by Tilly Hart
We sat in the clubroom, my arm casually draped around Rebecca’s shoulders as we joined Angus in a repeat of a quiz show. If I’d seen it before, he must have seen it a dozen times. But I was comfortable there, snuggled into my girl, so I put up with the fake excitement streaming from the television.
‘Turn that off.’ Pres commanded as he stormed into the room. It wasn’t often he went to confer with the Governors, but they refused to accept Angus at the meeting he’d just left.
Angus tutted as he pressed the off button, the screen disappearing to a black reflection of Rebecca and Angus’ faces. Mine was missing, or course.
‘Jed, what the hell is Calvin playing at? I’m starting to think he is double crossing us.’
I pulled myself up straight in the seat and cleared my throat. I had no more idea than he at what Calvin was up to. ‘He told me he needed time. He can’t take Greyson down without retribution, and he needs to ensure that whoever takes over as the alpha won’t think the same way as Greyson, or worse. He needs to get his ducks in a row before he can strike.’
Pres’ mouth tensed into a line as his eyes narrowed. ‘He doesn’t have time for fucking with his ducks, he needs to take the fucker out now, before I do. The Governors have told me, in no uncertain terms, that if a single human life is lost tomorrow night, then we are all dead. They know where we are, they have the mass numbers. We wouldn’t stand a chance.’
‘We could leave tonight. Leave the wolves to their massacre and let the humans take them out. There is no reason we have to fight their battle.’ Emmeline shrugged as she spoke, looking utterly nonplussed about it all.
‘I will let no one force me underground again, running for my life from place to place, stealing blood and killing fucking sheep as I go. We did that, for centuries, and I am done. This is our home, and this is our city. I will not let some blood crazed four legged fucker take that away from me.’ Pres’ nostrils flared as he ranted. Even the haughty Emmeline looked cowed beneath his words. ‘They outnumber us six to one, even if only half of them will fight we can’t afford for them to shift.’
‘I’ll go out and track down Calvin tonight. If he doesn’t have an answer, we can still strike early tomorrow evening, before the moon rises.’ I swallowed hard, hoping Calvin could tell me the deed had been done.
I took a moment to message both Calvin and Grisma, giving them both instructions in short, curt messages which had no room for pleasantries. Time was running out.
Pres glowered at me as I stood up, grabbing my jacket and tossing Rebecca’s at her. ‘Get it done Jed, or I’ll do it for you.’
I didn’t need to hear anymore to know that Abe was at boiling point, and that they weren’t mere threats any more. As I kicked my bike in to gear outside, with Rebecca’s arms entwined around my waist, I sighed. I’d finally found a woman I wanted to be with, and I would have to leave her behind for a few days, and hope that I survived long enough to come back for her.
‘So this is her?’ Calvin gave a low whistle as he joined us on the industrial estate bench. ‘The infamous slayer of wolves.’
‘Only one wolf,’ Rebecca said, ‘And it was an accident.’
Calvin grinned at her. ‘Accident or no, Greyson’s pissed that a human took out a wolf, and a girl no less.’
‘Nothing wrong with being human or a girl. You were all human at one point too.’ Rebecca retorted back at Calvin, her eyes glittering beneath the streetlights.
‘I’ve never been human,’ Calvin said, ‘Some werewolves start out that way, but I was a welp my father sired on a human. Wolf to the core. I don’t hate humans, but you’ve got to admit that most are useless lumps of meat.’
‘A lump of meat? God Jed, you never said how utterly charming your friend was.’ I watched as the two talked, both enjoying the exchange as far as I could tell from the smiles on their faces.
‘Sorry to break up this meeting of minds, but Calvin, Pres is ready to go in. Your time is up.’
Calvin’s shoulders dropped as he sighed. His dark skin gleamed in the moonlight, no trace of the wolf he’d become in the next twenty-four hours visible. He looked as young in that moment as his human years dictated, lost and unsure. ‘They are my family. Even Greyson. And although I know I have no choice but to remove him, it’s not an easy thing to do. He is older than me and stronger than me. There is a reason he is an alpha. In a straight fight I’d lose, no matter which form I was in. To take him out by stealth goes against everything we believe. We are a pack. I’ve had to manoeuvre my way through the others, seeking information without giving myself up. Who could I count on as allies? Who would give the game away to Greyson? If I kill him, who will support my cause, and who will want to strip me of my pelt and leave me to perish?’
My stomach flipped as Rebecca leaned over and placed a hand upon the back of Calvin’s. ‘It sounds like a horrific choice. I’m sorry.’
The jealousy crept through my intestines, leaving sourness as it went.
‘Thank you,’ Calvin said, his eyes moist. ‘Everyone expects me to just do it. Kill our leader, or join them with massacring humans. No one understands what it’s like having to choose the greater good over everything you’ve spent your life believing.’
‘We can take the burden from you. Pres is ready to go in now, but we need to know before daybreak and we need you to let us in. We can’t be there when the sun breaks the dawn.’ My palms grew damp as the realisation hit me - I might actually have to kill Greyson with Pres. All along I’d believed that Calvin would do it, that it wouldn’t be our fight to have.
