Snow: The White Crow

By Erik Schubach

Copyright © 2015 by Erik Schubach

Self publishing

P.O. Box 523

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

Cover Photo © 2015 Sergey Sukhorukov / ShutterStock.com license

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties.  Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

This is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Manufactured in the United States of America

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-9909806-7-4

Chapter 1 – Rescue

I watched the chateau through my night vision binoculars.  It was nestled in the valley by the little lake in the Cascade Mountains above Issaquah, Washington.  I glanced over my right shoulder to the moon that hung high in the sky, almost full.  Tonight would be the night to attempt the rescue as tomorrow would be a full moon and I'd have to hide away from the thousands of feral werewolves that roamed the Seattle area.

I thought about that for a moment.  For months, more and more roaming packs had converged on Seattle.  It turns out they were compelled to attack during full moons by a man who turned out being one of the elusive Alpha wolves I heard whisperings about in the forest over the centuries of my long life.

It appears that I may not be as alone as I had thought.  The other rumors and tales of a woman in a red cloak turned out to be true when the Red Hood descended on the Seattle area and battled Alister Slater, the Alpha wolf.  She and her hellhound had freed the people infected with the lupus contagion from the compulsion to attack the walled city of Seattle every full moon.

The most miraculous feat was that over twenty percent of the people around the world were freed from the werewolf curse altogether.  No trace of the contagion can be found in their blood and they exhibit none of the symptoms anymore, and no longer change on a full moon into vicious killing machines.

It is theorized that they were all of the dead Alpha's lineage.  That when Slater died, so did his branch of the curse, freeing so many of their living nightmare.  I tried to catch up with the Red Hood before she had to leave for Europe, to go after other Alphas that had declared war upon the Clean Bloods over the death of their brother.  She left before I could speak with her.

I hear she is on an ocean liner bound for America again since she apparently cannot fly as her magics effect technology.  She and her hellhound have freed London and killed yet another Alpha.  More and more of the infected around the world are finding they are cured.  They would be arriving at the port of Seattle in the next day or two.

Maybe when she returns, I can contact her.  Speaking with a kindred soul would be nice.  I exhaled and moved my attention back to the chateau where the boy was being held.  I reached out with my magic, probing, questing, asking the forest for assistance.  On the peripheral of my vision, I could sense a ripple of energy flowing out from me.

I looked back through my binoculars and saw some blackbirds alight in the trees around the structure.  I also caught movement from some undergrowth at the edge of the clearing.  A grey squirrel darted across the clearing and scaled the rough-hewn timbers of the building to the upper windows.  Moments later he was skittering to the ground and bounding up the ridge toward me as two of the blackbirds took wing.

I held my arm out and the birds landed on it.  I looked at them intently and let my magic envelop them as they chirped and tittered at each other.  I was assaulted by a jumble of images and impressions and chuckled.  “One at a time you silly birds.”  I tilted my head at the one closest my hand as I patted him on the head.  “You first if you please.”

I caught impressions of people in the windows of the building below.  And a tasty mouse. I smiled, birds were easily distracted and I recognized its desire to go after the mouse.  It was hungry.  I moved past that and tried to assemble the jumble of images and impression.  There were four armed men.  Three below.   One near the back door, the other two in the front room.  One guarded the boy upstairs.

I pulled a dried raspberry out of my pocket and gave it to the hungry bird, who chirped appreciation then flew back toward the chateau to find a nice mouse-y snack.  The other one gave me impressions of something altogether different.  Dark shapes in the woods converging on the structure.  I looked into the bird's eyes hoping to share the visions more clearly.

I blinked. He had seen Issaquah's SWAT team moving into position for a breach.  The goddamn idiots are going to get the boy killed!  There was one that seemed upset with the others.  Birds don't understand language so I just got the impression she had argued with some but then was resigned to join them.  I exhaled out my nose quickly in an aborted chuckle.  At least one of them had a brain.

I was a recovery specialist.  This is what I did.  Not many people will travel outside the safety of the walled cities to attempt to rescue kidnap victims.  Or locate people taken by the lupus contagion for Clean Blood family members.  The forests were mine, nature was mine, I was part of it, so I walked among the infected to do what good I could, in this world of ours overrun with werewolves.

I waived my fee on this job.  This was one of the most heinous kinds of ransom extortion.  A group of men who use Clean Blood accomplices to kidnap children near a full moon and give them to their feral partners outside the gates of the city.  They extort money from the families with the threat of infecting their child when the full moon hits.  They were ruthless and would follow through on the threat if the ransom were not paid.

This particular group, more often than not, would take the money and then infect the child anyway and return him to the family just to be sadistic.  It is a cruel fate for a child to be bitten.  Locked in the form of a child forever, to become a vicious beast craving flesh every full moon.  My blood boiled, I made a silent promise that I would make these men suffer.

I thanked the bird and gave him some dried fruit.  He cocked his head and looked at my pocket.  I grinned at him.  “Don't be a greedy gut.  Thank you for your help.  Now shoo, go be with your brethren.”  He chirped at me, ruffled his feathers in amusement then flew off as the squirrel arrived at my feet.

I looked at him as he crawled up my pant leg and under my leather jacket to pop up looking directly into my eyes.  I smiled at him.  “Well hello there.  What do you have for me?”  I scratched his chin with my finger.  His tail twitched inside my jacket and he closed his eyes to enjoy the attention as I let my magic flow around him.

I saw the five-year-old boy, locked in a room with a man holding an assault rifle. The images and impressions were much clearer.  Squirrels have much more advanced brains.  He gave me sounds he thought were silly human sounds.  It was garbled a bit since he didn't understand language, but I pieced together that a man from below was yelling that the police were coming and they needed to move to another location in five minutes.

They knew the police were coming?  Did they have an inside man?  I looked at the squirrel and scratched his chin again.  “You clever, clever boy.  Thank you so much.  I held my pocket open and he crawled the rest of the way out of my coat and spiraled down my arm and started stuffing his cheeks with dried fruit and peanuts.

I said, “Slow down, you weren't that clever little one.”  I swear he smiled at me with his cheeks stuffed, then he flowed down my body and disappeared into the underbrush.  I grinned at him.  I think he has answered my call to the forest for help before.

I took one last look through my binoculars and tried to pick out the SWAT team.  I caught some motion, a figure in black about a hundred yards from the building.  I'd have to go now or these men would get the boy killed, especially since the ferals below knew they were coming.

I dove over the ridge and my feet found the branches that rose to meet my steps until I landed on the ground below.  I silently ran down to the valley, moss forming in a trail in front of me to muffle any sound, then receding after I passed.  I pushed a little magic to my right, questing for help, and a root caught the feet of a SWAT officer twenty yards away.  As he concentrated on regaining his footing, I silently slipped past, unnoticed.

Once I reached the clearing around the building, I stopped in the shadows and unslung my M4 from my back.  I checked the suppressor on it.  I was licensed to have one with my profession.  They called me a Wolf Hunter, though technically I was a recovery specialist in that sub-genre that allowed me to carry normally illegal silenced weapons like this, and to avoid the one-ounce silver hoarding limits.

I checked the magazine.  Silver laced rounds.  I wasn't positive all four men werewolves, but it paid to err on the side of caution.  I looked through the scope and could see the shadows of the men on the lower level behind the curtains.  They seemed to be packing gear in haste.

Then I aimed higher and could see the boy sitting on the bed.  He looked to have his hands tied behind his back and he was gagged.  I could just make out the fourth man, he seemed to be agitated, pacing the room.

I couldn't get a shot.  I shouldered the rifle and leaped to the closest tree, it caught my feet as I ran upward.  Two branches bent in to form a small roost and I pulled the M4 off my shoulder and squatted in the roost.  I sighted the lower level then back to the upper.

I looked around and saw a dragonfly and gently pushed some power to it, asking it for a small favor.  A moment later the valiant dragonfly flew across the clearing and repeatedly started ramming the boy's window.  I could hear the soft tick, tick, tick from where I sat.

I took aim and the guard moved to the window, his weapon drawn.  He looked out and saw the dragonfly and he opened the window and tried to shoo the insect away.  Then he froze when his enhanced wolf vision caught me in the tree across the clearing. He started to raise his assault rifle toward me.  He didn't even know he was dead as his body fell with a foaming wound in his skull.  Yup, he was wolf.

With one motion, I was diving out of the tree and shouldering my rifle again as the boy started to panic. I landed in a three-point stance in a bed of moss, six inches deep, then took off toward the building as fast as I could run, keeping to the shadows.

I pushed my magics in front of me.  I was getting exhausted, I had been expending a lot of power tonight.  I winced in pain at the migraine as the magic started resisting me.  I pushed back and was seeing stars, but thick ivy started crawling the wall of the chateau up to the second floor.

I hit the wall already climbing and hopped through the open window beside the body of the man I had shot.  The boy's eyes were wide in fear.  I smiled at him and held a hand low, indicating he needed to keep quiet.  I whispered, “It's ok Jamie, My name is Gretta, Gretta Snow.  I'm here to bring you back to your mother.”

He stared at me then nodded.  I smiled a sweetly as I could manage as I sat next to him and pulled out a knife and cut his restraints.  He immediately started rubbing his wrists.  I reached for the gag and paused.  “Can you be a big boy for me and be very quiet?”  He nodded and I whispered as I removed the gag, “Good man.”

I picked him up in my arms and started toward the window.  “Close your eyes.”  He cutely closed his eyes tightly.  I couldn't help but smile at how brave he was.  Then I leaped out the window.  I landed softly in a bed of moss on the ground below and started running to the safety of the woods.

That's when all hell broke loose.  I heard doors being kicked in, yelling, and gunfire behind us as I kept running with little James, to a small hollow where no stray gunfire could hit us.

Then I took the time to really look the boy over.  “Are you okay little man?  Did they hurt you?”

I looked him over for injuries as he started to cry.  “The mean men said they were going to eat me or make me a wolfie like them.”

I hugged him and shushed him, “Shhhh, shhh... it's ok. The bad men aren't going to hurt you or anyone else anymore.  Shhhh... What do you say we get you back to your mommy and daddy?  They miss you.”  He nodded enthusiastically.

The next moment I was spinning and dropping to a knee on instinct, as I drew a silver blade with one hand and pulled my nine mil Sig in the other.  A raspy voice behind me prompted, “Interesting trick back there, mind telling me how you did it?”  The woman was dressed in all black assault gear with bright yellow letters reading “SWAT” across her chest.  She stood with her weapon drawn in a classic two-handed Weaver stance.

This was the woman the bird had shown me arguing with the others.  She was good.  I almost didn't hear her approach us.  My awareness of the forest around me alerted me to her presence.  I sniffed the air with my better than human senses and caught her scent, I smelled wolf.  My heart went out to her.  Most people outside the gates of the walled cities were infected.  That she chose to raise above the curse that was not of her choosing was admirable.  Some couldn't handle it and went feral like the men who had kidnapped the boy.  Ferals don't lock themselves away on full moons to protect others. Instead, they try to spread the curse.

I couldn't see much of her, her gear covered her entire tall form and the goggles obscured her face, but her amused smile at my scrutiny told me we were in no danger.  She made a tossing away motion with the barrel of her weapon.

I smiled and held my hands up, let the weapons go loose in my grip, and I slid them back into the holster and sheath.  The boy was grasping my waist in fear.  I said, “Gretta Snow.  Just call me Snow.  Jamie's parents contracted me to return him to them.”

She didn't holster her weapon, but she did relax and moved the barrel toward the ground slightly, still holding it in both hands.  “Friggin mercenary?”

I shook my head and reached slowly into an inside pocket in my leather jacket and removed my wallet and tossed it to her.  It landed at her feet.  She adjusted her gun with her right hand, squatted to pick up my wallet with her left, and flipped it open without taking her eyes off me.

She quickly glanced down at my credentials then hissed as she holstered her gun. “A god damn Wolf Hunter?  What the hell are you doing here?  This is a kidnapping, you could have gotten the boy killed.”

I had brought Jamie around and hoisted him to my hip as I explained, “Recovery specialist.”

She whistled. “You're one of the crazy ones?”  Then she squinted at the silver knife hilt sticking out of the sheath on my leg, then my unburned hand.  Her nostrils flared and she drew air in through her nose and over her tongue, tasting the air in a very wolf-like manner.  “And a Clean Blood?”  Her eyebrows arched in surprise.  But then she answered her own question. “Well obviously, an infected Hunter would be worthless since they would change on the full moon too.”  She inhaled again, her nostrils flaring and she squinted in confusion.  I think she was smelling the part of me that was something other than human.

I shrugged as she pulled her goggles up on her helmet and I blinked.  She had white eyes.  Her irises were such a pale blue that they were hard to distinguish from the whites of her eyes in the moonlight.  I have never seen anything like them.  She seemed to slump slightly in resignation then said, “Specialist Rachel Paige.”  Then she repeated, “So you going to tell me how you did that?”

I swallowed, I hated revealing my affinity for magic to anyone.  With the werewolves terrorizing the world for centuries, most of us magic users and supernatural beings liked to hide in the shadows.  Whenever humans found out about us, they usually hunted us down like the wolves, because obviously anything different has to be evil right?  And they hunted down or dissected them.  I choked on the venom of that thought.

I played it off by saying, “I don't know what you are talking about.”

She exhaled as she reached up for her coms.  “I'm not an idiot, I know what I saw.  That ivy grew up to the window as you climbed it.  And that bed of moss you landed on wasn't there when you went up.”  Then she said into her mic, “Bravo three.  Package is secure.  Returning to rendezvous point Victor Two.”

She motioned her hand toward the east and we started walking.  I looked at her. “Trick of the moonlight.”

She arched her head back and let loose an amused smoky laugh.  Then she grinned at me. “Whatever you say golden eyes.”

Oh shit.  I concentrated and let my magics go back to sleep.  I could feel it drain from my eyes.  I shrugged like I didn't know what she was talking about and she snorted when I grinned at her. “Trick of the moonlight.”

She said, “I like you, Snow.  Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.  I'm just glad you got the boy out before Sargent Frieze did that stupid Rosenberg assault and got the kid killed.”  This surprised me and I looked back over at her, but she had her eyes firmly on the faint deer trail we were following that was dimly illuminated by the moon.

Chapter 2 – The Gates of Seattle

When we finally made it to the SWAT base camp, a medic started checking Jamie over.  A Sargent  Frieze joined us, and they started debriefing me.  They took my silenced M4 for ballistics, to match it up with the bullet that killed the fourth kidnapper.

After making my statement and going over the sequence of events three or four times, Frieze said gruffly, “Be where we can contact you for the next few days in case we have more questions. Damn civilian, sticking your nose in where it don't belong.  What did the Killians pay you for this?  You could have got the boy killed for a payout.”

Then he growled... a wolf growl.  I was in his face instantly, I had no patience for fools.  I borrowed the voice of a nearby grey wolf who was awakened from her den by the gunfire earlier, and growled fiercely back at him.  Then I snapped, “He's just five years old!  I didn't take a single penny for the job!  Your God damned John Wayne maneuver down there was the only threat to the boy's life!  Didn't you read the intelligence on this group?  They leave more dead or cursed behind them than any other group of kidnappers this side of the Rockies... just for spite.”

He didn't back off, I could smell his breath on my face, and knew he was overly fond of peppered beef jerky.  I continued, “If I were you I'd worry less about the person who rescued the boy and worry about cleaning my own house. Or didn't you notice they knew you were coming?  You have a mole problem.  They have an informant in the department.”  I added another growl from the wolf who was now watching the camp from a good distance away.

He blinked and backed off a half step.  I caught Paige lifting her eyebrows.  Frieze looked rattled. “Where did you hear this?”

I shook my head as I cooled down and stepped back to let him keep a little dignity after being backed down by a woman half his size.  I replied, “That isn't important.  You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

He got a predatory grin on his face.  “Try me.”

I shrugged and said in an even tone, “A grey squirrel told me.”

He shook his head and muttered a “Smart ass,” as he turned to stalk away with the smooth movements of someone who has been a wolf for a very long time.  In my observation the longer a person is infected by the lupus contagion, the more their wolf aspect comes through in their human lives.  By his moves, he is one of the older ones, maybe eighty years or so with the curse, locked in his current form.

He called out as he went, “Keep yourself accessible until we sort this clusterfuck out.”

I glanced over at Specialist Paige, she had Jamie on her hip.  She was grinning like a loon as she rasped out, “Never thought I'd see someone back Frieze down.  He's an old wolf.”  She was thinking the same way as me.  Then she chuckled. “And it was a tiny slip of a woman in some inappropriate shoes for the forest.”

I looked down at my black Giuseppe Zanotti, nero suede thigh highs with their three-inch heels.  I grinned back at her. “What?  Can't a girl look good when she's kicking some ass?”  I shrugged. “Besides, they give me a little more height.  It is hard for someone five foot three to look intimidating.”  I didn't mention that nature takes care of me, and my footing is as sure in the forest as if I were walking across a floor.

She rolled her eyes, then she looked down at Jamie.  “Well, the medic has cleared Jamie.  Frieze has contacted the Killians and he has me tasked to transfer him to them at the gates of Seattle.  Come on, I'll give you a ride to your car?”

I smiled and said, “Actually no to both.  I was hired to rescue the boy and return him to Nancy Killian.  I did rescue him and you took him from me.  I'll take Jamie... and the offer of a ride.  I don't have a car and this will save me calling a cab to the convenience store two miles west of here.”

She looked genuinely amused.  “Well you know the first one isn't going to happen, but you are welcome to tag along.”

She was baiting me, I forced down a smile and rose to it, I was in a good mood, after all, Jamie was alive and not infected.  “My contract with the Congressional Subcommittee in charge of Lupine Defense says I have jurisdiction since the kidnappers were of the infected.”

I could hear the low subsonic rumbling of a growl from her and it was starting to scare Jamie as he started squirming on her hip.  “It wasn't a full moon, they weren't in wolf form.  You had no jurisdiction at all!”

I shook my head. “Special dispensation... Recovery Specialist, remember?”  I held a hand out and patted the air toward the ground in a calming gesture.  “Let's talk about it in the car.  You're scaring Jamie.”

She looked down quickly at the little boy who was crying now and trying to get out of her grip, his hands grasping toward me.  She blanched and handed him to me, he latched on and buried his face in my jacket.  I gave her an apologetic look as she looked at herself like she was something she despised.

She nodded absently and took off her helmet.  She had flame red hair that contrasted her unique pale eyes so much I had to double take.  It was pulled up into a tight, professional, ponytail.  That's when I realized her face was so thick with freckles that I had mistaken it for a tan earlier in the moonlight.

She motioned her head and I got in step beside her and said to her softly, “It's just the curse, don't worry about it.  I shouldn't have pushed.  I doubt Jamie had ever met an infected before this happened to him.  I shouldn't have prodded.”  She squinted at me at the admission I was trying to get a rise from her.  The I added, “It's just so much fun sometimes.”

She stepped up to a pickup with Issaquah Police Department markings.  She stared at me as she opened the driver's door, shook her head with a bemused smile, and then squinted her eyes. “You sure you're not wolf?  You sure act like it.”

I chuckled and opened the passenger door.  She dug around in the back of the club cab and came up with a booster seat and lashed it in the middle seat and I clipped him in.  Then we buckled up and started down the dirt road toward Issaquah and Seattle.

Within a couple minutes, Jamie was asleep, laying his head on my arm.  The poor little guy was exhausted after such a traumatic couple days.

Specialist Paige glanced over at me with a studious look, then asked, “You really pulling that jurisdiction shit on me?”

I nodded slowly.  “I'm afraid so.  When I get hired for a job, I follow through.  Call it professionalism, or ego, or both.  I told Jamie's mother I would bring him home safely to her.”

She squinted at the road, not turning to me and asked incredulously, “You made a promise like that when you knew the odds were slim?  That was a little reckless don't you think?”

I shrugged and looked down at the sleeping boy, then choked back some emotion. “He's only five.  I... I had to do something.  Promise anything.”

There was a long pregnant pause then she just nodded once as we turned onto a paved road heading toward Interstate 90.  Then she glanced at me then pulled air through her nostrils and over her tongue.  “I know you aren't wolf, but you aren't quite human, there's something odd with your scent.  I smell bird, and trees, and earth, just what are you, Snow?”  She could smell all of that, her wolf was closer to the surface than I thought.  Maybe she was a lot older than I had guessed, maybe even older than Frieze.

I shrugged. “Just a recovery specialist, sent to retrieve a scared child.”

She smirked but didn't look at me. “Fine, play it that way.”  Then she squinted. “If you have no car, how did you get to the chateau?”

I shrugged and smiled internally at her circuitous attempt to get more information about me.  Well, she was a cop, so I guess the need for information was ingrained into her.

I told her the truth. “I walked.  Well, jogged really.”

She blinked, and this time did glance at me.  “From Seattle?”

I nodded. “Yes, from Seattle just a few hours ago.”

She looked at me. “Dressed like that?  In those shoes?  Twenty-six miles?”

I nodded again. “Yes.”

She chuckled.  “Pull my other leg why don't ya?”  Then she assessed me again and then squinted.  “You look like a model from a leather fashion magazine.  That all looks custom fit.”  She paused. “It would have taken you the better part of a day in this terrain, more in those shoes.”

I shrugged and grinned at her. “Like I asked before, can't a girl look good when she's kicking some ass?  And it only took a little over two hours for me to get into position.”

She appraised me again, more intently than the other times.  “You're serious aren't you?”

I sighed and said, “Yes.”

Then she surprised me. “Okay, bird girl.  I get it, a girl has to have her secrets.”  She was silent as we got onto the on-ramp, heading west.

The silence was pressing down on me like a weight, I knew she was doing it on purpose.  I broke first and as soon as I started talking, the corner of her mouth quivered as she restrained a triumphant smile, damn wolf games.  “You have some unusual eyes, they are striking.”

Her brow knitted slightly as if she were thinking about how to respond.  Then she grinned at me. “I'm an albino.”

I looked at her fire red hair and freckled face.  “Bullshit.”

Her grip loosened on the wheel a bit and she said in a voice full of reflection, “I lived in Seattle back when the wolves had somehow made it to the Americas in 1899.  We were arrogant back then, thinking that the wolf contagion was a problem for Europe, Asia, and Africa.  We never saw the need to fortify our cities, werewolves were the problem of other countries, not America right?”

She gripped the wheel tighter as she continued, “I was twenty-three, and unmarried.  That was almost akin to a spinster back then.  But no man would have me.  I suffered from Albinism, I was half blind because of my affliction.  The eligible men taunted me with names like the ghost of Seattle.”

Albinism?  But she had plenty of color.  Then the realization hit me and she continued, “In ought three...” She clarified, “...nineteen oh three, not two thousand three.  We were constructing the great walls of the city as the lupus curse was spreading like wildfire through the Americas.  I was a mason's assistant, hauling the silver ore stones.”

She took a breath.  “A pack had come over the Cascades and were terrorizing the area.  The city gates were not quite completed.  They got into the city and found me in the relief area where I was feeding the workers of the wall.  I was mauled.  I remember thinking that that is how I would die while I watched in horror as a wolf was eating my intestines.”

She didn't look at me as she whispered, “My mother stabbed the werewolf with a silver blade, trying to get it off of me.  It turned on her and tore her throat out with a dying effort.”

Then she took a deep breath.  “To my horror, I lived.  I watched my flesh start to re-stitch itself and realized my fate as the curse took hold and I started to change into a wolf.  I don't know how many I killed or infected that first full moon.”

She took her hands off the wheel for a moment to stare at her palms as if she could still see the blood.  Then she exhaled and gripped the wheel again as we passed through Issaquah.  “In the morning, I was not allowed back into the city.  I was one of the cursed, and I was terrified.  I wandered aimlessly and tied myself to a tree the following night.  It was the last night of the full moon and I wanted to keep the monster I would become from killing more.”

She was lost in the memory.  “It didn't work, I awoke naked and covered in blood the next morning near Issaquah.  Some nuns from the Issaquah Mission took me in as well as any other cursed they found.  They cared for us and locked us away in silvered cages during each full moon.”

Then she said, “The only good thing to come from becoming one of the damned was that the contagion cured me. My eyesight sharpened and my white hair grew out red, and I turned into a living freckle farm.  Color came to everything but my eyes.”

Then she shook it all away and all the emotion I could see warring around inside her at the ancient memory.  Then she grinned, showing her teeth, I could see the elongated canines of the very old wolves as she said, “So yeah, not bullshit.  I'm an albino.”

I nodded and smiled back. “Okay, okay, I stand corrected.”  Then I got serious.  “But really, I think they are lovely.”  Then I added because it seemed appropriate, “And, I'm sorry about your ordeal.”  I spend so much time in the forest and don't deal with people on a regular basis, I sometimes find it hard determining what is and isn't appropriate to say.

She just shook her head and said with practiced ease, “Ancient history.  Now I spend all my time atoning for the evils I committed those two nights.”  I blinked.  She was doing penance?  For something that was thrust upon her?  For something, she has no way of controlling?

It was getting warm in the truck, I knew she didn't need the heat, I figured she was trying to keep the boy warm.  I took off my reinforced leather jacket and placed it beside me as we passed through Mercer Island.  I looked at the sprawling refugee camp, all of the poor souls cursed to become killers three nights a month, who had no home outside the walled cities.

It has been almost two years since they were freed from the compulsion and only half of the thousands of men, women, and children have reintegrated into the cities outside the gates.  My heart ached the most for the children, they were innocents who should never have to bear a curse like that.

There were not many children with the werewolf contagion.  As none could be born to infected women.  The monthly transformation into a werewolf would abort any pregnancies, I hear the transformation is worse than death for the infected.  Like every cell in their body is torn and reshaped.  So the only child wolves were ones who survived an attack.  I hear tell of a cult down near Texas who was purposefully infecting hundreds of human children because they believed it was God's Will or some insane ranting like that.

I heard rumors of a woman in a red cloak descending upon that cult-like a wraith, leaving none of the cult leaders alive and freeing all of the enslaved, infected children.  That was about the tenth time over the centuries I had heard the whisperings of the Red Hood.  If it were true, then it was good to know that there were others like me.  Not werewolf, but something different, something that has walked the world for centuries, trying to balance the scale that was overbalanced by the werewolves so long ago.

As we started over the floating bridge to the gates of Seattle, she tilted her head and her brow knitted. “Your arm is glowing.”

I blinked away my musings and looked down at my left arm.  There was a dim white glow emanating from the sleeve.  I absently covered it.  I glanced at her then exhaled.  She already knew I was something other than human, she saw me working magic.

I uncovered my sleeve then pulled it up so she could see the glowing white crow brand.  It looked to be a stark white tattoo, illuminated by an unnatural light.  I shrugged.  “The crow glows brighter the more nature magic I expend.  A warning of sorts.  I used an awful lot tonight to save Jamie.  It is my life force if I use too much I start to lose my humanity, into the crow form.”

She squinted at me as I put my jacket back on to hide the glow.  Then she asked, “What do you mean?  You'll become a bird?”

I offered up a hand in a throw-away gesture. “I don't really know.  It is what I was told and I have never pushed it past my limits.  I don't think I ever want to find out.”

She nodded in some sort of understanding then said, “So you're what?  A witch?  Is there such thing as witches?  Or are you like the Red Hood, some sort of being of vengeance?”

I pointed at the huge platform that seemed to merge the bridge into the wall blocking the tunnel into the city.  “If you give me a ride back to my camp after this, I'll tell you what I can.  You shared more than you were comfortable with me, so it is only fair I reciprocate in kind.”

The platform was an artificial jetty of land, maybe two or three acres.  With a security checkpoint and turnarounds for the largest of cargo trucks.  There was also a designated Visiting Station.  A structure where Clean Blood of the city can go visit with cursed family members and loved ones since they were not allowed into the city.  On the other side of the huge, silver veined gates into the city, was another platform about the same size.

