Excerpt: Wolf Run

I squeezed in between the patrons at the bar and leaned over the edge, trying to get the bartender’s attention. He was at the other end of the bar.. It gave me some time to mull over where Jones De La Guarda had gone.
“I’m sure it was just the bathroom,” I muttered to myself. “That’s all.” but my inner crazy person wouldn’t let it rest. Strange thoughts kept popping up in the crazy person recesses of my brain. I didn’t like what my looniness was saying.
“He went to go buy me flowers and candy,” I said, just to combat the visions popping in my head. “No? Okay, fine. He’s a dangerous guy, just like he warned me. Fine, he’s off in a corner somewhere shooting up. All right all right, he’s too good to be true. I knew there had to be something wrong with him. I should just go home.”
But that theory didn’t sound right either. I didn’t know what he was doing. The images flashing in my head of him hiding in a garbage can didn’t make any sense at all. Just completely ridiculous. Yet more proof that I was a crazy person and should stick to my books and go about my life quietly without stepping out of my comfort zone. Whenever I did, strange stuff like this happened.
“I should have listened to my mother.”
“Excuse me?”
I jumped and turned to look at the man sitting on the stool next to me at the bar. Turns out I had squeezed myself in between the members of the band that was about to play. I looked over at the stage, there were still guys in tshirts and long shaggy hair setting up the equipment, but this man, With his tight leather pants and kohl makeup looked to be the lead singer or maybe guitarist. I don’t know. He had the look of someone who expected all eyes to be on him.
“I’m sorry I was just talking to myself. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
The man took a deep breath, I could see his nostrils flaring, and when he let it out, a wicked smile spread across his face. His eyes gleamed and he looked at me. “You didn’t disturb me at all, pretty little thing.” He brought his beer up to his lips, staring at me all the while, and the glint of a fang shaped silver ring on his finger brought out the sharpness in his own teeth.
I shivered.
His grin grew wider.
“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked and flagged down the bartender. The bartender was there in an instant. I brushed aside my annoyance, how long has I waited there without him even acknowledging my presence?
“No,” I said, “That’s okay. I was actually up here to get a round for me and my date.”
“Your date,” He raised his eyebrow, doubtfully. “I don’t see anyone else. No suitor awaiting your pleasure.”
I glanced behind me at where we had been, and indeed, Jones was still missing. I tamped down my own annoyance in the face of this guy. I must be wearing some fancy perfume today that brought all the boys out of the woodwork, because I had never had so many guys hit on my so persistently in one night. Was there something about tonight that brought out my charms.
I snorted at the thought.
“Is there something funny?” the guy asked. “I would like to share in the joke.”
“He’s in the bathroom.” I said. “ My date. That’s all. I came to get us some beers.”
“He should not leave such an attractive girl alone in such a… [?} place. One never knows what kind of villains one might find in a place like this.” He opened his mouth in a silent chuckle.
This guy was starting to piss me off. Especially as he was flashing his canines and his ring again. I hated guys who thought they were dangerous, when really they were just jerks.
“I’ll take two beers,” I told the bartender. The bartender glanced at the rock dude, as if for confirmation or approval. I felt my rage rise from the bottom of my toes to my chest and sit there, swelling. “I said I’ll take two beers. You don’t need to check with this guy here.” The bartender looked taken aback, but nodded silently and went to the beer fridge.
“’This guy here.’ I’m gratified that my fame precedes me.” His grin was even wider now, and I wanted to knock it off of his face. The thought shocked me a little. I was not a violent person. I was the kind of person who stayed in the background and helped other people out. Maybe this guy just brought the inner beast out in me. But truly, I wanted to tear him apart.
“The name is El Lobo.”
“That’s your name, huh? How, uhm, unique.” I meant it to be insulting. Again, out of character for me. Maybe meeting Jones tonight was what had brought out this side of me. I didn’t know, but if he didn’t hurry up and get back here, I was going to go home and leave this place just to get out of the same airspace as this really annoying guy.
“I am the El Lobo of El Lobo and the Wolves.”
I nodded. He wanted me to be impressed. I didn’t care.
“I am the headliner tonight. It is my band.”
“Uh huh. I got that. I’m just wondering about the name. Isn’t there already a band named that? That seems kind of lame. What are you, copying them?”
“There is not,” he said, and pulled himself up so that his back was ramrod straight in the bar stool and he glared down at me. “They are pretenders.”
I laughed at him. “Okay there, man.”
