Full Moon Rising - 02 (2 page)

“Yes.  Yes, he did.” Damien brightened.

“Then, the way I see it,
you
were
indeed
responsible for your father’s death.”  He watched a smile spread across Damien’s face as the realization hit him.  “The very fear of your threat caused him to take his life.  It may not have been your
hand
, but it was
certainly
your doing.” Paul gave him a knowing look.

Damien gave an audible sigh.  The weight of the world lif
ted from his shoulders.  “You’re right.  You are always right, master.”

“But, of course.”  Foster responded.  “But the real question now, is what is our next step?  With the Senator gone, we have nobody of power that we can manipulate…”

“We don’t need anybody else.” Damien said, pleading.  “As you, yourself said…we are vampires.  We need to
act
like it.”

Foster dismissed Damien.  The man was a child and knew nothing of the ways of vampires.  He didn’t know of the battles within the vampire community, he didn’t understand how they had to remain in the shadows, he didn’t understand that if va
mpires came out into the open, they would once again be hunted as they were in the past.

“Paul, if we take the fight to them, like some of the others want to, then they’ll never…”

“What are talking about?” Foster demanded, cutting him off.  “What others?”

Damien blanched as much as a vampire could.  “Er…um…I’ve just heard some others talking that some of the other clans were planning to attack the hunters, that’s all.” He stammered.

Foster rose from the chaise and lifted Damien in the air, “Tell me!” He demanded.  “Everything!”

Had Damien fed recently, he would have wet himself.  “I-I-I was out at a blood den a few nights ago.  You said I could!” he whined.

“What was said, and who said it?!” he growled, fangs extended.

Damien threw his hands up in surrender. “I don’t know who they were.  They looked like punk rockers, you know…biker leather, green and blue hair, tattoos.  They were talking shit about when the families attacked the hunters.”

Paul lowered Damien to the ground.  “Go on.”

“I only caught bits and pieces, I swear.  I was too busy feas
ting on this chick.  She had the biggest…”

“What was said?” Paul glared at him.

“Yeah.  Well, they were both snacking on this guy in a suit, and talking shit about what they were going to do to the hunters when they were finally unleashed on them.  Said that somebody was gathering intel on them.  Something about finally figuring out exactly where they were, how many, the whole nine yards.  But like I said, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Where is this den?”

“Southeast…Anacostia.  But the punks…odds are they won’t be there now.” Damien stammered. 

“But you’d recognize them again if you saw them, yes?” Paul asked.

“Sure, I guess…”

“Take a crew and round them up.” Paul ordered.  “If there is going to be an attack on the hunters and the largest familia has been left out…nay, hasn’t even been consulted?”  Paul chuckled to himself, “Then somebody has a lot of answering to do.”  He pointed to the door.  “Do not come back without the ‘punks’ or answers.” His eyes told Damien that he should not return wit
hout either.

2

Jack sat at a stainless steel interrogation table.  At least they didn’t handcuff him.   He was waiting for the Colonel to come back in and start the interrogation protocols.  He knew this would happen, but he felt surely with everything that was about to happen, Mitchell would relax the rules a bit.  Jack hadn’t r
evealed yet the extent of his knowledge, but he let Mitchell know that he wasn’t in the dark anymore.  And he wasn’t going to back off with his knowledge either.  Too many lives, Nadia’s and his own especially, were at stake.

He glanced at his watch for the third time.  What the hell could he be doing that was taking this long?  Jack was about to get up and check the door when it opened and both Mitchell and the Executive Officer of the facility, Laura Youngblood came walking in.  Jack had to admit, it was good to see her again.  She actually smiled when she saw him.  He hoped it was a good sign.  Colonel Mitchell came in and took a seat to Jack’s right and Laura sat directly across from him.  They both had stacks of folders in their hands.  After setting hers on the table, Laura e
xtended her hand to him, “I’m glad you’re back, Chief.”

“Me, too, Laura.” He said.  Even though ranks and titles were scrubbed once you signed on with the Monster Squad, Jack’s rank of ‘Chief’ Petty Officer stuck and became his nic
kname for years until the whole Phoenix event.  Now he answered to both.  Some even called him Chief Phoenix, which sounded to him as Native American as Laura looked.  

Jack motioned to the files that they brought in and that Colonel Mitchell was going through as he sat silently, “What are those?”

When Matt didn’t answer, Laura spoke up, “Everything from training records to operations prior to your disappearance.  Also, most of it is the intel on the op that you disappeared from and the clean up afterward.”

Jack nodded.  His stomach twisted on him when he thought of the good men that died on that op.  “Did anybody else make it out of Texas?” he asked.  Finally, Matt looked up.

He seemed to be giving Jack an accusing look.  “Only you.”  He closed the file he was looking at.  “And I’d like to know how that happened, Jack.” He said as he sat back in his chair.  “How is it you’re the only swinging dick to walk off that battlefield alive?”

