21.
3510 Words
I sat back in the backseat of Jeremiah’s SUV, rubbing my eyes. I desperately needed to sleep.
Stretching my legs under the driver’s seat, I tried to find a comfortable position. Unfortunately, my muscles were so tense I would never have managed to relax.
We had crossed Caithness from east to west, and it was barely eight o’clock when the SUV drove into the market town of Bettyhill, the only moderately trafficked town for miles around. It marked the limit of the territory of the Sutherland community. Geographically, it occupied the entire area of one of the wildest landscapes of the Northern Highlands and arguably also one of the most majestic. Anyone walking around could see that there were more sheep per square kilometre than people. We had been there several times with my parents when I was younger, but I had never been there in winter. In summer, the moor was always very green, even when the rain was unusually capricious. I remembered the meadows along the rare traffic routes. They were bordered by thick ferns, flowering forsythias, thorny bushes, and they stretched out as far as the eye could see, undulating over the hills. But today, the nature around us was almost lunar, with its red vegetation, scorched by the cold, clinging to the grey, damp rocks. The sun illuminated everything. The contrast was stark.
“Let’s stop here,” Al told us, who was driving.
He pulled up in the parking lot of a post office, a few dozen yards from where the pack would be waiting for us as we made our way into the Bowels of the Earth.
“Have we arrived?” I asked, inspecting the place.
How many people lived here throughout the year, exactly? One hundred, one hundred and fifty? I had no idea. The village of Bettyhill seemed to have been built on the coast to provide a stopover before immersing yourself in the heart of the deserted moor. There was a small hotel, a school, a grocery store for refuelling... Tourists and hikers were very frequent here, and in summer, no doubt more numerous than the inhabitants themselves.
“No,” Bonnie told me from the front passenger seat, “not quite. From here, the mobile network is random. We’re going to take the time to call your friends to find out where they’re at and make sure everything is okay.”
She grabbed the cell phone Al was giving her.
As she phoned, I pivoted to Jeremiah who was sitting next to me. He hadn’t spoken the whole way. Hesitantly, I put my fingers on his forearm to get his attention.
“Everything all right?”
He turned and observed me before imperceptibly nodding his head.
He wouldn’t speak. I wouldn’t insist.
Al met his brother’s gaze in the rear view mirror, then mine. For a moment, I saw the green of his irises completely swallowed up by the black of his pupils. From the start, he was calm, too calm. I had never seen Al explode in anger, not even when Elgin was injured after the galbro attack. But that didn’t mean he was harmless. I didn’t doubt for a single moment his strength. It was precisely because he was reserved and discreet that he had to be formidable when put to the test.
“Wait for us at the hotel bar,” Bonnie advised the pack, who would pass the message on to Rucker and the others.
Bonnie was still reluctant, she wanted to keep contact to a minimum. All her life, she had been taught that werewolves and dark angels don’t mix, never collaborate, when in a year it was the second time she found herself having to trust them. She had soon reached her limits. At least, she believed.
“We’ll continue on the A836 towards the estuary,” she said. “We’ll leave our vehicle at Kinloch Lodge and walk to the rocks of Ben Hope, it will only take us a good hour.”
Which was to say that we would not move at a human speed. And this was preferable. The lowlands were very hilly, so running on all fours would be much more efficient. Usually transforming always made me excited, but not this time, not without Elgin.
I let out a long sigh and relaxed a little more against the seat.
“Wait patiently for us to let you know. If we haven’t come back by the end of the afternoon, start worrying.”
“Before nightfall,” I said. “Moroi...”
“Yes, yes!” Bonnie corrected. “Before nightfall.”
That is to say, more or less five forty-five.
I let out a long sigh and rubbed my eyes. We had little time. I felt it, something was going to happen tonight. The calm had lasted too long. If they could cross Europe in three days, it would take them just a few hours to track us down. They were natural predators, efficient trackers, infallible and programmed to hunt. They would find us all.
I swallowed and, my fists propped up on my thighs, I tried to ignore the beating of my heart which had suddenly doubled. From my lips came a faint breath of anguish that Jeremiah heard. He stretched out his arm and put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
Al restarted the SUV as soon as Bonnie had finished dictating her final instructions.
