From the outside, the old Anglican church didn’t look like a good place to raise a pack, not to mention their elf hanger-on. But, upon entering Trudie’s new compound, I was impressed.
The interior had been cleaned up, with the walls now being decorated with photos and paintings of the packmates. Senegal and Ari. Pranish and Trudie. And a lot of group activity photos. Many of them posing over dead monsters. I was in quite a few, becoming an immediate focal point thanks to the flaming coat.
Where the church altar had once been was now a reception desk. And, behind it, a photo of every packmate. Trudie told me that it was good to remind werewolves about their humanity. And their family.
Manning, or should I say elfing, the reception desk was a bored-looking Ari. Her blood-red bangs had grown longer during her stay in Hope City and were covering one eye. Her exposed purple eye shimmered as it reflected the computer screen that she was idly using.
I’d hoped for Senegal to be at the front desk. Or Pranish. Or any old intern.
It wasn’t that I disliked Ari. Far from it. But I struggled to interact with her. I had thought her time away from the War Court of New Sintar would have humanised her. Allowed her to embrace peace. But, it seemed that you could take the elf away from the court, but you couldn’t take the court away from the elf. Ari was a blood-thirsty hunter, taking to the work of the Crusaders with a professional glee. That was something I did understand. The joy of the hunt was contagious. But, for Ari, there were only three things in life: the hunt, violent comic books, and her werewolf boyfriend.
I hoped that the latter would help her integrate more into human society. But, for now, it was hard to talk to her when the others weren’t around.
“Hi, Ari,” I said, putting an extra cheery note into my voice as I approached the desk.
“Commander,” she replied, inclining her head. She never called me by my name.
From close up, I could see that Ari was wearing another superhero t-shirt. Her Crusader monies were drained quickly as she invested in superhero related merchandise.
“Green Arrow?” I asked, taking a stab in the dark. My superhero knowledge wasn’t the best. I preferred sci-fi.
She nodded. Silence. Not the best receptionist. Probably why Trudie put her there. My friend loved to challenge people. Or, she was just terrible at delegating.
“So…” I started, trying to break the silence, just before Ari sat up straight, placing some curved elvish blades on the desk. It seemed she had been sharpening them under the desk, out of sight. Athena! Definitely not the best receptionist. Well, at least they were out of sight.
Ari looked me in the eyes. I would have balked at her deep purple eyes, but I remembered that mine were blue and hazel. Couldn’t go judging people on their eyes now, could I?
“Commander,” Ari said, sternly. “Why are you so reluctant to commit to raids against this Necro Lord?”
Ah! So that’s what’d been eating at her.
I sighed. “Have Trudie or any of the others filled you in on what happened the last time there was a Necrolord in Hope City?”
Her blank stare revealed that they hadn’t told her.
I leant against the desk. My coat hummed, as if asking permission to consume the table. I didn’t grant it.
“Years ago,” I started. “I worked with the police to fight a necromancer warlord. The strategy used was a combination of rudimentary intelligence gathering and then almost random raids on seemingly soft targets. These warehouses, factories and strongholds were, in fact, filled with traps. While we shut down parts of the Necrolord’s empire, it was at huge human cost.”
Ari didn’t look moved.
“I thought that raids being a bad idea was self-evident,” Trudie said as she entered the reception area from a door at the back. She had a towel on her head but had already put on a black t-shirt and jeans. With her werewolf hearing, I wouldn’t be surprised if she heard me enter while still in the shower.
“Why, Alpha?” Ari asked, still genuinely perplexed. “Probing targets, dangerous or not, is a prudent course of action. There will be costs. This is acceptable. But we cannot just run from the enemy and lose the initiative.”
Trudie shook her head. “What if the cost was you?”
She puffed out her chest. “I’d be willing to die for the cause I have chosen.”
Completely sincere. And Ari knew what death entailed. Yeah…the War Court was strong in her.
