The Werewolf of Marines Trilogy

by Jonathan P. Brazee

  He took one odd hop, but other than that, he showed no sign of having a prosthetic. For this vantage point, it would be an easy walk. The next one would be more difficult with a bit of a climb.

  The rest of the team moved into position to provide security while the major said, “Lead on, Sergeant.”

  This was military form. Rob was senior to Aiden, so the major was right to address him. However, everyone was well aware by now that there was some sort of connection between Aiden and the major. They just chose to ignore it. Aiden hadn’t sensed any resentment or distrust, but he was afraid of it. A team had to have total trust and confidence in each other if it was to be effective in combat.

  Within a minute, the three men stepped up to the flat rock that offered spectacular views over the valley. Despite himself, Aiden had to stop to take it in. The team had had many missions down there, but from here, it looked peaceful and serene. In the far distance the haze smoothed out the mountainsides, but from the point down to the bottom of the valley, the air was crisp and clear. The sharp smell of evergreens flooded Aiden’s senses. It was hard to believe at that moment that the area was at war.

  Chapter 29

  SFC Jeff Douglas watched the three men walk out onto the vantage point. He wasn’t surprised. He’d been told where they would be and on what day. It had taken him two days to hike to his present position, a lone American in the mountains of Afghanistan, but he’d never felt threatened. He could have just as easily been hiking the Appalachian Trail.

  For the briefest moment, he wondered why his target was chosen. What had the man done? He quickly pushed that aside, though. He had done a lot of shit in his life, and he had quickly discovered that it didn’t pay to humanize his targets. Sure, this one was American, but a man was a man, his blood red like everyone else’s. He didn’t make any life-or-death decisions. He was merely a tool, and instrument to implement those decisions.

  His hide was almost 250 meters away, well within range. Without hesitation, he pulled the transmitter out of its carrying case, armed it, and pressed the trigger.

  Chapter 30

  Aiden was still transfixed by the view when a muffled whump sounded beside him. He turned to look to see Major Ward fall to the ground.

  Shit! I knew he’d be a liability!

  He started to bend to help him up when the smell hit him—the smell of blood and feces. At the same time, he realized that the major’s leg hadn’t failed him. The man was down hard, curling into the fetal position. Aiden hadn’t heard a sniper’s shot, but something had hit the man.

  Rob was already on the radio calling to Doc as Aiden reached for the major, turning him on his back. The major’s flak jacket seemed whole, but blood was beginning to flow from beneath it.

  From beneath it?

  Aiden started to undo the Velcro fastening on the front of the flak jacket, but as he caught sight of the twisted mess inside the body armor, he quickly fastened it back up. It was the only thing holding the major together.

  “Major, are you with me?” he shouted, taking his hand and squeezing it. “Hold on, sir!”

  MAJ Ward was gasping for breath, his eyes rolled up in his head, his skin already turning the sickly gray cast of rotten liver. This was serious.

  “Doc’s coming,” Rob said, looking over Aiden’s shoulder. “How the fuck did he get hit inside his flak jacket?” he asked. “No booby trap does that!”

  Aiden didn’t know what to say. Still holding the major’s hand, he looked up, willing Doc to get there quicker. The major was about gone, but maybe Doc could stabilize him somehow until he could get into surgery.

  The major gurgled horribly as his blood worked its way up his throat.

  Aiden stared at the man in horror. He was going to die, right here on the mountainside.

  “Let me see,” Doc said as he rushed up, pushing Aiden aside.

  “What happened?” Norm asked right behind him.

  “We don’t know. We were just standing here when there was a kind of sound, like a fart, and then the major was down. But he was hit inside his flak jacket, not outside,” Rob told him, his words coming out in a rush.

  “That’s impossible. Something penetrated the jacket, then expanded,” Norm said.

  “No, sir,” Rob said, reverting to sergeant and lieutenant. “Check it out. Front and back, no penetration.”

  “Bullshit, you must have missed it. We’ll check it after he’s stabilized.”

  He turned away and called on his radio, “Manny, we need an immediate casevac. Get your ass up here.”

