The Lycanthrope Tails. Chapter Six.
The Lycanthrope Tails
Chapter Six
By Roofles
The downtown was empty save for the man on the ground and the woman in an old black duster. She wiped the white blonde hair off the good side of her face in a slow sensual motion, moving her whole body just enough with the action. Another few strands just fell in place as she turned away from the fallen man. Mary whistled softly as she swung the steel pipe around, inspecting the bloody end of it before tossing it into the alley she had been waiting in.
"It's too easy sometimes." She smiled to herself.
Mary proceeded to strip the coat off Jared jacket and drop it next to him. Taking a cloth from her pocket she wiped the back of his bloody head and dabbed it on the coat. Plucking a single hair off her head she dropped it on top. Looking over everything she gave a kiss to two pf her fingers and pressed it onto the coat. "Come, sweet doggie. Here he lies. If you don't come, he will cry. Bloody tears, bloody tears. He will cry..." She song softly, a rhyme she herself had made, as she stood back up with a devilish grin.
Mary didn't even need to call as a truck pulled around the corner in the next second. In the back the harpoon gun had been ripped off and discarded, replaced with a rather large covered cage. The plastic cover was strapped to the truck itself and it was nearly impossible to see the steel bars underneath. Benjamin kept the engine running as he got out and with one arm loaded Jared into it. He wasn't the only one in the cage as a rather mangy fur silver fur wolf had been stuffed into the back of it, taking up nearly the whole thing. Metal bars separated the cage in two giving the unconscious man a little breathing room. The large wolf had it's back turn to him, chest slowing falling and rising. The only indication it was even alive.
"He's not going to wake up and maul the poor little boy, is he?" Mary asked covering her mouth and looking at Benjamin with concern. She looked back over before her mouth split into a smile. "I need him long enough to play with. I mean questioning. Questioning, of course that's what I meant." She correct with another harmless laugh.
"Didn't you pull the beasts teeth out recently?" Benjamin just asked as they got into the truck and headed down the road. "Be rather hard to maul the boy without teeth."
"Yeah." Mary sighed, resting back and kicking one of her leather boots up. "They keep growing back though! It loses the fun of it all the third time around."
"Right." Benjamin said the only sign he even heard her. "Did you leave a trail?"
"No. I figured the wolf could pull out an Ouija board and scry for us." She rolled her eyes. "Of course I did! Don't be daft. The beast will follow straight into our..." And she made a gesture with her hand like a gun and fired. "Trap. Bang."
"A trap doesn't bang." Benjamin felt the need to point out.
"Mine do." And her eyes sparked with fire at that. The man gave her a moment to enjoy the thought of it before he went on.
"Why would it even follow?" Benjamin did look over at her this time.
"Why would I know?" And Mary shrugged sitting up a bit. "Maybe it's hungry. Or horny. Or something. Does it really matter, does it? So long as the beast does come." And she turned to look out the window, hugging her chest as she did. "So long as it does, nothing else matters..."
"The beast wasn't there was it?" This time he did seem concern with the answer. "It didn't just follow you. Or follow him, rather."
"I took a detour." Mary gave a half shrug. "It was easier this way. I made sure to scope it out before grabbing the poor kid. Less people involved than burning down a whole forest." She muttered the last part looking off into the distance as if seeing the smoke from the forest fire that forced the wolves to leave their home in the first place. "Besides this just gives us more time to ask the boy about such matters." She sat up now. "Figure out why the wolf is interested in him. Why it would even come. And if it doesn't? We can just get the information we need to track it down. Hopefully we won't even need to use the boy as bait... So long as we get the kill, it doesn't even matter." She whispered at the end thinking of everything they had been taught. To use, to abuse the laws and work the system to their advantage. At any cost, so long as they got the kill in the end. "He's young." She ended up finishing with.
They both drove in silence for some time after that.
