Vanilla Moon: Acrimony

by Airiel Hawkins

  I looked up at Cynthia as she walked into the library. "How many people do we have who can fight?" I asked.

  She gave me a shrug of her shoulders. "Sixty?" she guessed. "We'll have to pull an exact number to be sure, but it's at least that."

  I did the math in my head. Based on the information we had, I knew that there were at least a hundred Witches in town. Divided between the ten houses on the list and map, it rounded out to ten Witches per location, which gave us six Lycans for the attack. While six to ten were still good odds for any Lycan, it would only help us if we caught them by surprise. If they have even a moment to regroup, we would experience even more loss than we've already suffered.

  I cleared my throat. "Gather everyone in the basement," I said. "I think I have a plan."

  They nodded before they left the room. Only Ceres stayed behind.

  "It's less than sixty," she said.

  "Is it?"

  She nodded. "There are thirty children here at the house, excluding Mira. Fifteen women are pregnant, excluding Bree and Selena. Six survivors are incapacitated. Five are doctors. Three refuse to leave the sides of their loved ones." She met my eyes as she finished the list. "You have forty-two, including you and me, and I already know that you want me to stay here and protect Mira. That's four to each house, which means you're outnumbered by more than two to one. The odds are bad, no matter how surprised they are when you attack. You need more people, especially if you hope to have anyone stay behind and protect the defenseless."

  "If I attack hard and fast, late at night…."

  Ceres shook her head. "It will not be enough," she emphasized.

  I sighed. "This is one of those things that you know, isn't it?" I asked.

  Every Lycan has an ability and a weakness. My ability is that I can recognize other Lycans easier than most. My weakness is that I can't smell what others do to identify Witches and Vampires and I've had to adapt. Ceres's ability is her knack for knowing things. She can't explain it, and neither can I. We have no idea what her weakness is yet.

  She gave me a nod. "Yes," she said, in the simplest terms.

  "I'll call the Vampires then," I muttered as I moved to the other side of the desk. I opened the drawer as Ceres stared at me in confusion.

  "What will they do?" she asked.

  I looked up at her. "It may be a surprise, but we're at peace with them," I explained. "Have been for decades. We all understood that it's more damaging for us to hate each other than it is to ignore one another. Earlier, after you left for the clinic, Clive and the Hirudo of the local kiss came by. Clive authorized Brenda's execution by any means necessary. The Hirudo also offered assistance. He's the one who gave me the map."

  "And we can trust him?"

  I shrugged my shoulders. "My father does," I replied.

  Like me, Ceres valued my father's opinion of a person. He's a great judge of character, so it didn't surprise me when she nodded.

  "Okay," she agreed. "Call them."

  I returned to my search for the book and found it in the upper left drawer, right under the phone. The most logical location for a list of phone numbers. The Hirudo's information was on the first page. I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and then we waited.

  They answered the phone on the fifth ring. "Conner, personal assistant to Dickon Jericho, Hirudo of Adamsville Kiss, speaking. With whom do I have the pleasure?"

  I cleared my throat and took the phone from the cradle. "This is Wolfgang, Volsunga to Vanilla Moon," I answered.

  "What is this call regarding, Volsunga?"

  "An offer of help the Hirudo extended a short while ago. I am calling to accept it."

  "I will inform the Hirudo and he will return your call. Will the standard number suffice or is there another you would prefer?"

  "The standard number is fine," I said. Conner hung up the phone before I could say anything more. I heard the dial tone sound before I set the headset back on the cradle. Afterward, I set the phone to forward all calls to my cell. This was one I did not want to miss.

  I looked up at Ceres. "I want you in charge of defense here," I said.

  She nodded. "I know," she replied.

  Chapter 10 ~Ceres~

  The basement of the house was enormous and capable of holding a hundred people without an issue. The labyrinth of tunnels and rooms was designed for security. The narrow entrance made it so that any enemy who found the basement would be hard-pressed to get through it to do any real damage. I marveled at the ingenious design of it. Wolfgang's family settled this city and, over the years, more Lycans came to join them. Somewhere along the long line of Enkidus, one decided that security was a necessity, so the Wolf's Den came into existence.

