By the time I made it closer to town, I was dripping in sweat, and likely blood from scratches on my face and neck, too. Ducking through the line of hedges, I forced myself back onto the street, because there was no way I could continue stumbling along the hill and hope to make it home without a broken ankle. Panting, I turned, eyes closed, and waited for the beast to lunge for me.
Silence greeted me.
I paused at the base of the stairs to my flat, which might have been a silly choice as this was when someone was murdered in a horror movie, but I had to see. I had to know. Had the dog really been chasing me? Or had it been protecting me? And if so, where had it come from? Granted, I hadn’t been here all that long, but so far I hadn’t treated a husky at my practice. Which was surprising, given they were a fairly popular dog breed, particularly in Scotland’s cooler climate.
All I could hear was the gentle lapping of the water on the pebbly shoreline. No panting, no growling, nothing crashing through the underbrush along the street. It could be any other night in Loren Brae, minus the usual noises of a village going about its nightly routine. Which made sense, really, since I wouldn’t be likely walking to the pub or goingfor a leisurely stroll if I heard the Kelpies screaming in the night. Hell, no wonder the last vet had left in such a hurry. Their shriek was enough to make your insides shrivel in fear.
Movement caught my eye and I jumped, only to sigh in relief when Gloam slipped from the bushes.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe. Did you see what happened?”
“I saw the Kelpie rise. But I was up the hill in the forest behind the castle. Were you down here?”
“I was. I was walking the street home.” I bounded up the stairs, needing to be inside my flat, convinced if I just made it inside I would be safe. Unlocking the door, I rushed inside, slamming it quickly behind Gloam, and sagged against the wall in relief. Safe. Like a child ducking under the covers, convinced that was all she needed to shield herself from the monsters. Logic might not be my strong suit at the moment, but I truly did feel better now that I was back in my flat, the warm glow from a lamp I’d picked up at a charity shop earlier that week casting a cheery welcome across my space. It had been a fruitful shopping trip, as I’d also bought a colorful rug with brilliant reds, pinks, and turquoises in it, an actual vase for flowers, and a colorful print of Scotland’s hills dusted with lovely purple heather. It was just the beginning of making my place feel more like my own, but even so, I was pleased with the progress I was making.
“Why are you bringing a dead plant home?”
“Oh no.” I looked down at my arms to realize I’d crushed Betty too tightly to my side and the beleaguered plant was barely standing up anymore. Guiltily, I placed iton the counter and stared at it. “Shona’s going to kill me.”
“Maybe it will be fine.Plants are surprisingly resilient.”Gloam trotted across the flat and jumped onto the couch, turning himself in a circle for a while before he wrapped in a little ball, tucking his tail under his chin as he watched me.“How close were you to the Kelpies?”
“Kelpie,” I amended. “Just the one. At least that’s all I saw.”
“How did you get it to go away?”
“I didn’t.” A fine trembling worked its way through my body and I realized that I was feeling shaky from the aftereffects of adrenaline. “You know what? I think I need a glass of wine.”
I definitely needed a glass of wine.
Popping open the fridge, I pulled out a Sauvignon Blanc I’d opened two nights ago and poured a glass, needing something normal to do to help calm my nerves. Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t be sure if the dog would really have chased me. Had that just been my overactive imagination? Or was it just straight panic because the situation was so out of any frame of reference I had experienced in the past?
“The Kelpie just left?”
“Oh, so, no. That’s not entirely what happened.” I recounted the events of the evening for him and when I finished, Gloam had come alert, sitting up straight on the couch.
“A dog chased the Kelpie away?”His tone held a note of suspicion.
“It did. A husky.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Really? Because it worked. Or at least it seemed to work. It was really quite the thing. For a second, I thought I’d need to stop and help it, but it fended off the Kelpie. Really quite amazing.”
“Tell me what the dog looked like.”
“Oh, it was a husky. I mean, it was kind of hard to see as the only light came from the moon, and you know, that whole panicking for my life thing.”
Gloam made that soft yelping noise he made when he laughed at me.
“I don’t know the different brands of dogs.” Gloam sniffed in disdain. “Just describe it.”
“Oh right, I guess a fox wouldn’t know all the types, would they?” I smirked at Gloam calling them “dog brands.” I guess I’d never really thought of it that way, because Gloam had thus far been fairly well versed on many different subjects, but it made sense he wouldn’t know dog breeds by name. He likely just knew them as dogs. “Um, grayish white shaggy long-haired coat. Darker fur near the shoulders and hind quarters. Pointy ears. Longer snout, like yours.”
“Wolf,” Gloam said, settling back into his ball.
I blinked at him in surprise and then took a long sip of my wine. The cool liquid soothed my dry throat, and I took another deep breath.
“Wolves have not been endemic to Scotland since the seventeenth century.”
