Charles, Ivy and Riley all sat in an uncomfortable silence in Charles' living room. It hadn't been up to thirty minutes since Charles had proposed making Riley into a vampire hunter.
"Isn't this nice," he remarked, a smile playing on his face. For some reason, Ivy and Riley didn't seem to want to get along, and boy was he going to enjoy every moment of it.
"Do you mean it?" Ivy asked.
"Mean what?"
Riley didn't say anything, opting to listen to their little conversation.
"What you said about making her a vampire hunter?"
"Oh that… Of course I did."
"But she's human. What if she gets hurt?"
A single brow rose. "I see what you're getting at but that wouldn't be much of an issue."
Ivy was confused. "Why would that be the case?"
"Because," he began, adjusting himself in his seat so that his full posture was directed at Riley. "The original vampire hunters were humans. Don't ask me how because I'm not that old. Humans are a very tenacious species, they always find a way to survive and given her nature… she'd make a perfect candidate."
When she couldn't see fault in that logic, she slowly turned away.
"For someone who claims to be young, you sure have a lot of knowledge concerning these things. Just what have you been doing all this while?"
Initially surprised by the question, his calm didn't falter. "That's a secret… besides, I wouldn't want to bore you ladies with such… miniscule tales."
Riley didn't accept the answer, but she didn't press further. "One more question. Are we going to be training together?" her gaze shifted to Ivy's who met her with the same intensity.
"Yes." Seeing this, his smile grew wider. He gave Ivy a nudge on her ribs. She shook her head, clearly surprised before realization dawned on her.
"Right, you called me here to tell me something."
His demeanour shifted. "Yes. There's been another murder, an eighteen year old to be precise. From what you told me, they seem to be having no luck in tracking down Michael."
"Who's Michael?" Riley asked, clearly interested in the conversation.
Ivy wanted to say something but she fought the urge. It wouldn't bode well to be jealous… she shook her head and readjusted her thoughts. She didn't think she was jealous, but it wouldn't bode well for her to act like this. She took a deep breath and was about to speak, but Charles beat her to it.
"He's the vampire that almost killed her," he said as he nudged his head in her direction.
"Hey!"
"Did I lie?"
"No… but you shouldn't have said it like that."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway, I might have to take hunting Michael a little personally. It may take a while but to do that, I'm going to need your help."
"How are we going to do that?"
His face slowly morphed into a smile. "Well…"
…
Mason was trying his hardest not to display his annoyance. In front of him were eight other members of the pack, including his nephew Max and Ivy's dad.
"We need to move Mason," Edward began. "There's been another murder and I fear for my daughter's safety. Surely you understand my concerns."
"I understand, and believe me no one wants to rip the heads off of those vampires more than me, but we must be smart about this or we risk the humans discovering our existence."
One of them decided to speak up. "The vampires aren't being careful about the entire thing, so why should we?"
"You tend to forget that is a lot easier to prove the existence of a wolf than the existence of a vampire. You also seem to have forgotten that I AM in charge." Mason stressed the "I am" part of the sentence to make sure his words held the weight he desired.
True to his statement, the office became quieter and the other wolves seemed to exchange nervous glances.
Mason took in a deep breath. "I understand we're not happy, but please let us not lose sight of the community that we have tried to build. We maintain our patrols and we stay out of sight, and tell them to increase their speed. No one should stay in one place for too long." He took a pause noticing their concentration. "Our enemies are cunning… we must be cunning too."
…
"It would seem that the werewolves have become increasingly aware of our presence here," Michael's father said as he took a sip from a glass containing an all too familiar red liquid.
"So it would seem Raphael, but our plans are already in motion. Do you think they would be able to stop us?"
"I doubt it."
At that moment, the doors to the room opened wide as Gabriel and Michael alongside the rest of their siblings came in.
"You called for us grandfather," a voice called from amongst the children.
"Yes I did," he said as he got up from his chair. "There should be no killing or feeding for the next week."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the children groaned, especially Gabriel.
"Why?" he voiced out in irritation.
"Because I said so… and because it is the best thing for our plans. Instead, I want you all to actively compel multiple individuals within the week in favour of our goals."
"Why compel and not feed?" Serafina, the youngest daughter spoke.
"Yeah." She was supported by Evangeline.
"The purpose is to draw attention away from ourselves a bit," their father said as he placed his glass on the ground. "If you want blood, there's blood in the freezers."
"Blood is best warm," Gabrielle, Gabriel's twin, voiced out.
