by Matt Rogers
Chapter 12
The ride back to my apartment was relatively smooth considering we carried two previously dead salesmen in the bed of the pickup, two Werewolves in front, two Vampires in back and me, gleefully in the middle of the luscious ladies. I say ‘relatively’ because of something I asked.
“Trudy?”
“Yes, Johnny?”
“Earlier on the boat you said something about there not being anyone like me for a long time, remember?”
“Yes.”
“What did you mean?”
“I meant you’re unique. As far as we know there’s only been one of your kind in all of history.”
“One of my kind?”
“Yes” the gorgeous red-head responded.
“What kind is one of my kind?”
“The Cloaking kind.”
“I’m lost.”
“Well, it’s a long story but I’ll try and explain it the best I can. You see, it happened before the Middle Ages. We were bloodletting during our hibernation and began experimenting with using Human’s for the process when we had a little problem.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“Did you say you used Humans for hibernation?”
“We use their blood, yes.”
“I thought you only needed Human blood during your pregnancies?”
“True.”
“Then… Oh!”
“We don’t really like to spend the time bleeding ourselves so we let the Humans do it because they don’t heal quick and it’s a lot more practical.”
“But…?”
“But what?”
“Um… never mind.”
“Okay, so during one of our pregnancies a problem occurred.”
“What problem?”
“A problem with a pair of twin Wolves.”
“Twins?”
“Yes.”
“Weren’t Stephanie and Isabella also twins?”
“Yes.”
“What’s with the twin thing?”
“It’s our normal breeding process.”
“Huh?”
“We usually give birth to multiple litters.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it’s probably a natural evolutionary process since we only give birth one time.”
“Huh?”
“If we didn’t sire multiple children we wouldn’t survive very long as a species.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense; so what happened with the pair of twins.”
“Johnny, do you know what twins are?”
“Copies of each other.”
“Yes and no. Twins is merely the term used when two embryos are growing inside a mother. Now, those twins can come about from one of two ways; either the mother produces two eggs which are both fertilized by the father or one egg is fertilized which then splits in two. It’s the last kind which is actually a twin because it has the exact same genetic makeup as the other egg. The first kind, where the mother produces two separate eggs, is not technically a twin because the genetic makeup of the eggs is different. “
“Okay.”
“You’re that kind.”
“What kind?”
“The second kind of twin.”
“I’m a what?”
“You’re a twin.”
“I’m a twin?”
“Yes, and an exceptional one.”
“I have a brother?”
“Yes.”
“Holy Mackerel, I never would’ve guessed.”
“You’re an orphan aren’t you?”
“Yes, how’d you know?”
“Because if you weren’t, you wouldn’t exist.”
“Huh?”
“You’re forbidden to exist.”
“Forbidden by whom?”
“The Superior Council.”
“Who’s the Superior Council?”
“The leaders of the three Clans. The highest authority we Vampires and Werewolves submit to; actually the only authority we submit to.”
“Why would they forbid me to exist?”
“Because you’re the reason they exist.”
“You’re losing me here.”
“Sorry, okay back to where we started. Early on, one of the Vampires gave birth to twin Wolves which wasn’t unusual except for the fact one was so much larger than the other it was remarkable the little guy survived.”
“Why?”
“Because while in the womb Wolf-pups are even more savage than outside. When a Vampire has multiple Wolf embryos they’ll fight for the nutrients of the mother. Now, normally the Wolf pups are of relative size and health so the litter is born without one Wolf necessarily any better off than the others but sometimes one embryo is a bit smaller than the others and it generally doesn’t survive the process.”
“Huh?”
“There have been afterbirths where the born-dead baby Wolf has been found with its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Man, you people have amazingly bad social skills.”
“Yes, we do. So anyway, the Vampire in question gave birth to two Werewolves who looked absolutely nothing alike. One was a large child with an immediately domineering attitude while the other was small and docile. It looked as though the smaller one would eventually die if left alone with the larger infant because the larger one was so much more aggressive.”
