"Did any ever come back?"
Claudia closed her eyes and shook her head no.
"Did anyone ever ask?"
"We weren't allowed to ask questions, the last two girls who asked questions got beaten and were both dragged away a week ago."
"Thank you, Claudia. We found one of those two girls, she's safe. We're still looking for the other one."
Claudia nodded, "What's going to happen to me?"
"Zeke is going to teach you how to be a wolf, how to be a lycan," Mark said.
"What if I don't want to be a wolf?" she said looking scared.
"You are what you are, accept it and embrace it," Mark said and patted her hands, which were now folded on top of the covers, holding a mass of tissues. "The pretender lied to you, you are not filthy, and you are not a dog, you're a wolf now, and wolves are proud and great. You have been given a rare gift, one that is usually not shared with just anyone.
"Embrace it, and I promise you, you will find a fulfillment you would never have found otherwise."
"Honestly?" Claudia said with a look of hope in her eyes.
Mark nodded and smiled, "I was born human until I was given this gift too."
"Thank you, Agent Levin," Claudia said and smiled shyly.
"You're welcome."
Mark stood up and left the room, with Michael following him, and Helena bringing up the rear as they headed back towards the front door.
"I'll be back in a minute, Claudia," He heard Zeke tell her as he left the room and closed the door behind him.
Once outside in front of the house they all stopped.
"Thanks for saying that, Mark," Zeke smiled, "I might ask you to visit the other gals, might help them to know that others have come through this too."
"What happens to her next?" Michael asked.
Zeke shrugged, "Up to her mostly, if she decides to accept what happened to her, and what she is, we'll find a place for her, find her a mate. She's pretty submissive now, after all the beatings that bastard gave her." He sighed and shook his head, "Only time will tell."
Zeke turned back to Mark, "I hadn't thought to ask her about being taught to change, I find that rather odd that she never saw him change and that he never taught any of them either."
"I'm starting to think Craig has a problem with wolves," Mark said.
"Obviously not too much of a problem, he sure kept screwing them," Zeke said and spit on the ground. "Filthy animals," he snorted. "We have words for men like him, and I hesitate to use them in polite company."
"Thanks for your time, Zeke," Mark said, "And thanks for taking this on."
"Someone had to; we just can't leave those poor girls to suffer. Do you think this had anything to do with the curse on that old cabin my brother burned down?"
"Why do you ask?" Michael said.
"Well, legend has it the mage there started preying on the wolves, no one knows exactly what he was doing, but everyone figured he was sacrificing them. Now this guy starts showing up there, bringing wolf girls to the cabin and killing them."
"But he was a wolf himself!" Michael replied.
"Well, he sure didn't seem to like that these gals were wolves, now did he?"
"Zeke has a point, Michael. For all we know, he was just creating them so he could kill them."
Michael shook his head, "I've never dealt with a serial killer before. Maybe Woods is right; maybe we should grab somebody from the serial killer group back in DC and get them to do a profile on the guy."
"We'll see," Mark said and turned back to Zeke and shook hands, "Thanks. We'll be in town at least until tomorrow, Clayton will know where to find us if you need us."
"Thanks, Helena, Michael," Zeke said and shook hands with both of them and then went back inside.
"Well, let's go see if the hotel has any rooms," Helena said as they got back into the SUV. "Then maybe we can go out for a run!"
"Jogging at this time of night?" Michael said looking skeptical.
"Best time, if you're a cougar," Helena purred at Michael's suddenly embarrassed expression.
"So, what's bugging you?" Helena asked him later that night as they walked back to the hotel.
"What makes you ask?" Mark replied.
"Because you haven't said a thing since we left the hotel, and have been just following me the whole time."
"Maybe I just wanted to let you lead?"
"Talk to me, Mark."
Mark sighed and sat down, curling his tail around his legs. They were still in the woods, only a short trot from the hotel at this point.
"Michael. I've been thinking a lot about what he said. When I started on this whole affair, it was mainly for you, your sisters, and the kids. I guess I'd absorbed some of your paranoia about the norms. That and I've always liked the idea of being one of the good guys, you know, fighting the good fight."
Helena padded over and sat in front of him, facing him, "You were, you still are. How is this any different?"
"With the church, it was pretty clear cut. Devils are evil, demons, well; they tend to be pretty clear cut as well. As for monsters," Mark ducked his head in a shrug, "we only dealt with those who were actively evil, or with those who wanted to help us. Both of which were rare. We really weren't cops; we weren't enforcing the law, or even customs.
"Yet here, now? I'm doing the job that the clan heads and alphas are supposed to do. I really am nothing more than a hired gun. I didn't sign up for this; I sure as hell didn't ask to be a government sanctioned executioner, a hit man."
Helena leaned forward and rubbed her head against his. "Yet you're still stepping up to do what needs to be done."
Mark ducked his head again. "Because someone has to. How many people has this guy murdered? Or his girlfriend? Yes, I'll do it, but it doesn't mean I have to like it, and I honestly do worry about what the church, and yes, God, are going to think about this. It's one thing when you're fighting on the side of the angels, but when you're fighting on the side of the government? Of the law? Of mortal things made by mortal men?
