Part 3

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Tina came out of the grocery just as it was closing. She'd felt cut off from reality since she'd left Sybil's house, and that made it hard to interact with it, even to do the small acts of finding what she was looking for in the small town store. She'd found herself staring at her nails for minutes at a time, inspecting the smooth surface and the pale, carefully trimmed moon-like crescent above her finger tips. She'd finally come back to herself in time to get her groceries and check out as the light dimmed outside. She was the last one out, and her car was the last in the parking lot. Except, as she got closer, she saw the squad car parked behind it, and Ranger Sierra leaning casually against the hood of her jeep.

"Hello Miss Cunningham," Ranger Sierra said.

"Hello Ranger Sierra," she said, walking past him with her grocery bag, hand locked to her hip. She didn't want to deal with this right now.

"Would you mind coming down to the station?"

"I'm afraid I don't have time just now," she said, keeping walking. "I want to get home before dark. Those attacks are in my neighborhood, after all."

"If you don't come down, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you," Sierra said, voice hardening. Tina turned, shocked.

"Do you have a warrant? Do you even have reasonable suspicion?" she asked, insulted. The ranger stepped forward and looked down into her eyes.

"Will you come along, Miss Cunningham?" It was obvious he didn't have a warrant, or a reason for her arrest that would hold up in court, but Tina was just not up to dealing with this, even if she would have to be released almost immediately.

"No!" she said, with a little more power than she'd intended and turned on her heel, walking firmly away. A rough hand clamped down on her shoulder, and he spun her around, throwing her against the car. Tina's groceries went everywhere. Her legs throbbed as he yelled at her, his strong hand keeping one arm twisted behind her back painfully. Her legs ached where they'd struck the metal, and her arm felt like it was being torn out of the socket. Tina's eyes fogged red, and she felt the disconnection she'd come to associated with an episode. She gritted her teeth.

"You know more about this than you're telling, Tina," snarled Ranger Sierra. "And I intend to be the one who gets the information out of you, no matter what it takes."

Tina's muscles burned and she threw her head back and screamed. Half way through it changed tone to a howl, she struggled and suddenly Ranger Sierra was on the ground.

"You're a dead man, Sierra," Tina spat. "All, my life you've tormented me, I tell the truth, and you spit in my face and tell me I lie." She raised her hand, and realized he'd been hand-cuffing her. She took the red rage that was trying to steal her brain and channeled it with her mind directing it savagely at the cuff of metal. The cuff broke with a ping, the steel falling to the ground beside the startled ranger.

"I want the murders to end as much as you do," Tina said, breathing deeply as the red faded from her vision. "But locking me up won't stop them." She shook her head, wild black-brown hair flying around her face. "I'm not the one doing the killing."

"But you know who is!" he snarled and started to get up. Tina stomped her foot, dust risking.

"No. I don't."

"Liar."

Tina bared her teeth without thinking, and Ranger Sierra took a step back, hand brushing against his gun holster. Tina tried to control herself, but it was hard. Her mind was going more and more to the wolf.

"Again. You don't see what's in front of you. Oh lord of the hunt, why can't you see?"

"Because he doesn't understand," said a rough male voice. She looked up and saw the most charismatic man she'd ever seen, dressed in a pair of jeans, and a dress shirt, untucked. He had wild green eyes set in a tanned, almost Native American dark face, sprinkled liberally with dark scars and a thick thatch of shaggy black hair that fell haphazardly about his shoulders. Tina got the feeling that she'd seen him before.

"Who are you?" Ranger Sierra said. The man laughed.

"I'm the one who's doing the killing," the man said. His words sounded borrowed. Tina's heart sank. Something within her was called by the man's mere presence. "Now step away from the female." Sierra went for his gun, he drew and pointed it at the man. The wild young man's eyes mocked the Ranger, dancing with fire in a scarred face.

"You're under arrest," Ranger Sierra said. "You have a right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

"I don't think it will," the man said, tossing his head, then tilting it at Tina. "Will they, Tina?" Her name sounded funny in his mouth, as if it had no meaning.

"You have a right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided by the state."

"In my lord's court, there are no attorneys," the man said softly, flashing ivory teeth. "Which only goes to show we're more civilized than you." Dark fingers touched the front of his shirt, and began to unbutton it. Tina's heart pounded and her head throbbed, she backed up, bumping into the police car. Ranger Sierra's arm locked.