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Doc was saying as he examined the now quiet major.

  For a moment, Aiden thought the major had died, but his chest still moved with his struggles to breathe.

  “Norm, there’s no way,” Doc said, looking up at the team leader.

  “Until it’s over, there’s always a way. Stabilize him, and then I want the aid station ready for him. If he can last long enough, the surgeons can work miracles.”

  Doc seemed to consider what to do for a moment before pushing the edges of the major’s flak jacket closed.

  “Aiden, I want you to put pressure on him, but not too hard. I’m going to see what I can do to keep him alive.”

  Aiden knew he had a dead man under his hands. Major Ward was already gone—his body just didn’t know it yet. Its will to live was too strong.

  That sickened him. The major had been good to him. He’d told Aiden about the interest in him. He’d put his own career on the line by doing that. Most of all, he’d taken Aiden’s word and gone over some heads to get that air strike. If it weren’t for the major, Zakia and her tribe would all be dead.

  Something told him that whatever had happened to the major, it was because of him. He was the reason. Maybe they’d found out that the major had broken secrecy, and that was his death warrant. The more Aiden thought about it, the more he was positive that this was all related. It was Aiden’s fault the major would die.

  Fuck that!

  Aiden knew that as a kreuzung, he couldn’t turn a human. Hozan had been pretty adamant about that. But if Aiden could survive some very serious injuries because of what was coursing through his veins, couldn’t that help the major? He wouldn’t become a werewolf, but could he borrow Aiden’s healing abilities long enough to survive to the field hospital?

  He glanced up. Doc was pulling through his medical kit. Norm was on the radio. Rob was looking back, probably watching for Manny.

  Aiden bit his tongue as hard as he could. He quickly pulled open the major’s flak jacket and spit out the blood that had filled his mouth directly into the mangled mess of what had been the major’s gut. He pulled the body armor closed again just as Doc turned back to administer to his patient.

  Aiden didn’t know what to expect. He wanted Major Ward to open his eyes, to regain consciousness. Neither of those two things happened. He didn’t die, either, however. He didn’t die when Manny told Norm that somehow, through God knows what kind of foul-up, there were no helos anywhere in theater that could casevac the major. He didn’t die as they loaded him in one of the GMVs. He didn’t die as they took the long, bouncing drive back to the FOB. He didn’t die as they finally got him on a bird to the brigade aid station and onto the operating table.

  The word they received some hours later was that the major was going to make it. His injuries were not as bad as they had initially seemed, which got Doc to swearing that was bullshit.

  Aiden didn’t know one way or the other. The injuries had sure seemed bad at the time. Had he panicked and stupidly spit his blood into a wounded man, or had that blood somehow saved him?

  Chapter 31

  He’s still alive! Interesting, COL Jack Tarniton thought as he read the latest update. Maybe there’s something to this after all.

  That something was not just that Aiden Kaas was a werewolf. The colonel was pretty sure about that. What this might have proved was his personal theory that the same abnormalities that showed up in a were
wolf’s blood, the abnormalities present in Kaas’ blood, were the reason werewolves could heal so readily. And given the varied mythologies surrounding werewolves, it seemed that the blood could instigate a change in humans, to make them werewolves.

  SFC Douglas, or whatever his real name was, had reported the fatal injury suffered by Ward. The colonel had no reason to doubt that. The operative had come highly recommended and had come up with the method needed to give Ward a fatal injury, but one that kept him alive long enough for Kaas to have the opportunity to save him. That had been the reason he had ordered Ward to become Kaas’ friend. Kaas had to care enough about him to do whatever his kind did to humans.

  He had only briefly hesitated before taking this path. Ward had been a disappointment as he pushed back against his orders. He should have been grateful for the opportunity. Not many cripples were still on active duty. No one wanted a one-legged infantry officer. The colonel had made a mistake in choosing him, but the past was the past. Ward served his purpose. His injury has flushed out Kaas. The colonel was working for the greater good of the country, and if this was how Ward could serve, then so be it.

