Chapter 128 – Meet in the Middle

  “We don’t know where some myths came from. Elves living forever or dwarves always living underground are prime examples of nonsense. We do know that some of the interpretations of these paranormals are very much rooted in real world events and we only have to interpret them through the lens of modern observations. Now, let’s dig into this fifteenth century French treaties on monster hunting.” – Dr. Ian Crawford in a youtube video on the “Forgotten Mythos” channel.

  Kurt sometimes thought that his life was a series of interruptions and derailments. It seemed that he was never able to stay focused on one thing for too long without something coming up that he had to deal with.

  First was his normal life as a half elf. That was interrupted by getting bitten by a werewolf as a teenager. Then he decided that he wanted to join the Army, making use of his gifts, both natural and unnatural. That was derailed by finding out that the military was one big cluster-fuck with varying degrees of idiots running things.

  His civilian life was no different in the end. His 9-5 with a girlfriend was completely wrecked by the Veil dropping. Then his plan to live a life of solitude and hopefully die peacefully, and more importantly alone, was run through the paper shredder when Jay had a little chat with him.

  All this is to say that his first test run on the new CNC machine was cut short by his phone ringing. It didn’t help that it was the ringtone that he had assigned to a certain werewolf chief of police.

  “Chief Henry. To what do I owe the pleasure.” Kurt said and tapped the speaker button so he could finish what he was doing. “By the way, you are on speaker. The girls are here too.” Val and Kristi had both stopped what they were doing to listen in.

  “Hi, uh, that should be fine. Kurt I really hate to call you out of the blue like this, but I need help.” Henry briefly stumbled over the introduction but rapidly recovered. “We have a problem.”

  “Is that a you problem, or a problem involving me?” Kurt could sense the strain in Henry’s tone and turned his attention to the phone as the girls scooted closer.

  “It’s an ‘us’ problem. One of those that is unique to our… gift.” Henry had to pause for a moment, figuring out a way to refer to lycanthropy when on a cell phone that was likely being monitored.

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  Kurt sighed and looked to the girls who both had expressions of confusion. “Do you know who?”

  There was a pause as Henry clearly debated how much to share before deciding that confidentiality was already out the window if he was bringing in outside help. “Local guy. Kind of a loner who moved in a decade or so back. Has a double wide a few miles south of the airport.”

  “And you are sure he is gone feral?” Those words seemed to bridge the last little gap for the girls and both their eyes went wide.

  “Yeah.” Henry said with a heavy sigh. “The signs are there and when he didn’t answer his phone after several attempts, we sent someone to go take a look at his place. Theres a hole in the side of his doublewide that was made from the inside.”

  Kurt was already opening lockers and pulling out clothing. He called over his shoulder to the phone while getting a set of cold weather pants and top out. “Casualties?”

  “Couple snow mobiles on the trail between here and Grayling.”

  “Tracks?” Kurt called while the girls began to shimmy into their own winter gear.

  There was a pause for a moment before Henry answered. “Latest update is headed east by south east along the trail. Nothing that way but woods and powerlines until Kalkaska.”

  Kurt grabbed the phone and began walking up the stairs. “We are on our way. I’ll be going south on one-thirty-one like a bat out of hell. If you can tell the local PD to not pull me over, that would be great.”

  “Done. I will keep you up to date.”

  The call ended as Kurt made it to the breezeway and slid into a pair of boots. Val was right behind him as she also sat on the bench and put hers on. “A wolf went feral?”

  “Yeah. Ever seen it?” Kurt asked as they all began to pile in the car. They thankfully wouldn’t have to do this at night as it was still 10 in the morning. He had absolutely no desire to chase down a feral anything in the dark, let alone a were-creature

  “I have.” Kristi answered. “It’s not pretty and there is actually a sort of guild back on Talth who take on cases like this for a variety of creatures and sentients. Feral werewolves, lesser vampires and rogue liches, that sort of thing.”

  They all climbed into Kurt’s car and got on the road. There was a tense silence as Kurt drove, headed for the highway as fast as the roads would take him. Kristi was riding shotgun while Val was in the back, texting on her phone. Kurt’s phone range a moment later and he put it on the car’s speakers. It was Penny calling to tell them about the issue. She was happy to hear they were already aware and moving in that direction while promising to coordinate with Chief Henry.

  After they hit the hardball and began headed south toward Kalkaska, Val looked up from her phone. “Order assets are standing by. Jade is making her way down behind us.” Val updated them with what she had been doing.

  “Fuck.” Kurt swore and ground his teeth. “I completely forgot to pull them in on this.” He should have known better. In fact, he did know better but he was a little distracted.

  As soon as the chief had told him the problem, it felt like his stomach was about to fall out of him. He was filled with a deep sadness, which he was doing everything in his power to suppress. He knew he wasn’t doing a very good job as that sorrow ebbed and flowed, only to be replaced with a burning anger.

