Waxing Darkness

by Jose Luis Solorzano

Chapter Thirteen: Exposed

  Their paths have been linked.

  Accidents have taken place.

  All lies are shattered.

  It took Luis a full week of nightly training sessions with Luna and Victor for him to get used to being in his werewolf form. Luna was mostly surprised that her father had decided to help him with this in the first place, causing her to search for a hidden agenda behind his actions. Never once in her past could she remember her father doing anything for the good of her, only for her brothers. Her heart wanted to believe that this was his way of making up for all the bad things that he had done to her, but her brain found that too implausible to happen.

  At the beginning of December and Victor had finished his training of Luis. Although everyone felt that Luis wasn’t even close to being ready, Victor was going to have Luis do some patrolling of the city. Luna wasn’t too sure about how she wanted to feel about this new idea.

  “He said he wanted to be a werewolf, then he’s going to be a werewolf,” Victor told those who opposed his idea, which was Emily and, to Luna’s surprise, Phil. “I’m not going to allow him to think he can just skate by with his life now. I’ve talked it over with him and he said that he wants to help us in any way he can.”

  “And what if that vampire group that’s been killing everybody decides to show up on his first night out,” Phil asked. “He’s not strong enough to fight off a vampire yet.”

  “Just hold off a little longer dear,” Emily pleaded.

  “He says he’s okay with it, so there’s no reason why we should be arguing about this. He’s going to go out there tonight, and that’s final.”

  “We have every reason to fight about this,” Phil protested. He shot a look at Luna, amazed that she had kept quiet through the whole mess. “Who’s going with him?”

  “Luna,” Victor answered. “He seems to progress better whenever she’s helping him, and she needs to make up that time she wasted watched over his house.”

  “Then I’m going too.” Phil told him. “Someone has to make sure that these kids don’t get themselves killed.”

  Phil left the living room without giving anyone else time to speak. Luna did her best to hide her smile; this was the first time in a long time that she felt like someone in this family really care about her. She didn’t quite understand Phil’s change of attitude, but she truly appreciated his “kind” words. Luna was hoping to stay on his good side for the rest of the day; she had known that Luis would go on his first patrol mission tonight, so she had already invited Chelsea to tag along with them. Luna was hoping that inviting her wouldn’t cause too much trouble and hoped that Phil would be able to behave himself around her.

  Descending from the stairs was Rick, who appeared as if he had just gotten out of bed. Lately, he had been sleeping in every other night, which wasn’t usual behavior for a werewolf. Finals were coming up for the college students, so everyone assumed that he was studying one night and sleeping the next. That’s what his story was, but everyone knew better. Rick wasn’t studying so he could do well in class – grades weren’t too important to him – but he was keeping his mind off of other things.

  Although Rick was a year older than Luna, he seemed to have the personality of someone younger. Since the beginning of high school, he had a crush on a girl named Emma. He worked hard to have the courage to ask her out, but every time he built it up, it all seem to melt away at one point or another. He was enthralled when he heard that they were going to the same college, giving him some extra time to ask her out. However, Emma hadn’t returned to class after Thanksgiving break. All of their classmates that she became ill, but Rick knew better than to believe that.

  Emma wasn’t someone who would miss class over anything; he remembered that she was forced by school officials to leave the school officials back in high school because she had the flu and broke down crying, begging for them to reconsider. She was a straight-A student, so missing classes on this crucial point in their first year wasn’t a smart option. It was like she had disappeared completely from the face of the earth, or something much worse happened to her.

  Working was a distraction for Rick. He didn’t want to spend his time worrying about Emma because he would just eventually go crazy. He studied to keep his mind on other things and slept to escape reality. Very rarely did he speak to anybody, and he didn’t want to begin thinking about werewolves and vampires.

  Luna stayed in her room until well close to midnight, working on her essay for her English class. At best, she figured that she would get a “C” because she just didn’t care for the works of Jane Austen, no matter how much her teacher tried to persuade her otherwise. She still had two more weeks until the end of the semester. Every single one of her teachers was piling on the work, each one more ridiculous and excessive than the next.

  “Let’s go,” Phil said to Luna in a stern voice.

