A Wolf at the Door

“He’s alive,” I quickly assured her. “Hurt and sore, but he’s fine. He’s downstairs. The thing kept him alive, because he needed the blood to take Dante’s form, his voice.” And my blood, he’d gotten from the tissue I’d told “Dante” to burn. At least, that’s what I’d have done in his place.

Golem-Me grimaced. “As well that this masquerade is over then, if he’s escaped. He wouldn’t have kept much longer at any rate.”

“You hurt Dante?” Despite the darkness, I could see angry fire flare in Gretchen’s blue eyes. “You hurt him?” As scared as I knew she was, only one thing would override that, and it was sheer rage. Women in protective mode are probably the scariest things I’ve ever seen, bet you me. “Fuck you!”

Damn, the girl was quick. Before I could yell at her not to, she swung, jabbing her stiff fingers into Golem-Me’s eyes. The thing recoiled as she raked her fingernails out, taking huge gobbets of clay with it. In the scuffle, it dropped the gun and Gretchen snatched it up. The golem lurched in her direction, and she fired, the flash bright in the darkness. A good chunk of the golem’s shoulder disappeared. “Stop! Don’t you make a fucking move!”

I’d been on the move myself, and we both came to a screeching halt. Always do what the lady with the gun tells you. I didn’t think she could kill the golem with it, but a stray bullet was definitely not going to be healthy for me.

The pause gave the golem time to fix its eyes, the creature smoothing away the gouged clay with its fingers until it could see again. Definitely no chance of mistaking it for me now, the eye sockets hollowed out and lumpy around the edges. The clay orbs rolled like real eyes, but there were no pupils or irises to be seen. Just flat, matte gray marbles in the deep, dark sockets.

Gretchen climbed up on the edge of the reflecting pool so she didn’t have to look up at the both of us. Her bare feet shuffled for balance on the precarious stone edge, but her aim with the gun never wavered. It was enormous in her small hands, but she held it like she knew which end was the dangerous one. She looked like a child up there, lost in her huge sweatshirt, hiding behind someone else’s gun. “You pretended to be my best friend. You sat there and listened to me spill my guts. I told you stuff nobody else knows. I trusted you!”

If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say the golem looked sheepish, but his voice was flat. “As you were meant to.”

“You were supposed to trust him, Gretchen.” The thing was still between me and her. I slowly circled, trying to put myself at a better angle if I had to rush the golem. Man, I hoped I didn’t have to. “You were supposed to trust him enough to hand over those souls.”

“And you?” The muzzle of that gun swung my direction, and I froze again. “Some mysterious person sent you here to ‘protect’ me? I was supposed to trust you too, right?”

Girl had me there. I could totally see that as part of Axel’s plan, and he’d have known that I’d never go along with it if he laid it all out beforehand. “Doesn’t matter what the person who sent me here wanted. I said I’d protect you. I meant that.” I motioned with my free hand. “Come down, come this way.” If that thing went to grab her, I was pretty sure I wasn’t gonna make it in time. I needed her closer.

“No. Screw you both. I’m done being told what to do and when to do it.” I think Golem-Me must have moved, because she swung the gun back around in his direction. “Did it ever occur to anyone to just ask me? I mean, what am I gonna do with them? I’d have given them to anybody who asked. But no, you gotta mess with my head, mess with my life.”

The golem blinked at her a little with his malformed eyes. “Then…can I have them?”

She laughed bitterly. “You know…I might have given them to you. Except you hurt Dante. Nobody hurts my friends.”

I was trying so hard not to pay attention to the sharp, icy goose bumps marching up and down my spine. Something was going to happen in the next few moments, I could feel it. Something not good. “Gretchen, come here. Give me the gun.” I stretched my hand out to her, trying to will her to step down and take it.

Her gaze swiveled to me again, and she gave me a ghost of a smile. “I believe you, you know. I think you’d have protected me, if you could. You’re good people. You don’t belong out here with people like us. You don’t belong working for whatever asshole sent you out here.”

“Gretchen, don’t…” I had no idea what she was about to do, but I knew I desperately didn’t want her to do it.

She shook her head, her blond hair falling in wisps around her face. This high up, the wind was starting to pick up, tugging everything in the direction of the ocean. “They’re not gonna stop coming. If you kill this thing here”—she gestured toward the golem—“they’ll send something else. Bobby almost died. Tai might be dead. They’re gonna kill you too. Until I give these things over to somebody else.”