To Live and To Love (Black Wolf Agency Book 1) (9 page)

Sure enough, a moment later, they came upon a natural clearing and in the center of it sat a cozy-looking cottage.

“This is it?” he whispered.

“Yes, let’s just hope he still lives here. Can you tell how many werewolves have been nearby?” From the tone in his voice, she could tell he was over his slight frustration from her remark earlier.

“I only smell one very distinct werewolf scent,” he answered definitively.

“So do I, and it sure smells like him, alright!” she said excitedly, approaching the cottage. He grabbed her arm to stop her. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think you should go in.”

“Why not?”

“If you get too close, he’ll smell you. You should wait in the woods, perhaps.”

“He’s going to smell me all over you anyways!” she whispered frantically, grinning afterward.

“Good point,” he grinned.

“I’m at least going to wait outside the door while you go in and talk to him.”

“Alright, honey,” he gave in.

As James knocked on the door, he wondered, ‘
Could it be this simple to find him? You wouldn’t think a werewolf who is over a thousand years old would be this easy to find.
’

Unfortunately, after knocking three separate times, there was no answer. Then he bravely tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. He shot a
‘wish me luck’
glance at Kate and stepped in silently. He glanced around the cottage. It was empty. His heart sank in his chest. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy to find him.

Then, suddenly, just outside the door, there was a loud snarl followed by a sharp hiss and another snarl.

‘
Oh, no! Kate!
’ he thought, racing outside to find her pinned by the throat against the wall of the cottage by a thin, scraggly-looking man. Judging by the way she was struggling, this was no ordinary man. This had to be the man they were looking for.

James reacted as quickly as he could, feeling himself take the form of a wolf as he leapt through the air toward the man, knocking him to the ground. Kate coughed as she picked herself up off the ground, watching closely as James scurried back a few steps and stood between the two of them. He kept his eyes locked on the man in front of them, as Lucius shifted into a gray wolf, sprung up, and snarled viciously at him.

At first, James thought he was going to attack them. However, as he continued to stand his ground between Lucius and Kate, the other wolf became quite confused. He looked from him to her and back at him, cocking his head to the side slightly in confusion.

After another moment or so, he could tell that Lucius wasn’t planning to attack, so James changed back to his human form, stepped backward a couple more steps toward Kate, and raised his hands slightly as a peace offering.

“I don’t wish to hurt you,” he slowly and calmly told him. “I am only protecting my mate.”

Lucius finally changed back to his human form and stared at him in disbelief.

“But you’re a werewolf, and she’s a vampire!” he said in a French accent, wide-eyed in shock.

“I love her. She’s my mate, and that’s all that should matter.”

“So you’re siding with the vampires?” he asked, growling under his breath.

“No, not at all,” he replied. “In fact, I once killed a vampire, while I was still human.”

“What is your story, boy?” he asked impatiently. “Why are you here? Why is she here?” Nobody bothered him; he lived secluded for a reason. What were these two up to?

“We have come to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind,” said Kate nervously.

“About what? Why would I want to help a vampire anyway?”

“We live in New York City, and one night when we were in Central Park, we met two werewolves named Damian and Devon,” James explained. “I asked them if there was a way to convert Kate into a werewolf. They told us the story of how you had supposedly been successful in converting your vampire friend into a werewolf. Was all of that true?”

The man rolled his eyes, sighed impatiently, and asked, “Why would you want to convert her into a werewolf?”

James was about to reply when Kate walked up to him, stood at his side, and said, “We love each other, Lucius. We’re two totally different beings, who have two totally different natural lifestyles, but both of our conversions happened against our will. The only difference is mine has been misery. I don’t enjoy having to drink blood to stay alive, but I have managed to get by without killing a single human during my entire lifetime as a vampire. It’s not that part that I hate the most, though. It’s not being able to enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin, the walks on the beach on summer days, and most of all, the sunrises and sunsets. It was bad enough to miss out on all of those before, but when I met James, I realized that I should be living my life to its fullest potential, any way I can. Even though I’ve had to defend myself against you and others of your kind before, I have always respected your way of life and your mission to help humanity. I now wish to become one of you. Please, help us.”

When she finished speaking, James noticed a couple of tears escape from her eyes. Lucius must have noticed also, for he smiled and said, “How touching. Come inside and I’ll tell you all about it.” He passively walked right past them and into the house. They followed him inside and took their seats at the small kitchen table with him.

The Meeting

Kate couldn’t believe she was in his house, and was still alive. If James hadn’t been with her, she most likely would’ve been brought into this house in pieces. For all that James had done for her, she owed him her life.

Out of all the people Kate had met in her life, there were very few people she feared, and being in the presence of Lucius was certainly intimidating.

“I can’t believe I’ve got a vampire as a house guest,” said Lucius, shaking his head in disbelief. “I feel I should still be polite and ask you and your mate if you’d like something to drink.”

“Thanks for offering, but we’re good,” she replied with a smile. Luckily, earlier, when she and James were in their travels, she found a rabbit and was able to feed on it, drawing enough blood out to tide her over, until at least the next night. Then, not wanting the rest of the rabbit to go to waste, James ate it. She couldn’t help thinking, ‘
Poor rabbit.
’

“Alright, listen,” said Lucius, “if the word gets out that I helped a vampire, there may be a bounty on my head.”

“We promise not to tell anyone about that,” said James, grabbing Kate’s hand under the table and squeezing it lightly. “If anyone asks, you helped out a couple fellow werewolves.”

“Alright then,” he smiled and then sighed. “So, it all started shortly after my four-hundred-and-tenth birthday. I met a nice young man named Drake in a local tavern one night. We were both alone, so I went and sat with him to keep him company. Besides me being a werewolf and him being a human, it turned out that we had a lot of things in common, and soon we were the best of friends.

