by Chase Connor
“Did he hurt him?” His eyes grew wide as he observed my menacing form stalking towards him.
“He jumped into the back of a pickup truck with Lucas, and it sped away,” I replied sharply. “I wasn’t able to stop them. But that means there was at least two of them working together.”
“Why would anyone want Lucas?”
“Why would anyone want to bite him, you dumb bitch?” I snapped.
“Fuck you.”
“Why have you always been after Lucas since we were kids?” I demanded. “You always wanted him in your pack. Because, it’s kinda fucking suspect now, Jason.” I stalked closer. “In the last day, two werewolves have attacked us and bit him. Now, one came through his fucking window to kidnap him. What the fuck is going on?”
“I told you and your crazy ass grandmother this morning why I tried to recruit Lucas when we were kids.” Jason snapped back, though he was slowly inching away from me, obviously not as dumb as he looked. “The man in the black hooded cloak told me to.”
“Yeah?” I hissed. “Partial bullshit, Jason. You might have done it to appease him, to keep him from doing you and your pack harm, but I think you also know why he wanted you to do it. And I swear to God you’re going to tell me.”
I raised a hand, red fire already encircling it, lapping and flickering, though not harming my flesh.
“Be careful!” Jason practically squealed as he backed into the island in his kitchen.
“Tell me, goddamnit!” I bellowed.
“Because Lucas was a distraction!” Jason spat, though his eyes were still wide with fear. “Because he was in the way, all right?”
“What does that mean?” I glowered at him, my hand and the fire staying in position, threatening him.
“Dude.” Jason was shaking his head violently. “Just stop. I’ve already told you enough, okay? Put your fucking hand down and let’s talk like normal people—without fangs, claws, or fire.”
“I’m beyond being civil, Jason.” I inched closer as menacingly as possible. “You’re going to tell me what the fuck you are talking about—what you actually mean, and not some half-truth bullshit—or I’m going to burn this whole fucking house down. And you’ll be the kindling.”
“Fuck.” Jason hissed to himself, aware that his choices were severely limited.
He realized he had to decide if he wanted to tell me what he knew and risk putting himself in danger…or not tell me and certainly get barbecued alive.
“Fine!” He growled back at me. “Put your hand down.”
“After you tell me, asshole.”
“Lucas made you more powerful.” Jason spat, firelight dancing in his eyes, I was so close. “He gave you something to fight for. To live for. He. Got. In. The. Way.”
“Whose way?” I demanded.
“Who do you think?” Jason shouted back.
“Him.”
Jason gave a single sharp nod.
“He wasn’t concerned about Lucas’ powers? How Lucas just knew things? Why he’s immune to werewolf bites?” I asked. “Do you think maybe that’s why he was so damn fixated on Lucas?”
Jason stared at me for a moment, the anger and fear melting from his face, leaving him bewildered by me. After a few breathless moments, a grin slowly started to form on Jason’s face.
“You really are a clueless son of a bitch, aren’t you?” Jason snorted sharply. “I always thought you were pretty fucking dumb, but—wow.”
“I’m still holding fire, fuckface.”
“He doesn’t care about Lucas’ powers. Or mine. Or anyone else’s.” Jason was on the verge of laughing. “There’s nothing for him to be curious about, you idiot.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, pushing the fire closer to Jason.
He didn’t even react.
“He’s the reason we have our powers, you fucking nitwit.” Jason chuckled. “He’s the reason this whole fucking town is the way it is. Why everything is upside down. I mean…God, you’re simple. I know it’s hard to believe that werewolves and witches and magic are all not real. But you know that they are. Didn’t you ever wonder why there are so many in the little fucking town of Point Worth, Rob? Did that ever cross your mind?”
“I’ve been kinda busy not having my memories for a decade.” I snapped.
“What?” Jason frowned.
“So,” I realized I had said too much, “that’s where this comes from?”
