Werewolf Phenomenon

by Claudia Silva

  Dylan knew that his silence was betraying more than he wished, but he knew that not saying anything was better than the alternative. He knew he would need to reveal everything to Rebecca one day, yet that day wasn’t anywhere near. Not by a long shot. Telling these two nosy vampires the truth would only make things worse.

  “If you met her before then you knew she could be turned into one of us.” Jake pressed. “She’s special somehow, isn’t she?”

  “Sounds like it,” said Grant. “She looked like a natural fighter back there at The Pecan. For someone so young and inexperienced, she looked very experienced and lethal to me.”

  Jake added, “She supposedly was a dancer or something. There wasn’t any record of her ever being in the military or anything of the kind. So, how come she’s so good at it now? I mean, she’s only been at the agency a year… Or was she more than a dancer?”

  “She was just a dancer,” Dylan told them. “Could we please talk about something else?”

  “Of course not, Dylan, don’t be silly,” laughed Grant. “We are immortal. We’ve been alive for hundreds of years and all we have is this gossip.”

  “I truly hope you’re joking,” Dylan said.

  “Well… a little,” joked Grant. “Come on, my friend. Who is Rebecca Sawyer?”

  Dylan reached for his gun, pointing it past Grant. Both Grant and Jake ducked immediately, but when they turned around, they could only see trees in the darkness.

  “What is it?” Grant whispered.

  “Bear,” Dylan said. “Don’t move.”

  “I thought we’re supposed to get loud when confronted by a bear,” Grant informed them. “Right?”

  “Should we run?” Jake asked.

  Rolling his eyes, Dylan said, “So nobody knows how to handle a bear?”

  “Do you?” Jake asked.

  Dylan, his gun aiming at the animal, still pretty far away, shrugged his shoulders. “Werewolves, remember? I kill werewolves.”

  “Hush, it’s coming closer.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Just don’t-,” Grant began.

  “Run!” Jake said, running away.

  “-run.” Grant sighed, then turned to yell at him. “No! Jake, don’t run!”

  “Too late,” Dylan said, releasing the safety off of his weapon as the bear suddenly roared, starting to give chase.

  “Don’t shoot it!” warned Grant. “They’re protected!”

  It was the last thing he expected to hear. The black bear was approaching fast. Cursing, Dylan put the safety back on, his gun back in its holster. “Great.”

  With a loud yell, Dylan ran towards the bear, colliding with it at full force. The bear was mostly surprised, giving a loud yelp as the vampire took him by the ribs. Grant was watching both of them wrestle with one another when he began to yell incoherently. The scientist raised both arms as he tried to be as loud as he could. Eventually, the black bear let go of Dylan and quietly retreated.

  “What was that?” Dylan said as he massaged his neck.

  “I thought you were supposed to make noise,” Grant said. “I read it somewhere once.”

  “Well,” Dylan turned back the way the bear had disappeared to, “it worked.”

  “We now need to go find Jake,” Grant announced.

  “You’d think with all that schooling he would at least know not to run,” Dylan said.

  Grant began to laugh, patting Dylan’s shoulder with one hand. “I’ve missed this,” he said. “Life can get rather lonely on the island.”

  “Well, there’s always room for one more at the agency, you know that.”

  Grant pursed his lips, considering it. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had enough bloodshed to last a lifetime.”

  Looking down at his own bloody shirt, Dylan understood; for now, they just walked together thinking about all they had been through. All the time, Dylan thought about Rebecca; alone with a werewolf who claimed to be an ally. No matter what he told himself, he only hoped she was still alive.

  CHAPTER SIX

  REBECCA ALMOST DIDN’T recognize Alyssa when she showed up at the station in the early hours of the morning. The tall and beautiful vampire still wore her wavy, blond hair tied with an elegant lace behind her back, yet even when she still wore the same suit she had worn the evening before, her expression was completely different. Dark shades covered her eyes and her lips had lost all traces of lipstick which made her pale complexion look almost ill. No longer did she look regal and confident, she instead looked insignificant and sad.

