Deadlier Than The Male - Excerpt Exclusive for Steemit - Poisoned, Drugged, Doped

Previous episode, HERE

Luke couldn’t understand why Red had not morphed back especially when it meant he had to drive her car. As he made his way home, he caught glimpses of Red – or what he assumed was Red – loping across the fields.

Luke didn’t drive too fast, hoping that Red would keep up with him, but he arrived at the house and he waited, the kitchen door was left open and he kept Rom in the living room in case she came back still Wolfed.

Red was nowhere near home. She had made her way into town and was hunting. She was being watched too.

A young man staggered along the road, either he was very drunk or he was drugged – or both. The Wolf saw him and watched with cat like patience. The observer watched them both.

The Wolf took her victim as he entered a darker area, shadowed by trees. Silent and without fuss, she jumped on his back and snapped his neck with her powerful jaws. Under the sodium lights colour was distorted and her red pelt was a nondescript grey to the observer. The blood that ran down the pavement looked black like an oil spill and he was smiling to himself as he used his mobile phone to report.

“Area 3. One Wolf – already Wolf when I spotted her. One victim. Yeah, one of ours. He was doped up to the eyeballs so she’ll get the full effect. Yeah, I’ll keep watching.”

A car’s headlights caught the Wolf and she crouched, the driver would assume she was a very large fox or a German Shepherd dog. The observer however, was under no such illusion.

“Shit!” He almost forgot himself and shouted in his shock.

“What is it? What’s wrong? Have you been seen?” the voice from the phone asked.

“No, I’ve just recognised the Wolf! It’s the Sentinel Exemplar! What do you want me to do now? Follow her?”

“No, don’t chance that, she’ll be too strong for you if she realises she’s being followed. Abort!”

Not needing to be told twice, the observer dissolved into the shadows and was away before Red had chance to lock on with her senses.

To Luke’s dismay, he saw Red was still Wolf as she came through the back door. Rom began snarling from the living room and as she came into the house Luke also heard a low whimper behind the snarl. This was not good.

Red bristled at Luke as she passed him. She didn’t seem to recognise him at all. Luke was wary of her and didn’t know what to do for the best, either to morph or stay humanoid. Red went into her bedroom; more it seemed, by habit rather than conscious thought. Luke closed the door behind her, shutting her in alone and then went down to let Rom outside and to phone Victoria and Oscar.

Luke lay on the sofa, resting until Oscar and Victoria arrived, they had been concerned but assured him this was not too ominous – he didn’t quite believe them.

Luke was not asleep, just dozing and he was jolted into full-awareness by the sounds of violence upstairs. He ran to the hall, stopping just long enough to unlock the front door to allow what he assumed was Oscar and Victoria and their entourage entrance. He was on his way up the stairs but was stopped by Victoria’s warning:

“Don’t go up there first Luke, she doesn’t know you!”

Luke paused, realising the gravity in her shout. The noises from the bedroom seemed to pause as Victoria spoke. Then the noise altered course and instead of the bedroom door being battered, the window was now being assaulted.

“She’s trying to get out of the window!” Oscar said.

Victoria and Steve both went upstairs; Oscar went outside, other Wolves were following in both directions, much to Luke’s surprise. All were as old as he was or older - most were ancients and Luke had assumed a few were no longer named amongst the living. One complete surprise streaked past him, up the stairs. She turned to snap an order to follow and then continued up. He followed her.

When Victoria opened the door, Red turned to face her, the curtains behind her were in tatters and the glass was damaged, spider-web cracks dotted the whole pane, but the double-glazed window had held.

Red’s features contained no humanity whatsoever. Even Victoria was taken aback. The Wolves that had followed her took Victoria’s lead and stayed quite still and calm. The woman that had ordered Luke upstairs whispered to him:

“We have to allow her to feed from us. Victoria has an idea of what’s wrong. Stay calm and most of all stay Hume. If Red attacks, give her your throat, do not try to restrain her. She needs to dilute whatever it is that is poisoning her.”

Luke’s eyebrows rose as he recognised his advisor.

“Erzsébet?”

“Elizabeth if you don’t mind. Now we have to concentrate, this is dangerous, even for us.”

