Hair, Greg - Werewolf 01 (17 page)

“Dad, you don’t understand,” Landon responded through his tears.

“Oh, I understand a lot more than you do. I understand that you need to avoid all the fights that you can. I don’t care what you have to do, and I don’t care what it makes you look like. You think all of these other kids are always going to be your friends? Think again. You’re not like them; you need to stay away from everyone.”

And that’s where it always ended:
You’re not like them;
stay away.
Landon, of course, always wondered,
what does
he mean I’m not like them?
Allen rarely made any sense to his son. Little did Landon and Jean know, though, that Allen’s strangest move was yet to come.

18

Jamie knocked on LillyAnna’s door. No answer. He knocked again, receiving the same response. Pushing the door open slowly, he peered inside to find she wasn’t there. He wanted to see if she was okay. He wanted to apologize again for what he’d done to her. He wanted to tell her that he would never intentionally hurt her.

Moving closer to Landon’s room, he heard noises coming from inside. Leaning against the door’s wooden façade, the muffled whisperings reverberated in his ear. He knew who it was. It was them. It was her, and she was with him. He listened a few seconds more to the laughter and soft-spoken words that moved through the door, piercing his head. Jamie imagined it was himself holding her.

Hearing footsteps approaching, he quickly backed away from the door, continuing on his path, and outside into the main courtyard, to just below Landon’s balcony. The curtains were drawn, but the windows were open so that the breeze occasionally swayed the thin white veils back and forth. Then the wind picked up the sounds from Landon’s room, delivering them down to Jamie, providing his teenage angst with a soundtrack that would remain in his head for a long time to come.

He looked up at the sky, the moon that hung overhead. It struck him that it was a full moon, and he remembered what Landon had said about full moons— they provide an intoxicating effect. Jamie closed his eyes, listening to the sounds from above. Then, his mind heard a different voice.
Come, drink from my ever-flowing
fountain of light
.
I will never betray you. I understand the
phases through which you go; I have gone through them since
the beginning and will until the end. I will be your mistress.

Jamie opened his eyes and ran, ripping his clothes off as he went, out of the main entrance, jumping over the gate, and into the wooded area that bordered the castle walls. The lower tree limbs left scratches as he ran by, and then, seconds later, they began to collect fur.

Jamie noticed that he had less balance than before, stumbling from time to time, knocking over small trees as he bumped into them. Down the hill, toward the town, he rolled. The great blond beast tried to stand when he reached bottom, but only fell backwards back onto the ground. Then he noticed an old man carrying empty buckets to his home that had been used to put out the fires.

Jamie slinked along close to the ground, breathing heavily, his heart rate increasing. He stopped and sat still for a moment. The trees and old buildings that surrounded him seemed to dance around the area. Now there were two old men carrying buckets. Now three. Or was there still only one? The blurred vision made it difficult to tell. The werewolf snorted as Jamie laughed to himself from inside. This was ten times better than any drug.

He inched closer to the old man, men, whatever. It didn’t matter to Jamie if there were fifty old men carrying buckets; this was fun. He crouched lower as the unsuspecting villager walked toward the bushes. Just a couple more steps.

Jamie leaped up with a terrible roar, the old man dropping his buckets, stumbling backwards, and falling onto the ground clutching his chest. The werewolf snorted again as it stood there watching the downed figure grab his arm. Other townsfolk, hearing the commotion, ran toward the scene. Jamie darted back into the woods and found a vantage point halfway up the hill to watch from above what was happening below. He transformed back so he could hear more clearly, without the intoxicated effects, what was being said.

“Werwolf,” the old man said. “Werwolf.” That was the last word ushered from his lips.

The villagers looked up toward the hill, trying to peer through the trees, into the darkness. Spying nothing, they picked up the body and carried it to its former home, shutting the door and locking it. Jamie lumbered up the hill to return to the confines of the castle walls. Climbing to the balcony outside his room, he quickly changed to his human form and jumped into bed.

19

Jamie awoke the next morning to the sound of an argument taking place down the grand hall. Getting dressed, he tracked the commotion to the dining room. Landon, LillyAnna, Ryker, Annelise, and Nicholas were already seated when he arrived at the table.

“Well, look who decides to sleep until almost noon,” said Ryker. “Why were you up so late last night—out killing old people?”

“It’s not funny,” said Annelise. “He’s kidding, Jamie.”

“He’s knows I’m kidding. We know it wasn’t him.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Jamie asked, doing his best to earn the German equivalent of an Oscar.

“An old man was killed last night,” said Landon.

“Died is more like it. Killed implies that he was attacked,” LillyAnna said.

“Whatever. An old man
died
last night, and the last thing he said was ‘werewolf.’ There hasn’t been a villager killed by someone at Burghausen in hundreds of years.”

“It wasn’t me,” Jamie said.

“We know that,” said Landon. “Not only do we trust you, but Nicholas vouched for you saying that he saw you sitting by the fireplace in the Blood Room until the early morning, and then you went to bed.”

“Well, it was
someone
here at the castle,” Nicholas said. “The Consuls are convening the Senate soon to get to the bottom of it.”

“The Senate?” asked Jamie.

“Yes,” he replied. “We have coexisted with the townspeople for hundreds of years without incident. Now, they’re not ready to evict us yet because of all the good that we do for them, but they do want the proper person brought to justice. And rightly so.”

LillyAnna stood from the table and walked over to Jamie.

“Can I see you for a moment in private?” she asked.

He could see a smile that he hadn’t seen in the entire week he had known her. She was beaming. So was Landon.

