The Wolf in His Arms (The Runes Trilogy) Read online

  * * * *

  When Jason arrived home from work, the loft was empty and only the street lights lit the apartment. He flipped on the hallway lights, hung his coat on the rack, and found a note from Ilene that said: At library. Home soon.

  “Library?” Jason questioned aloud and strolled through the apartment. At the liquor cabinet, he poured two fingers of scotch and sat in the living room, looking at the city lights. He sat for a long while, wondering why his family was suddenly shutting him out. He had not seen Alec or Lucy since they had come home, and when he asked Ilene about a funeral for Jared, she was evasive. He felt frustrated—locked out—and the feeling gnawed at him. He slugged back the scotch and slammed the glass down on the table.

  He noticed Ilene’s laptop closed on the coffee table, and despite the guilt for being intrusive, he opened it. The screen flicked to life, and he sighed, realizing she had never secured it with a password. He looked toward the front door, feeling like he had his hand in the cookie jar and opened her browser history.

  “The Wolf of Detroit,” he spoke. Jason began to click through the articles.

  * * * *

  Dr. Charles Michaelson clicked pause on the blog video from the night in the Fullerton building. The post already had thousands of hits. “You’ve been watching Lucy Rune for several months now.” He swiveled in his leather chair to face Mitch. “So, was she bitten?”

  Standing at the window with his arms folded across his chest, Mitch remained silent for a moment. “Yes. I was there the night this was filmed. I could hear her transform in the basement.”

  “So they tried to conceal her condition?”

  “That’s my assessment.”

  “Where would you say they stand?”

  Mitch approached Dr. Michaelson and leaned on his large mahogany desk. “I would say they were trying to keep her from hurting anyone,” he retorted.

  “And the other two?”

  “They’ve never changed.”

  Dr. Michaelson drummed his fingers. “We know the war’s coming. And we know it’s soon,” he asserted.

  “Yes.”

  “We cannot afford mistakes. If we think they are the enemy, we must eliminate them.”

  Mitch tried to soften his tone, to sound like a friend. “Chaz, I know you’ve lost a lot—”

  “Are you doubting my judgment?” Dr. Michaelson stood and peered across the desk at Mitch. “Yes, I’ve lost a lot. Do I need to remind you what you’ve lost?”

  Anger flashed across Mitch’s face. “Don’t do that. Don’t suggest I’ve forgotten why I joined this cause.”

  “For years, you and I have been part of a small group of people cursed with knowing about the existence of werewolves,” Dr. Michaelson’s voice shook. “Because we’ve seen them in action. We know what they can do. We know that they’re as heinous as humans as they are as wolves.” He gestured toward the computer screen. “And now more people will begin to believe. What do you think that means for the war?”

  “That the first offensive will be launched soon. Maybe even preponed.”

  “We must strike before they do. That means now.”

  “And what if they aren’t like the others?” Mitch asked.

  Dr. Michaelson nodded. “You mean what if they’re not like my son. I watched my son, Griffin, tear his mother to shreds. He felt nothing. No love. No humanity. The only way to stop these monsters is to kill them.” Dr. Michaelson thumped his hand on the desk for emphasis. “Are you willing to risk thousands of lives on the chance—the very slim chance—that they aren’t pure evil?”

  “Why didn’t you kill Alec when you had the chance?”

  “What I learned from the samples I took from him have proven invaluable.”

  “I think it’s because you suspect Alec isn’t like your son,” Mitch ventured. “Maybe Lucy and Jared aren’t either.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It can’t matter. We’re racing toward an apocalypse.” He tossed his hand toward the computer screen again. “Look how bold they’ve become.”

  “Exactly why not killing them is the right thing to do. They may be our only hope,” Mitch argued.

  “Hope?” Dr. Michaelson scoffed. “Our hope is defeating them. Killing them. We’re still developing a virus to do just that. That’s why I let Alec live, because his blood sample has furthered our research.”

  “The virus is still in the lab. Months away from something we can replicate into a bioweapon. We don’t have months, Chaz. We have weeks. Maybe only days.”

