The House of the Wolf

26

There was no time for Chantal to change her shape. Just as she reached them, the two battling wolves rolled off the path's edge. Only the line of tree-trunks planted there kept them from tumbling right over the precipice.

She screamed, in wordless warning, and the black-furred wolf turned towards her, distracted. At once Raoul knocked his assailant off its feet and pinned it down, his paws planted on its belly and his teeth threatening its throat. The black wolf howled in impotent rage. "Enough, Luc! Do not force me to hurt you!" cried Raoul in the wolf language.

Chantal stared. It was hard to believe this could be a loup garou. Its appearance was wholly feral, animalistic, no trace of humanity to be seen in its glaring yellow eyes. It made no answer to Raoul's command.

The white wolf growled. "Well? What has Chantal done to you, ever?" The savage creature at his feet still made no reply. Then as the white wolf's fangs again menaced it, the dark wolf gave a shrill wordless whine. He looked down at it for long time. Slowly he removed his paws from its belly and stepped back. "Very well. Return to your friends, Luc. Tell them if they wish to live free in the wild they must make no more incursions into human territory. If you do this again you will be punished – not by my side, but by yours. The masters you serve do not tolerate any disobedience. If you expose their secrets, they will destroy you."

The dark-furred wolf rose. Chantal recoiled as it glowered at her, eyes still burning with hate. But its tail was tucked low, and as she watched it slunk away into the night and was gone. "I hope you haven't made a mistake," she said. "He's just taking advantage of your pity."

"I know," he replied.

"Then why –"

"Luc Benoit is only sixteen years old, and has a family that loves and misses him. I will not kill him or anyone else, ever again."

She shuddered. "For a moment there I – I almost thought it was Jules himself, come back from the dead. Crazy, I know, but it looked so much like him..."

"In a way it was Jules we encountered here. He poisoned that boy's mind, filling it up with his own evil ideas, teaching him to hate. A part of Jules lives on now in Luc, and all the others he corrupted." The white wolf went up to her, eyes anxious. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "Just a few bumps and scratches. I'll live."

The wolf dropped his nose to the ground and began to retrace his steps. "I must go fetch my clothes. Quick, call Dubois and tell him what has happened."

Chantal pulled out her cell phone and punched Dubois's number. To her relief he picked up immediately. "Honoré?" she said. "Raoul and I were just attacked by a wolf on the Plains of Abraham. He says it was some kid called Luc Benoit."

There was a lengthy pause before Dubois replied. "I do not wish to alarm you, Chantal, but I suggest you and Raoul return to the Île d'Orléans immediately. Things are... happening. The priests at Ste. Anne de Beaupré have been in touch: they tell me one of their number is missing, my good friend Père Mercier. The chaplain who is secretly in charge of ministering to loups garous – "

"Missing?"

"Some strangers came to Saint Francis's shrine in the Basilica and remained there until he went and spoke with them. The other priests say he left the church with these people and has not returned. That was this morning, yet he has still not contacted his fellow priests. And now another person has turned up at the shrine of Saint Francis, just within the last hour, asking to see you specifically."