  Alyssa had shown up in Room A unannounced, walking decisively towards William. Instead of a greeting or any kind of formality, she produced a device Rebecca recognized as a tracker scanner, using it to make sure William did not have any remaining bugs.

  “I took them all out,” Rebecca informed watching her comb the device all over William’s body.

  “A precaution,” Alyssa said. Carelessly, she let go of William, who looked confused by the sudden change in personality of this vampire goddess. Turning to look at him intently, she whispered in his ear, “You try anything and I’ll kill you myself, do you understand?” Quickly, she showed them another familiar device. This time, Rebecca knew it served to control the metallic collar that was still firmly secured around William’s neck. With her thumb over the small gray button, Alyssa warned, “I hope you don’t intend to find out what happens if I suspect you of anything.”

  “You can trust me,” was all William said, his hands raised as a sign of surrender.

  Alyssa narrowed her eyes for a moment trying to decide what her next move would be. “Let’s get out of here,” she finally said.

  Followed by William, Rebecca walked quietly behind Alyssa. They walked past the officers that had arrested them, past Lt. Myers and Lorna. Every single pair of eyes stared at them with interest; probably trying to decide what was going on. Fortunately, no one tried to stop them and once they were safe inside Alyssa’s car, Rebecca felt a sense of relief.

  For a moment she wondered in Alyssa would question her behavior in the police station. Part of her was waiting for the older vampire to chastise her in some way. The car started and they began driving back into the main road; it looked so different in the light of day, maybe even familiar.

  Eventually, the quiet became eerie. Rebecca dared glance behind her to see if William was still there. He had not made a sound, although his scent made his presence hard to miss.

  Not able to contain herself any longer, she finally asked what she had been dying to know, “Is Dylan all right?”

  Alyssa answered immediately in a monotonous tone. “We’ve not heard of him.”

  In the back seat, William listened intently; she wondered if he was as surprised as she was to find Alyssa so changed and detached.

  “You were lucky you left when you did,” she started after realizing Dylan’s whereabouts were still a mystery. Alyssa remained quiet, forcing Rebecca to elaborate. “I mean, it was only a matter of minutes before we were attacked, had you stayed longer and you would have faced the wolves.” Still no response from the woman beside her. She hardly seemed to be breathing. “So, uhm, is Scott alive?”

  How she hated saying the wrong thing when she fought uncomfortable silences. It was almost as if her mind accelerated and she didn’t know how to stop it.

  “Scott is dead,” Alyssa blurted out. “I went back to The Pecan right away; right after Lucius’ call and I found-”

  She couldn’t continue, her voice had begun to break and Rebecca was sure she was doing her best to keep tears from falling down her cheeks.

  “Scott saved us,” Rebecca said after a short silence. “He told us to go and he stayed behind. If it weren’t for him we would not have been able to board the plane and escape. We owe him our lives.” All through her speech, Alyssa listen. The tears finally betrayed her as she began to sob quietly. “Did you know him well?”

  “Didn’t you?” Alyssa sounded disappointed.

  Rebecc
a didn’t expect her answer. Scott had lived in the apartment next to hers and yet she had never exchanged but a few words with him. She had known he was a werewolf hunter, the first one she had seen the first day she had become a vampire. She remembered him well from that day. The elevator had opened and there he’d been, all covered in blood and mud coming back home from one of his missions. She remembered how like Dylan he had seemed to her that first day… and a vampire, the second one she’d seen.

  After that they had sometimes crossed paths around the underground complex; he’d been in the shooting range or running around the building in his sweats. He’d had a partner as well, Mitchell, a vampire much younger than Scott. Although they were partners, they didn’t always take on missions together. They were both males, single and preferred to work alone. Perhaps the reason why Mitchell hadn’t been present or invited to William’s interview.

  That was as far as Rebecca was able to produce in her mind when asked about Scott. Perhaps she should have talked to him more, socialized. It was too late for that now.

