Pulling out his cell phone he scrolled through the call history, placing the phone to his ear as he rolled his tongue around his teeth trying to dislodge the pieces of fresh bread from the roof of his mouth. Gaerik didn’t exactly feel safe, he didn’t think he would feel that way until he knew the blood of his enemy was spilled and the corpse itself was hidden somewhere dark and damp never to be thought of again.
“Alex,” Gaerik said lowly as he set his plate down on the side table and sat forward in his seat.
Since he had last spoken to Alex, Gaerik had lost track of his little friend and now since he was no longer fleeing the state he needed all of the information that he could get on her.
“Gaerik, I’ve been trying to call you. Where have you been? Why did you change your number, man? I have a shit ton of new information for you.” Alex said his voice growing an octave higher with each word he said until Gaerik was holding the phone away from his head to keep his ear drum from bursting due to the high pitched frequency.
“Well, why don’t you email it all to me and I will have your usual, customary amount wired to your bank account, hmm?”
It was nice to know that when the cat was away, the mice didn’t play, at least not enough to forget their intended purpose.
“Yeah, yeah man. Whatever you want. You’re not going to believe this.” He laughed before handing up.
For all of his excitement Alex didn’t really like people, he enjoyed watching them of course, and it paid for his gaming obsession when he wasn’t out clicking his camera. Gaerik liked him, he didn’t ask a lot of questions, and he delivered an invaluable service. Rolling his tongue around his teeth once more sure that every piece of bread was now gone. He got up, looking around the house. Now, where did Marik hide his laptop at?
~
“I’m truly sorry for what happened at your home,” Gallen said softly as he entered the living room slowly trying not to jar Elle too much. The girl obviously looked like she was in shock and no doubt she probably was. Coming from Arkansas, he imagined that the crime rate was relatively low and home invasions didn’t happen too often.
Gregory was curled up on the couch with her, his head laying on Elle’s stomach with both front paws draped over her legs preventing the young woman from leaving her position on the couch, not that there was anywhere she wanted to be at the moment. Her home was no longer her home. On paper yes she still owned the dwelling, but it was all the little things inside it that made it hers. That was all gone. She could buy new things, but they wouldn’t have the memories attached to them that she loved so much.
“It’s not really the house.” Elle murmured gently looking at the container in her arms, still tenderly clutched to her heart. “All of my family pictures. He really did a number on them, I’m not sure if I will be able to save some of them...”
Settling onto the coffee table in front of her Gallen gently offered his hand out for the container nodding softly as he saw how hesitant she was to hand them over. Eventually, she laid the dish into his hand and sniffed gently, wrapping her arms around Gregory and nuzzling closer to the hound, her chin idly propped up against her knuckles. Gently turning it over and upon looking inside, he found some of the pictures were badly damaged, but his eyes twinkled as he lifted them up to her own once more offering her a genuine smile. Gallen couldn’t make her any promises, but he could offer her a small measure of hope.
“I believe we might be able to do something with these.”
“Really?” Elle asked not quite ready to believe yet that they could be saved no matter how badly she wanted it to be true.
“Indeed. I used to be quite the puzzle champion in my younger days. Let’s lay these all out on the coffee table here and see what we can do.”
Setting the folder down Gallen stood up and went into his study quietly before returning with a stack of copier paper which he sat down on the table, laying each one out carefully. Gallen laid the folder open before the coffee table and began to pick out the photographs that had sustained the most damage and spread them out across the wood surface.
“We can make it a game. Let’s get all of the edges first. It’s like a puzzle we just have to find each piece that’s all. Then when we have them all arranged properly, we can tape over them. I have a program on my computer that might be able to fix some of the damage.”
Elle stared at him for a few minutes before a smile began to crack the empty sadness that had taken over her facial features before she nodded and stood up, Gregory grunting displeased by the fact that his warm squishy bed was taken away. Hugging Gallen’s shoulders, she was almost in tears as she held onto him before pressing her lips into his cheek gently.
“Thank you. So much, you have no idea how much this means to me.” Elle said emptying out a small portion of how grateful her heart was to him.
Gallen smiled somewhat into the crook of her neck before gently patting her on the back as she pulled away. He’d been lucky most of his life having never had anything torn away from him save for the loss of his brother and the death of his wife, but even then he still had mementos to remember them by, now it appeared that everything Elle loved, those she cherished the most were no longer walking the plains of this realm and what she had to remember them by were her photo albums. He would have been lost without the tender caress of those memories he could look back on in picture form and smile. All he sought to do now was to help her regain some of those precious items.
“Think nothing of it, dear. Now,” he clapped his hands before rubbing them together as he pulled himself up a piece of floor in front of the coffee table and began his task. “Let us see what we can make of this puzzle.”
From her side, Gregory had left the couch and stood with his curious black button eyes looking at the pieces of white paper spread out on the coffee table before he whined slowly. This was a project that was of absolutely no interest to him.
