Fallen Blood (17 page)

"Well that's going make this a bit more difficult," he said to himself. But at least he would get to wander around on his own power. He had to admit, as he walked through the still closed door, that he felt in this instance it was a bonus. The first thing he saw was the empty parking lot as he emerged from the other side of the door. A quick glance around the immediate area revealed nothing. Not that he expected the big guy to hang around outside at whatever time of the night it was. After all, if it was another customer then he was here to sleep.
Yeah, right after he eats another pizza,
he thought, and laughed to himself.

That was when he heard it.

"Who goes there?" The voice was gravely, almost like a low guttural growl. At the same instant he noticed movement off to his left. He wasn't sure where the thing had been hiding when he first stepped out of the door, as he could not believe anything that big could have escaped his notice. It was huge and bulky and walked like a giant ape. Yet, no ape that he had ever seen had such a large wolf like snout, filled with rows of sharp teeth that he could see even from where he stood. The thing was covered in thick black fur, and its head seemed to be somewhere between the area of dog-like or wolf-like, yet not quite either. Two large red orbs sat in the place where its eyes should have been, while its pointed ears stood up straight and tall and pointed directly at him.

"Identify yourself!" It said in that guttural growl again. This time, Brian could see that its snout didn't move as he heard the words, instead, it sounded like it had come from inside his own head, despite the fact that he could clearly tell the direction and source of the voice.

Whatever the thing was, it could see him while he was in his traveling form. Nothing else ever had. And it wasn't in his realm, it threw a shadow against the motel building, so it had to be in the real world.

"Who are you, and why do you trespass here?" Brian answered, hoping that he sounded sure of himself, though he wasn't entirely certain it would hear him.

"I am Terrgoreith, and I have been authorized to hunt." Brian watched as it stepped out into the open parking lot and stood up to its full height. It was gigantic. It had to be as tall as the largest basketball player he had ever seen, but its shoulders were as wide and broad as Brian himself was tall. Now completely exposed in the parking light, Brian could see that he was mistaken about it being wolf like. Now he could plainly see that it could only be a werewolf, and the largest one he had ever seen in any movie.

"Answer me, why do you interrupt my sanctioned hunt? By what authority do you accost me?"

Here is the question...
Brian asked himself.
If he can see me and talk to me, does this mean he can hurt me as well?
He would have to guess yes just to be on the safe side. Yet, what was he supposed to do? The thing clearly recognized Brian as something superior, that he asked for his authorization. And, based on the size of its shadow, he guessed this was the fat guy he was looking for. He had no choice but to play this to the end, because he had a deathly feeling that what it hunted was sleeping next to him just one small door away.

"You have no right to be here. Go back to wherever you're from." Brian said loud and firm, and he waved his arm to point out of the parking lot.

The werewolf sat back on its haunches, seeming confused, as its ears turned back and forth, following sounds Brian couldn't detect. A thin hope began to rise inside Brian, Perhaps werewolves took orders from vampires? He had seen movies where they served them before. If he were lucky, this would be the case. Then again, there were a lot of movies that werewolves and vampires were at war with each other, as well.

"Very well." It finally answered. "Give me the authorization code, and I will stop the hunt."

Authorization code? What authorization code. Why would a werewolf require an
authorization code
? This was insane! How was he supposed to deal with
that
?

But, the fact of the matter is, he deferred to me. That means he recognized me as a person in authority. Maybe I could bluff my way out of this. After all, I've seen it work before.

"Are you questioning my authority?" Brian mustered all the indignation he could. "You are in my territory, I do not answer to the likes of you. You will stand down and leave this place...
now
!"

The werewolf looked visibly shaken, and it looked as if it were tensing to leave, before it stopped itself then asked. "Which coven are you a member of.?"

Coven? Why wont this stupid dog just leave? Why does it keep making this harder and harder?

"Are you questioning
me
again?" Brian tried to look as fierce as he could, the thought of him holding a flaming blade came to mind as he pictured himself looking as fierce as possible. In answer to that thought, the blade appeared in his hand, which was a trick he had learned long ago in his traveling form. The reality was dream-like, after all, which was why he could enter Heather's dreams in it, and just as in dreams, here he could fly, or make weapons, or do anything else he chose to. Hopefully a nonexistent flaming sword would cow the werewolf and make him go on his way.

It produced the exact opposite reaction. The great beast stood up to its full height once more, and growled—no, it actually
screamed--
into his head.

"You
dare
to threaten me? I am Terrgoreith. I am the alpha of Warren pack. I answer directly to the Annunaki himself!"

Crap. This isn't going well.

"You invaded my territory--" Brian began to shout, but was quickly cut off.

"And for such a minor offense, you threaten an alpha of the Warren?" It roared. "For such an offense, you shall be clawed!"

Whatever that meant, Brian was sure it couldn't be good. He could see lights going on in various motel rooms, he even thought he heard someone behind him yelling "911! Get the police!"

