The Wolf's Daughter (The Tala Chronicles 1) (10 page)

When she
stumbled upon a cabin, grayed from the elements, Tala ended the call in the
middle of Vanessa’s pleading. She inched toward it. Did anyone live there? No
similarity to the one in the picture. Tala walked up the sagging stairs anyway,
wincing as each ancient board creaked. The dusty windows blocked the interior view.
She eyed the weathered door and knocked. When she received no response, she banged
on it. Tala sighed and tried shoving the door, opening it a crack. “Anyone
here?”

Silence answered
her call, so she pushed the door open all the way. It took a moment for her
eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then Tala put her hand over her mouth to stifle
a scream.

***

Although he’d
never admit it to Tony, the money he’d paid him had been worth it to get the
diary and find out who knew the cottage’s location. Sharp crossed the brook and
walked purposefully in the direction he had gleaned from his own little talk
with Gunther. He shook his head. Even though Tony had botched the job, you’d
think she’d be scared away. He had to find Gregory before she did—and he knew
she’d try, was probably in the woods already.
He reached inside his
jacket. The gun in its holster gave him confidence. He could finish what Tony
started.

Chapter Ten

The skeleton lay
in pieces. A broken window loomed over it. What had caused the person’s death? Should
she call the police? But that would delay everything, and anyway, the skeleton must
have been there for a very long time. Tala hoped the skeleton wasn’t what was
left of Gregory.

She backed away
and left the cabin. The fog had lifted, and the sun was a welcome companion.
She scanned the map again. Edgar had drawn what looked like a stream. She
headed in its direction.  

The noise of the
stream reached her before she got to it. The current surprised her. Rocks she possibly
could cross dotted the surface. But if she slipped—she wouldn’t think about the
consequences.

She stood on the
bank, planning her course. The rocks seemed large enough, but water slicked
them. And then…noises behind her. Twigs cracked. Footsteps?

Tala had to make
a move. She gingerly stepped on the first rock, almost losing her balance. She
stretched her leg onto the next one. The following rock was farther away than
the others. The water swirled around her.

“Tala.”

She looked back.
Willis Sharp.

Tala took out
her cell phone, but when she jumped to the next rock, she dropped the phone in
the water. She was in the middle of the stream now. She desperately scrambled
onto the next two rocks. There was only one left. She had to jump again. When
she did, she slipped off the rock and was up to her hips in water.

A loud bang
ripped through the air. Tala turned. Sharp pointed a gun. She tried to climb
onto the bank, but it was too steep. She slid back down. Another shot rang out.
She struggled to walk in the water, the mud pulling her down with each step.
She reached a lower bank. Tala grabbed on to an old tree root.

Exhausted, she
tried to catch her breath. Then she thought about Matt, and adrenaline surged
through her. She pulled with all her strength, finally reaching the top of the
bank. A splash made Tala look back. Sharp sprawled on a rock, his lower body in
the water and blood on his face.

She didn’t wait
around to investigate but hurried away from the stream. Tala changed out of her
wet clothes. The cold had forced its way into her bones, but she sat for a
while on a large rock bathed in sunlight. What now? The stream had been the
last of Gunther’s clues, and she hadn’t seen anything again resembling a trail,
overgrown or not. Maybe if she just kept walking, Gregory would find her.

She didn’t know
the time. She guessed late afternoon from the long shadows. She tried not to
think about how foolhardy the trip had been. Too late now to get back out of
the woods before dark.

Was Gregory even
alive and still in the forest? And even if he were, would he befriend her? What
about Sharp? Was he dead?

Tala tried to
put the questions out of her mind to concentrate on her goal—finding Gregory.
With each step, she winced with the pain in her foot, the wet boot even heavier
than before. She steeled herself, though, and forged on, determined not to give
up. After what seemed like hours of trekking through the trees, dusk hovered.
Wolves howled, and a cold chill went up her back. Tala passed a large rock
formation. She walked around it and noticed a cave.

She considered
stopping there for the night but decided against it. The black maw of an
opening didn’t welcome her. And no telling who might be a resident. Tala called
out Gregory’s name with no response.  

