Chapter 42: The Lycan, and the Vampire

Ares:

Yet another run through Shadow Veil’s forest to clear out an infestation. The release was well worth it. However, it was time for the pack to take rest.

“Send everyone back to the packhouse for the night,” I told Zev as the pack ran in formation toward the path leading to the exit of the forest.

I don’t know why I didn’t just connect wih the pack and make the order myself. It was just one of the many things that I had seemed to become lax on throughout the last year.

“And where are you going?” Asked Zev.

My brother seemed to notice that I started to pull away from the direction in which the pack was going. He already knew and he wouldn’t like my answer. I didn’t understand why he put himself through the stress of inquiring.

“I won’t be long, Zev. Just need a minute alone.”

I could hear my brother’s sigh through our telepathic link. “Try not to get too messed up tonight, Ares,” he said to me. “I am exhausted tonight. I’d actually like to rest tonight.”

I could tell that Zevi was losing his patience with me, and honestly I couldn’t blame him. My own lycan seemed to be tired of me.

“I wouldn’t mind a bit of rest myself, Ares,” expressed Bain. Our run transitioned into a brisk trot as I began to change back into my human form.

I had left a bag near the tree line nearing the street. There was a bar nearby that sold blood-spiked alcohol-the strongest that I’d ever had. It always got me where I needed to be and that was all that mattered.

“I know Bain.” I finally said as I stepped into my clothes, a long-sleeved v-neck shirt, a dark pair of denim jeans and pair of boots. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone, I just wanted a warm drink to my lips.

“Then why are we not heading back to the packhouse with the others?” he asked frustratedly.

“Because we both know that neither of us will sleep,” I answered as I walked out of the forest and across the street where the bar was located.

“Why? Why can we not sleep?

There was a desperation in my lycan’s voice that bothered me. I could tell that our lack of rest was starting to take its effect. I could feel Bain fighting against the exhaustion that threatened to turn us feral.

It’d been this way for well over a year now. Ever since that girl…left.

Neither one of us could understand why her death had such an impact. We didn’t know her, and we weren’t…in love with her. It just…it didn’t make sense.

Sure, she was intriguing, not just for a human, but in general. She was genuine and just nice to be around, if I was being honest with myself.

Admittedly, there was a dark part of me…a taboo part of me that wanted the human. She seemed tantalizing in more ways than one.

One could hardly ignore her inane beauty. I had never seen one so captivating; human or inhuman. Everything about the girl was alluring to me, and now that she was gone, it seemed so much easier to admit this.

However, it still didn’t make sense that I could not sleep because of her. And yet somehow, a gut feeling not only churning within me but Bain, as well, was telling us both that her death was a direct correlation to our current problem.

Was it guilt? I asked myself this plenty of times but in the end, I realized that I had nothing to feel guilty about. I had tried to be there for her. I tried to protect her. I told her to wait for me, and she blatantly refused. How could I possibly blame myself for that?

“Whiskey-spiked,” I told the bartender. “Make it a triple,”

No sooner than he put the glasses down did I start tossing them back one by one, all the while thinking about her.

“Why didn’t you wait for me, pequinina?” I hissed, slamming the glass onto the table.

“Whoah, there hoss,” said the bartender. “I can’t afford anymore shattered shot glasses.”

I glared up at him and he backed off a bit but in truth I didn’t blame him for his slight reprimand. Did I mention I had been there numerous times over the last year and a half? And I had shattered my fair share of glasses as well.

To cover for past, potentially present and future shattering, I pulled out a wad of cash and slammed it on the table.

I then looked up at the bartender, I’d come to know as Damian. He was a cool fellow, inhuman, and made the best spiked beverages this side of the hemisphere.

I’d crossed him in passing a few times, and in Shadow V eil. He was a vampire, and though it pained me to say it, the most likable one to date.

Normally, I wouldn’t take much in the way of back talk but I learned to accept it where he was concerned. We didn’t necessarily get along because in the end he was a vampire and I was a lycan. However, we did have an understanding and that was all that I could ever possibly ask for.

He snatched the bills off of the table and smirked, his incisors peeking through his sneer. The guy never did put those things away.

“This should cover you…for the night at least,” he said.

I grimaced, rolled my eyes and took back another shot of blood-spiked whiskey. As the smooth mix of salt, sweet, and a hint of bitterness warmed the back of my throat, Damian asked.

“So, what’s new in Shadow Veil?”

When he asked this, I only chanced a momentary glance at him before he slid me another drink and I started working on it.

I took a sip and then said, “You ask me as if you don’t live there. You’d probably know before I would.”

Damian snickered dryly as with a wave of his hand, a line of glasses, settled themselves, on by one next to one another on the shelf behind him. That was another thing about him, he didn’t care who saw him using his abilities. It was obvious that he came to the conclusion that no one could do anything about it if they had. No one seemed to notice it though.

“Where I live is not indicative to the information that I receive going in and out of Shadow Veil,” he shrugged. “In fact, I hardly stay there at all.”

“Then where is it that you get your information from? Somehow, I don’t see you being in good standing with anyone there.”

There was amusement in Damian’s eyes when I said this. “And what makes you think that?”

“Because you are a first-class cretino,” I murmured under my breath. I didn’t have to translate what I meant. The grin on the bastard’s face told me that he’d already knew the meaning.

Again, Damian laughed. He seemed to find delight in insults concerning his character. More than likely because, for the most part, many people had him pegged wrong. There was more to Damian than he staked claim to.

“What is your full name?” I asked. “You never said.”

