Frostbite- Chapter 31
Chey adjusted her stance. Then she lifted her weapon and pointed it right at Powell’s forehead. He looked surprised but not very frightened. Her hand started to shake but she fought the tremor down. One shot was all it would take. He would be dead. She would finally be stronger than the wolf.
She wished she’d had time to talk with him more. She had so many questions she wanted him to answer.
“Chey,” he said, slowly. He was going to try to talk her down.
Her father hadn’t been given a chance to talk. “You never gave my father a chance!” she screamed. She was losing control; she could feel it. She needed to act quickly or she was going to fuck this up.
“Your father?” Powell asked.
“His name was Royal Clark. He was a good man. You wouldn’t know that, of course. You didn’t seem particularly interested in his character at the time. You seemed more interested in how his guts tasted. You attacked our car twelve years ago and you ate him.”
“Oh, boy,” he said.
“Tell me you remember him,” she said. “Tell me you know who I’m talking about. I know you were never introduced, but surely you remember his red jacket. That’s pretty much all I remember now. Tell me!”
If he confessed, if he said he remembered, and that he was sorry, then it would all be over. Then she could just kill him and she could sleep again.
“I’m sorry, Chey,” he said.
Her body sagged a little. She thought she might swoon. He was confessing, he was apologizing for what he’d done, just like she’d wanted—
Except he wasn’t finished.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember him at all.”
Quite suddenly she became aware of the solidity, the square rigid reality of the gun in her hand. Now, she thought. Now now now! She tried to squeeze the trigger. It didn’t move. Nothing happened.
She closed her eyes in shame and horror. The weapon’s safety was still on.
For a lurching, drunken moment no one moved. Everyone tried to figure out what had just happened. Powell’s face darkened and his arms lifted from his sides. He lowered his head and put a foot forward.
Then everyone moved at once.
Chey’s thumb moved down to disengage the safety. Her aim slipped away from Powell’s face.
Lester, the Inuvialuit pilot, dashed around the side of his helicopter, trying to get to safety.
Bobby shoved a hand into his leather jacket, clearly reaching for a gun of his own.
In the distance Dzo spun out on the logging road and drove his rusted truck back into the impenetrable woods.
But before any of that had really happened, before Chey could even breathe, Powell moved.
She knew that even in their human forms wolves were faster than any normal person. She had that strength and that quickness in her own legs and arms. She’d never really tried it out, though. She’d never tested her new limits.
Powell had possessed that speed for nearly a hundred years. He must have known what his body could do, what it could achieve if put to the test. He didn’t hesitate. He just moved, flowed across the clearing. One of his hands batted at Chey’s arm hard enough to dislocate her wrist. Her handgun went flying. Powell didn’t stop to watch it fall. Momentum carried him onward, his feet digging in the soil, his legs pumping. He brought his shoulder around and collided with Bobby hard enough to make them both yowl in pain. Bobby’s yowl was sharper. He smashed to the ground and rolled into a ball. Powell kept moving, his feet a blur, until he came up against the side of the helicopter with a clang. He looked through the Plexiglas bubble of its cockpit. Chey could see Lester back there, crouched low, his face and eyes wide.
“Don’t try anything,” Powell grunted at the pilot.
“Yeah, okay,” Lester said, nodding agreeably.
Chey looked around. Her arm stung with pain but she could ignore that for a couple of seconds. She had better be able to ignore it long enough to find the gun again. There—its black angular shape stuck out prominently on a crust of snow. It was only a few meters away. She bent her knees and tried to jump for it.
She didn’t even get to take a step. Powell pushed off the helicopter and nearly flew back across the clearing to tackle her legs. The ground tilted upward and her cheek smashed into it. Her teeth rattled in her skull.
Powell pushed her face deeper into the soil with one hand. With the other he grabbed her hurt wrist and gave it a good twist.
Yellow stars exploded behind her eyes. It hurt so much that vomit rushed up her throat and she had to swallow uncomfortably or choke.
“You want to kill me,” he said to her, his voice thick with emotion. “Well, maybe I deserve it. But first you had to lie to me. I took you into my house and this is the thanks I get. I should kill you. I will, the next time I see you.”
He twisted her hand again, all the way around this time. Her shoulders shook and bucked beneath his grasp, her jaws clacked in her head.
The pain was sending her into shock. Cold flashed through her body, cold as fierce as when she’d been submerged in the freshet. Cold like the time she’d woken naked in the tundra after her first change.
He let her go. She couldn’t move except to shiver, to convulse in pain and cold.
When she’d recovered herself enough to sit up he was gone.
Check out the previous chapters of Frostbite right here.
Excerpted from Frostbite: A Werewolf Tale by David Wellington. Copyright © 2009 by David Wellington. Published in the Unites States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Published in the UK as Cursed by Piatkus Books, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group.
