Glancing to the man on the floor still covered in tiger fur with the head of a tiger as well, Shedu asked, “Alad, do you smell anything different about him beyond what is on him from those he says he knows?”
The tiger shook its head.
“I am a voran,” he said moving his attention between the two men and the woman beside him with a nod. “Though I’ve only met two others, I am told that is what my people who understand our gifts decided to use as our name. We are merely humans who have been attacked by supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves. Nature causes us to have a reaction as if a vampire’s bite is a catalyst to change us slightly.
“My senses are on par with theirs. My speed and strength are less, but paired with skill, I can keep up even with elder vampires, though those are quite a handful. I wouldn’t recommend you testing a truly old vampire without a great plan, because it took a vampire, werewolf and I to take one down. I don’t think tricks like your silver nitrate smoke grenades or your cat allergens will stop one of those.”
It was Lam next to him who broke her silence in surprise and curiosity, as she asked in awe, “You fought an elder vampire? How old was he?”
“In his bragging of superiority, I think he said six centuries or so. My aura blades, which can stun or kill, could barely hold him long enough for my allies to kill him with silver blades. There were lieutenants in his army nearly as old I would guess. They didn’t go easily and their fires as they died could kill a man or vampire standing too close.”
Shedu frowned and shook his head at the thought before he said, “Barong sent us here because of noticeable activity in the city. If you killed their sire, then why are we still seeing so many strays and now this pack to the north; if you won?”
It was Nick’s turn to frown as he breathed out in disappointment, “We were out numbered even using a pack of werewolves and full coven of vampires. When Cyrus died with his lieutenants, his mind control ended. A few joined the coven helping replace those we lost. The rest ran and we were too worn down from losses and wounds to pursue them before the police and firemen rolled into the area.
“We’ve been trying to clean up the strays before anyone got the idea to band together again, but from what happened to you Friday, I am guessing that has already begun.”
The room went silent until Alad complained from his spot on the floor, “Will you remove this paralysis already?”
Spreading his hands, the voran replied, “It’s like a sedative. On a werewolf it wore off after about ten to fifteen minutes or so. Your first arm might be getting the feeling back pretty soon. Though that was with werewolves, and you said that you’re different; so I can’t be exactly certain.”
He stood and looked thoughtful as the man added, “Why did you spare the vampires from my clan, if I may ask?”
Shedu’s eyes shifted warily once more, but his shoulders sank as if defeated and he confessed, “Our senses not only discern the smells of the undead, but evil. Our powers draw out evil spirits. When I sensed the one chasing us with you, I couldn’t figure out what you were and that one smelled different as well. I didn’t sense evil from her or the trio of hunters chasing the one we took out before driving them from the roof.”
Grumbling, Alad complained, “I told him they were vampires and should be dealt with the same way.”
Lam shook her head and began to shake the forearm incapacitated by Nick’s aura as tingling began in her fingers like a limb that had fallen asleep. “That’s why Shedu’s the leader and you aren’t, idiot. If it were up to you, we wouldn’t use the masks to hide our scent and you’d kill anything that wasn’t human.”
Becoming indignant, Alad was able to move the first affected arm as the effect started to wear off. “I know the smell of undead. When have you ever found one that wasn’t a cold blooded killer?”
Nick clarified for the man, “The vampires I help use a small amount of my blood that I donate to keep them sane. They eat like humans and their emotions are similar. I can help the eleven and maybe a couple more without harming myself. They confine their killing to destroying the monsters that have gone rogue. We kill the strays and try to prevent the disease from spreading to others and keeping people safe.”
Alad didn’t look convinced as he asked one more question, “Do your creatures drain the strays like reapers as well then?”
Surprised by such a question, the voran shook his head replying, “I can’t say I’ve ever run into a vampire that would kill another vampire for their blood. My coven certainly doesn’t. They use silver laced swords to kill the strays which burn them to dust. The remaining piles can be kicked to scatter the ashes or a strong wind can spread them instead.
“I haven’t heard of these reapers before.”
“Well, I guess you don’t know everything then, do you?” Alad mocked.
Lamassu looked at the man on the floor and retorted in the voran’s defense, “As if you do, idiot?” her eyes went to the man standing before her and she added, “You feed them your blood and they don’t need to feed on humans?”
Shaking his head and spreading his hands, Nick replied, “They need only a couple drops every few days and can eat normal food. The only ones I’ve known my people to have bitten were turned to become mates, and with the humans’ permission.”
“Letting yourself be turned into a vampire? That is disgusting!” Alad declared angrily as the feeling was beginning to return his legs. The kasha began to push his body up the island counter before leaning against it.
“Says the tiger man?” Nick quipped at the idea.
Lam stood ignoring the interchange and asked the voran with a tilt of her head, “You said one was your girl friend? Don’t you have to worry about her biting you or killing you?”
Chuckling, Nick shook his head and answered with amusement, “Oh, she still bites playfully, but Nicola is a kind hearted person. She was turned as a young woman by their leader, the first vampire I ran into who bit me and started my journey. Their relationship didn’t work out, but she’s still a bit of a romantic at heart.”
