17.
3922 Words
Everything turned out exactly as I had imagined: no one saw the Moroi. No one… except me.
The amulet had nothing to do with it.
They were all around the yard, Rucker, Rufus, Detective Forbes and Grigore, all straining their ears in the hope of picking up any noise that might have helped them spot it. Nothing. The creature was a predator, a machine programmed to kill, and to better surprise its prey, it knew how to move as silently as a dark angel. Only the pestilential smell it gave off betrayed its presence.
“By all the demons in hell…” Gwen whispered.
“Where is it?” Pitt asked me softly. “Do you see it?”
I nodded without answering and pointed to the monster.
He was much taller than the rest. More massive, more muscular. His body was exploding with power and, under the moonlight, his coat glistened with a yellowish phosphorescent material making it even more unreal. Motionless, it observed, studied, carefully examined its surroundings, moving its head slowly so as not to miss anything, to analyse everything. With quivering nostrils, its mouth half-open, it chose its victim.
It paused for a moment on Grigore and growled. I thought it was going to come after him, but before I warned him it attacked Rufus who was standing just under a big oak tree to its left. It pounced on him, and with one flick of its paw, it made him fly through the air like a rag doll. Rufus fell heavily on the hood of my car, motionless and bloodied.
Pitt propelled himself so quickly towards him that I barely saw him move. He wedged him over his shoulder and set him behind Rucker’s SUV to control his injuries. He was battered in the chest, but he would heal. The beast ignored him and turned to Detective Forbes.
This time, everything in its attitude assured me that it was aiming for him and that it wouldn’t change its mind at the last moment. It was only a few meters from him and sniffed his scent as if to soak it up before tasting. Breathing chaotically and looking around, Keith Forbes was oblivious to being the next target. I had less than two seconds to act.
“Forbes! It’s heading straight for you, move forward!” I yelled as the monster dematerialized. “Now!”
He complied, rushed forward, and ran for several yards as if he had the devil on his heels before the beast reappeared exactly where he had been a moment earlier. Outsmarted, the Moroi spat out a roar of fury that everyone heard, then vanished a second time, and a third time, never really stopping, with the sole aim of being as undetectable as possible. Then it stopped dead in the middle of the yard, successively retracting and pulling out the talons of its long feet without my understanding the reason.
Meanwhile, Grigore and Rucker had changed places. Grigore was very close to the path leading into the undergrowth and Rucker...
“Where’s Rucker?” I shouted. “I no longer see Rucker!”
“There!” Gwen replied, raising her index finger.
He was crouched on the lower roof, his eyes riveted on me. I realized he was waiting for the right moment to act when I would wave to him. Through his gaze as hard and cold as steel, I guessed his deepest fears. At that moment, when I had fiercely opposed his intervention, I realized that he would never find peace other than by facing his tormentors. Maybe he should even kill them all with his own hands. That’s why he was here.
The abominable beast halted abruptly two feet away from me, its back bent, its arms clenched and swollen with the desire to destroy. Its red eyes narrowed and stared at me. I understood its intentions: to manipulate me, to immobilize me, to prevent me from fleeing like the others. So, I didn’t move and waited for the right moment when it would step forward. I had to keep it near me. It approached. Heart at the edge of my lips, I felt its foul breath on my face, the drops of drool that it threw back on my cheeks as it breathed heavily.
Not a gesture, I wouldn’t make a gesture.
Then I nodded imperceptibly in Rucker’s direction. He understood.
As light as the wind, silent as air, he leapt from the roof to land softly on the ground. Without a sound, he approached. Grigore imitated him and I held my breath. The monster jerked its jaw towards me, baring its fangs, all its dreadful rows of teeth. My heartbeat quickened, as I barely dared to breathe.
“No!” Gwen yelled, not seeing the beast, only the expression on my face that had been enough to horrify her.
As in a slow-motion scene, I saw the creature lift a paw. Synchronized to him unknowingly, Gwen pulled me back. The creature’s talons, as long as knife blades, narrowly missed my head. Immediately, it hissed wildly and dematerialized.
“No!” I cried in turn.
It grabbed Gwen by the neck and shook her violently. Hanging at the end of the arm of this monster, she looked like a disjointed puppet. In anger, I jumped over the hood of the car and threw myself on it to strangle it. It was as if it didn’t feel the force around its neck, it didn’t react. Then it let go of her suddenly with a roar of pain. Rucker had just slashed its shoulders with his talons, narrowly missing my arms. Unleashed, the monster snorted fiercely and knocked me to the ground. On my buttocks, I backed up against the SUV without taking my eyes off it. It whirled around, roared even louder and with a backhand, ejected Rucker several yards away.
