30. Raul

30

RAUL

T hose howls were the song of loss. One of us had fallen. Somewhere, somehow, an enemy had bested them in battle. They were one of mine and as Alpha, I had to track them down. It was on me to not only look into this tragedy, but to see it set to rights.

I ran through the dead of night, letting the sounds of my pack guide me. They didn't rest after their initial call. The lament kept going on and on. Not as loud as the sounds that had sent me thundering through the woods, but not much subtler.

As I got closer, I heard frantic breathing, sharp cries and the quick pacing of massive paws across the dirt, squashing anything unfortunate enough to be in their wake. Less than a mile east of me and up a steep embankment were two of my kind. They were going round and round the body of our dead comrade.

Surrounded by small bushes, the dark hillside as the backdrop, Stones and Collins's beasts were safeguarding what they had been unable to save in the first place. Our fallen one was Kenny. Lying on his side, he had smudges of dirt across his white fur. The three black patches across his back, his key feature, had shrunk. There was a deep gap in the middle of his ribcage, two inches wide, with whatever had made the wound leaving flattened hair on that part of his body. I paced around his corpse, sniffing the ground, the body, and taking in every clue.

"Meeting. Joe's. Fifteen minutes." I sent to Collins and Stones, flashing each an angry glance.

I wished I could have stayed there a while longer. I wished I could just stand between them and request more details about Kenny's demise. Yet, the wolf was not built for this. He could state his intentions in brief messages. He could express himself through body language, but that was it. Conversations and narratives were beyond his capabilities.

Striding back through the undergrowth, I came to a disturbing and painful conclusion. We were not done with that vampire clan. It had to be them. Only one or more of those vile creatures could have squeezed Kenny to death like that. They had slipped past our defenses and paid us back for the death of their own Alpha. Or was he really the Alpha?

I couldn't be sure. He had said so, sure, but candor isn't a defining trait in any vampire. Whether he was or not, they had not let their loss go unpunished. This was retaliation, pure and simple and now the prospect of war was back on the table. There wasn't much I could do to prevent it now that they had killed one of ours. Even if I was to head back to Louisville, it wouldn't win me or my pack anything.

The pack had gathered at Joe's bar by the time I arrived, leaving their normal flamboyance aside. There were no silly games and the laughter that would normally be roaring throughout the barroom was absent. In place of the normal rambunctious fun was an air of fear. They exchanged scared glances, and nobody would open their mouth. If a few of them hadn't been tapping their fingers on their tables, I would have been able to hear a pin drop.

I squared my shoulders and kept my chin high. I was their Alpha, no matter my own thoughts or feelings, I had to exude confidence and control. They depended on me, and I would not let them down. I stopped in the middle of the bar, within view of all of them.

"Collins, Stones…" I said, "What the hell went down out there?"

"Bloodsuckers," Collins said in a voice riddled with indignation. "We were patrolling the eastern border like normal when we were ambushed. There were five of them. We fought, but they seemed to have one goal. Kill one of us and get the fuck out."

"How could you tell that?"

"Well…" he huffed, shifting his feet and looking around the room as if trying to find his confidence. "Three of them jumped Kenny. Right off, they went right for him. One on one? We can handle them. Three against one? No. No way in hell, man."

"What about the other two?" I asked, my voice faster. "Did you take care of them?"

"I wish," Collins murmured, pursing his lips. "We fought and wrestled with them. I managed to pin one of them down on time, but he broke free. Fuck, even the one that attacked Stones wasn't strong enough to have done that."

"It's true," Stones confirmed. "The son of a bitch was too fast and too agile."

"Soon as they'd killed Kenny, they disappeared into the forest," Collins added. "Why did they do that? I mean, they could have stayed and tried to finish us off. They had the numbers. We would have been fucked."

"Because they'd done what they'd come for. A death," I said quietly. "Look at you. All of you. You're frightened. This is what they wanted. To take our heart."

"Well said," I recognized Helena's voice immediately but would swear she wasn't here when I walked in.

