The Puppets and the Strings (A Werewolf's Saga Book 7)

by Michael Lampman

  The sound made Drew and Amanda both stand up together.

  “What was that?” Gloria felt her heart sink inside her chest. Her gifts allowed her to feel emotions from everyone around her. With it, she felt fear. She felt terror. She felt everything all around the house and what she felt was bad. Evil was happening everywhere.

  Drew and Amanda joined her by her side.

  Sounds of screaming now came. More sounds of booming, shaking, followed the screams. Popping sounds—the sounds of air rushing through a plumber’s pipe—came next.

  All of them made for a terrifying night.

  “They are here!” Marcus turned to the back of the room. He turned to the door that went out to the foyer and to the front door of the home. He already heard the sounds of boots thumping along the tiled floor—the same marble tiles he knew lined the floor. He knew by those same sounds they were heading right to them. In fact, they were almost there. They were almost to the door.

  Gloria heard it too. She let her vampire’s eyes shine to their fire red.

  Marcus did the same thing.

  Amanda stripped off her shirt. She pulled down her pants. She brought her red eyes out shining as she called on the Shade inside her.

  Her skin flared to an ivory white. Her dark black hair disappeared on the top of her head. Her fingers grew out and formed in to large and massive wings. Her face curled into an oval shape as her nose went flat and pointed. Her ears also turned pointed as they slid up at the sides of her head. She crouched down to the floor when she fully formed into a large and massive bat.

  Drew looked back to the dark of his mind, found his wolf’s yellow eyes and pulled them forward. With them now shining through his, his face turned dark. His ears slid tall. His bones shook before shattering. He fell to his knees as his snout jutted out from his face. His legs drew out long and formed into paws. His hair flushed brown and covered his body from head to feet. The clothes he wore fell from his wolf’s frame after they tore.

  Ready, the four of them waited. They watched the open door to the room. They watched as shadows quickly crossed the floor just beyond it.

  Four dark dressed bodies then showed.

  Seeing them quickly, Drew jumped.

  On his four legs, he moved fast. He jumped the first black clothed and masked human on his right.

  He crashed hard, as a popping sound flared out from his direction as he covered over the human, and both of them disappeared through the doorway.

  When they did, Amanda drew back with her wings.

  She flew hard with in a second of a second. She flapped with her wings. Her bat’s face curled.

  Another popping sound blasted out in front of her.

  Gloria and Marcus moved. They moved so fast they became nothing but a blur of movement as they rushed the door.

  Another popping sound flashed.

  A second one followed it closely.

  One blur stopped cold, as the one on the left blew to the door.

  Marcus smashed in to the first human on the left.

  The human flew back, left his feet, and slid hard along the tiled floor until he crashed in to the wall, opposite from the door.

  Marcus stopped. He turned. He looked back for his friend.

  Amanda was standing in the doorway, holding her chest with both of her hands. Between her naked breasts, she pulled out a small dart.

  Marcus saw she was human looking again, saw the look of horror on her face, and realized that she looked flushed. She didn’t look pale as normal. Seeing this, he looked to his left.

  Drew was now naked and lying on the floor. He was no longer in his wolf’s form. He looked lifeless. The man he tackled was now standing over him, and aiming his pistol weapon at his face.

  Marcus turned but only briefly before he heard the pop. He felt a sting in his left shoulder, and then felt a burn as it swept down his arm and into his hands. The burn entered his chest. His heart skipped. His mind turned warm. His body actually began to shake.

  Gloria was already on her knees. She watched her friend turn. She saw him struck with the dart. She had already pulled hers from her chest.

  “You human scum will pay for this.” She felt tears in her now human feeling eyes. She then felt them streak down her face. For the first time in a century, the tears felt cold against the warmth of her face. She knew what happened. “We will destroy all of you for doing this.” She tried to hiss, but even that sounded human again too.

  “Oh is that right?” A woman’s voice came from behind her, and it made her turn.

  She saw her face. She saw her long black hair as it flowed around her shoulders. She saw the coolness of her soft skin. She looked neat and clean. She couldn’t be human. She looked better than they ever had.

  She watched her step between her and her friends. “Who will do this to us?” She looked down at the young former Walker and grinned with total glee. She needless to say, loved this part.

  Gloria looked into her eyes. She saw the glint of her pride. She saw the pleasure. She saw the joy this was giving her. She had to be human after all.

  “My lady will kill all of you,” she winced.

  The woman with the long flowing hair truly laughed. She always did. They were all the same. Walkers were truly weak. They were truly more pathetic than she would always remember them. They do need to die.

  “She will perhaps try to, but it will not happen today.” She looked back to all of her friends. The one standing over the once wolf was holding his arm to his side. She saw that it didn’t look right, possibly broken, but didn’t care at all, so she turned back to the next part of this. It was time to continue the game. “I will now offer something to all of you that you do not deserve.” She knelt down in between them.

  Gloria watched her come down only to within inches of her face. She then saw something that she didn’t understand. It was her eyes. The woman’s eyes sparkled like rubies. They were as bright red as any vampire’s ever were. Seeing them, she gasped.

  “You are one of us.”

