Petoskey Highschool
Petoskey, Michigan
Friday, April 13th, 2018 – 3:30 p.m.

“Well, damn,” I muttered as I looked out the front doors of the school and at the pouring rain beyond. It was coming down in buckets, which was going to make walking home no fun at all. I hadn’t brought an umbrella, or even a jacket today since the forecast had called for clear skies all day long and it had been nice and warm when I had left for school.

The storm had come out of nowhere; it had been a beautiful day until lunch with no clouds in the sky and no rain in the forecast. That had apparently changed since it was raining cats and dogs outside. “C’mon, Feebs, I’ll drive you home and then head to work after dropping you off,” my brother’s voice offered from behind me as I dourly watched the rain. “I told you that you should have brought a jacket today.”

“Don’t call me that, I hate that name,” I grumbled in reply as I turned toward him.

“Hey, Runt, if I have to live with the name Robin Hood, then you can at least deal with being named Phoebe,” he teased as he placed a hand on top of my head. Unlike me, my brother was tall, six foot four, and one of the stars of the school basketball team. He was going to go to the local college and play for the Timberwolves after he graduated this year. I, on the other hand, hadn’t even reached five feet yet, but I was only fourteen so I was hoping that I still had some growing to do.

“I’m hoping that maybe I can get a nickname to stick,” I muttered in reply.

“Good luck with that,” Robin shot back before taking off the red hoodie that he was wearing and passing it over to me before picking his backpack back up. “Put this on, you’re gonna get soaked and catch a cold like that.” He wore hoodies all the time; he had them in a variety of colors and figured that with our last name, it was appropriate. Who could we laugh at if not ourselves?

I knew that he wouldn’t take no for an answer and I was secretly glad that I might be able to avoid getting too wet. I put down my backpack for a moment to pull the blood-red hoodie on, zip it up, and pull on the hood. It was like a dress on me, comically oversized, and it took a minute to roll up the sleeves enough that my hands could poke through to pick up my backpack again.

My brother stifled a laugh and I pouted as I muttered, “Yeah, I know, I probably look like that seventh dwarf. What was his name? Dopey?”

“Nah, it’s cute on you. C’mon, Red, let’s go home,” he offered with another laugh as he ruffled my hair through the oversized hood. Then he led the way through the parking lot, trying to shield me from the worst of the wind and rain until we were safely inside his beat-up Camry.

We were quiet for several minutes as he put the car in gear, drove us out of the parking lot, and then along a route that would take us home. “You’re quiet. Rough day, Red?” he finally asked to break the silence.

“It was school, so yeah,” I replied with a shrug as I thought about what he had called me twice now. He’d given me a lot of nicknames as we grew up, and this wasn’t as bad as most of them. It was certainly better than ‘Runt’, or calling me by my birth name.

“… Shit!” The curse cut off whatever he had been about to say in reply as something darted across the street in front of us. I only saw it for an instant; it was large, bigger than an average man, stood hunched but upright, and its silhouette didn’t look human.

Robin jerked the wheel to the side and slammed his foot on the brakes, trying to avoid a collision. It worked, somewhat. We didn’t hit the creature and it vanished out of sight as the car hydroplaned on the wet pavement and into the path of an oncoming truck. The last thing I saw before blacking out was the grill of the truck smashing into the driver’s side window.

I awoke in the hospital. I was there for four days recovering from the worst of my injuries, including a severe concussion and a broken leg. During that time, doctors and police officers had asked me what I could remember about the accident, but none of them believed me about the creature that had caused it and ran off. I was told that head injuries could sometimes affect memory.

I got out of the hospital just in time for the funeral, though I was wearing a cast on my left leg and needed crutches to get around. It was a closed casket affair; I guess that what had been left of Robin wasn’t a pretty sight. Not surprising, given the number of bruises, abrasions, and other injuries that I was sporting, and I hadn’t even been on the side creamed by the truck.

It was raining again that day, and I stood there for a long time with the rain mixing with the tears streaming down my cheeks. Even after everyone else had left, I just stood there sobbing as I stared at the fresh-turned earth on my brother’s final resting place. He had been annoying, overprotective, and often a pain in the ass, but he had also been my only sibling and I had looked up to him.

Had he seen what I had seen? Had I even seen it, or was the memory just made fuzzy by the accident like the doctors said? It didn’t matter either way when I thought about it. Whether it was real or not wouldn’t change what had happened.

Eventually, I felt a large hand on my shoulder and my heart clenched when I turned to find my father there instead of Robin, holding the umbrella that I had dropped some time ago. “Come on, Phoebe, you’re soaking wet. Let’s go home; you don’t want to catch a cold.”

He walked behind me and held the umbrella as I hobbled along on my crutches. In truth, I didn’t care though, I felt too empty inside to care. If he had just driven straight to work instead of driving me home first then he would still be alive. This was my fault.

When we got home and Mom offered to make something for dinner, I told them that I wasn’t hungry. Instead, I went to my bedroom and fell upon the bed, anguish tearing its way from my chest in breathy sobs. Eventually, I fell asleep while clutching the tattered remains of my brother’s hoodie. As I drifted off, his final words to me played back in my mind. “Rough day, Red?”

North Central Michigan College - Cafeteria
Petoskey, Michigan
Monday, October 10th, 2022 - 5:45 p.m.

“Mom, I can’t,” I said quietly into my phone, followed by a long sigh. “I’ve got midterms to study for and papers due.” Yeah, I was complaining, but it really was crunch time and as a freshman, I was still getting used to how much harder college was than high school.

“Phoebe Angel Hood! Your grandmother is sick and shaken up after being attacked by a wild animal! You can take time out of your schedule to go visit her and make sure that she’s doing alright!” I winced at my mother using my full name. I hated that name, nobody except my parents called me Phoebe anymore.

Of course, they couldn’t visit Grandma, they had decided to move down to Florida after I graduated high school, since I was ready to leave the nest. I guess that I couldn’t blame them. It had been four and a half years since Robin died and I still saw things that were a painful reminder of his absence. I imagined that it was even worse for my parents. With the house that I grew up in being sold, I was faced with two choices, live with my grandmother in the woods along Lake Michigan and an hour's drive away from school or find a cheap apartment off campus. I had chosen the latter.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Grandma or anything like that, but I was a city girl. The last thing that I wanted was to be living out in the woods away from civilization, and the commute would have been murder and cut into my study time. I had driven straight out there last night when she had called me in a panic after being attacked by a wolf while harvesting the vegetables from her garden, but that had been an emergency and it was Sunday, so there were no classes to worry about.

She had been bitten on the leg and scratched up a bit, but had managed to fend the lone beast off with the shotgun she kept with her when outside the house. Her wounds, even the bite mark, hadn’t looked deep or too serious and she had promised that she would come into town today and get tested for rabies. The call from my mother was to ask me to check on her again since she wasn’t feeling well and hadn’t come into town after all.

“Geez, Mom. Fine, I’ll go check on her, but I’m going to have to skip my Psych lecture tonight,” I told her with a frown. Not that missing a three-hour lecture on psychology was a bad thing; it was usually a snooze-fest, but I would have to get someone to let me copy his or her notes so I could study for the midterm. “I’ll talk to you later, Mom.”

I disconnected the call and put the phone back in my purse before hurrying to finish my meal. As I was doing that, my best friend and roommate, Carrie, gave me a sympathetic look. “You need me to make copies of my notes for you, Red?”

“Yeah, thanks, Carrie. Mom wants me to make sure that Grandma is doing okay.” I managed to get out between bites of my grilled ham and swiss on rye. I quickly finished it, followed by the last of my fries, occasionally washing the hurried mouthfuls down with my bottled water.

Most people who knew me called me Red now, only my parents or my professors ever called me Phoebe. No, not because I’m a ginger, my hair is black. You see, I had this habit of wearing red hoodies, in honor of my brother. I wore them, and the last nickname that he had given me, as a badge of honor of sorts. I had like a dozen in my closet, all of them the color of blood. It works well with the whole Goth/Punk thing I’ve got going on style-wise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all depressing or anything, I just like the style.

I still had the one from the day my brother died too, and it was still way too big on me. I may have grown out, but I hadn’t really grown up in all those years since his death. I was petite, barely five feet tall; though I guess, I had a nice curvy figure. As I said, I grew out, not up.

Once I finished my meal, I excused myself for a moment to go buy a coffee travel mug with the Timberwolves logo on it, which I filled with some hot chicken soup from the soup line. Then snatched a few pastries as well before paying and returning to the table that I had been sharing with my roommate and said my farewells to Carrie. “See you when I get home tonight, Care Bear, not sure how long that will be though if Granny is sick. I might have to stay the night out there.”

“Do what you gotta do, Red. I’ll copy my notes for tonight’s class for you,” she replied, hugging me.

“Thanks, Care Bear,” I replied, returning the hug before putting on my hoodie and putting my purse and the pastries in my backpack before shouldering it. Once both were on comfortably I grabbed the travel mug of soup and left the cafeteria to go find my car and make my way west out of town and toward my grandmother’s house on the lakeshore.

I turned off Highway 31 North onto the access road that would lead me to my grandmother’s home, glad that the sun hadn’t set yet. Maybe I would make it to Grandma’s house before night fell. I hated driving that road at night; there were too many little turns and no lighting, and it was downright creepy in the woods at night. The road wasn’t the best either and could give a bumpy ride in a small car like my little red Fiat.

I drove as fast as I dared and managed to make it to the rustic home on the shore of Lake Michigan as the setting sun painted the sky in bright golds, oranges, and reds. It was a nice view with the sunset reflected on the surface of the great lake, and I paused a moment to appreciate it as the sun sank below the horizon. It was when I was retrieving my backpack and the mug of soup from the car that I heard the howl of a wolf.

A shiver crawled its way up my spine and then back down again and both my breath and heart quickened inside my chest. I hurried to shut the car door and rush into grandma’s house, fumbling a bit with my keys as I rushed to get inside. “Granny?! It’s Red! I came to check up on you and brought you some soup!” I called once I was safely inside and my breathing had calmed enough to allow it.

She wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen, as a quick search of the ground floor revealed so after taking off my combat boots, I dropped my backpack on the couch and made my way upstairs to the bedrooms with the mug of soup. “Granny?! I hope everything is okay!”

Her reply was coughing which I could hear from outside her bedroom. I opened the door with my unburdened hand and stepped inside, where Grandma was on the bed looking very pale, sweating profusely, and visibly trembling. “Granny?” I asked in concern as I approached her bed.

The mug fell from my hand as she snarled at me, her eyes wild. She was trembling and seemed to start growing before my eyes, sprouting hairs that quickly became a full coverage of fur as her nose and mouth stretched into a muzzle filled with sharp teeth, her ears changed and migrated to the top of her head, and her trembling hands grew wicked claws. What the hell? This was… this was impossible.

She was laying in the bed and partially tangled in her blankets so her attempts to get up were hampered by her struggles against the blankets entrapping her. I backed away step by step, my eyes locked on her in terrified fascination as I babbled nervously, “M-my Granny, w-what b-big teeth you have… W-what big ears you have… W-what h-hair you have… haven’t you heard of waxing? I… umm… brought some soup and p-pastries if you’re hungry. ”

She was hungry, but not for soup and pastries. A blood-curdling howl turned into a snarl as she tore free of the blankets and lunged at me. I had managed to back into the hallway by this time and quickly slammed the door and took off running down the stairs as she hit it with a bump. I barely made it to the bottom of the steps when the beast that had been my grandmother smashed through the door with a crash, reducing it to splinters.

I tore into the kitchen, searching for a weapon to defend myself. Silver, that’s what the folktales said to use. I opened the drawer with the good silverware that Grandma kept for special occasions. I figured that fending off what seemed to be a werewolf counted. I had barely gotten one of the silver steak knives in hand and dropped to hide behind the breakfast island as the wolfish creature that had been my grandmother burst into the kitchen.

I knelt there trembling in fear on the floor, my heart beating wildly in my throat as I heard the snuffling sound of the creature sniffing the air. It got closer, practically above me, and I had to clamp my mouth closed to keep from screaming. It moved again, to my left, sniffing its way around the island and I moved to the other side, clutching the knife tightly with a white-knuckled hand. I tried to keep the island and some distance between us and had to get to my feet and dart around again in a rush as it skidded past me and slammed into the fridge.