Indicating the fire in my hand, Jason’s eyes were drawn to it. He grinned so widely that his teeth reflected the flame, painting them in reds and yellows.
“No, you dipshit.” He turned his eyes back to mine. “You’re the one person in this town whose powers have nothing to do with him. That’s why he wants Lucas out of the way. To make it easier to get to you when the time comes. When your time comes. Your power is not his. And it makes you so…enticing.”
Jason sniffed the air as his eyes closed slowly, his tongue darting out to lick his lips.
I swallowed hard.
“What?”
“You’re only here for one reason, Rob.” Jason was shaking his head as he smiled, his eyes opening once more. “Your parents had no clue when they came here what drew them here…but…you’re going to release him. Finally. You’re going to open up the ground, and it’s going to swallow this whole fucking town, and out of that, he’ll be born again. When you sent him away, you just helped him out. He’s growing stronger by the day, man. And when he finally comes…it’s going to leave this place in ruins. You’ve seen it. I know you have. Because I’ve seen it, too.”
“You look happy about that.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.
“Happy?” Jason snarled suddenly. “Of course I’m happy!”
I inched back marginally at the fire-illuminated crazy expression on Jason’s face.
“Who the fuck wants to live like this?” He swept an arm vaguely through the air. “In this shithole town with limited opportunities, turning hairy off and on, walking the thinnest tight-rope in the world, hoping that you don’t anger him. Pray he doesn’t decide you and your family aren’t living up to the bargain?”
“Bargain?” I felt sick.
“Ask your boyfriend.” He snorted.
“I’m asking you.” I darted forward, shoving my flame covered hand into his face, nearly singing off some of his five o’clock shadow. “I’m asking you because I know where the fuck you are, Jason.”
“The Barkley’s have been here as long as my family has.” Jason didn’t even look scared anymore. “Do you think Lucas is the only one who is…special? His family knows him as well as mine and everyone else’s family in this town does, Rob. We all get powers…he uses us as he sees fit. Every damn person in this town is some flavor of strange. Some more so than others.”
Jason looked down when he said that part, obviously considering his own special “power.”
“Only problem is,” Jason looked up, squinting angrily, “Lucas doesn’t like playing the game.”
“You get powers you don’t want, and he uses all of you?” I was confused as I backed up marginally, pulling my hand away from him. “That’s it? Why do any of you play the game?”
I scoffed at him.
“I mean,” I continued, “if you don’t want to be a werewolf and the Barkley’s don’t want…whatever it is they have…why go along with it? What’s he going to do? Especially now that he’s gone?”
“He’s not gone,” Jason whispered. “He’s resting. You didn’t stop him. You just slowed him down. Sure. We all hoped what you did got rid of him for good. So we could all go on living as close to normal as possible. But…he’s been reminding us periodically that he’ll be back. And any of us who think we’re safe now will find out otherwise.”
“What’s in it for you?” I repeated like Jason was deaf. “Even if you know he’ll come back, he’s going to destroy this town and everything in it. Why play along?”
“Have you seen any homeless people here, Rob?” Ja
son asked gently. “Seen anyone go hungry? What’s the dropout rate at the high school? Who doesn’t have a job? Who can’t pay their bills? We’ve only had social problems in this town in the last ten years. Since you did what you did.”
“I see.” I swallowed.
“Maybe we’re all going to be fucked when he pops up again,” Jason said. “But we’re all going to die eventually anyway. At least here we know we’ll be taken care of until then.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, my hand dropping to my side as the fire went out, leaving us in shadowy darkness. “Because living under a bridge is so much worse than a fate worse than death, right? And you call me stupid.”
Jason just glowered.
“Everyone in this fucking town is a few red Solo cups short of a frat party, man.” I laughed bitterly. “I knew it when I was a kid…and these last few weeks have confirmed it. Especially now that I have—”
I stopped myself.
Jason grinned evilly.
“What are you smiling at, fucker?” I snapped.
“Nothing.” He snickered.
