Werewolves & Wisteria (6 page)

“We’re managing. It wasn’t nearly as bad as you intended.”

His lips curled a little around the edges and his green eyes flashed. “There’s a fine line between courage and stupidity, Thorn, and an even finer one between chivalry and weakness. You’ve both crossed your lines.”

“We’re fine,” I insisted. He was trying to put me on edge, and I wasn’t going to let him. “How are you enjoying being the slave instead of the master?”

“That’s what he wants you to think,” Stark said, watching me closely and ignoring my question. “He’s already building an exit plan, and I think you know what I mean by that.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” he said with pleasure. “I don’t lie often, Anise. I’ve always felt that the truth cuts deeper. You can ask Charlie about me. You can ask me about Charlie, too, because he always did my lying for me. He’s good at it, as I’m sure you’ve already learned.”

I opened my soda, staring at him very deliberately as it popped and fizzed, and then I took a drink. “I know him a little too well now to buy anything you’re about to say.”

“Really?” Stark cocked an eyebrow. “Because Charlie and I go way back. Has he ever told you how he came into my service? His first mistress was killed by werewolves, and he took a great amount of pleasure in butchering them for my sake after that. I didn’t ever want for blood or hide or anything else, and his hatred for them ran deep right up until the end, Anise. My new colleague—”

“Your new master,” I corrected.

“—he tells me that Charlie and I clipped quite a few branches off his family tree a few decades back. We’re wanted men in that pack, and my demise has become a thing of legend in certain circles. They knew who to call on when a demon by the name of Charlie showed up in their backyard. I recognized Walter’s face the moment I saw him, because he’s the spitting image of his grandfather,” Stark said idly. “I wonder if Charlie recognized him, too. I can’t imagine that he didn’t. Demons have fantastic memories, and Charlie skinned him from head to heel. Did he tell you any of that, Anise?”

I opened my bag of chips and crunched one slowly in my mouth before answering. “So what does Walter want, then?”

“It’s not impossible to kill a demon.” Stark leaned forward, unblinking. “But nearly so. They can’t kill Charlie, Anise, but they’ll stop at nothing to take him from you and control his fate. They’ll bind him and starve him with banishment. And even though they can’t kill him, I will. He’s stolen too much from me. You’re protecting a wanted man, and it would be wise of you to get out of the way before something even more unfortunate happens.”

I narrowed my eyes.

Stark almost laughed. “You poor girl. You still don’t believe me. He must have said something to you when you met Walter. Something to indicate that he might be a threat, however vague he was at the time, because he did know. You never questioned why a total stranger would show you such hostility so quickly and readily? I know Charlie. He was my best friend, and I know what to do to get under his skin. That’s why I sent him a werewolf as a present. He remembers the blood and the beasts, and everything they did when he was still too young and unlearned to stop them. Assuming that you mean anything at all to him, he probably didn’t want to let that boy into that apartment, and he’s probably willing to do just about anything to get him to leave. I’ll bet that he’s pushing the idea that death is the kinder option.”

I didn’t move, or at least I didn’t think that I had. But Stark’s eyes lit up as he shook his head.

“Poor girl…” He stood up from the table to leave. “You’d best keep an eye on the situation. They might be in on that exit plan together, and we both know Vince has more than enough hair to spare in making that deal.”

Chapter 6

I tried to ignore the things he said. For the most part, it wasn’t hard.

Charlie’s knowledge of certain things had always disturbed me, but somehow I had trouble seeing him as the monster that Stark described. He wasn’t that person anymore, and if he ever had been, it was because of Stark.

But there was a grain of truth, like a pebble in my shoe, which threw me off balance. It was the way that Charlie had looked at Walter the first time they met. There was recognition there. At the time, I had brushed it off. Charlie had recognized Walter as a werewolf, and that was all.

But what if it had been more?

He had taken me out that night to gather the supplies that would make him a human, and then we’d gone for coffee. If he had looked into the eyes of a werewolf and recognized a man he had killed, and then gone about his shopping and socializing all the same, then maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought.

I knew he had recognized something in Walter even though I didn’t want to believe it. And I knew he was my friend, because he had used the things that we had gathered that night to bring me back to Earth after my close shave with demonhood.

It preoccupied my thoughts through my entire Japanese literature class, and wouldn’t relent on my walk back home. If Charlie decided to read my thoughts or not, he was going to know that something was up when I went back to the apartment. I needed more time to decide what I was going to say.

I ducked into the sandwich place to give myself time to think. I didn’t even know how I felt about it. Charlie lied, and he did it well. I had seen him do it too convincingly and too often. But could Stark be telling the truth?

“Rough first day?”

I looked up and realized that I had been standing at the register to place my order, and staring at the menu, oblivious, for too long.

