The Wolves of Third Clan

by Matt Rogers

  Chapter 29

  Nightclub districts during daytime are a little disappointing, probably because they were designed to be viewed by streetlamp instead of sunlight so maybe there’s an architectural aspect which makes them appear dull when seen in full light or maybe it’s because the owners of the place only come at night when the money is pouring in so they don’t see the blemishes apparent during the golden hours but, whatever the reason, they tend to look drabby. The good thing about visiting them during daylight hours is parking’s readily available.

  “Hey, Sweetie, you ready to go?” the beautifully blonde Vivian yelled from the passenger side of the pickup as she and George arrived.

  “Um, just a second and I’ll check, okay?” I replied.

  “Sure, Sweetie.”

  “Phillip?”

  “Yes, Johnny?”

  “Are we ready to go?”

  The giant Wolf glanced at me then at the quivering bartender he was holding by the hair who was still stammering…

  “… so sorry, sir… my mistake… so sorry, sir…”

  “Yeah, let’s go” Phillip replied as he tossed the dispenser of liquid courage back inside the establishment dedicated to the idea with enough rot-gut poison even the comeliest of women can find the man of her dreams.

  We had a little time to kill so we decided to do what rational people everywhere do when they visit the greatest capitol in the world; we went to get Tex-Mex food! Okay, here’s the rundown in order of flavorful delight for those who don’t know what fine dining really is. First, there’s the enchilada, second comes the taco, third the burrito and, bringing up the rear but by no means a last place finisher, the fajita. All are perfection if one wishes to savor nourishment and quell hunger. They can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner and make fine snacks during those moments when you’ve got to eat but don’t have the time. What do you do?

  I MAKE THE TIME.

  Why, you reach down in your pocket, pull out your taco, remove the protective sandwich bag and munch away. Now, if you’re the type of person who isn’t so careful with a taco in your pocket, well, choose the old enchilada as your snack-cake of choice. It’s already soft and deliciously mushy so you’ve got yourself a south-of-the-border power-bar. Just think of the sandwich bag as the wrapper and move it down as you work your way through the ecstasy of the tortilla, cheese and meat delicacy. Now, some of you might be thinking the burrito is the perfect on-the-go-food for the man who has everything and you’ve got a point because it does already come in its own edible shell of tastiness but others might lean towards the fajita as a substitute for, let’s say, a granola bar, and you’d be right also. You see, when it comes to all around super-flavor sensation Tex-Mex stands alone, atop of the food pyramid so to speak, as the undisputed champ of flexible-edible delight.

  “George?”

  “Yes, Johnny?”

  “Are you going to eat that taco?”

  “If you grab that taco you lose your hand.”

  “Okay, just checking, thanks for the heads up.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “George?”

  “Yes, Johnny?”

  “Did you learn what you wanted at the University?”

  “Kind of. We found out how we got the State to put a Reformatory on private lands and let us run it.”

  “Really? How?”

  “We bribed them.”’

  “You bribed them?”

  “Yep, we told the State Department of Housing if they could get permission from the landowner then we would fund the construction of the building and run the Reformatory with charitable donations only.”

  “Wow! That was nice of you.”’

  “Yep, kind of weird, though, since we’re not in the Being Nice business either.”

  “How’d you find out?”

  “We talked to the secretary of the Secretary of Housing and Land Development.”

  “The secretary of the Secretary?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why not the Secretary himself?”

  “Because the current Secretary is not a he, the Secretary’s a she who’s only been on the job for a little over a year so she wouldn’t be any use to us if we’re looking into something which happened eight years ago. The previous Secretary of Housing was a he and it was under his watch all this occurred. ”

  “Eight years ago?”

  “Uh-huh. That’s when we were awarded the contract to finance, build and house the Reformatory for Wayward Youth.”

  “I’m just curious; wouldn’t a reformatory fall under the guidance of the Security Tribe?”

  “No, Sweetie” said Vivian.

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’re not convicts, silly, they’re little kids who lost their way.”

  “Oh, um, okay, I forgot where we were.”

  “Thank God! So did I and I’m so glad I’m not the only one” said Phillip.

  “We were finding out how we found out why we were able to build the Reformatory on private land” said Trudy.

  “Oh, yeah, so how’d you find out?”

