“Nothing is certain. Many will die in the coming battle. I hope you are not one of them.”
With that comforting sentence she spared the boy a final glance and was gone. He died seconds later. I didn’t know how much blood she needed to survive, but either she preferred to take it from the living and this victim was no longer any interest once he was too far gone, as he had been once we’d finished talking, or she was already satisfied. Or perhaps she hadn’t gone in search of more prey at all, perhaps she’d gone to contact other vampires, or maybe even mourn Vince. After nearly a year she was still a mystery.
I sighed and started walking aimlessly. I hadn’t really expected help from the vampire. I’d had to do something though. After the nightmare I couldn’t sleep. Lizzy needed me. So I’d gone to find Lady Sarah, knowing I had to tell her about Vince as well as Lizzy, and received neither comfort nor knowledge for my troubles. I was hoping Lady Sarah might have at least given me something to go on, like where they might be holding her. Perhaps she didn’t know herself.
I had one last hope of finding them. Aughtie had been in the dream. It had been so realistic I didn’t think that was a coincidence and that could mean only one thing. She was a Slayer.
I’d been surprised that she’d been in the dream and now I’d realised what it meant, I couldn’t help feeling shocked that she was one of the Slayers. It made sense though; that was why the wolf had been so scared in that first English lesson if it already knew, and why she’d been the hunter in that one nightmare that had triggered the change. It must have come across her that first full moon and recognised her scent. I just hadn’t thought they’d be anyone I’d know. In my imagination they’d always been shadows in the darkness with no names or faces, as if they were the monsters, not us. But if I was going to help Lizzy, I didn’t have time for shock.
I went to the same deserted part of town I’d used before and changed to wolf form. Then I ran back to the school, not caring who saw me. If the Slayers found me first I’d force them to take me to Lizzy. I didn’t think they’d shoot me on sight. They’d passed up too many chances to kill me, which could only mean they wanted me alive for something.
When I reached the school and broke my way into the English classroom, I touched the wolf part of my mind, tentatively at first, afraid it would take over and start to hunt. I could feel the instincts there and I used them to help pick up Aughtie’s scent. It took a while, since I’d never tried anything like this before, but I found it easy enough in the classroom, though I felt uneasy there. I felt like I was being watched. It was like Aughtie spent so much of her life there, her presence could still be felt, even when she was miles away. I lost the trail in the corridor outside and couldn’t pick it up again. Growling in frustration, I left the school and searched the grounds. There was no hint of her in the car park or on the field, and I realised she’d probably left by car. It was useless. I had no way of tracking her. After crossing the field several times I was ready to give up, when I heard someone behind me. I started to turn when something smashed against my skull and I fell to the ground, unconscious.
When I slowly began to regain consciousness, my vision was slightly blurred, probably something to do with the blow to my head. Judging from my other senses, I was lying on a hard, cold metal floor, which I was soon to learn made up the base of a small cage, only just big enough for me to stand and walk five small paces from wall to wall as a human.
The cage was in a large room, which I guessed from the reinforced walls and doors was some sort of compound, and it seemed the walls were soundproof since my sensitive ears couldn't pick up any sounds beyond the room I was locked in. Probably so the public can't hear the screams, I thought bitterly to myself, knowing who my captors must be. Lizzy was probably nearby, for all the good that knowledge did me. I couldn’t do anything for her while I was stuck in a cage.
My vision had not completely cleared, but I became aware of human scents within the room, and with the wolf’s help, could pick out five males, each holding a piece of metal which I knew could only be a gun. So someone had placed guards around the room, more than I’d seen with Lizzy in the dream. Either the dream hadn’t been accurate or they were afraid of me. I was willing to bet on the latter. The number of guards seemed a bit over cautious, though I couldn’t blame them if they’d seen first hand all the damage I’d caused. Still, it was a shame they’d chosen to exercise so much caution, as the guards would complicate things when it came to escaping. But I wouldn't give up so quickly. There had to be some way out, some weakness somewhere, and I'd find it.
I stood silently, able to see properly again, and took in as much of the dimly lit room as I could before the guards noticed I’d regained consciousness. The guards were stood with their backs to me as if they were waiting for something. I could also make out a thick metal slab along one wall with chains built into it. Some sort of torture device? Or was it used for some kind of experiment? I realised there was a dark stain on the floor around it. Blood. It was too old for the wolf to learn anything from the smell, but I guessed it was from another undead, maybe a werewolf or maybe something else. I couldn’t know if the room had been specifically adapted to hold werewolves or whether they were all like that, built to hold almost anything.
Having learnt as much as I could from my surroundings, with no way of knowing where the compound was, or how far from home or the nearest town I was, or even whether it was day or night, I leaned forward on the bars, hoping to learn something more from the guards before anyone else came into the room.
But as soon as my hands touched the bars a burst of electricity jolted through my body, throwing me back against the wall with a yelp, and filling the room with the smell of burning flesh.