"If you do not come peacefully, I will shoot." The man smiled again, and dropped his shirt to the ground, then unbuttoned his jeans. Fine dark hair covered his arms and chest in a downy layer, Tina's eyes widened. She was almost afraid to blink. "Don't add indecent exposure to your list of crimes." Ranger Sierra said.

"Do you have a warrant?" the man mocked, almost identically to Tina's voice, slipping out of his jeans. Naked he stood there and his eyes snapped. He bared his teeth, and his face stretched. Tina's breath was drawn sharply, and she had to look away, she looked at Ranger Sierra's face, and the shock and fear that played there. Then she saw the muscles in Ranger Sierra's arm tense.

"NOOO!" she yelped and leapt, knocking the gun aside, as the ranger squeezed off a shot. The bullet went wide of the shifting wolf-creature, singing into the trees beyond. Sierra threw Tina aside, then moved to shoot the man, but was brought to the ground beneath a large black half wolf. A half wolven foot hit Tina in the ribs, sending her flying against the car. She slid down, eyes half open, and beginning to haze over again in pain and fear, as the werewolf took Sierra's throat in his jaws and twisted. There was a snap, the terrible sound of wet leather tearing, and a wave of blood poured over her.

"Noo..." she said weakly, and the world went gray-red.

***

Waking. Standing. Another one. He nods, runs. Follow? No. Warning. Sniff the meat. Was a man. Just a man. Now run. Run home. No, not home. They find. Into woods. Running. Running. Running.

***

Tina came back to herself on her doorstep, and her taloned hand turned the doorknob. There was blood on her talons, but she could remember enough to know that she hadn't been the one who killed. It had been the other, the man. The leader of the wolf pack, she realized. That was what the wolf pack had been doing. She opened the door, shifting back to human as she stepped into the realm of human things. She heard the TV going. Weakly, knock kneed, she walked to the couch and clutched at the remote, shutting off the TV, then stumbled to her bed. She was too tired at the moment to care why it was on, or who had turned it on.

Tina slept for a time, then suddenly woke up, with the incredible feeling of something, someone close to her.

"I was wondering when you would wake," growled the soft voice. Tina's breath was drawn sharply. It was the man. The man who was a wolf. A man again, and half pinning her to her own bed with no effort and lazy curiosity in his eyes. She tried to calm her breathing but it didn't work. Her heart sped up and she breathed in little gasps. Not in fear, precisely but more in anticipation of something that she could not predict. "Calm down," he said, green eyes sparkling. "No harm is to come to you by my hands. You are part of us."

"What do you mean?" Tina asked, apprehension in her heart. The man played with a lock of her hair that fell onto her forehead.

"You don't know now," the man said. "But you'll learn. You have part of us inside you." He looked at her sideways, with carefree eyes. "And it grows." Whether what he said was true or not, something was responding to being this close to him. A strange wild feeling beat about the edges of her mind, responding to the musky sent that surrounded him, and the lulling sound of his voice. And her heart responded to the fact that, despite anything else, he was the most attractive man, to her, that she had ever seen, let alone been this close to. She swallowed and his expression changed to something akin to a smile.

"So," he said. He was not at a loss for words, he was waiting for her to speak.

"Why..." Tina's voice cracked and she fought to bring it under her control. "Why are you in my house?"

"I followed you to your den," the man said. "But why?" "You interest me beyond what you hold of mine." He touched the arch of her nose. The dark haired woman stiffened to prevent herself from shivering. "This human thing, these faces. Life still, though much different."

"Please..."

"What?" His words took on that borrowed tone again. "This is not my world, female. And," he added leaning forward, eyes inches from hers, lips almost touching her face, "it will not stay yours for much longer, if you keep what is inside you."

Tina gasped again, not sure what to do. This man lay half draped over her, and they were separated only by her blanket, but he wasn't a man. He was a wolf in a man's form. Tina tried to remind herself of that.

"I came to warn you, you fight with honor, and a determination for life." He lifted a finger to touch a thin, recently healed scar on his face, one that went across the bridge of his nose, as if... as if an inexpertly wielded knife had slashed him. Tina bit her lips to keep from gasping, eyes going wide. "So what will you do now, female? Will you fight to stay as human, will you hide," he licked his lips to moisten them, and in the deep recesses of his eyes, Tina saw a wolf shining out, but captive. And herself. In his eyes, she saw herself. "Or will you run?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"I will tell you something else," he said, drawing her mind away from his question as she caught the wildness within him, warring with the human face he wore. "As you are consumed with us within you, we are tainted by what..." His voice faded and the wolfish grin appeared. "Ah. No words to say that." He exhaled softly in something that could best be described as a sigh. Tina sighed deeply and her eyes rolled back in her head as a red mist over came her mind.

