by Amber Lynn
When we pulled off the interstate before travelling into New Bedford, we stopped on the shoulder of the off ramp and turned off our bikes to get our bearings. I stood up straight and stretched my legs. It was still pretty chilly out, but the sun was shining and there was no snow, so you wouldn’t hear me complaining.
With my ability to heat myself a little from the inside when I felt a chill, only snow or a heavy downpour kept me off the roads. I was looking into getting some tires with better traction, so nothing would keep me from going for a spin.
“Anyone feel anything crazy? I’m only feeling the stares of people wondering what we’re doing riding motorcycles in the middle of winter.” I knew that Liam, Kyle and Rick all had abilities to sense uniques in close proximity.
“I can feel a single semi-strong energy source other than us in the vicinity,” Liam said.
With me glowing next to him, Liam sometimes found it hard to use his abilities. If he was able to feel something else out there, semi-strong was more than likely an understatement.
“I’m better at picking up uniques in closer proximity, so I can’t really say for sure what I’m feeling. It kind of feels like there’s a unique out there, but I can’t pick up a particular flavor from this distance,” Kyle said.
“Thankfully, my talents are a little more defined,” Rick said with his usual cockiness. “Anyone else getting the strong smell of tobacco?”
“I am,” Joseph said.
Once it was mentioned, I picked up the smell of pipe tobacco, and wondered how I’d missed it. It reminded me of a guy who used to ride the train with me most mornings. I didn’t know what significance it had on the side of the road, but I didn’t see anyone around it could belong to.
“With the tobacco and the trickery I think we are dealing with a Kapre. I’ve only run into one before. They’re a very rare breed of uniques,” Rick informed us.
“Would whatever that is group together with the warlock against us?” I asked. Whatever a Kapre was, it wasn’t something that I’d read about.
“I doubt it,” Nate answered. “Kapres are generally from the Philippines region. They aren’t mean in nature, but they do love to play little tricks on people. Usually they fly under the radar more than this.”
“So, what are we looking for? Even if he isn’t with the bad guys, we need to get him to tone it down,” I said. A trickster would explain the funny reports Vinnie had picked up, but I didn’t know that it explained Joseph’s missing wolves.
“Kapres are extremely tall, so he shouldn’t be hard to find. A roughly eight-foot-tall person will probably stick out like a sore thumb,” Rick said.
“Joseph, you know this area the best, do you know of any forests?” Nate asked. “That will probably be the place to go looking. Kapres prefer to live amongst the trees.”
“There are a couple of places in the general area that might be wooded enough for him to stay out of view. My bet would be the Acushnet Cedar Swamp, if he’s in there, no normal person would ever be able to find him,” he replied. “Since we aren’t exactly normal, we have a better chance.”
“It’s getting to be late afternoon and I don’t think we want to be stuck looking in a swamp at night, so let’s plan to go investigate tomorrow,” I said, trying to establish a leadership role in our investigation. Hey, if a prophecy said I was going to be some kind a leader, I needed to get all the practice I could get. “How far is it to the pack house? I didn’t hear anyone mention they felt wolves or other uniques in the area.”
“That’s because there aren’t,” Rick said. “There’s only what we’re assuming is a Kapre. I’m picking up no other unique signatures, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“What does that mean for us? There’s supposed to be uniques here according to Joseph, and I have to believe he would’ve been alerted if they decided to move,” I said. The more I learned, the more I was surprised they didn’t have to call to ask permission to use the bathroom.
“I only knew of the wolves for sure, and you’re right, they wouldn’t have relocated without talking to me about it. Some areas have packs that don’t like unknown wolves in their territory, so I sometimes have to serve as a mediator.”
“Well, let’s head over to where these wolves are supposed to be living and see if we can figure anything out,” I said, starting my bike back up.
“Okay, I guess you guys are going to have to follow me,” Joseph said as he and the rest of the guys brought their bikes to life.
We followed Joseph south to a house on Cove Road. He stopped in front of a large, white house that looked like it was set up as a multi-family home. There was a cream colored house directly across the street that looked similar. Both were three stories and looked bigger than the other homes around. We parked and shut off our bikes, while we took note of the area. Trey and Sean climbed out of the truck they were riding in and joined us.
“These are both ours,” Joseph explained as he got off his bike. “The white one is the main pack house, where they have meetings and the alpha and his betas live. The cream one is where the rest of the pack lives. At last check, this was a group of only guys, so I’ll caution you it might be a mess. Without a woman around to keep us tidy, science experiments are known to start growing.”
With that word of caution, we climbed off our bikes and trailed him up to the white house. The door looked to be in one piece, which surprised me a little. I was sure there had to have been some kind of struggle with the way Joseph had been talking about his pack not leaving without his permission. He knocked on the door, and apparently not caring if someone answered, he turned the knob and walked in.
We followed him in and were welcomed by a huge mess, not exactly the kind he’d warned us about. There were scorch marks in different spots on the carpet and walls. One half of a couch was blocking a doorway to another room and the other half was upside down in the middle of the room. An entertainment center was tipped over the couch half inside the room.
Altogether it was chaos.