Shedu questioned another part of his story, “And these werewolves don’t try to kill her or your friends? I thought werewolves and vampires hated each other.”
“When we banded together against the elder vampire and his army, we created an alliance. Some left the pack and live with me now. Our little group became a strange form of alternate pack as well, I guess, but that’s another story.”
Moving towards the door, Nick tossed a business card on the table with his number and added, “I would appreciate you continuing your practices with avoiding killing my allies. If you have any questions or want to make sure we cover different territory to maximize the effect and avoid stepping on each other’s toes that is my number.”
Lamassu asked as the voran opened the door, “Don’t you want our numbers?”
Pressing dial on his smart phone, a responding ring came from a phone in Shedu’s bedroom. Nick answered with a wave and said, “I already have his.”
Chapter 13- The Full Moon
Nick had made sure to call Charlotte back as he started the Escape to let her know that everything had gone well enough. Whether he was certain that they would do as he asked and avoid attempting to kill Marek’s clan was another thing entirely. People could be fickle and allegiances could swing from one place to another. Since the voran had come in trying to be friendly, despite the scuffle; he was still hopeful.
One mistake he had made as he grew emboldened from his dealings with them was the use of Shedu’s phone. Thinking back, the voran should have avoided revealing that he knew of the man’s phone number. A FBI site he had access to could track phones. It was how he had tracked the werewolves to their houses a couple months earlier, and would be useful in keeping tabs on the kasha. They didn’t know about the electronic tracking, so he could only hope that Shedu wouldn’t panic and throw away his phone or bolt from their current base of operations after doing so.
Kno
wing where an enemy was, or even a dubious ally; was always a good thing and best for one’s health.
When he returned to his apartment, it was mid afternoon. The beginning of the full moon was scheduled to first appear before it would actually be dark and would begin to exert more effect on the werewolves; though he had been assured no forced change would happen before darkness held the sky.
He wasn’t surprised to hear the television on as he entered, but he was surprised to feel the cold temperature inside. With the weather only touching the seventies, Nick guessed that the air conditioning had to be in the low sixties. Kate had a long sleeved shirt on he noticed as the werewolf sat watching a talk show. After being with Logan, her symptoms had subsided returning the woman to normal, though she was strongly attached to her new mate and seemed unable to let him out of her sight for too long. That could be just the honeymoon stage of their relationship, or it could be an extension of the bond they now shared.
Since Kate was back to normal, he could only guess that the temperature was set low for Charlotte.
“Sorry, about the temperature,” the dark haired woman said looking at the door with her green eyes.
“Let me guess, Charlotte is having heat flashes,” Nick replied closing the door before rubbing his arms as he tried to get used to the drastic switch in the air temperature.
“A fever, and since a cold bath is likely to bring the burning or itching back, Logan figured turning the air conditioning down might help. He was a doctor after all, but he’s still no expert on werewolf biology and medicine.”
“Where are they now?” he asked assuming that Logan was taking care of his younger sister.
“In the bathroom, they’re using frozen vegetables and ice in bags to try to lower her temperature in the tub,” Kate replied helpfully. Her green eyes revealed worry for the woman who was essentially her sister-in-law, though they would never be able to put it in writing for fear of the blood test revealing abnormalities.
Walking into the main bath, Nick noted Logan sitting on a closed toilet looking at the floor with his hands clasped as if in prayer. As the voran walked into the large bath room, the werewolf stood exchanging a look of worry with Nick before exiting the room to give the two a chance to talk.
He could tell that Charlotte was in great discomfort. Her face looked flush and she shivered a bit thanks to all the frozen ice and vegetable bags, the second of which must have been bought by someone else. Nick was a decent cook, but rarely did more than open canned vegetables.
“That’s a lot of vegetables,” the man stated jokingly as he knelt beside the woman and placed his hand on her forehand to find her skin very warm to the touch.
With her teeth rattling, Charlotte retorted in surprisingly good humor, “After it all thaws on me, all we need to do is add water to make soup.”
“Werewolf stew?”
Giving him a weak smile for a weak joke, the dark haired woman nodded. Changing the subject, she informed him, “I tried using Nicola to cool me, but her touch didn’t work this time so we went to this after Kate went to the store.”
Assuming they used his credit card or account with the local grocer, Nick nodded and put his hands on her cheeks and neck to see if he could lower her temperature as his touch had before. “How about mine?” the man asked in reference to the placement of his hands.
Charlotte shrugged and replied, “They’re maybe a little cooler, but it isn’t the instant cooling from the past several days. I just hope this full moon change will break this cycle. It just seems to keep getting more extreme.”
He nodded looking at the brunette sitting in the tub with ice bags and vegetable bags. Filling the tub with cold water would just have nullified what little comfort the woman received from her shorts and top, as well the towel and wash cloth sitting on the side of the tub. Water would wash away all the traces of him making her feel the burning again.
“If my touch does less, does that mean the bonding is losing its grip or tightening it?” he questioned rhetorically.
