Chapter 8

-Dante-

It was hard to talk about Lena and her disgusting facility. The memories of what they did to me made me nauseated and took away the little willpower I had left, but I had to continue. Chase deserved an explanation. It was unforgivable of me I didn’t tell him everything the second he let me into his home.

I couldn’t look at him while I talked. I attacked him… I had turned and went for his throat the second my transformation was complete. All I could remember from that moment was a blurry image of his shocked expression. He survived only because he was a warlock, and that thought made me sick to my stomach.

When I was finally done talking, Chase stayed silent. I could feel him staring at me. He didn’t say a word at first, but then he stood up.

“What the actual fuck?” he asked loudly. I shrugged without looking at him. He took a few steps away from me, but then turned back to face me. “Are you serious?”

“It’s true, I swear…” I mumbled, realizing just now how unbelievable my story was.

“Your wife kidnapped you and made you her lab rat? Are you fucking serious?”

I carefully peered at him. He looked angry. I was surprised to see him so angry. “Do you now understand why I shouldn’t stay here?”

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” he told me almost absentmindedly. “You’re going to tell me where that place is so I can introduce those sick fucks to my Eru.”

I looked down at my hands, feeling slightly better now, knowing that he believed me. “I don’t want to go anywhere near that place. I don’t even remember how to get there… I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was driving when I escaped.”

I saw him staring at me from the corner of my eye. “We can’t just let them get away with it! And there’s what, a dozen of us still trapped there?”

“We?” I asked, looking up at him. “You have nothing to do with them. You need to kick my ass to the curb and stay far away from those lunatics!”

Chase snorted loudly at me. “Yes, let’s forget that I’m a warlock who tamed his own freaking demon.”

“I’m serious!” I stood up and stepped closer to him. “You have no idea what I’m capable of! I could kill you in a heartbeat if I change back into that thing! I did almost kill you!”

“Please – that wasn’t even close!” he said dismissively, and his attitude was making me mad.

“Look,” I practically spat at him, but I never got to finish that sentence. I was hit with the already familiar pain as my body started to change. I looked down at my hands and saw gray fur beginning to grow. “No… not again…!“

“You need to calm down,” Chase hurried to say and grabbed my hands in his. “Look at me.”

I was shaking all over when I forced myself to look at him. I could feel him squeezing my hands, and he smiled. “Anger triggers transformations, so I need you to take deep breaths, okay?”

“I can’t stop it,” I gasped, trying to do as he said. “You need to leave!”

“I’m not going anywhere. You can do it – you said you never mastered your transformations, right? All you need is practice.”

“I’m going to kill you if I turn,” I pleaded as my bones started shifting.

“Happy thoughts,” he said like a yoga teacher in every sitcom. “Find your happy place.”

“I can’t…”

“Yes, you can!”

“No…”

It was happening, no matter how hard I tried to fight back. I guess Chase understood that since he let go of my hands. He gave me a sad smile when I looked in his light-blue eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, lifted his right hand like he was grabbing something out of thin air, and yanked it hard.

That was the last thing I remembered of that night.

*****

For some reason, I had a massive headache. It was so horrible I didn’t even want to breathe. I couldn’t even think about opening my eyes. I couldn’t think, period.

It took me a while to understand that I was lying on a bed, and when I finally managed to open my eyes, it took me even longer to recognize Chase’s guestroom. I felt like someone hit me with a train. I tried to remember why I felt like that…

I changed again!

I pushed myself up, but the sudden movement made me see stars. I was about to throw up, but the house was way too silent… I changed… What did I do? What did I do?!

“Chase…” I tried to call out for him, but my voice was a mere whisper. I ignored the pain and the need to hurl and pushed myself off the bed. I stumbled on my feet, trying to hurry to the door while the world was spinning around me. I crashed against the doorpost, fearing what I might see when I opened the door. Blood… Broken stuff… glass…

…Chase’s lifeless body.

I shoved the door open and stopped to blink a couple of times when the brightness almost blinded me. Everything seemed just fine… I wobbled forward until I reached the railing, and this time I had to stop to blink a few times because everything on the first floor looked like nothing ever happened. Nothing was broken anymore. I could’ve sworn I saw a broken mirror and a destroyed table, among other things when we got back from Njizrski…

And then I heard his quiet voice coming from the kitchen. I took a deep, shaky breath, and my knees gave out. I sat down on the floor, leaning against the railing as the relief washed over me. I tried to see him through the thin metal bars of the railing, but he was probably at the other side of the kitchen. All I could see from my angle was a small part of the table, nothing more.

