Unknown Touch (8 page)

Zac chose to be the driver with Eli sitting in the front passenger seat. Dom, Tessa and I sat in the other seats, trying to make ourselves as comfy as possible. We drove in silence for about thirty minutes. Everyone was engrossed in their own thoughts wondering what to expect on this mission and hoping for success. The radio was playing low for background sound, which I appreciated. I sat staring out the side window as I daydreamed and tossed a few things around in my head.

I had never met a werewolf face to face before today, or not that I was aware of at the time if and when I had. After all, my parents and I had been down to Daniel's resort back in October and I must have come into contact with werewolves then. I just didn't know it. They had blended in perfectly with humans. I didn't recall anything out of the ordinary during that trip. Daniel had not introduced himself to us, either, although he was definitely out and about in the area at that time. According to the time line laid out by Eli and Dom, Daniel was probably dealing with trouble that Stephen had gotten himself in to. And, like Dom had told me, werewolves have heightened senses and that would include the sixth sense of perception and intuition. Without realizing it at the time, I had picked up on emotional turmoil and aggression Daniel was actively pumping out. This had continued to strengthen the mental connection between us. How interesting. How very disturbing.

I asked, "How many werewolves are down there?"

Eli responded, "There are approximately fourteen from what I last remember. Daniel has nine in his pack. They all live at one of the three resorts or near the campgrounds he owns. Stephen's pack has about five. We're not completely sure that all the wolves in Stephen's pack have turned bad, though."

"Well, what made the pack split up?" I prompted. I knew I should have asked these questions over the last two weeks. The team had filled me in a little with basic information but now I wanted some serious details.

Eli continued, "We know there were disagreements between Daniel and Stephen over living arrangements and day to day responsibilities at the resorts. They also argued greatly over what was considered acceptable werewolf behavior to avoid exposing themselves to the public. It is of the utmost importance that they not bring undue attention to themselves. They absolutely must be a normal part of society. They simply cannot go around acting like primeval beasts, threatening or killing humans."

"So, needless to say," Dom chimed in at this point while Eli caught his breath, "Stephen did not want to listen to Daniel chastising him anymore. Stephen got a few others wound up and got them thinking they wanted to break away from Daniel, too. Without much notice, five took off about a year ago and lived in a dilapidated cabin out in the middle of nowhere for about a month. Then one of them, named Simon, bought a wood-working business and most of them work in it now. Simon does have good business sense. Stephen takes off a lot and just doesn't follow anyone's rules. He is considered the Alpha male in that pack now, although Simon owns and runs the business. You would think Simon would be the Alpha male, but because of Stephen's major macho attitude and aggression, he's the leader."

I kept going, "I don't believe anyone has mentioned female werewolves in this pack, are there any?"

"Oh, definitely!" Eli took his turn explaining this time. "I guess we tend to get so caught up referring to the men, the male werewolves, and haven't talked about the females. Let me think for a second…there are three females with Daniel's pack and two with Stephen's pack."

I jumped in with a faint memory of something Daniel had told me during our dream telepathy, "Daniel said he had a wife who was violently killed. That's all he said and left it at that."

"We don't know all the details," Eli went on, "and I'll probably let Daniel, if he chooses, fill you in on that one. What I do know is that her name was Mary and she was wrongly killed - hung by the neck as a matter of fact. This was very long ago and Daniel has remained without any true female companion ever since. It is all rather a sad story. He does have a brother and sister who live at the resorts. The sister is married and they have kids. But I'm positive Daniel still feels very lonely and confused about life in general. He carries a huge weight on his shoulders since he is the Alpha male in this pack. It was devastating for him to have the pack split up after so many long years together. He feels responsible somehow."

I had another question, "How come we're just now having this conversation? Why didn't we talk about some of this before?" I actually felt a little irritated, like I had been left out of the loop after all.

