Big Bad Wolf

A brief note to the reader: Currently, Jack and Eddie are characters in a novel I'm working on. This is just one of the little skirmishes they get into prior to the novel. If there are things here that leave you wondering, it's because I like putting in little tidbits to make the reader want more. It's cheap, and dirty, but hey....I gotta get people hooked somehow right? Also, this is just a rough draft, keep that in mind while you peruse it.

The Big Bad Wolf

A Jack Draughn Story

“You read this man?” Eddie asked tossing the newspaper in front of me. The pages rustled just the slightest as they were caught by the stirring of a passing breeze.

I cut my eyes between the paper and Eddie. He was tall, whip thin and carried himself with a constant air of cocky good humor.His green eyes peered at me from beneath a mass of pitch black dreadlocks. He had a bandanna tied around his forehead, concealing what I knew was a small pentacle tattoo at the point of his widow's peak, a deep green color against the startling paleness that was his skin tone. Eddie was a witch, a damn strong one at that.

“No.” I said, lighting a cigarette.

“You need to.” He said calmly, reaching over to fish a smoke for himself out of my pack. He settled back in his chair and lit it, the smoke drifting into the afternoon sky above him. The small patio of the cafe was empty, leaving no one to object to our breaking the no smoking rule.

I sighed and picked the paper up, scanning the headlines. I saw almost instantly the story Eddie had been referring too. Third Killed in Suspected Wild Animal Attack, it said in glaringly bold print. I scanned the page, picking details out of the fluff. Three girls killed in as many weeks, mauled to death by a what was only described as a “very large animal” within Boston Commons. Experts from Franklin Park Zoo were clueless as to what type of animal it was, though it was assumed to be some form of canine as indicated by tracks at the scene and bite impressions taken from the body.

“So..? How is that my problem?” I said finally, turning towards Eddie as he finished his fourth cup of coffee.

He gave me a blank stare, nodding towards the paper.

“Note the photographs of the girls, ya compassionate prick.” He said with a roll of his eyes.

I scratched absently at the three days worth of stubble on my face and turned my attention back to the paper. The story was on the front page, and thus was accompanied by color photographs. A moment later, my eyebrows rose.

“Redheads.” He said, noting my reaction.

“Yeah, could be coincidence.” I shrugged, settling back into my chair. I took another drag from my cigarette letting twin serpents of
smoke slide from my nostrils.

“You know as well as I do there's not much in the way of coincidence brother. That's just an excuse the normals make up for shit they can't explain.”

Eddie had a point. I sighed.

“You want to look into it don't you.”

He grinned widely.

“Eddie, it's probably nothing.”

“But it could be something, and you know as well as I do, that you won't sleep for shit until you find out one way or the other.”

He was right, and he knew it. If it was supernatural, I couldn't leave it just run around and slaughter innocent people, especially
considering I had the abilities to stop it, or at least make it reconsider. I had made the mistake of ignoring things once and it had cost me my brother. I owed it to him to fix that.

“Fine.” I grumbled.

“See, it's to easy. You got a hard on to keep the normals from getting hurt.”

I glared at him, and he held up his hands in a warding gesture.

“Just pointing out the obvious brother.” He said, standing and giving me a friendly clap on the shoulder that stupid grin still plastered to his face.

# # #

We walked into Boston Common just as night was settling in comfortably. The August night was warm, but not uncomfortably so, with just the slightest bit of a breeze rustling the line of willow trees to our right and sending ripples over the water of the man made pond just beyond them. Overhead, a crescent moon grinned down at us in a maniacal jester's smile. A few cops were on foot patrol shining flashlights into the shadows cast by the lakeside willow trees.

Eddie slipped off his sandals, dropping them into the backpack over his shoulder. He stepped into the grass, walking beside the sidewalk and smiled. He drew his magic from direct contact with the earth, shoes, sidewalks, anything of the sort left him with absolutely none of what he liked to call his “mojo”.

“Much better.” He said, relief obvious in his voice.

I cut my eyes towards him, and then back towards the path. A cop walked towards us and I slid my hands in my pockets to hide the prison tattoos that ran across their backs. He eyed me quietly as he walked past, narrowing them a bit and then turned his attention elsewhere.

We walked for the next fifteen or so minutes in total silence, when I felt it. It started at the base of my spine, a slow, cold humming that ran along my nervous system like a million spider's legs to the tips of my fingers and toes. I could feel a steady thrumming behind my eyes as my blood pressure rose.

One of the downsides to being the descendant of Nergal, the Babylonian god of death was that I could feel and manipulate the recently dead and feel the energy their deaths released. It was one of a handful of tricks I had inherited, along with the ability to manipulate the areas of which said god held purview over; the sun which manifested as control over heat and flame and pestilence, which let me do some very creative, and often times not so pleasant, things with the naturally occuring bacteria and viruses inside the human body. I also had a strength, toughness, and speed most humans couldn't even come close to shy of being olympic athletes.