"Will the boys family be looking for him?" The older man asked his face frowning. Wrinkles formed under his eyes showing his age, the wear and tear time had taken on him. It hadn't been kind. Mary didn't answer and just stared out the window, her own face showing the exhaustion of this all finally catching up. The two drove in silence already knowing the answer to that question. And what they would need to after this was all said and done.
It would be a couple hours later until Jared manage to slip back into consciousness. A putrid stench met his nose and like smelling salts it snapped him awake. He gagged at it, coughing and holding the back of his head in the next instant, eyes watering as they opened up to look at the source of that rancid odor. Jared couldn't see anything for several seconds as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his vision blurry due to the throbbing pain in the back of his skull. He had passed out drunk before but it had never hurt like this. At least he was able to keep his breakfast down.
He was on a metal bed that was covered loosely in wet straw. The smell of it was a nice change from whatever was making him sick to his stomach. Jared sat up a bit more, groaning and touched the back of his head, just covering it with his hand. He felt the dried blood where he had been hit, it was still fresh underneath the caked scab. It only made him woozy as he leaned against one of the metal bars for support. There was some sort of powdery substance on it, on the bars that got off on his cloths. He ignored it as he looked over, peering through the opening of the cloth draped over the top of the cage.
He could barely make anything out. Some sort of storage room of an old abandon warehouse, most likely on the industrial part of the town when the steel mill was still operational. Jared concluded that they might've even been in the old steel mill itself. It had been abandon ages ago since activist shut the mill down due to some pollution or endangering some animal or such, Jared wasn't too sure about the details. After it was shut down however the whole town became dead, the main revenue having been cut off and half the jobs removed from the town itself. People moved away, thus leaving him where he was now. A part of the town people never went too, was off limits and only meant no one would be able to find him. If anyone was even looking...
There was only a few people that would anyways, and that dampened his already thinning spirits. "Tess." He muttered recalling how he even ended up in this situation. His phone was missing, his coat as well and it was cold here. Resting back against the cage and facing towards the opening Jared closed his eyes, bumping the back of his head on the cage and cursed loudly holding the spot and wincing from the pain. His movements caught the attention of the other in the cage.
Something cold and wet touched the side of the hand he was using to support himself and he quickly withdrew it with a startled yelp and looked at the spot. There was a rather large black bumpy nose poking through the bars that divided the cage in half. It had touched his hand, even sniffed it.
"Dakota?" Jared asked as his thoughts came back to him. He tried to look into the cage before covering his nose and pulling back quickly. The smell of rot and decay met his nose and he pulled back some more as if he had just walked into an invisible brick wall. Then his eyes finally adjusted. "Oh god above..." He whispered looking at the sight.
The silver fur wolf was resting on it's side, tilting it muzzle upwards so it could sniff at his hand through the bars. It's thick pelt had been mutilated. Blood covered the whole side with vicious cuts by a serrated blade, lacerating the pelt. Large puncture marks were on each one of it's paws and a choke chain was still wrapped around it's neck. The fur was shedding off it's legs showing the discolored, bruised flesh underneath. One eye was swollen shut and a large cut was sliced down the middle of it. It's ears were notched. And the whole left side of it's face seemed to be suffering from mange.
It's head rolled over onto that side and one large eye opened, rolling back to look at him. The corner of it's mouth smirked. "Don't worry, pup." It chuckled. A dry hollow, raspy sound. "I won't eat you. Yet."
"I doubt you're in any sort of position too." Jared replied moving to the other side of the cage and taking a seat. It took him a moment to catch his breath, looking away he finally asked the beast that had gone silent. Maybe it had been hoping for Jared to wet himself or let out a girly scream at the fact it had spoken. Haven't gotten such a response the wolf ignored him. "Are you dying?" It was blunt, rude and Jared at that time didn't care. The sore on his head made it hard to feel anything but anger. He wanted to pity the beast but at the same time, some part of him knew, it was it's fault he was even here to begin with.
It turned that amber eye towards him. "If only." It murmurred and rested back.
