We traveled on Interstate ninety south and then ninety seven north to Chelan Falls, a small town three hours north west of Seattle. As we drove into town it was dark and raining as usual. Only a few light poles dotted the town square. I knew that area well because I had hunted in the Wenatchee National Forest.
I glanced at Robert. “My home town. A town of nothing but Werewolves,” he said looking around with an expression of mild nostalgia. His face smoothing as he passed a small school house. And then a wide smile crossed his lips. No doubt remembering his time as a young wolf and joining a pack. As we came into the center of the town his face changed again. His forehead furrowed as if he didn’t want to be there.
The rain fell hard as if it would never stop. And it didn’t. It only changed to slow drops and then started up again heavy.
Robert drove my SUV and then pulled up to a bar five minutes later. “Why are we stopping here?” I asked. The windshield wipers were now at top speed. Robert looked at me. He didn’t say a word. He just put the car in park.
“Promise me you won’t do anything foolish. Like antagonize a werewolf or two. It’s a werewolf bar and if you really want to help me you could stay in the car.” He knew me better than that and he turned away ready to depart.
“You might need my help,” I said knowing anything could go wrong and there would be no way I could help him. But I would regardless of what happened, and then there would be two women left alone who were pregnant with a werewolf’s child and a vampire’s child. At that moment, I felt my humanity take hold of me, and I wished our young ones would become friends if we didn’t make it out of this place. I took a hard breath in.
Robert motioned to me with a raised hand, and kept his mouth tight and shook his head. He stepped out in the cold rain and I exited with him. Robert raised his head, shook his wet hair, and glanced at me as if he didn’t want to go into that bar, but then he strode to the door like a warrior going to his death.
“Why are you hesitating?”
“Because the last time I was here looking for Becky, Samantha’s sister, because Zoey had been poisoned, I came across her boyfriend, Hansen. “He’s a werewolf like me. When I left Becky for Ann he was there to comfort her.”
Robert squinted at me as we stood in the rain. I waited for him to finish the story. I needed to know if there was anything worth knowing about Hansen and Becky and Robert that could perhaps save our lives, but he said, “I’ll tell you about it later. Just follow my lead.”
Opening the door Robert walked in and stood in the center of the room. I stood behind him. We stepped near the bar and he shook off the rain from his clothes and hair. I dropped my cape over my arm.
Robert looked at me and said, “Why did you wear that? They will know what you are right away,” Robbie said, “and everyone in this bar, shifters and werewolves will notice you and think you’re here to kill them.”
“They already noticed me. There’s no way to fool a werewolf. A human maybe, but not werewolves, and by the way they’re looking at me, you’ve brought me into a den of them,” I said.
A pack of werewolves sitting at a table stood and faced our backs. They were behind us when I smelled them. They knew who I was. It didn’t matter if I wore a cape or not. They knew what I was.
The bartender a large barreled chested werewolf type with blotchy marks on his skin and a long scar starting from his forehead which took a straight line down to his cheek said, “What did you bring him in here for. You better have a good reason,” he said to Robert.
“We have business with Becky.” Then a tall werewolf about the size of Robert who was dressed in a pair of leather jeans and leather vest stood up.
“What do you want with Becky?”
“I’m her former mate.”
“I know who you are. You’re the one who left her for a human. She hasn’t gotten over that. I had to comfort her many nights and stop her from killing you. I would have done it myself but we have a code. She still curses you every time your name is mentioned and it’s mentioned a lot lately. I wish you would just go away, but you keep coming back for a favor. If I thought I could rid myself of you, I would do it now. Today.” His voice rough and his tone scornful.
“But you know you would lose,” Robert said taking a step forward. I reached for his ridged arm.
I whispered to him, “This is not the time or the place for this, Robert. Remember Ann and my Zoey.” If Robert let his temper get the best of him, we would be in a fight for our lives. It wouldn’t happen as long as I reminded him of Ann. “It’s not worth it.” I said.
“I need this one last favor from Becky and I promise it will be the last time I ask anything of her and you won’t ever see my face again.” Hansen strode close to Robert for a moment sizing him up and then his attention went to me.
“What is a werewolf doing traveling with a vampire?” Don’t you know that’s forbidden? How do we know he won’t bring back his kind and wipe us out?”
