Relentless (2 page)

“Do you want to go out and meet the team coming in from the island with me?”

“The cleaning crew, you mean?’

“Yes.”

I didn’t answer immediately. Couldn’t, really. Did I want to see what had happened to the people we’d seen in the woods? Louise would tell me when she came back. It was different that way, just hearing about people being killed. It separated you from the reality of it. But to actually see the blood or see the people naked and receiving the injections that would keep them from becoming werewolves, that was something that stuck in your head. Forever. I chewed my lip as she waited quietly for my response. I’d chosen to do this, to take on this life. What if one day I was a cleaner? I had no idea what I’d end up doing after my training. And I guess, inside me, there was the slightest hope that maybe the people wouldn’t be injured, that the Fenryrians wouldn’t end up being the evil monsters that Louise kept saying they were. Eric wasn’t a monster, at least no more of one than I was.

“I’ll go.”

Sliding from the booth, Louise went to the door and started outside. I followed along.

“You sure?” she asked me while I was still on the top step.

I nodded. “I’m sure.”

She set out through the woods back to the clearing where we’d seen the people trying to get away from the wolves. The animals had been toying with them because they could have caught them easily if they’d wanted. Instead of following the direction the humans had taken when we’d last seen them, Louise turned toward the ocean.

“Where are you going?”

“We’ll meet up with the others onshore. They’ll be coming by boat.”

I struggled behind her through the thick foliage until we came to the rocky shore. Moonlight slipped from behind clouds to sparkle on the water for a few moments before disappearing again to leave us in darkness. Louise pointed the flashlight out across the water and turned it on and off several times. We waited. She flashed the light again. In the distance, I could hear a boat engine running. She continued to flash the light until the sound was louder and we could see an answering light coming toward us.

I could just make out three figures in the boat, all wearing what I’d first called a ridiculous costume. The same thing Louise was wearing. Now that I understood its use, I guess it wasn’t so ridiculous. The long silvery-black coat, shirt, and torso protector, along with black pants, were all made by and for the Lycernians. It was protection for when they fought the other werewolves or tried to help people who had been changed into werewolves return to their human form. I guess if I’d had one, Louise would have wanted me to wear it. But I didn’t have one. It was one more thing that would happen when I went to the island.

As a guy in the front of the boat tossed a rope to Louise, the others prepared to jump to the bank. Cleaners. They looked like normal people in ridiculous outfits. But these were the people I’d be spending my time with from now on. The people who would be training me to be whatever I was expected to be. The island, Louise called it Dromen, was where my aunt and other werewolves held school, at least for now. I hadn’t been able to find it on any map. But then the waters around the Florida Keys were dotted with small, unnamed landmasses. The Project was a program of special training for werewolves with talents. Louise seemed to think I possessed these. I didn’t feel very talented. Apparently this school was going to search my abilities, find the best ones, then hone them to a sharp edge. For what purpose, I didn’t know. As Lycernians, we tried to save innocent humans from being turned into werewolves by the Fenryrians. It was a battle that my werewolf family had been fighting for hundreds of years. Now I was supposed to be part of it. Somehow I felt like there had to be something more. Especially since the guy I wanted to be with was Fenryrian.

Louise tied the boat to a nearby tree while the three leapt to the rocky outcropping from the swaying craft. Their powerful movements reminded me that we were all more than human. Each of the three people from the boat had a small case in hand.

“Hey, I’m Eileen.” The flashlight glinted off the dark brown hair of a petite girl in front of me. When she held out her hand, I could see her face better and realized that, though she was petite, she was older than me. Her eyes said she’d seen too much, of what, I wasn’t sure.

I shook her hand, and Louise waved toward the two men. Both appeared to be in their twenties.

“Tom, Karl, Eileen.” Louise pointed to each one as she said their name. “This is my niece, Alexis.”

They nodded to me but turned their attention immediately to Louise.

“Which way?” the young man named Tom asked.

Louise set off, and we all followed. Karl brought up the rear behind me. We crossed the clearing then began to follow the path the people had taken. In front, Tom paused and held his head high, sniffing. I leaned forward over Eileen’s shoulder.