"You didn't ask. It's as simple as that, Kara," Dominic explained, "The Liaison, as a group, had voted unanimously to keep from bombarding you with too much information. We knew you were totally overwhelmed with this endeavor. Remember, we did kind of abduct you? That first day or two you were with us, I had to try so hard to keep from rambling on and on about every little detail. I wanted so badly for you to understand everything and know all about us and the mission and stories about werewolves and other races…ahhh…But it's complete overload for anyone's brain to handle during the short time we've had you under our wing. We just gave you what you needed, hoped you wouldn't freak out and as you gradually started asking questions, we'd fill you in." Dominic had that sweet look about him as he sat next to me in the van. I touched at his mind and discovered his concern for me and extreme compassion. I reached over and rubbed his arm. Mentally I said to him,
Thanks, Dom
.
You've handled me pretty well.
Oh, gee, that rolled off my mind wrong. 'Handled me'? Yeah, I bet he'd like to handle me from some of the emotions I had picked up from him over the last few weeks. I about burst out laughing, but tried to stick with a huge smile.

Interesting choice of words there. How about this one? I've got a lot more to cover…with you?
Another play on words that could be taken one of two ways. Dom smiled back with that male cockiness just oozing off of him. I flicked his right arm in playfulness. Tessa glanced over at us, shaking her head, assuming the two of us were mentally bonding with our unspoken conversations we frequently had.

I entered into her mind, gently making my presence known, and said jokingly,
Tessa, Dom here needs to get out more often. I think he's full of himself.

She thought,
This is so awesome. Have I said that before? Yeah, he does seem to like you a bit, I'd say - or think!
She was getting a kick out of this. As the three of us sat in the back seat, smiling and not saying a word, Zac looked into his inside rearview mirror. Dom and I noticed his head and eye movement immediately. Zac had this puzzled look as I searched his thoughts and heard,
Now what is going on back there?

In unspoken unison, Dom and I dove into Zac's mind and said,
We're reading minds!
Zac slightly jerked at the steering wheel caught off guard by our instant intrusion.
Sorry.
Again, Dom and I together mentally spoke to Zac.

I had an idea as I established the mental path with Tessa.
Tessa, I want to try something. Dom, are you there, too?

Yeah, what's up?

I was excited and had to remain focused. I continued the telepathy with,
Okay, the three of us are now communicating. Let's pull Zac and then Eli into this and have a group conversation. It's like a chain!

Dom and I concentrated, keeping Tessa linked to us and stared at Zac. I don't know that the direct eye contact had anything to do with it, but at that moment, it seemed to make it easier connecting to Zac. He popped his head up looking into the mirror again when he realized his spunky little wife was also in his brain besides just Dom and me. Tessa and Zac had this look of amazement on their faces since the link established by Dom and/or me made it possible for them to read each other's minds. We were like a conduit or a medium. Next up, Eli. With the same method used on Zac, Dom and I created a link into his mind. Eli turned in his seat looking at each of us wondering what to say or do next. He looked so proud at what we had done.

Dominic thought to the group,
This was all Kara's idea. I can't believe we hadn't tried this before. It's a little awkward for me trying to maintain the links with three non-psychic people, but I'll get the hang of it soon enough. Kara, how are you doing on your end?

I agreed with his analysis and mentally said to the group,
It is draining my energy level a little bit. I feel like I'm holding up a big tray filled with huge drinks and that at any moment it might fall out of my hands, crashing to the floor. But, like Dom, I can do this. I'll make it work when it's needed.
I was aware this skill, like others we had been experimenting with, would be very useful if we all needed a silent way to communicate with each other. What if we had so carefully mapped out a plan of attack on Stephen or some other wolf and had to suddenly make a spur of the moment change? And what if the physical distance between us was too far that we couldn't speak directly to each other? And cell phones were not always reliable in obscure places. Yes, this group telepathic communication was critical to our safety and success.

