by Eva Brandt
Unlike werewolves, who can be cooperative with humans if not crossed, vampires regard all living creatures as food. The sole exception appears to be creatures of demonic background. (…)
Signed in 1966, the Demon-Undead Treaty of Rebellion against Humans (known as the DUTRAH) caused a renewed surge in paranormal-human hostilities, but was also among the factors that later led to the modernization and improvement of the PHP.
- Rashmi Guha, “Inhuman Creatures”, Smithsonian Magazine, February, 2018 -
* * *
Byron
I’d never admit it, but sometimes, I hated the fact that I was Xander’s Beta. I appreciated Xander’s trust and I valued my duty to him and to the pack, but at the same time, there were moments when I wished we were just Xander and Byron, and I could kick his ass when he made decisions that were too noble for his well-being.
Oh, I had no doubt that he’d protect our union. I wasn’t quite so confident in his ability to protect himself. We were fighting demons, and Xander had never truly gotten over losing his parents. He might’ve told us to be careful, but he was the one prone to recklessness.
There was nothing I could do about it. He was relying on me to fulfill my part of the plan, and I couldn’t disappoint him.
My team and I sneaked into the compound through a hole in the vampyr wards. We got lucky. No guards were nearby, although I knew better than to hope that our good fortune would hold.
Our original plan had been simple. Find Vladimir Popovic and take him out. Kill anything and anyone that stood in our way. Burn this whole place to the ground when we were done.
The capture of the hunters didn’t really change that. Vampires took prisoners all the time as food sources and we’d always known we had to look into it before we could destroy the facility. The demons on the other hand… Yes, that complicated matters.
Sniffing the air, I followed the tentative trace of human blood. It led to a massive structure surrounded by at least two dozen vampires and ten demons.
I hid behind another building and stared at my target. There was no way we could bypass the guards without receiving heavy damage. The undead alone would’ve been a threat, but coupled with the demons, they were an unbreakable barrier.
What to do? The guards had yet to notice us, but they would if we didn’t make our move. Other patrols were bound to come in from behind us. Should we retreat like Xander had advised us before we’d started the mission? It seemed like the only possible option.
Before I could order my team to do just that, the distant sound of a gunshot reached my ears. Every muscle in my body froze and for a brief moment, I could do nothing but mentally flail. I knew what that noise meant. We’d been discovered and the confrontation between Xander and the demons was now imminent.
My determination to not fail my Alpha banished my panic just in time for me to avoid disaster. I guided my fellow wolves to take cover and we scattered, hiding wherever we could in order to avoid being spotted.
As expected, at least three-quarters of the guards came rushing past us. By some kind of miracle—perhaps because they were so focused on the intruders—they didn’t notice us. It was a little strange, since three of the vampires were fliers, obviously a big threat. Their presence made me even warier about Xander’s fate and the future of this mission.
On the other hand, the demons had all stayed behind. That could only mean one thing. The reason for the demons’ presence was in that building. This was a good thing, since without the vampires there, it would be easier to take the demons out and keep Xander from confronting them.
Once I ascertained that the vampires were gone, I let out a small, barely-audible growl. “This is our chance,” I said to the others. “We will trust our Alpha and move forward. Take out the demons, quickly.”
My fellow shifters were all thrilled at having a shot to dig their fangs into demon flesh. The older wolves still remembered and respected Xander’s father and were about as happy with his death as Xander was. Sandra, the oldest female in my group, had lost one of her mates to the same battle where Xander’s parents had died. Leland had lost a pup, his oldest son. We were all in similar situations, and even those who’d been luckier empathized and understood the pain of their fellows. As wolves and as people, we embraced vengeance.
That didn’t mean I intended to take foolish chances with my team’s safety. Xander had trusted me to lead our group, even if I was younger than a lot of the people in the pack. I would not disappoint him.
It was not difficult for me to determine that, under the circumstances, a pincer attack would work best. Out of the fifteen people I had with me, I directed ten to go around the building and stand by. I kept the most experienced five with me. The six of us were least likely to die horrible deaths when we ran in to face our worst enemies.
They’d undoubtedly use their magic against us. It would hurt to attack them. But for the sake of our Alpha and our union, we would have to bear it.
Besides, it hurt far more to wait here when a part of me wanted to just go back and provide reinforcements for my Alpha. But I had made Xander a promise and I trusted him. He would be able to take down the vampires. If I let my heart get in the way of my judgment, I’d jeopardize the whole operation.
That was the second problem with being Xander’s Beta. Sometimes, I really couldn’t think as his second-in-command. I kept drifting into the mindscape of ‘lover’. But I couldn’t make that mistake today.
Instead, I waited, giving my people time to take their position. Once I was confident we were all set up, I rushed out of my hiding spot. The demons instantly zeroed in on me, just like I’d known they would. I didn’t even have to make a sound. My white fur was more than enough to draw their attention.
Having a white fur could be both a blessing and a curse for a werewolf. It was eye-catching, which could attract females and encourage mate bonds. At the same time, it was terrible for stealth and it always made our opponents focus on me.