  It wasn’t an anger at the werewolf, the man had little control over losing the fight with his inner wolf. Kurts’s anger was solely directed… somewhere. It was definitely directed at something, but he couldn’t tell what.

  “Kurt, What’s wrong?” Val asked, leaning forward and putting a hand on his shoulder. “I can feel it in the necklace, there is something going on.”

  “Don’t know. I’m sad and angry at the same time and I think it’s my wolf, the Avatar or something.” He responded, doing his best to un-clench his jaw. “Maybe it would have been better at night…” he muttered a moment later.

  “Why night?” Kristi asked, looking up from a map of the area on her tablet.

  Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Kurt fought to keep the hysteria out of his voice. “Because I don’t know if I can keep from shifting and I don’t want more people freaking out if they see my giant, furry ass running through the woods.” He took a deep breath and focused on the road as he pushed the gas pedal down. “I have a feeling that this is going to involve my wolf doing some shit while I am just along for the ride.”

  They drove for another half hour before entering the city of Kalkaska, for all that you could call it a city with only 2000 people living there. Apparently, they had good timing because the chief called just as Kurt pulled off into one of the trailheads.

  “Kurt, we got tracks.” The chief began, yelling over the sound of a very loud engine. “Main trail that runs into the north end of town.”

  “That’s exactly where we are parked, right next to that dive bar with about forty sleds parked out front.” Kurt bit back the urge to swear at the situation. He had no idea why the snowmobile community thought they had to stop at every watering hole but was glad they weren’t on the trail anymore. “Fucking biker gang on snow. Alright, I will head west along the trail. Are you coming east?”

  “What?” Henry yelled over the engine and wind again.

  “I said are you headed east on the trail?” It was a logical assumption since the sounds coming through the phone speaker were just general noise.

  “Oh. Yeah, we are.”

  “Great, I will meet you in the middle unless I find tracks.” Kurt said, speaking loud enough to be heard before hanging up.

  “Plan?” Kristi asked as they piled out of his SUV and made their way to the gap in the trees that ran under the powerlines. There they could see the rolling hills with trails on either side of the 50-yard-wide path for the utilities.

  “We go that way and hope we find the wolf before it finds someone else.” Kurt answered.

  They then started jogging down the trail, taking the right side so they would hopefully not be run over by a drunk on a snowmobile. The trails themselves were thankfully well packed and moderately firm, allowing them to run without sinking in the thigh deep snow that covered the rest of the ground.

  As they ran, Kurt kept an eye out, looking for anything that would show the werewolf had passed. He did briefly run to the other side and look for prints before coming back to the original side. He didn’t see anything in the snow so that hopefully meant that the werewolf hadn’t made it that far. If they were really lucky, it would even still be on the trail.

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  While running, Val had them slow down so she could stay in contact with Jade and her team along with Penny and the Order. The other werewolves were not far behind and would be on the trail not long after them. Penny was still standing by and also told them that Jay was monitoring the situation as well, working out of Kurts hub.

  A flapping movement caught Kurt’s attention, and he looked over to see a few crows sitting on one of the power line towers. They were looking down into the next valley and fluttering back and forth along the steel girders, hopping from side to side. He tapped Kristi and pointed.

  “I think we are close.” He said.

  Kristi looked up the hill they were climbing and frowned. “How can you tell?”

  “Crows. They like dead things and they have a bit of a relationship with normal wolves, feeding on the scraps of the kills.” Kurt explained where his mind was going as he lowered his tone to a whisper.

  “Those aren’t crows.” Val said a moment later as she waved her hand and cast an illusion. “Those are ravens.”

  Kurt squinted, trying to see the black birds better. “How can you tell?” He also noted that one of the birds turned and looked at them, tilting its head as it did.

  “Other than the size? The tail shape and the noise.” Val began. “They also are making a clicking and croaking noise and not the ‘caw’ that crows do.”

  As if hearing it for the first time, Kurt noticed the clear difference over the sound of crunching snow under his boots. He looked up at the one raven staring at them. It shouldn’t have been able to see them under the illusion so he though it must be an optical illusion and the bird wasn’t actually watching.

  That suspicion was immediately crushed as the remaining several ravens all turned and stared directly at them as they crested the hill. “Val, why can they see us?” Kurt asked, pausing just below the crest of the hill.

  “Don’t know.” She admitted in a whisper. “But I thi-.“ Kurt didn’t get to hear what she thought because a new, louder sound suddenly greeted them. A chuffing and growling noise could be heard as a large brown shape began to crest the next hill, showing them all their first look at a feral werewolf.