“Fucking tell me,” I replied. “Or do I need to threaten to burn you alive in this house again?”
“Your memory.” He snickered again. “It’s back.”
“What?”
How does he know anything about that?
“You wished to not know anything about any of this.” Jason was gesturing vaguely once more. “You thought so hard about how you wished you and Lucas didn’t know about any of the stuff that happened when you were kids. To escape from what was coming. You wished your little friends in your house were safe, too. You thought, when you came out of that well, that you had stopped him. That everyone was safe.”
I stared at him, my gut sinking towards my feet.
“All you did was make everyone on your side dumber than ever for the next ten years.” Jason was full-on laughing. “And the rest of us just went along with it, let you believe it while he started planning his return. He’s inevitable, Rob. All you did was give him more time to plan. You fucked up. And you didn’t even realize it until Lucas was snatched and I told you. You’ve already lost and are just now realizing it, man.”
“Fuck you,” I grumbled angrily.
“And so few of you there were, right?” He was so amused that I wanted to punch my fist through his face and out the back of his head. “You, Lucas…and some creatures who live in that house. You better hope you can handle him on your own, Rob. Because those creatures are nothing…and Lucas will be dead by the time the sun comes up.”
A snarl started to build in my throat as I glared at Jason, the fear and worry for Lucas twisting my guts. But then a thought dawned on me, something I should have thought of long before that moment. Something that I’d been told but didn’t quite want to believe. Shaking my head at how stupid I was, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
“Of course, these guys are your pack.” I sighed, angry at myself. “The guys who attacked Lucas and me and bit him…the guys who took him just now. All of these wolves are your pack. You’ve been expanding for ten years.”
“Largest pack in the whole northwest.” He leaned forward and winked evilly. “Though, that’s not really saying much since no one comes close to our size.”
I nodded slowly.
“You really are simple, aren’t you?” Jason sighed with a smile. “All you have is your magic and a blank book. You don’t even have Lucas anymore. Well, soon, no one will have Lucas.”
The book.
How does he…
Oh.
Oh, yeah.
“The book won’t be blank for long.” I shrugged. “And Lucas won’t be dead soon. I may be slow…but I’m steady, assface. I can win this race.”
Jason threw his head back and laughed with incredulity.
“But first,” I stopped him with my sharp tone, “I’m going to do what I told Oma I was going to do.”
“What’s that?” Jason rolled his eyes.
“I’m gonna cut the head off the Hydra.” I smiled sweetly at him. “I don’t care what happens.”
Jason gave me a confused look. When I smiled at him and drug a finger across my neck, his confused look turned to a mixture of anger and fear. Rage welled up in me as I started to lift my hands towards Jason. His head fell back again, but instead of a laugh, it was a howl that came from his throat. In less time than it takes to blink, Jason’s flesh seemed to explode from his body, his werewolf form bursting forth. The howl still coming from the wolf’s throat echoed off of the walls as his head tilted back down, much higher than it had been before, to stare at me with red eyes.
I wasn’t afraid.
Werewolf Jason leapt forward, and I stepped aside, making a slashing motion with my hand as he flew by. With a resounding crash, the werewolf that was Jason fell to the ground. Well, his body crashed to the ground. His head came tumbling after a split second later.
You don’t need silver to kill a werewolf.
Almost everything needs a head to live.
The puddle of blood began blooming around the beheaded werewolf as it laid there, motionless and useless.
So, I went to Jason’s kitchen to find some Tupperware.
Chapter 11
The front door of Oma’s house creaked only slightly as I pushed it open, cautious, attempting to be sly as I made my way into the house in the middle of the night. Darkness, like that in Lucas’ and Jason’s house, pervaded, but my eyes were adjusted to trying to see in the dark now. Cradled in the crook of my arm was the Tupperware I had taken from one of the cabinets in Jason’s kitchen, being careful so as to not drop it. Once I was inside, I gently shut the door behind myself, making sure that a mere click sound was made by the lock engaging. I knew that Oma would not hear the noises of the door opening and closing—I’d snuck in and out enough as a teenager and as an adult to know that. But I didn’t want to wake Ernst or any of the Kobolds, either. Especially Ernst, actually. He’d be inquisitive, and I couldn’t have that.