An owl up on a
tree branch filled her with a sense of foreboding. Only one owl, though. A good
omen, maybe. Or at least, not such a bad sign. Tala continued walking, trying
to ignore the pain.

Then as if it
had appeared out of nowhere, a cottage stood in front of her. The door’s painting
had faded to just the slightest suggestion of birds. A lamp lit the inside, and
the window held a silhouette. Her breath caught. For one insane moment, she
contemplated running away. But then she came to her senses and walked to the
door. “Gregory,” she called out and then knocked.

Footsteps inside
walked toward her.

Chapter Eleven

The door opened.

An upraised arm
held a glinting Bowie knife.

She froze. Then
Tala stepped back. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

Wildness ran
through the sinews of the man’s body, clothed in animal skins and reeking of
musk. His crazed goat eyes bore into her. A mane of red hair circled his head
like fire. His mouth opened, revealing teeth, sharp and predatory. The same
amulet as Tala’s hung from his neck.  

“Uncle Greg—”

“Who are you?”
he roared.

“Your niece, Tala.”

“What do you
want?” His feral eyes darted around and past Tala, and then he slowly lowered
the knife.

“I have to talk to
you about many things—our family, the man I love, and Willis Sharp.”

His eyes
flashed, and he raised the knife. “I ran into the woods to get away from all
that.”

“Please,
Gregory. You’re my only hope. I can’t go on living like this. And Matt needs
help. You might be the only one who can save him…so he and I can stay together.”
 

He clenched his
teeth and then spat on the porch. “Why do you think I can help?”

“Because I read
my grandmother’s diary, and I found this.” She took the amulet out from under her
T-shirt.

He lowered the
knife. “Then you really are one of us. He nodded toward the inside of the
cabin.”

Trembling, she
walked through the doorway. A gamey smell pierced her nostrils, churning her
stomach. “Who are we, Gregory?”

He motioned for
her to sit down on a rough-hewn pine bench. Animal heads on the walls stared at
her. Tawny, black, and white fur rugs covered the dark wide-plank floor. Hides
of variegated brown shades hung on wooden frames and crowded the room. A
chandelier of antlers loomed over a primitive oak table. In the middle lay a
pile of bones, half of them picked clean, the other half draining bloody juices
into its surface.

Gregory sat on a
bench across from her. “We are the ones of the night, the ones of the wild.
Some of us are wild ourselves, and others bring out the wild. Which one are
you?”

“I’ve never been
violent, but the people around me have been.”

He bolted up. “Then
you can’t stay here.” His eyes turned savage again, and the hearth flames
leaped higher.

Tala flattened
herself against the back of the bench. “I-I just want to learn what Matt and I
can do to break this…this…spell or whatever it is.”

Gregory paced,
running his fingers though his mane. He shook his head. “It goes much deeper
than a spell, and most of us think the only way to break it is through death.”

“Death!” She leaned
forward and swallowed hard. “Gregory, there must be another way.”

“Perhaps, but it’s
a gamble.”

She jumped up
and hurried over to him “It’s a gamble I have to take.” She touched his arm. Will
you help me?”

His eyes
softened. “Yes, but I must warn you again it’s very dangerous.”

“Gregory, I’m
willing to risk everything if I can get back with Matt.”

“I can’t change
Matt.”

She hung her
head. “But I thought...” Tears flowed down her cheeks.

He put his hand
under her chin and raised it until she looked into his eyes. “But I can change
you…so you’ll never have the effect on any of us again.”

“Thank you.
Thank you, Gregory.” She touched his arm again. “Do any people exist who could
change Matt?”

“I’ve heard they
do, but I don’t know where. And I’m not exactly sure they’re…people.”

“Then please,
change me. At least Matt and I will have a chance of being together.”

“All right. You’ll
need to destroy the amulet.”

She was glad she
had found the other amulet. “Okay. How?”

“In the fire, in
the dark, in a trance.”

“Can you put me
in the trance?”

“Yes, I’m one of
the Violents that can only be affected by a Violent Maker in the dark.” He
frowned. “There’s a danger I might react to you if you don’t change quickly
enough.”