There was nothing of my grandmother in the eyes of the creature that got to its feet and growled at me across the breakfast island. “G-granny, I know you’re in there. You d-don’t want to do this,” I pleaded.

Her reply was to lunge at me once again, clearing the island in a leap as I tried to back away and she slammed into me, knocking me to the floor. Red-hot pain lanced through my arm as her jaws latched onto the wrist that I had been trying to shield myself with. We both screamed in pain, hers more primal and angry than my own and I felt a warm wetness running down my punctured arm and dripping upon my stomach from where the knife I had been clutching in my other hand was now buried deep in the werewolf’s chest.

The jaws gripping my wrist released it as she howled out her agony. That howl became a wheezing cough as her breathing devolved into a labored pitiful whimpering. Then the beast that had once been my grandmother shuddered once and then went still as it collapsed atop me.

I wasn’t sure how long I lay there, pinned beneath the beast’s corpse while shivering, shaking, sobbing, and too terrified to move. It was long enough for the shock to wear off enough that I passed out, or perhaps it was the exhaustion from the ordeal and the emotional upheaval that followed that allowed that mixed blessing. I had horrible nightmares as I slept, reliving the encounter in my mind until the knife was buried in my grandmother and she was staring at me with empty eyes and asking, “Why?”

I awoke screaming, and it was some time before I managed to calm myself enough to stop the tears and the trembling as my mind had trouble leaving the nightmare behind and adjusting to cold hard reality. In my head, I knew that it hadn’t happened that way, it hadn’t been my grandmother that I had stabbed, but that was little comfort when I opened my eyes to find her staring down at me in death. That was when I realized that, unfortunately, the reality was not much different than my nightmares.

While I had been unconscious, the body that lay atop me had reverted from the beast and back into the grandmother that I knew and loved. When I saw her dead eyes looking down at me I freaked out, managing to heave the body off me with panic-fueled strength as I screamed. Pain shot up my arm as I scrambled to my feet and away from the body, only to slip on the pool of blood and be sent sprawling once more to the floor.

I fled to the corner of the kitchen, clutching at my arm and my breath came in short, strangled sob-gasps as I curled up in a ball and tried to deny what was happening. That proved fruitless though since my arm ached from the bite and proved to be a constant reminder of what had happened. A look at the bite mark showed that, even though it hurt, it wasn’t near as bad as I was fearing. The skin was a little red and inflamed around the area of the bite, but it didn’t look nearly as deep as I had first thought it was and it wasn’t bleeding any more.

“W-what do I do?” I wondered as I rocked back and forth while in as close to the fetal position as I could manage while sitting. I couldn’t call the police; Granny was dead, and nobody was going to believe what had happened. Just like when I had told them about the creature that had run in front of Robin’s car on the day he died.

Maybe they would believe me? Granny’s bedroom door had been blown apart, and from the inside too. Surely, they would be able to see that, right? Except that I had no werewolf body to prove my story, only my dead grandmother, and nobody was going to believe that a little old lady had burst through the door like that and nearly killed me, forcing me to defend myself.

I wasn’t even sure that I believed what had happened. Maybe I was going crazy. Maybe I had just imagined all of this and murdered my grandmother? No, I had the bite mark. I knew what happened, even if nobody else would ever believe it. “I… I’m going to end up in prison or a padded room,” I muttered to myself as I sniffled and wiped away tears with my uninjured arm. “Probably the padded room because talking to oneself is a sure sign of sanity, not,” I added bitterly after a moment.

I took several deep breaths and got to my feet. I needed to be calm and think this through clearly. The first thing that I needed to do was to get rid of the body and make sure that there was no evidence to connect me to the killing. That was what they did in the movies, right?

I took a look outside that showed the full moon still outside, and it was a little bit past midnight if I went by the clock on the wall. Thankfully, I hadn’t sprouted fur or anything yet, so I was hoping that it meant that I wasn’t going to turn like Granny did. That didn’t mean that I was safe though, someone was going to try to check on Granny eventually and I wasn’t sure if I could try to act like everything was normal and go to classes as if nothing happened.

I wasn’t some cold-blooded killer, and she was my grandmother. I couldn’t just shake this off and pretend to be a normal, functioning member of society after what had happened. If I moved quickly enough, then maybe I could have everything cleaned up and be out of the state by tomorrow night.

I didn’t like the idea of leaving like this, and there was a part of me that wanted to call Carrie and ask for her advice, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t get Carrie involved in this. She would probably help me, she was that kind of friend, but if I asked, I would just be taking her down with me. She could be seen as an accomplice, maybe even an accessory to the murder. I couldn’t ruin her life too. Taking a deep breath, I shut off my phone so I wouldn’t be tempted to answer it, and then I got to work.

Despite my misgivings, I decided to bury Granny as she was. Her clothes had been torn to shreds from her change, but I felt that maybe if someone did find the body it would just lend credence to my story in case I was ever caught. I did remove the knife though and cleaned and polished it before putting it away with the others.

I was careful to wear rubber gloves as I worked so I wouldn’t leave any fingerprints behind. Sure, there would be some fingerprints around the house, but that wouldn’t be out of place since I was a regular guest there. I felt that it would be far more suspicious if I tried to remove all signs of my existence from the entire house.

I tried to give Granny a proper burial, or the best I could do. Dragging her body out into the woods was hard since at five feet even, and not being one to work out regularly, I was hardly someone who could lug bodies around easily. The grave was shallow, maybe three feet deep, mostly because I was worried that if I dug any deeper, I would have trouble climbing out. As it was, I was sore and exhausted from all of the effort.

It was after dawn by the time that my grisly task was complete, and I returned to the house to start on the next one. I nearly threw up while trying to clean up all of the blood in the kitchen, but it had to be done. Granny kept her house clean, and I wasn’t going to leave it a mess even if I wasn’t trying to remove all traces of my presence during her death.

Once the blood was sopped up as best as I could, I took the rags to the fire pit outside. While I was there, I stripped off my blood-soaked clothes and left them there with the rags and returned to the house quickly. It was far too cold to be running around naked outside.

Then I returned inside to finish cleaning the kitchen. It was the only place in the house that really looked like something from a horror movie, and it took most of the morning to get everything cleaned properly. There was some stuff knocked over in the living room, and I tried to set everything there right and clean a bit as well, but I decided to leave the exploded bedroom door as is. Either it would confuse the case, or it would help people believe that I was telling the truth if I got caught.

I dashed outside to empty my backpack of all my school stuff, adding it all to the stuff to be burned, and then went to the bedroom that I usually stayed in to fill the backpack with what spare clothes I had stashed for overnights at Granny’s house. There wasn’t much; a spare red hoodie, a pair of black jeans and a couple of pairs of black leggings, three black t-shirts, a couple of plaid skirts, and a few changes of socks and underwear. In the closet hung my black leather biker jacket, with gloves stuffed in the pockets.

Most of it went into the backpack, though I kept the jacket, jeans, one of the t-shirts, a pair of socks, and a set of underthings on the bed to change into later. I also made sure to grab Granny’s stash of mad money, everything in her wallet, and all of the jewelry that I could possibly pawn off. I was going to need money if I was going to be on the run.

It wasn’t until I was in the shower and scrubbing myself clean of dried blood that everything hit me. The blood-tainted water sloughing off me made it all real again and I lost any sense of detachment that I had been able to muster so far. The tears burst from me as if a dam was broken and my chest burned with pain and loss as I sobbed and collapsed to the floor. I sat there weeping and curled up in a ball as the water washed over me until long after it had gone cold.

Once I was finally cried out, I finished cleaning up and I was numb from the cold water by the time I was finished. I took care to dry off properly since I was already chilled, and the house was cold. Then I returned to my room and got dressed in the clothes that I had left out earlier. As much as I wanted to wear my red hoodie for comfort, it stayed in my backpack. I was too recognizable in the area with it on. My purse went in the backpack as well, filled with Granny’s mad money and a large plastic baggie filled with jewelry.

Putting on the leather biker jacket and insulated biker gloves that were in the pockets, I headed back downstairs with the loaded backpack in hand and went outside to the fire pit after putting on my combat boots. Thankfully, the jacket had a removable warm fleece inner layer that would keep me warm until I got the fire started since the evening was cool. Still, I started a fire as quickly as I could and once it was going, I carefully added my school stuff, the bloody clothes, and the rags and rubber gloves that I had used for cleaning. After the towels that I had dried myself with after my shower were dry enough, I added them as well.

I sat there watching the fire burn away my old life until everything was ash. I wanted to cry, but I had shed all my tears earlier, and this was something that I needed to do. I didn’t even know what I was going to do now except run. I mean, I didn’t have far to look for Granny’s murderer, any mirror would do. I didn’t really have a purpose in mind except to live from one day to the next. I wasn’t exactly doing this by choice, but only because I knew I would be locked up if I tried to tell anyone what had really happened last night.

I needed a plan. I could take the I-75 up to Sault St. Marie and get into Canada before people were even looking for me, but that would be obvious, and extradition is a thing. If I tried to go either west or east, I would need to cross a great lake to get out of the state. That only left me with going south, but where?

Well, there was one place that I could think of going, at least until I could figure out something better. I didn’t really want to go there though, not that I was alone in that. Nobody wants to go to Detroit; hell, half of the city was abandoned because the people who lived in Detroit didn’t want to be there. Which made it perfect, there would be plenty of abandoned places to hide and it was the last place that anybody would look for me to run to.

With that decided and the fire down to embers, I threw some dirt on the last remnants of the fire and put my backpack on. I couldn’t take my car; it was too recognizable, and it could probably be low-jacked and tracked somehow. The same went for my phone, so I dropped it and my keys in my car before going to Granny’s garage.

Inside was her old pickup truck, but I wasn’t going to take that very far since Mom and Dad would be able to give a description of it. With that in mind, I struggled to get the bike in the back. Grandpa Wolfe had been a biker in his younger days, and he had kept his old 1974 Ducati 750 Sport in pristine condition until he died two years ago. Mom and Dad wouldn’t be able to tell the police about it because they didn’t know that it was still there.

Granny had told them that she had sold it, but what she didn’t tell them was that she had sold it to me. Mom and Dad would have freaked out at the idea of me riding a motorcycle, but Granny had been cool about it. Carrie didn’t know about the bike either, or that I would come to tinker with it once in a while to make sure it stayed in good shape. I loved Care Bear like a sister, but she was a girly girl and would have freaked out at the thought of me getting all greasy while working on it during the occasional weekend when I came to visit Granny and spend some time with her.

Even if Mom or Dad did think about the bike, it didn’t look like it used to. On one of the weekends when I came over to spend some time with Granny and tinker with it, I had replaced the old faded yellow paint job with a nice dark red that suited me a little better. It also nearly matched the metallic red motorcycle helmet that rested on one of the handlebars.

Once I managed to get the bike into the back of the pickup without damaging anything, and put the helmet in the cab of the truck, I drove off, leaving my car behind. Hopefully, the cops would think I was fleeing in the truck because my car could be tracked or using it to get into town, which I did. It was after eleven o’clock when I drove into Petoskey and the streets were quiet and mostly abandoned.

I drove to a bank and was careful to park a few blocks away so my bike wouldn’t be seen in the back of the truck on the security cameras. Then I quickly shed my biker gear and put on my red hoodie and a pair of dark sunglasses before dashing over to the bank machine to withdraw almost all of the money from my account. I had just under a thousand in the bank, enough to last me a month until my parents deposited more at the end of the month to cover the next month’s rent and expenses.

Not that I could risk touching my account again, even if my parents didn’t start freaking about grandma and I both being missing or dead. This would have to last me for a while, though I did feel horrible about my brief thoughts of Carrie being stuck for next month’s rent and having to find a new roomie. I told myself that I was protecting her as I made my way to an empty parking lot near the bus station. Everything was quiet there as I parked the truck in a dark corner of the lot and carefully removed the Ducati from the back.