Two of the guards looked around and smirked, but the others were more disciplined and didn't even flinch. Grimacing, I looked at my hands and saw the skin had been burnt off, though it was nothing a quick transformation wouldn't heal. Then I remembered I’d been a wolf when they’d caught me. It seemed I’d transformed back to human at some point. I hadn’t even known that was possible while I was unconscious, but I was wishing I’d have stayed in wolf form. Two transformations without feeding in between had left hunger ravaging my innards, so powerful it was nauseating. While I had the chance I started to change, concentrating on my hands. I watched as they healed over, hardening into paws, and then reversed the transformation. I wondered why I wasn’t being electrocuted on the metal floor, until I noticed the plastic casing round the base of the bars. So I’d learnt I couldn't break out through those bars, something that had obviously been taken into consideration when designing the compound. There was no window, no other weak points that held any possibilities. It didn’t look like I was going anywhere soon. Damn.
I was contemplating my fate when none other than Aughtie herself walked into the room.
She swaggered over to the cage to taunt me. I watched her with hungry eyes, feeling my tongue slide out, wanting to taste her sweet flesh, dripping and wet with blood. But I couldn't harm her while I was behind bars and she knew it.
"So we meet again, Nick," she said.
I didn't answer but met her gaze. I didn’t let on that I couldn’t remember the last time we’d met outside of school, when there’d been no pretence of who either of us truly was. Since I’d been in wolf form when they caught me it meant I was naked in front of her, but it didn’t bother me like it would’ve when I’d been mostly human, and I no longer bothered to cover myself.
"I hope the accommodation is to your liking. It’s such a challenge to keep any of your kind captive, but I feel the electric door is a nice touch, a stroke of brilliance if I do say so myself,” she said, gloating at her own masterpiece.
“Shouldn’t you be out teaching Shakespeare somewhere to someone that cares?” I asked. Maybe it wasn’t wise to goad her while I was at her mercy, but I couldn’t help it. She was my English teacher for God’s sakes; she didn’t belong in this world, in this war. But then, ne
ither did I. In many ways I was still just a kid, even though the curse had forced me to mature faster than other teenagers. I hadn’t known what I was asking for when I’d wanted to be one of the monsters. And now I was one for real and all I wanted was my humanity back, though I knew it was too late for that. Even if someone freed me of the curse, I’d already become a killer. And there’s no going back when you cross that line.
“Teaching is what I do for a living, but this, this is my great purpose in life.”
That statement didn’t inspire me with much confidence. It seemed I was dealing with yet more insanity. She really believed it too, I could hear it in her voice. She really thought her crusade as a Slayer was what she was meant to do, why she was put on the planet. She droned on for a bit about serving God, ridding the world of evil, and something about being chosen to be a leader of this great army. I soon lost interest and gave her the same treatment I’d have given any teacher in any situation. I switched off. My blank face was turned towards her as if I was listening, but no one was home. I hid somewhere inside my skull and watched a few of my own fantasies while her voice washed over me, a few of them involving her screaming in pain. My mind was still reeling slightly at learning the leader of the Slayers in the area was my English teacher. It felt like something out of a B-movie.
When I thought she was going to go on forever I said “Oh please, God doesn’t give a damn, otherwise why would He suffer us to exist in the first place? Okay, so some guy wanted to be a hero and put humans back at the top of the food chain, so he created his own little army to kill us all off and make the world a better place. That’s all down to humanity. God had no part in it, if He even exists. Besides, I didn’t think you believed in God. From the way you go on at school, I thought you worshipped Shakespeare and all those poets you go on about.”
She didn’t seem to know what to say to that, but I’d succeeded in angering her.
“You know nothing of us or our history. If you knew, you would not talk about the first of us with such disrespect. That’s what this generation needs. Respect. Yes,” she whispered the last, a dreamy look passing over her face, before she pulled herself together. “But enough of this, there is time for idle talk later. We know you are gathering an army for some kind of last stand. Werewolves alone can walk in sunlight and we believe you are the last. So your army needs the cover of darkness. Give me their daylight resting places and we will release you, unharmed.”
I said nothing. Even if I had known any more about the army the vampires were supposedly gathering, I would not have betrayed them. If the Slayers had gone to such lengths to capture me for questioning so they could massacre our army while they slept through the day, then they must be growing desperate. They must have felt we posed a real threat to them if they were trying to avoid meeting us in honest battle. So they’d wanted me alive to put a stop to the battle, but as soon as they learnt I didn’t know anything I had to assume that meant I would no longer be of any use and they would just kill me. I had to be careful not to reveal how little I knew, or my cage would quickly become my tomb.
“How many are there?”
I stared stubbornly at a brick in the wall just above her head, trying not to give anything away.
She sighed and I wasn’t sure if it was in frustration or to do with pleasure. "I didn't think you'd be so cooperative to begin with. But what if I told you we have developed a cure for the curse? Think about it, Nick. You can walk away from all this; go back to your human life, a normal teenage boy again. They need never know you betrayed them and they'll no longer be a threat to anyone after we've finished with them."