We played around chatting in this strange manner for several more minutes. Soon, Dom and I were feeling more drained as time ticked by and all the mental links were starting to dissolve. Zac broke up the madness first by speaking, "Okay, enough already. It's making me go bonkers. We need real talk with the mouth and lips moving and sound coming out."

I leaned back against the headrest and felt elated over another accomplishment. Everyone was actually smiling. Some of the tension had lifted as we were able to have some fun and relax a little. Dom allowed himself to sink back in the seat and chill out, too.

Eli started feverishly typing on his laptop. He either had that computer or a 3-ring binder filled with paper attached to him at all times, or so it seemed. It was almost musical the sound of his tapping away at the keys. From what I had been told, Eli was currently writing a thesis on telepathy. He was the tried and true scientist to the core of his being. Research was a huge portion of his life and always would be no matter what. I suppose his involvement with the werewolves was like research to him. Learning about and studying their lifestyles, how they survive, had to be fascinating to him. Heck, it was fascinating to me. I guess he couldn't write about them, though. That had to be frustrating. If he wrote about werewolves and other beings, people would think him to be insane. Or worse yet, if anyone believed him, it would put the lives of these alternate species in jeopardy. They would be feared and hunted and experimented on and even killed. I immediately pictured Daniel in my head and realized what a delicate balance had to be maintained to avoid their exposure. I wanted to thump that Stephen as hard as I could for upsetting that balance.

"I can't believe I was just down at Daniel's very own resort just a little over a month ago. And now I'm returning under very different circumstances," I stated bluntly and sighed.

Tessa commented, "Too bad we're being pushed to dive into this during late fall. By now the trees have lost most of their leaves which doesn't give us much cover and I hope the temperatures don't drop too much. It could hinder our progress if nature plays against us. The werewolves are not affected by the cold nearly as much as we are. If Stephen doesn't want to play nice and we need to launch a hunting expedition for him, then he's got an advantage over us."

I added, "Yeah, I hate winter. It's not so much the cold but worrying about what the weather is going to do - snow, sleet or ice. I really hate having to drive in that stuff. And things are so dreary in the winter."

"We'll be in tons of backwoods - real forest type areas," Zac said. "Daniel has four-wheelers, thank God, because I'm sure we'll have to use them to get around. Kara, you got any experience driving one of those?"

"No. I can see I'll be stuck sitting behind someone hanging on for dear life, though. I have a feeling I know who that person will be," I looked over at Dominic who, of course, sat there smugly smiling at me. Again, he gave off the air of male superiority. I flicked him on the shoulder again. That shoulder was going to get pretty sore if he didn't watch it.

"Hey! Enough abuse for one day!" He said with a twinkle in his eye.

I felt another odd question escaping my mouth, "Does the moon have any effect on werewolves?"

Eli took the bait this time and answered, "Well, Kara, yes the moon does have some effect on the wolves although not quite the way it's portrayed in the movies. When werewolves make a physical change, they do take the form of an actual wolf but much larger, stronger, faster and more vicious. I believe Zac talked about this on your first day with us. The change is voluntary - at will. Different cycles of the moon can enhance their emotional state which may influence their choice to transform to a wolf. Even the howling from another werewolf or normal wolf can influence their behavior, tempting or triggering a response to transform. The pack we're dealing with chooses to stay in human form for the most part. If they do transform, let's use Daniel as an example, he does so for recreation and to be free and run with nature. Not to terrorize humans and kill livestock as Stephen has done."

"The mind of a werewolf," Dom took over, "is primarily that of an animal, a beast, when in wolf form. But, according to Daniel and his brother, Isaac, they have told us firsthand that even when they transform, their human knowledge to assist in tracking and hunting their prey, in avoiding traps, using human craftiness and recognizing individuals for who they are, remains. They are still extremely dangerous and very touchy in wolf form, so I wouldn't be joking around with them at that time." Dominic glared over at me, suspicious of my curiosity over this matter.

"Gee whiz, this is wild. How much longer till we're there, Zac?" I wondered.

"About another hour to go."