"Ah," was all Jared said on the matter closing his eyes and trying not to focus on the smell. Before silence could fall, he spoke up again. Jared always hated the silence. "Once we get out of here, I'll take you to a hospital." He chose to leave out the animal part. "A good friend of my works there. They can take care of you and get all those cuts cleaned and stitched up. You'll be as good as new." Jared wasn't sure why he said what he did but just said what he figured Tess would in this situation. His thoughts were still on her, worried that she might be in the same situation Jared found himself in.
He didn't get a reply however. A moment passed.
"You dead?" Jared asked once more. He got a grunt in reply. "I don't know what you did to end up here, but no one deserves this." The man said if only to keep the silence from setting on them. That did rouse the wolf who pushed himself up just enough to turn his large head towards him.
"And if I did deserve this?" It spoke in that dry, raspy tone. A hollow laughed sounded from it's throat and it collapsed once more, facing him this time. Jared didn't answer, not even looking at the silver fur wolf and just staring up at nothing as the beast watched him.
"Tess wouldn't want that." Jared spoke slowly. "Even if you did somehow deserve this... Imprisonment would be one thing. Mutilated..." He chose the word and looked down at the large wolf. Jared shook his head and looked down between his legs at the straw covered metal floor. "Isn't. It's not just inhumane it's messed up. Sick. Fucked up! And I know she would have a thing or two to say on the matter." Jared closed his eyes, sighing deeply. "I just hope she's ok."
"If she's human," the wolf said softly. "I'm sure she will be." Jared looked up at it, meeting those amber eyes. He smiled and it folded it's ears back. "Or maybe not." It growled looking away.
"Thanks." Jared found himself saying. His own genuine tone to it surprised himself. "I'm Jared." And the man offered his hand even if he didn't, and hoped, the wolf wouldn't take it. "Yours?"
The wolf just looked at him.
"Are you a friend of Dakota?" Jared finally asked. "Or part of his pack or something?" And he lifted an eyebrow, trying to figure out how that worked out.
The wolf sat up a bit. "So that's why then." It spoke. And then chuckled darkly. "And here I thought they were giving me dinner." Jared moved back a bit at that. "We normally don't use names." It chose to toy with the question, not answering it yet. "Only the position in the pack matters." It rested it's chin on folded paws looking at the man, over him. It tried once more to sniff at his scent but the wolf couldn't with his damaged snout only the rotting of his own body could he smell... or taste. "In the human tongue. They call me Frostbite." And it grinned. Jared would've been intimidated by the action if it had all of it's teeth.
There is a difference between a wolf and dog. A wild animal and a tame one. The fur itself is coarse, thicker and more sharp. Their features are feral, "wolfish" and animal; especially those eyes. Rather than the large vacant ones of a domesticate mongrel, these were intelligent and dangerous. The size of it's head and paws were another sign Jared had been taught by his sister. Things you needed to survive in the wild. Things that could kill.
"Oh." And Jared didn't point out that it didn't have all it's teeth, or nails for that matter. Maybe it lost them to frostbite. "That's... kind of cool." He offered instead wanting to remain on friendly terms as long as possible. It might delay the whole being eaten thing. "I mean I got named after my grandpa. I'd change it if I could." And Jared shrugged. "I wish I had a bad ass name like that."
"It's only a name." The wolf replied closing it's eyes. It groaned a bit moving off the bad side as much as it could. Jared frowned, trying to make the best of the situation they were in. Then again other than the bump on the back of his head, he wasn't the one that was a bloody mess. Jared wanted to move over and try to tend to the beast the best he could but remained where he was. He could let emotion rule his actions right now, logic was the only thing that might keep him alive.
"A name still is a name. You need one to have some sort of identity." Jared said trying to be philosophical on the matter and giving out even before he began. "A rose by any other though..." And he chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "What do they plan to do with us?" He ended up just changing the conversation.
