The Lightwielder Files

Chapter 12

Mona considered herself an action girl but she also saw herself as extremely intelligent. It was a fact everyone seemed to point out when she was a child which she herself agreed with. Adam used to tease her saying that it had made her arrogant and her head overgrown. Mona would always reply with Beyonce's line that what others called arrogant she called confident. 

And it was this confidence that made her break away from her patrol partner Sage, on the excuse that she needed to drop something off at the cleaners and go around to an area further away from the pier and investigate a sighting. Her hands were sparkling with lighting under the surface and her hand was on her knife belt, which was glamoured from the sight of unsuspecting humans. Mona often wondered what it would be like to be outside of a glamoured world, where things were happening without her knowledge or understanding. Granted, she knew that she didn’t know or understand everything but believed she knew and understood enough about the world but sometimes she felt it was a burden. 

Sometimes she wished she could be unaware and oblivious to the supernatural world around, though it was what she was sussed to she couldn’t help but think that it had taken so much from her. Her mother, her sense of preservation, her heart. 

She heard rustling behind her, she stopped in her tracks as others smiled around her unaware fo the danger they probably were in. 

She followed the rustling to a corner, whipped out her knife, and…

“Mona, put that down!” a voice called out as she jumped out in front of them. They were dark, heavy and had managed to stop her blade from colliding with their chest.  The They in question was Harry Cowell from the Fado pub. 

Mona frowned easing her blade out of his grasp. 

“Don’t tell me what to do with my weapons!” Mona snapped, sheathing her knife. 

“Oh I will," Harry replied with a hint of a grin, “if your weapons are coming too close to my face.”

Mona placed her hands on her hips, a dangerous look coming across her sunkissed face.

“Maybe your face was asking for my knife," she quipped. 

Harry smiled moving out to beside her.

”So what are you doing out here?" he asked casually as if it wasn’t a complete coincidence that why were at Navy Pier on the same day at the exact same time while there was some monster on the loose. Mona didn’t believe in coincidences one bit and she didn’t think that with Harry being here.

“I’m a Lightwielder," she replied imperiously, her fingers itching to pick up her knife again, so she did hopeful so she could look sort of threatening to Harry. “It’s my job to patrol these parts.” when she put it like that she felt like she was some sort of midwestern sheriff but she didn't care she thought it made her sound cool and it was true that that was just one of the things that she did as a Lightwielder but Harry didn't need her to tell him that.  She told him all these things and more when they were together, years ago which standing with him right now made it feel like it was only yesterday that they used to come to Navy Pier talking about everything and nothing. 

It was like they were just an ordinary boy and an ordinary girl and not a Lightwielder and a Werewolf. 

How she missed those days, but she couldn't think about them now. No, she had a job to do and she was supposed to be mad at him for supposedly getting her way. 

“Sounds cool," Hary replied nonchalantly. “But don’t you Lightwielders usually patrol in groups?”

Mona shrugged, trying and failing to not be mesmerized again by his almost blinding bright eyes. 

“We split up sometimes would believe”, she drawled, “To cover more ground.”

 Harry nodded in understanding and placed his hands in the pockets of his worn-out jeans.

“So what are you doing here?” Mona asked.

It was Harry’s turn to frown, which disturbed  Mona greatly, more than she thought it had any right to. It was just she always liked Harry’s face more when he was smiling, not that he was practically ugly when he frowned. Far from it, he looked almost like an Alpha wolf which was really attractive and which should not be distracting her right now. 

“It’s a free country isn’t it?” he retorted cooly. “I can walk where I want when I want.”

Mona crossed her arms twirling her knife between her fingertips. The constant spinning action reminded her of her mother and comforted her at times. At others, the motion just kept her sense sharp and in tune with the rest of her surroundings.

“You can’t if it’s interfering with an investigation," Mona said, her eyes narrowed sharply.

Harry crossed his arms over his broad chest, his tendons working underneath his hoodie sleeves.

“I’m sorry, I didn't know that was your constitutional right. I’ll go read up on it right quick.”

“Mona rolled her eyes. “Cute, but that’s not what I meant. “

Harry resignedly. “Fine, I saw something strange or rather I smelled something strange in the air and it was the same thing I smelled the day that Darklighter came to the pub.”

Mona stored that information for us later in the back of her mind but right then in the present, she schooled her features into an impassive mask. She didn’t need Harry to think that he had helped get a breakthrough in the case, not that he was to risk getting a big head, far from it but he didn’t need to know he had helped her.

She was about to open her mouth to say something to him to let her be on her merry way when something bright and firey caught her eye in the distance. It was a fire flare, a way for Lightwielders to communicate with each other over long distances like a smoke signal but each flare was unique to each Lightwelder and that was for a fact that Mona was sure of Sage's, her patrol partner. She looked over at Harry whose nose was in the air like he had just caught a trail. Something dark filled the pit in Mona’s stomach, they shared a look and bolted in the direction of the flare. They were on the other side of the road when they saw Sage battling with her bolas two near fully corp hellhounds. Mona wasted no more time than she had before and unsheathed her throwing knives. Sage had already done some damage but she had also recovered some scrapes herself, Mona rushed to her side throwing two knives in quick succession to the nearest hound's flank. That would slow it down slightly and draw it away from Sage who gave her a frustrated yet grateful look in her direction. 

