“I have searched for my mate for over a thousand years you pathetic undead excuse for a vampire and you will not tell me that when I finally found him he is feral!”
“I am truly sorry but feral’s do not attack loved ones after transformation,” he replied looking over the bridge. He considered making a leap for it but he did not want to go another round with her, although with her blood swiftly coursing through him he was sure he had the upper advantage.
“I attacked and killed my father as soon as I could stand so do not presume to tell me. That feral as you blindly continue to call him was not insane, he was upset and his rage caused him to act irrationally. All newborns act this way and if you Trackers would stop killing them all you would know that,” she screamed in return, adjusting her dress and shaking her hair out, finding her lost composure.
“I am only doing as I am ordered my lady…” Damon replied showing her the respect owed her.
“Your orders are to eradicate the lost ones you pathetic vampire! That one is completely sane and you would not know because you have never seen a newborn have you that was not insane?” she replied instantly, infuriated by his lack of common sense.
“All the ones I have encountered on my missions have turned on me and attacked so I killed them,” he replied immediately.
“They are incapable of speech moron so they cannot tell you to stop and they cannot shift back yet. They fear you Tracker so they defend themselves, you are a legend among your kind and they know if you track them they are dead,” she explained in a slightly softer tone, still obviously agitated.
“I am sorry I only do as I was trained. I will pay closer attention next time I am hunting. I still have to see that the feral I am hunting is sane…”
“Leave him to me or I will see you meet the true death. Your trainers are brutal, cannibalistic, self-serving, uneducated fools.” The last five words were emphasized and spoken with more force.
“I cannot walk away, I will go with you and see that what you say is true and if he is not feral I will leave him be, this I swear,” Damon countered.
The female thought about his offer quickly. Her way of life was barbaric to some but the pathetic Trackers she always meandered upon knew nothing of her kind. They were genocidal at best. Yet if she could teach this one, a truly dangerous one of his kind, maybe he would teach others. She knew of him simply because of his impeccable record and his ability to Daywalk.
“That offer I shall accept, although if you touch one hair on my mate’s head, feral or not, I will see every limb torn from your torso and thrown into a vat of acid.” She, ancient or not, might not be able to but she would have it done nonetheless.
He understood the threat just not the last part whatever a vat of acid was.
“I only wish to do my job. Your mate will not come to harm if he is does not harm to the public.”
“As his sire it is my duty to train him, and that vampire, I will do.” She replied with a heavy prominence on will.
She bit him? Of course, oh hell, the implications were mind bending.
“I thought…” Shade would already be upset, devastated even, then to find out that her brothers mate basically ripped away his life and family without even warning him, giving him no choice.
“The one you destroyed was one I had hunted myself although your help was not needed. I came across my mate in his human form and was turning him when I caught the scent of the other, and when you attempted to stop me.”
That explained a lot but Shade was quite upset about the death of her brother. If he did not have to be the bad guy… he would console her like he wanted to do in the first place. Console, he asked himself. Since when had he felt the need to do so? The elfin creature at his home was making him weak. He did not deserve her. He was a mass murderer, a demonic being and she a cherub goddess, well a sardonic one.
“The girl…”
“Is of no importance to me, she was in the way and if you had not come along would have died. The small female hurt my ears with her screams.”
“The female was his sister and they mean a lot to each other,” he corrected her. He growled at the threat she implied. Over his dead body! No one was touching Shade!
“He would have forgotten her in time.” Such snide, insincere, cruel intentions came from the female. He shook his head at her.
Damon set aside his dislike of her in light of the bigger issue.
“It seems you and I have a lot in common, there is a lot we both need to learn about the modern world,” Damon informed her, choosing to set aside his dislike of her to deal with the pup she was protecting.
“I have not ventured into the modern world much this is true. Only now to slay that beast who killed my mortal family. I can return home now once I find my mate.” A home where she ruled supreme and her word was law. Even to the wraithlike humans who obeyed her every word.
“You cannot leave, give the boy time to return to his senses and say goodbye to his sister. She believes he is dead.”
“That is of no concern to me, maybe she should continue to believe so,” she replied just as snidely as before. Mortals were weak pathetic cattle apparently to this woman. That or she was in a very black mood with no disregard for other sentient beings.
“Perhaps not, but it will be to your mate. You should remember that you wanted the death of the one who killed your family. You should hope he does not feel the same about you. It upset you as it does her to lose her family.”
The woman considered his plea and concluded that he may be right.
His commentary with this woman was infuriating in the least, and the most he had spoken in many years.
Going decades without speech was not a good idea. A human pet or rather ward, would be good for him to connect to the modern world he continued to deny.