She had her fingers clenched on her knees. How many years had she not set foot on the land of her childhood? Twenty years? Twenty-five years? The closer we got to the goal, the more I felt her body heat rise. I could sense the boiling of her mind, the keenest emotions of the beast that slumbered within her, the tugging between the anger that she would have liked to let burst out and the calm that she forced herself to maintain so as not to make a mistake. That was what she wanted. Control everything. Her will was greater than her moods.
My phone beeps. I jumped and looked down to rummage in my jacket pocket. It was Grigore.
I hope I have some respite before going to grill my ass in hell to find you. Keep alert.
I shook my head and smiled softly.
I stowed my cell phone deep in my coat pocket and stared out onto the road.
We drove in silence for a while, each absorbed in what he dreaded most and what he hoped for more. I couldn’t even see the beauty of the landscape changing before our eyes. The mountains standing proudly between meadows, hills, and lochs, seemed to me to be blurred.
I rubbed my eyelids and fixed my gaze on Ben Hope. It was hidden behind a thick curtain of fog and rain. It was barely nine in the morning when night seemed about to fall. It was as if the elements had come together to make this place even more impressive and intimidating, more inhospitable.
In less than five minutes, as we drove down one of those one-lane roads Scotland is famous for, freezing heavy rain fell on us, followed by gusts that instantly rocked the SUV.
“All eyes front!” Al yelled.
Bonnie gasped as she looked straight ahead.
“But he’s going to kill himself!”
I leaned slightly between the two front seats to get a better view. A few hundred yards farther on, a pick-up was driving at high speed, while the road was particularly slippery.
In just a few seconds, the driver lost control of the vehicle and went straight of the road, into a meadow. Horrified, we watched it roll over several times before coming to rest on the roof, badly damaged.
“By the Spirit!” cried Jeremiah.
We all got out of the SUV in the pouring rain to rescue the unfortunate motorist. Jeremiah reached it first and assessed the damage. The doors sagged under the weight of the vehicle and the windows were shattered.
“It’s a woman! She’s alive!” he yelled at us to cover the noise of the downpour.
We all rushed over to his side to take a look.
She was wearing her seat belt and her frail body was more or less folded in half against the passenger compartment. Her long brown hair was scattered around her unrecognizable face.
“Ahhhh…,” she moaned weakly.
“We have to get her out of there!” Al shouted.
Jeremiah, who seemed to need to release all his anger that had been held back for hours, grabbed the metal arch of the door and yanked. It tore as if it were a common sheet of paper. He got down on all fours and wrapped his strong arms around the driver’s waist to hold her back.
“Go to the other side to unfasten her belt,” he ordered us.
Bonnie walked around first and complied.
“It’s good!” she yelled, unclipping the link.
While Jeremiah held the casualty tightly by pulling her slowly out, Bonnie supported her legs and gently unfolded them.
“It hurts…,” she whispered.
“Easy,” Bonnie said. “We’ll get you out of there.”
Jeremiah moved her one last time before letting her rest on the wet grass.
The driver must have been in her forties. She was very small, had a dark skin tone and very dark brown hair. Her face was a perfect oval topped with graceful cheekbones, a small upturned nose, and a mole just in the corner of her left eye. Her eyelashes, delicately resting on her cheeks, were dark and thick and, for some unknown reason, I found myself wanting her to open her lids to check the colour of her eyes. She was beautiful, very beautiful.
Al unfurled a survival blanket and covered her with it while Jeremiah shielded her body to keep the rain from falling on her.
The driver grimaced, frowning.
“Are you okay?” Bonnie asked in a soft voice. “Can you talk? Where do you hurt?”
“Everywhere,” she growled.
“Can you move your legs?”
Instead of answering, she checked that she was able to do so. We saw her weakly bend her knee before dropping it.
“You were lucky,” Al said. “You were driving too fast, much too fast.”
“I know.”
With difficulty, she pulled her hand out from under the blanket and brought it to her temple.
“Am I bleeding?”
Then suddenly, she sneezed.
Once. Twice. Thrice.
