Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1)

by Stephan Morse

  I fell back on a hand to get away from the jaw. Grating tingled my senses as iron dug along the dirt. My free arm backhanded through the air again. This time things connected and Francis yelped. He didn’t back off. Desperation fueled each snap of teeth and each swing of claws. Both feet pumped trying to gain distance with awkward hops. Slobber spilled off of his jaws. The biting slowed down as my lucky silver strike started to hit home. Even Alphas disliked silver.

  Escape was impossible. Francis’ front paws kept catching on my ruined pants. Small, painful grooves were carved into my flesh with each lunge. There was something close by. I shifted direction enough to back up towards my jacket.

  My scramble paid off as I recovered my coat. The heavy fabric was quickly tossed over Francis’ head. He reared back and brought both malformed arms up to try and pull the coat off. Reaching above their heads was difficult for any wolf. Their muscles were built all wrong.

  Recovering only took moments and I scrambled to press my brief advantage. A beat in my ears went with each step. Moving inwards. Sliding up to Francis’ left. Capturing his arm with my right. Bumping his middle. Placing one foot behind his paws. I pulled on the extra strength available and hefted the wolf up and over.

  Startled whimpering signaled success. My jacket still covered his head. Francis’ legs and paws were kicking as he tried to right himself.

  Mine. Den wrecking life is mine. Dominate. Prevent misunderstandings. Below me. Beneath me. Fuzzy thing inferior. Dares damage family.

  Quickly I wove one arm under his. The other locked across his gigantic chest. My arms grasped together at the wrists and pulled the silver against his chest.“Shift or I’ll squeeze!” I shouted in his ear. Hopefully, it hurt. His struggling picked up steam. Warmth slid over my hands as blood seeped out from lines being dug into his chest.

  “Shift, you moron!” He flipped us over and gave a weak howl while still kicking. Unwelcome liquid and foam flung around the area while I hung on. Silver tore deeper grooves into his skin. Francis wasn’t the only one bleeding and what little strength I had was fading.

  Winning or losing depended on my ability to keep a grip. His struggles slowed, then stopped. Body heaving in deep breaths, tactile sensations picked up the spent give to his muscles. Aching, burning, losing strength. I loosened my grip somewhat.

  “Shift! Or I swear I’ll shove silver into your heart!” A ripple of my arms as I flexed the rest of muscles, demonstrating just how hard that squeeze could get. Then I felt him shrink under my arms as he collapsed. My jacket still covering half his form.

  I pulled my arms out and quickly replaced it with a curled fist to his back, silver side down. It didn’t take much persuasion to keep him peaceful on the ground. My other arm dug through my jacket pockets looking for the specially made cuffs. They slipped over his wrists. Once they were secure enough I eased up on my fist.

  “Sector issued.” I rattled the cuffs. “Don’t shift.”

  “I won’t.” He huffed then struggled to pull away from the dirt. I could feel the man’s breath as it curled out over the ground and was sucked back in.

  “Where’s the money, Francis,” I asked.

  There was a pause as I felt him strain a little against the restraints.

  “Wrong idea, Francis. Where is the money.” I put my hand to his back again. The blade side down and started to lightly drag across his skin. Small welts appeared displaying his body’s adverse reaction. This was the part they paid me for.

  I wouldn’t feel guilty for this. He would heal if I didn’t go overboard. Even the gouges on his chest weren’t irreversible.

  “Money, Francis. Focus on the money and I won’t keep going.” I paused for a moment, leaving my hand where it was, before starting again.

  “The hotel. It’s back in the hotel.” The cracking of his voice told me how bad it hurt. There was no pity for a man willing to screw his family over. Hell. I should double check. Those girls deserved good information.

  “You sure, Francis?” I trailed silver down another strip then dug in. Francis shook and weakly tried to buck me off. He weighed too little as a human.

  “Are, you, sure?” I asked again.