Reaching out with her closer arm, the right, Charlotte put her hand behind his pulling him closer as she shifted under the ice to push herself closer. Her lips met his and he didn’t resist as he once would have. A certain amount of resignation, as harsh as the word was, had seeped into Nick. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Charlotte. Without Nicola in his heart, it would be easy to give in to the pretty brunette who had a personality that he found very likeable as well. There were times where he wondered if his old fashioned ethics should even be his governing rule since he lived his life with the supernatural, a life that spanned multiple generations and was likely to span centuries if he didn’t get himself killed.
Releasing his lips, Charlotte slowly slid her hand over his shoulder onto his left arm braced against the side of the tub. A brief smile withered as she shook her dark hair. “I don’t think the bond is disappearing. Sorry,” the woman finished with a shrug looking at her hand resting on his a moment before shifting the bags to settle back into the chill.
He nodded and managed not to sigh. “Well, tonight will probably tell us what we have to do. Either your body will reset as we hope or...” he couldn’t finish the statement as the man’s mind considered what he might have to do and what that would mean to them.
“Only if you have to, right?” Charlotte asked with a sad smile on her lips.
A couple hours later, Nick was driving the black SUV to the forest preserve that they had scouted previously. There was an old path that had been abandoned to nature long ago. Black top was cracked and vegetation was growing in those cracks trying to reclaim what man had covered once upon a time. With older trees reaching over in an arch just above the height of the Escape, it would be only a matter of years before his vehicle would no longer be able to drive deep enough into the woods to use it instead of walking.
With the old road so worn and broken, even with his big wheels and higher clearance, Nick took it slow. The clearing which was almost a quarter mile inside, took several minutes and could have been walked almost as quickly, he thought, but they didn’t have to walk and it was a place to return to for the werewolves.
Shutting off the engine, Nick joined the three werewolves as the sky continued to darken above them.
Logan held Kate’s hand and looked at the voran curiously. He had driven them the previous full moon as well, but hadn’t stayed to give them their privacy and the ability to run without his distraction. Charlotte leaned against the vehicle looking ill, but she was standing even so.
“Do we all stay together?” Logan asked the question that they hadn’t covered before. With the coming of the full moon, they would prepare as always by removing their clothing. A werewolf could hardly attain a full change restricted by the cloth without destroying their clothing with their power. Since they knew of the problem, it would be rather wasteful; besides which these would be the clothes they would put back on for the return home anyway.
Nick glanced to Charlotte, who simply shrugged, before turning to the big man. “You two can change out of sight or not. We’re all grown ups and it isn’t like I haven’t seen it before,” the voran stated referring to the day he had returned for the outcast wolves and found them naked and asleep on the ground. Only Kate was the exception since the woman had only been a wolf the night he had faced the pack to save Lena.
It was a ritual that the three had gone through around sixty times together over the last five years. The pack would gather, remove their clothing in a loosely formed ring and change into wolves. Whether the men and women were excited by the sight of each other mattered little once the moon shone in the sky above. Wolves might be playful, but once they smelled game; it was all about the chase and the feast on deer or whatever they found. The run was what this was all about for them.
Looking to the sky, Logan knew where the moon was by instinct. All werewolves seemed to know, especially on the night of a full moon. He removed his light coat and placed it on the hood of the car. A li
ttle more meekly, as she glanced at Nick, Kate began to remove her clothing as well.
Moving closer to Charlotte placing his attention on the woman before him, rather than the other two werewolves, Nick raised a questioning eyebrow as she hesitated in getting ready. “Something wrong?”
Her brown eyes looked at him as she continued to lean against the car. “What isn’t wrong?” she retorted sounding tired. It had been a long fight against her body and instincts, but now the time had come to see if Eric’s best guess was correct. “I still feel like I am on fire, well not that kind of burning, but I am a furnace of heat. I’m too young for menopause hot flashes, aren’t I?” she asked the last with a weak laugh.
“I should hope so. You’re only twenty six.”
“Don’t put it in dog years or I’ll kill you,” she added as Charlotte moved to sit on the back seat to pull off her shoes. After sliding off the jeans covering the same set of shorts she had been wearing earlier, the woman stood and felt the grass with her feet.
Her shirt was slid over her head leaving just her shorts as the woman folded it to join the shirt with the pants on the back seat. Neat piles of clothing before changing into an animal seemed such a marked contrast of the human side with that of their wolves trapped inside, until the full moon forced the change on them. Charlotte added the shorts to the pile and Nick noticed her skin beginning to redden with the rash she had been fighting with his help for over a week.
Moving to rub herself against him, Charlotte hugged Nick and leaned her head on his shoulder. She was a blaze against him even through his layer of clothing. “The moon’s almost up,” the woman said with a sigh.
Logan stood with his back to them on the other side of the car. Kate seemed to hide beyond him as if feeling sudden embarrassment at being naked with Nick around. The voran could sympathize. He was uncomfortable as well, but he was from a simpler a time. His was a generation with less worries over body types, though there had been a strong separation of men and women. There had always been a certain barrier in all the decades after, and of course, the voran had grown more guarded as friends and family aged and died even as he had to move on regularly to avoid being noticed as a freak. It all added up to a person who had been around a long time, but been close to few people.
Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) Page 17
