unvamped

by Elizabeth Stevens

Chapter Twenty-Seven

  L

  ee shook his head to clear the buzzing. His body hurt. He tried to open his eyes, but only one would obey his command. The other was sealed shut with something sticky. Lee thought it was probably blood; it usually was in those sorts of situations. His arms were tied behind his back and he sat on a really hard, uncomfortable chair. He felt rope around his ankles, tying them to the chair.

  He tried to turn his head to see where he was. He couldn’t see a lot through the dark, but he thought he might be in a basement or something like it. To his left, he saw Charlie tied up as he was. He couldn’t see Ellie, but another chair sat just past Charlie. He looked around more, straining to see through the darkness. As he strained, his vision became clearer and stronger, and he could see a bit better.

  With sudden panic, Lee remembered that it was the first night of the full moon. He looked around, struggling against the ropes that held him. He knew, though his bindings held him now, once he shifted he would break them apart like they were nothing. When he shifted, he would likely attack Charlie and that would be the end of his friend. Lee grunted in frustration, straining hard against his bindings.

  From a way in front of him, he thought he heard a noise. He peered into the depths of the basement and saw a big stone block. Squinting at it, it looked vaguely familiar. He smiled for a moment as he realised it was like the altars he had seen in Ellie’s magic books. His smile faded when he remembered what altars were generally used for, especially where everyone was tied up in a dark room like this.

  He heard the noise again and realised there was a body tied to the altar. It struggled feebly. As the body wriggled, a flash of blue shone and Lee gulped. So, there was Ellie. At least he knew where she was.

  He looked back over to Charlie, who was still unconscious. Well, Lee hoped he was just unconscious and not actually dead. He was not sure how he’d get two bodies out of here, let alone two bodies that couldn’t help themselves.

  He pulled against his wrist bindings, wincing as the rope cut into his skin. He smelled the blood from his wrists and, as the night wore on, the smell of blood wafted to him from Charlie and then from Ellie. He smelled Ellie’s fear more strongly than he could her blood. He was a predatory creature drawn to a fearful prey. He did not need the smell of blood to lead him to his prey and the smell of blood alone did not greatly appeal to him.

  Lee felt his wolf building up inside him, anticipating its release. Unlike almost a year ago, Lee was certain that the wolf would not stay inside that night. He had shifted every full moon night for ten months, and he sorely doubted he would veer off his path to regulation now. A small part of him hoped he would and he held onto the knowledge that it could happen, knowing this was the only way he wouldn’t kill his two friends that night. Vaguely, he registered that, although the full moon was close, he was still in control of himself.

  He heard a door scrape open and he stopped wriggling. He noticed that Ellie had stopped moving too, and he prayed she was still conscious and only being cautious like he was.

  The door closed and footsteps echoed towards him. He snuck a look at Charlie and saw he still hadn’t moved since Lee last looked at him. He cursed under his breath, planning a way to get them free from whoever held them. If only he had control of his wolf! He’d spent the last ten months feeling better about being a werewolf, with Charlie’s invaluable help.

  But, he knew he couldn’t control his wolf. Once it was unleashed, it went mad. It was a lust-filled, angry brute who wanted to attack any human within sniffing distance. That was why his parents had to lock him up or take him to Wolf Camp. Lee had supposed that, after being repressed for so long, his wolf was now wreaking its revenge.

  He had believed that his wolf was power and strength. Only now did he realise the damage he’d caused and the problems he still could if his wolf was released that night.

  “Nice of you to join us, Lee,” he heard a vaguely familiar voice coming from behind him.

  Suddenly, torches lit throughout the room and Lee blinked furiously to clear his sight. He heard a muffled yell from Ellie and realised she must be gagged. He wanted to pull at his bindings and turn around to face whoever had them. By the voice, he assumed it was a man. He had been wrong before, of course. He heard and felt movement behind him and then a figure came into his view. It was wearing black robes – very original for the villain, thought Lee – and pulled his hood back to face Lee.