"Who knows." Frostbite murmurred back without even looking at him. "If you're lucky, it'll be quick and painless though."
"Rather than slow and painful." Jared said more to himself looking over the wolf. His heart sunk a bit the more he could see the damage inflicted on the creature and a growing pit of despair and fear weld up inside him. He shook a bit, letting out a slow breath and trying to be calmed down. "What would they want?" Jared wasn't a weakly. But torture wasn't something he could handle, very few actually could after all.
"Information." Frostbite just replied sharply, growling a bit under his breath.
"I don't even know anything." Jared replied defensively.
"About Red Fang." Frostbite said opening his eyes the best he could and looking at the man. "They'll start with the toenails. Then work their way up." And Jared shuddering at the very thought, curling his toes closer to his body. "Asking and asking you, over and over again until they get what they want. To make sure you're telling the truth. Not that it matters." And Frostbite collapsed once more, taking several moments just to breathe heavily. "If they don't get you... he will." And the wolf gave another dark chuckle. "And hopefully me too."
"Don't talk like that." Jared was the one to speak sharply now, causing Frostbite to look over at him. "Look," Jared soften his voice. "We'll get out of here. Someone will come... we'll think of something!" He said trying to cling onto some remnant of hope. "And when we do we can get you all cleaned up... patched up... fixed!" And he winced after saying that, the wolf lifting it's eyebrow at the word. "Helped." Jared amended. "We'll get you help... Someone will come..."
And Frostbite grinned a bit at that. "Oh, I'm sure he'll come. The Red Fang will take us all out."
"Red Fang?" Jared asked wearily looking over at him now. He felt exhausted from this whole conversation. A part of him didn't want to know anymore than he already did. A larger part of him just wanted to keep the wolf talking, at least if he was then Jared knew he hadn't passed on. The only thing that could make this worse right now would be to be left alone.
"He'll come and take care of anyone that threatens the pack. Man or wolf." And Frostbite sighed at that. "That's the Fang's job. To hunt down anything and anyone."
"And you're saying... Dakota is this Fang?" Jared asked.
"Every pack has it's fang. One that is given special privileges in return for doing the unquestionable." Frostbite sat up, on shaking legs. It had been so long since the wolf had seen or even talked to another he found himself lowering his guard on the matter, not even caring at all knowing his time was soon to come. "So yes, this Dakota you speak of will come. But not for a rescue." And the wolf coughed, slumping back down, as he hacked up blood. "I don't know how you know him. But he is death's incarnate. And his fangs are bared towards you now, pup." And with that Frostbite went silent. Only the slow movements of his chest rising and falling, accompanied by a rattling groan, was a sign that he was even still alive.
Jared covered his face with both hands, laughing a bit hysterically. "Great. Just fucking great. The one thing that can help me, plans to kill me. He even said..." And Jared stopped at that, laughing louder. What had he said? Something stupid along the lines of Dakota wouldn't hurt him. Who says that? That's messed up! You don't say that when you meet someone. It's... fuck up. And it wasn't like he even knew the wolf. The wolf just planned to wait until he was recovered, Jared was sure, then hunt him down and take this threat out... He had just used the man, toyed with him for his sick pleasures.
Such thoughts ran through Jared head. Until his eyes snapped open and he got up. He smacked the side of the cage. "Hey!" He shouted now. "Let me the fuck out of here!" Jared took a moment until he heard movement from outside and a woman came into view. "The hell is the meaning of this?"
Mary walked over slowly, rolling her neck as she came closer. "Isn't that something I should be asking you, darling?" She bit the tip of her middle finger and pulled the leather glove off it with her pearly white teeth. Her very hand was like porcelain. "Such a cute little boy, hanging out with such an ugly creature." And she scowled at the taking the glove as she walked over and the second she was in range slapped the side of Jared's face with the glove, dropping it in the same motion. She moved forward, snagging the front of his shirt and pulled him against the bars. "Where the hell is it?" She snarled in his face. Jared pulled back away from the metaphorically two-faced woman. So sweet and innocent and then so violent and... insane!