  Dr. Michaelson slumped into his chair. “What do you suggest?”

  “I’ll follow Lucy and the others again this full moon. I’ll confront them.”

  “You realize you’re putting your life on the line.”

  Mitch snorted. “Werewolves killed me years ago when they killed my sister, Tara, in front of my eyes.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’m just a ghost waiting for revenge.”

  “Then you’ll be prepared to kill Alec and the others?”

  Mitch nodded. “Enough cellular damage and they can’t heal. We know that. Grenade. Fire. Cut off the head. Acid bath.” He nodded for emphasis. “I’ll be ready.”

  * * * *

  Alec was taking a break from translating, sitting on the couch with his feet propped up, as he trolled the internet on his phone. He came across a blog post that caught his attention: Urban explorers in Detroit record monster. Stomach fluttering, he clicked on the link to the blog. An image of the Fullerton Building filled his screen along with a blog entry about the expedition. Alec sat up, preparing for the worst. He clicked on the video at the bottom of the blog post.

  His jaw dropped as he watched jittery footage from inside the building. His throat tightened as he recognized the pranks that he and Jared pulled to scare the urban explorers away. Under their screams, he could hear Lucy’s roaring and growling. He looked down to the bottom of the video. It had more than 10,000 views.

  “Jared,” he called, thankful Lucy was at the gym. Jared walked in, and his face fell from bemused to concern as he registered the alarm on Alec’s face. “You have to see this.” Jared sat next to him.

  As the video finished, Jared said, “People will be climbing all over The Fullerton Building.”

  “They’re gonna find the claw marks in the vault.”

  “Did we leave anything?” Panic tinged Jared’s voice.

  “No. Never. I even took the scraps of blanket.”

  Jared stood. “We have to find Lucy a new place to change.”

  “I’ll find it,” Alec assured him. “You two are faster at translating.”

  “We can’t tell her.”

  “I know. Not until we have the situation under control.”

  “Will we get it under control?” Jared doubted. “There’s this video. There are the videos from Chicago. There’s even one from Las Vegas.”

  “That wasn’t us.”

  “No, but it was a werewolf.”

  “And?”

  “What if all of these stories getting leaked are part of the werewolves’ plan?” Jared speculated.

  “That’s why they attacked us in the middle of a crowded street. They knew what would happen.”

  Jared nodded his head at his own conclusion. “They wanted it to happen.”

  “But why?”

  “To scare people. To deliver proof that werewolves exist.”

  “But why? What’s their next step?”

  “I wish I knew,” Jared whispered, perplexed.

  A Book of Revelations

  Maxwell felt sticky and smelly as he knocked on the door of Alec, Jared, and Lucy’s apartment. Haley exhaled a long, exasperated breath as they waited. A moment later, Alec opened the door. “Welcome back, guys,” he beamed. “We should get you guys a key.”

  “Well, technically, we live in Chicago,” Haley corrected.

  Alec ignored her. “But you’re like part of the family now. Besides, until this whole werewolf thing is figured out...I mean, I guessed, I assumed, y
ou’d stay here.”

  “And if we want to leave?” Haley persisted.

  “Of course you can go. We’ll buy you a bus ticket.”

  Haley silenced Maxwell as he tried to chime in by throwing her hand up in his face as she blurted, “So, when we run errands for you, it’s on an airplane? If we leave, it’s the bus?”

  “We’ll throw in a little extra for a pop and chips from a gas station,” Alec mused. “By the way, Jared wants to express his gratitude in person.” Leaving them in the entrance hall, Alec called over his shoulder, “He’s back here.”

  Maxwell turned to Haley who stood by the door. “You were awfully grumpy.”

  She threw her hand up again. “Bleh. Bleh. He’s got a boyfriend, so give it a rest.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Maxwell demanded.

  “It means you get all gooey and cow-eyed around them.” Haley softened her tone. “It also means I’m a stinky, sticky, cranky bitch.”

