Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Alexis

How could I have explained to Will what I was feeling? It wasn’t that he was incapable of feeling something similar. Of course, he could understand what I was going through. He had gone through so much worse, and he had dealt with his fair share of PTSD. But despite all his efforts, my symptoms were not subsiding.

The Frampton Inn had been a wonderful idea, and I loved him for it, but the minute Will fell asleep and I was left alone to deal with the silence and the blackness, all the dark thoughts crept back into my mind, prohibiting me from sleeping. Even still, I managed to go to sleep, but my dreams were more along the line of nightmares heavily featuring undead vampires lurking in the woods behind Fiddler’s Green.

When I woke up feeling disturbed from those unending dreams of undead vampires chasing me all through the town, I decided that staying in this tranquil and serene place was not the right course of action for me. I had to do something productive. Anything that would take my mind off the lingering question that swam in my subconscious.

What if the vampires came back?

What if there was still some threat out there that was conspiring against us?

Blair was still out there as far as I was concerned. He could come back at any time with his forces and destroy Fiddler’s Green.

But this was not the pestering enigma that had ensnared my mind at this hour of the night. Having been kidnapped once by Maurice, I had seen the inner workings of the vampires in his secret cave. They came via ships to take the caches and deposit new smuggled goods. What if somehow the ship that I’d destroyed had not been destroyed? What if some part of it was still functional that the vampires were still using? On that note, maybe all the vampires were not dead. Perhaps some of them were still lingering around, waiting for their turn to attack.

How could I vacation in Frampton while so much danger lurked everywhere?

The self-aware part of me knew that all these thoughts were the by-product of the PTSD I was experiencing. I had been through so much recently. From me falling off the top of the building after Will’s presumed death to me discovering that Fred had rigged the entire town with bombs—everything that had happened had rattled me to the point that I could not think anymore. As much as I loved my mate, and as much as he was doing for me, I knew that the solution to my fixation was not here in Frampton.

That’s why I left in the middle of the night. I went on foot for as long as I could until I reached a thicket of trees where I could safely shift into my wolf form. I calculated that it took around five hours to travel here from Fiddler’s Green. It’d take me two and a half hours to run cross-country in my wolf form. I’d make it to Fiddler’s Green and come back by the morning. Will wouldn’t know a thing.

I had to go to the bay and see if the ship was sunk for good. I needed to confirm that there weren’t any more vampires. This obsession wouldn’t let me rest.

It wasn’t just obsession. That was the thing. It was intuition as well. The reason why I hadn’t been able to rest for the past week was not just because I was suffering from PTSD. Sure, I was suffering from it, which made a much more plausible explanation for my recent behavior, but that did not account for the whole of my behavior.

The real reason was that I could feel it in my gut that something was afoot. It was either the vampires or something else. My sixth sense could anticipate something happening. When I told this to Vincent, he laughed and said, “You know, you worry too much, Lexie. There’s nothing out there.”

And when I discussed this with Will, he said, “You and I have been through such tumultuousness that it feels strange to experience the calm after a storm. We’re so used to the calm before the storm that it’s uncanny for either of us to feel that nothing is wrong. Trust me, there’s nothing wrong whatsoever.

I got the same response from anyone I talked to in the pack. Even then, Will sent out scouts in the area around the commune to check and see if there was something or someone out there. But there was nothing.

That’s why I needed to go back and see for myself. And this is exactly why I couldn’t bring Will with me.

I traveled in my wolf form lightly and swiftly for hours until I reached the bay where I’d sunk the ship. The wreckage of the drowned ship was still there on the bottom of the ocean floor. I shifted into my human form and stood there at the end of the shore, looking into the water.

I had been there for no less than a minute when I noticed a shuffling sound coming from behind me. This was what my intuition had warned me about. The vampires were back. I turned around, fists raised, to confront whoever was standing there behind me, regretting the fact that I’d come here alone.

There was a shadow lurking behind the trees. It walked closer to me, growing taller and broader.

“Who are you? Reveal yourself!” I yelled from afar, stepping back. My feet got submerged in the high tide water as I stepped even further back.

And then, the moon shone on the silhouette of the man who had appeared from behind the thicket of trees, revealing that it was none other than Will.

“Will? How? What are you doing here?” I asked, completely perplexed.

***

We sat side by side at the edge of the shore, our feet in the water, looking out into the sea.

