Chapter 17
Outside, the three walked down the sidewalk in silence toward an unknown destination. They followed the stranger and he checked over his shoulder occasionally to make sure they hadn't stopped or changed direction. He turned at the corner and crossed the street. One car approached slowly and allowed the others to follow. There was a park on the corner which seemed to suit the man's purpose.
Rocky grabbed the greasy man's elbow to stop him. He turned and smiled at her, a wicked thing on his face.
"Tell me your name, and what it is you want," Rocky said. "Or I'm not going any further."
The man looked around, sniffed the air and faced them. "I guess this is close enough to nature for now," he said. "My name is James. At least that's what I've been called the most often."
"Why are we out here?" Rocky said.
"I wanted us on equal ground for this discussion."
"What the hell are you talking about, equal ground? Just tell us what you want," she said.
James smirked at Jason. "She speaks for you? Not the alpha you once were."
Jason wasn't intimidated. He showed no fear in the man's presence. Rocky started to open her mouth again when Jason finally spoke. "How do you know us?"
"The same way you know me. We dream alike, I should think."
"You have dreams about us?"
"No. For me, they are more like memories. I was there. I know what we became. I know what we were. I saw the Native family and the three wolves you dream of. I saw the spell that was cast."
Jason and Rocky looked at each other, puzzled. "Spell?" they said.
James tilted his head as if trying to read sincerity in their faces. "You have seen the creatures I speak of. You have dreams--visions?"
Rocky kept her mouth shut and Jason looked at her, searching for permission to continue the conversation, like giving away too much information might be bad. He seemed to know it all already. She nodded.
"We've seen parts of the scenario you describe. I see a family that appears to be traveling to a new location. They set up camp and the father leaves to hunt. I am a gray wolf, she is my mate... but there is a third. A blue wolf, who wants to take over my pack. He threatens, then he attacks me. Then, he attacks the camp and I am injured by the woman."
Rocky's eyes widened. "I hadn't seen that far."
"I saw that today. The phone call from Becca woke me or I might have seen the end."
James raised his brow, causing rows of wrinkles. "I can tell you how it turned out. It turned out so we become monsters."
"And?" Jason said.
"As yet, there is no end," James replied.
Jason sighed. "I don't understand. One has to do with the other?"
"Of course, but there's one difference."
"What's that?" Rocky asked.
"Me," he answered. "I was cursed to roam as a beast until destroyed by the one who made me. And only the one who made me."
"Harsh," Rocky said.
James scowled at her.
Jason intervened. "Take it easy. Finish the story since you seem to know the whole thing."
James still glared at Rocky, lip curled in a snarl. His voice lowered into a breathy, growling sound. "She cursed me. The woman you see in your dreams cursed me."
"What about us?"
He pondered a moment before answering.
"You two are something different. Hand me downs. Your human bodies are susceptible to illness and injury, even old age. I suspect you might be fifteen or twenty generations removed from the originals. That would explain the dreams. They are memories clouded by so many cluttered minds. Like one might see snippets of a past life."
"How is it passed on?" Jason asked.
"So eager for the truth," James said and chuckled.
Jason shifted uncomfortably.
"Bloodline. You got it from your mother, as did she. Not like the silly films we shell out our hard earned cash for is it. I can't bite people and raise an army. Sadly, we are the only ones. Unless another curse has been cast that I am unaware of."
Jason showed his irritation, growing tired of the man's description. He narrowed his eyes to slits.
"Calm down, son. I apologize if I'm not as infatuated with the truth as you. I've lived in this form for many years now. It's not news."
"So you attacked her," Jason said.
"Yes. I did. I am a wolf. She was a food source."
Jason and Rocky both considered the statement for a moment.
"I suppose I can understand that. But why the curse?"
"I killed her baby," James replied, smirking. "She was none too happy about that."
"Oh God," Rocky whispered. "You killed the baby? That is vile."
"Don't get all emotional about it. Remember, we are wolves. We eat meat. We were not thinking, reasoning humans at the time."