I knew that there was an elder who lived in Shadow Veil. I couldn’t help but wonder if Damian was of some relation to him. I’d heard from alpha Wade that he had a son, and that they both were a prominent force in the community. Could he be one of the two?

“Why would I disperse my surname so freely?” He asked rhetorically and then began wiping down the bar for the third time. “It would do neither you nor me any good for you to know it.”

“Why don’t I believe that?” I said as I swished my alcoholic beverage in my grasp, watching him closely. Again, he seemed amused by my antics.

“It really isn’t my problem what you choose to or not to believe, hoss.” he said to me and then threw the partially damp towel over his shoulder to serve someone else. A female.

Instead of pestering him further on the subject, I took another shot of my drink. I had promised myself and Bain that I’d not overdo it tonight, and I intended on keeping that promise. But I still wanted one more drink, at least.

The young woman sitting at the end of the bar was attractive, young, and very human, so of course Damian took his precious time returning to my end. It didn’t take long for him to convince her to meet up with him after his shift later for a late night snack. He linger a second or two longer before he made his way back over to the less attractive side of the bar.

“See you’ve found you a sweet little petisco to take home tonight.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I wouldn’t dare take her home,” said Damian. “But you are right about the snack bit. I could use a taste.”

“Why not fix you a strong drink?” I asked. “Why take girl’s life?”

To be clear, I didn’t really care one way or the other whether the girl lived or died. It certainly wouldn’t affect my life either way. It was just morbid curiosity.

“This drink my be okay in a pinch but there’s nothing like a fresh, open vein from a beautiful woman.”

He was right. “True,” I agreed lifting my newly filled glass up to his remark in a toast before taking another shot of my whiskey.

There was a small lull in our conversation after this. It admittedly gave me time to think about taking a few girls home with me tonight. Regardless of how much I tried not thinking about it, that girl would always plague my mind, and the only time she wasn’t was on those days that I’d drown myself in blood-spiked alcohol and sex.

“A lot weighing on that mind of yours,” said Damian, interrupting my thoughts.

My heavy eyes shifted up at him for barely a moment before my gaze drifted back down to the bottom of my nearly empty glass. I was beginning to feel a little more than a buzz at this point.

Instead of allowing him the space to try and figure out what I was thinking, I asked, “what new news is there in Shadow Veil?”

“Odd question,” he said. “What makes you think that there is any news? And-”

“You know what’s going on,” I cut through the bull and said. “You wouldn’t have mentioned it if you didn’t,” my glass was near empty and still it seemed heavy as I brought it to my lips.

Damian watched me closely for a moment, and then the corner of his mouth lifted slightly as if he’d thought better of an oncoming smirk. Then, he finally spoke. “I ran into a girl the other day,” he said as he took the several empty glasses in front of me and loaded them into a sink of soapy water. “Beautiful girl,” he mentioned.

What was he getting at? Surely, there were a plethora of beautiful girls around. This certainly wasn’t news.

“Should I be impressed?” I sarcastically said.

“Oh, I daresay, you would have been very impressed by this one,” he said to me. “I’d never seen a creature so rare in beauty, and with so…tantalizingly sweet a scent.” His eyes began to darken at the mere thought of her.

Now, I was curious. Who could she be? This mysterious young woman that Damian seemed so intrigued by? I didn’t know the vampire well, but I’d never seen him so taken by a thought in the short time we’ve had together as bar tender and bar tendee. There was only one woman that I knew of who could provoke such a reaction and she was dead. Had he found another?

“And you didn’t take her for yourself?” I asked as it was definitely what I would have done.

“If only it were that simple,” he laughed. “No, this one…was a rare creature incapable of capture. I got the distinct feeling that the only way to capture her…was if she, herself, willed it so.”

His dark eyes began to distance themselves to a daze that he seemed glad to be lost in. When Damian realized that he’d gotten side-tracked by his own thoughts, he glanced at me and started cleaning the table again.

“I’d met her once before,” he continued on talking about the girl. “A year or so prior. I can’t be sure precisely. She said something that made me remember her.”

“If she was so amazing how could you not have remembered her on your own accord?” I asked.

“Because she’d changed.” Damian put down the towel and looked away. “Everything about her now…is different and yet, somehow, painfully familiar. She’s an enigma that one.”

It was clear that this strange girl was a keeper and that she’d somehow garnered the affections of this closed-off vampire. So, my next question would be, why was she so important for him to have mentioned outside of her having left a significant imprint on him.

“Why is she so important, besides the fact that you’re harboring childish little crush.”

Damian seemed to find amusement in the words that I chose. “A childish crush, huh?” with a smirk, he spoke again. “This girl is important, because…if I’m not mistaken, alpha Ares, she used to be Alastair Wade’s vassal.”

I had started to finish off my drink when I nearly choked on it. “Wh-what?!” I incredulously exclaimed. “What do you-the Wade’s vassal is dead!” I stated with such conviction that it scared me. Almost as if I needed my assumptions to be the truth.

“Ah, well then maybe it was another sun-kissed goddess walking this earth then,” he said with obvious rancor. “Her hair, long, wild, and flowing, her lips plump and alluring, her eyes like fire. It’s not often one meet a woman like that. Human or non,” he said. “And anyway, I know it was her.”

“How?” I asked, hardly giving him a chance to finish his sentence. “How do you know?”

“She’d said something that reminded me of the first time we met.”

“And what was that?” I asked, now desperate to hear every single detail of the alleged encounter that Damian, the barkeep, had with this strange and mysterious woman that night.

“She teasingly referred to me as Master,” he grinned. “Though it was quite clear now…that she is a Mistress.”