  “Mr Coleman?” Lee asked, astonished. He relaxed at seeing his English teacher. But, the horror of that started to dawn on him when he saw Charlie’s face and body.

  Charlie’s left leg stuck out at an awkward angle. Lee noticed his ankles were not tied but, with a break like that, Charlie wasn’t going anywhere fast, and Mr Coleman knew that. Blood seeped out of a wound above Charlie’s right eye and pooled into, and overflowed from, the hollow in his shoulder. His eye was badly bruised and looked like it had as much chance of opening as Lee’s did. Charlie’s hair was matted with blood and his arms were covered in scratches and bruises.

  Lee was kind of glad he couldn’t see Ellie from where he was. Merely thinking about what Mr Coleman may have done to her made his blood boil and his heart race.

  “What have you done to us?” Lee growled. “What do you want?”

  “What do I want?” Mr Coleman asked. “I want a great many things Lee, but I am not about to divulge any of them to you.” He slapped Lee hard across the cheek and Lee hung his head to get his breath back.

  He heard Mr Coleman’s footsteps moving towards where Ellie was and he looked up, automatically jerking against his bindings. Mr Coleman stopped mid-stride and turned back to Lee.

  “You want to watch, do you?” he asked in a whisper that chilled Lee to the bone. “I suppose Charles will want to watch as well, I had best wake him.”

  Lee watched as Mr Coleman magically picked up a bucket and threw its contents onto Charlie. He gasped and then screamed as he woke up.

  Well, at least he’s alive, Lee thought to himself.

  Lee had the distinct feeling that it was boiling water. He could not help a growl escaping him and he heard Charlie do the same.

  “Now, now, boys,” Mr Coleman said, continuing to walk towards Ellie. As he walked, Lee’s and Charlie’s chairs followed, scraping shrilly against the cement floor.

  “What do you want from us, Coleman?” Charlie yelled at him, trying to halt his progress with his feet. He screamed again and Lee figured his broken leg must have snagged on the floor. “What is all this?”

  Lee waited while Charlie yelled obscenities at Mr Coleman, waiting for him to notice Ellie on the altar. Charlie’s ranting suddenly stopped dead.

  “Pet!” he called, trying to stand up and falling back against the chair.

  Mr Coleman laughed. He stopped next to the altar and Lee’s and Charlie’s chairs halted about two meters away.

  “Pet!” Charlie called again and Mr Coleman turned around, his face like thunderclouds.

  “Shut up you little shit, or I will shut you up.”

  “Go to hell!” Charlie yelled and was slapped for his troubles.

  Mr Coleman quickly threw a gag around Charlie’s head and tied it up.

  “Ah, blessed peace,” Mr Coleman said, looking at Lee as though he dared him to speak. When Lee remained silent, Mr Coleman smiled and turned back to Ellie, a knife materialising in his hand. “I have waited a long time for this, Petronella,” he said, caressing her with the knife.

  Lee wanted to jump up and claw the man to death, but he didn’t have a plan and Mr Coleman was obviously very powerful. Lee heard Ellie’s muffled whimpers and looked at Charlie. What Lee saw of his friend’s face, Charlie was livid and bursting to kill Mr Coleman himself. Had terror not gripped him, Lee would have smiled at the thought of what vampire Charlie planned or at least dreamed of doing.

  Mr Coleman continued on, appearing to have already forgotten about the two boys sitting behind him.
He went around Ellie’s body, cutting the fragile skin on her wrists and ankles. He lifted her top and cut a slit across her stomach. Lee could still hear Ellie’s cries and he tried hard to think of a way out.

  He tried to work out what time it was, based on how his wolf was feeling. It must be close to moonrise as Lee’s wolf was railing against him, almost hammering on his ribcage like a prisoner would on jail bars. Lee wished he knew what Mr Coleman’s plan was so that he could try to plan something himself. Surely, the man was not so obsessed with his agenda, whatever that was, that he’d forgotten that Lee was a werewolf and tonight was a full moon. Lee did not think that any supernatural could be that stupid.

  “Only a few more minutes now, my dear and all that power will be mine…” Mr Coleman almost purred over Ellie.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Lee saw Charlie struggling madly.