I stopped, withdrawing my hands from my pockets.

“You feel something?” Eddie asked quitely.

“Obviously.” I said calmly.

“Where?”

I nodded in the direction of the Public Gardens, a hundred or so yards ahead of us on the opposite side of Charles Street.

“Happened over there.”

“Well let's go then.” Eddie said, his voice taking on a quality of focus. He reached down as we walked, plucking a stick from the grass and sliding it behind his ear.

“What's the stick for?”

“Just in case.” He said, with a wink.

# # #

The clearing my senses had led me too was a set two groups of trees. It's outskirts were wrapped in yellow crime scene tape, staked into the ground, marking off a circle of roughly ten feet in diameter. The perfume of flowers was heavy here, and underneath that the sticky sweet metallic odor of blood hung in the air like a bad hangover. The air felt colder here, and it seemed somehow thicker, sliding over my skin like greasy fingers. Goosebumps began to stand out on the skin of my arms and neck.

“This is the place.”

“You know, call me crazy, but the crime scene tape led me to the same conclusion.

He responded to the flat stare I gave him with a wide, toothy grin.

I paced slowly, looking past the tape to the marred ground beyond it. Clumps of earth had been ripped up, as if torn by massive claws. My eyes turned upwards, towards the trees and the pink flowers held there in. Several of the flowers were almost black in the scant moonlight, bathed in a thin skin of dried blood.

“Satisfied?” I asked.

Eddie turned in a slow circle, eyes focused.

“Eddie.”

He turned towards me.

“You hear that?” He asked.

“Hear what?”

“Listen.” He said calmly.

I did, and heard nothing. Absolutely nothing. No crickets. No birds. No frogs. Only the sounds of traffic in the distance, the occasional car horn punctuating the ebbing drone of engines. A siren's warbling scream passed a flew blocks away, fading as it put distance between us. The night air should have been teeming with the sounds of summer animals.

“It's quiet...too quiet.” Eddie whispered, grinning at his own corny joke.

“Something's hunting.” I said, my voice a bare whisper.

Eddie nodded.

“Eddie...I swear to christ, if I get eaten because-”

He shushed me, putting a finger to his lips, pointing in the distance with his other hand. A girl had burst from the treeline, running towards us, determination and fear painted across her face. She wore club gear, a short, plaid school girl skirt, heavy boots and a black tank top.

The girl reached us, and skidded to a stop. She was attractive, her body reminiscent of a pin up model, all curves. The make up she wore, a bright red that matched her hair was streaked by sweat, and only helped to accentuate eyes the color of a clear summer sky. She was shorter than me, maybe a foot less than six foot four. She panted, making her chest do rather...distracting things in the too tight tank top.

“You should really..” She huffed, casting a look over her shoulder once more, “Get the fuck out of here.”

The girl stood facing me, and over her shoulder I could see Eddie looking her over appraisingly. He noticed my gaze and lifted his eyebrows twice with a wide grin. I sighed.

“And why would that be?” I said, a tinge of annoyance in my tone.

As if in response, a wolf roughly the size of a volkswagen beetle dropped out of the sky hard enough to send a tremble through the ground. Massive bat wings sprouted from it's shoulders, and the beast pulled them in tight to it's body as it paced towards us. It's eyes were a sick, glowing toxic green, set beneath a sloping brow in an almost too narrow head. It's fur was a shaggy, matted mess of gray and brown, patches plastered to its skin with dried blood. Two tails swished absently behind it, like dueling snakes.

The girl pointed towards the wolf.

“How's that for a reason.” She said, backing up slowly.

“Seems plausible.” Eddie said quietly.

I looked at the girl, then back towards the wolf. All things considered, she was holding herself together rather well in the face of a slavering mass of fangs and death.

To my surprise it spoke.

“Give me the red one.” It said in a low, almost dry hissing voice. Thick ropes of saliva swaying from its maw as it somehow enunciated the words in an accentless voice.

“Fraid we can't do that.” Eddie said calmly.

The wolf turned towards him, eyes narrowing to near closed. It sniffed once.

“A witch.” It said, and then turned towards me. It repeated the sniffing gesture and tilted it's head slightly.

“And a god touched.”

The wolf took another step, it's eyes finally settling on the redhead a few steps behind us now. She took a step back again, fighting the urge to break into a run once more. Her eyes darted between Eddie and me, and she stammered.

“I...I...what the fuck?” She finally spit out.

“Give me the red one.” It said again.

“Can't. Moral obligation to letting monsters eat people.” I said, stepping to put myself between it and the girl.

I cut my eyes briefly towards Eddie, who had reached into his backpack, and now chanted over a small leather bag he had pulled from it's confines. Apparently he had put a two plus two together that I hadn't seen. Fucking witches.

