by Jen Haeger
“Hey, Evie, Sweetness, Clem here. Listen, there’s a bit of a stir and I figured I’d just give you a head’s up before Caroline gave ya a call, so call me when ya get this, okey dokay?” Clem drawled.
Evelyn let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. It was just something up Caroline’s butt again. Caroline was the Wahya pack’s Beta and they really hadn’t gotten on too well since Caroline drugged Evelyn the night before David’s challenge in France two years ago. The relief Evelyn felt was short-lived, however, when she realized that Clem wouldn’t have left more than one message if it was just a Caroline issue. With trepidation rebuilding she moved on to the next message, left later on Friday night.
“Evie, Dearest, I really do need to speak with ya A-S-A-P. Please give your good friend Clem a call.”
Clem’s voice had lost some of his usual laid back intonation. Evelyn played the third message, left Saturday morning.
“Evelyn, I know ya ain’t workin’ this weekend ‘cause I called your clinic, so if you’re avoidin’ me ‘causa somethin’ I did or said before, I’m reeeal sorry. Now call me!”
That message certainly gave Evelyn reason to pause. It was completely out of character for Clem to call the clinic to try to track her down, just as it was totally unlikely that she would be mad at Clem for some trivial reason. She moved to the message left the previous night.
“Now I’m gettin’ a mite worried, Evie. I can’t find you or the pup. Please call me.”
Clem’s tone sounded worried. As Clem rarely worried about anything, Evelyn’s anxiety level skyrocketed. She debated whether to call Clem right away or to listen to the final message for clarity. The phone vibrated violently in her hand, startling her and causing her to promptly drop it on the floor. She scrambled to pick it up. The display said ‘Clem Calling’. She fumbled to hit the button on the screen to answer.
“Clem?! What’s wrong?! What’s going on?” she shouted into the little device.
“Evie!? Thank the stars! Where in the ever-lovin’ un-i-verse have you been, Girl?! I’ve been tryin’ to get a hold of ya since Friday!” he scolded.
“David and I were, um, camping,” she fabricated.
“Is that a fact?” Clem said suspiciously, “Well, you, I, and your Alphaman need to talk, and it jest so happens that I’m in town, so I’m a-comin’ over.”
“Clem, I’m kinda tired today, we just got back. What on earth is so important?” Evelyn complained.
“Oh trust me, Evie, do ya think I’d be bargin’ your door down if it weren’t important? But not on the phone. I’ll be there in two shakes of a skunk’s tail.”
“Alright. I’ll call David. See you soon, Clem.”
Clem sighed audibly.
“Soon,” he agreed.
Evelyn pushed the “end” button to complete the call and closed her phone. She looked out the doorwall at the fading light. She felt a cold feeling of apprehension in her gut. Not now, she thought. Things were going so…much better. Her eyes stung slightly with tears of frustration. The fading light took on an ominous quality as she stared out into the foliage behind her apartment, causing her to go over and close the blinds before dialing David’s cell.
“Clem?” he answered.
“Clem,” she said.
“I’m on my way.”
*
Evelyn had just finished a quick tidy of herself and the apartment when a courteous knocking began. David. Evelyn sighed and let him in. She really hadn’t wanted to see him again so soon, but she tried to be courteous and offered him something to drink. He declined and they both sat in silence waiting for Clem to arrive. As the minutes passed, Evelyn began to feel uneasy. Clem had said that he would be right over. What could be keeping him? she wondered. Twenty minutes later David rose and began pacing. He pulled back the blinds and glanced out the window anxiously. Finally he broke the silence.
“I thought that Clem said he was coming right over.”
“He did.”
Evelyn checked her watch. It wasn’t like Clem to leave them hanging. He was extremely reliable, and if he was going to be held up, he would call. Evelyn looked at her phone, but she saw no unheard messages or missed calls. She checked the ringer volume and found it to be at medium level as David continued to stare out the window. Finally, Evelyn couldn’t stand it any longer, and she dialed Clem’s cell. David turned to look at her, his expression worried. Clem’s cell rang several times then went to voicemail.
