Wolf Sirens Night Fall: What Rises Must Fall (Wolf Sirens #3) (19 page)

Cres stroked
her yellow blonde hair with her scabbed stubbed fingers. “We just
have to keep her in the dark about exactly where and when.”

“And stop her
communicating with them.” I added.

“Jackson’s with
her all the time. He’s only with us now because she is. She’s on
the fence. I think if we stop her or Narine getting to her…” she
said intently.

I cut her off,
“You think she is a spy?” I asked, feeling vulnerable.

“She was, but I
think she really hates Narine,” Cres said confidently. “Narine took
a sizable chunk out of her leg. She convinced Jackson to join us.”
She raised her brow. “He was reluctant,” she urged.

“They are
close?” My eyes squinted in suspicion.

“Yes, they have
a connection,” she nodded, turning serious.

I felt she was
uncertain. I frowned.

“I feel their
feelings are real, but she was sent to monitor us by any means
necessary…”

I heard the
implied intent. “So her feelings might not be so true?” I
asked.

“What we can
rely on, is that his feelings for her are very solid.” Like the way
Reid felt for her. “And she hates Narine but she is still one of
their pack. I will keep an eye on her. So will Reid, and right now
she has information they would kill for.”

I pulled out a
map “We meet here.” I pointed to show Cres the exact location of
Lily’s house on Tarah beach.

“When?”

“We think on a
crescent moon?”

Cres swallowed
and nodded. “That should be fine. Good, at night,” she agreed.

“Your job is to
get them there,” I confirmed. “Cres, this will work won’t it?” I
asked, noting my friend’s expression.

“Yes, because
of you. I don’t know what’s happening out there with you or who has
helped you, but I see it being a successful meeting.” She neglected
to mention that for herself, she couldn’t see the same outcome in
the end. “I’ve got your back, I swear.” She gave a sad smile.

I mistook her
sadness as concern for her brother. “If we kill Narine and Paws,
your brother will be safe.”

Cres looked
pensive. I knew she was concerned. But she nodded bravely.

I took the
opportunity to add what I wanted to say. “Thanks Cres.” And I did
mean it.

“For what?”

“Risking it.
You could have just turned me in the first time I came, or
disappeared. I know you don’t have to help me.”

“I do, I owe
you this Lila.” The devastated smile on her lips didn’t reach her
almond eyes.

“I understand
why you did it,” I added, referring to my entrapment.

“Well,” Cres
shrugged, “here’s to justice.” She gave another fainter smile.

I thought I saw
a bandage on Cresida’s wrist. Suddenly I grabbed it. Cres didn’t
resist and let me un-stick the bandage. Underneath was the
unmistakable black lines of ink staining her olive toned skin. My
eyes focused on the black wing tattooed on my friend’s body; its
thin line was reminiscent of mine and it was in an identical
position. The resemblance was flattering. “Are we like a gang now?”
I smirked.

Cres shrugged.
“I didn’t want to get the same as you because I’m not anymore.” I
was perplexed as to why Cres had chosen a single wing, outlined.
“She flies with her own wings,” Cres offered. “It’s a Latin
saying.” She gave a self-depreciating smile.

I looked at the
mobile made of parrot feathers strung above the bed on a fishing
swivel. Perhaps it had some special symbolism for her.

I imagined
Artemis had an affinity with the birds; perhaps she was the
feathered guardian angel of the forests around Shade, like the
carving on Tisane’s door. The birds didn’t fear the huntress the
way they feared the presence of the wolves.

“Did you
collect them?”

“These are
trophies, Lila.” Cres assessed my reaction. “I'm not like you, I’ve
tried to tell you, I’m a wolf, we kill to eat, and I couldn’t bear
to waste the beautiful feathers, they are there to remind me what I
am.” She looked over at the mobile with a forlorn expression.

My face
softened. “Just because I eat meat, doesn’t mean it’s right,
either. We are all murderers.” I wanted to comfort her. “Who is to
say what is right and wrong; we have to be trusted to judge that
for ourselves. I’m just glad you don’t hang up rats tails.” I
teased.

