Wolf Killer (The Hammer Commission)

by John Van Stry

  "Is your name attached to any of them?"

  "Well, no, but...."

  "And they did sign all of the paperwork, right?" Craig prompted.

  "Well, yes, of course. You had them fill it all out."

  "So what are you afraid of? The girls did the paperwork. If you're asked, just say you really don't recall, you just filed what they handed you."

  "But, that's not how it's supposed to work."

  "You told me that there was no way it could be connected to you, didn't you?" Craig asked.

  "Of course, but still, they came to the office!" Ursula said.

  "They're only human, Ursula, I wouldn't fear them," Craig laughed.

  "But I'm only human too!" Ursula said, looking up at him rather worriedly.

  Craig smiled, then holding her tight he leaned down and bit her on the shoulder, triggering a partial shift of his fangs, so he could inject the magic that would make the change.

  Ursula gasped as she felt the cold fire now spreading through her body.

  "Not anymore," Craig said smiling at her. He was surprised that he didn't feel as strong of a revulsion towards her as he often did with a woman after he changed her. He wondered if this was because of her rather impressive performance several days ago with Aurora, or if it was just because he needed her?

  "Come, let us go celebrate," he said and dragged her rather willing body off towards the bedroom. "Come tomorrow you'll start to see just how inferior they all are, and realize that you really have nothing to worry about anymore."

  "So, tell me about the FBI," Craig asked her. It was much later and the sun had already set.

  "There were two of them. One looked rather young; Michael I think was his name. The other was older, a bit more rugged looking, and he wasn't wearing a tie, his name was Mark."

  Craig looked over at her, "Rugged you say? Describe him."

  Craig listened as she described a dark haired man with his badge on a cord hanging around his neck. He swore.

  "What?" Ursula asked looking up at him.

  "He's a werecougar, he could be dangerous."

  "What? How?"

  "If he sees you, he'll know what you are."

  "What, what do we do?"

  "They said they'd be back tomorrow, right?"

  Ursula nodded.

  "That means they'll be staying at a hotel here, somewhere. With your help, I can kill him. Then you'll be safe."

  "But, how will we find them?"

  "How many of those big FBI cars do you think are in town? You can probably do a search on the local school gossip sites and they'll tell us which hotel they're at."

  Ursula nodded, "Then what?"

  "Then we just sniff him out. I won't have any trouble remembering what he smells like," Craig growled. "After he's dead, I'll run up into the mountains, and you can stay here, safe and secure, to keep an eye on things."

  "Yes, Craig, whatever you say," Ursula said, bowing to his will. She could feel the power in her body now, and it was rather intoxicating. The idea of being able to stroll among the mere humans of the school now, stronger and faster than any of them, was a rather heady one. If she had to kill an FBI agent or two with Craig, so what? It wasn't like she hadn't killed before.

  "Let me go turn on my laptop, and I'll find out where they are," She said and smiling at him, she kissed him. "Maybe we can even play with his cute partner a little before we kill him too."

  Craig laughed; Ursula was definitely a change from those timid college girls he had been preying on. He really would miss her, when her time came.

  Craig looked around the parking lot, the six FBI marked SUV's were all parked together. The lights for most of the rooms were out, it was late, almost three am, people packed it in early on a school night in this town. He and Ursula had both armed themselves with knives, he'd thought about taking a gun, she had one in her house, but the sounds of gunfire would attract too much attention. Besides, he'd rather gut and stab his prey, than just shoot it.

  Ursula had taken the time to disguise herself, wearing a dark jumpsuit and a ski-mask. Craig didn't mind. He wanted her to be able to stay here, for now. So it would be better if no one knew who she was.

  They already knew what he looked like, so he didn't care so much about his own identity being hidden. In fact he preferred his victims knowing just who it was that killed them, and he blamed this agent, this 'Mark' for being the one to ruin his rather well set life. Now he'd have to go someplace else and start all over again.

