Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

it. Blushing more, she said to Juma, “It was bad luck. I didn’t want to—”

“Bad luck? No!” Juma shook his head. “It was very good luck for you. When you wear it, you know who you are.”

However, Audry shook her head and laughed. “I’d hate to disagree with you, but it’s actually been the opposite. I mean it meant something to me, but people back home kept warning me to hide it.”

“What?” Juma leaned dramatically away from her, startled. “You are joking.”

“No,” Audry said in earnest. “It turns out, the bullet was marked with a name. It was a name of a… powerful and rich family. The bullet was meant to kill a certain man, but I had dug it out of the leg of a wolf. There are a lot of people who do not like the family whose name is engraved on the bullet and want to see them dead. My friends think they will shoot at me if I keep wearing that bullet.”

“What family?” Sefu asked, leaning near with his elbow on his knee, fist to chin.

Audry shook her head. “It is best that I don’t mention it. The family is world famous.”

Juma exchanged a look with Sefu and Luis before giving up with a shrug. But Akachi said, “Do you think people in Africa would care?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I think they freed workers in an African cacao plantation, I don’t remember which country. Rumor has it, they’ve upset their competitors as they pay a really good rate and improved their standard of living. African workers have been leaving other businesses to work for them.”

“They sound like a good rich man,” Akachi said with a nod.

Audry sighed. “A stoosh ginnygog….”

Juma angled his head. “What’s this? What does that mean?”

“Jamaican.” Audry sighed. “It means a handsome rich man…. If not smug.”

Yet Juma eyed her funny, appearing a degree disappointed. It was closest to jealous she had ever seen him—and he had known Hogan when they had been dating.

Their guide came into their camp to once more explain what they might be up against when hunting down their poachers. He spoke a language Audry did not understand. She knew French semi-fluently. But she never really picked up more than a handful of words from Juma’s dialect. Sefu sat next to her to translate while Juma led most of the conversation.

“…He’s saying some of the villagers have seen ogres about. But he says some of them talk about the Chinese, that they think some of them are demons.”

She made a face, “Well, that’s racist. Just because somebody’s different than you—”

 “No.” Luis shook his head darkly. “The Chinese are worse racist. They come here and act like they are our saviors. But they talk about us behind our backs, thinking we are primitive and stupid. I learned a few words when I worked with a shipping company connected to tourism. I heard them call us hei guai. Do you know what that means?”

Audry shook her head, feeling a tad ill.

“It means black demon,” Luis said. He shook his head. “People have a right to be angry.”

“But assuming they are ogres—” Audry tried to protest.

“That may be rude,” Juma interjected, casting Luis a surreptitious look, “But there are rumors about Chinese trade with poachers. There is a giant Chinese medicine market for ivory. I think you would agree that it does not matter what color a poacher’s skin is.”

Audry nodded. And he was right. She had heard about that Chinese black market also. She just did not want it to be real.

The local guide finished his conversation then went home for the night. He did, however, leave them with parting instructions on where they ought to go next in their hunt for poachers. There were other villages who had reports, and they needed to take the jeeps into Kenya to meet the other half of their team.

The night was getting darker, but Audry was still feeling off kilter with the time and was not yet sleepy. Glancing at the evil-eye charm around Juma’s neck, Audry wondered out loud, “What does that charm do, anyway. I’ve never seen you without it.”

“I can buy you one,” he replied with a laugh, “if you are no longer going to wear your bullet.”

She chuckled, shaking her head. “I just want to know what it is. You once told me it had something to do with the evil eye. What is that?”

Smiling, open to humoring her, Juma lifted up the charm for her to see it better. “It is for warding off bad luck. It keeps ill will away from you.”

“Maybe I will let you buy me one,” she murmured. “I could use all the luck I can get.”

He angled his head with a sigh as he gazed upon her. After a few moments he said, “You do not seem happy. What is the deal, Ife? What has hurt you so?”

Shrugging, Audry poked at the fire with a stick. “Disappointment. Aimlessness… My PhD is going badly. I lost my focus. My plans fell apart. And I have to start all over again with my thesis.” She did not mention that the man she had known all these years was the same wolf she had rescued… and fallen in love with.

He nodded. With another shrug, he said, “You should stay in Africa then, with me. You are clearly happier here.”

Looking sideways at him, Audry laughed. He was always doing this. “Nice try, slick. But, honestly, I don’t want to stay so far away from my family—not forever.”

Sighing, a little regretful that she had not accepted one his many marriage proposals, Juma good naturedly grinned back. “What a pity. You and I would be a great couple. We would have beautiful babies.”

She chuckled, briefly imagining it. If they had kids, they would be tall with bushy, curly hair. But they would also probably be teased by their peers. Even in Africa she got dirty looks from the women who seemed to think she was there to steal away the men.