Traffic was light, a few vehicles leaving the city unchallenged and a couple at the intake checkpoint being searched before entry into the city.  I remember when vehicle searches were added to the blood tests at the gates in the nineteen sixties after a terrorist group smuggled infected people into Denver and released the wolves into the city on a full moon.  President Kennedy mandated vehicle searches mandatory at all walled cities after that.

As we approached, I could see the Killians anxiously awaiting our arrival.  They were surrounded by various officials and representatives from the Seattle Police.  Rachel pulled into one of the parking slots marked 'for official use only' and I looked at the sleeping boy and gently shook his shoulder to wake him as I unstrapped him from the child seat.  “Jamie, we're here.  You want to see your mommy?”

He yawned then panicked, not knowing where he was as he woke up.  He looked around then realized what I was asking him?  “Mommy is here?  The wolfies won't hurt me no more?”  Rachel looked pained at that question.

She answered for me.  “Nobody is going to hurt you.  See over there by those giant gates?  There's your mommy and daddy.”  He turned to where she was pointing and then his eyes got wide in excitement.

We got out and I hoisted the little man to my hip and we walked to the intake area at the gate.  Mrs. Killian was crying and trying to get to us, her husband held her back on the inner side of the gates.  I automatically raised my hand so the intake officers could prick my finger with a silver needle to make sure I was not infected.  When my blood didn't foam from the silver contact, I stuck it in my mouth to get the blood off before they could see I had already healed.

They turned to Specialist Paige and she held her hands up with a grin and said in that smoky, raspy voice,  “Not going in.  I'm quite wolf.  It surprises me that I don't have a tail.”  Then the officer grinned at her playfulness and turned his attention to Jamie.

Jamie curled up against me.  I stroked his hair with my free hand.  “Jamie honey.  You need to let the nice man prick your finger.  Then you can see your mommy.”

He looked at me with big eyes.  “Does it hurt?”

I wouldn't lie to him and nodded. “Just a little, but just for a moment then it is gone.”

The officer held up a sticker of a teddy bear with a bandaid on his finger, and a lollipop.  He said, “You get to have these for being a big boy.”  That swayed Jamie more than my reassurances, I was glad they had programs like that to help kids through the test.

Jamie held his shaking finger out and the man took it gently then looked at Jamie and distracted him.  “Is this your first time outside of the gates?”  Jamie nodded as the man gave him a quick jab.

Jamie looked down quickly as the man said, “All done.  You were really brave.  Here you go.”  He put a bandaid on his finger then handed him the goodies that Jamie gleefully took.  I set him down and held his hand as we stepped toward the gates where his mother was almost beside herself in anticipation.

Jamie suddenly pulled away from me and ran to Rachel and he wrapped his arms around her leg in a big hug.  “Thank you for bringing me to mommy Police lady.”  I don't think you could measure the size of the smile on her face nor the brightness of her eyes.

She squatted to his level and said, “You are very welcome.  Now I think your mommy wants to see you.”

He looked over to where his mother and father were behind the line and nodded and took my hand again and I walked him through the gates into his mother's arm.  They were both bawling as Mr. Killian took my hand.  “Thank you so much, Miss Snow.  You are a godsend.”  I just shrugged as the authorities took me away from the celebrating family to debrief me.

It took the better part of an hour.  The Killians left immediately, but every agency wanted me to repeat the story over and over.  I had appointments with a couple of them in the coming days.  I informed them all that Issaquah PD had all the information they needed and would coordinate with them later.

I was a little surprised when I returned to the gate to see Rachel was still there waiting for me.  She was sitting cross-legged on the ground at the gate in front of two intake officers who were sitting cross-legged in front of her.  Were they playing poker?  Good lord, they were.  I chuckled as I walked up.  They dealt the cards on the thick white line painted at the gates, the neutral zone.

She looked up when I approached and she grabbed a stack of cash from the neutral zone.  “Sorry gents.  I hate to take your money and run, but my passenger is here.”  They made anguished sounds as they stood then she offered her fist into the neutral zone and they each bumped her fist, gathered the cards, and returned to their posts.

I grinned at her pocket as she stuffed the cash in while I stepped out of the city and we walked toward her truck.  “Very enterprising of you.”

She snorted and paused at the driver's door.  “Stop yer yammerin' and get in smart ass.”  I gave her a pleased smile and did as she asked.  A minute later we were heading back across the bridge.

Chapter 3 – Issaquah

Rachel looked over at me, studying me, keeping the road in her peripheral vision.  She looked away and prompted, “Camp?  You're not staying in the city?”

I shrugged.  “No, I prefer having nature surround me.  It is part of me and it recharges my energies.  I'm just outside of Issaquah.  If you just circle under the freeway overpass onto Front Street, I'm just a mile out of town.”

She nodded, I could tell she understood partly just by what I had shared about the white crow brand.  Then she tilted her head toward me and asked, “Will you be staying in Issaquah or Seattle come  the full moon?”  I grinned, was she worried?

I turned my palms face up on my lap with a gesture of indifference and replied with, “No, I'll stay at my camp.  I'll be moving on after I get a chance to speak with the Red Hood.”

Her sudden jerky motions indicated that she almost slammed on the brakes but stopped herself when her foot was halfway to the brake pedal.  She looked at me and the freeway incredulously.  “Are you insane woman?  The woods are still crawling with thousands of ferals from infected Slater had compelled to converge on Seattle.  Do you have a death wish?  Their wolves would kill you in a second, or... worse.”

I could hear the familiar haunted tone to her voice on the last part.  I have heard it many times over the centuries from old wolves that lived before walled cities, and buildings protected by Full Moon Bars and panic cages.  Of a good person who finds it hard to live with the monster they become three nights a month.  Of the lives they took before Clean Bloods learned to protect themselves better on the lunar cycle.

She honestly believed that the curse was a fate worse than death, and they couldn't even take their own lives to end their suffering.

Werewolves were tough, even in human form.  It took a hell of a lot to kill one if you didn't use silver, whose purity was anathema to them.  Anything short of a beheading could be regenerated.

Over the years, some had tried drowning or hanging, even shooting themselves in the head.  They always regenerated.  If they took enough physical damage, they could die, but it was rare to sustain so much damage that they bled out before the lycan contagion could clot the wounds and start healing them.

I assured her, “I have no fear of werewolves.  My camp is well protected and not even a roaming pack could get to me.  Wolves I understand, all instinct and hunger.  I know what drives them, it is humans I fear.  There is no beast more treacherous or cruel than a human can be.”

I explained, “Look at what happened to Jamie and the others those men had kidnapped, tortured, killed, or infected.  That was not because of their infection.  That was not the wolves, that was their human aspects making a conscious choice to do evil.  Wolves are not evil... true they are killing machines, but they don't do it for spite. They do it because they are hungry, ravenous, and their instincts tell them to kill and hunt.”

I almost growled. “But these... men...”  I almost spat the word. “Chose to do these evil things.  For money, for thrills.  They had Clean Blood accomplices who made the same choice, to be evil.  You have a mole in your own department who made the same choice, whether it is a Clean Blood or infected individual.”

I shrugged and reiterated, “So no, I don't fear werewolves, I fear the humans who turn their backs on their own humanity to do evil, they are the dangerous people.”  Then I turned an evil grin on her. “And it takes dangerous people like you and me to show them the error of their ways.”

She chuckled.  “I still think you are insane Snow, but I do like you.”  The look on her face belied her flippant tone.  She seemed to really be contemplating what I had just said.

Then she glanced over as we exited the freeway into the city of Issaquah as the first rays of sunlight crested the mountain peaks.  “Breakfast?  Let's get some food, you owe me a story.”

I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since I left Seattle yesterday to head up to the chateau where Jamie was being held.  Ever since I became what I now am, I haven't needed to eat, but I still enjoyed the tastes of food.  I nodded and she grinned.  “Okay, let me get into some civvies first.”

I smiled then looked at the city.  It always struck me how different the cities outside of the walled cities were.  In a walled city, every single building had silver-laced bars and shutters over every door and window that would slide down to bar entry on full moon nights.

These were known as FMBs or Full Moon Bars.  They were there in case wolves managed to somehow breach the thirty-foot high walls surrounding the major population centers of Clean Bloods.  A secondary line of defense.  Then as a fail-safe, every dwelling had silver-lined boxes for each family member.  These were known as panic cages.  The rich had entire panic rooms lined with silver in the walls.

In cities like Issaquah, where eighty percent or more of the population bore the lupus contagion, very few homes or businesses bore FMBs.  So it was easy to pick out the houses of the Clean Bloods or businesses that catered to traveling Clean Bloods, like hotels and motels.

The other difference was that every home had panic cages just like the Clean Bloods, only these cages were used by the infected on full moons to cage their beast so their werewolves didn't run free and terrorize the area.  Most of the infected took that seriously.  They never chose the curse, and they suffered from the knowledge they became a monster but wouldn't allow it to roam free like the ferals did.

We stopped off at the Police station for Paige to clean up and change.  I had to stop myself from staring as she came out and walked me to her personal vehicle wearing some tight jeans that clung to her long legs and hips like they were painted on.  A plain white t-shirt that did nothing to hide her feminine curves and the toned muscles beneath the straining fabric.

I wondered about that for a moment.  When you are cursed, you are locked into the form you were at the time of infection.  She said she had been turned at the start of the prior century when women were expected to be soft and feminine.  Then I realized, she had mentioned she was working on the walls of the city.  Being a mason's assistant would do it.  It was hard work moving the large silver ore stones in place.  I approved of the result.

She didn't wear a coat, most wolves didn't since they could run around comfortably until the temperatures dropped below freezing.  The service weapon on her hip made the overall effect... umm... enticing.  She stopped before we got into the Jeep CJ7.  “What?”

I snickered and just hopped into the passenger seat saying, “Oh nothing, you just clean up good.”

She got in and looked me over with an unreadable expression, like she was trying to figure me out,  then shook her head in exasperation and started the car.  “Drive through then my place?  I doubt you want to share your story in a public place.”

I grinned. “Lay on, Macduff.”

She did a double take at that and cocked an eyebrow.  “Shakespeare?  And you didn't misquote by saying 'lead on.'”

I deadpanned, “Truly a droll man with an abysmal sense of humor.  He died owing me five pounds sterling.”

She squinted at me and then shook her head, her nostrils were flaring. “I can't tell if you are joking.”  I grinned.  When people try to deceive, the really old wolves can tell by a change in their scent.  Since I was telling the truth, I had her stymied.  I just grinned.

After a few seconds, she shook her head and returned the grin.  We pulled through the Golden Arches drive through.  She ordered four Big Macs raw and a cola then turned to me.  I could tell she was curious how I would order.  She was trying to gather information about me.

On the outside like this, most fast food places catered to both the infected and non.  You could get your orders “raw” like she did.  Which meant the meat would be heated but not cooked. Or “cooked” which was self-explanatory.  One drawback to being cursed was some bleed over of the wolf, like the craving for raw meat.  Though one positive was enhanced senses and more speed agility and strength than a normal human.

I ate in an attempt to feel human.  Nature sustained me, the magics nourished me.  But I did still enjoy the aroma, taste, and texture of food.  I learned over the years to eat whatever my hosts did so they didn't feel self-conscious.  It was all the same with me so I decided to play with her a bit.

I'll have four Big Macs as well, two raw two cooked, a large fry, and a coffee.  She cocked an eyebrow.  Whether it was the confusing mix of cooked and raw which told her nothing or the fact I had ordered wolf portions.

As we pulled up to the window, she grinned. “You did that to confuse me didn't you?”

I gave her a toothy smile back. “Yup.  Did it work?  You thought you were all sneaky and cop-like.”  I cocked an eyebrow at her in challenge.

She chuckled and said, “It did oh mysterious one.”  Then we fought over who was going to pay.  I relented when she actually growled at me.  She paid while I exploded into a fit of laughter.

She was smiling and trying to be grumpy when I kept laughing.  “What?  It wasn't that funny!”

I snorted as I got my laughing under control. “Yes it was.  You old wolves always try to intimidate with a wolf growl.  But from you, it was just cute.”

She almost pouted but growled, “I'm not cute.”

I pursed my lips and fought off another laughing fit.  “Says you.”

She murmured, “I hate you.”

I nodded in mock agreement. “Says the woman who growled at me just to be able to pay for my meal.”

She looked frustrated then just said, “I'm going to shut up now or I'll be brought up on assault charges.”

I couldn't help it, she left a huge opening, and I blurted out,  “They don't arrest you for beating yourself up.”

She fought off a smile and refused to look at me until the food was handed out to us.  The smells were mouth watering.  Then she said into the long silence as we pulled into traffic.  “Shut up.”

I burst out laughing again to her smile as she drove us to the edge of the city to a little property bordering the forest.  It was a tiny green house with a slate roof that was kind of charming.  It was so small, it had to be a little one bedroom house.  But the majesty of the mountain it backed up to, gave it a certain storybook feel.

I carried the bags as she led the way to the old brown painted door and unlocked it.  The moment we stepped in I immediately put the bags on the little table by the door and drew my sidearm and a silver blade as quickly as I took the room in.  It was in shambles, someone had ransacked the place.

On my cue and with the lightning fast reflexes of a wolf, Rachel had her weapon drawn too.  She scanned right as I scanned left.  I could see a wild glint in her eye, she loved the hunt.  Then as we slowly turned taking in the small space that seemed to serve as both the living room and kitchen with two doors to the back, she whispered to me,  “What is it?  Did you hear something?”

I did a double take at her, she seemed confused but more than willing to take action on a moment's notice.  I looked at the mess again, realization dawning on me as I looked at the clothing strewn about on the floor and draped over the back of the little couch.  The pizza boxes stacked haphazardly on the little coffee table.  Shoes lying around or sitting on top of stacks of bills on the floor near the couch.  Socks draped over the television.

I hesitated as I looked at her, looking at me for an explanation.  No... it couldn't be.  I grinned sheepishly as I holstered and sheathed my weapons.  “Umm... you're a slob?”

She realized what I had reacted to and chuckled as she holstered her sidearm. “Guilty.  I live alone and don't have anyone to impress.”

I shook my head and grabbed the bags of food and clarified, “I thought someone had ransacked your house.”

She chuckled and grabbed one of the bags from me and flopped back onto the couch, and using an arm, swept some pizza boxes off the coffee table and set the bag down, pulling out the contents and placing them in front of her.

I grinned at the self-satisfied look on her face as she looked at me and motioned her head beside her.  I rolled my eyes, set my bag on the coffee table and picked up some discarded clothing from the couch cushion and stacked them neatly on the arm of the couch and sat beside her.

She took a huge bite of a raw Big Mac and grinned a toothy grin.  Okay, I admit, I laughed at that.  Then we ate.  She switched on the television and changed to a movie channel where Singing in the Rain was playing.  Then we just sat there, no real talking, just watching the old classic and eating in a shared camaraderie that I missed at times.  I would occasionally leave the woods of whatever part of the world I lived in at the time to engage in social activities and live among people just so I didn't forget that I was human... for the most part.

I usually enroll in self-defense classes, or weapons training classes to hone my fighting skills while affording me human interaction.  I found myself wondering the last time I saw a movie in the theater as I watched.  Breakfast at Tiffany's? No... it hadn't been that long ago had it?  Nineteen sixty-one?  What the hell have I done in the decades since?

I stopped eating and stared down at the food, then at the program.  I felt insecure about my humanity because of a stupid movie?  I pressed my back into the couch and just felt the cushions against me for the reassurance of civilization.  I thought of my last time I had stayed in a city for more than a week.  It was just three years ago.  To take some weapons training and re-qualify for my Wolf Hunter permit.  I usually just came to the cities to get my next job as a recovery specialist.  Had I become nothing but a weapon of violence?  Was I no better than a wolf on the full moon?

Something nudged my hip and I blinked away my thoughts and looked into the concerned eyes of the woman beside me.  She said softly, “Hey, Snow.  Get out of your head.  Nothing good can come from dwelling on things, no matter what they are.  Just take this down time to relax.  Eat, watch the show, then you owe me a story.”  She said the last with almost childlike delight.

I stared at her for a long moment, wondering if she knew what I was thinking or if it was her own experiences she saw in my eyes.  She shifted uncomfortably.  “Ummm... It's not prudent to lock eyes with a wolf.  It's a dominance thing... or mating thing.”

That knocked me back to myself and I grinned, not breaking eye contact and said, “You're welcome to look away at any time.”

The corner of her mouth ticked up and she turned the smile into a smirk of challenge and kept eye contact.  I heard a growl at the lower range of my hearing, that subsonic thing wolves can do.  She saw my reaction, knowing I could hear it and she cocked an eyebrow.  Then she said, “I could normally do this all day, but your untied shoelace is distracting me.”

I looked down, realizing as I did that my boots had no laces.  I actually started laughing at that and I looked up into her far too smug face.  She said, “I win.”

I threw a french fry at her which she caught in her teeth with her enhanced agility.  I shook my head. “You cheat.”

She shrugged. “Doesn't change the fact that I won.  As I said, it isn't smart to challenge a wolf for dominance.”

I flipped her off with a grin. “Dominate this, wolf girl.”

She happily chewed the french fry and made a show of swallowing it.  This woman was damn playful.  Then I froze, realizing what she had done.  She skillfully got my mind off of the pit I was spiraling into.

I placed a hand on her knee and she stopped breathing and I said, “Thanks, I needed that.”

Then I took my hand away and she smiled with a shadow in her eyes. “Not a problem.  We all go to that place at times.  It is just odd to see a Clean Blood...”  She smirked and revised her thought. “A human-ish person spiraling.”

I shook my head at her self-satisfied smirk and she added while she switched off the television, “On that note, don't you owe me a story?  Just who is Snow?”

I should have seen that coming.  Classic cop questioning tactic, changing topic once you get a suspect relaxed enough talking about other things, so you can get the information you really wanted.  I doubt she even realized she was doing it.  I wondered how long she had been a cop.  A decade? Four or, five?   Couldn't be much farther back than that since not many police departments had female cops farther back than that.

I started stuffing my wrappers into the bags and looked for a trash can.  The one in the kitchen was overflowing.  Her eyes were on me as I stood and walked over and grabbed one of the garbage bags in the box on the tiny kitchen counter and went about stuffing my trash and other trash from the various stacks into it.  I sorted clothing as I went.  Two stacks by smell, clean and dirty.

As I worked, I kept my gaze on her and said, “You're sure you want to know who Gretta Snow is?”  She nodded once and seemed amused at my attempt to clean up the mess that was bugging the hell out of me.  I live in the forest for God's sake, where had the sudden OCD come from?  I sighed and took a deep breath.  “Where to start?  – Once upon a time...”  Then I was lost in the poisoned memory.

Chapter 4 - Snow White

Back in 1643 in the small village of Oron, lived my family.  We supplied the stables of the walled city of Lausanne.  It had been thirty-five years since the plague of the werewolves started spreading through Europe and Asia.  The walls of the city took ten years to complete.

Silver back then was rare, and the people who did not have stone dwellings with iron shutters in the surrounding villages would trek to Lausanne with tithes to the Roman lords for shelter during the full moon.  I remember as a child, hiding in the great stone stables with the heavy iron shutters the lords had provided us that indentured our family into servitude of the Roman Empire in perpetuity.

Every full moon we would cower with the horses, fearing the coming of the werewolves.  And come they did on occasion.  They would howl and growl outside, spooking the horses and cause me to utter muffled screams.  Mother would just hold me as the wolves tried to get to us.  Father would repair any damage to the building and fill any holes with stones where the wolves tried to dig at the foundations.  I was terrified whenever the wolves came.

Our village lived in the shadow of a lamia, a powerful witch, in her Alpine hovel in the peaks above us.  Even the wolves dared not approach her dwelling.  It was said her evil rivaled theirs.  She was possessed of such great beauty that men who were sent from the Empire to slay her would lay down their weapons at her feet just for the gift of a kiss.  No man ever returned from the mountain.

It was said that she gained her power and beauty by killing the fairest maidens of the land and absorbing their grace and charms.

As I grew up, I played in the woods each day because I had a secret.  One day I had found a rabbit struggling in a hunter's snare.  I couldn't watch the poor thing suffer so I freed it and allowed it to go on its way.  A white crow landed on a nearby branch.  I was dazzled by the beauty of such an unnatural creature.  I watched it as it watched me while I went about breaking all the snares I could find in the area.

The crow followed me each day as I made it my new task to dismantle any snares I could find.  I spoke with her each day, this beautiful crow.  She was very intelligent and we would play games with each other.  She became my very best friend and playmate as I grew up.

She would ride my shoulder as I hunted berries and truffles for mother to sell at market.  My crow, who I had named Snow, had a way with animals.  I swear she could somehow speak with them and would have them help me gather my bounty.  In turn, I would bring them treasures and treats.

Men and Roman soldiers of the area were starting to take an interest in me as I slowly grew into womanhood.  It made me uneasy.  Mother said it was because I was turning into such a beauty as to turn their heads.  I wanted nothing to do with them.

When I heard that father was in talks with a Roman lord for my hand in marriage for a large boon for the stables, I ran into the forest in fear, anger, and frustration.  My beautiful Snow tried to cheer me with her silly antics.

I laid by a stream with my crow nestled to my chest while I stroked her soft feathers and said, “Oh Snow.  I wish you could speak and tell me what I should do.  I do not wish to be beholden to any man.  I should run, run and never look back.”

She seemed to hesitate then she hopped off my chest and was engulfed in such a warm and brilliant white light.  Then a woman such as I had never seen, stepped out of the light.  She was so beautiful and powerful.  Though she was bereft of clothing, the light seemed to shimmer and drape around her like a cloak made of that same mystical light.

I remember I couldn't stop a smile as the light seemed to solidify into glowing white feathers that encased her like fine linens and a heavy feathered cloak.  But my attention was on the white antlers on her head.  They made her look regal, like royalty.  I had realized she was smiling widely at my reaction to her.

When she spoke, it was the song of the birds in the sky, the melody of the animals in the bush, the babbling of the water in the nearby stream.  “I thought you might be afraid.  It seems you are as brave as you are caring.”  Then she held out a hand and I took it.  I noted that her skin was as soft as the down of a goose as she helped me stand.  Then she smiled again and asked, “Do you know who I am child?”

I looked at her in confusion, she was my Snow wasn't she?  Then sudden realization dawned on me and I took a knee, bowing low.  “Perchta, the Shining One. Goddess of the Perchten who drives bad spirits away.  Sometimes leader of the Wild Hunt.”  My sweet crow was a goddess?  I was so afraid I had done something to anger one of the Queens of Nature.

She looked distressed and pulled me to my feet.  “All of that is true Gretta.  But I am also your friend.  Have we not had great adventures together?”  I nodded and she continued, her smile soothing me.  “What kind of friend would I be if I could not give you comfort and advice when you need it most?”

I looked down, warmed by the fact she deemed me a friend.  But I also knew this was the end of me.  Those fated to see the true form of Perchta would be cursed to become a wild stag for the next coming of the Wild Hunt.

She must have read this in my sorrowful melancholy and she giggled, it was a truly wonderful sound that seemed to fill the void with happiness.  “You don't think I'll turn you into a stag, do you, dear child?  I do not do such to my friends.  You are my Gretta.  I feel as though you are a child of mine that I have watched grow into a woman of such grace and beauty.  Your love of nature rivals that of the forest pixies.”

I blinked and looked up at her and asked,  “Pixies are real?”  I felt foolish at the smile she gave me.  Well if one of the Queens of Nature were real, then obviously Pixies would be possible.  I gave an embarrassed grin that made her giggle again.

Then she sat down with me.  A goddess sat with me.  And we spoke of my troubles.  She shared truths of the world with me, inconvenient truths about how mortals were.  How as unsavory as it was, my arranged marriage would benefit many others in my village and my family.  Though it seemed evil, and it most certainly was an evil, people did things they would not believe for the greater good.

Her final words hit home for me. “Would you have your parents live with the consequences if you ran?”  Then she caressed my face with a hand that smelled of grassy meadows and flowers.  “If you would run, I would watch over you.  If you do not, I shall still do so, you are my friend.  My first mortal friend, and I give my solemn word that I shall always protect you and be by your side all the days of your life.”

Then we stood and that beautiful creature towered over me and said, “I bestow the gift of my kiss on you.  If my name should pass your lips, it will call me to your side if ever you are in peril.  I love you, child.”  Then the Shining One gifted me with the most perfect kiss.  I felt such peace and warmth, love and joy flood my being.

I didn't remember when I closed my eyes, but when I opened them, she was gone and my lips were glowing with a soft white.  When the light faded, I gathered my wits.  I realized that I was aroused.  I was aroused by the kiss of a goddess and I blushed.  My Snow was there now, and she hopped up onto my shoulder and stayed with me until I entered the clearing by the stables.

She ruffled her feathers and I looked at her and smiled and said, “I love you too Snow...  Perchta.”  She gave a soft caw as she flew back into the woods.

It was said that as a new beauty grew in the village, the lamia's beauty was fading faster than she could harvest the feminine grace of the young women she was killing at an increasing rate.  Unknown to me at the time, she hunted the surrounding villages for the one who was fairest, to stop her decline, but could not find the Gretta people spoke of.  For I was always in the woods when she was hunting.

The night after my talk with my white crow, the lamia in her desperation, cursed an apple with a poison to kill all of the women of the village and absorb their beauty and she dropped it into the village well.  She was sure that I would be among those who drank from the well.

She was right.  The next morning I lay dying with all the other women in the village.  I writhed in pain as I watched my mother die.  I saw the witch wander through the village, looking at all of the women and the mourning men.  Each man stood and followed her like lovesick puppies as she passed.  She stepped up to father where he cradled the lifeless form of my mother then at me.  The smile on her unnaturally beautiful face looked full of malice.  Father looked up and stepped away from mother to stand in front of the witch with a love-struck fog in his eyes.  She gave his face a caress like she would a pet.  She sneered at me and kissed him and he fell unmoving on the ground.

Her voice was full of venom.  “So it was you?  A little stable girl?  You were the one stealing my beauty!  Well now I shall have yours upon your death, and every man shall fall at my feet to do my bidding.”

I could feel more life draining from my body by the moment.  My lips began to glow a faint white light as I whispered, “Perchta.”  I remember seeing my sweet Snow spiraling down from the sky inside a whirlwind of light and feathers so bright, it almost blinded me.  It swirled around her like a tempest as she changed into Perchta in mid air.

She slammed into the witch from above with such violent force that it drove her antlers through the witch, pinning her dead body to the ground before the lamia could even scream.  The gathered men seemed to shake out of their bewitchment.  With one look at the vicious, animalistic look on Perchta's face, her bloodied antlers impaling the witch, they fled in terror.

I was vaguely aware of my beautiful crow cradling me after that.  Her antlers dripped with the blackish red blood of the witch.  I can still hear her words today as her tears dripped on my face, like they are burned into my brain.  “Oh Gretta, I am so sorry.  I promised to protect you, to always be by your side and I have failed you.  I had hoped one day that you would be my love.”

She had grabbed my shoulder in a grip that was so hard it should have hurt and broken bone. Instead I felt love and light flooding into my very being as she said, “I shall always keep you safe.  I gift you my lifeforce that you may survive.”

Then she faded away as she kissed my forehead, and my own tears started to fall when I realized she had sacrificed herself that I would survive.  I had stared at my shoulder, at the white crow brand for hours before I finally stood.  I was filled with so much energy and I could sense, and feel nature all around me.  I could feel and reach out with my mind and touch all the animals around me.  I had gained some of the abilities of the Mistress of The Hunt.

I looked around me and slumped on my knees in grief.  My parents were dead, my Snow had sacrificed herself for me.  All that I had loved was lost to me.  But I felt consoled and realized it was the forest reaching out to me, weeping with me.  I realized not everything I had loved was gone.