Trudie bit her lip, trying to think of a response. But I didn’t think that anything would sway Ari on this.
“Regardless, Ari, you’re getting your wish. We have committed to action against the Necro Lord’s empire. But, with better intelligence gathering this time. And we get to help with the planning. No more police sending us into the woodchipper.”
I hoped.
Ari nodded, satisfied. Trudie frowned, and then beckoned me to follow her into the backroom.
“She reminds me of me. The old me,” Treth said. He didn’t sound proud.
Trudie closed the door behind us and led me to a side room. It contained two beat-up couches and a watercooler. There were dog bowls laid out on the floor. Great Dane sized.
“You’d think,” Trudie said, collapsing onto one of the couches, pushing up some fluff, “that between an elf and a pack of werewolves, the elf would be the voice of peace.”
“She seems to have embraced the War Court even more strongly than she did in New Sintar,” I replied, sitting opposite her. My coat asked to eat the couch. I said no. Trudie noticed the flaring of the coat and tore out some fluff from the couch, tossing it onto my coat. It flared up on the fluff, then hummed contentedly.
Trudie contemplated my words and nodded, sadly.
“She lost her people. Perhaps, embracing her culture is her best way of remembering them? Well, I suspect you aren’t just here to talk about my ill-chosen secretary. What’s up?”
“Can’t a girl just want to chat with her best friend?”
“Of course, but I’ve known you long enough, Kats. I don’t need my werewolf intuition to know you are here for a reason. A reason other than a cordial visit, that is.”
Trudie’s eyes flashed gold, for just a second. Not anger. More a latent excitement. Since her transformation and her inclusion into the Crusaders, she’d felt a sense of belonging she hadn’t felt before. And me giving her something to do was part of that.
I fished into my coat pocket and retrieved the vial of abnormal blood. Trudie’s eyes narrowed as I passed it to her.
“A weird snack? I’m a werewolf, not a vampire!”
“Werewolves also like blood. Well, some of you. But please don’t eat it. That’s some blood from a case I’m on. Found at the scene. Cindy ran a test on it and we can’t find any matches.”
Trudie shrugged. “Typical. Most people aren’t on any database we have access to.”
I shook my head. “Not just that. We can’t determine what species it is. Let alone an individual.”
Trudie creased her forehead. Now, that was something she hadn’t expected. Blood tracing and analysis was usually fool proof. Blood held power. The essence of a person. Of course, without a true name it could only give us so much information and power.
“I was thinking,” I continued. “That you could give that a sniff and see if anything pops up on the scent front?”
Trudie opened the top and gave it a sniff, before closing it.
“I’ll keep a nose out. And I’ll let the Gibson twins have a go at it. It’s good to keep them occupied.”
“Do…” I inclined my head at the dog bowls. “Ever speak?”
“They’re out of the compound, so you can speak normally,” she assured me. “But no. Not in human form, at least. Gareth found them in wolf-form, cowering in an alley in the slums. They weren’t attacking anyone, but his alpha-aura wasn’t working on them. So, he called me. They came when I asked. So, they’re my pups now. Mute or not.”
“You said they don’t talk in human form�
�?”
Trudie nodded. “They’re awfully chatty when they’re wolves. I can’t get them to shut up. And like any sufficiently creepy twins, they complete each other’s barks.”
“And…are they integrating?” I didn’t want to press too deeply. While Trudie’s pack inevitably served with the Crusaders, they were still Trudie’s pack. I felt that they were under a different chain of command and didn’t want to step out of line.
Trudie nodded. “I think so. And Pranish has been looking into werewolf literature. They evidently had a traumatic transformation. Perhaps even a traumatic human life. But, they aren’t showing any risks of going rogue. If anything, they are more obedient than Senegal.”
“And definitely more obedient than the non-wolves in your court.” I grinned.
Trudie rolled her eyes.
“I’m not sure who is worse. The elf or the wizard.”
