by Erin Hayes
TO PROVE. SUBJECT APPEARS TO TARGET POPULATED AREAS IN
ANY
WHICH HEAVY ^HUMAN/MYTHOS RELATIONS HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED
ESPECIALLY
(EVEN^THOSE SIGNED OFF WITH THE COUNCIL)
Zoey wasn’t even aware that she’d begun shaking her head until she heard Isaac sigh beside her.
“You’re going to drive yourself crazy, you know,” he announced, glancing over from the driver’s seat. “Hell, I’m pretty sure you could recite the entire thing from memory at this point. Ready? Watch: ‘Name: Unknown; Species: Unknown; Reason For Forwarding This In The First Place: Unknown—”
“I know, I know…” Zoey absently brushed a purple-dyed patch of bangs from her forehead before rubbing her forehead. “I just don’t like not knowing as much as possible,” she groaned. “This… it’s just—”
“It’s a joke, Zoe,” Isaac interrupted. “That they even bothered to send us anything on this guy is laughable!”
Zoey smirked at hearing him use that word again
“And making yourself crazy over it is a cruel punchline,” he went on. “We’ve got the basics: we’ve got a who and a what, sort of—some rogue nutjob with a vendetta against mythos who commingle with humans—and we even have a rough estimate of when and where,” he nodded towards the city ahead of them. “And, as luck would have it, I just so happen to have connections with the therion pack The Council believes he’s after.”
“We barely have those facts, Isaac,” Zoey sighed again, shaking her head, “But what bothers me the most is that we don’t even know why!” Zoey motioned back down to the file. “Why is there so little on him? Why did he butcher all these towns in Europe?”
“We don’t know that that was even him, Zoe! Those reports date back to the second World War, and then there’s nothing for nearly fifty years! For all we know this guy’s a copycat or a vengeful comrade or, who knows, maybe somebody totally unrelated! The M.O.’s vague enough to not have anything to do with those earlier reports.”
Zoey rubbed at her temple, sighing. “The reasons for the attacks, sure, but the methods. Each place targeted was a massacre! Rogue attacks are common enough, always have been, but these particular cases depicted all-out bloodbaths! The fact that these are cited as being the work of a single attacker both then and now is too much coincidence to overlook. We have to carry forward under the assumption that the perpetrator of these attacks is the same one responsible for those in the late-‘40s, which only makes the question that much more pressing: Why?”
Isaac shook his head and laughed. “You’re too smart for your own good sometimes,” he teased. “You’re asking ‘why’ when there’s no ‘why’ to be had. The Council might not be able to offer a decent report to save their lives, but they’re certainly capable of deciding when somebody’s insane, and, baby, this thing—since we’re giving it all the credit—is certifiable, grade-A crazy!”
“Then why not just continue to be crazy there? You’re telling me he went through all the trouble of coming out of retirement, crossing an entire ocean and playing it discreet enough to make it all the way out here, just to be crazy? Why?”
“There’s that word again,” Isaac smirked and nudged her. When she didn’t offer him a matching grin, he sighed and shrugged, “Look, assuming it’s the same guy, ya gotta figure the nutcase has been rotting in Rome, bored and antsy, since—what?—at least the fifties? Even everyone back then was coming here! Maybe he held on to some dream of coming to America, and it’s not like he’d be dumb enough to stay in Europe after deciding he wasn’t done with his ‘work.’ Besides, getting back to his M.O., we’ve been the leading whole damn planet in mythos-human relations ever since that pseudo-celebrity vamp got permission to marry a human. You know the one…” he trailed off, snapping his fingers, “Joe-something, right?”
“Stryker,” Zoey looked up, considering her lover’s words. “Yea, Joseph Stryker, co-founder of the Odin Clan. The only Council-appointed warrior to not only seek approval for his union, but go public with it.”
“‘Public’ is a relative term,” Isaac sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not like he convinced The Council to announce themselves to the humans. He just got their ‘okay’ to bring one of them into our world without changing her. And we all know how well that worked out for everyone in the end.”
