The Daemon Within

by Jeremy Croston

  Dark Moon Press Presents:

  The Daemon Within

  Story by Jeremy Croston

  Bolt Publishing, LLC

  989 W. Kennedy Blvd, Ste 101 Maitland FL 32810

  Copyright 2017 by Jeremy Croston

  All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced scanned, or sold in print or electronic form without permission. We encourage you, the readers, not to engage in any form of piracy.

  ISBN Number: 978-1974665891

  Printed in the United States via Createspace

  1 9 2 8 3 7 4 6 5

  Publisher Note:

  This book is a work of fiction.

  All of the names, places,

  and events that occur are from

  the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to an actual

  person, alive or dead, place,

  historical event, or business establishment

  is purely coincidental.

  Contributions:

  Rebecca Blackburn – Editor

  Karen Vacanti – Content Manager

  Ryan Latterell – Social Media/Marketing

  Galuh Obodi – Cover Artist

  This book is dedicated to my content editor, Karen Vacanti. Because of you, I have to write a fifth book in this series. Curse you!

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Prelude

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Interlude I

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Interlude II

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Interlude III

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  About Us

  More from Jeremy Croston:

  One Last Thing:

  Finale

  Prelude

  **Gregory**

  I did not feel right about this. It did not matter to me that we were commissioned by the Silver pack in Ukraine to perform a genocide. Sure, I had seen the pictures of the wolves that were in question, but they were living creatures. I could only imagine what they went through living in the exclusion zone. I remember the Chernobyl disaster like it was yesterday, as well. My deceased wife, Dru, was mortified by what the humans had done to the environment.

  Still, here I was, at the meeting with Liz, Reno, and Anna Petrov – the new head of the western Asian coven. Across from us was the Alpha of the Silvers who had reached up to the vampires, Anatoli Scovitch. The large man was most intimidating, which begged one question, why did he need help from the vampires?

  With a thick accent, “Da volves in question make their home right outside da power plant. Radiation has varped them beyond repair.”

  Liz was nodding her head, almost absent mindedly. She hadn’t been right since her falling out with Victor Inglewood. No matter how hard I tried, she wouldn’t tell me much. It was painful to see such a close friend hurting this deeply. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the time to try to intervene again.

  I addressed Anatoli. “I mean no disrespect, but your pack looks very much capable of dealing with these wolves on your own.” His eyes hardened. “Why do you require the assistance of the vampires?”

  “I am also curious, Anatoli,” Anna said softly. “Not once since I have taken over for Kai have you even reached out to open the lines of dialogue between your pack and the coven.”

  The large Silver didn’t back down. “My pack’s relationship vith your vampires are not well and never has been,” he explained. He turned to me. “But, the vampires based in America, they have a reputation for getting things accomplished.”

  The hostiles between Anatoli and Anna were immeasurable. It was clear she felt undermined as the new head that he bypassed her and went right to Cristof. Anna looked at the Alpha like he was nothing more than a worm that needed to be crushed. I was privately hoping Liz would get involved to smooth things over, but she was still off in her own little world. Reno saw me staring at her and just shrugged his shoulders.

  Though he did take the opportunity to get involved. “We get it, these wolves are bad,” Reno started with. “I wasn’t born yesterday though, there’s a catch coming.”

  “There is.” Anatoli addressed Anna, not the rest of us. “You haven’t told them about Chernybog yet? Surely Kai or the coven has recorded history of da creature.” He was pleased to get one up on her.

  Liz finally snapped out of her stupor. “The myth? Why does that matter to us?”

  Anna shifted around, a nervous habit. “It’s more than just a myth, Liz,” she said. “The Dark God remained in quiet exile, until the meltdown occurred.” Her eyes never left the ground. “Kai left me explicit instructions to leave the beast alone at all costs.”

  Feeling high and mighty, “The Dark God vas varped by the radiation, just like the volves that live in Vormvood. These plagues are ruining our lands.”

  This was very unexpected. A mutated God? “There seems to be much we need to know.” It looked like it was up to me to take charge as Liz was not herself and Anna was too green. “Anatoli, take us someplace where we can all sit down. I want to know everything before we begin.”

  Chapter 1

  There was a weird thought in me as I looked out over the forest. “You sure this is the right place? I just got the heebie-jeebies,” I told her.

  The short, powerful vampire to my right assured me so. “I’ve been here a few times since getting off Neverland. They’ll be here soon.” Isa seemed so confident.

  The forest was dead. Not like just quiet, I mean killed, murdered. The trees had this weathered, almost eaten look to ‘em and the grass blades underfoot were weak. Every footstep produced a crunch, like the grass wasn’t strong enough to support the weight. There wasn’t a single piece of the forest that looked alive and well.