  “We talked to the Secretary’s secretary, Sweetie, haven’t you been following along?” said Vivian.

  “Apparently not. So you talked to the Secretary’s secretary and she told you… Hold on. Why would the Secretary’s secretary know more than the Secretary?”

  “Because the secretary is a government employee, Sweetie, who works for the State so she has job security and seniority which makes her, in essence, the most knowledgeable person in the room at any given time” answered Vivian.

  “And she was around eight years ago?”

  “She’s was around twenty years ago, those secretaries secretate for life” said George.

  “Secretate?”

  “Yeah, what else would you call what secretaries do?”

  “I don’t know… secrete? Oh no! That wouldn’t sound good, would it?”

  “No, it wouldn’t” George said.

  “Okay, so what did you learn?”

  “We learned that the Secretary of Housing and Land Development had been going through a bit of a slump at the time. You see, the price of land had risen and the State was having a tough time finding places to put all their wayward children so when we came in and offered to help reduce the problem at no cost to them, well, he jumped at the idea.”

  “He really liked it, huh?”

  “No, he actually jumped. The way the secretary put it he was a male cheerleader in college so when he got the offer he literally jumped over and over again. She said it looked like a person who needed to use the restroom but couldn’t find the facilities.”

  “Yeah, I know the problem, you know what I mean?”

  “Not really, Johnny, no” replied George.

  “What? Really? Why, do you have some sort of warning device? Because I was thinking a little color coded strip on your finger would work pretty darn…”

  “No, we don’t have a warning device” said George.

  “Then how do you…?”

  “We suffer; we suffer in agony for horrible periods of time.”

  “Whew, I’m glad it wasn’t just me.”

  “It’s not just you. Why, I remember one time at this outlet mall Trudy wanted to go to; the ones where they’ve got all those pent up clothes who need an outlet I guess… well, they were still under renovation and…” Phillip said.

  “Phillip” Trudy said.

  “Yes, Mistress?”

  “I’m still eating.”

  “Oh, yeah, probably not the best lunch topic.”

  “So anyway, we were awarded the right to run the Reformatory around the same time Bob was being prosecuted for his temporary housing hut and convenience store scam” George began.

  “Hold on. Did you say you got permission before you offered to lease her land?” I asked.

  “Yep, apparently we knew right away there was oil under Bob’s mom’s land.”

  “Because you hired the company who d
id the sonar survey on Steve’s land” I said.

  “Uh-huh, but that’s not all” George replied.

  “Yeah?” asked Phillip.

  “Yeah, the secretary remembered the meeting we had with the previous Secretary of Housing, the one where we offered to fund the construction and run the Reformatory, and do you know why?” he asked.

  “Why?” Phillip answered.

  “Because the person we sent apparently left a rather strong impression with the Secretary of Housing, so strong he walked around for days asking her if she’d seen the wonderful employee of Commercial Property Management, the one with the striking violet eyes.”

  “Melissa?” I asked, somewhat stunned.

  “The very one” he replied.

  “But that was eight years ago! She would’ve only been, what, sixteen at the time?” I said.

  “No, Sweetie, Melissa’s a Vamp, she’ll appear in her twenties most of her life” said Vivian.

  “Really?” I asked while peering.

  “Yes, Sweetie, and stop staring, it’s impolite.”

  “Sorry, I was just seeing if I could…”

  “I know what you were trying to find and, no, I don’t have any wrinkles and, no, I’m not telling you how old I am” said Vivian.

  “So let me get this straight. Steve was a land appraiser before he got into his pyramid scheme business, right?” I asked.

  “Yes” answered George.

  “And he worked for you?”

  “Yes” he answered.

  “So, he finds land he previously surveyed and thinks there might be oil underneath. Hold on. Why would he wait so long if he knew there was oil underneath it?”

  “Because it’s not an exact science and it’s pretty expensive to do a thorough sonar survey” he explained.

  “So he waited because…?”

  “Because he finally made enough money from his pyramid scheme to take the chance and do the sonar survey.”

  “Okay, so he hires…”

  “Land Surveyors Incorporated.”

  “… to do the sonar survey and they discover oil but not only on Steve’s property, also on his neighbor’s, Bob’s mom’s land, right?”

  “Uh-huh” he replied.

  “And Melissa worked for Land Surveyors Incorporated at the time?”

