Necroscope 014 - The Touch by Brian Lumley

Author:Brian Lumley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-06-29T19:07:28+00:00

Chapter 25

Inside the villa . . . Scott sat on the floor in one of the back rooms and

bathed Wolf Jr.'s paws with warm water and a spoonful of dilute antisep-

tic supplied by Zek. While this was happening the animal studied him

with warm feral eyes, whined and jerked just a little, licked his chops ner-

vously but in the main kept still.

Zek was plainly astonished. "He's accepted you!" she said, keeping

her mind closed to Wolf Jr. himself. "Just like that!"

Scott followed suit: no longer wondering how he did it but just do-

ing it, he shielded his thoughts as he answered her. "In fact, he accepted

me long before I accepted him. The first time we, er, spoke I thought I

was losing it. And sometimes even now I think I'm losing it! What's hap-

pened to me . . . well, I really can't explain it, except to say that it's been

like—and even now feels like—some kind of crazy dream!"

"I know exactly what you mean," she said. "In my time I've seen things

that could only be described as dream-like, and all too often nightmare-

like! But I can't help feeling you already know that, and that I have known

you—something of you, anyway—for a long time. Scott, on the one hand

you're very much like Jazz. You don't look the same but still, I feel you

could have been brothers. It's just too hard to explain!"

Scott looked up from where he now bandaged Wolf Jr.'s rear left leg

where it was cut, nodded, and said, "It is very hard to explain, I know, but

it's like we're old friends from way back. It's like—what? Déjà vu? Rein-

carnation? Memories from another world, another time—"

"—Another person?" she finished it off. "But never Jazz, I can see that

now."

"Someone else then?"

"I thought you were!" she said. "When I saw you going down to the

sea—and even before that, when I sensed you out there—I thought you

were someone else. I mean, don't read anything of significance into

this, though it probably is significant in its way, but I thought you were

someone . . . someone I once knew. In this world, yes, and in a very dif-

ferent world."

Zek had relaxed her shields, and now Wolf Sr. "said," It was my world,

and I know who you mean: the one who fought with us against the Wamphyri in the

Dweller's garden. But he is not that one. He only thinks like him. A little like him, anyway.

Scott looked at the mature, older, even old animal curled on a typi-

cally Greek-patterned black and brown rug. And:

Old? said Wolf Sr. Well, I suppose I am. But my teeth are still sharp and strong,

and the wolves of Sunside/Starside are long-lived, there are plenty oj sunups in me yet.

"It wasn't meant as an insult," said Scott.

Nor taken that way, said the other. And: Are you finished pampering this pup

of mine?

Seated in an armchair beside Wolf Sr., Zek reached down a hand,

scratched his ear, and said, "Do you mind if we talk, my friend and I, in

private?"

You want me to go out?

"No, but just ignore us and be quiet.

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