“What’s he doing?”

“Scenting the humans and the blood?”

I twisted my head and sniffed. “I don’t smell anything.”

She smiled. “You’ll learn. Tom’s scenting is really accurate. Since a significant amount of time has elapsed, the scent molecules will have drifted. I can smell them right now and get a general idea where they are. But Tom can pinpoint them exactly.”

I nodded, though I didn’t really understand. We were all werewolves, so why couldn’t we all just do the same stuff? Which, of course, set me to the next most obvious thought, why couldn’t the two packs get along? The Fenryrians didn’t want to live like the people of my pack, and my pack was completely against attacking humans and spreading a virus that would make humans werewolves. That was one thing I was thankful for. I really didn’t want to bite people, to hurt them, kill them, like I’d seen other Fenryrian werewolves do in the past.

Eileen interrupted my thoughts when she gave my shoulder a push. I realized Tom, Louise, and Karl were disappearing into the underbrush off to my left, with Tom in the lead, his nose tilted upward, testing the air. It almost made me giggle, until the scent came to me, thick, metallic, and frighteningly tantalizing.

In front of me, the others pushed faster, shoving brush and tree limbs out of the way. A small clearing opened in front of us, and we paused. We’d found them. Bloodied arms and legs were skewed in strange directions. Tom and Eileen raced forward to kneel beside the bodies while I swayed in place, uncertain what to do. There were three of them. Tom held his hand to the throat of one where a pulse should have bounced against his finger. He shook his head, moving on to another one, leaving the third body for Karl to check. Tom frowned as he felt for the pulse on the second body, but Karl nodded excitedly as he checked the female victim and pressed a wad of gauze from his case to a gaping wound on the injured girl’s neck. Eileen knelt, placing her case on the ground near Karl. She began taking out small bottles filled with a golden liquid and syringes. She punched the needle of a syringe through the rubber stoppers on top of one of the vials. With a quick glance at me, she nodded toward the case.

“You can draw up the other one. It’s three milliliters.” Motionless, I stared at her.

“Come on, get moving.”

Louise glanced up from where she had begun to arrange the torn and shattered body into something that resembled a person sleeping in the forest. The effort it took to reach in the box and get the syringe and vial was more than I’d expected. My hands trembled. Forcing myself to concentrate, I wrapped my fingers around the bottle and the plastic syringe. The cap on the vial flipped off easily. I set it on a cloth Eileen had placed on the ground then uncapped the needle and placed the cap beside the vial. Liquid sloshed when I turned the vial upside down and stuck the needle through the rubber stopper as I’d seen Eileen do.

“You want to give it?”

The vial fell from my hand before I could put it back on the cloth.

“You want me to stick this needle in her?”

“If you want to, you can. It will be good practice. It has to go in the vein, though.”

“She’s never done it before,” Louise called out across the clearing.

“But you’ve practiced in a lab class, right?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m new. It’s my first time at the school.”

“Oh, okay. Then give it to me.”

She held out her hand, and I carefully passed her the uncapped needle. She bent over the girl’s arm and slid the needle into the skin without hesitation. Her fingers tugged at the plunger, pulling backward until a splash of red blood swirled into the syringe. Using a slow, even movement, Eileen pushed the plunger until all the liquid disappeared.

“That was the memory block. She’ll sleep now. We’ll get her dressed and take her somewhere so that she’ll be found, since we don’t know who she is or where she lives. She’ll just think someone she was out with slipped her some drugs. Because she’s turning into a werewolf, her injuries are already healing.”

“What about the others?”

“We’ll take the bodies with us and put them out in the ocean.” She recapped the needle and put it in the bag.

“But their families won’t know what happened.”

Eileen caught the end of the tourniquet and jerked. It came away easily. She threw it in her bag along with the cloth and everything on it.

