VAMPIRE Wolf

CLAUDE ONE YEAR EARLIER Blood. There’s so much of it that I can’t even smell the storm or the rain pouring from the sky in sheets. The closer I get to Gull Bay with my windows down so I can follow the scent trail, the stronger the stench becomes until I have to roll them back up before I go crazy. I hate that the smell of countless dying people is making me thirsty. I hate that my response isn’t pure abject horror. When Thales, my leader, called me to tell me to come back to Gull Bay immediately-- that rogue vampires from another coven were attacking a factory on the edge of town and that my assistance was needed right away-- I left the rocky beach where I’d been spending the weekend without hesitation. I was only twenty minutes away, but they’ve been the longest twenty minutes of my life. It’s not like vampires to want to save humans. Not like most, at least, and it’s certainly not like Thales. I knew it had to be bad, but the fact that I can smell the c*****e from a mile up the road... When I reach the factory where the bloodbath is taking place, I catch a glimpse of snarling wolves running alongside the building, looking for a way in. One, a big light- furred beast I recognize as the pack alpha, leaps onto a low roof and breaks a window with his shoulder before disappearing inside. Two of the other wolves follow him. The others aren’t agile enough to make the jump and disappear around to the front of the building to seek another entrance. Shifters and vampires working together? I never thought I’d see the day. I abandon my vehicle and run to the building myself, following the path the wolves took through the window. When I make it inside, I have to cover my nose and mouth with the collar of my shirt to keep the scent of blood from overpowering me and leading me to take part in the killing myself. My free hand grips the stake I brought from my car. I can only pray the others in my coven haven’t given over to bloodlust themselves. The repulsive sounds of dying humans and vampires are enough to keep my inner monster at bay, but I’m closer to my humanity than most of us. A rogue vampire with blood smeared all over his face like he’d been pied comes around the corner, staggering in his drunkenness. He lets loose a guttural roar when he sees us, but he’s too sluggish to escape or attack. I close the distance between us in a single leap and bury the stake in his chest, pinning him against the wall. “f**k! No!” he snarls, his words gurgling in his throat as he writhes grotesquely for the few seconds before he turns to ash. He crumbles around the stake and my hand. I wrench it free and keep moving down the hall he came from, seeking the next rogue.  Good to battle with you under different circumstances, a wolf’s voice says in my mind’s ear. I glance back without stopping to see a pitch - black wolf walking briskly behind me. I recognize him as a beta I tangled with over territory lines a few years ago. I gave him the tear in his ear. “How many rogues do you think are left?” I ask, returning my attention to the path ahead of me. Ten or eleven. There were nearly thirty to begin with, he replies. Thales made short work of most of them. So did the other vampires, but Thales... “Good,” I mutter as we come around the bend only to come face-to-face with three fairly young rogues quarreling like dogs over a dead body. They’ve gone feral if they’re after dead blood, and when their eyes snap up to focus on us, I can see there’s no light or life left in them. That makes it less painful when I stake them while the beta wolf’s snapping fangs keep them from ganging up on me. When the three young men are reduced to smoldering ash, I turn to the wolf and nod tightly in acknowledgement. He returns the nod. There’s pain in his eyes, too. I don’t think he enjoys ending lives any more than I do, even if they’re the lives of his mortal enemies. We work together from that point forward until there are no more rogues to kill. The halls are finally silent, no longer filled with their anguished dying howls. The wolf and I part ways to tend to our own wounded, but none of my coven’s vampires seem to have suffered more than a few scrapes. Only a few rogues were carrying stakes, which made taking them out without casualties more straightforward. I find Thales in the factory’s enormous main room, stepping over dead humans -- and smoking ash piles I’m sure he was responsible for -- as he makes his way to the Raven’s Crest vampires waiting for him on the other side, near massive metal containers that nearly reach the thirty - foot ceiling. I join them, waiting for his word. He takes off his bloodied gloves when he reaches us and tucks them into the front pocket of his blazer, which doesn’t appear to have a single thread out of place. “Well done,” he says without a hint of sadness in his voice even though countless human lives have been wasted today. Many in front of him, no doubt, since he’s been here longer than I have. “We made a strong team today and were a powerful united force against the rogues.” “What coven were they from?” one of our vampires asks timidly. She’s a new vampire, and she looks shell - shocked. She might have even known some of these humans. “I believe they were from multiple covens,” Thales replies thoughtfully. “Their scents were drastically different. Sometimes, my dear, rogues travel together, picking up more rogues as they go along until they form a massive, deadly coven like the one we saw today. Eventually, of course, they trespass on another coven’s land and are caught, but they can reach great numbers before that happens.” He clears his throat. “Today, they trespassed not only on vampire territory, but on wolf territory as well. That is why we combined forces with the wolves today.” “It’s unprecedented,” says one of our higher - ranking vampires, a tall man with a rough face scarred by blemishes from his time as a human. “We don’t mingle with wolves.” “No, but it might be time we changed that,” says Thales, looking at me. “Claude, if I’m not mistaken, you fought alongside one of their betas. Didn’t you?” “Yes, sir.” “I am quite sure he will tell the rest of his pack that you were an honorable comrade in battle. You will be the one to go to their alpha to present a treaty -- a treaty that guarantees peace between their pack and our coven as long as we do not hunt in Gull Bay.” He tilts his head as he ponders his latest crazy idea. Crazy because the wolves will never go for it. “We would be mildly inconvenienced, of course, but the random attacks on us on our border patrols would come to an end. The wolves are not afraid to use stakes when they falsely believe we are trespassing.” He’s right. We’ve lost two good men over the past few months to wolves. And the wolves have lost a few of their own, too. With hunters constantly on the prowl, neither their pack nor our coven can afford to lose anyone. “Well, Claude?” asks Thales, his eyes gleaming. “What do you say about representing our entire coven?” “Of course, sir.” It’s a first, to be sure, but ever since I took on the role of the coven’s second - in - command, my second life has been interesting, to say the least. Now, I just have to hope my next encounter with the wolf pack doesn’t bring it to an abrupt end.