by Tiffany Foxe
“I don’t recall.”
Luce was getting riled listening to his games. Patience was not a virtue she possessed.
“Well, I do. I suppose it’s fortunate I kept a sample, myself,” replied Sophie
Ralph’s eyes grew big. He straightened up.
“The killer is a werewolf, and you’re right, it’s not you. But, it is someone very close to you. A relative.”
Ralph scoffed.
“We’re all related, here,” he motioned toward the people standing around him.
“I couldn’t figure it out before, because there was this one part that didn’t add up. The killer was female. And as far as I knew, you didn’t have any daughters.”
“Yeah…now we’re in a bit of a pickle,” said Luce. “Law requires retribution. We’re two and ‘oh, right now. We’ve come to collect what’s ours.”
Ralph’s face grew red.
“Let’s not forget about the one we lost. That’s two and one,” he retaliated.
“We didn’t do that,” replied Luce. “That’s not our style.”
Ralph slowly raised himself from his seat.
“You will not being leaving with anyone!”
“Yes...we will. Consequences are the only way to keep you hotheads in check,” replied Luce.
Ralph stormed down the steps toward the two women, changing into his wolf form in the process. Other Sons followed suit. Ralph leapt toward the women who dashed aside in opposite directions. Sophie fended off several wolves, catching one by the throat and slinging him down to the ground. Luce flew up about twenty feet and dove down onto a pack of wolves that were about to tackle Sophie. The two women were much faster than the Sons. They were well trained, experienced in many styles of martial arts, and easily took down their opponents when faced one on one. But, here they were severely outnumbered and were beginning to lose ground. Sophie remembered the switch that opened the ceiling. A wolf charged toward her and lunged into the air. She grabbed it mid-air and slung it toward the wall. It landed on the switch, activating the ceiling doors which crept open. The women continued fending off waves of charges until the doors opened enough to escape.
“Go!” demanded Luce.
“Come on!” Sophie cried out.
They both took flight and climbed toward the sky. They made it through the opening and headed straight for Sophie’s place.
***
Luce and Sophie landed on the roof of Sophie’s apartment building.
“We have to find Sam,” Sophie said.
Luce nodded.
“I’ll contact the others, let them know what’s going on,” said Luce.
Luce dove off the roof and returned to flight . Sophie dropped off the side of the roof and landed on the balcony of the ninth floor of her home. She went inside and pulled out her phone. She dialed Sam and put the phone to her ear, but noticed him come out of the elevator just as she did so. She put the phone down and rushed to him. He had Emiline standing in front of him with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. He guided her forward with one hand on either shoulder. Em groggily complied. She appeared dazed.
“She’s exhausted from the shift. She needs rest,” Sam said.
Sophie nodded and pointed to the door. Sam guided Emiline toward the same bedroom she had stayed in before. He laid her down, covered her in a blanket, and shut the door. She fell asleep, instantly.
Sam returned to the living room.
“Luce?” asked Sam.
“She’s contacting the others.”
Sam relaxed.
“So what are we going to do with her?” he asked as he looked toward the door.
“First, we’re going to make sure it was actually her,” she said.
Sam nodded, but he seemed uneasy.
“Then, we’ll go from there,” Sophie added.
“I wonder if there are any more we don’t know about,” he said, still looking at the door.
Sophie looked at the bedroom door and crossed her arms, the weight of his statement sinking in. She sent Sam away and tiptoed into the dark bedroom, careful not to disturb her guest. She anxiously watched over Em that night as a great unease grew inside her. She had seen Emiline in her wolf state. She beared the mark of Cain in its truest form, stronger, faster, and wilder than any among her clan. For the Sons it was a sign a change, a movement from subordinate to superior where they would be strong enough to force their hand. But she knew Luce would see it differently. For Luce she was a threat, the destructive force of the status quo that must be exterminated.
Chapter 7
Emiline awoke early the next evening to find herself snuggled up with one arm wrapped around Sophie’s waste. Sophie had fallen asleep leaning against the headboard with her right arm draped around Em’s shoulder. Emiline slowly lifted her arm away stirring Sophie’s slumber.
“Morning,” said Sophie, heavy-eyed. “Hungry?”
“Coffee,” Em answered.
Sophie nodded and drowsily forced herself out of bed and began making coffee. Em lied supine staring at the ceiling while she waited for her morning jolt with groggy impatience. Sophie came back with two cups in tow. She handed one to Em and sipped the other.
“What happened last night? My head is killing me,” Em said as she held her head in one hand and coffee in the other.
“You don’t remember?”
“I remember...most of it...I think. But, it’s weird. I think I’m remembering part of a dream or something. I remember you said you knew who killed those people. Did that happen?” asked Em.
Sophie shook her head.
“Yes,” she admitted
Em nodded and pondered this for a moment.
“I knew there was something you weren’t telling me. Well? Who is it?”
Sophie remained silent as she stared into her coffee mug. Emiline hesitated to speak.
“Was it...you?” she sputtered with hesitation.
“No.”
“Ralph...is he really my father?”
