33

Sleep wins a resounding victory in the battle of adrenaline versus exhaustion, and you drift off almost as soon as your head hits the pillow, your dreams incoherent and fractured. You're on all fours leaping through a wooded glen. Suddenly Dena is by your side, the light brown fur of her lupine form shining with ghostlike luster in the light of an unnaturally bright dreamscape sun. The two of you hunt for what could either be hours or days, bringing down small game with tooth and claw.

A blink and you're sitting in a comfortable chair, staring out over a sandy beach to watch ocean waves crash against the shore. The light tangy smell of the sea fills your lungs, combining with the sound of the waves to soothe your body and spirit. Dena lounges a few feet to your side in another of several identical chairs arrayed on the porch of a modern two-story cabin.

"It's times like this," Dena says, "that I think it was all worth it. Don't get me wrong. I still can't get the images of the dead and dying out of my head when I close my eyes at night. But…sometimes I can sit out here and listen to the waves, look out over the ocean and lose myself for just a moment. We're free out here, Elizar Evenwood, and I'd do it all again if they tried to take us back."

You shake your head, trying to clear it of a nest of proverbial cobwebs. How did you get here? Who did you kill? You feel like you're in a haze, but you should play it cool. You're sure the answers will come to you.

Dena remains quiet for almost a minute. "Maybe you're right. They were monsters, but if we justify taking their lives, it makes us no better than they were."

You close your eyes, breathe deeply, and open them, somehow expecting the scenery to change. It remains the same, and yet it's somehow different. Night has fallen through the cracks of time between the moment your eyelids touched and when they opened, the waterfront now shimmering erratically in the light of a full moon.

Dena reaches out a hand, grasping yours as you watch the sky, picking out constellations as they come in and out of cloud cover.

Dena squeezes your hand, pulling your attention away from the heavens and back to earth once more. You turn your head, and she greets you with a sultry smile; her eyes are burning twin stars, surrounding pupils like deep black pools. You feel like you could lose yourself in the gravity of those celestial bodies, and for a moment you wonder if you are staring skyward still.

"I want you," she says simply, and perhaps nothing else needs to be said. She pulls herself out of her chair and crosses the floor, closing the space between the two of you to rest her chin on your knee.

Dena's hand tugs at the clasp of your pants, and you let slip an anticipatory moan. She looks up at you, feigning innocence. "Oh? Is there something you want?" She laughs, trying her best to appear innocent. You're not buying the act; she knows exactly what she's doing.

When she's finally pulled your clothing free, Dena abandons all pretext of innocence, leaving a long, wet trail of kisses up your leg until her face settles between your legs. She teases you with her tongue, and you arch your back, gasping as she takes you deep into her mouth, her tongue working you with tender licks contrasting the vigorous strokes of her lips, her head bobbing up and down with rapid abandon.

She finally comes up for air, gasping as she lingers for one more slow lick. "Close your eyes and lay back," Dena says, running her tongue over her upper lip. "Just relax, and feel."

Several Minutes Later

Your surroundings melt in a muddled diffusion, dripping down a canvas of white. Darker colors fade and blend with each other, a cascade of watercolor eventually coalescing into the shape of Ahote's study. The elder stands before you, a frown on his face as he studies you intently.

"Behind every turn lies disappointment," Ahote says. "Did you accept my offer of leadership simply to mock me? What a poor choice you turned out to be."

You shuffle your feet nervously, like a child caught in a lie.

Ahote scoffs. "Unbelievable. Killing your own mentor, Elizar Evenwood? All Lonan ever did, he did for you pups. And that's how you repay him? With murder?" You try to protest, to get a word in edgewise, but Ahote won't listen. "I've heard all your excuses before. You can't just explain your guilt away. You'll have to live with it for the rest of your life. I should never have let you give the human boy over to Haken. Have you even checked in on him since we dropped him off into the care of a madman who wants to fight the humans to the last wolf? Where is your sense of responsibility?

"Well, Elizar Evenwood? What do you have to say for yourself?" Ahote growls, morphing into his wolf form in the blink of an eye. Impossible! you think. No one can go through the change so fast! "What good are you?" Ahote bellows, and the room quivers and shakes around you.

"At last you see the truth of the matter," Ahote says with a wolfish grin, teeth jutting out like spears. "Know in your heart that it is your time to rise…."

The elder's bones crack, snapping and rearranging themselves as he grows ever taller, and soon the back of his neck is pressed up against the ceiling of the study. Still he grows, his spine pushing up, ever upward and through into the void beyond.

You fling yourself under the desk for protection as brick and timber fall. Rubble and splinters rain down around you until your vision is reduced to a stinging haze, your eyes bleeding in thin red rivulets. Your eyes! Why can't you close your eyes? Why can't you close your…?

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