But I could hear him. I knew I shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but my legs refused to work with me, and my head was screaming for me to stop moving, so I stayed still, listening to the conversation he was having with someone. An older female by the sound of her voice…

“No, I’m not exactly in trouble…” Chase said with a slightly high-pitched voice, and then laughed lightly.

“So you are in trouble,” the woman replied – I could barely hear her at the other end.

“Just a minor thing – don’t worry about it, Mom,” Chase said with that same dismissive voice he spoke to me earlier.

“Seriously though – you should call Frank. He knows a lot more about these things than Dad and I do,” the woman – Mrs. Cooper? – said sternly.

Chase let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to call him…” he grumbled.

“He’s your mentor! I’m sure he’d be happy to hear from you!“

“He ran off to Hawaii and left me in charge of the shop! I haven’t had a day off in weeks!” Chase groaned, but his mother said something about Frank deserving his vacation. “Fine, fine… I’ll call him… How’s Dad?”

Chase suddenly stepped out of the kitchen, carrying Eru on his shoulder and a broken flowerpot in his hand. The cat immediately spotted me, and her expression turned sour. She whipped her tail a few times as Chase walked to the front door and placed the flowerpot on the desk right under the window. He then tapped it with his finger, and the damned thing fixed itself. I stared at it for a long time, trying to understand what I just witnessed. I knew perfectly well what the definition of warlock was, but seeing something like that didn’t quite fit in my poor head.

It got worse when I noticed that Chase wasn’t actually holding his phone. It was hovering close to his ear, following him around.

My headache was growing worse.

The cat hissed at me and started growling when Chase was about to return to the kitchen, still talking to his Mom. He stopped to ask Eru why she was so upset, and followed her gaze, finally spotting me.

“I’ll have to go now, Mom. I’ll call Frank later,” he spoke to the phone, keeping his eyes on me. “Yes, I’ll be fine – don’t worry about it.”

After he hung up, he let the cat down and headed to the stairs. He approached me slowly without saying a word until he was at the top of the stairs.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, staying put.

“My head is about to explode,” I mumbled.

“That’s my fault,” he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What did you do to me?”

“I may have hit you with a baseball bat,” he said apologetically and came closer to me. “I already made you a potion for the pain – it’s in your room.”

I slowly turned around and leaned my back against the railing when he stopped in front of me. He tilted his head while he was studying me.

“Why are you still helping me?” I asked quietly.

“Why shouldn’t I?” he asked in return.

“I’m dangerous.”

“So am I, so you can stop using that as an excuse,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I didn’t want to start a new argument, so I just sighed. “I forgot how stubborn you are.”

“Likewise,” he chuckled before entering my room. “And you have a thick skull… You broke my damn bat.” When he returned, he had a glass of dark-red liquid in his hand. “You should drink this.”

“Should I even ask what’s in this?” I asked when taking the glass from him.

“Herbs,” he shrugged. “Mostly for the pain.”

“I have never heard of any herbs that can do that,” I noted, taking the first sip. It tasted bitter and burned my tongue, but it almost tasted like vanilla.

“I got them from Njizrski,” he explained while sitting down at the other side of the hallway. “You’re in luck – I just filled my stocks a week ago.”

“Njizrski…” I repeated, butchering the name completely. “It’s uh… the demon realm?”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded.

“And that cat is from that place,” I muttered, trying to remember what he told me about the place.

“Yup.”

I looked at him, trying to understand why he was acting so calm and casual with me, even after what I did to him and his home. I even had a huge fight with his cat!

“You know… I can help you with those people,” Chase spoke carefully. “Your ex-wife and her bastards. I have friends. We could–”

“You said you can use your full power in that place,” I interrupted him – I couldn’t talk about any of it at that moment. “What do you mean?”

He stared at me for a moment, but then he let out a sigh and leaned against the wall. “There’s no magic in this realm. Warlock families have made deals with the demon lords in Njizrski in order to use their magic. We can use their powers freely while we’re in Njizrski, but when we return to this realm, we’re cut off from that power.”

“But you just used your magic here?”

“That’s why I have Eru. She’s my link to Njizrski, and as long as she’s not miles away from me, I can use my magic. Although, the further away I am from her, the weaker I get,” he explained.

I spent a few moments to let his words sink in. It was getting easier to think as the potion started to work.

“Deals with the devil, huh?” I breathed out. “What kind of deals?”

