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

“It is her fault for coming to Africa!”

Audry stumbled away, getting up and to Juma for protection even though he could not see them.

Eve shook her head at the attacking ‘angels’—because that was what they looked like, sans halos. “She always comes to Africa! The only reason I never got to meet her was because she came to Africa! And now that I’ve met her, I’m saving her life!”

Immediately, Eve’s dragon-like wings spread huge. And using those webbed batty things, she shoved both ‘angels’ out of the house.

Audry rushed to the door and outside to see where they went.

The fight was taken into the sky, which was blue and warm. All three angel-like beings battled it out—though eventually, into the aerial kerfuffle flew two more who seized Eve.

“No!” shouted Audry, watching them yank Eve upwards. It was not a fair fight.

Yet those two whipped Eve out of there in what looked like a streak of light. The remaining two winged inquisitionists stared down at Audry. One of them huffed loudly, “Dammit. She took on the entire plague. Doesn’t that vimp know death is not to be cheated?”

“Well, we can’t reap her now. She’s no longer dying,” the other retorted.

Audry glared up at them. What kind of angels were they anyway?

But they too shot off into light and were gone.

“Ife! What happened?” Juma was right behind her. “You are cured!”

Audry nodded. “I… Eve McAllister rescued me.”

“Who?” Juma walked around her, peering up and down Audry to double check this miracle.

“She was an angel…” Audry murmured, thinking on it. It felt right. Though Eve had looked like death, she emanated real mercy and true kindness. It made total sense why Rick had admired her so much. Somebody that good was impossible to compete against.

“Audry!” Mercy ran up, looking her over, “You are out of bed! You are standing on your own!”

“It is a miracle,” Juma murmured, dazed.

A thought clicked into Audry’s brain. She looked to Juma. “She found me because of you. You were praying for me.”

His eyes widened on her, wondering what she was saying.

“But she saved me because of Rick…” Audry murmured to herself.

He swayed there, stunned. “Who?”

“Rick.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Who saved you? I saw no one.”

Nodding to herself, Audry felt a little lightheaded, and hungry. Also there were a lot of people around her in the village who were keeping their distance, while the witchdoctor himself said something to Juma and Mercy.

Juma responded and they had a quick discussion before Juma translated to Audry, “What did you see with your eyes? What saved you?”

 Shaking her head, Audry told him everything she could recall, from when his prayer had woken her and she saw Eve, to the point where the so-called angels left the sky above, cursing that they could not ‘reap’ her. The listeners to his translations were speechless, including Mercy. But then Juma said to her, “Your wolf knows a death angel?”

Audry shrugged. “I didn’t know what she was. He said she was from California. That she loved to surf. He met her while she was camping with her family on his land. I had no idea she had wings or… could do any of that.”

Yet Juma shook his head, translating at the urging of the others. The witchdoctor replied and Juma translated, looking dazed. “She is most likely dead—a spirit of death. It is rare for someone to have death as a friend, but you have it.”

Audry went pale. Eve was dead? She was supposed to get married. She was engaged, wasn’t she? Or close to it, she had heard.

They led her back to the home of the witchdoctor. There, the doctor checked her over again. When sure she was cured, they gathered her things, most of which either needed to be washed, burned or discarded. They had expected her death. She had even seen her burial shroud, which they were making so Juma and Mercy could wrap her body up and take back to Arusha so it could be sent back to the US. Juma had planned to take her remains himself to her parents. But now that she was alive, Audry packed and cleaned her own things, glad to not need it. She could tell Juma was also glad.

They were soon on the jeep and heading back to Arusha, while the villagers decided to hold a celebration. The disease, which had been passing through the villages all around the area, had passed them by because of Audry. They were sure of it. They had given Juma, Mercy, and Audry parting gifts when they were loading up to go.

During the trip back to Juma’s hometown, Audry rode in the back at her own insistence. The one reason she gave was that she wanted to lie down as her body felt weak from lack of food. But truthfully, she wanted Mercy to sit next to Juma. She thought that relationship was worth building and she did not want to mess it up now in case Juma thought the miracle of her recovery was attractive.

They arrived at Arusha in the dark. They went straight to Juma’s house—barring protest from Audry, saying if anything it was not appropriate for Mercy to be alone in a house with Juma. Audry got the guest bedroom with Mercy. Juma slept in his own room.

That night, Mercy whispered to Audry, “I will talk to Winnie and tell her to grow up. She was extremely unkind to you, and I think it was my fault.”

Audry shrugged, yet thinking on it said, “Thank you.”

“I don’t know if you will ever be able to come back to Africa, though,” Mercy murmured, trying to hide her selfish relief. “I know if you catch yellow fever again, it would kill you.”

