The Daemon Within

by Jeremy Croston

  “You don’t understand,” I went on. “This time, there’s going to be a heavy cost. And it’ll need to be paid up front.”

  “What are you talking about, Victor?” Gregory asked.

  “When he transforms,” Isa started off, “the Warg will demand blood for his help. It’s a cruel and vicious cycle, but one that’s been put off for far too long, I imagine.”

  It wasn’t so much a question, but I took it as one. “Yeah, we’ve come to the point where it can be postponed, but after the last fight, it’s time to pay up.”

  Sliding her sleeve up, “Allow me to pay it. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

  This wasn’t up for debate, “No I can’t –”

  Before anything more could be said, we heard the howl of the wolves, the loud, angry cry of aggression. It was time to go. Isa cut open her arm and commanded me, “Do it, no questions.”

  The impulse to do as she said washed over me and I slowly transformed into the Warg and he was very hungry…

  Chapter 24

  The debt had been settled and my mind was clear. As each of our four paws hit the ground, I tried not to think about what Isa had to do to ensure I’d be of clear mind. Sometimes I wondered if seeking such assistance from the daemon with was worth it. “Of course it is,” he answered for me.

  When the three of us broke into the Silver’s encampment, chaos was already running rampant. The three massive wolves were tearing apart whatever they could get their claws or mouths on to. The unexpected nature of the attack was quite evident to the fleeing Silvers – the wolves of Chernobyl were here to seek revenge.

  This outpost was obviously made up of their men, their warriors. Gregory had long before told me that the only women here were ones to be considered just as dangerous as the men. This was the elite of the Silvers, the ones meant to bring an end to their rival pack in the exclusion zone. For such an elite warrior squad, the sheer terror a few big wolves were invoking was a bit comical.

  The comedy ended when the vampires entered the fray. Liz, Reno, and one other I didn’t recognize ran from a building with their fangs out. Liz spotted us as she was going towards the wolves and veered off. Gregory issued a warning. “You two, go now! I will handle her.”

  Isa and I did as he asked of us, leaving him to deal with Bloody Liz and going to help Alexi and his brothers. Wolves were transforming all around us and soon the sheer number of them would make our surprise moot. We had to strike while the iron was hot.

  A wolf tried to engage me straight away. He wasn’t prepared for the power of the Warg and was swatted away with my front paw, leaving huge gashes in his side. The wolf wouldn’t die, but it’d be a while before he’d be able to assist anyone in battle. Leaving him behind, I continued my charge into the chaos.

  Sasha, Hugo, and Micha gave off an aura of complete delight, enjoying their long awaited freedom and the battle they found themselves in. Alexi was behind them, barking commands and warnings in Russian as more wolves appeared to engage. I jumped over two Silvers and landed beside Micha. I whipped my head around and growled at Alexi, letting him know I was part of the pack now. He wasted no time in lumping me in with the rest, switching over to English with great ease.

  “Micha, Victor,” he shouted. “Three more are coming to your left. Coordinate and attack!”

  Micha took a few steps to his left and caught the lead wolf in his jaws. He tossed him into the air, where I jumped up and head-butted him back to the ground. As I landed, Micha had incapacitated another Silver. Not to be outdone, I clamped down on the third. Giving him a few shakes, I opened my jaws and sent the last one hurtling away.

  The moment I turned back around, a small figure landed on my back, biting down into my thick hide. The Warg was still right at the surface and he wailed in anger that someone had the nerve to attack him. I rushed forward and slammed my back into a small building, driving my opponent into the hard cement.

  As I backed away, I saw it was Liz and she was seething. “Victor, look at the monster you have become.”

  I couldn’t talk when I was transformed, but I had no need for words. I just bore my teeth and let out a low, guttural growl. She took that as an invitation to attack yet again.

  She was carrying a small dagger and started to lash out at my face with it. Her movements were fast, but so were mine. The dagger almost clipped me twice, but each time I just beat her. Frustration was mounting, and that was my queue to start my counter.