  “Yes.” It took a bit for him to say it. His body was shutting down. Wolves tended to shut down and heal when it got to be overwhelming. Hopefully. Julianne had said that I needed either Francis dead, and the money, or Francis alive, and a damned good excuse.

  Excitement slowly drained and my own huffing lessened. This had been a success. This target had been taken down by my hands. My target. All without help. I was seriously out of shape but not out of the game.

  Other senses retracted. The world around grew dim again, no longer as vibrant, almost lifeless. No lights came on in the area, and things still looked extremely dark. I went for the cellphone and called Julianne.

  “What’s up, Jay?”

  “Got Francis,” I said.

  “How is he?”

  “Comatose. But alive.”

  “Shame, and the money?” She asked.

  “He said the hotel room.” I gave her the apartment number that I had seen in person and my visions. Getting back in would be too tough for me now.

  “It’s not in there, Jay, we checked.”

  “Wait, we who?” I asked Julianne for clarification.

  “You think the pack or I would let you go without someone following?” She said. I paused for a moment and pressed the phone to my chest for a moment. Julianne hadn’t trusted me to solve this on my own? Typical.

  “He said it was there.” I wish I had brought a partner, or not screwed things up with Kahina. It was easier to have one person check for the items while I handled the face punching.

  “Hold on.” The phone clicked over to hold music for a moment then flipped back.

  “There were some others in the area, humans, the scent was all over, sound familiar?”

  “Yeah, three human morons,” I answered.

  She snorted. “Where were they when you left them?”

  “Out cold.” Only six or seven minutes had passed so far. Did they wake up and take the money during that window? Then somehow evade a wolf?

  “We’ll scrape something together on them. However, until the pack has that money back I can’t give you a cut.” Because of a couple of little human idiots I would lose out on a finder’s fee. That money had important things attached to it. Collection building, rent, food, a new pair of pants.

  “How about bringing him in?” I asked.

  “His life is the pack’s, money was the only thing I had any room with. Drag yourself back and I’ll set out a few drinks, but that’s all I’m offering.” She said. Even though my thoughts were ungrateful I didn’t want to argue with Julianne.

  “Fine, want me to sit on Francis?”

  “Yeah, you’ll have company soon. Look for Malcolm, don’t hand him over to anyone else.” She clicked off.

  “Bitch,” I muttered to a dead phone line. My vision was getting blurry. All that was left was riding this out until Malcolm showed up.

  Jacket pockets were emptied out and the clothing went over Francis’ nearly naked body. At least some remains of his pants had stayed intact through the shifts. They were nearly stretched beyond use. Sitting on Francis was a literal suggestion. If he woke up then my weight would prevent a lot of struggle. It would also hurt his back, which he deserved for making me miss the money. He was lucky I didn’t punch him some more.

  My mental switch was still somewhat functional. Kicking someone’s ass helped. What little light I had to see by was completely useless at helping me but the tactile sensation wasn’t lost.

  Minutes later the soles of feet slammed against the concrete. Not just shoes but paws. More than a few wolves were showing up. Six, maybe seven pack members. I unhooked my gloves and pocketed them. My hands slowly went up. A car rolled down the street towards us. Its headlights were blazingly bright compared to the darkness I camped in.

  The door cracked and someone ste
pped out. Medium height, nondescript build for a wolf, deeply tanned skin. He had a presence that assumed command but his looks were one step away from getting lost in a crowd.

  “Jeff, I believe?” He said.

  “That’s me, and you?” I asked.

  “Malcolm.”

  “Good, this is yours.” I stood up and grabbed my jacket. The action hurt more than it should. A majority of my wounds should be clotting. A dull ache was leftover as the adrenaline drained.

  “You seem a little off.” Malcolm’s voice was flat and emotionless as he studied me. There was a slight flare to his nostrils as he took in the air around him.

  “Wrestled a wolf, of course I’m off,” I responded.

  “That you did. Julianne said you would be able to handle it. Not sure I believed it of a lone human.” Another wolf padded up, getting too close for comfort. One of the others was sniffing the hell out of the ground where I had sat. There wasn’t enough light to make out what he was looking for.

