spectacular bull elk stepped into the open.  He bugled again and I just smiled at him.  I felt a certain affinity for him but knew it was just a psychological twinge as I looked at his formidable antlers and had an urge to reach up to touch my stubs.

I stepped right up to him and buried my fingers into his fur, scratching his neck and laying my head against his warm side to hear his strong heartbeat.  I smiled and stepped back, still scratching him.  “Hello.”  Then I looked at Rachel, who was still holding her nine mil, pointed at the ground.  She hesitated then holstered it.  I motioned her over.

Her nostrils flared, she closed her eyes for a second, then stepped over.  I understood what she was going through.  Her awe of the creature was warring with the wolf inside of her.  She wanted to either look on in wonder, or hunt the magnificent beast.  She swallowed, forcing the hunger down.

I took her hand and placed it on his flank.  That was all it took.  She put her other hand on him as he looked at her.  I could feel his amusement because he could sense her wolf.  He had no fear, it would take more than a single werewolf to take him down.  He was no moose, but he was close.

She smiled at me then repeated what I did and laid her head on him before she stepped back.  I looked at her for a moment then asked, “Can you...  see inside me?  If you concentrate?”  She started to concentrate and I sang internally 'Hello, my wolfie, hello my darlin, hello my Clementine.'  She snorted then rolled her eyes at me.  Before she could say something from the depths of snarkville I said, “Good.  You want to see what I see?”

She paused then nodded.  I said, “This is the difference between a bird's brain and a mammal with a more developed brain.”  I looked at the elk, who was being so very patient with us.  I think he liked me scratching his neck.  “Did you see something today?”

I was hit by images much clearer and more organized.  He saw the two lamia heading east like the hawk had shared.  There were eight wolves, five men, and three women.  The elk didn't know the numbers either but I could clearly see them and count for myself.  I blinked at one of the women, a special forces tattoo on her shoulder, I recognized her face from the files, she was with the first search party that disappeared a week ago.  She had been Clean Blood, they had turned her.  They must have used the Alpha talisman on her before the witches split up.

Judging by the position of the sun in the sky in the flashes, it wasn't more than an hour ago.  I looked over to the gap between the peaks he had seen them near, not more than five miles away.  Almost due east of Slater Mining.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out the last of my dried berries and held them out to the elk.  “Thank you.  You have been invaluable to me.”  As he took the meager offerings and munched them, I gave him a push of my life force.  He sneezed at the magic when it tickled his nose, and I stifled a laugh as Rach got slimed.

He took two steps to the ridge and then bugled, the sound echoing through the valley.  He looked back then headed off the way he came.

Rachel had a sour look on her face as she tried to wipe the mucus from her body armor.  “So much eww.”  But then she stopped and grinned. “That was amazing!  It was like a flip book of images.  Even impressions of tastes, smells, and sounds.”

I nodded but then sobered.  “Eight wolves, did you catch the woman?”

Her eyes narrowed in rage and I could see the wolf from last night that snarled at me.  Her voice was a couple octaves lower, “Yes.  Amanda Danes, she was in the first search party.”

I nodded with a grim expression.  “I'll do what I can not to harm the wolves since we know they are not doing this voluntarily, but they will try to kill us to keep us from the witches.  I don't know about you, but I don't plan on dying so I will stop anyone who tries to end me.”

She nodded with an expression that mirrored mine.  “I hate this.”

I exhaled and admitted, “That is why these gypsy witches need to be stopped.  That is the difference between evil and good.”

She paused. “Yeah, evil... like my wolf.”

I cupped her cheek and growled at her which made her eyes snap to mine.  “Your wolf is a wolf.  She... you, are not evil, the curse is evil.  That's why it is called a curse and not a platypus.”

There was a two beat then she snorted.  “You're really weird you know that?  Weird and sexy.”

I winked. “Killer combination if there ever was one.”  She bumped my hip as she walked past, heading for a deer trail that would get us down into the valley.  I gave her a smirk then stepped off the ridge... directly onto a branch that was kind enough to be there to help me.

She smiled then started running at near wolf speeds down the trail.  She was so competitive and I liked it because I realized I was too.  I started running down the lattice of branches that were rising to lend me a hand.  I leaped the final ten feet down just as she was coming through the trees.  I grinned and started east.  “Coming slowpoke?”

I felt the rumble rising up in my feet first before it was even audible, the subsonic buildup as she growled playfully.  Was it wrong that I felt it in... all the right places, as we made our way through the mountains double time?  She chuckled. “You're too easy.”  But then I got a flash of heat as I watched my butt sway through her eyes, she was turned on too!  Did she somehow push her sight to me or was it because I was intent on her again?

Before long we found ourselves at the gap and separated by ten yards as we moved forward, scanning the ground for signs of people passing.  We found some tracks, bare feet, and two women wearing boots.  They were only about forty-five minutes ahead of us.

I paused then inhaled deeply, pulling air through my nose and across my tongue.  Their scent was strong now, we must have passed out of the range of the spell laying false scent trails.  Rachel was already grinning and nodding at me.  I wonder how long she had been aware of it and didn't tell me.  I know the scent trails were still confused on the ridge so it hadn't been too long. At me she mouthed, “Slowpoke.”  I mimed twapping her nose.

When we reached a narrow ravine, we both paused.  It didn't feel right.  I reached out and could feel something vague, a sense of wrongness.  It was hidden by whisper thin tendrils of black magic.  The other crone was skilled.  With that wispy blackness masking whatever we were feeling, we both knew it was most likely some sort of trap or proximity spell that would send out an alarm to the witches.

Then I realized what the wrongness was.  “There's no movement in the ravine for fifty yards.  Not even insects.”  I could see the gossamer threads of insipid black threading all over, obscuring whatever was scaring off... I paused... or killing everything in the ravine.

Rachel grabbed a pebble and threw it in, nothing happened.  I touched a thread with my power and it tasted the same as the trap in the lodge, the same person wove it and it was complex.  I looked around to see if we could take another route.  The sheer rock cliffs went up a couple hundred feet.  I could probably get vines to lattice the distance, but they wouldn't be strong at that height, even bolstered by magic.

A dragonfly flew into the ravine and fell instantly to the ground, unmoving.  I opened myself to the world and concentrated on the dragonfly, it was obscured from my magics by whatever was in there but since I could see the insect, that gave me the focus I needed.  I still felt it.  It was there.  I exhaled in relief.  But it couldn't move.  It was paralyzed.  Okay, so it was some sort of stasis or paralytic trap.