  Phil and Luna hurried downstairs and went to their backyard and changed. Phil stretched before he allowed Luna to lead the way to Luis’s house. The two of them jumped into the backyard, where they were greeted by Chelsea and Luis, both of them in their wolf forms as well. Phil stared at the extra-wolf, taking a little while to figure out her identity. Simply looking into her eyes were enough.

  “You don’t mind if I come along, do you,” Chelsea asked, her voice now very frail.

  “I invited you, so it’s fine,” Luna quickly answered. “Is that okay with you, Phil?”

  “As long as she doesn’t hold us back,” Phil responded, his emotions masked. “We’re going downtown, so that means we’re going to be running for a while. Are you sure that you two can keep up?” His attention was directed to Luis and Chelsea.

  “No problem,” Luis answered in a cocky voice.

  “I can handle it,” Chelsea told them, hoping she can keep her word.

  Chelsea had been changing into her wolf form more and more since Luis’s First Transformation. It was mostly because Luna and Luis would sneak around on the weekends and in the afternoons, helping out Luis in every way they could. Chelsea had become rusty, but she was slowly becoming better at it.

  “Let’s go then,” Phil told them.

  One by one, the wolves followed Phil out of the back yard and they ran into the street. There were no lights illuminating and no one was outside for any reasons. The four of them ran in a diamond shape, Phil at the front, Luis and Luna taking up the middle and Chelsea hanging close in the rear. The wind flowing through their coats, Luis was the one who was enjoying the sprint the most. Excited, he let out a mighty howl, but quickly ended it when Luna shot him a nasty look. The last thing they needed tonight was for animal control to come and search for a mad dog.

  Light’s life had completely changed in a flash. He couldn’t believe that everything would have the capacity to completely shatter in one night, all due to one person. Before, it was only a sibling grudge, but he truly hated Maka now. She had become the apple of everyone’s eye simply because she could fly. Light knew he was stronger and a much better fighter than her; he decided that he wasn’t going to aid her when she got attacked by enemies who were stronger than her.

  To occupy his time lately, he decided to start manipulating the new girl. Her case was very special. Most vampires don’t remember what happened to them right before they were bitten, but this girl was very different. She couldn’t remember anything at all! No one knew the reason why, but she couldn’t remember her name, where she lived, or anybody significant in her life. For all intents and purposes, they named the girl Norma, since it sounded so much like “no one”.

  Norma was older than Light, but that didn’t stop him from trying to make her his. Even with his distrust for Drake, they still shared many similarities. Norma was going to be his Alexis; a girl only there for his convenience. He didn’t love her, he didn’t have the capacity to love anyone, but he easily knew how to manipulate someone into thinking he did. Within days, Norma was wrapped around his finger. With her memory gone, Light h
ad become her rock, keeping her attached to reality and sanity.

  In the middle of the thirteenth floor, Maka was showing off how well she improved her flight abilities. Everyone seemed absolutely amazed by what she could do, performing flips through the air and floating in place. At one point though, Maka paused dead in her tracks. She wasn’t focused and began to fall. Karin saw this and hurried to catch her. Light let out a chuckle at the sight, Norma shyly joining in with him.

  “What happened,” Alexis called out, checking if Maka was alright.

  “Where’s Drake,” Maka called out in fear.

  “He’s out hunting, you know that,” Alexis told her. “Is something wrong?”

  “The howling!” Maka bellowed. “I heard it again. He told me to tell him when I heard the werewolves howling again. We have to go find him!”

  “No, you’re staying here,” Alexis told her. “You and Karin need to stay here. I’m going to take Light and Norma.”

  “Finally, we have some action,” Light exclaimed, as he avoided the elevator all together and began jumping down the stairs.

  The werewolves rested once they reached the outskirts of the downtown area. They paced the perimeter slowly, doing their best not to draw attention to themselves. Phil was leading the pack, doing his best to keep focused. They followed him into what appeared to be a deserted part of downtown. It was a bunch of old homes, each one looking as if they were ready to cave in at any second. No one roamed these streets during the nights, for legends spread that ghosts of serial killers and drug users haunted this area. There was even an arsonist who had foolishly locked himself inside one of the houses he was burning.