I wandered into the forest so we could grieve together, from that day on I went by Gretta Snow to honor the Shining One, and the gift she had bestowed upon me.  It was seventy years later when I first stepped out of the forest, back into the mortal world.

By then, all who had ever known me had passed on, and I started my new life.  Called by nature to areas of imbalance I roam the world to help restore the balance.  I fear I will never be allowed to rest until the curse of the werewolves is lifted and nature can regain a true balance again.  That is why I want so badly to speak with the Red Hood.  She has now done twice, what none before her has done.  Killed an Alpha.

Chapter 5 – Nap Time

I wiped the tears from my cheek as I finally sat beside Rachel again, with most of the room cleaned up now.  I sat and looked at her with my palms up, showing that was all I had to offer.  I had rarely shared my story with anyone, but it felt right with her.  She reached one of her graceful, muscled arms over to pull my head to her shoulder and she just held me for a minute, kissing the top of my head.

She suddenly held me at arm's length with her eyes wide and she said incredulously, “Holy shit!  You're Snow White!  So it was Perchta's kiss, not a prince's that saved you?”

I found her reaction to being overly cute to me for some reason.  I just smiled at her and pulled away to wipe my cheeks on my leather jacket.  I muttered, “Fucking Grimm Brothers.”

I cringed, knowing the next question, she asked, “No seven dwarfs?”

I shook my head wearily.  “No, no dwarfs.  Though I did share a huge hollow tree in the woods with seven raccoons for a month.  Always getting into mischief that lot, and very opinionated.”  If the Brothers Grimm hadn't died in the eighteen hundreds, I'd kill them myself.  They thought they had to embellish all the truths.

I laid back on the couch and a moment later she joined me and pulled me to her shoulder without a word.  We sat there for quite some time in a very comfortable silence as I regained my wits about me.  It was as if she knew exactly what I needed.

I pulled away from her comfort after a while and said, “Well, I kept my word and shared.  I should get to my camp.”

I stood and she looked up at me, her brow furrowing.  “It was a long night and we both need some sleep.  Stay here and catch a nap then I can drive you out?”  I studied her face.  She seemed apprehensive about something then she verified it with her next statement, “It is a full moon tonight.”

I smiled internally that this woman was enticing me to stay because she was worried about me being out when monsters like her were on the prowl.  I assured her, “I can take care of myself.”

She exhaled in frustration. “I know you can.  But...”  I could see an idea come to her as she got a self-assured look on her face as she continued, “It wouldn't do for a person of interest and witness, in this case, to get herself eaten before everything gets sorted out.”

Then she stood and motioned toward one of the little doors.  “I have a spare panic cage I can pull out for guests.  My containment cage for myself is double reinforced.  Just stay with me during the full moon.  Go back to your camp after the danger is passed.”

I shook my head.  “All of my gear is at camp, I'd have to get it anyway.  Thanks for the offer though, it was sweet.  I have to hang around a few days until your lot says I can go, so I may change my mind.  But I would love to take you up on the offer for a nap.”

She nodded and tilted her head toward the door again, “Okay.  Let's get you a blanket for the couch.”  I followed her, she seemed pleased I was at least accepting her hospitality and I found it inordinately cute.  I found myself applying that word to a hardened police badass a lot.  But it was true even if nobody else saw it.  But I'm pretty sure it had a lot to do with those unique eyes and what they did to me.

We stepped through the little doorway and I stopped dead and snorted.  It looked like a bomb had gone off in the bedroom.  The living room had been clean compared to this.

Drawers were half open and clothes hanging out on the dresser.  Papers and boxes were stacked haphazardly on top of it with more clothes draped on them.  I almost chuckled at the bra hanging from the still ceiling fan.  I mean, just how does something like that get up there?  The floor was covered in clothing and wrappers and papers with a little trail cleaned to the bed.

The bed was the only thing that didn't have stuff stacked on and around it. Though the covers were a mess, almost like she had made a den or nest on it.

I glanced at the half-open closet door.  It was half open because of the pile of clothes and boxes halfway stuffed into it.  I could see one of the old bed style panic cages that Clean Bloods here on the outside used when staying with the cursed.  They reminded me of silver laced coffins, with just enough room in them to lay down and close the metal door and peer out the small plexiglass slits.  They could only be opened from the inside or by emergency personnel that had the master keys.

That got me to look around for... ahh there it is.  The nightstand wasn't a nightstand but possibly the most fortified wolf containment cage I had ever seen.  From the thickness of the door panel, it had to be a half inch of steel.

Like all contaminant cages, the inner walls had strands of silver forming a mesh.  The floor was a sandwich of steel with silver mesh in between.  That way their wolves could stand or lay down on the floor without silver burning themselves.

The electronic lock automatically locked before sundown on full moons and unlocked after sunrise.  There was a panic lock, a heavy metal button that would engage the locks if the timer failed.  If the locks failed closed, which was the default, then only emergency services could open the door.

The door on hers was nicer than some.  Instead of the simple holes with silver impregnated titanium mesh for air circulation, hers had the new plexiglass slats that had long slits with the same silver titanium mesh in them.  It at least let the wolf look out.

I saw the fringes of the huge concrete anchor blocks the cage was bolted to and stopped myself from shaking my head sadly.  A simple cage works fine, but I found that the more frightened and ashamed that an infected is of the monster inside of them, the bigger, stronger, and over-engineered their cages are.  Rachel's told me volumes about how frightened she was of her own wolf.

Her moving to one of the stacks of stuff by her dresser turned my attention back to the task at hand.  She pulled a folded blanket from the stack and held it out.  “You can grab my pillow if you want, I don't use it.  I'm really not sure why I even own it.  Maybe I'm just trying to pretend to be normal.  My wolf owns too much of me now.”

I understood.  The longer a person lived with the curse, the more wolf-like they acted.  I personally am torn between believing that and believing that it is more a psychological thing.  The longer they live, the longer they stop believing they are human and start thinking of themselves only as a wolf.  I mean sure, there are some wolf-like behaviors that slip in because of the enhanced senses and reflexes.  But what did I know?  I had stopped believing I was human centuries ago.

I looked around again and she said with a tinge of humor, “You can clean this room too if you want.  You are better than a maid service, I haven't seen my living room floor in ages.”

I snorted and grinned at her with a dare on my face, “Watch it, lady, I just might.  It's messier in here than in the forest.”  I took the blanket then stepped to the window when I felt something.

I looked out into the beautiful forest and the soaring mountain peaks above, it reminded me so much of home, in the Alps.  I hadn't been there for so very long.

I reached out with my senses, my magic seeking, and I found what had caught my attention.  Rachel was suddenly by my side, I almost jumped because she had moved so soundlessly.  She was scanning the treeline. “What is it?”

I smiled at her, she was ready to take on the world.  I motioned my chin toward the wild blackberry patch at the base of the trees.  “Just a friend.”  Then I added, “Here, let me show you.”  I slid her old wooden double hung window up.  The way it bound told me she didn't open it much.  “Motion outside caught my attention.”

I turned my attention to the berry bush and asked the troublemaker if he would care to join me.  A moment later a familiar grey squirrel darted out from under the bush onto the mowed lawn.  He stopped and looked over at me, his tail twitching, then looked around the yard and made a beeline for me.  Squirrels don't like open spaces like that with no cover, it left them open to attack from birds of prey.

He hopped up onto the window ledge and then noticed Rachel, and I could feel the fear roll off him as he almost fell off the ledge.

I put my hand out.  “No silly, she's not a wolf yet.  It isn't the full moon.  She's a friend.  Come say hello.”  He looked at me and made a chirping, warning sound at my companion and then scurried up my arm, twisting around.  He dove down the collar of my coat and I felt him squirm around and he popped back up, placing his little squirrel hands on my cheeks and looked at me almost nose to nose.

The flaming redhead beside me chuckled and both of us turned to look at her.  I grinned and said, “Rachel Paige, I'd like you to meet a little friend of mine.”  Then I looked down at the squirrel. “And this is my new friend Rachel.”

She tilted her head to look at him and said, “He's cute.  Did you train him?  What's his name?”

I shook my head. “No he's not trained, he just helps me out from time to time.  I think he is following me.  He was at my camp the other day then he helped scout the chateau last night.  He must have caught my scent on the wind when I came here.”

Then I thought a second.  “I guess he needs a name huh?  How about Conrad?”

She snorted at that and he was startled by the noise and scolded her, ducked into my collar, then re-emerged.  She asked, “What kind of name is Conrad for a squirrel?  And are you talking to him somehow?”

I turned my nose up at her and said, “I think it sounds distinguished, what would you have me call him? Nutsy?”  Then I squinted. “I'm more sending and receiving impressions from him.  Squirrels don't have a real language.  But he can show me things he has seen or sounds that he has heard.  He doesn't understand them all, but as long as he gets close I can get good information from him.  The larger an animal's brain is, the better I can communicate with them.”

She got an evil grin. “If you start singing like the cartoon and birds flock to you, I'm going to die laughing.”

I glared at her, trying not to smile in amusement. “It isn't like that.  Well, mostly... I mean, I don't sing.  I just ask favors of nature, and if the plants and animals feel like helping me when I ask, then they do.  It isn't like I tell them or command them.  They are my friends, my family, and that's how I treat the relationship.  Nature feeds and sustains me and my power.  The vestiges of the power of my long dead Perchta.”

She caught the hitch in my voice and nodded, then she looked at Conrad as I scratched his chin.  “Pleased to meet you, Conrad.”  He looked at her, scolded, then grabbed her offered finger.  I chuckled as they shook.  He was a clever boy.

Then I opened my pocket on my jacket and in an instant he flowed out of my coat and spiraled down my arm and helped himself to dried fruit and nuts.  I scolded, “Not so much.  You're going to get fat.  Then how are you going to fit into your nest?”  He scolded me and stuffed one last peanut into his cheek then jumped to the window and bounded off into the cover of the trees.

Rachel was having a giggle fit at that and I smiled in response.  “What?”

She shrugged. “You talk to him like he's human.”

I thought about that. “Well the animals to me are.  Sure some of them are like the odd cousin you don't want to invite to dinner, but, for the most part, they are my siblings.”

She scrunched up her brow in thought then comically blew a loose lock of red hair from her eyes and asked, “So you commune with animals.  You said plants too?  I saw what you did last night and it was nothing short of miraculous.”

I nodded.  “It is more that I am connected to it all, plants and animals, and being part of it, I can influence it, share with it, and have it do favors for me.  I in turn, give back as I can.”  I thought about the best way to explain.  I reached out with my magic and found what I needed right on the window sill.  I looked closely at what I had felt and grabbed the tiny seed between two fingers.

I looked at Rachel and smiled.  “Nature is energy, whether plant or animal.  Animals eat plants or other animals for energy.  It takes energy for plants to grow.  When an animal dies, it releases energy the plants can use.  It is a cycle, but it cannot sustain itself.  Not all the energy can be recycled, by digestion or by decomposition.  To compensate, plants have the unique ability to harness sunlight and convert it into energy.  Photosynthesis replaces lost energies so that nature can sustain itself and thrive.”

She nodded understanding.  So far, she was tracking with me.  I continued,  “Being part of nature myself, I get my power from any excess energy generated by the process.  It is all converted into magical potential inside me.”

She nodded once smugly and said with an air of authority, “So, Snow White is solar powered.”

I blinked at her then thumped her shoulder, causing her to trip over one of her stacks of junk and fall back on her bed laughing.  I smiled at her. “Yes, I guess that means I am solar powered, smartass.”  She laughed again and I couldn't help myself, I laughed too.

She propped herself up on her elbows behind her and just smiled. “I'm sorry Gretta, it just seemed funny to me.”

I really, really, liked her saying my name.  I caught myself running my eyes over her and she adjusted herself in my gaze, tilted her head and said, “What?”

I shrugged and looked at the seed between my fingers. “Nothing, you're just cute again.  I like it.”

She said firmly, “I already told you, I'm not cute.”

I gave her a huge smile. “Whatever.  Here, look at this.  When I give back to nature, I can speed up and sustain the processes of life that would generally take much longer.  Like this...”  I let part of me seep into the seed I was holding, then right before our eyes, a green tendril broke out of the seed.  It writhed on my fingertips and leaves burst out of the growing stem, then a little bulb formed at the end of it and it burst out into a brilliant yellow buttercup.

I looked at the amazed woman and handed it to her.  She cupped it in her hands and just stared at it with a smile on her face.  I said, “I gave it a lot of energy, it will outlast any buttercup this season without sun or water.”

She looked around and then at her chest of drawers and hopped up, sweeping the clothes and junk from the top of it and picking up a little glass dish that had some jewelry in it. She dumped the jewelry onto the top of the chest of drawers and set the clear glass bowl down and placed the buttercup in it.

She looked smug. “There, a proper place to display it. With the added bonus that I have one clean area in the room.”  I snorted and slapped my hand over my face in embarrassment.

Then she looked at me, tilted her head and squinted.  “So that's how you seem to be able to make trees, vines, and moss move and grow beneath your feet then recede?  You are speeding things up.”

I nodded. “Yes, I just ask a favor, and in return I give them more energy than they can normally harvest.  It is a trade.  So a branch that would normally take weeks to move into position, following the sun, I can coax into moving under my feet in mere moments.  It is a symbiotic relationship.  We each get something we want out of it.”

I grinned as I stepped next to her. “I can even do this...”  I touched her and let some of myself flow into her.

Her eyes widened. “Holy shit.  I feel energized.  Not sleepy at all anymore.  I feel like I have to do something, go for a run or something.”

I smiled as I got even more sleepy.  “I can give my energies to plants, animals, and to a limited extent, humans.  I can share information with animals, but not humans or anything with a more evolved brain, like apes or dolphins.  Elephants are hard too.”

I pulled off my jacket and pulled up my shirt sleeve to show her my white crow brand was glowing brightly.  I said, “But there is a cost.  The energy I use to create my magics drains my own life force.  I need to sleep in order for nature to recharge me.  As the years have gone by, my energy reservoir has been getting bigger and bigger.  I think one day it will get as large as my white crow's was, and I will lose myself, becoming Perchta herself.”

I thought of that.  “She has come to me in dreams, explaining to me the brand that no human was meant to wield.  That it glows as a warning and if I expend too much the crow will take me.”

She stared at me for a long moment then said with concern in her voice as she grabbed my arm and led me to her bed.  “Then rest, recharge.  I don't need to sleep now that you have me hopped up like I'm on speed.  Use my bed.  I'll wake you in plenty of time to get you to your camp.”

I was pretty groggy so I didn't fight.  I laid down and she covered me and sat at my side and stroked my hair until I nodded off.  I think I liked her taking care of me like that, it had been a long time since anyone had taken care of me.  I let the light take me as it always did when I fell asleep.

I dreamed of soaring through the sky on my white feathered wings.  Something was wrong, but I didn't know what.  A warning of some danger that threatened the balance.  I had dreamed this the past few nights.  It was the feeling that drew me places around the world, compelled me to reset the balance.

I had thought that the kidnappings here were why I was called to the Pacific Northwest, but here was the dream again, the sense of foreboding.  Was there something else at work here?  Something evil?  I scanned the world below me trying to see what my intuition was telling me.  I kept catching something red and fluttering, moving fast between the trees, faster than anything human could move.  It was following a darkness with the intent of a hunter.  Was it growling?  Was that darkness it chased what had sent me here?

I awoke with a start.  My semi-automatic in one hand and my silver knife in the other.  I looked at the door as Rachel walked in carrying two coffees.  She grinned at me as I lowered my weapons.  “Whoa, there Rambo.  Nothing to shoot here.”  She offered a cup to me.  “Coffee?”

I sheathed the knife, holstered the Sig, and accepted the coffee.  “Thanks.”  I stretched and stood and sipped.  I felt strong, recharged.  The nap did its job.  I glanced down at my brand that looked like nothing more than a white crow tattoo now, its light dormant. I took another sip.  The aroma was nice and the coffee was a little bitter.  Once again, I was struck that I still mimicked being human, as I didn't need the drink, but I still enjoyed the experience.

I wondered, not for the first time, where all the food and drink went.  I never ummm... expelled any waste.  I guess there's no tactful way to put that.  Maybe my body still converted it to energy and that energy trickled into my magic reservoir?

She looked at me over the rim of her coffee cup as she asked, “Does that happen every time you sleep?”

I squinted at her, had she known I was dreaming, did I talk in my sleep?  I nodded. “The dreams are always there.”

Now she squinted as she shook her head.  She opened her mouth then closed it again.  I stood then put my coffee cup on her dresser and started absently sorting her clothes.  Then she said, “No, the thing with the light.”

I paused as I was sniffing a shirt to determine if it were clean or dirty and looked up at her.  “What light thing?”

She cocked an eyebrow.  “When you finally drifted off your body went completely still I couldn't hear you breathing, I couldn't hear your heart beating.  It scared the shit out of me, I thought you had died or something.  But your skin was warm to the touch.  Then all these little streamers of white light, like small streams or wisps came.  Yeah, that was it, like will o' the wisps, they seemed to come from everywhere and blanketed you.  It was so bright I couldn't look directly at you as they layered you in light.  I got the impression of brilliant white feathers.”

She shrugged and finished, “I figured that is how you recharged your magic and the light made me feel...”  Her eyes dropped.  “...dirty?  So I left you to umm... sleep?”

I stood motionless for a second then continued sorting clothes.  “I'm not sure really, I've never really seen myself sleeping, have you?”  I gave her a toothy grin.

She chuckled and said, “I suppose not.”  Then added as she sat on the bed to watch me clean her room.  She almost whispered, “It was beautiful.  I felt happy watching it, but a part of me, the wolf part made me feel ashamed.”  Then her voice returned to normal. “Anyway, I'm glad you're awake.  It's two hours before sunset.  I can drop you near your camp and have plenty of time to get back here and cage my beast before the full moon claims me.”

Then she added, “You really are welcome to stay here instead.  It would be safer and make me feel better.  My panic cage is always available to you.”

I smiled warmly at her.  “I'll think about it.”  Then teased, “You're worried about me.  You liiike me.”

She made a decidedly wolf-like sound, like a chuff and said, “You're more of a bitch than I will be in a couple hours.”

I apologize to the heavens, but I snorted at that.  Though I did think it was funny, part of me was angry she belittled herself with that same humor.  Was she blushing?   I spoke to let her compose herself,  “I'll just walk, it's only a couple miles from here straight back into the mountains.  I'd be there before you could get me close with the car since there aren't many access roads and no direct route.”

I looked around to the fairly organized bedroom.  I'd needed a couple more hours if I were to make it look like an adult lived here instead of a teenage girl, but it was leaps and bounds better than when I started.

She caught this then bit her tongue cutely as she smiled, those pale eyes twinkling, bringing a smile to my face knowing I amused her.  She chided, “I should keep you around and feed you more often.  You're better than a maid service.  With your OCD, my place would be clean in no time.”

I threw some underwear of indeterminate cleanness at her to shut her up.  The sour face she got as she dropped them with two fingers into the stack of dirty clothes told the story.  The she grinned.  “You're kind of fun.”  Then added, “For a bird girl.”

I shook my head and put my jacket on.  “Watch it wolfie.”

She chuckled then put her hand out.  “Phone.”  I fished out my cell and handed it to her and she added her contact information.  “Call me if you need me.”  Oh, I need you alright.  I let my eyes follow her tight body.  Oh dear lord Gretta, get a hold of yourself!  I shook those thoughts, which came out of nowhere, out of my head.  Well fine, I admit I was attracted to her, but I was attracted to a lot of people.  And she was among the cursed.

She walked me to her back door and I felt a little shy suddenly and didn't want to leave.  Most likely, I'd never see the woman again after the kidnapping case is closed.  I cocked my head and asked, “Would it be ok to use your shower in the morning?  I'm smelling kind of rank, it has been over twenty four hours since I cleaned up.”

She grinned and replied maybe a bit too quickly, “Of course.”

I reached over and grabbed her hand and gave it a little squeeze.  “Thanks.  And thank you for your hospitality.  It was... nice, being able to confide in someone.  Us people with supernatural potential are always hiding ourselves from the eyes of the mortals.”

She just nodded and I stepped through the door and she closed it behind me.  I stood there for a moment, then started walking into the woods on a deer trail most people would never have seen.  A carpet of moss under my feet.

Chapter 6 – Werewolf!

I went up over a ridge as I approached my camp and I looked down over the valley.  I caught the afterimage of something red far below slipping between the majestic trees in this untamed portion of the range.  That was like my dream.

My magic reached out, questing, twisting through the trees as swift as thought.  Probing the forest for signs of passage of whatever I had seen.  Trying to locate the blur.  But nothing.  It was as if the forest had swallowed any signs that anything had been there.

I felt the wildlife and asked if any could help me.  A bald eagle screeched above the valley and spiraled from the sky.  I put my arm out and it landed on my arm.  He was big, at least fourteen pounds.  His talons almost piercing the protective leather of my jacket.

I reached up with my other hand and stroked his majestic head.  Getting my fingers under his crown feathers and giving him a good scratch.  He closed his eyes.  “How are you today?  I'm terribly sorry to pull you away from your hunt but have you seen anything out of the ordinary today?”

I let my magic settle over him and he rustled his wings and looked directly at me.  I got the impression of a river of red moving in the trees.  He felt it was a predator.  Then I got flashes of a huge wolf paralleling her.  Was one hunting the other?  His impression of it was of danger, predator, and death.

There was something about how they were moving that didn't ring right.  Then I got it, they were working in concert.  They were hunting something together.  Almost herding whatever it was they were after.  Seeing the terrain from above like this I could see that they were highly intelligent, using the river and the valley itself to funnel whatever it was to a bottleneck.

Something about the impressions of the wolf gave me pause.  Not just the size.  It was bigger than any natural wolf.  It was something the eagle didn't understand about the way it looked, something it couldn't convey to me.  Was it hunchbacked?

I reached my senses out again to try to touch it.  There was something there, but nothing at the same time.  It was familiar, but I couldn't place why.  Whatever it was, it wasn't natural, which meant I probably needed to stop it.  I thanked the eagle, there was nothing I could give it so I let a little of my life force soak into him.  “Thank you.”

With a mighty stroke of his wings, he was airborne again.  I smiled at his screeching call back to me.  Then I started down at a dead run toward the bottleneck the beasts were pushing their prey toward.  The forest aiding me and clearing a path.

I had almost reached my destination when I realized that I couldn't hear any wildlife around me.  The forest was still like it was holding its breath.  I quested and they were there, hiding, fear was all around.  It was a familiar fear but again, I couldn't put my finger on it.  I caught movement through the underbrush and I looked through to a clearing where the biggest grey wolf I had ever seen, outside of a werewolf, stepped into.

It paused and its ears were twitching around and it was pulling air through it's flaring nostrils and across its tongue.  Tasting and scenting the air.  I was downwind so didn't worry about being spotted.  I looked at the wolf's back.  It had some sort of pack strapped to it.  That would account for the eagle's confusion.

I reached out to try to feel the wolf, to speak with it.  Predators like wolves, bears, and big cats generally tolerate me but are not as helpful as other animals.  They were driven more by instinct than other animals.  Usually, only three things on their minds, hunt, kill, mate.  I caught the vestiges of the wolf but couldn't make a connection.  I could always connect with the wildlife, something was off.

Its eyes narrowed like it knew I had tried to connect with it.  It looked carefully around stepping slowly and sampling the air again.  It stepped onto a rock outcropping to get a better view of the bottleneck ahead.  It's claws clicked on the rock and I just stared at its platter sized claws then it all came to me in a rush.  They weren't normal wolf claws, they were re-curved, retractable claws.

I knew why I couldn't connect with it using my magic and I understood the fear of the animals in the area.  This wasn't a wolf.  Werewolf!  But in the daylight?  How?  I pulled my Sig silently and unclipped the lash on my silver knife so I could draw it quickly.  I looked at the bottom of my magazine to verify it had the red dot of my silver rounds, took off the safety, and raised my Sig and took careful aim.

A smoky female voice from behind me said, “I wouldn't do that if I were you.”  And something was pressed against my neck.  I was shocked, I had neither heard nor felt her coming up behind me.

I heard a low growl that was vibrating the ground up through my feet and I saw the werewolf staring straight at me with its fangs bared.  Good lord, they were almost three inches long!

I lowered my pistol and someone behind me grabbed it from my hand and the knife from my sheath.  Then the pressure against my neck was released.  I carefully looked at the wolf and turned to the person behind me.  I blinked.  It was a woman in a heavy red cloak, who was holding a crossbow pointed at the ground.  The Red Hood!

I think it was the amused look on her face, that was obviously because I recognized her, which caused me to smile and ask, “A crossbow?  Really?  That thing is a werewolf, we need to...”  I was slammed to the ground by a huge weight.  Even with my enhanced reflexes and strength I was taken by surprise by its speed.

The werewolf was on me!  It used one of its huge paws to roll me and it pinned me to the ground with its weight and strength that eclipsed mine.  The Red Hood just stood there grinning as she hung the crossbow under her cloak on a shoulder strap.  She wasn't helping me!  She just crossed her arms and leaned back against a tree.

So this was to be it?  Finally an end to my long life.  To be taken down by this impossible werewolf?  It just stared into my eyes.  I blinked and looked away.  Wait, what the hell?  It was making me submit!  That was like the effects I heard described that Alphas had.  I glared back at it in defiance.  I wouldn't go meekly.  I hissed, “Do your worst bitch!”  The beast snarled threateningly at me.  Fangs inches from my face.

The Red Hood palmed her forehead and drew her hand down across her face, shaking her head. “You have no self-preservation in you, do you, lady?  She doesn't like people calling her bitch.”

I blinked then looked at her and the wolf then realization dawned.  I blinked in disbelief.  “She's... she's your hellhound?  A werewolf?”

She chuckled.  “Well yes and no. She's not a werewolf, she's something... different... unique... beautiful.”  There was compassion in her tone.  Not a werewolf?

I noted the wolf was wearing a studded leather collar with a bone shaped tag hanging down that read 'Fluffy'.  I must have read it aloud because the beast growled threateningly.  I take it she didn't like her name.

Then the Red Hood spoke again.  “If I were you, I'd stop what you are doing with all the trees and vines you have sneaking up on us.  She likes a good fight, but she's not a good sport when it comes to magic.”  I released the magic that was calling the forest to me.  I wondered if they could see the magic or if they noticed the forest subtly closing in on us.  I thought I had it moving slowly enough for them not to notice.

She spoke again, “Let's start over.  I'm Maireni Damaschin, the Red Hood if you prefer.  And you are?”

I kept my eyes on the wolf.  Wait, it had human eyes!  What the hell was going on here?  I said, “Gretta, Gretta Snow.”

She pushed herself from the tree at that, and the wolf seemed to relax though it still pinned me to the ground.   Maireni said, “I've heard stories about you.  I've always discounted them when I couldn't find you or the others.”  The others?

Then she said, “So I take it you aren't with the coven we're hunting?  Are you after them too?”

I shook my head, not knowing what she was talking about.  Was this coven the blackness I dreamed of that drew me here?  Then she said, “We need to talk then.”  She looked at the wolf. “Daria?”

The wolf looked down at me, seemingly amused and licked my face in a big slurp, leaving doggy drool in its wake.  “Ewww!”  The wolf chuffed and stood and stepped to Maireni's side where she was absently holding a hand out.  That hand buried into the ruff of the big wolf's neck and she started absently scratching her as I stood and dusted myself off.

The two looked oddly relaxed and ready to pounce in the same instant.  They seemed so in tune with each other.  The wolf looked up and whined.  Maireni squinted at her. “Which way?”  The wolf chuffed and whined.

The woman in red nodded, knelt, and spoke to me as she took a canvas out of the pack on the wolf's back and spread it on the ground.  “The Alphas have sent two groups to the Seattle area from Europe.  A coven of gypsy witches they control, and a group of earth druids.  They seek something in the area and have already killed many in a bloody trail from Europe to the Americas.”