“Because he’s a friend of mine. You know me. All of you know me. I’ve done all of you a favor. Even you Hansen. You’ve wanted Becky ever since I met you. You knew she would make you a good mate like I knew Ann was better for me than Becky. We all knew it and so I left and didn’t interfere with your life with her. When I came back it was as a friend and nothing else. Ann is pregnant now, and you would do best to make Becky pregnant.”
Hansen stood looking into Robert’s eyes breathing hard with a tight jaw. There was a moment of dark silence. “Come to the back and bring him, too,” Hansen said pointing to me. “I need to keep my eyes on him.” I walked behind Robert looking around to see if anyone had followed us. And no one had.
We were led to a small conference room. When Hansen opened the door, Becky was sitting at one of the tables. He glanced at Robert with disdain when Becky’s face lit up. She must have remembered the love between them they once had. And Hansen knew the extent of their relationship together which made him want to kill Robert, but didn’t dare for fear Becky would hate him.
Robert tried to hide his lingering want for Becky. Hansen was too busy watching at me to notice the attraction they still held for each other.
“What do you want now, Robert?” Becky said. Her voice warm trying to cover up the heat she held for Robert with a cold unemotional stare.
“My friend needs your help.” She looked up at me. “Sit down, Sebastian. You were the one who married my sister. Well good luck to you.” I sat as Hansen stood over us.
“What is it you think I can do?” Becky said to me.
“I need you to kill your sister for me.” Becky laughed at me and then looked to Robert and shot him a wide smile and even louder laugh.
“Do you think it’s that easy? You had a better chance to do it, Sebastian. Aren’t you married to her?” Becky said.
“I thought since you were a witch, and you cured my Zoey with your potions, you would be the only person who could kill her.”
“You have too much confidence in me, Robert. I’m not even in Samantha’s league. She has been honing her powers with your friend’s help for a five hundred years, and now he wants to be rid of her, like you were rid of me when you found that human. It seems my sister and I have a lot in common. The only difference is this one wants her dead.” Her dark eyes drifted from Robert then with a quick glance settled on me.
She looked at me not with scornful eyes but with an appreciative smile. She wanted her dead too but couldn’t figure out how to do it. “Can you help us or not?” I didn’t want to waste any more time and neither did Robert.
“What you asked for is outside of my expertise. I can only cure and prevent death. There is no way of killing her. I would have done it years ago if it were possible.” She looked at a disappointed Robert. I was disturbed and I felt defeated. My face told it all. I was upset and I couldn’t hide it.
The only thing to do was to let Robert go back to Ann and find Zoey and try to protect her. Aare and Samantha should be psychotic by now after discovering that I had burned their castle to the ground. They will use all means to hunt Zoey and kill whomever gets in the way.
“I wish I could help you, Robert, but as you see there is nothing I can do,” she said with a small smirk.
Somehow I thought Becky knew something, but she wasn’t willing to help us and not with Hansen standing watching her every move. There were other possibilities, maybe she got delight in telling Robert no this time, or her sense of humanity and conscience wouldn’t allow her to kill her sister. I scowled at Robert and we both stood looking baffled. What do we do now?
Hansen led us out of the room and out the door of the bar. The rain had let up as we slogged to the car through mud. Hansen stood still in front and watched at us until we entered my SUV. Then as the car backed out of the parking lot, Hansen turned and strode back into the bar with a satisfied smile.
“What was that about, Robert? I thought she would at least tell us something. You promised she would.”
“I didn’t promise anything. I promised you that I would find her,” Robert said impatience playing in his voice and face.
“What happened between you two?” I had to ask twice when he turned from looking at the road and glanced at me. Then he concentrated on his driving and I thought once again I wouldn’t learn the truth about Robert and the witch Becky.
“We weren’t a good fit.” I didn’t understand what he meant a good fit. Are two people ever a good fit? Look at Zoey and me. Nothing could be a worse fit than a puzzle with missing pieces and trying to place a piece where it doesn’t belong. That was Zoey and I.
Watching at my face, Robert saw that I didn’t understand his uneven explanation. “We just didn’t want the same things. She didn’t want to have my pups, and I didn’t want to travel the world with her. It’s as simple as that.” But was it?
“I guess she found someone who liked the same things she did. And it was the case of dealing with her sister. I don’t know how you could ever fall in love with her?” Now I was wondering the same thing.
