“Welcome to the Slaughtered Calf, my lords. I hope Tommy here did not give you any trouble?”
I looked from the older boy to the younger one and back. “That remains to be seen.”
The older boy shot his younger brother a quick look before looking back toward me. His expression said it all. He was used to pulling his younger brother out of trouble. “I am truly sorry if he said something out of turn, my lords. Please let us see to your horses while you go inside and get warm.” I considered pushing the issue, but it really seemed harmless enough. I held the younger boy’s gaze until he looked down and then headed toward the door.
I heard a few small sighs escape the men as we walked into the inn. It was in much better shape than I could have imagined for a smaller village such as this. The entrance flowed into a large great room filled with tables and benches. The kitchen must have been attached because the entire space smelled fabulous. I heard a few of the men’s stomachs join my own in a slight rumble at the anticipation of hot food. A portly older man waddled his way over to us. I took in his wobbly walk and the grey beard and mentally checked him off as not being a threat.
“Welcome to the Slaughtered Calf. My name is Theodore, and I am in charge of seeing to your needs. Follow me to your rooms if you please, my lords. I’ve had a bath prepared for each of you, and a fire lit in each room. If you would like, for a small extra charge, I can have some of my girls clean your clothes and boots while you bathe.”
The food smelled so good, I was tempted to stay and eat first, but getting dry and clean after so many days in the rain sounded even better. “That would be splendid, Theodore. We would be happy to indulge in a few extras during our stay here. The journey here has not been without peril. We lost a battle against the rain and mud days ago.” I looked back down the hallway at the trail of mud we left in our wake and sadly shook my head.
The innkeeper nodded, pleased with my answer. I had never met a merchant that did not smile over making a few extra coins.
The men and I broke off to our separate rooms. Not long after I had settled myself in the tub, a beautiful blonde woman entered my room. She had dressed herself to play down on her natural beauty, but it found a way to shine through, even so. Without saying a word, she collected my clothes and boots from the ground and headed out of the room. I let the heat of the bath ease some of the tension in my muscles. A week on the road was hardly a long time, but being clean again for the first time in days felt great. If the food was as good as it smelled, tonight was going to be worth every shilling. Two of life’s simple pleasures were a full belly and a soft bed to sleep in. I thought about the girl as I cleaned the dirt of the road off of myself. I hoped my men were behaving. I’d hate to have to kill one of them for harming the young lady.
I found a conveniently placed towel and a robe set by the side of the bath. I dried off, put on the robe, and moved to settle into a chair by the fire. I was happy to see a little footstool, and I stretched my feet out toward the fire, soaking up the warmth. I must have fallen asleep for a moment, because I was awakened by a soft knock at the door. “Come in.”
The beautiful blonde woman from earlier came in. Not once did she even look in my direction. She set my clean boots by the door and hung my clean and dry clothes from a hook on the back of the door, then left without so much as a sound. I wondered if this is how the royals lived. Your every desire seen to without having to so much as speak. Reluctantly, I pulled myself from the warmth of the fire and got dressed.
When I entered the great room, I was happy to see that all of my men were already seated at a table. They seemed to be in good spirits. I could see them laughing and joking while dipping large chunks of bread into some kind of stew. I went over to a small table in the corner of the room. I picked the corner for two reasons: the men needed to enjoy this little bit of warmth and hospitality without worrying about me listening to their conversation; and from there, I could see the entire expanse of the room, as well as the entrance to the inn. I was not expecting trouble, but it was always good to be prepared.
Just moments after I sat down, the blonde from my room appeared again, this time with a bowl of incredible-smelling stew. She also had a small circular loaf of fresh-baked bread under her arm. Surprisingly, she somehow also managed to bring me a large flagon of ale. This region of England was well known for their home-brewed ales. It was one of the many perks of traveling through the countryside. If you found the right place to bed down, you not only stayed warm and dry, but were likely to be introduced to fantastic food and drink. I tried to make eye contact with her, but again, she eluded me by only looking down. I offered her my sincerest thanks as she walked away.
Although we had cooks with us on the road, they could not match the wonderful fare that was provided by this inn. The stew in front of me tasted as good as it smelled. The beef was so tender, it fell apart on my tongue. The slight aftertaste of honey from my glass of ale added just that much more flavor to the overall meal. I ripped off the first chunk of bread from the loaf and enjoyed not only the heat coming from it, but the feel of the crispy outside. The middle of the loaf looked soft, perfect for soaking up the wonderful brown gravy of the stew. I started to dig into the meal in earnest when I noticed the innkeeper making his way over to my table. The only thing I could think of was that Weatherby had gotten into some kind of trouble. If that man wasn’t looking for a place to roost his cock, he was utterly worthless.
As the innkeeper reached my table, I noticed Weatherby out of the corner of my eye. He was, indeed, chatting up one of the servers, but from the looks of it had yet to get her up to his room and out of her knickers.
I called out to him, hoping to avoid any future complications. “Lieutenant, please head out and make sure the rest of our group has made it into town safely and is set up in their quarters.”