“When I sensed blackness coming from my bond, I got worried. I thought that maybe you had died. But then, it occurred to me that perhaps you were trying to be secretive. Or it could have been that you were far away. The latter was true. You were quite far for me to track you, but I still managed to do it by imploring the essence of our bond. I’ve gotten quite good at it, wouldn’t you think?” Will said.

“Considering that you tracked me across hundreds of miles, I’d say that you’re probably the foremost expert in tracking your mate down,” I said, feeling a little bit resigned and ashamed. I hadn’t wanted Will to wake up and discover that I was gone. I’d wanted for him to sleep through the night and never even notice that I was gone.

“I didn’t actually track you all the way. When the bond continued showing me pitch-black darkness, I thought, ‘What would Alexis do? Where would she go?’ And the first thing that came to my mind was this. You’d been saying that you thought there was something here all week. I should have listened then. I am sorry,” Will said.

“Even though I’ve looked at this wreckage, I still feel like there’s something lurking around,” I confessed my deepest emotions to him. “Don’t you feel the same?”

“I’ll tell you how I felt,” Will said calmly, putting his arm around my shoulders. “And this is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time. I just didn’t want to prematurely reveal it before it was a fully formed thought.”

“What is it?” I asked apprehensively.

“You know the entire story about me coming to America from Germany,” Will said.

“Of course. I’ve heard it from you dozens of times,” I said.

“Well, what if I told you that there was more to the story that I’ve never ever told anyone before?”

“Tell me.” I needed to hear this especially if it was related to how I was feeling right now. “And be sincere with me. You’ve always told me the truth. Tell me the truth now too.”

“Always. I promise,” Will said, then began. “Have you ever thought about why I had to move from Germany to America? It wasn’t something I’d just planned without giving it any thought. I could have moved to England or France, or even Sweden without any difficulty. After the war ended, all of those places where the Allied Forces had strongholds somewhat thrived, didn’t they? Look at those places now. They’re doing as well as America, if not more. And they were closer to Germany. So why, then, did I move all the to the other end of the world?”

“Why did you do it?” I asked. Now that I thought about it, why had he done that? It made much more sense to move anywhere closer. Even Iceland would have been closer than America.

“Other than Pearl Harbor, America was untouched by the war. There were no military establishments such as the ones that we’d seen in Germany and the rest of Europe. What I mean to say is there were no signs of war in America. Not a single sign. America had many other troubles back in those days, such as racism and the great political divide, but wherever I looked, I never saw any signs of battles. No bullet-riddled buildings, no military bunkers, nothing like that,” Will said.

“And what about everywhere else, like France and England?” I asked.

“All of those places were still recovering from the war. Signs of destruction, military outposts, people suffering from post-war poverty, injured soldiers, torn structures—everything reminded me of the war. We didn’t really call it PTSD back in the day, but that was what I felt when I kept seeing sign after sign of the war. I knew that I had to leave and escape somewhere that wasn’t touched by the war. Somewhere where I could keep my pack safe far, far away. I discovered that when I came to America, my PTSD started going away slowly, all because I’d changed the location and taken us somewhere safer.”

“I understand.”

“A pack can only remain strong if it’s together. That’s why I took the entire pack with me and didn’t just escape all by myself. And that’s why we still live in Fiddler’s Green with the rest of the wolves,” Will said.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“No.” Will smiled. “I was just beginning to feel that you and me, we’re like a pack of our own. When we get married, we’ll have kids. And then they will be a part of our special pack. We can leave Fiddler’s Green and go somewhere safer, where there aren’t such things as vampires and werewolves. Live normal lives. Be normal people. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe he was saying that.

“I promise. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I want to leave this place with you. I hope this brings you some semblance of comfort,” Will said.

“Leaving this place and going somewhere else to live with you would be so amazing,” I said, letting my emotions show. “Imagine us raising our kids in San Francisco. They can grow up with the rest of the kids in Silicon Valley. They’ll already know all they need to know about computers and grow up to become successful engineers!”

“Exactly!” Will laughed and clapped his hands. “So…my love and soon-to-be wife, I just want you to be a little patient, please.”

“And I’ll be as patient as you’ll want me to be,” I said, kissing him. “Say, you wanna go back to the inn?”

“Wanna race me back to it?” Will grinned.