“Hey, Clem, it’s Evie. David’s here and we were just wondering where you were,” Evelyn said to the recorder, “Give me a call.”
She pressed the end button and closed the phone, feeling her unease rising inside of her. What was it that he wanted to tell us?
David and Evelyn spent the next hour pacing, trying to call Clem, and waiting anxiously. Finally, as the darkness of night pressed in, Evelyn resigned herself to the reality of the situation. Clem was not coming. Something had happened to him. She began calling local hospitals while David checked local news reports on the internet. Nothing. They both checked their email accounts to see if there were any messages from Clem, or other clues as to his whereabouts. No luck. Evelyn looked at David.
“You don’t think…” she began, and then swallowed hard, “I think you should call Marcus.”
Normally Wolfkin protocol dictated that all inter-pack communications go through the pack Betas, but since the David and Evelyn were so close to the Wahya, Evelyn was on such bad terms with Caroline, and this was an emergency involving Clem, Evelyn didn’t give a rat’s ass about pack protocol at the moment. David nodded solemnly, then took out his phone and began to dial. Evelyn looked away as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. She could feel the pull of the moon about to rise and the prickling of the oncoming change. She didn’t have much time. David might be able to hold off the change for at least a little while, but she was still too new to it. Fortunately her apartment backed up to a wooded lot. She sat on the couch while David continued to stand, and looked up at him when he began to speak.
“Marcus, it’s David. I’m sorry to call you so…late.” He paused as Marcus acknowledged him. “Is Clem with you?”
Evelyn could see by David’s reaction that the answer was “no”.
“I see. Well, he said he was coming over to see us tonight, but then he never showed up,” David explained. There was a pause as David listened to Marcus’s response.
*
Evelyn grew more restless as the change drew nearer. She began pacing again, and David watched her with growing concern. Peko, who had been stretched out luxuriously in his favorite chair, jumped up with a hiss towards Evelyn and dashed into the bedroom. After a moment David returned his attention to the phone.
“Fine. Tomorrow then.”
David put the phone down and turned to Evelyn, who was breathing heavily and stalking back and forth. He had to grab her arm to fully get her attention.
“Let’s get you out of here. We’ll look for Clem ourselves tonight and meet with Marcus in the morning. O.K.?” he said, pushing her towards the stairs.
Evelyn nodded shakily and they both ran down the stairs and out the door. Evelyn continued to run into the woods as David locked the door behind them with his spare key. He put the key back in his pocket as he scanned the area warily. Only when he was satisfied that nothing seemed out of the ordinary did he run after her into the woods.
4
Clem snarled and snapped his jaws again, straining at the chains that held him to the wall. Beyond the bars of the cell, a light-haired man holding an assault rifle flinched - but only just - as he smoked a cigarette. Normally Clem was able to control the rage much better, especially on the nights surrounding the full moon, but certain things made him angry. Being locked in a cage and chained to the wall were two of them. He let out a howl of frustration as the manacles dug into his flesh. The pain brought him back to himself slightly. Come on Clem, he thought, don’t be stupid. Calm yourself down, boy! He tried to ta
ke a few slow, deep breaths, but with his Wolfkin face they sounded like low, rumbling growls. The breaths did help, though, as he attempted to focus his thoughts. Better. If they were real hunters, then they would expect the maddened beast, he told himself. But if they were hunters, why hadn’t they killed him already? He forced himself to look at his captor without picturing himself ripping the man’s throat out.
The man was watching Clem warily, and seemed much less at ease now that Clem had stopped thrashing. He looked foreign, smelled foreign. The smell reminded Clem of something, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Suddenly Clem started. The man smelled like the Vulke, but obviously he wasn’t a Wolfkin or he would have changed by now. That was, unless he was an extremely powerful Wolfkin who could hold off the change one night after the full moon. Clem pondered this and then took a deep breath through his nose. No, definitely not Wolfkin, probably just Russian or from one of those countries that used to be Russia. What the Hell was a Russian hunter doing here in Michigan? And if he’s a hunter, why is he keepin’ me alive?
