by Mia Rose
Edmund climbed into his car, trying to shake the past hours from his mind. How had he gone from finally reuniting with his family to being forced into kidnapping Noelle and keeping her tied up in a room? It was exhausting pretending to be cruel —but he needed to keep the guise because he never knew when his parents were watching.
He thought back to the conversation he’d had with his parents which inspired this whole string of events.
“I don’t think she will go along with this plan,” Edmund stated.
“Why is that?” his father demanded.
“Because.” Edmund hesitated. “She has decided to join with them to protect her family.”
His father laughed humorlessly. “How noble of her to choose her family over her responsibility as a human.”
Edmund felt the sting of his words, acutely aware of what his father’s decision had been when faced with the same dilemma. His father did not even hesitate to try to kill his only son.
“So, what do we do now?” Anne asked.
“If she won’t go along with us willingly,” Edmund’s father said slowly, “we will just have to convince her another way.”
Edmund made his way to the apartments and as he pulled into the parking lot. He saw Declan crossing the street toward a coffee shop. Edmund felt a sense of relief because he didn’t know how long he could lie to Declan’s face about the cure.
He made his way to the basement and when he pulled open the door, he saw Gabriel standing inside already.
“Hello, Edmund,” Gabriel said, with his back turned to Edmund.
“Gabriel,” Edmund said slowly, “why are you in here? You could be contaminating the samples.”
“Yes, well, I think we can take the risk.”
“What do you want?” Edmund asked, beginning to lose his patience.
“Where were you Sunday afternoon? Where did you go after the funeral?”
“I told you,” Edmund said, walking around to the other side of the table to face Gabriel, “I had some errands to run.”
“I see,” Gabriel said looking up to meet Edmund’s eyes. “Let’s get something straight here. I do not trust you and I do not believe that you are working on a cure for us. Not at all. I will find out what you are up to, believe me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Edmund smiled, but it did not touch his eyes.
“See you later,” Gabriel said and he walked out of the basement, slamming the door closed behind him.
Edmund turned back to his table and saw all his samples spread out in petri dishes. He found the one he was looking for marked with the letter “D.” It was the skin sample he had taken from Declan.
Edmund placed the specimen underneath the microscope, and as he magnified the sample, he saw the familiar signs of the werewolf genes. He walked over to the other table with the small bottles lined up and found the one he was looking for. Taking the small amount of Noelle’s blood that he had taken from her when she was unconscious, Edmund poured it into the bottle. The mixture sat like oil and water at first —refusing to mix together as if it recognized its purpose and was fighting against its own creation. Edmund swirled the bottle slowly and he watched as her blood sank into the mixture, seeping into the molecules and finally combining and disappearing from view.
Edmund walked over to Declan’s sample, and with a dropper, he placed a few small drops of the mixture into the petri dish and placed it back under the microscope. With great delight, a smile spread across Edmund’s face as he watched the mixture make its way into Declan’s skin.
“Everything is perfect right now, but you and I both know that perfection never lasts.”
Chapter 19
Annabelle
“If I found out that you are lying to me about anything, you are a dead man.”
Declan walked back to the apartments quickly after his awkward exchange with the coffee barista. Everything had changed in the outside world, it seemed. All the while he had been dealing with his own world.
As he crossed the street, he noticed Edmund’s car sitting in the parking lot. Declan figured he was working in the basement and he wanted to go down there to see that status on the cure for silver. With the alpha ritual coming up, he would feel better knowing that they had that in their back pockets, just in case.
Declan started to descend the stairs, but a voice from the upper level caught him off guard. He turned to see who was shouting and he was surprised to find Abigail standing there.
“Declan!” she shouted again. Declan made his way up the stairs to where Abigail was standing, waiting for him.
“Hey,” Declan said softly, “how are you doing?”
“We’re okay,” Abigail said, putting on a brave smile, but Declan noticed there was something off in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“We need your help,” Abigail said, glancing to the side.
Declan looked where her eyes were and he noticed Garett signing for him to come inside their apartment. Declan followed and walked inside. As soon as Declan made his way there, Garett closed the door behind them.
“What’s going on?” Declan asked.
“Noelle is missing,” Garett said, no preface at all.
“What do you mean she is missing?” Declan asked.
“We were at the house following the funeral and one minute she is there and the next —poof! I don’t have any idea where she is and she isn’t answering her phone. At first, it would ring and ring, but now it’s just going straight to voicemail. It’s been two days, Declan.”
“Well, let’s think,” Declan said, trying to calm the family. “After the funeral, she came here looking for Edmund. I ran into her on the stairs on her way down to the basement.” Garett nodded as he absorbed everything Declan was saying.
“Is he here now?” Garett asked, clearly not calmed by Declan at all.
“I saw his car in the parking lot when I walked back,” Declan said, “I’ll go down to the basement and check if he is there. Don’t worry too much, Garett. I’m sure Noelle is fine.” As the words left his lips, Declan felt that sick feeling rolling over him again. He left the apartment and headed down toward the basement.
