Vanilla Moon: Acrimony

by Airiel Hawkins

  Wolfgang wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "How are they coping?" he asked.

  I shrugged. "As well as can be expected," I replied. "They're more anxious than anything. They don't like being cooped up down there and they aren't going to be okay doing it much longer without a defined plan of action. They need to know what you're going to do."

  Wolfgang nodded as he withdrew. "Yeah, I know," he agreed. "I’m waiting for Cynthia to get back and tell me what things look like in the city first. That way, I can flush out my plan and we can start doing something." He took a moment of silence before his eyes met mine and I knew what question he was about to ask. "Do you think it was any of them?" he asked.

  I shook my head. "No, it's not anyone who is still here," I replied before I told him about the conversation I had with Scholler. By the end of my explanation, I could see the anger in Wolfgang's eyes.

  "They fucking investigated you?"

  I frowned. "Yeah, I suppose," I shrugged. "It didn't feel like an investigation though."

  "Of course not!" he scoffed. "Trust me. They investigated you. Snobbish bastards. I'd get rid of them all if I could, but it's a tradition to have them. They're actually important to the pack."

  "Well… we did know that this was coming," I reminded him.

  "It shouldn't have."

  "Shouldn't it?" I asked. "I mean, I do kind of make sense. I'm one of the three newest people in the pack and I'm closest to its heart. In some sort of morbid way, I'm the most likely traitor. Alan was the one who raised me, remember? If anyone should want us dead for what we did to him, shouldn't it be me?"

  "No," he said, shaking his head. "No, and anyone who knows you would know that."

  "Then it's obvious that the Neuri don't know me," I said, leaving no room for argument. "Wolfie, if I was in their position, I'd investigate me too. As much as you hate it, I really am the most likely person for them to look at. And you sound like this is a personal attack against you, not them just doing their jobs."

  "They're the ones who decreed that I couldn't stay here after the attack," he said.

  The attack he referred to was when he was a teenager. Abigail had seduced him, tricked him into thinking she wanted to make peace between their coven and his pack so that Alan and Addie could attempt to separate Wolfgang's human and wolf forms from each other. It isn't possible, and it kills everyone they attempt it with, but they still believe they can eradicate us if they can perfect the spell. They wanted to do it to me too. After they began their spell, Wolfgang's parents, the Guardians, and a slew of others came rushing in for the rescue. They could have killed Alan, Addie, and the rest of the coven right then and there, but Wolfgang was so badly injured that getting him to safety was the first priority.

  "They sent me away because they wanted to, not because it was in my best interest," he continued. "I should have been here with my parents and pack so that I could heal. Instead, they shoved me into another pack, where the rules didn't make sense to me. I was just a fucking kid," he spat. "I didn't do anything wrong aside from trust the wrong person."

  "For some people, that's enough," I whispered.

  "Yeah," he muttered before he walked away.

  I could understand why he was so upset, even though he himself said that I would be the primary suspect in this house because I am one of the newest members of the pack. To also throw in that the two people who came into it immediately after me were brought in because of me made things worse in the eyes of investigators. Why Wolfgang somehow thought that the Neuri wouldn't question me was beyond me. As a lawyer, I recognized what Scholler did. As an investigator, I knew why. It wasn't so much that I was a suspect or even a person of interest. I was someone they had to cross off the list because they had to be certain it wasn't me.

  That alone made me certain that whoever betrayed us was someone they didn't want to look at.

  If they did their job, like the rest of us, the traitor would eventually come out.

  Chapter 12 ~Wolfgang~

  I could feel the lack of sleep begin to catch up with me. As I sat in the Library after eating my lunch, I let myself relax for just a moment. Ceres lay on the couch with me, using my leg as her pillow. On my other side, Mira curled up on my lap with her head on my shoulder and Mr. Thumper in her tight clutches. The sound of the popping in the fireplace soon had us all asleep.

  When I woke, it was because the library door opened. I yawned as I craned my neck toward the door to see Riley close it behind him. He met my gaze. "They're back," he said.

