I was standing in Carter's basement, in front of one of the large weapon cages. It was full of guns, ammo, silver bombs, and other unidentified trinkets I had yet to learn of.
"So, which one do you want?" Carter asked, gazing upon his weapons cache.
"Honestly, I don't know."
I stared across the wall of metal contraptions glinting in the bright LED lights that hung overhead, weighing my options.
"You ever shot a gun before?" Frank asked as he loaded up a semi-automatic shotgun. It wasn't a jab or anything, just an honest question he didn't think twice about.
"Yeah, just not in a while. I have a revolver, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes." I had a revolver. If I had to guess, I would assume it was still sitting in Vicky's nightstand.
"Oh shit," Frank chuckled. "Ole' Dirty Harry over here."
Now he was fucking with me. I smiled and shook my head. Carter mirrored my reaction as he picked up a sleek, matte black pistol. It looked pretty expensive, but he just snatched it off the wall and started loading up clips like it was for everyday use.
"You can take this for now. You can shoot the range when we get back; figure out what you like, what you're most comfortable with," he said, inserting a magazine and racking the slide. "This is live now…" he spoke seriously, "be careful with it."
I nodded, taking the gun belt from Carter as he pulled it from the wall and handed it to me next. I ran the belt around my waist and attached the drop-down leg holster around my thigh. It felt comfortable there. I grabbed one of the clips for their guns and helped load. Once we were loaded up and the gun's holstered, we walked to another cage across the room. It was full of knives, a few swords, bows, and crossbows. There was also this wicked-looking chain with sharp blade-like protrusions coming out of links every foot or so down its length. That shit looked dangerous, mostly for the wielder.
Some of the swords looked older than the rest. They had inscribed figures on them that looked like some kind of ancient language or something. Similar to the symbols on Autumn's blade, but there were differences. I'd have to ask about that later. Most of them were newer, more modern blades. Carter rolled back the door of the cage and grabbed a silver blade off a rack. They were all about the same in size, having a few different lengths grouped together. He grabbed a medium-sized blade, somewhere between a knife and a short sword, basically a large bowie knife.
"Here," Carter said, handing it out to me, "this is yours now. Keep this on you at all times. You never know what you're going to run into out there."
I grabbed it from him, "Thanks." I placed it inside the sheath that I positioned in the middle of my back on the gun belt. It was just how Autumn had worn hers. It hid easily beneath my jacket, but it kept my black hoodie hiking up slightly. It was a bit uncomfortable in the first few minutes, but eventually I forgot about it.
Then, Autumn came down the stairs and began loading out as well.
I followed Carter over to the large table in the center of the room as he and Frank spoke about the specifics of where we were going. None of it meant anything to me, so I didn't bother paying too close attention, just enough to hear if they asked me something. I was too focused on Autumn.
She had changed clothes after I descended into the basement with her father. She wore different, darker jeans and a black, long-sleeved shirt. She had a black jacket in one hand as she came down, but set it on a table by the cage of bows. She loaded herself out. She had small knives, too many to count, loaded into the lining of her jacket. She had her silver blade already positioned, in the same spot as before, as she threw on her arsenal of knives over her shoulders. She was like an assassin. Then, she grabbed a blacked-out carbon fiber rifle of some kind, followed by strange bullets with yellow tips. The tips looked plastic, but were filled with a yellow substance, made to deliver a special dose of something.
She stepped inside a long room that had some kind of thick glass windows that took me a moment to realize were soundproofing. It was a shooting range. The soundproofed range muffled the noise completely for the men, but my enhanced senses caught every detail. The sharp click of the safety being disengaged, the common round being chambered, her steady breathing, and the precise way she aligned the rifle.
Without a pause, she fired. The shot tore through the air with a sharp crack, the bullet hitting the distant target with perfect accuracy. The round did its job, sighting in her rifle and leaving a clean hole at the center of the bullseye. Autumn lowered the rifle, her expression cold and calculating, as if the whole thing had been a routine.
Damn. She was even more impressive than I already thought.