She continued, “With the pressure lessening after we killed a second of the brothers Marcus, the European and African walled cities have broken the sieges.  This allowed us to track the magic users back to here.”

As I took in what she was saying, I looked at the canvas.  It appeared to resemble a large Ouija board with letters, familiar phrases like 'yes', 'no', 'please', 'thank you', then comically 'fuck you' and 'shut up'.  There was also a compass with cardinal points.

Maireni looked expectantly at the wolf and she reached a huge paw out and placed it on east on the compass but then moved it to north east.  The Red Hood hissed, “They've split up?  Damn.  You're sure?”

The wolf narrowed her eyes and growled menacingly.  Maireni's eyes twinkled with mirth as she said, “Of course you're sure, sorry for doubting you love.”  Then she tilted her head back slightly exposing her neck and the wolf leaned in and carefully nipped at her with those deadly looking fangs.  This seemed to appease the wolf and she sat and leaned her body against the woman's cloak.

As Maireni leaned back into the wolf, she looked up at me and asked, “Can you and the others track the group heading east, we'll head after the ones to the northeast.”  She looked at Fluffy. “Numbers?  Your nose is better than mine in that form.”  The wolf touched the number nine then east again.  Then touched one twice and northeast.  She nodded. “That was my count, but I wasn't sure.”

I blinked and must have mumbled, “An intelligent werewolf?”  Because they both whipped their heads toward me and I couldn't tell if the subsonic growl I could feel building was coming from the woman or the wolf.  Maybe both?

The Red Hood snapped, “She's not a werewolf!”  Then she calmed herself and looked lovingly at the beast. “She’s... something different.”  I swear the wolf smiled at her.

The wolf was whining and shimmying a bit and Maireni chuckled. “Then go do something about it, I'm not your mother.”  The wolf squinted at her and slowly reached her paw out and tapped the “fuck you” on the canvas that made the woman in the cloak burst out laughing.  The wolf stood and trotted off.  I cocked my eyebrow in question.  She shrugged. “She has to go relieve herself.  She didn't want to miss any of the conversation.”

I watched the wolf disappear behind some bushes. “Then why doesn't she just do it here?”

She replied with a little shrug like it were obvious, “She's embarrassed for anyone to see her peeing when she is like this.”  She chuckled at the growl she got in return.

I turned my attention back to her.  “You keep mentioning these 'others.'  Who are they?  It is just me here.”

Her face fell at that, and the wolf trotted back over to us and laid down in front of the canvas.   Maireni absently laid back on the monster like it were a fluffy pillow and said, “We had heard whispered rumors of sightings of the Trilogy.”

I was really confused now.  “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?”

She chuckled.  “No, the three powers.  The Woman of Snow, the Lady of Cinders, and the Slumbering Princess.”  She clarified with a sour look on her face. “For lack of better description, Snow White, Cinderella, and the Little Brier Rose...   Sleeping Beauty.”  Then she added under her breath, “Fucking Brothers Grimm.”

I snorted at that. “I said the same thing just today.”  Then I blinked. “The others are real?  I thought I was alone until you stepped into the light.  Supernatural beings and magic users have been coming out of the woodwork after you freed all those people from the lupus curse.”

The look of a kindred spirit and the sadness of understanding creased her face.  I could see that she had been alone too.  But somehow, this wolf she traveled with, this hellhound, seemed to complete her in some way.

She nodded. “Apparently they are as real as you or I.  I haven't heard a lot about the Brier Rose, but a woman named Ella has been burning a swath through the Americas in the direction of Seattle.  She seems drawn to black magics and imbalances of nature, she leaves nothing but the destruction of evil in her wake.”

She chuckled. “It seems Cinderella isn't all sweetness and light like Jacob and Wilhelm wanted everyone to believe.”  She spoke of the Brothers Grimm like she had known them.  The weaselly self-serving glory hunting bastards.  They had convinced me they were chronicling the stories of the champions of good.  Then they change my story into some children's fairytale.  I grinned at the Red Hood.  I guess they did that to all of us, as this dangerous woman is certainly no Little Red Riding Hood.

I re-centered myself then asked, “These gypsy witches, how dangerous are they, and what do they want?”  Could this be what had drawn me there and not the kidnappings?

She looked up at the sun, low on the horizon, and sniffed the air then at me.  “We can talk after Daria changes.  I smell at least ten ferals in the area, can you defend against werewolves or do we need to move?”

I blinked, I had been sensing the feral movements by disturbances in nature around us.  Since they were not animals I could feel, it had to be humans.  I shrugged. “Weres give me no pause.”  She smiled at that.

She looked at the sun again then at Fluffy then asked the wolf, “Umm... need some privacy?  I know you hate doing this around people.”  The wolf nodded, a very human gesture then Maireni sat up so the wolf could stand and trot off behind the bushes again.

Moments before the last rays of the sun disappeared, a howl came from behind the bush.  It was no normal wolf howl, it was filled with power and compulsion.  It was a warning like it was telling the animals of the forest to be on guard, that something evil was coming.  She was warning the world of the full moon?  About the werewolves?  I could feel the forest coming alive, listening to the warning, as the animals around us went to ground.

I was amazed because even I felt on guard.  Was that like the power of an Alpha I had heard so much about?  Then the sun extinguished over the horizon and the yellow and orange light of the sun was replaced by the silver light of the full moon.

I saw Maireni's hands ball tightly into fists and her fingernails dig into her skin and the anguished, yelping and whimpering of a canine in extreme pain came from behind the bushes.  It turned into the screams of a woman who sounded like her flesh was being flayed from her bones.  I started to run toward the screams, but the Red Hood placed a hand on my arm and shook her head sadly.  “There is nothing you can do.  It is almost done.”

I smelled blood and looked down as she removed her hand.  There was blood on her palm where she had cut her own skin with her fingernails.  It was obvious she didn't like what was happening behind the bush.  The four cuts healed in seconds and the screaming stopped.  I heard some rustling and Maireni sat down to wait and I followed suit.

A minute later a medium height woman with long shiny black hair pulled up into a ponytail came walking out from behind the bush, carrying the wolf's pack.  Her tight t-shirt and jeans clung to her muscular form, she reminded me a lot of Rachel.  Her dark eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she silently sat beside Maireni and snuggled against her and gave her a warm kiss.  The Red Hood murmured, “Hi love.”

The mystery woman melted into her and held her, “Hi yourself hot stuff.”  Then she looked over at me and held her hand out. “Hello Gretta.”

Was this the wolf?  My God!  I shook her hand tentatively. “Fluffy?”

The woman actually produced a wolf growl and said, “Call me that and I'll pee on your shoes.”

Maireni chuckled and warned, “She'll do it too.  Trust me.”  She wrinkled her face like she had tasted something sour.  Then she grinned and said, “Gretta Snow, meet the love of my life, Daria McQueen.  Also known as Fluffy in her wolf form.”

I blinked again. “Daria.”

She nodded once at me then looked at her woman. “Shall we get on the trail before they get too far ahead?”

Red nodded and stood.  As I stood, she pulled a card out of somewhere and handed it to me.  “We'd like to talk when this mess is sorted out.  That's our answering service since cell phones don't work around us.  Just call and we'll find you.”

Daria was grinning at me and I couldn't stop grinning back.  “What?”

She crinkled her nose cutely. “Nothing... just...”  She motioned a hand between Red and I and said, “Red Riding Hood and Snow White.  Just how weird is my life?”  I snorted then froze.  We all were cocking our heads, listening.  I could feel and hear something approaching.

Daria took a step toward the bush she had been behind.  I started pulling magic to me, but Maireni didn't seem concerned at all.  With a snarl, a werewolf dove over the bush at Daria's throat.  Before I could lash out at the beast, Daria caught the wolf by the throat.  It dangled in mid-air, thrashing and snarling.  I could smell the acrid stench of silver burn of pelt and skin from where her hand touched the wolf.  Was her touch silver?  She head butted the wolf.  I kid you not, who the hell head butts a werewolf?  She dropped it to the ground, it was dazed but snapped at her again.

She seemed to sigh in resignation and with wolf speed she dropped under it as it leaped at her and kicked it in the groin as it passed harmlessly by.  It yelped, landed funny, and limped like its rear legs weren't working correctly.  I hear that getting hit in the groin is an excruciating thing for males.  Then she said in a voice that was filled with the same power of her previous howl like a wolf, “Now get out of here before I kill you!”

I had the urge to leave but knew it was just the compulsion in her voice.  Wow!  The wolf lowered his eyes, flattened his ears to his head and tucked his tail between his legs in total submission and skittered away from us in a limping run.

She turned to us with an almost innocent smile.  I snorted at the look then glanced at Red and said, “She actually head-butted a werewolf, then kicked him in the crotch.”

Maireni scratched her head, squinted one eye, and scrunched up her face. “Yeahhhh, she does that.”  Daria joined her and their hands instantly found each others.  They shared a quick peck on the lips that I had to smile at.  They were possibly the two most dangerous predators I had ever met, and they were so cute together.

Then Red cocked an eyebrow at me and spoke like there hadn't just been a wolf attack, “So, you really can bend nature to your will?  Just plants, or animals too?  Like in the whisperings we have heard?”  Her eyes were focused behind me, I glanced back at the almost solid wall of trees and vines at my back that had gathered when I prepared to strike.

I grinned and relaxed and the forest seemed to relax behind me and thin back out.  “Both.  Though I can't seem to touch werewolves, or apparently Daria.”  I didn't tell her that I could almost feel something from both of them, something primal and animalistic that my magics could almost touch.

Daria started to smirk and opened her mouth and I stopped her with a wicked grin of my own. “No I don't sing and the fluffy creatures come scurrying.  Don't even ask it.”  We all shared a chuckle.

Then Red put on her game face and her smoky voice was firm as she asked gravely, “Can you handle the eastern group?  They have left a trail of death and carnage behind them.  They are powerful magic users and are almost as deadly as the druids that were sent, who we can't seem to locate.  They are all looking for something for the remaining brothers Marcus.  They've been in the area for weeks now.  We just arrived on a ship earlier today.”  Then she added, “If not, we can hunt together.”

I shook my head.  “No, I can handle it.  The forest is my domain.  If these witches are as dangerous as you say, we need to take care of this quickly.”  Had I just readily accepted to be part of their hunt?

They nodded and offered their hands and we grasped arms.  Daria said, “Good hunting.  And please contact us soon.”  I nodded in agreement and noticed the look of excitement for the hunt on her face and in her eyes.  I could smell her wolf musk from where I stood and I wondered just how much of the beast she really was.

I nodded and they both dashed off at wolf-like speeds, almost silent to all of my senses.  I turned east and shook my head in disbelief, I had just met the Red Hood and her hellhound, who was actually her lover.

Chapter 7 – Gypsy Witches

I started east as fast as I could travel.  Reaching out with my senses and my magic as far as I could extend them.  At the very fringes of my abilities, almost three miles away, I detected movement through the forest.  They seemed to be moving in a methodical sweeping pattern like they were searching for something, like Maireni had said.

I called out to the wildlife, to the birds and bats, anything that could show me what I was following as I ran.  I passed a black pelted werewolf at a full sprint and it started to give chase, but roots kept rising up to cause it to stumble.  It gave up the chase to find easier prey.  They normally won't do that, but they sense the predator in me as well, a kindred spirit.

As I went, I felt fear in the back of my mind.  I felt the frightened, dying girl from so long ago.  I was going after gypsy witches, lamias.  Like the one who had poisoned a whole village of women just to kill me.  Like the one who cost me, my dear Snow.

I gritted my teeth and continued on.  A raven swooped down and landed on my shoulder as I ran.  I looked at it. “Show me, please.” I was hit with a bunch of impressions, some that didn't make sense.  But in the chaos I saw a group of women led by an old crone.

Then I understood the bird's confusion.  They were chanting, but the bird didn't have the capacity to give me the impressions of the words.  Whatever they were doing was throwing out ripples of magic that were touching everything around them, causing distortions that were confusing the wildlife.  I coupled that with what Red had said and the methodical pattern the lamias were moving in.  What were they searching for?

I almost thanked the bird when I got a glimpse of dark shapes moving near the group.  They were on the fringes of the rippling magic so I couldn't make them out, but the overall impression from the bird was, danger, and predator.  They had some sort of guards.

A few minutes later I could make out chanting over the next rise.  I could feel more than nine disturbances moving through the forest.  There were thirteen.  There were four circling the others, their guards.  They had to be human because I couldn't touch them with my senses.  I thanked the raven with some dried fruit and it flew off.

I crept forward to observe, that's when I realized I was wrong about my assumption... partially.  They had guards, but they were werewolves.  Why weren't the wolves attacking them?  I had to distract them so I could get at the witches.  I reached out and found what I needed.  I asked the buck hiding in a little hollow a few hundred yards away for help. I pushed some of my life force into him and asked a favor.

A moment later I heard a ruckus in the direction of the hollow then the sound of something noisily running away from the witches.  I grinned, the buck was making as much noise as possible, he was so full of energy now, he could run for hours.  The crone held up a small talisman that glinted red in the moonlight and she hissed in Romanian, “Pleaca acum. Ucide oricine a fost spionat.”  My Romanian was rusty, but I believe it was something like, “Go now.  Kill whoever was spying.”

Then the werewolves bounded off, growling and snarling as the women all moved into a loose circle, all staring out into the forest.  That talisman gave her power over the wolves!  I grinned, the wolves would never catch that buck, he had the energy of two deer now, it would be morning before my boost wore off.

The witches were all peering into the darkness in different directions.  They were no strangers to possible threats and they worked seamlessly together.  I watched for a couple minutes, but they were patient.  I let my power ripple out and watched as roots silently rose around their feet, encapsulating them.  Then I made a fist and the roots responded, suddenly tightening.

The witches started making noises of surprise and anger.  The crone held the talisman up to the moon and I saw it glint red again before she let it hang around her neck on the string it was on.  I stepped out into the open on the opposite side of the crone towards one of the struggling witches.

They all turned toward me as one and started chanting. I think I was wrong about them working seamlessly together because they truly did move as one and their chanting was as one.  I think the Crone was controlling them like she controlled the wolves in some way.

I spoke with as much authority as I could draw to me, “What business do you have in MY forest?”

They finished the chant and the roots rotted away from their feet and they moved into a line between the crone and me.  I felt the death of the roots and it burned me and the forest like a dagger in my side.  I bit my tongue and stopped myself from wavering and showing any weakness.

The crone was examining me, her eyes bloodshot and yellow with age.  Her wrinkled face drawn up in a sneer.  Then she spoke in her croaking tones, “We do not recognize this as your forest.  Is not nature the dominion of all?”

I narrowed my eyes.  “At this time, this forest and all in it are under my protection.  I ask again, what business do you have here?”  She smiled and I caught her eyes flicker to one of the other witches.  Without that tell, I wouldn't have been fast enough to stop it.

The other witch had gone to throw a twig at me, but I had a mound of moss heave up beneath one of her feet and she almost fell.  The twig struck the ground off to my left and it erupted into a cage of thorns, with huge thorns growing into the center of the cage.  Good lord, had that stuck me I would have been impaled from all directions!

I hissed at the crone, “I do not wish to harm you or your puppets here.  Do not force me to.”

Her eyes narrowed and she pulled her hand out of a shoulder bag and threw a handful of mushrooms at me.  They landed near my feet as I backpedaled quickly and they released a cloud of spores that moved quickly toward me, blackening the underbrush, killing everything in their wake, and I felt it all.  I screamed in defiance and grasped empty air in front of me, pulling all I could feel from below. I tore my hands upward and the groundwater erupted from below my feet to form a blanket of water that crashed down on the cloud of spores, knocking them to the ground and washing them away.

I gasped, that was a huge effort and draw on my magics.  If it were gradual, it wouldn't have taken much from me, but to do it all at once and in such an explosive manner, it was a strain.

I glared at the woman.  “I tried to be civil.  Now I set an ultimatum to you.  Leave my forest now, go back to Europe, or I will make you wish you had!”

The crone laughed and said, “How do they say in America?  Do your worst, little forest fairy.”

All of the witches raised their hands, energy crackling between them.  Oh shit.  I slammed my arms together, clapping my hands like thunder.  The trees around me slammed in front of me, leaving furrows and twisted roots in the ground in their wake as raw black magic stuck my wooden shield.

The trees exploded into splinters and shrapnel hit me all over.  My leathers stopped most of it, but wood splinters were embedded in my hands and face.  It hurt like hell.  I staggered, then felt the slivers pushing out of my skin and the feel of the wounds knitting themselves back together.  I looked at my hands, covered in my own blood, with undamaged skin beneath.  My shoulder was so hot I swear it was burning.  I hadn't used so much power, so quickly before, and my crow brand was pulsating pain in warning to me.

I had to end this fast.  I thrust out my hands, palms up, fingers splayed, then cupped my fingers upward and pulled in everything I had left. I thrust my hands upward and the entire line of witches between us let out startled gasps as saplings sprang from the earth in such violence they impaled the eight witches.  I dropped to a knee from the effort and my skin felt as if it were on fire, like thousands of things were trying to push out from the inside.  My head ached at two points, but I kept my focus on the crone.

She grabbed another talisman hanging on a string around her neck, it was a wolf's tooth and a silver nugget tied together with what looked like wolf hair.  She said, as she held it out toward me, “This was not for you, this was for the Red Hood.  My group was the bait as the others liked for our prize.  But you are no normal forest fairy and I shall have to waste this on you if I am to survive.”

She uttered a single syllable that echoed all around us and seemed to get sucked into the talisman and raw power erupted from it and washed over me in fire and agony.  I could see magic weavings and constructs drifting through the torrent.  I... understood.  My eyes shot wide through the excruciating pain.  This spell was meant to destroy one with the wolf curse.  If this was supposed to be for her, did Maireni somehow share their curse?  Was that where she derived her power?

A hot wave inside me pushed back at the energy that was consuming me and then I realized it was so simple, of course, the Red Hood and the wolves were linked.  They must for the balance to be achieved.  White feathers erupted from my skin, and brilliant white light shot out from them to battle the black magics.  I am balance.  For every evil, there must be a balance.

Everything seemed so simple to me now.  I stood as my antlers grew from my skull.  I felt like me but not.  I was more than I had been.  I was afraid but I told myself not to be that I would not consume me, I am nature, but I am Gretta.  I could feel the forest around me, and I smiled as it greeted me.  I have always been, but I was also a simple girl from an Alpine village.  I understood now, I understood my sweet Snow.  I was Perchta, but I was Gretta.  I loved the child, so I am now the child I saved

I was starting to get confused with two personalities in my head, but they were both me, weren't they?  I concentrated on fighting off the cascade of black magic.  I had used so much energy before I changed to my true form, I was foolish.  This was going to be difficult.  I pushed all the pain aside and simply welcomed the world around me into myself.

My power of light, of right, pushed out farther from me, wild energies from the collision of our two magics were wreaking havoc in the clearing around us. They destroyed trees and vaporizing the bodies of the other witches, who I now knew were sacrifices that willfully bound themselves to the crone to multiply her power, to be her familiars, her focus.  I smiled inwardly at my Gretta self, she, I, had done well.

I knelt and slapped my palm upon the ground, bringing life back into the death the black magics had caused.  Moss and flowers budded and bloomed and the talisman disappeared in an explosion of flame and smoke as it's energies were overwhelmed.  I frowned.  It was the magics of demons and corruption, it was the same magics that brought the curse of the lycanthropes by the brothers Marcus.

I exhaled, I was at my limit.  I mentally caressed my Gretta self and told her, “I must sleep, you finish up here.”  I blinked as my feathers retracted back into my skin and I felt my antlers pull back into me.  I was confused but realized it was no dream as I saw the crone fall to her knees.  I realized that all of that had occurred in but a single moment.  I still felt echos of all the pain.

She looked at the ashes in her hand then at me and croaked out as she forced herself to her feet again, “You are no fairy!”

I swayed to my feet and bared my teeth and told her the truth about myself that I had just learned.  “I am a Queen of Nature, born of Perchta and one with Perchta.”  I raised a hand and tried to pull nature forth, it had been so simple a moment ago, I was that nature, but I was so tired.  I staggered.

She cackled.  “You are no Queen of Nature, look at you.  You can barely stand.”

I chuckled.  “Have you looked at yourself lately?”  I don't know if she realized how badly burned she was from our magical standoff.

She sneered and reached for her neck and pulled out the red wolf talisman.  My sense of smell has always been better than human, but I realized at that moment that I could smell werewolf blood and hair from where I stood and I could hear the world around me better than ever.  Had my transformation done something to me?  Enhanced my senses even further?

Her talisman was made of that wolf blood and hair, and I could taste the tang of power emanating from it. Something old, something with the sulfur of demon.  Was it made from the blood and hair of an Alpha?  From one of the Marcus brothers?  That would explain why she was able to control werewolves... it was a compulsion.

She said with a wicked smile, “You see, false Queen, I have called for help.”  I heard the werewolves returning at breakneck speeds.  I took a deep breath and with the very last of the energy I could feel inside... I asked a favor.

I heard the reply and smirked at her as the werewolves appeared behind her.  I replied, “So have I.” And the sky grew black as thousands of birds in the sky blotted out the moon and the stars.  They swarmed her.

She flailed around, protecting her eyes, then they were gone, and so was the talisman.  She screeched in anger then hissed, “It is no matter they have their orders.  A few little birds are no match for werewolves.”

I'm sure the grin I gave her was just as wicked as hers as I felt my friends arrive.  I said in a low voice full of menace, “Oh I had something a little bigger, and more deadly in mind.”  As three huge bull moose stepped out of the forest behind me and moved in front of me.

The biggest, in the center, huffed out a challenge, the heat of his breath steaming the air from his nostrils.  The wolves dropped into crouches, their ears flattening to their heads and their lips curling back to expose their dripping fangs in terrifying snarls.  Then they charged.

One thing people don't realize is the sheer size and power a moose possess.  There isn't much in this world that can take a bull moose down.  Moose have been known to take on grizzly bears and win.  In accidents involving moose and cars, the moose more often than not will walk away from a totaled car.

Their antlers are fifty pounds of bone that can strike as hard as the equivalent in steel.  In effect, a bull moose is fifteen hundred pounds of killing machine.  I thank God every day that they are not predators.  Two of the moose charged the bounding werewolves.  The largest bull staying to guard me.

With a horrendous crack, one moose lowered his antlers and collided with a werewolf.  The crushing of skull and bones was a sickening sound as the moose flung his head and sent the body of the wolf flying into a tree.  I knew that even with a crushed skull the wolf would probably recover.  It took a lot to kill a lycan.  The other moose was swinging his antlers from side to side taking out the legs of two other wolves.  Snapping them like toothpicks.  They yelped in pain and tried to stand but couldn't they sort of scooted forward using their hind legs before collapsing.

The crone's eyes were wide in disbelief and she turned and ran into the forest, the last wolf growled and snarled then turned to follow her.  I stumbled to the bull moose protecting me, and I laid my head on his side as I stroked his fur.  “Thank you so much.  I'm sorry, I have nothing I can give you until my strength returns.  You were so very valiant.”

I stumbled away toward my camp and I heard their huffs of understanding.  My two warriors trotted off into the trees, but the big bull wandered beside me and then knelt.  I smiled at him and placed a hand on his muzzle.  I kissed his muzzle and said, “You've already done too much.”  He didn't move. I exhaled and then said, “Fine.  Thank you kind sir.”  Then grabbed a fist full of fur and pulled myself up onto his neck and he stood.

I patted him then pointed.  “My camp is that way.”  He trudged off in that direction.  I had rested enough by the time we reached a huge grouping of trees that were twisted around each other that I was able to get them to part to reveal the huge hollow area I slept.  It was almost ten feet in diameter.  I grabbed my pack and then sealed the opening and staggered back to my friend.

I patted him when he lifted me again.  “I can't just call you 'Hey You'.  How about something regal, Thomas?”  I know he didn't understand, but I just smiled and said, “Thomas it is then.”  I pointed toward Issaquah.  “Just get me close please, I can walk a short distance.  I'll need sleep.  I've used all that I have.”

A few minutes later I woke up to Thomas' stomping.  I could see the back of Rachel's place, but there were also werewolves near the street.  I inhaled.  The short nap had given me a bit of my power back.

I slid to the ground and patted Thomas' neck and kissed it.  I gave him a tiny bit of myself.  I wished it could have been more, but I still needed a little power.  “Thank you, I won't forget this.”  He snorted then trotted back into the woods.

I stayed downwind from the two weres I could see, and slipped in the back door of  Rachel's.  I could hear growling and thrashing from her bedroom and the smell of silver burned wolf.  I looked outside then used the last of my power again to have saplings grow up against her place like bars to a prison, I didn't want to get into that coffin of a panic cage.  I took my time so I didn't exert myself.  I was beyond exhausted.

Then I stumbled into her room.  I saw the most gorgeous red wolf I had ever laid eyes on behind the plexiglass in the door. She stopped slamming herself against the silver lined door and pulled her lips back to expose her fangs.  She snarled and snapped then threw herself at me, slamming the door.  I walked up to the cage and looked in at her as she tried to get at me.

Her musk was almost intoxicating with my newly enhanced senses.  I smiled at the beast, knowing Rachel was in there somewhere.  I sat in front of the wolf and just started into the golden wolf eyes that were so different than her pale human eyes.  I placed a hand against the window over the screens.  I murmured, “I just need to rest a moment Rach.  I'll get out of your sight soon so you can calm down.”

The wolf tried digging at the door to get to me, paws burning from the silver and her nostrils flaring.  Then the oddest thing happened.  The wolf stopped digging and just growled and snarled at me as her nose worked and she drew air over her tongue.  She stopped growling and tilted her head, but kept her fangs bared and she locked eyes with me.

We sat there just staring at each other for a few minutes and she stopped snarling and sat.  I smiled at her through bleary vision, my head full of her scent.  I felt at peace.  I said, “There's a good girl.”  I wasn't thinking straight, I was so exhausted.  I turned and sat with my back to the cage door and laid my head back.  I turned slightly to look at her.  She was scenting the air and did a doggy scoot close to the door without touching it then laid her head on her paws, eyes on me.  I smiled and drifted off.

Chapter 8 – Recovery

I woke from a pleasant dream to a repeated thumping and someone humorously saying my name over and over in a dull tone, “Gretta, Gretta, Gretta, Gretta... Oh, there you are.  Umm... could you move, please?  I'm sort of naked here and need some clothes.”

Still waking from the dream and foggy, I turned my head and looked through the plexiglass window.  Rachel was crouched there with her head tilted, studying me.  I inhaled deeply, her scent enveloping me.  I smiled at her naked form crouched there looking at me as she scented the air.  I murmured, “So beautiful.”  Then my eyes snapped wide as I realized I wasn't dreaming anymore.

I blurted out, “Oh god!  I'm so sorry!”  I skittered away from the door of the cage and stood.  The green lights on the lock were lit.  I had blocked her from opening the cage after sunrise.  She smiled as she pushed the door open and moved out of the cage and stood in front of me.

I tried not to stare, it was getting far too hot in that room with her scent enveloping me.  Her own nostrils were flaring and she grinned and sauntered past me.  She stopped as our shoulders brushed and she surprised me by burying her face in the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply.  I felt her growl into my neck.  It sent pleasant tremors down my spine.

Then she brought her head up and rubbed her jaw across my cheek and walked off and started getting dressed.  I just stood there frozen.  Not because of what she did, I knew what scent marking was among the very old wolves, but because of what it did to me.  I had to restrain myself.  I was attracted to her before, I can't deny that.  But now after whatever had happened to me last night, some sort of animalistic part of me had awakened and all I wanted to do was throw her to the ground and take her.

Oh dear lord, to my embarrassment, I needed to find a place to work my frustrations out.  I was knocked out of my fugue state by her husky sounding voice, “Sorry, I don't know what's come over me.  Normally I can control my impulses better.  But something has changed, your scent is stronger, more...”