“It was a tragedy, sure,” Zoey defended, “but Joseph fell in love and, rather than lying to her or breaking our laws, he took a chance!”
“Yes, a chance,” Isaac nodded, “A stupid chance! He already had The Council eating out of his hand from what I’ve heard. Anything he wanted they would have signed off on.”
Zoey frowned, “That’s because he was a brilliant warrior!”
Isaac shrugged, “That may have been, but that brilliant warrior knew how to flash his pretty grin at the right people and get things to happen that probably shouldn’t have happened. Not the least of which being him living ‘The American Dream’ with a human bride. And—y’know what?—I don’t blame the guy! Not like I’m not right there in his shoes, doing the unthinkable and daring to love outside my own kind. I say good for him! But—BUT!—that doesn’t mean it wasn’t reckless and that it didn’t get attention! Right? That got a lot of attention, remember? And now with Stryker’s kid running around, blowing up this-and-that and getting all sorts of fresh attention, it’s not really a mystery to ask why somebody with a thing against mythos-human relations would, one, come out of retirement and, two, come to America to do it.”
“Then why all the detours?” Zoey asked, looking up at him. “Four attacks in two weeks, painting an almost perfect trail here? Why not use the element of surprise when he had it and just attack Stryker’s son the moment he touched down in the US?”
“Probably because he knows he’d have to be suicidal to go after the Stryker-kid on his own,” Isaac said with a shrug. “But stir up a little attention—get some support from rogues that share his beliefs—then maybe he’ll have enough extra muscle to back him up and…” he let his words hang between them for a moment so that Zoey’s overactive imagination could fill in the rest.
“Sometimes you’re too smart for your own good,” she finally said, closing the file. She couldn’t take any pride in using his words against him—not with the sudden weight of what this mission could mean—and she made no effort to mask her concern.
Isaac, as always, saw that she was troubled.
“Look, it’s not like it’s anything you have to worry about,” he said, setting his right hand on her left. “Even if all that is the case, there’s no way this guy’s gonna get close to rallying a single supporter before we take him out.”
Zoey sighed, nodding, and looked away from the file to take in Isaac’s confident features.
His earth-toned aura rippled as he felt her eyes on him, and she couldn’t help but smile as his own gaze shifted away from the road to stare back at her.
Sometimes she forgot that he couldn’t read minds.
The moment passed as the isolated stretch of road finally gave way to a stop light and, to their right, a 24-hour diner. It was the first real sign of civilization that they’d passed since leaving the hotel and the town it occupied nearly seven hours earlier.
Suddenly the lights of the city weren’t just lights. The topsides of buildings and several passing headlights turned the distant glows into the promise of something more.
“Finally!” Zoey stretched, feeling invigorated with the promise of seeing an end to their three-day journey. “So this is it, huh? Where your connections live?”
“Yup,” he paused long enough to take a left and begin to put the lights of the diner behind them and opening up the canopy of the city ahead of them. “Back from my pack days we had to band together with a few others to chase off a few… er, menaces.”
Zoey smirked, recognizing his dodge and the telltale shift in his aura. “You mean vampires?”
“Well…” he shifted and shrugged, “It was differen
t then. I hadn’t met you yet and they were—”
“Isaac,” it was Zoey’s turn to interrupt him, “it’s alright. The past is the past.” She nodded towards the city, “So, about the connections?”
Isaac gave her a knowing smile and nodded, letting out a deep breath and noticeably relaxing as he did. “Right. Well, we banded together with about five packs from all around to deal with the threat. We all had our differences, but I distinctly remember these guys. They were the only ones who chose to live in the city. I’d heard of those in my kind going off on their own or maybe with a partner to start a life for themselves among the humans, but this was the first and only time I’d heard of an entire pack settling in the middle of a city.”
“So did you get close to them?” Zoey asked.
Isaac paused, then began shaking his head slowly. “We—all of us, I mean—got to know one another rather intimately, I guess. But after the battle things sort of fell back to the way they were before. Me and my pack went back to the woods you found me in, the other packs returned to their plots, and these guys… well, we all went back to the way things were.”
