Gypsy Moon

Chapter Sixty-nine: Gyam

. . . . . . (early June)

I waited as the building burned.

We had been taken to some abandoned cluster of buildings on the desert edge, so by the time human firefighters arrived from the nearest town, the entire clump of half-collapsed buildings was consumed in the inferno. When they got the blaze under control, there wasn't much left past smoldering rubble, and it was quite dark.

The humans were being very careful of soaking the remains to prevent a flare-up. I, however, was getting bored. I lay hidden a safe distance from the activity, watching the humans as they worked, my hearing focused so I could listen as they spoke to one another.

"Looks like seven bodies, sir."

"You see how many guns they had? f*****g gang war."

"At least they picked a remote area this time."

I huffed a silent laugh. The Elders are always so worried about humans learning about us, when humans are so willing to pick the most banal explanation possible.

"Get them bagged, the smell is making me sick."

"Hey, this one is missing an arm. Does anybody see an arm?"

"Might be a previous injury, but mark the tag in case someone does."

Still, if Lilian has taught me anything, it's that occasionally humans are incredibly clever. She's the only one in the pack that has reached out to me since I assumed Aiden had returned, everyone else was giving me my space, but her single statement piqued my interest, so I agreed to keep it in the back of my mind and stayed to watch the humans dig through the ruins.

"that's odd..." I flicked my ears up and centered on the quiet muttering. "where's the jawbone? oh, over here... huh." I crept slowly towards the voice so I could look at the speaker. An older man was frowning at a charred corpse, not much more than burnt scraps clinging to the skeleton. He was holding the jawbone in his blue-gloved hand, turning it curiously.

"How did you lose your jaw in a fire?" Ah, they found Sir. And there we go. Lilian was right. We don't trust anyone to hide our evidence but us, and here they are being nice and finding all his parts for me. The man puttered around the corpse for a while longer.

"Ready to load this one?"

"What? Oh yes, thanks." He put the bone into the bodybag and let the other man zip it closed so they could heft it onto a gurney. I fought wagging my tail as they loaded that body into a large van, already occupied with the other bodybags.

I did let a grin stretch my muzzle as the older man climbed into the driver's seat. He must be the coroner. He put the van in gear and pulled away from the flashing lights and into the dark night. I stood up and jogged after the vehicle like a shadow.

I didn't wait long. As soon as we were safely out of human hearing, I leapt into the glare of the headlights long enough for the human to slam on his brakes. I dodged easily as the van fishtailed and scraped to a stop.

I could hear the human's heart racing as he carefully put the van in park, and took several deep breaths to calm himself. My tail slapped the ground softly as he slowly opened the van door and peeked out.

"O-okay." His voice was hesitant, but stronger than I expected. "I know I wasn't seeing things. No real wolf gets that big, especially around here. What are you?" I grinned and shifted, leaning against the back of the van carelessly.

"You are very clever. Good job." He startled and clung to the van door, turning towards my voice in the darkness. "I need you to give me this van, I need these bodies." He shivered fearfully.

"I'm supposed to take them to the morgue." I chuckled lowly.

"I didn't ask." I stepped out of the shadows and let my body shift partially. "Either walk away, or get in the passenger's seat." He stared at me, frozen with fear, so I stepped towards him slowly. It is really f*****g awkward to walk half shifted, I discovered quickly, but I managed to look threatening.

He surprised me as he climbed into the van and obediently slid over to the passenger seat. I let my body relax fully human and sighed with relief. That was harder than it seemed, like trying to hold your breath while shivering. I'll have to practice more later. I climbed into the driver's seat and stared at him levelly. He quickly lowered his gaze submissively and I looked at the steering wheel.

"Fun story: this is my first time driving." I chuckled at the look the man gave me, startled enough to outweigh his fear. "Third option: you drive, lights off, to where I say with no bullshit, and I won't add you to the passengers in the back." He blinked exactly once.

"If you'd like to trade me seats then?" I nodded and we traded places. The first thing he did was switch the vehicle lights off, so I smiled at him.

"Good. Drive as I say." I calmly guided him as he drove through the darkness. He drove slowly at first, but did gain some measure of confidence as we progressed, seeing that I had no intention of wrecking the van, and I obviously could see in the dark.

"May I ask questions?"

"Not while we drive, slow down, the turn is approaching. Here, go left, good." I grinned at him and he nodded.

He waited patiently as we drove and I had him take us fairly deep into the desert before I let him stop. I chuckled to myself, so cliché. I turned my crooked grin towards him.

"I will answer your questions, so only ask if you really want the answer." Lilian had said many humans will choose not to ask, so I was pleased when he nodded slowly and chewed his lip nervously.

"If I ask the wrong question, will you kill me?"

"Huh. Fair." I stared at him evenly. "Honestly, I should kill you for what you already know, so..." I shrugged noncommittally. He nodded and was quiet for a moment.