As he approached the room, he heard voices from the inside. Declan pressed himself against the door to get a better grasp as to what was being said.
“Yes,” Edmund said. “It works.” Declan realized at this point that Edmund must have been talking to someone on the phone, because he did not hear a response before Edmund spoke again saying, “Well, I told you that she might be a problem. You should find her and see what you can…”
The person on the other line cut him off midsentence and Declan could hear the footsteps from Edmund pacing back and forth.
“You did what?” Edmund gasped. “You killed her?”
Declan sucked in a huge breath and bit down on his lip so hard it drew blood. He couldn’t wait any longer. He ripped open the door nearly pulling it from its hinges.
“What did you just say?” Declan shouted. Edmund looked up at him, his eyes huge and he quickly ended the phone call with whoever he was speaking to.
“What?” Edmund asked, taking a few steps back from where Declan stood.
“Who killed her?” Declan growled. “Who is dead?”
“My…” Edmund struggled for words. He said, “My dog. My dog is dead.”
“What?” Declan said, clearly not expecting that answer.
“Yes, we had to put her down today because she had gotten really sick,” Edmund said slowly.
Declan felt something off with his words, but he didn’t know what to say at this point, so he took a step backward and closed the door behind him.
The room had a funny smell —like a noxious combination of vinegar, cleaning solution, and something burning. Declan felt like the inside of his nose was burning and he knew he could not stay in this room for very long.
“Have you seen or heard from Noelle?” Declan asked.
“Why?”
>
“Answer the question,” Declan demanded. “Her family is worried and they believe she has gone missing. You were the last person she was looking for.”
“On Sunday?” Edmund asked.
“Yes.” Declan nodded. “After the funeral, she came here looking for you. She said she needed to talk to you about something.”
“I saw her,” Edmund said. “We spoke here briefly about the cure and then she left. She said she was headed back to her house to be with her family during this time.”
Declan looked at Edmund square in the face and said, “If I find out that you are lying to me about anything, you are a dead man. Do you hear me?” Edmund nodded but did not speak. Declan relaxed his body slightly and asked, “Where are we at with that cure?”
“Well,” Edmund said, a smile creeping across his face, “I think I have something even better than a cure for silver.”
“What? What is it?”
Edmund picked up a small bottle from the table and handed it to Declan. “It’s an elixir that will prevent silver from entering your body. You take it beforehand, and if anyone was to shoot you or stab you, or anything with pure silver, it would automatically deter the affects.”
“So, you’re saying…”
“You don’t need a cure for silver, Declan. Silver can’t touch you anymore.”
Noelle paced back and forth in the room trying to find something which could help her cut through the ropes. She kept thinking back to what Edmund said and she couldn’t help feeling like the man she had grown feelings for was still in there somewhere.
She sat back down in the chair and groaned. Her shoulders ached painfully as she struggled against the ropes wrapped around her wrists. Even though he had loosened them slightly, she still could not slip her hands through them. She was stuck.
Suddenly, Noelle heard a gunshot from somewhere inside the house. Her heart sped up and she got up, looking around frantically for something to use to set herself free. The door to the office was pulled open and there stood Edmund’s mother, Anne, holding the gun in her hands.
“Hello, dearest,” Anne spoke between her forced smile. “Why don’t you have a seat?” Noelle did as she was told and sat down in the chair.
Anne walked further into the room and closed the door behind her. She went to the table and put the gun down. Looking at Noelle, she crossed her arms over her chest and studied Noelle’s face.
“You really are a pretty one, aren’t you?” Anne said. “You do look just like her.”
“I look just like who?” Noelle asked softly.
“Why, Noelise; you silly girl.” Anne laughed, humorlessly. “Didn’t you ever research your ancestors?”
“I have researched them, actually. And that is why none of this makes any sense to me. You all believe I am some type of hybrid? You believe I am the first female born since Noelise. How can any of this be true? I read her letters —I know what happened the night she had to drive the silver blade through her lover.”
“Ah, yes,” Anne said. “That was a clever twist, wasn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know, I thought you would be smarter than this. I honestly believed that, by now, you would have figured it all out. Yet, here you sit asking ridiculous questions. Do you need someone to spell everything out for you?”
“That would be nice,” Noelle spat at the woman. She could feel her skin tearing as she pulled against the ropes, but her anger had inspired a new strength and a will to try.
“Where to begin? Where to begin? That is the question.” Anne sighed. “Well, let’s start with Noelise. She grew up in a small town and fell in love with a local boy as most girls her age did. They spoke of marriage and made plans, but then Edmund came into town and spotted her. Now, with her looks, as you can imagine, he decided he wanted her to join him on his newest mission. He is the one who set the werewolf out to attack her lover. Yes, on a night they were supposed to meet to be married. When Noelise found him in the woods, she tried to save him, but alas, he had already been bitten and it was too late.”
