“Perhaps,” Victoria agreed. “We will do as they say.”
They could see two cars approaching now. The two black vehicles drove through the forest’s hidden road. Lily narrowed her eyes to see if she could take a better look at these vampires coming to rescue them. One was a man, a regular young looking man, although she knew that meant little when it came to vampires. The other was a woman, her eyes looked Asian, her skin white and pale, her loose hair reaching her shoulders.
“I know them,” said the Head Witch. “We'll be safe with them.”
They waited for the cars to park in front of The Pecan.
October 20th, 2000
10:13 A.M.
The vampires didn't look at all like Lily expected. When they exited their cars the man and woman who walked in their direction looked more like business executives than vampires. They both wore suits; his with a light blue shirt and a simple blue tie, and hers with an olive green shirt unbuttoned at the top. If Lily looked closer, she could see their gun holsters under their jackets. Vampires were dangerous as they were, why they needed guns was a mystery to her.
“Victoria,” the man greeted their leader with a nod. The handsome man was of average height, yet taller than all the women present. Beside him, his female companion offered a weak smile. She was a beautiful woman, with features that looked like a mix of Asian and American heritage. Her almond-shaped eyes stood out more than her tall and slender body. Some may even call her beautiful, with her movements so effortless and flawless; it was almost like a dance when she walked.
“Hello, agent Torrence,” Victoria greeted the vampire, extending her hand to take his. Lily watched as she shook hands with both of them. “As you can see, my dear Evelyn is in need of dire medical attention.”
Agent Torrence glanced in the direction of the unconscious teleporter. After a quick silent exchange with his partner, he walked to take a closer look at the wounds. “These are claw marks,” he pointed out.
“Yes.”
He looked confused. “Wait a minute, you were attacked by a werewolf?”
“Several werewolves,” corrected Victoria Palmer. “Not just one.”
The vampire said, “All the bodies we found before were not victims of werewolf attacks. They were all stabbed to death, their throats slit, lungs punctured. That’s not what a werewolf does.”
“Yes,” Victoria replied. “We hadn't worried about werewolf attacks until today. This morning, a handful of them showed up at my safe house, a place only I knew about. As you can imagine, I am deeply disturbed by this because it means the killer came with us to the cabin.”
Agent Torrence looked from one face to the next, disturbed. His finger pointed at each of the remaining witches. “It’s one of them? The killer, I mean. One of you is the killer?”
“We don’t know that,” exhaled the Head Witch.
“Well, if you are the only survivors-”
“We don’t know if there is a witch who may have escaped the safe house before we teleported out. Before the attack.”
The vampire looked pensive, “But, you know that-”
“What we know,” an exasperated Carolina interrupted, “is Evelyn needs a doctor.”
Turning to look at the claw marks on her back, Agent Torrence said, “If a werewolf did that, we can’t take her to a hospital.”
This only seemed to enrage Carolina more. “Then, what do you suggest we do?”
“I don’t know,” agent Torrence shrugged. “Kill her?”
“Are you out of your mind?” The telekinetic gave a step forward, sending a push in the vampire’s direction. Agent Torrence gave a step back, surprised by the invisible attack. Beside him, the female agent drew out her weapon, ready to retaliate.
“Stand down, Carolina,” Victoria ordered. “You, too, agent Sawyer.”
Agent Sawyer hesitated, but complied.
“I’m all right,” agent Torrence muttered in her direction.
“Look, we understand you’re scared,” agent Sawyer spoke for the first time. “We don’t know exactly what’s been going on or why, but Dylan is right, we can’t risk going to a public place with her, it’s too dangerous.”
“She will turn into a werewolf?” asked Daisy this time. Fear in her voice.
“Possibly,” Dylan said.
“We don’t know for sure,” agent Sawyer added. “But, since she could, then we can’t take her to a hospital. Nor can we have the personnel there get any access to her infected blood.”
The witches all looked at each other.
“She’s right,” added agent Torrence. “Regardless, we need to take you to a safer place. That's why we're here. So let’s get going,” he said. “I will carry the teleporter to the back of my car. One of you can ride with me. The other three will need to ride with Becca, er, agent Sawyer.”
“Very well,” Victoria agreed. Turning to look in Carolina’s direction, she said, “You ride with Evelyn, Daisy can ride with us.”
“No, ma’am,” Daisy shook her head, “I can ride on the back with Evelyn. I need to take care of the girl.”
There was a pause while the Head Witch decided. “Go with her.”
Lily watched as agent Torrence picked up Evelyn from the ground, as if she weighed nothing, and headed for the car. Daisy followed him. Taking one last look at The Pecan, she wondered where the vampires would take them next. Not to their agency, that was out of the question. While the identity of the traitor was still unknown, she understood their need for secrecy.
“Come, Lily,” she heard her mentor's call. Lily followed her to the other car.
CHAPTER FIVE
William
October 20th, 2000
9:35 A.M.
William Woods was his name, and he was an eighty-seven-year-old werewolf. At least, that was the number of years he'd been alive because to everyone else he looked like a seventeen-year-old boy.