‘I can’t… I have to try. If I succeed, I don’t want to be on enemy terms with your club. Sowing seeds of hatred won’t help anyone, and no matter who is right, or their justification for their actions, if lives are lost, grim feelings will remain. I’ll go now. It should be done by morning. If it’s not, I’ll come find you.’
‘Be safe, Calvin,’ I said, grasping my friend by the wrist and squeezing as he returned the gesture.
‘I will. It was nice to meet you,’ he said to Rebecca, ‘For a human you don’t seem half bad.’
Her laugh was high and sweet as she stood to kiss him on the cheek. ‘You’re not half bad for a werewolf either.’
‘Home time?’ Rebecca asked as we watched Calvin walk off into the night.
‘Not yet.’ I hoisted her in front of me on the bike and kissed her, grinning as she whimpered when I revved the engine. Her hair drifted softly around her face in the gentle night’s breeze and I wondered how splendid she would look in the blazing sun, sun-kissed and carefree. Rebecca was giving up so much for a life with me, after knowing me for a matter of days. I only hoped she wouldn’t come to regret it. It was selfish of me to keep her to myself, hidden in an underworld of night living and fear, dragging her to my level when she’d done nothing to deserve it. She groaned softly into my mouth, returning my kiss hungrily.
‘You drive me crazy.’ The scent of her skin made me grin as I bent down and kissed my way along her neck. ‘I’d fuck you right here on my bike if you hadn’t incited a werewolf shakedown.’
It gave me great pleasure when she trembled beneath my fingers, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her chest to my own. ‘I don’t see any werewolves…’
‘It doesn’t mean they aren’t nearby. I need to get you to a safe house for a few days,’ I said, watching as she pulled back and frowned. ‘You’ll be safe there. It’s run by a friend, a witch, and she can ensure the wolves can’t get over the threshold if they were to track you down.’
‘Now you’re telling me witches exist too? Sheesh, what’s next? I thought you said I’d be safe with you at the club.’
‘If we need to go in for Greyson, the club will be too easy to breach. If you are there, they are more likely to attack and that would endanger the other humans.’ I ran a finger over her cheek as her eyes filled with hurt.
‘So you’re just going to leave me on my own?’
‘It’s the safest way. T
here’s no way I can focus in battle if I am worried about you. And if Greyson turns before anyone gets to him, he’d take pleasure in hunting you down. I didn’t fall for you only to see you be torn apart by that beast.’
‘You fell for me?’ Her voice was the sweetest whisper as she blinked up at me through thick lashes.
‘Fell hard and fast. Do you trust me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then we need to go.’ I swivelled her onto the seat behind me and kicked the bike into gear, sending it roaring down the street. I didn’t mention the two men I saw lurching in the shadows, stalking us down just like their four-legged counterparts would a lamb. They cursed as we tore through the night. I needed to get to Grisma’s before it was too late.
The room in the safe house was small but well kept. It had no windows, and the enormous steel door barricaded from the inside. Even if Grisma’s spell didn’t hold, Rebecca would be safe in the room.
There was a comfortable bed, a TV, a bathroom and a small kitchen area stocked with ready meals and a microwave. Perfect for a temporary stay, and a safe stay at that.
‘No one can open the doors from the outside, not even me,’ Grisma said. The elderly witch spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, looking at neither Rebecca nor I as she did. Witches always made me uneasy. Their powers were not feats of strength, nor necessary for their survival, and they had a lot of scope to use them in whichever ways they pleased. We’d long been in touch with Grisma though, and she’d helped the Guardians of the Underworld through many scrapes, and never to ill effect. There was always a cost, but most often it was in the form of gold and diamonds. And treasures were something our deep pockets could afford aplenty.
‘How long until you come back for me?’ Rebecca said, eyeing the witch warily as she spoke to me.
‘Two days at most. By then it should be over. Don’t leave this room until then. You don’t open the door for anyone except me, do you understand?’
‘Yes.’
Grisma held out one yellowing wrinkled hand and tutted. ‘Pay up Jed and I’ll go get the spell cast. I don’t need any trouble tonight. The sooner it’s done, the sooner I can get these old bones to bed.’
I reached into my jacket and pulled out the necklace; it was a finely constructed piece made of solid gold, with an intricate pattern of precious gems woven through it. For just a minute, her skin seemed to infuse with youth, her eyes clearing and sparkling as she grasped the jewellery. She tucked it beneath her arm as the brief flash of her youth subsided and left us there in the room together.
I tested the door mechanism, turning the heavy steel handle which sank long slices of metal into corresponding slots. Once Rebecca shut them, no one would come in, enchantment or not.
Rebecca sat on the edge of the bed, looking shaken as reality took hold.
‘It will be fine, I’ll be back before you know it. You have everything you could need here.’
‘I know. Everything except you. What if you don’t come back?’ She bit her lower lip nervously as she twisted her fingers in her lap.
I gently unhooked her hands and held them in my own. ‘I am coming back.’
‘You’d better. Otherwise I’ll track you down and drag you back from hell myself.’ She pulled me down on top of her and slipped her hands up my tee-shirt, grazing her nails over my abs.