He gave the girl a wink and headed toward the door. I was surprised to find that he actually listened to an order when he was hot on the trail of his nightly conquest. I motioned for the innkeeper to sit down as I watched Weatherby circle back from the door and make his way back upstairs, following the girl he had been speaking to a moment before. “I swear to God Weatherby, if you do not have your pants back on and are not out on the road in less than an hour, I will see to it that you never get to use that thing again!” He looked back, but only for a second. It was as if he wondered how I’d noticed his little deception and was trying to figure out how serious I was.
Theodore had taken a seat opposite from me at the table. He smiled good-naturedly at my little exchange with the lieutenant. “I swear, if he wasn’t my sister’s boy, I would have had him court-martialed long ago. Unless he is trying to impress a woman, he is utterly worthless.”
The innkeeper smiled knowingly back at me. “I have a few of those types working for me, as well.” He seemed to be thinking of something and then shrugged. I could have sworn I heard him mutter, “Family.”
I nodded, thinking of my own family issues.
“Do you mind if I bend your ear while we eat?”
I looked at the man to see if I could guess what he had to say, but decided it was easier to just let him speak. The dry clothes and the great food had earned him a few minutes of my time. “Of course, tell me what troubles you?”
He made a motion to one of the serving wenches, and when she reappeared, she brought two more bowls of stew and some fresh bread. A moment later, a second woman appeared with two more flagons of ale. I started to wonder just how long the innkeeper’s story was going to be.
He took a few bites of his stew and a healthy drink from his flagon of ale before he was ready to talk. He looked at me across the table, all signs of his smile now gone. He seemed to be thinking of how to start his tale but did not really like any of his options. He looked away from me and made another signal to one of the servers, then finished his entire glass of ale. Another full cup appeared to replace it.
Having found some courage in the bottom of his glass, he
started to talk. “Good sir, I would hate to trouble you. I can tell from your appearance, you are traveling on important business. The concerns of our little town probably do not add up to much.” He spread his hand out before him indicating the simple cookware and tables. “We are simple people here, but we are proud of what we have. I am almost afraid to speak of what I think I have seen. I’m sure that when you hear what I have to say, you will think I have gone absolutely mad.”
I finished my second bowl of the inn’s superb stew and sat back in my chair. One of the barmaids came by and refilled my flagon while I pulled a pouch of tobacco and my pipe from inside my coat. I moved around for a minute, getting even more comfortable in my chair while tasting the gentle flavor of the tobacco on my tongue, now prepared for the tale that was about to come. I was thankful that this inn had comfortable chairs. I had a feeling I would need one for the tale that was about to unfold. I puffed lightly on my pipe and motioned for the innkeeper to continue his story.
1
Sarah
It felt good to be out hunting again with a pack following behind me. I felt a little guilty that I was having so much fun without John, but he had a separate mission to accomplish. The wind whipped around my ears, and the scent of our prey tickled my nostrils. I could not help but feel exhilarated. The thrill of the chase had my senses in overdrive. I was following a scent, but it was so clear, I could see it as a trail in the air. It was like following a color; I could see every twist and turn that the prey made as it ran in front of us. I let out a howl that was echoed by the pack trailing behind me. The thrill of the hunt was fully upon me now. The closer we got to our prey, the trail grew clearer and easier to follow. I could now pick up the first stirrings of another smell in the air: fear.
Two nights ago, the pack had been dispatched to try and track down a killer. We had received reports from the outskirts of town about some mysterious deaths, the victims having been burned to death. Normally, we would stay out of something that could be attributed to a human killing a human, or maybe simply an accident. If it had not been for the reports of the killer running away while being completely engulfed in flames, this case would have never made it to our door. We had sent out some of our human agents to try and track the validity of the claims made by the locals. The agents had come back to Adam without a clear-cut answer. They had found what appeared to be a series of burn spots leading away from each of the crime scenes, becoming further spread out the farther away they were tracked, until they disappeared completely. They reported that it could have been scorch marks from footsteps. That had been enough to warrant further investigation by a team from the Ascendancy.
A team was sent out to investigate the area and keep an eye out for any further occurrences. After a few nights of idly waiting, the team got lucky, or not so lucky as the case would have it. From reading the report, I understood that the team heard screaming and ran toward the sound. They encountered a flaming Demon of some kind incinerating a human female. The team sprang into action.
They engaged the Demon in hopes of killing it quickly and leaving the scene. The Gifted agent cast ice and water at the Demon, trying to quench its flames. When the ice and water did not work, he moved on to trying to remove the oxygen from the air around the Demon. Unfazed, the Demon moved inexorably forward, seemingly an unstoppable juggernaut of flame. When he reached the agent, his clothes burst into flame and the Demon tossed him to the side like a sack of rubbish.
His Lycan partner jumped in, trying to extinguish the flames from his burning partner, only to find the flames spreading to his fur. In a lucky turn of events, the Lycan was able to shift, extinguishing the flames before becoming badly burned. He watched as the Demon’s slow walk turned into a run, and then it flew off into the night.