  "Let's go," Craig said and he led the way across the parking lot. Looking inside through the glass doors there was a single man working behind the desk.

  "Wait here until I call you," he said to Ursula, and opening the door he walked up to the front desk.

  "Hello, Sir! What kind of room would you like?" The young man asked, logging into the terminal in front of him.

  Craig grabbed him around the neck and dragged him over the counter, as the young man's eyes went wide in shock from the sudden attack.

  Craig laughed as he struggled, trying to free himself from the tight grip around his neck.

  "Okay, I want to know some things," Craig said, going back around the counter and dragging the young man with him. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll just tie you up and leave you behind the counter here. Refuse," He gave a slight squeeze, causing the kid to stiffen in pain as he waved Ursula inside.

  Looking at the terminal, he could see a list of rooms.

  "What rooms are the FBI agents in?"

  The young man's mouth moved.

  "Oh, sorry," Craig chuckled and loosened his grip.

  "Second floor," The kid gasped, and started to rattle off some room numbers.

  "Which one has the agent named Mark in it?"

  "I don't know!" He said and Craig squeezed tight for a moment, cutting off his air again.

  "What did you say?" Craig growled at him.

  "I need to look it up! It's on the terminal!"

  "Do so."

  Craig watched as the kid quickly typed in a few commands and a list of names with rooms came up.

  "Mark Levin, FBI, room two-twelve!" The young man told him.

  "Thank you," Craig said, and then crushed the kid's throat, and dropped him to the floor behind the desk as he choked and thrashed around, dying.

  "Come," Craig told Ursula as she looked at the dying kid and shivered. This time he was sure it was lust. "They're on the second floor."

  "Let me get the passkey off of him," Ursula said, and after quickly rifling the still dying young man's pockets she held it up triumphantly.

  "Well, that does beat kicking the door in," Craig had to admit, as he led the way upstairs to the agent's room.

  14: Hotel room, Blacksburg

  Mark's eyes flew open as he heard the door unlock and the scent of werewolf came flooding into the room as the door opened. Helena was already starting to growl as they both leapt to their feet and turned their heads towards the opening door.

  Hunkering down on all fours, Mark dug his hind claws in and prepared to launch himself at whoever was breaking into the room, the second the door swung open wide enough. He could feel Helena getting ready to jump as well, and he was rather thankful that they'd both curled up on top of the sheets in their cougar forms.

  Michael hadn't even started to stir yet, and once the door opened fully, Mark launched himself, claws out, at the first person in the doorway.

  As he got closer, he could see there were two of them, one was a woman, she was wearing a ski mask and a jumpsuit, and she was the one in front, who had just opened the door. She was still holding the cardkey in her hand as he hit her in the legs, digging in with his claws as he knocked her back, sending her to the ground.

  Mark felt something stab him in the side, but that was when Helena voiced a loud scream and came flying over his head at the other figure, which he could now smell was Craig. Helena hit him in the face and started to tear and rip at his head and body with a rather fierce determinatio
n.

  Mark refocused on the woman, she was stabbing him, she had a knife of some kind in her hand and was stabbing him with it, again and again, as he tore at her body with his claws. He quickly realized she was a turned, but she wasn't recovering from his attacks as quickly as he was recovering from hers. Jumping off he backed away and as she scrambled to her feet he charged her again, rearing up on to his hind legs he head slapped her was a large paw hard enough that he heard her neck snap. As she dropped like a sack of potatoes, Mark dropped back down to all fours and attacked Craig, helping Helena as the two of them fought each other; Helena with teeth and claws, Craig with the two knives he held, one in each hand.

  Craig cried out and stumbled back against the far wall as one of the two cougars got him in the knee, making him lose his balance. Where the hell had the second cat come from? And why was it tearing into him so fiercely? It was far more powerful than the one he'd first encountered, the one named Mark. It wasn't even as big as Mark, but it was far more savage. And it was healing as fast as he was, and now with the two of them on him, he was starting to worry about his own abilities to keep up.

