The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 101

Chapter 101-1

+25 Points

And if he hadn’t killed us yet (and used our heads to show them to Alexander and Rex), I told myself there had to be a reason for that, too. Suddenly, the idea of following him to the sawmill didn’t seem so bad, and I felt just a little bit in control of the situation.

What’s going to happen to my friend?” I said after a moment.

“Oh, we’ll take her too. We can’t leave her here, right? She’d freeze.”

The narrowed eyes of the black beast frightened me a little more, but Andre’s bravery strengthened me. He was barely seven years old and already a young warrior, and I, at twenty-six, couldn’t I aspire to be even half as strong as him? I didn’t lower the knife, but I relaxed my “threatening stance” a little, which wasn’t remotely that threatening.

I nodded toward the north and said:

“All right, take us. But you’ll walk in front and carry Nika.” I set my conditions, and the panther’s face seemed to twist in a gesture of displeasure. I appealed to his pride, hoping that would be useful. “Or what? Can’t you carry a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound woman? Did my shot mess up your shoulder that badly?”

His fury was evident. His eyes flashed, and he growled deep in his throat.

”

let’s go, beleza,” he concluded reluctantly, and waited until we started moving.

As had already been mentioned before, the Berkeley sawmill was the largest in the county.

According to what people said around town, old Jonah Berkeley had made a small fortune logging large trees from the mountain forests, and for almost forty years his empire of saws and chains prospered. The problem came when his sons refused to continue the family business, and Jonah fell ill. Cancer, although the malicious tongues said the cancer had been caused by his own sons, by leaving him alone in the business. In the end, old Berkeley died without naming a successor to take charge of the sawmill or its debts, and everything was stalled for the moment. For several weeks now, the crash of trees falling to the ground or the distant, chaotic purring of the large saws or tractors had not been heard. No trucks loaded with logs were seen on the road, and most importantly: early in the morning the siren that announced the beginning of the workday for the lumberjacks no longer sounded.

So, as far as I knew, that semi-abandoned complex was the perfect place for two sly cats to hide and not be found by anyone inconvenient.

These kinds of things come with the job, I suppose. Perking up your ears at any potentially doubtful “news” or anything that made people talk was a habit I had inherited. I think

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Chapter 101-1

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everything I knew about that place I had once heard somewhere between the grocery store, the pharmacy, and the post office.

But the sawmill that loomed in front of us, over the river basin, did not look abandoned. Outside, large floodlights were on, illuminating the surroundings with the brightness of daylight, and there was light in the built-up area as well. The lights were on practically all the time, with photosensitive switches so there was no need for surveillance. The sun had already set by the time Álvaro guided us to the bridge over the river, and fear took hold of me. It was a very large facility, with a complex of a handful of offices at the front facing the parking lot, and three large sheds with snow-covered roofs, one of them partially embedded over the river with a steep descent to the water and an entire side open to the elements. From where we stood, the only way to get there was by crossing a narrow bridge that led to the other side of the shallow river canyon, to the truck access. I could see lights on in the offices, although the blinds were down. There were no vehicles in the inlet, and only the murmur of the water running beneath us could be heard while Andre and I walked ahead.

Álvaro had forced me to hand over the knife, the pistol and the loaded magazines; and he picked up Nika’s rifle, as well as her pistol and knife. He had forced me to walk first, even though one of my conditions had been that he do it. He had also stripped Nika of her bulletproof vest (he put it on himself, though without fastening it over his chest), her holster and the rest of her accessories, and had tied the she-wolf’s hands and feet with a thin steel cable that she kept in one of the pockets of her military outfit. I was carrying Christian’s backpack by then, and I walked at the front of the caravan with Andre held by the shoulder, preventing him from doing anything.

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LUCK DRAW >

E

664

I had reached the point where I didn’t care about killing anymore, and if I had had the opportunity…

A week earlier, I had been a completely different person. The unreality of my own thoughts shocked me.

Because Alexander was right: that monster did not deserve that I recognize his humanity. He was only a vile creature, a murderer. He was doing this because he wanted to, not because.

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Chapter 101-2

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the lion forced him. It was his own initiative, it was too obvious that he enjoyed his beastly nature and used it well, that his skills had been cultivated precisely to kill. I wondered what kind of life he had had, what his childhood had been like, where he had grown up, who his parents were. I tried not to think about that. Humanizing him was not appropriate, not when the promise that he would hurt me badly was printed in his large golden eyes.

I had shot him. Álvaro hated me for that.

And I had the killer of Andre’s mother behind me, and he could…

“Over there, beleza,” he told me in English, and I saw his elegant black paw-hand pass over my shoulder to point toward the truck entrance, I felt his purring voice almost in my ear. Watch your step.”

I descended with Andre the five steps that separated the small pedestrian bridge from the gravel road. We went around the illuminated curve and entered the back part of the complex, which ten meters away dropped directly to the river ravine. There was a large rolling door open in the loading and unloading area. Álvaro indicated that we go in there.

I felt the tip of the enormous knife in my back, and I gripped Andre’s shoulders tighter, frightened. I had no choice but to obey.