The Shepard's Agony

by Mandy Rosko

  “He might know where Gwen is. Do you see her anywhere?”

  The wolf looked around to check. Judging by the bodily expressions and long silences, Shepard could swear they were having a conversation only they could hear.

  After some thought, the wolf snorted, stood on its hind legs and changed back into a man, a man that sneered down at Shepard.

  “Where is she?”

  Shepard recognized him as the man who’d held Gwen in his arms earlier that day. He snarled back.

  Rising to his feet, he held the knife in one hand while using his other to cover the scratch on his arm. “She’s gone. Drove away,” he said.

  “I watched you drive away with her,” John snarled, his voice cracking.

  Shepard recognized the sound. The Were was having trouble staying human in his rage. If Shepard didn’t start saying the right things, and soon, he would probably change and kill him.

  Di came rushing back from where she’d left, dressed this time and with spare clothes in her hands for John. She must have been carrying them in her mouth as a wolf. Even when dressed, John still snarled at him, head slightly bent.

  “I think she went to Evey’s,” he said, hoping the name would buy him some time.

  The shock on both of their faces was welcome.

  “How do you know about her?” Di asked.

  “Gwen told me. She said you had some trouble with Witches a few years ago?” he asked, the full attention of both Weres on him. Luckily, not in a blood thirsty sort of way. To them, the fact that he knew who Evey was suggested that Gwen was alive and had spoken to him about her willingly. Such a suggestion could spare his life and, perhaps, get him to Evey’s house where Gwen might be.

  John didn’t trust the hunter. He trusted him about as much as he would trust a Chihuahua to guard his home.

  Still, if he knew about Evey …

  “Do you know where she lives?” he asked. If Gwen told him that then they must have made plans to meet there.

  Shepard told him and John nodded at the correct address. “Alright, but if she’s not there, you’re dead.”

  Chapter Six

  Gwen skid to a halt at the clearing. She could smell David, it was the place she’d left him in, but he wasn’t there. She could also smell John and Di. Blind terror gripped her.

  If they were there then there must have been a fight. Someone had to of gotten hurt. Or worse, killed.

  She stopped to clear her thoughts and sniff the air. No, no one was dead. There was the faint scent of blood in the air, nothing serious, but she didn’t smell the stink of a body. Whatever had happened, they’d left together in the end.

  Gwen was confused. John wouldn’t leave a hunter alive, especially if he thought that hunter had kidnapped her. What did David say to make them take him with them?

  Then it hit her. The only thing he could use for leverage.

  Evey.

  His knowledge that she even existed was valuable. David must have thought she’d gone to Evey’s without him, told John about it, and left with them.

  She sniffed the air again, they couldn’t be far, and Evey lived barely ten miles down the road. Unless they hijacked a car while she was running in the bushes, she should be able to catch up with them.

  Another gunshot blast echoed. The hunters were still on her trail, shooting at something moving in the woods. She still had to be careful. That thought in mind, Gwen took off running again. She would have to run around the Shepards if she wanted to avoid their guns, and that would take more time that she didn’t have.

  ***

  Shepard stood back while John knocked and opened the rusted, paint-peeled door.

  “Evey! You home?” No one answered, but he let himself in anyway. Shepard and Di followed behind him.

  Shepard surveyed his surroundings. The lights were out which was normal with vampires being so sensitive to it. Strangely, Shepard’s eyes adjusted quickly. He could see everything with a near perfect clarity. He blinked a few times, searching for a light source, but there was none, just a warm glow in the room.

  The place looked abandoned, broken overturned furniture rested in various spots and, when he walked, he created footprints in the dust. The air was stale and he felt thirsty just breathing it in. The vampire who lived here either lived in the basement or the attic to give passerby’s the impression that there wasn’t a dark creature in the area.

  Di and John walked as though they could see perfectly as well. But, Di flicked the light switch on and off until she was satisfied that it wasn’t working. “Sorry, hunter, you’re walking in the dark.”

  His breath hitched as he remembered that seeing in the dark was a trait most Weres had; a useful defense mechanism against enemies being able to sneak up on them. Except, maybe, a vampire with the same ability.

  “You okay, hunter?” the male wolf asked staring straight at him, his face suggesting that he really didn’t care.

  Shepard closed his mouth and shook away his shock. He blurred his eyes and tried to pretend that he was having trouble seeing. “Fine.”

  “Good, because I don’t want you running away when we find that Gwen isn’t here. Actually, run all you want. It’ll make the killing that much more fun.” John grinned at him, showing all his teeth with a hint of fangs.

  Shepard tried not to look at him, but he still snarled. He really wanted to punch that smirk off his face.

  There was no denying that he was going to change. Moon Night was an event held every other month on the night before the full moon. That meant Shepard only had hours until the moon became full and he would change for the first time.

  Shepard had seen men who’d been bitten days before the full moon cry like children over the pain, only to not be able to move for hours after it was all done and over with. He had less than twenty-four hours until he became as weak as an infant. Even still, if a few hours were all he had, he wouldn’t let his family be taken by the arrogant Were in front of him.