She woke up again, in a bed torn apart as if by restless sleep.

"Oh, sweet lady," she said holding her head. "It was a dream. just a dream."

"Like chasing prey in the dream world?" came that strange, borrowed male voice. Tina jumped. The man-wolf stood in her doorway. That strange smile twitched at the edges of his mouth. Tina gasped and clutched the sheets to her chest. "Hmm," he said, green gold eyes sparking. "What is that instinct?"

"What instinct?" she asked.

"This movement of yours..." He tugged at the sheet. "With this."

"Modesty!" she snapped back, clutching the sheet to her more firmly.

"Mod-sty?" he questioned. "Why?"

'Good question,' thought Tina. She was a lot less modest than most women, even nowadays, but this strange not-man put her on her guard. "It's a human thing," she said at last. "You wouldn't understand."

"Ah," he replied. "Entirely possible. There is much about this 'being human' that I do not understand" He paused and tipped his head to one side. "This business about waking on two legs. While I have noted recently that hands are useful, walking on two legs, and tailless as well seems remarkably unstable." Tina stared at him in utter confusion. "I've been watching your television while you slept. It is a simple yet remarkable device..."

'Oh great,' thought Tina, 'all the idiot proofing in the world has made it possible for wolves to watch the Simpsons.'

A short time later, attired in a cable-knit cream colored sweater and midnight blue leggings with thick gray socks covering her feet, Tina ventured out to the living room. The wolf in man's clothing sat - no lounged on her couch, idly watching a re-run of "Gilligan's Island." He turned to face her as she entered and gave a wolfish grin.

"This Gilligan is lacking much in the way of sense," he said. "Even their keeper of knowledge has not enough to mend the boat."

"Yeah, well, that was the point of the show." Tina frowned.

"Pah," said the wolf, and scratched a point just below his ear. "You came to talk."

"Yeah."

"Yeah," mocked the wolf-man. He blinked. "This is affirmation, then. It's all complicated here. Too complicated. Why can't you humans just say what you mean?"

"We do," Tina said, half offended, sitting on the other end of her couch and tucking her legs up underneath her.

"Pah." He made a dismissing gesture with one hand. His expression drifted off and he stared off into the distance. "You think you do. But from what I have seen humans spend much time trying to convince the rest of the world that they have told the truth when they have not." He paused. "This leads to great laughter."

"You should watch something other than sitcoms," Tina said and curled up in a ball more. The wolf in the man's form reached out and turned off the TV.

"Very well. I'll watch you." They regarded each other in silence for several moments. "When you came in," he said. "There was something you wanted to say."

"I've forgotten it," Tina said, blushing and looking away.

"Hmm," said the man-wolf. He was silent other than that. More moments passed.

"What are you doing?" asked Tina at last, unable to take the careful scrutiny he was giving.

"Thinking."

"You think too much!" frowned Tina at the man on the other end of her couch.

"Yes I suppose I would. This abstract thinking is new to me... how do you keep your mind on task?"

Tina paused and thought about that for a moment.

"Now you're doing it," he said. "Now you're thinking too much."

"Shut up!" she snapped.

"Silence," he said after a moment, "is often wiser than speech."

"Oh just go away!"

He wouldn't go away. The wolf in a man's form followed Tina around her house, watching everything she did with the same careful scrutiny.

"Why are you doing this!?" she asked, trying to keep her temper.

"You are a part of us," the man said. "If I learn about you from you, perhaps we will learn what has been done to us."

"I thought you said you knew!" challenged Tina. The man who was a wolf tipped his head to one side.

"I know more than you, female. That does not mean I know."

"I have a name."

"It is not part of you." He dismissed it. "I cannot smell it or touch it." The phone rang, and Tina jumped to answer it, and then remembered that she'd broken the one in the kitchen. She got to the phone in her bedroom just before the answering machine got it.

"Ms. Cunningham?"

"Speaking?"

"This is the ranger's office, we found your car at a crime scene last night." Tina's mind raced.

"Yes....?"

"Not to be too blunt, but why was it there?"

"I went grocery shopping last night," Tina said, slowly as if thinking. "I forgot I drove and walked home."

"You walked home, Miss?"

"Yes," she said into the receiver.

"You must have a lot on your mind."

"Oh you know us writers, we're so scatterbrained!"

"And you'd be willing to testify that?" came the voice at the other end of the line.