  “Be on your guard,” Phil said, letting out a low growl. “Can you feel them?”

  Everyone felt a strange feeling in the pits of their stomachs; a sense of nervousness and unease. It was built into every single one of them, to tell them that danger wasn’t too far away. Luis moved to the rear of the group, where Chelsea was also standing.

  The werewolves turned the corner and saw a car sitting in the middle of the street. The windows were tinted, but it was too new to have been here all this time. There were some muffled noises coming from the car, shaking from one side to another. The shaking stopped and the car door burst open. There was a shrill scream coming from the car as a woman, drenched in her own blood tried to escape.

  The woman didn’t make it too far though. A hooded figure came out from the car following the woman. He grabbed onto the woman’s throat and crushed it with his bare hands. The screaming ceased and the woman’s body never moved again. The hooded man threw the body to the floor as he began to drink her blood.

  Phil attacked the hooded man by tackling him, letting out a loud bark. The man was caught off guard, being taken down by Phil with ease.

  “Drake!” Phil exclaimed.

  Phil had obviously gotten a good look at the face of the man who was under the hood. It was one that he had seen many times in the past. It was fortunate for the werewolves that Drake was unable to listen in on the minds of those who were supernatural, but the rest of the pack could hear what he was saying. Chelsea and Luis had been filled in on Alexander’s group, but neither of them would have figured that anyone from the group would have attacked an innocent person.

  “Stop you idiot,” Luna called out as she saw that Luis running towards the body.

  Luis refused to listen though. He ran towards the vampires, ready to prove himself as strong as anyone else. As soon as Luis reached his body, something had stopped him. Someone else had attacked the oncoming wolf, saving Drake from a second werewolf at the perfect time. Phil and Drake had been struggling for a while, Phil trying to get a good chunk of Drake’s face ripped off. Drake channeled all of the strength he had and pushed Phil off of himself. As Phil tried to regain balance, Drake was already on his feet once more. Appearing behind him was a small group of his followers, including the one that had attacked Luis. Luna hurried to Luis’s side, making sure that he was okay.

  “You’re such an idiot!” Luna yelled at him. “Why did you have to do that? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Luis answered, his ego hurt much more than his head did.

  “Well,” Drake said in a cool voice, as if everything was perfectly fine, “it would seem that Maka’s powers are quite astounding. It took you all long enough to find us, didn’t it? Now, what to do with you; we can’t just let you waltz out of here without any consequences, now can we? Do you wish to commit to the same fate as Erika did when she returned to us?”

  It had suddenly pieced together inside Luna’s mind. “The killed her,” Luna exclaimed as they took their place behind Phil.

  Phil was examining the group of vampires, their faces exposed to the world. He recognized Karin and Alexis, but the others he had never seen. He zoomed in on one of the girls though, the one with the orange hair. He had seen her before, but not with Alexander. She stood timidly behind the rest of the group, obviously not ready to fight. It was her face that was very familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite pin point where he saw her from. He thought back to his brother, and then everything seemed to click.

  “It’s Emma!” Phil exclaimed, letting out a large bark at the vampires. “That girl who disappeared that Rick cares for so much. They got a hold of her.”

  None of the vampires had the ability to hear what the vampires were thinking, and the wolves avoided any eye contact with Karin. One look and they were done for. All the vampires heard was Phil’s loud barking pointed right at Norma. Her body began to shake behind Maka, too afraid to fight.

  “You’re not even worth the effort,” Drake taunted at the wolves. “I’m not going to settle for small pups like you. Consider this your only warning: This is our town now. Either you let us do what we were created to do or we will kill you the next time we see you.”

  Luis was ready to jump in and attack the vampires. He didn’t care if the cocky blond one that had taken him down in one strike, Luis was ready for anything now. Before Luis could make a move, the vampires ran at neck-breaking speed, evading their enemies for one more day. Phil swore loudly as he ordered them to return home.

  No one dared to cross Phil. At this moment, he had reminded Luna much of her father, not just in their physical appearance, but in their reactions as a leader. They ran in a diamond formation, everyone running with as much energy as they could muster. Humans can run at their maximum speed for six seconds at a time, but werewolves had the stamina to go much further much longer.