“Wyatt, right?”
Caleb nodded.
“Well,” Jonathan said, “I appreciate not only your honesty, but the lengths to which you were willing to go to protect Caleb’s pack from a black witch. I can understand your Agency’s need to place you on probation, but I’m not at all worried that it will affect your ability to help us this week.”
“Excuse me, sir,” Matt interjected, “but I must protest. Bringing in a witch, especially one who has admitted to using blood magic, is a bad idea.”
“You have already voiced your concerns, Matt, and I have taken them into consideration,” Jonathan explained politely but firmly. “But at this time, I think we’re better off with her than without her.”
“But sir–” Matt began, but Jonathan cut him off by raising his hand.
“The discussion is over, Matt,” he said calmly.
“Yes, Alpha,” Matt said, lowering his eyes and closing his mouth.
“So,” Jonathan continued, turning back to Angel, “has Caleb told you about what’s going on here?”
“He told me it was a conference for the North American Alphas,” she answered, “and you might need some additional security, but that was all. He said the full explanation would have to come from you.”
“Correct,” Jonathan told her. “I wanted to wait until I was able to meet you in person to explain the situation. We’ve been planning this conference for several months now, and as expected when a large gathering of non-humans occurs, there have been some whispers and grumblings. Now, most of them are nothing, but there has been some talk that concerned me enough to look into it a little more. There have been whispers of the possibility that vampires might be targeting the conference.”
Angel turned to Caleb, pinning him with a meaningful stare.
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted that you thought of me when you heard the word ‘vampire.’” Caleb grinned, and Angel rolled her eyes, then turned back to Jonathan. “Are you sure?”
“I had a hard time believing it at first as well.” Jonathan told her. “Vampires don’t generally bother wolves. Partly because our blood is poisonous to them, partly because they really can’t be bothered. They’re too wrapped up in their own business to be concerned with other species. But I’ve had some of my people look into it, and there does seem to be a lot of strange vampire behavior in the last few months.”
“Have you spoken to the Clan Leaders?” Angel asked.
Much like witches and wolves, vampires had their own governing body. A group of three vampires served as Clan Leaders on each continent, overseeing any and all vampire-related issues. One of their biggest jobs was to make sure their people didn’t run wild and cause problems with other species.
“I have,” Jonathan replied, “but they’ve told me they know nothing about these threats, nor do they condone them.”
“Quite the political response,” Angel noted. “You’d think they’d take something like this a little more seriously.”
“It’s possible they know more than they are saying, but not enough to do anything about it yet,” Jonathan said. “Either way, we’re not getting any help from them.”
Angel nodded, then glanced at Caleb. “Have you told him about Jones?”
“I told him what I know - that Jones believed the vampires were building an army, but you probably have more information than I do.”
“Yeah.” She paused and ran her fingers through her hair. “The black witch who threatened Caleb’s pack was named Marcus Jones. He was a former WEA Agent who got a case about a missing family. It turns out they were taken by vampires, and by the time he found them, it was too late. Jones barely made it out alive. When he recovered, he started trying to convince everyone it wasn’t an isolated incident. He believed the vampires were amassing an army, and they needed to stop them.”
“Did they look into it?” Jonathan asked.
Angel shook her head.
“Not as far as I know. The man had witnessed something horrifying and nearly died - they assumed he had a mental break. That’s when he started using blood magic, and the rest you already know.”
“So what you’re saying is that the witches might have known about this years ago and they did nothing about it?” Matt asked, his tone accusatory.
Angel stood and turned to face him. “The WEA may not be perfect, be they do the best they can with what they have. Are you going to try and tell me no Alpha has ever let anything slip through the cracks?”
“Enough.” Jonathan spoke only a single word, but it held a lot of power. They both fell silent, and Angel sat, forcing herself to look away from Matt. “Thank you for sharing this information with us, Angel. It is entirely possible that Jones was right, but it’s also entirely possible that he was just a sick man. We’ll probably never know, and it makes no difference now.”
Angel took a deep breath and sighed. The Master Alpha was right; they couldn’t change the past, they could just do their best with the information they had now.
“Other than these ‘whispers’ and the strange vampire behavior, have there been any other indications an attack might be imminent?” She asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jonathan replied. “Over the past few months, there have been several confirmed zombie sightings in northern Ontario and Quebec. At first glance, they appeared to be small, isolated incidents, but combined with these threats, I feel like they may be part of a bigger plan.”
“Zombies!?” Angel exclaimed. And when no one else seemed to respond, she turned to Caleb. “Zombies? You have got to be kidding me!” Jumping out of her chair, she started to pace, her skin crawling at the mere mention of the undead monsters.
“You don’t get upset about the mention of vampires, but zombies bother you this much?” Caleb asked, surprised.
“Little witch is afraid of zombies,” Matt commented rudely.
Angel whirled on him. “Do you even know what a zombie is?”
“Well, duh,” Matt replied, “it’s a reanimated corpse. Stumbles around, chews on people.”
“Wrong,” Angel told him, “very, very wrong.”