“Baby Werewolves are aggressive?”
“Very much so.”
“How aggressive?”
“They attack on sight.”
“Attack what?”
“Everything. A baby Werewolf will attack anything and everything they encounter without regard for their welfare or the possible outcome.”
“Mean little suckers.”
“Yes, they’re born without fear and are genetically perfect so they are, in essence, little killing machines.”
“Are they any good at it?”
“No, they don’t get good at killing until they grow teeth.”
“Oh.”
“So, Yin and Yang were separated…”
“Excuse me? I don’t mean to cut in but…”
“But what?”
“Yin and Yang? Seriously?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Because Yin and Yang are like, Asian action figures or something. I thought they just meant the opposite of the other?”
“They do. Yin and Yang were the complete opposite of the other which is precisely where I’m going with this story.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll shut up now.”
“It’s not a problem. Yin and Yang were brought up in isolation because everyone believed Yin would kill Yang if they were left together. Now, we usually begin introducing young Werewolves to others of their kind around the age of four but were reluctant to do so with Yang because he’d shown no abilities to ward off even the smallest Werewolf at the time; but we felt it was necessary to see if he was going to survive, so we did, and were astonished at what we saw.”
“What did you see?”
“Yin did not kill Yang, they even got along together. Now, this was unheard of and we probably would’ve ruled it an improbability until something else happened.”
“What?”
“Okay, now remember, this was a long time ago before cribs and crayons and other things which keep toddlers occupied. So, on the first day of Confrontation little Yin and Yang were brought to the cave and placed in the pit one at a time. Yin was thrown in first and he began doing exactly what we thought he’d do; squaring off with the first Werewolf he encountered and those two went at it like little baby Werewolves do, scratching and biting and all that other stuff. The attendants were pleasantly surprised but not shocked because even though they had a feeling Yin was going to make a fine and upstanding Werewolf it’s still possible for disappointment; anyway, he did fine and fought like a tiger. Now, when it was time to toss Yang into the pit there was
a bit of apprehension because he really was a lot smaller than the other Wolves; but they threw him in because if he couldn’t take care of himself with a bunch of baby Wolves what chance would he have with an adult pack? It was then the world of Vampires and Werewolves changed forever” Trudy said.
“What happened?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Huh?”
“Absolutely nothing. The attendants threw Yang into the pit and not one Wolf attacked him, not one, and the other baby Wolves even quit fighting each other.”
“That’s a good thing isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not, at least not for Werewolves it isn’t. Werewolves need a hierarchy, without it they would go about killing everything in the world, maybe even Vampires if they decided they no longer wished to mate with us. Remember, they’re much stronger than us and infinitely more aggressive, it’s what makes them so cute” the beautiful red-head said while glancing at Phillip in the front seat who could’ve been made of stone for all the attention he was paying us.
“And their hierarchy begins in childhood?”
“Yes, more specifically in the pit of the Confrontation Cave where they first begin to understand which of them is going to grow into the strongest. Now, it was pretty obvious to everyone who’d seen Yin he was definitely going to be an Alpha male because he was the largest baby Wolf anyone could ever remember seeing; but Yang, well, the opinion on him was he wouldn’t live to see five.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s horrible. It’s like some sort of deranged baby cock-fight.”
“No, it’s not, because the babies are too young to actually do any real damage. Remember, we heal at an advanced rate so there’s no real danger to the baby Wolves; except in this particular case.”
“I knew it!”
“Knew what?”
“I knew poor little Yang was going to get killed. He dies doesn’t he? That mean old baby Yin kills him, doesn’t he?”
“No, Yin did not kill Yang.”
“Thank God.”
“He killed the other baby Wolves.”
“What?”
“The attendants were mystified as to why the baby Wolves weren’t fighting so one of them was sent off to get a Clan Elder and then the other got a little distracted by a handsome Wolf who’d taken a liking to her, she turned her back on the little batch of kiddies and when she turned around…”
“When she turned around…?”