She was lying, I could see it in her eyes. Still I said nothing.
She sighed once more. "If that's the way you want it to be then fine, we'll do this the hard way. We have other ways of making you talk. I will break you if it comes to that. And one way or the other you will tell me everything, then I will force you to watch as they all die."
"And afterwards?" I asked, undaunted, finally breaking my silence.
"Let's just say I've got something special in mind," she whispered so that only I could hear. Raising her voice again, she commanded "No food unless he talks!"
She was about to go but then, with a smile, she added "I'll visit you again when you're in a more talkative mood. No food is just the beginning, think on that."
With that she swaggered out of the room, leaving me alone with the guards and my thoughts. Watching her go, I noticed she pressed the palm of her right hand onto a small panel before the door opened. So if I did find a way out of the cage I'd need someone to get me out of the room. Were the guards authorised to open the door or was it restricted to their superiors? Surely they'd have to change over at some point, but would someone escort them through the compound or could they come and go freely? I hoped they'd be able to open the doors, because even if I somehow broke free of the cage, the chances of someone like Aughtie being in the room at the same time were minimal.
I sank to the floor. No food. To a werewolf that was the worst possible torture and Aughtie knew it, especially when I could smell prey just beyond the bars of the cage. I wasn't sure exactly what effect starvation would have on me, or even whether I could die of starvation or not, but I remembered that one winter night without feeding that had left me as weak as if I’d been starving for months. Granted I’d been eating little, but the wolf had still fed when it was allowed to roam free, other than that one night. For some reason after the two transformations that night I’d been captured I was much stronger than the last time in winter, but I knew if I didn’t feed soon I wouldn’t have the strength to change and that would make it harder to escape. And even if starvation couldn’t kill me, I knew enough about myself to know it would exact a heavy toll upon my mind if nothing else.
Did anyone know I was missing yet? Were the police looking for me? Or did the Slayers have enough hold over them that there would be no search party, no rescue from the authorities? I wondered what they’d told my parents. Maybe my body would turn up days later from some tragic accident and no one would ever know the truth. The thought didn’t give me much confidence. I didn’t want to die there, at the mercy of the Slayers. They could just shoot me through the bars and there was nothing I could do about it. I hated that. If they killed me I wanted to go down fighting, not caged and powerless to even defend myself. Maybe it was years of bullying, but the thought of being at anyone’s mercy awoke the anger. And I knew if I was going to escape I needed that anger, but not yet. I had to save it, let it take over when the time was right, and if I let it grow strong enough I’d be beyond pain.
Maybe the vampires would realise I was missing and help get me out, but until then I was on my own. If they came at all, which I knew I couldn’t rely on. Would they risk their lives to save mine? We were allies, yet I realised we hardly knew each other. Lady Sarah remained much of a mystery. Sometimes it was easy to forget Vince was a vampire. He was just another one of the guys. But both of them had been around for centuries and I’d barely scratched the surface. They’d told me a bit about themselves but I didn’t know enough about them to call them friends. I’d trusted them because I’d had to, there’d been no one else there for me once I’d become a werewolf. It had been nearly a year and I still wasn’t sure whether I could count on them or not. Of the two, Vince was probably more likely to want to bail me out than Lady Sarah, I felt. And then I remembered Vince was dead. If I failed to get out on my own, Lady Sarah may be all that stood between life and death, my last hope. Another comforting thought. I was doomed.
So, no food, that meant I was stuck in human form for the time being. I couldn’t waste energy transforming needlessly, and as I’d already accepted, I might not even be strong enough after a couple of days. I had no idea how quickly the hunger would weaken me. Perhaps the full moon had made it worse last time, I just didn’t know. Or maybe it was the fact I’d barely been eating in between the full moon nights whereas more recently I’d been feeding well
. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became of how that must have something to do with it. It was only logical.
Regardless, I didn’t completely understand the way my body worked. Biology had been hard enough to understand to begin with, thanks to Brewins, without the complication of being a werewolf adding to that. The transformation I underwent every month should have been physically impossible, so God only knew what happened inside my body since I’d turned.
Somehow I was betting I only had one chance at escape. If I failed they’d either kill me or they’d take greater security precautions. No doubt they’d kill me eventually, once they knew I was useless to them, it was just a matter of time. With that cheerful thought, I closed my eyes and let sleep wash over me, saving energy for when I would need it. I’d come up with a plan at some point, but until inspiration struck I might as well get some rest. At least I tried to tell myself that. My mind was blank and I knew I was probably fucked.
The first thing I was aware of when I awoke was the hunger. It had long since passed the point of becoming unbearable. The guards were no longer another obstacle to overcome, after the electric bars of the cage. They had begun to smell like dinner. I listened to their hearts beating and dreamed of their warm flesh between my teeth, their blood running down my jaws. I groaned while my stomach gurgled and tried not to think of food. After a while I slipped back into sleep.
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