A Wolf's Oath (36 page)

Is there something wrong with me? Why can’t I feel the cold?
Am I sick? That’s just what I need on top of everything
else.
As the thoughts ran through her mind,
her not so friendly voice returned.

What’s the matter with you now? Sheesh, there’s never a
moment of peace with you. Do you intentionally think of ways to get
under my skin? First, you forget all about our yummy Sebastian over
there and now you’re griping about the cold! Woman, get a
grip!

I can’t feel the cold, that’s not normal. I know that it’s
cold, I can see that with my own eyes but I feel
nothing.

And who exactly said you were normal?
the voice demanded.

Am I not normal?
Erica mused before
realisation dawned upon her.
Of course I’m
not normal. I can hear a voice in my head. I’m clearly
crazy.

The voice groaned loudl,
If that’s
what you need to believe to get you through the day then go right
ahead and believe that nonsense. Crazy? When have I ever said
anything that has been unhelpful? If anyone is crazy then it’s got
to be me for putting up with this crap.

Do you know something that I don’t?

Of course I do Erica. My memory is just fine. It’s you that
has the problem.

Are you going to tell me what you know? Why can’t I feel the
cold?

I’m not saying a word about what I know to you,
the voice chuckled.

Why not?

Because our Mr. Yummy said that wouldn’t help you and I’m
inclined to listen to him over you. He speaks sense unlike someone
I know.
Erica growled at the voice’s words,
distinctly unpleased with what it had just said.
You know you weren’t always this unhelpful. There
was a time when I was proud to be in your head and then you stopped
listening to me about important things and well…here we are
now.

I think I’ve had just about enough of you,
Erica huffed, deciding to ignore whatever else the
voice had to say.
If it’s just going to
insult me then I have no reason to listen to another word it has to
say.

Walking from the room, Erica strode down the hall and entered
the room where her brother and sister were staying. Though she had
expected them to be awake, they still lay sleeping, the gentle
sounds of their breathing the only sounds in the room. Her eyes
widened in shock as the breath from their lips misted in the air
dissipating soon after it had formed only to be replaced with more
as they continued to inhale and exhale.

They can’t stay here like this. I might not be able to feel
how cold it is, but they can. If it doesn’t get any warmer then
they’ll get sick. What the hell is going on? It wasn’t like this
yesterday.

Seeking answers, Erica stepped away from the door walking
down the corridor and out of the house. The snow crunched lightly
beneath her feet, but again she was unable to feel the chill seep
into her bones as she knew it should do. Pushing her body’s curious
reaction to the cold to a far-flung corner of her mind, she walked
around the house until she reached the outdoor generator that was
meant to provide heat and warmth for the house. As she approached
Erica tried to listen to the sounds that the generator was making.
It should have been noisy against the silence that reined outdoors,
but there was nothing and she realised that something was wrong.
When she reached the large piece of machinery, Erica gingerly
placed the tips of her fingers against the metal surface wary of
touching it, as it should normally have been boiling to the touch.
The metal beneath her fingers however was ice cold and so now
increasingly brave; she placed her entire palm flat against it.
There wasn’t even a modicum of heat emanating from the generator
leading her to conclude that it was broken.

Just what we need,
she groaned, the
extent of her bad luck astounding her.
I
wonder if Sebastian can fix it. Let’s hope he can do something
about it, otherwise we won’t be able to stay here anymore and I’m
not sure I want to move.
The landscape
around her was almost a blinding white, covered as it was in a
layer of freshly fallen snow. Though her memory was still almost
non-existent, being here filled her with an amazing sense of peace
and contentment. The longer she and Sebastian remained here, the
less concerned she became with retrieving her lost memories.
Everyday that passed she and Sebastian created new memories that
were infinitely precious. The only thing that marred the experience
was her distinct lack of memories surrounding him and her love for
him, but even that worry was beginning to fade. The crux of the
matter was that though she couldn’t recall her love for him prior
to her accident, he was doing a very good job of recreating the
emotion in her without her memories. With every kind action, each
warm smile and every second spent simply being around him the
emotion grew. She desperately wanted to tell him but although he
hadn’t directly said it, she could tell that he was very anxious
for her memory to return. There was something he wasn’t telling her
and until she could recall just what it was he was so worried
about, it was for the best to keep the words to herself.

Walking back to the house she shook the snow from her feet,
increasingly disconcerted that she still felt nothing.

If I tell Sebastian, he’ll just worry more,
she reasoned as she stomped the last of the
clinging white flakes from her feet.
Besides, it’s not as though I feel unwell. If anything I feel
like I’m in great shape.
She touched the
back of her hand to her forehead, testing to see if she felt overly
warm, the skin felt perfectly fine.
I’m
probably just worrying over nothing. We’ll get the heating fixed
and then everything will be back to normal.

Quickly covering the length of the corridor, she stopped at
the entrance to her bedroom. Watching from the doorway, she smiled
as Sebastian continued to sleep. As the seconds passed, she became
increasingly reluctant to wake him from his peaceful slumber. The
breath misting as he continued to rest oblivious to his
surroundings made the decision for her. Sebastian would be just as
effected by the cold as her siblings and she didn’t want him
becoming ill either. Walking to his side, she gently shook him,
trying to rouse him from sleep. He grunted in response, but
otherwise continued to sleep.

She called his name as she shook him more vigorously.
“Sebastian, wake up.”

At the sound of his name on her lips, his eyes began to
flutter open. “Erica?” he mumbled disorientated.