“I’m sure Pranish makes up for his unruliness in other ways.”
Trudie smirked, mischievously. “Oh, he sure does.”
“Ew! I meant as a wizard. Ugh, he’s like a brother.”
“Not to me.”
“Evidently.” Disgusted at the thought of my two childhood friends having relations, I stood and stretched.
“Got a hunt?” Trudie asked.
“Inevitably. But also need to get things for dinner at Cins tonight.”
“That’s nice. It’s almost as if you’re normal. I have to go pick up some raw beef for the twins.”
I bid my friend farewell, and left, hoping that her wolves would be able to find something with the blood, while I returned to the twin drawing boards of what to do about golems and necromancers.
Chapter 12.
Cats
It was a blessedly quiet day in Hope City and no hunt was sufficiently dire that I needed to be deployed. Gone were my days of eliminating lone zombies aimlessly walking into swings. Now, if it wasn’t a horde or an abomination, I got the day off. Neat. That left me plenty of time for an activity I truly wasn’t experienced at – grocery shopping.
“What wine does Cindy drink again?” I asked, meekly, while in the booze section of my local shop. My coat was extra feisty today and was constantly reaching out towards the spirits.
“White?” Treth offered. “Wait, no. Red!”
I bought both, just in case. I didn’t even try to guess what type of beer I should get Guy! That was Brett’s job.
Then I bought cat food for Alex. I wanted to bring snacks, like one would in my student days, but this wasn’t some house party. This was a dinner party! An adult dinner party. We hadn’t had any of those since Guy and Cindy had gotten together. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever had a dinner party with anyone other than the Davisons. And that was just a family affair.
I had to admit, I was excited.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed some of the more wondrous parts of my life. But there was a peaceful normalcy in the idea of just having dinner and drinks with some of my closest friends that just felt right. And if Cindy insisted on catering for all of us, who was I to stop her? I didn’t even know she cooked.
Even though I was told not to bring any food, I still bought some mint chocolate. Cindy liked that!
Finally, with the shopping done, I drove home, ignoring an argument between a disgruntled driver and a bunch of gnomes by the roadside. Despite this, I missed a turn and caught myself heading towards the Crusader HQ. My mind had been automatically heading there. But that wasn’t home. Not anymore. I turned up another street and came face to face with a tall, white apartment building. Dawnwhite Heights.
My new home.
With my monster hunter athleticism, the broken elevator was no real hurdle and I carried my load up to the fourth floor where I got a sense of deja vu. Alex was meowing happily on the other side, saying hello. And I remembered…
“Just like the old days,” Treth whispered.
I smiled. It was. And, for all that was going on, opening the door to a place that was my own, shared with someone I loved, gave me immense joy.
“Hello, Alex!” I cheerfully exclaimed as I put down my groceries on the kitchen counter. My cat purred in response, weaving himself between my legs.
“Are you excited to see the pixies tonight?” I asked, talking in an appropriately babyish tone.
Alex blinked and meowed. It sounded simultaneously tentative and excited.
The pixies and my cat would never admit it to me, but they liked each other. And I took Alex on playdates to Duer’s kinth whenever I could. But Alex also seemed to appreciate the peace of Brett’s and my new apartment.
And new it still was. I noted that some of the shelves still had sheathes of plastic sheeting over them. My books were still in cardboard boxes.
Alex meowed again, clawing at the grocery bag.
“Okay, okay!” I replied, retrieving a can of premium cat food for my little boy and opening it with my seax. Who needs can openers when you have blades?
Alex danced around me as I deposited the food into his bowl. When it was sufficiently full, he jumped onto the counter and began munching away. I leant back. Not tired, but in a way, contented.
“Something is different,” Treth said.
“What?”
“Back in the day, you’d have been too tired to put the food in a bowl.”
I smiled. Things had changed. My exhaustion wasn’t so obvious now. Back then, I didn’t find sleep hard. My body was more tired than my soul. But now, I had an army doing my job. And that left my mind to wander.
