by Ian Thomas
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Holly called.
“You saw us enter this room,” Mouth shouted back, wondering what the hell he was doing. “Are you that dumb?”
“Mouth,” Jason hissed.
“What?!”
“Gunman at your school and you’re all first name basis, talking him down and everyone lives. Christy’s dead, Naomi’s hungry, and suddenly, what, you’re throwing the playbook out the window? Vampires and a werewolf.”
“A what?” Rob demanded.
“Did you or did you not see the big hulking black guy with the claws and fur?” Mouth retorted angrily.
“It was dark.”
“Wow,” Mouth said. “Thought you guys had diversity training or some shit.”
“Not for dealing with fucking vampires and werewolves.”
“My big bad wolf’s gonna huff and puff and–”
“Will you shut up?!” Mouth shouted. “This…goading…is pathetic.”
“Fine,” Holly said, standing outside the door. “Give us Jason and we won’t kill anyone else. Deal?”
“Deal,” Rob called.
“What?!” Jason hissed. “No!”
“You are a terrible RA,” Mouth said. “Like the worst.”
“Christy’s dead. Who knows who else is hurt or dead out there. I’m just looking after the rest of my non-dead residents.”
“Still,” Mouth said.
“I’ll go.”
“Only because it looks like you need to use the bathroom, right?” Rob asked.
“Well I was gonna do the hero thing. And no I don’t need to use the bathroom.”
“Then what the hell were you doing?” Rob asked.
“Getting weapons.” Jason took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused again. Mouth’s eyes widened as Jason’s nails grew into claws. Straining against the pain, his body grew in size and musculature. When he opened his eyes, they were black and gold, mouth full of fangs.
“That is not natural!” Rob yelled. “What the fuck steroids were you on?!? Holy Christ, Jesus, and all the saints.”
“Oooh, weapons,” Mouth said, a thought occurring to him. He dove for the Whole Foods bag.
“Now is not the time for a snack!” Rob cried. “You people are fucked.”
“We’re waiting,” Holly sang through the door.
“Just a second,” Mouth yelled back. He looked at Jason. “You got this?”
“Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.”
“You’re an idiot. But you’re my idiot,” Mouth said.
“Means a lot.”
“Here,” Mouth said, opening a jar and standing before Jason. “Dip your claws in.”
“Really?”
“Just do it,” Mouth said, then called to Rob. “Can you get the door? When I say ‘now’, you open it, we go, you shut yourself in here. Help…is on the way.”
“Why is that a question?” Rob demanded, his grip loosening by the second.
“You’re good at this,” Jason said, crouching.
“What can I say? I like not dying,” Mouth said, standing on the other side of the door. “Now!”
Wrenching the door open, Rob watched as Jason leapt into the hall. Mouth slipped out behind and the door slammed shut.
Garlic-coated claws dug into Holly’s abdomen. She gasped in pain, reeling back, Jason pinning her to floor.
“This is new for you,” Holly said, wincing against the pain. “Being on top of a girl. Doing anything for ya?”
Twisting his claws inside her, Jason watched as the pain played out on her face. She tried to push him off but couldn’t manage.
“Actually no,” he replied. Holly pushed again, this time getting some traction. Unsure what to do, Jason pulled his claws out and stabbed her again. This time higher.
“You fucking fa–” Her words cut off as Holly exploded beneath him, leaving him amid a pile of dust and ash.
Further down the corridor, the scene was grislier than expected. Both the wolf and Naomi were feeding off another resident. Jun, Mouth realized, having had little to do with the young Korean. The wolf was devouring the organs as Naomi fed off the dying boy’s blood. They’d torn his throat out to stop him screaming.
Mercifully, the hallway was deserted.
Jun jerked on the floor and died causing Naomi to pull back as the blood soured. That’s when she saw Mouth and Jason.
“There you are, you little shits. Look at what you made me do. I didn’t want to kill him. I don’t even like Chinese food.”
“He was Korean,” Mouth spat through gritted teeth.
