Chapter 39

-Dante-

I could feel cool fingers on my forehead. Their touch felt nice and soothing, and for a moment, it was all I could focus on. It was all I wanted to focus on, but my sore body and the pounding headache were quickly gaining my attention.

I opened my eyes with a groan, and the first thing I saw was Chase and his gentle smile. I was swarmed by happy thoughts, but there was something ugly nagging inside me, causing me distress. I had no idea why.

Not until I saw a thick layer of bandages around his arm.

“I transformed…” I breathed out, the sick feeling growing more intense in my stomach.

“It was not your fault,” Chase said, peering somewhere behind his shoulder, and I realized I was in the cage, lying on the bed.

“I hurt you,” I whispered, touching the bandages.

“Don’t you worry about it,” Chase said, turning to give me a reassuring smile. “Everything was under control.”

I shook my head and looked away from him. “I can’t do this…”

“Yes, you can,” he said demandingly. “It’s only for a little while longer. We have a new lead.”

I snapped my head back towards him. “What? How? What is it?” I asked, trying to push myself to sit up, but the headache nearly knocked me out cold.

“Are you in pain?” Chase asked with a worried tone.

“My head…” I groaned, closing my eyes, but that didn’t help much.

“I’m afraid the headaches will become normal from now on,” Ben’s quiet voice sounded behind the partly closed door just before he stepped in, holding a big glass of water in his hand. “Here,” he said when he offered me the glass, fishing out a box of painkillers out of his cardigan.

Chase helped me to sit up, and I took the little gift. I was so incredibly weak… “New lead?” I reminded them.

“Frank has a friend…” Chase muttered, looking at Ben again. “He claims he knows what you are.”

“Just spit it out.”

“Something called a Rassawolf,” Chase said. “I don’t know if he’s right, though.”

“Never heard of that,” I frowned. “But I’m a werewolf.”

“Frank claims you’re not,” Ben said, leaning against the wall. “What your ex-wife did to you apparently changed you into something different.”

“That’s… Please explain,” I said, the headache only growing worse.

I ate the painkillers like candy while they told me everything Frank had told them. After the third pill, Chase took the box away from me. This new… lead… seemed far-fetched. A secret society? Symbols and strange bodies…? I had no idea what to think.

“We are waiting for Gus to tell us when and where to meet,” Chase ended, peering at me timidly.

I just sat there for a while, trying to wrap my head around what I just heard. Thinking wasn’t my strong suit at that moment.

“I don’t have any symbols on me,” I then said.

“It’s because that bitch wasn’t part of the society,” Chase said, talking about Lena, I assumed.

“You’re buying it? This whole secret society thing?” I asked.

“I don’t know what to think. I need more answers before believing anything,” Chase said. “But… What we saw in your dream… I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it did seem like Killian was spilling some very heavy secrets. And that part where you got turned? The spirits believed it was important for us to see. Maybe that wasn’t a normal werewolf.”

I shook my head but quickly regretted doing so as my brain felt like it was about to explode. “I am so tired of this shit…”

“I know, baby,” Chase hurried to say soothingly, touching my forehead again. “But we will find the truth. We will find out what happened and why. And we’ll find the cure.”

I didn’t share his optimism at that moment. I was not ready to let my hopes get up. Hell, I didn’t even have the energy for it.

“I must admit, it all sounds…” Ben muttered, shaking his head. “But at the same time, what do we have to lose? If this Gus actually knows something we don’t–”

“Really? A secret society?” I raised my eyebrow at him. “Did you ever hear anything about these wolves?”

“No,” he sighed. “But there is that dream. My patient saw a man with that symbol on him. That is not a coincidence.”

“And what about Killian and that bitch in your dream? They were acting very much like members of a secret society would,” Chase spoke. “I don’t know about you, but I am going to see Gus. I need to know what he knows.”

I stared at him for a moment. This was so absurd, but then again, I still didn’t know much about his side of the world, so I sighed. “Fine. But you have to admit this sounds crazy.”

