Force of the Dark Wolf (Force of Nature Series) (20 page)

Bits and pieces of what happened came back to her.
She was remembering more and more all the time
,
but what it all meant was still foggy.
There was a large dog
,
but somehow she knew it was more.
Then there was redness.
She felt a pain in her head when she thought of the redness and was nearly blinded by it when she thought of her mother.

“Have a seat
,
sweetie
,
and I’ll get you something to drink too.”
She glanced up at Aunt Alexis and then back at the table.
She felt shame for something and wasn’t sure what it was.

“Darcy, look at me,” the man said to her and she
obeyed
. Once she looked into his eyes it was like she couldn’t look away.
“You’re going to be safe here.
I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll protect you all.”

She found that she wanted to believe him.
More than anything she wanted to
,
but there was something that she knew, something that she was sure was going to come and get her.
She looked back down at the table when she felt the release and then put her hands on the table.

The pictures she’d been drawing.
If she could make them look at them she knew that they’d understand what she wanted.
Death.
If she could just simply die then she’d be better.
She glanced over at the knife, the one she’d been coming down to get when they’d come in the house
,
and wondered if she could snatch it up and plunge it in her chest before they could stop her.

“There’s a festival this weekend at the high school. I thought we’d go in and check it out
,
”
t
he man…she couldn’t remember his name
,
said.
“The weather is nice enough
,
but I think it’ll rain.”

Aunt Alexis laughed and Darcy looked up quickly to see if she was laughing at her. But it was the man, he was tickling her Aunt.
Darcy started to get up, to leave them
,
but the man put a plate in front of her and said to eat.
Picking up the bread
,
she played with the crust.

Tell them
,
her mind screamed at her.
Tell them, tell them, tell them
.
She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to tell them
,
but she knew that sooner or later they were going to need it.
Glancing at the man again
,
she stood and left the room. The pictures were in her hand and she was back in the kitchen before she realized what she was going to do.

“What do you have…”
He lifted her chin when she continued to look at the table after handing him the drawings.
“Did you draw these, Darcy?”

She pulled away from him and picked up the bread again.
She didn’t know what the pictures were, she wasn’t even sure if she’d drawn them
,
but she had them and when she looked at them, her head hurt.
She knew when her aunt had looked at them.
The sharp intake of breath was all she’d done
,
but the man, Gordon she suddenly remembered
,
sat next to her at the table.

“These are very good.
I’m impressed with the detail in them.
Is this a wolf?”
She glanced over at the big dog she’d seen on the top most pictures and went back to her sandwich.
“And this one, is this your house?”

She didn’t answer him
,
but she heard her aunt tell him it was.
The house she’d been in before, the one she and her sister and brothers had been in. She took another bite of the sandwich and listened to them.

“They lived there most of her life.
It’s the house her mother got in the divorce when they…when Paddy left them.
They’ve only been living here since I had the renovations finished. Before that they all lived with Aunt Glad and Aunt Jessie.”
Finished now with the sandwich
,
she picked up the glass and stared into it as Gordon sorted through the pictures.
He continued to talk to her.

“Darcy, can you please tell me about this one?
It’s a very violent picture and if you tell me about it, I can try and help you make s
ense
of it.”
She glanced over at the picture then back at the glass of milk again.
“I think you know more than you’ve let on.
You know about your father
,
don’t you?”

“Don’t,” her aunt said
,
but Darcy got up and looked over his shoulder at the picture.
When her aunt started to speak again, Darcy put her hand on Gordon’s shoulder and held on.
Aunt Alexis moved to the other chair and didn’t speak again.

“This one shows a man changing into a wolf
,
I think.
I can see his paws here and I think this is his fur.
Paddy is a brown wolf so I’m assuming this is of him.”
Darcy started to nod
,
but didn’t.
“And I can see his canines.
Did you know that that’s what wolves
’
teeth are called?”

She knew that
,
but didn’t answer. She wanted to.
She found that for the first time since she’d
awakened
in this house she wanted to say something.
Darcy rubbed her hand over his shirt and felt his warmth.
She moved closer
,
feeling…safe for the first time since she was little.

He was handing her a pencil and she took it. Before she knew it
,
she was sitting at the table again and had a sheet of paper in front of her.
Her mind drifted away and her eyes became unfocused.
Blurry images seemed to come into sharp pictures and
then she
was crying. Then when she felt someone hugging her
,
she wrapped her arms around them and held on.
It wasn’t until later when she was nearly asleep that she realized it was Gordon that held her and Gordon and her
a
unt Alexis who put her to bed.
She closed her eyes and fe
l
l into a deep sleep even before they left the room.

Darcy sat up, sweat drenching her and her eyes wide with fear.
Breathing hard
,
she looked around the darkened room and searched. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for
,
but knew, just knew that it was right there with her.
When she saw the bright eyes she whimpered and pulled back on the bed. Suddenly he was on the bed licking his lips and that’s when she screamed.
Screamed over and over until the lights came on and she was jerked up from her bed.

“It’s al
l
right. I’ve got you.
Come on
,
baby, wake up. I’ve got you.”
Aunt Jessie was holding her.
There were others in the room
,
but Jessie was holding her.
“Open your eyes, come on
,
Darcy.
You scared fifty years off me, good heavens
,
girl.”

“It’s the drawings.
I was worried about that and I told you no good could come from it,” her aunt Alexis said.
Gordon came to the bed with her and sat there, smiling at her. “You should be whipped.”

“She thinks she can whip me.
I think I can take her
. W
hat do you think?”
She looked at Gordon then back up at her aunt who was pacing.
Neither of them seemed really mad
,
but she didn’t know.
Darcy pulled the blanket up and started to lie back down
,
but Tim came into the room and hopped on the bed with her.

“If everybody is up, do you think I can have some pancakes and waffles?
I’m really hungry.”
Tim held her hand and she looked away
,
but back at him when he started to fib about her.
“Darcy and I been talking and she really likes pancakes and waffles together, don’t you?”

He winked at her.
Then Darcy looked over at Gordon who winked as well. She nodded once then started to get up
,
but Sis tackled her first.

“She talked
,
didn’t she?
Darcy can talk again.
Come on
,
Darcy,” Sis said to her pleadingly.
“Say my name and I’ll give you my favoritest dolly. The one that Aunt Jessie made for me. Please?
Say ‘cat
,
’ just like that
,
‘cat
.
’”

Darcy looked up at her Aunt Alexis and the connection was suddenly there.
And then the memories flooded her mind.
The dog was a wolf, but there was a man too. Big and mean, he had a cane.
Aunt Alexis came then and she was covered in red, not paint like she’d thought but blood.
Her own. Aunt Alexis
had
gone after her dad and he’d…he’d hurt her.
The man with the cane had hit Darcy, hit her so many times that she hurt for so long
,
then nothing.
Then she’d
awakened
in the barn at her mother
’
s house.

“You saved me.”
Darcy was startled by her own voice
,
but she said it again, said it to the woman who had put her hands on her and saved her.
“You saved my life
,
but couldn’t my mom
’s
because you said she was too far gone.”

~~~

Paddy paced outside the gate.
He wanted in and he would have been in except for the hum of electricity that told him that scaling the fence would get him hurt badly.
He was waiting for someone, anyone to come out of the gate and he’d slip in.
Of course that had been the plan over three hours ago. Now he just wanted to hurt someone.