Jared looked at the good side of her face, able to see the edges of the black scars covering the other side of it from under her white blonde hair.
"First thing first." He said coldly, slapping her hand away with the back of his own. She let go and took a step back, folding her arms under her breasts giving him a skeptical look. "Where is Tess? Where is my sister!" He nearly shouted at the end, glaring daggers at her. "So help me if you hurt her..."
Mary blinked a few times before tossing her head back and just laughing. "Is that what you were so concerned about? This whole time." And she rubbed a hand up and under her hair, along the bad side of her face, covering it as she shook her head side to side. "Such a stupid child you are. We never had her!" And she laughed at that. "This whole time-," she began but Jared cut her off.
His whole body relaxed and he sighed, tears welding up in his eyes as his head fell. "Thank god." He nearly whispered stopping Mary in her tracks. "Thank god she's ok." He just went on to say, hugging himself in the cold of the warehouse. "I'm so glad she's ok." And he laughed, smiling now and shaking now that such a burden was gone. Tess was ok. That was all that mattered...
Mary frowned a bit, looking at him. She sighed now, shaking her head. "You consort with a monster and worry for your family at the same time."
"I never consorted with anyone." Jared said coldly looking up at her, and wiping a tear away. "It was an accident that we even hit the damn thing. An accident! You do know what that means, right?How the hell were we too know it was a damn.... werewolf! Or whatever the fuck it is!" He clenched his jaws, curling his hands into fists. "It was the one that followed me home in the first place! L-like I'd want that thing around." Jared shuddered at the thought or maybe it was just from the cold. "Mangy beast attacked me, beat me up and locked me away." Jared ended up stretching the truth out a bit; still he felt betrayed on the matter for reasons he wasn't even sure. Not like they were friends or anything, Jared had just met the damn thing. If Frostbite had been right then he was as good as dead anyways... These crazy humans would kill him. Or... Dakota would hunt him down and finish the job they started. "All it wanted was a place to keep hidden until it could recover. And then have me for dinner." And he shuddered again at the very idea, remembering how it had mounted him, biting his neck. Jared could still feel it's hot breath on the back of his neck.
Mary took a moment on that, biting the tip of her finger once more as she thought it over. "A little convenient I think." She finally said, turning away. "If what you said was true," and she shrugged shaking her head. "Then we have no real need for you."
"Look," Jared jumped in making sure to lay his case on the table before she could come up with his verdict and sentence him to death. He was shaking a bit from fear alone. "W-whatever you need to know? I'll answer everything I can. I got nothing to hide. It's not like I'm trying too defend t-that thing anyways!"
"Even so..." She began but another cut her off, she scowled at the larger man who joined the conversation.
"Maybe he speaks the truth, Mary." Benjamin spoke up coming into view of the over hanging light. "You would know more than anyone else what it's like to be played with by a beast of the night."
Mary turned away with a scowl and headed off. "I'm going to triple check the traps." Is all she said as she left. Benjamin watched her go before walking over.
He was a large man that still reminded Jared of some sort of German hit man. Around his neck was still the clergy collar but it was loose and draped down over his chest a bit. He wore a suit without a tie and the heavy duster, matching the one Mary wore, was over one arm. Benjamin set it down, pushing a chair over in front of the cage and took a seat.
"Are you alright," Benjamin asked pulling out a small box and opening it. "Please turn around so I can check your wound." Jared did, turning around and taking a seat if only just to take a seat. He hated crouching down in this cage. Ben began swapping the wound.
"What are you suppose to be? The good cop?" Jared grumbled, wincing slightly at the pain as the alcohol swap touch the wound.
"Something like that." Benjamin answered softly. "She wasn't always like that, you know." Jared didn't ask. "Once upon a time ago she was a normal person, just like you. Well maybe not just like you." And he chuckled in that deep tone like a brass bell. "She was a model. An up an coming starlet. And back then, Mary was a different person...
