Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (25 page)

“The pack didn’t smell them in time?”

“They were down wind and their scents didn’t carry to us. By the time we knew the hunters were there, Sally had been shot. Ray and the others used cover to find the shooter, but you saw the wounds from their traps. They must have expected a pack of wolves and used them as defenses to try and pick us off. I’m not sure why your ranger was there. She didn’t have a rifle, but clipped Ray with a pistol when he charged her.”

Shaking his head at the complete mess the pack had made, Nick said, “You hunted the same area too many times in a row. I found signs of you there months ago and even warned Eric that hunters might be brought in if the rangers became worried over a wolf problem. Now you’ve killed at least one human, and that will bring attention to this section even more. You can’t keep risking being discovered or you will be soon enough.”

The woman’s eyes’ narrowed at him telling her what to do. Only Eric could command the pack and they both knew it. Nick took a moment before asking, “What is Eric going to do with them?”

She shrugged and turned back towards the kitchen dismissively. They both knew this could only end one of two ways.

Thinking to his blood’s ability to remove a vampire’s curse before it could take hold; the voran considered using that to stop these two from becoming werewolves or at least offering the option to Eric. Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem that these two now knew about werewolves and could spread the tale. Eric wouldn’t permit that to happen so it came back to just the two options again.

He turned from the screen and the prisoners to see Logan wiping his forehead as he stepped back from Sally. Needle with thread was already in hand. The thread had been cut since he had already finished digging the bullet out carefully to avoid the main artery and had sewn up the wound.

“Make sure she eats some protein and drinks lots of fluids. All her werewolf biology needs now is some fuel and she’ll heal now that the bullet is free. She’s sewn up, so just keep a fresh bandage on her shoulder for a few days.”

The former doctor checked Ray and found that neither bullet had lodged and closed the wounds with a few stitches before moving to those injured from metal spring traps. Such traps weren’t humane and these had been strong enough to hold a bear. Only the strength of werewolves could shrug the injuries off in a few days, and Logan went to work on stitching both men to make sure there wouldn’t be any substantial blood loss.

With his pack in good hands, Eric joined Nick in discussing his captives. “What are you planning to do with them?” the voran asked immediately in spite of the pack leader’s recent hectic morning.

“We can burn the dead hunter and offer the other two a place in the pack after they turn,” the man stated quietly. “As long as no one died in the pack, no one will be determined to kill them for revenge.”

While Nick was glad that the man was at least considering letting them live, even if it was as a pack member; he wished that there was a way to set them free. “Will you be able to keep them from running back to their families? There will be people looking for them.”

“This isn’t my first time dealing with humans stumbling across the pack. Once they realize what they are and not just what we are, people tend to come around. The first time a werewolf turns can be in the safety of a cage or with their family, like Logan’s unfortunate first turning.

“I was able to save Kate when I heard of the wolf attack five years ago in Kentucky. Since I was in the area, I went to her and knew she was a werewolf before she had even turned the first time. Unfortunately, I didn’t know of the intern Kate had passed her infection on to with a combination of the scratch and her blood.

“I only learned of the attack on Charlotte and her parents the day after the full moon in the news. Kentucky hadn’t seen wolves in the state in over a century. The only way a stray wolf shows up is if it is one of us.”

His eyes gave the voran a knowing look. Humans had tried hard to wipe out wolves from a majority of the states where people tended to settle most. When the two tried to occupy the same space, it was the wild life that suffered before man would allow them to attack them.

“She’s a forest ranger,” Nick nodded towards the television. “I met Raina when I was looking for you. Your pack created too much of a mess in the woods and brought the hunters. She probably showed them the sights of your hunts letting them find the best places they could think of to take on your pack. They’ve probably been staking the woods out for a few weeks.”

Eric’s eyes lowered slowly and his voice said that he knew he was being accused, “So I am to blame for taking my pack back too many times, is that what you are saying?”

“If I could find you, even human hunters had a shot when you kept coming back.”

A frown crossed the wolf’s lips and he stated, “I know how to hide my pack. They got lucky, but next month we will have to find somewhere else to hunt.”

The voran nodded as the two looked at the picture of the two humans looking frightened in their cage. “I can go talk to them,” Nick offered.

With a wave of his hand, Eric stated, “Feel free, but do not try to open the cage. We keep them in there until the first change since no one can be sure when it will happen. Sometimes stress and fear will cause them to change early or we will wait until the next full moon. Either way, we can’t let them roam free for fear of what they might do.”

“Are you afraid of them running away and telling people or having them turning into werewolves and killing other humans?”

Eric raised an eyebrow looking slightly amused by the question, “Does it matter which happens? Either way leads to destruction. Now go ahead and talk to your little ranger friend. She may as well know that she isn’t going anywhere.”

Knowing Eric was right didn’t make him feel better, but the voran had been covering the trails of vampires for decades, so certainly werewolves were no worse. Most of what he had tried to keep from human eyes was the death brought by vampires; at least two of the three were still alive even if they needed to join the pack.

Charlotte noticed the two men moving for the basement door and quickly moved to tag along. She had been through several turnings and knew that she was more likely to be of help than Nick despite what he thought he knew. Neither man disputed her presence, so they followed Eric down the stairs.

The noise on the steps brought a pair of voices calling out for help, but no one beyond the basement was likely to hear save for the other werewolves who were used to such pleas. As the sound proofed door pulled closed, even the wolves would no longer hear the two prisoners. Seeing Eric, the two stopped. They knew he was one of those that had taken them; but seeing Nick, the woman in the cage looked shocked.

“Mr. Steel? What are you doing here?” Raina asked while her voice still held fear that made her tremble.