“Battlefield?” Jack asked disbelievingly.  “You call what happened out there a fucking battlefield?  Jesus Christ on a cracker, Colonel, we were ambushed!”

“No shit you were ambushed and everybody else in your squad was shredded into pieces so small they fit into sandwich baggies.  That is everybody except for you.” he stated.

Jack gritted his teeth.  “And now you think I’m responsible because I survived the grinder?”

“Why don’t you tell me what I’m supposed to think, Jack.”

Laura watched the tension rise in such short order that she felt compelled to step in.  “Matt!”  She stood up.  He turned to look at her.  She gave him a knowing look and he turned away, breathing heavily.  She turned her attention back to Jack.

“Chief,” She said more calmly, trying to choose her words wisely, “we don’t want to assume anything.”  She glanced back at Matt watching the muscles in his jaw jerk in knots.  “Tell us in your own words what happened, please.”

Jack sighed and sat back in his chair, his eyes still angry and his own jaw clenched.  “Please, Jack.  Just take a deep breath, and tell us.”

Jack nodded then turned toward her.  Laura slowly took her seat.  “We were closing in on the farmhouse that the field agents said held the tangos.  It was still daylight and the heat was fucking horrible.  We were maybe a half click out and were approaching a small stand of trees to use as a staging area when these werewolves hit us hard…”

“Werewolves?  In broad daylight?!  It was weeks from a full moon, Jack!  We’re not idiots!” Matt exploded.

Jack jumped to his feet ready to pounce on the man.  “They were fucking
werewolves
you son of a bitch!” 

Mitchell drew back to punch the man and Jack had drawn a survival knife that the guards had overlooked ready to kill him when Laura screamed at the top of her lungs, “Stand down!  Both of you!”

Both men froze, their glare never wavering from the other.  Matt looked down and saw the glint of steel.  “You insubordinate bastard…”

“You traitorous son of a…”

“I said stop!”

“I am
still
your commanding officer.” Matt told him.

“You’re a liar, and a fucking werewolf.”  Jack shot back through gritted teeth.  “You’re no commanding officer of mine.”  Matt’s eyes bugged and Laura’s jaw dropped.  Jack turned to her.  “What?  Didn’t he tell you?  He’s a werewolf.” He growled accusingly.

Laura composed herself and then reached out and gently touched Jack.  “Yes, Jack.  He told me.  Just recently.”

Jack was floored.  Mitchell actually admitted it to someone.  Well, miracles never cease.  “He lied to me.  He’s no CO of mine.”

“Fine, Chief, but I’m still your XO.”  Laura said calmly.  “Now, please, sit down.  Tell me what happened.”

Jack turned to her and ignored Mitchell.  “It was wer
ewolves.  Apparently natural born werewolves can shift at will.” He said.  Then he added as a barb to Mitchell, “I guess just being a werewolf didn’t make you a fucking expert on them, now did it?”

“Jack!”  Laura exclaimed.  “Stick to the story.”  She snapped her fingers to regain his attention.  “Then what?”

Jack recounted events as he best remembered them.  He couldn’t remember much about the attack itself…it was just too fast, too hectic and he was hit hard and fast and knocked unconscious too soon into it.  But he told of his being abducted, taken offshore to the island.  He told of Rufus Thorn and the Lamia Beastia families.  He explained why he was taken and the hopes of the vampires that their message would be heard.

Jack hesitated when it came to Nadia.  He didn’t want to tell them that he had mated with a natural born werewolf, but Laura urged him to tell her everything.  Jack eventually shared that he discovered that natural born wolves mate for life and once they did, their lives are ‘locked’ to their mates.  And he told them that he chose to mate with Nadia.  To his credit, Mitchell kept his thoughts to himself.  Laura simply made notes in her notepad and urged him to continue.

Jack told them of the meeting of the families and how they wanted to urge a campaign against the squads and that Rufus talked them out of it…at least until they could send him to act as their emissary.  He told them everything he could think of that might help convince them that he was sincere and that the vampires he was with truly valued human life.

When he was finished he sat there and waited for them to say something.  Mitchell was stoic.  He said nothing.  Laura co
ntinued to write in her pad.  Finally Jack had to ask, “Well?”

“Well, what?” Laura responded.

“What are your thoughts?”

“Honestly?” she said, finally looking up from her notes.  “I think you’re suffering from Stockholm syndrome.”

“What?”

“Stockholm syndrome.” She repeated.  “It’s when kidnap victims begin to sympathize with their kidnappers…”

“I
know
what it is!” Jack exclaimed.  “How can you say that?”

“Because you have all the classic signs.”  Matt said, his chin still resting on his folded hands.  “Hell, you even ‘mated’ withone of them.”  His face still showed no sign of emotions.  Even though his head told him that Laura was right, something else told him that Jack was honest and that he hadn’t succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome.  It wasn’t from any formal training in a psychological art, it was just a feeling.  But it was one of those gut feelings that Mitchell had based many career decisions on and they had never failed him.  He called it his own sixth sense and it served him well.