She was suddenly behind me and her hand was sifting through my hair.  “Your hair, it was light before, but it is pure white now.”  I watched it fan out in my vision, it was!  How much had I changed last night?  Then she paused and parted my hair.  She was running her fingers around a knob on the side of my skull and her other hand matched the ministrations on my other side. “Antlers?”

I glanced back at her and then ran to the mirror on the wall behind her and stared at my reflection. My hair was white as the first snowfall in winter and the stubs of the starts of antlers were poking up just above my hair, barely visible but standing out like beacons now that I knew they were there.

I said distractedly, “Something happened to me last night.”

She was behind me again, inhaling.  “Your musk is so strong now...”  Then she suddenly smiled hugely. “You're attracted to me?”  I nodded, it was all I could do with her this close.  I realized all of my feelings were closer to the surface, my transformation last night brought my inner animal to the surface, but it felt right like I was closer to nature now.

She growled again and that was the last straw.  I spun on her and pushed her violently backward.  She fell back on the bed and I was on her.  Repeating her actions and burying my nose in her neck and inhaling.  She was smiling and she tilted her head baring her long sinuous neck to me and on instinct I bit it gently.

I was on the bottom suddenly and she was kissing me.  By all that's holy, I was burning up with want and need and I hungrily returned the kiss.  Her scent was like a drug to me that I just wanted more of.  We couldn't get our clothing off fast enough.  She giggled into our kiss as she straddled me again, “I'm going to be late for work.”

I thought that meant she wanted to stop, I didn't think I could if I wanted to.  I found out almost instantly it was just a simple observation she was stating, as she started kissing down my neck and chest toward her ultimate goal.  Dear Lord, I was hers, I surrendered control and let her do her worst.

We surfaced, sweating and panting a couple hours later.  She was growling possessively and rubbing her jaw across mine.  She stretched too cutely for a hardened cop and she balled her toes up as she said, “You have the stamina of a wolf.”  I blushed at the compliment and realized that she was still on top of me and I liked it, a lot.  Then she looked disturbed.  “I think my wolf has claimed you.”

I propped myself on my elbows and shuddered delightfully, her leg was pressing into my crotch, she gave it more pressure and I realized she was subconsciously doing it to control me.  I just let her, it was nice to not be the one who was always in control for once.  I was putty in her hands.  She shook her head.  “It normally doesn't happen so fast.  I don't understand, but your scent...”  She trailed off, then she said, “I'm sorry.”

I went to sit up to look her in the eyes but she gave a little more pressure and I almost orgasmed for the fifth time that morning and fell back on the bed.  She seemed pleased with the results, then moved her leg back and allowed me to sit.

I smirked at her and said, “Oh, it's going to be like that is it?  Don't think for one second I'm going to cede control to you every time.”

We had a stare-down and she eventually lowered her eyes and tilted her head, exposing her neck, submitting.  I chuckled and said, “See?  But I do admit I love it when you own me.”  Then I slowly pushed her onto her back, she didn't resist.  I just sat on her toned belly and mused, “I don't know what's come over me either. My animal urges are all at the surface, I think it was because of my transformation in the battle last night.  I was attracted to you before, but now my inner beast wants to claim you before anyone else does.  I've only just met you, but I want you.”

She sat up, almost knocking me off of her if she hadn't put one of her hot coiled steel arms around my back, and she blurted out a string of questions, “Battle?  What battle?  You were just going to your camp.  Was it werewolves?  Are you ok?”  Her eyes were full of rage and the need to protect me.

I shut her up with a kiss.  “I'm fine.”  Then I added, “ish.”

I went on to describe my chance meeting with the Red Hood and her hellhound. Then the battle with the gypsies and werewolves that followed.  How I became the me that was the same as Perchta but different, I was just Gretta and more.  How I felt the need to come back to her place to inform her of the dark magic users in the area instead of staying at my camp.  The crone was a danger to anyone who came across her.

To me coming in and warding the place with trees and then speaking with her beautiful red wolf.  To the wolf quieting as we fell asleep.  She tilted her head and almost whispered, “You calmed my wolf?”  I nodded shyly and she kissed me gently and then said, “You know, most Clean Bloods won't sleep with one of the cursed.  They think they'll get infected.  But you didn't hesitate.”

I shrugged. “Those people are ignorant, it isn't a disease or infection like people think, it is dark magic, a black magic curse.  It can only be passed on at a full moon if a wolf draws blood and the magic is able to enter their victim through that blood and take over before death.  Outside of the full moon, there is no possible way to transmit the curse.”

She smiled then said, “When I woke up I caught your scent and almost purred.  But then I snapped fully awake when I realized you were outside my cage un-moving.  I irrationally thought I had killed you.  You were covered in white feathers of light again.  I calmed realizing that was how you recharged, then I freaked again realizing you weren't in the panic cage.  I didn't see or smell any signs of wolves in the house so I relaxed and tried to open the door of the cage, but you were blocking it.”

She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I didn't know if moving you while you slept would harm you so I tried for a couple hours to wake you.”

Then she got a playful look on her face, her pale eyes sparkling  as she teased, “Then you proceeded to take me like a wolf.”

My mouth hung open with a shocked smile as I slapped her shoulder. “I took you?  If I remember right, someone wouldn't let me on top all morning.”

Some glint in her eyes sent wonderful shivers through me as she said in a husky voice, “That's because...”  I could hear the wolf in her voice, “...mine.”  I just nodded as a yearning inside me was rekindled.  Oh, dear lord, I'm some wolf's bitch.

I flicked her nose with a finger then kissed it.  “Bad dog.”

She giggled and I stood and walked toward the shower and paused in the doorway and looked back over my shoulder suggestively.  It was the only invitation she needed and she followed quickly behind me.  As we stood under the running water, she comically spat out, “Fuck!”  I squinted one eye and cocked my other brow at her.  She smiled at me. “I just let you make me your bitch didn't I.”

I kissed her nose and said, “Good doggie.”  She swatted my butt and I squeaked.

I closed my eyes under the spray, the hot water felt divine pelting my antler nubs.  Holy shit, I had antlers.  How was I going to pass for human now?  The sudden thought of hats and more volume to my hair came to mind and I groaned.

I took a second to take inventory while we stood there.  I reached inside, my emotions were everywhere and right at the surface.  I felt like a wild animal, but I really liked the feeling.  Maybe because it was so refreshing after keeping such tight control of myself for centuries.  I dug deeper and found my reservoir of magic was only half full.  I needed more sleep?  But then it hit me, even though I had just a short sleep, that wasn't it, my reservoir was much larger now.  Something inside me had awakened when the white crow brand took over and I transformed.

I looked at her as I shut off the shower.  “I think I need more sleep so I can recover fully.  Maybe a couple more hours.”

She nodded.  “I better call the station and let them know I have information about dangerous mystical activity in the area.”  She grinned. “That's a good excuse for being late, right?”

We dried off and combed out each others hair.  It was so nice.  Nobody had ever done that for me, I felt pampered.  We dressed and I growled hungrily when I saw her in her everyday uniform.  Some khaki jeans with lots of pockets, her sidearm on one hip and her badge hanging on the other.  And a white dress blouse.  I wondered where it came from since it was sharply pressed and I didn't see anything pressed in her junkyard of a room.

She heard my growl and pulled me in for a gentle kiss.  Then she led me to the couch and I laid down and she tucked a blanket around me.  I think I like being pampered.  She sat and stroked my hair, playing with my antlers and I drifted off.

***

I woke again to someone repeating, “Gretta, Gretta, Gretta...” and poking me in the ribs with each iteration.  I opened my eyes and stretched, I felt great, better than great, and I could tell I was fully recharged now, I had more magic in me than ever.

I grinned at a smiling Rachel.  I reached up and cupped her cheek as I smiled.  “Hi.”

She chuckled.  “Took me two hours to wake you.”

I blinked and cocked my head.  “You haven't left yet?”

She motioned a hand vaguely at the window and door. “Kind of hard to do since the house is apparently in a tree prison.”   She scrunched her nose.  “I almost broke my nose walking into the door when it didn't open when I tried to leave.  You were already out in glow-y feathery bird girl mode.  I've been poking you for two hours.”

I couldn't help it, I was laughing, It was just so funny for reasons I couldn't quite understand.  I pictured her sitting on the couch poking me repeating “Gretta.” for two hours and it was beyond funny.  I wiped a happy tear from my eye and calmed down.  “Sorry, that was just such a funny image.”

She scrunched her nose again but then smiled.  She said, “Ummm...”  And motioned toward the door.  I turned to it and reached out to touch the world, I almost got whiplash how quickly it responded.  But it was different this time.  It wasn't me trying to touch it, it was me becoming part of it.  The feeling was disconcerting, but it felt so... right.

I absently reached my hand forward like I could feel the trees protecting the house like I could run my fingers along their bark and feel the life inside of them.  I dropped my hand and just as quickly the trees receded into he ground, reforming into the roots they had previously been.  It took virtually no effort and I'm not sure if I used energy from my reservoir or not.

I grinned at her as she tilted her head down in thanks.  She started to step toward the door but stopped and looked back. “The chief wants to discuss the new threat with me.  You're okay now?”  I nodded and she prompted, “Then come with?”

That would be a good idea, then she wouldn't have to relay my words to them and I'd be available for any questions.  I just had to figure out just how much about me I wanted them to know.  I nodded and she smirked and said, “You'll want to fix your bed head first lo...”  I squinted an eye at the aborted word.  Had she almost called me love?

After the marathon animalistic lovemaking session, it would be natural, right?  And I felt myself connecting more and more with her on an emotional level, frighteningly quickly.  I knew my primal side had already claimed her and my emotional side was quickly coming into agreement.  She did things to me on so many different levels.  My new state had amplified everything that was already there between us, and tore it all to the surface.

I came to an agreement with myself to accept it, not fight it, then decided to put her at ease and said, “Okay love.  Be just a flash.”  And I walked to the bathroom, putting a little extra sway in my hips for her.  I smirked at the silence, the only sound was her heart beating and her purposely controlled breathing.  I shook my head to clear it, my enhanced senses were going to take some getting used to.  I could smell her relief from there.

I brushed my hair and winced at the tender skin at the base of my antler nubs.  I had forgotten about them.  I parted my shiny white hair and looked at the stark white bone.  They were almost cute if they didn't make me even more of a freak than I already was.  I brushed up from under, giving my hair as much body as I could and it was enough to hide the nubs.

As I looked into the mirror, I had a flash of looking at the cell in my hand for the time.  It was like the flashes of communication I got from my furry and feathered friends in the wild.  Wait, it wasn't my hand and phone, it was Rachel's.  I got a glimpse from her eyes.  What had caused that and how was it possible?

She called out, “Get a move on woman, we need to get to the station.”  I thought about that.  Okay, she had been thinking of me and she worried about the time.  Had that made some sort of connection to me?  Did our beasts make more than just a physical connection when we claimed each other?

I took a deep breath.  These were questions for later.  I stepped out and put on my leather jacket and she squinted.  “Maybe lose the weapons or leave them in the car?  A lot of wolves are nervous around a Wolf Hunter.  We're all on the same side.”

I was always armed.  I looked at her then handed her my nine mil and my silver knife inside the sheath so it didn't touch her skin.  Then I locked eyes with her and started pulling all of my concealed weapons from the slots and niches of my custom made leathers.  Seven small silver blades, a silver laced garrote, silver laced brass knuckles, a little bag of silver powder, and a handful of silver caltrops.

Her eyes went wide at the caltrops.  And she picked one up to examine it as her flesh sizzled and smoked on the silver, she didn't even wince.  I shrugged.  “Great for slowing down an enraged werewolf,  just throw a handful in their path.”  She looked at the four-pronged blades that looked a lot like they belonged in a game of jacks.  No matter how the little things landed on the ground, a blade would be pointing up to puncture the pads of a wolf's paws.

She shook her head and set it down, I saw the red and blistered skin on her fingers heal up.  Then she cocked an eyebrow and asked in a voice full of humor,  “Is that all?”

I started to nod but then remembered.  “Oh!”  I pulled the tiny derringer out of my boot and put it on the stack.  Then I took my Sig and blade from her.  “Okay, ready, I'll leave these in the car.  I feel naked without any weapons.”

We walked outside and she shrugged and murmured, “I like the way you feel naked.”

I stopped, my mouth dropped in shock and I smiled and slapped her shoulder.  “Rach!”

She giggled. “What?  And besides, you kind of  'are' a weapon, so you're never unarmed.”  Then she added with an almost timid tone, “Love.”  I shivered and grinned, I liked the sound of that.  I'd never thought I'd let someone get close, especially not a werewolf.

We loaded up after she sniffed and tasted the air.  I knew she was categorizing the scents from the feral wolves that had wandered around her neighborhood the prior night.  I could tell they were from two different packs, I wondered how much more her better wolf nose was telling her.  With just a smile at me, she started the car and headed us toward the police station.  She said, “Your little squirrel friend was back there somewhere.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Conrad?”

She bit the tip of her tongue to stop a smile and failed.  “I'm not calling him that.”

Chapter 9 – Assignment

We spent the drive just sharing things about ourselves with each other.  I was finding her fascinating and someone I truly enjoyed speaking with and that felt even more intimate with this fascinating red headed woman than our lovemaking had been.  So I was relieved that it wasn't all just this almost uncontrollable animal attraction.

She stopped for burgers on the way in, it was already past lunch.  I only had one this time, raw for her.  I had this insane urge to make her feel comfortable about herself around me.

When we arrived at the station, I took out my weapons and opened her glove box to stuff them in then chuckled at what I saw.  I glanced over at her and her pleased as a chipmunk look, then rolled my eyes at her and put my Sig and knife beside the two nine millimeters already in the space. She shrugged as she opened her door.  “A girl has to protect herself.”

I chuckled and hopped out and we made our way in.  She beeped at the metal detectors and I squinted an eye and walked through bracing myself for... the metal detector beeped and whined and stuttered and settled into a hiss.

She arched an eyebrow and I sighed.  The officer manning the door made a motion, I just leaned against the wall, palms flat and he did a quick pat down then ran his wand over me which just rewarded him with static.  He looked warily at me as I stood.  I sighed and said, “Magic user.”  I hated admitting it to anyone.  But it wasn't as uncommon as it used to be now that more preternaturals like me were starting to come out of hiding.

He nodded in understanding then smirked and said, “You smell like bird.”

I chuckled and replied, “You smell like dog.”  He grinned at me then thumbed me in.  I looked at his badge.  “Thanks, Martinez.”  This got a grunt from the man and an amused look from Rach.

She said playfully as she led me down the hall, “He was right bird girl.”

I pushed her shoulder and she bumped the wall as I teased back, “Thanks, wolfie.”

She suddenly had her game face on as we reached a door just inside the large open squad room.  She knocked just below the name Chief Parsons that was stenciled on the glass door in white letters.  A deep voice called out, “Enter.”

She stepped through with me right behind.  A thin, tall African American man who looked to be only twenty-two or three looked back at us from where he was gazing through the windows into the squad room.  He closed the blinds and studied us as he said, “Paige... Wolf Hunter.”  He growled and Rachel stepped in front of me and returned his growl.

The man looked genuinely surprised at her, but then his nostrils flared and he pulled air across his tongue.  His brows almost hit his hairline.  “A Hunter and a wolf?  Just when I thought I had seen it all in this fucked up world.”  He just shook his head and motioned his hand toward the chairs in front of the small utilitarian desk that was piled high with paperwork and folders. “Sit.”

I watched the man as he sat in his chair behind the desk.  His skin was so dark it was almost the color of slate, it looked good on the man with his buzzcut and tailor fit charcoal grey suit.  I knew his apparent age was deceiving.  One might wonder how a young GQ model looking man could be the Chief of Police.  But outside the walled city, age is an abstract thing when a person who looks twelve could be a hundred years old, or someone looking thirty could actually be thirty.

The thing that couldn't lie though were the eyes.  He had weariness, experience, and a hardness in his that you only got from doing this job for a long time.  It ate at you.  I pegged him for around fifty or so.

He glared at me as we sat.  He looked at me as he held out a restraining hand toward Rachel, who had been stiffening at his attention on me.  The man said plainly, “I don't like Wolf Hunters.  You get your kicks preying off of people who can't help themselves when the beast takes over.  You certainly caused a clusterfuck for us the other night.”

I replied simply, “I take no pleasure in killing, I'm a Recovery Specialist.  And the boy is fine isn't he?  I returned him to his parents as I was contracted.”

He regarded me carefully.  “Crazy Clean Blood.”  Then he clasped his hands in front of him.  “For taking no pleasure in killing wolves, you certainly did just fine that night, our snipers say it was a hell of a shot.”

I shrugged. “I said I took no pleasure in it, I didn't say I wasn't any good at it.  That piece of shit was terrorizing an innocent child, I have no regrets.”

The left corner of his mouth twitched in an aborted smile.  “On that we agree.  Both the boy and the after action report from Specialist Paige here state the man drew down on you first.”  He seemed pleased with that, though his face didn't show it.

He did smile slightly this time as he said, “You can pick up that fucking silenced cannon of yours on the way out of the station today.  But we still need you to hang around a few days in case we have any other questions.”  I nodded my understanding.

He turned to Rach.  “Now, what's this shit you are spouting about a magic threat in the area?  What has...  'your' Hunter brought down on our heads now?”  He stressed the word your and I flushed.  I kind of liked it.  The bestial part of me that was hovering just under my control agreed, hers, and she was mine.

Then he added, “Does it have something to do with that explosion that leveled three acres of forest to the north early this morning?  Our choppers found nothing but flattened trees for hundreds of yards and thirteen dead bodies.  Four had to be wolves, they were naked.”

He shook his head.  “Then they saw that fucking Red Hood push a log off of herself and that hellhound of hers, and they leapt up like they weren't hurt and sprinted off into the forest so fast the pilots couldn't track them through the trees.  They looked to be on the trail of something.  They say they heard a wolf howl, and that got their blood pumping and it took them a couple hours to push the need to hunt out of their system.”

I caught myself nodding.  It sounded like Maireni and Daria were having just as much trouble with their group of witches.  With the body count, it sounded like they were just down to one lamia remaining as well.  I absently acknowledged Daria was in her wolf form again, I wondered if she could change at will.

I thought of the witches, I really hated lamias, it seemed like there were no good witches.  Perhaps when they get a taste of power, it corrupts them and drives them to gain more?  That seems like something insidious black magics would do.  Worm their way into someone until they know nothing but evil.  That is what happened to the one who had poisoned me and my village.  Her drive for beauty and power.

But there is always balance in nature and all things in the world.  For the wolves, there is the Red Hood.  So surely there must be good witches unless I and others like me are that balance.  I know I am always drawn to areas where that balance is needed.

The Chief looked at me.  “You knew she was in the area again?  You don't seem surprised.  Does it have to do with what Specialist Paige here needs to report about?”

I nodded once and he growled slightly and pushed himself firmly back into his chair.  He looked at Rachel expectantly.  I think it is funny how all of the police chiefs I have met in all my years, seem to have that exact same look.  I wonder if they practice it in the mirror.  But it is effective.

She shot me a chastising glance. Oh, did I look amused?  I schooled my face as she began.  She shared everything I shared with her, punctuating it with his own sharing the forest destruction and the Red Hood north of the city.

He steepled his fingers in front of his nose and regarded her for a long moment, then he turned to me and dropped his hands to lay flat on his desk.  “You say these gypsy witches are looking for something in the area, in the Cascades?”

I nodded. “I believe so based on what little the Red Hood shared with me and the pattern the group I tracked were moving in.”

He nodded then cussed under his breath,  “Fuck.”  Then he squinted at me. “Is it the Black Crown?”

I blinked.  “I don't know, Red didn't have time to tell me much, she wants to speak soon.  But apparently this group of Gypsies and another group of Druids came from Europe on the orders of the remaining Werewolf Alphas to secure something.  The Druids simply disappeared in Seattle, but Red tracked the Gypsies until they split up last night.  I took one group, she took the other.”

He pursed his lips.  “What do you know of the Congressional Subcommittee in charge of Lupine Defense?”

I pursed my lips this time.  “Besides coordinating materials and personal to help defend the Clean Bloods in the walled cities, they also set up the strategies for handling lupine incursions and... sterilization of cities that could not handle a breach.”  That was distasteful especially with the next statement. “They do this with the National Guard, Wolf Hunters, and the black ops teams we are not supposed to know about.”

He gave me a predatory grin at my distaste, I could tell that, being wolf, he did not like certain aspects of the government's policies when it came to wolves.  Then I added, “They also appropriate funds for experimentation on the cursed, with the cover story that it is to find a cure, when in reality it is to find ways to kill them more efficiently. Or to figure out how to use them as a weapon.”

Both of them growled at that, it took them by surprise.  It wasn't common knowledge, but I have seen many things in my years that I wasn't supposed to.  I shrugged, it wasn't me doing it and I'm sure every single one of the cursed has wondered about it.

I took a moment to let the smell of anger dissipate and let them control their inner wolves before I moved.  I relaxed back into my chair to show I was no threat.  Even in human form, you didn't want to make any quick moves when an infected is enraged.  They might mistake it for an attack or that you are going to run, and their hunting instinct will label you as prey.

Parsons took a calming breath then prompted, “Bandicoot?”  When I blinked at him, he grinned.  “So, there 'are' things they don't tell you.”

I shrugged. “They don't tell me anything.  They are the ones that licensed me to be a Wolf Hunter Recovery Specialist. Beyond that, I have no dealings with them.”  He squinted at me his nostrils flaring.  For god's sake, he was checking my scent for signs of deceit a person exudes when they lie.  He seemed genuinely surprised after the information I just shared with him about things I wasn't supposed to know.

He hit a button on his desk and I could hear the hum of white noise generators along the walls.  He had put the office in privacy mode.  Normally, even if we whispered, the wolves in the squad room would hear us.  The wall of sound would drown out all but yelling.

He picked up a pen and started tapping it on his desk, staring at it, his brow furrowed in contemplation.  Then he looked at me, I could see he made a decision.  He murmured to himself, “Recovery Specialist...”  He was formulating plans, then he sat up straight and said, “Okay, let's work with that.  The Issaquah Police Department is contracting you to assist in the joint operation between, the CSCLD, the National Guard, and the police departments of Issaquah and Seattle.  Operation Bandicoot.”

I opened my mouth, but he held up a hand to stop me and continued, “Shit is hitting the fan everywhere and we're trying to contain the situation.  Under contract, you aren't allowed to disclose anything I am about to share with you.”  I understood now, they needed my skills because something with this Operation Bandicoot was spinning out of control.

He almost growled out, “There have been murmurings through Europe, Africa, and Asia that after the Red Hood took out two of the five Marcus brothers, the remaining ones were regrouping and massing magic users of all types and beings that we never knew even existed. Until they started coming out of the woodwork when that fucking Red Hood took out Slater, AKA Alistair Marcus and freed around twenty-five percent of the infected from the curse.”

Then he stood and paced.  “The Alphas have been amassing black magic talismans and objects of power.  We believe they are preparing to renew their assault on the walled cities around the world.  Only two things are holding them back.  First, they have no way of controlling the wolves in the Americas with Slater dead.  They can send small groups under compulsion, but they are seriously outnumbered and outmatched by our domestic defense.”

He paused in his pacing and turned toward us. “The second is some sort of weapon, hidden somewhere between Seattle and Canada in the Cascades, that can defeat the Alpha compulsions.”

He let the weight and ramifications of what he had just said sink in.  I locked eyes with him, you normally don't do that with a wolf, they saw it as a challenge.

He met my gaze and just nodded at my realization.  “The Black Crown, whatever it is.  If it can do what the Alphas are afraid of, we can deprive them of their army.  The Europeans have contacted the CSCLD and the joint task force has been secretly combing any lands that were owned by Slater for the past six months.  He had holdings of over three hundred square miles sprinkled around the area.”

I nodded and said, “Is that why you are contracting me?  To find this Black Crown?  That isn't really what I do.”

He shook his head and grabbed a folder off his desk and handed me a paper from it.  “No, we have lost contact with the team near Slater's old headquarters and the two teams we sent in after them haven't contacted us in over twenty-four hours.  We need you to locate the men, and if they are still alive, return them safely back to us.  That's what a Recovery Specialist does right?  And if magic bullshit is involved...”

I nodded. “Yeah I got it.  Sacrifice the Wolf Hunter.”  He grinned at me.  I think I liked the man.

We both turned to look at Rachel, who was growling at him.  He shrugged. “Don't get all protective Paige.  The only reason I'm speaking about this in front of you is that I wouldn't be able to keep you away since you share a ummm...  'special' bond with the Hunter.  Consider yourself assigned as IPD liaison to the Recovery Specialist.”

Then he turned to me before she could respond. “This has to be done quietly, we can't assign any men to you.  It has to be compartmentalized.”

Then he handed Rachel the folder.  “I expect you to head out now.  You can reach Slater Mining before dark. There are wolf cages and panic cages in the abandoned lodge there.”

She looked at some print outs and a map then looked at me with a question in her eyes.  I nodded once to her, and she nodded back.  “Alright.  We'll gear up and be on the road within the hour.  Her weapons are at my place.”

He switched off the noise generators and opened his office door, apparently we were dismissed.  As I passed him, I said, “Alright but I get twice my usual fee.”  He nodded with a toothy smile, the bastard.

Then he called out, “Paige.  Try not to fuck things up.”

She called back without looking, “Come on Chief, you know me.”

His quick response of, “That's what I'm afraid of!” made me think this was common banter between the two.

She seemed to almost meld to my side as we walked, I wanted to be closer to her too.  She guided me to evidence lock up.  A thin as a rail woman with greying hair was the officer on duty.  I blinked after I instinctively inhaled to catch the woman's scent.  She was a Clean Blood.

My wolf strode up to the counter by my side and said, “Hey Martha, the old man said my girl here could pick up her toy.”

The woman looked at me then how closely we were standing together, then up to Rachel and she lit up. “She's a cutie Rach.”

Then she looked at me. “ID?”  I handed her my Wolf Hunter ID and she shook her head. “I need picture ID.”

I looked at the two women then sighed and handed her the driver's license I had to get for Washington State.  I had one for thirteen states now here in the United States.  She looked at it, then at me.  “I like what you've done with your hair.”  I smiled at her then she stopped and furrowed her brow.  “You're wolf?  And you're a Wolf Hunter?”

She handed my ID back to me and I shook my head as Rachel snagged it from me to look at it.  Then she chuckled while I shook my head as she realized what gave Martha pause.  My date of birth showed, August third, sixteen twenty-four.  I said to Martha, “I'm Clean Blood.”

Rachel gave her a toothy smile and the woman just shook her head in disbelief then looked something up on her computer then headed back into the evidence cages.  A minute later she came out with a huge black evidence bag and hefted it onto the counter.  “Sign there.”  I signed the form on the clipboard and then tore the plastic and removed my M4.  I so missed it.  I slung it over my back as she slid another smaller clear plastic evidence bag to me and pointed at another line on the clipboard.  I signed then removed my magazines from the bag and pocketed them.

Martha was grinning.  “Nice... toy.”

I gave her a silly toothy grin back.  “Thanks.”

We stepped away, exchanging nods with her and Rachel looked pleased with herself.  I crinkled my nose.  “What?”

She shook her head, looking smug.  “It's so cute that you have a rifle over half your size.”

I looked away rolling my eyes only to sneak attack hip bump her into the wall. “Watch it wolfie.”

She just took an imperious tone and said, “Whatever bird girl.”

Chapter 10 – Slater Mining

We spent the time driving back to her place, with me reading all of the pertinent things in the file to her.  We took the time at her place to gear up.  It took all my self-control not to rip her body armor off of her and make her mine again.  She seemed to be having the same difficulty.  Whatever this bond we had was both extremely strong and extremely distracting.