She grabbed all of her gear and headed up the stairs, looking back once as she bounded up to the main floor. I tried not to look directly at her. It was hard.
"Alright, you ready?" Carter asked.
I nodded, "Yeah."
"You'll be fine. Just remember," Carter said, "you're about to see things you never knew existed. Some of those things might want to kill you. You can't hesitate when things go south. It's them or us, them or you." He nodded towards the gun on my belt, "Those are silver-infused bullets you're carrying just in case. So, your blade isn't the only way to kill something." He pointed to the center of his chest, "Aim for center mass. You want the bullet to stay inside. If it shoots straight through, they'll heal right back up."
I knew what this was. He was training me; every step of the way, he was trying to teach me the fine details. He was hoping I'd pick it up, stick around, and most importantly… survive. I played along.
I nodded confidently so he would accept I was ready. If only he knew the truth. The reality that I didn't need any of it. I could shred my way through anybody more efficiently than I could with this knife. At least I hadn't run into anyone who could stop me yet. However, this was the beginning of new chances for me and new possibilities for my Plan B. I just had to find something… someone stronger than me. Maybe then I could end this hell.
We arrived in the garage and I opened the back door to Carter's blacked-out SUV to get in with the rest of them. Eleanor was sitting shotgun, Carter was driving, and I heard Frank say he was following in a separate vehicle, for surprise reinforcements if needed. Autumn was in the middle seat, where I was headed.
I locked up, my willpower fighting with the selfish demon inside. I wanted to sit by her, smell the source of the scent trail that I followed to the garage. I wanted to talk with her again. I tried to find a reason to hand her something, so our hands could touch again, ever so slightly. She was beautiful, and I was entranced by her eyes, her smell, her touch, and even the noises she made. Her breathing was all I listened to when in range to hear. It was rhythmic and distracting.
I went numb. I quickly folded the seat forward, climbing past it and into the back. She glanced at me with a confused look as I pulled the seat back into its position.
"You can sit by me, Sam… I don't bite," she grinned.
I did, and that was the problem. I had to try and fight the temptations she put me through.
"Oh, sorry, isn't Frank coming?" I asked although I knew the answer.
Carter spoke as we backed out of the garage, "He's taking his own vehicle. He'll stay out of sight, but he'll be waiting to back us up if we need it."
"Where are we going?" I asked.
Carter was in his own head, thinking about something very intently, so his answer wasn't beneficial.. "We're going west of town. To the Rockwoods Reservation." He didn't say why, though.
I started to think he might know something. Maybe he was trying to connect the dots from what the Detective had told him. I wondered if he would soon be on my trail.
For their sake, I hoped not.
We drove west, cruising down scenic roads through the thickening trees. It all looked familiar to me; several small landmarks on the streets hinted at older memories. Still, I couldn't be certain if I had been out this way before. I had been all over the area around St. Louis since I arrived two years ago, so it wasn't a stretch if I had seen the area before.
Carter and Eleanor were talking about various things at a low level, in the front. Autumn sat silent, adjacent to me, behind Carter. She would glance at me now and then, but it was hard for her to steal a look without it being too obvious, so she was restricted. I could look at her all I wanted. I thought that maybe this was a mistake, that this was worse than sitting beside her. Now I had what seemed like an eternity to just stare at her from behind.
I wanted to say something.
"What did you mean earlier?" I blurted out the first thing I could think of.
She turned quickly, putting her feet up, in the middle bench seat to sit sideways. She looked at me, unsure, "What are you talking about?"
"When Carter was talking about the bodies, you said, 'Highly unlikely.' What were you talking about?" I asked.
"Oh, that. Sorry, I guess none of us caught that part quick enough to explain. When he said, 'We all know what that can be,' he was talking about werewolves."
Werewolves… okay… this was getting crazy. She had to be messing with me.
"Werewolves… they're real too?" I half expected her to be joking.
She nodded. Carter and Eleanor caught wind of what we were talking about and were less talkative and listened more for my response. Eleanor had a bracing expression like she was worried about how I'd handle the thought of more creatures.