“I can’t believe this…” Jack began.  “This guy…this guy is a fucking werewolf himself.”

“That’s different.” Laura began.

“Is it?!” Jack yelled.  “The son of a bitch used his own blood to infect the rest of us!  And for what?  To make us faster?  So we can hear a little better?  So we can run longer and jump a little further?  You know what, Mitchell? 
Fuck you,
you self-serving, sanctimonious, self-righteous, son of a…”

“It wasn’t my blood.” Mitchell interrupted.

“What?” Jack hadn’t heard him well since he was too busy yelling his tirade. 

Matt sighed and stood up.  “It wasn’t my blood.”  He said.  He glanced at Laura and then back at Jack.  “But you’re right.  I had no right to do to you boys what I did.  I should have at least told you what was happening when we did it.”  He hung his head, shamed by his actions.

“You goddamned right you should have.” Jack said.

Laura stepped in.  “But knowing what you know now, Jack, that it
would
make you faster and stronger and better able to fight what’s out there…would you have done it?”

Jack turned on her, “It should have been
my
decision.”

“You’re right.  It should have been.” She agreed.  “But would you have?”

Jack sat on the edge of the table.  He stared off into nothingness and sighed.  “In a heartbeat.” He said.  “Fight fire with fire.”

“Have a seat, Jack.” Mitchell said.  “I believe what you’ve told us.  Now it’s my turn to tell you a little of how I got to where I’m at.  It won’t make it right, but maybe it will help you to understand…why I did some of what I’ve done.”  Jack flipped his chair around backwards and sat in it.  Laura stood in the co
rner, ready to jump in again should things get ugly.

“Back in the day, I had a family, a beautiful wife, a daug
hter.  I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I’d like, but we tried to make what time we did spend together more memorable.” He began.  “One fall, I took a couple weeks leave and decided to take them camping.  I thought maybe if we could get out in the woods before the weather turned too cold we could spend some quality time together.  That was where the attack happened.  The werewolf attacked after we hit the hay and before I could react, my wife and daughter…were taken from me.  I barely survived.

“My wounds healed a lot faster than they should have and the docs were amazed.  They ran all kinds of tests.  They found something that shouldn’t be there, some kind of virus.  I was eat up with it…but I never got ‘sick’ like they expected me to.”  Jack was nodding because he knew where this was headed.  “It was the werewolf virus.  We didn’t know that, though, until the next full moon.  Luckily, I was in a level IV lockdown because they feared it was some kind of transmittable disease.  Nobody else was hurt, but we knew then, without any doubt…monsters were real.

“Anyhow, it was decided that rather than just ‘study’ me by dissection, we would use what was learned, put together a team of the best and go after the beast that created me.  It took years to track the bitch down.  We scoured reports of animal attacks, livestock going missing, shit like that, until we tracked her to the town she was in.  I figured out who was new to the area and then we tracked her back to where she came from.   I kept going ‘back’ and looking for missing persons, animal attacks, missing pets, livestock kills and the like until I narrowed down who she was. 

“When I finally figured it out, we snagged her.  Of course, she tried to run, but we got her.  My boys flanked her right to me.  They ran her through a funnel formation into a blind alley and when we had her caught, she tried to shift.  It was the
only
time I’d ever heard of a werewolf shifting and it not being a full moon, but honestly, the full moon was that night, so I truly figured that…I dunno,..the fear, or the adrenaline or something had caused her to shift early.  And when she shifted, I was staring eye to eye with the most beautiful timber wolf I’d ever seen. 

“And I shot her right between her fucking eyes.”

Jack was shocked.  A hundred thoughts raced through his mind at that moment.  Mitchell had hunted down and killed a natural born wolf…and she shifted without it being the full moon?  And she became a timber wolf?  Not the Halfling form?  That could only mean that she shifted in the presence of her Fated Mate.  And if Mitchell was the only other ‘wolf’ in her presence…that meant he
killed
his mate.

Should he tell him
?  Jack looked at the Colonel and saw nothing but pain.  What would this knowledge do to the man?  He debated with himself when Laura interrupted.

“Colonel?  I thought if you killed the wolf who created you, that you broke the curse of the wolf?” she said.  “Isn’t that what Evan said?”

“Evan?”  Jack asked.  “Is he out of that cell again?”

Evan Peters was the resident vampire researcher who had spent years working on both a cure for his vampirism and crea
ting weapons for the Monster Squad.  Three years prior, a member of the team’s Oversight Committee feared him to be a threat and ordered him imprisoned as a test to see how long it would take a vampire to ‘starve to death’.  Both Matt and Laura fought the order and even argued that the dead couldn’t be starved, but it did no good.  Recently Mitchell and Youngblood took it upon themselves to fake his death and release him while Jack was MIA.