Hunter

Chapter 46

        I had painfully got up, but I could walk, although it hurt, but I could, however it took me some time to clear my head. I walked to Arthur, who was sitting curled up, and Sophie, who had crouched behind him and laid her hands on his shoulders in a maternal gesture. I took my jacket off and put it on my son's shoulders. He looked at me, his eyes gleaming and sad, as if he had committed the worst crime in the world. I stroked his hair and wiped with my thumb a bit of dirt he had on his cheek. He wrapped tighter in the coat and kept looking at me.

"Let's go home." I said.

I thought our misadventures of the day were over. The warlock had retreated and we had managed to remain in one piece. I addressed a thankful smile to Sophie. Once more, I was deeply grateful and in her debt. And all of a sudden:

Crick crack!

That was the metallic noise of a rifle. We all jumped, I wheeled and I discovered Henri, his rifle aimed at us.

"Well. It looks like I was right..."

He stared at us with a semblance of disgust in the eye, but he was mostly proud and inhabited by a sense of victory.

It was difficult to tell which one of us really was in his line of fire. We were very close to each others, in fact, he wanted it to stay that way.

"I saw it all." he continued. "Your kid is a fucking wolf!"

What a coward.

He looked at me in the eye and I sustained his gaze.

"And you whore! You knew from the beginning and you said nothing!"

Sophie kept silent and held Arthur's shoulders tighter.

"Stop it, Henri!" I said.

"Oh? And why would I? You're all traitors!"

"What the hell is going on?"

We turned our heads to see the newcomer. It was Gaspard. Him too was holding a rifle he was at times pointing at Henri, at others at us, his whole body shaking. I did not understand right away why Gaspard had come here, then I heard Sophie swearing in my back: he must have followed her.

"Did I hear what Henri said right?" he asked on the verge of hysteria.

"Oui, his son is a fucking wolf!" the latter spat.

Gaspard gave me an interrogatory look and I  imperceptibly nodded to confirm. There was no point in denying it any longer.

"Oh no, it can't be!" he said in a quavering voice.

"Gaspard..." I said stretching my arm towards him in a motion I wanted calming. "Arthur isn't dangerous, he can control his turn..."

"Don't listen to him! You very well know it's a load of crap! A wolf is a wolf, Gaspard."

I did not know what to do. If Henri had been the only threat, I could have disarmed him, but with Gaspard panicking... The risk he may shoot was too big.

"We... We should talk about it!" he stammered. "Put down your gun, Henri!"

"Not a chance!" Henri yelled.

Behind me, I could hear Arthur breathe raggedly under the grip of anguish and fear. He was huddling in my jacket as if it could protect him.

"Don't worry, Gaspard! I'll handle the dirty work!"

"Non!" I shouted.

Henri pulled the trigger at the same time I jumped on him. I managed to disarm him and punched him in the face. Alas, I had reacted too late. Behind me, I heard Arthur cry in pain. Sophie screamed too. As I feared the worse, I turned and saw Sophie holding Arthur's face in her hands. He was crying because of the pain, but held back from screaming. The bullet had got stuck into his shoulder.

Henri took advantage of my inattention, as he had got back to his feet faster than I would have thought, and put his arm around my neck and started to press with all his strength. I could no longer breathe, my head was spinning.

"Your turn to die, fucking traitor!"

I tried to free myself, in vain. Then...

Bang!

In a second, the forest plunged into absolute silence. Then, Henri's inert body fell to the ground in a thud. He was dead.