The hellhound reared its feral head at her, hoofs scraping the ground like a bull. Mona smirked twirling her two ornate daggers dangerously in her hands. 

“Whats up danger," she cooed, charging towards the hound. It staggered on as Mona swerved quickly barely missing its bared teeth as she managed to plunge a dagger into its eye. It howled in pain and Mona dodged the swift shifting of its hind legs to the side as she did an effortless flip and landed into a crouch. She heard a loud groan and growl as the hound turned to something or rather someone who at her left. 

It was Harry or rather Harry in his werewolf form, all brown fur and a hulking body with bright yellow eyes like most werewolves had. He clawed dangerously at the hound managed to leave a throbbing claw mark on its cheek but it wouldn't be so easily taken down. It swiped its mightly paw at Harry who yelped and hastily got out of the way, landing impressively on the creature's back. He sunk his teeth into the blood-tainted fur and held on and bit down hard for dear life. It was not a time to gawk but Mona would have if she could. And everyone thought that she was a daredevil. She should show them a wolf fight. She went over to help Sage with the hound but she looked like she had it right where she wanted it. 

It was backed into a corner right between two buildings. Sage managed to get the end of her bolas around the hound's neck dragging it into the ground.

“Mind if I help”, Mona called out her won whip already in her hands, ready to lay the hound down.

“If you think you can," Sage said through gritted teeth as Mona threw her whip around the hound’s neck getting purchase into one of the folds of its neck until its howls became pitiful whimpers. 

“Do you want to do the honors?” Sage asked her hand on a sword at her belt. 

“Gladly," Mona replied, her voice dripping with glee. She wouldn’t call herself bloodthirsty exactly but she did enjoy the hunt. She thought it was her favorite part about being a Lightwielder, apart from being able to protect the humans and the other people she cared about. 

She took out her second dagger and plunged it deep into the hound’s chest. She pulled it out with no little effort, green and yellow ichor dripping from the surface of the blade. Yuck, she thought as she always did. The sight would never fail to disgust her and she swished that this attack had happened somewhere near sand or grass so she would stick her dagger in the ground and it would come out clean like a medieval knight’s sword. 

All she had to do now, was take out a handkerchief and wipe down her dagger which she did as Sage took some samples from the creature. 

Both girls had nearly forgotten that there had actually been two hellhounds on the loose when they heard a groan and a thud behind them. The second hound was also unconscious but so was the werewolf beside laying down, chest heaving dangerously slow. Mona gasped and ran over to him. 

“Harry," she called out shaking him. He was still in his wolf form and barely moving. This was bad very bad. 

“Let’s get out of here and find the others," Sage said pocketing the evidence she gathered. 

“We can’t just leave him here”, Mona said indignantly, her hands still pressing feverishly against his virile chest. “He’s a witness and he helped us.”

“He’s a werewolf," Sage drawled in a bored tone as if that explained everything. “If his people find out we were involved in this and he’s out here unconscious, it would mean war.”

Mona rolled her eyes at Sage’s prejudice. 

“That’s not true and you know it.”

She looked up as another flare went up in the air. A light white one marking an Astra. Feo Cambell the one in charge of this patrol was calling them all to regroup. 

“Look," said Sage pointing up at the shimmery beam of light in the sky. “Feo’s calling us back now, we have to go. “

Mona looked from Sage to the beam back to Harry in her lap, who was starting to change back into his human form. 

His claws were retracting, his hair was growing shorter until it reached chin length and his bones were contorting back to those of a human. She didn’t know if his eyes had lost their supernatural gold glow because they were still closed. 

She couldn't leave. She resolved strongly to not leave him. Even if there wouldn’t be a war between Lightwielders and Werewolves because of this but if she just left him there not knowing if he was going to be okay, that would just be bad out. 

“Don’t worry about him”, Sage said her voice softer now. “These wolves usually hunt in packs.”

Mona for a fact knew that Sage was getting her pinion from natural wolves, not werewolves. 

“Hey, just do this for me”, she pleaded to do her best puppy dog impression, though she was sure it wouldn’t work on Sage so she switched to reason instead. “Tell them you lost track of me. I can find my back to the order easily enough. Please, I’ll owe you one.”

Sage seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of this decision in her mind like the thinker she was. 

Finally she a low sigh in resignation which Mona took to mean that she had won her over to the idea. 

“Okay, I’ll come up with something to tell Feo”, she said walking backward away from the scene. 

“Thanks, you’re a real pal you know that”, Mona said not being able to help the smile on her face. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know," Sage said, beginning her back to go rejoin the others. She looked back at Mona as if she meant to say something but then shook her head and began a slow jog to her destination.