"It all began fifteen years ago, at a showing in Paris France, where her story begins. A place where only the rich, the beautiful and the arrogant can survive. Though she was as lovely as rose, she didn't have any thorns to protect her naïve self. Even before that world could chew her up and spit her out, someone else did the job for them." Benjamin closed the case and set it aside, offering Jared a warm beverage in turn. Jared did it if only to seem as if he were being cooperative.
"One of the other... contestants wasn't human." Benjamin went on, telling her story. "She grew jealous of Mary's beauty and purity of spirit... innocence." And he took a moment on that, bowing his head as if to recall the woman that wasn't around anymore. "So one night that monster, disguised as a woman, waited for my partner in her dressing room. Behind the set after hours."
There was a moment pause once more as Benjamin clenched his jaws, shutting his eyes and trying not to let his anger show.
"Played with. Humiliated. Tortured." He whispered the words. "It should have killed her, if it had been kind. No one can just live the life they had after something like that. Instead it inflicted that wound you see on her face. Even to this day it pains her, an aching wound that runs deeper than flesh itself." And Benjamin took a long drink from a flask in his coat after that. "She wasn't the same person anymore.
"We found her, recruited her. Taught her. And so one day she went back to Paris and found the monster that did that to her." Benjamin took a moment on that. "Some do this for revenge. Others do it so others won't have to suffer the same fate they had too." And at this he touched the spot where his missing arm would have been. "Others do it for a higher, holy purpose. And some of us just like the hunt..."
Jared waited a moment as silence fell. "And you're telling me all this... because?"
"You can't go back." And Benjamin closed his eyes now. "To the life you once had. You know too much. We can't erase those memories. And we can't... let you leave knowing what you do, already."
Jared lowered his head. "Some part of me already knew that." He whispered, folding his legs.
"Which is why I'm here to give you an offer." Benjamin said friendly enough but there was a threat underneath it, an offer Jared couldn't refuse. "Join us. Become a hunter like us. To protect those who can't from the shadows."
Jared frowned a bit. So this was how they recruited? A do or die kind of thing? That or be one of those that suffered from such an attack. Jared eyes drifted back to the wolf. Could he ever do such a thing like that to someone?
"You don't have to do what we do, personally." Benjamin touched his large chest and laughed a bit. "You can just be a desk clerk, knowing what others don't and working for us under the table. We do pay rather well."
Jared could see the test already laid out for him. Dakota would hunt him to protect the packs secret. These hunters would do the very same. This was just a test to see if he would indeed cooperate and if he was even able to help them out. Do or die.
Jared opened his mouth, about to reply, when an explosion outside cut him off. It shook the whole building and he fell backwards as the cage rattled around him.
Benjamin had already gotten up. "Looks like we have our guest. Think it over," and he smiled back at the man as he pulled out a rather large hunting rifle. "We expect your answer by the end of this." And Benjamin's face soften. "If not for us, do it for your sister. We don't want to do anything to hurt you or her. Don't give us reason too."
Jared watched as the man headed off as another loud explosion sounded as if a grenade had gone off just outside the warehouse.
"Either with them? Or against them, huh?" Jared muttered looking back at the wolf. He could see it looking at him with one good amber eye. "Any advice?" He asked with half a smile.
Frostbite just looked at him.
"Sorry." Jared said getting up a bit and moving along the cage wall to find the lock of it. "You're not dying just yet...." And he found the lock. A simple thing that required a key. He pulled at it. It was secure but a flimsy thing. It was covered in that powdery substance as well, and Jared realized it was silver. "I'm not about to wait for Dakota... for the Red Fang to hunt me down. Nor am I just going to bed over backward for these assholes." The lock was covered in teeth marks, some of which had broken into the inner base of it.
He wasn't about to just sit here and die, Jared could only think as another explosion sounded and a gun fired....