Chapter Twenty – The Kind Worth Saving
The fog around him was so fluffy now Jack could imagine it becoming a soft and inviting bed in which he only had to lie down and sleep forever.
Forever? Jack tried to rub his eyes to chase away the unnatural sleepiness washing over him.
"Ouch," he mumbled. He had almost stuck one of the cards in his hand in his eye.
The cards.
Drop them. Now!
"What?" Jack drawled. "What do you mean? These are mine," he said stubbornly and struggled to push the cards into the pocket of his jacket.
He giggled as he looked at the design printed on the outside of the pocket. It depicted a small fluffy dog with a pink collar. Had Theo really chosen this one for him? Probably it was the only one they had in Jack's size when the mighty CEO of Pembroke Industries went shopping. But he shopped online like any sane person nowadays, which meant that he could have just gone for a simple model, bent on putting Jack in grey clothes to stifle the pinkness in his heart.
Nah, his thought followed the same trail without fail. Theo must have been thinking of him. He had thought of Jack and how he liked cute things, and this tiny dog, albeit being so easy to overlook, must have caught his attention. Yeah, Theo must have thought Jack would like having a cute little dog as a companion.
What was he doing? He swayed as a gust of wind brushed past him and swirled down the path lost in fog.
You are testing my patience, little seer. Don't you want to be free?
"Who are you? Where are you?" Jack meditated for a moment. "Why are you?"
What nonsense are you spewing now? Can't you see my open hand?
Jack turned slowly around and jumped one whole foot back when he saw a disembodied arm stretching out of the fog, ready to grab him.
"Is this a haunted house? I don't like… body parts. Especially if they're in the habit of doing nasty things to people. Can't you show me your face?"
You cannot handle seeing my face!
"Funny," Jack hiccupped and snickered, "even though you're whispering, you must be really, but really, mad because it feels to me like you're shouting."
You truly are useless.
The voice now sounded disgusted, but the gnarly arm wasn't withdrawing. It made Jack curious about seeing the rest of the being that went with it.
"I've heard that plenty of times in my life," Jack said. His brain was slowly rebooting, and he could now form complete sentences. "That doesn't mean it's true. And what do you want to do with me anyway?"
A sense of danger was growing inside him as his mind began processing logical thoughts again. He struggled to rein in the trembling in his body. He had almost lost it, hadn't he? Just moments ago.
You will be my servant. You will be happy while in my care. Forget about that unworthy alpha and his guardian. They are destined for destruction and pain. Do you want to be a part of that?
"Destruction and pain? Sounds intense," Jack agreed, fiddling with his cards again.
Stop dallying! Hurry! Take my hand!
Jack hesitated. The cards in his hand grounded him, while the hand opening for him to take lost itself in the mist.
On the one hand, many people under many circumstances pointed out how useless he generally was. But on the other, Jack had discovered his talents as a clairvoyant, and based on that—
"I helped Ryder and Danny defeat that evil witch!" he said victoriously as soon as the memory reshaped itself in his mind. "So, I guess I'm not entirely useless."
I've had enough! I will not go easy on you!
The hand shot for Jack's throat, grabbing it hard.
***
Howls emerged from his throat as he tore up the path, rustling leaves in his wake and making the wind whisper in his ear at the same tempo as his heart. Although he never stopped or looked back to see if Vince was following, Theodore knew that the human guardian was right behind him.
The scent of Jack's fear filled his nostrils. At first, only the faint scent of cinnamon still lingering on the card he'd sniffed from Vince's hand had been at the forefront of his frantic hunt. Now, the scent became more nuanced with every step he took.
Terror had hit him like a sharp and bitter tinge of darkness. And then he had tasted the human seer's sweat born out of fear and desperation at the back of his throat. Theodore's wolf growled like a wild beast, as his keen nose collected more and more information.
"Is he near, Theodore?" Vince shouted to him.
Theodore didn't reply; he only continued running, stretching his body to the limit. The clairvoyant was a field mouse, tiny and annoying.
But he belonged to him, and Theodore would never leave a pack member behind ever again.
The fog got in his eyes. With it, the scent changed again. It tasted of deep hopelessness now.
Yet that didn't last long. It turned sweet on Theodore's tongue, and he began drooling, eager to taste more.
The gravel crunched under Vince's boots as they both dashed to the rescue.
Theodore stopped abruptly as a granite wall rose before him, tall as a cathedral. He tipped his head back and started pacing back and forth in front of it, searching for way through.
Vince finally caught up to him and stopped as soon as he saw the granite wall.
"We need to find a way," the guardian gasped, breathing hard to catch his breath. "We'll have to go around."
He didn't ask if Theodore was sure they'd find Jack if they could get past this obstacle. Vince trusted him, Theodore realized, not without experiencing a short burst of surprise.
"Climb on my back," he growled.
Vince met his eyes. "Are you sure?"
Theodore walked closer. He knew how large his wolf was. He struggled a little to meet the guardian's eyes. "Do you not think I'm strong enough to carry you?"
