As they entered the blood-covered living room, Aiden’s heart fell to the floor. In the center of the room were three men with rifles, and they were surrounding Rufus who lay in a puddle of blood. Beyond them, at the far edge of the room, was a black tarp covering what appeared to be two motionless bodies.
Rufus grunted, snapping Aiden’s gaze from the tarp. His back lifted and fell with each sporadic breath. Aiden looked up at Mr. Henderson’s emotionless face. “He’s still breathing,” he cried. “Help him. Please.”
Mr. Henderson nodded once.
A single shot rang out.
Aiden dropped to his knees again and sobbed into his hands. Mr. Henderson put his hand on Aiden’s head. “Sorry you had to see this, son. Unfortunately, Rufus went bad. Your dad knew it and called me. Before we got here, Rufus had killed your parents.”
Aiden shook his head. “No, no. Not Rufus. He would never do something like that.”
“You need to be strong now. Stand up.” He grabbed Aiden’s arm and helped him to his feet. “Remember what you see here, kid. This is going to help you in the next stage of your life. You’ve got a calling; you just don’t know it yet.” Bernard nodded again, and one of his men lifted the tarp slightly. Aiden’s mother’s dead stare met him. The guard lowered the tarp again.
Mr. Henderson told the others to “clean it up,” and led Aiden to the front door. “Don’t worry,” he added. “I’ll take care of you now.”
Aiden knew that he shouldn’t go with Mr. Henderson—that he should wait for the police—but he no longer cared what happened to him.
A black van pulled into the long driveway and parked next to a black limousine. Four more men dressed like the men inside piled from the van. With watery eyes, Aiden looked back to his house one last time. Mr. Henderson jerked his arm and led him to the waiting limousine.
Christine covered her mouth. “You mean he kidnapped you?”
Aiden nodded.
“Didn’t anyone look for you? Family?”
“Probably. But I wasn’t looking for them. I was sad and angry. I didn’t care about the world anymore. Or anyone in it.”
“What did he do with you?”
“He taught me to kill. He taught me about the werewolves and how they sometimes snapped and needed to be put down. I bought into his words with tremendous zeal.”
Aiden stopped talking and turned away. He was sickened just thinking about what had happened to him, but at the same time, having someone listen to his story lifted more and more of that weight from his shoulders with every word.
Christine said, “That’s enough, Aiden. I don’t need to hear any more.”
He shook his head. He needed to get all of it out. “I was seventeen when that bastard put me in a pen with a rabid werg. He told me to take any weapons I felt I would need. I chose a single knife. Then he locked the pen, leaving me alone with the creature.
“Before I killed that animal ... that person ... I thought about my Mom and Dad. When that werg attacked, I shoved a blade into its heart without remorse. Mr. Henderson left me in there with that filthy, dead beast for the rest of the night. I think it was at that moment that I lost any compassion I had left for those creatures. I started seeing them as ravenous monsters in need of killing, and I couldn’t wait for my first mission.”
He swallowed hard and looked up from the floor. “But now I’ve found you. Seeing you as one of those creatures and seeing you now ... it’s more than I can explain. I think of everything I have done, and now I am sickened by my own hatred and brutality.
“Finding you has made me realize something else, something besides the horrors I have inflicted. The chip that my dad removed from Rufus’ neck didn’t keep him tamed like Mr. Henderson told me; the company’s sick torture did that. No, the chip kept him from transforming into a human. I haven’t been killing creatures. I’ve been killing people. I’m a murderer.”
“You aren’t a murderer,” Christine insisted. “You didn’t know. Now that you do know, you don’t have to kill anymore.”
Aiden gritted his teeth. He let go of her hand and wiped the wetness from his eyes. “You’re wrong. Mr. Henderson groomed me, manipulated me into a cold-blooded killer. I now know who slaughtered my parents. It wasn’t Rufus. It wasn’t the chip in his neck. It was Mr. Henderson and his men. He needs to see first-hand what he turned me into. And now he will.”
23
SENATOR WOOTEN
AFTER resting for a couple of hours, Aiden insisted they get moving. Though Christine had closed her heavy eyelids, she hadn’t slept; her mind wouldn’t let her. The radio clock read 2:30a.m.
An hour’s drive later, they reached an asphalt road. Aiden flipped off the headlights and crept to a stop on the side of the road. “Senator Wooten’s place is the next street over. We won’t get much closer in a vehicle without being seen. We’ll have to go on foot through the woods if we want to talk to the senator before morning.”
“Shouldn’t we drive up to the house like a normal person would?”
“He has guards. They’ll never let us near him. We don’t have time to be messing around with them anyway. If we can get to the senator and convince him we’re not there to harm him, I think he will listen.”
Talik reached beneath his seat, removed a cannon-like pistol, and cocked the slide back. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he will listen.”
Christine stared at the gun, uncomfortable to be in the same vehicle with such a weapon. “Why do we need that?”
“If they arrest us, then we’re done.”
“He won’t help us if we have guns. He’s supposed to be on our side, right?”
Aiden nodded.
