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I sniffed the ground where the spell once lay, and found nothing but errant sparkles and my boyfriend’s wand. Where was Jacob? I lifted my head and scented the air.
He was still there—I could smell his distinct manliness—but where?
One of the most interesting differences of my wolf form was how smell presented itself. My nose was, as expected, sharper and better able to sort out the multiple scents that covered absolutely everything. My eyesight improved, too, but it was less the actual ‘seeing’ than the fact that scent showed up as colored lines, like a child gone rogue with finger paints. Every scent claimed a different color, unique to the person, place, or thing.
Jacob appeared in deep navy, and it puddled where he had stood during our spell unraveling. I started there and followed the scent line into the kitchen, where his feet lay unmoving behind the island.
Jacob! I barked. The unmistakable metallic stench of blood filled my nose. Oh, no!
As I rounded the island, his scent mingled with that scent of blood, pouring from a protrusion of jagged bone in one arm and forming a crimson halo around his head.
Jacob! I barked again, and touched his face with my nose.
He was still warm, still alive.
I licked him gently across one cheek. Please wake up! I whined and nudged him again.
Behind me came the unmistakable sound of the front door opening, metal tumblers and creaking wood. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and a low growl emanated from my throat as I straddled Jacob’s inert body and waited.
“Ms. Delante?” a male voice called out.
I didn’t recognize the sound or scent of him.
“Ms. Delante, this is Officer Jenkins. I’m not here to hurt you. I need to know you’re okay, if you’re in danger.”
Come closer, meat bag, and I’ll show you danger. I moved forward into the ‘v’ of Jacob’s legs, ready to pounce. I smelled him moving toward the kitchen. No one was taking Jacob from me—not this guy, not anyone following him, no one. Teeth bared, I was ready.
Then I smelled her, all pink champagne bubbles, and him—my other him, dark and musky. They could save him. I needed them to save him. I whined and poked my head around the island.
“Holy shit!” Officer Jenkins eyes shot wide in his pale face as he pulled his piece and backed up.
Lucy and Daniel trotted to him.
He just shook his head. “Wolf. Dead body. Wolf.”
Daniel started for me, but Lucy put her arm out. “I don’t know what she’ll do right now. She’s not herself. She’s drowning in someone else’s magick, and I’m pretty sure she’s still mad at you. If she hurt you now, when she doesn’t have all her mental faculties, she would never forgive herself.”
He considered it for a second. “Fine, but the longer she takes to find her ‘faculties’, the longer Jacob doesn’t get treatment.” He looked right at me. “Remember that.” He ushered the officer out the front door and began shouting orders.
“He’s such a dick sometimes,” Lucy whispered as she knelt in front of me. “Hey, sweetie, you okay in there?” She held a hand out.
I nuzzled her palm and leaned in as she moved to scratch me behind one ear. The first time she’d seen me changed, while on purpose, scared her. I wasn’t a little wolf, my shoulders a couple of inches above her waist, and I hadn’t maintained as much control then. There had been fewer human thoughts and more animal urges. The human parts that poked through had a hard time adjusting to the new controls, and I had inadvertently taken my frustrations out on her and the boyfriends in a flurry of claw marks and nips.
Lucky for me, they all took it in stride—learning curve for all of us. It was a rough first few months. Daniel had woken up in shredded sheets and a growling beast in his face. Despite being Wiccans, we’d somehow forgotten about the full moon. We never did after that.
Now Lucy could sit on my kitchen floor and pet me without worrying if I was going to eat her. Goldilocks and the Big Bad Wolf? What a story.
“Can I take a look at him?” She nodded toward Jacob.
I whined and moved away from him, pacing the kitchen as she checked him out.
She checked for a pulse, fingers pressed to the carotid artery in his neck. “Oh, thank the gods.” She sighed with relief.
I padded over and nosed her arm.
“Zoë, I have to get the EMTs in here. Jacob needs to get to the hospital. Can you promise to be a good wolf and not eat them?”
I made a sound like a small, low breath of air, the ‘arfle’ we’d decided to call it. Daniel called it the wolf version of ‘fine.’
Lucy smiled. “Good girl.”
I’d get her for that later. For now, I resumed pacing away from his body while she made a phone call.
“Yeah, Daniel, he’s in pretty bad shape. Um....” She gave Jacob a once-over. “At least one compound fracture in his arm, and he smacked his head pretty good, too. Don’t want to move him until you get your guys in here, but I don’t see anything else going on.” She stuck a finger in her mouth and gnawed on it while listening to the phone—one of her worst tells when she was really upset.
What wasn’t she telling him? Or me?
“Yeah, send them in.”
The front door opened again, and she waved me into the other room. “No need to freak anyone else out, Zo.”
I complied and let myself into the backyard. Yeah, that was something we’d changed early on: all the locks and door handles. This way I didn’t have to be chaperoned in wolf form—though Jacob enjoyed running with me... when he could keep up. I could be a tidy pup.
I trusted Lucy to take care of the human things, and to be honest, I had no clue how long this change would go on. The last vestiges of the magick had stopped sparking, and I felt no more of it inside me.
Might as well enjoy the change while I can.
***
The difference between the air out here and the air inside the house was phenomenal. I kept a clean house—ahem, paid a housekeeper—but it always smelled, well, canned, for lack of a better comparison. Clean, sure, but processed. Outside was a myriad of scents riding an undercurrent of freshness that could not be manufactured.
I stretched on the small back stoop, head down, furry butt in the air. Pushing off with the great strength in my hind legs, I leaped forward off the concrete and into the tree line. The dirt felt cool beneath my paws, each leg thumping the ground in a soothing rhythm. The whole experience was always very Zen, like a self-made metronome turning movement to meditation.
The path I ran had been carved by humans before I bought the house, but that scent had long faded, replaced by the more familiar ones of my close circle. The echoes of the last walk Jacob and I had taken filled my muzzle, like a physical memory of a hug, a comfort amid my current flood of concern.
I stopped at my scratching tree and rubbed against it. As a human, I hadn’t found being groomed in my wolf form pleasurable, but something about this was different, better, like nature just made a better way to take care of things. A few minutes later, I lay against the mighty trunk and paused everything, and a happy rumble emanated from my chest. This was part of the curse I could live with just fine.
The Zen didn’t last long, as a strange, almost sulphuric smell crept across the ground. I sneezed, a stranger sensation when you’re a canine, and blinked a few times to find my bearings.
“How odd,” a short, slip of a man wearing a cape murmured from his position against a tree across the path. “You’re in the wrong part of the world, love.” He was dark-skinned, but more Indian than African, with black eyes and equally black hair.
I growled, and he threw his hands up in mock surrender.
“Pretty puppy, I mean you no harm.” His accent betrayed his Indian origins, just a hint as he spoke. “Wouldn’t dream of it. I only bring a message from Our Great Naga Adhiraj. He’s asked me to give you a present.” He reached beneath the cloak, and the movement revealed the telltale golden glimmer of scales against his skin.
My hackles rose as the retching scent of decay wafted through the air. No. I took a step closer.
The naga smiled and shook one finger at me. “No, no, little witch. No pouncing. Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”