Sophie shrugged.
“It appears so.”
“And I’m…”
“Yes.”
“I’m one of them?” she whispered, dumbfounded.
Emiline pondered the gravity of the situation as she glared vacantly upon the white linens that covered her legs.
“I wasn’t dreaming?” she queried as she remembered the events of last night...the moon, her white fur.
Sophie cradled her coffee in her hands as she stared blankly into the distance.
“And you?” Em asked timidly.
Sophie turned toward Emiline and smiled consolingly.
“I’m the other them.”
Em sat quietly.
“A vampire?”
Sophie nodded.
“That’s one way of putting it. We prefer Watchers.”
“You kill people? You take advantage of others….you kill people to live. You’re a parasite,” Em spat out as quickly as it came to mind.
Sophie shot a terse glance at Em. Em took a deep breath as she struggled to recall the other night.
“That’s what that woman was doing at the club,” she said wide-eyed.
“She was buttering me up!”
“I told you to stay put,” Sophie reminded.
“What should I care about two...two leeches dying when just one of you kills hundreds? Good riddance!”
Sophie’s posture straightened as she fixated on the doorway.
“We don’t do that. At least, not most of us. Not anymore.”
“I saw the blood. In the Lounge. The glasses,” Em insisted.
“Donors. We’ve used volunteers for centuries. Works better that way. Less cleanup,” she explained as she took a sip of her black coffee.
Em scoffed in disbelief.
“You’re so...nonchalant about it. ‘Not anymore?’ And that somehow makes everything okay? And, I did not volunteer myself to that waitress.”
“Like I said. Most of us. Nevertheless, we’ve done what we had to do to
survive. We take only what we need. Which is a lot more than I can say for humankind. As for your kind, we have a treaty with the Sons. They don’t take any of ours. We don’t take any of theirs. Everyone gets to live long, happy lives.”
Emiline was jarred. She couldn’t believe the conversation she was having: how incredible and outrageous a subject, coupled with the manner in which they were having it. To anyone who wasn’t really listening, it looked like two people having a petty argument over chores at the dinner table. Yet, here they were talking about creatures from folklore as if they were obviously real, and condemning and defending murder as if the act were akin to killing a cockroach. The surrealness of it stifled all other thoughts. Em tried to clear her head of the situation and pushed forward.
“What else is in the treaty?”
“We each stay on our own turf, and keep our true identities from them.”
“Them?”
“Humans.”
Emiline sat in silence.
“Who killed them? Your...friends?”
Sophie looked uneasily at Em.
“There were three,” she pushed.
“Who did it? Was it Ralph?”
Sophie crossed her brow. Apparently, she hadn’t heard that part in the Sons’ lair the night before.
“What do you remember of last night?”
“I remember being held in a cell, and trying to escape...and changing into...and...and changing back. I remember you, and you said you knew who did it. That it was one of them.”
Em shook her head and tried to remember. It was all so foggy, fragmented.
“Someone took me out through a dark tunnel,” she recalled.
“Sam.”
“Sam did it?”
“Sam, got you out of there.”
“Oh. So who did it?”
“I can’t say for certain. Not, yet.”
“Well then, who do you think?” she asked impatiently.
“We’ll leave it for now.”
Em realized she wasn’t getting anywhere down that alley, so continued fishing for other answers.
“So, if I’m one of them, why did you come for me?”
Sophie looked at Em for a moment.
“You didn’t have a choice. Everyone deserves a choice. They just took you...”
Em thought about this for a moment.
“But what choice do I have. If they’re my family...you can’t choose family.”
“You can’t choose who you’re related to, but you can choose who you associate with.”
“You obviously don’t like them. You think they’re bad people?”
Sophie hesitated.
“Not all of them.” She got up from the bed. “I bet you’re hungry. I’ll fix you some breakfast.”
She left the room and shut the door behind her. Em dropped her head back on the pillow, dismayed by her lack of insight on the situation.
Sophie began preparing breakfast. Luce let herself in while Sophie cooked eggs on the stove.
“Hey, so...what’s the verdict?” asked Luce.
Sophie flipped an egg in a pan.
“I don’t know.” She looked at the bedroom door behind her. “She doesn’t seem to know anything about it. I don’t think she realized she was shifting.”
“Well, are we positive it was her in the first place. We know it was a close relative of Ralph, a female. But, we didn’t even know she was a Son. There may be others we don’t know about.”
“Yeah, perhaps. That’s why I want to check her DNA against the samples I’ve collected from the victims. I want to be sure before we do anything.”
Luce nodded in agreement and crossed her arms.
“So, she’s still here,” said Luce, half asking, half affirming.
Sophie nodded.
“Get a sample, yet?”
Sophie just shook her head and continued cooking. Luce sighed with impatience. They both heard the bedroom door open and turned toward the sound. Em hesitated in the doorway, surprised by Luce’s presence. Em felt a great unease around Luce though she couldn’t figure out why. She slowly advanced from the bedroom toward the two women in the kitchen.
“Morning,” said Luce in a fake cheerful front.
“Morning.”