He glared harder. The bartender brought the beers back and set them in front of me, nice and icy wet. “How much?” I asked.
The bartender shook his head and held his hand out. “El Lobo has it.”
“Does El Lobo?” I wasn’t having him pay for my beers. I wanted nothing to do with him. I wanted him holding nothing over me. I left a ten dollar bill on the bar. He could take it for a tip, for all I cared, but I was paying my money.
I picked up my beers with one hand and turned my back on ‘The Wolf.’ Pretentious Motherfucker.
“Excuse me?” El Lobo said.
Crap I’d said it out loud. That would teach me to talk to myself. The habit slipped out when I didn’t mean it to.
“I said, I’m going to find my date,” although obviously that wasn’t what I’d said. I didn’t care what this jerk thought I’d said, and I didn’t really care to stick around to hear him wail and see him prance around pretentiously on the stage. El Lobo and the Wolves. That silver fang ring and the makeup. Please. When I found Jones, if he had a good reason to desert me like that, I was going to suggest we go somewhere quieter and talk. And if he didn’t have a good reason, forget the chemistry, I wasn’t going to stand for someone treating me like that. If I was going to invest my time and energy in a guy, he was going to be there. My mother wouldn’t even have given him that much of a shot. She would have taken the opportunity to pack us up and move us across country. I was learning from her mistakes, but that didn’t mean that I was going to put up with dumb guys.
I nodded to myself and took a big breath. I felt better after making that decision. Maybe I should thank El Shmucko. He helped me clear my head from all the hormones that drowned it when Jones touched me. I had clear goals in my life, school, a real job, a stable life. I was on the road to getting those things. I knew I still had time to make it back to Lazy Jay’s pick up my books and make it home to study for an hour or so before getting an abbreviated night of sleep. I could live on one night of shortened sleep. Tomorrow I had a day off, so after class, I could take some time and nap.
Okay. Now where did Jones go. I went so far as to go back to the restrooms and knock on the men’s room door. “Jones? You in there?” No answer. But a guy came out and looked at me strangely, then kept watching me as he walked away, almost tripping because he was looking behind him instead of where he was going. What the hell was wrong with all these guys tonight?
After checking the bathroom I made a circuit of the bar. I didn’t see Jones anywhere and was starting to get really pissed off.
Then I remembered seeing him in front of Lazy Jay’s smoking a cigarette when he was waiting for me to get off of work. Fine a guy who smokes is not the ideal, but at least it offered a suggestion for where he had gone. Sometimes those cigarette fiends don’t really have a choice. “Better than shooting heroin in a corner, at least,” I said. Some chick I passed turned to stare at me. Whatever. I was getting pissed off.
I made my way to the front of the bar, where the bouncer told me I wasn’t allowed to bring my beers outside. Fine with me. I’d forgotten I was holding them. I put the bottles down on a counter and pushed the door open.
I got outside and the cool air of the night washed over me.
A lot of the burning energy inside of the bar just flowed right out of me. The night sky was high and clear above the dark buildings, and the moon, round and crystalline shone brighter than any of the street lamps lining the crooked old streets. It was January, but some freak of the atmosphere had made it feel like Spring. The breath chilled, just slightly, but there must be a
I stepped out of the doorway and walked over to the curb. There were a few people standing there smoking cigarettes or talking, but as I looked for Jones in the small crowd, they went back inside or wandered away, until I was the only one on the street. The quiet was nice. I shook my head as if to clear it and felt energized.
It was a good feeling, but there was no Jones.
The annoyance trickled back. But I wasn’t going to let it beat me. I walked down the street a little and noticed and alleyway. The thought occurred to me that what I was looking for might be there.
“He’s got to be there,” I said to myself. “I’ve looked everywhere else. There’s no where else to look.” There was no one outside this time to give me funny looks for talking to myself.
The music from the juke box spilled out of the front door, but that swung closed and the sound went dead. When I reached the alleyway and looked in, I heard a rattling back there, amongst the bins and discarded boxes.
“Jones?” I called.
I thought I heard someone mutter something back. I took a step in to the shadows and the walls.
“Jones?” I said again. “Is that you? Are you okay? You left so abruptly I was starting to get worried about you…” I peered into locked doorways.
That was when I realized I was deep into the alleyway and that no one could see me from the street on either side. All the years of my mothers lessons about keeping safe and not putting myself in danger snapped back into place and I wondered what the hell had made go into a dark and strange alley by myself in the middle of the night in a neighborhood that was questionable even during day light hours?