“We’re basically doing their dirty work,” he shrugged, and lowered his voice when he continued, “Go fetch this and go do that and clean my potty while you’re at it.”

“So, you’re their lackeys?”

“Pretty much. My lord is pretty cool, though. There’s this expensive type of stone, hvjerdnir, that’s pretty hard to find, but since I spend a lot of time digging dirt for roots and stuff for the shop, I come across them every now and then. My lord is happy with me as long as I keep bringing him more hvjerdnir. That’s all he wants me to do.”

I nodded slowly and decided to not even try to repeat the name. “You’re just borrowing someone else’s magic then?”

“Yeah, although, there is a way to gain our own magical abilities, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually gone through it,” he said.

“Is it that hard?”

“Well, you’ll just need to give a sacrifice to the demon gods and not die during the rebirth,” he smirked. He knew exactly how little logic there was in his words – I could tell that by the mischievous look on his face.

“Should I even ask you to explain?” I sighed.

“Let’s just say that no one with any morals would go through it,” he said. “It requires killing people and eventually yourself so you can be reborn from the ashes of Njizrski.”

“Would you do it?” I asked out of curiosity.

“I still have some morals left,” he chuckled and checked his watch. “Shit – I need to go open the damn shop.”

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Almost eleven in the morning – I was surprised that you could sleep through the thunderstorm,” Chase said while getting up from the floor.

“I was hit with a baseball bat,” I reminded him while he helped me up as well.

“I was actually sure I’m just going to piss you off with that stunt – you usually lose against werewolves no matter what kind of weapon you have…”

“I guess I’m not a normal werewolf…” I muttered, and my mood was coming crashing down.

Chase touched my arm lightly, and when I turned to look at him, he smiled. “I spent the entire night trying to figure out what they did to you. Maybe if we find out why you are turning into that thing, we can also find a way to avoid it. Your powers are clearly malfunctioning, and we need to understand why.”

“We?” I repeated carefully.

“Yes. We,” he said. “I’m not turning my back on you – I promise.”

I wanted to tell him that he was doing the wrong thing by helping me, but I couldn’t push those words out of my mouth. I looked down at his hand on my arm, feeling so damn relieved that I wanted to cry.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“We will figure out everything together,” he said, and I nodded. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

I really wanted to believe him. I guess, at that moment, I did. I wanted to be normal again, and for the first time ever, I was even happy to become a normal werewolf again if going back to being a normal human wasn’t an option.

I just wanted to be normal.

-Killian-

That fucking mutt!

For days I was forced to stare at the white ceiling of that boring room that constantly smelled like cowshit and blood because of that cursed beast. I was careless and let it rip my stomach open, but if it thought it could get rid of me that easily, it was wrong!

Once again, I was seething with anger when the door to my shitty “hospital” room opened, and the only light in my day stepped in.

“How are you feeling?” Lena – Dr. Gray – asked as she walked to my bed.

“I want to murder something,” I hissed. “Tell those morons to let me out of this dump!”

“You’re still recovering,” she said and sat down on the only chair in my room. “You’ll have to wait a few more days.”

“You said that last time!”

“Patience,” she said, giving me a rare smile. “I need you at full strength.”

“Have you found it?” I asked, turning to stare at the ceiling. If I stared hard enough, I could see that mutt’s face looking back at me, laughing at me.

“Not yet, but we found the car he used.”

“It.“

“It used,” she corrected herself, probably just to amuse me. To think someone like her was married to that thing! “I thought he would go straight home, but apparently he’s smarter than that. It.”

“Do you have any idea where it went?”

“No, but I have a big team searching for him,” she told me. “But in the meantime, we finally got the lab back up and running,” she added with a sigh.

“I hope you fried Bernard on a stake for his idiocy,” I muttered.

“He’s no longer in the program,” she said reassuringly. “His incompetence cost me thousands of dollars, and now Dante is on the run. I know the key to our success is in his blood. We have to get him back no matter what it costs.”

“It…” I muttered, even though it was becoming clear that everyone else was fooled by its human-like appearance. It was a mutt. A disgusting piece of canine trash that needed to be skinned alive over and over again…!

“Well, I must get going now. I just came to ask you to wait until you’re fully recovered since I need you back in full health,” Lena spoke and stood up again.

“For what?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “You are my best hunter. You will find Dante for me, am I right?”

I smiled as well. “Yes. I will bring it back to you. I promise.”

“Good.”

But not before I would make it pay for what it did to me…