The Vegan and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

“Michael’s grandmother is a witch,” Silvia said.

Staring at her, Audry was sure Silvia was pulling her leg. She shook her head and finally said, “What is the point to all of this? Because you’re creeping me out.”

“Good,” Silvia said with a solid nod. “You should be creeped out. Because there are dark forces out there that would target you for just being Howie Deacon’s friend. If you want a normal life, don’t get embroiled in anything involving the Deacons.”

“You mean the ‘witches’ would target me?” Audry asked, considering this news carefully.

“Yes!” Silvia nodded earnestly, glad Audry understood. “And another group.”

Audry paused. She knew that other group almost instantly. “You mean the SRA.”

Silvia’s eyes widened, this time surprised. “You know about them?”

Shrugging, Audry replied with another peek to the booth, “I did my research. There are some funky things about the Deacons online.”

“The internet is full of garbage.” Silvia waved that all away with annoyance. “Too much of a mess. But what do you know about the SRA specifically?”

Deciding to be honest, Audry said realizing Silvia was not going to do anything weird to her after all, “I’ve visited their website. They claim to be a monster hunting union. But really, why? They’re delusional. Are they just seriously LARPing[1] or what?”

The professed witch exhaled hard, shaking her head gravely. “No… They are earnest believers. Not LARPing. They will hunt someone down and kill them if they suspect they are a monster.”

Audry gasped, feeling immediately scared for Rick. Those freaks really were hunting him. Audry felt the bullet on her necklace. That bullet really had been meant for him. “Why haven’t those lunatics been shut down?”

Dryly, Silvia replied, “Because, some of them are connected to government organizations like the CIA and FBI.”

“No way.” Audry shook her head, unable to believe it.

But Silvia nodded. “Oh yeah. Totally true. Go back to that website and really read it. All of it. I know about them because they even hunt witches.”

Audry remembered reading that. She peered at Silvia wondering what that really entailed. “You mean…?”

Hardly seeing it as weird, Silvia nodded more. “That’s right. If they could catch a witch in the act of witchcraft, they’d probably kill her or him.”

This was too much. The world was full of crazy people.  

“I just wanted to warn you,” Silvia said confidentially. “I grew up with this. But you don’t have to.”

Staring at her, Audry finally gathered her meaning. Silvia was trying to spare her the pain of dealing with psychos. Real psychos. Not those nuts who dress gothic for a sense of rebellious fashion, but people who would actually hurt somebody.

“Why?” Audry asked, almost knee-jerk.

Silvia shrugged then gestured to the bullet around her neck. “You saved the wolf. People are going to see that, and that will make you a target.”

Audry touched her bullet again. “Because… Why? I am an animal rescue worker. I save animals. It’s what I do.”

Nodding, Silvia clearly understood that. But she said, “I know, but that wolf is special.”

Audry drew in a breath. “You know this wolf?”

Silvia smirked. “Oh yeah. I’ve seen it plenty of times.”

Massaging her forehead, Audry asked the next question on her mind, “So, the Deacon family keeps a pet wolf.”

Silvia shook her head, smirking at the thought. “No. Not at all.”

This was confusing. Audry wasn’t sure then how Silvia knew the wolf. And Silvia smirked back at her as if it was the funniest thing that Audry didn’t get it.

“But did that wolf attack Mrs. Deacon—or any wolf for that matter—which led to their divorce?” Audry asked.

“Attack?” Silvia thought on that. Her focusing on that one word was strange. There had to have been a wolf involved. “No. That wolf would never have attacked Mrs. Deacon.”

“Then what really happened?” Audry asked. “You were in town then, right? Did she just have a nervous breakdown? I heard rumors of some kind of feud between her and the Ladies Aid Society…” Yet as she said that, it occurred to her that Silvia had not been lying about the coven situation. Even if they had not performed magic, Mrs. Deacon clearly had been harassed by the prominent women of the town.

 “Yeah,” Silvia frankly nodded. “She refused to join the Ladies Aid Society—at the request of her husband—and had joined the local church’s women’s group instead, and the Ladies Aid Society had made war on her. But…” Silvia chuckled with pure amusement, “Howie struck back all the time. People called him a hellion, but really he was pranking only the leading members of the Ladies Aid Society whenever they harassed his mother. I remember the day he dumped molasses in Ms. Whittaker’s mail box and soaped Mrs. Sawyer’s car windows after they sabotaged the church’s ladies’ organization community potluck on Thanksgiving. That was way back in junior high.”

Audry rolled her eyes. She had heard a fair bit about his naughty childhood.

“The pastor’s grandson helped.” Silvia snickered, almost like a cackle. “Andy got such a grounding from that. And so did Howie—but Howie sneaked out of his house and into Andy’s room that night and brought him comic books and food and stuff. When they were caught, both of their parents were thinking about putting bars on their windows.”

“Did they ever do it?” Audry asked, amused in spite of herself. To be honest, she was unhealthily attracted to troublemakers. She liked their spunk.