‘I can’t stay…’ Though my more primal senses responded to her touch with a flash of heat in my crotch.
‘I know, but you can’t leave like this. I need to feel you. I need you to take me. I need to forget the maybes just for a little while and feel something concrete before you go.’
I grinned as I leaned in and nipped her neck. ‘I’m not sure I’d have described it as concrete…’
And then there was no more room for talking. We descended into a frenzied quickie, both of us desperate for each other’s touch, a goodbye of the flesh, even if we couldn’t say it in words. As I took her in a storm of cries and moans, I thanked my lucky stars that no matter the outcome of the next two days, I’d known what it was to be truly desired once more. After centuries of taking lives to live, or being used - and using - animals and people to survive, it felt good to be needed. Each muscle of her strained and trembled in my arms as her never ending hunger for me grew.
I held off on driving our pleasure home for as long as I could. I knew that I’d have no excuse to stay once we’d passed the precipice and I longed to indulge myself in her soft sighs and quivering thighs. But vampire or not, I couldn’t hold out indefinitely and as her body quaked beneath me I gave into the blistering depths of orgasm, the pain of her nails clawing at my back only heightening my pleasure.
And so it was I left her there, tears streaming down her cheeks and come streaming down her thighs.
My assurances did nothing to calm her, and it killed me to leave her upset.
The sooner I killed Greyson, the sooner she’d be back in my arms.
Fifteen
rebecca
I’d lay on the bed unable to move for a long time after Jed left. I didn’t want to be sent off, deemed too weak and vulnerable to stay with Jed and the others. A prickle of apprehension had been the thing which encourage me to get up. The door barricade clunked close and left me feeling that bit safer. Not only were the wolves on my tail, but I didn’t trust the witch as far as I could throw her either.
The first day passed in a blur of napping fitfully and snacking often. My phone was dreadfully low on battery, flashing red any time I looked at it, keeping me cut off from the outside world. The endless daytime TV shows numbed my brain as they went on in an endless cycle of boredom.
As I paced the room once again I cursed being out of the loop. Had Calvin stood up to Greyson? Was Jed okay? Was he on his way to the wolves’ lair ahead of the rising full moon, or was he dead already, staked in the heart and left a pile of dust - or whatever happened when people staked vampires.
Maybe I could ask the witch if she had a charger? I had no idea how ancient she was, or whether she was up on modern technology, but I needed to get in touch with the club, just call through and get an assurance from Angus. I couldn’t sit around not knowing.
My fingers hesitated against the door, Jed’s warnings spreading tendrils of doubt seeping through me. My itching for knowledge overpowered my ability to follow instructions, and I made my way down the stairs at a creep. I peeked into the foyer and to my surprise the witch stood with the doors wide open, two bikers snarling at the entrance.
‘We need the girl,’ one said, cursing as he got to close, his hand jumping back as if bitten by an invisible force.
‘Who says I have a girl?’ The witch’s voice was as dry as old sticks.
‘We can smell her, we are hunters old hag, do you think we’d not know? The spell is a dead giveaway too.’
‘Mmm. Even if I had your girl, I could not give her to you. An oath is an oath, as well you know.’
Dread rose in my chest, tightening against my lungs and leaving me breathless. The wolves tipped out a bag, piles of golden jewellery cascaded over the threshold and into the building. The witch’s eyes went wide with greed, and at that moment, I knew I couldn’t trust her. Greedy old bat.
‘You think that’s enough for me to cross a vampire?’ The witch cackled and kicked at the treasure.
‘We can get more. Look at it as a down payment.’
‘And what do you want in exchange?’ Her eyes returned to the gold that glittered underneath the hallway lights.
‘Lift the spell, we can do the rest ourselves.’
‘Bring me the rest, and I will agree to your bargain. Two hours.’ The men’s faces twisted into sinister grins as my heart fell through my stomach. I needed to find a way out of there immediately.
The corridor came to a dead end, with more doors like mine and no other exits. Panic settled over me, causing my heart rate to rocket and sweat to build at the back of my neck. What was I going to do? I turned another corner and raced down it, the way clear, but as
I neared the far end, the witch appeared in front of me.
‘What are you doing out of your room?’ she hissed.
‘Trying to get out of here before you sell my life for a handful of trinkets.’
‘Listen to me. I was coming to find you. There is a tunnel from here that leads to a grocer’s a few blocks away. You need to follow the tunnel before the wolves come back.’
‘How can I trust you when you’ve taken Jed’s gold and turned me in any way?’
The witch stood firm before me, showing neither regret nor shame in her actions. ‘If it is your life or mine, I choose mine. You don’t get to my age by putting your own neck on the line. But I will fulfil my promise to Jed too.’
She handed me a small necklace with a charm on the end shaped like a tooth. Not shaped like a tooth, it was a tooth. I shrank back and held it back out to her.
‘Take it,’ she said. ‘It’s a werewolf’s tooth, scarce but with the token of the beast I can use my magic to play tricks on them. As long as you wear it, they cannot see you, or sense you, or smell you. Put it on and get out of here.’
‘Can’t I lock myself back in my room?’