“Could you explain?” Jonathan asked.
“Sure,” Angel replied, “gladly. So, you know what a vampire is, right? Used to be human, now they have fangs, drink blood, can’t tolerate sunlight. They’re stronger and faster than wolves, and so long as they can get more blood, they can recover from nearly any injury. The only way to kill them is to destroy the heart or remove the head.”
“Vampires are not stronger than wolves,” Matt told her.
“Yes, they are,” Jonathan replied before Angel could, turning to Matt. “One-on-one, a vampire will beat a wolf any day. The only reason wolves are able to kill vampires is because we hunt in packs.” He turned back to Angel. “Continue, please.”
Angel nodded. “Okay, so that’s vampires. Zombies are what happens when turning a human into a vampire fails. I don’t know exactly what goes wrong, but a zombie is a vampire with very basic intelligence. All they want is food; they don’t eat flesh, like most people think, but they aren’t smart enough to find an artery to get blood from, so they just chew at the flesh until they get to the blood. The only way to control a zombie is through their maker, and even then they only understand very simple commands. Left to their own devices, zombies will just wander off, looking for food.”
“I still don’t see why zombies are worse than vampires,” Jesse said.
“Because,” Angel explained, “if you hurt a vampire, it feels pain. If you hurt it badly enough, it will stop attacking you or run away to heal itself. You could chop a zombie’s arm off, and it would keep chewing on you. They don’t register pain, they have absolutely zero survival instinct, they just want to eat. In the past, groups of zombies would wipe out entire towns before anyone was able to stop them.”
“So this is worse than we thought,” Jonathan concluded.
“Definitely,” A
ngel agreed.
“Will you help?” Jesse asked hopefully.
“Not a chance in hell,” Angel told him.
“Are you sure?” Jonathan asked. “We’re not even certain there is a legitimate threat. You’d be paid well, I can make sure of that.”
“There’s not enough money in the world,” Angel told him, flopping down on the couch next to Caleb. “And if you’re worried enough to consider throwing a witch into an enclosed space with a bunch of extremely dominant wolves, the threat is more than legitimate. I know you’re not asking for my opinion, but I’m going to give it anyway - you should cancel the conference. A zombie attack here could decimate the werewolf leadership, and that wouldn’t end well for a lot of people.”
“You’re right,” Jonathan said, “I do believe that there’s a significant threat, but there’s no way we can cancel the conference. Most of the Alphas are already here or on their way. To cancel now would cause a lot of problems as well. I understand your decision, and I won’t try to convince you to stay, but is there anything else you could tell us, anything that might help us if we do end up dealing with zombies?”
Angel ran her fingers through her hair, sighing deeply. “Let me see,” she began, searching her memory for anything useful. “Werewolf blood is still poisonous to zombies, but for some reason it has a delayed effect on them. Also, from what I can remember, one of the few things zombies are afraid of is fire.”
“That’s better than nothing,” Jesse commented.
“True,” Jonathan agreed.
“Oh,” Angel exclaimed, “if you kill a zombie’s maker, the zombie dies as well. Not sure if that will help, because any reasonably intelligent vampire would just let his zombies do the dirty work.”
Jonathan opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted when Angel’s cell phone started going off.
“Sorry,” she apologized.
Checking her phone, she saw “Mom” flashing on the screen. Angel stabbed the “Reject Call” button and stuffed the phone back into her pocket.
“Not a problem. Are there any potions that would be able to help?” Jonathan asked.
“Uh, you could maybe try some stunning spells. They might temporarily disable a zombie,” Angel explained.
“What about a fire spell?” Jesse asked.
“Wouldn’t work,” Angel replied. “Store bought fire spells are designed to not burn flesh. Fire spells that will burn flesh are highly regulated, not publicly available, and you need a license to make or use them. Technically, I do have a license, but very little experience with those kinds of things.” Her phone rang again. Again, it was her mother. Rolling her eyes, Angel turned to the wolves. “I’m really sorry, but if I don’t answer, she’s just going to keep calling.”
“Go ahead,” Jonathan insisted.
“Thank you,” Angel said, standing and moving to the opposite side of the room. The wolves continued to discuss the vampire/zombie situation. Stabbing the “Answer” button, she held the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mom,” she greeted her.
“Hello, dear, how are you?”
“Fine,” Angel replied. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to give you a call, see how you were doing.”
“I’m fine, Mom. Is that all?”
“Oh, no, dear, I wanted to remind you the Autumn Ball is this Friday. I know several of the young men from my Thanksgiving luncheon were interested in escorting you.”
“Mom, I’m not going to the Autumn Ball, especially not with anyone from your luncheon.”
“Why not?” Elizabeth managed to sound surprised, despite the fact that Angel had already made it clear she wouldn’t be going. “They were perfectly nice gentlemen, and they were even willing to overlook how rude it was of you to leave early without saying goodbye.”
“The only reason those ‘gentlemen’ were interested in me was because I shot William Warner. And I left because I didn’t feel like being the entertainment anymore.”
“Oh, Angel,” her mother scolded her, “don’t be so dramatic. They’re interested in your work. You should take it as a compliment.”
