Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Monkey Wrench ❯ Hostile Takeover ( Chapter 5 )

9:30 p.m. EST

Route 20

Wilmington, DE

 

I was driving home with one very irate werewolf in my passenger seat. Yeah, I know, what happened to my impassioned pronouncement declaring the use of not a single HOV lane? Well, Rowan happened. It seems attempting to lock out a werewolf, who can bench press your station wagon, is not the smartest idea in the world.

 

It's even stupider to then make a concerted effort at running said werewolf over with said station wagon. Seems he's a lot quicker than he looks and none too pleased at being treated like future road kill, must be that animal instinct, made him real wary of the Michelins.

 

Anyway, after trying my hand at vehicular Whack-a-Wolf, Sergeant Slobber decided it would be fun to break my passenger's side window and ram my car into a nearby tree. Someone's got a temper.

 

More than a little concerned for my life at that point, I simply decided to let him in the passenger's seat, but that didn't mean I was going anywhere and guess what? Turns out our high and mighty Lord Lupinara can't drive a car. Let's just take a moment to laugh, long and loud and clear, on that little nugget of hilarity. Okay, done.

 

So after about half an hour of sitting there, parked under a lovely green conifer, winter wind blowing into the now broken window opening, the stalemate ended. I realized that if this guy was crazy enough to push around my car like it was an obstinate shopping cart at the Food Lion cart corral, he'd be crazy enough to wait out my little sit in.

 

Now I was minutes away from my apartment and we hadn't spoken a word since we cleared Uig's Hunt two hours ago. I think if truth be told, fang boy here was a bit concerned about my speeding, and he looked a little green around the gills.

 

When I asked him why he couldn't drive, he narrowed his eyes at me and grunted something about cars and how they're unnatural to Weres. I wanted to say something smart about the fact that the whole point of being a Were is that you're not completely animal, you're half-human and who's to say that the human half can't partake in the occasional Sunday drive, but I held back. Yes, it does happen sporadically.

 

Pulling out my entrance card to get into the apartment complex, I suddenly saw Rowan go all wolvie on me from the corner of my eye. He started to sniff, really loudly and cutting his narrowed eyes at my backseat. If we'd had passengers back there I would have thought he was about to accuse somebody of farting.

 

Turning on two wheels into a space, while ignoring 50 Scent in the passenger seat, I headed toward my door. Putting my key in, I started to turn the lock when a very large hand grabbed my wrist and wrenched me away from the door.

 

“Don't go in there yet, I have to do a sweep first,” said Rowan.

 

“A sweep? Look bud, unless you've got a Hoover up your ass, I don't need a freaking sweep, okay,” I answered mockingly.

 

Making some unintelligible sound, Rowan pushed me out of the way, in a manner that brokered no arguments, and entered my apartment, nose in the air as if he could shoot something more lethal than snot boogers at any would be assailants.

 

Five minutes later, sitting out in my hallway, praying none of my neighbors saw me and thinking that if one played their cards right, snot boogers could actually be a pretty useful deterrent, Grand Master Sniff came to retrieve me.

 

“All quiet on the western front,” I asked snidely.

 

“So far, I don't detect anything unusual,” Rowan replied.

 

“What are you looking for, signs of any Snib activity? I can assure, before last night, I've never met one.”

 

“You don't know that, humans never know what we are until we tell them.”

 

“I thought Snibs hated being around humans. It's why you guys made like the Amish and didn't interact with us.”

 

“We avoid humans because they couldn't handle the truth. Plus, you're inferior and have nothing to offer us, why would we want to live in your world?”

 

“Excuse me? Inferior? Look dude, I'm not the one turning into a goddamned animal. Call it what you will but at least humans stay human, not caught in some weird ass limbo between man and creature,” I defended.

 

“I refuse to discuss this with you. Stay here, I'm going to inspect the perimeter. Call if you need anything, I'll hear you and will be here within seconds.”

 

On that note, Rowan strode out the door to examine the boxwood and railroad ties that made up my “perimeter.” God almighty, this guy's so uptight he could eat coal and shit diamonds. Enough worrying about the wolf, I was finally home and despite the fact that I now had a chaperone, sorry, that would be a guest, I needed to put on some clean clothes.

