Helena, was of course only five foot six, long tawny hair, lightly tanned skin, and where Mary was wearing a suit like the other two guys, Helena was wearing cutoffs, a simple tank top, and a pair of nice sandals that she could kick off rather easily. Helena was very attractive, and sitting next to Mary, she looked like a super model.
"The two men trying not to trip over their tongues up front are Agent Michael Sikes, in the driver's seat, and Agent Steve Hughes."
Mark noticed Michael and Steve were taking a moment to compose their thoughts, Helena showed a lot of skin, and it was rather nice looking skin. Plus she didn't wear a bra and it was a little cold outside today.
"Mary, Michael, Steve," Helena said very politely giving each of them a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"What is she doing here?" Mary said, being the first to recover her wits.
"Her parents grew up in the area, she has family there," Mark said thinking fast. "You heard Woods tell us how everyone wasn't talking. I figured she'd be able to help us with the locals."
"Agent Woods is gonna have words with you over this," Michael said shaking his head.
Mark sighed, "Just drive, Michael."
"But she'd not law enforcement!" Mary said.
"She's an expert on North American monsters and a professional tracker," Mark sighed.
"What's this," Steve said and pulled out a stone that was under his shirt, which he was wearing on a cord. The stone had an uneven hole worn through it, which the necklace cord ran through.
"Hag stone," Helena said leaning forward to look at it. She didn't touch it however, Mark noticed. "Came from a fresh water stream too, not from a beach."
"She stays," Steve said slipping the rock back inside his shirt and buttoning it back up and fixing his tie.
"What?" Mary looked at him surprised.
"I'm senior agent, Woods put me in charge. People out there in the park, they're a pretty superstitious lot, their families have been living around there since before the revolutionary war. Having another person around who knows the lore can be helpful. Besides, she's cute."
"Steven!" Mary said looking shocked.
"Can it, Mary. Guy's tongues always wag when there's a pretty girl about, even if she is married. You know that," he looked over at Michael, "Let's go, Mike."
Michael shrugged and put the SUV in drive and off they went.
Helena just smiled at Mark, and then snuggled up against him and quickly fell asleep.
Mark smiled back and put an arm around her, Agent Woods could bitch at him all he wanted to. He was going to enjoy this.
Not like he had any choice of course, but still, she was his wife.
6: Marlington, West Va.
"Wow, this really is the middle of nowhere," Mary said looking at the small town as they came around a hill on route thirty-nine.
Michael turned off onto a side road, and Mark noticed a church on the right as they drove down the street. It was obviously a fairly old town, at least by American standards. He saw older ones in Europe all the time when working. There were a lot of newer buildings here as well however. Thankfully his countrymen didn't have problems with pulling down the old buildings and putting up new ones when needed.
"Here we are," Michael said and pulled into the parking lot of the sheriff's office.
Mark looked at his watch, it was almost seven. The sun was setting, and with all of the hills around here, there were already a lot of long shadows covering parts of the town.
"Well, let's go in and introduce ourselves," Steve said.
"What about Mark's wife," Michael asked opening the door.
"I'll deal with it," Mark said smiling at Helena as she stretched and yawned rather fetchingly.
"I'll introduce you last then, Mark," Steve said as they all trooped inside, the agents all putting their badges in the breast pocket of their suits. Mark had his on a cord that went around his neck, along with his Interpol ID. He didn't wear suits, ever, just khakis and either a dress shirt or a polo shirt. Being with the FBI he was wearing a dress shirt today, but his tie was a clip-on. The idea of wearing a noose around his neck never really had appealed to him much.
When they came in the front door there was a woman at the desk who looked up at them.
"Hi, I'm Agent Hughes, we're with the FBI. Sorry we're late; we hit some traffic coming out of DC."
"Up the stairs at the end of the hall, office you're looking for will be on the right. I'll let the Sheriff know you're on the way up."
"Thanks," Steve said and they followed her directions, went in the room she'd told them to and Mark saw there were two men already inside.
The first was dressed more like Mark was, and was wearing his badge on a chain. He was clean shaven, short hair, about five foot eight and obviously the FBI arson investigator that had written up the report that Mark and the others had been reading on the trip here.
The other man was about six-foot-four, and heavily built with a stomach that had gone slightly to pot. He had short gray hair and looked to Mark to be in his fifties. He was in uniform, and obviously the sheriff.
"Scott, nice to see you again," Steve said nodding to the other agent. He turned to the Sheriff then, "Sheriff Clayton, I'm Agent Steve Hughes, this is my partner, Agent Mary Swain, that's Agent Michael Sikes, and Interpol Agent Mark Levin who's on loan to my division."
The Sheriff shook hands with each of them, as Hughes went down the line introducing them.
Mark smiled at the sheriff who was scowling at him when it was his turn to shake and stepped up and stuck out his hand, "Sheriff, Mark Levin, and this is my wife Helena."
The sheriff shook hands and looked down at Mark, his eyes narrowing just a tad. Mark had been suspicious, but the moment they shook hands it was clear, the sheriff was a lycanthrope, probably a bear.