“Who gives a shit,” she said, strutting toward them. “I feel amazing. I should probably thank you when really I just wanna rip your–”
Mouth threw the garlic powder at her. She coughed, inhaled most of it, and dropped to her knees unable to breath.
The wolf looked up and saw the pile of ash where Holly had been. Mewling, he forgot his meal and started toward them. As he approached, he shifted effortlessly into his full wolf form looming over Mouth and Naomi. He batted her aside as if she were nothing.
“Uh, Jase,” Mouth said. “Whole Foods was a little light on werewolf repellent.”
“S’okay, the cavalry’s here,” McLachlan said as they ran into the hall, his face warping in response to the vampire. But not the werewolf, Mouth noted. Interesting.
“Oh my god,” Rebecca cried, seeing the dead bodies.
“Hey, Somerset,” Eddie called out, changing into a wolfman. “Pick on someone your own size.”
“I’m gonna mock him for that later,” Mouth said to no one in particular.
While Naomi continued to cough and splutter, McLachlan and Eddie advanced on Somerset. Jason circled in front of Mouth, closing off any escape route. The trapped wolf howled.
Eddie leapt, claws brandished. With a sweep, he was flung against the wall, but it left the wolf open to McLachlan’s punches. The wolf soon howled at him, the gaping maw inches from McLachlan’s calm face. Eddie jumped again, slashing claws down the wolf’s flank.
Whining, the beast saw it was outnumbered and lunged at Jason, batting him aside easily. The wolf scooped at where Holly had disappeared, ash falling from his clawed hands. Enraged, he turned back to Eddie and McLachlan. Howling, the beast charged them.
As the guys tussled with the wolf, Rebecca slipped past to check on Mouth and Jason. She was just about to hug Mouth when Naomi grabbed her from behind. Fangs bared, she held Rebecca in a vice grip, threatening to crush her chest.
“Never did like your stupid radio show,” Naomi spat, about to bite.
Mouth grabbed for Rebecca.
But he needn’t have worried.
Jason appeared behind the vampire. A claw piercing her heart from behind, followed by her exploding into a cloud of ash.
Falling to her knees, Rebecca gasped for air, coughing hoarsely.
“Easy,” Mouth said, drawing her away. “Don’t want you sucking up lungfuls of dead vampire.”
“Th-thanks,” she said, her voice tight.
“Everyone okay?” McLachlan asked, running over.
“Where’d he go?” Jason asked.
“He got away,” he said, looking back at Eddie. He’d shifted into his human form, deep gouges crisscrossing his body. McLachlan hadn’t fared that much better, Mouth realized. While his clothes had blunted the wolf’s attacks, there were several deep tears and several more pools of dark red. “Out of the building though so it’s safe now.”
“You call that safe?” Mouth demanded, pointing to the bodies down the hallway.
“No, but no one else’ll die here tonight.”
“I’ve called Rowan,” Eddie said, limping over. “And the War Wolves. This is a helluva clean up.”
Mouth remembered Eddie’s call to the War Wolves after they found John’s body. He’d been unsettled to know they had clinical terms for it. Now, he was plain horrified.
“You good?” Eddie asked Jason.
“Yeah.”
> “Coincidence?” Eddie gestured to Jason’s appearance.
“Nah, I did this.”
Wordlessly, McLachlan and Eddie shared a concerned look. Mouth could only guess what that meant. This was unexpected of Jason. Especially so young a wolf.
“Rob,” Jason realized.
“I’ll deal with him,” Mouth said. “You change back. And try to keep everyone in their rooms. Long as those bodies’re there, this isn’t over.”
Slipping back into his room, he found the RA standing nervously by the window.
“Hey, Rob,” Mouth said. “It’s all good. Just Naomi getting a little too into the season.”
“Christy?”
“All good, she was in on it,” Mouth lied.
“And Jason with the claws and shit?”
“Costume also. You know how dramatic he can be.”
“No, not really.”
