Jack cleared his throat so the two would know he was coming.
“Jack, have you met Kimberly yet?” Aareth motioned with a thumb to the gargoyle next to him. “She was ruling Term when we got there.”
“‘Ruling’ is a strong word.” Kimberly extended a hand to Jack.
Jack accepted her firm handshake and with a smile he wasn’t sure she would be able to make out through the dark. She was larger than he first thought. Standing directly in front of her, Jack now understood how Elwood must feel in the presence of a human.
“It’s great to meet you.” Jack released Kimberly’s cold hand. “We were just leaving to go track down the werewolves involved in the mage engine battle.”
“Yes.” Kimberly nodded along with Jack’s words. “News travels fast. I’m aware that you believe one of these creatures is your father brought back from the dead. I’ve come to offer my services. I’d like to accompany you two on your quest.”
Jack wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, traveling with more members in his company was a good thing for safety, but he didn’t know Kimberly at all, though she looked like she could hold her own in a fight. Still, memories of misjudging people poked holes in his logic. He had been wrong when judging numerous people: Queen Eleanor Eckert, Elijah Ahab, Fenrick Trillion, and the list went on and on.
“I can vouch for her, if that helps.” Aareth looked into Jack’s eyes, spotting the uncertainty. “She talks a lot about weird mating rituals, but she’s all right.”
“I’m standing right here, Beastman.” Kimberly folded her arms over her chest. “I can hear everything you’re saying.”
“I trust her if you do,” Jack said to Aareth.
“Yeah, God help me. I guess I do trust her.” With a shake of his head, Aareth blew air out of his mouth. He moved down the path, leaving Jack and Kimberly in his wake. “What has this world come to? I’m traveling with a wizard and a gargoyle, hunting an undead werewolf.”
Chapter 6
Sloan
“So how does this work, exactly?” Harrison squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. “Does it feel like a needle? I hate needles.”
“It’s really not that bad.” Babs gave Harrison a reassuring smile. “When Sloan bit me before she left to fight the mage engine, it was painful but quick. It felt like being drained from your life one second, then filled in a way you never thought possible the next.”
“I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.” Pia leaned against the far wall in the living room. “But I’ll go first. I want to get this over with and move on.”
Sloan and the four members who would make up her crack squad of vampires sat in the living space of their designated house. It was a simple two-story building with the bare furnishing essentials: tables and chairs, dishes and utensils in the drawers, but no extra decoration, nothing to make the living space homey or comfortable.
Sloan ignored the lack of décor for the time being, with more important things to worry about than nonexistent pictures on the plain, white walls or rugs over the hardwood flooring. She sat in a large, leather chair, staring at her friends. She had turned Babs before she left, but the three escaped New Hope soldiers needed to be turned next.
Pia stood ready, but nervous. Harrison continuously wiped his sweaty hands on his pant legs, and Doyle hadn’t said a word once they had settled into the house.
“All right, Pia.” Sloan stood. “You can go first. If anything goes wrong, I’ll need the rest of you to pull me off, especially you, Babs.”
“What are you talking about?” Doyle asked. He’d also stood from his seat next to Harrison. “What could go wrong?”
It was something Sloan had debated telling the others, but if they were going to survive as one unit, there couldn’t be any secrets between them. Not now, not ever.
“When I turned Babs, I had Aareth and Croft next to me to pull me off in case I couldn’t stop. Once the blood hits your mouth, it takes a hold on you. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to bite Babs and let go.” Sloan looked down at the floor. “If anything goes wrong, you’ll need to pull me off. Babs, mostly, since she has the strength to do that now.”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.” Babs put a hand onto Sloan’s shoulder. “You were fine when you bit me. It took a few seconds, then it was all over.”
“I was far from fine.” Sloan looked up into Babs’ kind eyes. “But I did it. It’s not easy. Imagine finally grabbing on to the one thing your body has been craving, and then forcing yourself to let it go a few heartbeats later.”
