“Do you know what we are?”Kai said.“We’re wolves.The wolves God put here to devour the wicked.That’s why God made me like this.I had to go through the fire myself first.And I came through the flames.He made me pure.He changed me.He gave me power over the earth to make all men pure like me.And we will separate the sick from the whole like wolves through an unclean herd.”
Part of him had noticed the increasing number of ssounds, and what they meant—that Kai either no longer could control himself, or no longer cared.Because he was going to kill Tean.Because he wanted to kill him, and he would enjoy it.And then the fear and hopelessness that had been rising in Tean snapped.In their absence, he felt nothing but a hollow disbelief, and that clinical voice inside him had a single clear thought: in the absence of any other options, it was a mercy to put down a sick—and dangerous—animal.And no matter how deadly an animal, if you were prepared, if you planned, if you had the right tools—
And the thought was there, fully formed in his head, like he’d always known what he was going to do.
“Quit hiding,” Kai called.“Come out here.I want to help you.You have to pass through the fire.But if you come through, you’ll be like me: more than a man.”
Kai waited, as though he thought Tean might take him up on the offer.Then rubber creaked, and the next step carried Kai past Tean and deeper into the basement.
“Do you know the problem with the world?”Kai began.“We let people believe that faggots are natural.But God tells us what happens when people let perverts gain control of their government and schools and businesses.First, they destroy the traditional family.And then, when their wickedness can’t grow anymore, God stretches out His hand to wipe them off the face of the earth.”
As Kai continued to rant, his voice growing uneven, the words coming too fast and loud, Tean moved.He found the inner tube, closed a hand around it, and then slid forward.He scooted out from under the hanging clothes, and plastic rustled.But Kai was shouting now—something about God sending wolves to separate the clean from the unclean—and he must not have been able to hear.
Tean got to his feet.He thought once more about giving up on this plan and running for the stairs.But the rational part of him knew he wouldn’t make it.He was stiffening up from the fall, and Kai was younger and faster.
Besides, he told himself, this is going to work.
The thing about wolves, dogs—any canid, really—was that they were strong and quick and dangerous.
But no matter how dangerous, a catchpole still worked every time.
Tean stepped forward.He caught another whiff of the rubber mask, and something else, a scent on Kai that was sweet, maybe even floral.Before he could focus on it, he swung the inner tube over Kai’s head like he was passing a hula hoop over him.And then, as the inner tube descended, Tean twisted it at the back and yanked.
Fear and a spark of rage made him stronger than he expected.The inner tube snapped shut around Kai’s neck, and Kai had a moment to cry out before the force of Tean’s pull hauled him into the air.The wolf’s feet left the floor as Tean backpedaled.The hand with the knife came up—not an attack, just a reflex, Kai’s hands groping for something that wasn’t there.And then Kai came crashing down onto his back.
Tean kicked him in the head as hard as he could.The Keens were good boots, solid, reinforced so that you wouldn’t break a toe if you stumbled and hit a rock.Kai’s head snapped to the side, and the wolf went still.
Panting, Tean made himself let go of the inner tube.His fingers were stiff, and for a moment, they wouldn’t respond.Then they opened, and he stumbled backward.
Kai was still lying there.
No sign of the knife—lost in the dark or among the boxes, Tean guessed.
And then Kai groaned.
For a moment, the fear was like water running through Tean, trying to pour out of him wherever it could.He collided with a stack of boxes, and they fell behind him.Something shattered on the concrete floor.He hit something else—another box, his brain tried to tell him—and he was blocked, he was trapped, he was—
Kai rolled onto his side.One hand flopped onto the concrete.But a moment later, he was pushing himself up.
Something was still blocking Tean.
It’s a box, Tean’s brain was screaming at him.It’s just a box!
Looking away from Kai as the wolfman got to his hands and knees was one of the hardest things Tean had ever done.But then he saw what his brain had been trying to tell him: when he’d knocked over the stack of boxes, one had fallen into the narrow pathway at exactly the right angle to get stuck, and now it was in Tean’s way.He ducked under it.When he glanced back, he couldn’t see Kai anymore.
It didn’t matter.He sprinted for the stairs.The slap of his Keens echoed back from concrete walls.His breathing whistled in his ears.He was halfway up the steps, the wooden treads thundering under him, when a glint caught his eyes.
His glasses.
He snatched them up and shoved them on his face as he shot up the remaining steps.
His phone was on the kitchen floor.He grabbed it and ran for the back door.He sprinted out onto the sun porch and then into the yard without bothering to close the doors behind him.
The white Ford was sitting there, still parked in the alley.
It took Tean two tries to get the door open because his hand was shaking so badly.When he threw a glance at the house, it was dark, and the lawn was just a white field broken where his steps had shattered the frost.
No wolfman.