We were about to head out the door when there was small scratching at her back window.  We spun and I had a Sig in my hand and she had her nine mil, both pointed at the... oh... the little squirrel at the window.  We grinned at each other and holstered our weapons.  I stepped to the window and opened it and the squirrel burrowed under my coat and came up face to face with me.

I smiled then froze when I caught a familiar scent.  “What is that you have for me Conrad?”  I took the talisman he was holding to me.  Then pushed a little of my magic toward him.  I got flashes of the battle last night.  The little guy had been following me.  He tracked the birds attacking the old crone and saw where the talisman landed.  After everyone had left he had gone to retrieve it for me.  I had left the house before he could give it to me so he waited.

I scratched his chin.  “What a clever, clever boy you are.”  I held my pocket open. “Help yourself, you deserve it.”  He swirled down my arm and started stuffing his little cheeks.  He kept looking up at me, but I wasn't stopping him.  When he had problems stuffing one last dried cranberry in his cheeks, he finally hopped from my arm to the window sill.

With a cute little chitter that made him lose a peanut that he stuffed back into his mouth, he hopped to the ground and darted into the bushes.  I shut the window then threw the talisman on the ground, not wanting to touch it, the magics in it were as foul as the rank smell of the wolf blood and hair of an Alpha.

I was about to let my magics fly to incinerate it when Rachel put a hand on my arm, she sounded concerned at my reaction to it and her nostrils were flaring as she stared at it.  “What is it?  It smells of rot and wolf.”

I looked at her.  “Remember that talisman I told you about that the old crone was using to control the werewolves with Alpha compulsion?”  She nodded.  I said, “Well?” I pointed at it.

She stared at it then licked her lips.  “Can't we use it against them?  To stop the compulsion on wolves like this Black Crown everyone is looking for?”

I shook my head sadly, I understood the question well.  “No, it doesn't work that way.  This thing is evil and unnatural, just being close to it like this burns at me.  It has but one function, that is to aid evil.  It can make a wolf do anything the holder wants, it isn't just getting them to do what you want, it is robbing them of their own free will.  And it is only powerful enough to affect maybe three dozen wolves at a time.”

She squinted at me, I could see her thinking it through. “It can't be that bad can it?”

I looked at her.  She really thought it could do good, I don't think the part about robbing someone of their free will.  I looked at her then asked carefully, “Do you want me to show you?”

She hesitated and then nodded slowly.  “I trust you.”

I squatted and paused as I looked at her, then I picked up the foul thing.  “Rachel love, hop on one foot.”

She started hopping on one foot.  She said with a tinge of fear in her voice, “I can't stop.  That thing is doing it?”

I nodded then said, “Please kill your little trash can beside the sink.”

She tried to stop herself I could see it in her movements, but she growled and started stomping and punching at the can.  She looked at me with stark fear in her eyes and a pleading.  I nodded once at her then held the talisman up. “You can stop.”

She did and then I let a large amount of magic explode from my hand greater than the black magics contained in the talisman and it burst into flames and turned to ash.  I smelled sulfur and brimstone.  Part of the magics were demon based like the wolf curse itself.

She looked at me then the ash and then grabbed me into a hug.  Her voice was hoarse. “That was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me since I watched a wolf eating my insides.  I really thought I could resist, but I couldn't stop myself or even slow down my compliance.”

I nodded, kissing her above her ear.  “Losing your will is a terrifying thing.  Now imagine, even with the best of intentions.  Let's say that you tell a wolf under compulsion to just go home.  That may seem innocent enough and like you are saving them.  But you are just replacing one compulsion with another.  The wolf you commanded still has no free will and has to do what you said.  That is not the same as breaking a compulsion, which is what it sounds like the Black Crown can do.”

I then locked eyes with her.  “Now imagine even worse.  Someone getting their hands on this with seemingly good intentions.  Like the people doing tests on wolves. They could compel wolves to fight as the weapons against other wolves, like they were trying to create.  Again, the wolves would have no choice but to do as they were told, their will not their own.  So telling someone to kill a trash can would be no different than telling someone to kill another person or a wolf.”

So I pointed at the ash that fell to the ground.  “Evil must be destroyed, and that thing was evil.”

She nodded and she was shaky.  I buried my face in her neck and inhaled deeply then smiled at her and exposed my neck to her.  She needed that, she needed my submission just then to let her know she was in control of herself after the scare I just gave her.

She growled and opened her jaw and bit my neck and held it, just shy of it hurting.  Then she suddenly released it and rubbed her jaw along my chin.  “Mine,” she whispered.

I tilted my head back down and nodded. “Yes.”  Then added as I cupped her cheek, “I'm sorry for that demonstration.”

She gave a sad smile back.  “I don't think I would have fully understood any other way.”  Then she squinted. “So that is how an Alpha's compulsion works except on a bigger scale?”

I nodded.  “That was just some blood and fur from an Alpha bound by black magic.  Or the fur would have reverted to human hair.  Holding an infinitesimal amount of the Alpha's power.  That is why it could only control a few dozen wolves, and Alpha's true power is tens of thousands of times more powerful.”

Then she squinted and asked, “So we destroyed the talisman, that means the people affected are freed from the compulsion?”

I shook my head. “No, not as long as the person who held the talisman and gave the commands, lives.  Or the Alpha who's fur was used to create the talisman dies.”

I could see understanding in her eyes.  “That is why the wolves sired by an Alpha's line and all the people under that wolf's compulsion were freed when the Red Hood killed Slater?”

I nodded again and added, “But just as an Alpha can create their compulsion, they can also release someone under compulsion.  The second Marcus brother did that in the huge battle of Berlin where the Red Hood killed him.  He released part of the army of wolves to just go berserk as their inner beasts wanted to.  He wanted the mayhem to sidetrack the Red Hood, but an unknown woman with her somehow calmed them, as Red did what she does best.”

That would have been Daria.  I was starting to think maybe Daria couldn't change at will now that I thought of it.  Red's hellhound only fought at her side by day and on non-full moon nights.  By the full moon, nobody has ever seen the hellhound, just some unidentified woman who fights with the speed and strength of a wolf.  Was Daria bound to the lunar cycle like the wolves?

That was a terrible thought and I hoped I was wrong.  Those two were clearly in love.  If they could only be together three nights a month, and most of that time fighting or hunting...

I thought of Daria's compulsion and how I could even feel it when she tried to make me submit and I wasn't wolf.  It was different though.  I snapped back to the conversation when Rachel asked, “Different how?”

I furrowed my brow.  “What?”

She said, “You were saying Daria's compulsion was different somehow.  And who is Daria?”

I blinked.  “I didn't say anything I was just thinking about something.”  I was spooked, was Daria a secret?  Had I somehow let Rachel know?

She said, “No you just said that...”  Then she paused and squinted.  “You didn't say anything?  God that's freaky.  That's like the second time today I swear you said something when you didn't.”

I remembered earlier when I swear I saw her checking the time through her eyes.  At that thought, I was staring at myself.  I blinked and she was in front of me again “Umm... I think something has happened to us.  I'm getting flashes of what you are seeing and apparently you can hear my thoughts.”

She was silent for a few moments.  “My wolf thinks you're our mate.  I agree.”

I blushed at that because for the first time in my life. “I feel the same, and my inner nature beast feels the same.”  I swallowed. “What if... what if the white crow brand that ties me to a Queen of Nature did something to our mating bond.  I've never heard of a wolf mating bond do this.”

She shook her head.  “No, it usually just ties two together at an emotional and umm... sexual level.”  Then she looked down, almost in shame.

I made her look at me.  “What?”

She took a deep breath.  “Werewolves mate for life.  I'm sorry.”

I blinked a couple times.  Part of me was frightened of that, of having someone I cared about constantly in danger by my side, because of what I am drawn to do.  But then another part of me felt so alive to finally have someone I feel this way about.  Someone I... loved.  All I wanted to do at that moment was kiss her, so I did.

It started to get hot.  Before I gave into my animal urges, she broke us apart with watery eyes and a huge smile.  “Don't do that or we'll be here until sundown.  The chief would have my pelt.”

I nodded and she dragged me out to her vehicle and we got in. I thought about our link a bit and what I was feeling the first two times I got flashes of her vision.  I felt emotionally connected each... I was suddenly seeing the road and her hands on the steering wheel.  I held onto it, thought about my... mate.  Finally, I smiled and let it drop and I was staring at her beautiful profile.

She squinted at me. “Are you playing with the link again?  Stop that.”  She growled playfully.  I couldn't let her get away with trying to tell me what to do.

I leaned over and flicked her nose then kissed it.  “Bad doggie.”

She muttered, “Bird girl.”  Then she sat up straighter as we started north toward Slater Mining headquarters.  “We got sidetracked.  This Daria that you say has Alpha compulsion.  You said it was different somehow.”  Then she grinned like a little girl. “Or should I say, you thought it.”

I pushed her shoulder playfully then got serious.  “I think she can release a compulsion too.  But hers felt as if it weren't absolute control.  Like it was more of a suggestion and I ultimately decided whether I wanted to comply or not.  I mean the urge was strong, but I decided not to listen.  So her compulsion like her odd mix of black and white magics is rooted in the black but tempered by the light.  She doesn't rob her targets of their will.”

Then I smiled. “Like how Chief Parsons said the men who heard her howl felt the need to hunt for a couple hours.”

She furrowed her brow.  “Wait, so Daria is the hellhound?  You were talking like she is a woman.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She took a calming breath.  “You're not going to tell me are you.”

I grinned. “Nope.”

Then I added at her sigh and matching grin.  “Not until I know if I'm supposed to be sharing their secrets.”  Then I waggled a finger at her.  “So no sifting through my head!”

She chuckled. “Yes love.”

I leaned over and rested my head on her arm hugged it.  “Good wolfie.”

After a comfortable silence just soaking up each others company, I started sharing my theory of the old crone.  I believed that the lamia wasn't as powerful as she seemed.  All of her attacks involved talismans which had the power.  And after I took out her puppets, her own power was diminished.  She had also said her group was just a diversion meant to draw out the Red Hood.  That godforsaken talisman that overwhelmed me and made the white crow brand save me, was targeted at Maireni.

I finished with, “I think that the most dangerous group was the one that leveled part of the forest.  I think Damaschin is on the trail of the lead lamia... um, gypsy witch.”

She grinned. “I know what a lamia is Snow.”  I liked her calling me Snow like everyone else, but she made it sound like an endearment.  Though I preferred Gretta from her for some reason, it seemed more intimate.

I crinkled my nose and continued, “The crone has at least one wolves still protecting her.  There is no telling how many wolves the leader still has, Red killed four and the rest of her group.  Or the gypsy witch did the killing herself with that blast.  We won't know until crime scene techs go over the scene or we catch up with Red.”

We passed a playground on our way out of town.  I watched some children playing.  I thought it odd outside of the walled cities.  I knew most of the children on the play sets were either the children of the Clean Bloods that chose to live among the wolves on the outside or newly turned wolves.

Cursed children start to lose their drive to play after a few years of being cursed.  They still have the emotions of children because of the hormones in their bodies, but are much more mature as their minds age while their bodies don't.  My heart goes out to those poor children and cheer whenever the Red Hood frees another segment of the population of the curse.

I sent a small wave of power rippling through me, coaxing the land, asking a favor.  Rachel squinted at me, she must have felt something.  Then a small smile graced her face on her face as flowers grew and bloomed, lining the playground as we drove past.

We spent the rest of the drive concentrating on the file for operation Bandicoot.  The last known location of the men, the last transmissions.  The status of the missing men sent out in search of the Bandicoot team.  And discussed possible methods to locate them.  Twenty men and women in all.  Ten in the original team and five each in the two teams sent in after them.

I muttered, “If we could somehow contact Red, that would double our numbers and our chances of finding and returning the men if they still live.”

My wolf glanced at me as we went deeper into the mountains.  “Didn't you say they gave you a card?”  I squinted not knowing if I had actually told her that or if she were somehow in my head again.  I couldn't bring myself to be upset if she had because she was obviously not consciously doing it, and... I sort of liked her in there, knowing I could share more of myself with this fascinating woman... my mate.

I sighed. “It is just for an answering service since cell phones don't work around them.  Kind of like how mine goes on the fritz when I am drawing on my power.  They have magic almost dripping off of them at all times.”

I pondered that for a moment, wondering where they derived their power from.  Other than Daria's Alpha compulsion they didn't have any real magic of their own.  Then I realized that if they were the balance to the demonically based magics and black magic that created the werewolves, then it stood to reason that it was something that the gods of nature may be supplying somehow, but it would need some sort of focus.  Some object that fed them energy.  I'd have to ask them later if they cared to share that much with me.

Then I tapped my cell that I had pulled out of my pocket with the card as I contemplated.  Then said, “They said to just call and they would find me.”  I looked at the plain white card that was thick linen stock, and at the number written in calligraphy on it... there was nothing else on the card.  I dialed the number as Rach kept glancing from the road to me with curiosity.

The first ring hadn't even finished when a woman with a heavy European accent answered simply with, “Name?”

It almost caught me off guard and I grinned at myself and replied, “Gretta Snow.  I'm trying to...”

The woman cut me off. “Miss Damaschin will find you.” And the line went dead.

I blinked then looked at Rachel who looked amused.  I knew her wolf ears picked up the other end of the conversation.  I said, “Well then.  That was... terse.” We chuckled and I wondered out loud.  “So how is she supposed to find us?  How will the answering service contact her if they can't call her?”

I absently twirled the card in my hand then stopped and stared at it.  “I wonder.”  I mused and opened up my senses.  It was subtle, so subtle that unless you were looking for it you wouldn't find it no matter how sensitive you were to magic.  The ink on the card started to pulsate, it tasted of a sweet magic, something pure, something of nature.

I let out a surprised chuckle and held the card up to her.  “I've been Lojacked.  The card is a homing device, and calling the answering service activated it.  This is a beautifully crafted weaving, so subtle and delicate.  It doesn't taste like Maireni or Daria's magic.  I've seen this kind of weaving from pixies and it has the lavender tang of Romanian magics.  Could they be working with the pixies?”

The sun was low on the horizon when we pulled up to the old Slater Mining headquarters.  It hadn't been vacant long, the government had occupied the large modern building and the lodge until six months ago.  Once the large caches of silver Slater had hidden in his warehouses were emptied and shared across the world's walled cities to aid in defense, and all the paperwork was scoured, the place was abandoned.

I glanced around as Rachel first drove us around the perimeter with our windows down.  Both of our nostrils were flaring as we drew in air over our tongues. Most of the glass in the windows of the office building had been broken out by vandals since the place was abandoned.  I could see crime scene tape fluttering in the wind from when Red had killed Slater.

There were tons of fresh smells from recent activity.  Men and women, clean bloods, infected, and werewolves from last night.  Cordite, there had been a battle recently, but I wasn't sure when.  Blood, lots of blood.

I smiled in a predatory manner as I added Red and Daria's scents in the mix.  They had tracked the witches here.

I checked my cell and there was no service, that would explain the loss of communications, but I thought the cell tower had been repaired when the government took over the site.

I reached out, questing to see if I could feel anything living that wasn't wildlife, looking for the familiar feel of motion without being able to touch whatever was moving.  Nothing.  Even the local wildlife was keeping its distance.  Whatever happened here wasn't natural.

Since my senses were open, I noticed something hiding.  Black magics permeated the area, hiding something.  I pushed at it and felt the casting dissolve, then the scent of Lamia hit my nostrils.  Rachel seemed surprised as her nostrils flared.  She said, “They were here, the two witches.”  I nodded, they had headed... I paused, the scents were confusing, they headed everywhere at once?

I ignored my nose and looked with my magic and saw, a complex weaving that I couldn't break without taking some time.  It was a confusion spell that laid so many false trails to confuse all the senses.  I said, “They laid false trails with black magic.  The old crone was here, so the two witches are together.”

Once we were both satisfied the area was deserted, we got out of the car.  Rach was panting and I could feel her wolf rising.  I said, “Okay, let's get you to the lodge and locked away for the night. I'll investigate the area tonight then in the morning we can go on the hunt.  Maybe Red will have contacted us by then.”

We checked our gear then the locks on the small wolf cage in the back of the vehicle we brought in case we didn't get to Slater Mining before nightfall.  It was our failsafe for my girl.

With her wolf so close to the surface, her musk was almost overwhelming.  I wanted the woman, but we only had about fifteen minutes before sunset.  Not enough time.  I chuckled at my new found libido and she chuckled too.  She must have gotten a flash from me.

We got up to the lodge which hadn't been touched by vandals for some reason. The windows and FMBs were all in great shape.  We opened the door to get her to one of the many wolf cages by the panic rooms and were hit by the overwhelming smell of werewolf, blood, and death.

We were immediately on guard, our weapons drawn and my magic building inside of me.  We stepped in and I felt like we had stepped through a veil as black magics tickled my spine and made the fine hairs on my body stand on end.  I quickly turned and reached out and my hand met resistance at the doorway.  “Fuck,” I muttered.

I looked at Rach, who was at my back covering me as she looked around.  I said, “Some sort of barrier trap, be careful.  It lets things in but not out.  I can probably disassemble the spell.  It will take twenty or thirty minutes.  The second Lamia is much more skilled and powerful than the first.”

She nodded. “Okay then, let's clear this place and get me locked away and then you can work on that.”  I nodded back and we went through the lodge.  We found discarded body armor and blood spatters everywhere, and the bones of a man who had been completely devoured.  There were claw and fang marks all over the bones.  What little flesh was left was starting to rot.  This had happened last night when the last search party disappeared.

Then I got it.  “This trap was for them.  They had wolves in here when the three infected men, one Clean Blood..”  I sniffed the air. “And one woman came inside.”

She shook her head. “Wouldn't work.  There are over a dozen panic rooms in here.  They could have waited them out inside.  Of course, they would have been sitting ducks for anyone not wolf.”  Then we both snapped our heads to each other and started running for the nearest room.

I ran to the panic room and she dropped beside it to check the wolf containment cage.  We both cussed.  Someone had destroyed the locks; both were useless.  We ran room to room and the others were the same.  At the main door I noted the panic button and all of the FMB controls were smashed.

We stared at each other then the sun outside, we were a minute away from sunset.  She looked at me with pain and love in her eyes and drew her nine mil and started swinging it up to her temple.  It had the color coding on the clip for silver rounds.

I thanked all the ladies of nature for my enhanced reflexes as I slapped the gun out of her hand then slapped her.  “Don't you dare!  We can get through this, I won't let you hurt me.  I love you, got that Rachel!?”

She was shaking her head and crying. “If I kill you I wouldn't be able to forgive...”  I slapped her again.   This brought her out of it as wolf eyes locked on mine.

I grabbed her hand and dragged her into a room  I pointed at a cage.  “Get in!  I'll barricade it and then the room.”

She dove in and I slammed the door as she started stripping out of her clothes while I pushed the heavy bed in front of the cage.  I stacked the rest of the furniture on the bed then got out into the hall when the first pained grunt signaling the start of her transformation began.  I locked the door from the hall.  That wouldn't stop a human, but an unthinking werewolf wouldn't be able to operate the lock.

There was no way to block the door from the hall since it opened inwards. So I just went to the next room and locked myself in then duplicated the other barricade with the bed and furniture.  I called upon nature as I heard the first snarls and banging indicating her wolf had come.  The vines I called in through he window, whose FMBs had not lowered into place, recoiled from the black magics that trapped me inside.  It was damaging nature and that hurt me as it hurt the vines. I could try to subdue her with magic if she got out, but I didn't want to hurt her.

I heard wood cracking and an enraged wolf.  I sat down and concentrated on the trap spell.  She had woven it like a basket.  Each piece interwoven with the others.  Forming a complex and multi-layered approach.  This wasn't meant for mere humans, infected or not, it was meant to trap something powerful like... the Red Hood.

I set about disassembling the trap with my own magics as I heard Rachel break out of her cage,  I heard wood splintering as she went insane destroying the furniture that had trapped her like it was prey.  Then the slamming of a body and claws against a door.

I lost my concentration when I was suddenly looking at a half demolished door as I tore at it with my claws.  I was enraged, the door tried to stop me from hunting.  It had to die!  I blinked away her sight and the rage that was so invigorating and there was nothing of Rachel in it, it was all primal beast.  I swallowed, suddenly thankful that the cursed didn't remember what their werewolves did.

There was a crack in the hall then I jumped at the sound of a body being thrown against the door to my room and the scrabbling of claws that accompanied the growling and snarling.  I redoubled my efforts to get through the trap.

Then there was the sound of metal giving way as a hinge snapped and wood started splintering.  I just needed another couple minutes, I almost had it.  Her claws tore through the wood and her snapping jaw came through the hole as she started slamming her body into the door again.

I didn't want to hurt her!  The hole was almost big enough for her to squeeze through now.  The lights reflected off of her shining red pelt.  I'd never seen a wolf that color.  If it weren't for the fact she was trying to tear me apart, I'd say she were beautiful.

She snarled at me and paused, her nostrils flaring and she made a screeing sound as she pulled air over her tongue.  She snarled wildly and her two front paws rested on the opening in the door and her retractable, recurved claws that were more like a jungle cat's extended. Then with her amber eyes on me, her fangs bared and dripping with saliva she pulled and the wood gave way under her tremendous strength.

She stepped through and onto the bed, lashing out and causing the furniture to tumble off of it.  I was on my feet and backing up.  Pulling all of my power to me.  I could feel my brand on my shoulder heating up.  I didn't want to hurt her, my eyes were welling with tears.

She leaped to the ground and started forward but then scented the air again.  I was ready to stop her, but it would probably also kill her with the amount of energy I'd have to throw to stop a werewolf, they are very tough and hard to stop.

I whispered, “Rachel.”  The wolf started moving from one side to the other, ears flat to her skull, her tail suspended behind her.  She didn't attack instantly like any werewolf would do.  Instead she took one slow step toward me at a time, stalking.  Why didn't she attack?  Wolves were all instinct.  I looked at her.  Then blinked.  No, it couldn't be that simple could it?  I dropped to a knee, my eyes on hers, my magics ready to strike in an instant.

I remember telling her that wolves primal instinct told them three things, to hunt, to kill, and to mate.  I lowered my eyes from hers slightly, showing submissive behavior.  I made sure to keep my head lower than hers.  She was huge, so it didn't take much to accomplish.  The growling wolf got right in my face, still not attacking.

Then I did possibly the stupidest thing I had ever done in my life and I slowly turned my head up, exposing my neck.  Rachel's lips peeled back even more if possible, showing her fangs in a deadly snarl.  I held my breath and she snapped her jaws at me.  Then she slowly moved her fangs over my neck and took it in her jaw and held it.  Not to the point of breaking skin thank God.  I don't know what the curse would do to me with my magics.

She released my neck then I suddenly had a wolf's chin sliding across my face as she scent marked me as hers.  I exhaled, the wolf knew I was her mate.  I reached out slowly and laid a hand on top of her head.  She watched me, still growling.  Then I started digging my fingers into her pelt, into her downy undercoat and scratched.

She slowly dropped her lips and seemed to enjoy what I was doing.  I smiled, being sure not to show any teeth at all.  “Hi, lady.  You had me pretty scared.” Then even though I knew she didn't understand a word I was saying I added, “Let me see if I can't get this trap deactivated and we can get you in your cage in the car.”

I stood but she didn't like that and the wind was knocked out of me as she hit me in the gut with a huge paw that knocked me to the ground. My body slid against a wall.  I noted I wasn't disemboweled, she hadn't extended her claws.  She padded over to me and growled in my face, showing some fang.  Then I got it, she was telling me who the boss was.  I lowered my gaze again, then chanced rubbing my jaw on hers, getting doggy drool all over me.

This placated her then she stood over me straddling me.  Okay, she wasn't showing me who was boss, then what?  Oh, dear lord, she was protecting me.  I just lay there a minute then she took a half-step away from where I lay then she curled around me.  Every time I tried to move, she'd growl menacingly.  “Oh come on Rachel, you've got to be shitting me.”

I gave up trying so I just sighed in resignation and dug my fingers into her pelt and scratched her absently as I worked on unraveling the trap.  When it fell a minute later, I started nodding off, I felt so warm and safe lying on the warmest pillow that had a scent that was driving me wild.  I almost chuckled as sleep started to claim me.  Could my life be any more strange?  Here I was, going to sleep with my girlfriend, the werewolf.

I woke to a sound.  I glanced around, it was twilight outside.  Just a few minutes before sunrise.  I could hear footfalls outside coming toward the lodge and Rachel was gone.  Her divine musk still permeated my clothing and skin.

Then I was fully awake.  Someone was coming and I heard Rachel stalking down the hall.  She was going to kill whoever was coming and I lowered the trap so she could just walk out.  I started running out the shredded door and down the hall as I saw her reddish tail disappear down the stairs.  “Rachel!  Wait!”

I heard a deep rumbling growl when I got to the top of the stairs and then two answering growls as Mariani and Daria stepped through the main doors.  Everything happened at once.  Maireni, almost faster than I could follow, had her crossbow up and fired as Rachel dove through the air at Daria.  My magics surged and a tree exploded through the floor and intercepted the arrow.  I was yelling, “No!  Don't hurt her!” Daria caught Rachel in mid air with one arm.  Rachel was snarling and snapping at her as she thrashed.  I smelled the sizzle of silver burned fur where Daria's hand touched Rachel.

Daria looked at her and me as Red was suddenly around the tree with two silver blades in her hands.  They paused.  Daria started to talk, but the commotion Rachel was making just dangling there made it hard so Daria locked eyes with her. “Calm down, please.”  The command sort of drifted through the air and I could see it settle over everything it touched like a gossamer net.  The power of an Alpha.  I felt calmer then realized it was her suggestion, I let it settle around me, we could all benefit from calmer minds.

Rachel seemed to relax then shook her head and growled.  Daria looked at me. “You know this wolf?”

I closed my eyes and half smiled at the irony.  “She's my mate.  My girlfriend.”

This amused Daria for some reason as she cocked an eyebrow at Red. “Hear that?  I guess we aren't unique anymore.”  Then she looked at Rachel, who was starting to struggle again and me, she squinted an eye.  “Okay, this is awkward then.  She's obviously not in control, she's a true werewolf?”

I nodded and she looked around.  “Alright.”  She looked at the reddening sky.  “I can hold her till sunrise in a few seconds, but I'll drop her when the change hits me.  Can you pull her away?”  I nodded again and she asked, “What's her name?”  Red was stripping Daria from her clothes the best she could.

I smiled and said almost dreamily, “Rachel Paige, with the Issaquah Police.”  Dear lord, I sounded like a schoolgirl with a crush.  This got a silly grin from Daria.

But her smile was replaced by a look of agony as she screamed.  Rachel whimpered as Daria fell backward she lost her grip on my wolf.  I grabbed her ruff and pulled her away before she could snap at the women.  I lost my own grip and fell back. Then I stood and reached for her again, she just leaned into me, instinctively coming to my hand as she whimpered as the beautiful wolf slowly transformed into a beautiful woman, nuzzling me the whole time.

I know the transformation between human and wolf hurt, and wolves would whimper and yelp occasionally, but it was nothing compared to the screams of Daria's agony.  I could see the light and dark magics in her fighting each other in a deadly dance like nothing I had ever seen.  Her screams turned into yelps and whimpers of pain.

Then just like that.  A massive female grey wolf stood in her place, shaking the last of the residual magics out of her pelt.  Rachel was staring at me in horror.  “What are you doing holding me?  I was wolf, did I hurt you?”  Then her eyes caught Daria and she was rolling across the floor grabbing a heavy vase and she rolled to her feet brandishing it like a weapon.

The wolf chuffed in humor and Red and I chuckled.  I said, “Love.  This is Daria, or Fluffy, and  Maireni, the Red Hood.  And you're naked.”  Then I added, “Not that I mind.”  Daria gave a growl when I said Fluffy.  She really didn't like that name, so why did she wear it on her collar?