“Well, he is so let’s leave it there.”
“Everyone okay?”
“Kinda, we’re just keeping everyone in their rooms for the time being. Clean up the fake blood and all that.”
“Oh, yeah. Good thinking,” Rob said, seeming to believe the story.
“Yeah,” Mouth replied, feeling both relieved and horrified at his lies.
“Do you need a hand with the clean up?”
“Nah, we’re all good. Just, ya know, take a break. How’re your midterms looking?”
Within a few moments, Rob was unloading about his study schedule and deadlines. Talking helped, Mouth decided, even if it was just a way of convincing himself that nothing really out of the ordinary had happened.
XXVIII
Betrayal was a bitter pill to swallow.
Especially from someone he loved. Thought he loved. Had loved. In truth, he felt more for the crossbow in his hands than he now did the woman before him.
The woman who he had turned into a vampire.
The woman who had fulfilled him emotionally and physically for decades.
The woman who lied constantly.
“Will you say something?” Carys demanded, her voice tight with fear.
“What would you have me say?” Seth asked.
“Something. Anything. Your precious master, the regent of this court, is harboring wolves. As we talk, the Pack Lord has stolen into our home.”
“I know this,” he replied calmly. “What would you have me do?
“React. Get angry. Gracchus is a poison you need suck out.”
“I know…”
“Good,” she replied, gaining a measure of confidence.
“About Rufus,” Seth replied. “I know you sent him to die.”
“Not me,” she cried. “He went to stop Violet and Damon. He couldn’t find you. The wolves set upon him. Fiends.”
“Stop,” he said, anger in his voice. “Stop lying. All you do is lie. I know you sent Rufus off, Charles told me. I know you set Violet and Damon up at the coffee shop. I know you’re in league with Colton. You have been for weeks now. I know everything.”
Her face hardened. “And yet you did nothing. Your weakness undoes you.”
“Weakness?”
“You and your sire. Both pathetic.”
“Is it weak to give a child room to see their mistakes? Correct them?”
“So I’m a child now?” she demanded. “Is a child capable of the things I’ve done? Capable of orchestrating what I have? The coffee shop? Setting up Violet and Damon? Sacrificing your precious Rufus? Aligning with a true leader? Undermining the regent at every turn?”
“No, but a child would brag about it.”
“I am what you made me!”
He regarded her coolly, his thoughts over the past months finally being given voice. “You know I don’t remember the exact moment I stopped loving you. Which slight it was that finished us.”
“Oh please,” she spat with scorn. “You’re a fool for ever thinking of us in human terms.”
“I have to wonder if you were ever human at all,” he replied, mirroring her scorn, his voice hollow.
His words cut her, he could tell. Not that it was Seth’s intention to trade barbs. He’d waited weeks for her to come around. But it was never to be. Lower and lower she sank into her own mad machinations. Moving pawns here and there to take down Gracchus. When one plan failed, she’d change course like a river. Constantly driving forward, drowning anything in her path. Gracchus. Him. Violet. Damon. Rufus.
The grief at Rufus’ death felled Seth worse than any he’d felt in his long life. For too long he had denied their friendship was more than that, but in the moment of loss, Seth knew his truth.
“You waste this gift,” she continued, seeming to take his silence as defeat. “We are powerful. Kings and Queens of the night. Rul–”
Twang!
Accidentally the bolt loosed and struck her. A fleeting moment of panic and then she exploded into a cloud of ash.
Watching the ash float to the floor, Seth knew he hadn’t consciously pulled the trigger. Which meant what, he thought, that this was his subconscious acting for him? His instinct? His heart?
Standing over the pile of ash, he said, “surely I should feel something?”
When the pile didn’t answer, he dropped the crossbow and strode out of the room.
XXIX
Home.
When the car finally emerged from the Holland Tunnel, Hayley relaxed.
She was home.
Admittedly she’d only been away a couple of days, but the absence had felt longer.
