White Fangs by Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden

ridiculous."
    "We're only repeating what the cook told us," the Reverend snapped, bristling a bit.
    "The last bit's the most important," Vukovich added. "A few days ago, one of the steamships nearly collided with a smaller boat that was adrift on the river. They found blood, but no one on board."
    Jack glanced at Sabine. He felt sure from the look in her eyes that they were thinking the same thing.
    "Pirates?" he asked.
    "You have to wonder," Sabine agreed. "Men are sailing downriver with whatever gold they may have found."
    Jack looked at Vukovich and the Reverend. Amazingly, particularly as they had been pirates themselves, it appeared that they had been so taken with tales of mysteries and monsters that it had never occurred to them that the most human of all explanations — greed — might be at the bottom of all of this rumor and superstition. Jack might have suspected Ghost's involvement — some new way to harry them — but he had been pursuing and then traveling with them, and could not have had a hand in this.
    "Could be, I suppose," Vukovich allowed.
    After another moment, Jack nodded. "All right. Well, let's just keep our eyes open. We don't have much longer until we reach . . ." Something hit him, a hollowness inside that bore terrible gravity, and he whispered his final word. ". . . Dawson . . ."
    Alarm lit the Reverend's eyes and Vukovich crouched, looking around in search of some kind of threat. Sabine grabbed Jack's arm, squeezing his bicep.
    "What's wrong?" she asked. "Jack, what's the matter with you?"
    Words had failed him, his thoughts devolving into a soft moan. He blinked and reached up to massage his temple, but his hands shook as he reached out further with his mind. Lesya had unlocked a wild magic inside him, or given him a sliver of her own that allowed him to make such intimate contact with the creatures of the wild lands. It alternately soothed and thrilled him whenever he was able to match his spirit with the spirits of the beasts around him. But this time, he'd touched something terrible and tainted. He'd been carrying on his conversation with Sabine and the two men while also letting his senses drift through the wild around them. And he'd encountered something . . . other.
    "Jack, you're scaring me," Sabine whispered, clutching his arm even more tightly.
    "Don't you feel it?" he asked her. "Down in the water?"
    Sabine frowned, shaking her head. "I don't know what you mean. Other than the people on this ship and the fish in the river . . ." Her frown deepened and she turned to look over the railing into the dark water. "The fish."
    "What about the fish?" the Reverend asked.
    "The fish are gone," Sabine said.
    The wolves began to change. They did not transform into werewolves, but anyone watching would have seen the subtle shift in their features. Their lips tugged up to show lengthening teeth and they both began to sniff the air, trying to find the scent of some enemy. Their eyes were cold and feral.
    "Calm down," Jack said quickly. "The crew is skittish enough. If you give them a scare it'll be you they start shooting at."
    The Reverend looked dubious, but Vukovich took a deep breath and nodded.
    "Jack," Sabine said. "What is it, down there? What's scared off the fish?"
    "I don't know," Jack said. "All I can feel is a kind of . . . void. But touching it gives me the chills." He reached back down and let his mind brush against the cold, hollow place that seemed to be moving back and forth beneath the steamer. Instead of the vitality he felt when he touched the spirit of an animal, this seemed like a hole in the world — a hole in the fabric of life itself, leeching any other vitality into it. His stomach twisted with a sudden nausea and he shook himself to clear his head, breaking contact.
    "Try again," he said to Sabine. "I know your magic is different here, away from the sea, but this thing . . . Instead of life, feel for a place without it. An emptiness."
    Sabine held his hands and nodded,