It was no surprise that they were real. But I could see how a normal unassuming human would shit their pants at the thought if werewolves were as much of a threat as the vampires.
"I was saying that it was highly unlikely because the werewolves, in the St. Louis area, have strict rules on attacking humans. They follow it, or they die." Autumn explained, "Their current leader, or Alpha," she did the finger quotes, and smiled, "has severe laws for the pack. The only thing that they can hunt and kill, inside St. Louis, is the wild game out in the forests. If any of them break the law and kill a human, the Alpha kills them."
"Just in town?" I asked.
"For the pack here in St. Louis, it's more of a personal choice that applies to them no matter where they are. But if other packs or strays come through, they have to obey the law of the area. It's for the safety and longevity of the pack here. If they just killed humans whenever they felt like it, they would create too much attention, and that would then bring us to their door. Or others like us." Then, she added, "Or, other races."
"What do you mean, other races?"
"Well, the theory behind it is that if one race of creatures is discovered, then the rest will be too. So, some races fear that others will retaliate if they make too many waves," she explained.
It made sense. I know I didn't want to be found out for what I was. I wondered if anyone would be feeling the waves I had been making.
"So, it's the… Alpha, who makes these laws?" I asked.
"Yes and no. The Alpha takes into consideration the views of the pack members and tries to go with the majority. Still, in the end, it is her decision. The older, more experienced werewolves can control themselves during a transformation, so they don't kill randomly. But the younger ones can't control it, and sometimes people get killed. They all have a bloodlust that peaks on the full moon. They have a need to hunt and kill. Sometimes it overtakes them when it's at its strongest, and they can't stop. That's when they have to get out of the area. Ultimately, they are a family, and to keep the family together, they have to remain hidden. To do that… they have to obey."
"The Alpha's rules," I understood.
"The Alpha won't let that happen in populated areas like St. Louis. If it does happen, that's when she comes in… or we do," she said confidently.
They transform, and they have a bloodlust. Was I… what if this is what I became? Was I a werewolf? I didn't change on full moons, though. I transformed whenever I decided to unleash what's inside.
"So," I tried to find the words and make them seem natural, "when a werewolf transforms, what do they look like?"
Autumn looked at her dad in the front. Carter looked up into the rearview mirror and spoke.
"It happens in stages; fangs, claws, eyes, even their physiology changes. They can become extremely strong at the peak of their transformation, even stronger than most vampires."
I started thinking this was it, but then I remembered the silver they had just loaded me out with.
"So, they can turn whenever they want?" I asked. I needed clarification. I had my hand gripping the back of Autumn's seat, leaning forward at full attention. This was it.
"No," Carter said.
Fuck. I thought I had answers.
"They can channel parts of the wolf, but they can never fully transform outside of a full moon, though they can hold it at bay with time and experience." Autumn went on. "That's all I've ever seen in person. You don't want to see a werewolf on a full moon. Dad has," she said reverently, like it was a significant accomplishment for a hunter.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't ever want to again," Carter added with a strange emotion in his words. There was something there… a memory he was fighting off. His eyes were glassy as he peered out into the road ahead of him.
So, they were strong on full moons. I wondered, stronger than me? I'd remember that, make a new plan, a new possibility for ending this life I had been sentenced to.
I thought about it all as we continued the drive. I was trying to place the facts about werewolves into my new mental library. Everything was being categorized and stored in my brain as I learned.
Autumn stayed sideways in the middle seat, pulling out and examining each small knife she had hidden away in her jacket. I couldn't tell if she was serious about what she was doing or if it was an excuse to glance my way. Autumn would cut a few quick looks my way when she thought I wouldn't see, our eyes meeting every couple of minutes. She smiled at me a few more times, and it was torture. Scenarios played in my mind of what I wanted to do to her.
Who was I kidding? That's what I wanted to think. Why would she have an interest in me? I was just placing my wants and ideas for being a lonely, celibate asshole, for the past two year, into the girl I had created in my head. The one that sat in front of me didn't have an interest in me, not like I imagined. When she looked at me, I knew that all she saw was a stranger. She was just curious at most and too polite to tell me to stop fucking looking at her. She had options, possibilities, and a future. I had nothing but darkness and death in mine.