"Sheriff," Helena said stepping up and shaking hands next. Mark noticed that the Sheriff's eyebrows went up a little.
"Does your husband always bring you along to work, little lady?" He said.
"Only when I tell him to," Helena said and gave him a wink. "My parents grew up here, over in Richwood."
"Do tell! My wife's people live in Fenwick. She might even have known them!" The Sheriff smiled at her, "I was just about to head home for dinner, you and your husband would be more than welcome to come and join us."
"Oh, we'd love to, right, Hon?" Helena said and smiled at Mark.
Mark smiled back and nodded, "Of course."
Steve was already repeating the introductions with Agent Scott Koss, the arson expert. He looked a bit surprised at Mark and his wife, but didn't say anything.
"Why'd they send you out here, Steve?" Agent Koss asked. "Isn't this a little out of your bailiwick?"
"The vic being in chains set off a few alerts with the intel group," Steve replied. "There are some fears about trafficking, with the increased numbers of illegals we've been seeing lately, also some of this matches up with a few things we've seen elsewhere, plus over seas, which is why we got Agent Levin from Interpol with us.
"So, Agent Woods sent us out here, and told us to take over. Got anything to tell us that's not in the report?"
Agent Koss shook his head, "No, it's like the report said, someone splashed gasoline around the inside of the place and then just lit it with a match. There were two sets of car tracks outside; best guess is a foreign made all-wheel drive. Smaller one, not a big SUV, for the first. A more standard American made four-wheel drive truck for the second.
"We don't have an ID on the victim yet, still searching dental records and missing person's reports. Everything else burned up in the fire."
"Everything?" Michael asked looking a bit skeptical.
"Best I can figure it, they used about twenty gallons of gasoline on the place," Koss said and shook his head, "They knew what they were doing, and they wanted it gone."
"The report said there were three other sets of manacles, besides the ones you found on the body," Mark said.
"Yeah, one set must have gotten damaged in the fire, they looked broken."
"Okay, thanks, Scott," Steve said. "If we have anymore questions we'll call you."
"Sure, I'll tell the people working the victim's ID to contact you if they find anything." Koss nodded to the Sheriff, "Bye, Sheriff. If you need me, you have my card."
Sheriff Clayton nodded and Agent Koss left.
"Well now, what say we all meet up again, about eight in the morning, and I'll answer any questions you might have," Sheriff Clayton said, looking at Steve.
"Sure thing, Sheriff. See you in the morning. Mark, I'll have the hotel put your bags in your room."
Mark nodded and watched as Steve and Mary left, Michael gave him a look, then shrugged and followed, closing the door behind them.
"Welp, come on home and meet the wife, and then you can tell me just why the heck I got two cougars working for the FBI in my county," Sheriff Clayton smiled.
Mark sighed and leaned back in his chair and surveyed his empty plate. Sheriff Clayton's wife was one hell of a cook, and she laid out a lot of food. Not surprising when you considered that her husband, her kids, and she herself, were all bears.
For dinner however, it had just been the four of them, the talk had been pleasant, discussions about family mostly. Clayton's wife's name was Serena, his was Bill, and Serena had known Helena's parents, Jacob and Sally.
"I'm sorry to hear that they're no longer with us," Serena said. "But sounds like you and your sisters did okay for yourselves, though I do have to wonder about the wisdom of you all sharin' a man."
Mark blushed and Helena laughed, "Trust me, Serena, he's a keeper. He may only be turned, but I'd put him up against any tom in the county."
"Yeah, but you already told us there weren't any toms out there!" Serena winked.
"I was talking this county," Helena grinned back. "Take off your shirt, Hon."
Mark blinked and looked at Helena, "What?"
"Women like to show off their husband's scars. At least the feline ones do," Bill chuckled. "More than likely your wife there has been dying to do this for years."
Mark looked at Helena, who actually blushed.
"Sure," he sighed and standing up, pulled his shirt off.
"Holey moley, what in the heck did you get into?" Bill said while Serena got up and came and looked over his back and arms.
"Ran into a vampire in Afghanistan, back when I was in the army. He had some proto vamps, ghouls, and a bunch of followers. I was the only one to make it out alive," Mark replied softly.
"These are scars from bear claws," Serena said pointing to a few of the scars on Mark's upper arms.
"A werebear was trying to rape Charity," Mark sighed. "I had to kill him."
Serena shook her head, "That must have been pretty tough, but a man has to protect his women."
"That was before I turned him," Helena said, literally purring the words out.
"You killed a werebear, with your bare hands, when you were still just a human?" Bill said looking at him a bit skeptically.
Mark shrugged, "I had a machete. And a large burning brand from the fire. Plus by then I was just a bit upset with things, and well, someone has to stand up and protect the helpless."
"And that was when you bit him?" Serena asked.
"Yup!" Helena smiled and patted Mark's leg as he put his shirt back on and sat down.
"Weren't you worried about him going crazy?"
"There were four of us, so no, not really. Plus he'd already seen the worst that there is in the world, and yet he still stood to protect us. I was fairly sure he'd be okay."
"Well, obviously you knew what you were about," Bill said nodding, "now, why are you here? Why do you work for Interpol? And just what does the FBI really know about us?"