"It bothers me," Mark admitted.
"I understand," Helena purred and nuzzled him some more, "But consider this: You are showing the government, those same mortal men, with their mortal laws, that the lycans, the monsters, are invested in them, their government, their laws, their traditions. That we want to cooperate, that we will help, that we believe what they believe, and that when any monster goes bad, even one of our own, we will help them and protect them."
Mark nodded slowly, "I guess I can see that, but still, this is uncomfortable territory for me, Hon. I have always just been a soldier. And right now, I'm thinking perhaps it's time to call it quits and go home."
Helena purred rather loudly then, "That, would be a very welcome change! Come, let's go back to the hotel and get some sleep."
"Some how, I suspect sleep isn't what's on your mind," Mark said, standing back up and stretching.
"And that's how you know I love you!" Helena purred and bopping him on the nose with a paw she ran off for the hotel with Mark now in hot pursuit.
Helena was right of course, his helping the FBI would go along way towards helping the government develop a more positive relationship with the various races of lycans that lived in this country. But still, why did he have to be the one to carry the torch for this? Surely there were others who could take over. Governments were fickle; they could be your friend one day, and your enemy the next, because a different person with different ideas was now in office.
He followed Helena into the room; the hotel owners had given them one all the way towards the back of the building. Being wolves themselves, they understood the need to be able to slip in and out unmolested.
He smiled at Helena as he closed the door behind him. Tomorrow he'd go back to worrying about the job. Until then, he's just worry about Helena.
18: A cave near Marlington
"Gregory, I need a favor," the Sage said to Craig as he walked over to where he and Ursula were sitting.
"Of course, what do you need?" Craig asked.
"There is a holy man of some kind up on the hill by the old cabin. He's rather annoying. I would like you to bring him to me. Alive if possible, and definitely bound and gagged."
Craig nodded and got to his feet. "Of course," he said and signaled to Ursula to follow, not wanting to leave her alone with the Sage. He wasn't finished with her yet, and it would be bothersome to come back and find her being sacrificed before he was through with using her for his own needs.
Stepping outside the cave, Craig looked around. It was early yet, his watch said it wasn't even seven. Obviously this holy man, whoever he was, was an early riser.
"Wow, this guy must have gotten an early start to be here already," Ursula said with a yawn, echoing his thoughts.
"Well, he is going to get an early end too," Craig snickered as he started to make his way up the hill. He was very careful with the route he took; he never took the exact same way, because he didn't want to form a path between the cave and the cabin that might give away the cave's location to his enemies.
The Sage had made it very clear that there was always a chance of discovery if they were not careful. That he had many enemies in these mountains and until he was powerful enough to deal with them, staying hidden was the best strategy.
It took them twenty minutes to make it up to the cabin. When they got there Craig saw a man in a black shirt with a priest's collar putting things into the back of an old beat-up looking jeep.
"Hey! You! Hold it right there!" Craig yelled and charged at the priest, who started on seeing Craig and Ursula, and who made a dash for the car.
Craig smiled; he slowed down just enough to let the priest start to slam the door shut, grabbing it before it was all the way closed.
Then he let the priest struggle with it for a moment, enjoying the tease of letting the priest think he just might be able to get away, before Craig pulled it all the way open and punched the priest in the face.
Craig dragged him out into the small clearing where the car was parked and threw him to Ursula.
"Tie him up," He told her, "I want to see what he was doing."
"But he's bigger than me!" She said.
"He's only human, subdue him," Craig growled.
Ursula cuffed the priest across the face with a hand, and then smiled as he staggered back from the strike.
"Wow! You're right! This is easy!" she laughed and hit the priest a few more times, dropping him to the ground.
"Just remember not to kill him," Craig warned, "otherwise the Sage will be very angry with you."
Ursula nodded. She rolled the man over on to his stomach, took his belt off and quickly tied his hands behind his back, then ripped off a section of his shirt and formed a crude gag.
Craig looked inside the jeep; the keys were in the ignition, the car itself didn't really contain all that much.
Going around to the back, he opened it and looked inside. There were some clothes, a shovel, tow chains, the usual stuff if you lived out in the country, and a small bag.
The bag had some marked bottles of holy water, a cross, and some other odds and ends. Nothing that the Sage would want in his cave, he was sure.
Going back around to the front he started the jeep, drove it over towards the trees, and then drove it down the hillside and into the forest where no one would easily see it. He took a few minutes to tear out some bushes and break off a few branches to toss over it and break up its outline, making it harder to see.
Walking back up the hill and over to Ursula he saw she had the priest hogtied, so he picked him up and threw him over his shoulder, and headed back towards the cave.
"I can't believe how easy that was!" Ursula gushed, "He's almost twice my weight, and I was able to manhandle him with ease!"
"Yes, they are weak and pitiful, aren't they?" Craig laughed.