  He then wondered about Gwen. Was she in this little house? Something told him she wasn’t. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he could feel that she wasn’t there. Someone was, not Gwen, and it was enough to put him on edge.

  “Evey, we know you’re here,” John said. “It’s just us, come out already.”

  Shepard heard a tiny creak in the wooden boards above, a sound that suggested someone was walking on the second floor, which was impossible seeing as the shack had no second floor. Slowly, he turned his head up and saw the face of a pale woman with glowing red eyes staring down into his soul. She was standing upside down on the ceiling.

  Shepard opened his mouth to say something, shout a warning, anything, but she’d already pounced. Flipped down, she grabbed Di by the throat and backed her up against the wall with her fangs extended suggestively over her neck.

  Dianna shook with fright. John simply crossed his arms and shook his head, ready to laugh. “Di, I can’t believe you let her sneak up on you.”

  Evey smirked around her fangs and Di lunged away from her, her hands on her neck, feeling for a bite or any blood that might be there.

  Shepard studied the woman in front of them, completely forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to show any signs of his change by seeing her so clearly in the dark. For some reason, every time he saw a vampire, he expected them to be clothed entirely in black leather, black make-up, and even black hair, Matrix style.

  Evey’s clothes were grey, her spaghetti strap shirt had a hole in it and cut low on her cleavage. Her baggy jeans looked like they’d been made for a man and her long hair was a pure white, so much whiter than Gwen’s white-blonde hair. So white, in fact, that he wasn’t surprised to realize that her glowing red eyes meant she was actually albino.

  “How you managed to stay alive for so long with such bad reflexes, I’ll never know,” she said, shaking her head at the still trembling Di who shot her a look of contempt.

  “She doesn’t do much field work,” John said in her defense, though he nodd
ed his agreement.

  “It’s not my fault!” Di wailed.

  Shepard frowned, every minute he spent around these creatures he noticed their human qualities over their monstrous ones. He, himself, was going to be one of them in a few short hours, and while his body was changing, mentally, he didn’t feel any different at all. There was no urge to eat something dripping in blood or to sink his teeth into the neck of some young, innocent bystander. He felt exactly as he did when he woke up that morning. Human.

  “Evey, we need some help. The Shepards found our Moon Night spot and attacked us.” John shot Shepard a dirty look and Dianna ducked her head away shamefully. “They’re still in the area. We’re going to need you to help us fight them.”

  “Wait a minute! No one said anything about that!” When Gwen mentioned Evey, Shepard assumed she would bring the vampire back to their pack to help with the injured while he went back to the barn and convinced his father that it was time to leave. What they did wasn’t right, but they didn’t deserve to die for it.

  “Keep your mouth shut, Hunter,” John sneered.

  Evey’s eyes looked from one man to the other in cautious curiosity.

  “You’re not going to attack my family!” Shepard yelled, his fists balled and ready for a fight.

  “You mean like how your family attacked mine? You lousy hypocrite!”

  That was the last straw, Shepard swung at him in a blind rage, but John caught his wrist in a steel grip and smashed his elbow into his nose. Shepard fell on his back with John immediately on him.

  “Don’t think that because you’re changing you’re stronger than me,” he hissed, angry fangs extended and hair sprouting on his face, struggling not to change in his own anger.

  Shepard wasn’t worried about that, or even his bleeding nose and damaged pride. He was too shocked to discover that the Were above him knew he was going through a change.

  John chuckled at the face he made. “You didn’t think I’d scratched you by accident, did you?”

  “You did this to me on purpose?”

  “You’re damn right I did! Now you’ll know what it’s liked to be hunted! To be shot at for doing absolutely nothing no reason aside from being alive!” John’s face took on a look of indifference. “Don’t think this means I won’t kill you, I still will. But, until then, you’re cursed like us. You’re going to die as one of the monsters you’ve been killing all your life and you’re going to feel how much pain a silver bullet can cause.”

  “What’s his name again?” Evey asked. Shepard shoved John off of him and stood up before he could answer for him, wiping the blood away from his nose.

  “David Shepard,” he growled, emphasizing “Shepard”. Most creatures of the night either feared or despised that name, but he wasn’t about to hide who he was because he was outnumbered.

  Evey didn’t flinch at the name. “You’re seeing Gwen?”

  Shepard was the one who was stunned now. “You know?” He decided not to correct her on the fact that he and Gwen were no longer seeing each other. Any leverage he could get would be useful.

  “What are you talking about, Evey?” John asked, immediately suspicious.

  “If this is the man Gwen is so desperately in love with, then neither of you will kill him,” Evey said.

  “It was you!” John yelled, coming toward him with his fists clenched.

  Shepard stood his ground, ready to fight. Evey suddenly appeared between the two of them, staring John down and startling Shepard.

  Vampire speed.

  “I said no!”

  John stared into her eyes for a few seconds before rapidly blinking and turning his head away. “Don’t try that hypnotism garbage on me, Evey.”

  “Don’t try to kill him and I won’t,” she countered.

  Shepard wasn’t one to let another person defend him or fight his fights, but watching the cocky Were taking orders was amusing, so he allowed it.

