I saw again the wolf at the window - the wolf that had possessed Adam's eyes.
"Diana?" Cassandra grabbed my forearm as Marie scurried away to intercept her daughter-in-law, and squeezed hard.
"I'm OK."
I wasn't. Not really. I wanted to sit down, maybe lie down, or stand up, maybe throw up. What I did was drag Cassandra away from the Favreaus' and back to her place. Luckily, it wasn't a long trip.
Once inside the cool, shadowed interior, I sat at her kitchen table and put my head between my knees.
"Don't faint on me," she snapped.
"I donor faint."
"You're doing a damn good imitation." She sat, too. "The wolf at the window?"
Slowly I lifted my head and nodded.
I'd told her my dream, that I'd seen a wolf with human eyes, but I hadn't mentioned whose eyes they were. From the expression on her face, she already knew.
"When you saw the wolf, where was Adam?"
"In bed with me." I took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "Must have been a dream after all."
"Or a premonition."
"I don't have premonitions."
Cassandra went silent. Still a little woozy, I was having a hard time assimilating the information, having no luck at all interpreting it
"You dreamed of a wolf with human eyes before we knew that werewolves have them." She glanced in my direction. "Human eyes, I mean."
"Probably just a coincidence."
"A coincidence is running into someone right after you thought about them. What you described to me is not a coincidence."
"What is it then?"
"No clue."
"Damn, you're helpful."
She didn't rise to the bait. Why I was baiting her, I wasn't sure. Right now, she was the only friend I had, the only person I trusted. I tried to make amends by making excuses.
"Maybe I read something about werewolves in the past and my subconscious remembered. I read a lot of bizzaro stuff."
"Could be."
"My husband never mentioned it, though."
Cassandra cast me a sharp glance. "He saw one?"
"So he said."
Out on the moors, D-baby. A man became a wolf and then ran beneath the full moon.
"I'm thinking he didn't get close enough to see the eyes." Until that last night anyway.
"There's one thing that bugs me," Cassandra murmured
Thrilled to leave the memory of Simon and his death behind, I jumped on the comment "Just one?"
She didn't bother to acknowledge my attempt at levity. "Why is it a wolf?"
"Huh?'
"Or maybe I should ask, how is it a wolf?"
"Cassandra, what are you talking about?"
"Marie Favreau said wolves make wolves."
"If we can believe her. If she isn't crazy."
"Do you think she is?"
"If she is, I am." I rubbed my forehead. "I don't feel crazy."
"Crazy people never do."
"Har-har. Could we get back to the topic at hand, which I'm still not clear on?"
'If it takes a wolf to make a wolf, where did the first wolf come from?"
"Is that a riddle?"