Author's Note:
Sorry for no sex in the chapter, but there's a kick ass fight scene. I promise to make it up next chapter, but I refuse to put in a sex scene that won't advance the story. I hope my German isn't too bad. It's been a while since I taught high school German. I did try to double check it on the web. Kudos for anyone who gets the movie quote.
CHAPTER 8: BLOODMOON RISING PART IV
Mom and Dad were in Birmingham on business. I had stayed home to do some work done at the vè. There was a lot that needed to be done to get it ready for Yule. The bushes needed to be trimmed, the grass cut- yes I know it was December, but you have to understand that the grass in Alabama grows up until the middle of January- and there were certain sacrifices to be made to the landvaettir. Of course, Emory was at the house in Jasper where Dr. Ahmed was headquartered, JD was out in the woods, living out his fortnight as a wolf, and I still had work to do here. Something told me that Emory had gotten in over her pretty little head. The warning she sent me, was enough to set off a sense of deep dread in my soul. I decided that it was time that I put Rid's gift from Freyr to use.
I concentrated on pushing myself outside of my body. I felt a buzzing somewhere behind my navel that grew to encompass the whole of my body. Suddenly, I felt a stretching and an echo form as I literally split into two beings. The buzz continued, and the echo reverberated again as another body stepped from mine. I shook my head and looked over at the two identical copies of myself standing there.
One nodded, and I could feel his thoughts echoed in my own. *I will go and find JD. *His form blurred as we went down to all fours and took the shape of a giant tiger. I could feel the echo stretch out as he padded into the forest behind me.
I'll stay here and finish this, the second copy said, and took the trimmers from my hand.
I nodded and replied, "I will go and find Emory. This can't be good." It was my turn to shift to the tiger and lope off into the forest. I always liked the tiger form, it was one of the most natural for me, and easier to hold than even my human form.
The world went black and white as the cones in my eyes dwindled and my contrast sight became stronger. I could feel the link with Emory tingle off toward the south of the county. It was like a steady pull leading me toward her. I could feel her intent to find J. D. and crew. She'd returned to the house and then taken to the air. It didn't take long to track her in the dwindling sunlight. As I entered the clearing just above the waterfall in the stream next to the vè, I looked up to catch sight of her flying off toward the southeast.
I quickly broke into a ground-eating lope and headed into the forest. Unfortunately, I lost her as I entered a pine thicket. Normally, I could follow her easily down the link we shared, but the link with my duplicates was now confusing me. About half way through the thicket, I felt her grow excited and worried- like she felt when we fought the giant Haflison near the River Iving. Suddenly there was an adrenaline surge down the link and then it faded away into darkness.
Something was wrong. I poured on the speed, loped through the underbrush until I cleared the pine thicket, and broke into a stand of old oaks and hickories. The fallen leaves were still moist from a recent rainstorm. I stopped amongst the tall hardwoods standing like silent sentinels over the forest and listened. In the distance I could hear the call of blackbirds and crows mixed with the sound of the falling water back toward the ve'. I also heard something that didn't belong in the woods; the sounds of something moving on the ground- something that didn't move like an animal.
A shift in the wind brought a definite man scent toward me- a man scent, Emory's scent, and the scent of gun oil and silver- not a good combination if you asked me. I slowed my pace and began to creep along the ridge through the gathering darkness. From what I could tell, the sounds were at least a mile away, but Emory had said that Dr. Ahmed had employed a professional hunter so I didn't want to charge into anything blind.
With another shift in the wind, it took me almost twenty minutes to circle around the encampment so that I came at it from upwind. I was not going to give whomever it was any chance to pick up my scent. As I crouched low in the bushes I felt the tiger's instincts in me take over. I moved slowly and watched my prey.
Down below, a muscular man was sitting next to a large cage. In it were the forms of two wolves and Emory. From the look of the wolves, they were Bart and Tammy and from the look of the cage's highly reflective surface, I guessed it was made of syntenol, and was probably beyond their ability to bend or break. I could see where they all three were coming out of some kind of drugged state. Emory was pushing herself up on her hands and knees, and the two wolves were whining lowly. Okay, Bart, don't get your panties in a wad, but you *were *whining. It's something wolves do when they are shaking off tranquilizers.
