Carrie Jones - Need

"And I feel squigg-ley, like I do whenever he shows up-" "Okay. Nick's there, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"You put him on. I will be there as soon as I can, okay? I'm coming now."

"Okay."

I give the phone to Nick. He says, "Yep. I know. I know."

Then he holds it out from his body. "It know what kind.

"Nick? Can they all come in if one has been in before?"

"No. They're waiting outside."

"Can he come in the room if he's been in the house?" Terror hobbles me.

"I don't know."

He snarls and I don't know what to do, what to say, so I just say his name. "Nick?"

His voice is warm and aching all at the same time. "I'm trying hard not to change, Zara. But when people are in danger, I change."

"And I'm in danger?"

He nods.

I touch his back. I'm such a mess I don't even remember walking toward him. The muscles ripple and move beneath my fingers, like the fibers are struggling to stay themselves.

"Then change!" I order him.

"I don't want to scare you."

"I'm already scared!" I shriek. "I just don't want you to get hurt!"

"Me? It's not me I'm worried about. It's you."

A hand pounds on my bedroom door. The entire thing shakes in the door frame. Oh God. Oh God.

Nick swings around. His eyes fill with pain and grief. He rips off the sweatshirt and rushes to the other side of the bed where I can't see him.

"Whatever you do, Zara,do not let him in. Whatever he says. You can't." He snarls and there is a knock at the door, a gentle, lovely sounding knock. I step farther away from it.

The pants Nick has been wearing fly across the room. I catch them in my arms.

He keeps trying to talk. "I might be able to take him one on one in here, but I'd rather not chance it. He's stronger than the rest of them, and this isn't my habitat, you know…"

"Nick?" I whisper.

A pillow flies over the bed.

"We just have to make it till Betty gets here. Just hold out till then, Zara." His words rush out and the knocking on the door muffles them. But they can't muffle the fierce growl that escapes his throat, half warning, half battle cry, all wolf.

"Oh God," I whisper.

Someone knocks lightly against the door.

"Zara, let me in."

The wolf growls and stands between me and the door. His fur, thick and full, seems to bristle against the threat.

He said there were at least five. One is here in the house with us, but as long as I don't open the door we'll be safe.

Why would Nick think I'd open the door? He must think I am the most naive human ever. There is no way I'm opening that door to let the pixie thing in.

But what about the other ones?

I peek out the window, moving the shade just an inch and spot two dark figures in the snow. The snow shovels down from a grayish white sky, billowing toward them, and everything seems almost peaceful.

The knock comes at the door again, a sweet knock, like when my mom would knock when she needed to wake me and my friends at a slumber party. I stare at Nick. He crouches down, ready to spring.

They are trying to trick me. I won't let them. I'll ignore the door and I'll watch the ones outside.

Turning back to the window, I shriek. A face hovers, pale and wild eyed, attached to a body. I leap back and shriek even more. The shade flops down to obscure my view.

I sit in the middle of my bed and pull my knees to my chest, but I hold on to the poker. I will use it.

Pacifism is overrated sometimes.

"This is not happening," I chant. "This is not happening."

Something scrapes against the window and I am so sure it's not a tree branch. It is something scary that wants in.

Nick circles the room, patrolling, back and forth, back and forth from window to door, window to door.

His lips pull back, revealing his teeth. Another light knuckle knock sounds against the door. Nick bares his teeth even more, all the way back to the gums.

"Zara?" The voice comes, deep, a little hoarse. It's familiar and it's not the voice from the woods.

My heart leaps up, and not because of fear.

"Zara, sweetie?"

It can't be. It can't.

I sit up straighter and swing my legs off the couch.

The candle flame on the bureau flickers, then catches a draft and leaps to twice its size.

I answer with a whisper and a prayer, a hope.

"Daddy?"

It can't be. There is no way, but it sounds just like him. My tongue seems to stick to my throat and my chest squeezes tightly, but I manage to say it again.

"Daddy?"

Nick's growling goes out of control. His body shakes with it. It rattles. My body rattles too.

A wolf growling is not something you want to be within ten feet of, and I'm much closer than that and it's scary. It's really scary, but not as scary as what is on the other side of that door.

My dad died. And yet my dad is speaking. I can hear him over the growls. I can. I can hear him somehow, right behind the door.

My feet silently move across the floor.

"Daddy, is that you?" I whisper.

He hears me somehow.

"Open the door, Zara honey, and let me in."

I want to. I really want to, but shock makes my limbs slow and heavy. Then Nick smashes up onto his hind legs and presses his front paws against the door, blocking me.

"Move, Nick," I beg and step closer, lean in, put my hands flat against the door, like I can somehow feel through to the other side and touch my dad's face, feel his skin warm again, pulsing with life. But I can't.

Of course I can't. The cold wood against my hands seems so unfair.

"You can't be here." My voice sounds tiny and weak. My heart thumps in my chest.

If I opened that door would he be there? Would he smile at me and show his dimples? Would his cheeks be scruffy because he needed a shave? Would he hug me? All I've wanted all these months was for him to be alive.

But I'dseen him on the floor. I'd seen him in the coffin. And you can feel it when someone has died, you can feel that his soul is gone, just gone, the emptiness of his body. But if werewolves and pixies can be real, then maybe this can be happening. Maybe my dad can actually be here, right here, just a few inches of wood away from me.

I sway against the door. My shoulder presses into Nick's side. "You can't. You can't be here."

"I am, Zara. Let me in. I'll explain," he says.

He died. He died. I saw him die. The water on the floor. His face cold beneath my fingers.

But what if he didn't? "Daddy?"

"I'm right here, baby."

Lumps form in my throat, going all the way down into the core of me.

It's his voice. His. Right there. I reach toward the doorknob but I don't get to turn it.

Nick smashes at me with his head, pushing against my lower jaw and cheek, like a blow. His muzzle moves my head away from the door. He presses his face in between me and the wood. Fur gets in my mouth. I spit it out and push at him.

"That's my dad. My dad." I slap the door. "He's on the other side. The pixies will get him."

Nick shows me his teeth.

"I can't lose him again, Nick."

The wolf snarls like he's ready to bite. My head jerks back and away, but then I steady myself.

"Get… out… of… the… way."

Pushing against his thick neck, I slam my hands against him over and over again, pummeling him. He doesn't budge.

"Move!" I order. "Move."

"Zara, is there a wolf in there with you? Do not trust him," my dad's voice says, calmly, really calmly.

I grab a fistful of fur and freeze. All at once it hits me that something is not right. My dad would never be calm if I was in my bedroom with a wolf. He'd be stressed and screaming, breaking the door down, kicking it in like he did once when I was really little and had accidentally locked myself in the bathroom and couldn't get the lock out of the bolt because it was so old. He'd kicked that door down, splintering the wood, clutching me to him. He'd kissed my forehead over and over again.