by C P Sennett
I nodded. “From what little I know, he doesn’t do much these days. He is more a back-seat passenger. He handles other Lycan issues as the Alpha but their problems thankfully stay in your territory and rarely trouble the Order anymore.”
“True enough.” acknowledged Malcolm before he hit me with the point of his meeting. “Well Leo, has only one son left. He had three but two died, one a long time ago and the other died due to some affliction, around 6 years ago. He surviving son is called Merran Karl. As Leo’s last name is Karl. It’s his son who didn’t make it back.”
Now, I understood the problem!
Leo, the Alpha of the Red Claws didn’t do much these days he was a powerful supernatural hunter and predator in his day but he was less involved in external pack politics. His pack had softened a bit over time. There was less land to claim and they had settled into a more natural existence. They had dropped off the radar of the Order except to only Malcolm, the Sentinel in the region.
The bearded wizard then continued. “The trouble is Leo, when roused to do something tends to do too much. His pack members tended to keep a lid on him and he was left to get on with whatever he wanted so long as he kept a low profile. The issue is he doesn’t like his human form much and that makes him a poor negotiator. This though, it’s likely to motivate him to do something. Like, avenge the death of his last son and that Eddie means a tornado level shit storm heading toward Essex.”
I nodded and took a big drink of coffee, burning my mouth a little as now I understood why Malcolm had reached out to me and it made sense. If Leo and the Red Claw pack had vengeful eyes set upon Essex then my entire schedule had just been put on hold. “So, what do you know?” I asked the big man.
“In short, I know we are in the shit.” was his reply as he sat back in his chair and looked at me.
“So, how do you want to play this?”
“I hoped you had a plan?” he asked, laughing heartily.
No, I didn’t see the funny side of it, not at all.
Chapter 2
Malcolm had gotten me another coffee and we didn’t really talk about our areas just about the monumental problem which faced us both.
The Red Claws had a reputation for being a real problem in the past. If they were hunting you on their home turf then your chances of hiding and making it out were slim. If they were coming into your home patch then it wasn’t so much of a fox in the henhouse. It was more like a freaking Nile crocodile loose in your kids paddling pool.
This was uncharted territory in the last few decades. There was disputes in times gone past. The last one with the Red Claws and the vampires of Essex was back in around 1968, so well before my time of heading up Suffolk or even being a Sentinel. Back then I was just a low-level investigator for the Order. Just about the worst job you can get and a dangerous one, that is why it’s given to the new members, in the hope of weeding out the weak. It isn’t a fair or easy life this one of ours but being a Sentinel beats the hell out of an investigator and I had been the guardian of Suffolk since 1999.
Malcolm told me what he knew as he had a contact in a neighbouring pack, the Iron Pack. A solid contact he said, who had been his friend for years. The Iron Pack he told me are an odd pack of Lycans, they don’t like their animal forms and try to live their lives out as humans as much as possible. They go into hiding, chain themselves up or do whatever they do to avoid the change each month. Apparently, the whole pack meet up and chain themselves together, locked away so they can’t harm anyone. They put out food and maul each other at times but they get through it. That I found as odd as it was interesting.
For them it works, they live a normal life and are tolerated by the dominant Red Claws in Kent. Apparently, Malcom said they are hard to detect for the most part which helps them keep a low profile. It was his contact in the Iron Pack who told Malcom about the events of the Verekama as a courtesy.
The Iron Pack have also said they want nothing to do with it. So, my first idea went out of the window. The human form loving Iron Pack keep and stick to their safe haven of Maidstone and they know any challenge of any sort to even the lowest Red Claw could see them wiped out. Especially when Leo would be grieving. The Red Claws dominance in Kent was absolute it seemed.