All in all, she was pretty happy with the trip. As campaigns went it hadn’t been the worst she’d worked on. While the Wiccans had been guarded at first, she and the wolves had soon won them over. Of course when she learned the community was less than ninety minutes’ drive from the city – traffic willing – in rural New Jersey – not as bad as she expected – she railed against the wolves for not maintaining better contact.
And her outburst hadn’t been a stunt either. Given how Matteo and the wolves had spoken of the Wiccans and their remoteness, she’d expected a journey akin to Rowan and Rebecca’s to the Clan Delphae. If she’d known the Wiccan community was that close she wouldn’t have stocked up on quite so many car snacks.
Or made a playlist.
She would be far more organized for her return journey in a week’s time for Samhain. Which would include Matteo, McLachlan, and Rowan – no arguments. Especially since she’d been reassured there wouldn’t be any animal sacrifices or random naked chanting around a fire.
Hayley wouldn’t be doing that again in a hurry.
Mulling over thoughts of the Wiccan’s relaxed, inclusive community, she didn’t notice phones buzzing frantically in the car.
“Hey, doesn’t the new wolf live on campus at NYU?” Five asked from the front seat.
“Who? Jason?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“The guys had to handle a cleanup there last night.”
“Cleanup?” Hayley asked.
“He’ll still be at the Pack Lord’s,” Proctor said calmly. “Matteo’ll keep him there at least another month of so.”
“Vamp attack or something,” Five replied to her.
“Lafayette Hall,” Six said next to her. “That’s his hall, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Hayley replied worried. Even if Jason wasn’t there, Mouth would have been. She looked at her phone. Nothing.
Hayley // 9:54
What’s going on?
Are you alright?
Hayley // 9:54
Bex! Just back in the city now.
What’s this about an attack at NYU?
Call me!!
Hayley // 9:55
Eddie! I’m with the WWs.
They’re saying something
happened at the NYU dorms?
What happened?!
“Two dead students,” Six said, reading the message. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Two vampires dusted. Oh shit, Wolf-Somerset was there. Fuck!”
“Does
it say anything about who the students were?” Hayley’s hands were clammy with sweat. Only gone two days and she felt completely cut off.
“Hale says the vampires have broken the accords,” Proctor said, looking at his own phone. “They coerced Somerset to attack the dorm with them.”
“Where should we drop you?” Five asked.
Hayley’s mind went blank. NYU? The Daily Grind? Her shoebox apartment? Matteo’s? Staring at her phone she willed a message to appear and make the decision for her.
“Uh, where are you headed?” she asked. Five looked to Proctor next to him, tension passing between them.
“Uptown,” came the cryptic reply as Proctor put his phone to his ear. “Go.”
Blindsided, Hayley thumbed into her contacts. First she tried Rebecca, but it went straight to voicemail. Encouraging, she thought. Next she tried Mouth, then Jason, lastly Rowan. All rang out, unanswered.
“Hey, this is Eddie. And this is the beep,” the recorded voice said almost immediately.
“Call me,” she said urgently. “It’s Hayley.”
Frantic, she tried the others again. Nothing. No answer or straight to voicemail. Avoiding the obvious tirade against the fallibility of modern technology, she looked out the window, an irrational part of her hoping to see one of her friends. No chance.
Matteo.
She was startled when she heard him pick up.
“Hello?” His voice hushed.
“Oh my god, Matteo?!” she cried, relief flooding through her. “What’s going on? What happened? Is everyone alright? I can’t get hold of anyone.”
“Hey, hey, everything’s fine. Terrible situation, but Jason and Mouth are fine. Everyone’s okay.”
“Where are you? Why’re you whispering?”
“I – uh, I’m…visiting an old friend. I’ll see you soon.”
The line went dead. Hurt, she called him back but the call went straight to message.
“Was that Matteo?” Proctor asked.
“Yeah,” she said absently, relief and panic wrestling it out in her mind.
Stuck in traffic, Hayley felt completely helpless, confused, and isolated.