“Do you need to go outside?” Elle asked her voice chirping softly, closer to its usual cheerfulness as she softly threaded her fingers through the dog’s mane and rubbed the back of his head behind his ears.”
“Actually it might be good for him. This is a new area for him, he needs to become familiar with the scents so he can better protect you.” Gallen said motioning towards the French doors off to the side. “He will be ok. Gregory is a guardian; cold climates can’t truly hurt him. He’s a survivor.”
“I know, he tracked me down all the way from Arkansas only two days ago,” she commented softly.
Considering this Elle nodded before patting her leg for him to follow as she walked over to the doors, immediately the guardian began to emit a high pitch yelp of excitement assuring her that this was what he wanted.
~
His complexion glowed with a healthy red as he stood in the harsh winters wind that bit at his cheeks. Standing outside of his car there was nothing left to be found here, the police had cleaned everything up not even a scent lingered on the wind as Marik turned back to his vehicle. There was nothing left he could do here, every time he was in the same place as this bastard he was only paces behind him and grasping at air as he slipped through his fingers. Turning around he drove with no particular destination in mind. Marik saw no sense in going back to his brother’s apartment there wasn’t anything there that would help him now. For all intents and purposes, he was cleared of any crimes, though Marik hadn’t told the Council that just yet. They still thought he was looking for his brother and until he could convince them that Gaerik wasn’t the killer, then he wasn’t going to say anything to them about the diversion to his plans.
The longer this drug out the more he felt like he was spinning his wheels in the snow and getting nowhere. It was only thanks to his father that he wasn’t searching for Gaerik anymore. Deciding to go to his own house he found himself wishing that Gaerik was here. He’d always been the clever one, but he also knew that where ever he was he was safer there until he could clear his name with the Council. Perhaps he could cal
l him? It was only as he pulled up to a stop light and reached for his phone in the cup holder that he remembered he didn’t have his brothers number. He was probably making calls on some burner phone. Smart but it didn’t help Marik right now. Hopefully by the time he got back to the house he’d have called again and maybe he would have given his father something else to think about. After all, this was all Gallen’s doing. He’d taken two brothers pitted against each other and put them back on the same team again.
Chapter Twenty
When people uttered the words “the Council” one inexplicably thought of a dark room with recessed lighting beaming over the heads of hooded figures shrouded in a circle. However, the real deal couldn’t have been further than the truth. Four men minus their fifth sat around a large oval table, some deep in conversation as the smoke of cigarettes filtered into the high vaulted ceilings within a well-lit dining room. The clink of ice in glasses as one took a sip of their beverage, condensation collecting on the glass as it was raised to parched lips and dripped onto the polished wood surface of the table.
“What do we do now?” One olive skinned man in his late forties spoke, looking about the room at the group of men who filled his opulent dining room. The overhead chandelier sparkled as it cast a golden glow around the room’s champagne silk wall paper.
“Very little I am afraid.” Only one man spoke, a low sigh releasing from his lips as he leaned back in his chair and folded his ankle over his knee.
“Have we heard any word from Marik since yesterday when he spoke with his father?”
While the Council ruled on a majority vote, there was one man whose vote seemed to count the most. Each man came from one of the five packs that lived-in Connecticut and since time out of memory the Chaliceman wolves had born an Alpha from each generation. Their opinions were greatly valued among the Councilmen, but today Gallen Chaliceman was not with his brothers. Since the elder had been informed of his son Gaerik’s death sentence, he had refused to speak with the Council. Gallen would not agree to a hunting party. However, there were four votes against his one. He was over ruled by the Council for the believed betterment of their kind.
“The last we knew he had a lead, but since then there has been nothing but radio silence.” Another spoke up, lacing his fingers together ominously.
Though it was unspoken everyone knew that the eldest of the Chaliceman twins would step up as head of the council when their father stepped down but given the circumstances there was no possible way that they could ever let that happen. Some men around the table felt that it was time that another pack was able to lead them as the elder but to actually speak those words would have been blasphemy, however, what they all were in agreement on was that no Chaliceman would be coming into the councils embrace when Gallen stepped down. Lucian Chaliceman founded the council only months after the massacre that took one of his children and killed countless others from the five families. Of each of the families, there was an alpha, on that sad day each alpha stepped down but the hierarchy went unchanged. The Chaliceman name still stood for something, of all of the packs their bloodline was always the purest, the strongest.
As the old ways of each pack being ruled by an alpha was done away with so long ago, in the present day the Council was making moves to bring those days back, when werewolves were still something to be feared, they wanted to completely eradicate the Chaliceman bloodline and anyone else who chose unwisely to stand with them.
“Perhaps someone should pay a visit to the young one? He has since his entrance to our ranks been invaluable to our cause and our existence. Jamal has always been close to Marik, more so than his brother has been in years. Marik would confide in him.”