  I nodded. "Okay," I mumbled. I cleared my throat before I gave Ceres a gentle nudge to wake her.

  She blinked a few times before her eyes found mine. "How long was I out?" she asked.

  I stood and laid Mira on the couch as Ceres sat up. When I pulled my phone out of my pocket, I checked the time. "Almost an hour," I said. I was grateful for the nap but hated that I'd spent an hour not doing anything. I should have gone over my attack plan or a dozen other things. Instead, I slept.

  Cynthia's team of scouts came into the library. Ceres stood with me at my father's desk. I met the Scythia's eyes. "What did you find out?" I asked.

  "All of the addresses are correct," she said. "Brenda showed up about an hour after we did. There aren't any kids as far as we can tell, but they do have one initiate who probably turned eighteen recently. They seem happy and relaxed. A lot of them were toasting drinks to our deaths, so they might all be drunk by the time we hit them. I'm not sure how many know that we have survivors, but they seem unguarded."

  I nodded. "Good," I said. "How many at each location?"

  "They're spread out evenly," she replied. "Average six per household."

  "Good," I sighed. It was such a relief to hear some good news for once. "I spoke to Uncle Mike. He's sending sixty people up. The Hirudo is giving us another fifteen. Ceres encountered Brenda at Grover's and says that she indicated that another attack is imminent. I'm going to double the number of people here and at the clinic, just in case.

  "Good idea," Cynthia agreed. "Do you have the details worked out for the attack tonight?"

  I nodded before I pulled out the map from the Vampires. Each address was circled in red. "Ten people to each house," I said. "Two for each front and back door to keep everyone inside. I want to come in from every possible angle and I want constant communication during the attack in case something goes wrong. Lead hurts them best, so I want everyone packing. This is personal, and I want them to know it."

  "So, we're hitting up an armory?" Ceres asked.

  I chuckled. "This is a backwater town in Utah," I reminded her. "Everyone owns a gun."

  "We should still go to the wizard," Cynthia suggested.

  "Why not?" I shrugged.

  "The wizard?" Ceres asked.

  I nodded. "You know how in the Wizard of Oz Dorothy and the others go to the Wizard to ask for stuff?" She nodded. "That's basically what this guy is for, except he doesn't point things out to people, he has more guns and tech than most people can dream of."

  Her eyebrows rose as her eyes widened. Her mouth made a small O shape as she processed what I'd said. After a moment, she figured out how she wanted to respond. "What would we get?" Ceres asked.

  "Extra guns in case there are people who don't have them. Lots of ammo. I need three volunteers. Who's coming with me?"

  I didn't need to ask. Ceres, Riley, and Luke were up to the task. When I shot a look at Ceres and then Mira, her eyes narrowed. She wasn't going to back down. I sighed and looked at our Scythia. "Will you keep an eye on my sister?" I asked. She nodded. Ceres smiled in her victory. Married life would be too much for me and we weren't even legal yet.

  I looked at Hunter. "Get some volunteers together to take the remains to the crematory," I said. "Tell them that we need the ashes by the end of the week in as few containers as possible." I waited for Hunter's nod before I looked at my volunteers. "Let's go," I said.

  We took my mom's car for the roominess and the fact that it did
n't smell like blood. Ceres held my hand as I drove us out of Adamsville, trusting that the Witches would wait. I had to admit to myself that I felt safer and stronger with Ceres by my side, although I couldn't help but wish she'd stayed home.

  I drove toward Vernal and we reached the city within the hour. The path to my destination unfolded in my mind as I piloted the car through streets my dad made me drive until I could tell him the route in my sleep. I knew the guy was paranoid, but there was no one better.

  I stopped outside his house and sat in the car, trying to figure out how best to do this. I wasn't sure he'd like it if four Lycans just waltzed up to his door, but I knew I'd need everyone at some point.

  "Wolfie?" Ceres asked.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. "Stay here," I ordered them. I got out of the car and trotted up to the front door, frozen slush crunching under my boots. The air was crisp, and an icy wind reminded me that it wasn't spring just yet. The clouds were still thick enough that the car automatically turned on the headlights. We were not going to see the sun today.