"Then you can heat it up," a voice said from the direction of the door. Eyes turned to see their mother walking in with a maid's neck in her mouth.
There was a thud as the body fell to the ground. "She's dead," she said before wiping her mouth.
"Mother," Michael started but she silenced him with a glare.
Raphael merely shook his head. "Theodora please refrain from needless killing."
She didn't reply as she walked past their children.
"In any case," their grandfather continued, "killing and feeding are off the table for a week and…"
"I decline."
Eyes turned to the eldest son, Raphael Jr. Not a word was said as he exchanged glares with his father and grandfather.
"What use is having the freedom of being a vampire if I am being bound by such meaningless rules? I don't think it suits me, besides I know how to cover my tracks so no traces would be left behind."
With that he left the room, leaving behind confused siblings and a smirking grandfather. He turned to his son and merely gave a nod.
…
"Was it a good idea to let Raphael go off on his own father?"
He gave a light chuckle at his son's question. "Raphael is strong, that I have no doubt about, but he lacks foresight. He doesn't see the future or the bigger picture as he should."
"He wouldn't mess this up, would he?"
"I doubt that. He is possibly the strongest of your children and perhaps the most dangerous. If things go wrong, he will correct his ways."
Raphael merely closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. "I guess sometimes, multiple herders confuse the flock."
His father laughed.
"That's a surprising analogy son."
"It fits the scenario best," he replied as he got up to leave the room.
"Did you do what I asked?"
"Yes," Raphael replied as he turned to face his father. "The compulsion was performed to the last detail, we should be seeing some interesting things going forward."
"Who did you choose?"
"Her name was Seline Williams." With that said, he left the patriarch of the House of Gerard alone in the room.
…
"Do you have the forensics report?" Charles asked Riley as she came out of the crime labs.
She gave a nod.
"Why didn't you let me come with?"
"I'd rather keep my friend from your crazy antics."
"Awwn… sooner or later we're going to meet though. So what does the report say?"
"Time of death was somewhere between one and three in the morning," she started as she opened the document. "Cause of death was ruled out as exsanguination."
This was what Charles wanted to hear. "Does this confirm your suspicions?"
With a resigned nod, she accepted.
"What else is there?"
"Bite marks, some two centimeters apart and about three centimeters deep."
"Hold on," Charles said, pausing on the pictures of the cleaned neck.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm burning the image of the bite mark into my head. Isn't it obvious?"
"Why are you doing that? It's not like you're going to remember it, are you?"
His response was a smile.
"You're not serious? Is that a general werewolf ability or a you ability?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know who can do this. It isn't hard though."
"Might be your werewolf genes. Now I'm getting jealous."
"There'll be a full moon soon. We'll see if you'd still be jealous of the werewolf gene."
Riley didn't say anything.
"Let's go back to the agency and submit this. It's getting late."
…
"You sure did take your sweet time before contacting me?"
"I'm sorry Emma," Ivy said to her best friend. "I've just been caught up in everything that's going on."
"So," Emma began, with arms crossed, "care to fill me in?"
"Of course. So last time we discussed this I ended up training under Charles and…"
"And how was the training?" she asked, eyes sparkling.
Ivy tossed a pillow at her friend. "Shut up, it isn't anything like that."
"Like what? I didn't say anything."
"You know what I mean," Ivy replied all flustered.
"I honestly don't." Emma watched as her friend's cheeks burned a bright red. "So what was the training like?"
"I was pleasantly surprised," she replied after calming herself. "He's really good at it and he has even offered to help me achieve a feral transformation."
"How does he plan on doing that?"
"I don't really know, but it gives me hope." The smile that formed itself on her lips was genuine.
"I'm glad. I always thought there was something wrong with you but if he can fix you, then he really is the right person for you."
It took a while before Ivy processed what Emma had just said. "What did you just say?!"
Emma's response was a light giggle. "You heard me. It's obvious he cares for you, unlike that Max."
Ivy scowled. "What brought him up?"
"Just glad to see that your eyes have opened up. You used to be so blinded by him. Charles must have helped with that."
Ivy didn't try to refute the statement because she would have lost in an instant. It was obvious how she felt about Max, and it was even more obvious how she no longer saw him the way she used to. The only thing that had changed was Charles, so it was obvious who the cause of it all was.
"What's your plan for the full moon approaching?"
That shook Ivy out of her thoughts. "That's one of the reasons I called you here."
"And what's that?"
"To help me come up with a plan to spend the full moon away from my family."