For a werewolf, William was unusual - with his biggest asset being he'd never killed a soul. One of his best qualities, he thought. He also didn’t need to go through the change during full moons, not anymore - not for a long time. His second asset was his control over his emotions. The werewolf blood in his body was always telling him to overreact to every single feeling he had, but William was smart enough to stop any outbursts of anger, sadness, or lust using the power of his logical brain. He didn’t know another werewolf who had the same control over his wild body.
Will knew he was special.
And there was more. He didn’t know another werewolf who'd been turned as young as he had who was still alive today. If werewolves had an unfortunate short span of life, young werewolves didn’t last more than a full moon. Somehow, he'd managed to survive longer than that and hoped it would be many more full moons before he joined the creator - if there even was one. Werewolves were immortal beings, too bad they often failed to stop their instincts from making decisions that ended in the wrong consequences.
For immortal creatures, werewolves had significant short lives.
Then, there were the vampires. Regardless of their recklessness, the number one cause of werewolf fatalities was caused by vampires. Vampires dedicated their lives to hunting down and killing murderous werewolves - that meant most of them. They did that for a living, too. It was their paying job. Vampires were responsible for wiping out most of Will’s acquaintances over the years. They found them guilty of crimes they couldn’t stop themselves from committing and executed them for them, making their bodies disappear.
For years, everything the vampires did to exterminate their opposing race had accomplished little. The werewolf gene was easy to transfer, and a small bite was enough to create another werewolf. Even a scratch could turn some unlucky bastard into a monster. An unlucky bastard like Will, for example.
That's what happened decades ago when William’s family was attacked by a group of werewolves. His entire family was murdered and only he'd been spared. Although, spared wasn’t the right word. They had infecte
d him with a claw, just one scratch was all it took to change his life forever.
Many things had happened since that fateful day when he'd been cursed to turn into a beast whenever the moon was full. The first few months he spent teaching himself to survive on his own in the woods. Only once he felt he could control his wild side, he rejoined society as best he could. That life had lasted decades, and it was the best time Will could remember. His happiness abruptly ended when he realized he needed to join a wolf pack if he wanted to survive. He blamed his youth for most of his problems. If he'd been older, then he would’ve stood better chances on his own. Too bad no one had asked him at what age he wanted to be turned.
Being a member of a werewolf pack hadn’t been very pleasant. The other werewolves were ruthless, conniving, and murderous. They’d allowed him into their packs only because he'd learned to survive in their world acting like their servant more than their equal. He quickly understood they would always look at him as an inferior because of his physical age. Frozen at seventeen, William’s wolf form wasn’t an adult, either. He was small, weak, and defenseless. He would never win a fight with a werewolf or with any vampire. Not ever.
Vampires and werewolves were eternal rivals, and yet William had many reasons to want to join them. He'd given the werewolves a chance, and they had failed miserably. Their errant behavior inspired him to become a spy for the vampires even if it meant betraying his own kind. For two decades he sent vampires intel on werewolf activity, helping them stop many killing sprees. For two decades he tried to get the attention of the greatest werewolf hunter he knew, Dylan Torrence.
Through his lifespan, William learned Dylan was part of the vampire elite; because there were two different types of vampires, according to what William had seen, and Dylan wasn’t one of the weaklings that roamed the streets of every major city in the dark. No. Dylan Torrence was different. Better. An effective werewolf killer, someone who could keep Will safe if he asked nicely. A member of the superior vampire race.
Once William decided it was time to reveal himself to the elite, it hadn’t been easy to convince them they should accept him. They had to understand he needed to be rescued from the rest of the werewolves. They needed to understand they had to keep him safe or he would die. But, how could he make them see he wasn't like the rest? How could he make them understand he should have been one of them instead? He believed he belonged in the vampire community; they were his true kindred. Perhaps they hated what he was on the outside, but they could learn to care for his inside.
William admired their race, and he needed their help.
It almost cost him his life to make them see how loyal he could be (his heart came out of his chest sometime during the negotiations). In the end, it'd been worth it. The vampires agreed, and he now lived under their protection.
For a few months now, he lived in a room above the vampire agency. For a few months, the vampires let him live under their same roof, but they never interacted with him. Even when some of them didn’t trust him, they left him alone and Will felt safe. Besides, Will understood their mistrust; the werewolves he was trying to escape from had killed one of their werewolf hunters when they had taken his chances with him. He knew some of the vampires still blamed him for what happened, but he hadn't knowingly brought those werewolves to the safe house where they had first taken him. He'd been just as surprised as they were when they showed up with their killer teeth and claws. They hadn't just surprised him, they'd scared him to death.
The vampires persevered, they all escaped the monsters - killing many of them in the process - and took William into their heaven only after he'd retrieved the valuable information he'd copied from his Alpha’s hard drive for them.
William had come prepared to meet the vampires. Not only had he delivered the information he'd promised, but had also revealed the werewolf they hunted - known as The One - had recently become a US Senator, and had warned them one of the witches had turned sides.