Emory was dressed in her "working costume" but without her cloak. It was in a pile over by the hunter's equipment, and as if my noting it impelled him, the he reached over, picked up her cloak, and then ran his hands along its feathery surface. He asked her in a heavy upper class British accent, "Exactly how does this work? Is it some kind of advanced technology? We know that some of you have access to advanced alien technology."
Emory shook her head and replied, "You wouldn't understand. It's not technology, it's magic."
"Magic? Like the werewolves?" he asked.
"Something like that, but more related to faith than magic," I saw her smile wickedly as she replied. "Tell me, why did you lock me in here?"
The hunter smiled and looked back in my direction toward the rising moon, "Well, if our information about the wolves is correct, then when the moon comes up over that hill, you'll be in for an unpleasant evening."
Emory grinned again said, "What makes you think that? You obviously don't understand the beings you hunt, Wellington"
"They are animals, and I know animals, Ms. Northmore. I know what will happen when the moon takes over the minds of these particular wolves," he said.
"You know who she is?" Bart growled as he struggled to his feet. I could see that he was still unsteady.
"Of course I recognize her," Wellington said. "I'm not stupid."
"That's too bad," Bart told him. "If you didn't know who she was, we could let you live."
"Somehow, I'm not too worried about that. That cage is made from syntenol and that has enough silver in it to make it painful for you to touch, much less bend them, which I sincerely doubt that you could. Pruitt Industries swears to the strength of it." He leaned back and smiled, "I wasn't aware that you could speak in this form."
Bart wagged his tail, "It's not a common gift, but it's useful."
Again the Wellington looked back toward me as the moon began to peak above the mountains. "It won't be long."
"She's right, you know," Bart said. "She's in no danger. I fought along side her on the Night of the Howls. She's pack-friend." He growled low before adding, "You however, are a different story."
Wellington cocked his head, "You're in there, I'm out here, and I've got a high powered rifle with silver bullets; real silver, not the slugs with which Ms. Northmore replaced my colleagues ammunition."
"It doesn't matter Wellington. Not all shapeshifters are vulnerable to silver, and there's one in the area that's particularly nasty. You can shoot silver at him all night long and you'll just make him angry," Emory said.
"Really? And what would his weakness be?" Wellington asked.
Emory just smiled and replied, "I don't think I'll tell you. If you decide to go hunting shapeshifters, you really should know more about them than you do. It could prove to be fatal." Then to emphasize her point, she reached back and scratched Bart behind the ear.
I slowly began to inch closer. I knew that the full moon would start pulling on Bart and Tammy. What Wellington didn't understand was that they may not attack Emory but it was very likely that the two would just decide to consummate their newly found relationship right then and there. If that happened, claws would start flying and it wasn't that large of a cave.
I made my way down the hill using the trees and shadows as cover. If I was going to move in closer for the kill, I didn't want to give him a chance to get off a shot into the cage. I could feel my own body tense with anticipation and the pull of the full moon as well. I could feel it call to the beast in me. This man literally threatened to use the power of the shifters to enslave the rest of the world.
Bart and Tammy began to shift in the cage. I could see their forms start to grow, and I could feel the concern build in the link I shared with Emory. "I don't think it will be long now," Wellington was saying. "I think you will either die or join them soon."
"No," Emory replied, "I think you'll be fertilizing some oak tree somewhere very soon. Like my friend said, you know who I am and we can't let that information become public just yet."
"You mean the werewolf that is stalking me now?" Wellington asked picking up his rifle and pointing it in my direction. I couldn't believe that he'd detected me. "What kind of hunter do you think I am that I don't know when I've become the prey?"
"Not werewolf," Emory said, "weretiger, and I'm afraid that your silver bullets will be useless against him."
I took this opportunity to shift up suddenly into my battle form. My shift is a lot smoother than the wolves. It's more of a flow than the jerky transformation that my friends undergo. I let go of the tight reign I held on my beast and flowed up into eighteen feet of angry anthropomorphic tiger. "Wellington, I think I've had enough of you and your employer. I will not allow you to take my friends and make them into a weapon," I growled at him and stalked forward.
He slung his gun around and fired the heavy fifty-caliber rifle into my chest. He might as well have been shooting spitballs at me. The bullets didn't even sting as they hit my skin and then rolled down my fur. I reached out and grabbed the gun from his hand, and felt the barrel warp under my grip.