  Besides, he was going to make it through this alive. And if the colonel was right, he might even become a werewolf himself. The colonel would then have two of them, maybe the first two of many. Imagine what the Army could do with, say, a platoon of warrior werewolves dedicated to the cause?

  He wasn’t quite ready yet to listen to the siren’s call that kept singing in the back of his mind, however. What could he himself do, how far could he go as a werewolf? It was too alluring, so he pushed that question back until he could be more sure of the consequences of such a move.

  He still had work to do before that possibility could even be considered. He sat down to issue some orders. MAJ Ward was healing surprisingly fast and was about to be casevac’d to Landstuhl.[99] If he was getting better so fast, the colonel wanted him back at FOB Ballenstein with Kaas. Not before a blood sample was taken and sent back to him, of course. He had to see if the good major’s blood had been “lycanized,” a phrase he’d recently come up with—a damn clever term, if he did say so himself.

  Yes, things were going very, very well with him, he noted with satisfaction.

  Chapter 32

  Hozan was livid. Of all the stupid things Aiden could have done, this was right up there. He loved the young man like a son, but he was about ready to shift and take out the cub’s throat himself without waiting for the Council’s orders.

  “You just killed him,” he said to Aiden as his friend stood before him, wringing his hands. “It would have been kinder just to end his suffering.”

  “He was going to die. His gut was destroyed, and Doc gave him no chance,” Aiden protested.

  “But he didn’t die, did he?”

  “Maybe my blood did that? Gave him the strength?”

  “I told you about that at Fallujah. You gave me the English term: ‘The Xerox Effect.’ Remember? You’re a kreuzung, not a blood. You cannot change a human. You cannot be a patron. The seed that initiates the change gets attenuated, that is the English word, and will no longer work right.”

  “I know that, but I hoped that it could give him enough strength to make it to the aid station.”

  “Your blood did nothing to help him. Not even mine would work that quickly. What it did do is start your major on a long and painful path to death. Your seed does not know it’s corrupted, so it will try and force the change. The human’s body will fight it. If the human’s defenses win, which is what usually happens, the seed self-destructs, poisoning the body and damaging it, and he will die. If your seed somehow is strong enough to win, it cannot initiate the change, and the body destroys itself. This is what you did to him. You have killed him.”

  “But he’s getting better! I’ve heard the reports! He’s even coming back here to the FOB!”

  “Humans heal, too. And it takes time for the seed to manifest itself. In two or three weeks, your major will fall ill again as the seed and his body war against each other,” Hozan said, watching the pain spread over Aiden’s face as he realized what would happen.

  Hozan’s anger fled. Aiden was a good man, a caring man. He’d come a long way from the self-centered coward he’d been when he’d been bit. Hozan knew that Aiden’s patron, Omar Muhmood, almost assuredly had meant to kill Aiden but had been killed himself before he could finish the task. That was a lucky occurrence. Aiden was maturing well, and if the Council let him live, he would be an asset to the Tribe.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Aiden asked hopefully.

  “We can try to make him comfortable is all. You Americans have many drugs that can ease the pain, and we have opium. We can help ease his passing.”

  Aiden gave a wordless cry of grief and spun about, rushing to leave the pot shed where they’d been talking. Hozan didn’t follow. The world was not a fair place, and despite Aiden’s best intentions, he’d sentenced his friend to death. It was a cruel lesson, and one that Hozan hoped would not crush Aiden’s spirit.

  Chapter 33

  To everyone’s surprise, Major Ward returned to the FOB a week-and-a-half later. No one had expected to ever see him again. But then he showed up at the FOB LZ, stepping out of the Chinook, albeit a little gingerly.

  His battle rattle had been examined, and it was obvious that his flak jacket had been booby-trapped, which led to more suspicions as to the local ANA soldiers. This had the earmarks of a green-on-blue attack. The fact that the major had been singled out actually elevated him in the eyes of the soldiers and Marines on the FOB. No one knew what his and his assistant’s mission really was, but if he was targeted like that, it must be pretty important. And for him to come back to the FOB when he’d had his golden ticket back home, well, that was righteous.