  The strange thing was the amount of animal activity that I sensed. A wide array of smells filled the air, from boars and rabbits to wolves. However, even those were wrong. Asking a question I knew the answer to, “Is this all a reaction from the fallout?”

  Isa plucked a grey, dismal flower. “This place,” she started, “it’s like a different world. When the reactor melted down years ago, the humans left this area to rot.” There was a bit of bitterness in her voice. “The vampires of the Eastern Bloc left the werewolves to fend for themselves.”

  “How do you know all of this? Weren’t you on Neverland?”

  She tapped the side of her head with a red fingernail. “I spent a good deal of my life traversing these parts of the world. I have a great many friends and allies that caught me up to speed on current events,” she explained to me.

  That made sense. A vampire is only as strong as his or her network. “I’ve only read about the meltdown. Have you spoken to anyone that witnessed it?”

  Isa nodded. “Not too far from here is the ghost town of Pripyat. It was once a thriving community that supported the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. On that fateful day in nineteen eighty-six, the fourth reactor blew up
and fires roared. Massive amounts of radiation escaped the plant and ruined the areas surrounding. Now, the only semblance of civilized life here are the wolves.” As she finished, she could barely contain the horror of such a tragedy.

  I gave a quick tug to the jacket she gave me. Lead lined the inside to protect me from the harsh conditions. Isa told me that we should be fine, but the extra precautions never hurt. Even the boots she gave me had a lead lining in them.

  I marveled once again at the terrain. “It’s so sad. A place like this should be buzzing with life. The animals, there is just something so different about them. It’s like they are shadows of themselves.”

  “That’s probably an accurate statement. Do you know what this place is called?”

  Geography wasn’t my strong suit and before my fateful trip to England, I didn’t even have a passport. “We’re in the Ukraine, right?”

  She smiled. “Yes, this is Ukraine, but I meant the forest. They call it the Red Forest now due to the color of the trees. The natives, they still call it the Wormwood.”

  “What were the humans doing around the zone? If no one is here…?”

  “To keep people out, for their own safety. This place is not safe, for a great number of reasons.”

  A scent, a very strong scent came from nowhere and approached fast. “Isa, something’s coming.”

  She didn’t seem too worried. “It’s about time.”

  When I saw what was producing the scent, it made me shiver uncontrollably. A large man, easily six foot four or five and well over three hundred pounds of muscle descended on us very fast. He stopped short, giving pause at the two visitors to his domain.

  He had one good eye, on the left side. The right one looked to be glued shut. There was a messy flop of black hair on top of his head and his arms were covered in lesions and scars. Simple brown pants and a white shirt covered the rest of his body.

  Immediately, I knew this to be the Alpha of the area. Power surged off of him, so much of it that it caused the Warg inside of me to react. Based on what I could tell, this was a Black werewolf, but there was something very different about him. “Last time I see you, I not freak.”

  Isa walked over and put a hand out. “It’s been too long, Dmitri,” she countered. “And you’re still devilishly handsome.”

  He gave a lopsided smile before coming to me. “You brought friend.” His large hand formed a finger that was pointed directly at me. “This volf you vere telling me about?”

  She waved for me to come closer. “It is. This is Victor, someone who’s very important to me and trustworthy.”

  My face turned red when she said I was very important to her. I too offered my hand to Dmitri and he took it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you sir.”

  “You have power, much power.” It was hard to really get a feel for him. He hadn’t let go of my hand either. “A friend of Isa’s is friend of mine.”

  That was good to hear. “I understand you have a problem?”

  “Da.” He let go of my hand and began pacing. “For long time we struggle vith volves to north of us. Call us freaks, abominations. That problem has, as you say, escalated.”

  As a good investigator, before I got too deep into the actual issue, I needed the entire backstory. “What kinda wolves do you have to the north? And was there always bad blood between the packs?”

  Dmitri seemed agitated. I privately hoped it wasn’t because I was asking questions. These were the softballs, not even the hard ones. I got my answer when he spoke. “Silver pack alvays thought poorly of my pack. After accident, hostilities have gotten worse. They kill us vithout remorse.”

  Ahh man, it reached that level. “That ain’t right, no sir.” I switched my attention over to Isa. “We need to go meet with these Silvers and find out what the deal is. I don’t care how different a pack is, murdering wolves for no reason ain’t acceptable.”

  “That’s not the vorst part. The Silvers are using vampires to hunt us.”

  Shock filled me. Did Isa know? “Vampires? Just what the hell is going on here?”

  A small hand gripped my shoulder. “That’s why I came directly to you, Victor. From what I learned, the Silvers went to the Vampire Council and requested help. It turns out that help was exterminating these wolves from this land.”

  Bile was brewing in my gut. I had friends on the vampire council. “This has to be a misunderstanding. No matter what my current standing is, we gotta reach out to them. I can’t imagine any of those people killing innocents without cause,” I told them both. I wanted to believe my own words as I spoke.