I left the bike parked there for now and made my way to the local All-Mart. While there, I got a decent-sized duffel bag, a couple more changes of clothes and underwear, some makeup, a couple of new hoodies, some sunglasses with red lenses, and a blonde wig from the Halloween section. Rather than pure red for the hoodies, as I would normally get, I went with blood-red ones that had black sleeves and a black inner lining.

After my quick shopping trip, I stopped at the McConnell’s drive-through and got a value meal before making my way to the bus depot, where I quickly ate and then changed into one of my new hoodies and my biker gear. Everything else that I was taking went into the duffel bag, which I slung securely over my shoulder. Then I left the keys in the truck, and the doors unlocked, as I ran toward the empty lot where I had parked the Ducati.

Either the cops would find the truck and assume that I had taken a bus out of town, or someone would steal it and lead them on a merry chase. That was the plan anyway, for all I knew everything could go tits up before I even got out of town, and I wasn’t about to tempt Murphy. It was hard not looking back as I drove through the streets of my hometown for the last time and then south down the I-75 bound for Detroit.

Red and Carrie’s Apartment
Petoskey, Michigan
Tuesday, October 11th, 2022 - 11:52 p.m.

Carrie looked at her phone for what seemed like the millionth time. Red hadn’t replied to any of her texts or answered her calls yet and she was getting worried. They were best friends and had been since high school, and it wasn’t like Red to ignore her. She worried too much about worrying other people, which was why she had folded last night and gone to check on her grandmother for her parents.

She hadn’t heard from her best friend since she had left the cafeteria the evening before, and she was starting to freak out now. She had called Red’s phone too many times to count and had even tried calling the hospital, but Red hadn’t been admitted there and had neither shown up nor contacted her in any way. Now Carrie was working herself up to what might be the hardest phone call she had ever made. The number was right there on her screen, but she hesitated to tap it to start the call. Finally, she took a deep breath to steel herself and did the deed.

“Good evening, Petoskey Police Department, how may I direct your call?” a voice inquired after a moment of ringing that set Carrie’s nerves on edge even further.

She was startled enough that she nearly dropped her phone, and she had to take a moment and another deep breath before responding with, “Umm… hello. I’d like to report a missing person…”

It took me roughly forty minutes to get to Vanderbilt, where I was able to get on the I-75 and start heading southward. I stopped at the Vanderbilt rest area just off the interstate before setting in for a long drive though. It was almost one in the morning by that point and the rest stop was mostly empty except for a few trucks, but I was reasonably certain that their drivers were asleep.

With that in mind, I headed for the ladies’ room and found it empty, much to my relief. Only once I was safely ensconced within did I take off my helmet and began to go through the stuff in my new duffel bag. I tried to leave the clothes in place since my clothes would be fine for now and took out my purse so that I could add all of the makeup in there once I was finished with it.

All that I had in my purse now was cash and the jewelry that I had taken from Grandma’s house, my bank card and anything else with my name on it had been disposed of before I left Petoskey. I did have the vehicle registration and bill of sale for the Ducati, but that was because I didn’t dare leave them behind to give any clues as to what I might be driving. I was also hoping that I might be able to get a fake ID at some point and ‘sell’ the bike to my new self.

Before adding the makeup to the purse though, I started on my disguise. I went a little heavier than I normally would, trying to make myself look a bit older and subtly change my features, and stayed away from my usual Goth/punk look for now. With my look changed enough to fool anyone looking for me, I used some bobby pins to pin up my hair and then secure the blonde wig that I had bought in place.

When I was done, I looked different enough that I thought I could probably get away with facing security cameras if I needed to pay for gas or anything. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best that I could do under the circumstances. So, I quickly used the facilities while I had them available and once I was finished washing my hands afterward, I quickly put my helmet back on, shouldered my bag, and headed back outside to climb back on my bike and continue my trek southward.

On the outskirts of Saginaw, I had to stop to get gas and I was glad that I had prepared my disguise beforehand since I had to go inside and pay cash for it. Using credit cards would only give me away to anyone who might be looking for me, which was why I had left anything like that behind. In addition, going in with my helmet on would have been suspicious, so I was glad for my caution, and my disguise, when I spotted the security camera in the corner behind the counter.

Fortunately, the clerk was half-asleep and half-bored, so he didn’t really pay much attention to me beyond what was required to take my money for the gas and a bottle of chilled water from the cooler and give me my change. I would have gotten a coffee if I could have managed a way to safely carry it on my bike, but that wasn’t going to happen. Besides, what I really needed was rest since I hadn’t gotten any proper sleep the night before and had spent most of the night hiding a body, followed by most of the day cleaning up evidence and getting ready to run.

It was exhausting work that I really recommend others should try to avoid if possible, and now I found myself fighting to stay awake. I had been hoping to get to Detroit before sunrise when I had hit the road, but now I was thinking that I might have to stop somewhere to rest and continue on my way in the morning. I had barely reached the halfway point in my journey when I decided that I wasn’t going to make it to the next rest stop and needed to find a place to crash for a few hours.

I pulled into the far right lane and then turned onto the first access road that I came upon. It looked like a residential road with farms on either side of the road, so I was hoping to find a secluded spot in a barn or a field to sleep in for a while. The first turn-off that I came upon had one of those old-fashioned mailboxes at the end of the drive that proudly displayed the name ‘Bayer’.

I turned off the engine of the Ducati and got off to walk it up the driveway until I found some thick brush that would conceal it fairly well. With the bike hidden carefully away, I quietly crept the rest of the way toward the house where, surprisingly, the lights inside were still on at such a late hour. I could see the outline of a large barn though and headed toward it in hopes that I could find a pile of hay or something to sleep on.

Between my tiredness and the darkness, I tripped over something and ended up bumping into a truck parked in between the house and the barn. Unfortunately, for me, that truck had one of those annoying car alarms, and bumping against it set off a shrill electronic wailing sound even as I looked for whatever had tripped me up. Unthinkingly I snatched up the thing that had tripped me up as the front door of the house flew open and the light from a flashlight scanned the area before falling upon me.

“Bob! That blonde bitch is still out there! Get your gun!” a woman’s voice yelled as the alarm on the truck was deactivated. Wait, what blonde bitch? I just got here.

I didn’t take the time to think about it as I ran for the cover of a large hay bale and dove behind it as a gunshot rang out and a male voice called out, “Get lost afore I fill ya with lead, Bitch! And don’t come back!”

It was only as I sat there cowering in the dark that I noticed I was still holding the large, broken, and splintered piece of wood that I had tripped on. Straining my eyes against the dark, I saw that it was one of those signs that had said ‘Welcome to Our Home’ when it had been whole and unbroken. “Wow, they really don’t like guests here,” I muttered, now completely awake again from the adrenaline.

“Yeah, that might be my fault,” a feminine voice offered from beside me, causing me to have to cover a shriek that had slipped out with my hands. There was a girl around my age right beside me and I hadn’t even noticed her until now because she was so quiet. I couldn’t even hear her breathing. “Sorry,” she quickly apologized.

“Shit! Fuck! I need to get out of here before they call the cops,” I gasped out, my breathing coming in heavy strangled gasps as I started to panic.

“Nah, they won’t do that. They haven’t yet anyway, they’ll just try to shoot us if they see us,” the girl replied far too casually for my liking. “Papa Bayer over there takes his right to bear arms very seriously and it would take too long for the cops to get out here from the closest town. We can probably sneak out of here once they’ve all calmed down a bit and go to sleep.”

I turned to look at the seemingly unflappable girl beside me. She was pretty and around my age with somewhat messy long blonde hair and very pale skin. It was hard to tell while sitting beside her in the dark, but she seemed to have a nice figure, looked to be of average height, and she had this whole Morticia Addams vibe to her that I found kind of hot.

Her clothes could have been partially responsible for that vibe. She wasn’t wearing a jacket and her clothes didn’t really flatter her, but despite the cold evening and her unsuitable clothes, she wasn’t shivering and didn’t even look uncomfortable. The dress, nylons, and shoes that she wore were dark and looked like something that a woman in her forties or fifties would wear to church, not a girl who was my age.

For a few minutes, we both just sat there in silence as I tried to get my labored breathing under control, and we looked one another over. Then the girl gave a wan smile before reluctantly extending her hand, “I’m Goldie Locke. We should probably get comfortable. It’ll likely be a while before they go back to sleep, and we can sneak away.”

I reached out my gloved hand to give hers a brief shake and replied without thinking, “I’m Red. Red Hood.” Thinking about it, it wasn’t like she was going to turn me in to the cops since she seemed to have her own troubles. Something about her sent chills down my spine, but I tried to start a conversation since it seemed that we might be stuck there for a while. “Soooo, what happened to turn them off visitors this much?”

Goldie watched me for a moment with considering look before finally sighing and shaking her head sadly. “You… wouldn’t believe me. Nobody would. I mean, this is some weird shit and sometimes I’m not sure if I believe it, and I’m living it…” she paused before shaking her head despondently once again and adding, “Well, I guess ‘living’ is a bit of a misnomer for me these days.”

Something in the haunted look in her eyes, the doubt that anybody would believe her, made me think that Goldie might be a kindred spirit of sorts, somebody who had seen and done things that had sent her life into chaos, just like me. “Try me,” I finally said grimly, hoping that I was right about her. I tried to keep my voice steady and keep from crying as I whispered, “My grandmother turned into a Werewolf last night and tried to kill me. I think that I can be open-minded.”

Goldie’s eyes widened for a moment before muttering, “Well, that explains the smell.” Still, she seemed reluctant, and it was a moment before she nodded and spoke hesitantly. “I… I think I’m a Vampire. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.” Then she visibly attempted to steel herself before telling me her story.

I grew up in Aurora, Illinois, and all of this started about six months ago after a freak sewing accident. I swear, I’m never getting close to a needle and thread, knitting needles, or a sewing machine again. Anyway, I guess that I must have fainted from the trauma and my girlfriend must have called 911 because I woke up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital with a guy in a paramedic uniform standing over me.

Anyway, Junior woke up while I was enjoying my snack and I’m pretty sure that he’s gay because he started screaming like a banshee and woke up Mama and Papa Bayer. Long story short, they weren’t happy, and Papa Bayer tried to beat me to death with that welcome sign that you tripped over before I managed to run off while he searched for his gun. It’s a good thing that I’m already dead and have Vampire powers.

“So, I’ve been hiding here and waiting for them to go back to sleep so I can get out of here and find a place to sleep for the day out of the sunlight,” Goldie finished with a shrug.

“Freak sewing accident?” I asked the blonde hiding with me in a mix of confusion and astonishment.

“Wait, I just told you that whole story and the only thing you got out of it was that?”

“No? I mean, I followed the whole thing and after being attacked by a Werewolf, Vampires don’t seem like much of a stretch,” I admitted. “I guess I can believe you, but what kind of freak sewing accident sends a person to the hospital? And impaled by a knitting needle?” I was genuinely curious.

The Vampire beside me closed her eyes and visibly shuddered before mumbling, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I let it go for the moment. After all, we all have things that we would rather not talk about. Instead, I risked a glance toward the farmhouse before turning back to Goldie. “Look, I’m on the run too, and my motorcycle is hidden in some brush further down the driveway. I don’t think that I’m going to be sleeping anytime soon after being shot at, so if you don’t mind riding tandem, we might be able to make it to Detroit before the sun comes up. If we… umm… stick together for a while, are you going to try to feed on me?”

“No!” she hissed, “I mean, not unless you ask me to or allow it. I’ve got control of it now and I only need to feed once a day or so. And, no offense, but your blood smells kind of unappetizing. Maybe it’s a Werewolf thing?”

“I’m not a Werewolf, my grandmother might have turned, but I haven’t and I’m not craving raw meat or howling at the moon or anything,” I insisted defensively.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that, Red. Tonight isn’t a full moon though, and your scent is… different,” she said grimly.

“I… uhh…” I couldn’t speak, the words froze in my throat as I realized that she was right about the moon not being full. My heart hammered in my chest, and I started to shake as visions of turning into something like what Granny had become seemed to push away all other thoughts.