 

After changing into my fuzzy pants, fuzzy slippers and fuzzy oversized sweatshirt, I noticed my answering machine blinking. Let's see if it's Bachelor number one, two or three. Ignoring the fact that I rarely had any bachelors calling my house, I pushed the button:

 

Hey Theryn, what's up? Just calling to see how're you're doing. Give me a call back on my cell when you get the chance, I would have called yours but didn't feel like losing 30 seconds of my life I could never get back. I need to know when you want to me pick you up tomorrow, we've got to go shopping for Heather's birthday present, remember. Talk to ya later, bye.

 

Oh shit, I completely forgot. Picking up the phone and calling Lisa I got her on the third ring.

 

“Hey Lease, got your message. Yeah, about being gone last night, the shit has hit the fan.”

 

“What's happened?”

 

“Well, to make a long story short, my brother got bit by a werewolf last night, he's staying with a pack down on Elijah's Island, I had to give him a blood transfusion so he wouldn't be eternally furry, some crazy Russian über wolf is after him and I've got a permanently PMSing werewolf bodyguard following my every move to make sure I don't go and sing like a canary to any would be enem---Hey back off!”

 

Rowan grabbed the phone out of my hand and slammed it down with such a force the battery flew out and hit me in the head. It barely registered, I was so pissed. Where did this bastard get off doing that?

 

“You CANNOT go around telling everyone about what happened! Are you insane? Of course you're insane, why am I asking such a stupid question?” Rowan shouted.

 

“What the hell was that about? Lisa's not just anyone, she's been my best friend since third grade, we're like sisters, and of course I'm going to tell her about it.”

 

“From here on out you will not speak of what happened to ANYONE! I don't care if they're your best friend or your fucking psychic, do you understand me?”

 

“Well shit, I guess I'm going to have to skip that reading with Miss Cleo on Wednesday. Wake up call asshole; you are here because I'm letting you stay here. Don't think I won't call the police and get you escorted out of here for shits and giggles just because I missed `COPS' last night.”

 

“Your sarcasm is endearing but your threats are laughable. Gage told me to follow and guard you, in that order and until I hear otherwise, that is what I will do, whether you want to get the police involved is up to you, although I wouldn't recommend it,” Rowan scolded.

 

Great, now he finds his personality, hidden under that rock all this time. What also sucked was that he was right; calling in the boys in blue while Rowan was still hell bent for election on playing bodyguard would not be a good idea. Plus, I didn't like cops, way too many speeding tickets from arrogant troopers who proceed to drive at Mach 3 after pulling me over for any sort of affinity to develop for that particular profession.

 

Sighing heavily I grab a bagel out of the fridge and tell Rowan I'm going to bed. I offer him the couch, and I smile sweetly when he asks if it's a sofa bed. Ha, that's rich. Nope sorry Charlie, looks like you're folding up that 6 foot 2 inch frame on a couch that wouldn't sleep Gary Coleman comfortably. Ah, revenge is a dish best served on a bed of broken springs.

 

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Sunday, January 9th, 2005

1:30 p.m. EST

Milford, DE

 

Lifting himself up from the velvet cushions, he headed toward the foyer, anticipating his guests' momentary arrival. There were to be three men, all long time friends of his and fellow researchers on his quest. However, this visit was not typical, as they were within days of finally fulfilling his dream.

 

Pulling back the heavy drapes, the werewolf watched the three mages, reminding him of the biblical wise men carrying all but gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was not lost on him the irony of that image, for the mages were indeed offering him a gift of immeasurable value. He met them at the door, as was their custom, and quickly ushered them into the heavily lit library.

 

The room looked as if a supernova had exploded inside it, leaving nothing but pure light and dust. This had been his intention, as the library was chiefly used as a place of study. A space occupied unceasingly by himself and the other three men for many years, a haven in which to decipher the mystery he so desperately wished to solve.

 

“Eugene, Calvin, James, so good to see you all again.”

 

“Aye, lovely to see you as well, Nikolai,” said James, smiling brightly.

 

“Yes, it truly is my friends. I am but a hairs breadth away from ultimate freedom. I now only have to get my contact in the Uig pack to supply me with the blood,” Nikolai stated wistfully.

 

“I cannot believe we've finally found the bloodline, Nikolai. It is simply amazing that they were right here all along,” said Eugene.

 

“I know I can scarcely believe it either. I suppose we'll know for certain in a few days. In the meantime, I called you here to research all possible avenues available once we have the blood. I know we've determined digestion seems to be what the Caeleph recommends, but remember, we are working with formulas that have not been tried in over a thousand years,” Nikolai responded.

 

“Surely we must take every precaution, but if this works, we'll have all the power of the most ancient magic at our fingertips,” Calvin stated fervently.