“In front of you, in front of you, Grigore!” I yelled.
Grigore took over and inflicted a second blow with his talons on the Moroi’s back. Furious, it spun around to face him and it was Pitt who sliced its skin.
At that moment, I knew the fight wouldn’t last. We were determined, enraged, thirsty for revenge.
As they tightened around it to inflict the final sentence on this enemy they didn’t see, the Moroi made a shrill sound echoing through my eardrums, sending an unbearable wave through my skull that brought me to my knees. With my hands, I covered my ears and rocked back and forth, screaming for it to end. I wasn’t the only one, my cries drowned with those of Detective Forbes that I heard as a distant echo.
The rain had started to fall again.
Hurt by the shock, I looked up pleadingly at my friends. They put up with those destructive tones much better than I did, but surprised, they let their guard down. As it ceased its cry, the Moroi flexed its knees and leapt up. It reached out and gripped Grigore’s neck with one hand, while with the other it thrust his murderous claws into Pitt’s shoulder making him scream in pain. With a sharp movement, it threw them far above him. Before it tackled Rucker, Rufus, who had recovered, stood up, bowed his head, and blindly charged at the beast. The shock was so brutal that it was unsettled. It staggered and fell heavily to the ground.
This is where a detonation sounds. Keith Forbes, a gun in his hand, had just fired. The bullet had hit its target, the Moroi growled in pain, but not enough to be completely out of play. It stood up and looked even angrier. The next moment, its mouth dripping with drool, it rushed at the detective.
“Forbes! Right on you!” I yelled.
I expected the impact to hurt a lot, but Forbes pulled the trigger a second time, then a third and finally the monster collapsed. It had received a bullet to the heart, but it was still breathing. I approached its body, uncertain. Rucker appeared behind the rain curtain, his face scratched and covered with mud in which strands of hair were stuck. Eyes bright and determined, fingers open on his long, curved talons, he walked with a slow gait. The beast was in agony. He would take all his time to finish it off.
“Where?” he asked simply when he was in front of me.
Without saying anything, I raised my right arm and pointed to our enemy with my index finger.
He walked a few paces and stopped, towering full height over the creature whose shape stood out vaguely on the damp earth.
My breathing became short. I knew… I knew this was the end. The beginning of the end. Rucker would kill others. He would exorcise his demons. One by one. Of that, I had no doubts.
He looked down at the beast and dug his claws deep into its chest. Without a cry, without a sound, it stiffened and breathed its last. Rucker threw back his neck and screamed his victory.
Pitt, Rufus, Gwen, and Detective Forbes found themselves around the invisible body, staring at the ground on which a pool of blood was swelling that they couldn’t see either.
As they watched it, the phosphorescent substance suddenly extinguished, causing me to blink.
“What’s going on?” Grigore asked.
“The glow has gone out...”
“What glow?”
“The material it was coated with.”
“What was it? “
“I don’t know.”
I lifted my eyelids on them in disbelief as the rain grew louder. The detective looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Burn in Hell!” Pitt said, spitting on the ground.
“It’s dead?” whispered Gwen.
I nodded gently.
“So much the better! Is everyone okay?” she made sure as she still had some ugly red marks around her neck.
Rucker gave her a look that lit up with pride and relief. He walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders to hug her tightly.
“You were great for your first fight,” he congratulated her.
She let out a crystalline laugh before burying her head against his chest, reassured.
They would all regenerate very quickly, but Pitt’s shoulder was still bleeding profusely. I fixed my eyes on it and smiled weakly at him when our eyes caught.
“Don’t be too happy,” he warns us, “it has only just begun. Tonight, we were lucky, it was alone.”
Faces turned to him, but no one dared to say a word about it. We were all still under the influence of what had just happened, unwilling to consider the future.
“What do we do with it?” asked Detective Forbes.
“Let’s move it and burn it,” Rucker suggested.
“They fear the light of day. I believe that from the first rays of the sun, it will burn up on its own.”
We stared at each other without saying a word.
“No one can see it. Let’s leave it here until tomorrow and wait to check,” Rucker said. “Let’s go home. I’m fed up with the damn rain!”
“Miss Rittel and I have to talk,” Keith Forbes interjected. “It can’t wait.”