“I will leave it up to my mate. If he wishes to bid her farewell then he shall do so. Personally I would not wait because most choose to walk away rather than taking the chance they may harm their own. My mate is as you relate, pained as it seems by the loss of his humanity and his sister. Therefore I will allow this, if he wishes. ”
He nodded and held his hand out to indicate he would follow her.
They both quickly changed back to their animal forms to better hunt her clearly unfortunate mate.
The female inclined her head, fangs flashing, before leaping over the bridge to the water below.
Damon jumped moments behind her and landed shortly after, his splash creating waves up to the bank. When he surfaced he located her immediately ten yards ahead. She was paddling upstream at a fairly quickly pace. He could easily match her or even outdistance her. For obvious reasons he stayed at least ten yards behind her.
She easily kept a fast set pace and after a few miles he noticed her sniffing. She would sniff along the edge of one bank and then the other.
Damon detected a distinct werewolf odor, not hers obviously.
He moved closer to the right bank and paddled onto shore. Yes it was definitely stronger here.
The female was about twenty yards ahead of him, on the same side of the bank, indicating she agreed with his judgment with a stiff tilt of her neck in his direction.
Damon swiftly caught up to her and trailed the feral’s scent ten steps or so behind.
An inhuman, pained cry rent the air ahead alerting him that he was once again close to his prey. Wishing he had his sword from home in case the brother got violent.
His sword was made of a special alloy, each given to a tracker when he was finally released to Track and no longer a consort. The alloy included titanium, silver, and several others, and was enchanted with several herbs including wolfs bane. It was even better for beheading particularly nasty demons. He preferred the feline form at night. In America you were interrogated and or jailed for carrying such a deadly weapon.
Damon picked up his pace and ran alongside the female as they moved deeper into the woods. They had left behind the deepest part of the wooded park and were now encroac
hing into private property.
His last study of an aerial map had showed him that this area was over a hundred acres deep. If he didn’t catch the wolf soon it would make things a whole lot harder, legally as well as physically.
The ancient female began to snarl, it was her way of warning him, remember do not mess with my mate. Damon had no intention of doing so if the wolf was not insane. He understood how things might seem bad for a newborn werewolf at first. It was also true the only two werewolves he had met so far, that were not ‘feral’, were already centuries old so he could admit that he was not as informed as he should have been.
Maybe there was more to the hunting of werewolves then just being dangerous. It was more than possible the vampires as a community wanted to keep them under thumb, to have utmost control.
He jumped fallen trees and skirted brambles as he tried to keep to the fresh trail. The wolf’s odor was getting stronger even after the dip in the river. Damon could tell they were not far from the creature now.
Damon sincerely wished for a shower after the swim in the mucky, litter filled river.
He sensed that maybe he should back off and let her approach the male wolf first so as not to startle him into running again. Maybe she could calm him enough to see straight, so as he would not appear feral but as she claimed upset at his demise. Who wouldn’t be angry at being forced into being someone’s mate and a creature of the night?
He sensed Shade’s brother up and to the right, just past the copse of trees out of sight. Luckily he was downwind of the wolf and the only thing he had to worry about was how loud his paws were on the leaf and debris covered ground, his large paws making that nearly impossible.
The female was coming around the brush slowly making soothing grunting sounds and whimpers. She was coaxing the male out. Damon heard the male’s paws on the underbrush and he pinpointed the wolf’s exact location.
Damon tensed his body to pounce if it was necessary, shifting his weight to his front paws.
The male, Shade’s brother, whimpered back.
A feral wolf wouldn’t whine would it, he asked himself.
He could smell the other wolf’s coat, stagnant and bloody, but not human blood. Did the blood belong to only animals then? The difference would save his life.
He heard the wolf’s heart rate increase as she came around the brush towards him.
Damon waited to see the reaction. He was hidden pretty well and still down wind, if only he could stay absolutely quiet.
Shade’s brother was a quivering mass of fur and muscle. His dark brown, almost black coat was completely soaked with animal guts and intestines, dark red matter best left unexplained. Apparently the wolf had chosen a smaller meal.
The male bowed to the female with its head near its paws, growling and dancing close to the ground, obviously upset but well aware of her status and power. She moved quietly and slowly, making no sudden moves to startle the newborn. Shade’s brother nervously allowed her approach, all but happy with her. He knew she had stripped him of life and Shade, knew that she had flipped his life inside out and dumped him back into a reality best left in stories and movies.