“I’m fine with crazy if it gets us the cure,” he said.

I had to agree on that.

Once the painkillers finally started kicking in, Chase helped me out of the bed. I didn’t want to stay a second longer in my cage, so we slowly made our way upstairs. My legs were still shaking a bit, so I had to lean on Chase while climbing up the stairs. I had not felt that weak after changing back to human before, and it scared me. My condition really was getting worse…

Suddenly, I had nothing against going to see this Gus. If he could give us any new piece of information, no matter how crazy it was, I was glad to take it.

When we reached the first floor, I immediately spotted Frank. I was surprised to realize I had met him before, back when Chase and I were dating. For the first time. The mentor did look much older than back then, maybe a bit older than he should have, but it was still easy to recognize him as the same person. He was tall, but still somehow stubby with a massive belly and almost no neck. He had a lot of gray in his brown hair and wrinkles on his sunburnt forehead. His clothes – worn-down jeans and a green jacket – reeked of at least ten different bars, making him seem like a bum.

I had the feeling he wasn’t entirely sober when he spotted us, got up from his seat and started walking towards us. Chase noticed this and stopped between me and him, crossing arms over his chest.

“Yes?” he asked with an annoyed tone when his mentor reached us.

“I came to ask how you are doing, and to apologize for the inconvenience I caused,” Frank spoke to me as he climbed the few steps to us.

“Inconvenience?” Chase repeated angrily without letting me speak. “You barged in like an idiot! You’re lucky that we’re all still alive! Did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s not a good idea to show up in a random house and start yelling?!”

“I am sorry for barging in like that, but I honestly believed something had happened to you,” Frank said to him, seeming sincere.

The tension between them was growing worse, so before Chase could start a fight, I stepped forward, keeping my eyes on Frank’s red ones.

“I heard you have a friend,” I said sternly, forcing them both to turn their attention to me. “A friend who knows a secret society I might be interested in.”

Frank’s forehead creased as he frowned.

“Yes, you’re talking about my old friend, Gus,” he said. “He is… an investigator of sorts. He’s good with weird things like your case.”

“Investigator…” snorted Roe from the couch. He seemed agitated with his arms crossed and foot tapping the floor anxiously. Before any of us could react, he got up from his seat and marched closer. “Can we even trust him, hmm? I have not found shit, and here you waltz in with a good buddy ol’ pal who’s got all the knowledge in the world ready at hand!”

“Roe…” Chase murmured with a warning tone, but his lord got even angrier.

“No!” Roe shook his finger at Chase, and turned his mad eyes at Frank. “Another fucking human who knows more than me! This is unacceptable!”

“And yet, you’re going to have to accept it, Ardrion,” Frank snapped back, also emphasizing the demon’s species. “If you really want to help Dante here, you will take any lead you can get. Unless you have another lead just casually laying around here?”

“I could just murder him and be done with this shit!” Roe hissed, pointing at me, but then crossed his arms again like a child throwing a tantrum and marched back to the couch. “How can you be sure he’ll even help us if he’s so paranoid?” he asked, sounding a bit less mad.

“He’s an old friend of mine,” Frank asserted again. “If you went alone, he’d certainly throw his bottle at you and turn you away.” Frank snorted. “But the old fool knows me. And besides: he owes me one. He owes many people one. I suppose that’s part of why he’s so paranoid.”

“Trust me, I won’t leave until he has told us everything he knows,” Chase spoke with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“He will help us,” Frank said reassuringly. “He would’ve hung up on me if he didn’t want to have anything to do with us.”

Roe huffed loudly, but didn’t say a word. I still didn’t understand why he got so worked up over my condition. I wasn’t his responsibility. He didn’t even like me. Nonetheless, I was glad of his help.

I was not so sure about Frank. Chase had hardly talked about him, and if he did, he didn’t speak fondly of his mentor. This whole thing with secret societies and Rassawolves… Trying to understand it all was making my headache grow worse.

