Katrina goes into her room, pulling the box from under her bed, and bringing it back to his room, holding it close as she sits. She anxiously nibbles on her lower lip, which is something she generally does when she’s nervous, or afraid to do something. Seeming unsettled, she wonders where to start. She knows this is all going to sound pretty farfetched to him. Hell, she thought it was crazy when she found out when she first phased.
“Okay, I have something very important to tell you, son.” She fidgets uncomfortably before continuing. Then she opens the box, pulls out the Polaroids, and hands them to him. He takes them and starts looking at them. He immediately recognizes his mom, and dad, but doesn't know who the other people are, and doesn't understand why there are pictures of wolves.
“Who are these people, and why are there pictures of wolves? Was Mom into wildlife photography?”
Katrina takes a long, deep breath.
“Well, those people were really close friends with your mom, and dad. This man is Lance,” she says while pointing at a brown-haired white man. “His last name was Averett.”
That name he knows very well; it's the name of the hero in all of the stories she told him while he was growing up. Then he remembers the chapter he just read, and sees the Asian girl, and a large black man. He wonders if these people are the characters in the story she has been writing.
“Like the Lance Averett in the stories you always told me? Just curious, but are these people who you based your story on?”
“Well, it's complicated, but the Lance and Alexandria story was based on this Lance's ancestor,” she says while pointing at Lance in the picture again.
“Wow, how does he feel that you made his ancestor into a werewolf?” he says while laughing slightly. Then he stops laughing when he realizes that she has a painful look on her face. The he realized that she said his name was Lance Averett. “Oh, I'm sorry, I just realized you said ‘was.’ What happened to him?”
“This is going to be hard for you to believe. So before I try to explain it, why don't you look at the next few pictures?”
He looks, and sees a group photo with his mom kissing one of the wolves on its head, and right on the other side of her was another wolf. What caught him off guard are the two tall werewolves behind her standing in silly poses throwing pretend gang signs.
“These werewolves are too funny,” he laughs out loud.
One of them is massive, and looks to be maybe eight feet tall, covered in black fur; while the other one is smaller, but still impressive at six feet with silver tone gray fur. They look so real, and the wolves look so tame.
“How did this picture get made? Did you use Photo shop to put Mom in front of werewolves? What movie did you get that from? I haven't seen one with werewolves like that.”
Katrina takes the pictures from him, and finds a group photo of his parents with their friends. She holds it side by side with the group picture of his mother, and the werewolves, and she points to the smaller standing werewolf, and the picture of Lance in the other picture.
“These were both Lance,” she says slowly.
Then she points at the tall black man, and the large black werewolf.
“These were both Clint.”
Then she points at the Asian woman, and the smaller wolf with the auburn colored wolf.
“These were Mya.”
Then she pointed at the wolf his mother was kissing, and the picture of his father, and Namon wasn't prepared for what Katrina said next.
“And these were your father.”
Namon looked at her in disbelief, not sure how to react before speaking. He lets out a nervous laugh as he starts thinking that maybe Katrina had been drinking from her “medicine” cabinet. She sees that this isn't working, trying to tell him this way, so she stands up and places the box down on his bed. Frustrated that he hasn't caught on to what she is telling him and his disbelief. She does the only think she knows will convince him. Her body glows white as her form shifts from human to White Wolf. Namon slides back further in his bed with fear.
“Get away from me!” he screams, as she moves toward him.
“Easy son; it’s still me. I’m not going to hurt you,” she tells him in his mind. She slowly walks toward him and gently nudges his hand with her snout before placing her forepaws on the bed beside him. She bows her head in a non-threatening manner on his lap. He reaches slowly, and pats her on the head.
“Um, I'm not a dog, you know,” she says exasperatingly.
“Sorry,” he says slowly. Puzzled he asks, “How are you talking to me?”
“That’s one of many gifts that White Wolves have. No matter what wolf form we are in, we can use a telepathic mind link. We cannot read minds, but we can hear thoughts directed at us, and project ours back.” Her body glows white again, and she phases back to human form.
His eyelids peel all the way back in surprise at all that he just witnessed, still trying to figure out if what he had seen was even real, or maybe he was dreaming. She composes herself, sits back down on the bed, and waits for him to speak.
“So all those stories are true,” he says.
Katrina rolls her eyes. “Duh, that is what I have been trying to tell you, silly boy.”
“So since Dad was a White Wolf, does that mean I'm the descendant of Lance and Alexandria?”
“Actually, no, you’re not.”
Now he looks even more puzzled than he already was. She can see the confusion on his face, and frowns, wishing this were easier.
“Your father Chase was not one of the descendants of the four Averett children,” she explains.
“Okay, then how is he a White Wolf? If they are all descendants of the four Averett children, then why are they different races? Are you one of the descendants?”
“Well thank you for the twenty questions, son!” she says with a slight laugh. “As far as how your father is a White Wolf and not a descendant of the original wolves, no one knows for sure how that happened, or why. There are supposed to be only four in existence from that bloodline at a time the first born of each generation. Chase does not share the lineage of any of them. Lance, Clint, Mya, and I are the descendants, so to answer your question; Yes, I am one of the original four descendants.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “As for why they are different races that happened due to several generations of the children mating with the local populations they were taken to after they were born. After so many generations, they would become the same race.”