I tried not to look at her again for the rest of the trip.
We came to a stop just outside the reservation. There was a neighborhood on another street close by, but we drove into a small inlet in the trees. We came to a dead end and stopped just a few feet from the edge of the forest. Carter cut the engine, and we all got out of the vehicle. After I climbed out of the back seat, I met them at the back of the car. The liftgate was open, exposing the loadout of weapons that they had brought.
Eleanor and Autumn helped each other get into their gear. They checked their belts, shouldered their rifles, and loaded clips into their small pistols, which they carried for backup. I hadn't seen Eleanor's rifle before, but it was very similar to Autumn's, with a few minor differences in trinkets that were unfamiliar to me.
"Check, check," Eleanor said as she pressed on her ear.
"I got you," Autumn said.
"I got you. Frank… radio check," Carter huffed at his brother.
I could hear Frank come over the radio in all of their earpieces, "Roger, I got you loud and clear. I'm up and running out here, just tell me if you need me."
I looked around, trying to see if I could find him. I couldn't see him, so I focused on my hearing. I couldn't hear him either. He must have been really far out, or maybe he just wasn't moving anymore.
"Roger," Carter answered. "Okay, you two take your positions, and Sam and I are going in."
Autumn and Eleanor nodded once and bounded off. Autumn smiled my way before leaving.
"Don't worry, we'll be your guardian angels up here," she laughed as she bounded off with her mother.
They looked like two gazelles running through the woods, never losing speed as they continued up a large hill. They were gaining the high ground, probably to see us and even further out, just in case. I found myself staring at Autumn as she flitted away from me. The attraction was intense, it was everything about her. She was strong.
Carter shut the black liftgate. "You ready?"
I snapped out of it. Hopefully, Carter didn't realize that I was just checking out his only daughter.
"Yeah… I mean, I don't know what we're doing exactly. I guess I'm just preparing for anything," I answered, trying to seem slightly nervous.
"I'm sorry if I'm not explaining much right now. I feel that most of this is just better learned out in the world. Once you see it, you won't forget it. But don't worry, I wouldn't bring you into anything you couldn't handle," he said, leading me through the trees to the string of houses on the other side.
We came out of the other side of the trees, right in front of a secluded house. I was surprised to see a woman standing out in her yard, staring straight at us.
She was tall, almost as tall as me, and she looked powerful. Her dense, striated muscles held firm under her light brown skin in a way that would be intimidating for any human man. She had dark black hair and bright brown eyes that looked like cold stones from where I was standing. She reminded me of Clara, Carter's sister, only a little less obvious muscle, and slightly more… wildness in her gaze. It was something in her eyes. She looked angry and unsure, but mostly angry. I didn't need to look harder to tell… she had something inside her. Something just beneath the surface… like me.
The house was one story, but it looked enormous, like a farmhouse. I was focusing on her so much that I barely caught a glimpse of someone pulling back the curtains to look at us. She shot daggers at whoever it was, and they disappeared from the window.
I tried to tune my hearing, focus on the inside of the house. Once I could hear the sounds bouncing off the walls, I could make out heartbeats and breathing. There were at least four others inside. All of their pulses were buzzing nervously. One of them was a child.
We walked straight to her, right through the street and into her yard. She just stood there with her arms crossed and her lips held in a straight line, waiting for an explanation.
"Good morning, Jane," Carter greeted.
"Carter," she replied with a nod. She seemed frustrated. "Do you mind telling me why you're here?" She said it like we were trespassing.
"I needed to check in with you. Ask you a few questions."
She just stood there waiting. She raised her eyebrows, "Go on."
"There was an incident a few nights ago… killings. There were four men ripped to pieces inside a building in St. Louis. They were brutally murdered. Then, the killer set fire to cover their tracks," Carter said.
"Let me just stop you right there. No one here has been in town for about a week. Also, everyone here knows the law. If someone broke it, I will deal with them, not you. But as far as I know, that hasn't happened," she replied angrily, yet in a slow and controlled voice.