“It’s settled then. Marius, you will go check up on Jamal and see if he has any news which has not yet to reach our ears.”
~
“What’s going on here?” His light two tone brown eyes sparkled in the lamps which had been turned on as the sun began to sink from the sky bringing with it another bitterly cold winter night as the temperature outside steadily dropped around them. On his own, Jamal didn’t know what to do with himself, since his turning he depended on Marik for guidance and understanding in the new world he was thrust into. The young man no longer felt bitter because of his change. Jamal had come into his own once he understood the laws of the world he now lived in and while he stood, staring at Gallen and the small blonde who was hunkered over the coffee table, the two of them chattering in small bird chirps together as every so often there would be a squeak of excitement while something happened on the surface of the table. Jamal was still utterly confused by the situation taking place in front of him though he curiously watched with avid intensity.
“Jamal my boy!” Gallen boomed when the man was in a cheerful sort of mood he always reminded the young man of Santa Claus. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I can see that.” He laughed. The wolf in his eyes appearing as his head cocked to the side, ears perking up somewhat like seeing a new species he had never encountered before.
Standing Gallen brushed his knees off gently as he came to grasp his shoulder, gathering him deeper into the living room.
Elle knew his face as soon as she saw him, rising from her place on the floor; why in the span of a single twenty-four hours did her life have to turn completely upside down and here in Gallen’s home of all places did she have to find herself looking into those deep two-toned brown eyes?
This wasn’t really happening, was it? Of course, it was. Why should she even be surprised as she got to her feet and stepped up, politely pretending not to know this man when she did, sort of?
“This is Elle Marshal. A friend of Marik’s who is staying with me for a few days. Her house is being remodeled.” In a pinch, Gallen could come up with a lie even quicker than his eldest son, which was probably where the pup had gotten it from in the first place. “Elle this is Jamal Whitcock, Marik’s best friend and like a third son to me.”
Gallen looked between the two of them as he made the introductions though neither said very much to one another, the two individuals waiting for the other to speak first like a couple of pre-teens at their first boy/girl dance. Lightly clapping Jamal on the back, it jolted him from his reverie before laughing as he held his hand out to Elle quickly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you miss, anyone who is a friend of Marik’s is a person you want in your life.” Jamal smiled taking her tiny hand into his own and shaking it, his grip carefully controlled.
“Well, it is very nice to meet you too. I’ve noticed that everyone Marik surrounds himself with are pretty incredible.” Elle’s eyes turning towards Gallen. Oh, how she wished that he could save her from this embarrassing moment. Jamal didn’t even seem to remember her, which was even more embarrassing, was she that bad in bed?
Whatever it was about Gallen there was a warmth that surrounded him that she couldn’t help gravitating towards, feeling soothed in this awkward situation. Maybe she could just play it all off like she didn’t remember Jamal either, but that was a very difficult thing to do.
“If you two will excuse me I am going to make us that hot chocolate,” Gallen said looking at Elle, reverting back to the conversation they had been having before. As they sat over the small puzzle pieces together, she was telling him about her childhood and how the scent of the house brought back memories of her and her grandmother putting up Christmas decorations.
Laughingly she had asked if werewolves celebrated Christmas since it was technically a Pagan tradition that the Christians then adapted to what we now knew as Christmas. Of course, listening to her talk had reminded him of the days when his sons were small, how they used to fill this room with laughter during Christmas. He missed those days the most if he thought about it enough. To see everyone getting along and the smiles on his loved one's faces, Gallen didn’t need presents bought from a store to be truly happy on Christmas.
Nodding up and down quickly at Gallen’s words she slowly release
d Jamal’s hand and moved to sit down on the couch.
~
“I get the feeling you’re not from around here.” The smooth, deep voice was like warm melted butter caressing her senses as she looked up from her drink at the bar and laughed.
“How could you tell?” Elle asked, tilting her head to the side somewhat, causing her hair to fall to one side of her face, her hand gently coming up to tame the tendril and push it behind her ear.
“The boots.” Jamal laughed gesturing to her crossed legs, and the red snake skin cowboy boots that decorated her feet and mid-way up her toned calve.
“So you just automatically assume that if a girl is wearing cowboy boots, she must not be from these parts?” She was teasing, but her tone was also curious as she swiveled in her seat towards him.
“No, but I could just tell by looking at the rest of you. They don’t make women who look like you around here. If you’re white, you either look Jewish, Italian or Irish and you don’t look like any of those three.” Jamal laughed as he leaned his elbow against the bar, motioning for a drink from the bartender.
“Isn’t that kind of racist?” Her brows quirked up gently as she was very familiar with racial slurs, she was from Arkansas and while she’d been raised a good, decent young woman who didn’t really notice the color of someone’s skin she had to find it just a little funny considering the conversation she was having was with a beautiful chocolate skinned young man.
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