by D Wolfe
Darian looked down at his wounds. “Are you saying that Jared, a drunken idiot, and his friends have weapons that can scar and kill armored wolves?” He asked. That was impossible. According to the legend, it was the ruling power back then that had ordered the armored wolves to be wiped out and the ruling power had been the Catholic Church. Jared and his friends didn’t strike Darian as Catholic.
Denthro didn’t want to admit it but it was the only thing that made sense to him. He picked up Darian’s shirt and gave it to him. As Darian was putting his shirt back on, he winced. Denthro noticed the wincing. “You might want to sit on the side for now while we go look for Ellie.” He told Darian.
Darian shook his head. He couldn’t sit on the sidelines while Ellie’s life was on the line. If Jared had something that could kill Ellie, Ellie was in more danger. It also meant that there was someone, one of Jared’s friends most likely, who knew that they were armored wolves and would use Jared to get rid of them. None of them were safe there.
Darian stood up. “I have to save Ellie.” He said. “There’s no telling what Jared is doing to her.” He didn’t care if his wounds were still healing. He had to get Ellie away from Jared.
Demeter stopped Darian at the door. “You can’t go Darian.” She told Darian. Darian glared at Demeter but Demeter didn’t back down. Darian might be the alpha but she was the mother of the group. “Your wounds will slow you down.” Demeter explained. “Even if you changed into your armored wolf form and carried Ellie out, you wouldn’t get far before Jared’s friends shot you both down and if their bullets are made of the same metal as whatever made those cuts, you’ll both be killed quickly.”
Darian looked at Denthro and Demeter. He could tell that he wasn’t going to convince either of them to let him rescue Ellie. If anything, he would most likely be stuck there with the younger kids. “Fine.” He said. Darian left the room and sat on the couch.
Demeter and Denthro then joined the rest of their family. “We have a plan.” Demeter told them. “Denthro, Derek, and David will go look for Ellie. I’ll be with the police and the F.B.I. doing a manhunt for Jared and his friends. Darian and Diane will stay here with you kids until we come back.” Demeter turned to Darine, Dale, Doug and Devoni. “You four are to listen to Darian and Diane.” She told them in a strict voice.
“What if Jared comes here?” Devoni asked in a soft voice. They all looked at her. “If Jared or his friends try to find Ellie and they somehow end up here, what should we do?”
Darian and Denthro looked at each other. They were keeping the part about one of Jared’s friends having a dangerous weapon that could kill them all a secret for now. The only ones who knew about that were Derek, Demeter and the two of them. “If they do come here, sneak out the back and escape into the forest.” Denthro told Devoni. He then left with Derek and David.
Demeter looked at Darian and Diane. “Keep the kids safe until we come back.” She told the two before she left.
Chapter Twenty Two
The next morning. In a warehouse in the warehouse district of Dalton, Jared looked down at Ellie’s beaten, broken and bloody body. Ellie was still trapped in her cage. It was impossible to tell if Ellie was still alive or not. She looked really pale, was passed out and wasn’t moving. There was blood all around the cage. Jared knew that Ellie was still alive though. He made sure of it. Jared couldn’t remember the last time that he had had this much fun.
Cliff joined Jared. “So the armored wolf is still alive.” He said to Jared. He was impressed. He thought for sure that Ellie would have died by this time. He knelt down by Ellie’s cage and looked closer at Ellie. After long last, he finally had the armored wolf in his possession and it was just a matter of time before the order was given to kill not just Ellie but whoever else was in her pack. Armored wolves always traveled in packs.
Jared cleared his throat. “What should we do about our other prisoner?” He asked, referring to the boy they had captured before kidnapping Ellie from the police station. That boy was a loose end.
Cliff stood up and faced Jared. “Paul and Johnson told me that he wasn’t there when they went back for him.” He told Jared. “From the way that the ropes were laying on the floor, they think that someone untied the kid.” Cliff had a feeling that even with how small the town was, it would be nearly impossible to find the kid.