I would’ve probably been dead at age ten had the moon not kept an eye on her children. Sheer necessity and the desire to survive made us faster than most other wolves. We didn’t have innate extra gifts, but our instincts responded to the threat by constantly increasing our speed. It was almost funny. We became bigger threats because a simple visual difference turned us into targets.
The demons were probably not aware of these details, but they did know the reputation of all white wolves. It was not at all surprising when the creatures immediately started to call out, “The white one! Get the white one!”
“Kill it! Don’t let it touch you!”
Fire bloomed at the demons’ fingertips, lighting up their faces and making them look even more evil than they already did. Five fire blasts flew in my direction. I dodged the first three, and then shifted into human form. The change in shape gave me just enough room to avoid the other two, although one of them grazed my side.
I gritted my teeth, ignored the pain, and summoned my wolf once again. Fortunately, the wound hadn’t been very serious, and my advanced healing factor managed to deal with it without too much trouble. It only slowed me down a fraction of a second, which was a good thing, since the demons were already preparing themselves for their second volley of attacks.
My team hadn’t been hit so we didn’t hesitate and continued our assault. It was even tougher now that we were closer, but we only needed to keep their attention on us for a little while longer.
Of course, that was easier said than done. One of the demons let out a deafening bellow and a ball of flame the size of his head manifested between his extended palms. When he projected it toward us, the sheer increase in temperature singed my fur and made my wolf flinch, even if it didn’t actually touch me.
Everyone in my team ducked for cover, but I didn’t bother. Instead of moving away, I moved forward, using the demons’ own actions against them.
The massive fire ball struck the ground a few feet behind me, and smoke, dust and debris rose around me
like an ominous veil. Demons were immune to smoke—a side-effect of their powers—but not to the rest of it. I jumped over the first demon in my path, narrowly avoided being impaled by a massive splinter of rock, and landed on the second demon, determined to take out the threat to my union.
Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t have managed to do much on my own. The demons might have projected their magic and thrown it at us, but its latent power still lingered around them. The air was barely breathable, the ground was scorching hot underneath my paws, and my skin felt like it was going to peel off any moment now.
When my claws slid into the flesh of the demon I’d targeted, the sharp tips melted and snapped at the temperature. The moment I buried my fangs into the creature’s throat was even worse. Liquid fire seemed to course through my body and for a few seconds, I was convinced that I’d pushed myself too far and I was going to die here.
I didn’t. My recklessness—the very same thing I’d criticized Xander for—had paid off, allowing the rest of my team to emerge from their hiding spots and attack the demons from behind. Granted, despite the distraction I’d created, it still wasn’t easy for us to take down our enemies. But I didn’t die a horrible, fiery death. The other nine demons whom I hadn’t stupidly tried to turn into chew toys found themselves attacked from two different directions by two separate groups of enraged wolves.
The battle soon turned into a chaotic episode that came very close to rivaling my worst nightmares. The intensity of the demons’ magic increased more and more, although they didn’t try the big fire blast trick again. Maybe it was a one-shot thing and not all of them could do it. Either way, it only helped us up to a point, since they didn’t need all that range to hurt us.
Had things been different, we would’ve probably lost. Werewolves didn’t exactly excel at fighting fire magic and demons had claws and fangs too. But the element of surprise gave us the upper hand, and in the end, we were victorious.
By the time we were done, all of us were breathing hard and in so much pain we could barely stand. Still, there were no fatalities on our side and the demons were all dead, so this part of the mission was a success. Now in human form, I leaned against the door of the building, flinched when my burnt skin made contact with the metal, and hoped like hell we wouldn’t run into a similar threat inside.
“Come on,” I told the others. “We still have some humans to save and their leader to take out.”
“Joy,” Sandra muttered. “I fucking hate demons.”
“You and everyone else, Sandy,” Leland replied, “but you gotta admit it’s satisfying as fuck to take them down.”
“Can’t argue with that,” she answered.
The exchange gave us all a brief respite, enough for our healing factor to kick in and heal at least some of our wounds. Two of my men were too seriously injured to continue the attack, so I left Sandra with them and told them to head back the way we’d come. By now, Ulysses would’ve probably realized something was wrong and would have reinforcements waiting. The hunters would also be nearby. The wounded should be able to evacuate safely.
I didn’t have the same certainty about myself and the rest of my team. As we entered the building, I half-expected we’d get ambushed or attacked the same way we’d attacked the demons. No such thing happened. In fact, the corridor was completely empty.
“Something’s not right here,” I whispered. “Be on your guard. This isn’t good news.”
It wasn’t a warning my team needed. They sensed the impending danger as well, and not just because of the emptiness of the building. There was just a general feeling of wrongness permeating the air, something stronger than anything we’d ever faced before.
Considering the fact that we were just coming off a confrontation with ten demons, that was saying a lot.
We didn’t let that stop us. Slowly, but surely, we advanced through the building, following the same scent of human blood I’d identified earlier. We had to go down three corridors and look through five empty rooms before we finally found something. When we did, we almost wished we hadn’t.