Was I a fool? A couple of drinks should not make me do something like that.
I needed to get back to the bar. I was sure that Jones was back there now, and probably looking for me. I was the one who wandered off, I realized.
I turned to go and stumbled.
Someone caught me.
I looked up, as if in slow motion, my heart suddenly racing. My head said it was Jones that I’d finally found, but some animal part of me screamed for me to run.
Then I met his eyes. His black lined eyes narrowed with anger and burning. It was El Lobo.
“Where did your date go, my little pet?”
His tone was soft, whispered, almost, but the menace was clear.
I backed up. Or I tried to. He held onto my elbow.
“Let me go, El Lobo,” I said. I didn’t mock him this time. I didn’t want to tempt his temper, and yet, somehow I knew the only way to get out of this without real trouble was to address him as if I was in charge. “Let go of my arm.”
He smiled, but the smile showed his sharp teeth. A shiver went through me that I was unable to suppress. He saw it and smiled wider.
But he let me go. For that I was immensely grateful. I had a better chance getting away now than I did when he was holding on to me. Only briefly did I wonder what the lead singer of a rock band would want with me, or why I was so sure he wanted to do something really terrible. I just knew. I truly felt like my mother’s daughter, for the first time in my life. It was time to get out of here, to run as fast and as far as possible. There was danger all around. And yet, I knew I had to stay in control or I was lost.
“Don’t you have a performance to get to? I‘m sure you have fans to please.”
He laughed, and brushed his hand through his spiky hair. “My underlings are setting up for the performance. They’ll do what I need them to do without my direct presence.”
Underlings? Who did this guy think he was, anyway? I wanted to slap him. I wanted to make him grovel at my feet. How dare he follow me out here and try to molest me.
“This won’t take long, I’m sure.” His teeth, so sharp and bright in the bar when he was drinking a bottle of beer, seemed to gleam and lengthen in the shadows of the alley. The shadows making his face seem almost animalistic. It was my imagination, I thought. It was a manifestation of my fear, that was all. It was the effect of years of fairytales of the big bad wolf and the innocent girl. He wasn’t really turning into a wolf. It was just my imagination, but I could keep the fear from making my heart speed up.
“This what?” I said, and there was a note of panic in my voice. I couldn’t help it.
He began stalking towards me.
“I’m leaving now.” I said, afraid to turn my back on him and just run.
“No, you’re not, my little pet.”
He made no signal, but all of a sudden, I was surrounded by dark figures.
I spun around.
Had they been there all along? Why had I not noticed them when I first came in? Or had they slunk in so silently and fast that I didn’t know they were there.
Were they even human?
Before my eyes, they seemed to stretch and elongate, shifting from downtown hipster to monster.
Faces became muzzles, hair spread over their bodies, covering their humanity like a thick syrup. Their hands sprouted inch long claws and their mouths the most terrifying fangs imaginable.
My breath came fast. Gasping.
It was impossible. It was impossible. I knew that, maybe I was crazy, maybe I was not just pretend crazy but maybe I was certifiable, having a psychotic break, but the fear coursing through my body couldn’t be denied. I was surrounded by ravening monsters, beasts, tales from the deep.
I found myself planting my feet, getting down in a fighters stance, as if I had actually taken the self defense classes my mother would never allow me to take. I was ready to, ridiculously, fight of the monsters. Or, while my mind was screaming the impossibility of it all, the ridiculousness, my body was seemingly taking over. As if I had instincts I didn’t know until this very night.
“Oh, my silly little pet,” El Lobo said, still looking much like the rock star in the bar before, while all his lackey looked like monsters from old Hollywood movies. “I knew you would be good sport when I first smelled you.. And I was right. You heard our call, didn’t you?“
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,“ I hissed.
“So you usually leave behind a perfectly safe place to go traipsing through abandoned back alleys in the middle of the night? Of course you didn’t. You heard us call to you. You came because you heard us. There must be some drop of Lycan blood in your ancestry. Always so nice to find in an unexpected place.”
“I don’t have any blood,” I said.
“You most certainly do. Very vital, lively blood. And very tasty.” He was circling me now, coming closer and closer. I breeze passed through the alley and brought the scent of what could only be El Lobo to my own nose. He smelled like an animal. He smelled like danger. How had I thought he was just pretending at being dangerous? How had I missed it?
I shivered.