  Neither Isa nor Dmitri looked as if they approved that idea. Dmitri stayed quiet and let Isa take the lead. “If they are involved and discover we are here, that could make the situation worse.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” I asked.

  “You’re an investigator, you need to investigate.” She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why didn’t she tell me I needed air to breathe, too?

  Either way, I didn’t like it one bit. “Okay, we’ll do things your guys’ way but the moment I don’t like something, I want no flack about reaching out to my friends.”

  There was a silent agreement between the two of them. “I appreciate you trusting us, Victor.”

  Isa slipped her arm around my hip, reached up, and kissed me. Yep, ever since she came back into my life a few weeks ago, we’d grown close. Part of me felt bad with the way things ended with Liz, but she also brought a bunch of it on herself. She hadn’t been able to accept the new me the way Isa did. She didn’t bristle at the slightest when I had an internal conversation with the Warg. Nope, she was fine with what happened.

  Still, a part of me would always be grateful to Liz. If it wasn’t for her, my life would’ve been confined to Full Moon, New Mexico. Look at me today, at Chernobyl of all places, investigating mysterious werewolf deaths. Nope, this never would’ve been possible otherwise.

  With a plan in place, it was time to get started. “Dmitri, where can we set up shop and get to work on this for you?”

  “Follow me.”

  The big wolf lead us out of the clearing we were in and into the forest. We trekked for a ways, the scenery only changing when a Ferris Wheel started sticking up into the skyline. “What’s that?”

  “Pripyat put up amusement park. My pack took over when humans fled.”

  It just added to the surreal scene. An amusement park right in the middle of the world’s worst nuclear fallout zone. I felt chills run up my back. We entered through the front of the park and shadows greeted us. Dmitri’s wolves stayed out of sight to the two newcomers that entered. Judging by the number of scents moving, I guessed there were at least sixty to seventy wolves in this pack.

  We took another few steps before Dmitri cried out to his followers. His howl was one of welcome and of goodwill. “Velcome friend of old and friend of new to Mertvaya Zemlya. I believe translation to English is The Dead Land.”

  Chapter 2

  We sat inside one of the old maintenance buildings with candles as our only source of light. The place was in such disrepair and our hosts didn’t look much better. They spoke no English, so Isa was our only way to communicate with them. Thank goodness she was a walking lexicon of languages. “The male says dinner will be ready soon.”

  I hadn’t even thought about eating. “Is anything they catch going to be safe to eat?”

  She didn’t have an answer to that. “This is a hostile and dangerous place. We both understood the risks when we left Full Moon.”

  Yeah, that we did. After Isa found me at my restaurant, we drove back to my house and talked about everything. I knew wolves were in trouble and there was something bad forming over this area, but I wasn’t sure about the vampires and the murders. Still, I would never turn my back on a pack in trouble.

  My dad, Callum, who honestly had little idea just what had happened to me, seemed to be in agreement. It took a day or two for him to open up to Isa (he really lik
ed Liz) but once he did, it was all systems go. “I didn’t raise my kids to ignore others. After all you’ve been through, Victor, a place like that can’t keep you down.”

  Having dad’s approval meant a lot. Especially because mom wasn’t about me leaving again. I had to promise her the world that I’d be back in one piece, even though I wasn’t sure I’d even recovered from my last great adventure. After giving dad and Bernard explicit instructions on what I wanted for my restaurant, Isa and I began getting ready for the trip.

  Planes, trains, and automobiles were used to reach this secluded and off-limits part of Ukraine. We had to carefully avoid the human authorities at every turn, though once we entered the fallout zone, they became scarce. Being this close to the reactor wouldn’t be good for them. Hell, I wasn’t sure, even with all the precautions, that it was good for me.

  Our hosts had physical differences just like the Alpha. The male, Sergey I think Isa called him, was on the smaller side. The hair on his head grew in patches and there was a huge ugly scar running down the left side of his face. His mate, Irina, was pure white and her eyes were red. I’d never met an albino wolf before.

  Irina came over with three bowls. Earlier she’d given Isa a glass of red liquid, blood, and the vampire happily accepted. For the rest of us she had made boar stew from the animal Sergey killed. To say I was cautious was an understatement, but I eventually gave in and ate.

  Her cooking tasted good, even with the slightly off smell I kept picking up. I chalked that up to what happened years ago. “Can you tell her I said thank you?” I asked Isa.

  She smiled and relayed the message. Irina looked bashful and Sergey proud. They rambled something back that all sounded like gibberish to me. A quick translation came, “They appreciate your kind words, Victor.”

  Due to the language barrier, the rest of the meal was held in silence. While Irina was cleaning up, a knock came on the rusted metal door that separated their living space from the rest of the pack. When Sergey opened the door, Dmitri was standing there. “Have you eaten?”