  Ursula gasped in pain as she felt her neck start to heal; the muscles pulling her head back into line after the cougar had broken her neck. She could see Craig, and she could see that he had two of them on him now, and that they were both tearing at him, his clothing already shredded and his blood was starting to fly everywhere.

  Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed her gun. Craig had said they wouldn't need it, and knives would be quieter. But she'd grabbed it anyways. Pulling it out she aimed at the larger of the two cats and started pulling the trigger, dumping shot after shot into its body.

  On the sixth shot its whole body shook and it started to turn towards her, so she continued to pull the trigger, putting another six rounds into the body, as it fell to the floor.

  The other, smaller, cougar screamed then and ran to defend the one on the floor. Ursula fired her last four rounds into it, as she jumped to her feet and started backing away quickly.

  "Quick, Run!" She yelled at Craig, and turning she took off down the hall towards the fire escape. She wished she had brought a second magazine, but she'd thought that surely sixteen bullets would be enough to stop anything.

  Of course, she hadn't thought about a werecougar.

  Mark was dimly aware of Michael coming out of the room, gun out, and yelling 'Stop' as he fired a couple of shots down the hall, and then stopped himself and looked down at Mark and Helena.

  "Shit," Michael swore, "Get him out of the hallway!"

  Mark could feel himself being dragged, looking up he could see Helena had shifted and was picking him up, and carrying him back inside, where she dropped him on the bed.

  "Everyone, back in your rooms! FBI!" He heard Michael shout.

  Closing his eyes, he just groaned as the bullets started to be slowly forced out of his body and he started to heal.

  "You okay, Hon?" Helena asked him.

  Mark nodded and gave a soft purr as he laid there panting, catching his breath.

  "Okay, the others have control of the hallway, I need to get dressed," Michael said coming back into the room. "You should wash up, Helena, you're covered in blood."

  "As soon as Mark's okay," she said, not taking his eyes off of him.

  Mark groaned and shifted back then, getting shot that many times after being stabbed so much hurt.

  "Yeah, I'll be fine," he said sitting up, and steadying himself against Helena.

  "I should have realized she had a gun. I figured I'd help you wear him down a bit before she got back into the fight. I don't know what kind of bullets she had in that thing, but damn, those were nasty."

  "And you're both covered in blood." Michael said. "Wash up, get dressed, and then if you're up to it, meet us, well, wherever the hell Woods wants to talk."

  Mark nodded, and got to his feet a little dizzily and headed off to the shower with Helena steadying him as he walked. He hurt all over and was definitely having trouble standing.

  "How many times did she hit you?" Michael asked as he went by.

  "I lost count after ten," Mark grumbled. "That definitely was not a nine millimeter."

  Michael picked up on of the slugs off the bed. "Looks like a ten, and these are not your standard hollow points.

  "Go get clean, we can talk about it after you're both dressed."

  Mark nodded and let Helena pull him into the bathroom.

  "So, he came after us in the hotel," Agent Woods said.

  "I think they were after Mark," Steve said.

  Mark nodded, "I have to agree with that, my name was near the top of the screen on the terminal downstairs, they'd gone by several of yours before stopping at me."

  "So, why do you think they were interested in you, Mark?" Steve asked

  "Because he's the only one that's a threat to Craig," Agent Woods said.

  Mark nodded, "Makes sense, and now that he's recruiting again, that's a bad thing."

  "How many more do you think he can turn?"

  Mark shook his head, "I'm not sure that matters. He's not going to be able to force someone to commit murder and take on the FBI just because he bit them. Whoever she was, she was already on his side, already willing to help. And you saw how beat down the girls in his house were. I can't see any of them doing something like this.

  "This is someone different."

  "Well, it's a good thing I was here, wasn't it, Mark?" Helena said coming back into the room and sitting down next to him.