  “I am not like you, my dear animal.”

  She leaned in and turned her voice low. She obviously wanted only Gloria to hear this.

  She did. “I am so much more than you will ever truly know.”

  “How can you do this to us?” Her voice cracked.

  She laughed again. “Do you wish to hear the offer, or not?”

  “What do you have to offer us?” Gloria heard herself ask. What she saw just couldn’t register in her mind. What she heard just didn’t make sense to her. How could any of them—any like them—do this to them? It just blew her mind and burned her heart.

  The woman with the long flowing hair and the now red eyes gleamed. “Join us and you will live.” Her eyes went back to a deep brown, more human look. The gleam however stayed. “Or you all can die a human’s death.”

  Marcus listened to this as he felt his legs grow weak. They spilled him down to his knees. He couldn’t believe how truly weak he now felt. It shook him to his core. He forgot how bad fear made his body feel. He was truly not prepared. How could he be?

  “You call that a choice?”

  The woman with the flowing hair stood back up. She looked to the naked woman, also on her knees at the door, and then to the man now on his knees. She sighed as she turned to the man standing above him.

  “They hurt you?” she asked him softly.

  He winced as he spoke. “It’s nothing. I’ll be all right.”

  She knew he lied. Humans always did. “Do you wish to repay them for what they did to you?” Again, she didn’t care how he felt. The game is all that mattered. She just loved to play it.

  He didn’t answer her.

  He didn’t have to. She already knew what he wanted to do, so she turned back to the others. There were now four of them with her.

  “Kill all of them.” She turned. She said nothing else. She just headed for the door and left back outside.

  Gloria watched the four humans aim there weapons
at all of them. She watched as the metal of their pistols sparkled. She truly gasped.

  “I thought we had a choice?” she whimpered to the human aiming at her face.

  The human female’s voice didn’t shake once as she answered her. “I guess she lied, freak.”

  The shots roared. Several came from each gun. The flashes lit up the foyer like lightning lights up the clouds on a thunderous night.

  Thankfully, for Gloria and her friends, it was over after the first shots. They died on their knees. They all saw the light.

  28

  He found the apartment quickly. He didn’t get lost. GPS works so well.

  Arriving at the door, he knocked softly. He didn’t think. He didn’t worry. Jimmy kept his mind as clear as the dew is at dawn.

  Danny opened the door. “Mister Walls?” He recognized him instantly. The fact he did, it made him shudder too. He knew what he was. He knew how much harm he could cause him too.

  Jimmy understood this. He saw it instantly on his face. He knew that he had to calm him some. He needed to know everything that happened, and in order to get that, he needed the young man thinking straight. He couldn’t have him being afraid of him.

  “It’s Jimmy. You can call me Jimmy.” Being as polite as possible, he figured would do the trick.

  Danny swallowed shallowly. He gave him a simple nod. “Jimmy then.” He even smiled some.

  That was good to see. “May I come inside?”

  Danny swallowed again. “Sure—yes.” He stepped aside from the door, and showed the inside of the apartment behind him.

  Jimmy stepped inside.

  The place looked like a mess. The sofa was tipped over on its side and it was now pushed up against the wall to his left. A table was shattered on the floor in front of the sofa. A solitary lamp sat next to what was left of the table. What looked like stuffing, probably from the cushions of the sofa, was layered all over the floor. Whatever happened here, or whoever did this, they certainly left the place a disaster.

  “I see they made a mess of the place.” He looked back at the young man and watched him close the door. He then turned to him and gave him his full attention.

  “I left it the way it was when I found it. I didn’t want to clean it up until the authorities had a chance to go through it.” He sighed after saying this. He also winced. Inside him, he knew that he shouldn’t have left that morning. He should have stayed there with him. If he had, Kenny would still be there. He didn’t know this for sure, but just having the doubt for it was enough.

  Jimmy felt his heart almost hurt. It felt weird. It fluttered, yet skipped. He knew the feeling well.

  “Did you contact the authorities?” He had to get back to the matter at hand.

  Danny shook his head almost violently. “I just called you.”

  He’s still scared of me, but at least he’s talking.

  “You don’t have to fear me Danny. I am not the animal that you think I am.” He said this, but then suddenly regretted it. Just bringing up what he was, again to this young human, might send him over the edge—an edge that he couldn’t let him reach.

  Danny shook his head again. “I know what you are Mister—Jimmy. I know what Kenny is. I know all about the world as it really is. I’m not afraid of it. My grandfather trusted Kenny enough to give him his body. Kenny trusted you. I trust you.”

  Jimmy breathed hard with hearing this. It made him relaxed too. With it, it was again time to get back to the matter at hand.

  He looked back to the room. He looked across the living room, and back to what looked like the kitchen. With the trash all over the floor and busted furniture all scattered with it, he wasn’t sure if it was. What he did know, what he did see, it didn’t make sense. It looked too good to be true.

  “Why would they make one hell of a mess?” He moved out to the center of the floor. He looked down, and noticed clothes, pieces of wood, some simple trash from the tipped over can at the partition of the two rooms. He didn’t see any blood. It looked like a struggle, but one that didn’t hurt anyone. This bothered him. “It doesn’t look like anyone put up a fight.” He looked at the kitchen, and took a deep smell. He could smell a sweet lavender smell, recognized it as Kenar’s Wanderer aroma. He smelled Danny’s human odors—a simple sweat. There was more.