I didn’t bother kicking my shoes off, though my footsteps would have been lighter if I had. Sticking around Oma’s house was not in my plans, however, and kicking my shoes off just to put them back on in a few moments would only slow me down. Lucas needed me as quickly as possible, so I had to work fast. If I happened to wake Oma or the Kobolds up, that was something that I would just have to deal with when the time came. Until then, I was going to do things the only way that I knew how—like a bull in a china cabinet.
When I got to the bookcase, I knelt down, gently setting the Tupperware onto the ground beside me. The house was as quiet as a grave as I reached down and gently pried the false board away from the bottom of the case. My hands slid into the darkness of that cubbyhole, and my fingertips connected with the old leather of the book. I slid it out of its hiding place and set it onto the floor before me. I didn’t bother pricking my finger and trying to open the book the way that I’d always been taught.
The magic I’d done when I was sixteen fucked everything up.
It needed more than just a touch of my magic.
The book wasn’t going to do anything for anyone until it was satisfied with a significant bit of magic.
With more blood than I could give.
“Thirsty?” I whispered in a bland tone as I picked up the large, full Tupperware container and slowly peeled back the lid.
The viscous liquid inside—Jason’s blood—looked black in the dark of Oma’s house. I shut my eyes for a moment, saying a silent prayer—to who, I wasn’t sure—and tipped the container forward. Blood flowed over the edge and onto the book. Blood I had let seep into the Tupperware from Jason’s open neck. At first, all I could think about was how I was going to make Oma’s living room look like a murder scene—like Jason’s. But when the blood connected with the book, it seemed to disappear into the leather of the old book, as though it was being drunk into the book itself. I smiled to myself as I continued pouring the container onto the book until the very last
drop dripped off of the plastic lip of the Tupperware.
Pressing the lid back onto the Tupperware, sealing it tightly, I set it to the side for the time being. The book was heavier than I ever remembered it being as I lifted it from the floor. It was almost as if it had a belly full of blood it was digesting, giving it more heft—though I wasn’t sure that was a bad analogy for what was actually going on. When I brought my fingers to the leather cover to open the book, it gave no resistance. Looking down at the book, I smiled at the sight of the dark shapes and words on the pages that I couldn’t quite read due to being in the dark, but could still see were now there.
The book was no longer hiding its secrets.
All it needed was more magic.
Rising from my knees to stand once more, I closed the book and bent down to grab the plastic storage container from the floor. Creeping again, I made my way to the kitchen and set the book on the counter. I methodically cleaned out the bloody container in Oma’s sink, once again being as quiet as possible, then shoved it into the dishwasher. Either it would be cleaned so thoroughly that no one would know what it had been used for, or by the time someone figured it out, I’d be long gone. Neither situation particularly bothered me in the slightest.
No Kobolds were in sight, and I hadn’t heard a single sound in the process of retrieving the book and washing out the Tupperware in the kitchen. So, when I started to tiptoe back through the living room towards the front door, I was startled out of my skin when the light came on suddenly. I jumped back, nearly dropping the book, when I saw Oma standing by the front door, her arms crossed under her breast, looking at me like I was crazy. Hiding the book or pretending that I hadn’t been creeping around didn’t even cross my mind. I simply adjusted my facial expression to a more normal one.
Not that it mattered.
“Where you been?” She asked.
Simple question.
“Where have you been?” I countered.
“In bed, of course.”
Looking her over, it was evident that Oma had not been in bed. She had on her button-down shirt and jeans, her makeup had not been washed off, her hair was still perfectly coifed. The only article of clothing that indicated she had been ready for bed was the hard-sole slippers on her feet.