Our unfortunate discovery wasn’t even a human being per se, but rather, what was left of one. The body was in pieces, and the only reason I could identify it as having belonged to a human was the remnants of fabric I could spot on some of the bigger pieces of flesh. They looked like scraps of a hunter’s uniform. I remembered Alan Lee’s desperate plea and felt anger surge through me. One more unnecessary loss, one more life wasted, one more family torn apart. Unforgivable.
Three ghouls were gathered around the hunter’s remains, devouring what little was left of the body. They were the perfect target, a convenient way I could use to exorcise my fury. Slow and stupid, the ghouls didn’t have a chance against an angry werewolf, especially not one like me.
I burst into the room, not bothering to shift for this battle. I preferred fighting in wolf form, but my reach wasn’t always the best and I couldn’t use my claws as efficiently as I did in my humanoid shape.
The ghouls lifted their heads from their meal, blinking stupidly at me, as if they didn’t understand what was going on.
I probably should’ve felt at least a little bad at ending the lives of three beings who didn’t have the ability to process what they were actually doing. They weren’t the ones responsible for their actions. Their creator was. To top it off, there was a good chance that they hadn’t been the ones to kill the hunter at all, since ghouls weren’t really a match for experienced fighters like the ones belonging to Alan Lee’s unit.
At that moment, I couldn’t have cared less about details like that. The ghouls might not be the true culprits behind this crime, but they were here, defiling this corpse. That was enough for me.
I tore through the three creatures with the same savagery they’d displayed toward the dead hunter. It took me less than a second to rip off the head of the first ghoul. A red haze descended over my mind as blood splattered all over my face, hot, fresh, but poisonous.
Snarling, I reached for the second ghoul and buried my fist into its chest. As I tore the creature’s heart out, I looked around for my third victim. Unfortunately, it was no longer there. The rest of my team had already dealt with it, and it now lay in a puddle of blood at Leland’s feet.
“Feeling better?” Leland asked, arching a brow at me.
“Not really,” I answered, disgruntled. “I’ll only feel better when we find Popovic and make him pay.”
Trent knelt next to what was left of the hunter and sniffed a disembodied hand. “Odd,” he murmured. “This hunter isn’t the one whose blood we sensed. And… I think this body might’ve belonged to a male.”
Frowning, I picked up the barely recognizable hand one of the ghouls had been snacking on. Almost instantly, I realized Trent was right. There were always subtle differences in the blood of males and females, no matter what species you were dealing with at the time. “Alan Lee mentioned more than one hunter. His sister may still be alive.”
Trent nodded and got up. “I think this one must’ve already been drained by the time they brought him here and they probably had some other purpose in mind for his body.” He grimaced as he took in the sight of the disembodied limbs once again. “Or maybe they just wanted to eat him.”
“Let’s keep looking. Even if we’re not in time to help the huntress, there must be other humans here.”
I very much doubted the guard outside had been solely for three ghouls and one dead body. Their boss was still somewhere in this building and we still needed to find him. The hunter’s death sucked, yes, but in the big picture, we had to prioritize getting rid of the threat.
As we continued on our way, we ran into a few more groups of guards. We took them out without too much trouble. There were no more gruesome scenes of undead feeding on barely identifiable human remains and the only two demons we had to fight weren’t as much of a threat as those outside. The simple fact that we were making such good progress filled me with apprehension.
When it came to undead, there was always a catch. The damn creatures were more slippery than the blood-splattered corpses they liked to snack on. Vladimir Popovic would’ve never let his guard down like this, not if he didn’t have some other trick up his vampiric sleeve.
I was both right and wrong.
We’d just taken out a small contingent of revenants when an explosion shook the building. The lights in the corridor flickered and shadows started dancing around us, pulsing and vibrating in a pattern that almost made them look alive.
Trent’s eyes widened as he took in the odd display. “What the fuck is that?”
“Shadow magic,” I replied. “This is bad. Very bad.”
I didn’t know a lot about shadow magic. It was one of the Lost Arts, known only to demons and some ancient vampires. No werewolf was allowed to even consider learning such things. Lost Arts could corrupt anyone, and werewolves weren’t an exception.
But there was one thing I did know, one thing that was universal for all magic. Every single enchantment had a source. Passive spells like wards were a little trickier, but that particular rule was valid even for them. The range of a spell tended to be limited to a caster’s line of sight and shadow magic was no different. Logic stated that we, as well, should have been able to see the enchantment’s source. We didn’t and that couldn’t be good news.
“We need to move. Hurry.”
Whoever was casting this thing needed to be stopped. There were some rituals in this world that were fouler and darker than all the ghouls I’d killed put together. I didn’t need to be a mage to realize that what was going on now might just be one of those rituals.
My fellow wolves realized this as well, and when I raced ahead, they ran after me. All thoughts of self-preservation were set aside. Some things were just more important than others and demonic rituals were notoriously destructive. The spell that had led to the eruption of the Vesuvius had been fire-based. Shadow magic could do far more than that, which meant that our whole pack—not just the people who were inside the base and involved in the operation—was in danger.