“Where were they taken, and why?” he asks.
“Once they were born, there was a vampire named Cyrus Wilmington who wanted Lance and his legacy eradicated, since he was responsible for a lot of his plans being foiled. So the four infants were taken to different ends of the world to protect, and keep them out of his reach. One of the special abilities we all share is that we are undetectable to any form of heightened senses.”
“What happened to Lance and Alexandria?”
“Lance died during a battle with his nemesis Gilles. He sought out to destroy his legacy after he murdered Lance. So when he finally discovered the identity of this generation of White Wolves about twenty-three years ago, he was able to put a curse on them. Each of the White Wolves had a person they loved most, Gille's curse turned each of those people into creatures called Shadow Cats. This curse makes them the total opposite of a White Wolf, and made them very evil.”
“Like the panther in your story?”
“Yes, In fact, that panther was your aunt Marida.”
Namon's face turns into a frown at the disappointing news.
“Gilles didn't know that Chase wasn't one of the four descendants, so I got lucky with that curse. He thought your dad was one.”
“So what happened to them?”
“Well, during their final battle, they made the ultimate sacrifice. The way the curse worked is that when they became Shadow Cats, their life force was connected to the White Wolves. So if the Cat died, the wolf died, and vice versa. Gill
es’s used an actual piece of the White Wolves souls to that person they love. The Shadow Cats taunted them all the time by causing deaths of many innocents. Lance, Mya, and Clint killed themselves to automatically kill the Shadow Cats so that they could no longer harm anyone.”
“What about Dad though, how did he survive?”
“The curse was broken for him because when he met your mother, and she became the person he loved most, and he no longer loved his twin sister the most. Marida was jealous, and sought to kill her but Chase killed her first.”
“What ever happened to Alexandria?” he asked after a few minutes.
“No one knows. There is no record of what happened to her after the children were taken away. Last known record was when Cyrus had destroyed the sect where she was hidden.”
Katrina reaches into the box, pulls out Michelle’s diary, and hands it to Namon. “This should answer any questions about your parents from your mother's perspective. If you have further questions that you don't find here, I will do my best to help you find the answers, so do not hesitate to ask.” She leans in, and kisses his forehead. “Now you need to try and get some rest baby. You're going to be very busy tomorrow.”
“You will start learning the ways of the White Wolf from me at the church at St. Joseph. The reason everyone stares, and talks is because some are old southern women who will gossip over anything, such as the difference in the color of our skin because prejudice still runs deep, and others because they know your destiny, and are waiting for when I would finally tell you. Those who know are members, or family to the soldiers who protect the innocent. You see, son, when you turn eighteen you will become a White Wolf too” She gets up and leaves the room, gently closing the door behind her.
He lies there, and tries his best to sleep even though his mind is on overload from all the information he learned tonight. He feels emotionally drained, so much to take in but the fire begins to burn deep inside. The strength of his ancestors and his destiny which he has no choice in burns deeper and brighter with each passing moment. He decides he is going to be brave and strong even with the weight of the world on his shoulders, he finally falls into a fitful exhausted slumber.
Chapter Four
The morning sun rises, the light spreads over the park, and not a single bit of evidence remains from the previous night’s events. Bulldozers are already in place within the park, and the police have a roadblock set up keeping the public out. Protesters yell at the workers as the police let them pass so that they may begin their “work” others would call it, destruction. The first backhoe starts, and rolls slowly over to the gazebo. Its stabilizer legs plant firmly to the ground and the arm raises, ready to be lowered. Then the bucket is brought down through the top of the gazebo, making it collapse on itself.
One by one the backhoes start destroying small building that people used when they needed a break or to use the restroom, then the fountains, and even the playground. Tears stream down the protesters' faces as they watch the bulldozers follow behind the backhoes, plowing down the old gnarled trees which have been there longer than the people standing around, and whatever debris and rubble that may be on the ground.
In a nearby limo, Cyrus cracks a smile at the added bonus of the crowd’s emotional pain. Evil to the core, he feeds off the physical and emotional pain.
A mischievous creature stalks the hallway in Katrina's apartment, creeping around and staying out of sight beneath the furniture. Hunkering down waiting for an opportunistic moment to cause more mischief, the tiny creature hears footsteps and rushes toward the door that Katrina opens from inside her bedroom and exits. The creature rushes into her room before the door has a chance to shut and hides beneath the bed. It sees the vacuum cleaner in the corner of the room and lets out a chuckle.
Katrina sits on the couch and sets down a few old books between herself and Namon.
Namon stares at some of the book spines with wide eyes; Beastiary, Blood Stained Origins, and a few other books dealing with creatures.
“Okay, so let's start with the White Wolf history; Lance's birth through his death,” Katrina says with a smile holding a rather large book.
“This is going to take a while, isn't it?” he says looking at the enormously thick book in her hands.
She smiles and nods.