“It can’t be helped. We can’t leave the bodies to be examined. Since they died before the virus could take effect, their wounds won’t heal. It would raise a lot of questions if they were found. Fenryrians may not care that the world starts to realize they’re here. We prefer not to raise any suspicions.” She grabbed the bag, snapped it shut, and stood. “I don’t like that the families won’t know what happened to them, but we didn’t do this. Fenryrians did. It’s why we have to stop them.”

She turned in the direction of the boat. Louise came and picked up the girl’s limp body while Tom and Karl hoisted the other two. I stayed behind Eileen until we reached the boat. I caught the rope and pulled the boat closer while Eileen took the body from Louise and leapt into the boat. Karl and Tom followed her.

“We’ll take it from here,” Tom said, catching the rope when Louise tossed it to him. “Thanks for your help.”

We stood there until the boat disappeared into the dark. Neither of us spoke. Finally, we turned and made our way back to the motor home.

I helped Louise secure the awning on the motor home to a closed position. Images of the previous night kept invading my thoughts. I put them out of my mind and tried to go on like it was something that happened every day. I guess, in some possible future for me, it could become a daily occurrence. We’d spent the past hour closing things down. Louise would be on Dromen with me for only a few days, then she’d come back here to stay at the campground. She wasn’t teaching at The Project right now. I didn’t ask what she was working on. It was probably a secret. Louise had quite a few secrets. I stopped long enough to look out across the crystal blue ocean just visible through the trees. That’s where it would all begin, where’d I start the process of finding out where I’d fit in the werewolf world.

Louise rolled up the outdoor rug and put it in the large storage compartment, slamming the door with finality.

“Come on, we’ll get in the Jeep and get breakfast, then it will be time to go to the marina and get on the boat to Dromen.”

“How long will you stay at the school?”

Louise tossed me the keys, and I got behind the wheel. For someone who’d made me ride a four-wheeler all summer because she didn’t want me to drive her car, she was certainly taking advantage of having a chauffeur now.

“I’ll be there a couple of days to see you settled. Go right here.”

We’d come to the entrance of the campground, and I did as she directed. “You’re not teaching at all?”

“No. I teach certain things for a week or so, then someone else will teach something new.”

I glanced at her then returned my attention to the road in front of us. “So, what do you teach, exactly?”

“Hand-to-hand combat and telepathy.”

This time, I turned my head completely around and stared at her.

She tapped her hand on the dashboard. “Watch the road, please. Take a left at that sign up ahead.”

Facing front, I wet my dry lips. “Will I be taking any of those classes?”

“You will, but you’ll also be in some beginner classes like how to control your Becoming. Most of the people will be a year or two younger than you, but don’t feel bad. They’ve just known they were werewolves or would be werewolves before they changed, so most everyone your age had these classes at an earlier age. But it shouldn’t take you long to master them.” She paused to wave her hand. “Left here, this building.”

We came to a stop in the parking lot of a building that reminded me of Angeline Aucoin’s place back in Louisiana. Angeline’s building had once been a gas station or had some other utilitarian use prior to being transformed into a restaurant and seafood market. Angeline, an old voodoo woman who’d been a friend of my aunt’s, had generally scared me to death. Mostly because she seemed to know everything about me. She said she “saw it in the blood.” I never bothered to ask who or what the blood belonged to. When we went inside this restaurant, I was relieved not to see anyone who seemed ready to put a curse on us.

Once seated, I leaned across the table to Louise. “Will I get to be in the telepathy class, since I can hear you talking in my head?”

She nodded. “Yes, you’ll be in that class eventually, and as you go, we’ll see what areas you excel in. You’ll be trained in those, too.”

I eased back against the booth as the waitress took our order. I was nervous about tomorrow. It was first-day-of-school nerves times a million. Probably because this was going to be like no school I’d ever known. I took a long drink of soda, hoping I was as ready as everybody else seemed to think I was. My mom and I had been a team, just the two of us, for most of my life. I’d never known my dad; my mom hadn’t really known him well either. It had been a quick and passion-filled relationship. That was how she described it. He hadn’t been interested in having children, so he’d left when she told him she was pregnant. After I was born, she said she tried to find him but realized he hadn’t even given her his real name. I liked to think growing up without my dad had made me more prepared for difficult times. It had not, however, prepared me to deal with being a werewolf.