Jared looked at his stepdaughter again. “So when can we kill her?” He asked Cliff. He wanted to finally get rid of the brat the same way he had gotten rid of Ellie’s mother. No one would ever find Ellie’s body once it was burned to ashes just like Ellie’s mother. Cliff had told Jared over the phone to do it that way. Less chance of the woman ever being found again.
Cliff took out his phone and looked at it. “According to him, we’re to wait until the rest of Ellie’s pack arrives before killing them all.” He told Jared. Cliff wasn’t about to disobey the “him” he was referring to. He didn’t know who the man was that had been on the other end of the phone but he knew better than to question the man. The man seemed to know where there were armored wolf packs and possible armored wolf identities. It was the man who had told Cliff about Ellie being an armored wolf when she was a baby. Cliff had wanted to kill Ellie back then but the man had ordered him not to. They wanted whoever was in Ellie’s pack as well.
Cliff’s phone rang. He answered it. “Hello?” He asked. His face fell and he looked at Jared. “What do you mean they’re at the Summers’s last two homes?” Cliff sighed. “Of course the blasted F.B.I. would be searching them again. Couldn’t just let things be. No, don’t do anything except to disappear so they don’t catch you. I’ll contact him and ask what we should do about our prisoner here. Meet us at the airport at five tonight for our next assignment.” Cliff hung up and pocketed his phone.
Jared frowned. He thought that Cliff was going to call the man. “What are you doing?” He asked. Was there something that he didn’t know?
Cliff looked at Jared. “That was Johnson. Apparently the F.B.I. is raiding your first home. Paul had told Johnson to tell me that they were also raiding your last home.” He told Jared. “We can’t take a chance of them finding out that we’re here before we’ve completed our mission.” Cliff looked down at Ellie. “We’ll just have to kill her and set fire to this warehouse and the nearby ones so they have a massive fire to put out and gives Ellie’s body time to burn to ash.” He had wanted to wait until after Ellie’s pack had arrived but he realized now that it wasn’t likely going to happen.
Jared picked up a gasoline can and poured the gasoline all over Ellie and her cage. His eyes burned from the smell but he couldn’t let that stop him for completing this. He turned to Cliff. Cliff was pouring gasoline all around the warehouse.
Outside the group of warehouses a couple of hours later, Cliff finished pouring the last of the gasoline. Jared was waiting by the car. Cliff sighed with relief as he set the empty gasoline container down on the ground before taking his lighter out. He turned to Jared. “Once this fire starts up, Ellie will be dead for sure.” Cliff smiled and after getting a flame from the lighter, dropped the lighter into the gasoline, igniting the gasoline on fire.
Out by the highway, Denthro, David and Derek were by Denthro’s car looking at a map of the town. They had spent the last few hours going to every likely place they could think of that Jared would be able to hide Ellie. All of those spots were empty though. They had even tried the hotel that was down the highway a bit and the train yard even farther west in the next city. There was just no sign of Ellie or Jared.
Derek pointed at a spot on the map. “We haven’t tried the camp yet.” He told the other two. “Jared could have easily taken Ellie there once he knew we were gone.” He knew that none of them were keen on going back to the camp but he also knew that Jared could be expecting something like that as well. It was the best idea that Derek had.
Denthro was about to speak when they heard sirens going off. A lot of sirens by the sound of things. They all looked up a
nd saw fire engines driving across the highway, going through red lights before disappearing into town. Denthro’s phone began ringing. Denthro looked at his sons as he took his phone out and answered it. “Demeter, what is it?” He asked. He then looked in the direction that the fire engines had gone in as another two drove by. “That can’t be a coincidence. I’ll head that way with Derek and David now.” He then hung up.
“Dad, what is it?” David asked.
Denthro looked at his sons. “Demeter just said that a fire was reported by someone and that this fire is spreading in the warehouse part
of town.” He told them. “Given what happened two days ago, Demeter doesn’t think it’s just a coincidence. She thinks Jared and his friends set the fire to try to kill Ellie for good.”