A painfully tight grip on my shoulder jarred me from those thoughts and I saw the blonde looking at me with a concerned and apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, but I figured that it was best if you’re prepared for the worst, even if I’m wrong and you haven’t turned. Anyway, yeah, I can guarantee that I won’t try to suck your blood unless you allow it… or maybe if you find that you’re into that kinda thing,” Goldie said the last bit with a playful wink, and in a much lighter tone than the dire warning from a moment earlier that had had my heart clenching in terror.

Now my heart was doing other things though. How had she just gone from terrifying me that I really might turn into something like my grandmother had, to flirting with me? She was flirting with me, right? More importantly, why did I find myself interested? I mean, I had always been attracted to girls, but a Vampire?

I tried to push such thoughts out of my mind and peeked around the hay bale that was our cover once again. The light on the main floor was out so I was hoping that it would be safe for us to move. “Let’s go. Quick and quiet until we’re on my bike and can hit the road,” I whispered to my new blonde companion.

She nodded, not saying a word as we both carefully got to our feet. With one last quick look around the corner of the hay bale toward the house, I nodded back to let her know that it seemed to be clear. Then we both made for the driveway and rushed toward my bike as fast as we could. Five minutes later, we were on the access road and heading back toward the interstate with Goldie’s arms wrapped firmly around my waist and butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

It was difficult to concentrate on driving with Goldie holding me tightly as we made our way down the interstate. I tried not to read too much into it and just focus on getting us to our destination. After all, there wasn’t a large pillion space back there, so she had to hang on tight and stay close if she didn’t want to fall off, right?

I offered her one of my hoodies when we took a break at a rest stop so I could use the facilities, but apparently, Vampires don’t get cold. They don’t need to go to the bathroom or eat or drink anything either, except blood. Blood was all she needed and drinking it would regenerate any injuries that she managed to get and keep her healthy. Well, as healthy as someone who is undead can get. During our brief stop, she tried to explain the whole undead thing to me too, at least as much as she had managed to figure out on her own.

While the sun wouldn’t cause her to burst into flames or turn her to ash, she was very sensitive to sunlight and would get terrible sunburns if she was left uncovered or unprotected in the sunlight. She could cross running water just fine and didn’t need to rest in a coffin or anything, and churches and religious symbols only annoyed her because she had hated organized religion long before being turned. The only thing that garlic did was make blood a little less tasty if someone she was feeding on had eaten too much. Most of the information I had about Vampires was fiction, like the sources it came from.

There were a few things that did seem accurate though. Silver did burn her, and fire hurt, but she had found that those injuries could be healed by drinking blood. She was pretty sure that a wooden stake to the heart and cutting off her head would both probably kill her, but only because something like that would kill anybody.

Goldie couldn’t turn into a bat or mist or anything like that. She couldn’t seem to mesmerize people either, or she just hadn’t figured out how yet, since she would have used it against the Bayers and previous meals, had she been able to. She was extremely strong and fast though and possessed very acute senses, especially her night vision. And her acute sense of smell said that I didn’t smell like normal people.

She hadn’t really encountered any werewolves before, so she couldn’t be absolutely sure that I had been turned, but after I had mentioned being attacked by a werewolf, she thought that I should be realistic about the possibility. No, I needed to concentrate on the road. If I started thinking about that in-depth, about turning into a monster and attacking people as Granny did, then I would never be able to function properly.

I knew that we were going to have to talk about this at some point, and it would probably be a good idea to take some precautions before the next full moon, but I didn’t want to face that possibility yet. As luck would have it, we had plenty of other things to worry about, like finding a place to sleep before daylight. There were other things too, like finding a radio or something to check the news. I didn’t want to be caught unawares if people were searching for me.

I continued along the I-75, passing through Pontiac and several other small cities and towns that were part of the Detroit metropolitan area. Between the events at the Bayer home and rest breaks, it took longer than I would have liked to get to the Detroit outskirts. It was just after seven in the morning and getting far too close to dawn. We needed to stop somewhere; I didn’t want to risk Goldie being out once the sun rose and I could barely keep my eyes open.

After stopping to top up the gas outside of Detroit, checking to make sure that my disguise was still looking okay, and discovering the time to be 7:15, I managed to find a seedy-looking motel to stay in until we could find something more permanent. The motel had seen better days, but there were no cameras that I could see and the manager took cash, didn’t ask questions, and didn’t ask to see any ID. The place was also cheap, but we got what I paid for with only a twin bed and none of the little extras that a more reputable establishment would have had.

At least the bed sheets and stuff were clean, and the TV might be old with only local channels, but it did work. Another bonus was that since our check-in time was so late, we couldn’t have to check out until eleven o’clock the next morning, and I planned to use that time once we had gotten a bit of sleep. I figured that Goldie and I could get some sleep and then I could go buy some necessities and start doing some research for places where we might be able to hide out for a while. Thankfully, sharing a bed with Goldie wasn’t awkward since we were both so tired that we fell asleep as soon as we were under the covers and our heads hit the pillows.

I was in the woods outside Granny’s cabin. A thick low-lying mist rolled in from the lake, tendrils of moisture seemed to cling to my legs and conspired with the full moon above, and the sound of wolves howling in the distance, causing a shiver to crawl its way down my spine like frozen hands. My eyes darted around, and my heart raced as I made my way as quickly as I could to the porch, my hands fumbling as I hurriedly attempted to get the key in hand and unlock the front door. Only once I was safely inside, did I breathe a sigh of relief, locking the door behind me as I called out, “Granny?! It’s me, Red! I came to check up on you and brought you some soup!”

Once again, she lunged, leaping over the kitchen island as I frantically scrambled backward. She slammed into me, her weight and speed knocking me to the floor as her jaws latched onto the wrist that I had raised in a futile attempt to defend myself. Agony shot through my arm as her jaws clamped down. We both screamed in pain, but hers was laced with a primal fury as I felt hot blood running down my punctured arm and dripping upon me from where the knife I had been clutching in my free hand was now buried to the hilt in the werewolf’s chest.

Black Sheep Motel
Detroit, Michigan
Wednesday, October 12th, 2022 - 1:37 p.m.

The nightmare sent me screaming back to consciousness and I sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air and shaking as tears ran down my cheeks. A pair of arms wrapped around me, and I was jolted back to my senses as Goldie held me close, quietly whispering that I was safe and that everything would be okay. Eventually, I managed to shake off the nightmare and calm down enough that she probably could have released me.

I appreciated her attempt to comfort me, but the sensation of her holding me was a strange combination of comforting, erotic, and disturbing. It was comforting that someone who was essentially a stranger still, would attempt to calm and comfort me as she had, and because I found myself liking her. That feeling, my attraction to her, and the fact that we were both naked, except for our panties, was quickly turning me on now that I had shaken the nightmare though, especially with her generous breasts and hard nipples pressing into my back as she held me against her.

Her body was ice cold though and the absence of any rise and fall of her chest from her lack of breathing made me shiver, and not just from her body temperature. Still, I found that my breathing was still quickening, and my nipples were hardening from her touch. I swallowed the urge to turn around and kiss her, possibly more.

Not that I could have escaped from her embrace until she allowed it, because she was supernaturally strong. The fact that she was restraining herself just enough to keep me secure in her arms while I calmed down, while not hurting me in the process, said a lot about the Vampire’s character. The fact that she cared that much about somebody she had just met made me even more interested and attracted, and my body was beginning to respond.

I had known about my attraction to girls since I was fourteen, but I had never had the opportunity to pursue anything. There were a couple of girls that I was physically attracted to, but we would have never meshed well on a personal level. The only girl I had known closely enough to consider us compatible had been Carrie, but she was my best friend, my roommate, and straight as an arrow. Therefore, I kept things platonic with her since I didn’t want to mess up our friendship.

I squirmed in Goldie’s arms a bit, my breathing ragged, my panties damp, and my nightmare all but forgotten. “I… I’m okay now, you can let go,” I managed to squeak out.

“Do I have to? This is nice,” the Vampire whispered into my ear teasingly. It was the only sound in the room aside from my staggered breathing. The darkness from the thick curtains being firmly closed only seemed to add to the eroticism of the moment. Heat rushed through me as her tongue playfully flicked my ear. “You’re enjoying this too, I can tell. I almost thought that you were still freaking out from the dream with your rapid heartbeat, but all of my senses are heightened, especially my sense of smell.”

I took in a deep, shuddering breath. “I… we shouldn’t. I have to…get ready and go out… to get some things… before the stores close,” I panted as her arms released me and her hands teased their way up my body.

To my surprise, she removed her hands and leaned in to give me a chaste kiss on the cheek. “I’ll take a raincheck then, for once you’re ready, Red. I may tease, but I’m not going to push you into something that you’re obviously not ready for yet while you’re feeling vulnerable. I want to get to know you better, and if something does happen between us then I want it to be something that we both want and are going to enjoy.”

I was torn. On one hand, she had my fire stoked and she was very attractive. On the other hand, I had been telling the truth. I was going to have to get some things that I hadn’t gotten at All-Mart but probably should have, and it was going to take time to shower, clean and brush the wig, and then reapply my disguise. I also wanted to research some possible locations where we could hide out so we could find a place before dawn the next morning.

So much to do, and so little time. My breath caught in my throat as I nodded, and it was a moment before I could speak. “Right. Raincheck. I… thanks, Goldie.” Then I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom on still-trembling legs to get ready for the day.

After a very cold shower to calm myself down and get properly clean, I carefully washed and dried the blonde wig that would serve as a large portion of my disguise when I ventured out. Wrapped in a towel, I left the bathroom and hurriedly got dressed. Goldie had apparently fallen back to sleep while I was in the shower, so I tried to be quiet and not wake the Vampire while I prepared for my outing.

Once I was ready to go, I slipped into my leather jacket and gloves, donned my helmet, and then hopped on the Ducati to run my afternoon errands. My first stop after getting a coffee and something to pass for breakfast was an electronics store, where I picked up a small AM/FM radio with some earbud headphones and a cheap burner phone along with some cards for talk, text, and data. Both purchases were so that I could keep an ear and an eye on the news in case my name came up. The phone would also allow me to have a way to contact people if the need arose. I also grabbed some batteries for the radio, just in case our future hiding spot didn’t have electricity.

As soon as I left the store, I placed the small radio and batteries in the inside pockets of my jacket and set up the phone. Then I scanned the state news quickly and thankfully, there didn’t seem to be anything about me or Granny yet. I would have liked to do a search for my name to be more specific, but I was a bit paranoid that doing so would only draw attention to me and let anybody looking for me trace my new phone. I wasn’t sure if it was a realistic fear, but I thought it best to err on the side of caution.

Feeling slightly better now that I didn’t see anything about a manhunt for me in the news, I did another quick internet search for local motorcycle shops. If I was going to be using the Ducati long-term as my primary mode of transportation, I was going to need a few things. I found a few places, but the closest one to me took half an hour to drive there and I was worried about prices since this seemed to be a custom shop.

Sighing, and hoping that this wouldn’t take up too much of my dwindling funds, I flipped up the visor on my helmet and stepped through the glass double doors into Michael’s Motorcycles and Accessories. The store was mostly a showroom with various models of sports bikes to browse through, and the walls were lined with shelves of helmets, various parts, and all manner of accessories that a biker could want. A rugged-looking man who looked to be in his early fifties was behind the counter on the far side of the small showroom, and he looked up as the bell above the door announced my arrival.

I took a deep breath and put a smile on my face as I walked through the various models of bikes on the showroom floor and approached the man. “Hi, I’m thinking of taking a road trip down south for the winter, but I figure that I’m going to need some storage options for my bike.”

The man laughed as he said, “I wish I could do the same, but I have a shop to run. I’m Mike, the owner, so what kind of bike do you have? I’d peg you for someone with a Ninja.”

I managed to laugh at that. “They are nice bikes,” I admitted, “and I probably would have gotten one if my grandfather hadn’t helped me to fall in love with his bike. He… uhh… left it to me when he died. She’s the cherry red 1974 Ducati 750 Sport that’s sitting outside.”

Mike whistled appreciatively and then looked pensive for a moment before replying. “That’s a classic, I don’t have anything customized for a model that old, but I should have some things that’ll work. Why don’t you bring it inside and we can see what I have that’ll fit.”