"I'm not here to accuse. I'm just looking for answers," Carter said, pulling out a small envelope from his pocket. "Take a look at these." He stepped forward and handed the paper envelope to her.
She opened the flap and pulled out a small stack of square pictures. She looked intently at every single image, shuffling through them every few seconds. Something pulled her in; she seemed interested… very interested.
"The cops don't know what to make of it. They were going to go with an animal attack initially, but the arson doesn't make sense. Now," Carter was interrupted.
Jane was shaking her head fiercely, "No. This was no werewolf. I can tell you that for sure."
Carter paused for a moment, surprised by her confident honesty. "How can you know that for sure?" Carter wanted to know.
"Don't question me, Carter," she barked. Her eyes pulsed out, growing larger in diameter and then shifting to a strange shade of yellowish-orange. She looked feral and inhuman.
Someone slung the front door open and charged outside. It was a man of average height and a durable build, like her. He didn't look as dominant as Jane, but still much stronger than your average human. He stood at her side.
"Why don't you two hunters get the hell out of here, before we do decide to break our laws," he threatened.
He was staring straight at me when he said it, completely unaware of what was standing in front of him. I think that he was waiting for me to show some sign of fear, but I wasn't giving any. Shit, I think even Carter expected that from me. I wasn't scared, and I didn't like this asshole in the three seconds I knew him. So, I wasn't even going to pretend for him. I didn't want him to think he affected me in any way.
The monster creaked beneath the surface, pushing on the bars of its cage. It wanted out, and it wanted to test its strength against the werewolves. I never moved an inch, and I never broke eye contact with this new werewolf.
"Get back inside, Bran," Jane ordered.
"But…" he looked curiously at her.
She turned her strange, animalistic gaze on him and widened her eyes. He turned around, pissed off, and went back inside.
She breathed deeply for a moment, her eyes fading back to their normal shade of brown, and then spoke, "I'm sorry for Bran. He was actually out here for me, not you," she clarified, directing the apology towards me.
I just stayed silent, never losing the hard edge I kept the whole time. I had to be ready for anything, in case I had to protect Carter from the pack of werewolves that rested behind her door.
"It's alright," Carter accepted.
She glanced back down at the stack of photos in her hand, gritting her teeth.
"How do you know?" Carter asked again.
She unclenched her jaw and said, "I know that this wasn't a werewolf because I've seen this before."
"What do you mean? When?" he was quick to ask.
"A few separate times in the last year or so. We've found bodies in the woods. They were all decimated like these," she said, raising the pictures to show Carter something. "You see these claw marks," she pointed to an image, "look at how deep they are. They are way too deep for a werewolf's claws."
Fuck. This was the beginning of the trail. Small clues that I was leaving, the waves I had made so long ago were finally being felt. Now I knew why this area had seemed so familiar. It was where I had left a few bodies to decompose or be eaten by the animals. Unfortunately, the werewolves had found the bodies before that could happen.
"Something was feeding in your area? Isn't that a big deal for you?" Carter asked.
Her face grew more ominous, "Normally yes, but whatever it was, it wasn't feeding. Look here," she pointed to one of the pictures. "When a werewolf kills, it kills to feed. When we transform and kill something, we feed on it, consuming large portions of the body. Look at how much is left on these men. Besides the mutilation, nothing is missing, nothing substantial, anyway. Even the blood is still mostly there, drained out in the dirt… but still there. If it were a vampire, there wouldn't be so much waste like this."
Carter took all of the pictures back from Jane. He examined each of them thoroughly, comparing them all to this new revelation, looking at all of the broken bodies.
"So, whatever it is, it's not feeding. It's just killing," she stated.
Carter looked perplexed. "And this started when?"
"I couldn't say for sure. Maybe, two years ago… ish," Jane waved her hand at the estimation.
Two years ago, it was right. That's when I found myself in the city.
Carter brought himself up straight, out of his thoughts, "I'm sorry for coming here, but I'm glad we talked. Thank you for the help. We'll get out of your hair."