Zoey nodded and chuckled. “An urban therion pack?” she mused. “So much for the stereotype of werewolves sticking to forests, huh?”
“Most of us still do stick to the forests,” he raised an eyebrow at her. “Just like most of us don’t call ourselves ‘werewolves.’” Isaac shrugged then, “Either way, they seem to have a good thing there. They own a few apartment complexes that give all of them plenty of living space, room to expand, and income from other tenants, and they run a night club. And, if the hype on Yelp is any indicator, that place is doing quite well.” He grinned, “So, yeah, I guess the ‘city werewolves’ made it work.”
“And they already know why we’re coming here?” Zoey asked, “Do you think they might know anything about the one we’re looking for?”
Isaac shrugged, “They keep in touch with The Council to maintain updates on their clients and such, so I’m sure they’ve at least been warned that they’re being targeted.”
“And they’ve still chosen to stay? If they know there’s a threat like that coming after them, why not leave?” Zoey brushed another dyed patch of hair out of her vision.
“It’s not in our nature,” Isaac explained. “Territory is territory, whether it’s a patch of earth and trees or a concrete foundation and powerlines. A therion’s most basic urge is to protect what’s his, to do whatever it takes no matter the cost”—he shot a glance towards her at that moment, and Zoey wondered if he was still talking about the urban pack—“so you can’t be surprised when they refuse to let that go.”
Zoey stared for a moment, replaying the words in her head and finding some sort of strange comfort in them, before giving him a coy grin. “And you?” she led, “Would you ‘do whatever it takes’ to protect what’s yours?”
Isaac quirked a brow and she caught a flicker of something playful in his eyes. “I am a therion,” was all the answer he offered.
It was more than enough for Zoey.
Clearing her throat and returning to the document, hoping the gesture might force both the conversation and her own mind towards the task at hand, she asked, “Do you think they’ll be willing to help us?”
“Hmm?” the playful flicker in Isaac’s wavered with confusion.
So much for professionalism…
“The, uh… the ‘city werewolves,’” she clarified, giving a gentle nod towards the document and, with it, the subject of their mission. “Do you think they’d be willing to help?”
“They…” he paused, sighing to himself and looking out the driver’s side window for a brief moment. “They should,” he finally said, clearly not fully believing it.
Zoey watched her lover’s green aura darken as it moved inward. He was tense. She reached out to him. “What’s bothering you, baby. I don’t want to look in your mind—I wouldn’t break your trust like that—but I need to know,” she bit her lip, adding “Please.”
He began to relax, even smiling as she swore she wouldn’t use her abilities to spy on him. “Zoey, they aren’t exactly receptive to vampires. They follow Council law and such, but our kind… it’s not like you and I got off on the best terms when we first met. I’m not saying you’re going to be in any danger, but I’m not sure how willing they’re going to be to help a vampire warrior.”
“But I’ll have you with me,” she pointed out.
Isaac shook his head, “That’s not going to be a selling point.”
Zoey didn’t need to ask to know what he meant by that. Though her own clan mates had tried to keep it from showing on their faces, there was no hiding what was going on in their minds when she first got with Isaac. She’d hoped that they’d be quick to accept the idea since it was her, a trusted comrade, but the familiarity only seemed to make them resent the union even more. And while none had confronted her directly about it, she couldn’t help but sense the disgust in many at seeing a therion’s arm draped over her shoulder; could do nothing to stop the waves of their ugly thoughts that echoed in her head.
Thank the stars for Serena and Zane, she thought, remembering her closest friends’ quick acceptance of Isaac as well as the idea of their relationship.
She wished she could pretend to not understand why their target would be so against mythos and humans commingling—she hated the idea of relating to anybody who committed such heinous acts—but, after seeing how other mythos still looked upon something as innocent as a vampire-therion relationship, it wasn’t much of a leap. If the therions in this city were anything like those vampires, Isaac wasn’t going to be openly welcomed.
