The Mountain's Shadow

“That’s right, I’d forgotten.” I searched my mind for a topic change. I’m sure they didn’t like to be reminded of what they’d lost, especially Ron, who scowled across the table.

Lonna jumped to my rescue. “So I’m curious, do you only have your transformations at the full moon, or is it every night?”

Leo and Ron looked at each other, and Leo motioned for Ron to answer since his mouth was full.

“The full moon is the only time when we have to transform. We can transform any night, but the urge is overwhelming at the full moon.”

“Right.” Lonna scribbled something on her ever-present notepad. “And how much do you remember of your activities the next day?”

Leo answered this time. “It’s hard to explain. It’s like having had a really vivid dream to the point that some parts just don’t make sense. I know there’s stuff I don’t remember. It’s like the animal part of the brain takes over, especially at the full moon.”

Lonna looked at me, and I knew she and I had the same thought: could they have taken the children? The savory sandwich turned to dust in my mouth, and I struggled to swallow. Could we be eating lunch with child murderers?

She kept her tone neutral. “What do you do on those nights when you transform?”

“We run, howl at the moon. You know, wolf stuff.”

“Do you hunt? Joanie said she saw your pack.”

“Sometimes. It’s harder than you’d think. There’s a certain amount of learning that goes into it. We didn’t have wolf parents to teach us.”

“Do you remember what you’ve caught the next day?”

Leo put his sandwich back on his plate and fixed Lonna with a cold, dark stare. “Why don’t we cut the crap, Ms. Marconi? What, exactly, are you trying to ask? Are you implying we took the children?”

She met his glare with her own. “My job is to find out what happened to them. I have to explore every avenue of possibility.”

“Need I remind you my own nephew is one of those children who is now missing? I can assure you, whatever my frame of mind, I wouldn’t be able to harm him.” He threw his napkin on the table and stalked to the porch. Ron followed him. I saw Leo had eaten all the meat from out of the middle of the sandwich.

Gabriel came in from the kitchen and picked up the plates. “I guess they won’t be having coffee?”

“Probably not. Thank you, Gabriel.”

“We didn’t even get to ask him about Kyra.” Lonna picked her sandwich up and ate with dainty bites.

“I think you got him wound up enough.” I kept my voice low, unsure of how sharp their hearing would be.

“So what did you think about Louise’s car?”

“It looked pretty banged up. Do you think Ricky will call you after the police have been there?”

She smiled, and I envied the confidence she had in her power over men. “I believe he will.”

I sat in the office and looked at the medical charts again. There was something in there; I knew it in my gut, but what? I opened the laptop, got back into the database, and entered data until it swam in front of my stinging eyes. Still, I felt I was so close I couldn’t just give up. I decided to curl up in a chair and rest for a few moments.

I closed my eyes on the office and opened them to a clearing in the woods, each tree trunk, branch and leaf illuminated with the silvery-gray light of the moon. My breath came in ragged gasps—it's after me! I heard it moving in the brush to my left, so I gulped air as quietly as I could and assessed my escape paths. My bare feet crushed the pine needles, which released a sharp, musky scent. Careful not to prick myself, I crept to the other end of the clearing. I looked at the trees to see if I could climb to safety, but part of my mind knew that wasn’t an option—my pursuer would follow me. So I continued to crawl inch by inch through the undergrowth, careful not to make a sound. The dirt caked my hands, the rocks scraped my knees, but I crept on for what seemed like hours, toward what I felt would be safety.

Just when I thought I could rest, I heard a low chuckle, and it was upon me—sharp claws in my shoulders and hot breath on my neck. I rolled and grappled with it into another clearing, and as I lay on my back, pinned by its weight, I could see the sharp fangs in the moonlight, the tongue lolling as it panted over me. The black wolf, but this time it was a wolf-man in ragged khaki trousers, its chest finely muscled and furred.

I struggled, but it held me with one claw/hand around my throat. It reached into its pocket with the other paw and drew forth a long silver wand. The thick needle flashed in the moonlight, and I knew if he jabbed me with it, I would become one of them. I opened my mouth to scream as he pointed it at my left shoulder, but no sound came out. I woke covered in sweat.

“Joanie?” Lonna knocked on the door and poked her head in. “Are you okay? I heard a whimper.”

I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyeballs until I saw stars. “I just had a weird dream.” Why are they always after me?

“Tell me about it.”

I recounted as best I could, and when I got to the part with the needle, I jumped up. “That’s it.”

“What is it?”

“Hang on.” I pulled the computer out of rest mode and collapsed some of the data so I had two columns side by side: Tdap vaccination date and symptom onset date. The symptom onset was clearly two to three weeks after the Tdap, or tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis vaccine, commonly given around age eleven. “That’s the dream. The CLS—it’s getting to the victims through the vaccines.”

She clapped her hands. “Brilliant! Who would suspect the vaccinations?”

“But it’s not common enough to be showing up in every single pre-adolescent. There have to be some other factors.” I stood up. “I’ve got to get out of here—I can’t breathe. I’m going to take a walk.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, but thanks for offering. I need to be able to think out loud and talk to myself to work this out. Having company would only distract me.”

“Be careful, then.”

I looked at the clock. Two thirty. I had only been asleep for an hour? It had felt like several. “If I’m not back by four, send a search party.”

“Right. Werewolves to the rescue. Are you sure you’d feel safe with that?”

“It depends on which one you send.”

The puzzled look on her face as we walked out of the office told me she would ponder what I meant for a while, but I didn’t care. I felt like I had finally made progress in solving the mystery of the missing children.

I walked across the lawn and resisted the urge to look back and see if I was being followed, or at least watched. I found the trail leading into the woods and took the north fork, which would bring me to a bluff over the river and my grandfather’s “thinking spot”. It was amazing how quickly my feet remembered the terrain, the dirt path with underlying rock exposed by the rain and erosion. I wondered if anyone else had been this way recently, if my grandfather had gone out to his thinking spot soon before he had disappeared. The sunlight made dappled patterns through the leaves, but the slight metallic smell in the air told me a storm was building close by. I didn’t care—a little rain wouldn’t hurt me.

I stepped on to the bluff and walked to the front, where a boulder with an indentation that was just the perfect size for an adult bottom stood and looked over the woods and the land below. To the left, a few small trees held on, but there was mostly a drop-off. I could see across the hills, the trees a patchwork of green with fading that hinted of autumn. Below me, the river whispered, but I could only see glimpses of it through the greenery. I sat on a rock and just watched the clouds, felt the space, and was reminded this was the first time I’d been truly alone in almost a week.

I let my mind wander over the past few days, the revelations about the guys and the suspicions I had about my own family and the Landover Curse. Up there, alone, I knew I would have to face memories I’d avoided for years. I would have to read the contents of the box my grandfather had pointed out to me as well as the letters from my childhood.

“Oh, Andrew,” I moaned, and a drop plopped on my jeans. I went to wipe the tear from my cheek, but