Wellington never let go of the rifle with one hand and I lifted him along with the gun as I twisted its barrel into an unusable lump. Suddenly a roar split the night air and I felt something slam into the side of my head. Stars erupted in my vision and the pain blinded me. Instinctually, I slung Wellington into the ground and grabbed my noggin both hands.
I've been hit by small arms rounds before, but never that close to my head. Wellington had fired a forty-four directly into my temple. It didn't really damage me, but it hurt like hell. As I stood there stunned, I heard the handgun bark several more times and felt the rounds bounce off my skull. Without thinking, I growled and leaped.
Wellington rolled out from under where I landed, but I caught his leg as he tried to roll away. I felt my claws sink deep into his flesh as my paw closed around his lower leg. There was a satisfying crunch and his tibia and fibula snapped under the force. He fired the gun two more times, and this time I felt the body blow from the bullets.
I stood up holding my prize and shook him good and hard. He screamed in pain and I felt his leg bend ninety degrees in my hand, but he still didn't drop the Redhawk. With a low growl, I reached out with my other hand, grabbed the Ruger and ripped it from his grip. "That's enough of that," I told him as I looked down at the handgun.
It was actually a rather nice gun- one that had only been on the market for about two or three years- and I hated to damage it as I did the rifle. Instead, I tossed it into the cage with Emory, Bart, and Tammy. Then turning back to Wellington I righted him and held him up by his shoulder.
I could kill him, and probably get away with it. However, I didn't want to do that. I'd had enough of killing, and he was technically a human. I pulled him close to my face and growled, "I don't know if you'll thank me for not killing you or not, but I think I have the perfect fate for you. You consider yourself a hunter, so why don't we let you spend the rest of eternity hunting?"
Still holding him tight, I shifted down to my natural mage-cat form. Smiling, I popped a claw on my right hand began to trace a rune stave onto his forehead as I sang the runes. I could feel the magic released and his leg popped back into place; healed. Slowly the magic in him began to pulse, I could feel the veil between this world, and Asgarth begin to thin.
Laughing I chanted,
"Odin, Allfather! God of the Wild Hunt!
A gift for thee at thine Yuletide passing!
A mortal, a hunter, to ride out front.
Take him, Hanged God, your pow'r all surpassing!"
Suddenly thunder echoed across the mountains, and the sounds of wolves and dogs howling split the air. High in the night sky, I saw a rift open up in the stars. With a smile and a great heave, I spun on my heel with Wellington in both hands and flung him into the sky.
His body tumbled away from me and into the rift. Before it closed, I caught a brief glimpse of a grizzled one-eyed man on an eight-legged steed. I smiled to myself and turned back to the cage. Emory was staring at me in wonder, and the two werewolves were crouched in the center of the cage trying to avoid the bars.
I approached the cage to break the bars, but Emory held her hand up. "I can do it myself, Trey." She said something in Gaelic and the bars melted away to become nothing but air. She stepped out and led Bart and Tammy through the jagged edges of the melted metal. Without looking at me she added, "The ironic thing is that if the bars had been made of steel, I wouldn't have been able to do this. Cold-iron being what it is. Syntenol on the other hand is a titanium/silver alloy. I could have done this at any time, but I wanted to see what he was going to do."
I gave her a disbelieving look. "Emory, he shot me in the head!"
She just chuckled, "And it didn't hurt you. I knew he didn't know your weakness, and I knew you were safe."
I stepped toward her and angrily said, "Sometimes you go too far, girl."
She smiled at stroked the side of my head, "You'll be okay." She turned back to Bart and Tammy. "Now, we need to find JD and protect the rest of the pack."
"They're just a few miles from here," Bart said, "over by the strip pits between Oakman and Carbon Hill."
I nodded to him and replied, "Good. I'll meet you guys there. Catch up with me when you can." Then I shifted back up to my battle form and took off in a miles-eating lope through the woods. In reality, I needed to get there before Emory and the rest so I could replace my duplicate. I still didn't want anyone to know about that particular ability of mine. It was something special between Rid and me.