  Coming over the rise, walking on all four paws in a strange gait was a brown furred werewolf. Initially it was hard for Kurt to determine how tall it was since it was hunched over, its nose sniffing at the ground but after a few steps, it stood up on its hind paws, showing a full profile as it sniffed the air.

  Its arms were long and skinny, with long, ragged claws rather than the more pronounced fingers of a typical werewolf and in a distinct palm down position. The muzzle was also shorted and wider with the teeth extending past the lips to hang below the lower jaw. Its eyes were a solid yellow, blood shot and almost protruding from the taut skin that made up the top half of its matted head. The body was thicker, front to back but skinny in width, the shoulders being only a little wider than a normal human while the hips were splayed outward as it stood.

  The worst part was how it moved. Instead of the smooth movements and sure footedness that Kurt had come to expect from other werewolves, this monster twitched and flinched at every sound. It never stilled, muscles always twitching as it surveyed the landscape. Suddenly its head whipped around, sending a spray of frothing slobber as it zeroed right in on where Kurt and the girls were. It sniffed deeply, scenting the breeze before letting out a base howl that had the undercurrent of a human scream of pain. Kurt could also see its aura, tinged with a sickly grey color that ebbed and flowed in strange undulations as it breathed.

  Their attention focused on the monster ahead of them, neither Kristi nor Val noticed as Kurt’s shoulders began to slowly hunch forward. They definitely did notice however as he quickly stored his clothes before shifting.

  Kurt had been trying to keep his shift under wraps, but he couldn’t. He was far to disgusted with the creature he saw standing at the top of the hill. It was a poor mockery of a werewolf, like a costume department decided to prop a dog on stilts after giving it a severe case of mange. Finally, he couldn’t suppress it anymore and let the shift come, merging his consciousness with his inner wolf as his perspective changed and he found himself at eye level with the monster.

  What he had expected was an immediate fight but was stunned as the feral wolf’s ears perked, its head turned from where Kurt was still hidden by the illusion and back in the direction it came. He heard it then, the sound of several snowmobiles and even spotted a quartet of them crest the next ridge and come to a stop as they saw the monster waiting for them. Acting before Kurt could, the feral wolf lunged forward, showcasing an impressive speed as it made for Chief Henry and his men.

  *****

  Henry knocked the snow off his visor as Stevens cut in front of him, throwing a rooster tail of snow up while trying to find the traction to get up the hill. It wasn’t that much of an issue as they were all wearing full helmets so it only took a moment to wipe the spray away.

  They had been following the tracks of the werewolf for nearly an hour, having to stop and investigate every time the large prints strayed from the trail. It was only a minor annoyance, but it had slowed them down and he knew they were running out of time and trail as this stretch only went on for another couple miles. At the speeds this monster was moving, that wouldn’t be much time at all.

  A minute later and he followed Stevens up to stop on top of the steep hill as his other two werewolf deputies came up to stop behind him. They liked to take the opportunity to stop on the taller hills to survey the trail with binoculars, trying to get a visual on anything. As he stood on the seat of his sled, he didn’t need the binoculars to see the misshapen werewolf sprinting down the opposite hill directly toward them.

  “Shit, GUNS!” He yelled, trying to be heard over the idle of his engine and the muffling of his helmet. He popped the top on the hard rifle case on his sled, pulling out the old twelve gauge loaded with slugs. He glanced up while sliding it out, seeing the distance had been halved by the feral. It was nearly at the bottom of its hill and would be coming up theirs in a moment.

  He leveled the shotgun, putting the front sight blade in the center of his ghost ring rear sight and launching an ounce of lead at the charging monster. He racked the action and fired a second before even seeing the first have absolutely no effect. He was about to shift himself when a howl made him duck and nearly piss himself. All he could do was watch as an even bigger monster launched itself into the feral like a descending lightning bolt. This particular monster was in the familiar mottled grey of a certain other werewolf he knew well.

  “What the fuck is that!” Stevens yelled while still fumbling with his own rifle case.

  “Our backup that just saved our bacon.” Tyler said from behind Henry. “The Chief hit it twice in the chest and it didn’t even flinch. We would be fucked if got close.”

  “Well, what if the other one gets close?” Stevens asked still not leaving his rifle case alone.

  “Better start praying then.” Tyler muttered.

  Stevens finally gave up with the rifle case and turned to face Tyler. “Pray to who?”

  “Well, him I think.” Henry said pointing at the scene unfolding below them.

  *****

  As soon as the feral wolf bolted for the snowmobiles Kurt leapt after it. He was to the top of the hill in three strides and paused long enough to gauge the distance he would have to cover before launching himself after the surprisingly fast feral. He just decided to go full send and dropped to all fours, in a full sprint as he hit the downhill slope then pushed himself even faster with three long leaps.