"I work for the Vatican actually," Mark said. "The Interpol thing is just to make my job easier. I'm one of their devil hunters."
"They know what you are?"
Mark nodded, "Of course. I bet the priest running the church I saw back by your office knows what you all are too. We've got souls, we're not evil, the church will minister to us, just about any religion will."
Bill nodded, "Father Jeb is a kindly type. I've suspected he knows, but he's not one of us, so it's something we don't discuss. What about the FBI?"
"Well, the government has known about us for ages, probably since the beginning. Most governments do, but for ages they just let the church, or other religions, deal with it and ignored it. But after what happened with Las Vegas, the US government and the powers that be decided that they needed to take a bit more of an interest, and they set up a group in the FBI to start dealing with any crimes."
"So they're not after us?"
Mark shook his head, "We're still citizens, and again, we have most of the religions on our side, as well as the law. That's why when they found out about me, they started bugging my bosses to loan me to them for a while, to help train their people."
Bill thought about that and nodded after a moment.
"So, what took place in Las Vegas that got them all worried?"
"Well, an American got turned into a Rakshasa while on vacation in India, and the Indian government deported him back to the States. As Vegas was already full of vampires, I said to send him there."
"What's a Rakshasa? Can't say I've ever heard of one of those."
"Sort of a tiger-demon. They're not innately evil, though a lot of them lean that way. This one is fairly good, and he cleaned up Vegas, killed all the vampires, took out a few other problems in the area, then claimed everything in the area as his domain."
Bill snorted, "Let me guess, they weren't happy with that?"
"As he enforces the law and pays his taxes, most of the government didn't care, but there were some others not in the government who weren't happy about it. The government got involved more out of a concern about what those 'others' were doing. Plus I think they just got tired of having to call in the church or someone like us, whenever they had a problem."
"Well, that answers that question, now, just why are you here, in my county?"
"The silver in the manacles. Those were made to hold lycans, or rather, turned lycans like me. The intelligence people at the FBI know about us, so they kicked it to this unit to go investigate. If someone is torturing or killing lycans, that's the same crime as killing a human. But sending investigators that don't know about us, well, that could put them at a disadvantage, as well as in danger."
Bill nodded in agreement at that. "The victim was a wolf lycan; turned, like you suspected. Autopsy says she was dead before the place was burned down though. We figured that much out, but not much more beyond that. The park services dragged the FBI arson group in almost immediately; they don't have anything to deal with arson and murder. However, the FBI folks were kinda' gettin' in the way of us doing any real investigating."
"Do you know who she was?"
Bill shook his head, "I called all of the heads of the wolf clans and even had a couple of them come and look at the body. Nobody has turned a human around these parts in decades. Whoever did this, they're not from around here."
"That or they're not telling anyone about it," Helena pointed out.
"No," Bill shook his head, "that cabin is on forbidden ground. No one is allowed to go anywhere near it."
Mark looked at Serena who was nodding and then back at Bill.
"Forbidden? Why's that?"
"According to my great grandpappy, an evil wizard lived there. Raised demons and devils, and did all sorts of evil things. Human sacrifice, you name it.
"Well, he started to go after some of the werewolves in the area, so the clans banded together, killed his minions, then drove him out. Some say they killed him, others weren't sure, still others were afraid he'd come back one day. We were all surprised that the place burned down like it did, my grandpappy said they tried to do that a hundred years ago, and nothin happened."
"Have you brought the priest from the church up t
here?"
"No, think we should?"
"I'll go and talk to him, yeah, it should be blessed. If there is anything lingering there, that should help destroy it."
"What's the penalty for going up there?" Helena asked.
"A butt kickin from your old man, and a month on the local public works gang with the drunk drivers and other miscreants. Go up there again after that, and we start talking to you about leaving town and not coming back." Bill shrugged, "We get young males running up there on dares occasionally, whenever it starts to get out of hand we'll hear about it, and we'll make a few examples. That puts the youngin's back in line."
Mark nodded. "I'm sure Agent Hughes will want to run up there in the morning and have a look around. You okay if I tell him you're a bear? Or would you rather I left him guessing?"
"I'd rather you didn't tell him. They know about you two, right?"
Mark nodded, "I've told them."
"I don't think they've put it together for me," Helena smirked. "I'm just a little old harmless country girl in tight shorts after all."
"Ha, that'll serve them right," Serena snorted.
"I'll pass the word around with the other clans in the area that they can talk to you. Don't know if they will of course, people around here like their privacy," Bill added.
Mark nodded, "I understand. But if whatever was up there before has come back and is looking to prey on the wolf clans, it's in their best interest to talk to us."
"I'll tell 'em, but I wouldn't go countin' on it much."
"Can't ask for much more than that," Mark agreed.
"Well, let me get my keys, and I'll take you to your hotel."
"Actually," Helena said standing up, "I was thinking about going out for a run through the woods for a while, Mark?"
Mark stood up and stretched, smiling, it had been months since he'd had a good run as a cougar. "Yes, lets."
7: Blacksburg, suburbia
Wolf Killer (The Hammer Commission) Page 5