“Samantha was a big influence over Becky until I met her. She tried to get her to join in her wickedness with the kidnaping of children. It was during that time I told Becky that I could never live with her, and so I wandered around and found Ann. Ann needed me more than Becky ever could. You see how innocent and frail Ann is? She needed me to protect her. And I did.”
The look on Robert’s face showed his warmth and goodness of heart even as I knew him to be fierce and a killer.
“When I went to Becky to tell her about Ann, Becky pleaded with me to stay because she had turned her back on her Samantha. And that she could never do what Samantha wanted. But it was too late. I was in love with Ann.”
I glanced his way and listened and realized how weak I had been to go along with Samantha. When I woke from my nightmare of my own making, I had lost every semblance of myself and my soul.
As we drove back through the town, and back to Seattle it was quiet in the car except for listening to the satellite radio. It was tuned in to a talk show. Someone was ranting about the area being infested by werewolves and possibly vampires. The radio host ranted about his suspicions, and a caller shouted that he was indeed crazy, and that there was no such thing. This went on for two hours into the trip until I turned off the radio.
Fifteen minutes into Seattle, Robert’s phone rang.
“They’re here, Robbie.”
“Whose here?” His eyes flashed to me.
“Aare and Samantha. They showed up on the cameras.”
“Ann, take refuge in that room I built for you, and don’t come out until I get there. Go now.” Robert shouted to Ann.
“What’s wrong, Robert?” I question after seeing his eyes change colors. They went from golden brown to red.
“I have to get out of this car. Meet me at my house as soon as possible.” Robert stopped the car and jumped out with the motor still running. When I looked he was racing into a wooded area as his clothes dropped behind him. He changed as he was running. I got behind the wheel and drove fast up the highway to his compound.
When I arrived at the gate it was already open. Something or someone had torn the lock and thrown the hardware away. That had to be Aare’s doing. I smelled Robert, he had made it back before I arrived. I headed through the gate in my SUV and up to his front door. He had been there maybe five minutes before I reached his house.
Jumping out of the car, I rushed to the door and found it open. I called out Robert’s name and then Ann. Then I saw them walk from around the stairs and meet me in the foyer. Ann had a desperate look, and when she saw me it changed to relief as Robert held her around her shoulders.
“They were here, Sebastian. Both of them.” Ann sound out of breath. “At first they tried breaking into the house but neither one could come in. When I ran to the basement with the bobcat trailing behind me to get into our bunker, a small colorful bird came flying into the window. I didn’t know she could change like that,” Ann said looking at me.
“Who?” I questioned.
“Samantha,” Robert said.
“I thought I was safe and she flew through the house, and the bird was headed to the front door to open it I suppose, but when the bobcat saw her he chased her. She tried to change and he was pawing at her, and when she lit on the floor to change into herself, the bobcat snatched her from the air, and I saw feathers everywhere. She was screaming for it to let her go and that’s when I realized it was Samantha,” Ann said, her eyes looking pass me as if she was in shock.
Sinking down in the nearest chair, I put my hand to my mouth in relief. It was the first time I smiled in a hundred years. I didn’t dare hope that my troubles were over, but they were almost. I didn’t have the moral courage to want to mourn for her. I wanted her dead and now I had one less person to deal with and I felt free.
She was the only one who knew the depths of my depravity besides me. Zoey knew only parts of it. If I could live another thousand years I couldn’t clean up my life, but now I have a chance to try.
“When Aare heard Samantha scream he tried to get in here, but Robbie said that he had to be invited into the house and I wasn’t about to do that. It didn’t work for Samantha and she found a way around it,” Ann said.
Turning and bounding for the door I stopped and said, “I have to find Zoey and Ryan and try to stop Aare. He’s on a murder revenge and he will destroy anything and everything that gets near him. I have to get to Alaska quickly.”
“Do you need help?” Robert said.
“You’ve done enough. I can’t ask anymore of you. Stay with Ann she looks like she’s been through enough.”
Robert asked out of courtesy, but he didn’t really want to leave Ann again. As they said their goodbyes at the door, the bobcat came wandering from behind a sofa.
“He’s shy and a little scared of a vampire. But birds, he was born to hunt birds.” I turned and smiled at it. It was still a young animal but when he’s grown and a shifter there will be few things he will be afraid of even if he’s small.
I called and had Jack get my jet ready to fly out to Alaska to get to Terry and Lauren’s place quickly.
Hoping that Aare wouldn’t arrive there before me, I called Terry to warn her.