“Sure,” he said.

She led him out of the dining room and into the massive kitchen where she told the staff of five to give them some privacy.

“I’m not mad anymore,” she began. “I know you didn’t mean to do it. It was your first change, and you were confused. If I were to resent you for this, I would have to resent meeting Landon as well. My ex-boyfriend Scott tried to help, but he couldn’t because he didn’t understand what I was going through. Landon understands me. I do believe that you gave me a gift—two actually. The first gift was when you made me a werewolf, which then led to the second gift, meeting Landon.” She blushed. “I just wanted you to know that I forgive you. You’ve become a great friend.”

Her arms flew around him, pulling him closer for a warm embrace. He reached his arms around her and squeezed tightly. Her body was the most wonderful thing he’d ever touched. Landon popped his head into the kitchen.

“Hey, guys, Nicholas just got a note that the Senate has convened. They want to see all of us.”

LillyAnna let go of Jamie and walked out with the others. All Jamie could do was stand there with his hand on the cold steel of the kitchen counter, listening to bacon sizzle on the burner. He looked down to see his fingernails had extended about an inch. He left the kitchen and joined the others down the hall as they made their way to the Chamber.

After extending all appropriate courtesies, Joseph, the Consul Vampire, spoke. “A terrible incident has occurred in the town. One of our own has, either willfully or unintentionally, caused the death of an elder villager. I know that you have been made aware of this. Rest assured, we will find the person responsible, and a punishment will be handed out.”

“However,” said Seamus, “we have more pressing matters at the moment. We have received a communication from our contact in the FBI at Quantico that urgently requests our assistance. It seems there’s a serial killer in the US who has no discernable pattern. He or she moves from city to city randomly, kills one woman, removes their heart, and then moves on. We’re sending your team, Landon, to track this person down and dispense justice swiftly.”

“I humbly accept, sir.”

“You will stay tonight,” said Joseph, “leave tomorrow, and return upon completion of your mission so that LillyAnna and Jamie may fulfill their training requirements.”

“Yes, sir.”

Seamus handed a file folder to Nicholas, who then gave it to Landon.

“You will find inside all known information regarding the killer,” said Seamus. “Photos of the crime scenes, a map of the US with those cities marked, and more detailed maps of each city that shows where the victims lived and where their bodies were found.”

“Understood. Will Ryker be joining us?”

“No,” answered Joseph. “He will be staying to help flush out the werewolf that caused the villager’s death.”

“Very well,” said Landon. “We’ll be ready first thing in the morning.”

Jamie and LillyAnna followed Landon out of the Chamber, back down the Great Hall to their respective bedrooms, and began packing for their trip back to the States.

Moments later, Annelise knocked on LillyAnna’s door and poked her head in.

“Hey,” said Annelise, “we haven’t had any girl time. Mind if I come in and help you pack?”

“Not at all,” LillyAnna said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you anyway, how did you and Ryker meet?”

Annelise walked over to the closet and pulled out a few of the werewolf’s winter outfits. Her half-hearted smile belied the pain she was trying to hide. A tear dropped to the floor.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Of course, not. I was born the daughter of a peasant in the year 1366 in Denmark,” Annelise began.

At the age of twenty-one, the beautiful, statuesque blonde was attacked on the outskirts of her village by a werewolf and left for dead. As she lay dying, wondering why the beast didn’t kill her, a vampire, Louisa, found her and took mercy upon her. Only immediate death or the bite of a vampire can stop a werewolf’s bite from taking over.

Louisa taught Annelise how to feed and survive. She also explained to the new vampire that she could never return to her village for death awaited her once people discovered what she had become. As a consequence of her newfound life, she never saw her family again. Eventually, Louisa and Annelise parted ways, the latter wandering from town to town for another eighty-two years until she met Ryker.

She made her way to Copenhagen for the first time, where she saw Ryker walking among the townspeople. He was indeed as handsome then as now, his blond goatee just as prominent. He was her first and only love. They soon began seeing each other every day, only during small windows of opportunity, however, for he wasn’t permitted to court peasants. There were more appropriate women from whom he was to choose a wife. His father, Christopher III, was King of Denmark, which made Ryker the prince.

Ryker would always tell her to meet him somewhere within the forest away from all other people. His father soon uncovered the truth, however, and forbade his son to see her any further. His son obliged, or so the king thought.

The next time they saw each other was the first night they made love. That night had been one of the coldest in recent memory, and he brought with him several furs they used to keep warm.

Not long after, minor trouble arose between two families in a village just to the south, with Ryker being dispatched with a few men as peacemakers. Word quickly spread among the peasantry that something had gone wrong, though. A few hours later he returned to the castle, though not in the same condition as when he had left. A stray arrow still pierced his side from fighting that had broken out when he arrived at the southern village. There was nothing that could be done.

Annelise snuck into the castle to Ryker’s chamber, finding him awake, and in tremendous pain.

“I’m sorry,” she said, tears streaming.

“Sorry for what?” Ryker asked, wincing.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.”

“You would only have put yourself in danger. There was nothing you could have done to help me.”

“That’s not entirely true,” she said, not looking him in the eyes. “I could have done something.”

“There was nothing you could have done. I only need now for your prayers for my soul. I long to spend eternity with you, roaming the landscape of Heaven.”

She held his hand, squeezing it tightly. “What if we could have spent eternity roaming the landscape of Earth, together?”

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“I could have saved you. I am a vampire.”

“A vampire? No. Your soul.”