I knew that Emory wasn't sure of where I was talking about, so it would take her a while to catch up; besides, she had to reclaim her cloak before she could follow. I moved quickly through the woods, and crossed several roads in a single leap. At least one family was in for an exciting evening because I know they caught me in their headlights as I bounded across the Old Bankhead Highway.
I made good time and could feel the link between me and duplicate that went to help JD strengthen as I drew near them. The terrain had gone from forested hills to mountain-sized piles of slag and slate as I moved onto the land that was being strip mined for coal.
As I topped one particularly tall pile, I found my duplicate standing there looking down. Below us, was the lake that had formed in the hole created in hard bedrock by the mining. The water was deep and black even with the moon light shining down on it was visually impenetrable. I could smell alkali in the air and knew however, that in the light of day it would be blue and clear all the way to the bottom. A large chunk of rock was sticking out into the water creating a small peninsula on which Dr. Ahmed and several of his "security people" were trapped by the pack of werewolves in their battle forms.
My double looked at me and said, "I got here and found them rounding up Ahmed's people. I figured I'd watch the show. There's no need to reveal ourselves if we don't have to."
I nodded and reached out and touched him. My duplicate's form flowed back into me, and I was suddenly processing the memories of his chase to find JD and the pack. I "remembered" seeing the would-be werewolf hunters firing uselessly into JD, Wanda, Mark and Kelli as Chase led the rest of the pack to circle around and herd them out onto this rock. It was good tactics, and JD was already showing the traits that would eventually make him not only a pack leader, but eventually be called the Werewolf King of North America.
I "remembered" sitting and watching, not wanting to interfere unless I had to. However, the pack was moving in for the kill, and I really wanted to avoid that. I "remembered" witnessing a number of deaths at the hands of the wolves already, and wanted to keep that kind of thing to a minimum.
I crouched low, coiling my legs in preparation. I leaped high and out over the lake. Most people don't realize just how far a tiger can leap, and like I've said in the past, I'm the best of my breed. Factor in my transhuman strength, and you start to realize that the leap was actually easy for me. It was more of matter of making sure I landed in the right spot.
And that I did. I came down hard, and landed in a crouch behind the doctor. I knew the wolves had seen me as I flew over the water, as several of them tracked the arc I made through the air with their heads. I heard the rock under me crack as three quarters of a ton of muscle, and claw hit it from a height of a hundred feet or more.
Standing up to my full height behind Dr. Ahmed, I growled. Two of his hunters spun around and fired at me at almost point blank range. I shrugged off the 30.06 rounds and grabbed a barrel in each hand. On quick yank and slung the rifles back over the heads of the pack.
I smelled the distinct odor of human wastes and looked down at the doctor. He'd lost control of his bodily functions when he turned around. I chuckled lowly and quickly snatched the rifles out of the last two defenders' hands and tossed them in the same direction as the others. "Don't kill them," I growled at JD.
"Hold them until Emory gets here. Some people in Washington and London want to talk to them. Then we can deal with them as we feel best..." Suddenly, I felt a wracking pain echo down the link with my last duplicate. Something was wrong back at the vè. My duplicate was in severe pain.
I shrugged it off and said, "Hold them, I've got to go."
Without another word, I took off and made beeline southeast for the farm. I kept getting images of a large blond man wearing a dark gray costume beating the crap out of my other self. Each blow echoed down the link making feel it like some kind of ghost pain. I didn't know who this guy was, but he was strong.
I charged into the vè and saw the place was a wreck. The altar had been smashed, the gate to the cemetery was ripped off its hinges, and there was a large hole in ground to right of what was left of the altar. The tall man from the link was standing holding my other self who was barely conscious. He was demanding in German, "Warum werden Sie nicht Übergabe?! Ich will nicht zu verletzen Jungen!" At his feet lay a large oblong egg-shaped stone, covered with writing I didn't recognize.
He drew his fist back for another blow as I launched myself forward while screaming, "Because Freyja's children don't give up no matter what our age!" With one hand, I snagged, my other self and with the other, I grabbed at the stone. I figured that if it was something he was willing to wreck my family's property to get at, then it was something I thought I should hang on to.
I felt my body yanked to the side as I grabbed my duplicate. The intruder was much stronger than I thought and it was only a matter of surprise that allowed me to pull him free. We rolled to the ground not nearly far enough for me to be comfortable and I pulled him into me. I had myself, but not the stone.
