Black Dog Short Stories by Rachel Neumeier

Author:Rachel Neumeier [Neumeier, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Anara Publishing
Published: 2015-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

And now here he stood, decades later, and this kid had the nerve to face him straight up and claim a leash like that one?

“Your granddad’s gonna die,” he said at last.

“No!” the kid said instantly. He squared off, straightening his shoulders and glaring at Thaddeus. Not quite attacking, no—his black dog instincts must be telling him exactly how far out of his league he was. He said instead, desperate and sharp, arguing because all he had was words even though words were never a black dog’s best thing, “They’ll all have guns by the time you get back there. Silver bullets, some of ’em! You won’t—”

Thaddeus held up one hand. “Not me. The old man with the scythe. Old age, kid! How old’s your granddad? Ninety years older’n God, he looked to me.”

The kid took a breath, watching Thaddeus warily. He said at last, “Doesn’t matter. Won’t matter. How you think Qingming would work for me if I been killing people? My grandfather wouldn’t like it any better just ’cause he was dead!”

“Yeah?” said Thaddeus. “What’s your name, kid?”

Another wary look. “Lee.”

“Lee, sure. You ever hear of Dimilioc, Lee?”

A wary headshake.

“Yeah, you don’t know much. Damn good thing you got that granddad of yours. You been listenin’ to him and that’s good. But now you listen to me, kid. Dimilioc don’t like strays making trouble, understand? But strays who keep the rules, sometimes Dimilioc looks the other way. You know the rules, kid? Keep a low profile, that mean anything to you? Don’t kill people, above all don’t let any stupid black dogs kill people or rape girls or whatever shit like that, because any Dimilioc black wolf who comes to deal with them, he might just deal with you, too. You hear me?”

A slight nod. Thaddeus couldn’t tell whether the kid was actually listening or not. He said, “Dimilioc’s got more room in it than it used to. A lot more room. You think about what I’m tellin’ you. When your granddad’s gone, Lee, you gonna find your Beast pushing you hard. They get stronger anyway, and then you get into trouble, you hear me? Before that happens, you come to Vermont—”

“Vermont!”

“Shut up and listen. You come to Vermont if you find your Beast pushing you too hard, getting out of control. You come to Newport and then once you’re there, you ask around for Dimilioc till a black dog turns up and wants to know who’s asking. And then you tell him you’re looking for me. Thaddeus. You got that?”

A nod, which didn’t mean the kid agreed. That kind of submission was just meant to appease a stronger black dog. Thaddeus knew all about that. But he thought the kid would remember. Maybe he wouldn’t take that advice. But time would pass and his granddad would die and his Beast would get stronger . . . and at that point, maybe he would.

And at that point, maybe Thaddeus would be able to give him a hand. If

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