She nodded, not arguing with our quick departure. Carter turned and looked at me, signaling with a nod to turn and go back to the car. I followed his lead, and we were walking away.
I breathed through my nervousness and paranoia that clouded my thoughts. Not the fake stuff I put on for show so far, but the real dread that was beginning to manifest.
"Carter," Jane caught us before we could leave. "If you're going to hunt this, you should know that we're not the only ones to notice something like this before."
He looked back at her, ready to listen, interested.
"No one knows anything real, just stories; rumors. Still, you might want to find out for yourself."
"Who?" Carter asked.
"Down at that strange vampire bar. That's the biggest hub of information you can get around here. The owner… Martin, I hear you guys are friends. You can just ask him yourself," she said. "But please, pass the information back this way. I'd like to know more about who has been out in my woods, near my family."
"I will," Carter agreed. "Thank you, Jane. We're sorry to have bothered you."
"Don't worry about it, just a miscommunication. Tell Frank I said hi," Jane requested.
I was confused about the last part. It sounded like Frank and Jane knew each other personally, more than just the hunter-creature dynamic. It was like they were friends, or they had a history of some sort.
We turned back and retreated across the street, back into the woods. I was silent the whole way back, cautiously calculating the damage I had done. What had I set in motion? Would it be enough for the Chasse family to find out who or what I was? I really didn't want to have to flee St. Louis if I was discovered by them. I liked the city, especially as of late.
We got back to the car, and Autumn and Eleanor stood behind the black SUV. They were taking their gear off and storing it in the back of the open vehicle.
Watching Autumn take things off made me stop worrying about the unknown possibilities and focus on the present like some kind of bipolar maniac; from one extreme to the other as the monster pushed and pulled me in all sorts of directions. I just watched her, inconspicuously from behind. I looked for too long, and she turned around to see me staring as we approached. She tried to hide a smile, but it escaped at the corners of her mouth. I tried to look away.
Carter began talking to Eleanor about what we had just uncovered.
I got in the very back again, figuring I could keep the power to look at Autumn all I wanted, like I had on the trip out here. However, before Carter and Eleanor got around to their doors, Autumn pulled the seat forward and climbed in the back with me. It was a tighter fit in the back seat, forcing us together in close quarters. She positioned herself sideways to look straight at me. What was she doing?
"You don't mind, do you?" she asked, pointing down to her location.
"No," I said quickly, "You're fine." I would never mind being this close to her. My enhanced senses let me enjoy her presence in ways I never knew were possible. I listened to her heartbeat harder as she settled into her spot.
Carter and Eleanor got in and shot a glance at the empty seat behind them, and then at us all the way in the back. Eleanor smirked, and Carter shrugged, unsure of what was going on. His thoughts were elsewhere, on the worries of this new information. The engine roared to life and backed out of the opening in the trees.
"What do you think about Jane?" Autumn asked.
"Jane? She was the alpha?"
"Yeah," she nodded.
I replayed the meeting in my head, picturing all of the details about her, especially her eyes. When angered, her human brown eyes flared out to a more massive, pale orange orb. She looked feral, like a wild animal.
"She's been the alpha of her pack for about ten years now. She rose to the top when the last alpha was killed," she said. "Her father…"
"How'd that happen?" I asked with piqued curiosity.
"Vampires…" she replied. "They don't get along. Well, vampires don't really get along with anyone. They'll kill anything with blood to drink, human or monster. Kind of the ass holes of the supernatural world."
Well, there went my Plan B. If werewolves could be killed by vampires, they were equally as useless to me as the vampires I had already killed. They did say they were their strongest on a full moon, so maybe there was some hope there. There had to be something out there that could end my curse, something strong enough to kill me.
"There are vampires, werewolves, wendigo… what else is there?"
Autumn looked softly at me. Her alluring brown eyes were beautiful, sincere, and vivid in the low lighting of the Suburban. She looked wary, unsure of how I was taking all of this, like I was going to run the moment Carter pulled the car over. I guess this was the usual song and dance for them; someone new gets inducted into their type of life, not being able to handle it, and runs for the hills.
"A lot…" she said.