Mona sighed in relief and was started to help Harry whose breaths were starting to return to normal. She cursed him inwardly for not wearing something with a zipper or buttons which could allow air into his chest, instead, she had to resort to awkwardly maneuvering him until he was in a sitting position and she could remove his hoodie and unfortunate for her, he was wearing just a hoodie showing all the hard-lines and angles of his chest and not just that. Marks of scars crisscrossing his entire torso. Mona had obviously seen scars before but seeing them on Harry produced a very different effect. 

“Amigo," she muttered softly rubbing his back, “What has the world done to you?”

She wished she had those smelling slats that he always was so fond of but she had to make do with the next best thing. 

She dug into her satchel at her belt, which thankfully hadn’t come off during the fight. 

She pulled out a tincture of healing salve and placed it on all the places that the hound had attacked Harry. They closed up all most immediately. Legend had it that, the first tincture had been made with the soul of a Solar which kind of made sense because one of the provisions of their powers was that they could heal but how the hell did they get someone’s soul into cream form. Mona had a few ideas but none that she thought were very ethical no matter the end result. 

After a few minutes, Harry thankfully opened his eyes and coughed. 

“What happened?” he asked in a hoarse voice. 

“Tha aliens came we’re the only two people left and we need to repopulate the earth”, Mona quipped dryly. 

Harry blinked rapidly down at her in confusion. 

“I’d understand if you wish you were still unconscious right now," Mona said. “I would feel the same way.”

Harry’s face took on a gentle mocking appearance. 

“Oh I don’t know about that, you and me alone doesn’t sound so bad,” he said in a suave and gentle voice that made Mona’s stomach do unexpected somersaults in spite of herself. 

“Not when I’m on patrol it’s not," Mona said trying and failing to add a dangerous edge to her voice which she knew for a most definite fact wouldn’t work on Harry because he was Pack and he had seen some of the strongest beings there were. She remembered the stories she heard about his daily life and the exhausting shows of power among the wolves. His dad before he passed away had been an Alpha so there was even more pressure put on Harry to conform to the tough type that the other wolves expected him to be. But it wasn’t him. 

Mona knew that better than anyone and at a time she had loved him for it. 

But not anymore, so she added sharply, “Then it’s just a distraction.” 

Harry began to rise to his feet and Mona had to hide the fear threatening to assuage her face due to his injuries. 

“So you find me distracting," he said playfully and Mona was a hair's breadth ways of from knocking him out with the blunt end of her dagger. Not that she world do that mind you, she wouldn't risk a confrontation and though she was a hothead she wasn't stupid. 

“Just get out of here will you," she snapped again already beginning to plan her journey back to HQ in her mind. She’d use a spyglass to get there as fast as she could.

“Well speak for yourself”, Harry said cooly. “I still have a trail to pick up.”

Mona blanched at his words. 

“The trail. Can you still pick up a scent?” she asked anxiously. 

Harry frowned then lifted up his nose into the air to catch t the scent. 

“There are still remains from the hounds”, he said then took a deeper breath before responding with “But there's something moving that way.”

He pointed to some building leading further into the district, where tourists passed around blissfully unaware of any danger around them. 

But Mona could sense something dark up that way, she didn't have Harry’s wolf-based sense of smell but she had some supernatural instincts of her own. 

“I can feel it too," she said in a low voice. Harry turned to her and she know they were thinking the same thing but she needed to get back HQ as quickly as she could. Sage could only stave off the wolves (no pun intended) for so long and Mona wouldn’t do that to her but something down the road was calling her, something dark and dangerous that she needed to investigate. 

“Uh Mona”, Harry said, then pointed to her hands or rater what was in her hands. “I’m going to need that back.”

Mona loosened out his hoodie and tossed it to him he caught effortlessly and put it on just as quickly. 

“Yeah, you don’t want to be killing people with overexposure from your chest," she quipped still trying to erase the sight of his bare torse from her mind to no avail, and luckily for her, that was the time when the memories of their cuddle sessions came to mind. 

How warm he felt, like a blazing inferno or her grandmother's warm natas on the weekends and the way he smelt like pine and cinnamon, like having a pie in the middle of the forest. She wanted to slap herself, what was happening to her. Why was she thinking about Harry’s chest, natas, pies, and forests in the middle of an investigation? Focus Mona, she chided herself internally. 

“Well thanks snd see you around I guess”, Harry said. with a small smile which Mona couldn’t help but return. She really couldn’t help it. No matter how she felt about Harry she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of fondness for him that she feared and at the same time hoped would always remain between them.

With a darting look behind him, he sped out across the road, while Mona pulled out her spyglass and a handful of light powder to take her back to HQ but something kept nagging her. After a very brief, very brief, okay there was no deliberation, Mona stuffed the glass and the powder back into her satchel before breaking out into a run to catch up to Harry.

He looked at her in surprise when he saw her running alongside his ginormous strides. 

“What are you doing?” he asked but he didn’t look upset far from it. 

Mona cracked her knuckles casually with a wry smile on her lips which in turn brought a  smile to Harry’s.

“It’s a free country I can run where I like”, she replied then walked ahead of him with a slight sashay in her steps. “And besides we have something to investigate.”

So they followed the trail of darkness to its very end.