Phantom Wolves

Chapter 1

Eric gently laid me on the packed dirt runway at the edge of Yen Sin’s compound. Pain shot through my shoulder like a red hot knife and sent fire surging through my veins, burning like the factory just yards away. I grimaced and choked back a sob. A tear slid down Eric’s face.  It dropped onto my cream-colored blouse and mingled with the spreading crimson stain.

Another explosion from one of the buildings rained bits of metal and wood down on top of us, but Eric didn’t seem to notice.

“Eric, help me. Can’t you use your magic?  It hurts . . . please, help me.”

He wiped another tear from his eye. “I can’t. If I had that kind of power, I would. You know I would, but I’m only a second level wizard. If only Merlin were here.”  He glanced around, shook his head then cradled my head in his lap.  “But he’s gone.”

“I know.” My voice caught in the dryness of my throat, and the ringing in my ears made it hard to hear my own words. Waves of darkness crashed and fell at the outer edges of my vision then seeped further in. “Promise me . . . .”

“Anything, Kat.”

“Take care of my family. Don’t forget me.”

“Don’t say that. You’re going to be okay. You have to be okay. I can’t – oh, Kat.”

The darkness thickened black and ominous.  It crowded out Eric’s wonderful firm jaw, his high cheekbones, and wild brown hair. “Can’t hold on,” I said, my voice barely a whisper now.

“Don’t, Kat. I need you. I love you.” Eric brushed my bangs out of my eyes.

“Love you too, always have.” With my last bit of strength I brushed his jaw with my fingertips. 

These last few weeks had made me realize that I didn’t have to be a lone wolf anymore. I had a family again, and more than that – I had Eric. “I’ll never forget you.”

“Kat, hang in there. Do you hear me?”

He kept talking, but his words faded away as the ringing got louder. The dark cloud narrowed my vision. The last thing to fade from view was his wonderful green eyes. 

Good bye, Eric.  

The blackness took me.

* * *

About Four Weeks Earlier

I leaned back against the velvety softness of the couch and hit the volume on the TV. The wolf special on the education channel had me riveted. Of course, anything to do with wolves immediately grabbed my interest. The love of wild wolves was one of the things I’d inherited from my mother. I glanced around my living room. My mother had started decorating with the forest theme and the wolf pictures plastered around the room, but I had added to it after my parents were killed in the car accident. 

The mural covering the wall consisted of pine tree trunks and smaller pines growing below.  Their lighter green needles set off the darker brown bark of older trees. Nestled amongst the little pines, large ferns spread their leaves dotted with bits of sunlight. In front of one wall, two simulated tree trunks stretched from floor to ceiling with shelves carved into them, and small wolf figurines adorning each one. Interspersed throughout the mural were sets of wolf eyes. A stand, also made to look like a tree stump, nestled in the corner opposite the couches with the small TV atop it. The end tables and coffee table had been fashioned from real tree trunks, and the deep green shag carpet simulated the grass of a forest. Taking note of all the wolf faces surrounding me, I sighed, content to sit in the backdrop of my own little forest and simulated pack.