  “Mama raised me right,” I said. Except for the likely vampire exposure in my childhood and the fact that I didn’t remember my real mom. “I’ll want the cuffs back.”

  The key was tossed at Malcolm. My exiting limp was pretty sad. At least Francis and the other pack wolves were behind me. Home was a ways off. I could handle it. It only took a few blocks for me to determine that resting would be better. Rolling up my pant leg revealed a lot more damage than expected.

  “Oh, Hell.” I winced, it had been easier to ignore the damage when I couldn’t see it. A lot easier. The fact that I walked off at all was amazing.

  I rolled up my shirt and looked. My torso was mostly okay. Arms hurt a little. The muscle strain I had put them through finally kicking in. My shirt came off very carefully and was bundled up to dab at various wounds. The damage seemed to be mostly surface ones. I would have to stay off my legs for a bit or the rips would never stop bleeding. That made getting home problematic unless I could get a ride and a lot of extra large band-aids.

  Maybe Julianne had a ride. Three calls to her phone later and I discovered she was either ignoring me or not there.

  I had wrestled down a wolf. What the hell had been going through my mind? This damage was completely deserved. Normal law enforcement measures involved guns with special ammunition and a pair of pliers. One to put the silver in, the other to take it out after their targets were cuffed. The fact that my last wounds had cleared up by the time I left the forest gave me some hope that my complexion wouldn’t get any worse from this. A busted nose was enough.

  The water fountain and my shirt were put to work trying to clean. Further searching revealed a few giant gashes on the sides that tore straight through a good portion of the muscle. I knotted strips of my shirt around the wounds and put the jacket back on. This would serve me until real first aid could be applied at home. Sleep was also desperately needed. My eyesight and mind whittled down to the path homeward. A path practically glowed in darkness showing me the way. Turn on this block, cross the street here, take a shortcut through some school playground.

  Along the way, my feet had stopped moving. Someone with slender arms still carried me forth. When had that happened? My brain was barely aware of the change in sensation as the speed picked up. Someone was carrying me along, and it was still towards home.

  “Left, down there.” I waved an arm towards a little alley that I wouldn’t know about on a good day. One that my mind lit up as a quicker route.

  “It’s okay, Jay, relax.” A female voice.

  I focused the best I could on the arms holding me. It felt awkward with her slender frame holding up a bulky man like me. Dark skinned, and that voice? Must have been Kahina. She had found me and was carrying me home. Not the first time the woman had come to my rescue. My eyes focused on the ribbon of purple that covered her wrist. There is where she had her first bite in the long process to shift to a vampire. It’s scar would never heal.

  Kahina had tried to kill me last time I was this damaged. I panicked and started fidgeting. Her arms stayed immobile. Vampire strength was too much to fight for a normal person and even I wasn’t able to make headway. My head was fuzzy. Perhaps I had lost more than a little blood.

  “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.” She never had. Never, except one time. One time without control where she scared me so thoroughly my self-image shattered. I had run away as a result.

  “Stupid, Jay, incredibly stupid,” She said. Tonight had been as much about reclaiming who I was, as it was about finding Francis’ money, for his family, to remove his debt. To deal with Kahina on top of it was unfair.

  “You wanted to protect me.” Her words were rapidly becoming background noise.

  Bits of thoughts passed through my brain, then stopped, and faded off into the mire. Everything got harder to concentrate on. More distance passed as she carried me. A shimmer of light rising in the east seemed to indicate dawn was close. Kahina shouldn’t be out in this, she should be finding a place before daylight overwhelmed her. Vampires went into a deep coma during the day.

  “But who will protect you?”

  Such a backward feeling. I was probably half again Kahina’s weight yet she was lifting me like it was nothing. Then I heard as much as felt the combination of buttons, metal gates swinging, a click of my doorknob. Crushed peppermint hung in the air. I was home. My eyes shut and left me with blackness even darker than the world outside.

