Chapter 5 — Another Failed Heist

"I've had enough of this madness, Winter!" 

Lupe fist-banged on a nearby surface: probably a table, door, or stool. Winter couldn't tell exactly at first. Her gaze and half her attention had been concentrated on Norma who unconsciously laid on a sofa. 

She saw the anger written on his face when she faced him. Extreme anger wasn't a frequent occurrence in his personality and so when it came it wasn't something to be taken trivially. Who knew how dangerous it could be? He could probably break a vase, the TV, the porcelain display on the etagere, or whatever else was near and fragile. 

In short, he was pushed. Pushed to the f—king wall. 

 "Your feelings are impractical. We're having the mansion's security reinstalled as soon as possible and it's not a request. You might have a thunder-bending, telekinetic, giant wolf but then living alone on the outskirts of town couldn't be so normal for a man to speak less of a lady. I'm not having it anymore and you decide. You choose to stay and lose my interest in all that concerns you or you join the community." 

Was it the thoughts of his daughter never waking? Her regenerative powers would surely bring her back no matter how slowly. His face had never been more overridden with emotions since she'd known him. 

"I'm sorry," she sighed, avoiding his accusing gaze and turning to Norma's body. The burn from the bear's blow was slowly healing itself and covering up.  

Lupe had his fingers making a frantic run on the telephone the next minute. She heard him speaking through the receiver. He made two calls. The first was a report to her parents about the inconveniences she was causing him here. She knew her parents. They were surely going to take sides and share views with him given that they'd never liked her idea of dropping out of college. Also, this was more like their retirement home and they sure wouldn't have loved coming back to meet it in terrible shape. 

When he was done making the call, she could see that he was back in charge of the mansion. The guards were surely going to be reinstalled. That was his second call. 

"I'm sorry uncle. I've been childish and self-indulgent. I'd come to live within the community but you'd have to promise not to report me to my parents again." 

The fear of her parents was real. There was a lot they could do to frustrate her choices. 

Lupe lit a cigarette. 

"I'm not a fan of drama. You causing it everywhere you go leaves me no choice so whether I'll have to do that again would be totally up to you, kid." 

Norma rushed into consciousness then. Her eyes opened with the shock of one who'd escaped a horror nightmare. A look around her and her memory came quickly. 

"The big wolf!" she exclaimed. "Wa— was that you?" 

Winter nodded.

                                               ***

The night which was to automatically be her last in the mansion had come with another scene. There'd been another break into the mansion. 

She'd been shot twice in her sleep: in the forehead and the heart. The assassin could have sworn that his job was finished before he'd rushed downstairs to join his aide in finishing the mission with the La Reina heist.

Her "death" had been temporary as the healing process took its course and the flesh closed up to push out the bullets, pinching her back to consciousness. She'd woken up to the sounds on the ground floor. They were here for the painting again, and this time, had sought to kill her and anyone else they found in the mansion that could pose a hindrance. Infuriated, she rushed her way down to the hallway to find herself late for the party. Lupe was already cleaning the mess his wolf had made out of the two uninvited guests. He'd been feeding on them. 

"Just right." she breathed. 

"Don't try this at all," he advised, "not until you're sure they're murderers and you're my age at least. Maybe then you can handle it." he meant the flesh. Human flesh could be highly addictive and as much as wolves needed a frequent intake of flesh to survive and stay strong,  there was an age-long restriction on human flesh ever since the alliance of humans and wolves in Yellow Moon. Those who indulged in the act did so in secret and only ate the flesh of folks who weren't indigenes — foreign criminals made a legitimate and worthy diet. She didn't know what to say to that, unaware of what human flesh would taste like and the rechargeable feeling it gave to the wolf's abilities and senses at a rapid pace compared to other types. 

"What can I help with?'" she offered, feeling guilty about the mess. There was much she could do if Norma wouldn't come to wash the walls by morning like getting rid of chunks of flesh and the corpse that was still intact. 

"You shouldn't worry, it's Norma's duty. She'd take care of it." 

"They were here for the painting again and they tried to kill me this time. I think someone somewhere knows of it's value. This isn't just some coincidence, uncle." 

"Which is why," Lupe sighed, " the security will be reinstalled. No panic. These folks are harmless. C'mon, get you some sleep now, princess." 

She laughed. "That's funny. No one has ever called me that."

"Not even your pops?" 

"Well, I was a bit masculine growing up. I still think I am." 

"Yeah, but every girl is a princess still and when she becomes a woman, she's a queen. You'd never get called a king though." 

She nodded. "True." 

 

                                                           ***

Morning came with the town's weak sunlight at its strongest, pouring in through the open panes of her window. She'd woken up late for packing. 10:00 am and Norma hadn't come for the walls yet but the guards had resumed. Lupe wouldn't get rid of the bodies, they would, and she avoided eye contact on meeting them. The fact that her initial hardheadedness towards them had proven impractical and that she was intrinsically obliged to tender an apology contributed to the shame she felt. Norma wouldn't clean the hallway, they would, on Lupe's request. 

He, on the other hand, would be on the wheels of that blue pickup truck waiting for her to hop into the passenger's for their long ride to the Gray village. Where his family lived; where she'd find Scarlett and redeem her "promise". Yes, it was that simple. 

There would be small talks now and then triggered by sights on the roadside, and she had to bear the long reminiscent chatters they propelled Lupe into distracting her from the book she was engaged with. He spewed anecdotes of when he was young, twenty-two, and the naughty things he had done which she didn't grasp. He laughed at his jokes without considering if she was also laughing. He might have thought she was for he was quite self-absorbed. His breath would touch her nostrils now and then. They reeked of fragrant cigarettes. 

The road to the village was lonely and one-laned. A huge space in between large stretches of land and now-and-then glimpses of the woods. 

Back at his home in the village on the same morning, efforts were added to the cleaning. Elena his wife, a gamma, had this phobia for visitors coming in to meet the slightest hint of dirtiness. She wouldn't even tolerate that a film of dust that could go unnoticed by the inconsiderate eye be left to exist. She'd always had this homely and idealistic disposition which Norma usually attributed to her being a Cancer. The crab, she would say, had a shell in which it could store collectibles that made it comfortable or had sentimental value attached. 

Lupe's house compared to the mansion was smaller, much more modest in decoration, and made conducive for the peaceful cohabitation of man, animal, and plant. A palm sapling grew from a pot beside the front door, greeting visitors with its light green fronds like a concierge would. 

While every surface had to be ragged free of thick stains, dust, clusters, and the like, there was talk too. Norma had spilled about the big wolf. She worked in the parlor, wiping the stools and ragging the leather sofas.