 

“One step at a time old friend, I do believe we'll both have what we've been wishing for by the end of the ritual. I'll leave you to your study,” Nikolai warned as he began to leave the library.

 

“One more thing, Nikolai, what's this about you needing some sort of infatuation spells? I didn't take you for the type of guy to need magical help in that department,” James questioned jokingly.

 

“Don't you worry about my sexual prowess just yet James. The spell is not for me.”

 

“How often have we heard that one?” Eugene laughed heartily.

 

“Oh I'm sure many times, except this time it's true. It seems my Uig contact is hopelessly in love with a high ranking wolf in the pack. Apparently he doesn't return her affections and I had to convince her I could make him fall for her in order to gain her confidence. You know how hard it is to make a wolf turn on their pack? Practically impossible, but it seems love struck teenage girls are a bit more easily manipulated than most,” Nikolai chuckled.

 

“Poor guy, he won't know what hit him,” James snickered.

 

“Indeed, take some pity on the poor fellow and make it a short term spell. Once she's given me the blood I no longer have need of her,” Nikolai ordered.

 

“Of course, we'll let you know if we find anything.”

 

“Thank you. I'll be in the parlor.”

 

Nikolai closed the door behind him, thinking to himself how far they had come from the rudimentary dabbling they had done twenty years ago. It was at that time that Nikolai had realized his legendary double fang was also a hidden curse. He was slowly losing his ability to change back to human form. He had to find a lupinara cure before he transformed to wolf for the last time. That was his greatest fear, never being human again.

 

As much as he reveled in the feel of fur, teeth and claws, he always welcomed the return to relatively hairless skin, opposable thumbs and most of all, human reasoning. When a lupinara transforms he retains only the most basic emotions, fear, defense, protection and hunger, little else matters.

 

It had been ten years ago when he and his three mage friends had stumbled upon the Caeleph and discovered the ancient text held the answers both had sought, a gateway to the ancient magicks for the mages and the cure for lycanthropy for Nikolai.

 

The mages were able to eventually decipher the complicated language; however they would not be able to unlock the hidden secrets without the main ingredient in all the spells, the legendary and extremely rare double fanged lupinara blood. In exchange for the use his unique lifeblood in their future experiments, Nikolai commissioned the mages to find a cure rumored to be written down somewhere in the archaic Irish tome.

 

What they had found would set Nikolai on a ten year tracking mission to find the one bloodline that could save him, blood that was apparently discovered by his ancestors for the very same reason Nikolai so desperately searched, the cure.

 

Over a thousand years ago, all the lupinara were double fanged as Nikolai and over time also found themselves in his same predicament. Teaming with witch conjurers and warlock mages, the lupinara transcribed a method to achieve permanent humanity, and all it took was one drink of certain person's blood.

 

The fey had long lived in Ireland, even long before the time of man. In addition, the fey would sometimes inter marry with the local human population almost always in a human male/fey female combination, as this combination produced offspring, while mysteriously, the opposite did not.

 

Moreover, once the first few hybrids had been born, and those children could produce offspring to both fey sexes, the fey families were much more open to interbreeding than before. Consequently, there were a few human bloodlines that boasted a large quantity of fey blood and fey blood carried fey magic.

 

According to the recorded text, the conjurers and mages found that if a lupinara were to ingest the blood of one of these fey blooded humans, called druids, after they had been turned into werewolves and a magical binding spell was performed simultaneously, the lupinara would be cured. The text states quite specifically that the druid must be converted to a werewolf first, before the blood is taken, as pure druid blood does not work.

 

After finding this passage in the Caeleph, Nikolai immediately began searching for the human descendents of this ancient druid bloodline and repeatedly came up short. Time after time, a family carried too little of the fey magic in their blood, or there was no compatible blood sibling available to ensure the proper transformation from human to lupinara.

 

It had only been three months ago, Nikolai was so disillusioned he was ready to completely give up, when he was traveling the Eastern part of the United States, after years of concentrating his search in Ireland and U.K., that he found the Thompson family. While there are indeed many Thompson's in the U.S., this branch had many only male children, thus having the best chance of keeping the fey blood strong. Nikolai had struck gold in the last place he ever expected, his adopted home state of Delaware.

 

Nikolai first found Galen Thompson, a man in his mid forties, who would have served nicely except he had, as so many of the Thompson's of his line, been an only male child. However, he had a son, Seth Thompson, a young, strong, boy on the cusp of manhood whom more importantly had a blood matched sibling that would ensure a successful transformation.