He walked with me to the doors and then held one of them open while I pushed the Ducati inside and toward an open spot on the showroom floor. Once I had it rolled into place, I turned to smile at him. “So, yeah, this is my baby.”

His eyes appraised the Ducati, and he knelt down for a closer look. “She’s a beauty. Well-maintained too.”

“Yeah, I like to tinker, and I try to keep her in good shape,” I admitted as Mike went to the wall with various storage totes and bags. It took a while, but he was able to find some durable nylon saddlebags with adjustable straps, as well as a cargo net that could be secured behind the seat. Since the bags weren’t the custom leather gear that he sold, or made for specific models of sports bikes, they were relatively inexpensive too.

Mike also showed me a black waist bag that I thought I could use in place of a purse. Like the saddlebags, it was also made of water-repellent nylon with reflective bits and a waterproof inner pocket with roll-click closing. It had a three-liter capacity, waterproof outside zip pocket with an inside mesh pocket and clip for keys and wallet, mesh inner pockets, and cable ducts for things like a navigation system or headset, which I could use to listen to the radio while riding.

He also convinced me to get a couple of pairs of motorcycle leggings that he was selling at clearance since he didn’t get very many female customers. They were good quality high waist leggings that were close fitting with an inner lining that was made of aramide fiber that was tear-proof, abrasion-proof, and heat-resistant. They were equipped with knee protectors, hip protectors, two pockets, and reflective piping on the legs. I hadn’t been planning on those, but I got them at a steal and if I was going to be riding my bike a lot then I would need more protective gear than just my jacket, gloves, and helmet.

I left the store with my new waist bag strapped in place, the saddle bags securely fastened on the Ducati, and the cargo net and a couple of lashing straps tucked away inside one of the saddlebags since they were affordable and didn’t take up much space. The leggings were also in there for now, though I would probably change into a pair once I got back to the motel. First, I needed to get a few more necessities.

As tempted as I was to pick up some better clothes for Goldie so she could blend in better than with that old formal dress that she had been wearing, I decided that it could wait until she could come to All-Mart with me to pick out her own clothes. I did go to a pharmacy to get some essentials that I had been too panicked to think about while rushing to leave Petoskey though. I got monthly supplies, toothpaste, a pair of toothbrushes, mouthwash, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, a loofah, and a couple of towels and washcloths to make sure that we could both stay clean.

Between the money I had taken from my bank, and what I had gotten from Granny’s house, I had a little over seven hundred dollars still after my various expenses and purchases. I found a pawnshop and managed to add almost three hundred to that after selling Granny’s jewelry and what other valuables I had taken. I would help get Goldie a few changes of clothes, but after that, I was going to have to try and make the money last since we couldn’t count on having a reliable income and would need to eat.

Well, I needed to eat, but Goldie could only drink blood. While that might save on our expenses, I was kind of worried about how we were going to keep the Vampire fed and not draw too much attention to ourselves. However, if we were in a rough neighborhood, I was certain that she could probably handle herself well enough to drag her prey into a dark alley or somewhere out of sight. It was something that I would have to think about.

I had my radio on and listened with one earbud as I rode toward the first abandoned area of Detroit that I had found on my phone, and tuned into one of the local stations, but there wasn’t much other than basic news and music. I was nearly there when my breath caught in my throat at an emergency announcement. "State police are issuing a warning. Known sexual predator George G. Porgie has escaped custody at the Central Michigan Correctional Facility. Porgie, a registered sex offender, has a history of luring underage girls to accompany him with desserts. Porgie is five foot eleven, two hundred and seven pounds, and has brown hair, hazel eyes, and a trio of long scars on his left cheek. If you think you see the suspect, do not approach, as he is considered armed and dangerous. Please report any possible sightings or tips to Crimestoppers at 1-800-555-1001."

Whew. That was close, but thankfully, it didn’t concern me. I was close to Brightmoor though and I could see the quality of the homes growing ever lower the closer that I got. Soon, once proud homes became dilapidated wrecks, their yards overgrown with brush, wild grass, and weeds. Occasionally I saw a home in somewhat decent condition, their yards turned into large gardens, but they were contained by metal fencing which bore dire warnings as to the fates of trespassers. Sometimes I saw people peeking out from dark windows or rushing from one place to another, but they were mostly young like me, probably a lot of runaways, and I could feel their eyes on me as I rode past.

This neighborhood had been mostly abandoned for over fifteen years. Houses here were either derelict or fast becoming so and I had a feeling that the competition for the best spots was probably violent. From some of the looks I was getting from those few people who dared to be out in the open as I rode through, I was certain if I dallied too long, I might find myself relieved of all my valuables. Unless I was willing and able to fight for them.

By sunset, I had tried two more abandoned neighborhoods like Brightmoor, but I didn’t find anything that looked both unoccupied and easily defended from the local gangs and other street people. I didn’t dare stay after dark to search more, at least, not on my own. I returned to the Black Sheep Motel feeling dejected, arriving as twilight gave way to darkness.

Goldie was awake, dressed, and watching television when I stepped into our room. “I guess you didn’t have much luck finding a decent place for us to stay after tonight?” the Vampire asked as she saw the dejected look on my face.

“No, I checked three areas, but they were in rough shape and if I had actually stopped in any of them to get a closer look at a place, I probably would have been mugged. I came back because I don’t want to be looking alone after dark and I figured that we could both use a meal,” I told her with a despondent shrug.

The Vampire nodded in agreement, as she licked her lips in anticipation. “I guess we can go get you something to eat first, Red. Then I got an idea on how we can get me a nice private meal of my own.”

“We can help you to feed first if you need to,” I countered.

“Nah, I’ll be good until we can lure someone into a quiet place, and for that, you’re going to need your energy,” she retorted with a grin.

I suddenly had a bad feeling about this. “I… really don’t like the sound of that, or that smile on your face. I’m going to be bait, aren’t I?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, a young, pretty girl all alone in a rough area of town? Someone is bound to take the bait, and then you lead them back to me. Unless you’re volunteering to feed me yourself?” the blonde Vampire taunted playfully.

“Fine, I’ll be your bait, but you better be ready to jump in. Some of us don’t have supernatural speed and strength,” I replied with a resigned sigh. Then I placed the two pairs of motorcycle leggings and the bag filled with my purchases from the pharmacy on the bed and quickly changed into one of the former for our evening. I offered to let Goldie try to use the other pair, but she didn’t feel there was any need since she could just heal herself by feeding if she happened to get hurt.

Two hours later, we were in the State Fair neighborhood after I had a quick meal at McConnell’s and we bought Goldie a few outfits worth of clothes at All-Mart. Her taste in clothes was immodest, at best, mostly sexy low-cut tops and short skirts, and the underwear… oh Goddess. I wasn’t entirely sure if she chose the clothes she had just to get me hot and bothered, and because she liked seeing me blushing and flustered, or if she was telling the truth when she claimed that they would help her to lure in some meals.

She looked very good in the clothes, of course, but if her goal truly was to tease and sexually frustrate me, then she was succeeding. She also made certain to stay very close and hold me tightly on the way here. Damn, I was thirsty. I was also nervous about being her bait as we drove through the neighborhood with the headlight off to keep from drawing attention.

State Fair was a lot like the other mostly abandoned neighborhoods that I had seen earlier. Mostly single-family homes that were in very rough shape and had been largely reclaimed by nature. I was pretty sure that most of the better options were already occupied, and the whole area was strewn with random garbage that people had dumped there instead of closer to their homes. It looked like a demilitarized zone, and I could feel the eyes on us as we rode through the worst areas.

Eventually, I found a quiet and secluded place near the edge of the neighborhood to keep the bike and Goldie hidden. Once we were concealed behind a dumpster in an overgrown dead-end alley between what had once been a convenience store and a two-story home, I let Goldie scan the area with her heightened senses to make sure that we were alone. Meanwhile, I took a thermos that I had bought from All-Mart and took a cautious sip of the hot coffee inside to steel myself for the task to come.

I had filled the thermos and bought some donuts at The Muffin Man. I didn’t know about The Muffin Man until I stumbled across it after leaving the motel earlier in the day while looking for a decent cup of coffee. Apparently, it was a new local chain of bakery/coffee shops. The coffee was pretty good as coffee went, but the pastries and other sweets that they served were delicious.

After a good long pull of the coffee, I looked to Goldie who nodded and gave me a thumbs-up to indicate that we were alone. I resealed the thermos, placed it back in the saddlebag, and asked the Vampire, “Which way should I go?”

Goldie just giggled. “Don’t worry about it; I was joking about you being bait. I wanted to see if you’d actually do it for me. You’re so sweet and cute when you’re trying to be brave,” she said as she caressed my cheek with her fingertips. The casual yet sensual touch flushed my cheeks, and other places with sudden warmth as she added, “Just wait here for a bit, I can smell people in some of the buildings nearby. Nothing smells supernatural, so there shouldn’t be anything that I can’t handle. I’ll go drink my fill and I’ll be back soon, Cutie. I’ll try to spread it out so I don’t drink too much from one person, and I’ll try to knock them out first if I can.”

Without another word, she was off, and I was left feeling flustered and weak in the knees as my heart hammered in my chest. Damn could she move fast, I could barely follow her movement as she zipped out of the alley and around the corner in search of her meal. Since all there was for me to do was sit, wait, and try to calm the fire building up inside of me, I took a seat on my bike and sipped at my coffee, careful to keep my eyes and ears open for any signs of someone approaching my hiding spot.

I was lonely and cold, and the time seemed to pass with agonizing slowness until Goldie returned nearly an hour later looking very satisfied. Every time I had heard distant yelling or gunshots, I had to fight not to flee in terror. There were a couple of screams nearby during that time too. The voices sounded like men, and I was pretty sure that they got more than they bargained for with a certain sexy blonde.

“I heard screams, was that you?” I asked as the Vampire sauntered back into my concealment.

My blonde-haired companion shrugged, not looking concerned. “A couple of guys tried to get rough, and one had a gun, so I had to take them down hard and fast. I tried not to hurt them too badly, but they’re going to wake up knowing they were in a fight. We should get out of here before they wake up; one saw my face and he probably won’t be too happy with me when he wakes up.”

I nodded and started up the Ducati. Moments later, we were back on the road and leaving State Fair to continue our search for a place to stay elsewhere. We kept searching until three in the morning before returning to our motel to spend one last night in comfort while we had the chance. We both knew that we would have to make what money I had last, and things would be a lot less certain if we couldn’t find a somewhat safe and secure place to stay by tomorrow night.

Granny Wolfe’s Cabin
Thursday, October 13th, 2022 - 10:08 a.m.

Agent Nicholas Hunter sighed and grumbled to himself as he stopped his non-descript SUV and took in the scene before him. Three police cars and local cops were all over the place and contaminating his crime scene. This was something that he had been hoping to avoid.

For the past three months, he had been tracking a rogue Werewolf across four states. Even as a regular human, that man was a killer, pure and simple, and once he had been bitten and infected with the curse, bringing him in alive had been taken off the table. Nick had finally caught up with him and put him out of everyone’s misery on Monday night, the last night of the full moon. He had been ready to leave the area and move on to his next case but, out of habit, he had checked with the local hospitals about any recent animal attacks to cover all of his bases before leaving the area.

That was when he found out that the ironically named Mrs. Wolfe had been attacked and bitten by a wild animal, which reports indicated was likely a wolf, on the night before he had ended the beast. So now, he was here to check it out and ensure that the beast hadn’t spread its curse.

He was hoping to be done with this whole Werewolf situation and start tracking that recently awakened Witch in Pennsylvania before she became a danger, but as far as danger to the public went, Werewolves were a lot higher on the scale than rookie Witches, who could at least be properly trained. The presence of the local police was not a good sign. Agent Hunter let slip a weary sigh as he brought his vehicle to a stop, then he stepped outside to find the officer in charge of this shit show.

It wasn’t hard to find the man directing traffic and the agent approached and displayed his badge. “Agent Hunter,” he offered by way of introduction before adding, “I’m going to need you to tell me everything.”