“About a year later, I was going to see him one dark, stormy night. I got the feeling something was odd when I was walking down the street toward his house. Then I smelled it, blood, and lots of it. I ran toward the smell and found him lying in a dark alley with someone hovering over him. The vampire looked straight at me, hissed viciously, and ran away. I wanted to go hunt down that vile scum and tear him to shreds, but I needed to stay and help my friend. Unfortunately, it was too late.

“I brought him to my house and waited for him to wake up. I had always believed all vampires were evil and needed to be destroyed, but when he woke up, and I looked into his eyes, I could tell that my friend was still there.

“The first thing he told me was that his throat was burning in a very strange way. I explained to him that a vampire attacked him and the burning sensation he was experiencing was a thirst for blood. At first, he couldn’t believe it, but once he accepted it as the truth, the first thing he told me was that he was worried for my safety. The time had come for me to tell him that I was a werewolf. He almost went into a state of shock, but luckily, I was able to snap him out of it. I told him not to worry, that I’d always be there for him and would never hurt him, no matter what.

“As soon as possible, I took him to a nearby farm and caught a sheep for him to feed on. He cried afterward, telling me that he had never killed anything before, and that he would never forgive himself if he killed a human. He pleaded to me, asking if there was anything I could do, anything that would change him into something else, anything else. He said if there was not a way to help him, he wanted me to kill him. He was begging me and I just couldn’t stand the thought of killing him. He was my best friend. So, I told him I could try to change him into a werewolf, but explained to him that it had never been done before, and that it was a great risk he would be taking. He begged me to do it, insisting that anything would be better than life as a vampire.”

Lucius sighed, got up from the table, and grabbed a drink out of the small refrigerator in the kitchen. You could tell he needed a minute to compose himself. Kate was shocked to see modern appliances in his historic cottage, but she didn’t care about that at the moment. She had way more on her mind.

“What happened next?” she asked as patiently and politely as she could without sounding too nervous or anxious, when Lucius headed back to the table.

He sat back down with his drink, after taking a big gulp, he continued his story. “We came back to my cottage and prepared a comfortable bed for him. If it was anything like a normal werewolf conversion, I knew he’d need to lie down for a while. When he was ready, I bit him. At first, it seemed like there was no change. Then he started to get really hot, like he had a fever, so he lay down in bed and slept for almost a day. When he woke, he said he felt completely fine, except for a strong craving for raw meat. However, he said the burning was gone, completely gone.”

“Incredible!” said James, squeezing her hand excitedly. They glanced at each other, both smiling from the exciting news. “So, he was completely converted into a werewolf?”

“
Almost
completely,” Lucius corrected. “He could go out in the sunlight again, and he had the appearance of a pure werewolf in both human and wolf form, but to a werewolf or a vampire, he was unique. He still had a slight lingering vampire scent among his new werewolf scent. The werewolves’ sense of smell was sometimes confused on the hunt, while vampires were occasionally attracted to him, making it easy for him to kill them. Other than that, he had mild cravings for blood, but it was always satisfied by a fresh piece of raw meat.” Lucius shook his head and laughed at the fond memories.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Kate said nervously. “What happened to Drake?”

Lucius frowned for a second, and then he smiled. “He fell in love with a beautiful Italian woman. Shortly after they were married, he converted her, and they moved to Siberia. He always loved the cold weather.”

“I’m glad he found a mate, though,” she added happily.

“Yes, so am I. If only I had also,” he said with a longing look in his eyes as he stared out the window into the darkness.

“It’s not too late for you, you know,” said James.

“Ha, sure,” he laughed, though his laughter didn’t feel genuine. What he wouldn’t do to find a mate. It had been a long and lonely thousand years.

“Well, when you live forever, your time is never up,” Kate said reassuringly. “I know there’s someone out there for you. You just haven’t found her yet.”

“Thanks, to the both of you,” he said with a smile. “And I’m sorry for the not-so-warm welcome earlier. Please forgive me.”

“It’s quite alright,” she said, getting up. James and Lucius followed her lead. “Thank you so much for your help. How can we ever repay you?”

“Just promise me one thing,” he said. She nodded. “Promise me, you two will come visit me, at least every hundred years or so.”

Kate smiled and looked at James. He was smiling also. She looked back at Lucius and said, “Of course we will. You can count on it. You just have no idea how much you have helped us, and we will always be in your debt.”

“Well, I don’t want to keep you two puppy-lovers any longer than necessary. I’m sure you want to get on with your lives.” He could feel the envy in himself.

She bravely approached him and hugged him, whispering to him, “Thank you so much.”

“You’re quite welcome, child.”

After they left Lucius’ house, they hurried back to the hotel to begin making preparations to leave.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said James, smiling brilliantly as they stepped into their hotel room. Kate was finally about to get what she had been dreaming of for three hundred years, and
he
was the one who was going to give it to her.

“I know. It’s amazing! It’s like all of this was meant to be.” Saying that Kate was excited was an understatement. This whole situation felt so surreal; she half expected she’d wake at any moment to find that none of this had happened.

“It sure gives me more of a reason to believe in fate and destiny.”

“Me, too.” Kate smiled.

While Kate packed their bags, James immediately booked two plane tickets for their trip home. Just to be safe, Kate covered up like she had for the trip over. With the time difference between France and New York, their flight was due to leave in only half an hour, and they would arrive home safely, while it was still dark outside.

As they took their seats on the plane, they held hands, smiling at each other, completely satisfied with the outcome of their journey. They were looking forward to returning home to begin their new life with complete freedom and happiness.