 

Not long after, Nikolai targeted the boy, and prepared his attack. In addition, he received vital help from a most unlikely source, a teenaged girl from the Uig Americana Pack. Speaking of, it was just about time he spoke with his Uig contact. He felt silly referring to her as such. She called him “Boss” to his face as if he was some sort of gangster with a posse of goons at his disposal. He wished he had someone better but so far, she had proven to be trustworthy and as long as he held the spell over her head, she was putty in his hands.

 

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2:00 p.m. EST

Elijah's Island, DE

Uig's Hunt Farm

 

Dear Diary,

 

Just got off the phone with the Boss. Looks like it's time to do my thang. I hope I don't screw this up. He promised if I got the job done right, I'd get my love spell. Oooooooh, I can't wait! In a few days, HE is going to be in love with ME! Not Marcia, or Julie, or that stupid Crystal who thinks HE winked at her last week at dinner. It was SO obvious he had something in his eye.

 

Anyway, once I get this blood to Bossman, everything will be just fine. I've already picked out my wedding dress and the babies' names, Benjamin or Brianna. We can get that farm down in Virginia and HE can have his own pack.

 

I mean, why not? HE could be alpha of this one but he won't challenge Gage for some reason. I think that's stupid, everyone knows he's stronger than Gage, even Dom, and Dom thinks Gage walks on water.

 

Whatever! Lorrie told me Dr. Mitchell's opened up the lab for tonight; they'll be running more tests on that kid. I'll just slip in tonight and steal some samples and be one step closer to my dream.

 

Loves and Hugs,

I ♥ ROC

 

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5:00 p.m. EST

Wilmington, DE

Theryn's Apartment

 

Buzzzz!

 

The sound of my apartment buzzer going off startled me out of my reverie. I had been contemplating various methods of escape and had been frightfully short of ideas. Unfortunately, the object of my aversion responded to the noise as if it were a personal insult and rocketed out of the “brooding chair” at a speed best described as warp.

 

Barreling past me to the call box he barked out, “Who are you and what is your reason for calling?”

 

Feeling like a usurped king locked in his castle I said, “What the hell are you doing? It's probably just Lisa, she was hung up on last night and unable to call back after you broke my phone receiver. She probably thinks you killed me, or chewed off my phone cord...”

 

Whoops got a really scary growl at that last remark. Luckily I can always count on Lisa to defuse a hostile situation with the utmost care and sensitivity.

 

“Lisa McKinley, Best friend of hostage Theryn Thompson. 014877,” Lisa answered in a steely monotone.

 

“See, now you've got her giving you nothing but her name, rank and serial number. Don't mess with her when she goes all POW on you,” I warned.

 

Rowan cut his eyes at me, then pushed the call box, “Lisa McKinley, enter. I will meet you at the stair case, you will cooperate fully.”

 

After that, I heard him let Lisa inside, and then he walked out the door toward the stairs. Oh this ought to be a riot. You see, Lisa's a lot like me; we're not exactly the same but personality wise, we're both smart ass pessimists who'd rather insult you than compliment you, and it only gets worse if you're are friend. Well I suppose that's weird, but we have a good time and just so we don't look like complete assholes, we're our own worse critics. Nothing escapes our self-deprecation.

 

Ostensibly, Lisa passed inspection because she came huffing through the doorway, blonde curls flying around her head as the physical personification of her ire, and gave me a look that could very well have meant certain death had she managed to get those red laser implants she wanted surgically implanted.

 

“I was awake all night long thinking you had been killed by some out of control werewolf! One minute you're bitching about your day and the next the phone is hung up on me! I drove over here waiting to discover your mutilated remains, only to find you sitting pretty with your very own GI JOE guarding the door,” Lisa bitch slapped.

 

“You sound like you're disappointed I'm alive.”

 

“Hell yeah I'm disappointed, I was all set to play the grieving best friend. My sister in everything but blood is ravaged by a whacked out werewolf and I'm left all alone, poor me! Sniff, sniff.”

 

“Oh please, you'd get no sympathy,” I laughed “Also, very nice of you to wait until after you got off work to check. Good thing you were so certain of my demise.”

 

It was at this point that I realized Rowan was looking at us like we should be wearing identical plastic I.D. bracelets around our wrists and matching “Property of Shady Acres” dressing gowns. Oh yeah, I guess Lisa and I don't show worry too well, best to just mask your worry as anger and let the other person know how pissed off you were at the prospect of their death, but never admit to really worrying.