  I snapped forward a split second after another dagger slash whistled by. My snout hit her in the stomach and knocked the wind out of her. As she doubled over, I tried to follow up by bringing my paw down to subdue her, but she was faking. She dodged and drove her dagger into my foreleg. Reflexively, I whipped the damaged leg out and she slammed back into the concrete wall behind us.

  Huffing, “This is a stalemate, but distracting you was always the plan.”

  As soon as she said it, I lost focus on her and looked back at Alexi and his brothers. Micha and Hugo were dead, with Sasha and Alexi quickly overwhelmed. I didn’t see Isa or Gregory anywhere.

  “I applaud your gambit,” she went on. “It was always doomed though. Our superior numbers would always win the day.”

  I left her behind and returned to Alexi, my anger allowing me to plow through the wolves around them. I didn’t get there in time though, the Alpha Anatoli clamped down on Sasha’s neck, killing the last wolf. As Sasha fell, Anatoli never saw me as I crushed his head in my jaws. The Silver alpha was dead.

  Alexi jumped on my back and we bolted it to safe ground while the Silvers around us began to revolt over the death of their Alpha. We wouldn’t be able to get away, but we’d be able to buy ourselves some time. As soon as we were in a safe spot just outside of camp, I returned to normal. “I’m sorry, Alexi.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Victor. All four of us knew this was a suicide mission. My brothers are finally at peace.”

  His outlook hit me hard. “Has your life truly been that tragic?”

  “Don’t let my pack mourn me when I’m gone.” I didn’t like where this was going. Something about him was changing. “The last time I transformed, on my thirteenth birthday, I killed over twenty of our pack. They never came out and blamed me, but I knew they feared me, some even hated me.”

  “Alexi, what are you doing?”

  “Victor,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. “When you see my eyes go yellow, run.”

  He pushed me aside, his body beginning to contour in various ways. His inner wolf was nothing like I’d ever seen – it was enormous and black. You could see his Chernybog heritage showing through the further the transformation took hold. After a moment, his eyes went from deep brown to yellow. It was time to get the hell out of here.

  As I took off into the forest, Alexi, in his monster-like wolf form engaged the Silvers approaching. The sounds of death began to fill the air, leaving little to the imagination. Alexi was going to kill many wolves before they subdued him, the Silver pack would be in ruins.

  Was I the only survivor? I didn’t stop running until all the noises associated with the battle were well behind me. It was then that I crashed to the snow covered ground. Why did I think this was going to work? I sacrificed my friends, thinking it was our only chance.

  “Vic!” a woman’s voice shouted. It was Isa! “Oh thank God you’re alive!”

  She ran straight into me and hugged me. “Isa, I thought you were dead. I thought everyone was dead…”

  “No, we survived.” There was something sad about the way she said it. “Just you and I, Vic.”

  No… “Gregory?”

  She shook her head no. After a moment or two, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but Liz killed him before she went after you.”

  **Isa**

  Elizabeth hadn’t seen me, just Gregory. As Victor charged towards the other wolves, I broke off and snuck in behind the outer buildings. I circled back around to where my daughter and Gregory were dueling. Gre
gory was only defending himself, trying to talk sense into her. “Look at what you have done, Liz! These Silver wolves have no need for the vampires – you have been sent here so the blood would not be on their hands.”

  She parried forward. “You threw your lot in with the losing side, Gregory. I won’t have you lecturing me on principle, either. Remember Hansel? Remember the way you let your emotions rule you?”

  “Two different situations, Liz. If you ever hope to win him back, you must give this up.”

  So Gregory still believed in my daughter. It was telling, but unsurprising. He was and always would be loyal to those who were closest to him, including my daughter.

  He continued, “Victor is hurting, too! You have just been too selfish to see it.”

  Liz dashed forward and punched him hard in the face. Gregory fell backwards, on the snow. “Stay down, Gregory. If you enter the battle again, I cannot be held responsible.”

  As Liz took off, headed towards the black daemon wolf terrorizing the Silvers, Gregory picked himself back up. That is until I rammed my sword through his back. “I’m truly sorry,” I whispered.