The officer narrowed his eyes, frowning at the agent in the dark suit before sighing in resignation. “An officer was sent here yesterday regarding a missing person report. Phoebe Hood is a 19-year-old freshman at North Central Michigan College. Her roommate said that she was here visiting her grandmother, Helen Wolfe, but never returned home or called and that it is not like her. Her car is here, but there is no sign of her, and her grandmother’s vehicle was found this morning in the bus station parking lot.”

“And what about the grandmother?” Agent Hunter asked in concern.

“Dead,” the officer replied. “There was no response when we knocked on the door and we were searching for Miss Hood and Mrs. Wolfe in the woods when we found a shallow grave, it was dug recently. Looks like a single stab wound to the chest and her clothes were torn to shreds, I was about to call the coroner’s office to come pick up the body and do an autopsy.”

Unsure if this was good news or bad news, Agent Hunter simply ordered, “Show me.”

Even at first glance, the body confirmed his suspicions. Her clothes hadn’t been entirely shredded; his practiced eye could tell that they had burst at the seams first. Closer inspection showed that the knife wound showed signs of burns. If Agent Hunter were a betting man, he would have put everything on one theory. The grandmother had been turned and attacked the girl, and she somehow had enough presence of mind to defend herself with a silver weapon.

Most agents would think of Werewolves, or the Arcane in general, as stories to frighten children, Agent Hunter was well aware of his reputation in the bureau. Many thought that he was a madman, some jokingly called him Agent Mulder due to the strange nature of most of his cases, but only the Director himself knew the truth. The Arcane were real and they could be dangerous, and Hunter’s family had been hunting down dangerous Arcane for centuries. They were Huntsmen, born and raised to fight the things that go bump in the night, and the Director knew that and gave him the leeway and authority that he needed to do it for the Agency.

It all seemed to add up from what he saw as he looked through the cabin. One of the bedroom doors had exploded outward and while the place had been cleaned, there were small things that had been missed or that looked out of place. The scenario in his mind solidified with every small clue that he saw. The girl had defended herself and when the body reverted upon death, she probably panicked and thought that she would be accused of murder. So she ran, trying to leave as little evidence as she could behind.

She was smart and cautious, and he felt bad for her, but he would still need to find her. He still didn’t know whether she had been bitten when she defended herself, and if she had been, he would have to find out whether she was a danger or one of the few who could learn to control their curse. Yes, he needed to find her, but there was no sense in traumatizing her more by having the police search for her. They would only get in the way and endanger everyone involved if they got trigger-happy.

Once again, he found Officer Dalton, the man in charge, and told him with no preamble, “I’ll be taking over this case. Thank you for your hard work, but this is now an FBI matter.”

He could see the protest in Dalton’s eyes before he could even voice it. He thought that he had a career-building murder case here. “You can’t do this! I…”

“My orders come from the Director himself,” Agent Hunter insisted. Then he told a few half-truths to grease the wheels. “I know what you’re thinking here, but the girl is innocent, she’s just a missing person, probably running from the monster that really did this. That stab wound, your coroner will find traces of silver and burn marks in the wound. It is the calling card of a murderer that I’ve been after for months. That’s all you’re getting from me though; the rest is classified and this is my investigation now.”

He was going to have to bring in a team to handle the clean-up here and then start searching for the girl. He would talk to the roommate himself to try to smooth things over and get a recent photo and any details that she might not have given to the police. He was going to be days behind her, probably longer since he would have to figure out where she ran to.

Going up north and crossing into Canada was always an option, but so was going south and then west. There was also the chance that she would cross into Canada through Detroit, or maybe find a place to hide there until she figured the heat was off. There were plenty of abandoned buildings there, and a large population of Arcane hiding from the normies there, just as she would probably try to.

So many places to search and the clock was ticking until the next full moon. He would have to hope that if she had been bitten, she would realize the possible danger and take precautions for the next full moon and that she wouldn’t run into anything that would set her off before he could find her. This Phoebe girl had better be as smart and coolheaded as he hoped she was.

Detroit, Michigan
Friday, October 14th, 2022 - 7:57 p.m.

“Fuck! I must be the stupidest person alive!” I hissed angrily as I looked around the dark alley and the six men surrounding us. I had been checking my burner phone for a more permanent and comfortable place to stay when one of the jerks snatched it right from my hands and ran off. Like an idiot, I had chased him trying to get it back, and now here we are.

“Oh, cheer up, Red. You’re not stupid, just a little naïve. Honestly, it’s kind of cute,” Goldie offered cheerfully from beside me. “Besides, you saved me from having to get takeout later. Who knew I could get food delivery in this neighborhood, and the portions look pretty good too. I can’t say much for the quality though, going by the look of them, not to mention the smell.” The Vampire wrinkled her nose cutely while our ambushers watched us converse as if they thought that we were crazy.

“Would you bitches just shut up?!” the apparent leader snapped. “I said to hand over your valuables and keep your fucking hands where we can see ‘em!”

“I thought we was gonna have some fun with ‘em, Eddie. Biker babes are hot, and that other one will probably beg for it with the way she’s dressed,” one of his buddies said.

The comment about her clothes only served to piss Goldie off, or maybe it was something else. “Hey, Assholes, nobody is getting handsy with Red but me, she’s mine!” Yup, it was definitely something else. Was it wrong that her saying that I was hers really turned me on? Fuck, between that and her gripping me possessively around the waist, I was so fucking wet right now. She knew it too, going by that smirk on her face as she smelled the air.

“Damn, you are so fucking hot right now,” I muttered under my breath as the jerks stopped waiting for us to cooperate nicely and closed in. Apparently, I wasn’t quiet enough because Goldie turned to waggle her eyebrows playfully and grin at me, causing me to turn, well, red. I really needed to decide whether to pursue this attraction for her. Wait, danger, right.

Our attackers were still cautiously closing in, knives in hand, when Goldie removed her arm from around my waist and moved almost too quickly for me to see. One moment she was holding me, and the next, she was breaking a man’s arm, picking him up as if he weighed nothing, and using him as a battering ram to slam two of his companions into the brick wall to my left. They had all barely fallen to the ground groaning when she kicked their leader to the sound of breaking bones and sent him flying down the alley to crash into the dead-end wall.

Her next victim barely had time to widen his eyes in response to her chaos before she slammed him into the wall beside the majority of his fallen friends, bit into his throat, and started draining him like a juice box. The last man standing seemed paralyzed in fear; his hands white-knuckled as they gripped his knife in one hand and my phone in the other. He couldn’t even seem to breathe, and he had even emptied his bladder, and honestly, I couldn’t really blame him. Goldie had taken down his friends before any of them even realized what was happening, and she was giving off this terrifying aura that was even shaking me up a bit.

It was like concentrated fear; the presence of a predator so mind-numbingly terrifying that you just know is going to tear you apart if you so much as breathe. She was on my side and the aura still felt oppressive. I wasn’t frozen and I hadn’t soiled myself or stopped breathing, so that was good. I couldn’t be sure if it was because she saw me as an ally though, or maybe she was right after all, and my resistance was some sort of Werewolf thing since they’re predators too. I quickly shut down that line of thought though, as it caused a fear in me that Goldie’s terrifying aura could not.

I took a deep breath as Goldie fed, not wanting to watch, and snatched my phone from the last man’s hand. I was checking it over to make sure that it hadn’t been damaged when Goldie dropped her captive to the ground. “Done already?” I asked, as casually as I could manage while swallowing the tightness in my throat.

The Vampire shook her head. “No, I don’t want to drain any of them dry and kill them. I would rather they all live and suffer for a bit.” She casually approached the one who was somehow still standing and quaking in fear, blood all over her face from her first victims. “When you and your buddies wake up, go to the hospital and get those injuries looked after. And if you ever prey on the innocent again, I will find you and what I do to you then will make you wish that I killed you this time.” With her warning given, she sank her fangs into his neck.

Once Goldie had finished her dinner and cleaned up, she insisted that we find a place for me to eat next. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to eat after witnessing that, but my stomach seemed to agree with Goldie and protested loudly. I hadn’t eaten since having a cheap breakfast deal and coffee at a rundown diner that morning since I was trying to make our money last. As sick to my stomach as the thought made me, I was craving a burger in the worst way, and I wanted it rare.

I tried not to think about what that might mean as I ate my dinner at a nearby fast food place. Instead, with a mouth full of cheeseburger, I asked, “Goldie, what the hell was that back there?”

The hot blonde Vampire blinked in confusion as she looked up from abusing the local Wi-Fi with the phone, “What was what, Red?”

“That… aura,” I replied after a pause to finish a mouthful of burger and attempt to find the right word. “That dude was frozen in fear, and it was like you were pumping out this aura of pure terror.”

She sighed and shrugged, her eyes staying on the phone, though I thought that her voice quavered a little as she replied, “Honestly, I have no idea. Nothing like that has ever happened before when I fed, but I could sorta sense that he was paralyzed with fear. I tried to hide it with flirting, but I was just so… worried that those guys might hurt you before I could take them down. The thought made me mad, and I was having trouble holding it back. I… like you, and since we met, I’ve been so damn attracted to you.”

It was strange seeing Goldie hesitant and uncertain; she usually exuded so much confidence. I tried to lighten the mood with a bit of playful sarcasm. “Really? You hide it so well.”

That got a snort of amusement and a giggle out of her. “Okay, yeah, so I kinda make it obvious with all the flirting. I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, and… you’re the first one to make me feel this way since my… accident. I just don’t see any point in wasting time if we both like each other.”

“I like that about you,” I admitted in a whisper, “it’s just… I had never been in a relationship before I met you, never even really got to first base. Like, I’ve known I was gay since puberty hit, but I never found anyone that I could feel confident in pursuing something with, so I didn’t bother. You’re the first person that I’ve really felt attracted to and felt comfortable with, but there’s been this whole thing with my Granny being a werewolf, having to kill her, and I might be one now too. It’s been a lot, my feelings have been all over the place, and I’m worried it might fuck things up.”

“If you spend all your time worrying instead of living, you’re going to miss out on a lot and it’s probably going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Goldie told me seriously. Then she leaned over the table, cupped my face in her hands, and kissed me passionately. It was several minutes before our lips parted, and my heart was racing as she added, “Live in the moment, you never know when your time might be up. Now think, right now, in this moment. What do you want?”

My heart was pounding in my chest, my knees felt weak, and I could barely breathe, let alone think. I reacted instead, reaching out to pull her back toward me and kissed her back. Once we had parted once again, we were both quiet as I hurriedly finished my meal and then we made our way back to our current shelter with Goldie holding my hand. Her hand was cold, but even without physical warmth it made me feel secure and my heart lighter than it had been since before the night I was forced to kill my grandmother.

We had found the abandoned church last night, and my Ducati and our other meager belongings were safely in a long-forgotten cellar along with a sleeping bag to keep us off the cold floor. The cellar doors were rusted but still sturdy and it took Goldie’s Vampire strength to even open them, though for safety she had found some rebar and bent it to keep the doors sealed when we were away or sleeping.

Goldie had found it terribly funny for a Vampire and a possible Werewolf to take shelter in a church, of all places, and even more so with us both being lesbians. I didn’t really care beyond the fact that we could keep it secure until we found something better. Right now though, I just wanted to get inside and my heart and breath both quickened in excitement and expectation as the beautiful Vampire unbent the piece of rebar holding the cellar doors closed and heaved them open.

As Goldie sealed the heavy cellar doors behind us, I peeled off my leather jacket and riding boots and placed both of them with my other belongings, along with what little money and saleable goods we had managed to confiscate from the men who had tried to mug us. Not that they had much, which was probably why they were trying to steal from us. Had they just left it at that I might have been sympathetic, but Goldie and I both knew that they had more planned for us than just that. As far as I was concerned, they got what they deserved, and their unwitting donation would help us to scrape by a little longer than with the money we already had.

Despite our earlier conversation over dinner about our interest in one another, Goldie and I didn’t go any further than making out that night. As making out went, it was fantastic though, at least from my limited experience. We might have pushed it further, but despite Goldie’s comments about how hilarious it would be, neither of us wanted to have sex on the cold hard cellar floor beneath the church.