“Please, Aiden.” She pushed the gun and his hand down. “Leave it here.”
He stared at her for a moment before shoving the weapon beneath his seat again. She grinned and mouthed, “Thank you,” and opened her door.
He grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and removed an army-green duffle bag from the back seat. “I can’t go in without anything. That would be foolish. But don’t worry, I’ll leave these in the woods where we can get to them if we need ‘em. Deal?”
She nodded, though she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice.
They walked through the woods for nearly twenty minutes, and she wondered how well he could navigate the dark forest. He must have sensed her trepidation because he grinned and said with a wink, “I’ve been to the senator’s house a few times before.”
She looked at him, puzzled.
“Let’s just say, the company had reasons for keeping an eye on the good senator. He is their biggest threat, after all.”
“Would you have killed him?” she asked, barely able to get the words out and afraid of his answer.
He appeared surprised by her question. “I’ve told you that I have never knowingly killed a person, and I didn’t have any plans to start. I was ordered to watch him for a while in case he had some unethical hobbies. You know—drugs, thirteen-year-old girls, or something like that.”
He stopped, knelt, and set his duffel bag next to a tree. “We’re close to his property. We won’t be able to get much farther without being detected. Are you good with the plan?”
She nodded.
“Stick with it. Walk toward the front door and get security’s attention. He should have three or four guards walking around. Keep them busy for as long as you can. If all goes well, they will escort you to the senator. Hopefully, I’ll be in there waiting. If they send you away, go out of sight and then duck into the woods.” He removed a small package that looked like a cell phone strapped to a dark green tube similar to a road flare and set it next to a different tree. He flipped a toggle switch which turned on a dime-sized, red LED. “When you hear me, make your way back to here.”
“How will I find it?”
“Trust me, you’ll find it.”
He led her to the road and turned back toward the woods. She grabbed his arm, stopping him. He looked at her, unsure of wha
t she wanted. She didn’t say anything, letting her concerned expression speak for itself.
“Relax,” he said with a sincere and gentle smile that etched into her consciousness forever. “We’ll be fine.”
She reluctantly let go of his arm. He reached out his hand and tenderly brushed the back of his finger across her cheek.
She shivered at his touch, part of her hoping he would never pull his hand away. But he did—he had no choice. They gazed at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then Aiden turned and disappeared into the forest.
She didn’t follow the road for long before she saw a flashlight beam bouncing toward her from the front of the senator’s house. She made it another few feet before his flashlight’s beam blinded her. She turned from its glare with her arms above her head.
She was careful not to make any sudden movements. She waited as the guard approached along with a second guard from beside the house.
“Do not move a muscle,” one of the two men shouted. “What are you doing out here?”
“I need to meet with Senator Wooten,” she answered. “It’s urgent.”
One of the guards chuckled and said, “Go away,” before turning back toward the house. He added, “The senator doesn’t meet with crazy people walking down the road in the middle of the night.”
“Wait,” she said, taking a step forward.
The other guard lifted his weapon slightly. “Don’t take another step or I’ll blow your head off.”
“I’m not here for trouble. I have important information for the senator which I believe will help his cause.”
“And which cause is that?” The guard paused and then added, “Scratch that question, I don’t care. Now turn around and go back the way you came or you’ll be arrested for trespass—”
She interrupted, “I can help him bring down the WereHouse.”
The guard stopped cold. She had struck a chord. After a moment of contemplation, he nodded and ordered, “Let’s go.” He kept his weapon trained on her while the other guard led them toward the house.
They asked how she got there without a car. She told them her car had broken down several miles back and that she had been walking for a while.
The driveway led around a large fountain, and one of the guards ordered her to wait beside it. He left his partner with her while he moved out of earshot to talk on his walkie.
24
FRIEND OR FOE
WITH Christine safely on the road, Aiden returned to his duffel bag, removed a six-shooter revolver, and continued through the forest toward Senator Wooten’s home. His previous surveillance of the senator revealed plenty of places to sneak into the house without notice. In fact, he had done that once or twice in the past, just to see if he could.
He didn’t have much time; Christine wouldn’t be able to keep the guards occupied for long. They would send her walking soon and without her he wouldn’t have any proof of his accusations once he reached the senator.
He studied two guards patrolling the back of the house and their complacent pattern. He waited, the clock in his head urging him to move. After one of the guards strolled past within ten feet of where he hid, he took his chance and hurried to the side of the house. With his back against the stucco siding, he shimmied around to the rear of the mansion and crept beneath a two-story deck.
Steam poured from the top of the deck where a hot tub sat. Aiden couldn’t believe his good fortune. After another guard passed, Aiden climbed the stairs to the first landing and waited.
A female’s voice rose above the running motor of the hot tub. “I’m going to bed,” she said. “Are you coming?”
Aiden had heard Senator Wooten’s voice enough to recognize it when he said, “I’ll be in after I finish this smoke.”
Aiden knelt in the shadows. Water splashed over the side of the hot tub and through the gaps in the deck flooring. From his angle, he could see the double sliding-glass doors. A naked, red-haired beauty removed a towel from a hook beside the door, wrapped herself in it, and disappeared into the house.
