by Laura Hysell
Mark bowed his head and spoke softly, “Yes, Master.”
Henri nodded his head curtly and turned toward me, holding his arm out. “Come, my Queen, shall we make a few bets before the next fights?”
I smiled and took Henri’s arm, letting him lead me back toward the chalk board. Henri whispered tips in my ear, urging me to do the betting. After we had placed our bets, everyone moved back to their seats and waited for the next round of fights. The lights dimmed and the announcer stepped forward alone, raising his arms and announcing the next match.
I watched the fights with feigned interest from my balcony seat. Henri sat beside me for the first few moments, then he moved among the balconies, chatting with the other vampires. Mark stood behind me, arms crossed, watching for anyone coming up behind me.
By the second fight, I was bored and tried to watch my surroundings instead of the fights, although I knew Henri would likely ask me about the fights later. Mark hadn’t moved after taking up his position, which irritated me. “Mark, come sit down,” I said softly over my shoulder. Mark flinched at the sound of my voice, but didn’t move. “Subject 17, come here,” I amended.
Mark turned and moved to stand beside my seat. He didn’t speak, but stood silently beside me, his eyes ever on the watch for danger. How much of the real Mark was in there? I reached out to touch him, then thought better of it. There were too many vampires around; too many eyes and ears.
“Subject 17, sit down here,” I said, indicating the floor beside my chair. Mark did as I bid, sitting in a crouch beside my chair. It put him closer to my level.
For several minutes I just sat, watching him and watching the fight. All the while, Henri watched me, while he spoke with the vampires around the room. I could feel his thoughts on me, and sense his eyes watching. I would have to tread lightly here.
“Mark,” I whispered, barely moving my lips. I leaned casually to one side, resting my head on my chin so I could cover my mouth discreetly. “Mark, is it still you?”
Mark didn’t move or make any indication that he understood that I was speaking to him. I wanted to try harder to get through to him, but this wasn’t the time or place. He was still in there. I knew it. I had seen it in the tense set of his shoulders, and the fists he had made with his hands. Had I imagined it?
I could sense Henri moving, his focus shifted back on me. His mind reached out toward mine, and I schooled my thoughts back to the fights. The knife pulsed as his mind pushed against mine. Brace yourself. The vampire wants to read your mind. Let him. I focused all my attention on the fights, and filled my mind with Henri-approved thoughts. The fight. Boredom about the fight. The bets we had already won. Bored. Bored. Wanting to go back to my room. Hungry. Bored. I replayed all these thoughts, over and over.
Henri walked toward me and sat down, placing his arm casually across my shoulders. I leaned into him and rested my head on his shoulder. “How much longer?” I whispered softly.
“Done already, my Queen?” Henri laughed.
“It’s boring.”
“You don’t like seeing half-naked men fighting?” Henri asked, chuckling again.
I giggled and shrugged my shoulders. “It’s okay, I suppose, but I think I’ve had enough. I want to go get something to eat.”
“I can bring the car around for you, if you’re ready to leave. I must stay longer though.”
“Okay,” I replied simply, shrugging my shoulders.
Henri sat still and silent for several moments. “Did you ask Subject 17 to move locations?”
“It made me uncomfortable having him standing behind me. I just wanted him somewhere I could see him. And I was bored with no one to talk to. He doesn’t talk either, though.”
Henri nodded and stood up, holding his hand out to me. “Let’s get you to the car, my Queen. Subject 17, come,” Henri added.
Henri led me back to the car, with Mark following quietly behind us on his bare feet. He had retrieved my fur coat, and draped it over my shoulders. As soon as we reached the car, Henri stopped and grasped me in an embrace, running his hands across my body erotically as he kissed me goodbye. Then he let me go, and I slid into the limo, pulling the fur coat tight around me. Mark began to follow, but I saw Henri hold him back and speak to him softly. After a moment, Mark eventually slid in beside me and the limo drove us back home.
Chapter 10- Jared
“Are you sure this will work?” I asked Justin as I looked dubiously at the vials in the refrigerator. The fridge was filled with tubes, labeled and coded in a pattern only Justin knew or understood. The vial in question had a pale blue hue to it, and seemed to shimmer when you looked at it from an angle.
“Pretty sure,” came Justin’s response from across the room.
“Pretty sure? That’s it?” I asked, turning around and shutting the refrigerator door. “This is something you need to be 100% sure about.”
Justin walked toward me with a syringe in his hand, and I backed up a step, eyeing the needle. He frowned at me, shaking his head. “The needle isn’t for you, wolf,” he muttered. “I’ll be 100% sure when we test it on someone.”
“Airborne would be easier,” I muttered in response.
“It is spread through bodily fluids, so the antidote will be spread the same way. Be thankful no one has figured out how to make this airborne. If they had, we’d have a whole other set of problems on our hands.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” I replied fervently.
Just last week, John had finally returned after months of no contact. He had locked himself away with Jed for hours. When he came out, he told Justin that his search for his old friend, Ronald Dawson, hadn’t turned anything up. Ronald was missing, and there had been no signs of him. We suspected he was either dead, or working for the enemy. Justin insisted he was in hiding, not facing the fact that most normal people didn’t realize there was anything to hide from. In all likelihood, the majority of the human population was already under vampire control.