Angel rolled her eyes, held the phone away from herself, and shook it violently. It wasn’t until she heard Caleb snort that she realized the wolves were all watching her. It took her a moment to realize her mother was still talking.
“...and that Dean, he was just so polite. You know his father invented a–”
“That’s great, Mom,” Angel said, trying to sound enthusiastic, “but I’m afraid I still won’t be able to make it to the ball.”
“Why not?” she demanded, though she didn’t give Angel a chance to answer. “I know you’ve been down about not being able to go back to work - goodness knows why you miss all that anyway - but you should see this as an opportunity to meet new people and get out of that little shack of yours.”
“My house is not a shack!” Angel exclaimed.
“Honestly, Angel,” her mother continued as if she hadn’t said anything, “I’m surprised that place has indoor plumbing, but that’s another problem entirely. You need to get out more. I’m going to come by first thing tomorrow morning, and we’ll go shopping. You always complain about the dresses I pick for you, maybe this time we can find something you like. And then we can go to the spa and–”
“Gee, Mom,” Angel exclaimed, “that really sounds like fun, but I won’t be home tomorrow. Or the rest of the week, for that matter.”
“Oh, why not?”
“I, uh, I got a job,” Angel replied hesitantly.
“Oh, what kind of job?”
“Private security,” Angel told her. “Some paranoid bigwig wants magical protection. He’s paying big money, and basically all I have to do is wander around and make it look like I’m doing something useful.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth repeated, clearly disappointed. “Well, I suppose that’s better than sitting around your house all day. You’re sure you won’t be home in time for the ball?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Angel said, “the earliest I can leave is Saturday morning.”
“Oh, well that’s just too bad,” her mother said. “I guess we’ll have to wait until the Winter Ball, then.”
“I guess so,” Angel replied, trying to sound disappointed. “Anyway, I’m meeting with my client right now, so I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Alright, dear, be safe, love you!”
“I will,” Angel fibbed, “love you, too.”
She hit the “End Call” button, stuffed her phone in her pocket, and sat back down on the couch. Caleb was grinning at her.
“One word, and I will use a tracking spell on you,” she warned him. Caleb held up his hands, then mimed zipping his lip and throwing away the key. Turning to Jonathan, Angel shrugged. “Looks like you’ve got a witch on your security team,” she told him. “But if zombies do show up, I get paid double.”
“Sounds fair,” Jonathan replied. “Welcome aboard.”
“What does a tracking spell do?” Jesse asked.
“Turns you bright pink,” Angel explained.
Jesse burst into a fit of giggles, and even Jonathan smiled at the idea of Caleb being turned bright pink.
Chapter 16
It took another hour to go through the security plans and fit Angel in with wolves who would work well with her. For most of the week, it seemed she would be paired with Jesse, which suited Angel just fine. Jesse didn’t seem to have any problem with her being a witch, and he seemed like a generally nice guy. Caleb would be participating in several talks and discussions throughout the week, but he also took on some security jobs so he could work with Angel.
Aside from the fact that most attendees were werewolves, it seemed like your average conference. Breakfast in the morning, followed by a couple hours of talks, then lunch, then more talks, dinner, and some entertainment for the evening. There were several time slots during the week where Jonathan would hear requests and complaints from his Alphas, and he could either grant the req
uest or act as an arbitrator for disputes between packs. Angel was assured all attendees would be made aware of her presence and warned to leave her alone, but she was still expecting a fair bit of resistance; wolves and witches just didn’t tend to mix well.
After they’d sorted out the schedule, the wolves needed to discuss some additional details for the week, so Angel excused herself and headed down to the lobby. She wanted to get some additional equipment now that she had a better idea of what she might be dealing with.
“Excuse me,” Angel asked the receptionist politely, “do you have a phone book I could borrow?”
“Of course, Miss,” the young man replied, reaching behind the front desk and setting the large book in front of her. “Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“Yeah,” Angel said, flipping to the yellow pages, “but I think I can manage on my own. Thanks!”
It took only a few minutes to find what she was looking for, and luckily she still had a few hours before the shops closed. She got the receptionist to call her a cab, and ten minutes later she was headed downtown. The hotel was at the very north end of the city, so the trip took about 20 minutes with traffic. Slipping the driver a few bills, Angel slid out of the cab and took a look around at what passed for the Magic District in Barrie. It was pretty small; only a few potion shops, a plant store, and a weapons shop. Grinning, Angel strode up to Carl's Weaponry, pulled open the door, and stepped inside. A bell tinkled overhead, and Angel took a good look around while a voice called out from the back room.
“Be with you in a moment!”
“No problem,” she called back. These kinds of shops had always intrigued her, even though most of the weapons weren’t necessary for her job. Swords of all shapes and sizes hung on the walls, longbows and crossbows sat on a shelf behind the counter, and glass cases holding knives and other small weapons were spread around the room. After about a minute, a middle-aged, balding man - who was built like a linebacker - emerged from the back room.
“How can I help you, Miss?” he asked.
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