Aiden took a step, but froze at the sound of another man’s voice. “Hey, boss?” the voice said followed by a burst of static from a handheld radio.
Senator Wooten answered, “What is it?”
“We’ve got a crazy chick down here who wants to talk to you about something she says is important.”
“Tell her to come by the office in the morning and then call the paddy wagon to take her to a padded cell.”
Aiden had to move. He covered the last flight of stairs in a flash with his revolver out. The senator froze with his thumb still on the walkie-talkie’s button. Aiden held his finger to his lips. The senator removed his thumb.
“She says she has information that will help you bring down the WereHouse, whatever the hell that means,” the voice on the other end of the radio continued, oblivious to the senator’s plight.
Aiden nodded and whispered, “Send her in.”
“Send her in,” the senator repeated into the radio.
“Now toss the walkie over there,” Aiden said, pointing his gun toward an empty spot on the deck. The senator did as he was told. Aiden grinned. “Let’s go.”
The senator looked around as if contemplating a way out. Like a good politician, he stalled. “Can I have some privacy to put something on? I’m naked here.”
Aiden became increasingly annoyed. “Come on, let’s go. I’m sure you’ve been in locker rooms before, and I have too.”
The senator stood up. Aiden tossed him a towel which he wrapped around his waist.
The sliding doors opened into a large game room with a pool table in its center and a bar to the left. Across the room were a loft and a flight of stairs that led down to the foyer.
“Do you mind?” the senator asked as he reached for a plush robe draped over the back of a leather chair.
“Go ahead,” Aiden answered.
The senator pressed his luck. “Do you mind if I put on my slippers as well?”
“Whatever. Just quit stalling. When my friend gets in here, we need to talk to you. I know it’s hard for you to believe right now, but we’re not here to hurt you.”
“Would you like a cigar?” the senator offered, stepping into a pair of slippers.
Aiden brushed him off with a wave.
“Do you mind if I have one?”
Aiden was a tad stunned at how relaxed the senator seemed and he got an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. The senator casually lit his cigar.
The door in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs opened. Aiden ducked out of sight behind the loft’s half-wall. He trained his revolver on the senator. “Send her up,” he whispered.
Senator Wooten went to the stairs, stopping two feet from where Aiden crouched. Aiden prayed the senator wouldn’t call his bluff and bolt down the stairs. He didn’t want to kill the senator, and he especially didn’t want to get into a gunfight with only six rounds.
The guard escorting Christine shouted, “Should we come up with her, sir?”
“Did you frisk her?” the senator asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then that won’t be necessary. Come on up, my dear.” He backed away as Christine’s footsteps approached the top of the landing.
She blinked when she reached the last step and saw Aiden out of the corner of her eye. She was a good actor and hid her surprise from the guards at the bottom of the stairs.
“Send them away,” Aiden whispered, and the senator did. When the front door closed, Aiden glanced over the half-wall and then stood up.
The senator took a toke from his cigar and mumbled, “I gotta get new guards.” He turned to Christine. “Well, you’ve got me. What do you want?”
“Sir, my name is Christine. This is Aiden. We have information I think will shock you concerning the WereHouse and its practices.”
“Oh?” The senator motioned for them to have a seat on the leather couch while he went to the bar along the far wall. “Drink?”
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Aiden waved off his offer, gun still raised.
Christine continued, “Sir, what would you say if I told you that the WereHouse isn’t dealing in animals as we all have been led to believe?”
“I’d listen.”
“We have proof that the werewolves aren’t creatures at all, but ...,” she paused. “Senator, there is no easy way to say this.”
The senator’s eyes widened. Aiden couldn’t tell if his expression was surprised or condescending.
“They are people,” Aiden blurted, annoyed with the game.
“Really?” the senator answered, which wasn’t at all the reaction Aiden had expected.
“Did you hear what I said?” he asked.
The senator held a shot glass to his lips and jerked his head back, swallowing with a distorted whiskey grimace. “I heard you. But you aren’t the first to tell me this. Excuse my skepticism as, to date, these claims have never been proven. Conspiracy is what it sounds like to me.”
“We can prove it,” Christine blurted.
The senator set his glass on the bar and moved toward a doorway across the room. “Will you excuse me for a moment?”
“Uh ... no,” Aiden answered, closing the distance between them.
“I’m afraid you have no choice,” Senator Wooten said as he reached for the door handle. “I’m through with your games. Fire your peashooter if you’d like.”
Aiden halted his advance, convinced he wouldn’t get to the senator in time to stop him. The senator disappeared through the doorway.
“Damn,” Aiden whispered. The senator had called his bluff.
He felt Christine’s eyes on him and he glanced back with a shrug.
She whispered, “What are you doing? I thought we decided no guns?”
With everything happening, that’s what she’s concerned about? “It was necessary. I’m sorry.” He turned to the stairs and then to the sliding doors. “We need to go. Now!”
He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the stairwell, but the two armed guards burst into the foyer from the front door.
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