"Testify?" She sounded shocked, mostly because she was. "Oh no, there's been another killing?"

"Yes miss, there has."

"Yes, I'll testify to the fact I walked home last night," she said in a small voice. The Ranger on the other end sounded sympathetic.

"Don't you worry miss, we'll catch whatever this thing is soon. But I'm going to have to ask you not to leave town, in case it turns out we do need you." A pause. "For what it's worth, Miss Cunningham, I don't think you're the killer. Good night."

"Gee," she whispered the receiver. "Thanks."

"They have found the man who was afraid," came the wolf-man's voice practically in her ear. Tina jumped, and turned to look at him. He had, at some point, regained a pair of jeans and had draped a shirt on, though it wasn't buttoned. It made his overpowering maleness a little easier to handle, and Tina was glad.

"The one who was afraid?" she asked.

"Yes. The man with the," he paused, and said the word with deep disgust, "gun." Tina's face twisted in a half smile.

"Don't like guns, eh?"

"From what I have seen, have known, guns can be great tools." He paused again, as if thinking out what he was going to say. "But too frequently they are in the hands of fools, who care for nothing but themselves. They are afraid of the world."

"What do you mean, afraid of the world?" Tina asked. Something in his words rang profoundly, as if he were a great Zen master, or keeper of wisdom.

"They fear the world, and seek to distance themselves from it - they are fools. They are the world, and cannot be separated." He made a strange sound and it took her a moment to realize he was laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Ah... the fool which sought to distance himself. He will be part of the earth soon."

"You don't know much about modern embalming techniques," Tina said snidely, for lack of anything better to say. He cocked his head to one side, and studied her, but then continued with his laughter.

"Modern - that's a funny word. You say that as if just because something is modern it is better."

"I did not."

"Oh but you believe that, you and your people." The wolf in man's form looked off into the distance, out of the window and into the night.

"I do not!" snapped Tina. She stood frustrated beyond belief by the man wolf. "Get out of my house." She whirled and stomped out of the room going to her computer. She hadn't been working lately. And if she was going to go on trial, she would defiantly need the money that this new book would get her. Tina hoped that it wouldn't be necessary. The rest of the day was quiet. From time to time, the wolf in a man's form would wander past, stare at the back of her head and the lit screen she faced, and then continue on his way. As it got closer to night time, she stopped feeling him pass, and breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps he'd gone back to the woods. Tina's life was complicated enough without a strange fascinating man who was not a man dogging, if that was the right term, her footsteps. Tina rubbed her eyes, distracted from her calling, and lost the thread of the chapter. She went back and looked through what she had already written to try and figure out what she'd been writing about before her thoughts had gotten stuck and the man-wolf.

It was no use. Faintly now, she heard the TV going at the other end of the house. That explained it. Even creatures of the wild succumbed to the siren call of the television. She heard laughter, and wondered what he was watching. Saving and shutting down the computer, she wandered through the darkened rooms of her house, which didn't seem quite real, and into the soft glow cast by the television screen. The wolf with a man's features was chuckling to himself and appeared to be watching a documentary on wolves.

"Figures," muttered Tina to herself. He turned and looked at her, then smiled wolfishly. The writer frowned and turned on her heel again. Very well, maybe he'd be gone by morning.

She locked her bedroom door. And prayed, very sincerely to the lord and lady that the killings would end, and that the wolf in her living room would go away.

The wolf was still there in the morning, poking at things and sniffing about, curious beyond belief.

And he was still there the next day.

And the day after that.

On the plus side, there were no mysterious killings. Tina went and retrieved her car, which was fresh-scrubbed by some interns at the police station, and showed no signs of blood on its smooth forest green paint. She picked up some food, as the man-wolf ate a great deal, and Tina figured it was a much better idea to keep him fed than let him go hungry, and went home.

She found the wolf in man's form sitting at her computer, touching keys to make it make noises.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. He shrugged.

"You spend so much time doing this," he said poking at the computer again. "I cannot understand it." She shoved him out of the way.

"That's probably because you can't read."

"I don't need to. But I know letters. That's 'a,' the large gold bird said so."

"Go watch more TV," sighed Tina rolling her eyes. First the Simpsons, then Gilligan's Island, now Sesame Street. She should have listened to her mother and never bought a touch-button TV. At least he hadn't figured out how to work the Direct TV yet.

There was a blast of music from the living room and a yelp.

Ah. The wolf meets MTV.

After verifying her hadn't deleted any of her files, Tina went to take a shower to clear her mind.