“Can't we just skip ahead a little bit? I mean, do we have to go through his whole life? What help is it going to be for me to know what all he did as a child anyway?” he asks. She raises an eyebrow and considers it for a moment after remembering how boring all those lessons and lectures she had to go through were. The real excitement happens when he grows up and becomes a hunter. She opens book and skips ahead in the book.
“So for every hero there is also a villain. In this case, the hero would never have become what he did if not for this particular villain. In the early fifteenth century there was a man named Gilles de Rais. At the age of eleven, he became the heir to the greatest fortune in France, and at the age of sixteen he greatly increased his net worth by marrying Catherine de Thouars, who came from a very wealthy family. Then at the age of twenty, he rode by Joan of Arc’s side and fought with the ferocity of the devil himself. Due to his fighting skills, King Charles appointed him Marshal of France. Gilles fell in love with Joan of Arc and became her own personal guardian, and after she was captured, tortured, and burned at the stake, he changed and went mad. He felt that God had betrayed Joan so he denounced God and vowed never to have sexual intercourse with another woman. After his fortune began to diminish, he decided to start practicing alchemy in the hopes of changing base metals like iron and steel into gold to regain his fortune. Eventually, he realized that he would need help from a darker source to meet his goal. So Gilles turned to Denominos.
“Who is Denominos?” Namon asked.
“He was one of three demons that form the triad who are offspring of Lilith.”
“Mother of all demons?” he asks as he recalls the lessons of Lilith from an earlier time.
Katrina nods before continuing to read.
“Gilles then sodomized and disemboweled close to 1,000 children in the name of Denominos, and most of them were little boys. He never did receive his fortune back, but after Gilles was executed, he was given something worse. Immortality; Denominos had turned him into the very first werewolf like you see in the monster movies.”
“Didn't Lilith give birth to the dragon Galamythe?” he interrupts again. She nods.
“Ouch, that had to hurt. There is no coming back from passing a dragon!”
She playfully pops him on the arm and pinches him.
“You keep interrupting me and I’ll make you start from the beginning without my help. So Gilles became a very powerful werewolf and used his newfound power to exact his revenge on the Catholic Church and their god. Before I continue, I need to point out something important. Gilles was the first of the monster werewolves that stands on two legs, but there have been werewolves in existence for a long time even before vampires. Those particular werewolves are called skin walkers and can only shape shift into a four-legged form. The skin walkers aren't evil, though. They are no more evil than an average human or wolf. Their wolf forms are a little bit larger than normal wolves, depending on the skin walker. The monsters you see in the movies that are like a cross between man and monster, the two-legged beasts, all originate from Gilles. So you see there are three types of werewolves: the monsters made by Gilles, the Skin Walkers and the White Wolves.”
“So what's the difference with Skin Walker's and White Wolves?” he asks.
“It’s the powers that White Wolves have. Skin Walkers have to go through a long painful transformation with their bodies shifting and changing form. We just basically leap into our form, it’s instantaneous. Plus we have a few other abilities that help us when we fight.”
Namon listens intently, now holding his questions for when she is finished.
“As you know, the Averett family was one of the strongest bloodlines of
hunters, but Lance became stronger than most because his father Abraham was a hunter from a different bloodline.” She notices Namon starting to get a little bored, so she skips ahead a little bit. “Lance was very successful in his endeavors, and he even was able to destroy the vampire Kano that was responsible for his birth parents' and his adopted families' deaths. Lance married a beautiful woman named Ellemera who Lance did not know at the time was one of Gilles's escaped servants. Lance unknowingly made an enemy out of Gilles by marrying her, and on their wedding night Gilles murdered Ellemera right in front of Lance. There was a great battle between them, and Gilles outmatched him and was toying with him. Once he tires of playing with him, he dragged Lance two miles to the church where he had just wed Ellemera and put their bodies together on the altar. Gilles bit into Lance's throat at that moment and left him for dead.” She pauses.
“What happened next, no one knows why, or how it happened. Was it the will of God? Was it the fact of Lance’s strong blood changing the werewolf curse in him? No one knows, but Lance didn't become a monster like Gilles. Instead, he became the very first White Wolf.”
Katrina shows Namon the picture of a drawing where Lance held Ellemera's body in the center of the church with the full moon light shining upon them through a broken window. He looks at the picture intensely, and suddenly, flashes of the past enter his mind. He looks on at Lance as if he was actually there, and he sees him holding Ellemera and crying out. Then he sees Lance's body phase. He glows white and his form is replaced by that of a bipedal werewolf with a grayish silver fur covering his body. The werewolf is grief stricken and howls at the window. Namon snaps out of it and looks at Katrina, confused at what just happened.
“Did Lance have grayish silver hair in his other form?”
Katrina now looks at him, puzzled.
“How did you know that?” she asks.
“I just saw him phase as if I was there. It's hard to explain, but when you showed me the picture it was as if I was there. I could smell the blood, feel the cold breeze coming in through the broken window, and I could hear his cries and his howl. How was I able to do that, Katrina?”
Blood Stained Lives (The Blood Stained Saga Book 1) Page 4