“My decision still hasn’t changed.” Pia walked closer to Sloan, unbuttoning the top two buttons of her shirt. She pulled down the left side, exposing the soft skin on her neck. “Let’s do this. This needs to happen if we’re going to have a fighting chance against what’s coming.”
Sloan took a deep breath. She searched inside for that urge she was still learning to control. It was a part of her now, something like calling that extra piece of her that lived way deep down. The closest thing Sloan could compare it to was an extra urge, a driving force of determination you needed when lifting heavy weights at the gym, or forcing yourself to do something once you were incredibly tired.
She found that power inside now. At once, her vision reddened and the canines on the top of her mouth lengthened. Strength coursed through her body.
Harrison’s eyes widened. Doyle and Babs took steps closer to pull her away if things didn’t go as planned.
Sloan could hear Pia’s heart pick up in tempo. The woman was scared, but to her credit, she remained still, jaw set, although the hand pulling her shirt away from her neck was trembling.
Just a second. You need to bite her for just a second. Sloan bent her neck and opened her mouth wide. As much as she repeated the mantra in her mind, there was a another voice, one just as much herself as the other.
Drain her. Imagine how amazing all of that blood will feel sliding down your throat. Sloan did her best to drown out this voice as her razor sharp teeth sunk into Pia’s soft skin. Feast on her. There is nothing anyone can do to stop you. You need this.
Pia nearly stumbled, but Sloan caught her. The warm blood gushed down her throat with all the blissful sensation a dying woman would feel in finding a cold spring in the middle of a desert.
“I think she’s had enough.” Babs put her hand on Sloan’s right shoulder. She wasn’t gentle this time. “Let her go.”
The first thing that flashed in front of Sloan’s mind was to rip Babs’ hand off her arm. The second thought was that she was right. Mustering every ounce of willpower she possessed, Sloan forced her jaws open and took a step backwards.
Pia wobbled on unsteady feet. Doyle and Harrison guided her to a chair where she sat, eyes wide, blood still trickling down her neck.
“You’ll feel weak and strange at first,” Babs instructed Pia. “That will pass soon as your body accepts the change, and then it’s all uphill from there.”
“I’ll get her a cloth for her wound,” Harrison suggested. He left the room, giving Sloan an uneasy glance.
Sloan licked her lips, reminding herself over and over again that she was done with Pia. No matter how much her body craved the blood, she was done. She had controlled herself thanks to Babs. One down, two more to go.
“Well, I guess I’m up next,” Doyle said, unbuttoning the top of his own shirt like Pia had before.
Harrison reappeared with an armful of white hand towels and thick tape. “I know it’s not exactly medical tape and gauze, but it’ll have to do. I’m a bleeder.”
Turning the two men was just as difficult as turning Pia. Both times, Babs was there to remind her when to stop. By the time everyone had been turned, Sloan was mentally exhausted. Reining herself in took more out of her, psychologically, than she realized.
The three newest members of Sloan’s vampire squad sunk in their chairs as exhausted as Sloan. Not surprisingly, Babs was the only one energetic enough to go around and make sure no one neede
d anything.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Sloan jolted in her seat as the heavy knocks from the front door echoed into the sparse house.
“Sloan? Sloan, are you in there?” Edison’s familiar voice came through the door. “There’s trouble!”
Chapter 7
Sloan
Sloan was on her feet and to the door, while the others were still trying to figure out how to respond. Thoughts of something somehow having happened to Kade poured from a fear she hadn’t known existed.
Sloan reached for the door handle and tore it open. The door had been locked, but under Sloan’s aggressive strength, the frame splintered. She peered out into the darkness. Edison stood with a hand on his chest and a frightened expression on his face.
“Wow, take it easy Hercules.” Edison was already motioning for to her to follow. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”
“Is Kade all right?” Sloan refused to move until she knew at least that much.
“What? Kade?” Edison looked confused for a moment before the fog cleared from his brain. “Yes, its not Kade. It’s the new werewolf Aareth turned before he left.”