  The crowd in the basement was smaller now than it was two weeks ago when Leon stood on the platform to inform the pack of the threat. There were only a hundred people at the house now. Of them, half were too young or too pregnant. Most of the people gathered here were the ones who would risk their lives in a matter of hours.

  Wolfgang, the Guardians, and I stood on the stage. We waited for everyone to quiet down before Wolfgang cleared his throat and spoke. I watched their faces as he told them what happened, looking for that one face that would give away the traitor. Who, among these people, would sell out the rest of us?

  They betrayed nothing. They knew nothing. Each man and woman wore the same look of horror as Wolfgang explained what he discovered. He told them how Brenda turned our brethren into puppets to slaughter each other. He told them how she planned to leave us in pieces, and she didn't intend to stop until she destroyed every last one of us.

  He told them about the Hunter, Clive, turning our cause from mere vengeance to judge, jury, and executioners. He told them about the support from the vampires. Then, he told them the plan.

  It was beautiful in its simplicity. In the middle of the night, each group of four or more Lycans and Vampires would approach each house belonging to the Witches in our town and break in with as little noise as possible. Once inside, they would execute everyone there. "No survivors," he said. "Survivors only continue the war."

  I didn't quite agree with that, but I understood. We were survivors ourselves. We didn't run from this war, we embraced it; we inhabited it; we became it. I could kill a Witch without regard to who that Witch was as a person—good or bad; smart or ignorant; loved or lonely. None of that mattered to me when it came down to my life or theirs. This was just another of those moments. They agreed. Of course, they agreed. It meant that they could avenge their fallen comrades. It meant that they would have an outlet for their grief.

  "Ceres will stay behind with five volunteers to protect the children and pregnant women," Wolfgang said. "I request these volunteers step forward now."

  I saw the look on Selena's face that suggested she wanted to step forward, but she was pregnant. She was one of the people I would have to protect.

  At first, it surprised me that only women stepped forward. Then, after a moment, I realized that these women were all mothers or sisters, willing to cast aside their own lives to save the others in this building. As I looked at them, I realized how lucky we were that the Vampires volunteered to help us.

  He nodded to the women. "Thank you for your service," he said. "I also need a team of five to scout out the addresses of the Witches' known locations. I want to know which one Brenda is staying at. Scythia will lead this group.

  Luke and four others volunteered. Wolfgang made a note of who offered to go and nodded. "Be brief and precise," he said. "Be discreet." They nodded before Cynthia guided them out of the basement.

  "Now we wait," Wolfgang sighed. "Please continue with your day until I summon you again," he instructed. He started for the stairs and I followed him. He walked toward our bedroom and left the door open for me once he was inside.

  I closed the door behind me. "What about the traitor?" I asked.

  He sighed. "I don't know what to do about it," he confessed.

  "No one comes t
o mind?" I asked. He knew the pack better than I did, after all.

  He shook his head. "No," he said. "In this situation, we would look at the newest member of the pack first, but no one has moved here since you did. I know you're not responsible for this."

  "So then… who hates us this much?"

  "Us?" he asked. "Anica," he replied, confirming my earlier thoughts. "But that's just us. The pack has been her salvation for the last ten years. She wouldn't dream of betraying it."

  "Someone did this to us," I insisted. "It wasn't just the Witches."

  "We'll find them," he promised. "I just hope we do before they slaughter the rest of us."

  I nodded as he stepped up and kissed my forehead. "Your mom has someone on it," I informed it.

  He nodded. "I'm not surprised," he said. He stared at me for a moment. "How are you?" he asked.

  I shrugged. "I'm okay, given the circumstances," I said. "You?"

  "Far from okay," he sighed.

  I nodded. "Yeah," I agreed.