Clem searched the man’s expression for clues, but his face was impassive. Clem didn’t smell much fear radiating from him, just a healthy amount of respect. Obviously the man had dealt with Wolfkin before, unlike so many of the other so-called hunters that they occasionally came across. Normally the Wahya had little trouble identifying these possible threats, and either talking to them and explaining the way things were, with mixed results, or at least finding ways to track them, kept them from harming anyone. A few times the “hunters” had even turned out to be nothing more than overzealous LARPers. There had been some unfortunate incidents in the past, but there was a protocol now and they hadn’t run into any serious hunters in years. Judging by the semi-automatic in the man’s hands, Clem guessed this hunter was serious.
Clem wasn’t getting anything more from the man at the moment, so he turned his attention to his surroundings. He’d been drugged with a tranquilizer dart when they brought him in, and had awakened only after he had been chained to the wall. The place was dark and without windows. The walls appeared to be made of steel instead of concrete or wood, and the floor was likewise made of steel. Every noise seemed to elicit an overly loud echo, and there were also other rumbling noises, as if from a large motor. Clem could feel vibrations rippling up from the floor and the wall. The ceiling was high and had myriad pipes running along it. There were two other cages, like the one that Clem was being held in, that also had been welded to the wall, one to the right and one to the left. They were vacant at the moment. That was a good thing. That meant he hadn’t led the hunters to David and Evelyn.
Clem couldn’t see much more beyond the dim circle of the single dingy bulb that hung above the head of his captor. Something was strange here. The room just didn’t seem quite right, but he couldn’t figure out why. The frustration caused him to lose his concentration, and he found himself snarling and thrashing at his restraints again. This time the guard did jump, and gripped his firearm more tightly.
*
Evelyn and David spent the entire night searching Lansing and the surrounding areas for Clem. They found no trace of him except for a faint lingering scent around a dingy motel in a less savory part of town. Evelyn had wanted to break into the room where the scent was strongest, but David kept her from doing it. The last thing they needed now was to draw attention to themselves or possibly get the police involved.
When the sunrise finally came, both of them were exhausted, frustrated, and starving. They ended their search in the woods behind Evelyn’s complex, and David found the shirt that he had tucked away under a bush the night before. He tried to avert his eyes as he handed it to a half-naked Evelyn, who had destroyed hers during the change. She thanked him tersely as they strode back to her apartment door. When they reached the edge of the trees, David held up his arm to keep Evelyn back.
“What?” she said grumpily.
“Just to be safe,” he replied.
David scanned the back of the complex and let his eyes roam up to Evelyn’s balcony. Nothing looked out of place. He dropped his arm and then took out his key and motioned Evelyn to follow him. She couldn’t help rolling her eyes at him. Even though she knew in the recesses of her mind that he was only trying to keep them safe, she was still cranky. David unlocked the door and they both went inside quickly, locking it behind them. Both checked their voicemail but came up empty-handed. Evelyn went into the bedroom to put on a shirt of her own and then went back out into the living room handing David back the loaner. She tried not to notice the thin scars along his muscular sides as he put the shirt back on. Too many memories were associated with those scars.
To distract herself, Evelyn went into the kitchen. Peko followed her, mewling for food. She threw some kibble into his bowl and then opened the fridge for herself. What she really wanted was a shower, unfortunately her stomach was tied in hungry knots and complaining loudly, so it won out over cleanliness. Her belly growled loudly as she pulled out the carton of eggs and a rasher of bacon. She’d never really eaten the stuff until she became a werewolf, but now she couldn’t seem to get enough of it. David sat and watched her as she went to work frying up the bacon and scrambling the eggs. The smell of the bacon and David’s presence brought up more uncomfortable memories of the first time David had told her he was a werewolf, so after a minute or two she turned to him.