Deciding not to argue, I nodded and agreed to follow him to his vehicle, which he indicated with his hand: an old Nissan pickup. He opened the passenger door for me and let me in, then got in himself and sat down.
Just before he started, I met Grigore’s eyes. He remained motionless on the porch. In his narrowed eyes, I read everything he expected of me: to get out of this car and talk to him. About my soul. About his.
Not this evening.
And maybe never.
Keith Forbes stopped his pickup just three kilometres away, on the only spot of a lookout overlooking the sea. The waves were unleashed, crashing below, exploding in a thousand icy droplets that rose to us.
He switched off the ignition and turned to me, looking inquiring.
“I have two questions for you, Miss Rittel.”
The return to the use of my last name showed that he wasn’t particularly happy and it had nothing to do with my presence at Rucker’s house, a few minutes earlier.
“First of all, when were you going to tell me that Jeremiah Sutherland’s son was missing? Second, who are you?”
I raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“You know very well,” I replied, stung. “I’ve already explained my whole story to you.”
He raised his index finger in front of my face.
“False. You told me that you were human, dark angel, human again, then lupus. You certainly didn’t mention to me your membership in the order of the taibhsear.
I widened my eyes.
“The order of the what?
He brushed the air with his hand, annoyed.
“The taibhsear.”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to, Mr Forbes.”
“Some Weres can predict the death of their fellows. These are the taibhsear. Shortly before their death, a phosphorescent light covers the bodies of the condemned, which only the taibhsear can see.”
My jaw opened on its own.
“Okay. I don’t claim to have all the secrets of our species, but unless I’m completely stupid, I have understood that the Moroi aren’t part of the Garou race!”
He raised an almost amused eyebrow.
“No, they aren’t.”
“So, your theory is completely lost, detective! Moroi may have this peculiarity during full moon nights.”
Because when I thought about it, those I had met in Romania didn’t reflect any light. Not the slightest gleam.
“Maybe, but this one is dead anyway,” he concluded calmly. “Your power probably extends to other creatures.”
“I’m not what you think I am, detective.”
He studied me for a few long seconds, then narrowed his eyes.
“We’ll see.”
“I don’t mean to watch anyone die to prove you wrong.”
“It’s not something we choose, miss! Now answer my second question,” he demanded.
I just shrug my shoulders.
“Your lovely friends took it upon themselves to explain the situation to me.”
I arched a disapproving eyebrow.
“You’re like all the others, you don’t like them,” I say as if to myself.
“Does that surprise you?”
“Alas no.”
“Our two species aren’t made to get along. But that’s not why I hate them.”
“So, why?”
He turned his head to look me straight in the eyes and turned on the overhead light. With his index finger, he started from his scalp to follow the scar that crossed his face.
“Is this a sufficient reason? I was barely fifteen and hadn’t yet undergone my first transfer.”
“Did you fight?” I asked.
“I was attacked!”
I looked down, not knowing what more to say.
“You thought I was a half-blood and that this injury was the punishment?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t thought of anything at all.
He watched me silently for a moment as if he had guessed that this brought me back to Elgin and his mutilated profile.
“Your boyfriend, what do you think happened to him?”
I held my breath for a moment before answering him.
“I don’t know. I imagined he had been kidn*pped by the Strigoi; he wasn’t.”
“You didn’t tell me about this detail, why?”
I stared him straight in the eye, I didn’t mean to lie to him.
“I manipulated you.”
He threw his neck back, surprised.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I wanted to help you neutralize the Moroi so that I had a good reason to ask you a favour.”
He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again, shaking his head.
“A favour? It was a brilliant idea, but completely unnecessary. It would have been enough for you to speak to me directly for me to help you.”
“I wasn’t sure.”
In his eyes, an amused gleam twinkled.
“And now that you have confessed to me that you used me, are you a little surer?”
I shook my head, he burst out laughing.
“You still have a lot to learn about our species. One lupus rarely abandons another.”
“You could have been that exception.”
“No.”
He leaned further against the back of the seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Jeremiah Sutherland and I were in college together.”
Which must have been sufficient as an explanation, since he added nothing else.
“Good. Start by telling me everything from the beginning. To your knowledge, where did he go before he vanished? What was your last contact, as well as all the strange situations that have arisen since his disappearance, apart from the Strigoi episode?”
Internally, I let out a deep sigh of relief. Keith Forbes was not just lupus, he was a professional, a professional who was going to help me.
I took a deep breath and told him everything, not forgetting the smallest detail.
When I had finished my story, he was frowning.
“It would be very interesting to have a little chat with John Gordon.”