By eight-thirty, we’d finished breakfast and driven to the marina. Boats of every size lined the edge of the dock. We stopped in front of a medium-sized one with an inner cabin. A young guy in cut-off jean shorts and a T-shirt jumped onto the dock from the front of the boat and came toward us smiling.

“Ya’ll ready to board?”

Louise nodded, and I pushed forward both of my suitcases. He took them and set them on the boat next to several others then came back for Louise’s smaller bag. When he put hers down, he secured all the bags with an elastic cord. He returned to the edge of the boat and held out a hand to Louise.

“Careful now.”

Louise took his hand as she stepped onto the boat. I followed behind her, his hand on my upper arm.

“I’m Kyle. If you need anything on the trip over, let me know.”

He led us through the open door to the interior of the boat. A boy about my age was already sitting on a sofa in the living space. He was small and thin with dark-rimmed glasses. He nodded at us but didn’t speak.

“This is the bathroom.” Kyle pointed to a door on his left, which was at the beginning of a short hallway. “There are two bedrooms in here if you need to rest. The ride’s not too long, but you could get a short nap. I’ll be sure and wake you when we’re a few minutes out if you do that. There’s soda and water in the fridge if you want. Just make yourself at home. We’re still waiting on one more person, and then we’ll be ready to go.”

With that, Kyle went back outside. The boat rocked slightly, and I figured he must have climbed back onto the dock.

“I’m going out on the deck to make a phone call.”

Louise left the room, and I glanced at the boy who had taken up a book that had been in his lap. He seemed absorbed, so I pushed the door open and went onto the open area of the boat. I heard Louise’s voice coming from the front but couldn’t make out what she was saying. The wind whipped, blowing my hair into my face, and from this part of the marina, I couldn’t see much of the ocean. Rocks and scrub trees surrounded the area, but at the far end, there was a break, and just between the rocks and trees, I could see the occasional whitecap and endless ocean beyond. Louise appeared in the small walkway between the cabin wall and the side of the boat. She dropped onto one of the cushioned benches. I continued to lean against the rail, staring at the other boats but not really seeing them. The boy inside didn’t look like what I thought a werewolf should look like. He seemed, well, almost frail. And glasses seemed odd. I hadn’t met a single werewolf yet who had to wear glasses. Probably just in their human form, though. Then I nearly laughed out loud at my stupid thought. Yeah, like a werewolf would run around in the woods with a pair of glasses on. It was a pretty hilarious image. I turned to ask Louise who the boy was but stopped when I saw a man and woman appear on the dock with a boy who also seemed about my age. He was huge. I’d thought Myles, the werewolf friend I’d met with Aunt Louise this summer, was a big guy. But he wasn’t nearly this big. This guy had sandy brown hair and must have been over six foot five. He dwarfed his parents, even towering above his father, who wasn’t a small man.

They locked in a three-way hug, and I could see the lady was crying, and when the man stepped away, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Behind me, Louise moved. She’d leapt over to the dock before I realized she’d even made it to her feet. The big guy began his walk down the pier toward us, and I saw the tears on his face. I looked away quickly and moved to the other side of the boat to stare over the railing at the murky blue water in the marina.  I knew exactly how he felt. Only a few days ago, I’d left behind my mother and stepdad, my home, my school, and everything I’d known for years to come here with Louise. I’d come so I could learn to be something more than what I was, even though I had no idea how it would turn out. It was frightening, even if you were huge.

The boat rocked when he stepped on but I didn’t turn around. In a moment the boy appeared beside me. He bent over the railing. His face was dry, but I could still see sadness and something else, probably nervousness, in his eyes.

“Hi, I’m Jared Hall.”

“Alexis Miller.” I held out my hand, and the corner of his lips curved slightly when he engulfed it in his. “I’m from Chicago. What about you?”

He let go of my hand and returned his forearms to rest on the top rail. “Texas.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it, and he wrinkled his brows.

“Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? Isn’t that what the commercial says?”