  “Wait a minute,” Di said. “This is the guy who slept with Gwen and then left the next morning?”

  Shepard clenched his teeth. He should have known Gwen would tell her packmates about it and that they had drawn their own opinion of him from the low act.

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Oh yeah, then how was it like?” John growled.

  Shepard crossed his arms. “Mind your own business.”

  John figured it out. “You found out what she was and ran scared then, eh?”

  Shepard growled, a low sound deep in his throat. It shocked him at how much he sounded like a wolf already.

  “Gwen’s here,” Evey said, interrupting his wayward thoughts of killing him.

  “She is?” Both he and John asked at the same time.

  “If you’d both stopped trying to kill each other, you would have heard her running a mile away.”

  John turned to Di who shrugged and nodded her head. “I heard her coming, too.”

  John grumbled and felt around the area where his ear used to be. Shepard quickly realized that not hearing Gwen coming had nothing to do with their arguing.

  “I’ll get her something to wear,” Evey sighed, stepping through a door that hung on a single hinge.

  The last thing she wanted was the two men in love with Gwen to fight over her while she was naked.

  Some seconds later, Gwen was inside. She didn’t bother to cover up her naked body with her hands. Instead, she demanded water. It was the second time she’d changed that night and it was taking its toll on her.

  She spent a few minutes bent over a sink that didn’t look like it would work, letting the water run until she was sure it was drinkable. She drank as much as she could from the tap before Evey had enough. Grabbing her, she shoved clothes in her hands and threw her in her tiny room with no doorknob to change.

  It was also the second time Gwen had changed clothes that night, the outfits seemed to be getting worse and worse. Not that she blamed Evey for her lack of funds, but she’d gone from a too small tank top to a baggy grey T-shirt and grey sweat pants. Her make-up had rubbed off with all the changes she’d made and her white-blonde hair was in worse frizzy tangles than when she woke up in the motel. She didn’t need a mirror to know that.

  She combed her fingers through her hair and looked at herself in a broken piece of metal.

  “This is as good as it gets,” she said to her big eyed, alien-like face.

  She took a breath, put her fingers through the hole in the door, and stepped out. Her looks didn’t stop John from throwing his arms around her and lifting her into the air in a bone crushing hug.

  Shepard stood back, seething. Gwen gushed her concern over his missing ear and Shepard jealously hoped it would get infected and render the wolf too sick to ever lay his eyes on Gwen ever again.

  Gwen saw the trouble brewing in his eyes over John’s shoulder, but was too relieved to see him unharmed to pay much attention to what her senses were telling her.

  While running to Evey’s house, her heart had been in her throat. She couldn’t run fast enough to see if he was alright or hear if John had killed him. Thinking of the latter made her shudder. But, he was safe and she didn’t need to worry anymore.

  Unfortunately, she did worry. Even now while she watched him stare at her in another man’s arms, she worried. Felt guilty, even. This was wrong. She didn’t want to be there with John, she wanted to be with David. She still loved him. As much as the realization pained her, it was true.

  There was still the nagging question of whether or not he still felt the same for her. Taking her away from her pack and kissing her those times on the bed didn’t necessarily mean anything. So, she continued to hug John and tried to act happy when Dianna held her and said how worried she was. All the while, on the inside, she felt like crying.

  “You sure you lost them?” John asked.

  She nodded. “Positive.”

  When she finally reached the rundown, little house she wouldn’t even let John or Di speak to her in her head. She wanted
to be dressed and have some cold water to splash against her face to help keep her alert and get all the dirt off. Now, she found herself free from one dangerous situation just to walk right into an awkward one.

  She would have preferred the danger to standing there, knowing that they all knew this particular hunter was the one who’d broken her heart.

  When she looked at him again, he was leaning against the far window, his attention turned elsewhere after being ignored for so long.

  ***

  Ignoring her wasn’t his intention. In fact, even with his eyes staring at anything but the scene in front of him, he was completely aware of her.

  Shepard clenched a fist. He could even feel the smug aura coming from the man. Was this what it was like being a werewolf? Being so aware of everything?

  He tilted his head to get a look at what was happening. John put Gwen back on her feet. She looked awkward as she rubbed her arm, avoiding eye contact with him. Shepard felt a prick of hope.

  Without thinking, he went to her and stood between the two.

  John bristled like a cat. “What are you—?”

  “Excuse me,” he said without looking at him. Before Gwen could react beyond the confusion on her face, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a kiss.

  He felt her knees almost give out from under her when she bobbed and clutched his shoulders to keep from falling. He had to fight the proud smirk from ruining his kiss. He wanted to possess her, right there in front of the man she’d kissed earlier that day.

  Shepard touched her lips with his tongue and felt her open her mouth, but was tackled to the floor by John. A cloud of dust rising around them before fists started to pummel his face.

  He heard Gwen scream in shock, and Di in fear, but concentrated on knocking the werewolf above him in the head while keeping him from getting a good one in before the three girls could pull them away.

  Evey and Gwen each grabbed one of John’s arms and tried to yank him off. Even with their combined strength, it was a fight to remove him. They only succeeded because John got up himself and walked away.