“They never got around to it,” Silvia replied, recognizing and comprehending the look in Audry’s eye. “The summer after was conflict free as the Deacons traveled most summers. I think they did a world tour. And when the school year started, that’s when the crisis happened. Mrs. Deacon had her meltdown. After the divorce—which was quicker than, well, my mom’s—Howie was moved to New York for three years to keep him away from the coven.”

“To keep him from the coven?” Audry echoed, not quite sure what she was hearing. It sounded ridiculous.

Silvia nodded. “Of course. His father was often away on business. He didn’t think it safe to leave Howie alone with just the housekeepers and all that. He knew the coven would go after him, considering his condition.”

“You mean his allergies,” Audry said, trying to piece it together with some logic.

Smirking, Silvia replied with amused pleasure that Audry knew about Rick’s allergies, “Sure, whatever. The point is, the coven once even sent a skilled witch after him to New York—Megan, who at the time could easily handle a guy like him. But that school he went to practically chewed her up and spat her out. It was the perfect protection. She has been a nervous wreck since. And when he came back, he was able to handle the coven on his own.”

Audry could not believe what she was hearing. Covens. Witches. Kidnapping cults. Monster hunters. And Rick was stuck in the middle of that. All that on top of that, he had his weird allergies. She was starting to feel sorry for him.

“So, just to repeat,” Silvia said, “It would be a good idea to hide that bullet necklace if you are going to wear it. Because if the wrong people see it, they are going to think you are connected to the Deacon family, and they might target you.”

“But why do you care?” Audry asked again, as that was her main question.

Nodding, understanding her, Silvia said, “Because, innocent people like you don’t deserved to be sucked into the darkness.”

Silvia then turned and walked off.

Audry was little shaken by that. Silvia was being sincere. Regardless of whether she believed in witchcraft or not, there were people who did and they would act on that belief.

The world was crazy.

Yet while thinking of delusional people, Audry decide to text her brother Doug to let him know about Harlin coming to harass her again.

Since the first time Harlin showed up at her apartment after they had broken up, she had been giving Doug updates on the problem. Though Doug had begged her, Audry refused to get a restraining order on Harlin. Getting a restraining order on someone for being an imbecil about dating seemed cruel. It could ruin his life. Yet that first call was several stalking incidents ago. Doug explained that she needed to text him each time Harlin came around, because he was making a record of all the trouble Harlin was causing her with screen shots, and he insisted that she keep a journal for herself. He told her they needed the evidence in case they ever had to go to court.

Her text was simple:

Harlin harassed me again. This time I had someone here with me to run interference, another ex of his, so he did not touch me.

But he was almost violent. I had my pepper spray, but I did not have to use it this time.  

Doug almost automatically texted back:  

This has got to stop. I am sending help.

Help? Audry stiffened. Doug had police friends. She imagined a cop showing up and manhandling Harlin, then ending up on a YouTube video for police brutality. Audry just wanted Harlin to come to his senses and get on with his life.

And she needed to get on with hers. Audry headed back to the booth.

[1] Live Action Role Playing

Chapter Three

Audry was a little subdued when she returned. Paula and Brooke were getting snotty with their remarks to passersby, which was self-defeating if they wanted to convince people to go vegan. Jeremy, when he saw her, brightened up with a genuine swell of relief someone sane had arrived.

“You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” Audry said when they had insulted yet another passerby.

“Don’t be cliche,” Brooke shot back at her. Peevish.

“Don’t be rude,” Jeremy said to Brooke. “Audry is right. You can’t shame someone into being a vegan. You need to enlighten, not condemn.”

Brooke pulled back then snapped. “That’s not how she was with that Deacon boy!”

Jeremy cringed, peeking to Audry.

Hanging her shoulders, Audry moaned. “Of for pity’s sake. I know him. I did my Master’s research on his land and interacted with him last winter. So we’ve argued about veganism before.”

They all stared at her.

“So he didn’t just read your blog?” Paula asked, looking deliciously scandalized at this news. Paula was a bit of an opportunist, which made Audry wary.

Shaking her head, Audry explained, “He would not know my blogs were written by me if he had. I use my middle name for my blogs. You know… by Chandra Bruchenhaus.”

“But why?” Paula asked.

“Privacy,” Audry said. “The internet is a dangerous place.”

Brooke and Paula shared a look.

Things quickly went back to their usual flow.

At least they did until a tall young man with trim curly-brown hair, wearing a business suit, marched through the crowd looking from booth sign to booth sign within the square. They watched him, as his march was unusually urgent, almost dangerous. Audry recognized him immediately, but she did not like the expression on his face. When he spotted her, he seemed ready to kill.

“Audry!”

Paula and Brooke perked up. He was a good-looking young man. But at the same time, they peeked to Audry jealously. He was the third man to come by to single her out.

“Hi Vincent,” Audry said, lifting her hand