"I can't wait to find a new place to live. A place full of such easy prey! I'll be able to have my way with any of them!" Ursula said in a voice that made it clear to Craig that all of her dreams were about to come true.
Honestly, he'd have to think about keeping her around a little bit longer. It could be fun to watch the little reign of terror she was obviously plotting. Besides, it would make it all the more sweeter for him when he finally turned her over to the Sage to be consumed.
He wondered for a moment if she'd even care? He almost laughed out loud at that thought. The way she'd acted last night when the Sage had tortured that girl before drinking her blood, Craig almost suspected that she'd enjoy it, when her time to feed the Sage finally came.
He took a more direct course back to the cave this time, though it still took longer than going out, as the man he was carrying was heavy. He'd regained consciousness somewhere along the trip and he was struggling now. Craig debated knocking him back out, but he suspected that the Sage wouldn't appreciate that.
"Here you go," Craig said and dumped the priest at the Sage's feet, almost an hour after they'd left.
"Ah, thank you, Gregory, why don't the two of you go for a walk? I'd like a little privacy."
"Aww," Ursula said, expressing Craig's thoughts exactly. He would have loved to have watched the Sage work.
"Now now, I promise I'll have something nice for you two, when you both get back," the Sage said with a smile.
Craig and Ursula both nodded and left the cave then.
"So now what?" Ursula asked Craig as the stood around outside, looking at the woods.
"There's a small cafe a short drive from here. We can have breakfast and come back after the Sage is done with that priest." Craig said and started walking over to where the truck was hidden.
"They won't recognize you?" Ursula asked, following him.
"Do you really think they can stop us if they do?" He laughed. "Besides, we're a good long ways from Blacksburg. It will be days before anyone even thinks of looking for us up here."
Ursula smiled and nodded, he had a point. No one would expect them up here with the hicks, and by the time they did, they'd both be gone.
19: Confrontation
Mark, Helena, Michael, Steve, and Mary were sitting in the diner having breakfast. Steve and Mary had come in late last night and were sharing what they'd learned about Ursula from searching her apartment.
"I tell you, this was one sick woman," Steve said shaking his head. "She was heavily into a lot of really dark fetishes and fantasies. Most all of them were focused on young women."
Mary nodded, "She was apparently quite the beauty when she was younger, as she started to get older and her looks started to fade, she couldn't accept it. Instead she got angry and focused all of that on younger women, and the prettier you were, the more she hated you and wanted to see you suffer."
"Just how dark are we talking here?" Michael asked.
"Let's just say that there are a lot of things I now know a lot more about than I did yesterday morning, and I wish I didn't," Mary said with a rather disgusted looking expression.
"Yeah, it was pretty sick," Steve agreed.
"But, the pictures from the video, she looked pretty good in those," Michael said looking around, confused. "I mean, didn't she?"
"She was a centerfold model when she was eighteen," Steve said, "we found a lot of her old stuff packed away in her attic. She really was a lot better looking then, than she is now."
"Apparently some people just refuse to age gracefully," Mary added. "From what we saw, she now goes to the gym every day, the spa twice a week, and has every beauty supplement you can buy, and some you can only get on the black market. She works hard now for what once just came naturally."
"So, then she was a willing accomplice for Craig?" Mark asked.
"Very willing," Mary said and Steve nodded his agreement as he took a bite of his food. "We even found her collection of trophies," Mary said, and Steve suddenly gagged on his food, and started coughing.
"Couldn't you have waited until I was done eating," Steve said between gasps.
"Sorry," Mary apologized.
Mark looked at Helena and then Michael, "Just what kind of trophies are we talking about?"
"Body parts," Mary said as Helena patted Steve on the back and he got his food back under control.
"She had quite the collection," Steve said and coughed one last time. "And there were a lot of them."
"Yeah, over a dozen," Mary nodded and shook her head with a sad look.
"Do we have any idea on how many women they killed?"
Steve shook his head and took a drink of water, then cleared his throat.
"Not yet," he said, "but we've identified at least another ten or so, from all the pictures and the films, in addition to the nine we already know about."
Michael swore, "We're up to nineteen? And no one noticed?"
Steve nodded, "Trust me; there is already a lot of finger-pointing going on at the college. The President of the university was literally screaming at the dean of students from what Jeff told us last night. Based on what we've figured out so far, we don't think there are going to be many more, but Woods has sent Denise and Pat over to the local high school to start a second front in the investigation. We know he worked there as well, so it's not unlikely that he found some victims there too."
"Just what was he sacrificing them for?" Michael grumbled shaking his head.
"Power," Mark said. "It's always power. Lycans don't get any sort of natural glamour or other magic. But from everything we've been seeing about this guy, he was not only able to influence people, but he was able to make them not notice the bad things he was doing.
"That takes power. I also think he was getting some sort of physical power from it. He seems a lot tougher than what I'd expect a normal lycan to be.
"Then there's the money he seemed to have suddenly come into. He suddenly buys a building? Buys a nice car? Starts throwing money around? No, it all looks like it was for power, magical, physical, and material."
Wolf Killer (The Hammer Commission) Page 15