  Wolfgang sat down on the bed and ran his hands through his hair. His hair tie was still around my wrist, so I slipped it off and handed it to him. He put it in his hair as if he did it without even thinking about it anymore. When he finished tying his hair back, he let out a long breath and held his head in his hands. "Can today be over yet?" he whispered.

  I looked at the alarm clock next to the bed. It read 11:58 AM. It had been a little more than seven hours since they found Anica on the road. I slumped down on the bed next to Wolfgang and reached for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I hate to say it, but no," I whispered. I kissed his shoulder. "We still have a very long way to go before this day is over."

  He glanced at the clock and let out a small whine as if he couldn't believe that it was only noon. I moved to straddle his lap and wrapped my arms around him. I rocked him from side to side for a moment before his shoulders shook. His hands clawed at my back and grabbed fistfuls of the back of my shirt. He clutched me tight as he cried into my chest.

  My heart broke for him. I buried my face in his hair and felt tears of my own fall from my eyes. I wanted to make things better for him. I wanted to be able to waive some sort of magic wand over us and fix everything, but that wasn't possible. There was no easy button to push. No fix-all.

  His phone rang and tore him away from me. He let go of me and wiped his tears away on the long sleeves of his undershirt before he cleared his throat. "Hello?" he asked when he answered the call. For the first time, his voice sounded almost childlike. Human. This was not the voice of the Volsunga. This was the voice of a man facing his father's mortality.

  I could hear the speaker on the other end of the line. The voice was smooth and sophisticated. "Hello," the man replied. "This is Dickon Jericho, Hirudo of the Adamsville Kiss. Am I speaking with Wolfgang?"

  "Yes," my mate replied.

  "I understand that you phoned me earlier to accept my offer of assistance against the Witches rising against us. Is this correct?"

  "It is," Wolfgang replied. "I have a plan for the attack, but I don't have enough wolves to implement it with success."

  "Tell me this plan of yours."

  Wolfgang explained the plan to the Vampire as I moved off his lap. I settled on the bed behind him and wrapped my arms around his stomach while I rest my head on his shoulder, opposite the phone. It really was a good plan; we just needed more bodies.

  "How many men will you need?" the Hirudo asked.

  "Sixty," Wolfgang replied. "I want to even the numbers as much as possible."

  "I will ask my people to volunteer when they awaken," the Vampire said. "I cannot guarantee that sixty of them will step forward, but I will send you as many of them as I can. Remember, Volsunga; this puts you and yours into our debt."

  "I know," Wolfgang replied. He didn't seem happy about the thought, but then again, I couldn't blame him. Based on the way Lycans passed down history from generation to generation, the fact that we trusted the Vampires at all was a dangerous notion. They enslaved us once before, and it was not difficult to imagine them doing it again. It's always easier to get along when you have someone else doing things you cannot be bothered to do.

  The call ended a moment later. Wolfgang tossed his phone onto the nightstand and shifted so that he lay on the bed with one arm tucked under his head. I lay with him and molded my body to his, one leg resting between his with my head on his shoulder. I draped my arm across his chest and twirled my fingers in a few stray strands of his black hair.

  "Do you think there will be enough now?" he asked.

  I hesitated before answering so that I could think about it. My "gift" for knowing things didn't always work on command. Since I'd already had a feeling about tonight's attack, I didn't know if I could get another. Even if the Vampires only sent us thirty bodies, half of what we asked for, we would still be outnumbered by more than I was comfortable with, though seven to ten odds were better than four. With them, I knew it could be enough, but I didn't think for a second that we were going to get even thirty Vampires on our side.

  I shook my head. "I don't think they're going to send enough," I said. "The feeling I get is that they're going to look at the situation as though it isn't their problem and want little to nothing to do with our struggle. A few will come, but it won't be enough. Is there anyone else we can call?" I asked.

  Wolfgang sighed. "I don't know," he said.

  "I want to go with you."