“What’s going on?” Babs joined Sloan at the door. “Can I help?”
“Stay here and make sure the others are recovering like they should.” Sloan chased after Edison. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Edison was already up the hill and traversing the training courtyard behind the capitol building when Sloan caught him. He was perspiring profusely, a worried look on his face.
“What happened?” Sloan asked.
“Jaxon is the werewolf Aareth had chosen to bite before the mage engine battle. He’s one of the approved Azra guards Croft and Theo had suggested. With Aareth gone, I’ve been trying to help him through the transition process.”
“Yes, I know all of this. What’s wrong?”
A primal howl ripped through Sloan and Edison’s conversation, the same kind of howl Sloan had heard Aareth make before he had learned to control his inner beast. It was a sound of pure rage and aggression.
“How did he turn already?” Sloan asked as the two made it into the capitol building and ran for the lab Edison used to conduct his experiments. “It took Aareth a long time from when he was bitten to when he first made the transition.”
“Yes, well, Croft helped with that,” Edison said.
The vampire and the inventor finally rounded a corner and opened the door to Edison’s lab. What met her eyes terrified Sloan on numerous levels. So much was going on at once, she wasn’t sure how to react.
In the far corner of Edison’s lab, a series of steel chains had been anchored into the floor, walls, and ground. A black beast—part man, part wolf—strained against his bonds. The werewolf was not as large as Aareth, but the way he pulled on the bonds around his wrists and legs until he started bleeding showed he was no less aggressive.
Croft stood in front of the beast with her wand. A dull yellow light glowed from the tip. A circular mirror showing a large full moon levitated in the air above Croft. It was clear she was using some kind of spell, but exactly what kind was lost on Sloan.
“I told her we should wait,” Edison whispered to Sloan, “but she was insistent we turn him now. She opened a window into the past. Once Jaxon saw the moon, he turned.”
“When you’re finished tattletailing on me, you can be of some actual use,” Croft said. She brought her wand down. The spell conjuring the full moon dissipated into the air like a light mist. “I’ve done my part, and now it’s time for you two to do yours.”
Croft turned from the raging beast. The werewolf snarled at her, lunging forward and snapping his salivating jaws inches from her face. Croft didn’t even flinch. Instead, she made her way past Edison and Sloan.
“Easy there … easy, big guy, I know your body is going through some changes right now, but it’s expected by someone your age.” Edison ran to Jaxon, talking in a soft voice and open, nonthreatening hands. “I know your hormones are raging and you feel strange in your own skin, but this is normal.”
Sloan couldn’t believe her eyes. Not that Croft had changed the werewolf, but that she had done so without telling Sloan, and now she was just going to leave a distressed human being in her wake.
“Thanks for the head’s up.” Sloan clenched her fists by her hips. “You could have told me what you where planning. And what, now you’re just going to leave? You have a responsibility to Jaxon. You can’t just transform him into a werewolf and disappear.”
“I’ve done my part.” Croft hesitated by the door leading from the laboratory. “You’re the one with all the experience with werewolves. Edison has studied them before. And he needed to be changed now. The more werewolves and vampires we have on our side when the fighting happens, the better chance we have at survival.”
“You sound like your sister.” Sloan should have kept the words down, but it was the truth. “Leah wanted to create super soldiers to fight her war. You can throw Eleanor’s name in there, too.”
Something like anger passed over Croft’s eyes. She shook her head, skewering Sloan with a menacing glare. For a moment, Sloan even thought the witch would reach for her wand, but she didn’t.
“For your sake, be glad I am nothing like my sisters.” Croft paused in the harsh noise of the werewolf letting out a particularly ferocious roar. “I’m preparing to fight monsters when they come to our home. I suggest you do the same.”
“Just, in the process, don’t became the monster you are trying to defeat.” Sloan took a deep breath, calming herself from the anger she felt. “Go and take care of your daughter. I’ll handle this.”