“I already knew that Edmund was the one who sent the werewolf to attack her lover,” Noelle said quietly.
“Yes, but what you read in her letters is that Noelise had to kill him the night he came to her window, and that she stabbed him and that is how we discovered the power of silver, is it not?”
Noelle nodded. “I guess.”
“See, that is what Edmund had hoped would happen. He thought that once she saw the monster her lover had become, that she would want to kill him, to put him out of his misery. But on the contrary, she more deeply in love with him, and that night, she made love to the despicable creature.” Noelle could hear the venom in the woman’s voice as she spoke.
“Okay,” said Noelle.
“When Edmund found out, he could hardly contain his rage. He sought out the beast and killed him and so he discovered the power of silver himself. He watched the body of her lover deteriorate in front of his eyes. Noelise never knew the truth —days turned into weeks and then months, and she did not know where her lover had gone. But, her belly grew bigger, and soon, the people of the town were shunning her as they discovered that she was pregnant out of wedlock.” She smiled. “Edmund offered to take her under his wing in the hopes that she would fall in love with him, but she never did. She had the child and it was a girl.”
“A girl? But Edmund said I was the first female born from Noelise’s lineage.”
“The first one after Noelise’s daughter —Annabelle, she was called.”
“Annabelle?” Noelle asked, thinking back to her history books from her hunter’s school. “Annabelle the terrible?”
“The one and only.” Anne smiled. “Well as you can imagine, nobody knew that she was a hybrid creation. Not even Edmund knew. She grew up with him as her father figure, so she learned the ways of hunting wolves and Noelise was distant. And always lost in a time where she, her lover, and Annabelle, were one happy family.”
“So, how did they find out the truth of what she really was?”
“On a truly spectacular night, Edmund and Annabelle stalked a group of werewolves. They were performing some type of a ritual. Once the females turned into their wolf forms, that’s when it happened. Annabelle dropped her weapon as her skin started to tear apart and fur emerged. Claws began taking over her fingers. Huge, razor-sharp teeth where her smile used to be. She turned into her wolf form.”
“Oh my,” said Noelle.
“Edmund was shocked, as you can imagine. He ran back to Noelise, but he found her hung in her room with a note saying, ‘I will forever love you.’ Edmund quickly packed his things and left the town, leaving behind both Noelise and Annabelle.”
“What happened to Annabelle?”
“Well, my dear, you know very well what happened to her. She went on to kill thousands of wolves in her day. Those who know the real story believe it was out of spite for what she truly was, or perhaps a cry out to Edmund to find her and take her back in. Those of you who never learned the whole truth still simply believe that she was the greatest huntress of her time.”
“So, then Annabelle was the original hybrid and she carried down the genes in our family,” Noelle whispered. “Her blood runs through my veins. And this is the blood that you need to create the cures.”
“What cures?”
“The cure for silver that Edmund is making,” Noelle said slowly.
Anne let out a horrific laugh and her hand flew to her chest. “My goodness, Noelle! You are truly naïve.” Anne squealed between giggles. “Edmund has not been working on a cure for silver, no such thing exists.”
“What? Then what does he need my blood for?”
“Your blood is indeed the missing ingredient, you have that right. But you have no idea what this ‘cure’ is for, do you?”
“That’s why I am asking you,” Noelle managed between her grimace. Anne walked closer to Noelle and brushed her hand across her cheek very
gently.
Anne sighed. “It really is a pity because you are so beautiful. But this must all come to an end.”
“What must come to an end?” Noelle asked. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her chest. Anne pulled out a needle from behind her back and plunged it into Noelle’s neck.
Her vision swam and faded into darkness. Noelle barely made out the last words that Anne said, but she was certain she heard, “It was nice to get to meet you.”
“If I found out that you are lying to me about anything, you are a dead man.”
Chapter 20
Monsters, Men, and Wolves
“She watched as he left the room once again the monster she feared.”
Declan woke up and his eyes immediately landed on the bottle which sat on his nightstand. Edmund had told him that he had tested the elixir multiple times, and that each time, it had done exactly as he’d expected. Declan rolled over to his other side and reached for his phone. He scrolled through the recent call list and found Noelle’s number.
It went straight to voicemail just as Garett had said. After Declan’s fruitful meeting with Edmund, Declan went back upstairs and reported the news to the family that Edmund had not seen Noelle since Sunday. As he expected, everyone began panicking.
Declan wanted to believe that there was a rational explanation for everything, but he could not come up with any ideas. He climbed out of his bed and walked into the bathroom, turning the shower on cold. Climbing in, he felt the water stinging him like miniature ice picks and it wakened his senses. He closed his eyes and pictured Noelle’s face as she told him that she needed to speak with Edmund.
Declan wanted to throttle her —why couldn’t she see that she was meant to be with him and not with Edmund? Why had she called him when she needed help and not Edmund? Why had she cried to him?