The Puppets and the Strings (A Werewolf's Saga Book 7) Read online

  “Why? Why is it always me?” after asking this, he suddenly felt bad for it. Kenny was his friend, hell his best friend for centuries, and he knew better than that. He should always be there to help a friend. He just shouldn’t have said it the way he did. “I’m sorry Kenny.” He bowed his head.

  “Things have been put in to motion that cannot be untwined father. You must be strong and willing to do what must be done.”

  He looked at Sima. She hadn’t turned. She didn’t truly speak to him with her mouth. He heard all of it in his head.

  A cold chill raced down his spine. “What about Casey?” He knew where this was heading, and he couldn’t take the road if it meant something bad for him. He wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t. He would die first.

  Kenny moved closer to him. “Casey is stronger than you are Jimmy. Don’t fear what you can’t see.”

  He looked back up, hearing this. “I can’t risk him. I can’t risk Rachel either. We have made a good life.” He actually felt tears swelling up in both eyes. He truly felt like crying.

  “I know this is difficult for you, but the choice has been made. It has to happen as it is meant to be.” Kenny watched him closely.

  He couldn’t look him in the eyes. “What choice? I haven’t made any choice, other than the one that says being home for my son.” He started feeling angry now. He felt like this before. It was the day the Wanderers came for him. It was the day that Alana died too. It was never his choice.

  Sima turned from the flames. Her arms stayed up. “The choice was yours father. It was also Satars.”

  He gasped with this. “I can accept something that I did, but what was it. And what does this have to do with him?” His father had spent days raping his mother, torturing her, and keeping her contained within her own mind. He despised him for it. He hated him for Devish. He hated him for everything else.

  “Satar was evil, there is no doubt about what he did, but he also made choices. Those choices continue to this day and time.” Kenny looked at Sima. His time was almost up. “The choices you made have not yet fulfilled itself yet either.”

  Suddenly the sounds of screams blared out from the flames. It sounded loud and harsh. It sounded like a man that had just lost his reasons for living.

  Jimmy hoped that it wasn’t he.

  “It is not you father. It is the one you hurt more than anyone else.”

  He shuddered with that. He knew whom she meant. “Gary? That’s Gary?” He saw him standing by the car. He saw his blonde hair turn to ashen black. He watched the wolf turn on Rachel in the barn. Seeing all of it made him shudder again.

  “The choice has been made.”

  He turned back to Kenny. “You’re telling me that what is happening to you is because of Gary? It has something to do with that.”

  Kenny’s time was up. “He killed me once, and he may try to kill me again.” He looked at his friend one last time. He then turned back to Sima and the flames. Without saying anything else, he blended back into them and disappeared into the bright yellow and white light.

  He hated it when they did that here. He knew the rules, but hated them at times like this. At least Sima was still there.

  “What did he mean by that?”

  She turned from the fire. “You and your father have one thing in common father. You both have made mistakes. You both regret the choices you have made.”

  Again, he hated this. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  She moved back to the other side of the flames, to the exact same spot where she first appeared to him and then turned back around.

  “You cannot escape your past. You cannot escape your future. Life is a journey of power and pain. Your reemergence has to happen. It must be accepted as both.”

  He just couldn’t take this anymore. “What about Casey? What am I supposed to do about Rachel? What am I supposed to do about both of them?”

  “She is stronger than most. He is stronger than you know. He can make those weaker than he will ever be.”

  This didn’t help him at all. “What are his gifts? If he has them, what are they? How can he defend himself?”

  She smiled. “He takes what others give, and gives what they never had.”

  Her voice sounded like it was starting to fade, and that told him that it was time for her to leave him. It always did that, so he now expected it.

  She did just that and suddenly vanished just as fast as she came.

  He then felt himself pulled from behind. It grabbed his very bones and pulled him back through the trees.

  He then opened his eyes.

  The fire he built was now burned down to nothing more than a few embers glowing in the dark. He then looked up.

  What in the fuck am I supposed to do now? He truly felt scared. He truly felt confused. If Casey has a gift, what is it? If Kenny is in danger, why does it have something to do with Gary? What choices did I make to cause this? He thought of his father. What did he do now? He was filled with a thousand questions. He didn’t have one answer. It was like this when he went to the flames. Sometimes you left the place with more than what you went into it with in the first place. Some was worse than that. Whatever is going on, I’m going to have to tell Rachel about this. She has to know that everything is about to change. We are not going to have the choice.

  He left all of this there, as he stood back up to his feet.

  He moved to the fire and poured the water over what was left of it, and then turned. He headed back to the trees. He headed back to the road. He headed back home.

  He took his time and thought of nothing else. He just couldn’t put anything together long enough to have any rational thoughts. In the end, deep down inside himself, he already knew what was going to happen. He wouldn’t have to do anything. Trouble was a lot like a bad penny. It kept showing up at times that you least expected it or wanted. This was all going to happen again, just like it did before. It was going to come to them all on their own. It always did. He knew that it wouldn’t stop now.