“I was called about an incident in the forest preserve,” he said gently looking over the two prisoners. Their wounds may have been a bit bloody though some of it may have been werewolf blood based on the injuries to the four above them, but Nick thought they would survive. Having discovered werewolves, the voran had actually begun looking through some of the newspapers from around the country online. The amount of animal attacks and those who seemed to have disappeared often coincided with either werewolves or vampires. Humans labeled the deaths animal attacks, but he had a feeling many had nothing to do with natural predators.

“We attempted to trap the wolf pack that you were looking for, but instead these... creatures appeared and killed Jack. They nearly killed us as well! Now they’ve kidnapped us.” Sudden realization that he wasn’t moving to do anything brought distrust into her eyes and the woman questioned, “Are you one of them?”

Shaking his head, Nick walked over to a chair beside a table and sat down. “I was searching for them to see if werewolves existed and to find a missing girl.”

“Werewolves?!” the hunter cried looking half deranged from the sights he had seen. “There are no such things as werewolves. Obviously these people use large hunting dogs and captured us to silence us!”

Eric raised an eyebrow as he glanced to Nick. Apparently, the pack leader wasn’t too sure this man was worthy of joining his pack. While few humans took the first days well, to have seen what he had and still refuse to believe, made the hunter less than likely to be a good pack member. If the man went insane from the incident in the woods, the werewolf would simply add the hunter to the bodies being burned.

Nick pointed to the bars of the cage and asked, “Have you noticed this cage you are in now? They put you there for everyone else’s safety as much as your own. You are already infected with the virus, since you were indeed attacked by werewolves.”

Raina looked at her shirt, stained red with blood, and her hands stopped short of touching it for fear of what she would find underneath. “Are you saying that we’ll turn into werewolves too?” she asked as tears began to well up in her eyes.

The hunter looked at her like she was mad and screamed, “There are no such things are werewolves! Get a grip, woman! They’ve kidnapped us and now they just want to make you afraid.

“You can’t keep us here! I know my rights! Let us out, you criminals!” the manic man continued to scream moving into profanity as he shook the bars.

Eric shook his head and started for the cage as if to end the man before he had time to adjust. Nick put out his hand and suggested, “Give us a few minutes before you give up on him, Eric. You can always return later. Why don’t you check on the others and leave these two to Charlotte and me for a little bit?”

Donning a slight smile of amusement, the werewolf nodded and replied, “Why not? You can see what it is like for once. I have a sixth sense about these things, but I don’t mind letting you try. It’s a long way to the next full moon after all.”

After the pack leader climbed the stairs closing the door again, Charlotte said quietly, “He’s usually right, Nick, but if you want me to show them and see if he’ll come around, I can.”

Knowing what she meant to do and realizing how much better she must be feeling after last night, Nick nodded and watched as Charlotte pulled a second chair from the other side of the table. She removed her shoes and noted where there was blood on the floor with distaste. For all the changes that came with being a werewolf, Charlotte had always been referred to as the show dog of the pack, not just because of her good looks. Blood and the frenzy of werewolves had never set well with the dark, haired woman.

She set her shoes on the table and her bare feet on the concrete floor before pulling off her jeans. Carefully folding them and placing them on the table, Charlotte looked to Nick with a small smile before pulling her shirt over her head revealing her bare breasts.

The hunter hooted from the cage noticing the show as he forgot the rest of his problems for a moment. “Maybe this has all just been some freaky nightmare and now it’s becoming a dream!” the hunter hollered still refusing to acknowledge reality.

Raina looked on with disgust as Charlotte removed the shorts dropping them on Nick playfully before stroking the length of his nose. She was playful despite having to strip for the strangers and probably those viewing from the big screen above.

Turning to face the two in the cage, Charlotte stated, “Just watch and you’ll understand, or you won’t; but this is to help you comprehend what you faced last night in the forest.”

In seconds, the brunette shifted from her human form with only a few groans of pain as her body shifted. A new coat of gray fur covered the woman and only her blue eyes remained. The red hadn’t come, Nick noticed as Charlotte glanced at him before striding closer to the cage.

Raina had gasped, but the man simply cackled, “Wow, this is a weird dream! No way that can happen.” He pinched his arm as if that would wake him from his sleep.

Moving towards the wolf in awe, the ranger moved to the front of the cage bravely facing the wolf. Charlotte moved into arm’s reach where the ranger placed her hand on the head of the wolf. Morphing in moments, Charlotte returned to her human self and took the other woman’s hand in her own. Her eyes pled for her to understand as the pretty brunette nodded before standing to return to Nick.

He held out her shorts and the beautiful werewolf began to dress once more. Standing, the voran moved closer to Raina realizing that Eric might be right about the hunter’s mental state. Squatting before her, Nick nodded to the forest ranger and said, “They’ll keep you here until you change and can learn to control the wolf. If you leave, you might wind up leaving victims like Charlotte and her brother. Their parents died and they were turned into werewolves without understanding what they were.

“You don’t want to kill anyone or turn them into werewolves by mistake do you?”

Raina looked ready to agree and was resigned to her fate, if not her new life; but the hunter rushed to the side of the cage knocking the woman aside and grabbed for Nick’s arm.

“Let me out of here! I don’t care what happens. I can’t live in a cage!” the man screamed holding onto the voran’s wrist.

Nick looked at his face and saw red glowing eyes. With his other hand, he waved Raina back even as he could sense Charlotte tensing behind him ready to come to his aid. The ranger slid back to the far corner quickly and fearfully, while the voran maintained eye contact with the new werewolf.