“No, but that doesn’t mean you’re not hurt,” Bonnie clarified.
“I know, I’m a doctor.”
Bonnie nodded.
“What’s your name?” Jeremiah asked.
“Christy...”
Jeremiah straightened up a bit and looked disapprovingly.
“Christy, you are irresponsible...”
He stopped when she opened her eyes. The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Purple and sprinkled with golden pigments all around the irises.
“And you are werewolves,” she retorted weakly.
After which, she sneezed three more times.
She moaned a little louder and tried to sit up.
“Don’t move!” Bonnie growled.
But Christy insisted.
“I’m fine. Bruises all over, maybe a scratch or two, but I’m fine.”
Which was surprising considering the condition of her car.
“I’ll recover quickly,” she continued.
Jeremiah put a hand behind her back and helped her sit up.
“What are you?”
Christy ran her fingers through her wet hair and flattened it back.
“A good-natured human. Excuse me…”
She sniffled several times and let out an even more impressive sneeze than the previous ones.
“You have to take shelter, you’re sick,” Al said.
Christy laughs softly as she looks up at him.
“Certainly, I would prefer to be dry. But for now, I’m not sick, I’m allergic.”
“Allergic?” Bonnie repeated.
“Yes. To hair...”
If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I would have laughed. The faces Jeremiah, Al and Bonnie were making was priceless. Christy was allergic to dogs!
“Could we continue this conversation elsewhere?” she suggested.
Bonnie, still puzzled, nodded, and stood up.
Jeremiah helped Christy up. Then he sighed deeply and lifted her in his arms.
“It’s okay, I can walk!”
Jeremiah frowned and firmed his grip.
“That’s not the impression you give.”
Christy grumbled.
“Wait two minutes! I have to get my bag and my first aid kit.”
“They must be scattered around the car.”
“What is your name exactly?”
“Jeremiah.”
“Good. Jeremiah put me on the ground, please, I’ll get my things.”
“Surely not.”
He started to walk steadily, ignoring Christy’s protests.
“I told you to let go!”
“I’m going!” I decided before it turned sour.
Because obviously, Jeremiah had no intention of complying.
He didn’t even glance at me and continued walking to the SUV under Al and Bonnie’s stunned gaze.
I got on all fours and searched for Christy’s effects. I grabbed the red leather satchel, as well as the canvas handbag. I also grabbed her fleece parka and the scarf that had ended up on the steering wheel.
When I joined the SUV, Christy was seated in the back with Bonnie and Jeremiah had taken the driver’s seat. I put Christy’s bags on the back seat and sat down next to her, just behind Al.
Bonnie leaned over her, worried.
“My name is Bonnie. How do you feel?”
She was recovering rather quickly for someone who had had such a violent accident. This woman pretended to be human moreover, she smelled of it but what human was able to regain strength in such a short time?
“Better,” she replied.
Jeremiah glanced at her in the rear view mirror and drove off abruptly.
“Perfect! Because we can’t get you to a doctor,” he snapped sharply.
“But I don’t need it!” she replied.
“You didn’t choose the right day to have an accident,” Jeremiah persisted. “We have no time to waste. Where can we drop you off without going tens of miles?”
“You just have to leave me by the side of the road, I’ll manage!”
Jeremiah completely ignored her request.
“You apparently know our species well, so you’re aware that you are in the middle of our territory, dear madam!”
“Of course, I know it!”
“Explain yourself,” Al demanded, turning to look at her.
Christy frowned and pursed her lips.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you, sir.”
“Alastair. My name is Alastair.”
“It doesn’t change anything, Alastair. I must remain silent. Just lead me to your boss.”
She thought we were part of the Sutherland community? My gaze met Jeremiah’s.
“Are you expected?” Bonnie asked.
“Obviously! The Garou city isn’t the kind of place you go on your own! Only fools do that!
That’s what we were… and I suspected she too. She was no more expected than us.
“Are you going to take me there, yes, or no?”
Jeremiah was still driving. Bonnie and Al looked at each other and agreed.
“Yes,” Jeremiah assured her. “Provided we know why you need to go there.”
Christy clicked her tongue.