  25

  “You look like you’re in a good mood.” She watched her son come home with the look of wonder written all over his face. He obviously had a good time. She knew the look. His father had the same look in his eyes when they first met. She knew what it meant. She also now felt terrified beyond words to describe it right.

  He blushed. His cheeks lit up with the brightest batch of red that she had ever seen before in her life. It answered every thought she just had.

  He felt the heat in his face. He felt embarrassed for it, so he said nothing. He just bowed his head. He couldn’t let her see his face.

  She now smirked. “Your father tells me that you met a young lady at the diner the other night. Do you want to tell me about her?” She still couldn’t read him, her mind felt hazy again, but she didn’t need to. No one, human or not, would have missed the look.

  He looked up feeling more embarrassed than ever. “He told you?” He didn’t know why he asked this. He should have known better, but at the same time, he didn’t. Of course, his father would tell his mother. Of course, they would talk about it. Of course, they would plot to talk with him about her. And now she was there, asking him, and he felt lost. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing at all.

  She smiled with this. He even looks like Jimmy when he’s embarrassed. She mused.

  “He did.” She stood up from the sofa and stepped in front of him.

  He felt the heat flushing even harder through his face. “She’s good.” He tried to smile but felt the look fail. Whatever Angel did to him, it made him feel weak. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Right then, it felt like it was more than just bad, it felt downright evil beyond any rational thought.

  She saw his discomfort with this and knew why. “It’s all right Casey.” If he didn’t want to answer her and talk about her, she had to understand that. She did, so she changed the subject, just as the phone began ringing behind her on the end table to the right of the couch
. She walked to it blindly. “I just want you to have fun and to be safe.” She answered the phone.

  As for him, he felt nothing but relief. He wasn’t sure of many things. What he was sure of for fact was that he didn’t want to talk with his mother about his new girlfriend. I do have a girlfriend. He marveled, as again, he felt his face rush with an unending heat.

  “Hello?” Rachel could only laugh on the inside.

  A young male voice came over the line. “Is this Jimmy Walls’ number?”

  His voice sounded afraid. It even crackled as he asked.

  “Who is this?” Rachel heard it, but she also felt fear. Not many people knew their real names. As far as anyone in this town knew it, they were the Richardson family. They were just a typical normal family that moved there from Oklahoma City a year ago.

  “My name is Danny. I’m Joseph’s grandson.”

  He didn’t sound sure of himself, but she did know the name instantly. She remembered the boy that was with Kenny to Scotland. She knew who they were to each other. Even knowing who he was, it didn’t help her feeling the fear as it continued exploding through her chest. Someone who knew Kenny was calling them, calling for Jimmy, and that was never a good thing. Something bad happened. It always did.

  “Danny, I remember you.” She tried to stay polite with this. She sounded normal, but on the inside, she was torn apart. How in the hell did they find us? What’s wrong? No, why can’t you just leave us alone!

  Casey watched her and felt her fear. Hell, she had it written all over her face. He didn’t know the name she just said, but it didn’t matter. The look did. He just didn’t know what to do but to listen carefully to everything she said.

  She felt the need to sit down, so she did. She nearly fell to the couch behind her as her legs gave out.

  “How did you find this number?” A thousand things were now flashing through her mind, and they made it hard for her to concentrate on anything. This one was the best one to start with, so she did.

  He sounded rushed. “I found your number in my…in Kenny’s things. He told me to use it if anything were to happen to him.”

  She closed her eyes. Something happened to him. My God, what now?

  “What happened?”

  He paused.

  He’s trying to gather his thoughts. She wasn’t sure about this, but it made sense. He was human. He was normal. He was probably scared out of his mind.

  “I went to class this morning, and when I came back, he was gone.” He paused again, briefly before starting again. “They took him.”

  She kept her eyes closed, and tried as hard as she could to focus her thoughts. It was hard to do. Without the clarity of her gifts lately, it proved harder for her than ever before.

  “Who took him?” she heard herself ask next.

  Casey joined her on the sofa and sat down.

  The young man, Danny, sounded like he had tears in his eyes. They obviously made it hard for him to talk, because his voice cracked again—harder this time than the first.

  “Some people called the gather storm. They took him.”

  She had never heard of anything like this before, so she concentrated on the name to help her through this.

  “How do you know these people, or whatever they are, took him?”

  Again, he paused. And again, it was brief. “They left some writing on the refrigerator. It looks like it’s written in blood.” This time he now sounded like he was sobbing.

  He was.

  “They wanted you to know they took him.” She looked at Casey, and just then, she also heard the front door open to her left.

  Jimmy—thankfully—just walked through the door.

  She stood up. The cordless home phone came with her.

  Jimmy saw the look in her eyes. Whomever, she was talking with, whatever had happened; he could tell that it wasn’t good at all. After hearing what he had, he already knew what it was.

  “It’s about Kenny, isn’t it?” he asked her without thinking another thought.

  She now did gasp.