  He looked back at Danny. “They staged this to get your attention.” It made sense. The boy left him; his guilt for it is all over his face. He looked back at the floor. He looked at the walls. They were all intact. They wanted him to know that they took him. But why? Why would they do it, unless they were hoping that he called him here? And he did. I came. I’m here.

  Danny watched him thinking. He heard what he said and he had nothing but questions flush his mind.

  “Why would they stage this?”

  The message?

  “Where did they leave the message you told me about over the phone?”

  Danny felt eager with this. He would do anything to help. If he stayed with him…he brushed that aside.

  “It’s here.” He left the front door, passed Jimmy, and headed in to the kitchen. He went straight to the refrigerator to the left of the room. He pointed at the front of it. “It’s right here.”

  Jimmy walked to him and stopped at his left side. He looked. He read.

  The gathering storm is the master and Sima is the strings. It was written in obvious blood.

  “What does it mean?” Danny was dying to ask. He had been after he found it.

  Jimmy held his breaths. “I think it’s a message for me.” He could see her face—not the one standing at the fire, but the one he held in his arms when she was still nothing more than just a small child. The one he would always remember. He explained, “Sima was my daughter.” He turned back to the young human and now had tears in his eyes.

  Danny saw them and it made him blink. If this animal—if this wolf—could show tears to him, he trusted him completely. He would never doubt this ever again.

  “My brother tried to take her to use her against me. He tried to use her gifts.”

  Danny only understood the first part of this. He did know of some of the gifts from Kenny, but that was it. He didn’t want to know anything more than that.

  Jimmy understood this without needing to know anything else. What did strike him was another scent as it floated to him, and it came from the written blood. It smelled sweet, much sweeter than anything else did in the room. It was different from a Wanderer. It was different from a wolf. It was just different, but he had smelled it before.

  He saw the trees. He saw the night darkened grass. He saw the building standing tall on the other side of the park. The lights through all of them lit up like the stars. He heard them walking, Gary and his wife, as they made their way towards him down the path. He saw their auras as they moved through the calm nighttime air. He saw them happy. He heard them talking. He smelled the sweet wonderful smell. It still caressed his mind, now just as it did back then. It was as strong as ever.

  It’s the same scent. It’s the same smell.

  He looked back to the blood. He moved closer to the appliance and took a deep and powerful smell. It was the same. He didn’t doubt it at all.

  Danny noticed what he was doing and it made more questions to burst their way through his thoughts.

  “What is it?”

  Jimmy felt the smell course its way down into the pit of his mind. It overwhelmed his very essence of his very soul.

  “It’s her. It’s him. It’s the same smell I followed that night. It’s the same smell when I…” He stopped himself from saying what happened after that. The boy didn’t need to know this. He didn’t need to relive it. As for the smell, he couldn’t believe how strong it was, and that was when he noticed that the smell carried on towards his left. It headed back out through the living room and headed straight over to the front door. It was so strong that he almost couldn’t believe that he hadn’t smelled it before when he first came inside. He could see it. He could f
ollow it. It showed him the way to go next.

  Danny watched him turn to the living room. “You can smell what?” Of course, he can. “Can you follow it?” He didn’t know what else to say. It just fit with what he saw him doing. He was a wolf after all, and with remembering it, he felt a cold chill run down his back again. He saw the black fur. He saw the beast.

  Jimmy thought he could. “I can.” He looked back to Danny. “I will find him. I will find him and bring him back to you.” He again felt the wonder with everything he could do. In all of these many years, it sometimes still surprised him—even now.

  Danny now had tears in his eyes. “I hope you can.” He now believed that he did the right thing, in calling him. It made him feel better about all of this. He now knew why Kenny trusted him as he did, because he did now too. He just kept repeating to himself, he’s is friend…he’s his friend…he’s his friend.

  Jimmy knew that he needed more to offer him, so he did that next. “Don’t blame yourself for what happened, Danny. Kenny never did nor would he ever do it.”

  Danny accepted this. He didn’t have any other choice. “Just bring him home. Just make sure he’s safe.”

  Jimmy touched his shoulder with his right hand and squeezed him firmly and assuredly. He left it at that.

  “Stay here. I will do all that I can.”

  Danny again accepted this, and accepted him.

  That was it. Jimmy had somewhere to go and it was time to get to doing it. He left the living room, and headed back through the door. He headed out and went straight back to his rental car. Before climbing back behind the wheel, he took another heavy breath.

  The smell was still there. He could almost see it with his own eyes. That was good. He could follow it wherever it would take him. He just hoped he could find him before it was too late.

  29

  This does not look right. Something is wrong. Sharlia watched her home come into view, as they pulled into the driveway and headed to the front of the house. No one was outside. She saw no one watching the road. She saw no one guarding at the front gate to the compound. William wasn’t there. Shelia wasn’t at the front door. The place looked totally deserted. It shouldn’t be this way.