Malcolm was experienced in Lycans, very experienced and over the time he had served as the Sentinel in Kent he had worked with the Red Claws, Iron Pack and a few even the odd few long wolves so he knew more than I at this point. He even found a shapeshifter, which is different to a lycan which had infiltrated the Red Claws as a fallen she wolf. When he identified the infiltrator, the pack killed it, and this gained him some sway with them. He then became their link to the Order which was doubles the Orders long term plan all along.
The intel from the Iron Pack was that Leo was going to go to Essex himself and start to tear apart vampires until they gave up the people who killed his son. Not the smartest plan I agree, but an effective one. It about summed up my view of lycans, wrecking balls with little craft to them.
Eventually through talking, Malcolm’s idea was for both to meet with Leo, try to dissuade him and see if the Order could set up a peace keeping meeting with the key vampires in Essex. The hope was this would keep Leo and his pack in check.
Malcolm pretty much said he wanted me there as backup as it directly affected my area, well my extended area. He felt this would give more of an official Order capacity to a visit. The hope being it would peace the rage which he suspected Leo was feeling. The interest for me was equally as simple I didn’t want angry vampires draining the community on what they call blood runs, for when they are going to go into battle. The would need good reserves to fight a battle against the Red Claws, huge reserves so this was a shitty thing no matter how we played it.
I excused myself for the bathroom and on the way, I began to think through ideas in the fast food restaurant toilets as Malcolm wanted to leave now and he wanted my commitment to help. His view was to strike while the iron was hot and before the vampires were up to defend themselves or even do a pre-emptive strike.
I turned on the hand dryer, dried off and walked back to my seat with some half ideas forming in my mind.
As I sat down at the table Malcolm looked at me, looking a little on edge. As he did his eyes looked down on the table and I followed his gaze. As I did there was the straw wrapper torn to make an arrow on the table. An arrow which pointed outside. Outside, to a man waiting in leathers on a motorcycle.
The person waiting was looking at us as Malcom spoke, casual chit chat asking if we should get another drink. I responded saying we could but then again as I then chanced a casual look in the general vicinity of the man. He was male and parked up with his helmet off. He was sitting outside smoking atop his bike and he was staring straight at us.
“Subtle chap isn’t he.” I said sarcastically.
Malcolm nodded. “I thought it best to wait till you were back before I went to introduce myself.”
“Any idea who he is?”
Malcolm shrugged. “This is Essex, I was hoping you were going to ID him for me so I didn’t have to.”
Normally, I would have gone to meet this chap but I thought I would see how Malcolm operated a little. With that, Malcolm got up and walked out to meet him.
“Want me to come?” I asked.
He shook his head with a casual “I’ve got this.”
With that, he left and walked outside. As the big man approached he looked down on the biker. The two men exchanged that sort of meaningful glance they do when nether wants to back down or look weak. It was a curt nod, nothing more.
I could see the two of them talking outside, it wasn’t for long. A minute at most, as I watched on. Then, the biker gave Malcolm something, it looked like an envelope or piece of white paper. The bigger of the two men took it, they shook hands and Malcolm came back inside the restaurant.
“Go well?”
He nodded, “Well enough.” he replied asking. “Do you know that man, he said his n
ame was Chilvers?”
I didn’t, so I shook my head following him outside into the dark.
“For the local Sentinel Eddie, you don’t know many on your patch, do you?” he said.
I watched the biker pull away on a big powerful sounding bike before I spoke. Its throaty roar audible even while it idled as he turned out of the dual carriageway services. “I’m not the official Sentinel here, you know that.” I said, rather indignantly.
“True, but you should be closer to the community. Essex needs some strong leadership and Suffolk can’t be all that busy can it?”
“Suffolk has its moments and there is always something to do there even if it’s not obvious. I’m not intending to take on Essex full time, I don’t want it. Suffolk is where I am and where I want to be right now. Anyhow, what did this Chilvers want?”
Malcolm looked at me quizzically. “He’s a runner for some vampire group in Grays. He was here seeking you out.”
Hang on a minute I thought. “I’d like to know how the fuck anyone knew I would be here.”