“Oh, you’re so on!” I said, my spirits considerably lifted upon hilling Will’s proposition.

We shifted together and raced through the forest, heading back to Frampton. It’d take us a long time to go back there, but at least we’d make the journey together. I was feeling a bit embarrassed about coming here, but given how Will had so thoroughly consoled me, part of me felt glad that I came here.

We had only just reached the brink of the forest when Will stopped in his tracks, his ears perked up, his eyes staring into the distance.

What is it? I asked.

We’re not alone, Will said.

There it was, that sinking feeling in my stomach that had prompted me to come here. Something had not been right all along. There was someone lurking around, quite possibly a vampire. I looked in the direction where Will was staring, all the while realizing that my intuition had been right in telling me that there was danger yet.

What on earth is that thing? Will asked.

I had to strain my eyes to be able to see what he was seeing. It was a long shadow of a man, but it was not moving like a man. It moved almost mechanically as if it was a robot. This shadow was taller than both of us and had a whole militia’s worth of weapons attached to its thick, shiny armor.

It’s a soldier, I said when I could see clearly.

It’s not just a soldier. It’s something else, Will added.

We barely had a second to dodge the soldier’s first attack. He hadn’t even come close to us before he attacked us with a rocket launcher. The explosion boomed behind us as we jumped in opposite directions.

I could see the soldier making a run toward Will. From here, I spotted the strange armor he was wearing. His face was entirely covered by a chrome helmet. The rest of his armor managed to cover all of his body, even the joints. There were wires at the seams of his armor. He had two rifles slung over his shoulder, a machete on his thigh, pistols, and grenades in his belt. In short, he was armed to the teeth.

Will pounced on him with his entire force, but to my surprise, the soldier grabbed Will by the throat and threw him back hard against a tree. Will collapsed on the ground.

I couldn’t let this bizarre soldier beat my mate like that. I jumped on him from behind, biting down on his neck with all my strength. I could feel my teeth straining under the duress of the armor. I had to let go because the armor was impermeable. But before I could let go, the soldier reached around the back and grabbed me by the neck, throwing me against the same tree where Will had struck.

He threw me with such brute force that I could feel my joints aching when I fell. Any harder, and he’d have broken my bones.

How is he so strong and fast? I asked Will.

Will had gotten up and was rearing himself to go back into the fight. He raced circles around the soldier, clawing at him as he ran, but to no avail. Will’s claws didn’t even put a scratch on the soldier’s armor.

While they were locked in battle, I circled them so that I’d be able to help Will if he needed it. The soldier moved with such speed that it was getting hard for me to track his individual moves. I could just see a blur moving around and Will trying to keep up with it. But as the fight progressed, Will got in a few claws and strikes that slowed down the soldier. The thing that rattled me the most was that Will’s strikes were extremely powerful. He had killed so many vampires and soldiers before with these strikes. He was in his feral form, the most powerful form known to werewolves the world over. And despite all of this, he had not been able to take down this impossibly strong soldier.

Even though the soldier was a little slowed down, he was not fazed. He didn’t speak or struggle as Will unleashed a flurry of attacks on him. He just stood there, taking the brunt of the attacks without it affecting him. And when Will was done, the soldier didn’t fall down or surrender.

Instead, the soldier took out a baton from his belt and pushed down a button on it. High-voltage electric current zapped from the end of the baton. Just as Will jumped to attack the soldier again, the soldier zapped Will in the torso with his Taser, knocking him out.

Will! I called out as I gnawed at the soldier’s Taser and yanked it free from his grip. Before I could go back to Will, the soldier’s backhand met with my jaw with such sheer strength that I lost consciousness.

No! Will called out, forcing me out of my unconsciousness. I opened my eyes to see Will standing in front of me, defending me from the soldier. Somehow, and I don’t know how Will had managed to take the helmet off the soldier’s head.

The soldier’s skin was pale and purple, with many veins showing on his forehead and cheeks. His eyes were unnaturally dilated. He was by no means a natural man. He reached down to pick up the helmet and then put it back on his head, fitting it tightly.

I realized that my intuition had been right about someone being out there. It just wasn’t vampires. It was this inexplicable soldier armed to the teeth and seemingly invincible. As much as I admired Will for standing his ground and continuing to fight him, I could see no way either of us could beat this relentless goliath of a human being.

That was, if he was a human being at all.