  He caught the monster just at the bottom of the valley and hit it like a truck, a paw lashing out and breaking a leg bone as he swept it out from beneath the wolf. It went down in a tumble, rolling for a dozen yards before being able to climb to its feet. Kurt just slid past, putting himself between the creature and the Chief.

  It spun in a circle, its head lashing back and forth as it tried to find its attacker through the spray of snow. It snarled and growled until it finally laid eyes on Kurt. Those sounds died in its throat as it looked up, and up, and up to meet Kurts eyes. When they finally did make eye contact, the feral wolf flinched, ducking its head and trying to back away.

  Kurt and his wolf were not about to let that happen. This monstrosity was their responsibility. It was once his kin and now it was his burden to see its legacy ended here. Acting on instinct, he flexed his will, making his intent clear through the feeble connection he still shared with the monster. He offered it peace and salvation, an end to the torment, a final absolution by his own hand.

  He could feel that the man that once shared the body of this monster was still in there. He sensed that fragment of consciousness that was part of the shattered mind of a once noble man. In an instant Kurt knew everything of him. His whole life was laid bare before Kurt, every triumph and every sin were shown in equal measure and given their just regard.

  Still, for all that the remnant of Hammond Sutherland wanted to accept his fate, the monster that had bested him would not. It still snarled, its jaws snapping as it dug its paws into he packed snow, ready for the attack. That was something that Kurt and his wolf would not tolerate, so they acted first.

  Before the feral could react, Kurt lunged forward, placing his hands around the back of its head and shoving down, using his extra height to put his knee into its throat. The monster collapsed under the attack, falling to the ground as Kurt leaned over it and opened his jaws. He clamped them around its neck and shook, feeling a popping snap of a breaking spine. He quickly released his hold and put his claws to work, decapitating the wolf before its regeneration could kick in and prolong its suffering.

  A moment later, while holding a bloody wolf’s head, Kurt saw something strange. He had kept track of the aura the feral werewolf was exuding, using it as a sort of indicator of intent. So, much to his shock, the aura didn’t fade, it didn’t disperse as he would expect. Instead, it seemed to coalesce into an amorphous blob hovering over the body of the slain werewolf.

  That blob of grey tinged aura then seemed to organize itself and stretch before splitting into two halves. On one side was a normal, pure aura, a shade of blue so pale it was almost white. On the other side was a small blob of inky black and red that roiled together, its surface constantly churning as it hung there. After a few moments, the larger aura rose to the sky, extending into a slight elliptical shape but remaining whole as it eventually passed from view.

  The small black and red ball, however, continued its internal conflict and once more began to divide. Again, the division wasn’t equal, a larger mass of crimson split off from a comparatively tiny speck of complete blackness. Like a drop of Vanta-Black paint separated from a red wine.

  As fascinated by the aura as he was, Kurt also noted movement around him. From behind, he could hear the girls rushing down the hill toward him while Henry and his men turned off their engines and sat down. Still, to his right, perched in a tree was a giant raven, its head tilting and looking at him as it made a ‘qwork’ sound. That little noise seemed to reverberate across the valley and everything came to a screeching halt as time seemed to stop.

  A pressure suddenly began to manifest to his left and Kurt recognized a portal being formed as Jay stepped through it. The demon paid him little mind as he stepped forward, standing next to Kurt and staring at the large black bird in the tree.

  “Well? We’re waiting.” Jay said in his usual sardonic tone while rolling his hand in the universal gesture to hurry up.

  The raven tilted its head and clacked its beak at Jay before flapping its wings, causing the snow to fall from the branch it was sitting on. As the snow fell, it created an obscuring screen that shimmered with a slight rainbow hue in the noonday sun. That curtain of snow drifted to the ground in slow motion but as it passed, it revealed a man standing under the branch as the raven took flight.

  The man was of middling height with grey streaks in his light brown hair. His skin was pale but seemed to be weathered heavily despite being unblemished. His beard was neatly trimmed, less than an inch in length and filled with even more grey than his hair. He wore a long, black coat that hung past mid-thigh with a familiar “HH” logo stitched onto the chest. He also wore a pair of nice, nearly perfect, dark denim jeans that were tucked into the tops of his boots.

  “Patience and decorum are things I would have thought you learned long ago, Jahamet.” The man said in a flat tone that gave no indication of his mood. But Jay still stiffened as his name was spoken. “Yes, I do name you, Jahamet, Lord of balance, Watcher of the Scales, Bearer of Truths, The Fey-Blooded, The Long Hunted, Watcher, Seeker, Friend of Time and Child of Myth.”

  As the man spoke, Jay’s posture shifted from his usual off balance stance to an even footed form as he crossed his arms over his chest and squared off against the man across from him. After hearing the string of names and titles, he spoke a single word in return. “Odin.”