"It's hard to accept, hearing it from you, as a man," Jason said.
"I'm not a man," James replied.
Rocky spoke, "Still. Why the curse?"
"Ah yes. The curse. I killed the child. Understandably, the woman attacked me. So I left my meal and fought back. It wasn't difficult. Well, it wouldn't have been had the gray wolf not been pestering me."
"I was watching them," Jason said.
"Yes. Strange, an animal studying another animal as you did. Some evolutionary quirk I suppose."
Jason thought about the statement. He thought about the fascination Gray showed for the Native family and wondered if fate, or something else was playing a hand. Seeing his opportunity, the older man continued his story.
"As the woman lay dying, my jaws on her throat, she uttered a curse. She asked the Moon to illuminate my crime. She asked that I be given human remorse. That I feel the pain I had caused as deeply as she, that I know loss as she did. Then she asked that I suffer until I understood how she had suffered."
"Wow," said Rocky. "And then?"
He turned his nose up, still unhappy that the female was speaking.
"Then, the goddess answered her."
Rocky chuckled, "Moon Goddess? Curse? Hokey."
Jason looked at her.
"We are werewolves. It's a little late to be skeptical," he said.
"Right," she said. "So, I don't understand. How does this make us werewolves? Did you attack us? Did we attack the family too?"
The stranger shook his head. "No. If I had a guess, I would say you were caught up in proximity of the spell. An unfortunate side effect."
"Wrong place at the wrong time," Rocky said.
"Why does it pass on. We were innocent, right?"
The man looked away, "For me, it doesn't. I live on, regardless."
Jason regained eye contact. "Regardless of what?"
"Regardless of anything," James said.
"You're telling me you've been this way for..."
"Four hundred years. Give or take."
"Four hundred? Okay, this is a lot to wrap my head around."
Jason stared at the man for a long time before continuing. "So that explains the age difference," he said.
"Yes, I am a much younger wolf than man. At least in a physical sense. The only living thing older than me might be amongst these trees. Very ancient creatures indeed."
Rocky interrupted his poetic waxing. "And there are no others?"
"No. Three representatives of the original wolves. The three of us."
Rocky huffed, frustrated.
"I should apologize, as this is apparently my doing. The curse had its criteria, but it wasn't aimed at you. Until I fulfill my requirement, there will always be two more. The trait will pass on through your families."
Rocky said, "That's not possible."
"I think your presence here argues against that."
Jason saw tears in Rocky's lower eyelids. He felt for her, knowing she could not have children and was probably referring to that fact. Then, she confirmed his thoughts.
"I can't have children."
The man approached her and put his
hand to her cheek. She pulled away, obviously revulsed.
"You can't have human children. Why do you think your time coincides with the cycle of the moon?"
"I can?"
"A bouncing litter of pups, absolutely. Just have to find the right wolf."
"And if I refuse. Then one of the lines is severed?"
"Even if that were true, I've witnessed both of you killed by hunters, by lucky victims, by natural disaster. The wolf spirit passes on, but it will stay with familiar blood."
Jason stepped in between them waving his hand.
"Wait a minute," he said. "What do you mean you've witnessed our deaths?"
"Young man, I've been tracking you for centuries. We've had this conversation many times. The desire to challenge you for your pack is ingrained in my very soul. I am?drawn to you."
Jason sat down on a bench and drummed his fingers. Other thoughts plagued him.
"Why do we go back every full moon? If she transformed you into a human for punishment, why the change back?"
"A good question. It took me a long time to learn the answer. It happens because that's when the goddess is at her greatest power. The full moon illuminates all magical things, good or evil. There's simply no hiding it."
Rocky's face showed disbelief once more.
"The full moon's light is just a reflection of the sun without the earth's shadow in the way," she said.
The man smiled.
"And science is only magic that has been explained."
The two sat in awe of the man's explanation. There was no arguing with it. Jason looked up from the park bench.
"Well James. What the hell do we do now?"
James nodded.
"What indeed?"