“Come my love, let me tend your wound and take you home,” the ancient female coaxed, in her deep guttural inhuman voice. The male obviously did not like her in the least but could not see any hope in running. His Mikhail’s eyes dashed side to side but he remained nonetheless. As she reached him he whimpered but sniffed her finding her scent apparently pleasing. He nosed the ground and allowed her to rub against him, marking him or so Damon thought.
She wrapped her smaller body around him and cleaned the long gash on his neck from Damon‘s bite. She continued to make a sort of humming sound while cleaning her mate.
“I know you can understand me, that right now you’re confused, in pain, and angry. Trust me and relax. Your body will go back to its human form as soon as you stop fighting this and accept me as your mate.” Her speech was long and slow but clear enough to comprehend.
The male grunted and lay prone next to his intended mate. He seemed to be relaxing, listening to her words and accepting them, which would be a good thing considering it proved his ability to focus.
Minutes passed and Damon realized the male was indeed not feral as he was led to believe. Maybe his leaders wanted them hunting the wolves so that there would never be enough to fight back. They would be under the long reaching thumb of the power hungry vampires.
How many had he slain at the word of his superior officers, at the word of the Royals? It was literally genocide as she had claimed earlier, meaning he was just as much of a monster as he first believed. As when he was in the many wars slaughtering opposing mortal armies. Those days raised immanent regrets and self-judgment that he cared nothing for. He realized now that his days could have been spent in a better manner than the crushing blow he dealt to any sentient in that age. He was not exactly a man with a protective nature but more a follower of higher ranking officials. It was time now that he would shortly be a Master, to stop the mass genocide of other species and find a way around the century’s long rift.
No more… he would not kill innocent creatures. Yes he agreed the newborns were dangerous, but so were newborn vampires and they were trained to live amongst humans. So could werewolves, he was sure. Demons on the other hand he knew that some were incapable of anything but the consumption of human flesh. He would always cut them down.
He still could not move until the werewolf had changed back to his human form.
As nearly another hour passed and his body cramped from the tightly controlled position he was in, he began to think of Shade and what this would mean for her.
She would not be able to be with her brother for a long time or until she was changed into a vampire like him. Either way she still could not continue her human life. He would be responsible for her.
Another twenty minutes passed before he felt the tension in the air. Then he smelled it, the burning flesh of a werewolf turning. Ancients could change in the blink of an eye so there was almost no smell at all. Newborns like Mikhail would take all of ten minutes or more to change. They had to remember their human form and will it.
The thing was that until he mated with the female, accepted her, he would be stuck in the wolf form. Only a few were strong enough to change without their mates, like his Master Gideon had, or so he had been told.
The female looked his way and nodded, giving him the signal. She told her mate to follow her to the water and wash. They would mate there he assumed, and then the young pup would become human again and he could go home.
Damon allowed them their privacy but kept an ear perked their way in case they decided to make a run for it.
He allowed himself to relax and stretch his completely worn muscles.
He took the time to really look around his surroundings, noticing the different plants and trees. There was an interstate not too far away. His ears could hear the cars passing by. An owl hooted its warning before it attacked its prey.
The couple was now just getting to the point so he continued his perusal of the woods. A fallen log was to his left and inside was a rodent family. The owl had no doubt found the delicious cache of meat but as a smart bird it would snatch one when needed, leaving the others to procreate and provide future meals. Owls were really resourceful and adapting to nature’s sneaky evolutionary changes.
A painful inhuman scream caught his attention as it died down to a man’s groan. Shade’s brother was not a feral. He had almost killed the man earlier when he had bit him to stop him from hurting his sister, nearly draining him dry if not for the worry that Shade too would turn.
He changed to his clothed human shape and stepped around to find the couple making their way slowly to the edge of the river, the ancient completely supporting her mate who had now more or less come to terms with reality but was still disturbed by it all, as he would have been. He understood the pain with the werewolf’s situation, having experienced the s
ame thing only by his own hands. Another long memory best left in the past.
Mikhail looked up and saw the man who had chased him and taken his sister, he narrowed his eyes and hissed, fury replacing previous facial expressions and feelings. Apparently the mind of a newborn was not as unfocused as he was led to believe, that or the man remembered his smell.
“Wait, my pet, this man means you no harm. Is that not right?” The ancient informed Mikhail, her lip curling.
“I do not. I only wish to do my job, and seeing as I have no job here I only have a question. Why were you trying to hurt Shade in the vault where I had you chained?”
The pup looked confused momentarily then understanding lit his eyes.
“My memories are just now returning, vampire. Where is she?” Mikhail replied, obviously avoiding the question.
“Safe pup, answer my question,” Damon countered, emitting a low growl.
Shade's Loss Page 6