“Oh, yeah, rough day,” I agreed, shaking my head and trying to gather myself. I smiled at the clerk, who smiled back with lips painted bright red. She had dark hair that was just a touch auburn, and it was curled into a suicide roll beneath the hairnet she was wearing.

She smiled wider and pulled a cookie from the display case, handing it to me. “On the house. What can I get you?”

“Thank you.” I took the cookie, a little surprised, and then turned my attention back to the menu.  “Can I get the number four, large, but with the spread you use on the number two?”

“Sure thing.” She punched it in to the register. “That’ll be six fifty-seven.”

I paid and went to a table to wait. Vince should have already been back at the apartment, waiting, and I dreaded the thought that he might come into the sandwich shop and find me avoiding him.

I didn’t believe what Stark had said about him. At least, I didn’t think I did. The longer the words sank in, the more they seemed to bleed across the line into believability, regardless of the source.

I knew that he was trying to get under my skin. He was succeeding.

“Is that guy bothering you?”

I looked up to see the young woman who had taken my order, and she nodded toward the street. I looked again, and he was there.

Stark had decided to follow me home. He stood beneath a streetlamp that had just switched on in the impending dark, leaning back against the concrete underpass that lead to campus.

I knew that he couldn’t hurt me, and Lyssa’s protections on my apartment were still firmly in place, but his presence unnerved me.

“Yes,” I said, accepting my wrapped sandwich from the clerk. “He’s bothering me.”

When I saw that she had a second sandwich in her hand, I did a double take, and was about to tell her that she must have gotten my order wrong. She shrugged before I could say anything, and explained.

“It’s my break,” she apologized. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”

The place was empty except for the two of us. She had a point; it would be awkward if we didn’t sit together.

“I’m, um…” If I said that I was waiting for someone, it would be rude when no one showed up. It wasn’t really a reason for us not to sit together in the meanwhile, either. I decided to go for the truth. “I would, normally, but that guy out there is kind of bent on ruining my life, and he’s taken some shots at my friends recently, so I really wouldn’t want you to get mixed up in it.”

She looked down at me and smiled kindly, and her eyes flashed to Stark once more. I hadn’t noticed before, but there was the slightest hint of crows’ feet starting to show at the corner of her eyes. I had never seen someone so young with wrinkles, and I imagined it took some stress to earn them. I was probably well on my way, too.

“I think I can manage.”

She sat down, and I shifted restlessly in my seat as my stomach did a flip.

She opened her sandwich and took a bite, pointing at me. “Did you get that in Stonefall?”

I looked down, and my hand was already reaching for the sumac pendant that Charlie had made for me. I wore it everywhere without even thinking about it.

A question rose in my mind, because it could have been an innocent inquiry, but it felt like she was asking me something more. I knew that Stonefall was an area that magical folk frequented, but I didn’t know how to code anything back to this stranger. Even if I did, I wasn’t sure if it was wise to do so.

My silence seemed to confirm something for her, because she pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, flashing a bracelet. It was a simple silver circle set with a single brilliant ruby.

“Reminded me of mine.” She shrugged. “That’s all.”

Before she had finished speaking, the gem on her wrist and the sumac in my pendant had started to flicker and glow.

The stranger’s face lit up. “Oh, I guess they like each other!”

I tried not to panic. Wordlessly, I opened my sandwich, and took a bite.

“I’m Martha.”

She offered her hand, and we shook. When she looked back over her shoulder, I followed her gaze. Stark was gone.

“Pervy demon,” she muttered. “Why’s he following you?”

I narrowed my eyes at her, fearing that the next step in Stark’s plan was underway. Martha was too distinctively styled for me to have missed her. I had never seen her working in the sandwich shop before, and it couldn’t be a coincidence that she showed up while Stark was present.

“What do you want?” I asked in a low whisper, searching the restaurant for an escape route.

Martha looked bewildered, pulling the hairnet from her brow and fixing her hair with a hand as she considered me. “Nothing. I just assumed, you know, because of the necklace, and the demon… do you need help?”

I took a deep breath and cocked my head, quietly praying that Charlie might decide to check in on me right about now, but his powers were much more limited when he was a cat. He had told me he didn’t want to leave the apartment shackled while Stark was on the loose, and I had agreed.

“Really?” I said, feeling like I was a mouse trying to make a deal with a cat. “Because of the demon, you just happened to show up here? You just happened to find me, and want to help me with my little demon problem? I’m new, but I’m not dumb. I know people don’t help with demon problems. That’s like trying to save someone from getting hit by a semi by throwing yourself in front of it. Did Stark send you?”

Martha’s eyes went cold, and the wrinkles around her eyes were suddenly a little more evident in the setting sun. She folded her hands on the table in front of her.

“You know Stark?” she asked seriously, giving a half-hearted wave in the direction where he had been. “How do you know him?”