“It’s getting
dark now.”

“Yes, I’ll build
the fire.”

Tala stared hard
at Gregory. “Did you kill my grandmother, your aunt?”

“No, but another
one of us must have been in the woods. By the time I followed her screams, she
was already dead.”

“Hurry with the
fire, Gregory.”

***

Willis Sharp relished
the dark. The concealment suited him. Even though he still ached from the fall,
he made his footsteps silent. For the second time, he felt for his gun. Again,
it reassured him. Moonlit red eyes peered out of the underbrush. In the trees the
yellow eyes of owls glowed as they repeated their haunting question.

He expected to
be at the cottage soon. The last thing he wanted was for Gregory to sap Tala’s
power. He needed to kill her so the power would never leave him. He’d torture
her first. The greater her pain, the more power would be his. And there were so
many things he’d recently read about he wanted to try. Sharp had collected
books on torture for at least twenty years. The antique ones always had the
best methods. He’d amused himself with transients. He laughed to himself as he
thought of the last one. He’d enjoyed her screams. And had no worries about
detection in his soundproof basement.

He shook his
head. Amazing what that old geezer Gunther had told him—and how much he could
piece together for himself.

***

The moon was
out, and Gregory’s movements were erratic as he threw some more wood on the
bonfire. “It only works with blackthorn,” he said in a monotone.

“Now, Gregory.
Put me in the trance now.” She pleaded with her eyes.

“I’m not sure it
will work,” he said as he stared at her. Then he chanted words in a deep,
sonorous voice that Tala didn’t understand. He stopped chanting. “Throw the
amulet in the fire.”

The bushes
rustled. Tala held the amulet, but froze. Howling broke out near them, the
sounds of many wolves. She concentrated on Matt. Finally, she could move. She
threw the amulet in the fire, and all at once, the howling stopped. The flames licked
the amulet, and it transformed into a purple and red incandescence.

Gregory looked
at Tala again. “Your eyes are lighter. And they’re glowing.”

She backed up
and ran into the forest. Were the wolves still near? She tripped but got up as
Gregory approached. Then his footsteps pounded right behind her. Tala screamed
and turned. Strength surged through her, the power of loving Matt.

Gregory stopped.
He had a blank expression. He started chanting again until the words came out
more slowly, and then his mouth stopped moving. He hung his head. “It’s done. I
feel no more aggression toward you.”

“Oh Gregory, thank
you.” She hugged him, and he awkwardly hugged her back. “Look at the moon. It’s
beautiful, isn’t it?”

“I’ve been
afraid to look at it for so many years, even though it has no real effect on
me. But I still can’t go back into society. Not while there are more like you out
there.”

Sadness filled
Tala. “I’ll always be grateful for what you’ve done.”

He stared into
the distance. “At least now I’ve done one good thing in my life. When I die, at
least I’ll have that assurance.”

“Maybe we can
figure something out, Gregory.”

He didn’t
answer, but his eyes held disbelief and resignation. They walked together
toward the cottage.

About thirty
feet from the door, a shot rang out. She screamed as Gregory fell, blood
gushing from the wound in his back.  

“Don’t move, or
I’ll shoot you, Tala.” Sharp ran toward her, the gun aimed at her chest.

She could barely
breathe.

Sharp sneered. “I
don’t need this gun. I’d much rather do the work with my teeth, the way I did Jenny
Bolton. I just used the knife to make sure she was dead. But of course, I’m
going to torture you first.”

Tala’s breath
caught.

“Surprised about
Jenny? Or the torture. Both, I’d guess. Her mistake was to reject me, and her
misfortune was to be like you, one of the Violent Makers. And your mistake
was...well, just being you.”

Light-headed,
she almost fell. “You’ll-you’ll never get away with this.”

“Why not? I got
away with it with your neighbor, didn’t I?”

“You’re dirt!” Tala
kicked him, but he grabbed her hair and used it to pull her head back. She screamed
in pain.

“And your
grandmother.”

“You bastard!” Tala
tried to punch him, but he caught her arm.