  “Yep, she was a brand new employee.”

  “Really, she was a young Vampire?”

  “Nope” he replied.

  “Huh?”

  “She was recently unattached, her mate had been killed.”

  “How did he die?”

  “He challenged an Alpha.”

  “He challenged an Alpha?”

  “Yes, the Alpha was placed in charge of the investigation of a Catastrophe; a Catastrophe Melissa was involved in because of her previous occupation.”

  “What was her previous occupation?”

  “Blood screener.”

  “She was a blood screener? Oh, hold on, you mean at the blood bank on Hillcrest where she and I worked together?”

  “Yep, she was a member of the Food Tribe and was responsible for screening the blood of those who gave for pregnancy.”

  “You mean the pregnant Vampires in hibernation?”

  “Yes, she was in charge of the blood which killed one of our Vamps. Peter was placed in charge of the investigation and determined it was Melissa’s fault the tainted blood got through.”

  “What happened?”

  “Peter brought the charge to the Council, Melissa’s mate challenged Peter for her honor, the Council allowed it to happen and Peter ripped his head off in about thirty seconds.”

  “My God!”

  “Yeah, he really shouldn’t have challenged Peter but I guess he felt obligated even though they’d only been mated for a week or so and…”

  “A week?”

  “Yep, Melissa just showed up one day; said she’d gotten tired of the old ways in First Clan and wanted to see what all the fuss was about in the new world so she picked Food Tribe and began in the blood bank working her way up the ladder which was pretty impressive since she was still unattached and all.”

  “She was unattached?”

  “Sure. What, do you think First would let a mated Vamp out of their clan?”

  “I have no idea what First Clan would do, George.”

  “Well, they wouldn’t let a perfectly good Vampire out of their clan, I’ll tell you that.”

  “You think she’s got some sort of shady background or something?”

  “Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter because Third Clan took her in and she began working at the blood bank, found her mate, got investigated and got unattached.”

  “Wow! Pretty bad luck.”

  “Even worse; because it turns out she wasn’t responsible for the blood mix-up” George said.

  “She wasn’t?”

  “Nope.”

  “Who was?”

  “Well, no one really. It seems the blood came from a poor soul who was a little lost. You see, this particular batch of blood was scheduled to come from one of our nursing home residents, a nice little old lady who had lung cancer which, unfortunately, was too severe to do anything about. So anyway, Melissa went to visit the cute thing and did some blood work which indicted she’d be a perfect candidate for one of our hibernating Vamps so she offered her a chance to do the one thing she’d wanted all her life but had been unable to do.”

  “What?”

  “Take a trip around the world on a cruise ship.”

  “Ooh, that sounds cool” I said.

  “Yes it does, and you’d be surprised how many times the request is brought up when we offer it in exchange for their blood.”

  “So she took it?”

  “Yep, and when the attending Vampire came to pick her up and take her to the transfusion, well, a little mix-up occurred.”

  “What happened?”

  “Her roommate in the nursing home who was supposed to be in a coma apparently had a change of mind about remaining so. She awoke when Melissa was offering our perfect candidate the cruise around the world and decided she’d rather go instead.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Oh yes. The little coma-faker smothered our sweet little world-cruiser in her sleep and took her place instead.”

  “Didn’t you have protocols to prevent something like that from happening?”

  “Did we have protocols for little old ladies murdering other little old ladies so they could become substitute Zombies? No, Johnny, we didn’t, it ‘d never come up before.”

  “The Vampire who took her didn’t have a picture of the correct old lady?”

  “Oh yeah, she had a picture all right, it’s just…”

  “What?”

  “Have you ever seen little old ladies? They look remarkably similar. You know, grey hair, thick glasses, a cute bewildered expression on their faces and those horrible moo-moo flowered dresses they seem to prefer. Well, the Vampire made the mistake of trusting the little-old-lady murderer and transfused her blood with the pregnant hibernating Vampire’s and, well, it didn’t end well.”

  “Why?”

  “She had an auto-immune disease. Half the hibernating Vamp’s blood was removed, replaced with hers and since the Vamp’s own antibodies viewed the new blood as perfectly acceptable… ”

  “Why would it view the new blood as acceptable?”

