Darkness and haze. It cleared as I forced my eyes to focus. The fire was low, but not dead. I must have fallen asleep waiting for Dominie.

I was sitting with my back against the wall next to the bed, cocooned in a blanket.

There was someone in the room.

They were standing over the bed, right by my legs, so the fire could only illuminate their back. As I watched, the tall figure leaned over Jacob and Jan. The motion looked stiff and artificial, like someone shutting a rusted trapdoor.

Firelight shone off its teeth when the thing smiled.

It whispered, “There you are.”

I kicked out hard with both feet.

The thing let out an abrupt shout and staggered back until I could see its face in the fire light.

It was Dominie.

He limped toward me and smiled.

“Hello, Anna.”

It wasn’t Dominie.

[https://i.imgur.com/f011ZNa.jpg]

I was still trembling when I left my bedroom. There was no one on the landing, no one in the kitchen, and the TV room was dark. I stalked back to the front stairs, feeling miserable and strangely angry, but then I spied a flicker of orange light coming from the sitting room.

I went over. Conrad, still in his day clothes, was sitting with his legs up on the couch, staring at the fire he’d lit in the fireplace. He was so distracted that he didn’t even look up.

Being the sensitive soul I am, I ignored his thoughtful mood and stormed into the room.

“Sit up.”

He looked surprised but moved his legs off the couch.

I sat down beside him. “Put your arm over me.” When he didn’t immediately comply, I remembered that manners were a thing. “Please put your stupid arm over me.”

He did as I asked.

“Now tell me everything’s going to be okay. Please.”

He rested his muzzle on my bald head. “That must have been one hell of a bad dream.”

I let out a gasping laugh. “What? Do I smell scared or something?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“There’s a lot of emotions there. None of them happy.” He squeezed me. “Everything will be okay, Mera.”

“Thank you.”

I allowed myself a few minutes to unwind before I spoke again.

“What time is it?”

“The clock struck one a few minutes before you came down,” Conrad said.

“Do wolfmen ever sleep?”

“You woke me up this morning. At seven, remember?”

I grinned sheepishly, but there was a lot more grin in it than there was sheep. “Oh, yeah. That’s right. Sorry about that. But you always seem to be awake when I get up in the middle of the night.”

I felt him shrug. “I’ve always been kind of a night owl. I was having a hard time sleeping tonight.”

“Were you worried about something?”

“A bit. What was your dream about?”

“I’m sorry, Conrad. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

“It’s all right. I don’t mind.”

We watched the fire dance around the hearth. To me, the flames looked like a bunch of excited, irrational people, arguing with each other in what must have been the world’s most ridiculous and destructive town meeting.

I was trying to decide what they were arguing about when Conrad said, “You don’t seem to mind the fact I snapped at you back at Mrs. Park’s house.”

“Huh? Dude, I punched you! I got what I deserved—less than what I deserved, since you didn’t even hurt me.”

“You didn’t hurt me,” he said. “I was startled, that’s all.”

I pushed away and turned so I could look at him. “I hit you as hard as I could!”

He shrugged again.

“Could you at least act like it hurt? Pretend I broke a rib or something.”

All he did was watch me with a faint smile tugging on the edge of his dark lips.

“Well, great,” I turned back and leaned against him, “now I feel weak.” After a minute, I asked, “Conrad, why were you staring so hard at that thing? Why didn’t you come in when I asked you to?”

“I did.”

“Only after I punched you. Why didn’t you listen to me the first two times?”

“I could barely hear you. Whatever that thing was, it did something. It clouded up my senses. And that god-awful smell.” I felt him take a breath. “I don’t usually mind smells—not like humans do—but that one made me sick. The whole ride home, I was trying not to puke.”

I groaned. “Which probably wasn’t helped by all those winding roads. Or my driving.”

He rubbed my head. “Your driving wasn’t…well, you could use some practice. But we made it home alive.”

“Yeah. That’s how I like to brag about my driving skills—I haven’t killed anyone yet.”

“How long has it been since you drove? You probably got your license at sixteen or seventeen, giving you a maximum of one year where you got to drive—”

“A few times.”

“—only a few times, and then there was a three-year break?”

“Whatever. It was a lifetime ago.”

“It makes sense you’d need some practice.”

“I still say I did a pretty good job.” When he didn’t answer, I tilted my head so I could look at him over my shoulder. “Well?”

“People say all kinds of things.”

I laughed and relaxed into his shoulder. We both lapsed into an easy silence.

The gentle, smoky smell of the fire blended with the familiar scent of Conrad’s fur. It was warm and earthy. Under my back, I could feel his ribs rising and falling with his steady breathing. The quiet rustling and popping of the fire filled the room. As time went on, the soothing scene worked its magic. All those not-happy emotions settled down and crawled back into whatever dark hole they’d come from.

All I wanted to do was stay there. If I could put off a bad dream by staying up until I was nodding with sleep, maybe I could ignore the weight of all the pain and trouble around me, just for one more moment of peace.

But that wouldn’t help anyone.

“When does Darius get home?” I asked.

“Tomorrow, but he’s probably going to stop in town first,” Conrad said.

“How do you know?”

“I called him and told him what happened.”

“You called him in the middle of the night?”

There was a nice long pause for me to fully realize my stupidity, then Conrad said, “I assure you, he didn’t mind.”

Welp! If you’re going to be an idiot, you might as well go all the way. “You know it’s rude to call people before ten in the morning and after ten at night, right?”

“Humans are so cute. Did you need to tell him about your dream?”

“Yeah, but I think it can wait.” I shivered from head to toe. “Probably.”