  Aiden was in turmoil. He had killed the man, he knew. The major had been fucked up, to be sure, but he might have been able to pull through it. Now, he was a dead man walking. He went back and forth in his mind, wanting to take the easy way out and not say anything. When the major got sick as his seed warred with the major’s T cells, he could just stay quiet. There were enough exotic diseases in the ’Stan, any one of which could kill a man.

  An earlier version of Aiden would have done just that. But since he’d been bit himself, he had gone through a pretty significant transformation. As much as he wanted to stay quiet, he knew he had to inform the major, to tell him what was going to happen.

  He waited until the second evening after the major’s return. He and Spec Sutikal were in the DFAC when Aiden came in. With his food in hand, he stopped by the major, telling him he wanted to talk, before making his way to where his team was sitting.

  An hour later, he went to the major’s office. Sutikal was not there, to Aiden’s relief.

  “Uh, how do you feel?” Aiden asked, feeling stupid and clumsy.

  “Surprisingly well, thank you. The docs told me my recovery, my ongoing recovery, is something of a miracle.”

  “Is there any word on who did this? I mean who wanted to, well . . .”

  “Kill me?”

  “Uh, yes, sir, I guess so.”

  “No, not yet. DIA has my gear, and they are going all CIS on it. I’m in the dark about this. I may be the senior soldier in the FOB, but I’m not in command of anyone except for MT, uh, Spec Sutikal,” the major said.

  “Well, sir, it’s good to see you’re OK. We never thought they’d send you back to us here, though.”

  “You know the Big Suck, Corporal. It sends you where you’re needed.”

  Aiden laughed out loud at that. He’d been around enough soldiers to hear the Army called “The Big Suck,” but for an O to say it was unexpected.

  Then he sobered up. Where the major was needed was back at the FOB because someone somewhere knew something about Corporal Aiden Kaas, USMC, one each.

  “Uh, Major, I need to tell you something. I . . . I don’t know where to start. But it has to do with why you’re here. Abo
ut me, that is.”

  The major visibly perked up. Aiden still harbored slight doubts about MAJ Ward, that the major had been playing him all along. Having his gut blasted open, though, was real dedication if that was true.

  Aiden took a deep breath, then took the plunge. “Whoever told you about me was right. There’s something about me that you should know. I’m a werewolf.”

  Chapter 34

  Keenan stared at Kaas in shock. There, it was confirmed. He never really believed it, despite the colonel’s insistence. And now, deep in the frigging Hindu Kush, Kaas admitted it.

  “No shit,” he said quietly, but his heart was racing.

  “I know you don’t believe me—”

  “No, son, I believe you. That’s what was suspected, but until now, until you told me, I thought I was on a wild goose chase—we were on a wild goose chase.”

  “You knew? Others know? How much does everyone know?” Kaas asked, his voice rising in what could be panic.

  “Not much, Corporal. There have been suspicions, and then when your blood was tested—”

  “They took my blood? When?”

  “At Fallujah, when you were wounded. I actually looked into your case when you killed those three Al Qaeda in hand-to-hand, but your records were that you’d been sick, and according to our information, uh . . . werewolves . . . don’t get sick.”

  “Oh, about that, I was sick before, when I wasn’t one, when I was human—not that I’m not human now,” he added hurriedly. “Then I was bit, and when I got sick, that was the seed fighting my T cells, and—”

  “Slow down, son. ‘Seed?’ ‘T cells?’ Can you back up and tell me what happened?”

  “Sure, sir. And you need to know, ’cause I kind of did something when you were WIA.”

  The young man was obviously agitated, which Keenan put down to his reluctance to give information. But he started with being bit, back at Fallujah, by a varg, how the varg’s seed started a transformation in him, how he became a varg with the help of another, this one a blood, or someone born a werewolf. Kaas was a kreuzung, someone who had been transformed into a werewolf. Keenan wanted to ask more questions about that, but Kaas was on a roll and he didn’t want to interrupt the corporal. All of this was fascinating, and despite his initial dismissal of the existence of werewolves, he was eagerly digesting everything Kaas was saying as the corporal veered from one train of thought to the other.