by Eddie Jakes
"Jurgen?"
"Yes, Kra—"
The wizard's icy stare silenced him.
"Yes, William?"
"Round everyone up for a conclave. I have a mission."
He did just that, and the entire pack began to surround the area from all over with some in wolf form, some human. Krazek was impressed by the sheer numbers of the werewolves with the three packs combined. It was a shame that it would be impossible to keep the charade up forever.
The forest clearing was filled with chatter; some were confused, and others were ready to obey at a moment’s notice. Regardless of their personal feelings, Jurgen assured Krazek that they would follow out of honor for as long as they believed he was William.
"Everyone! Be quiet," shouted Jurgen. "William has something to say."
Strolling into the center of the conclave, Krazek looked around at everyone watching him. He was high on the power trip and just took in the ambiance of it all before speaking.
"As you all probably know, Tanya is alive and has escaped from Malevolent with the overseer and that constable. They managed to find a way to slip from our grasp today, but that doesn't mean we won't have another chance at capturing them."
The chatter resumed for a second while Krazek paused.
"Another thing that you all know is that we are currently engaged in a partnership with the vampires. I know a lot of you may not like this—"
"God damn bloodsuckers!" a random voice shouted.
Other voices followed suit, but were quickly silenced by Jurgen.
"Because of this partnership, you all are free from the cage that humans created for us. If not for the agreement, you would still be domesticated lapdogs for the overseer and the constables. Now you might not like it, but this temporary partnership is important. Once the vampires can once again feed on the humans, the new world order will begin."
There was some cheering, but not much.
"We cannot allow them to ruin what took decades to plan and execute. I am commanding all of you to scour the entire Earth to find them and tear them apart. Start with the forest and head west into the city. Be discreet and look under every rock, search every building and home."
"This isn't right! This isn't how things are supposed to be done," shouted a wolf from the crowd.
"Who was that?" asked Krazek.
A young man stepped out from the crowd and into the circle.
"Come here, boy."
The insolent whelp sauntered to Krazek, trying to keep himself from showing fear.
"Do you have something you want to address with me?"
"Yes. We have traditions, and they are not being honored. You've ignored all of them since you've been making deals with those leeches."
"I was trying to tell you—" began Jurgen, before being waved off by Krazek.
"Which pack do you belong to? What's your name?" Krazek inquired.
"My name is Galvin. I was part of Tanya's pack before you killed her. At least I was before you said you killed her."
"You wish to rejoin her? After you betrayed her with the rest of your pack? Perhaps you would like to defend her honor? Go ahead, boy, take back what's hers!"
Krazek smacked the man across the face and waited. Their eyes locked and the young werewolf took a defensive stance. There was fiery passion in his eyes for a fight, but something took over, and he returned to calm.
"Well? If your loyalty is to her, and not the greater good then, by all means, fight for her!"
"No, lord," he conceded. "My loyalty is to the pack, and I will let fate decide who leads. Even if fate chooses you."
"Then get back in line and never embarrass yourself like that again," ordered Jurgen.
"Now that we've settled all that," said Krazek, glowing with pride. "Everyone get dressed for a night on the town."
Despite three hours passing by, Craig was still unable to shake the carnage he had witnessed from his memory. He had seen plenty of men die before, but a bullet to the head was one thing, this was some super-human shit he wasn't prepared for.
Having full access to Hodges’ fleet of delivery trucks made it easier to bring the individual crates to the dock for final shipment. It wouldn't be so easy after that, though. There would be some haggling since the new crates weren't on the original packing list, and not everyone was part of Hodges’ gang. There were some legitimate employees at the docks, a lot of them unsuspecting of some of the illegal merchandise that they were transporting. Thorbert Hodge had always preferred it that way, so if the feds ever pulled one of them over, they wouldn't be lying when they said they were innocent. Most of the time, the feds would fry them anyway.
Craig was a little rusty driving a big truck like this, but he'd done enough deals to know how one of them operated. Lucky for him this particular vehicle was an automatic, despite being an older model. There wasn't a working radio in this one, and he desperately wanted some kind of distraction from the walking demon sitting behind him.
What in the fuck had happened to Ketter? More importantly, what in the fuck would happen to him? He knew he was heading down dangerous territory, but he didn't have much of a say in the matter. Ketter kept assuring him that he would be rewarded for his trouble. Whatever the hell that meant.
The guard station was coming up on his left, and he slowed down as he approached and did his best to smile at the old man stepping out of the booth. He had graying hair with a five o'clock shadow the same color. His demeanor was all business, as he whipped out his clipboard with the night’s manifest.
"What we hauling?"
Craig swallowed hard before responding. "Last minute addition to the New York run. Some jackass forgot to add these to the manifest, so I'm just here to bring ’em up."
The guard dropped his hands to his side and frowned.
"I know," pleaded Craig. "Trust me, I was just as pissed as you when I heard."