“John?” I repeated, taking on the same expression as him.
Forbes crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, looking at me sideways.
‘Let me tell you a couple of things, Scarlett. You’ll understand better.”
I nodded.
“Dageus Gordon, young John’s father, Jeremiah Sutherland and I were all three of a pack. Jeremiah was its leader and for obvious pride, Dageus never accepted him.”
“History repeats itself!” I said deadpan.
“Dageus has a strong personality. And as he comes from a respected family in the Lupus community, he considered that the role was rightfully his. For people like him, you can’t imagine how important the label is.”
“Is he an alpha?”
“That’s right.”
I looked at him, lowering my eyelids. This charisma, this natural authority, this very masculine energy that he gave off...
“You too?”
“Yes.”
“Three alphas in the same pack...”
The expression on his face remained relentless as if he didn’t like to remember it.
“It was hectic.”
“What makes you think John had something to do with it? He’s an opportunist, but I can’t believe him capable of such baseness.”
“His father would have done it...”
“You’re kidding!”
He shook his head.
“Dageus Gordon is the exception you referred to earlier. He’ll stop at nothing to establish his authority. But he was still young, at the time, he lacked courage.”
My blood froze in my veins.
“But not now, right? Is that what you’re implying? You don’t think he...”
“Listen, Scarlett,” he said patronizingly. “There’s what I think, the leads I see, and there’s reality. What do you prefer? Forget what I just suggested or dig a little deeper in this direction? You decide.”
Not for a single moment had I considered the possibility that John might be involved in Elgin’s disappearance. I had a hard time convincing myself of this and thought that there was a completely different explanation. John had never challenged Elgin’s authority; although speaking of authority was hardly what best qualified Elgin’s attitude towards the pack members: he didn’t impose anything, he proposed and he had never even been hostile towards him. No matter how thoroughly I delved into my memory, I couldn’t remember a clash between them, a single spat or derogatory word. Until the pack dissolved, it seemed to me that they had always been good friends. Maybe they would stay that way despite all of this?
Detective Forbes’ rough face turned serious.
“Scarlett?”
I kept my head down on my shoes, uncertain.
“Do you consider that you have a choice? he insisted.
I shook my head from side to side.
“No… But if we are wrong, I’ll lose a friend.”
Because deep down inside, I hadn’t yet made up my mind that this pack was torn apart. We had all fought together, they had defended, helped, rescued me. No, in my heart, nothing was finished.
“And if I’m right, you’ll get your soul mate back.”
I looked up and blinked, I hadn’t told him anything about it. He smiles.
“You don’t have to tell me. You’re a special person. The Spirit has chosen you. You are his, and he is yours.”
In turn, I smile at him.
“I’m no different from young girls my age, it’s my life.”
He let out a deep, resigned sigh.
“We got the life we deserve, little one. Yours is hectic for the moment, but the calm at the end is worth any battles you win.”
“Thanks for your help, detective.”
An incredibly soft glow passed in his eyes.
“I still owe Rose’s son.”
An almost religious silence fell for a few seconds.
“Elgin’s mother, did you know her well?”
“Not as much as I would have liked,” he replied in a dead voice.
I had a strange feeling, one that Keith Forbes had had to give up a lifetime of happiness, against his will. I was covered with shivers. The tear in his heart was visible, palpable, and overwhelming. There were secrets deep inside him that were difficult for him to bring to the surface. But which ones?
His blue eyes scanned me.
“Tomorrow noon, I’ll pick you up from college and we’ll go talk to young Gordon.”
I nodded gently.
“The clock courtyard,” he added.
I almost smiled. Entire generations had known it. It must have always been the meeting point for many students. Tomorrow, Keith Forbes would return to the places of his past, where he had perhaps lived the best time of his youth… and the worst.
“Very well,” I nodded. “I’ll be there.”
“I’ll take you back.”
He turned the ignition back on.
Until we got to the dirt road that led to Rucker’s house, the sound of the windshield wipers filled the heavy silence of the cabin. I asked him to drop me there.
Slowly I walked through the pouring rain, raising my head to the sky, letting the water whip my face. The wind was blowing hard. It had taken the foul odours of the creature with it. I paused for a moment and stopped in front of the lifeless body. I looked at it, staring into space, my heart gripped in a vice that never seemed to want to loosen.
The future scared me. Would I then accept my fate with my head held high? I still couldn’t figure out how it all started, but I knew one thing: I would still be on my feet when it all ended.
I made a promise.
- Writer