Goldie was more romantic than she made herself out to be with her constant flirting and lewd comments, and she said that my first time should be special. She was willing to wait and just keep to heavy petting and making out until we found somewhere more comfortable, and slightly less filthy, to call home for a while. I certainly wasn’t complaining about being able to slowly build a somewhat normal romantic relationship with the flirty blonde Vampire as we got to know each other.

We did a lot of that over the next couple of weeks; getting to know one another better and making out. It wasn’t like we had much else to do during the daylight hours while we stayed hidden inside the church cellar. We only left the security of our shelter at night, when Goldie could avoid sunlight. Goldie used the darkness to find her meals and I would buy my own meals or other supplies at convenience stores or cheap fast-food places. Sometimes I would splurge on coffee and muffins or donuts from The Muffin Man when we managed to get some more money or saleable goods from people who attempted to mug or assault us.

We also used the cover of darkness to scout various abandoned parts of Detroit for somewhere more comfortable to hide out from anyone who might be pursuing me. The cellar was somewhat secure, but it was dank, cold, and smelled terrible. Unfortunately, finding what we were looking for was taking time since we were looking through every nook, cranny, and dark corner in abandoned neighborhoods while attempting to find something suitable. By the time the end of October rolled around, we had only managed to look through one of the larger abandoned areas and most of another smaller area in detail, but we had yet to find what we were looking for.

Detroit, Michigan
Monday, October 31st, 2022 - 7:12 p.m.

“We’re close to something weird here,” Goldie said in a low whisper as she sat down to join me where I had just started to dig into my breakfast at Rosie’s Diner. She had been out finding and feeding on her own meal, while I came into the homey little diner to order mine. “There are scents that I can’t identify all over the place outside. Scents that aren’t human.”

We were getting ready to explore another of the large, abandoned areas of Detroit in search of a more suitable place to hide out and the diner was right on the edge of one of the larger ones. I hadn’t been able to resist the poster in the window for Rosie’s all-day breakfast deals since I had been craving meat more and more lately, and the steak and eggs platter was like a Siren’s call. The price wasn’t bad either for all of the food I got; a nice rare sirloin, a pair of over-easy eggs, hash browns, two slices of toast, and three slices of crispy bacon, along with all the coffee I could drink.

I nodded to my Vampire girlfriend as I devoured my breakfast since I had come to trust in her enhanced senses, and I had been smelling strange things as well. When I came up for air, I sighed. “I’d say you’re just imagining things because it’s Halloween, but we really don’t have the option to take ‘normal’ for granted anymore. I just hope that whatever is out there doesn’t bother us. We need to find a place soon and start preparing for the full moon; the first night is only, like, a week away.”

I was no longer resisting the thought that my grandmother may have turned me before I killed her. The constant craving for meat, often as rare as I could get it, certainly indicated it. I also had this strange feeling, like ants crawling under my skin whenever I got especially emotional, and it only grew stronger as the full moon drew closer. My period last week had been particularly rough because of it.

My senses had also become gradually more powerful during that time. My eyesight was very sharp, even at night, and my hearing and sense of smell had surpassed Goldie’s. It was almost a certainty now that I had been cursed, and I was starting to fear the approaching full moon more and more with each passing day.

Goldie nodded back thoughtfully. “I can always lock you in the cellar if we have to, but you’re right, I would rather have a more permanent place to live and other options for containing you in the long term before that happens. I’ve never seen a Werewolf before, so I have no idea what I’ll be dealing with or how strong you’ll be.”

“Strong,” I replied with a grimace as I remembered my grandmother bursting through her bedroom door and shattering it, and how her jaws had clamped around my arm when she bit me. I shuddered at the memories. It was quiet after that with Goldie seemingly lost in thought and me brooding as I finished my breakfast.

We were just leaving the diner and heading toward where I parked my bike when our evening got really weird. A man appeared from out of nowhere, about half a block from the diner’s entrance where rundown buildings and overgrown vegetation showed that people had long ago abandoned the area beyond the street the diner was on. I don’t mean that he emerged from some overgrown brush either, he just appeared out of thin air, running as fast as he could.

As he got closer, I got a better look at the man. He looked to be of average height, or maybe a little shorter, and fairly overweight with dull brown hair and three scars across his left cheek. He wore a grey hoodie and matching sweatpants and huffed and puffed as he approached, turning every so often to look over his shoulder. He was almost upon us when another figure appeared in the same manner as he had, a woman who looked almost as short as I was.

His pursuer had long platinum blonde hair, massive breasts that hurt my back just watching her run, and an overall generous figure. Her clothes were dirty and ratty, and she wore a very frustrated expression on her face. “Get back here… you fat fuck! Your ass… is mine!” the woman’s high-pitched voice huffed with a noticeable German accent as she gave chase.

“What the…” I started to mutter as I turned to Goldie to see if she was seeing what I was seeing. Sure enough, she seemed as flabbergasted as I was.

The woman was glaring daggers at the man as she started chanting as well as she could while breathing heavily, “That dirty dog is out of time! I summon you… oh girl of slime! I don't want to have to fight... So don't let go… and hold on tight!”

Something oozed out of the cracked pavement ahead of her and shot forward, leaving a trail of slime-covered pavement behind it as it went. I barely saw it as it homed in on its target and had no time to react as the pink blob swerved at the last moment to slam into me. “Wha… eeeeee!” My aborted question quickly turned into a shriek of surprise as the slime hit me, seeming to get everywhere, even inside my clothes before expanding with a shlorping sound as it attempted to cover me completely.

At the same time that I was dealing with this, the still-running woman who caused this problem slipped on the trail of slime and slid along the now slick pavement to crash into me and Goldie, who was trying to pull the goop off of me, but only succeeding in getting herself covered in slime too. We both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs with the busty woman who wailed, “No! That fucker is getting away!”

It was several minutes before we could all disentangle ourselves, or rather before Goldie and the other woman could. I couldn’t move because I was being held in a death grip by the now solid slime, which had taken the shape of a very busty and sultry woman. A woman was nuzzling and groping me very enthusiastically as she murmured in my ear, “Mmmm… you taste so nice.”

Meanwhile, Goldie hissed angrily at our top-heavy attacker, “What are you attacking us for?!”

“I wasn’t attacking you, Bitch! I was attacking that fucking pedophile I was chasing!” the woman snapped back.

“Then why did whatever you do hit my girlfriend?!”

“How the fuck should I know?! I’m still new at this magic thing!” The strange woman took a deep breath to calm herself as she looked at me and the slime girl currently getting way too personal with me. “Maybe it was something with the way I phrased the spell? Lemme see… I said, ‘That dirty dog is…”

“She’s a Werewolf, you ditzy Witch!” Goldie interrupted.

I would have taken offense to the ‘dirty’ part of that, but we’d been living in a dank cellar for two weeks and had to settle for getting as clean as we could manage in gas station and convenience store bathrooms. Besides, I had more important matters to worry about, like the slime girl squeezing the life out of me and whispering some very lewd suggestions in my ear as one of her hands moved southward. “A little help here?” I squeaked. This slime girl was even more brazen than Goldie, and that was saying something.

“Hey! Get your hands off my Red!” Goldie growled at the pink girl-shaped slime.

“We could share,” the slime suggested lasciviously and waggled her pink eyebrows at my girlfriend. “I don’t mind. You know, there are benefits to having a girlfriend with no bones. The places that I can get into…”

“Eeep! This is your slime; can’t you do something?!” I shouted accusingly at the busty Bavarian blonde.

She just rolled her eyes and sighed expansively. “Fine, but since it’s your fault that jackass got away, you two are going to help me track him down before somebody else does. I’ll even share the credit and the reward with you.” The promise of a reward definitely got our attention, but I was more interested in getting free from the slime girl, and Goldie was practically trying to pry her off me. Finally, the woman chanted, “Slime girl begone and go away, I'll call you back another day.”

The slime girl did not disappear, or even let go of me. Instead, she giggled. “Heehee… Ooh, that tickles.”

Goldie narrowed her eyes at the strange spell caster. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”

“Give me a fucking break! I’m new at this, you cunt!” she shouted back.

“Ummm… don’t you want to go back where you came from? I’m sure you have… uhh… family that you want to go back to,” I asked, appealing to the pink slime girl.

“Family?” she replied with a laugh. “I’m a magical construct, I didn’t come from anywhere, and I certainly don’t have a family. I wanna stay with you and the less annoying blonde. You taste soooo good. Speaking of tasting good, I think I taste like cherry Jell-O. Would you like to try me and find out?” The last was whispered in my ear in a sultry tone, causing me to turn as red as my favorite hoodie.

I barely managed to stammer, “C-could you at least let go of me?”

“Well, since it’s you asking, sure, but first, I want to change my look a bit. I don’t like looking like the person who created me, but I’m sure that I can come up with something you’ll like,” she murmured thoughtfully as I could feel her body, so close to mine, shifting and flowing like water before solidifying once more. Then she playfully licked my cheek, briefly suckled on my earlobe, and finally let me go.

I stood up to join the other two, who were still glaring daggers at one another, and frowned when I mentally noted that due to that wet slime (which had gotten everywhere by the way), we all looked like the aftermath of a wet t-shirt contest. At least I could cover up by zipping up my leather jacket, but Goldie and the busty Bavarian would be giving everyone a show until they dried off, and Goldie wasn’t wearing a bra. Down, Red, control yourself.

Now that she had let me go, I realized that the slime girl was naked, and very anatomically correct, which didn’t help me any. She had a large bust, trim waist and flat tummy, hips that were wide but not too wide, long slender legs, and a gap between firm-looking thighs that definitely caught my attention before I forced myself to look upward again. Yes, Red, her eyes are up there, look at her damn face you useless lesbian.

Her face was soft and pretty with high cheekbones and a dainty nose and chin. Her ‘skin’ looked moist and had an unnatural pink tint to it, contrasted by the cherry color of her kissable lips and long hair. What caught my attention most was her eyes though. They looked large for her face and her irises were a hot pink, with her pupils only a shade or two darker. Those big eyes were so strange and yet, so captivating.

She was smirking playfully as I tore my eyes from hers to look at the woman who had created her. “I… uhh… think I can track that guy; his scent is still fresh. You mentioned a reward?”

She and Goldie broke off their staring contest and she slowly nodded. “The BriarRose Family want that fat fucker brought in, alive. I heard in a bar that he tried something that he shouldn’t have with one of the children under their protection, and they want him to pay the long price. I don’t know much since I’m new to Shadowtown, and the Arcane scene in general, but practically every Arcane in upper Shadowtown is trying to get that reward for themselves, so it must be something good.”

“Shadowtown? Arcane?” I asked in interest since I had never heard of either before.

“Like I said, I’m new to all this, but I can give you the basics. That abandoned area of the city over there isn’t as abandoned as people think. The entire area has been reclaimed by Arcane, which is an umbrella term for supernatural folk. Shadowtown is covered by a massive glamour and an enchantment that makes regular humans turn away in fear if they get too close. It’s called Shadowtown because humans would rather the Arcane stay in the shadows and out of sight. I only stumbled inside a few days ago and didn’t even know about the Arcane before that, so that’s all that I can tell you,” the spell-caster explained. “Can we go catch that asshole now? Before someone else beats us to it.”

I hadn’t tried to use my newly enhanced sense of smell to try and track someone down before. It wasn’t easy filtering out all of the other scents in the area and focusing solely on the one that I was interested in, so our buxom Bavarian companion was getting antsy by the time I felt that I could track our prey reliably. It helped that his scent was slightly different than most of the humans who had been through the area, which Greta thought was because he probably had some sort of Arcane ancestry since he wouldn’t have been able to get into Shadowtown otherwise. Greta Heinrich was the name of the Witch that we now found ourselves allied with.

Greta got dragged into this whole Arcane thing just over a month ago when she and her twin brother, Hans, had been on a road trip, coming from their home in Bavaria, Germany to tour the country where their mother was born. The pair had been just leaving Hershey, Pennsylvania along a less traveled backroad when they saw what appeared to be a house made entirely of chocolate and candy. They thought that it was a tourist gimmick connected with the town and decided to check it out.