Purchase Frostbite - In the U.S.:* Amazon* BN.com* Borders
In the UK:* Amazon.co.uk
Comments (0)
It could be a kind of angler's weights with deployable claws.. „claw sinker“ or „grip sinker“
(maybe it is only a concersion kit for converting a standard sinker to a claw sinker.)
it seems like the spikes could retract when pushing the upper ring down..
zombie eat flesch 2XL
It could be a kind of automatic treble hook (event though it is lacking barbs)
it seems like the spikes deploy upon applying tension at the upper ring.
Maybe it schould be retractable for safety reasons. Maybe the claws of the hook are retractable to simplify the removal of the hook from the fish (which could be an expanation for the lacking of barbs..)
the Jester 2XL ladie’s fit
It could be a kind bait hook (maybe even bait release mechanism) wherien the upper ring is connected to the fisching line and the lower ring may be connected to the fisch hook...
it seems like the spikes could retract when reducing the tension between upper and lower ring, (however this would requrire that a spring inside the device would be broken... )
At least i hope it is not for connecting a living bait fish to a fish hook .
zombie eat flesch 2XL
Skull and Swords T-Shirt 2XL
zombie eat flesch 2XL
A thingy that nobody knows
But this handy device
While it looks not so nice
Is great for just cleaning your nose!
Narcoleptic Bee S
No smoking advice for a caterpillar, S
I'd like Zombie: Eat Flesh if I'm right, please.
It serves for environmentally friendly dynamite fisching, wherein the mine is connected to a fisching line and dipped into the water.
When a fisch contacts the spikes a small detonation will only kill the single fish and not all fish in a large area... (therefore environmentally friendly)..
The jester xxl ladie's fit
Brainier than the average bear, XXXL.
What happens at Grandma's Stays.... XL blue.
Look out Schroedinger's Cat, It's a Trap! Large, please.
(Archaeologists Do it in the Dirt size M)
This older device was marketed as "Squirrel Bait" for hunting squirrels, The hunter ties a piece of string to the acorn and waits for the squirrel to take the bait and then pulls the string and hooks the Squirrel through the mouth. Pretty rough stuff back in the day...
I'm Irish - I only look sweet and innocent (small)
Skull Rider, XL, any color
Only one was ever made. Hitler hated squirrels. Nazis would catch a squirrel on Hitler's property and then give the hungry squirrel the "Acorn." The rodent would try to open it but the nails would pop out and jab their little paws.
Then the Nazis would laugh at them! hahaha!! jajaja!!! They were very cruel, no?
Pirate's favorite amino acid size L
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Who's Bringing The Chips? XXL
-"I May Not Be Totally Perfect...", 2xl, natural
can't choose, luv em all, so anything in a XXL would be cool
Neatoramabot ash grey large
That's How I Roll, Serene Green, Ladies
s morningstar.
Hip, Hip Array, 2XL, Navy
Love machine, men's large navy blue
This IS a pocket watch antitheft device.
Don't know about the 1925 patent, cause this one was around in the late 1800's.
abducted by aliens
large
navy
Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive
Large
After a few weeks the M.D. may remove the reusable suppository by retracing the spikes into the acorn, remove it from a body cavity... Then it is ready to be cleand refilled to be reused..
The jester xxl ladie's fit
What happens at Grandma's Stays.... XL blue.
when suddenly a big bug started to speak to her: "Your should be fulfilled, before you will give birth to a daughter." The prophecy became true.
The farmer's wife gave birth to a beautiful daughter. All avocado pickers where invited to the celebration of the babtism ceremony.
But unfortunately the farmer had 13 pickers but only 12 golden plates, so he decided to invite only 12 of the pickers.
But the 13th picker entered the church, very very angry, and said: the girl should prick herself on her 15th birthday and fall asleep for 100 years.
As time goes by the farmer forgot about the incidence and at the daughter´s 15th birthday he give her a necklace with a silver pendant showing an
advocado pit with 3 toothpicks in it, just how it is done to make the acocado pit sprout. On this pendant the daughter prick herself and fall asleep for
100 years. The item on the picture is the original pendant . It has been stolen by the Brothers Grimm and this Disney guy changing the story a little bit and called it
"Sleeping Beauty".
Come To The Dark Side - We Have Cookies XXL ladie's mfit
protect your nuts 2 xl
shirt: Pink Freud size xl
paddle faster XL
Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive
Large
The Original Keyboard Cat - Ash Gray - L
2XL
Artist-Designed T-Shirts (Terminator Skull Blue) XL
Please ignore my previous entry as I had not put the T shirt preference.
Family Smamily L
Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive
Large
Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive
Large
These things were supposed to be classified !
Suffice to say, without one of these,
'Finnegans Wake' would never have been written.
Schrodinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive
Large
I whisch i had one, too..
May the Fork Be With You xxl ladie's fit