“I’m hoping this is not what you meant by the guys being a little sloppy. Because if it is, they sure like to roughhouse a lot. I can only imagine what their remodeling bill looks like,” I said while everyone else was still taking it all in.
No one made any moves to go further into the house. It could’ve been the couch blocking the door, but I didn’t think a little thing like that would keep them out.
“No, Avery, my dear, this is not something they did themselves. None of them can produce the energy balls that left those scorch marks,” Joseph responded.
Bringing up energy balls reminded me of my recent fight with a warlock who tried to use them against me. I was leaning towards another minion being behind the disappearances, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Something else out there could throw energy balls around like a warlock.
“Can the Kapre thingy do something like this?” I asked.
“If you want to be technical, he probably could with an illusion,” Nate said. “I’ve never heard of one who was violent. As you’re already thinking, this stinks of warlock activity. I have to believe there were quite a few of them, or at least one who’s a lot stronger than the one you met in Alaska.”
“I don’t see any bodies in the carnage, hopefully that means everyone is still alive. How far would they have had to been taken in order to fall off all of your guys’ radar?” I asked.
“I can sense any wolf in a twenty mile radius,” Joseph replied. For some reason I thought he was being a little modest about his ability.
“My radar tends to run about the same,” Rick said.
“I can tell strong energy sources maybe ten miles away,” Liam answered.
“And, as you know, I’m more of a up close and personal reader,” Kyle said, completing the roundup.
“Okay, well twenty miles isn’t that far away, and we already know they aren’t north of here, or someone would’ve picked them up.” I said. “You guys do want to try to find them, right?”
“I have no choice in the matter,” Joseph stated. “They’re my wolves and it’s my duty to protect them.”
“And he’s going to need all of us to help. If whatever took them was able to grab ten wolves, we’re going to have a major battle on our hands,” Rick said.
I wished we had someone who could read residual energy that may have been left during the attack. It would’ve been useful to know exactly how many people we were dealing with.
“Good, I’m tired of having to pull my punches. You guys are fun to spar with, but I’m overdue to show you how a berserker really fights,” Kyle said.
“Right on, brother,” Liam said, raising his hand for a high five. Kyle’s hand met his and they did some handshake things. It was weird and it disturbed me, so I focused on moving the investigation along.
“Do we bother checking out the other building? You never know, the bad guys could’ve been nice enough to leave a note.”
“With how this place looks, I’m leaning towards the fighting all happening here. There wasn’t a path of destruction across the street, so it’s unlikely anything happened there. Sean, Trey, you guys run over and check it out, just in case,” Joseph ordered them and they ran out the door.
“They’re so obedient,” I commented. “I need to figure out how to get Rick to be that way.”
“You don’t punish him enough for stepping out of line,” Joseph replied. “Of course, our ways of leading are very different. For me, punishment is beating the crap out of someone, whereas for you, it’s more like making him go to bed without his supper.”
“Hey, have you ever seen us fight? I’m not exactly taking it easy on him,” I replied. I tended to go all out and even pull knives on him.
“No, you don’t take it easy, but believe me, you don’t come anywhere near to causing the damage I have to some of my wolves. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing either. If we’re going to be revealing ourselves, it’s better that you’re in the front with your leading style, but at the same time, you’ll need people behind you who can back up any of your threats, gleefully.”
The way Joseph showed off his bright, shiny teeth made it clear he found joy in beating people up. I knew the berserkers were the same way. With a war on the horizon, I’d definitely networked with the right people.
“Are you interviewing for one of my enforcer positions?” I asked.
“Maybe I am,” he responded. “I thought I already had the job, though.”
“Will there be cool outfits involved?” Liam asked. “I’ve always liked those hats the British Royal Guards have to wear.”
“What would you do if you actually had to fight?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure it’d fall off and just get trampled on.”
“They’re so big, we could hide weapons in them. That would be pretty cool. People would be staring at the hats, and we would take them off and be all ‘say hello to my little friend’ and pull out a machine gun,” he replied.
I started laughing at the image he painted. If nothing else, for Halloween I’d have to get him a hat, just so he can replay the scene in real life. I couldn’t imagine much more than a handgun actually fitting under the hat, but I was willing to watch him try.
“I’m going with no on the hats. If you really want some kind of uniform, we can talk about it. We’d need to have it be made out of something strong enough to withstand things like the energy balls or whatever left those marks on the walls. Vinnie should be able to help in that area; he’s already made himself a skin thick enough to resist bullets,” I said.
“That would be a project I would enjoy,” Vinnie offered.
“Great, we can talk about it more when we get back home,” I said. “I didn’t think it’d take more than a minute to run across the street to see if anybody’s home; shouldn’t Trey and Sean be back by now?”
“You’re right. A quick walkthrough to assess any damage and figure out if any clues were left shouldn’t take this long. We better go see what’s taking them so long.” Joseph tilted his head as an odd expression clouded his face.
We headed out the door and across the street. The neighbors were close, so I was surprised that the police weren’t called in with all the commotion that had to have occurred when the house got tossed. When we got to the other house, Joseph walked right in, not bothering to knock.
The scene before us had me almost rolling on the floor laughing, for the second time that day. As annoying as magic was in my life at the time, there were some things it could do that were pure comic relief, as long as you weren’t the one caught up in it.