  “Izabella,” he choked. “I wondered when we would see your true nature.”

  Gregory slumped forward, not dead, but knowing his long life was about to come to an end. “My true nature is loyalty to me and now to Victor. It is a good thing I found out about this deception before you have a chance to poison him.”

  He closed his eyes, awaiting his fate. “He’ll never love you,” he said softly. “You cannot hide yourself forever.”

  “We shall see.” And with those last words, the vampire known as Gregory was no more.

  Chapter 25

  Against my better judgment, we laid low in the forest for quite some time. I was in a hurry to retreat back to friendly territory, especially with all of our allies dead. The loss of Gregory was huge – both on a personal level and in whatever fights remained. But Isa was right in one spot; mourning would have to wait until we were in the clear.

  And that’s why she wanted to wait. “We need to see how many of the Silvers survived Alexi’s final assault,” she reasoned.

  Emotionally unstable after everything, I needed to defer to her in this case. “I guess,” was all I could muster. So we picked a pretty well covered spot and waited. Hours went by and soon the sun began to shine bright over the horizon. By midmorning, no one was coming. “Maybe he killed them all?”

  “The wolves, perhaps, but the vampires, they’re still alive.”

  She was right. As well as I knew Liz, that wolf monster wouldn’t have been able to finish her off. “What do you suggest we do?”

  Isa stood up and stepped out of our covered area. “We got back,” she said. “Dmitri and the others need to know what happened and if I was a betting lady, that would be the ideal target for one pissed off vampire.”

  With that thought pushing us, we made excellent time getting back to Pripyat. Dmitri was waiting for us at the gates, eager to hear what happened. Upon seeing that it was just the two of us, his reaction spoke louder than his words. “This does not look well, friends.”

  “We are the only survivors, Dmitri.” Isa ushered past him, looking around the village. “I don’t think they’re here yet, Vic.”

  “Vhat’s going on?” he asked as I walked by too. “You both seem on edge.”

  I did a quick sweep, allowing my other senses besides my sight to tell me what exactly was happening in the village. Satisfied we made it back first, I addressed Dmitri. “We’re pretty sure Alexi killed all the Silvers stationed in their base close to the exclusion zone. However, there are still three vampires out there.”

  Upon hearing the Omega’s name, “Did Alexi transform?”

  “Yes,” I answered flatly. “It would’ve been real nice to know everything beforehand.” I didn’t pull at the scab any further, but Dmitri knew what I was talking about. Seeing him hang his head a bit was good enough. “Dmitri, we need you and the pack to go into hiding one last time. The fight that’s coming ain’t yours. It’s ours.”

  He chuffed a bit but agreed ultimately. “You have not led us astray yet. I vill do as you ask, Victor.”

  “Once this is over, Dmitri, this land will be back to being yours.” I meant every word of that promise.

  It didn’t take him long to shuffle his pack back into the far reaches of the power plant. Once again, it was just Isa and I, alone and waiting. “This has a sort of finality to it, doesn’t it?” she asked.

  It sure did. “This has been one hell of a ride, I’ll give you that.” With my time in Ukraine coming to an end, I was looking forward to getting back to my restaurant and getting it open. “I guess I can’t convince you to settle down in the American Southwest, huh?”

  “Settling down is something I’ve often thought about. After everything I’ve been through, maybe, just maybe…”

  Whatever her final thought was, it stopped as three figures emerged out of the woods and stopped just outside the werewolf village. At the front was the unmistakable presence of Liz, with Reno and the unknown vampire flanking her. Her eyes were focused on me, not yet realizing who I was standing beside.

  There was palpable tension between us. Every action that had happened since coming to Ukraine had led to this moment. And hell, that was without her even knowing who I’d aligned with. None of that mattered to me. I only saw the murderer of a good man, a good friend. Easy Victor, I reminded myself. It still wasn’t the time to let my emotions take over.