Rach looked at all of us one at a time then herself and she blushed and set down the vase.  “Umm, so this Daria person is a werewolf?  You never mentioned that.”  Then she squinted. “But it is daylight.”

I grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the stairs, “We'll be right back ladies.”  Then I looked back to appreciate her cute butt as we climbed the stairs in search of her clothes.  She froze when she saw the two shredded doors in the hallway.

I shook my head and pulled her to the first door and pulled the remains of it open.  “Yeah, you were a little excitable last night.  I think you wanted to eat me.”  She blanched and I continued,”  But umm... your wolf recognized her mate.”  I blushed.  “You cornered me then wouldn't let me move all night, I gave up and just curled in with you until this morning when you heard Red and Daria coming.”

She caught me off guard as she buried her face in my shoulder and she inhaled deeply.  Then her shaky voice asked in disbelief, “I... I didn't attack?  Didn't hurt... didn't bite you?”

I chuckled as we went through the debris of tall the furniture then I grabbed her clothes for her and handed them to her.  She started getting dressed while I enjoyed the show.  “You wanted to, and I was afraid I'd have to hurt you since my magics couldn't call nature to me through the trap spell.  So I gave you a smile and showed some skin and you went all possessive on me.  Mating instinct.”

Then I thought about it. “Then just now, at sunrise, I reached my hand out to you and you came to me.  It just felt instinctively right to hold you while you changed.”

She was quiet and I prodded her side as I checked her body armor and admired her form.  I locked my eyes with those spectacular pale blues of hers. She exhaled. “I don't remember any of it.”

I shrugged. “I remember for you.  You're kind of pushy and take charge when you're furry.”

She snapped out of her funk and grinned at that. “Watch it bird girl.”

I grinned at the familiar banter.  “Whatever you say wolfie.  See?  Pushy.”

I could still see her fear of hurting me in her eyes, so I kissed her nose and motioned my head toward the door and started walking.  I called behind me, “Heel.”  Then gleepd out a surprised squeak when she slapped my butt firmly and turned it into a cupping pinch.

The lady and her hellhound were both grinning from where Red laid back on Daria, on one of the couches in the great room like she was a big fuzzy and deadly pillow.  Oh, lord, their keen hearing picked up everything we had said.

We sat across from them on another couch, a low table made of rough-hewn timbers between us.  I looked at them.  “Oh shut up.  Like you two are any better.”  Daria chuffed a doggie laugh.

I caught the silent expectation from Rachel.  It radiated off of her.  I sighed and just sort of leaned into her just as she raised an arm to drape around me when I laid against her.  Soaking in the wolf hot heat of her body.  We were so in sync.  I murmured an apology, “Their secrets were not mine to tell, sorry love.”

I looked up and her eyes were trained on Daria as she asked, “You've tamed it?”

Daria growled and Red chuckled. “Her.  And no.  But I try.”  She gave the wolf a seductive grin and got rolled eyes and a bump to her ribs by Daria's muzzle.  “What?  I said try, not that I've been successful.”  The wolf huffed and nudged her head to us expectantly.   Maireni looked back at Rachel and said, “No, she retains her mind in wolf form.”  Daria grunted and Red looked back at the wolf. “Well... why am I telling her?  You tell her yourself if you don't like the way I explain.  You're a big girl.”

While Rachel was trying to absorb what she was being told, I was trying to place  Maireni's accent.  It sounded vaguely Eastern European.  Red grabbed the talking canvas from the pack next to Daria's travel bag and unrolled it onto the table.

Daria comically slipped off the couch as Maireni went to flop back down on her, causing her to land hard on the couch ungracefully.  I swear the wolf laughed.  I loved how playful the two were together.  Daria put her two front paws on the table and she was now taller than I was when I was standing.  The Red Hood chuckled and looked at Rachel. “Ask her anything.”

I was sad when the heat of Rachel's body left me as she retrieved her arm and leaned forward studying the mat.  “The animal can communicate?”

Again Daria growled and tapped 'yes', then 'fuck you', then pawed some letters spelling out, “I am not an animal.”

Rachel looked intently at the canvas then up at the wolf then froze.  Every single muscle in her body tensed as she paled and glanced at me.  Her voice was husky as she rasped out, “She has human eyes.”

I nodded.  “I know, it took me by surprise too.  But once you meet the woman you will get used to her being trapped inside the fur.”  Then I hesitated. “Only... you can never meet her.”  That was a sad and sobering thought, their curses were polar opposites, the two woman would never meet in human form.

She seemed to be over her shock and I could see her catching up to speed then she nodded thoughtfully and turned to the huge wolf.  “Sorry, Daria.  Just wrapping myself around the concept.”

The furry woman tapped out, “It's okay.  I'm still wrapping my head around it too.”  It was painfully slow for her to tap out the words.

Then Red asked a question to move the conversation along, “So, ladies, why did you walk into the obvious gypsy witch's trap?  Was that why you called?  It seems you disassembled the black magic weaving just fine.”  Then she added, “And more importantly...”  She looked at Rachel, “Why the hell weren't you in a containment cage? You could have hurt someone or worse.”

Before my mate could finish the rumbling subsonic growl she started I said, “Trap remember?  We didn't detect it until we walked through the door.  They had broken all the locks on the cages and panic rooms.  They already used the trap to kill one of the search teams for a lost government group.  I fear them all dead.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And she didn't kill you or force you to kill her?”

Rachel paled again, but I smiled at her when I replied,  “I admit, that was my top fear until her wolf surprised me and batted me around like her mate.  She recognized our mating bond.  It is one of a wolfs primal rations.”

Red nodded. “Hunt, kill, mate.”  Then she cocked an eyebrow with wide eyes. “You two didn't...”  I cocked an eyebrow right back.  Did she just seriously ask that?  She grinned sheepishly.  “Sorry, I hate it when people ask that about Daria and I.”

“So the answer is...”

She kind of bobbled her head far too cutely for the deadly killing machine she was and answered like a schoolgirl repeating a lesson.  “Of course not.”

I nodded then added, “No, but she did seem to have the need to protect me all night so I couldn't stand nor get any reconnoitering of the surrounding woods done.”  I looked at my girl and grinned. “Your fat red furry ass held me down all night so I just cuddled in and enjoyed it.”

She squished up her face into duck lips and said, “My ass isn't fat.”  Then paused. “My wolf is red?”  She hid a smile.

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.

Chapter 11 – Planning

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.

Chapter 12 – Gypsy Witches

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.

But why immobilize and not kill.  I started putting it together when I thought about them turning Amanda Danes.  They had two objectives here in the States.  Finding this Black Crown, and capturing and controlling the Red Hood or killing her.  The specific talismans they used showed they were expecting her.  That's why they split up with one group meant to be bait for her. They wanted to use her as a weapon or destroy her if they couldn't.

That's what the trap in the lodge was all about.  They wanted to trap her and turn her like they turned Danes.  Then that Alpha talisman would have enslaved her to their and their master's will.  The trap in the ravine was meant for her too.  Without the Alpha talisman, they couldn't control her after they turn her.  So paralyzing her or putting her in stasis, they could turn her and hold her like that indefinitely until they got another Alpha talisman or an Alpha could come to America to enslave her.  And if they secured this Black Crown, then nothing would be able to break the compulsion they would hold her to.

It seemed they were equally determined to complete both missions.  But then, what about the group of druids that vanished in Seattle?  Are there even bigger plans in the works?

I looked at my wolf.  “It's a trap for Maireni, all their efforts outside of finding the Black Crown have been to capture and turn her and put her under the control of the Alphas.”

She growled as comprehension darkened her eyes.  I looked at the ravine.  “We needed another route.  I don't think I can get us up the cliffs with my plants.  It would be too risky near the top.”

She nodded and pulled out her cell.  “Damnit.  No coverage here and the map is back at the car.”

We'd have to backtrack and lose even more time.  “I wish I could fly like Perchta could.”  I caught a faint glow from my lips as I said her name.  I was caught up in ecstasy as my shoulder flared.  Layers of nature magic blanketed me.  I 'was' that nature.  I marveled at my naivety just a moment before, it was all so simple.  A cloak of white feathers settled around me as my beautiful antlers grew out, I had missed them so.

I looked over to the little wolfling, she was so beautiful.  I felt the glow of love, belonging, and rightness when I looked at her.  I realized she was mine, of course I had already said that.  I knew this feeling, it was love.  I had felt it before, when I was not me when I was Perchta.  She had loved me, I had loved Gretta.  The weird duality was confusing me, but my Rachel was a bright light that focused me.

She was staring at me slack jawed.  I smiled warmly at her and stepped up to her and cupped her cheek in a hand.  I could see myself through her eyes and said, “Hello beautiful. It is an amazing feeling knowing we are part of all that is around us.  I love that smile of yours, it makes the world sing around us. Let me see what I can see.”

I kissed her gently on the lips, sharing a part of me with her, sharing with my love, my mate.  I saw her lips glow then return to normal.  Then with no effort, though a tiny part of me was panicked, confused, and afraid, I simply spread my wings and fluttered up to land on Rachel's shoulder in my white crow form.  A tiny voice inside me was asking myself, “I have a white crow form?”  I chuckled at that small piece of me and consoled my Gretta self.

Rachel had wonder in her eyes as she reached carefully to me and then caressed my wings.  I shuddered.  Good lord that felt arousing.  I cawed at her then leaped from her shoulder and spread my wings to catch the wind.  I flapped powerfully and gained altitude quickly.

My keen avian eyes took in the terrain.  But the rest of me reached out, I was aware of everything.  I was every living thing as far as I could see, it was a surreal feeling to the Gretta me. I wish I could feel like this always.  I knew where the crones were, even where the Red Hood and Daria were, I could not feel them, but the eyes of the forest saw them.  The birds and rabbits, the deer and bear, the insects and spiders, they were all my eyes.  I saw everything at once.

I spiraled down to my heart and landed on her outstretched arm.  She was smiling hugely, she looked excited and amazed.  She was almost giggling.  I smiled internally and my Gretta rubbed my head against Rachel's jaw so that she scent marked me.  I cawed at her then hopped off her arm and... I was Gretta.

I swayed at the disorientation of the feeling of the world, of nature, shrinking around me.  I immediately missed it.  It was like I was deaf and blind suddenly with almost mortal senses.  Though my magic reservoir was so much larger and I could peripherally sense nature, it wasn't the same as my Perchta self.  No, my Queen of Nature aspect.  Though I felt like Perchta, I knew I was Gretta in that form, just infused with her life force.  I know it all sounds confusing, just imagine living through it.

Rachel said breathlessly, “That was amazing Gretta, I didn't know you could do that.  Good god you were sexy in that forest maiden form.”

Part of my soul thrummed when she said 'Gretta' and I wanted nothing more than to merge with her.  I noticed her lips glowed softly when she said my name.  Oh, good lord, I had bound myself to her in yet another way.  It was the spell Perchta had used that would call her to me if I uttered her name.  The kiss I shared with her while I was in my other aspect had done it.  I thought about it, I remember wanting to do it, and that made it so.

“Gretta, are you ok?  ...Gretta?”  She prompted and knocked me out of my thoughts.  I swallowed as my need to be with her peaked and I had to kiss her... desperately, wanting to be one with her.

In between kisses, I gasped out,  “I think I infused... part of my life force... into you when... I kissed you.”  I pulled away as the need reduced to my normal lust levels for the woman.  “It was the spell Perchta used that allowed me to call her to me.”  Then I fought back a tear realizing that I knew how she felt about me back then and I was too stupid to know.  It is how I feel about Rachel now.  It was a spell binding my heart to her.  “You have to stop using my name.  You don't know what it is doing to me.”

She said, “Then what do you want me to call you... Gretta?”  She smirked as my body thrummed and I pressed against her in want.

I kissed her then flicked her nose. “Bad doggie!”  Then I cringed.  “Call me... Snow.  Until I can figure out what I did.”  I winced at her smile.  She only used the name it to tease me now, and I was used to people calling me Snow, so better that than me wanting to become one with her all the time.

She reached up and I was in nirvana as she stroked my antlers.  I froze, they were almost six inches long now.  I reached up to touch one.  “Oh good lord!  I'll need to grind these down just to pass for human now.”

She tilted her head. “Why?  They are beautiful.  And face it love, neither of us is strictly human.”

I pondered that and what caused them to grow.  Then it hit me, the warning about the brand.  It wasn't saying I'd take on the Queen of Nature aspect when I expended too much magic.  It was that I'd lose myself in that form more and more, each time I changed.  Eventually, I would be stuck in that aspect forever.  I remembered the amazing feeling.  Was that such a bad thing?  As long as I had Rachel by my side.

I smiled at her then said, “They are heading toward an abandoned mine, not more than three miles ahead in rough terrain.  We have to hurry.  Maireni and Daria finally caught the real scent and are heading there almost faster than my animals can track them.  They are ten miles out but will get there before us since I have to slow down for you.”

She looked at me. “Hey!”

I bumped her hip as I walked past toward the ravine.  “Come on slowpoke.”

She grabbed my hand as I passed and pulled me to a halt.  “The trap Snow.”

I shook my head.  “I thought it was so sophisticated and complex and would take an hour to dispel.   But my other aspect showed me how simple it was.  I know what string to tug on now to unravel it, it is so fragile.”

I allowed myself to expand into the forest around me and I could see the black threads of the weaving and reached out my hand as a symbolic gesture and tugged at the air.  The frayed thread hidden beneath the rest came free and the whole structure started falling apart around it.  The dead space came back to life and the insects, frogs, birds, and snakes in the ravine woke up again and fled in fear, not understanding what had happened to them.

I smiled at Rachel and just stepped into the ravine.  She hesitated, and when I didn't collapse she followed.  I teased, “Oooo, a chicken wolf.”  As we started running.

She tried to outpace me as she grinned. “Those of us not magically inclined are a little more cautious and prudent.”

The terrain was daunting, there was an overgrown access road to the north, that Mari and Daria were following straight to the mine.  We were not even half way there when we heard a great crashing sound followed by a “whump”.  We could see a plume of smoke and debris over the trees.

I stated the obvious.  “The fight has begun.”  I looked at the cloud then at Rachel.

She growled in anticipation of a fight then snarled, understanding my frustration.  “Go.  I'll catch up.”  I nodded once then leaped and a branch caught me and thrust me forward.  I sped toward the sounds of the fight with my forest propelling me forward, doubling my speed.

I crested a hill to see Red and her hellhound mate in the middle of some devastation staggering to their feet.  This wasn't as bad at the one from the previous day.  Only an acre was flattened.  I noted the crone with a talisman at the edge of the blast zone surrounded by the compelled infected.  How many objects of power did she possess?  I didn't see the leader.  She must have gone on while the lesser lamia fought.

Daria howled.  It was full of anger and power, for a moment I had an urge to run away.  I realized it wasn't my thought but in the power that rippled out in Daria's howl.  I grinned as most of the people surrounding the witch turned and started to run until the crone raised a hand and said something.  They stopped then surrounded her again.  She was using them as a shield.  She knew that Mari and Daria would be reticent to attack them in human form.

I came to rest high in a tree, the branches making a platform two hundred yards from the new unnatural clearing.  I unslung my M4 and popped the covers on the scope and chambered a round as I settled in.  I murmured, “Let's see how you'd look with a third eye,” as I took aim.  I took note of the wind and adjusted the scope then settled the cross hairs between the lamia's eyes.  I exhaled and gently squeezed the trigger.

One instant the witch was standing there, the next instant she was three feet over and the round buried itself into the ground beside her.  She looked away from Red for a moment and looked in my direction with a snarl on her face.

I whispered in bemusement at my miss, “What the hell?”  I chambered another round then took aim and gently squeezed.  Keeping the scope on her the whole time.  She was in my sights then she wasn't as another round hit the ground to her left.

I hissed in frustration.  Something was going on here.  I reached out, connecting with the forest, I could feel the heat from my brand.  I used to be able to do so much before the brand heated up, but I think it wanted the change.  No... 'I' wanted the change.  I willed it to stop and it did, only I knew I had started the change because I saw so clearly, and felt like I was part of everything.

In this hybrid form, I looked through my scope and I could see it.  The other witch had spelled her.  It was some sort of prism weaving, that was protecting her from mortal weapons.  She was there but not there when it came to them.  A blurring if you will.

That limited me to two choices, the same choices I knew Red had since she didn't have any weapons drawn as she charged at the woman.  Physical attack or magic attacks.  I leaped out of my perch and realized I had my cloak of feathers but was still mostly in my Gretta aspect.  I didn't use the trees to help my descend as the wind fluttered through my cloak and I landed on the forest floor softly.

I ran out into the devastation and tried to catch up with my two allies who had already closed the gap by half in the moments it took me to reach the ground.

The crone pulled out another talisman and invoked a harmonic trigger and dark energies rippled out in front of her.  The three of us hit a barrier and Daria yelped and I barely caught myself from falling back after impacting the almost invisible surface.  Red stopped millimeters from impacting as she saw Daria rebound, her reflexes were superhuman.

I looked at the barrier and could see the weaving clearly now, it was fairly simple.  I was tempted to let my Queen of Nature aspect take over since I knew I'd be able to dispel it in seconds.  The lure of the power was so seductive.  Instead, I started concentrating and went about probing the tendrils of dark energy to start disassembling it as Red put a hand out and started walking around the barrier's perimeter to see if she could feel any weaknesses.

I said in a voice that was only half human, sounding of nature and the rustling of leaves, the babbling of brooks, “It is a sphere Maireni, I'm unweaving it.  Give me a few seconds.”

Daria stepped beside me, interposing herself slightly between the crone, her protectors, and me.  I smiled at her, she was protecting me.  I let one hand drop to the huge female werewolf and scratched her neck under her downy ruff as my other hand went about pulling at the loose threads in the shield.

The lamia snapped her eyes to me and hissed in anger and hate.  This would be her end.  The poor cursed couldn't stop us from ending her.  They were weak in human form.

Almost as if she read that thought in me she smirked and reached into a pouch and pulled out another talisman.  It stank of rot and darkness.  She intoned a release spell and a bolt of that blackness shot into the sky toward the late afternoon sun.  A black cloudy web expanded in the air, swallowing up all of the sunlight, blotting out the sun completely.  The pale full moon on the horizon now shone brightly.

I furrowed my brow starting to wonder what that accomplished when a yelp of agony came from Daria as she fell to the ground writhing in pain as her body began reforming.  The wolves protecting the witch were wincing in discomfort as the change overtook them.  It struck me how much more painful it seemed to be for Daria as her whimpers and yelps turned into human screams of agony.

Moments later there were eight snarling werewolves standing around the witch and Daria standing and pulling clothes out of the pack.  I looked at the women as Daria zipped up some thin coveralls.  They nodded as I pulled down the last layer of the shield.

All at once, everyone was in motion.  Seven of the eight wolves dove at the three of us.  Red flung a silver blade that missed one wolf who seemed to blur.  They were protected by the same spell against mortal weapons.

Daria was weaving and dodging, and striking as two wolves flew past her.  She flicked fur, skin, and blood from under her nails as the wolves yelped.  I could smell the silver burns.  A wolf that had targeted me bounced off the wall of saplings that intercepted it in mid-leap.  I blinked.  I had meant to do it, but I hadn't willed it yet.  My half Perchta form was part of nature, not just in tune with it, so my slightest though has made it so since it was just like another arm to me.

Red called out as she pulled a silver hunting knife from her boot,  “Daria!  Something is off, they are healing too fast!”  I was wondering what Mari thought she was doing with that knife, it would be useless. But then it cut deep in a slashing motion into the nearest wolf who yelped and stumbled back to stalk her.  I looked at the knife and could see the same energies that made up her cloak woven all throughout it.  Alrighty then, not a mortal weapon.

I watched Daria as she growled just like a wolf but in human form, it was kind of scary, the wild look in her eyes.  The two wolves she had just silver burned were fully healed.  I could see something black and tainted in the areas the wounds had been.  It was unnatural, sick and wrong.  They weren't really healing, rather being patched by death magics.  Too much damage and they'd be nothing but zombie werewolves.

I looked at the crone and her eyes were wide as I started creating a path between her and myself, using saplings to clear the path.  She chanted a couple Romanian words then said, “Reajya, I need you.”  A black tear in nature, in the fabric of space appeared next to her and the other Crone stepped out, wrapped her arms around the other, and fell back through the tear with her before I could reach them.  Then they were gone.

I blinked at the werewolf that had stayed back to protect her which was in mid-leap at me with its fangs bared.  I had let my distraction be my end.  A red blur shot past my head, fur brushing my cheek as my snarling mate impacted the other wolf.  Fangs burying deep into its throat.  Her momentum snapping the smaller wolf back just short of me.  With a violent twist, she tore its throat out.

She spun on me and snarled, blood dripping from her fangs, her lips curled back.  I said, “What?  I didn't plan on being attacked.”  She snarled and leaped at me.  My eyes went wide.  I suddenly saw myself through rage filled eyes.  I could feel the need to hunt, to kill, to protect my mate, it was all I knew.  The rage felt good.  I saw the other wolf that was leaping at my mate from behind grow in my vision as I latched onto the back of its neck as we collided.  With a twist to the side, I snapped its neck in my jaws as we landed.  The kill felt so right.  My mate!  Mine!  Not yours!

I blinked and staggered as my sight came back to my own.  The residual rage and elation from the kill fading.  I swallowed then put a hand out.  Rachel was instantly in front of me as I buried my hand in the fur and she snarled at the other wolves in challenge.

I glanced at her first kill. That sickening black magic was already patching up the damage, rebuilding the wolf's throat.  It stirred then staggered to its feet and started diving at Daria who was fending off three.  Two of which she had already killed.

Someone was at my back suddenly she tilted her head back and spoke from the depths of her heavy red cloak.  “I hate magic.  Can you do something about this or do I need to start taking their heads?”

Rachel moved so fast she was nothing but a red-furred blur as she twisted and dove on Red.  I blinked.  Mari's reaction speed was faster than wolf as she caught Rach by the throat and held her jaws away from her.  Rach was thrashing and striking  Maireni repeatedly with her razor sharp claws.  I blinked, the cloak was undamaged and Mari didn't seem to notice.  She gave me an almost silly look. “Well?”

I placed my hand back on Rachel and said, “She's with us love.”  That didn't help so I dug deeper into myself to touch our mating bond.  That unlocked my Nature Queen aspect and I felt my antlers grow.  Rachel was so beautiful, a blinding light of the rage of nature.  I smiled at her and said again, “She is our friend my love, just like Daria there.  They are our pack.”

The word 'pack' echoed through the clearing, I could feel it connect with my red wolf.  She relaxed and glared at Mari, who released her slowly.  I chuckled when she sheathed her retractable claws and swatted at Red to knock her back a step from me.  I got the impression she was telling her “Mine.” as she moved between us.

I stroked the fur of my beloved and looked around.  That unnatural death magic stitching the poor wolves together and using them as puppets was appalling.  I looked from wolf to wolf.  Only one had not suffered enough damage to be true dead.  I could see their souls suffering and it brought tears to my eyes.

I whispered, “Be at peace.” The casting dissolved and seven wolves collapsed and returned to human.  Their souls at peace and allowed to go free.  Daria was holding the last female wolf at arm's length.  And she growled menacingly and I could see a golden wave travel through the wolf at that, causing it to calm though it still wanted nothing but to kill the woman holding her.

I stepped over and laid a hand on the wolf.  “She is pack.”  I could feel my words resonate in her battling against the unnatural compulsion.  It was too much for her and she started whining in pain and confusion.  The demon magics of the compulsion were too strong.  I felt for the beast, though it was out of my domain, standing apart from nature, it was not its fault.

I was going to encase it in a cage of wood to hold it until we could determine the best way to help it when Daria just head butted it, rendering it unconscious.  My Gretta aspect snorted in my head.  Even I, a construct of nature, blinked at the fact that the woman had just head butted a werewolf.

I smiled at her and she turned wild eyes on me.  Yes, Daria was more mine than the demon's, that was the thrill of the hunt in her eyes, the wild nature of the wolf.  I saw her humanity holding on by the barest thread, it had tempered her primal urges and allowed her to knock out the wolf instead of killing her.

I looked up to the sky at the rancid spell blotting out the sun.  I whispered to Daria, “Prepare yourself.”  She nodded once in understanding and started unzipping her overalls.  I waved an arm and the casting dissolved and the late afternoon sun again ruled the sky... and the screaming began.

Red closed her eyes against the screams and stepped to the now unconscious woman with the military tattoo and started tying her arms and legs.  The woman, my Gretta half supplied, was Amanda...  Amanda Danes. She started to stir.

She immediately began struggling against her bonds.  She was saying, “Please, I don't know who you are, but you have to get away from me.  I can't stop myself.  They told me to kill you, to protect them, I can't resist.”

I stepped to her as my confused looking mate stood between us.  I'd have to tell her what happened later.  I smiled at my delightfully naked Rachel. “It is alright love.”

She actually growled at me and I tilted my head back, exposing my neck to her.  She chuckled then just looked at me with eyes full of love and stepped aside.  I reached down to place a hand on the restrained woman's forehead.  She snapped at me with her human teeth.  I whispered to her, “Sleep little wolf.”

I let power flow from me to her and pulled nature around her like a blanket.  I saw the strain leave her eyes as they closed and she slipped into a peaceful slumber.

I squatted with my face inches from Daria's muzzle, she was outside of nature but such a beautiful beast.  “Hello.”  She let me cup her furry cheeks.  I smiled then stood and held my arm out and wrapped my feathered cloak around my mate as she stepped to me.

Mari was staring at me.  She smirked. “You clean up nice Snow.”  My human half caught the humor and I beamed a smile at her.  But then my eyes snapped east something was wrong.

I said absently, “I'll be right back,” as I leaped into the air and started flapping the wings of my crow form.  I crested the treetops, reveling in flight and circled high.  I could feel chunks being torn from nature, like daggers slashing at my sides.  It was being twisted, poisoned.  “There!” Gretta said – I said.  I looked toward the mine.  That was where the wrongness was.

I reached out and watched through he eyes of the forest.  I saw the crones through hundreds of eyes.  They were casting their dark spells.  Corrupting the earth, bringing death.  Sacrificing it to the demons to pull forth evil.  Dark orcs!  They were creating dark orcs from the sacrifice.  At least twenty of them.  I thought those magics to be long dead.  Lost to the ravages of time.  That Reajya was indeed powerful and dangerous if she knew the old forbidden magics.  How had she fallen sway to an Alpha wolf if she had such power?

I sneered, but she would fail in this spell as it would require self-sacrifice like most dark magics.  I could see she was drained and at her own limit now.  What could she possibly... the other crone held out an obsidian knife to Reajya and bowed her head and said, “Mother.”  I snapped back to my own vision as the crone took the life of her daughter to seal the spell with the blood of self-sacrifice.

I cawed and swooped back under the forest canopy, my mate was waiting, her arm held out and I landed on it.  She rubbed my cap feathers.  I closed my eyes and pressed against her fingers and she asked, “Well Snow?”  I cawed at her and hopped playfully on her arm then leaped and landed on my feet.  I was mostly Gretta.  I had to will away the cloak of feathers.  I was still mostly connected to nature.  My antlers were small but splayed now.  I absently wondered where my clothing and weapons went whenever I changed.

I spoke in my human voice tinged with undertones of nature.  “She had dark orcs.  She is no longer interested in containing and controlling the Red Hood, Reajya means to end us all here.  I felt a darkness in the mine.  I believe the object she seeks is there.”  I paused, distracted by the attraction and arousal I could feel radiating from Rachel.  I looked into her eyes. “You are so beautiful.”  We shared a smile.

Daria cleared her throat in a chuffing sound.  And we looked over.  Red nodded and prompted. “Dark orcs?”

I grinned at Daria as I spoke to Mari. “My Gretta says.” I paused and started over, “I say, Daria can wait, she peed on my shoes.”