  Chapter 12 – Adopted by an Elven House

  For the first time in four years, I found myself waking up next to a lifeless body. One listless hand was draped across me. My clothes were gone. There had also been nightmares of thieves invading my stash of goods downstairs. Any one of those would have been enough to make me jump under normal circumstances. I was exhausted, though.

  This location was dark but smelled like home. The scent of long-settled dust and a pleasant stillness had mixed with peppermint. It felt right. Kahina was out like a light, with the barest hint of a pulse. Her spirit had fled her body for the day.

  Vampire spirits left their physical bodies during the latter stages of the transformation. Scientist blamed it on an alternate state of awareness. Religion generally claimed their souls left to be one with God. Others said they went to repair the harm their kind had done to the world over the generations.

  No one asked for my opinion. My unique tracking sight had made it pretty clear that their glow of life was absent during the day. It only returned during sundown. Kahina’s spirit had done just that when I first tracked her a few weeks ago.

  Such thoughts kept me distracted as my legs were checked over. Fresh wrappings had been carefully bound around them. They soaked up blood from slowly healing wounds. Kahina must have managed to control herself or licked me clean. In another time and place might have been an intriguing experience. As it was, I needed to change quickly and get some air.

  It took a bit of fumbling to get downstairs safely. A new set of clothing slipped carefully over the bandages. I picked up a giant, black curtain and brought it back up to my front room. The thick cloth was hung along ceiling runners to further block out the light. Kahina would sleep better this way. Not that it was required. She had never cared about comfort while visiting, but I had, and still did.

  My legs itched like mad during the walk across a sunlit parking lot. Hopefully, that equated to healing. There would probably be some scarring or infection if the wounds weren’t cleaned again soon. Julianne might have something to help with that.

  I shouldered my way inside. One hand used the wall as a guide to stumble down the hallway towards Julianne’s bar counter.

  “Julie.” I tried to yell out, but half her name got stuck in my throat. My voice was still dry from waking up. There was also a growing sense of extreme hunger.

  “Jay? Shit, hold on.” There was a scramble in the back room. A moment later a flushed looking Julianne came out. I didn’t want to know why her face was red and pulse was racing. The fact that my mental senses we
re picking up how she felt was a huge sign towards my lack of self-control.

  “I need some food, drink, anything.” My hunger became more intense the longer I was awake.

  “Alright, hold on.” Her face was still slightly red from whatever she had been doing. Her shirt was off kilter and there were red marks on her neck.

  “Did I interrupt something?”

  “No, it’s alright. I’ll get you some food and drink, okay?” She said.

  “Please.” My head was pounding now. Exactly when was the last time I had eaten?

  “Here.” She got a glass of water. That was hardly the cure I was hoping for but probably better than my other choices. A beep echoed through another room. Ribs sat on a plate in front of me before I noticed time had passed.

  I ate it without question then rested my head against the counter as the food settled.

  “Jay, you okay?” Julianne asked. The noise I made in response could have come out of sheep with a cold. My eyes closed for what felt like a moment.

  “Wake up before you become a permanent bar fixture,” She said. I mumbled a response. It had only been a few minutes at most. “What did you say, Jay?”

  I tried to sit up and wipe away the drool. “Thought I already was.” What was the question again?

  “For the last few hours, but if you keep lying there you’ll scare away customers.” Julianne could be heard clicking around behind the counter. The sound was comforting.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “It’s okay, but go back to sleep, tell Kahina I said thanks for taking care of you.” My brain barely registered the tone of worry in Julianne’s voice.

  Staggering home was hard. The food and weariness were putting me right back to sleep. What she said finally registered as I approached my apartment door. How did she know that Kahina had been taking care of me? Never mind. After a nap those questions might be more important. I made the final trip downstairs and passed out again.

  For a fleeting moment I awoke. There were odd noises elsewhere in the house. First screaming, then banging, and finally a soft choking sob. Fatigue prevented me from leaving my downstairs bed. My mind listened, only half conscious, until finally silence spread through the building.