“That was me.” replied Malcolm with a nod.
“Giving out my location, are you serious, doing that could get me killed. For fuck sake don’t do that again.” I seethed, I mean how stupid could this lump be!
“I need things to move fast here Eddie, If Leo gets up and moving on this, you and me going to catch a lot of heat. Whatever you’ve heard about Leo isn’t nearly enough. He is a real wrecking ball and a loose cannon when he is pissed, losing his son, he will be out for blood and he won’t care who gets in his way.”
I let out a big sigh, fighting hard not to get annoyed at Malcolm for his stupidity. What he did was reckless, and I was as stunned by it as I was angry but it’s done now I thought, calm down. “So, what did Chilvers want?” I said, trying hard not to sound as though I felt.
“He brought me a note, a note which I needed. It’s a note with the name of who killed Leo’s son. I’m thinking if we get this to Leo then perhaps some low-level justice is metered out and things die down as quick as they started.”
Rarely, I thought, are things ever that easy for me. “Die down you say?”
“Yeah, what’s the problem?” asked Malcolm.
“The problem is the vamps are not going to give up one of their own. Or, if they do it’s a no mark who is taking the fall. I think maybe you don’t know vampires that well. This is a side show at best. They don’t give up their own lightly.”
Malcolm looked at me for a long few seconds. “This isn’t lightly, whichever nightwalker is taking the fall for this is going to be mauled for it. The packs have old sinister ways of meting out punishment to vampires. It’s like cats and dogs, they have always been mortal enemies. Whoever they are giving up is going to get hammered.”
I wasn’t the kind for sharing plans and I didn’t like working with others so this was going down as a rough day all round. Malcolm was ahead of me here and he was making calls which affected me as well. This wasn’t something I wanted to continue. I needed to get up to speed.
The big man continued with a lowered voice. “The vampires, it’s not worth their necks to risk getting into a tussle with such a big pack? I think they would sooner give up the name and let Leo’s pack do the work. Then the problem goes away on all fronts.”
“So, Leo just let’s go that his kid was killed. His last kid?”
Malcolm thought for a second, again rubbing his beard. “We can only hope. The other Red Claws will help him see sense. He listens to others in the pack.”
I resisted the urge to shake some sense into the big guy. “Malcolm, I’m not sure how things are in Kent but here, with vampires, it’s a little different. They keep things in-house, it’s all subterfuge and subtle. I’m sure the lycans of Kent are open and upfront like school bullies throwing their weight around. Things, things don’t play out like that here. With the vampires, and I don’t know many of them in Essex but they are all scared of their own kind. It’s not the left jab that gets you here, it’s the uppercut you didn’t see which takes the wind out of your lungs.”
Malcolm nodded. “To use your boxing analogy Eddie. This guy is like the Guvnor, Lenny McClain. He isn’t playing by the Queensbury rules. Leo is tooth and claw, over ten feet in his Lycan form, his favourite form. The vampires will know this and that is why they have been quick to give him a name and a person he can swallow, literally, to eat.”
“Do you even know who that letter came from?”
“Someone in Grays who wants this to end. The message was given to a Maddox who is said to be someone of note in the Essex world. I’m not bothered what the name in this envelope is. It’s just we should do our part and deliver it to placate Leo. Think of us as links in a chain.”
I motioned for us to walk away from the restaurant and over to my car as people were approaching. “Malcolm, chances are you could be about to deliver the wrong name. A name that is going to land you and me in trouble with the big bad Leo. Let’s just open the note and see who they’re pinning this on.”
“Why. I trust them, Eddie, they don’t want the heat Leo brings if they lie so they are going to give him what he wants.”
“What he wants, are you mad. They will throw him a bone and tell him it’s good. Meanwhile, most likely, whoever did ‘off’ his kid gets away with it.”
Malcolm looked at the envelope. “Well, we can’t open it as it’s sealed.”