Justin opened the fridge and pulled out a case of tubes filled with a vibrant red liquid. He carried it to the table and packed it carefully along with a couple of syringes into a cooler. “I hope the Arizona Pack knows what they’re doing,” Justin commented as he grabbed ice packs out of the freezer and carefully packed them into the cooler as well.
“You’re not the only person with a degree.”
“I know that,” he responded acidly as he closed the cooler. “But can we trust these people?”
“They’re werewolves. They have the same goal.”
Justin stopped and looked at me, but he immediately turned away and picked up the cooler. He had barely made eye contact with me since I told him that I was the one who killed Sarah. He was polite and almost friendly at times, but the moment he cracked a smile, he immediately shut down. What friendship we had once had was gone. We were civil to each other, and that was about it. Not for the first time, I was thankful I had moved back to the main house. Even being in the crowded house was better than being subjected to hateful looks he thought I didn’t notice. It didn’t stop me from checking up on him though. Partly because I felt I owed it to Izzy to keep an eye on her brother, and partly because I wanted to keep an eye on his experiments.
Since Isabella had been taken by Henri, Justin had been even more consumed with his work. The results were extraordinary. He had finally concocted a serum to counteract the vampire vaccine that appeared to be permanent. The cooler held a small batch, which would go to a scientist who formerly worked with the CDC and just so happened to be a werewolf. Mass production of the vaccine was about to take place across the country at various Pack locations.
I peeked in the fridge again, eyeing the strange blue swirling liquid. The human vaccine was dubbed Hope, and in it rested the hope for mankind. The name was fitting, I supposed. This second liquid, that seemed to shimmer and change color from blue to gray, was called Justice. I thought it sounded a little too close to Justin’s name, and a bit conceited, but no one els
e had a better idea, so the name stuck.
“Justice will work,” Justin said, coming up behind me and closing the fridge door. “Get me a vamp-controlled werewolf, and I’ll show you just how well it works.”
“I don’t like it,” I murmured in response. Even just standing close to the vials, I could feel the silver in them. One of the many Packs now visiting with Jed had brought a vampire-controlled werewolf with them. We hadn’t understood it at the time. There had been something about Matthew that had bothered me from the beginning. We had kept an eye on him, but one day he had snapped and attacked Jed. Hugo had acted quickly, keeping Jed safe, but wounding Matthew beyond saving. In those last moments of his life we’d tried to question him, but he didn’t say anything. Afterward, Justin had voiced his opinion that the werewolf had been under vampire control, and he’d immediately gone to work on an antidote.
“In order to make a vaccine, you have to utilize the contents in the original solution.”
“Original solution? There was no original solution for this. I thought you used that werewolf’s blood to synthesize the antidote?” I asked, frowning at Justin. He stopped moving, his face turned away from me. I felt a chill run down my spine as the thought hit me. “How exactly did you make this antidote so fast? And know that it used silver? We didn’t even know werewolves could be controlled by vampires. How did you know, Justin?” I asked angrily. Justin’s silence was answer enough, and I figured that was my cue to leave. Another fight wouldn’t solve problems and, like it or not, we needed Justin’s work. The part that really hurt was the fact that I didn’t trust Justin any more, and he certainly didn’t trust me. Our goal was the same though, and that kept us from tearing each other apart. It also helped that Marshall had been working closely with him, although he was the one who had volunteered to take the antidote to Arizona since he knew the most about it, besides Justin.
I walked out of the research room without another word and into the cool night air. The snow had melted, and ice had formed in its place. The ice crunched beneath my boots as I walked back to the main house. Justin was the only one with a permanent residence at the cottage now, but the Pack rotated shifts keeping an eye on him. He knew too much, especially now. We couldn’t afford for him to be taken by vampires.
The sound of stomping feet took me by surprise, and I looked up as Hugo rushed toward me, his massive frame easy to see in the moonlight. “Hurry!” he hollered, waving his arms at me. “It’s Mark!”
I raced forward, and Hugo turned back toward the house. The rest of the Pack was converging on the house, along with several of our guests. Jed had been gathering werewolf delegates from all the nearest Packs, and the number of wolves camped on Jed’s property now numbered in the hundreds. A select few even had rooms in Jed’s house.
I followed Hugo back to the main living room of the house, where Jed sat surrounded by Pack, both in human and wolf form. The smell in the air churned my stomach. The scent was fear mixed with excitement, and a lot of anger. The Pack was staring at Jed, watching him. I looked around the room, and found Beth’s tear-streaked face.
“What’s happening?” I whispered, but no one answered me. Had I been in wolf form, I would have been able to hear and feel what was transpiring.
Jed sat on the floor, his hands on the heads of two matching wolves. The twins. After what felt like an eternity, Jed finally lowered his hands and looked up. “We’ve lost our connection,” Jed said, shaking his head.
“What connection?” I asked, and several people turned to glare at me. I didn’t care. The others often told me I needed to follow rules and proper Pack hierarchy, but I had spent years in the military following orders. I would follow orders when I needed to, and would ignore the rules when it suited me. Mostly, I liked to think I followed the big rules.