Derek and David looked at each other. They knew better than to question Demeter’s logic. “Did she tell Darian yet?” Derek asked. Darian would want to know about this, assuming he didn’t know yet.
Denthro shook his head as he went to the driver’s door. “I don’t know yet.” He answered the two boys. “How about one of you calls him and let him know what’s happening?” He waited until Derek and David were in the car before he drove after the fire engines.
Jared looked out his window as Cliff pulled onto the highway. He could already see the smoke rising up from where the fire was. The fire was so huge, Jared could see even some of the tips of the top of the fire over everything between the fire and him. Jared couldn’t help but smile. Ellie would finally be dead. He turned to Cliff and that was when his smile vanished.
Cliff had a gun pointed right at Jared. “Cliff, what are you doing?” Jared demanded. He thought that they were all in this together. That they all had been ordered to kill Ellie and her pack. Why did Cliff have a gun pointed at him? It didn’t make any sense at all.
Cliff smiled. “It isn’t anything personal Jared.” He answered. “I’m just following orders. You see, he doesn’t think you’ll be a great hunter like he wants all of his followers to be.” Cliff couldn’t help but laugh a bit. He could tell that Jared had thought that they were all going to work together to hunt down more armored wolves.
“So you’re going to kill me?” Jared asked. He didn’t think that Cliff would kill him right there. There were too many people who would witness it.
Cliff stopped at a red light and fired the gun, shooting Jared right in the forehead, killing him instantly. Cliff opened Jared’s door and pushed the dead body out of the car before speeding off.
That night, at the Akron-Canton Airport, one of the only airports in the entire state of Ohio that, in Cliff’s opinion, was the best, Cliff pulled into a parking spot. He got out of his car and looked around. He thought for sure that Johnson and Paul would be there to greet him. He didn’t see them though. If he had to take a guess, they had been captured. He shook his head. He didn’t have time to deal with them. He had a very important person to meet.
Cliff walked as quickly as he could into the airport. He looked around once he was in the building. According to the text message he had received, the man who had ordered him to kill Jared and Ellie’s pack was supposed to be there at that time. Jared didn’t want to look like he had just rushed in and slowed his walking down a bit.
That was when Cliff saw someone he assumed was the one who gave orders. A very tall man was walking towards him. This man had black hair was gray streaks in it slicked back into a ponytail. He had a short trimmed beard and piercing gray eyes. The man was in a business suit and had a briefcase in one hand and a cane in the other. He had a necklace that had a cross attached to it.
The man walked up to Cliff. “Has it been done my child?” The man asked with an Israeli accent, despite looking younger than Cliff. Cliff, knowing what the man was talking about, nodded. He was way too nervous to speak. The man looked around them. “I see you’re the only one left from your team.” He then said.
Cliff nodded again. “I’m not sure what happened to Paul or Johnson.” He confessed to the man. “I thought they would be here but they never showed up.” He was worried about what the man would do to him.
The man looked at Cliff. “In this fight against unholy creatures, we will lose our fellow soldiers.” He told Cliff. “Rejoice for your friends will be hailed as heroes for their part of the mission.” The man smiled. “They will die as martyrs if they were captured by the silly mortals of the F.B.I.” The man didn’t really care about what happened to any of his soldiers. All he cared about was getting rid of the armored wolves once and for all.
“Now I assume there’s a place nearby we can stay at while we watch the news about the armored wolf’s death.” The man then said, surprising Cliff.
Cliff hastily nodded his head. He hadn’t planned on staying there but if that’s what his boss wanted, who was he to argue? “Right this way Mr…” Cliff trailed off. He wasn’t sure what to call his boss. No one had ever given him a name for the man.
The man smiled. He knew that Cliff wasn’t sure what name to call him. That didn’t really bother the man. After all, he had gone by so many names in the past. Several of the saints that had come after his old friend, Paul who was once known as Saul, were really him but with different names. He had seen the rise and fall of many empires, playing a role in some of the rises and falls. He had done all of this for the sake of carrying out the holy war against the armored wolves. “Pe-Tar.” He told Cliff. “Mr. Pe-Tar is what you can call me.”