"In that case, what really happened? If not a gang fight gone wrong?" I grinned.

"No, that was pretty much it, actually. My boss was captured and brought there for some good old-fashioned torture, so my friends and I murdered the group and I set the fire to hide the evidence." He shook his head.

"Oh, of course." He chuckled nervously when I nodded. "So why kidnap me?"

"I need these bodies and don't know how to drive." I shrugged casually. "They weren't totally consumed by the fire, so I have to get rid of them properly. And I don't have to learn if you drive." He looked at me cautiously.

"What would I have found during the autopsies?" I grinned at him, letting my canines lengthen slightly.

"That one of those bodies has some interesting anatomical quirks." He drew in a very slow, very shaky breath.

"So what will happen to me now?" I shrugged again.

"Pretty simple options, with the added weight of knowing I am being insanely lenient with you only because your skills would be beneficial to my boss."

"Well." He looked out into the still dark desert. "In that case, I suppose we should be getting you home before dawn?" I snorted.

"Please tell me that was not a vampire reference?" He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment and I chuckled. "Man, Lilian is going to love that. No, but I have been up since six am yesterday and had a really long day. I would like to go to bed for a couple hours." He laughed a little sheepishly.

"Where are we heading?"

"Northwest? I think?" I looked up at the stars and frowned. "Where are we right now?"

"East of Carson City, at the moment."

"Damn." I tried to remember how Lilian had given directions to the pack house. "We're west of Lake Tahoe, but you gotta hit I-80 to have road access." He nodded and I sat back in my seat as he started driving. "But remember that it's not a threat that I will kill you. It's a statement, so don't cause trouble on the way." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as he drove.

"How old are you?"

"17ish."

We drove in silence for almost an hour before he spoke again.

"Am I going to die?" I bit my lip.

"We all do eventually, but I know what you mean." I shrugged. "I can tell you whatever you want to hear, but it really boils down to whether or not you become a threat to my boss. At any point, not just this occasion."

"Aren't you a little young to be killing people?"

"Only by your standards." His brow furrowed and he drove quietly for quite some time, only speaking up again after he got onto the freeway.

"My standards are what, in this case?" I chuckled and gave him a genuine smile.

"In this case, too ignorant." His eyebrows lifted quizzically and I laughed. "No, I am young, I just mean I have a unique background, even amongst my own kind." I pointed to the exit he needed to take and he slowed down so he could navigate the dark wooded road I had him turn onto.

"Was it justified? The murders?"

"From my point of view, yes." I grinned and nodded towards the corpses in the back. "And if I'm perfectly honest, they'd probably agree." We drove silently for a while as his attention was occupied with the dirt road we were on.

"What started the conflict?"

"Hmm." I thought for a moment. "I suppose Sir wanted revenge on my boss for killing him." The van jogged slightly and he chuckled with resignation.

"Okay, that's a pretty good reason for them." He glanced out the window and slowed down as the road narrowed. "What was your reason?"

"Two-fold, personal vendetta and no one f***s with my boss and lives." I laughed lightly at the look on his face. "Don't think too much about it. Besides, I'm sure my boss is more concerned about why Sir had to be killed twice in the first place."

"I suppose that is a more worrisome subject." He slowed down again, the van rolling to nearly an idle, and adjusted his glasses. "I'm not seeing things and there is a rather large bear sitting there, right?" I laughed again.

"Yeah, that's Marcel." I sat up in my seat. "Oh man, I love it when he's on guard, park the van over there, hurry up." He did as I asked and I opened the van door and hopped out. "You should probably come with me."

I jogged over to Marcel, timid footsteps behind me told me the coroner was following me. Marcel lifted a paw and pointed at the coroner as I came closer, but I was more interested in his claws.

"Marcel!! Dude, scratch my back!" I jumped backwards a little and shifted to my wolf. Marcel bellowed angrily at me.

/:What? Oh, the human, wow he didn't faint, don't worry about him, get scratching.:/

Fun fact: I do 'the dog thing' with my hind leg. Every time. So worth it.

The human was actually laughing as he stepped calmly up to Marcel and I. I shifted back just in time for Aiden to come to the door, holding a pair of robes. Marcel rolled his eyes and shifted back to Samuel. The coroner laughed.

"Well, you hardly got any smaller." Samuel shared in his good-natured laughter and the coroner turned towards Aiden and looked him over. "I assume this is your boss, yes?" I nodded distractedly, sniffing the air. Aiden looked at me with concern as I scanned the campus.

"Is there a problem?" I shook my head, a huge smile on my face.

"No, everything is perfect. Everyone did everything perfectly. To impress me?" Aiden laughed warmly. I did not miss the relief in his voice.

"Not to impress you." He pulled me into a hug. "To make you proud." I smiled into his chest and returned his hug.

"They did that perfectly as well."

. . . . . .