I was suddenly inundated with the memories of what had happened. While I was making my way across the county to stop JD, my duplicate was working hard on the bushes around the vè.
~*~
I remembered the feeling of accomplishment I always got from doing yard work, and the feeling of being connected to the land. I would like to say that it was a side effect of the gift given to me by Freyr, but to be honest, it has always been like that. If I had a choice in the matter, I would be a farmer like my grandfather.
I was engrossed in trimming some holly, bushes. I was putting back some of the trimmings for Mom to use as part of the Yule celebration. She was planning a big celebration party for the pack on the Eve of Oaths, and wanted to "deck the halls with boughs of holly". I really wasn't paying that much attention to what was going on around me. The echo of the link from my other two parts was somewhat disconcerting, so concentrating on the work was a way of ignoring it.
I guess since I was in my human form, the invader didn't think I was much of a threat because he tried to warn me first. I heard someone clear their voice behind me and I turned to see a massive man with blond hair and blue eyes standing there. He was wearing a gray jumpsuit of some kind that only served to accentuate the mass of muscle on top of muscle. "I think you need to go find somewhere else to work for a while, boy."
I was startled and spun around. "This is private property, mister," I told him and crossed my arms.
"That may be so, but you need to be somewhere else. I have no desire to hurt a child," he said stepping forward.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"There's something buried here that I need," he replied.
"This is holy ground, mister. Go away."
He stopped and looked around. "I see the markings of the Third Reich on that cemetery gate," he said with a strange hardness in his voice. It was as if there was a depth of hate there that could only come from experience.
"I stepped forward and said, "Only because that stupid Austrian painter tried to steal our symbols. Now, I'm going to tell you again. This is private property, please leave before this gets unpleasant."
"I'm afraid things are already unpleasant," he said. "You are simply making it harder." He suddenly lashed out and grabbed me. His grip was like iron and I was barely able to twist out of his grip.
He looked at me startled and then shook his head and said sadly, "So sei es." He balled up both his fists and charged me.
I ducked, twisted out of the way, and called on the beast inside me. I began to flow up into my battle form. "Lassen Sie uns rock," I growled back in German. Like I said, my parents made sure I spoke several languages. Granted it did lose something in the translation.
Shocked, he stopped momentarily and then grinned and said, "Werkatze, um so besser." He pounded his fist into his hand.
Okay, let's get something clear here. At that age I could lift a Caterpillar D9 and carry it out of a sink hole. I wasn't used to being around anyone who could match me strength for strength. So to say I was surprised when his first blow sent me reeling into the vè's altar would be an understatement. I shattered the bloodstained capstone and tumbled on into the granite support column.
Getting up and shaking my head, I leaped at him claws first. He simply stood his ground, grabbed my wrists, twisted his body and tossed me through the goal posts of the furball field. "I believe the term is "field goal", mein jungen Freund."
I picked myself up and shook my head. My dad had taught me to fight better than I was. It was time to stop thinking with my fists. I knew better than to leave the ground to attack and he'd yank a knot in my tail if he knew I had. My ire growing, I walked calmly back toward the man. "First blood is yours. The rest is going to be mine."
Slowly we circled each other, watching for an opening. I got the distinct impression that he was listening to orders from somewhere else. He lunged at me, and I locked down, grabbed his wrist pulled him toward me rotating his arm over. I twisted my body and came down with my forearm across his elbow. I did not hear the resounding crack that I expected to.
Instead he pushed off from my hand, twisted his body and backed kicked me in the side. I felt my ribs buckle under the treads of his boot, and let him go. Before I could react, he followed up with vicious back-fist to the side of my head. I was literally hurled back into the large oak tree that stood silent sentinel over the vè. There was a loud crack as the trunk shattered under the force. I also felt my shoulder crack and dislocate.
Again, I shook my head and stood staggering as my ribs began to heal and the shoulder pulled back into place. Okay, this guy knew how to fight, was as durable as I am, and was stronger than me. This was going to be interesting. "Go home, boy. I've fought the best that the Allies had to offer. I've had sixty years of combat training. You can't win."