"I was only thinking about not treating you like a means of transportation," Vince said promptly. "You are an alpha, Theodore, not a beast of burden."
"We will not talk of you riding me," Theodore said. "But we must get to Jack, and fast. Stop speaking and do as I say."
The guardian didn't utter another word. He hiked himself up on Theodore's back, and the wolf's first impulse was to shake the human off, unaccustomed to being subjected to such treatment.
Theodore reined him in. Vince grabbed tufts of fur and squeezed Theodore's back between his thighs.
"I'm ready when you are," Vince said.
Theodore didn't need anything else. Wolfshifters couldn't fly, they were not birds, but they could climb really fast. His entire body tensed and his muscles propelled him high up the wall. No matter how tall it was, he'd reach its peak. Jack was there, and Theodore had to save him.
***
"This hurts," Jack protested to no avail. He struggled against the cold hand, but ice was spreading from where the bony fingers had seized his throat to the rest of him.
His feet were no longer touching the ground. He swung them back and forth helplessly.
Obey! Obey at once!
"No," he stuttered. "No way I'll do that, you hear me?"
You're all alone. They're not coming for you. They're happy to be rid of you.
"You're lying! Theodore bought me this cute jacket, and Vince is teaching me all the naughty things he knows!"
Stop spewing nonsense! Do you want to die?
Jack shook from head to toe as his entire body was engulfed in ice. Soon, his heart might just stop beating. But what was he supposed to do? Yield to this nonsensical demand? No way!
"What use am I going to be to you if I'm dead?" His teeth chattered, and now everything hurt.
You're not of any use anyway! Don't you realize how useless you are?
"Oh, yeah?" Each word burned a path through his throat as it fought to get out. "If I'm that useless, how do you explain that you need to make me feel bad so I do as you say?"
The voice seemed to take a break from berating him, most likely not knowing what kind of comeback was a good answer to Jack's perfect logic.
He needed to make the most out of it. "And I'm not useless at all. I'll have you know that Theo likes me a great deal, even though he's a meanie most of the time, and Vince is really cool and laughs at my jokes. And I'm not even a stand-up comedian or anything."
Funny. The more he talked, the more control he gained over his own body. That was so cool. Damn, he might just have a chance at defeating this witch or whatever it was.
"Yeah, I thought so," he said with satisfaction. "Your power is all smoke and mirrors. And fog. Why do you need to hide if you're so powerful? By the way, you strangle like an eighty-year-old grandma. I don't feel a thing!"
I will show you my face and my power, thoughtless little seer!
Okay, so maybe he had pressed his advantage way too much, because Jack felt the fear from before returning, as a black shape began forming behind the hand holding him. It was so tall that he had to crane his head back to take it in. All he could see was a hooded figure, but now if he looked closely—
Branches, blackened by a long-forgotten fire, rose out of the figure's head, on each side.
"Do you have horns?" Jack struggled to speak. "Can you be more of a cliché?"
You talk too much.
Jack gasped as pain, cold and unyielding, shot through his chest. He stared down in disbelief at the large shard of ice half-buried in his body.
Had he just gone too far?
"Theo, Vince, I'm sorry," he whispered, as a tear rolled down his cheek and immediately turned to frost. "It looks like I'm not the kind of clairvoyant you needed, after all."
***
Jack was floating above the ground, his body arched back in an impossible position. Theodore growled, both he and his wolf sensing the evil near. He pushed harder, even as the abyss below called for him.
"You can do this, Theodore," Vince whispered in his ear. "Just take us over the edge, now!"
Theodore clenched his fangs and even is his claws scratched the smooth face of the mountain wall. He knew he couldn't fail. Others depended on him. They might not seem like much of a pack, but the guardian and the clairvoyant were his for now.
But his paw, even with the claws outstretched, missed the edge by a fraction of an inch. His body weighed so much. Could it be that he was falling—
A grunt from Vince made him look up. The guardian had caught the edge with one hand and was now pulling himself up.
Good, he'd save Jack, Theodore thought, deciding on the spot to believe in the guardian's powers. It was all right to slide down now. Or maybe not slide. He wouldn't think much about it.
A hand grabbed his paw hard.
"Theodore, just a little more," Vince said, holding him with all his human might.
Or something beyond just strength. Theodore didn't hesitate. To reduce the burden, he shifted into his human shape and caught Vincent's other hand just in time. In less than a second, they were both over the edge, rolling on the ground.
He'd have to commend the guardian for his fast thinking and excellent strength. But later. Jack was there, seemingly lost to the world. Although his body was still suspended in mid-air, it looked like nothing was holding him up. The invisible threads threatening his life, however, had to be present, and Theodore's wolf demanded free rein to tear through them and save his field mouse.
"Wait," Vince warned him before he could take another step. "There's someone else here."
***
Never before had Vince thought that he'd be a vessel for premonitions and the like, but just as Theodore was about to rush to Jack and save him from an enemy that preferred to remain concealed, he caught a shape out of the corner of one eye.