  I knocked on the white door when I reached it and noticed that the old paint had started to peel. The bricks on the façade of the house had faded with age and exposure. I rubbed my hands together, more from nervousness than cold. I didn't really feel the temperature. My heart raced in my chest. I didn't know what to expect when he opened the door.

  I heard a series of locks click before the door opened. On the other side was the barrel of a gun, pointed at my forehead. All at once, Dad's warnings of this guy's paranoia seemed underrated. Either he'd underplayed the man's mental state, or there was a piece of information I didn't have.

  It took me a moment to see beyond the gun. The man holding it was stout and shorter than me by almost half a foot. His curly hair covered his eyes and looked like it wanted to mat into dreadlocks. He had thick, coke-bottle glasses that made his brown eyes look enormous. Even though he had to be close to fifty, he had a serious case of acne that looked like it belonged on a high school nerd.

  His arm was covered in watches, making me wonder if he had one for every time zone or if they served different purposes. He dressed in a t-shirt that had seen better days and cargo pants that had more holes than pockets. Despite the winter, he wore sandals… with socks.

  I held my hands up. "My dad told me to come to you if I needed help," I said.

  The guy stared at me and I tried to keep calm. He squinted at me. "Leon's boy?" he asked. I nodded. His gaze ticked to the car. "And them?" he asked.

  "The woman is my mate," I explained. "The guys in the back seat are my cousin and best friend. None of them will say anything to anyone."

  "Leon shouldda toldja to leave em home. Whaddaya want?"

  "Weapons and communication."

  "Meanin'?"

  "I need at least a hundred guns, so I can make sure everyone who might not own one has one, and twelve radios to keep my teams in constant contact."

  He blinked at me. "Right," he said. "That's specific."

  "Fits with the plan then."

  "What plan?"

  My father's words echoed in my mind as I said them aloud. "Kill them all."

  "You mean like they tried to do you?" he asked. I nodded. He chuckled. "You know, I could get killed for helping you." He reached up and scratched his head. When he did, I saw the symbol of the Hunters tattooed on his wrist—a triangle within a circle. The triangle represented our war and the circle was the barrier they put between us and the human world. Every Hunter carried the symbol with them, either on their clothing or in their skin. It shouldn't have surprised me that this guy was one of them, but it did."

  "Clive gave permission," I said.

  He nodded. "Yeah, I imagine he did," he said. He folded his arms and I could almost feel his scrutinizing gaze give me a once over. "Your dad tell ya 'bout my fee?"

  "Just that you'd take care of it."

  "Yup." He gestured me into the house. "C'mon then," he said.

  I followed him into the house, and he shut the door behind me. Even though it was dark outside, the inside of the house was darker. I closed my eyes for a few seconds to help them adjust to the change and heard him put his gun down next to the door.

  When I opened my eyes, I could see a living room to my left that had a television shoved into a corner and no less than eight desks surrounding the room, including two in the middle. Each desk had a computer on it, most with more than one monitor.

  Through the living room, I could see a kitchen that probably hadn't been cleaned in years. Even from here, I could smell the rotting and molded food.

  Newspaper upon newspaper covered the floor. Most of them in varying shades of yellow. Cups, plates, cans with their lids still attached, and flatware covered every open space. The guy had no shortage of food—or creative ways to eat it given the straws I saw in a bowl filled with dry rice.

  In front of me was a narrow hallway, made even more so by the row of bookshelves overflowing with books and computer parts. Of course, this was the direction he walked. As I followed, I went over the list of instructions Dad gave me if I ever needed to make this stop.

  Don't ask his name; he won't give it.

  Don't ask him about payments; he'll flip out.

  Don't ask where anything came from; he'll get defensive.

  Don't let him con me into taking more than I need; we can't afford it. Ever.

  After giving me this list, I remembered how I looked at Dad and told him that he could have made it simpler by just telling me Don't Ask Questions. Period.