  "Yeah, it was." Mark looked at Agent Woods, "Can you deputize her for the duration or something? With two of them now, there is no way I can take them on alone."

  "I'll figure something out," Agent Woods said. "Right now, there isn't much else we can do. For now, you six go back to bed; you're going to hit the college again first thing in the morning. Jeff, Rich, Bill, Joe and I will stay up and deal with the police and the coroner's office."

  "We're going to need another room, ours has a lot of Mark's blood in it," Michael said.

  "Take mine, I won't be using it," Agent Woods said and dismissed them. "I'm going to be spending the next several hours making up a suitable story for the press waiting downstairs in the hotel lobby."

  "I still can't believe you got shot that many times and survived without so much as a mark," Michael said shaking their head as they drove back to the Dean of Student's office that morning.

  Mark sighed, "Still hurt like hell, damn, I thought the larger calibers didn't hold that many bullets!"

  "She had a glock, good sized one too. Kinda surprising for a lady, they usually go with the smaller ones."

  "She wasn't much of a lady, Michael," Mark growled.

  Michael chuckled, "Yeah, guess she wasn't. Good thing Helena showed up."

  "Maybe," Mark admitted, "though if I was sleeping as a human, I would have led with that gun Woods is making me carry."

  "Don't like admitting she might have saved both of our asses?" Michael teased pulling to a stop in front of the building.

  "More like I don't like putting her in the line of fire," Mark sighed. "I've got this rather old-fashioned attitude about protecting women and children."

  "Even when your wife is a monster that can kick your ass?" Michael laughed.

  "Especially then, gotta earn my keep some how," Mark said with a smile as he opened the car door.

  "Where is she anyways?" Michael asked getting out as well and coming around to join him.

  "Said she had to take care of something this morning, that she'd see us at lunch," Mark knew she was up to something; he just had no idea what. Whatever it was, he'd accept it, he knew Helena was just a little bit upset with seeing him getting shot up like that last night. Obviously she had something planned, and he'd find out what it was when she told him.

  "Just remember what I told you about silver and turned lycans," Mark said as they got to the door, "it hurts them, and this female is a turned. So use those silver bullets I
gave you."

  "Just don't shoot you with one, right?" Michael said.

  Mark nodded, he hadn't told anyone about his little gift from having become a knight in the commission, and hopefully wouldn't have to.

  The receptionist was expecting them, and led them up to the Dean's office.

  "Ah, gentlemen," Dean Jakowski said, standing up and shaking hands with both of them. "We received the search warrant and subpoena for the records last night, and our lawyers said it was all in order. Janice has the records you need, so if you'll come with me?"

  "Of course," Mark said and they both followed Dean Jakowski out of his office and over to the cubes where his administrators sat.

  "Hi, Janice. I have the two agents from the FBI here; they're back for that information."

  Janice got up and turned to them, shaking hands with both of them. "It's a lot, guys," she said and nodded to the seven cardboard file boxes stacked next to her desk. "I can get some of the interns to help you carry them down."

  "How many files are there?" Mark asked looking at the stack rather surprised.

  "About a thousand, along with all of the other academic records you requested."

  "You had a thousand dropouts?" Mark asked surprised.

  Janice nodded, "That's about five hundred a year. Out of a school of over thirty thousand, that's really not that much when you think about it."

  "Can we get these on a CD or something?" Mark asked, "I thought you kept your records electronically."

  "It's in the box on top. The subpoena said paper and digital format."

  "Did you notice anything unusual in the records?" Michael asked.

  Janice shook her head, "Not really, first years drop out for all sorts of reasons, not just academic ones."

  "Excuse me a moment," another woman said walking up to them, "Janice, did Ursula call in this morning? She hasn't shown up and no one has heard from her."

  "Did you call her?" Janice asked.

  "Yes, she didn't answer. I sent her a couple of texts from my own phone as well. Nothing."