Yeah, like the police were going to help with this. He would have told them to bring silver bullets but he was sure that even if the werewolf could hear him, the stranger behind him couldn't. Brian jumped to the right, as the Terrgoreith smashed down where he had been standing moments before, and pavement shattered and sprayed up into the air. The fact that he was traveling allowed Brian to move even faster than normal, otherwise he doubted he would have avoided that unannounced pounce.

"Show your real self, coward!" The werewolf snarled. "Are you afraid of a little clawing?”

"Here, I thought cats only clawed things. Dogs are supposed to bite, aren't they?" Brian quipped, at the same time looking for where he could go if the wolf should attack him again. At least he was leading it further away from Heather.

"
Dog
? Did you refer to
me
as a
dog
?" Again, the werewolf attempted to catch him with a quick leap to where he was standing, but avoiding him was as easy as a thought, as he realized that actually trying to run or jump was a mistake, given that he wasn't
really
standing there.

"You can't avoid me forever, Vampire."

"At least until the police arrive, though?" Brian smiled and leaned back against a light pole, crossing his arms while the flaming blade flickered near his face. He had to make sure that he didn't fall through the darn thing, as it really wasn't there for him.

"You would let the mortals fight for you?" The thing shook its head in disgust. "Your coven must be so proud of you."

"And your trainer must think highly of you as well. Too bad I don't have a doggy treat to reward you with. Oh, wait, reward you for what? Making a fool of yourself and being caught by the humans?"

The werewolf paused and looked around at all the faces that were now peering from windows and doors looking at it.

"You, too, will be held accountable." It said at a lower tone, as it looked as if it were trapped.

"Wrong. No one can see me, remember?"

The thing stopped, and its great red orbs bulged out of its head at him. Saliva poured out of one side of its mouth as the sounds of distant sirens could be now heard.

"Oops. Do you hear that? Here come the dog catchers now."

"Very well...you have bested me this time, little one. I shall not forget this slight you have brought to my pack and my name."

"Whatever." Brian said then pretended to yawn, while bringing up his free hand to pat his open mouth.

"One boon vampire.”

"Hurry up, Lassie, this is getting old fast."

"Your name." The thing growled. The sirens sounded as if they could be no more than a couple of blocks away.

"I don't see--"

"By the eleventh accords, I demand your name."

Brian considered not answering, but in the end could see no reason why not. "My name, you ask?"

"Yes. Your name."

"
Edward,
" he answered.

"Very well, Edward. Until we meet again." Red and blue lights flooded the parking lot, as the great Were turned and bounded to the motel building, jumping to its roof as the police pulled into the parking lot. Brian watched as it disappeared over the roof.

Police jumped from their cars, pulling guns and running in the direction it had gone. One of the officers Brian could hear radioing for animal control. Brian paused by him, and whispered into his ear. “Good idea, you're going to need all the backup you can get.”

Smiling at his own wittiness, Brian sauntered back into his room, only to see Heather standing over him, violently shaking his body up and down in what he hoped was an attempt to wake him.

"Wake up, damn you." It wasn't the most pleasant first thing he heard upon waking, but the red eyes and wet face said immediately that she had been crying. She couldn't have been awake for very long as the police had just barely shown up, yet from all appearances one would have thought it had been a lot longer.

"Heather. Relax." He grabbed her shoulders as she shook him. Her eyes widened when she realized he had finally woken up, but still she held onto him, shaking him still, but with less of a sense of emergency.

"They're here," she said, "and I couldn't wake you." She finally let go of him, and sat down on the bed next to him. A sob escaped her as she hid her face in her hands, her golden hair spilling forward, and concealing her tears.

"Heather, it's okay," he put his arm around her and hugged her as he sat up. "They're not here for you."

"How do you know that?" She turned her tearful eyes to him. "They could be, have you looked?"

"Shh, it's just the police, and yes, I did look."

"How could you, you were asleep? You said you didn't sleep."

Brian smiled and tried to look as calming as possible as he answered her. "I was patrolling outside."

"You were what?" She stopped crying and pinned him with a skeptical look.

"I was traveling." He said, as a knock came from the door.

"They're here, they're here!" She jumped back further on the bed, grabbing blankets and pulling them up to her chest.

"It's alright, Heather. Calm down." He stood up, and stretched his hands in her direction trying to calm her. The knock at the door came again, and he yelled over his shoulder. "Just a second!"

"Now, wait right there, and don't do anything stupid. They're not here for us."

She sat there wide eyed, fear completely filling her face. He couldn't believe that she was so scared that they might come for her. Earlier in the day, she acted as if everything was alright, in fact ignoring the Chuck incident, she was taking everything pretty well, he'd thought. Now he could see she was just putting up a good front. Or, at least, she had. He had to admit a lot of crazy things had gone on over the last few days. Her life had completely collapsed, her family and boyfriend were missing. She'd been arrested multiple times, been in jail, witnessed the death of agents and an officer, and even seen some kind of ghost of her boyfriend. What wasn't there in her life that was odd? Oh, and he almost forgot. She had found out she was traveling with a vampire.