“How do
you
know him?” I shot back at her.

We were at an impasse. Neither of us wanted to trust the other now, and I didn’t see any way around it. But then Martha spoke.

“He’s looking for someone named Charlie,” she said carefully. “They’re old friends, and rumor around Stonefall is that Charlie is back and spending time somewhere around here. I’m looking for Charlie, too, but more because of a mutual acquaintance we had. I’m sorry to have bothered you. I just kind of assumed, with the necklace and the demon, that maybe you would know my friend, because she’s… never mind. I’m sorry. Enjoy your meal.”

She got up to leave. I don’t know what came over me in that moment, but I had to know.

“What’s her name?” I asked. “Your friend?”

Martha stopped, turning back to me and holding her haphazardly wrapped sandwich in her hand. She seemed to debate if it was wise to tell me.

“Kendra,” she said finally. “If you see her around, just tell her I was worried about her. I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

In the few seconds it took for Martha to go back behind the counter, it felt like the dam that had been constipating my thoughts all day suddenly broke free, because the laws of karma had finally turned in my favor. The universe had been slamming me hard for months. And now this woman was a friend of Kendra, and she had stared Stark down, knowing who he was, and she wasn’t afraid.

I shot up from my table, grabbing my sandwich and making a sudden and loud noise as the paper crinkled in my tight grasp. Martha stared at me, surprised and annoyed.

“I don’t want any trouble—” she started.

“Kendra’s my aunt,” I confessed, coming over to the counter. Martha’s eyes were bewildered, but her face relaxed into a kind expression. “And yeah, I need help.”

It all spilled out from there. I told her everything that had happened since summoning Charlie, and how he was trying to become human, and how it left my best friend a part-time cat. I told her about my sister, who was now only seeing her daughter very infrequently. I told her about Vince, and oddly enough, that was where I started to choke up.

“Stark told me he’s going to kill himself,” I said, lowering my voice and biting on my cheek when I paused. Somehow, I hoped that the physical pain would dull the emotions. “And I want to think he’s just trying to get to me, but…”

Having come back out from behind the counter, Martha pulled me into a hug. She shushed me before shaking her head.

“Don’t worry about him,” she said quietly. “I can help him. Well, I mean, I know some people who can. That condition isn’t nearly as rare or unlivable as Charlie seems to think.”

Her words made relief wash over me, but my suspicions about Charlie increased at the same time.

“We’ll figure the rest out,” she said calmly. “My god, I just can’t believe Kendra would leave you with all of this…”

In my mind I clung to her. She was my salvation, and Vince’s, and everything was going to be okay.

We sat back down at a table, and she told me that she had some friends in Stonefall who were members of a loose pack of werewolves. They had taken in new members before, people who had been bitten as adults, and managed to teach them coping strategies. It wasn’t a cure, but they were at least living their lives again.

“I think that’s the most important thing,” she said. “We’ll get Vince help. Then we can focus on this thing with Stark and Walter, and that might be a tough one. I’m not afraid of Stark, but I have no doubt that he can stir up more trouble than any of us would want. We’ll find a way to banish him again, and I’ll see if any of my friends know Walter’s pack. If we can work from the elders down, that’s our best chance to gain his cooperation. And when we’re finished with that, we’ll help Gates by helping Charlie. Kendra never mentioned that he was after humanity, but I knew they were pretty hot and heavy. I’m not surprised.”

I nodded, grateful. She had a way about her that made even the hard problems seem procedural and easy. This was going to work.

“Where are you staying?” I asked.

She forced a weak smile. “I’m… not, really. When Kendra went missing a lot of us worried until the obituary was published, but I never bought it. She said something in her last letter about getting rid of Stark for good, and I just thought… a car accident was too common, you know? Especially after Stark went missing. Something else happened. And then people started seeing Charlie around Stonefall, and I had to find him. I had to know if she was okay, and if anyone would know, he would.” She took a deep breath, and sighed. “So I got in my car, and I drove, and that’s where I’m living now. In my car.”

I smiled. “Come and stay with me. It’s the least I can do. As long as you don’t mind the demon and the werewolf, and I understand some people do, so I won’t be offended if you don’t want to.”

She hesitated for a moment, but then grinned, wrinkling her nose. “Are you sure? Really?”

“Really,” I nodded. “You’re welcome. I’m sure Charlie can find the wall space to put in another room somewhere.”

We laughed together. We finished eating, and just as we were cleaning up, the bell over the door chimed, and the next shift worker came in. Martha gathered her things from the back and followed me out the door and down the street to my apartment.

I was feeling so happy when I stuck my key in the door. I felt a little proud, even, that I now had a sense of direction in the way that I was going to solve everyone’s problems.

When I popped the door open and stepped in, Charlie took one look at Martha and sprang to his feet hissing at her.