Eyes widened with disbelief I turned towards her voice and there she was rising of murmurs from a table in the lower left corner. She threw her dark-brown overcoat aside, revealing the familiar figure in her black cloak, holding her staff loosely before herself. Of course, not everybody in the bar was impressed by this stunt. Gasps and exclamations of shock flew out of their mouths, the moment they realized that a human had slipped past them unnoticed.

"What the…?" Collins froze halfway through his sentence, then his voice lowered to a growl. "Who the fuck is this?"

"I am Helena van Zant," she introduced herself, shifting her gaze to him. "And since I'm here to help you out, I'd rather you kept foul language out of the conversation. Thank you, very much Collins."

Her rebuke combined with knowing his name didn't sit well with him or anyone in the pack. The tension in the room was skyrocketing, shifting from fear to anger bordering on rage. Helena had presented herself as a target, which was a stupid idea. Except I knew how powerful she was, and they didn't.

"Helena's alright," I said, intervening and turning a circle so I could meet each of their eyes. "She's saved my ass more than once in the past few days. And to be clear, I wouldn't have been able to kill that Alpha vampire without her help."

"How do we know she's not here to harm us?" Stones asked, his voice picking up in speed and strength as he asked the question they were all thinking.

"Fools…" Helena shook her head in annoyance. "I've been coming to Dawson since before most you were even born. And yes, in case you're wondering how, I do it by doing the same thing that prevented you from smelling me tonight. I use magic to cover my scent."

The crowd grumbled, looking from her to me. As the Alpha they had to follow my lead, but they weren't happy to have the witch in their midst or flaunting her powers that could fool them.

"As I said, she's okay," I repeated. "She's a friend. Treat her as such."

"Thanks first born," she said, with a nod. "Now to business: I hate to say it, but you're wrong. You didn't kill their Alpha in Louisville."

"How can you be sure?" I asked with a growl while narrowing my eyes.

"Vampire clans usually disperse once they're left leaderless," she answered, walking towards me with sure steps and a casual obliviousness to all the shifters who might want to tear her apart. "This one didn't. That and my spies tell me that there is a group of sixty or so vampires that are about seven miles from Dawson." Gasps of outrage mixing with renewed bouts of fear filled the room. "They'll be here by nightfall tomorrow. I strongly suggest you all get ready for battle."

She might as well have pronounced that she was holding a hydrogen bomb. Loud chatter filled the room. Every pack member preferred to voice their own views that almost instantly became a shouting match as each one tried to drown the others' ideas out with sheer volume.

I let it build, staring at Helena the entire time. I wanted to know more, but there was no way to ask, she'd never hear me. The look in her eyes though told me all I needed. She wasn't lying and we were in serious trouble.

I pushed my way through the crowd to the bar and leaped up on it. I slammed my foot down as I yelled.

"Hey! What the fuck is this?" Silence fell across the room almost instantly. The wolves in them each knew who the Alpha was. My dominance filled the room. "What's the matter with you? We knew this day would come, didn't we? So, what if it's tomorrow?"

"It's just too soon, man," Sammy interjected his opinion in his usual, mild tone. "Most of us thought we had some time to prepare for this. Including me."

I met my brother's eyes and saw his fear. I understood it, but I couldn't coddle him or them. The situation was too dire for that. We had to get ready to protect what was ours or we'd lose it all.

"I respect that," I nodded, "but this is what it is. You all got that?" A murmuring of assent came from around the room, albeit reluctantly. "We're all shook up right now. Kenny's death is a lot to take in. Everyone go home. Get some rest. We meet tomorrow night at the edge of the forest. I'll have a plan in place by then. Goodnight."

Unwilling to wait for their reaction, I headed for the door. I had nothing else to say to them, and I was sure that, whatever else we discussed, it would not help our situation. It was clear that though I had tried to prevent a war between us and that accursed race, my efforts had been in vain.

The vampires had decided to come to the valley. Now they were threatening my people with annihilation. As the Alpha of this pack I was going to make sure those bloodsuckers regretted their decision to ever set foot in our lands.