He nodded and gave a somewhat strained laugh. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

Louise jumped onto the boat and shouted to a man who sat in a chair behind a steering wheel on the deck above. At her call, he started the engine, and she motioned for us to follow her to the front of the boat where it was flat.

“Come sit up here,” she shouted.

I started after her and turned to Jared. “Come on.”

“Who is that?”

“It’s my aunt Louise. She’s a teacher at this school thing we’re going to. Or at least I’m assuming you’re going to this school or you wouldn’t be on this boat.”

He nodded and followed me. I paused after two steps then went to the door of the inner cabin and stuck my head inside.

“Hey!” I shouted across the room. The bookish guy with the glasses glanced up at me. “I’m Alexis. We’re going to sit on the front of the boat. Come with us.”

For a minute, I thought he’d refuse or ignore me completely, but he got up and walked our way. He looked like the kind of guy who got picked on by bullies in school. Someone who was ignored, overlooked, and whose existence didn’t get acknowledged on a regular basis. For the biggest part of my life, I’d been left out of nearly everything by other people. I refused to do that to another person.

“Daryl,” he said in a low voice when he got to the door. “My name’s Daryl.”

I smiled then turned in the direction I’d seen Louise go. “Come on, Daryl, we’re going to the front.”

The sun was bright even with my shades on, and it reflected off the bluest water I’d ever seen. We eased slowly out of the marina, and the boat immediately picked up speed, bouncing lightly across the calm water. At the bow, a dolphin jumped then disappeared beneath the surface. I grinned at Louise, and she smiled back at me. I’d never been to the ocean before now, never been in a boat this size. Not even with my very rich, very fake friends back home in Chicago. A salty spray splashed us from time to time, and even Jared appeared more relaxed and much less sad.

“How much farther?” I shouted.

“About twenty minutes. See that land ahead? That’s Dromen.” Louise pointed in front of us.

I could make out what looked like land with buildings on it, but I wasn’t sure.

“What’s Dromen?” Jared asked.

Louise shaded her eyes with her hands. “It’s the name of the island. It’s privately owned. We get to use it for the school. The guy who owns it has a home on the far side and comes there to visit with his family sometimes.”

Getting to use an island that some rich person owned wasn’t a novelty for Louise and her pack of werewolves. That had been apparent this summer in Louisiana with the homes Louise and her friends lived in.

“I’m glad it’s not rough today for your first trip across,” she said.

I balanced myself as we bumped against a wave. “This isn’t rough?”

“This is extremely calm. Sometimes the seas can get really high, even to the point we won’t cross back and forth. But it usually dies down after a few days, unless there’s a hurricane somewhere.”

I pulled my whipping hair back from my face. “A hurricane! Do you mean we could be stuck out here in a hurricane?”

“No, we’ll evacuate.”

“It’s almost the end of the season anyway,” Jared added.

Louise nodded in agreement. “He’s right. The season ends in November, and it’s already late September. So there’s nothing to worry about.”

I turned back to study the water in front of us. The last thing I needed was to get blown away by a hurricane. We might all be werewolves, but I was fairly certain we couldn’t get the best of Mother Nature if she decided to send a hurricane our way.

In twenty minutes, the boat was idling next to a dock in a small bay. Here the water was calm, away from the rocking of the waves. Several more boats lined the dock.  I carried one of my suitcases to the side of the boat, and a hand reached over to take it from me.

“Myles!”

Myles Branton grabbed the suitcase and tossed it on the wooden decking then caught my hand and hauled me across. He wrapped me in a huge bear hug.

“I’m glad you came,” he said, releasing me. “It was the right thing to do.”

I nodded, knowing Myles understood how hard this decision had been, even though he didn’t know exactly why I’d made it. Then again, it was Myles, so maybe he did know. His dad and my aunt were good friends, and we’d met this past summer when I lived with Louise. Myles and another of my aunt’s friends, Brynna, had helped me through the early stages of discovering I was a werewolf.  Myles had saved me from pure disaster on more than one occasion and probably saved my life a couple of times, too.

Jared stepped onto the dock. “Hey, Myles.”