I rubbed my temples, and Chase noticed it, and his angry expression turned into a worried one instantly.

“You still have a headache?”

“Yeah… And I’m starving…” I muttered.

The next couple of hours were… tense. Roe was moping on the couch and he and Frank exchanged several annoyed arguments while Chase fed me the entire fridge. Ben had vanished into his lab to clean it up, refusing my help when I offered it.

But then, finally, the wait was over.

Frank’s phone let out a silent beep, but everyone in the room noticed it.

“Time to go,” Frank said after reading the message. “Where’s your car?” he asked Chase.

“Uhm…” Chase muttered. “It’s… in Njizrski.”

A sudden image of the tiny gray car passed through my mind. After the Ice worms had pushed it over and I had then ripped it apart.

“We’ll need to use yours,” Chase told Frank without elaborating why his car was gone.

“Fine,” the old mentor sighed. “But we need to use a few portals to get to it.”

I heard a silent meow at my feet, and turned to look at Eru, who was staring up at me.

“Time for another adventure, I suppose,” I told her, and picked her up.

Fifteen minutes and two portals later, we all were standing in a rainy yard, staring at an old, banged-up red sedan and a small, dark house behind it. I was still holding Eru, who refused to step a foot on the wet ground, trying to shield her from the rain with my jacket.

“Good, my home is still here,” Frank said, smiling at an old, tiny house. “I do miss my bed…”

“Should we get going?” Chase asked in annoyance, wiping water off his face.

“Where are we?” I asked, looking around, but we were surrounded by tall trees. I could see a glimpse of two other houses down the road, but nothing else.

“Fifteen miles away from my home,” Chase said while Frank was finally unlocking the doors.

Roe took the front seat next to Frank, while Chase, Ben and I stuffed ourselves in the backseat with Eru.

“How long has it been since anyone has been driving this thing?” Chase asked angrily, after Frank’s third attempt to start the engine failed.

“It’s… been a while.”

Roe sighed and snapped his fingers, the engine suddenly roaring to life. “You are making me waste my mridi.”

“All for a good cause; a lead you couldn’t find yourself,” Frank retorted, seemingly wanting to poke on Roe’s weakness a little more. He switched to first gear, and finally, we were moving.

At first, I simply watched out of the window and waited while Frank drove us. But after a while, I noticed that the road we were on looked oddly familiar. I read the street sign and realized we’d been there just a few minutes ago.

“Didn’t we just drive past this place?” I asked.

“Uh, no, of course not,” Frank denied at first, but he seemed to realize I was onto him and there wasn’t a point lying. He sighed. “Alright, just give me a moment. It’s been a while since I visited him. When you’re old like me, your memory sometimes abandons you.”

“Well, we are grateful for this lead you found,” Roe smiled. “But it’s not very useful if we can’t get to him.”

“We will!” Frank snapped. “Just gimme a moment will you, demon?”

Roe raised his brow in amusement, but didn’t continue taunting the man.

I took a deep breath and looked out the window, absentmindedly scratching Eru behind her ears. Our drive continued in silence for a while, and Frank seemed to remember the way – at least he looked more confident while he drove. I was not feeling confident at all. I was afraid. Not Gus, per se, but my own feelings. My own hope.

I couldn’t stop feeling hopeful. I wished I could stay indifferent since everything we’d done so far had given us nothing, and hope was a cruel thing. My time was running out, maybe even faster than we thought.

Chase placed his hand on mine, and I turned to look at him. He gave me a small smile, but I couldn’t return it. It did give me courage, though. He was ready to go through mountains to find the cure, so giving up was not an option for me.

And who knew, maybe we were finally onto something. I really wished we were.

Around fifteen minutes later, Frank turned the car onto a small dirt road I wouldn’t have even noticed. He continued driving slowly, trying to avoid the biggest bumps and rocks on our way while still trying to keep enough distance to the old trees growing right next to the road. It was still raining, and when I took a closer look, I could see fresh tire tracks in the mud.