  “Because auto-immune disease is a tricky little bugger. You see, the immune system of these people is so ramped up it thinks the body is under attack from foreign invaders at all times. Now, this wouldn’t normally be a problem for us because our antibodies would start to eliminate the confused antibodies before they could take hold and produce any negative side-effects but when a blood transfusion occurs and so much of the messed up antibodies are dumped into a Superior at one time, well, the Vampire’s antibodies started to think maybe there was a foreign attacker so it looked around and sure enough there was another foreign invader inside, lying there siphoning
off some of the Vampire’s necessary blood…”

  “The baby.”

  “Yep, so the antibodies did what they could and produced swelling and inflammation inside the hibernating Vamp in order to block off the blood flow and kill the infestation.”

  “How horrible!”

  “It gets worse. The child in question was far enough along to recognize it was suffocated so it did fought back which resulted in an artery being shred and the subsequent blood loss which resulted.”

  “The Vampire couldn’t repair herself?”

  “Her body tried but the little unborn kept shredding and since no one knew anything was wrong, well, it was too late.”

  “So the Vampire was killed…?”

  “By her own unborn child.”

  “My God! Well, did she get to take her cruise?”

  “Who?”

  “The little old lady. Did she get to take her cruise?”

  “Did she get to take her cruise? Is that what you’re asking? Did the little sadistic roommate-murderer and pregnant-Vampire killer get to take her cruise?”

  “When you put it that way…”

  “No, Johnny, she didn’t get to take her cruise.”

  “Oh, did you kill her?”

  “No, we didn’t kill her, we put her back in her room and let nature take its course.”

  “Really? I would’ve thought you’d have killed her?”

  “Well, we didn’t.”

  “Really?”

  “Okay, we might have helped her go a little faster but we didn’t actually kill her.”

  “What’d you do?”

  “We made her sign a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order and when she slipped back into a coma since she didn’t have help breathing from a respirator she suffocated to death.”

  “Oh my God!”

  “What?”

  “You suffocated a little old lady!”

  “No we didn’t.”

  “Yes you did!”

  “Okay, maybe we did but she deserved it.”

  “She deserved it?”

  “She killed her roommate and one of our Vampires.”

  “But she was probably deranged!”

  “Yes, she was a deranged Vampire murderer.”

  “She was a little old lady in a moo-moo.”

  “She was a psychopathic killer in a moo-moo, Johnny, big difference.”

  “Okay, so anyway, what happened?”

  “Well, we felt a little guilty about beheading Melissa’s brand new mate so Stephanie offered her a new one from a family below us in Shelter Tribe; the Ramos’.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Stephanie offered her a new one? The Stephanie? You’re Matriarch in pregnant hibernation?”

  “Our Matriarch in pregnant hibernation and, yes, she offered her a new mate.”

  “But, didn’t you say you’d never seen Melissa before she entered your office?”

  “Yes, the only ones in our family who’d seen her before were the ones placed in charge of investigating the Catastrophe.”

  “So then Peter…?”

  “Knew who Melissa was when she entered his office.”

  “So then…?”

  “I think Peter and Melissa were working together on the Trilogy. I think Melissa saw an opportunity to remove Peter from the equation and place her family, the Ramos, in a position to run for Clan Elders. I think Melissa wanted her new mate to challenge for the Alpha of Ramos and reign as its Matriarch which would, in essence, mean she would rule Third Clan.”

  “Who was her mate?”

  “Daniel.”

  “Daniel? The Werewolf Vivian cut the head off?”

  “The very same.”

  “But I thought Daniel’s mate died…? Oh! You mean…?”

  “Yep, the very same Vampire believed to have killed his mate was now his mate.”

  “And Daniel was okay with that?”

  “Have you seen Melissa, Johnny?”

  “Oh, yeah, never mind. So Steve hires Land Surveyors Incorporated who employ Melissa to do a sonar survey and… hold on… that means…”

  “Yep.” said George.

  “So they knew…”

  “Yep, the Ramos family knew the land sat on oil.”

  “And when you built the Reformatory?”

  “They knew we were doing it to eventually acquire the land.”

  “And when you built the prison with oil wells?”

  “They knew we were making a play at the Trinity.”

  “So they…?”

  “Are making the same play; they want to rule Third Clan.”

  “So Stephanie…?”

  “Brought to Shelter Tribe, the assassin of her Wolf.”