Before the local fire crew and police arrived, the Lycan was able to gather his wounded partner in his arms and sprint through the darkened alleys, eventually making it back to our base. Our healers worked together, but were unable to save our agent’s life. His Lycan partner had done the right thing by fleeing before the authorities could ask questions; our first goal was to remain hidden. Already rumors were flying around our base that if the agent had been paired with another Gifted, his life would have been saved. It was unfair to lay such a burden at our brother’s feet, but our continued alliance was still blooming. As always, it seemed that hatred was hard to replace with trust.
I pushed myself harder, letting the injustice of it wash over me. I felt the earth rush past me faster than I would have thought possible. I still could not shake the anger building inside of me from the meeting I had just left. John had especially fueled my rage; as much as I loved the man, he knew how to push my buttons better than anyone else.
Adam had called us both into his office, one of our own had been lost, and something needed to be done about it. Both of us wanted to avenge our murdered member, but John was pacing back and forth seething with barely contained rage. Anything short of destroying the Demon was not an option. There was a price to pay for killing humans, and bringing our struggle into the open. There was a steeper price to pay for killing a member of the Ascendancy. The conversation we had still grated at me, even though a full day had passed since then.
We had been sitting in front of Adam’s desk. The power the two men in the room were exuding was almost too much for me to bear. Their bodies were thrumming with the magic they contained. John finally seemed to notice that I was uncomfortable, and I could feel some of the power he had been holding fall away. Adam had noticed what John had done and quickly followed suit. With some of their power gone from the room, it made it easier for me to focus on the conversation.
I wondered just what was with these men beside me. They always carried around a small amount of power, but their emotions often led them to pull more. It was as if they needed to show everyone around them just how powerful they were. This was something the pack handled in a much different way. We liked to challenge each other in combat to prove our strength. Once dominance was established, we moved on. These two men seemed to change directions with the wind.
Instead of adding tension to the situation by telling them what I was thinking, I went in another direction. I knew what I was going to say would make them just as mad, but at least it would not be directed at them. This particular Demon did not seem phased by the Gifted agent’s magic. Stanley had been a talented member of the Ascendancy; if his spells could not pierce the Demon’s flames, I doubted that anyone else’s could. The only reason Jack had survived was that somehow his shift between forms had extinguished the flames.
I looked over at Adam and told him what I was thinking. “Adam, I think the pack needs to be in charge of hunting this creature down. I want to take four members with me; together, we should be enough to kill the Demon before it hurts someone else.”
Adam did not get a chance to say anything before John exploded to his feet next to me. “Absolutely not!”
I gave him my fiercest glare, the one that told him if he didn’t sit down soon, he would not be having sex for a very long time.
He sat back down but not before looking at me and saying, “You can’t do this without me. One of our men was killed. I want to be there when this ends.”
It seemed he was smart enough not to try and forbid me from going after the Demon. I was not some housewife to be controlled, no matter what the ads in the magazines said, I didn’t want a vacuum for Christmas. In my culture, your status was based on your worth to the pack, not on where you stood while you made that contribution. The humans seemed to have forgotten that women could do more than tend house. I had a feeling that would change rather quickly.
Adam waited for John to relax back into his chair before speaking. “Tell me what your plan is, Sarah.”
I gave John a quick glance before turning my attention back to Adam. I could tell that neither man was happy not to be playing a role in killing this Demon. The fact that one of the pack lived and one of theirs was dead did not
escape me. It might even smooth things over if the pack was to bring this Demon to justice. Some kind of instinct told me that if the Gifted went after this Demon, we would be looking at more than the one death we had suffered already. This was something they needed to let me handle.
I tried to watch both men at the same time as I spoke. “I just came back from speaking with Jack, and he told me the scent from the fire Demon was different. There was no hint of humanity in it. If we could go to where it was last seen, I have faith that we could use the scent to track the Demon.”
Before I had the chance to continue outlining my plan, John cut me off. I swear that I loved this man, but some days, he tested my patience to the breaking point. “That’s perfect, Sarah. You track the Demon, and then we can kill it together.”
I gave him another look. This time, I hoped my look conveyed that he was not helping himself by digging his hole any deeper. I decided I would let it pass this time, given that he had just lost a friend in battle.
Instead of acknowledging him, I turned so that I was fully facing Adam and continued as if his outburst hadn’t happened. “Adam, I want to take the pack and handle this Demon for a couple reasons. The Demon from all accounts seems to be impervious to your gift. The Lycans stand the best chance of tracking it and killing it without any further deaths. Also, it seems some of the Gifted are blaming Jack for not being able to help Stanley. If we could avenge his death, it might help to quiet that kind of talk.”
I could see John tense out of the corner of my eye, but it was Adam who spoke first. “If the reports are accurate, and I believe that they are, then you may be right, Sarah. I have also heard the men talking, and it would be good to lay that discussion to rest. All of us working together has never been a popular idea, but it has proved to be extremely successful.”
Ascendancy Origins Trilogy Page 12