“I can’t tell you anything. Please, this is of the utmost urgency.”
Jeremiah raised his eyebrows.
“In that case, speak. This is the only way to guarantee your good faith.”
She burst into a cynical laugh.
“My good faith? But who do you think I am? A terrorist?”
And she sneezed.
“We have no idea, madam. You can be anyone,” said Jeremiah.
“I’m nobody! Just a messenger!”
“A doctor messenger?”
Christy rolled her eyes.
“One has nothing to do with the other! I’m a doctor all the time, while serving as an intermediary is very punctual, and damn it, I have the feeling that today, it would have been better if I stayed in bed! After all, you’ll just have to get the point across yourself, I’ve had enough! My community sent me to tell yours that they were in danger.”
“What danger?” Bonnie asked, keeping a calm tone.
Immediately I thought about the presence of dark angels in the territory, but it would have been a bit of a stretch to speak of danger when there were only four of them.
“A threat from the east.”
My blood froze.
“What kind of threat?” I interjected.
Our passenger raised her hand, which she brushed in front of her eyes in a sign of irritation.
“Listen, you put me in a very delicate situation. I can’t...”
“Moroi?” I interrupted her.
Christy whitens instantly.
“Do you know their name?”
“I know them,” I clarified. “I saw them.”
She suddenly seemed to run out of air.
“No! Nobody sees them! No one except the...”
“The Strigoi leader,” I finished for her. “We know that. But take my word for it, I saw them as I see you.”
She shook her head, as I let out a long sigh and looked her straight in the eye.
“Christy, you’re going to listen to us now. These Moroi are on our heels because we have something they want, which they will not get under any circumstances. And if we’re here, in the heart of the Sutherland community territory, it’s because we too have to get something back. Somebody.”
“Are you not one of them?”
“No. We belong to the Free community. They are holding my boyfriend. My soulmate. Jeremiah’s son, Al, and Bonnie’s nephew.”
Her beautiful purple eyes began to glow intensely.
“And the Moroi? What do they want?”
“A friend. We freed him from the Strigoi. They want to get him back. Tell us everything you know about them, please, Christy,” I whispered. “Time is running out.”
Christy nodded and began her story.
“I belong to an ancestral guild of witches the Raven-stone, the one that gave birth to the Moroi, half dark angel, half werewolf.”
Nothing surprised me in this last revelation. Their talons, their hair… They were an imperfect mixture of the two species, but an effective and formidable mixture.
“What an ingenious idea!” Jeremiah hissed.
“My ancestors included a safeguard: we can see them too. Us and only us, so let me doubt when you say you saw them,” she added, examining me.
“And yet...”
“Can you make them visible to others?” Bonnie asked hopefully.
“No.”
“Are you able to stop them?” Al asked her.
“No.”
“What kind of relationship does your community have with those of Sutherland?” Al asked.
“We have no particular connection, we haven’t seen them for years, but it was our duty to warn them.”
“Will they believe you?” Bonnie asked. “I imagine you never told them about the existence of the Moroi?”
“No…”
“What means do you have to prove to them what you say?”
“My good faith.”
Jeremiah burst out laughing.
“If you think that’s enough!”
“You are impossible! If it isn’t, I have a more persuasive way.”
Jeremiah raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
Christy took turns looking at us, met Jeremiah’s gaze in the rear view mirror, and reached out to retrieve her purse. There she rummaged inside and pulled out a tiny vial containing a dark red liquid.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Dark angel blood... Oh, no need to look at me like that! If they don’t believe me, I’ll transform a crinos in front of them,” she added, burying the precious liquid in her jeans pocket.
“By the Spirit!” Bonnie growled.
“Is that how the Moroi were born?” I inquired calmly. “Straight from the body of a werewolf?”
She nodded.
“More precisely that of a crinos. But before you ask me the question, know that the spell is irreversible.”
A heavy silence fell in the cabin, leading us all to think about what to do. Bonnie was the first to speak.
“Very good. I take you to the Bowels of the Earth. You’ll explain to them what you have just told us. As for the emergency show you are planning, forget about it!”
End of the conversation.
But Christy didn’t promise anything.
- Writer