I growled at him, closed the distance between us and said, "This is my home." This time he locked down and waited for me attack. I stood there and waited myself. I knew that to win I would have to go on the defensive. Best of all, I knew something he didn't. I grinned and said, "The longer we wait, the faster I heal."
He grinned back at me and said, "That's good. I don't want to hurt you boy. I just need to get the stone buried here."
"You're not getting anything from here. They're going to carry you out when we're done," I told him. "And I'm not on a time limit, like you apparently are."
He seemed to consider what I said and nodded, "You're right. So, I'm going to have to go through you to get the nesting stone." He sighed, and then simply leaped.
It was my turn to lock down. I twisted, popped my claws and swung a hard arcing blow. I connected right behind his head. I felt my claws dig into his shoulder and slam his body into my waiting knee. There was a satisfying crunch from his face as it contacted the hard bones of my leg.
Suddenly my world lit up as he drove his fist into my groin. I threw my head back and roared into the night sky. He followed up with several sudden blows to my ribs, my stomach, and a then three or four repeats of the groin shot. I felt my ribs crack again, and brought my arms together with as much force as I could muster: claws extended.
He ducked the blow, stepped behind me and kicked me hard in the back of the ankles. I dropped to my knees, trying to regain my feet. I looked around for the follow up attacks but couldn't find him. The creaking sound of the gate on the cemetery told me where he was. I tried to rise, waiting for the bones in my legs to knit back together.
He was using my healing time to dig a deep hole next to the altar with the gate as a makeshift shovel. With massive blows to the ground, he drove the wrought iron gate into the soft rich soil and twisted the earth out, sifting it through the grates.
Feeling the bones of my lower legs fuse back into shape, I stumbled to my feet and lurched forward. He looked up at my lurching feet and growled at me, "Verdammt Junge! Machen Sie nicht mich töten Sie!" He lifted the gate to swing at me and a large egg-shaped stone rolled out of the grating. We both looked down at it and then moved. I dove for the stone, and he drove the gate toward me. My hand closed around the egg as metal spikes at the top of the gate penetrated deep into my body.
I was suddenly stunned, unable to move. I felt the egg roll from my strength-drained hands. The metal slid from my body with a sickening slurp and then was cast aside. Unbelievably strong hands pulled my body up and I heard the man curse at me in German. Suddenly I felt my body yanked from his hands and then merge back again with myself.
~*~
I shook my head as I came out of the roll. I could feel the echo of the pain from my duplicates wounds; they became part of me. By taking him back into me, I had to take his wounds as well. Wounds that needed to be healed. I looked up to see the larger man reach down and pick up the stone. He smiled at me and said, "Sie verloren heute, Sohn. Aber das bedeutet nicht, müssen Sie es mögen."
My head was still fuzzy from the pain I felt. Without thinking, I charged him, but he faded away as I tried to grab him. Instead, I lunged forward headfirst into the ground. I lay there crying and pounding the ground as the terrible wounds on my body slowly closed.
I must have lain there for an hour. Finally, I picked myself up and looked around at the damage to the vè. I couldn't believe it. I had failed. I had not protected my home. We'd been robbed, our land violated and peace of the vè had been broken. I had failed to protect my own home, how could I protect humanity?
My parents came home and I explained to them what happened. My mom was furious at what happened. She didn't hold me responsible, but she was sure it had something to do with Dr. Ahmed. Dad simply helped me put the vè back together. He told me something of who the Division of Special Intelligence thought it was. That was the first time I'd heard either of my parents actually mention an organization for which they might work.
I found out from the after-action report that the US and British governments had taken custody of Dr. Ahmed and his crew. Evidently, Emory had been yanked out of the country along with the prisoners almost immediately. She had a specific mission that entailed looking like Dr. Ahmed and being seen in public. I learned several years later, that her mission had destroyed the doctor's credibility within both the UN and the Muslim community. When she was finished, nobody went looking for the man, or wondered what happened to him.
Actually, I didn't see Emory except in passing and a few holidays for several years. Our careers and educations kept us apart quite a bit. We had a few short missions together, and spent leave time together whenever we could, but we didn't get to actually serve together until we both joined Shadow Force during the Enhancer Wars.
My next mission which was my first official mission for the government, was the following summer after my first year at the Academy. I got sent to help with what is now known as the Vampire Wars of the Southeast.