  “Hmm. Must be a day of the week,” Maxwell said without mirth, but he flashed a quick, appeasing smile. “Let’s hope they don’t send us on another mission.” He traced Alec’s steps down the hall.

  He entered into the back bedroom with Haley at his heels. His smile slipped from his face and his eyes bulged as he took in the transformation of the room. The stack of papers on the tabletop was nearly gone. Instead, handwritten pages lined the walls. Some pages fanned out from under each other like an accordion. Others were grouped in smaller clusters.

  “Are those all translations?” Maxwell asked.

  “Yep!” Alec enthused. Lucy and Jared looked up from the pages they were translating.

  “You’ve been busy.”

  “So what have you learned?” Haley asked, brushing past Maxwell’s shoulder to enter the room.

  “We’ve learned that we have a lot of missing pages—” Jared began.

  “And incomplete information,” Lucy finished Jared’s thought.

  Alec scoffed at them both. “Don’t listen to them. We’re making real progress.” Alec’s face lit up. “What about you guys?”

  “We managed to fetch something for Jared,” Haley replied with barely concealed humor.

  Jared looked at her quizzically, but Maxwell broke in. “It’s in my bag. Let us shower and then I’ll get it, okay?”

  “Then they weren’t there?” Jared asked.

  “No,” Maxwell said.

  “But you were successful?”

  “We think so.”

  “By the way, I wanted to properly thank you both,” Jared announced. “I understand that you figured out that I might be...”

  “A zombie werewolf?” Haley quipped.

  Shock, followed by a smile, bloomed across Jared’s face. “Yes. Thank you.”

  “Haley’s the one who figured it out. She’s the brains. I’m the pretty face.”

  “I’m both actually,” Haley replied. “And, you’re welcome.” She wandered over to a single page tacked on the corkboard. Skimming the text, she gathered that the pages discussed something called Tutelars, who were guardians of humanity. “Do you have more about these Tutelars?”

  “We’re trying to match pages but with some pages missing,” Alec explained.

  “I can help with that.” She turned to face Maxwell. “You can shower first. You have boy stink all over you.”

  Alec and Jared turned to him with knowing grins, and Maxwell rolled his eyes. “She thinks boys stink. Not that I have the stink of any other boys on me. I wish.” He pivoted sharply on his heel and left to shower.

  Haley walked to the table and stuck her hands out, palms up. “Put me to work.”

  Lucy smiled and plopped unmatched documents into Haley’s hands. “Good luck,” Lucy condescended.

  Annoyed by Lucy’s dismissive tone, Haley began to scan the pages. She read the cut-off last sentence of one page and looked for words that could complete the thought at the top of any other page. She grouped possibilities. She set aside single pages with no potential matches. Lucy’s challenge drove her; Haley could not stand to be dismissed.

  “I’ve matched three pages,” she boasted as Maxwell returned from his shower. “There’s no header yet, but it’s a series of short passages. It’s like an encyclopedia.” Haley brought the translated pages over so they could all read the passages:

  Lycan—Mankind with wolves beneath their skin. Lycans are humans who have been punished by the gods for misdeeds as humans. The Lycan curse is spread through bite, scratch, and birth rite. Lycans are ruled by the moon.

  Tutelar—Wolves who have turned into men. These guardian spirits have turned into men to protect humans from Lycans. The Tutelar spirit is passed only through linage, though not all members of a clan receive the calling. The spirit affects female and male members differently. Male Tutelar’s pass the spirit from one generation to the next. Female Tutelars...[ripped page]

  Silvias—Rare cases of a Lycan, in the throes of his malady, mating with a wolf have occurred. The resultant offspring is a hybrid, often known as a feral child, believed to have been abandoned in the woods. The child, however, is a dangerous beast, and must be handled as all Lycans. Like any mutt, not all Silvias look alike. Some appear human until the moon and turn wolf; some appear wolf until the moon and appear human.

  “These pages don’t sound like the other pages,” Lucy noted. “They sound like they were written by someone observing werewolves. Not by werewolves.”