Jed wasn’t much on the rules usually, but we had a room full of guests and the look he turned on me was decidedly angry. I lowered my eyes and assumed my most submissive new-wolf posture. Patience wasn’t my strong suit, but luckily I didn’t have to wait long for Jed to speak.
“For those of you just joining us, we have made contact with Mark. It was brief, and he didn’t actively communicate with us, but we felt him,” Jed said.
“Did you get a location?” Hugo asked. As second in command, Hugo could pretty much say or do whatever he wished. I ground my teeth in frustration.
“He is far north, somewhere in Canada I believe. There wasn’t much to go on, but he was definitely surrounded by vampires,” Jed stated, looking around the room. Jed turned his eyes toward me briefly, and I felt the tentative push of my Alpha. Later, he said softly in my mind. Werewolf communication wasn’t usually in words, but more in thoughts and emotions. I’d never had Jed speak to me in such a way with both of us in human form, and the feeling was odd. I didn’t even know it was possible, but then again, he was the Alpha and I was still learning the ropes. He didn’t say anything else, and I played along as though nothing had transpired. Hugo stood at my shoulder, nudging me gently. I looked up, and he indicated I should follow him.
The wolves dispersed, leaving Jed with the twins while I followed Hugo outside. We walked the perimeter of Jed’s property, neither of us talking about what had transpired. There were too many ears around to talk openly right now. Jed’s property was enormous and would take a couple days to cover on foot in human form, which is why the Pack and our guests made laps in wolf form. It took far less time and was much easier to cover ground as a wolf. Tonight, though, Hugo and I walked slowly as men to a section of property that hadn’t become overrun with guests.
Three hours later, we reached our destination; a small clearing that was maintained by our Pack alone. Vanessa circled the clearing in wolf form, loping easily around the perimeter. A large wooden table sat in the center. A few other members of the Pack were already there, and slowly others joined us. After an hour of waiting, Jed and the twins walked into the clearing. Immediately, silence descended on the waiting Pack members.
“We’ll make this brief,” Jed began as he moved to the table and sat down. His face was drawn with weariness. The last few months had aged him with stress and lack of sleep. “A few hours ago, those in wolf form reported hearing Mark. His thoughts were angry and came on very suddenly. Mostly, it was incoherent. He was in human form, but his wolf mind was present and very loud.”
Jed paused and looked at Lucas. Lucas cleared his throat before speaking. “I don’t think Mark realized he was reaching out to us. It was more like it was his wolf, crying out for help. I got bits and pieces of what Mark saw though.” He stopped speaking and looked around at the gathered werewolves. Concern was etched on his normally jovial face. “He’s with the vampire, Henri, and Isabella. It doesn’t appear he’s there willingly.”
“They took Mark?” someone asked in a hushed tone.
“Did he respond at all?”
“Did you talk to him?”
Everyone had a question, but Jed stood and held his hands up, silencing everyone. “This is what we suspected had happened to Mark, after he and Leon disappeared. And after learning that vampires can control our kind, it makes even more sense. It’s the only explanation for Mark’s sudden disappearance, and our inability to sense him. The vampires are using their serum on more and more werewolves. They are moving their pieces into place, and we’re struggling to keep up. Justin believes he has found an antidote for werewolves under vampire control as well, but we have no way of testing it right now.”
“I think Mark’s wolf got angry, and he needed the Pack. It was his wolf reaching out for help that we felt,” Lucas said. “That’s why he didn’t respond when Jed tried speaking to him. He was all animal, but I think he felt us.”
“What do we do now?” I asked into the silence.
“We get him back,” Jed growled in response. A shiver ran down my spine at the menace in Jed’s voice. Jed was always the calm thinker, never the fighter. It was part of the reason he was such a respected Alpha. It was his reso
urcefulness that had brought hundreds of wolves to his land, seeking out answers to the vampire plague that was escalating across the country. But Jed had become Alpha a long time ago by fighting his way to the top. That was the Jed we were seeing now. He stood and looked around at the wolves surrounding him. “No one takes members of my Pack and gets away with it. Those vampires will pay.”
A chorus of howls mixed with human shouts resounded through the clearing. The other visiting wolves would hear this for sure, and wonder what it was all about. I looked at Jed, but he was basking in the power of the Pack. I doubted I’d get any more answers anyway. A minute later, howls could be heard in the distance, echoing through the hills of Jed’s land. More voices lifted up, joining their shouts and howls, until the entire countryside vibrated with the howling of wolves.
I stood quietly, listening to the song of my wolf brethren, before turning back toward the house. Someone followed me, but I ignored them as I began the long walk back. After a few minutes, the person jogged up beside me. I sniffed, but didn’t look up. “What do you want, Lucas?” I asked.
“I figured you’d have questions,” he said simply.
I glanced over at his strangely somber face and shrugged. “What else is there to add?”
“Everything else I saw through Mark’s eyes, for starters.”
I stopped then and turned toward the twin. Someone else had been following us, and I turned toward the sound, waiting until Logan stepped into sight. I liked Logan a good deal more than Lucas, but we were hardly friends.