  Mr Coleman took the gag from Ellie’s mouth and poured a red liquid from a glass goblet between her lips. She coughed.

  “What do you want?” she asked feebly. Lee suddenly noticed that the cuts he’d seen Mr Coleman make weren’t the first ones on her wrists, ankles and stomach. Who knew how long he’d been cutting her. Well, Ellie probably knew, unfortunately.

  “What I want, my dear, is your power.” Mr Coleman looked up at Charlie and Lee looked towards him too. Charlie looked surprised and stopped struggling for a moment. “A young witch whose eighteenth birthday falls on the first night of a December full moon has immense power…” Mr Coleman purred. “Of all the choices, who could it be? I guessed it might be you when I found out about the curse you put on young Charles here. Not only did you curse him, but you lived through it. No witch who has ever enacted such a curse, intentional or not, has lived through it…until you. I doubt you have any idea how much power you can wield. I doubt even your parents know. Not many know of the teachings of Carnaby. It takes a life-time of dedication.”

  “How…why?” Ellie rasped. He poured some more of the red liquid into her mouth.

  “Why, at the rise of the moon I will sacrifice you to Carnaby’s spirit and then I will gain all your power. Add that to my already considerable power, and I will be virtually unstoppable.” He smiled wickedly.

  “How could you do this to her?” Lee asked Mr Coleman.

  “How could I not?” He laughed. “My life has been dedicated to the pursuit of power. Petronella is not the first girl I have sacrificed to Carnaby, and I doubt she will be my last. Now, hush, boy. The moon is about to rise.”

  Mr Coleman walked around again, reopening Ellie’s wounds. He then put the knife into the glass goblet, in the rest of the red liquid, and placed the goblet above Ellie’s head on the altar.

  Lee looked over to Charlie, who was staring at Ellie as though only his look and longing could save her.

  But, it was too late; the moon had risen and they would all die.

  Lee grunted as the start of the shift hit him; he was surprised he’d made it this far without his wolf taking over. He looked up and saw that Mr Coleman was chanting in some weird language and wasn’t paying him any attention at all. Lee grunted again and jerked as the shift kept washing over him.

  His grunts became yells as the shift took hold. Just before the wolf took all control from him, he broke out of his bonds and finished the shift.

  ****

  The wolf looked around hungrily. Fear and blood filled the room. He turned towards the man chanting funny words.

  All human words are funny words, the wolf thought.

  The words pulled the wolf towards him, reverberating inside of him. There was something oddly familiar and comforting in them, even though he did not know what they meant. Suddenly, the cadence of the chanting changed and it hurt the wolf’s ears and made his heart pound. He growled. The man stopped chanting.

  “Do not think I have forgotten you, wolf.” He smiled.

  The wolf growled again as the man pulled two silver daggers from his robe and lunged at the wolf. The wolf jumped away and smiled. This man wanted to fight? The wolf would give him a fight. The man would lose and the wolf would go to sleep with a belly full of this man at the end of the night.

  The wolf led the man on a merry dance around the room, jumping nimbly around his feet and leading him on a chase around the altar where the deliciously fearful, bleeding girl who smelled like berries lay. Then the wolf ran around the boy who did not smell properly human and stank more of rage than fear.

  Suddenly, the wolf felt a piecing hotness in his side and he screamed in pain. He could not leap quite as nimbly as before, and as he turned around the altar, he slipped once or twice. Before he knew it, there was another piercing hotness, and another and the wolf fell to the ground, whining and whimpering in pain.

  The wolf pulled himself across the floor with his front leg, pulled himself away from the man, towards the girl who smelled like berries. When he caught her scent, it reminded him of happy and something akin to pack-mateship. Through the haze of pain, the wolf remembered something. The girl who smelled like berries…her name was Ellie. She reminded him of blue like a summer day and blue like the sky in a thunderstorm. She was hurt; the wolf heard her sobs and felt her fear. He felt a surge of protectiveness towards this Ellie – his pack-mate Ellie – and took another leap towards the man and grabbed onto his yucky, spindly arm with his big, strong teeth.