"I need some kind of authorization sent to me. I just can't let you add extra freight."
"Well maybe you forgot it on your fax machine. Why don't you just go check—"
"I don't have a fax machine, it's all electronic. If there were freight left behind there would be a count discrepancy and everything on that run checked out. Now if you don't have any authorization, I suggest you turn around and get some. Good night, pal."
Craig retreated back into the cab, but the displeased Ephrain let out a grunt in the seat behind him. It sent enough chills up his spine to reconsider his options.
"Hey, wait a second," shouted Craig. "Thorbert Hodge. You know that name?"
The guard raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.
"This is a particular shipment that comes from the top. Now if I don't get this added to that load, the boss is going to fuck up my life big time. If that happens, I will make sure I'm screaming out your name the whole time he does it."
The guard's frown turned into a wicked smile. "That doesn't bother me too much. I've killed people for that man. We're kind of close."
Craig just sat there with his mouth wide open.
"Go on through," chuckled the guard.
The barrier was lifted, and Craig drove the truck on through to the loading area. Three of the original vehicles still sat there waiting for their drivers to take them to their destination.
"Is that going to be enough?" asked Craig.
Ephrain peered out from the shadows and looked the scenery over twice.
"Plenty of room. We can put three crates in each truck, they will never know the difference. Open them up."
It took them about a half hour to disperse the crates among the trucks and reseal them for delivery. Luckily Craig knew where they kept the paperwork for them, so making the necessary changes to the seal numbers was easy. Part of him wanted to put some kind of warning with the new crates, but if these people were as freakish as Ephrain, he would just assume fuck them, too.
"What's next?" asked Craig, nervously.
"Back to my place. It's time we gave you a promotion."
>
"What kind of promotion?"
CHAPTER TWENTY
Separating from the werewolves was turning out to be harder than Krazek had thought it would be. Most of them were pretty intelligent and could work independently in their search, but others required his direction every other minute. If this was what it meant to have authority over the world, Krazek was having some second thoughts about it.
I guess I will just have to kill the perpetually stupid.
Jurgen was a pretty loyal partner. He didn't like the situation at all, but he respected the need to keep the alliance going. Maybe not so much for the power grab, but to keep his people alive. Werewolves and vampires were two competing forces in the world; one motivated to spread their numbers and rule nature, the other looking to devour it.
After ushering off another couple idiots, Krazek and Jurgen finally had a moment out of earshot. For werewolves, that was a pretty long distance.
"I need to get back to Ephrain Ketter," said Krazek.
"The apothecary? What for?"
"He has to be advised of the situation before Benbrook can ambush him."
"What shall I do here?"
"Keep the search going. I won't be gone too long."
"What if the others see you leave?"
"Don't make me laugh."
With that Krazek erupted into smoke and entered into a magical vortex in between time and space. This allowed him to travel long distances in a flash. It was a euphoric sensation and took a lot of power to perform, and Krazek was one of the few wizards throughout history able to accomplish it.
When he returned to reality, he found himself dizzy and outside the door to Ephrain's apartment. He took a minute to put himself back together, as his powers would be drained for a time until they regenerated. That was the one secret most wizards kept when it came to magical travel and flight: it left a magic user vulnerable to attack.
Able to focus again, he knocked on the door to a hearty welcome.
Once inside Krazek was surprised to find a man tied to the "guinea pig" chair with two tubes injected into his jugular veins. The poor soul's eyes were rolling back into his head and foam was pouring from both sides of his mouth.
"Good to see you again," said Ephrain.
Krazek was surprised by Ketter's appearance but not shocked. It was evident the formula he'd been working on was a success and for some reason he tested it on himself.
"I must say, you look frighteningly different.”
“Yet, I feel fantastic! The serum performs better than I could have imagined it would. The missing element this whole time was in my blood chemistry."
"I don't understand."
"The regeneration properties in my DNA allowed my body to repair itself while the formula reshaped it. That was the key."
"Is that what you are doing to this fool here? Making him more like you?"
Ephrain clapped his hands together. "Magnificent guess. Yes, I'm introducing an active concentrate of the same mixture of chemicals I used on myself when I first started my apothecary shop. So far he's responding very well."
Craig choked on his saliva and continued to spasm.
"I will take your word for it," joked Krazek.
"Once I'm satisfied with his progress I will inject him with the new compound, and we will have the first soldier in our new army. Only I will make it a weaker dose."
"This is so incredible, Ephrain. Have you told the Statsnys about this? Doctor Himmelreich must be pleased with your progress."
Ephrain was silent.
"You haven't told them yet? Why are you waiting?"
Ephrain put his hands behind his back and started to pace the floor in thought.
"Ephrain?"
"We've been good friends since this all began. I feel it's only right to be completely honest and upfront with you."
"Why do I feel like I am not going to like what I'm about to hear?"