Chapter Twenty Three
Darian was pacing back and forth in his room. It drove him crazy that he couldn’t be out there looking for Ellie as well. He felt useless. Ellie was in danger and he was stuck recovering from wounds that should have healed a while ago. He looked at his watch. It was already nine at night. He thought that he would have heard something by now from Denthro or Demeter.
There was a knock at the door. Darian turned to the door. “Come on in.” He said. Darine entered the room. “What is it?” Darian asked her. “Has there been any word from Denthro or Demeter?” There had to be. No one had bothered him all day so he was hopeful that it had to do with Ellie. Darine nodded but she looked hesitant. Darian went up to her. “What is it?” He asked Darine.
“There was a fire in the warehouse district.” Darine told Darian in a soft voice. “It took the fire department and a few other fire departments from other nearby towns to put it out because of how big it was. They found someone in a small cage near what was believed to be the center of the blaze.” Darine didn’t continue speaking. She didn’t have to. Darian knew that there was only one person who could have been in that cage if it was small.
“Where is she?” Darian asked Darine. “Is Ellie still alive?” Darine nodded. “She’s on life support. The doctors aren’t sure though if she’ll make it. Her burns are severe. They said that even if she does survive, she’ll have burns and scars all over her body.” She told Darian before she fell to her knees shaking.
Darian looked down at Darine. He knew that Darine was scared. Jared and his friends had gone to great lengths to try to kill Ellie. If they had gone that far to kill Ellie and they knew about armored wolves, who knew how far Jared would go to kill them all. Darian knew that the only way this would end was if he went after Jared and killed him before killing the rest of Jared’s group.
Diane was coming out of the bathroom when she saw Darian walk by her. She didn’t like the look that was on Darian’s face. She recognized it as one of revenge. She had seen it on David’s face. It was why Denthro had taken David. So David could have a chance at settling the score without the others present. She went after Darian.
“Where do you think you’re going?” She asked Darian. “Demeter told you to stay here to help me watch the kids.” Was Darian really going to go as far as to disobey Demeter? It sort of scared Diane that, even after all of these years, Demeter and Denthro still had no control over Darian. She knew that Darian was the alpha of their pack but he wasn’t the oldest so he should be listening to the adults in
the pack.
“I’m going to find Jared and kill him for what he did to Ellie.” Darian told Diane. “That monster and his friends are going to pay for nearly killing Ellie.” Darian hoped that the way he sounded made it clear to Diane that there was no stopping him. It wouldn’t end well and Darian didn’t want anyone to see him kill humans. It wasn’t their way but Darian didn’t care anymore. All that mattered to him was Ellie.
Diane was about to say something when Darian opened the door and changed into his armored wolf form. Darian looked at Diane. “Stay here.” He ordered in Diane’s head. Darian then ran out of the building and vanished into the night.
As Darian ran, he caught Jared’s scent. He growled. Something was wrong with the scent. It was mixed with decay. Why would that be? Darian focused in on the smell and took off running towards the source. He stopped running once he reached the side of the highway. His armored glowed briefly before changing into a collar. Darian walked down the side of the highway until he saw the flashing lights. Jared’s scent was where the flashing lights were.
Darian ran closer and changed back into his human form. He joined a crowd by an entrance to a golf course. His eyes widened when he saw what was happening. There were policeman directing traffic around the right lane on the other side of the highway. There was a tarp covering something and what looked like blood seeping out from under it. Jared’s scent was also coming from under the tarp.
Darian stepped back until he was out of the crowd. Jared was dead. One of his partners must have killed him. It was the only thing that made sense. If it had been Denthro, Derek or David, they would have called Darian. Besides, it sounded like they were possible at the hospital or heading to the safe house. Not that they needed the safe house anymore. With Jared dead and his partners still missing, it sounded like they had only been there to kill Ellie so the rest of them would be safe until word that Ellie survived the fire hit the news.