  He shook his head. "No," he said. "I need you here." I knew he would say that. "I don't trust anyone else to keep the house safe. You're the only person that I can say without a doubt will put your life on the line to ensure this pack's safety."

  "That is my duty," I sighed.

  "The rest of them need to see that too," he continued. "You want to prove that you're worthy of being Skaapie here. This is one of the best ways to do that. You can show them that you're strong and that you're willing to do whatever it takes to be here for them. I don't think that anything will happen, but if it does, you're the one I trust."

  "I feel like you're just trying to protect me," I said. "I feel like you're keeping me here because you don't want to risk what could happen if I'm out there with you."

  Wolfgang kissed the top of my head. "You're right," he confessed. "I'm always trying to protect you. That's my duty as your mate. I don't want you where the danger is. I can't guarantee that you'll be safe out there. I know you have a better chance of safety here. I don't know what I'd do if you got hurt."

  I didn't acknowledge that sinking feeling in my gut that said he was wrong. I didn't tell him that my gift said that I was safer with him than here at the house. I didn't tell him that there was a chance that the Witches would attack us while the others were fighting the war. I didn't want to risk being right by bringing attention to it.

  "My mom offered to send some people out here," I said instead of bringing up the other. "She says that they have a few families who want to move out to the States. She asked if we were interested since we need to rebuild the pack."

  "You talked to your mom about all of this?" he asked. "When?"

  I closed my eyes. "When I got home from dropping Soph off at the clinic," I answered. "I needed to talk to her so that I could calm down."

  "After you found out about Lena?"

  I nodded. "You were busy, so I called her. She's been worried about us since they left."

  "With good reason," he said with a bitter chuckle. "We're going to have a lot of work ahead of us in rebuilding. Lucky for us, we still have a lot of couples here. We can also ask my uncle in Moab if they can send anyone."

  "How far is Moab from here?" I asked. "Can they send anyone here in time for the attack?"

  "Maybe," Wolfgang replied, sounding thoughtful. He moved and I looked up to see him reach for the clock on the nightstand and turn it toward us so that he could see the time. "The drive takes about four hours," he said. "They should be able to get here in plenty of time if I call now."

/>   "Do it," I urged.

  Wolfgang nodded and reached for his phone. He stood up and started pacing our bedroom as he waited for an answer. I could hear the ringing on the other end and sat up to watch him move. I sighed as I started to wonder what his uncle would say.

  "Hey! It's my favorite nephew!" his uncle said by way of greeting.

  Wolfgang smiled the first real smile I'd seen from him in almost a week. "Hey," he replied. "How are things?"

  "Oh, you know. Same shit. Different day. You don't usually give me random social calls, so I have to ask. What's going on?"

  My mate cleared his throat. "Well, there's a problem," he said. "We've had some issues with the coven out here. I don't know if you've talked to Dad about it or not, but things have gotten very serious in the last couple of months."

  "I did hear that they caught up with you again," his uncle replied. "Heard it was pretty serious."

  "They did," Wolfgang replied. "And they took my baby. It was bad."

  "Baby? What baby?"

  "Dad didn't tell you that I found my mate?"

  "Well shit! Congratulations! I'm sorry to hear about the baby though…."

  Wolfgang smiled as he looked at me. "Thanks," he said. "Anyway, Alan and Addie are finally dead, along with Abigail. Unfortunately, they had a powerful ally and she's come to town. In fact… she killed about four hundred wolves this morning alone."

  "The fuck?" Wolfgang's uncle cried. "Jesus fucking Christ! Wolfie… how? What…?"

  "The most I can tell you is that she used a spell to turn everyone at the Resting Grounds into puppets and then forced them to kill each other. The survivors are in critical condition. Dad barely survived…."

  "Barely?"

  "Yeah," my mate said in a low, mournful voice. "I can tell you what my father's bones look like. His recovery is going to take some time. Until he can leave the clinic, I'm in charge of the pack. His only request is that we kill them all."

  "As you should."

  "But I don't have enough people left who can do it."

  "Which brings us to the reason you called."