  He heard her as she stared him directly in the eyes.

  “Jimmy has just come home. I’ll give you the phone.” She handed it to him.

  He looked at it briefly. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to do this. They had lived such a quiet life. They had been happy. They had been content. Taking the phone, and starting this next challenge, would end all of that and he knew it. Their lives would never be the same way again. It was such a hard decision to make. This was no longer about him. He had a family to think about now. He loved Kenny and everything he did for him, but this was different. He had to be different. He couldn’t get involved again. He couldn’t do it to them. He couldn’t do it to himself.

  In the end, he took the phone.

  “This is Jimmy.” His voice sounded so soft, so quiet, that he almost couldn’t recognize his own voice. He sounded very much like a man who was listening to someone else talking. It felt that surreal.

  She heard the voice. She saw the look on his face. She understood it instantly. He already knows. He already knows that Kenny was taken. How? She thought about this, but like always, knowing where he just was, she answered the questions for herself. The flames told him. They told him that this was going to happen. My God, what next? Their life was about to crash. She didn’t like this, but she knew it. She knew the pain was about to follow the call. It always did.

  He swallowed.

  “Mister Walls, this is Danny, the one who has been taking care of Kenny. Do you remember me?”

  He nodded his head. “What happened?”

  The boy cried and sobbed. Even so, he heard every word he spoke.

  “The gathering storm took him. They took him away from me. I was told to call you when they did.”

  It sounded like something Kenny would do, so he didn’t doubt it. “What is this gathering storm?” He now waited for everything to begin.

  “I’m not sure. They left a message.”

  He nodded. “What did they say?”

  He paused some. He heard him move with the phone.

  He has to read it from wherever they wrote it. Good—I need to know everything, word for word.

  “It says, the gathering storm is the master, and Sima is the strings.”

  He heard her name. He heard it like a shot from the barrel of a cannon shatters the air around it. It bellowed his very soul. He nearly lost his breaths with that shattering sound. It flattened him.

  Sima? He had to repeat it several times. He had to register it. He had to keep himself together. She didn’t say anything about this having anything to do with her. He didn’t know why she would do this. She never kept anything from him, but then again, she did. She knew this. She knew that her name would be used. That’s why she let Kenny speak for her to convince me to help him. She would. Whatever this group is, they know about her. They know her name. There was no doubt about this now. He didn’t have the choice. He had to find out what this meant. He had to help.

  “Are you there Mister Walls?”

  He wasn’t sure if he was.

  “I’m coming out to you.” He looked to the end table with the phone base, saw the pen and pad sitting there next to it, as it always was, and prepared to take down the information as soon as he got it. “Give me your address.”

  Danny instantly sounded relieved. “It’s 434 East Blancher Street, Olympia Washington.”

  He wrote the address down on the small notepad as fast as he could. When he finished, he stood back straight and faced Rachel. He saw Casey now standing up behind her.

  She saw the look in his eyes. She heard everything he said, and now she felt dread flush her heart. There was now no going back.

  “I’ll fly out as soon as I can.”

  Danny was now no longer sobbing. He sounded confident again too. “Thank you Mister Walls.”

  “I will see you in a few hours or so.” Jimmy pushed the end button on the phone.

  Rachel didn’t know where
to start, so she let him do it.

  He did. “I know this must be shocking to you, but I have to go.”

  It was her turn. “What is this gathering storm? What does it have to do with Kenny?” There was also so much more there too. “What did the flames tell you?” She wanted to know everything that happened. She wanted him to tell her.

  He did. “I’m not sure really. I saw Sima in the flames. She told me this was going to happen. She told me that Kenny was going to be in danger. He told me this too.”

  She expected this much. “What else did they tell you?”

  He shook his head, and set the phone back to its base. “Not much. You know how that works—just riddles and half-truths. They could only say what they could.” He looked to Casey and saw the concern all over his face. He felt like he needed to explain this to him so he did that too. “Your sister—I can visit her in a special place, we call it the flames. It is where we Wanderers can go to get answers to questions.” He left the side of the sofa and walked out to the center of the room. “It is the place where we go when we die. It is where we are when we are reborn.”

  Casey didn’t understand a damn thing. “What are you talking about?”

  He understood this. “I know you don’t understand me, but I wanted to tell you the truth. Your mother can show you some time, but for now, all I can say to you is what happened.” If his son wanted to see the world as it really was, now seemed like the best time to show him. After all, that was what he wanted wasn’t it. Besides, he had to tell Rachel all of it anyway. “In this place I was told that Kenny was in danger. Now hearing it, now knowing it, I have to help him.”

  She shook with this. “Why you?” She didn’t mean this to sound the way she said it—she loved Kenny too, trusted him with her life, and would do anything for him, but it was still something she wanted to know.

  He understood her. “Danny said that they left him a message. It was a message that was left for me.” He breathed with a heavy exhale. “They left her name. They left Sima’s name.”

  She swallowed hard with this. She had to take everything in before she could continue. She now knew why he looked the way he had.