“
Yes Sebastian, it’s me.”

“
What’s going on?” he asked as he began to rub at his eyes
trying to wake himself fully.

“
The heating’s gone.”

“
Gone? What do you mean gone? It can’t have just decided to get
up and walk away. It’s impossible.”

She laughed at his sleep addled reasoning. “I know that
silly. What I meant is that the generator is broken and so now
there’s no heating in the house.”

“
Oh,” he commented, failing to see the reason for her
distress.

“
Oh? Sebastian maybe you didn’t hear what I said. There’s no
heating in the house at all. It’s snowing outside and we have no
generator to warm the house. Can’t you feel how cold it
is?”

No,
his mind answered before it
caught up to the problem. He watched as Erica's breaths condensed
as she spoke finally putting all the parts of the equation together
and realising what she thought the problem was. If they were normal
humans and the same thing were happening, they would be worried. A
human body wouldn’t fare well in these sorts of temperatures, but
they weren’t human so the cold was rarely a concern for them, but
Erica thought that they were. He barely resisted the urge to groan
aloud.

“
How broken is broken?” he asked, deftly sidestepping her
earlier question. He had told so many lies that he was beginning to
think a change of career was in order, maybe a lawyer or better
yet, a politician. He wanted to avoid any new ones if
possible.

“
I touched it and nothing. It wasn’t even warm. Do you know how
to fix it?”

“
I haven’t got the faintest idea how a generator works let
alone how to fix it. The only thing I can do in this situation is
get us a new one and install it. I know how to do that.”

“
And where exactly do you plan to get this new
generator?”

“
I saw a store when we last went to town that I think might
sell them. It must be a fairly common problem in these parts. I’ll
go and have a look.” He stood up from his position on the floor,
stretching cramped muscles and cracking bones as he prepared to
begin his search for the required piece of equipment.

Watching the way his body moved was fast becoming her
favourite pastime but she managed to draw her gaze away from the
movements of his body long enough to tell him of her plans for the
day. “We’re coming too,” Erica inserted.

“
Why? It’ll be boring. I’m just going to get the generator and
come right back.”

“
I need to get some ingredients for Dylan and Wyatt’s
cake.”

“
I thought you already got what you needed that time you drove
to town without even knowing if you could drive.”

Her skin flushed at the reminder, her cheeks becoming
increasingly red. “According to them I didn’t get exactly what the
cake needs. They had a look through the cupboards and the things I
bought and apparently I missed some vital ones. They told me that
if I made the cake with the things I had it wouldn’t be worth
eating because it wasn’t the one they wanted.”

“
Picky aren’t they?”

“
You’re telling me.”

“
I suppose for the sake of your amazing cake I can’t leave you
here. I have no choice but to bring you with me.”

“
For the sake of the cake?” she laughed.

“
Of course,” he replied, his voice the model of
seriousness.

“
I’ll go and wake the munchkins then.”

“
You do that. We can’t let them stay in the house if it’s this
cold.”

Her smile faltered at the reminder that she cold not feel
what everyone else could. “I guess.”

“
Hurry up then. We’ve got a busy day in front of
us.”

*****

Vincent wasn’t a man known for either tolerance or patience
and as he sat within the confines of a large truck, he felt his
capacity for both being put to the test. There were two others
inside the vehicle with him, his right hand man David and the
newcomer, Dominic. After many years in his service and having been
personally trained by Vincent, David was well accustomed to what
his leader expected while they performed reconnaissance. Silence.
Dominic on the other hand didn’t seem to have a clue as to what
Vincent wanted and his incessant questions were beginning to wear
on Vincent’s nerves. Breathing deeply, Vincent tried to reassure
himself that things wouldn’t always be this way. When David had
first come to work with him, he too had been very talkative but
over the course of their time together he had changed, learning his
ways and becoming one of his most loyal subordinates. Having a
large number of people loyal to you came in very handy within their
organisation and he was hoping to inspire the same change in
Dominic. The man was already half way there, gratitude went a long
way to creating loyalty and Dominic had that in bucket
loads.

Dominic’s questions once again floated through the air to
reach his ears and Vincent reached the conclusion that the only way
to acquire silence would be to answer them.

“
I don’t understand sir,” Dominic began. “Why don’t we just go
into the house and take them? There aren’t all that many of them. I
don’t think it is outside of our capabilities to handle
them.”

“
It isn’t your job to think,” David snapped, turning from his
position in the driver’s seat to fix Dominic with a deadly glare.
“That task is reserved for our leader. It’s our job to simply
follow his orders.”

“
Thank you David. I can deal with this. He should understand
some basics of strategy if he’s to be of any use to our branch. I
don’t know what they were teaching you in that branch of yours if
you can’t even grasp this simple situation.”

Dominic averted his eyes, embarrassed by his new leader’s
words. “I apologise for my incompetence sir.”

“
It’s something that we can work on from now on. Let me explain
why we don’t simple barge into the house guns blazing and try to
capture them. To take on a fully grown werewolf when they aren’t
already ensnared in some sort of trap requires a great deal of
skill and man power. Unfortunately most of the experienced members
of our branch were slaughtered in the last attack. We don’t have
enough skilled personnel to take them on directly. There are three
of us correct?”

“
Yes sir,” Dominic agreed hurriedly.

“
When confronting a werewolf the odds should never be one on
one, it’s suicide to try and do so. Ideally there should be at
least five of us for every one of them and even then two of them
should be hidden so that they can disable the wolf with a shot from
a silver bullet.”