“You can shower in the guest bathroom, if you want while I do this. What time are we meeting with Marcus?”
Evelyn glanced at the clock. It read seven ‘o’ clock.
“Ten. He asked us to meet him in Mount Pleasant,” said David wearily.
“At the casino?”
David nodded.
“Good, plenty of time then. It’s only about an hour and a half away.”
Evelyn made a small shooing gesture towards the spare bathroom. David finally submitted, rising from his chair and stretching. As soon as he was in the bathroom, Evelyn broke down a little. Even when she was not in Wolfkin form, she got emotional in the days surrounding the full moon. It was a bit like werewolf PMS and Evelyn was not amused by it. These few days were stirring up emotions that she’d been able to bury for a year and a half. First the strange Wolfkin threatening to expose them in Tennessee, now Clem going missing after saying that there was something important he needed to tell them. Not to mention David going back into Evelyn protection mode. She wasn’t sure that she could handle her life in utter shambles…again. She sniffled, then wiped her eyes on her shirt and tried to buck up. We have to find Clem. We have to get this figured out and get back to work in the lab. She began shoveling the cooked food onto plates when she heard the water of the shower stop. And I have to figure out what to do about me and David, she thought.
5
The drive up to their rendezvous with Marcus would have been pleasant, had they been going there for a different reason. A light rain began to fall, but there was little traffic and a fair bit of country scenery. It might have even been relaxing, had the previous few days gone differently. As it was the tension was almost too much for Evelyn to bear, and her neck was getting stiff and painful from the strain and a sleepless night. She had let David drive, but was now wishing that she hadn’t, as she now had nothing to distract her from her thoughts. Between the Wolfkin in Tennessee and Clem’s disappearance, too many bizarre things had happened to Evelyn the past few years for her to put stock in coincidences anymore. Maybe she was paranoid, but just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not after you. Isn’t that how that line went?
They reached the casino and pulled into the main parking lot. The place was jammed, even at midmorning, with people anxious to pour their paychecks into the slots. Evelyn couldn’t wholly condemn them. She had been gambling before and had to admit that it was fun…when you were winning. They entered the front doors of the casino and were immediately hit with the smell of smoke and the cacophonous yet oddly melodious dinging of the slot machines. Evelyn look
ed around, uncertain of what to do next. They had never actually met with Marcus, or any other member of the Wahya pack for that matter, without Clem there as an intermediate. A security guard started towards them, a hand held over the electronic device in his ear. When he reached Evelyn and David he nodded, dropped his hand, and spoke softly to them.
“You are expected. Please come this way.”
He motioned to his right and they followed him along a corridor, away from the casino floor and its distracting flashing lights and noise. Halfway between the casino and the connected hotel there was a blank door in the wall which the guard opened and showed them through. The door led to a nondescript hallway lined with other unremarkable doors, except these doors all had electronic locks that needed a security card to be opened. The guard moved ahead of them again and chose the second door on the right. He removed a card from his pocket and used it to open the door for them. It led to yet another mundane hallway, but this time the guard didn’t follow them through.
“Third door on the right.”
He pointed down the hallway and then shut the door behind them. Evelyn strode forward and noted that these doors were all normal-looking office doors. The third one on the right was slightly ajar and had a simple name plate proclaiming it to be the office of Marcus Sundance Shaw, Executive Vice President. Evelyn was about to barge right on in when David put up his hand and shot her a chiding look. He knocked lightly on the door.
“Enter,” came Marcus’s deep rumbling voice.
David pushed open the door and they stepped into a large, posh office without any windows. There were Native American wall hangings along all of the walls, and a large, hand-made rug underneath an area with a small black leather couch and chair around a glass coffee table. Marcus was seated at a desk made of a rich, dark red wood located to the left of the door. There were two carved wooden chairs in front of his desk that were lovely, if not particularly comfortable looking. Marcus’s face looked even more lined than usual and held an expression of extreme fatigue. He was staring hard at a laptop screen and did not immediately look up at them.