I left Alex to his feast and made my way to the lounge, where I fell heavily onto the couch. Plastic covering still on, of course. Brett and I wanted to unpack the apartment together, as a sort of ritual, but our times seldom gelled. I did notice, however, that there were punctures in the plastic already. Little claw marks.
“Alex seems to be enjoying the place more than we are.”
“This is one of the few times you’ve been here without going to bed almost immediately,” Treth commented.
I frowned. Treth was right. But things had just been so busy lately. And it didn’t seem like I’d be getting any real reprieve. After dinner tonight, it would be back to the golem case. And, when the new Montague gave the word, we’d be after the new Necro Lord.
As I contemplated this, a now contented Alex came sauntering into the room, just to jump onto my lap and immediately curl up to sleep.
I patted him idly in silence, as I peered out of the balcony’s glass door, towards the mountain. Just below my field of vision would be the rooftop of Trudie’s new compound. And just beyond that, the Crusader’s HQ. We were very localised. I might as well buy up the block. Jane had suggested it.
“I wonder,” I finally whispered. “If I should talk to Candace…”
“About the Necro Lord?” Treth asked.
“She might be able to help, but…”
“You don’t want to distress her. To make her feel even more guilt.”
Treth was right on the nose.
“Are you sure you can’t read my mind?”
“Well…” Treth winked. “Maybe I can. A little. But I think you shouldn’t tell her. She paid the cost for her crimes, and she still does. Reminding her of her sins won’t help.”
“And if she knows something that could help us?”
“It’s not as if she needs to know the name of this copycat. She’s a Crusader consultant, is she not? You can contact her if you need to.”
“You know, Treth, you’ve become pretty good at socialising.”
I felt my ghostly companion blush. “Well, I’ve been getting more practice. But, don’t forget that I actually used to be alive. And human. I socialised then!”
“Sure, sure. But when you first got here, you were like so knightly and lordy-lordy.”
I said the last few words with a pretentious, posh accent.
“Har, har. Well, I was still reeling from dying. You could cut me some slack.”
I grinned. “Never�
�”
But my grin wilted quickly, as a glint in the window caught my eye.
“Kat?” Treth asked.
“Did you see that?” I asked, standing, and making my way out towards the balcony. I slid the glass door open, not taking my eyes off the mountain.
“What?” Treth asked.
“A golden light. Flying. Wait…”
The golden light sped up, and then shot down towards the ground. And disappeared. Right near the Crusader’s HQ.
“Did you see that?!” I asked, anxious to confirm that I wasn’t going mad.
Treth manifested next to me and rubbed his spectral eyes.
“I…I think I did. What was that?”
I turned on my heels and started running towards the door.
“Kat?!”
“I’m going to go find out! Watch Alex for me.”
I didn’t give Treth enough time to argue as I closed my front door behind me, not even locking it, and sprinted down the stairs, leaving scorch marks in my wake as my coat got overly excited.
I considered taking my bike, but getting it started would take too long. Instead, I went full tilt into a sprint, bursting outside and towards the Crusader HQ.
I didn’t know what that golden light was. But I knew that Treth had also seen it. And that meant I wasn’t just mad.
Something alien had just touched down near my kingdom, and I had to find out what.
I passed Trudie’s compound, startling Pranish as he helped Senegal unload some hunks of meat from his car.
Not even the werewolves had time to catch up with me, as I tore across the road, towards the alley where Brett had been mind-controlled last year.
In that split-second, my mind had second thoughts.
What if this was nothing? What if both Treth and I had gone insane?
But what if it was something even worse?
With all that was going on at the moment, should I really be going chasing golden lights?
Too late.
I burst into the alley, and my breath left my body as I suddenly stopped and took a step back.
Wreathed in golden flames, a featureless figure stood before me. For a moment. Then…vanished.
Cursed Earth (Kat Drummond Book 12) Page 11