This got a startled explosion of laughter from Maireni.  “Yes, yes she did.  But she warned you.”  Daria was grinning a doggy grin beside her. Looking far too pleased with herself.

I was grinning at the humor then straightened up and explained, “Dark orcs are a pseudo demon.  They have no soul and are constructs of the rape of nature.  Reajya has exhausted herself to accomplish it and had to sacrifice the other witch to bind them to this earth.”

Mari asked, “But they can be killed?”

I nodded. “With enough damage, or of course decapitation, their demonic energies would be destabilized and wouldn't be able to exist in this realm anymore.”  I silently wondered how I knew all of this.  That thought made me realize that my human aspect was starting to come back to the forefront.  That was actually a relief knowing I wouldn't lose myself completely in this intoxicating form, feeling and being nature.

She prompted, “And the witch can't cast any more for a while?  She can't put that ward on them that avoids weapon strikes?”

I nodded.  “Unless she has talismans like the other had.  She is over confident to use her ace in the hole like this.  If I pull on my nature aspect more, I can probably find a way to undo the bindings and send them all back to hell where they belong.”

Rachel asked, “How much time?”

I responded with, “A few minutes, this is a strong casting, and unnatural, so it will take me time to understand the weaving.”

Rachel nodded as she picked up Daria's coveralls and put them on while Red clipped the travel pack on the great wolf's back.  “Weapons?  My guns are back in the forest where I fell when I changed.”

I shook my head.  “No love, you are too fragile in this form.  Dark orcs are powerful.”

She growled. “Give me your goddamn Sig Gretta.”

I inhaled deeply at the pull as I stepped to her.  She smiled and kissed me as she took my Sig from its holster.  She said, “I'll have your back while you work it out.”

I whispered in arousal, “You fight dirty my mate.”  She winked and her hand shot out to the side while she still had her eyes on me and caught the other nine mil that Red had thrown her from Daria's pack.  That was hot, oh yeah baby, Gretta is back.  I kissed her and said, “If you die, I'll kill you.”

She flippin' winked at me then reached up and rubbed an antler.  Oh good lord that felt good.  Red droned, “Get a room you two, we have Orcs to de-orc.”

Rach asked with a voice tinged with humor, “De-Orc?  That doesn't even make sense.  You do hear yourself don't you?”  Daria chuffed in laughter and agreement.

Red was on the verge of laughter as she said to the wolf, “Oh shut up Daria, or you won't get any tonight.”  I did laugh when the wolf put a paw over her own mouth at the threat.  We were all joking around when we were most likely facing our own deaths.

The beast inside me felt the thrill of the hunt, part of me craved it.  It growled inside wanting to be set free.  I said, “Okay, let me get in the proper mode here and let's do this.  Just hold the orcs off of me as I work on the spell.  If anyone gets close enough to take out the crone, her death will release the spell too.”  Then I paused and looked at Rachel. “ I don't know how long my nature spirit will hold me this time.  I... want you to know, I love you.”

She cupped my cheek and pulled my M4 off my back with her other hand, throwing it over her shoulder as she threw my own words back at me.  “Your nature aspect is your nature aspect.  She... you are my mate.  That's why it is called love and not a platypus.”

I rolled my eyes. “You're such a weirdo and it doesn't even make sense when you say it that way.”

She gave me a peck on the lips and I forgot what I was saying and just grinned. “Good wolfie.”

She looked at me expectantly. “Well get with it bird girl.”  I smiled with melancholy in my heart and twapped her nose and kissed it then exploded into my nature aspect.

We all turned and they started running as I took to the sky, transforming into my white crow on the fly.  Pack I had told my wolfling.  Yes, this was my pack below me we were on the hunt.  The hunt? The Hunt!  I could feel the thrill of the hunt inside me and I called out, drawing it to me as my pack mates burst into the clearing by the mine.

Gunshots rang out over the bellowing of the huge, attacking orcs, as Rachel fearlessly strode forward, double tapping the beasts with head shots as she progressed.  Daria was a grey furred blur as she leaped over an orc, grabbing the back of its neck and smashing it backwards to the ground.  It got a hold of her hind leg and I could hear it snap from where I was, followed by her yelp of pain as I came in to land behind the women.

The orc bellowed in pain and released Daria as an arrow shot through its wrist.  The Red Hood was pirouetting in the air, and her heel caught the orc on the chin.  I could smell the sulfur, brimstone, and rot of the magics it was constructed of.  As she landed, she continued her spin and the orc's head was flopping to the side as black blood went flying through the air trailing the long blade of that hunting knife.  She had almost decapitated it.  It staggered and fell.

That one was down, but I saw the ones Rachel put down starting to get back up as they healed as fast as I saw Daria's leg healing.  I let part of my life force flow out to my pack mates to bolster their strength.  And I concentrated on the crone who was holding the focus for her orc spell.  A piece of rotting flesh on a stick tied with her dead daughter's hair.

I saw the black chains going through it to each Orc and into the woman's black heart, a larger chain from there down into the earth, tethering her to the realm of the demons, tethering her own soul to hell.  Who would willingly do that just for power that is so fleeting to a mortal life?

She saw my intent as I worked down through the layers.  It was not like any nature or natural magics, not even black magics.  Demon magic was so complex.  So I reached my hands out to the chain that bound her and started pulling symbolically at the air.  She winced in pain as I started pulling at the weakest link in the chain as it bent in my mind.

She screamed. “Her!  Get the feathered abomination!”  And all of the Orcs turned from the battle toward me.  My pack moved between them and me.  I smiled as I felt something huge coming.  Rachel was out of bullets and now had Mari's hunting knife in one hand and a silver blade from her in the other, the stench of silver burn in the air.  My wolfling said to me,  “We're not doing enough damage Snow!  Make it fast.  Only two have gone down and dissolved.”

I raised my arms and trees exploded from the ground caging us all in except at our backs.  The witch laughed. “What is that supposed to do?  You nature spirits are so contrary.  You should embrace your power and join us.  The masters will reward you.”

I smiled as I could feel my forest shaking behind me.  “What am I doing?  Simply assuring that none of you escape.  Do you know who I am child?”

The witch looked nervous and I could feel the predatory aspect of nature welling up in me driving my wild side.  My voice boomed out as the ground around us shook. “I am Gretta Snow, one with and of Perchta, the Shining One. Goddess of the Perchten.  I LEAD THE WILD HUNT!”

Hundreds of roaring bear, wolves, cougars, and other predators barreled through the opening at our backs and flooded past us and over the Orcs, shredding flesh, rending limbs from bodies.  I reveled in the thrill of the kill emanating from the members of the Wild Hunt, I could see through all of their eyes feel the bloodlust, bask in the primal pull of it.

The witch started to chant as a black tear in natures begun to form beside her.  Before I could raise a hand to close the simple construct, I hear the thwip of a silenced rifle beside me and the witch staggered back, grasping her chest, blood pulsating between her fingers.  I looked at Rachel holding Gretta's... my, rifle.

I took a step then was airborne, flying high over the carnage below.  I folded my wings in as I spiraled out of the sky while I changed back into my Goddess aspect in a hurricane of feathers. I slammed into the witch from above, driving my antlers through her shoulders, and pinning her to the ground.  She blinked at me and coughed up blood.

I reached out and grasped the binding, it was like a physical chain in my hands and I pulled gently and it dissolve.  The few Orcs that were left bellowed and dissolved into dust.  I looked at the witch who was gasping her last breath and said to her, “Be at peace.”  Then thrust my hand into her chest and yanked out her damaged heart.  Then ripped my antlers from her as I stood.

I held the black organ high and roared with all of the predatory violence that nature was capable of.  The Wild Hunt all raised their muzzles and roared with me.  Then there was silence.  I dropped the tree barriers and the animals relaxed as I did then wandered back off into the mountains.

I threw the heart to the ground then turned to an empty clearing where only my pack stood.  I panted, calming myself, letting the beauty of nature soak into me, to calm my other side.  Rachel stepped up to me  I was panting and she laid a hand on my cheek, she wasn't afraid.  She said, “Hello.”

I blinked then smiled. “Hello my sweet wolfling.”  Then I added, “It may be some time before I have a semblance of my Gretta self.”  I marveled at the light of my life, we, I chose well.

She kissed my cheek. “Worth the wait.  You're pretty hot in this form too.”

Daria made a groaning sound and Red said again, “Oh get a room you two.  We still have the Black Crown to find.”

Chapter 13 – The Black Crown

My pack went to the entrance to the old mine, I couldn't feel past the entrance, there were powerful magics cloaking it, I could see the layers upon layers.  Like someone had been adding new layers for decades, maybe even a century.  It was wolf curse and demon magic.  They wanted this artifact hidden, I was aware of most powerful artifacts, but this Black Crown was unknown to me.  Either it was something new or it was older than the life force of Perchta in my soul.

I paused as I looked at the boards.  The Red Hood, who wore the Light of Life in the mantle of her cloak was seeing what I was and smelling what the rest of us were.  “The boards were blown out from the inside.  There's fresh Alpha blood.  Maybe two days old.  He beat us and the gypsies to the Black Crown.  But that would mean he was inside with it.  Unless there is another entrance.”

I stopped my Rachel as she started toward the entrance.  I said, “It is spelled.  Death magics.”  I looked to the side as a smooth spot on a stone by the entrance.  “Here.”  I quested and tried to understand the spell.  The triggers, the key.  “It takes the blood of an Alpha to deactivate it.  I can dispel it, give me a minute to understand it.”

Maireni, who was bound to the beautiful werewolf who was not, chuckled and stepped up to the rock saying, “Or we can just use Alpha blood, we have two right here.”  She pulled her blade across her hand and let her blood drip onto the stone as her hand healed up.

I could feel the dark cascade of energy as the death spell collapsed.  I tilted my head at her.  Indeed?  An Alpha?  Then I understood the balance.  The curse was a double-edged sword, she was what the Alphas had attempted to become in order to combat what they actually were.  I understood balance.  I smiled at her.

We strode in, they instinctively fell in behind me, trusting me to detect any further traps.  Daria's nostrils were flaring and she whined.  Mari answered as if the wolf had spoken out loud.  “Yes, I smell it too Dar.  The stench of a Marcus brother.  It is so intense.  Like he lived here.”

We all paused at the back of a chamber, at a great wall of silver that had a vault like door.  The door had to be a foot thick of solid silver and it was buckled outward.  Something had forced its way out.

I quested but felt no magics beyond and stepped through. Rachel stepped over the silver threshold, avoiding touching anything, her bare feet started to sizzle.  She covered her nose and mouth as the Red Hood did the same, and I and Daria cringed back from the stench.  Silver burn, rot, feces, blood, wolf, and lupine curse.

The walls were all silver in the vault as was the floor and ceiling.  There was a thick silver chain hanging down from the ceiling with bolts as thick as my forearm.  It ended just above the floor, over a wood platform, with a three-inch thick silver collar that was torn in half.

Mari examined it.  And the small wood platform below it that had wolf claw marks in it.  Her nostrils flared and she took in the scents and cringed, but repeated it over and over.  “They kept someone in here for decades chained to the ceiling.”

She pointed. “That collar was one piece, meaning they forged it around his neck or did it with magic.  He would have broken his neck every full moon when he changed and his larger wolf neck snapped.  Then he healed back up until the next full moon.  The rot I smell is so repetitive.  He died of starvation over and over and the curse kept bringing him back.  I think they chained him and just left him and never returned.”

Then she took a deep breath.  Brave in the stench of the vault.  “I think I know what... who, the Black Crown is, and why the other Alphas are afraid he'll undo their compulsion on the packs.”

We looked on as she explained, “The five brothers Marcus were kings in old Romania that were seeking power and dominion over man.  With the help of gypsies and a trickster demon, they originated the lupine curse that plagues the world today in their quest for that power.  When one brother, Cristian, found that to gain the power, they needed to sacrifice an innocent girl, he pulled out.  But they needed all five for the binding and spells to work.”

She looked at the collar swinging on the chain.  “From what we learned after Alistair Slater told us this much, Cristian fought but they forced him to participate, chained to a tree at the sacrifice.”  She looked up.  “After the demon tricked them with the curse, Cristian refused to turn anyone, to control anyone.  But they tried to make him come around to their side.  They had captured him and starved him to death over and over.  Offering him humans on the full moon to eat.  He refused time and again.”

Then she looked angry.  “Then one full moon they brought his wife, Adela, in chains.  After he changed, they had a dozen humans that were loyal to them hold him down as they cut her hand on his teeth.  Minutes later she became wolf and shredded all of those humans.  All the infected from Cristian's bloodline were sired by his Adela.  The brothers Marcus would release her into villages every full moon to try to force their brother to join them.”

She chuckled to herself.  “Cristian refused and swore his vengeance on his brothers, and for centuries he did all he could to sabotage any of their plans and break any compulsions on the human cursed.  But he disappeared a century ago.  Now we know where he was.”

She motioned to the chain.  “It seems his brothers even dehumanized him by calling him the Black Crown and locked him away in this cell and forgot about him until Daria and I started killing the Alphas and they declared war on Clean Bloods.  I'm pretty sure they sent the Gypsy witches to kill him and try to turn me.”

Rachel asked, “But if that was true, why didn't they just come straight here to kill him instead of searching the mountains?”

She shrugged.  “My guess is that Alistair had him the whole time as leverage against his brothers.  They never agreed to his plan to control all the silver production in the world, they thought it was too risky.  He almost made it work.  I'm betting that they didn't know where he was holding Cristian.  But they couldn't have the threat of his release hanging over them now that they are in an all out war overseas.”

We all looked at the collar then the door.  I voiced it, “But he is out now.”  I looked around at the evidence of a century of suffering and death.  “The question is, did any part of his mind survive this, or have the remaining brothers finally got their wish, and another killer has been released into the world?”

Daria was growling low and Mari nodded at her then looked at us. “I guess that's our cue to go on the hunt.”  She smiled at us.  “Ladies, it has been an honor.  We need to find a time to get together with the others and talk.  It's nice to not be alone.”

I grasped her arm. “We are pack.”  She nodded with a wistful smile.  I ruffled the wolf's ears and she complained with a snuffing chuff.  Then she offered a paw, I smiled and shook.

Rachel gave them each a hug and said, “We'll see you soon then Red?  Fluffy?”  Then she comically hopped back from Daria, who was eyeballing her shoes.

We all walked down the tunnel and emerged outside in the setting sun.  With one more shared smile, they were off, grey and red blurs weaving through the trees on the scent trail of Cristian Marcus.  Daria's howl exciting my hunting instinct.

We made our way back to where we had left a tied up, Amanda Danes.  She looked at us calmly as we approached.  She had a tear in her eye and she looked at the sun.  She whispered as she shook her head, “I don't want to be a wolf.”

Rachel knelt in front of her and placed her forehead on hers and smiled sadly.  “None of us do.  But it isn't so bad.  Just keep locked up under the full moon and it is pretty much what you are used to.”

I placed a hand on her head and asked,  “Do you feel the need to attack us anymore?  The compulsion should be dead with the witch.”  She shook her head and I smiled and said, “Good.”  I started untying her.

She struggled.  “No!  The sun is setting!  I don't want to hurt you.”

I smiled as I finished untying her.  I placed a hand on her cheek as Rachel sat beside her.  I assured her, “You won't hurt me, I think I accidentally made you pack when I tried to break the compulsion.  And my mate won't let you hurt me if you aren't.  We need to get you back to Issaquah, everyone is looking for you.”

She looked nervously at the sun and Rachel asked, “The rest of your squad?”

She shook her head. “Half were killed in the ambush, thy just took control of the cursed of our team with that talisman and the witches made me watch while the other clean blood was eaten in front of me before they had a wolf bite me.  They were sadistic bitches.”

I nodded as I felt the last rays of sun pass over the horizon.  I watched in fascination as the women changed.  Then I was faced with a small black wolf snarling and snapping at me as my beautiful red wolfling disciplined her. She snapped at her and pinned her to the ground with her fangs at her throat until Amanda whined in submission.  After that was all sorted out, I offered my throat to my Rachel to show Amanda my mate was the boss of us all while she was a wolf.

I held both my hands out and Rachel settled under one hand and the smaller Amanda under my other.  I scratched under their fur then we all started running through the woods, the moonlight reflecting off of my feather cloak, lighting our way back toward Slater Mining and the car.  I reveled in the feeling, it was as seductive as my forest was, a part of me.  Pack!  My Pack!

Books in the Urban Fairytales series...

Red Hood: The Hunt

Snow: The White Crow

Ella: Cinders and Ash (Coming summer of 2015)

Books in the Drakon series...

Awakening

Dragonfall

Books in the Bridge series...

Trolls

Traitor

Books I collaborated with in the Bridge ~ Inner City series...

Gargoyles

Books in the Valkyrie Chronicles series...

Return of the Asgard

Bloodlines

Folkvangr

Seventy Two Hours

Titans

Books in the Fracture series...

Divergence

Books in the London Harmony series...

Water Gypsy

Feel the Beat

Books in the Music of the Soul universe...

(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

Music of the Soul

A Deafening Whisper

Dating Game

Karaoke Queen

Silent Bob

Five Feet or Less

Broken Song

Syncopated Rhythm

Progeny

Girl Next Door

Lightning Strikes Twice

June

Dead Shot

Short Stories in the Music of the Soul universe...

Misadventures of Victoria Davenport: Operation Matchmaker

Sample Chapter from Ella: Cinders and Ash...

Chapter 1 – Breach

I shook my head in frustration.  Come on Parker, pull yourself together.  Just two more blocks until you are home and can get behind your Full Moon Bars.  I pulled my low heels off and ran barefoot. Freakin' stupid uniform.  But what do I expect working at a nineteen fifties theme diner?  Who the hell stands all day in heels?  They couldn't have possibly done that in the fifties, so why make us wear them now?

I heard all the howling and gunshots at the main gate of Seattle a few blocks away.  I was still in awe at the police that went on Howler Duty every full moon to protect the rest of us Clean Bloods from the feral packs of werewolves that attacked those three nights a month.

I looked back.  My car had got a flat on my way home from the diner about a mile back as the sun was setting.  I usually got inside with time to spare.  I saw my place at the end of the next block and I was feeling relieved.  The little third story walk up over the pawn shop next to the outer city wall.  Just needed to enter the override code then slip in and let the silver laced FMBs slide back into place and I'd be safe.

I paused a second when I felt something.  I had been feeling odd things around the city for a week or two.  The police have been doing double patrols and a bunch of government agencies have been searching the city for something.

I get this feeling when something magic is around.  I had the pleasure to serve a meal to that Red Hood and she put out a hell of a vibe to me.  It was like standing too close to the sun and it made me feel warm and safe.  But lately in the area I have had a similar feeling but instead it felt sick with decay and a wrongness to it that made the little hairs on my arm and the back of my neck stand on end.

My friend Mary says that I'm magic sensitive.  I guess it is rare, but we have no way to test it without going down to San Francisco and entering the study they are doing on the phenomena down there.

I was passing the alley by my place and felt nauseous, whatever was causing that feeling was close.  I heard a thump in the alley and saw some motion.  Oh my god, was someone else out like me?  I looked into the alley and called out, “Hello?  Is anyone there?  You best get inside, it's a full moon, it isn't safe out here.”

The shadows stopped moving and the only sounds were the battle at the gates.  I glanced to the top of the wall and saw one of the patrols stop and look down at me.  That made me feel safer.  One of the officers called down.  “Miss get inside.”

I nodded and called up, “Just got home.  But I think someone needs help here.”  I spoke into the alley again and took two steps in, trying to focus but my skin was buzzing.  “Hello?  If you're homeless, there is a shelter down the block with panic cages for the night.  They will keep you safe.”

The guard swung his high-intensity handheld spotlight down into the alley and I started walking in and froze halfway down when the light hit the base of the wall.  There were five men drawing something on the wall.  One made some quick hand motions over the odd markings in a panic as the others dove to the side, the marking glowed and something blew up.

The next thing I knew I was stumbling back to my feet from where I had lain on the ground for some reason.  I touched my face and then looked at my hand and it had blood on it.  My ears were ringing, I saw stars, and I was disoriented.

I heard something muffled as I tried to get my bearings.  Then everything snapped into clear focus.  A warbling breach siren was going off.  The second officer was yelling at me.  “Miss! Run!  Get to safety!”  I glanced down and the first officer was laying down in front of a gaping hole in the wall!

Breach!  Oh my god!  I went to run but looked at the poor man trying to get back to his feet after a thirty-foot fall.  I squeezed my eyes shut and fought off tears.  I was going to get myself killed, or worse.  I ran to the man and started dragging him toward the back door of the building.  Just thirty feet and I could enter my override and get us behind some FMBs.

The man was trying to push me away.  “Go,” he said though the pain.  I just dragged him along with me, his leg looked broken.  We hadn't got three steps when we heard the first growls and snarls as wolves charged the hole in the wall.  The wounded officer pushed me behind him and fell to the ground as he drew his sidearm.

He emptied the entire magazine and the two lead wolves went down.  The rest were just enraged and bounded toward us.  I heard automatic weapons fire from above as the man tried to save his partner and me.  I closed my eyes and grasped the police officer's hand.  This was it, we were dead.  But my eyes snapped open at the deep throaty roar of a motorcycle barreling down the alley toward us.

I opened my eyes and blinked as a short blonde woman in short sleeves and a leather vest hopped onto the seat of the motorcycle and dove off of the bike. Aching through the air over us as the motorcycle veered off and crashed into a dumpster.

I swear to all that is holy that she had a smile on her face as she tumbled across the ground and slammed into the group of wolves that were preparing to leap for the kill.  She was instantly on her feet and I heard sirens approaching fast.  I watched all of the abrasions from the tumble on her arms, bare legs and face heal almost before she could bleed.  She started doing something with magic as the wolves dove on her.  I could feel it. That feeling I got from the Red Hood, but with a more static vibe.

The ground seemed to swell up beneath her and fall with a whump as she landed blow after devastating blow.  Crushing skulls and breaking bones.  Sending wolf bodies flying back.  The whole time she was yelling in a thick English Cockney accent, “Come on you sodding wankers!  Is that the best you got?  We're stadin' right here!”  She backhanded a wolf so hard I heard the snapping of bones and she somehow released that whump into her strike.  Its lifeless body went spinning back almost faster than I could follow and took out the legs of the wolves behind it.

She charged forward and I could hear a grating clinking as she ran.  Like crystal being ground on stone.  She spun backward, slinging her hand and she let fly dozens of little darts or blades that sparkled in the light.  Two wolves yelped as they were taken out of mid-leap toward her.  The projectiles looked like... glass?

The police showed up, charging down the alley in full riot gear and engaged with weapons on full automatic.  It was almost deafening, but for every wolf they killed two replaced them.  The men with shields stepped forward to protect the group reloading.  It was well rehearsed.

I glanced over and the woman was holding a wolf in the air with one hand as she literally pounded its skull in with the other.  She looked at it and made an “Eww” face then comically said out loud,  “We seem to have broken this one.  We need another.”  As she tossed the body away like it was a food wrapper.  I heard the injured officer snort.  He could laugh?  I was terrified out of my gourd!

The woman looked at the hole and the flood of wolves then back at the men trying to hold against them.  Her bravado wavered for a moment and I could see her thinking.  The it looked like she was actually arguing with herself.  She finally spat out, “Fine.  I'll take care of this shite.  Just shut up and let me work.”

She called back to the officers as she waded into the mass of wolves.  “We'll seal the breach, you handle this group of tossers.”

She flung her arms wide and hundreds of those crystal blades mowed a path through the fangs and claws.  Where was she getting them, and how could she throw so many at a time?

She slammed her fist into the ground and that feeling she was drawing the ground up into her increased a hundred fold.  She grabbed the air in front of her with her free hand and screamed in pain as she lifted her fist like she was opening a window.

The ground itself rushed upward, crushing dozens of wolves as it slammed into the wall above sealing the breach.  There was sporadic gunfire as the last of the wolves inside the gate were dispatched.  I looked around and then vomited at the sight of all the now human bodies sprawled about and fell down next to the injured officer onto my butt.

The woman staggered but then pulled herself up, and pulled her shirt and vest straight then clomped over to me in her knee high leather shit kickers and a black leather mini skirt.  Her steps sounded like crystal on stone again.  She looked like a flippin' fashion model for Biker's Monthly.

She gave me a silly smile then flopped down beside me.  “What's a fit bird like you doin' wanderin' around outside on a full moon?”

The officer tried to say something.  She pointed at him and said sharply, “We'll get to you.  Can't you see we're talkin' to a lady here?  You lot have to worry about reinforcin' the wall.  That patch won't hold more than a night, terrible earth to work with here, no silver in it.”

I looked at her and she only had eyes for me as she ignored the commotion around us and all of the different officer's attempts to talk to her.  The way she talked, and acted... and argued with herself, made me think she may be mental.  Well of course she was.  What sane person barrels into an oncoming flood of werewolves on a motorcycle.

I looked at the woman, assessing her, my eyes stopped on her legs where the boots stopped.  I saw a gravelly shimmer, like crystal and earth.  She followed my gaze and put her hand over her legs, covering it up.  She just kept staring at me.  Oh, she had asked that question.  She really wanted an answer.

I couldn't get over her feminine face with nice full lips that women would die for.  I shrugged.  “I got a flat tire and was coming home when this happened.”  I noticed the containment engineers arriving and an ambulance.

She looked around.  “You live in an alley?  Nice choice.”

I grinned.  “No, I live just there.” I pointed up at the third floor.

She nodded. “So you just thought you'd save this bloke's life before you went in?”

She looked off into space like she was listening to someone.  Then she spoke to the ground, “Oh right, the druids.”  She looked around then scrunched up her nose cutely.  “I don't suppose you caught which way those men ran when this all started?”

She shook her head and I mimicked her without realizing.  This made her grin.  “We didn't think so.”

She sighed looked at the ground then said, “Alright, no need to get pushy.  Manners, whatever.”  Then she beamed a heart-stopping smile at me.  “Ella.  Ella, ummm... Smith.”  Good lord, she was sexy.

I took her hand and it was odd.  Part of it was warm and soft and part of it felt like; I looked at her legs-- glass?  You'd have to be dead not to smile back at her smile.  I blushed and said, “Parker Devareau.”  The pushed my brunette hair out of my eyes, sometime during the commotion it had come out of the silly ponytail that the diner made me wear.

The EMTs were getting insistent after they hauled off the injured officer.  They pricked my finger with a silver needle to make sure I wasn't infected.  I would have turned by now if I had the lycan contagion.  They checked my head injury, bandaged the scratch, then cleared me.

Ella was arguing with them as they tried to prick her finger.  They broke two needles.  “Give me that you wanker!  You can't get through our skin there yet.”  She stabbed her bicep and a small amount of blood welled up.  Obviously not fizzing or burning in reaction to the silver.  She wiped the drop of blood off to reveal pristine, undamaged skin below, then licked the blood off her thumb.

They cleared her then the police were saying they had questions and were asking her to come with them.  Another officer 'insisted ' I go with him to make a statement.  I looked at my bare feet, not knowing where I lost the stupid pink heels.  As they led her away, she stopped and looked at the motorcycle with a pained look, “Bloody hell!  My baby!”  Then she looked down and hissed to nobody, “Oh sod off, did I ask you?”

Is it weird that I noticed she didn't use the royal we that time?  She said 'my baby' instead of 'our baby.'

She grinned back at me as they put her in the back of a police cruiser.  “Bail a girl out?”

An officer put his hand on my head as he helped me into the back of another cruiser.  I smiled at her through the windows.  I found it odd they seemed to be arresting the woman who saved everyone's bacon.  And why did I need to go downtown?  I just wanted to go home and forget any of this ever happened.

I took one last look at the earth sealed wall as the officer started the car and shook my head in amazement.  Who... no... what was Ella?  Besides crazy and hot?