It was tall, dark, and held Jack's body in that manner by a thread. Vince couldn't explain how he knew, but if Theodore just rushed in, that thin thread was likely to cut through Jack's body, injuring him or worse.
At the sound of his voice, not only Theodore turned, but the dark figure, as well. Its overall shape remained blurred and indistinct, but Vince felt, deep in his gut, a connection of a strange nature.
"Put him down," he ordered.
Theodore turned his eyes slowly from him to the preternatural creature, but it was obvious to Vince the alpha couldn't see it.
An ominous wind blew, unraveling the black shape like a cloud. Long threads stretched from it to Vince, paralyzing him in place.
A hum surrounded him, but he couldn't make any sense of it. Was it a song? Or a voice trying to reach out to him?
Only a few feet away, Theodore grew restless. He obviously sensed something was wrong and he was even more troubled by not being able to sense it, let alone understand it.
Was Theodore in human form less astute at identifying such threats?
"Theodore, shift, now," Vince shouted and dropped to the ground, the threads missing him by a hair's breadth.
From their almost intangible consistency, they had turned into sharp ice needles that pierced the ground behind Vince as if they were made of steel.
He didn't have time to check on Theodore and see what he was doing. The creature was bent on hurting him now, and that was fine, because it meant its entire attention was no longer trained on Jack.
More ice needles flew past him, forcing him to keep rolling on the ground to avoid them until he was near the edge again.
***
Jack couldn't breathe. His lungs had been turned into blocks of ice, and the rest of him seemed to be no better. Wasn't it a pity that he was kicking the bucket such a short time into their little adventure? Some clairvoyant he was. Obviously, he hadn't seen this coming, which cast doubts on the benefit of being capable of seeing the future to begin with.
The only honest regret he had was that he would no longer be able to help Theodore and Vince on their quest. Could they even complete it without him present? The cards told the truth, didn't they? They had to be the wolf, the sun, and the moon…
It wasn't fair! He forced one breath hard through his mouth. His nose seemed to be numb already, so there was no use even trying to breathe through it.
Strangely enough, he managed to exhale and inhale with relative ease. Could it be he did control his body or at least some of it?
His hearing seemed to be coming back, as well. And he heard the sounds of someone breathing hard, no panting, and maybe it wasn't someone—
Forcing himself to the point that his body felt like it was about to crack, Jack turned his head. He saw Theodore in his wolf shape rushing toward him, while behind him, Vince was struggling on the ground, evading some invisible missiles or other weapons of mass destruction.
What the hell was he seeing? Was he lucid dreaming? Because Vince was holding his upper arm and blood seeped through his fingers, although he couldn't tell how he'd gotten hurt. And Theodore kept running toward him, yet he remained in the same place.
"What sort of shitty magic is this?" he mumbled. "And what the heck am I doing, hanging by my own breeches, which I don't wear, instead of running to them?"
His words had power, it seemed. He wasn't only breathing easily, but it looked like Theo was getting nearer, too.
"That's it, Jack," he encouraged himself, "just a little more trust in yourself and we might just pull this off."
He was about to break free when a noose curled around his neck. His hand shot up, grabbing nothing, but he was still suffocating.
Where do you think you're going, little seer?
"Stay away from him," a frightening growl emerged from the darkness closing in on Jack just as he was about to lose consciousness again.
Was that Theo? It sounded like him. Jack felt grateful and strangely safe. There was no way this pathetic creature could defeat an alpha.
Only whatever that hooded figure was, it was pulling him higher and higher. Jack couldn't see, but it was sure as hell Theo couldn't follow.
He was high enough to touch the clouds.
You asked for it.
Jack couldn't care less about what the voice had to say to him anymore.
"I'll never give up on my friends, you ugly jerk," he said, closing his eyes.
Then drop dead!
The ugly jerk meant it. Jack experienced the fall first through a jolt that shook his body; then he became heavy and fell.
***
Theodore watched in terror as the apparition which not even his wolf could make much sense of took Jack with it, up and up. He was losing him, and his heart bled inside his chest. This quest might never reach its end, because Theodore couldn't see how he could go on without Jack.
And he wasn't thinking only about the quest.
He howled and growled, pacing the ground, trying to jump, but having nothing to climb on. Jack was becoming smaller and smaller, lost in the fog.
For only one moment. Because the next, he started getting bigger. It took Theodore a moment to shape back into his human just in time.
He caught Jack in his arms, and while he weighed so little, Theodore's arm muscles stretched until they seemed ready to rupture. He bent and placed Jack down gently, protecting his head.
"Jack," he shouted, "do you hear me?"
Jack's pretty eyes fluttered open. "Wow, did you catch me, Theo?"
Relief spread through his chest. "I did," he replied, more gently than he'd ever talked to the field mouse before.
"Wow. Sorry for being such a deadweight. What kind of clairvoyant gets an alpha into this much trouble?"
Theodore had no clear idea what he was doing, but he gathered Jack close in his arms, forgetting about being his usual cold self. "The kind worth saving," he whispered in Jack's ear.
TBC