“Or cats
tails.” Cres joked and we both laughed awkwardly. “Reid added to
it, it was sweet,” she offered. She was reminded of his missing
tabby cat and then thinking she added, “Some creatures are our
brothers; they’re so like us it doesn’t seem right to kill and eat
them.”

“We all make a
choice about what we feel is right.” Cres wasn’t mean, “Were you
cruel, Cresida?”

“No. The way I
saw it, I was a creature surviving and so were the birds. I was
nature, eating and giving birth to itself in all its forms. When
she is young and weak she protects her, when she is old and weak
she shows mercy for her. Nothing is ever created, just reformed
from one thing to another, to another forever,” she whispered.

I was reminded
of Tisane; how she had told me that hunters were entrusted to keep
the balance of the natural world. I wondered what it would be like
to be a wolf and hunter at once. I was untouched by the immortal
elixir of Zeus.

“What’s it
like?” I asked.

“What, eating
prey?” she guessed.

“No, being a
wolf.” I wondered what she thought of when she was an animal. I
wanted to understand it.

“It’s easy,”
Cres rasped.

“Have you
thought about just being that way forever?”

“They are more
noble than us for all their lack of intelligence. It’s when we are
human that we scheme, we only know of hunger and fear out there. We
can forget human things like worry and hope.” She sounded
distant.

“Would you ever
disappear as one?”

Cres looked
deep in thought. “No. Not now, not then, not ever. I run with Reid
because it seems to please him. Like he thinks it doesn’t betray
his kind to be with me if I am a dog too.” She sighed.

She wasn’t a
dog.

“Artemis would
never want you to be tortured Cres, not to live in emotional pain.”
I thought how I was lucky to not be in Cresida’s predicament, to
not be one of the damned or weak animals at the mercy of
humans.

“What do you
know about the demigod?” Cres challenged and then fell silent.

“Enough,” I
replied. I couldn’t tell Cres about Tisane and her mother’s
knowledge passed down. I thought Tis would have changed Cres’s
mind, maybe, if it could be altered. Maybe if Cres didn’t accept
the end, it would make it more dreadful for me to go through with
it.

I asked what
troubled me. “Why didn’t Narine take your brother when I went?”

“She waits for
him to age. There’s a risk the young will perish from the venom the
way the very old do.” Cres knew when the wolves were all dead, and
her brother safe, that she could go then. Knowing her brother
Bronson was safe was all that mattered to her. I hated that she
accepted it.

I suddenly
doubted Narine wanted the boy; surely they would have taken him by
now because Cres hadn’t kept me placid.

“How do you
know she wants him still?”

“I’ve seen it.”
She breathed in. “She found my weak spot and exploited it. Also if
she took him, I would have nothing to hold me here, she is waiting
for you to come to her, Lila.” Narine used the boy to control
Cresida.

“They won’t
find me here will they?” I whispered, suddenly worried that I had
come into a trap.

“No,” Cres
said, certain.

I looked down
in thought. “She doesn’t plan on your friends and allies though,” I
reflected hopefully.

“No, they have
underestimated you. After the war, will you take out the remaining
wolves?” she was asking me to cull them.

“Only when I am
forced.” I shrugged. “They won’t take my mother will they?”

“Not as long as
they believe that I don’t know where you are. And as long as they
don’t know where you are...you shouldn’t show compassion. I’ve
taught you wrongly. Your job is to destroy their kind. My kind,
they can’t be trusted, I know, I am one…you can’t make a deal with
the devil.” She searched my eyes, “Don’t be the weak link, I accept
it. It’s my fate,” she urged. The wolves were vicious.

I couldn’t be
convinced now that I could ever be able to end Cresida’s life. But
for now, to calm my friend, I agreed. But I had other plans after
the fight. C.J could take over if she wanted. Sky’s effect on me
awoke the hunter and destroyed her in one swipe.

“I will.” I
assured her. And after all, Cres had lied to me once. I knew I was
a traitor to my kind, Cres had an excuse and in my heart I wanted
that excuse too. I could never be with Sky unless I changed.

One thing was
certain, the Cult had broken unwritten rules. They considered
themselves above society with their own laws and were no good for
others of their kind. They practiced disabling hunters - the law in
their world for centuries. They disobeyed the natural law; in doing
so they disturbed the equilibrium of nature.