  Beside me, Isa turned fully, making herself seen, it was only then that Liz’s reaction changed from determined to mortified. “You!” she called out. “No, this must be a nightmare…” She was trying to reason with herself that the person standing beside me couldn’t possibly be who it was.

  “Hello Elizabeth,” Isa said coolly. “It has been far too long.”

  Even though he was mumbling, I still heard Reno. “Is that her mom?”

  “I believe so,” the other vampire answered. He looked to be a middle aged man, shorter and stocky. “Though, this could be a trick, these woods are said to be haunted.”

  “I assure you, this is no trick,” Liz assured them. “Mother, like a cockroach you never die.” Then to me, “And you! How has the beast inside you corrupted the good man I once knew? The Victor of old would never have fallen for her false charm and guile.”

  “The Victor you knew got a lesson in friendship when you turned your back on me, something she hasn’t.” I had to calm myself; the memory of her killing Gregory was fresh. “The Liz I knew wouldn’t kill a friend for standing up for his beliefs.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked. Her fake stupidity pissed me off even more.

  “Gregory – I know what happened.”

  “What do you mean? Where is he?” She just wouldn’t drop the charade.

  I had to bite down to stop myself from doing something very stupid. “You know exactly where he is, traitor.”

  Being called a traitor, Liz seemed to reach a new level of hatred. Something akin to burning flames of molten death. “There was a time and place that we could have sorted this out peacefully,” she started off slowly, quietly. “After seeing this final act of betrayal, I can do the only thing necessary.”

  “More empty threats, daughter?” Isa mocked her.

  “No, real action. There will be no trial in front of the council for you two. I am sentencing you both to death by my own authority.”

  “First, as a werewolf, I’m not obliged to follow any of your authorities.” The venom in my voice was deep. “And second, there ain’t no way in hell you’re going to kill either of us.”

  Reno stepped up beside his boss. “Don’t get pissed, but I’m with him.” Whoa boy, her fire turned on him quick. “We kill Vic and we’ll have the wrath of his whole pack come down on us. We’ll be driven out of the southwest,” Reno added, hastily.

  Her shoulders dropped. “I cannot allow my personal feelings get in the way. Izabell
a, Victor, you are both under arrest. You will be presented to the vampire council for judgement.”

  “Did you not hear what I said?” I asked again. “I’m a werewolf, you can’t arrest me.”

  “Oh the hell I cannot.” Reno and the other goon approached. “Arrest them, as quickly as you can.”

  Reno came after me while the other guy, the poor sap, approached Isa. Threatened, she killed him almost instantly. It happened in the blink of an eye. Reno winced, before giving me one of his quips. “I’m not going to be able to pull any punches.”

  “I don’t expect you to.”

  Behind us, mother and daughter started circling each other, but I couldn’t be worried about that. I was standing toe to toe with one of my best friends. Former best friends, I should clarify. “This is going to hurt, Reno.”

  He extended his metal baton with the flick of his wrist. If he was expecting a fair fight, he was sorely mistaken. Just as fast, I snapped Roscoe out of my holder and shot the rod out of his hand. It snapped in two as it skittered along the permafrost ground. The look on his face was priceless.

  “That was pretty cheap, Vic.” His fangs began to extend this time. “I guess I’ll have to use what the good Lord gave me.”

  Ha, if Reno knew what I’d just been through, where I’d met some of the stiffest tests of my life, he wouldn’t have the nerve to invoke the good Lord into this. The rumble of my internal friend jostled me a bit, breaking my train of thought. I didn’t need the Warg for this outing. As much as the beast wanted to come out and play, this was my fight against someone I knew very well. I put my gun away and cracked my neck.

  “I hope you’re ready to dance, pal.”

  Chapter 26

  Like two boxers, we each fell into puncher’s stances and started the feeling out process with a few jabs towards each other’s faces. Reno drew first blood when his fist connected with my nose. There was some substantial power behind it, but not enough to deter me from wading forward back into the action. I surprised him by eating his punch and moving in close to deliver a solid hook of my own to his jaw. I heard a pretty substantial crack, letting me know it was broken.