  “Don’t make the same mistakes Dylan did,” Alyssa told after another silence, “It doesn’t matter what you are or what we are, we are still people and we need to be able to talk to each other if we mean to survive.”

  Rebecca’s stunned silence was broken by a young male voice behind her. “I agree,” William said. “Without a human bond, we are nothing. No matter how many years we get to live.”

  Rebecca wondered if this interruption would awaken Alyssa’s wrath towards the werewolf. It didn’t. Instead, she took a deep breath and kept driving, keeping her thoughts to herself.

  It took a while before Rebecca recognized the road. They were close to the agency, she could tell, they would arrive in a few minutes.

  “You know Dylan,” she began, breaking the silence. “You told me not to make his same mistakes.” Alyssa couldn’t help but turn quickly in her direction, “You know him well, don’t you?”

  “Dylan is… family,” she said with only a little hesitation.

  “You knew him before he was a vampire?”

  “No.”

  Family. What a strange thing to say, Rebecca thought. She wondered if Alyssa meant this literally.

  “Do you know Anton, the vampire who made him?”

  “Anton is very dear to me,” Alyssa answered. “He turned a few years before I did.”

  “Did he make you a vampire?”

  For a moment Rebecca thought Alyssa was trying to decide what to answer. It took her a while, but eventually, she did, “Lucius made me.” Her forehead creased in confusion, “I’m surprised Dylan hasn’t talked about his family tree.”

  “Family tree?”

  How Rebecca thirsted for answers. Behind them, William was just as interested in learning these truths. Alyssa gave a glance through her mirror to look at him. “Another time perhaps.”

  Another time. No, she needed answers. Here was a source of information Rebecca couldn’t let go.

  “Are you a vampire hunter?” she asked Alyssa. “A werewolf hunter? What do you do for the agency, Ms. Stone?”

  “I do whatever makes Lucius happy, my dear,” she answered. “That or, whatever interests me.” Then, “Like I said, perhaps another time would be more appropriate for our conversation.”

  Rebecca didn’t want to stop searching for answers, but to her surprise, Alyssa was saved by the bell when they were interrupted by a ringing sound. The noise filled the car entirely. Automatically, she turned behind her as if she needed Will’s reassurance that he could hear it, too. Next to her, Alyssa reached to the car’s dashboard with one finger and answered the call.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “We found them.” Rebecca was almost certain that was Lucius on the other side. “Do you have Rebecca and William?”

  “I have them. We’re on our way, as instructed. We should be there in about ten minutes.” Then, “Are you sure you want William there?” She glanced to the back seat, narrowing her eyes. “Lucius, we will be exposed.”

  “We can always kill him if he betrays us, Alyssa, but I don’t think he will.”

  “He’s listening,” Alyssa said.

  “Good.” After a brief pause, the director of the vampire agency said, “We need to move fast. If the werewolves know he has betrayed them they will act quickly to secure the information they have kept secret from us. Dylan has the key, William the location. There’s no time to waste.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ll be waiting.” With that, Lucius disconnected from the call.

  “I can tell you where to go. I don’t need to go,” William spoke for the second time without being asked a question.

  Rebecca watched Alyssa glance at the werewolf through the mirror one more time. “If you want to join us, then you will do this.”

  “But, they’ll kill me,” he whispered.

  “Can you produce this information without your discs?” Alyssa asked.

  “Well, not all of it, but… I can tell you what I know. What I remember, and that-”

  “Do you want us to trust you?” the vampire asked him.

  “I do.”

  “Then you’re going to learn to trust us or this is never going to work.”

  Rebecca recognized the entrance to the agency’s grounds and was filled with relief. Patiently, she waited for the gate to open for Alyssa and felt the smooth pavement turn into the bumpy gravel that began the path to the old building that served as a facade for the enormous underground compound. It was a familiar place to her now; a place she could comfortably call home. Under the old, unkempt building, the thirteen floors of the high-tech vampire city awaited.