“And once upon a time your human grandmother or great grandmother was fucked by a Lycan male. Foolishly, he must not have gone back to check on her, or finish his sport. Or perhaps she was exceedingly clever and escaped him. Generations later, you are the result.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Oh yes, quite ridiculous. Fantastic. Astonishing, but I can smell the scent of strength on you. It is very attractive.” He continued his circling path around me and I realized it was not a circle, but a spiral, as he was closer and closer to me with every step. “Particularly in contrast to the very weak and silly little pet I see standing here. Why, if the council had not demanded the death of all Hybrids, I might even keep you and play with you, alone, at night. Just the two of us.” He ended the last by standing behind me, and brushing his hand down the side of my neck. The shiver was uncontrollable and I jumped away, swatting at his invading hand. The circle of what could only be described as werewolves, impossibly as it seemed, drew in tighter. He waved them off. So sure that I had no defense. I tried to be ready for the attack that I was sure was about to come.
“ Oh the typical bravado of cocky young humans. We could write a book on you. You actually think you can fight us? Did you learn that in school?” He gestured dismissively at my stance, hands up as if I was ready to wax on- wax off. I knew I was ridiculous, but I couldn’t drop my guard.
“This is our moon, little pet. Even if it were a normal night or the light of day, you would not be able to stand against us, but tonight is the full moon of our people and our strength is at its height. Tonight is the Wolf Moon.” He pointed up and all the werewolves surrounding us looked up at the moon that showed so brightly in the sky above the alley, chasing the shadows into even deeper black and the horrific nightmare of a scene into something even more ghastly. I was about to die, I knew it, if something miraculous did not happen.
“The moon is our only mistress, little human hybrid.” El Lobo said. “In your prehistory, the gods themselves sought dominion over us,, thinking they were better than our forefathers. But we were given over to the moon, and she gave proof to our dominance. And we gave proof to her powers, because those gods have faded into stories and myths, no stronger than flickering images on a movie screen, but we are legend, we are strong, we prowl your streets and prey on the weak, and no one can stop us. We are the People of the Wolf Moon!”
At that, all of the werewolves and El Lobo pointed their faces too the sky and howled. The noise was immense and chilling and yet I knew, now was the time.
I ran.
I ran, slipped through the crowd and tried to make it out of the alley and back into the bar. They couldn’t go in there looking like monsters. They couldn’t attack me in a crowded bar.
But my hopes were dashed. I was caught before the mouth of the alley by one of the wolves. It grabbed me and snarled in my face, looking like a beast on two feet and taller than any person had a right to be, but it’s eyes were intelligent and they were snapping mad.
“Ah, my little pet,” El Lobo said. He strode towards me. The slink gone from his gait. He was angry. Shit.
“You should not have run. I do not like that.” He said.
“Well what was I supposed to do? Just let you eat me?” Who let those words come out of my mouth? Why couldn’t I just stay silent and look for my next chance to escape? But another wolf came up and grabbed my other arm. They weren’t going to give me another chance to escape. I struggled against their grip, but I couldn’t even move them. I couldn’t loosen their hold, in fact, both werewolves simply tightened their grasps and stood stone still, as if they weren’t even affected by my ineffectual struggles.
“Foolish girl. You should not have run. I might very well have kept you alive until I could bring you to the council. We do have occasional use of tainted hybrids, for hard labor and servants, you see, but you have shown too much fire here. You would not be one who would be tamed, my little pet. You will not do, you will not do at all.”
“I am not your pet!” I spat.
“No, no, you are not. Perhaps you will be my little snack, instead.” He raised his hand and the monsters holding me dragged me down to my knees, despite my struggling. Then, before I could realize, I was on the ground, completely prone, and another pair of werewolves was leaning on my ankles.
El Lobo took off his jacket, and then pulled his tshirt over his head, to show a broad, bare chest. He handed his clothes to a lackey, and stepped closer.
“This is even better than the other option, my pet, although there is only one chance to play. It is nice to keep a girl around to have my way, but nothing” he grinned, and those sharp teeth were sharper than any animal’s I’d ever seen, “nothing I’ve ever experienced had been better than eating the still beating heart of a beautiful woman.”
It was then that I finally screamed. I screamed as long and loud as I could until a wolf clamped a large hand…. Paw?… over my mouth and silenced me. I felt the claws resting on my cheek, and it made me fight even more, as hard as I could. One wolf lost his grip on my ankle and I thought I was almost free, but then he regained it and I was pinned once more and El Lobo was coming closer, an evil, anticipatory gleam in his eye.