 

“Ah, yeah. Lisa, let me introduce you. This is Rowan, he's the werewolf guard.”

 

Rowan made no move to shake hands, though neither did Lisa. Seems those two sized each other up pretty accurately from the get go.

 

“Really, Theryn? I had no idea,” Lisa smirked sarcastically, “I mean; you always have strange guys hanging out in your apartment. Heh, when in fact was the last time you had a guy in your apartment?”

 

Oh, that was cold. Lisa knows I'm picky and just because she likes having friends with benefits does not mean I'm some sort of sexual prude. I just prefer to actually like the guy for more than the maneuvers he can do with certain parts of his anatomy. This has happened a total of three times and all three times I stopped seeing them because of commitment issues, mine not theirs. I like my independence; I don't even want to get married because it means I'd have to live with somebody else. How whacked is that?

 

Anyway, it was not cool for Lisa to say such a thing in front of Rowan. Not that I wanted to impress him, but I didn't exactly want him knowing any particulars about my life pre-werewolf involvement. Now I had to devote precious seconds of answering time to trying to figure out when indeed I had a guy over that wasn't the cable guy, maintenance man, or my Dad.

 

Hmmmm, c'mon Theryn, this shouldn't be difficult, it's not even a Double Jeopardy question. Okay, there was that one guy; with the long hair you met at the library, what was his name? Started with an F or was it a P, oh yeah it was Phillip. Ha, take that Lisa.

 

“As I'm sure nobody cares, but Phillip was the last one and before you ask, yes I told you about him, you merely forgot as your brain had to make room for the ever growing bevy of male names occupying your head at one time.”

 

“Phil huh? Why don't I remember him?”

 

“Uh, maybe because it was over two years ago?”

 

“Damn girl, has it been that long? You've practically re-virginated.”

 

It was times like this when I seriously reconsidered the intelligence of keeping Lisa as a friend in mixed company, which is anybody other than just me. She tends to say exactly what she is thinking regardless of who is present, almost like she lacks that all important internal monologue. I obviously have no such problem.

 

I deflected my embarrassment as I always do, with sarcasm. “Yes Lisa, I'm ready for the nunnery, pity about that Catholicism requirement. Look, is there a reason you came over aside from confirmation of my death?”

 

“Not really, I guess you don't want to go shopping for Heather's gift now that you've got Mr. Personality over here.”

 

“Oh, shit that's right, Heather's birthday. Her party's tomorrow night downtown isn't it?”

 

“Yep, are you still going?”

 

“I hadn't really thought about it.”

 

Rowan interjected coldly, “I would stay out of public areas for the time being. It is a greater security risk.”

 

Of course, how could I be so stupid as to not see it before? This is the perfect opportunity to get rid of my unwanted, un-needed bodyguard. I'll go to the party, Ass Monkey in tow, and lose him in the crowd. It's not like he said I was forbidden to go, just that it was risky.

 

Losing him should be no problem, Heather's entire office was going to be there, as well as family and friends, there'd be a least fifty people. Then, once I pawned off wolf boy onto one of Heather's desperately single harpy friends, (I may be single but not desperately so) I could slip away and crash at Lisa's house.

 

Also, Mr. “I can smell you” won't be able to sniff me out if I change my clothes and wear enough perfume to send him into an olfactory seizure. Plus, he has no idea were Lisa lives, and can't drive a car to boot, there's no way he'll be able to get the drop on me. By Monday night I'll be officially Snib-free yet again. Perfect.

 

“Of course I'm going Lisa; Heather's been planning this for months. Let me give you some money to buy the gift and I'll meet you at the club tomorrow night. I'm so glad I'm still on winter break, it would suck if I had to go to school tomorrow.”

 

“I know damn it, don't remind me about my crappy job. Sounds like a plan, see ya at Enigma at 8:00 p.m. Oh, and tell your brother I said `hi' and that there's this really annoying squirrel that keeps waking me up at my bedroom window every morning, think he could take care of that for me?”

 

Rowan looked like he swallowed a cicada whole. I started laughing heartily at the thought of asking Seth to “take care” of a little rodent problem. The look on his face will be priceless.

 

I gave Lisa some cash as she headed out the door and I heaved a little sigh of relief. This was good, I had the ultimate set up without even having to think up some crazy scheme, much better than my hide-behind-the-moving-potted-plant routine I had come up with earlier.

 

I smiled wickedly to myself, old Row had no clue what he was in for, but I was sure as hell looking forward to seeing him sweat. In a purely figurative sense of the word, of course.