“Good point…” she looked down for a moment and smiled back at him. “Well, let’s hope my charm can win them over. Plus, they trust you, right? You’ve got history with them, so they’re bound to be excited that you’re coming. That should count for something, right?”
“Actually,” Isaac bit his upper lip for a moment, “they don’t know that we’re coming.”
“What?” Zoey straightened in her seat and turned herself to better face him, “Isaac! We’re being sent into their neighborhood—their ‘territory’ as you called it—because we’re tracking a murderer who’s out for their heads, and you didn’t even bother to tell them we’re coming? How is it going to look if we just show up unexpectedly to their home and business on Council orders?”
Isaac shrugged, “Honestly, hon, it wouldn’t look good for us either way, and if I’d given them any sort of heads-up that we were coming, there’s a good chance they’d have set a road block to stop us before we’d gotten this far.”
Zoey stared at him. “They’d really do that?” she frowned.
Isaac shrugged again, “I would have.”
Zoey groaned and buried her face in her palm. “Good point.”
“Besides,” he grinned at her, “It didn’t take long for me to fall for your charm, so what’re the odds that, between the two of us, we can’t win them over?”
The swirl of positive energy rolling off his aura and that intoxicating grin made Zoey’s heart skip a beat. “Speaking of charm…” she murmured, moving a hand down his chest.
“Zoey…” he shifted in his seat as a noticeable bulge formed under his jeans. “Jeez! Just like that?”
Looking up at him, Zoey offered a grin that she knew got his pulse racing. “What can I say? You relieved the stress, but the tension remains.”
“You and your wordplay,” Isaac groaned as Zoey’s hand continued downward. “If you don't stop now, we’re going to have to pull over.”
Zoey giggled and started to unzip Isaac’s pants. “Or,” she cooed, reaching in to fetch her prize, “we don’t pull over and I don’t stop.”
Isaac looked down at her. “What are you ta—Ooooh!”
“So this is it?” Zoey looked at the apartment building. “It’s… nice.”
“It’s loud. That’s what it is,” Isaac sighed.
The six-story buildi
ng was wide enough to occupy most of the block, and while the rest of the buildings were dark and quiet, it was lit up like a Christmas tree was and practically dancing on its foundation from the noise emanating from within. A chaotic-yet-harmonious blend of shouts and laughter and the sounds of children melded with over a dozen different melodies from blaring stereos and the uproarious contributions of countless televisions and mobile devices. And while the sound was certainly something noteworthy for any in the immediate area, Zoey had the unique advantage of seeing just how alive the building truly appeared from the sheer amount of energy it exuded. There were so many auras—auras bubbling and rolling with the same fervent excitement that she’d come to know from Isaac—that the entire structure seemed to be a furnace of auric energy.
If she hadn’t sworn off stealing the life-force of bystanders, Zoey could have siphoned enough to last the entire month in a single instant.
Despite all of that energy, however, she was still able to sense Isaac’s stress levels rising. Glancing over, she caught the last traces of an anxious expression on his face as he worked to change it before she saw. Knowing that he had his reasons and that pushing the subject would only worsen things, however, she didn’t let on that she’d noticed and offered him a smile. For a long moment neither moved, but as the lingering silence began to turn into an awkward one Zoey took the initiative and turned back to the Jeep to grab their bags.
“Come on, we already got this far,” she smiled, holding out his luggage to him. “It can’t be that bad, right?”
“Famous last words…” Isaac groaned, taking the bag before starting across the street with her.
As they drew nearer to the entrance, the doors opened and Zoey found herself regretting her statement as four therions, still in human form but seeming no less threatening for it, placed themselves between the two of them and the building.
None of them looked happy to see Isaac.
They all looked even less happy to see her.
One of the therions took a step towards Zoey and Isaac, with a swiftness that startled her, cut him off, his body going tense as a low, angry growl rumbled deep from within his chest. Another therion advanced to stand beside the first, and Isaac’s shoulders hunched as his growl deepened. Zoey frowned, seeing his aura writhe and coil like an angry snake, and the muscles of his neck shifted unnaturally as his body began to change.