  Jared touched the edge of the original pages. “Look how they’re torn, as if they had been ripped from a book.”

  “Do you think someone has been gathering information on the werewolves—or Lycans?” Haley asked.

  “Maybe the Tutelars?” Alec suggested.

  “And this is their book. That the werewolves stole pages from,” Jared added.

  “So what are we?” Maxwell asked. He paced away from the table. “We’re Lycans. We’re their experiment.”

  Haley’s nose wrinkled in thought. “You had to translate these pages, right?”

  “Yes,” Lucy confirmed.

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why would pages they stole be in the same runic language?”

  “Very smart, Haley!” Lucy said.

  Haley stifled a delighted smile, as Maxwell mugged at her inappropriately.

  “So, do these pages belong to the werewolves?” Alec asked.

  “Or did the language belong to someone else?” Jared interjected.

  “Now I’m confused,” Haley said.

  “That makes two of us,” Maxwell added, and Alec nodded in agreement.

  Jared turned to Lucy. “We know that the werewolves are conducting breeding experiments. What if these pages started the experiments?”

  “You mean inspired the experiments. As in, gave the werewolves, er the bad werewolves”—she added for clarity—“ the idea to start breeding for control.”

  “Right.”

  “But why adopt the secret language of your enemy?” She asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jared admitted.

  “Don’t they say that right out in the open is the best place to hide,” Haley suggested.

  “But our eyes,” Lucy said, pointing, “are a dead giveaway.”

  “Do you know that all werewolves have green eyes?”

  “Every werewolf I’ve ever seen has had green eyes,” Jared countered.

  “But these pages explain that there are different types,” Haley insisted.

  “And nothing mentions green eyes,” Maxwell added.

  “What if the green eyes are a result of the experiment!” Alec blurted out. “That’s why we all have green eyes. Each of us”—and he pointed to Jared and Maxwell—“and Lucy because she was turned by Darius.”

  “The more we learn the less we know,” Jared conceded. The room fell into an uneasy silence.

  Haley broke the silence. “Actually, sometimes knowing that you don’t know all the answers is the best wisdom.” She smiled. “Now we don’t assume all werewolves
have green eyes.”

  “Just all werewolves in this experiment,” Alec said.

  “Now we have to figure out what made our eyes green,” Jared griped. “Guess I’ll add it to our long list.”

  Confessions

  The loft felt confining as Ilene looked out the window over Woodward Avenue. Campus Martius was just blocks away, and the streets buzzed with activity below. Generally, she loved the noise. But tonight, the activity felt like a swarm of bees in her head.

  “Ilene, are you okay?” Jason looked up from the magazine he reading.

  His concern warmed her heart. She turned to face him. She hated the lies, keeping him in the dark. But he had been in the dark for so long, she was afraid the light would blind him. Perhaps there’s no longer a choice? She wondered. “Just nerves.”

  “How about some tea?” He stood and walked briskly to the kitchen. He ran water into the kettle and set it on the stove.

  “Jason, forget the tea.”

  He looked across the snack bar. “So...”

  “Maybe we should sit.”

  He approached her with an oh-boy expression on his face and sat next to her on the sofa. “This sounds serious.”

  “It is,” she swallowed hard. “And I don’t know where to begin.” She looked toward the ceiling, her eyes wet with tears of confusion and remorse. “The kids are on their way over because we could think of no other way to explain this to you.”

  “Ilene,” he said and grabbed her shaking hands. “Just tell me.”

  “Jared is alive.”

  Jason pulled back, his face pinched with doubt. “What?”

  “Alec, Lucy, and Jared are on their way here to help me explain everything to you.”

  “Explain everything what?” He bolted up, stepped away. Ilene stood and reached out to him but did not touch him. “How is Jared alive?” He tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

  Ilene opened her mouth to answer, but a knock at the door interrupted them. Ilene sat, and Jason crossed the loft to the door. He took a deep breath, and then he opened the door. He looked across Alec’s face, then Lucy’s, and then his eyes swept past the unfamiliar faces. “Where’s Jared?” He asked.