"Listen," Ephrain began, putting his hand on Krazek's shoulder, "the good doctor and the vampires have been very instrumental in our release. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't grateful, but times have changed. I have changed, of course, and my goals have certainly changed."
"What do you mean?"
"Why just settle for a piece of the world, as someone else's enforcer, when you can have the whole pie with an army stronger than any vampire or werewolf?"
"I don't know. It seems rather dubious, to say the least."
Ephrain's expression turned grim. "It's my intention to possess this world and subjugate everyone to me. Right now, you are the only man in the world capable of killing me and stopping me in my tracks. For this reason, I want you by my side as a friend. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, they say. I will leave it up to you."
The only thing Krazek could think about was the dominant grip on his shoulder from Ephrain. There was no question that he had obtained strength that would be difficult if not impossible to stop. He was right about one thing, though. He could stop him with a series of offensive spells, if not for his weakened state that he was trying desperately not to reveal. He was feeling real fear at the moment, and there wasn't any real choice for him.
"Let me make it easier to choose." Ephrain smiled, turning around and getting on his knees. "My life is now in your hands. It's my intention to lead or to die."
With his eyes averted, Krazek tried to summon energy in his hand but could not evoke a single spark. It wasn't that he wanted to kill Ephrain by any means, but this wasn't really the same man he'd been working with this whole time. Could he trust him? Would he just kill him once they achieved Ephrain's goals for world domination?
If anything, he would need to buy some time.
"It won't be so easy," said Krazek.
Even while facing away from him, Krazek could still see a large grin forming.
"Oh?"
"Maddix Benbrook is still alive."
Jumping to his feet, Ephrain rubbed his throat. "I am aware."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
One thing that was pretty obvious to Maddix was that his short term memory wasn't as good as it once was since leaving Malevolent. Maybe it was just a side effect of the memory suppression the Founding Fathers used, or perhaps it was just a result of having an entire lifetime's worth of memories come back at once. No matter what the cause was, it made it difficult to narrow down which building they needed. It also didn't help that they all looked the same in this part of the state they were searching.
Things took a turn for the worse when they asked where the nearest furniture store was, and everyone kept recommending IKEA. Hours had passed, and they had embarrassed themselves repeatedly trying to ask questions. The first building had been an insurance agency, and the lovely young lady at the front desk had politely asked them to leave while threatening to call the police. After that were a college, a library, and a few other small businesses that would just look at them like they were crazy.
The experience was starting to get everyone down.
"How do we even know if they'd tell us the truth?" asked Tara.
"She's right, monsieur. They have worked in secret all this time. Why come out now?"
Maddix wanted to punch something so fucking badly. It felt incredibly frustrating to be powerless. Everything he had learned up to this point had been extremely vague or some parable. The inability to remember what the building looked like made him hate himself more than he already did.
"Well let's keep searching. Nobody knows we're here, so we have time. Where did we leave off?"
"I can't tell. All these buildings look the same."
"Dammit!" blurted Maddix.
"Relax," said Tanya. "I can tell which ones we've been to. Werewolves have ways of marking important landmarks."
Everyone stared at her with shocked expressions.
"Not like that!"
"Okay," Maddix agreed, "you lead the way, then. Where to next?"
Maddix watched as Tanya's pupils narrowed and she surveyed the cit
y. He hoped that no one would notice her slightly hunched and almost canine behavior. Still, it was exciting to be this close to a werewolf and witness their abilities in action. When you are not on the receiving end of them, they are quite impressive.
"There!" said Tanya, staring at a college bookstore.
It looked nothing like what Maddix remembered. What he had seen was so far removed from your run-of-mill retail store. It was more impressive looking with classical architecture. Nevertheless, they had to eliminate it at least as a possibility, so Maddix led the way inside.
It was a quaint little shop with numerous shelves filled with multiple copies of academic textbooks and recommended reading by subject. If not for the urgency, Maddix would have loved to spend some time catching up on history, and brush up on a few subjects. He was never excellent with math and always wanted to be, although he never remembered why he wanted to.
In the center of the store was a sales counter decorated in vintage posters of classic books with two registers on top. Seated on a stool and reading an old book with a faded cover was a middle-aged gentleman. Peering up at the group, the man gave a welcoming smile as they walked in.
The four of them glanced at each other, not wanting to be the one to play the role of a crazy person searching for a secret society. There was never a tell whether the reaction would be peaceful or violent in any way. Eventually, they all looked at Maddix and nodded the go-ahead for him to proceed.
"Thanks," he sighed.
Maddix sauntered over to the counter and smiled at the clerk.
"How can I help you, sir?"
"I'm not sure if you actually can."
"Try me," chuckled the clerk.
"I'm looking for the Founding Fathers."
"That's easy enough. The history section is to the left of you, and we have a whole display with American history books and DVDs."
"DVDs?"
"You prefer high definition? We have those, too. In fact, there is an excellent documentary on the Civil War that sounds great in high def."
"Never mind. I don't think I'm in the right place."