  That was why I kept my mouth shut as I followed him down the hallway. I wanted to know why he agreed to help us even though he'd said doing so could get him killed. Of course, our green light just might be enough. Or maybe he had something personal against the Witches himself. Who knew?

  I, of course, wasn't going to ask questions.

  The hallway led to a bedroom with a bed covered in rumpled sheets. It looked like no one had used it in months. In here, he lit up a cigarette. It was almost a relief because the smell covered up the stench of the house. Mostly.

  There were even more bookcases in here. More books and gadgets filled the shelves. There was a pile of boxes in a corner that had a coating of dust over them.

  He opened a panel on the wall that looked like it should have housed the circuit breaker. Instead, it had a keypad and a scanner. The man put his palm against the scanner and keyed in a few numbers with the other hand. After a series of beeps, a door next to the keypad opened.

  It looked like the room used to be a bathroom. The floor was linoleum and the walls had that bathroom feel to them. I wondered how much it cost this guy to convert his house into his very own Bat Cave. And how many Batman comic books he had in the house.

  We walked down a rickety staircase and were immersed in total darkness for a few seconds. Once out of the blackness, there was too much light. In contrast to the darkness upstairs, this room was bright, clean, and organized. The walls and floors were white tiles. Bright lights hung from the white ceiling and steel tables were bolted to the floor.

  On one table, there was a microscope and a magnifying glass set up on a rig that held it, so you didn't tie up the use of one hand while looking through it. Another table had a computer on it that put all the computers upstairs to shame and had five monitors. Whatever this guy did down here, it was more important than what he did upstairs.

  He walked over to a set of filing cabinets and opened one of the drawers. A moment later, he tossed me a set of keys. I only caught them because of my faster-than-human reflexes. As I tried to figure out what the keys were for, he opened another cabinet. This one opened more like a wardrobe and had shelves inside instead of drawers. He picked up three boxes and brought them over to a table.

  "The guns are in a delivery truck," he said. "Address is on the keys." I looked and saw a tag with the address. "The boxes have radios for your teams. You were never here, and I don't know you from Adam."

&n
bsp; I nodded. "Of course," I agreed before I picked up the boxes and started to walk away.

  "Wolfgang," he said. I turned and stared because I'd never given him my name. "Kill them all," he said. "That coven needs to be destroyed before they expose us all."

  I nodded. "I'll do my best," I promised.

  Back at the car, I tossed the boxes into the trunk before I got in. Ceres stared at me for a moment. "We came all this way for three boxes?" she asked.

  I shook my head and started the engine. "This is just the first stop," I told her. I handed her the keys. "That's the second."

  She looked at the tag as I drove away from the Hunter's house. "What's there?" she asked.

  "Guns."

  The address led us to an RV storage lot and there weren't many trucks there. One caught my attention because it was white-washed. I drove up to it and parked before I looked back to Luke and Riley. "Who wants to drive it?" I asked.

  "You're fucking joking," Riley said. "What the hell are we going to do with that?"

  "We're going to take it home, unload it, and bring it back," I said. "So, who's driving?"

  "I will," Luke said before he held out his hand. Ceres dropped the keys into his palm and Luke got out of the car, no questions asked. Not to be outdone, Riley followed him.

  "You can't drive a delivery truck alone," he called out after Luke. I waited until they were in the cab with the engine running before I led the way back home. My heart raced as we inched closer to danger and the moment those guns would come into play.

  When I pulled into the driveway, I saw that the truck beds were empty of bodies. There were also more cars. Given the fact that it was still so early, I knew my uncle's people had arrived. At first, I couldn't believe they'd gotten here so fast. Then I realized that more time had passed than I'd thought.

  Smiling, I got out of the car and shut the door. Luke pulled the truck in behind me. They got out of the truck and I saw Riley squint at one of the trucks. "Rodney came?" he asked.

  "Yeah," I replied. We opened the back of the delivery truck and my eyes widened at the sheer arsenal Luke drove. Riley let out a long whistle and Ceres whispered something beside me.