Release me. Now. Or I will kill you!" His blood turned cold. He held his breath. "Come!" He whispered the command, and the wolf fell silent. His tense muscles began to unwind. But the wolf growled. It took a lung-wrenching breath, then uttered a low cry. A wolf's howl. A strange, long low howl, so unlike the howls of dogs Argo knew he had made. He'd never heard a wolf howl like that. And no sound like it had ever been recorded in history. "This way!" the boy commanded and the monster-wolf lunged past him, away from the river. Argo could see its outline now, a large, black wolf, its tail raised high, its hackles raised and its thick fur bristling. "Come here!" The boy's voice was firm and commanding and it reminded Argo of how the man had spoken to Phoebe. The wolf ran, circling the man's truck as the man made it disappear in the bushes. The boy called to him with the same command he'd given the wolf: "Come." The animal ran obediently up the road, and the man followed behind, guiding the beast with his hand. "Do what I say and you'll be safe. Understand?" "Yeah," said Argo, not sure he believed the man. But he had to. After what happened earlier that day, he'd lost his trust in strangers. "Yeah." "Okay. That's good," the man said, his voice steady and calm. "Stay near me. Don't wander away." Argo looked back over his shoulder. He turned to face the trees, a chill running through his blood. He wanted to know what was back there, where it came from, and what it wanted. Chapter Six The old man and his monster-dog walked away from Argo. He leaned over the tailgate and saw the man start to make the boy disappear. Argo grabbed the ladder and put it up. It was a tight fit on the truck. The wolf followed along, sniffing as it ran. Argo watched them. "Stay back!" the man yelled as the wolf stopped, looking back at him. "This is your only warning," he said. "If you want to live, stay back." "I can take care of myself," Argo said. "I'm not afraid." "Sure you are," the man said. "Stay back. Don't go anywhere without me." The wolf crept up and sniffed at Argo's ankle. He leaned forward, a hand out and ready to push the dog back. The beast sniffed him again. "Stay!" he whispered. The wolf looked back at him. The man finished making Argo disappear, and then he took out a jar of candy from his shirt pocket and offered it to the wolf. "Snap," he said and Argo heard the creature's jaws click. "You're my good luck charm. Sniff," he said, and held the jar out to the wolf. It took a step forward and Argo took a nervous step back. "Good boy," the man said. "You like candy?" The wolf licked its lips and the man smiled. The man stood and walked away. The wolf stood and howled after him, like an air horn, again and again. Argo turned and looked up at the trees, and he saw for the first time the black hole that had let the man and wolf through. He had an urge to investigate but the monster-dog lunged toward him and Argo stepped back to escape its jaws. Argo wanted to go back to his bedroom to get the sleeping bag. The monster-wolf might be gone by then. He could go back, but then he would have to stay home, where the man could find him. So he ran to the cabin to get his sleeping bag. He ran, not realizing that he was almost back at the spot of where he had shot out of his body. The boy's body was gone. It was the first thing he saw when he looked at the ground: no body. The second thing he saw was the black hole in the air. Argo went in that direction. The wind pushed him around the hole and then stopped. He paused at the spot, waiting for his body to start floating again. Nothing happened. Then, as he drew closer to the hole, he felt it. Someone was there. Argo tried to shout but no sound came out of his mouth. He looked down the tunnel and saw the dog standing at the mouth of the air hole, watching him pull closer and closer to the edge. "Don't go in there," said the boy from down the tunnel. "Come back." "Who is that?" Argo asked and stepped into the air hole. The black beast lunged, teeth bared, and bit his leg. The pain was instant. And then the body vanished as it became a part of the hole. And then he was gone. *** Argo's voice. The man heard the boy speak as he made his way through the trees. He stopped. "That's you," he said and smiled as the boy said, "Stay back. Don't go anyplace without me." The man's body followed the words. The boy's voice faded. But the man knew what the boy said and knew he was saying it for him. "Good luck charm," the man said, his words in the wind as Argo floated through the air. "Snap." "Good luck," the man heard as the man and his wolf walked away. "Good luck, little boy," he heard, "good luck." The man looked at the monster-wolf. "A guardian," he said. "The old man said the boy has a guardian. A guardian angel watching over him." "Good boy," the man said. The boy vanished from the darkness of the tunnel. The man felt his body and heard his voice. "This is your only warning," Argo said. "I will not allow you to enter. You'll have to wait in the air tunnel." The man smiled. "Go ahead and try," he said. He stood behind the wolf and listened. Argo felt the wind catch him, carry him down the tunnel. And then a sharp pain came with the bite of a tooth. His body started to fall into the blackness of the tunnel. He grabbed the wolf's muzzle and pulled it back toward the air. "No!" the man said. "No, don't go back there. You are safe here." "I thought you were your guardian angel," the boy said. "You're right," the man said. "But I am with you." The man felt his body start to become part of the tunnel. "Good boy," the man said. He looked into the dark darkness and said, "Watch." Then he was gone. Argo floated into the air. His body vanished. He landed on the forest floor, looking up at the dark woods. The wind blew through the trees, and a light, the same gray light that had enveloped the wolf and man, appeared over the trees. And there it was. The man and wolf. The boy reached the edge of the forest. The light continued to spread, its blue growing brighter and brighter. The boy stopped at the edge of the forest. He stood in the light that encompassed everything. He looked at the dark woods, and then at the man. "You're here," he said. Argo smiled and gave him a nod. The man knew the boy was happy for him. The boy was a guardian. Argo thought he'd heard something in the air before it died. He had thought it was a voice, but he hadn't been sure. There was nothing in the air now, other than the light. "The man has gone home," he said and looked into the woods, at the man and the dog who had taken him. He laughed. "He's a nice guy." "He said he was," Argo said. "I figured," the boy said. He turned and looked up at the sky. A blue glow spread around him. The sky shimmered with blue light. "I could fly," he said. He glanced down at the earth, wondering if he could make it move as he used his hands. But his feet were nailed to the earth. "What's that?" he asked. The man's voice. Argo frowned. He looked back to see the man and the dog. "What's what?" he asked. "Did I make a sound?" "We can hear you,"