I could smell it now as it paced closer. The smell of wet fur and rotting, dead meat rolled off it in tidal waves of stench. It growled in warning, a low rumbling sound reminiscent of a summer thunderstorm.

“Give. Me. The. Red...”

Eddie cut it off, throwing the bag's contents into the wolf's face in a massive gray cloud of powder. Iron shavings. Sparks erupted like electrical supernovas along it's fur, igniting small blue flames that the creature extinguished with a quick, angry shake of it's body.

The creature was fae of some sort. A wyld fae, more than likely. An idea given form and sentience which then possesses a recent corpse, and shapes the body into a new form suiting the fae's concept of itself. Or at least, that's the cliff notes. The important thing was, while it couldn't be killed it's body could be destroyed and it's essence sent back to where ever the hell the thing came from.

Eddie leapt to the side as it lunged towards him, barely avoiding losing an arm to the massive jaws.

“Jack, it's a fae!” He yelled, rolling to his feet.

“I gathered.” I said calmly, and I let the power that I keep buried within me roll to the surface. Almost instantly, I could feel it coursing through me, infusing every cell with dark, scorching power. The recent deaths in the area felt almost tangible. The heat from the sun earlier in the day, trapped in the ground, the trees, the nearby water all seemed to ebb in flow in some primordial rhythm. I could almost here the buzz of creatures too small to be seen even on the most advanced of instruments, viruses and bacterium that had still been as of yet discovered. The energy infused me, turning my skin a sun kissed bronze color. My hair lengthened, falling to my shoulders, the color shifting from a hazy blonde to an inky black.

Sometimes being the descendant of a God, makes me feel like a real bad ass, I had to admit.

I could hear the girl behind me whimper, just the slightest, shuffling back on the ground to put distance between us. Eddie, back on his feet looked towards me, and I could see the clenching of his jaw, as the wolf crouched, preparing to lunge once more.

The wolf lunged again, and I met it in mid air, easily leaping the ten feet between us in a single jump. We collided, spilling us to the ground in a tangle of thrashing limbs. It's jaws clamped down on my forearm, and I fought back a scream of pain as the pressure crushed bone with an audible, dry snap. I planted both feet against the creature's stomach and pushed launching it into the air. A flap of it's wings lifted it away from me at the apex of it's flight and I pulled myself to my feet, blood streaming over my hand. The bones began to knit, writhing against the muscles under my skin as they sought to reclaim their rightful place.

“What the...what the fuck are you people?” The girl asked, panting.

“Busy. Shut up.” I said calmly.

“Wha..what?” The girl said.

“I said shut the fuck up, jesus.”

“Excuse Jack..he's a bit of prick.” Eddie said, his own eyes directed towards the sky.

“I don't understand what's going on.”

I kept my eyes on the creature's silhouette against the already dark sky, watching it circle slowly, almost languidly, biding it's time to strike again. Eddie reached up, plucking the stick from behind his ear. Somehow it had managed to stay there during his dive for cover after the wolf's first attack.

“Here it comes.” I said, watching the wolf begin a rapid descent towards us.

It was fast, almost blindingly so, its wings at it's side. I heard the snap of the twig in Eddie's hands, and a branch of one of the nearby willow trees literally lashed out, hitting the wolf with a massive crack. It's trajectory thrown off, it hit the ground hard, cutting a furrow into the dirt. It's right wing, where the branch had hit it, was a mangled disaster. Thick, leathery membranes torn, the hollow bones that made up its framework broken and twisted to odd angles.

I threw myself into it as it pulled itself, wobbily, to it's feet, forcing it to it's back. It's claws scrambled against me, talons the size of my hand cutting deep lacerations against my chest and thighs. I pinned it's head down forcing it against the groud, fingers sinking into the fur with one hand. The other rained punches, small rings of fire radiating out with each blow and sending gouts of putrid tasting blood and the smell of burnt hair into my face.

Its struggles weakened as I hit it, the wolf's head becoming mishapen as my fists rained down on it, turning it into a pulpy mass of tissue and bone. Finally, with one last blow. it stopped moving and I rolled over, pushing it away, to stare up into the sky while my body regained it's normal appearance.

I was cut to ribbons, the warm sticky feeling of blood covering my legs and torso. I could already feel the skin mending itself together. Eddie's face appeared over me, grinning just the slightest.

“You ok?” He asked, reaching a hand out towards me.

I took the hand and sat up.

“Peachy.” I muttered, wincing. “How's the girl?”

“Gone.”

I quirked a brow and pulled myself to my feet, a burning wave of pain rushing over me as I did. Sure enough, she was no where to be seen.

“Fuckin women.” I said with a sigh and started towards the exit.

Eddie fell in behind me, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“I'm sure it had nothing to do with your charming demeanor.” He said with a smile.

The End

Word Count: 2967 - Not Counting Author's Note.