Croft nodded. With a swirl of her cloak, she left.
As Croft’s tall figure disappeared, Elwood’s stout gnomish frame appeared. His tiny legs were pumping furiously. He wore tiny boots, with blue pants and a red shirt. A red cap was placed tightly on his thick head. He stopped for a moment and gave Sloan a salute before continuing on to Edison’s side.
“My God man, what took you so long?” Edison asked, tapping his right pointer finger to his chin. He eyed his helper with a serious stare. “Do I even want to know?”
Elwood lost no time in chattering away in his native tongue that only Edison understood. To Sloan, it sounded like a high-pitched, excited volley of mostly short words.
“No.” Edison cut off Elwood with an extended hand. “That’s enough. That’s also disgusting. You should go get yourself checked out. That’s not normal.”
Elwood was pantomiming gestures that made Sloan grimace. The gnome was waving a hand back and forth behind his rear end like he was ushering away a bad smell. He continued to talk, while shaking his head and grimacing.
“No, what?” Edison looked at Sloan with an expression like he had tasted something horrible. “You’re lucky you can’t hear this. I feel sick.”
Elwood continued on in his high-pitched gibberish. The sound he made contrasted Jaxon’s snarls perfectly.
“Okay, okay enough. If you haven’t noticed”—Edison pointed to Jaxon—“we have a bigger situation here. Well, maybe not bigger by the way you’re describing, it but more important. I need meat, tranquilizers, and a teddy.”
Elwood went to work. His abilities as a conjuring gnome meant he was able to reach behind his back and create anything that would fit into one of his small hands. As quickly as Edison spoke the items, Elwood reached behind him and brought them forward.
In a few seconds, he was holding a raw steak in his right hand, and a bottle of pills and a teddy bear in his left. The gnome looked at the teddy bear and raised an eyebrow at Elwood.
“Everybody feels better with a teddy.” Edison took the meat and tranquilizers from Elwood and began preparing the dosage. “Don’t judge me.”
Sloan ignored the circus going on between the inventor and the gnome. While they prepared the medication, Sloan took time to think back on her dealings with Aareth when he had first turned. He had always been inside, he’d just ne
eded time to learn how to tame his beast. He had told her the most difficult part was learning that this animal was part of him now. When he had learned to coexist with it, instead of fighting it, he was able to control it.
“Jaxon.” Sloan stepped forward with her arms out in front of her. As she strode forth, she maintained eye contact with the beast. “I’m Sloan. I was with Aareth with he changed. I can tell you what he would say if he was here.”
Jaxon’s manic roars subsided for the time being. He went down on all fours, eyeing Sloan with a curious stare. The deep rumbling coming from his chest didn’t stop. He looked like he was a coiled spring ready to be released at any moment.
“Aareth would tell you to be strong. He’d say that he understands fighting what you are now is pointless. Just accept that you’re different. It may not happen overnight, but you’ll get the hang of this. Rest in the comfort that you will be able to coexist with this gift you’ve been given. You’re among friends. The chains are only here for the time being to stop you from injuring anyone.”
Edison handed Sloan the meat.
She waved it away.
Elwood handed her the teddy.
She waved it away as well.
Jaxon was down on all fours, still eyeing Sloan. He wasn’t taut, ready to spring anymore, and heavy breathing instead of snarls came from his maw.
“Easy friend.” Sloan positioned herself next to Jaxon on the ground. She remembered being bitten by Aareth the first night he had transformed into the werewolf. She was faster now, though, and trusted she would be able to dodge the attack if it came. “We’re going to get through this together. Just don’t bite me.”
Chapter 8
Jack
“And you’re just going to magic yourself a pair of speed boots?” Aareth looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “You can ride on my back if you want.”
“Or I can carry you through the air.” Kimberly extended the long, grey wings that were folded on her back. “Cherub told me she carried you to Azra when you escaped from New Hope.”
House of Wrath: The Vampire Project Book 5 Page 3