“Nearly there,” Frank muttered. “I’ve been here twice before – this is one of Gus’ hideouts.”

“It sounds like your friend has an enemy or two,” Roe noted.

“He does. But it’s mostly because he’s sticking his nose into other people’s business. Dangerous people.” Frank sighed, scratching his head. “That, and he has the bad tendency to ask for favors and disappear when it’s time for the payment.”

“That sounds promising,” Roe snorted. “Are you sure he’s not going to just use us and disappear right after? Dante is a living proof that these beings exist, after all. If there are such things as Rassawolves.”

“That’s exactly why I’m warning you, demon,” Frank replied. “Gus has his uses… if anyone knows more about Rassawolves, it’s him. You just have to be careful not to allow him to slip through your fingers…”

“Like any human could get away from me,” Roe scoffed.

I couldn’t help but notice Frank’s disdain towards Roe. I wondered if it was Roe himself that Frank didn’t like, or if he didn’t like his kind in general. Frank was a warlock… right? A warlock with a blood pact with another demon like Roe.

Eru meowed quietly in my lap, and started to purr when I continued scratching her head.

Frank didn’t have a companion either…

“There it is,” the mentor suddenly spoke, pointing somewhere down the road.

Shortly after, Frank stopped the car at the end of the road, right in front of an old log cabin. There was another car parked right next to us, and I could see a candle on the window. We all just sat there in the car for a moment, staring at the house like we were expecting something to happen.

“Well, no use in sitting around all day. Let’s go.” Frank killed the engine and stuffed the keys in his pocket, before getting out of the car.

The rest of us followed his example. We started walking through the muddy yard, but I was suddenly struck by a bad feeling. I listened quietly and sniffed the air, and that feeling was only getting worse.

“Wait…” I muttered, and they stopped. “The house is empty. I can’t hear anything. Not a single heartbeat. And… I think I smell blood. And something else… “

“What?” Frank muttered, turning pale before running up the stairs.

“Wait! It could be a trap!” Roe yelled after him, but he was too late.

When Frank reached the door and easily pushed it right open, Roe teleported to him, grabbed him by his arm and pulled him back.

“Fool!” Roe hissed, but Frank ignored him as he stared inside the cabin.

Chase ran up the stairs too, leaving me standing in the middle of the yard with Ben. I didn’t feel like this could trigger my transformation, but I still stayed put, trying to stay calm. When Frank forced Roe off him and hurried into the cabin, I turned to look at the mud next to me.

More tire tracks. Bigger ones than what the two cars in the yard could leave behind. They were so fresh I could almost smell the diesel in the air.

“Someone’s been here!” Frank yelled, emerging into the doorway.

“By car,” I informed them, and made my way to the door just when Chase and Roe stepped in.

I stopped to peer inside, and Roe lit up the room with his magic. There were clear signs of a struggle. Broken chairs and mugs, a big table that had fallen over, and books and papers everywhere. I saw a small puddle of blood on the floor, right next to a bloodied stool.

And absolutely everything was covered in glitter.

“What happened here?” I breathed out in shock.

“A less… friendly debt collector must’ve gotten to Gus first,” Frank said, and let out a long line of profanities.

“A… debt collector?” I repeated

“Yeah,” Frank confirmed gruffly. “Someone Gus owes and whom he never repaid. And let me tell you: not everyone is as patient and gracious with that old fool as I am.”

The destruction around me was enough to convince me that was exactly what had happened. The whole place was straight out of murder mysteries, and seeing it made my stomach twist unpleasantly.

We were so close to getting more answers…

“What’s with the glitter?” I asked, staring at the colorful sparkles on the floor, hoping the man was still alive.

“That’s not glitter,” Chase growled as he wiped some of it off the table, staring at it in anger.

“It’s pixie dust,” Roe said with a dark voice.

“Are you saying…” I muttered, feeling surreal all of a sudden, “That he was…”

“Kidnapped, killed, or worse…” Frank added.

“By Pixies,” Chase finished.