What a thought. Audry was sorry. She liked Africa. She loved the broad sky, the smells of the open air, and the beautiful landscape. And, of course, the animals. But she too had to grow up. No more running away. She had to go back to Idaho and….

Her brain froze on that. And do what? She was still stumped on her PhD. No. She had to go home. She had to see her family. She also had to go see a doctor—a western one—so she could find out what really happened to her. The witchdoctor was fine, but to be honest, she felt it would be good to have a doctor with a medical degree and spoke her language.

Her dreams that night were surreal. Eve was in them, but in the dream she was in the US and not Africa. Her environment was a city, like Chicago. Audry thought she recognized some of the buildings from movies she had seen. Eve was shouting at someone, angry about something. Audry could not quite hear what. She also saw Doug in New York City, which really was not that far from his house. But he was with Troy, talking about blood as usual, yet with some other doctor—a Nordic/Californian blonde with shining blue eyes and a grounded disposition. She could not hear much more from them either, except they mentioned a bite, something about healing it with balms and surgery. But then she recognized him. Dr. McAllister. Eve’s brother.

Audry looked at the bite in her hand. It was practically healed—way faster than normal. The scars were faint indentations, almost as if Eve had taken the bite from her too. Perhaps the bite had been cursed.

Then she saw Vincent in her dream, this time in an unfamiliar city. He was with that Native American she had seen with Rick at the convention—and with some other guy whose face was mildly familiar. She could not place it but she knew she had seen it before.

All these images swirled around her head until she fell into a memory. She was in the ski lodge from years back when she was finishing her Master’s, going down the stairs to main floor. She had spotted Rick in the reading nook, and he had smelled her. That recollection of how he had perked his head like a wolf listening, it had struck her then so strongly it had been in several dreams since. The fact that she dreamed of him at all had always puzzled her. Her dreams of the wolf had never puzzled her. She loved that wolf. That wolf had struck a chord in her soul which she honestly had wished to be played just a few more times. There was something in that wolf calling to her. She wondered now if it was his loneliness, or just how human and feeling he seemed to her.

But of course he was human. He was Rick. He had always been Rick.

Yet the dream did not stop there. Her mind bent so that she was now in the post office with Rhett Williams, closer to the present. In the dream, Rhett was trying to mail a box of cats to Tibet for some odd reason. Yet his words were the same from her memory… adding what he was thinking yet not voicing. “If I had known he was a werewolf, I would not have gone to Germany with him. I knew the rumor. I just did not believe it.”

She woke with that in her mind. Rick may have been a good wolf, but people were targeted because of him. That Chinese demon bit her because of Rick. And if she went home and got near him again, what else would come out of the woodwork to attack her? It was on her mind when she rose from sleep, glancing about the room. She had to think of a plan for when she got home. She was not going to stop seeing supernatural things. Something in her had been awakened. It was most likely she would never be able to shut this opened sight off. But if that were the case, she needed a plan of self-defense.

Once the sun was higher, Audry washed up, packed again, and insisted to find out what happened to Darth during breakfast.

Juma called ahead to the office, asking—just in case things had not gone well. When he hung up the phone, he said, “Darth’s been pining for you.”

She grinned. “So he’s ok.”

A degree annoyed, Juma shrugged. “Yes. But what will he be like when you have to leave Tanzania?”

Audry cringed. That was problematic. She shrugged. “I could buy him from you and take him with me?”

Juma stared at her, then at Mercy who shrugged. He said to Audry, “If he runs to you before me, then I will do it. I just don’t know what the laws are about bringing a dog from Africa to the United States.”

“I’ll look it up,” Mercy said, grinning from over her breakfast plate.

After they cleaned up breakfast and Audry re-packed her things, they hurried to the jeep to go to the office. There they met Luis, Akachi and several others who cheered and greeted Audry with open arms the moment they all saw her. Brutus ran up to them, licking both Juma’s and Audry’s hands—but Mixie was in the compound with her new pups. And Darth, he ran straight for Audry.

The dog was so overjoyed to see her, everyone chorused in laughter.

“Your wolf boyfriend better watch out!” they called to her. “He will be fierce competition.”

She shook her head at them, not voicing what she was thinking. Darth was a sweet and active dog, her favorite, but he was not comparable to the wolf.

Akachi walked up to her and said, “Alright. Audry give us a rundown of the events. What happened? How are you alive?” 

And once more Audry did, explaining that when she learned that her wolf was a man, he had also told her about others—ghoulies—who were people in between the natural and the supernatural. She told them about Bobo and his curse, and also how he had saved her once. She told them about Selina Davenport and her gift, wondering mildly if she would ever see any of those people again. But