  The man grunted in pain and swung his arm about, trying to dislodge the wolf. The wolf could not hold on; each wrench pulling at the piercing hotness covering his body. He let go and fell to the floor. The man kicked the wolf aside and then the man was gone from his sight.

  There was a wrenching noise and then a loud growl. Then the man was lying beside the wolf. The wolf wanted to bite the man again, but he was in too much pain. The man was obviously not very badly hurt though, because he raised himself to his knees. He took one of his daggers in both hands and held it above the wolf’s heart. The wolf whimpered. He knew he should be braver and face a noble death, but he was not ready yet.

  As the man brought the dagger down, there was a flash of movement and suddenly the funny smelling boy…Charlie, the wolf’s mind registered, was in front of him. But, not for long though, in moments he had slumped next to the wolf, the silver dagger in his chest. There was a piercing yell and the wolf was consumed with rage – more rage than he had ever felt before. More rage than when his mate left him for another male, more rage than when he was beaten in a fight by that male and shamed. He dragged himself up. He heard the man laugh wheezily.

  You will not be laughing much longer, the wolf thought. He launched himself at the man’s throat and bit down as hard as he ever had before. He crushed the man’s windpipe and neck bones, and ripped out his throat.

  He felt very pleased with himself and looked down at his kill for a moment. Then he remembered Ellie and limped over to the altar. In order to see her, he had to pull his front legs up onto the altar. He did so, near her head, and she turned to look at him. Her face was streaked in tears and the wolf reached over to lick her cheek. She laughed a little.

  “Oh, Lee. What will we do now?” she asked.

  He whined at her, not knowing how else to communicate with her. He could tell she was weak. He did not feel very strong himself. He looked at her bindings and saw they were chains. He whimpered as he realised he would not be able to chew through them.

  “It’s all right, Lee,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering. “We’ll deal with it in the morning.” Her eyes closed and a few teardrops leaked out.

  The wolf whined again and pulled himself onto the altar. He lay down next to her in the hopes he could keep her warm and perhaps fight off Death if he came for Ellie that night. The wolf looked to Charlie’s unmoving body and let out a small whimper for his fallen friend.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  L

  ee woke up, curled on a hard surface. He sat up and promptly fell off the stone altar. As he landed, the previous night came flooding back to hi
m. First, waking up in the basement and then, more slowly and hazily, turning into a werewolf and everything right up until he snuggled next to Ellie. Part of him was astounded and over the moon that he’d mastered his wolf and could remember what happened... The other part felt rather deflated at the situation.

  He looked down at his naked body and shivered.

  Clothes, he thought.

  He looked around and found his pants lying on the ground. They were tattered and covered with blood, but they would have to do. He pulled them on, and then stood up to see about getting Ellie out of her bonds. As he stood, he noticed Charlie. Lee went over to him and turned him onto his back. Lee had to stifle a cry as he looked into Charlie’s blank, staring eyes. He closed is friend’s eyes and pulled the dagger out of his chest. Mr Coleman had managed to pierce his heart. Lee sighed as he sat for a moment, knowing there was no way Charlie was coming back from that. A year ago maybe – but not now.

  Lee got up and slowly walked over to the altar. Ellie was still asleep, though she looked restless. He pulled on her chains to work out how strong they were and she woke up.

  “Lee…” she rasped. “Lee, what are you doing?”

  “Trying to get you out of these.” He motioned with his head.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again and nodded, her eyes welling up. Lee guessed she was about to say something about Charlie and was glad she didn’t; he didn’t think either of them were ready for that conversation just yet. He wrenched his mind away from the thought of Charlie’s dead eyes and looked around for something to help free Ellie. His gaze fell on Ellie’s wrists and he saw that they had barely scabbed over. He ran his finger along one gently.

  “Don’t worry about that now,” she whispered. “I’ll be okay. I’ve survived worse.” Her eyes gaped and Lee thought she must have realised what, or whom, she’d inadvertently referred to.