I had a plan forming in my mind but I didn’t want to say anything aloud in case of ears listening around us.
Malcolm though, clearly used to the blunt stance of his home town Lycans was clearly assuming everyone was terrified of Leo. Still, if he is ten feet tall as a Werewolf then was about 2 feet bigger than most…
“So, the plan is basically for us to go and give this note to Leo. Then, let him do what he wants with the name on it and that will be the end of it.”
“Pretty much.” he said smugly folding his arms.
The phrase which sprang to my mind was, twat.
****
We talked for a few more minutes then got into our respective vehicles and set off towards Kent. Now, I don’t visit Kent often and when I do it’s to get a ferry or to buy some antique nick nack which I want.
We had our phones on hands free and the speaker phones on as we talked.
Sadly, Malcolm’s plan was as simple as he said, there was no guile in it at all. It was to simply march up, give a name and call his work and therefore the Order’s work done. Not a good call but he seemed to think the simplicity was what worked best with Lycans and the Order should keep out of it if we can. I, on the other hand, could think of at least five good reasons why it was a bad one but we couldn’t do much until we were out of Essex.
Once we drove across into Kent then it was likely that the vampires would be off our tail. I was assuming they were and then, we could get a proper plan in place, something with more layers to it.
We came off the A2 driving in the darkness and went some way down the M2 before we turned off and drove somewhere near a place called Bredhurst. It was pretty rural where we were and not the sort of place you want to be hanging about outside of your car when there are wolves about. Especially Werewolf from any pack, let alone a pissed of set of Red Claws.
We pulled over and got out into what was now the biting cold and sleet coming down. Malcolm left the engine running in his Dark Blue Mondeo Estate and got into the Beast.
“Nice motor” he said as he got in seeing all the lit-up dashboard.
“Thanks, I’m not slumming it.”
Ok then, so what’s your plan?” he asked, whilst hurriedly putting his seatbelt on.
“Are we leaving your car here running?”
“No, I always belt up. Even when sitting in a parked car. If half a ton lycan hits the car you are in you will wish you had a belt on. I had that happen to me about five summers back. It scares the hell out of you!”
I took his word for it.
“A big hit from a lyc
an could flip even this I think.”
“Let’s hope not, she can take a bit though.” I replied.
“Have you warded the 4x4 or done anything else to it?”
I shook my head. “No, she is just a big and expensive bit of kit.” Besides, I didn’t want to tell him anything about what I had or hadn’t done.
Malcolm seemed surprised that I had made no alterations. Crafting or enchanting anything this big I thought was beyond me. I can do small items, quick use items but that’s my current limit. Being a good Artificer is hard and takes a lot of time. Time, I simply don’t have.
“So, Eddie, what did you want to tell me?” he asked.
“I can open the letter and reseal it. We need to know what we are about to deliver.”
“Do we?”
“Er, yeah. I’m not about to hand Leo, the big dog, a note with his son’s killers name if it doesn’t have an actual, plausible name on it and not some grunt who is taking the fall for this. We need to know exactly what the play is here and what we are delivering. Also, I can remake the seal and nobody would know.”
“How.”
“Fuck me Malcolm, magic.” I said impatiently.
“Yeah how?” he asked.
“It’s a shaping trick I can do. It works on small things, like wax vampire seals for example.”
“How did you learn that.”
“The spell was written in a text which I got from Wilf, my Essex predecessor. The only good thing I got from him I hasten to add.”
“How well does it work?” he asked.
“Well enough.”
“To trick a dog?”
“Dogs chase sticks…I said curtly. “Anyhow, it will work but we need to know who is getting the blame for this.” I then took a glove out from my glove box and put it on. “This helps to mask my scent a little, in case anyone is keen enough to check. I assume lycans can do that?”
Malcolm looked at me nodding and seemingly impressed I had thought of this. This wasn’t a trick specifically for lycans but vampires can do the same, some have a great sense of smell so attention to detail was key.