  William Woods sat behind the two women in complete silence. Rebecca heard his breathing, his heartbeat, deciding she still believed everything he had told them. For one, she believed he wasn’t a part of a werewolf conspiracy to take down the agency. In fact, she believed he wanted to do the right thing and was trying to escape from a race that focused on rage and destruction.

  She believed, yet deep down she was completely ready to reach inside William’s chest to retrieve his beating heart at any sign of betrayal. It would pain her, but she would do it and she would not hesitate. She knew where her allegiance lay.

  From a distance, she could see a figure being illuminated by the morning sun from the East. Dylan Torrence, her partner, waited for her outside of the agency’s main building. It was evident he had returned to the agency in time to change out of his bloody clothes. Feeling relief at seeing him alive and well, she found she still felt the same love for him even after having changed so much after having finally killed a monster. A lot had happened, yet seeing him alive and well reassured her she had made the right choice. This was where she wanted to be. With him, for better or worse. She hoped he felt the same.

  “There’s your lover,” Alyssa announced. “I confess I’m surprised he has grown so attached to you.”

  “Surprised?”

  “Oh, don’t take me wrong,” Alyssa said as she drove the car closer to the werewolf hunter. “I’m glad he’s found someone, at last. His feelings towards you feel real.”

  Frowning in confusion, Rebecca asked, “Has he mentioned anything to you?”

  Hiding a smile, Alyssa repeated, “We’re family. Remember?”

  It was too late to ask anything else. Alyssa stopped the car and Dylan opened Rebecca’s door immediately. With one hand, Dylan helped Rebecca out of the car pulling her towards him. She felt his warmth and felt secure around his scent. Whatever she had become and no matter how much she had changed, she was glad she would always have him to go back to. Nothing else mattered.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, their foreheads touching.

  She nodded, quickly, “I’m fine.”

  More than anything, Rebecca wanted to go to their apartment where she could tell him everything that had happened in private. He needed to know everything she had done and felt and thought. She wanted him to know s
he was now more close to being his equal than ever. She wanted him to love her more for it. She wanted him to be proud to call her his partner.

  Maybe the rest of the world didn’t matter, but he mattered. His opinion mattered.

  He was the exception to her new feelings.

  “Let’s leave the reunion for later,” Alyssa interrupted them. She had stepped out of the car, as well, and was opening William’s door. “I believe we still have work to do.”

  The couple could only agree, following Alyssa and William to the agency’s building.

  Rebecca felt the tension in the building as she and Dylan helped Alyssa escort William inside. The main hallway was, for the first time since she had arrived at the agency, over-crowded. She recognized most faces, although she knew only a few by name. These were the agency’s werewolf hunters. They had all gathered on the main floor and seemed to be waiting for something. The men, and few women, barely added up to a dozen and wore similar tailored suits ranging from black to a dark shade of blue. Among them, Mitchell, Scott’s partner. Like the rest, he turned to look at Will with contempt in their eyes, maybe even hatred. He wasn’t just the representation of their enemy, but the cause for losing one of their own. Rebecca wondered how much they knew about him to realize he wasn’t a threat and if they would ever understand he hadn’t meant for Scott to die.

  The werewolf hunters lined up against the walls as they made way for the four of them to reach their destination. Holding Will by the arm, Alyssa abruptly stopped in front of the open conference room.

  “William,” Rebecca heard the director’s voice before she could see him. Very much like the hallway, the conference room was filled to capacity; although not by werewolf hunters. As Rebecca was able to peek inside, she immediately recognized Dr. Grant Helm and Jake Anders calmly sitting down like they hadn’t just fought for their lives a few hours ago. Another vampire he recognizes was Anton Mayflower, Dylan’s maker, and her former torturer. She still had vivid images of their time together in that hell of a training field when she tried to prove her worth as a valuable member of the agency. Anton had had one job only, to break Rebecca’s facade and reveal her true nature against her will. No matter how much she learned of his true personality, she would always see him as an enemy; as someone not to be trusted. Right now, he sat to the right of the director of the vampire agency, leaning over to whisper something in his ear.