“When she turned around Yin was finishing up with the last of the baby Wolves.”
“Finishing up?”
“Tearing the final head off.”
“Oh my God!”
“Yes, it was an incredible scene. Four decapitated baby Werewolves lying around in the Pit of Confrontation with Yin stalking around like he wanted more and Yang just sitting there on his cute little tushy acting like nothing happened.”
“That’s… that’s…”
“What?”
“You know, I don’t really have a good word for it so never mind.”
“Okay, so after the incident the Elders decided they needed to find out exactly what transpired so they set up another round of Confrontation except this time they used some older Werewolves because Yin had already gone through those of his own age; except they put Yang into the pit first this time.”
“Oh no.”
“It’s not what you think. When Yang was put onto the pit the young Werewolves quit fighting right away, well, not right away exactly; they were still fighting but they seemed to lose their enthusiasm and just went about punching and kicking and other sorts of nonsense. But when they threw Yin into the arena things got even spookier.”
“Spookier?”
“Yes, spookier. It seemed whenever Yin and Yang were placed together in the Pit of Confrontation the other Werewolves would become tolerant of one another.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Probably not, but it was a spooky thing and quite unheard of at the time and, to be honest, unheard of ever since.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, this is where it got a little, morose, for lack of a better term. One of the Elders, we don’t know which, suggested maybe the Wolves weren’t fighting because they were being observed so they all got up, left the cave for a few minutes and returned to find every Wolf accounted for except two were without heads.”
“I’m assuming Yin and Yang were not those two.”
“You assume correctly; Yin and Yang were fine, as were the other three Werewolves standing in the Pit. Now the Elders were fascinated and wanted to know how it was possible for two young Wolves to behead two older ones so they set up a makeshift spying hole where another elder who hadn’t been present before would hide while the others would once again leave. The other Elder was called in, they left, and returned to find only Yin and Yang with their heads attached.”
“I can’t believe you’re telling me this.”
“Why?”
“It’s not putting you in the best light.”
“Why?”
“Why? Oh I don’t know, maybe because you’re leaving defenseless children in a pit with known mass murderers?”
“They weren’t defenseless, they had the same opportunities and weapons as Yin and Yang; namely their hands, feet and teeth. And we don’t actually have a word for murder.”
“You don’t have a word for murder?”
“No, the closest we get is opportunistic.”
“Okay, a bit barbaric but okay. So what did the spying Elder see?”
“That was the fascinating thing. When the other Elders left, Yin and Yang immediately began moving toward each other and then turned their attention to one of the Werewolves on the perimeter of the group. They slowly and methodically moved around until Yang was in front of the youth while Yin took up a position behind him and then…”
“And then?”
“Yin ripped his head off.”
“Oh my God!”
“Yeah, pretty cool huh? But that’s not what the most amazing thing was.”
“Trudy, that is not ‘pretty cool’ but please go ahead and tell me what was so amazing.”
“The other Werewolves.”
“What about the other Werewolves?”
“After their initial reaction of shock and then preparation for self-defense they relaxed and became tolerant of Yin and Yang again.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean, after a short period of time the other Werewolves let their guard down and Yin and Yang went about doing the exact same thing, one at a time, with Yang walking up in front of a lone Werewolf and Yin sneaking up from behind and ripping his head off.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. Why do you keep asking?”
“Because I keep expecting you to tell me you’re joking.”
“Nope, I’m not joking.”
“Wow! So Yin and Yang were some sort of tag-team assassination duo?”
“Uh-huh, but the really weird part was the relationship between the two.”
“Really? The weird part was their relationship, not the premeditated murder?”
“No, the premeditated opportunities were just what Werewolves are designed to do. You can’t blame them for using the gifts they were born with but their relationship towards each other was what baffled us for ages.”
“Okay, what was it about their relationship which baffled you?”
“Yang was in charge.”
