“Thank you Alex. We would have both been burned to ashes if not for you.”
“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” Alex said, adjusting his coat amidst his discomfort. “What did you really do, anyway?”
Wolf’s face went red. He cleared his throat. “I uh, I ate a sheep.”
Alex shook his head, at a loss for words.
“Did you really see a werewolf?” I asked, still trying to shake off the fear of being burned alive.
“Whatever the hell it was, it sure as hell looked like one. Like a man and a wolf, put together.”
“That’s bad,” Wolf said, deeply troubled. “Very bad. With werewolves around, it’s going to get worse than ever. People hate wolves enough as it is. If they find out that half-wolves can become werewolves, and half-wolves sometimes come from full wolves…”
I wanted to ask, “But why emerge now?” but a shift in the area jarred my senses.
“Oh God,” I said. “It’s waking up.”
I ran down the street, Alex and Wolf right behind me, and slid to a stop in front of the phantom house.
It was already shifting, darkening, unbecoming a house and turning back into the tall, smoky werewolf creature. Through the darkness I could see Marianne curled up inside of it. I snatched up the bouquet of bluebells and morning glory vines we’d left there. The beast let out a snarl that sounded like it’d been scraped across gravel. Its eyes glowed red and its claws had to be at least a few inches long. I shoved my terror down and I waved the bouquet in front of it.
“Over here!”
The werewolf’s eyes turned toward me, focusing on the bluebells. That’s it, I thought, it found Marianne through the bluebells.
Alex let fly a bolt, but it sailed right through the werewolf, burying into a house wall behind it.
“Come on, down here!” I yelled, shaking the bouquet. The beast looked back and forth from Marianne to the bouquet, uncertain.
Suddenly a silver object hit it on the side of its head. Alex’s horseshoe. The werewolf’s eyes opened wider, and it opened its mouth and an ear-piercing roar ripped through the air, dropping the three of us to our knees. I squinted through the pain and then realized this could be my chance. I leapt to my feet, running behind the phantasm and grabbing onto its shaggy hair. I half expected to fall through it, but to my surprise it felt solid under my hands. I hauled myself up and threw the morning glory vines around its neck.
The creature reared and roared again, throwing me back to the ground. I got up and grabbed the crossbow bolt from the wall. The werewolf seemed more baffled than ever, its roar weakening. It looked down at Marianne in confusion. Then Marianne woke up.
“Marianne!” I yelled. “Think of snowdrops! Think of snowdrops!”
She squeezed her eyes shut. The beast tossed its wild head, shrieking horribly. Alex and Wolf threw more objects from Alex’s pouch. Some worked, others didn’t. I threw the bouquet of bluebells down the street. For a moment nothing happened. Then the magical apparition bolted toward the bouquet—and left Marianne sitting on the street.
It didn’t take the thing long to realize that wasn’t right. I dug my hand into my own pouch and pulled out the vial of juniper and clover. Please let this work. I smashed it against a building, ignoring the pain of glass shards biting into my palm, and wiped the bolt down with the liquid in my hand. The werewolf spun around and leaped at me. I ducked out of the way and its claws swept past me, grazing my arm. The beast skidded to a halt and snarled at me over its shoulder. Then it froze. It looked at its claws. Black tendrils reached up from where my blood wetted its claws and slithered up its arm. Its fingers started to disappear.
I didn’t know what it was doing, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out. I jumped onto a stack of crates and then onto the back of the creature, holding onto it for dear life. The thing whipped around, and I caught sight of its hand disappearing. Dark smoke rose up to engulf us both. Behind us Wolf shouted my name. I pulled my arm back and shoved the bolt deep into the werewolf’s back.
This time it didn’t go through its body like smoke. It let out another bellow, and I thought my eardrums would burst. The beast bucked and howled like it