Will had made sure he didn't go to them empty-handed. He wasn't sure what he expected, but he hadn't thought they would force him to wear a metallic collar to send electrical shocks down his body if they felt he misbehaved. But fine, it was the price to pay to be allowed to stay. Heck, if he'd been a vampire, he wouldn’t trust a werewolf, either. Not even if this werewolf swore he was not like the rest. Not even if this werewolf told him all he wanted was a place to belong.
If he'd been a vampire, he wouldn’t like having a putrid, dog-smelling creature living in his property, either.
That's why he was grateful the vampires had given him a chance after all. He would wear ten collars if they asked him to.
Besides, not everything was bad.
For example, he now had a vampire friend. A young werewolf hunter named Rebecca Sawyer visited him often. She'd even taken him out for coffee more than once. Will liked their conversations. Rebecca had begun to open up, speaking about her thoughts and feelings more and more. He, too, had lower his defenses. He could tell she liked him and the feeling was mutual.
Will liked Rebecca, she was a beam of hope.
But Rebecca’s heart belonged to Dylan Torrence and Will couldn't interfere in their relationship. For now, their friendship was enough, but he wasn't sure it would be enough forever. Most of the time he thought of her as a sister because it was safer. If he wasn’t careful, a jealous Dylan could be the one who could hurt him the most, so Will was careful to make it clear he only sought a friend in Rebecca and not a lover.
Rebecca didn’t seem to be attracted to him in any way, which helped. His werewolf hormones usually attracted the opposite sex - this didn’t seem to work with the female vampires.
When Rebecca talked to Will, a lot of what she had to say revolved around Dylan, anyway. And boy, did she have a lot to say about the great werewolf hunter. Dylan sounded like he needed friends from what Rebecca told him. Maybe he could be friends with the friendly neighborhood werewolf?
It was a win-win situation, Will was sure.
Things were definitely looking up. He had to stay positive. Besides, after a few weeks as a permanent resident, the vampire agency decided it was time to give Will a new identity. They were giving him a new social security number, birth certificate, driver’s license, and even a bank account. Not only that, they had given him permission to take out one of their company cars if he ever needed to travel outside of the agency.
It was a scary world out there and Will didn't want to go out alone. When the lawyers had scheduled an appointment to finalize his new identity process, Rebecca offered to drive him to the Crimson Building. Will needed to visit the lawyer there. Jake Anders was one of the few vampires who liked Will since the beginning. They met when Will told his story to the director of the vampire agency the day he defected.
Will was grateful when Rebecca offered to go with him and disappointed when he heard she'd been called on one of her stupid missions that very morning and wouldn't be able to go. That meant he would need to ask for a car to take himself to the Crimson Building. He wondered if it'd been a secret ploy to get him away from her.
“Are you sure it’ll be fine?” William asked the human agent, Josh Watters, when he told him he needed to take a car.
“That’s what I understand,” Josh replied.
Agent Josh Watters was a thirty-one-year-old man who worked at the vampire agency full time. He was a centered and dedicated agent who had, after he graduated from the academy, been found psychologically sound to deal with the fact that vampires, werewolves, and witches lived among humans. Josh handled many of the director’s personal appointments and was very much informed of everything that happened within the North American Vampire Secret Agency, NAVSA.
“So,” Will prompted, “I just go down the stairs to the garage and take any car?”
“Well, no,” Josh scoffed. “I have assigned you a car.”
“You have? Awesome! Which one?”
“Parking spot 34. The keys should be in the car,” explain
ed Josh. “When you come back, make sure to leave the keys where you found them, okay?”
Josh Watters talked to William like he would a regular person. He never treated him any different. Not like a werewolf, not like a vampire, just like he would any ordinary guy. He knew Josh would never catch his scent the way vampires did. To the human FBI Agent, everybody around him looked, smelled, felt, and sounded human.
I like to pretend you’re all just normal people, he'd confessed once.
It made complete sense to Will. If he'd been in his position, he would have done the same, for the sake of his sanity.
“What kind of car is it?” Will wondered.
“Do you know how to drive a car?” Josh asked him, instead.
“I do.”
“Then, what do you care what car it is? Just be grateful you got it and you’ll be able to get out of here without agent Sawyer babysitting after you.”
That had caught William off-guard. “She isn’t my babysitter. She likes me as a person.”
“Sure, pal, whatever you say.”
It was William’s turn to scoff, dismissed the thought. Then, “Well, if I’m getting a car today, maybe I’ll get rid of this collar tomorrow?”
Josh smiled, “I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.”
“Right.”
“Oh, and, Will?” Josh pulled something from his desk drawer, throwing it to him. “There’s a phone. In case you get lost or whatever.”
William caught it with ease. “Thank you.”
“You know how to use that right?”
Will had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Sighing, he said, “I do.”
“Great,” Josh nodded. “Now, get out of here and get going or you're going to make the lawyers wait. You never want to make the lawyers wait.”
In agreement, William waved goodbye and left the main office heading to the garage. He was familiar with the place by now, having walked down to the garage with Rebecca about a half a dozen times whenever they went out. Babysitting him? What a joke. He was sure Rebecca enjoyed her time with him. From everything she'd told him, he knew Dylan rarely left work to enjoy a day out. She'd told Will many times how she was grateful he'd come to take her out of the monotony of the agency.
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