Victoria indicated a large Wolf whom Luke had not seen for centuries to go forward to Red. He approached her slow and wary. All eyes were on the pair; he knelt on the bed and moved forward on hands and knees. The snarling from Red became more menacing and under other circumstances, no one would have approached her. Red lunged at him; he didn’t try to avoid her attack, but held his face away from her, baring his throat. Red sank her jaws deep into his exposed flesh, tearing with a viciousness that even to him and with all of his experience seemed excessive. To Luke’s amazement, the attacked Wolf sank to the bed, allowing Red to take more; she seemed oblivious to her audience and went in for the kill. Her action was unusual as Werewolf kills go, Red did not use her forelegs to manipulate her victim as she would have done in other circumstances. Rather than resembling a Wolf – a werewolf - in its super-natural state she more resembled a wolf in its natural state – albeit a rabid and frenzied wolf.

Before the killing strike could be performed, Victoria sent in another Wolf to distract Red so that Steve could drag the first victim out of her reach in order to save him from worse injury. As before, the next Wolf allowed his throat to be torn and fed upon. Red’s violence and fury seemed to subside with each of her victims, but she had gone through four Ancients before Luke noticed that she took stock of her next victim. Erzsébet - now Elizabeth - approached as the others had, slow and cautious - but less submissive, she did not kneel on the bed. Red also seemed to notice the different tactics and didn’t go in fast as she had with the others. Her brutality had diminished a great deal and she seemed to recognise her new prey. Luke noticed her eyes had expression now, whereas before they were a blank stare.

Steve came back into the bedroom and watched too. He had been dragging Red’s victims to the bathroom and helping to clean their wounds, making sure that whatever was poisoning Red did not affect them. He leaned past Luke and spoke to Victoria:

“None of them seem to be changing. She doesn’t seem to have passed it on to them, thank god.”

“God is not in this equation Steve, this is down to Wolf and when I find which Wolf, I’ll have his spleen.”

Luke heard but didn’t question, instead he turned his attention back to the bizarre tableau being played out next to his and Red’s bed.

Elizabeth was standing in front of the still Wolfed Red. Defiant and confident, she held her ground and Red’s growling began to ebb. Elizabeth sat on the corner of the bed, Red’s head level with her own. Luke realised that Elizabeth had been chosen for this task because she was diminutive and so less threatening in size than he or Steve.

Red sat down in front of Elizabeth and recognition began to creep into her eyes. Her head moved sideways so she looked as though she was curious, one ear dropped forward, giving her a rather comical look in comparison to the aggressive creature she had been moments earlier.

Elizabeth spoke to Red in a quiet and calm voice, pacifying her. Luke recognised various languages being used, Italian, Spanish and even a smattering of Latin mixed with old English and French.

Victoria beckoned to Elizabeth to lead the Wolf out of the bedroom. Red followed after a pause and she passed by Luke who had moved out of their way into another doorway. He noticed a look of surprise pass over Red’s still Wolfen features as she approached him.

Victoria paused just past the bathroom door, allowing Red to look inside. She saw pools of blood glistening on the tiled floor; she could also see a man, pale from loss of blood, sitting with his back to the cupboard. He smiled at her in grim satisfaction.

“Nichasin?” Red’s voice surprised her. Luke almost laughed as she sat back in surprise and crossed her eyes trying to look along her nose to where the unfamiliar noise had come from. Red looked up at Luke and then to Victoria, Steve and Elizabeth, all crowded on the landing. At last she looked back to Victoria. Relief was apparent on Victoria’s face and she knelt to Red’s level, put her hands on either side of Red’s face and kissed her muzzle.

“It’s nice to have you back,” she said.

Red lay down where she was at the top of the stairs, bewildered; the animal instincts that had dominated her were beginning to dissipate, leaving her drained and exhausted. Of all the events of her accidental drug-engulfed night, the one that broke through at the opportune moment was seeing Nichasin and realising she had been the cause of his wounds.

Later as the Wolf that was Red slept, unknowing of the activity around her, of the discussions and preparations that were taking place. Injured Wolves were being ministered to, made comfortable whilst they healed themselves. The house was a hive of activity.

Many phone calls were made that night, local, national and global. Ancient Wolves were being called together, some coming out of retirement. Red slept on, oblivious.

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