They were
dangerous, out of control. Artemis was charged with correcting the
balance and hunters were her soldiers.

As I headed
towards Tisane’s, I hated them with more loathing than I had felt
before. The chip on my shoulder felt deep, my hands wrung the
steering wheel. Cres was in tears, contemplating her impending
death and if they didn’t kill her I was supposed to. Sky was
trapped and wounded. C.J was on the fence after her first kill.
Rage built in me, for them hurting Sky, for separating us and for
making me a killer. I would never let him go. I wasn’t going to
wait placidly for them.

Abruptly I
veered in the direction of the recently buried She Wolf. This would
be easier if I didn’t think about it, or know who the Jane Doe was,
because after I arrived home Tisane might have information on her
identity and that would make it far harder to do what I planned. I
parked the car on the shoulder of the dirt road to Tisane’s
cabin.

I paused in the
forest at the grave and reminded myself that I had already decided
I was going to do it. I used my bare hands to scrape aside the
leaves and dug up the dirty naked corpse; it was by now the early
hours of the morning. I pulled out the pale rigid body, with sunken
eyes and dirt in her hair. I stood still for a moment listening to
the forest and the blood pounding in my ears softly.

Already she had
begun to smell and decay in the damp. I took out my hunting knife
and carved a cross on her dirt-soiled rigor mortised chest. I would
have drawn the angel Artemis, like the one on my wrist, but that
was too hard, so I simplified. The cross looked all too plain, so I
added a heart like the one on the tree by the river and then I
added the same crescent, to represent the moon and four lines like
a sun coming out from behind it. I claimed the symbol on the oak
for myself, for the huntress.

If they knew
about the scarred tree, they would know where I was, if they didn’t
already. Maybe this was my invitation. I wiped the dark coagulated
blood off my knife with a broad leaf, folded it and placed it in my
pocket.

I carried her
stiffened, lifeless body some distance – lumbering under the
awkward weight. After I had traipsed a fair distance, I placed her
naked corpse down in the wild grass and forced her rigid arms up,
as they cracked, breaking the rigor, I winced. I wound her hands
with a vine cut with the previously bloody knife blade. I wiped my
brow and took a few breaths before continuing on, dragging the body
through the undergrowth, over leaves and sticks and fallen logs by
the bound wrists, determined.

When I reached
the car, I used my knife to cut the vines off her wrists. I shoved
the corpse in the back seat and threw a dusty blanket from the boot
over it. It was nearing sunrise when I checked the coast was clear
and drove out onto the tarmac towards the Cult compound. I parked
by the road, engine running, and opened the back passenger door
throwing off the blanket. I dragged the body out, hurriedly
lumbering across the long grass, to the wall. The road was luckily
deserted, but a car could come along at any minute and my heart
beat with adrenaline.

I heaved and I
pushed the body in a panic, until she lay face down supported by
the wall and then I easily tossed it over the other side. I heard a
light thud; she had no doubt landed awkwardly. I didn’t look back
as I sprinted back to the car…just in time as some traffic passed.
I kept my head down and slid into my seat and my dirty hands
gripped the steering wheel. I had returned the Jane Doe cadaver
like a damaged parcel to the compound. I steered back onto the road
and threw a U-turn back towards Tisane’s. Now they would know she
had met me and that the huntress had caused her demise. Hopefully
they weren’t beyond unsettling.

I veered for
the river on the way home. No amount of icy river water refreshed
me this time. Thirstily I drank the muddy water. I washed my shirt,
wringing it repeatedly in the stream. I tried to put the sight and
feel of the lifeless body out of my head as I pressed my face under
the rapids. As I ran my hands through my wet hair, I watched the
bank, as I often did, but this time it was with more concern. I
picked the dirt from under my nails. For the time being the river
edge seemed to be receding as bits of debris floated past in the
muddy water.

Emerging from
the cold river, wearing nothing but my tag, I trudged onto the
sediment stained bank, the weight of gravity hitting my wobbling
thighs. I pulled on my wet shirt and tugged on my dry underwear
from a branch. I stopped to look at the heart carved in the oak. I
leant on the bark as I awkwardly pulled on my socks and boots
before picking my gun and knife up from another branch. I headed
back to the car, carrying the rest of my clothes.