They left the village early the next morning. She had gotten more than enough sleep. Though they spotted another safari in the distance on the plains, they did not come in contact with anyone else until they neared the next village. Here Luis inquired about poachers, though she also heard the word amazimu again. Were they looking for ogres still?

In the village, they refreshed their water stores. Luis talked to the village heads, while Juma and Akachi bartered for other supplies. As Audry and Sefu were loading up the water and filled the gas tank as well as an extra can, the dogs running happily around them, Audry noticed a particularly attractive woman with her head wrapped in colorful cloths, walking past to their small market. Audry would not have paid her much attention if it were not for the weird thing about her. It looked to her like the woman had another mouth on the back of her neck. For a moment Audry thought it was just fat rolls… only the woman’s neck was slender.

She nudged Sefu, whispering. “I know this is rude, but is there something wrong with that woman? That shape there… it looks like she’d got a mouth on the back of her neck.”

Sefu stiffened, jerking his head around to look. He narrowed his eyes as he stared. A visible shudder went through him. Gently leaning near Audry’s ear, Sefu whispered, “Don’t stare, but keep your gun ready and the dogs near you. Stay near the jeep. I’ll be right back.”

“What?” Flustered, Audry watched Sefu rush off in the direction Luis had gone.

Audry tried not to stare after the woman while she continued to load the jeep, strapping things down. Juma and Akachi came back, each with vegetables and fish to put in their cooler for lunch later. Juma looked around and said, “Where’s Sefu?”

Audry gestured toward the way he’d gone. As Juma looked, Sefu, Luis and a bent sort of man marched toward them. They were followed by some strong men with spears and guns. As they approached her, Audry drew in a breath.

“Where is the woman?” Luis asked, his face looking a little stricken. He and Sefu glanced to the older man.

Looking toward the market, Audry searched, but could no longer see her. She pointed with a shrug. “I last saw her over there.”

“What did she look like?” Luis asked.

Shrugging, Audry described her clothes, the colors, and the head wrap—and of course her neck. The armed men behind the stooped venerated one, quickly jogged off to the market to find that woman.

“What’s wrong?” Audry asked against shivers. “What did I see?”

Luis translated to the older man while Sefu said to her, “Someone dangerous.”

She paled.

After a several minutes, two of the armed men jogged back and reported. The older man gave them instruction, which she did not understand and they went back to the market again. Juma inched near Audry, whispering, “Maybe you’d better find your bullet necklace and put it on now.”

Shrugging, if it made him feel better, Audry went to fetch it. Though she had quit wearing it, she had not been able to get rid of the thing. What it meant to her remained. It was an emblem of how much she hated animal cruelty. It took some of digging into her bag, but she extracted it and put it on.

The venerated man asked about it, pointing.

Luis explained with firm nods, his words gibberish in Audry’s ears.

The venerated man said something to her and Luis translated. “That is good magic. You keep that on.”

Juma said something in his dialect to Luis and he spoke to the old man who seemed to agree. The old man then searched round his person, extracting a sort of beaded necklace, taking it off and extending it to her.

“This is for more protection,” Juma said, urging Audry to take it.

Audry extended her hand to accept it, feeling those shivers again as her fingers enclosed over the beaded necklace. She knew this sensation. She had felt it whenever Silvia did some sort of protective spell. This was magic.

Once more, three of the armed men rushed back, though they carried on their spears random items—not touching them. Her group of friends backed away, though the venerated man stepped forward, ordering those objects to be placed on the ground. He drew a circle around them in the dirt.

Audry whispered to Sefu, “Who is he?”

Sefu peeked at her, then glanced to Juma as if asking for permission. Juma nodded back. “Tell her.”

Sighing, Sefu said, “He is the village’s witchdoctor.”

Audry jerked away, staring at the man and then at the necklace he had just given her. She almost dropped it.

“A witchdoctor is not what you think,” Juma said, shaking his head. “They do not do black magic. They undo black magic. They are doctors to stop witches.”

Her eyes turned to the man, her mind reeling. Witchdoctor? Immediately her brain thought of Peter McCabe, the guy who went by the same moniker, but in soccer. People who undid black magic were witchdoctors? But that turned what she knew upside down.

As the witchdoctor muttered over the items in the circle, Sefu explained, “You have it all backward in America. You call hoodoo witches witchdoctors—which is wrong. I’ve seen it in your movies. So silly. This man stops witches and their curses.”

Under the orders of the witchdoctor, the armed men gathered wood and lad it over the pile of things in the circle. Then they put a circle of stones around that.

Sefu said, “Those are cursed items left by the witch.”

“Witch?” Audry’s eyes widened.

“They could not find the woman, but they found these,” Sefu explained.

The witchdoctor had the men set the wood on fire, adding a dust to it. The flames turned green—but that just meant copper was in the powder. After reciting more words over the flames, the witchdoctor looked to her with a smile, nodded, and said something which Luis translated. “He says thank you for being clear-seeing. He wants to know how