“Are you staying for breakfast?” Sophie asked Luce.
“Mmm,” she pondered. “No. I think not. Tons to do,” she said, cheerfully.
Luce leaned in close to Sophie’s ear.
“You, too. Get on it,” she whispered, sternly.
Luce turned her head toward Emiline and forced a grin, then left.
Sophie put two plates full of food on the kitchen table. They both sat and began eating. Sophie kind of picked at her food while Em scarfed hers down.
“I need a sample from you,” Sophie finally sputtered.
Em stopped chewing and looked at Sophie in confusion.
“A blood sample. I need to rule you out. I’ll need a sample to do that.”
Emiline was still unclear on what she meant, but she had a hunch.
“I didn’t kill those people.”
Sophie didn’t look convinced, and continued to pick at her food.
“I didn’t kill them,” she raised her voice. “I’m a cop, not a murderer.”
Sophie calmly took a breath and put down her fork.
“Besides, I would remember something like that,” Em insisted.
“Actually, it is possible that you wouldn’t remember. When you first start shifting, you usually aren’t aware of it. It’s only with time and practice that you can control when you shift and what you’re doing during that time. You’re young. You probably haven’t been shifting long.”
“Shifting?”
“Changing...into your wolf form,” Sophie explained.
“That’s ridiculous!” Em interrupted. “I would remember killing someone. I remembered last night,” she argued.
Sophie was still calm, her voice even, and her words carefully chosen.
“I hope you’re right, but we still need to rule you out. You’re a cop. You understand.”
Em sat quietly, staring at Sophie’s plate full of food. Then, she looked at hers. It was almost completely gone.
“What if it was me?”
“Like you said, it probably wasn’t. We just need to go through the motions to be sure,” Sophie said, attempting to console her.
This did relax Em’s nerves a little. She felt confident she would remember something like that. But, now her mind began to wonder in the other direction. Could it have been her? She was in the vicinity of the first murder at the time of death. Could she have somehow blanked on all of it? She continued to ponder this possibility. The more she explored this question the more anxious she became. She thought about what it would mean if she were the culprit. What was it Sophie had said about the treaty? Sons and Watchers were forbidden from killing each other. What would happen to her? What would be the consequence for killing a Watcher? She knew what would happen in her own justice system: prison. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only rule book she had to go by anymore. There was a whole other world that dwelled in the shadows with it’s own codes and customs, a world that she was now a part of whether she liked it or not.
She tried to shake the thought from her head. Surely, she was not at fault. Whomever this person was, it was not her, and she would prove it.
“Okay,” Em said. “Whatever you need.”
They finished their meals in silence.
***
Ralph stood facing the window of an office at his mansion. Two men stood there with him, waiting on instructions. Faelan listened quietly from outside the doorway, careful to not bring attention to himself as he eavesdropped.
“What do you want to do?” questioned one of the men.
“I’m going to bring her home,” answered Ralph.
“If she wanted to be here she wouldn’t have left,” grumbled the other man.
“Do you think she left or they took her?” asked the first
man to the second.
“They took her,” Ralph interjected.
The two men looked at each other.
“If she really killed those Watchers, then there’s a price on her head. They would have taken her,” the second man agreed.
“We’re getting her back,” Ralph asserted.
“Sir?” the second man politely asked.
“If she killed them, we have no choice. You know what the treaty states. They’re not gonna give her a slap on the wrist and let her go.” Ralph’s eye grew cold and stern. “Screw their treaty! There’s always a choice. They’re not taking my daughter away from me. She didn’t know. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t even know what she was until last night. I’ll be damned if they take her for this. The bloody bastards are always taking everything!” He began to pace back and forth across the room. “They’re not taking her,” he affirmed.
The two men stood motionless while they discreetly shot each other a glance. Finally, one of them gathered enough nerve to speak.
“What do you want us to do?”
Ralph stopped pacing and walked up to the man and looked him in the eye.
“Find her.”
Both men nodded at once and headed toward the doorway.
“And don’t do anything until you check with me. Got it?”
Both men nodded at once and left the office. Faelan slipped out of sight just as the two men exited the doorway.
“I don’t mean to be out of line, but this is getting out of control,” said a woman’s voice from within the office.
Faelan hadn’t noticed another person in there. He slid back around the corner closer to the door so he could hear. He peeked his head in the doorway to have a quick look. It was Cecelia Phobos, his cousin.
“First, I had to save her from that wretch at Corazon Diablo. Don’t get me wrong, it felt good having an excuse to take her down. But, then you went and killed Shane…” Cecelia threw her arms up in disgust. “...to divert attention away from the clan. This...is crazy.”
Ralph shook his head back and forth as he paced in front of the office window.
“He was going to ruin everything. That imbecile couldn’t keep his mouth shut. I didn’t know. I didn’t know I had a daughter. Not until they gave me that vial. If I had only known sooner,” he shook his head. “I could’ve prevented all of this. None of this had to happen. What the hell was she thinking?!” Ralph exclaimed in anger. “How could she leave like that? And...take my little girl?” he whimpered.