It seemed that the whole thing was an illusion, a magical trap meant to draw in people like them, while the locals saw nothing out of the ordinary. They woke up chained to a wall and Greta was forced to watch as the crazy Witch who set the trap, and apparently had a taste for human flesh, slowly tortured and killed her brother. The entire time she made sure to tell them both that Greta would be next and extolled all of the wonderful dishes that she would make with their corpses. When she was done with Hans, she ripped out his liver for that very night’s dinner and left Greta to stew in her sorrow and fear of what was to come.

That night, Greta managed to slip out of her manacles by dislocating one of her thumbs, and in a crazed fury, she found the sleeping Witch in the upstairs bedroom and killed her with repeated blows to the head with the steel manacle and attached chain that had held her captive. After that, she got back in her van to put as much distance between her and what happened as she could, wandering aimlessly until a few days ago when she ended up passing through the glamour into Shadowtown. There was a pained, haunted, look in her eyes as she told us her story while I followed the scent of our prey.

Greta had a lot of trauma and grief to unpack and deal with and seeing so many strange creatures walking the streets of Shadowtown had made her think that she had lost her mind as well. So, she did what anyone would do in such a situation, she found a bar and started drinking. While she drowned her sorrows and ranted about what had happened, the bartender, who was a fellow Witch, took pity on her and gave her the basic information about the Arcane and Shadowtown, and eventually informed her about George Porgie and the price on his head.

Apparently, she had become a Witch the moment that she killed her tormentor. When a Witch dies, her power is transferred to the closest female without power of her own, and since she had been the one to beat her to death, that was Greta. Simone, the bartender, also explained to her the ins and outs of being a Witch and using their magic; how to summon her power, direct it, and infuse it into her words.

It seemed that Witches spells had certain requirements to work properly, requirements that Greta was still trying to get the hang of. For one thing, they have to rhyme. They also have to have a lyrical cadence and the wording has to be fairly specific to get the exact results that they want. If they aren’t specific enough the spell will fail, or some poor unsuspecting girl will end up with a humanoid slime hanging off her arm like a lovesick (and very horny) puppy.

As for the slime girl in question, she had no real memories before being created, let alone a name, so I decided to call her Berry. She had been attracting way too much attention from the regular folk while standing there naked, even though it was Halloween and her odd appearance could be excused by that, so before starting our search I had brought us all into an alley and asked if she could please at least make it look like she was wearing clothes. She couldn’t, and we had no spare clothes on us for her to wear, so she did the next best thing. Her slimy form condensed and shifted into the form of a pink backpack, which of course formed on me since she wanted to ‘stay close’.

I tried to ignore it, and how the straps would occasionally squeeze my breasts together, as I made my way through the streets following Porgie’s scent. Finally, after forty minutes of tracking his scent through the night’s cold chill, I stopped at an alley and pointed to a dumpster. “He’s hiding behind there,” I whispered. “The scent is really strong here, and kinda tangy.”

“Yeah, that’s him all right,” Goldie quickly confirmed. “That tang is the smell of fear.” My girlfriend then became a blur as she sped over to the dumpster and by the time we got there to join her, Porgie was lying unconscious at her feet.

“Yes!” Greta enthused, pumping her fist. “Let’s get this fucker back to Shadowtown so we can claim that reward!”

“And how are we going to do that?” Goldie countered with a frown. “I mean, I could carry him, but we’re going to get a lot of attention from anyone wandering the streets carrying a large unconscious man, and I don’t think that people are going to buy that it’s a Halloween trick.”

The solution that we came up with was for Greta to go back into Shadowtown to grab her van while we watched over our unconscious captive. When she said that it was a van that she and her brother had bought for their road trip, I had been half expecting an ancient VW bus. Instead, she showed up almost an hour later with a decade-old Toyota minivan that was in pretty good condition.

We stuffed our captive in the back where Goldie would watch over him in case he regained consciousness, or Greta tried to double-cross us. I didn’t think that she would, but my girlfriend was a lot less trusting of strangers than I was. She wasn’t too happy about Berry being so clingy with me either. We did stop back at the diner on the way so I could collect my bike, and then I followed closely behind the van, with Berry holding on to me tight, as we made our way into Shadowtown.

I nearly stopped my bike in surprise as I passed through the glamour and the enchantment, which covered Shadowtown. Greta insisted that the ‘normies’ could not get past the glamour, and most wouldn’t even come close due to the fear enchantment that kept full-blooded humans away. That I could pass through both unaffected seemed to confirm my status as a Werewolf now, more than anything else had before this.

I couldn’t help but think, “And those spells cover this entire abandoned area of the city? What type of Arcane could possibly have the power to hide all of this?” Greta had learned from her bartender and fellow Witch when she first arrived that Shadowtown consisted of over 3000 abandoned properties including businesses, homes, factories, and even apartment buildings. Apparently, the Fae decided to claim it almost three years ago when it had been abandoned for nearly a decade and erected the spells to keep humans out.

I wasn’t quite certain what to expect given the brief overview that Greta had given us about Shadowtown, but I am fairly certain that if I did have any specific expectations, they would have been horribly wrong. Everywhere I looked, trees towered above me, far up into the sky. Streets and sidewalks were somehow mostly unaffected, but there was very little traffic at the moment. The forest that had otherwise claimed the area from the yards of homes and other greenspaces grew up and around the buildings, along their surfaces, and sometimes even wound through the more open structures.

This looked like far more than a decade’s worth of growth, it was as if the city had been reclaimed by nature hundreds of years ago if you ignored some glaring inconsistencies. For one thing, this seemed to be a business district and people were walking in and out of the overgrown buildings. There seemed to be electricity inside as well, going by the lights inside the buildings and the streetlights by the roadside, which had been all but consumed by sweet-smelling flowering vines.

It looked, smelled, and even sounded like an old forest, I was pretty sure that there were animals around too, going by my senses. Another strange thing was that the buildings seemed to be in far better condition than I would have thought for structures built in the early to mid-1900s and recently abandoned for a decade or so. These looked solid and well cared for, despite nature growing wild around and upon them. In fact, in some places, the growth seemed to secure and support damaged or rough areas.

Willow-the-wisps in a rainbow of colors floated lazily above us in the night sky, and on one street corner, I saw a woman with rabbit ears talking to another who looked like an Elf from The Lord of the Rings. There was this magical and comforting feel to the place that I had never felt before anywhere else. As I rode along behind Greta’s van, I kept expecting the illusion to fade but it seemed that the entirety of Shadowtown was like this.

The van ahead of me stopped in front of a much larger-looking forested area with foliage-covered homes across the street. As I stepped off my bike, the slime girl that had been back in girl form since we passed through the glamour and holding (groping) on tightly to me, grabbed enthusiastically onto my arm while we waited for our other companions to get out of Greta’s van and join us. “Mmmm… reddy red Red, such a nice looking forest. Let’s find a quiet place and fill it with some screams. I wanna hear it and see your face when I make you…”

“She’s mine, slime,” Goldie practically growled as she stepped out of the van just in time to hear and interrupt however Berry was going to finish me… err that sentence. My useless lesbian brain can’t take much more of these brazen girls throwing themselves at me. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on something else as the Vampire pulled our captive from the van and Greta came around from the driver’s side to join us.

The Witch wasn’t looking too hot. Well, I mean, she definitely was hot, I just… Stop that, Red, get your damn brain off of sex. Goldie and Berry are bad enough as it is. Anyway, Greta was looking very pale and from the way that she was shuffling as she walked around the side of the vehicle, she appeared to be exhausted as well. “Are you okay?” I asked in concern.

“I’m fucking fine,” she replied unconvincingly.

“You’re not fooling anyone, Greta,” Goldie pointed out as she effortlessly hefted our overweight payday over her shoulder. “You were hiding it well enough when you came to pick us all up, but you’re exhausted. You look like you’re about to fall over.”

“I’m jus…” Greta attempted to insist as she stumbled and had to lean against the side of the van.

“You were saying,” I retorted with a roll of my eyes before turning to the slime girl beside me. “Berry, you’re pretty strong, do you think that you could carry her? For me?”

Berry didn’t seem terribly enthusiastic about the idea, especially since it would take her away from me, whom she seemed very fixated on. She seemed to consider it a moment and then smiled as she said, “Fine, I’ll do it for you, but I’m at least getting some sugar later, as a reward.” She didn’t wait for my reply before picking Greta up in a princess carry.

“I’m fucking fine, just a little tired. I think I just used too much mana; I didn’t even start to fucking feel it until the adrenaline of our little hunt wore off,” the Witch tried to protest. Then she poked a finger into the pink slime girl that was now carrying her. “Summoning her almost drained me dry and trying to dispel her only succeeded in sucking up what mana I had left.”

“Yes,” a small and somewhat musical voice agreed. “She is definitely mana exhausted. Unlike the Fae, who use mana from the world around us, a Witch’s mana reserves are finite. When those reserves are drained, they start using physical energy to fuel their magic. She will need food and plenty of rest over the next few days while she recovers and restores her mana reserves. I am most curious about why she would use so much of her power to create such a creature and permanently bind it to someone other than herself.”

“It was a fucking mistake, okay?! I’ve only known I was a Witch for a couple of days and my spells suck and do random shit every time I cast them!” Greta replied reflexively before realizing that it wasn’t one of us who spoke.

The four of us were suddenly looking around frantically for the source of that small voice that had surprised us all. Frankly, this whole place was unusual, and it had so many unfamiliar scents and sounds that it made the owner of the voice hard to find. Finally, my eyes caught a barely perceptible motion on a branch of one of the trees at the edge of the forested area we were parked near.

My eyes went wide as I focused on the tiny person who had made the motion, and who had probably spoken before as well. She was an honest-to-goodness Fairy; maybe four inches tall, she looked vaguely human in shape with pale skin, long shimmering hair that I thought might be silver, and a quartet of iridescent rose-colored wings on her back. I wouldn’t have noticed her at all if it hadn’t been for the movement of those shimmering wings and my sharp eyes.

“Ah, a newly awakened Witch, that explains everything. It will take time, thought, and training before you are able to use your Pentagram to cast your spells reliably. You are quite fortunate that you did not harm anyone, but I see that you and your companions have brought us the man that we seek,” the Fairy replied thoughtfully.

“F-f-fairy…” was all that I could manage to squeak out as I stared. Poor Goldie nearly dropped our captive and only Berry seemed completely nonplussed about this, but then she was only brought to life a little more than an hour ago and she was a living blob of slime.

Greta was gaping at the Fairy almost as badly as I was and was trying to form questions, but her tongue obviously wasn’t cooperating. “Pentagram?” she finally managed to blurt out.

“Yes, I am. The BriarRose Family is a Fairy clan, after all. Do you know nothing of Shadowtown?” the tiny silver-haired woman replied to me helpfully. Then she fluttered off the tree branch to hover in the air before us and answered Greta’s question as well. “The Witch’s Pentagram, the five points of focus that will allow you to control your magic; Mana flow, Will, Intent, Cadence, and Rhyme.”

Goldie was the first of us to restore her ability to string sentences together. “We’re all… uhh… new arrivals. Most of us haven’t even been Arcane for very long, and the slime was only created an hour or two ago. Greta arrived a few days ago and heard that you were looking for this guy, and then met us while chasing him down. So, we helped to capture him, and here we are. I’m Goldie, that’s Red, the slime girl is Berry, and the Witch is Greta.”

“Here you are,” the Fairy agreed. It was hard to tell with how small she was, but I had the feeling that she was smiling. “You may call me Cerriwyn. Come, follow me and I shall take you to our Chieftain so that you can be properly rewarded for your services.”

Cerriwyn promptly flew off, leading us to and then along a walking path that snaked through the thick woods that had probably once been a public park, judging by the path and the park benches alongside it. Apparently, the BriarRose clan had claimed this entire forested former park as their home, and their queen waited at the very center. As we followed her, Cerriwyn quickly explained some things about Shadowtown for us.

Two clans of Fae from the Summer Court had been instrumental in the forming of Shadowtown. The first was the BriarRose Fairy clan, their chieftain had placed the glamour and enchantment over the abandoned area of the city, and it was she who kept it from falling. I didn’t even want to think about how powerful she must be to do that, or what might happen to those who crossed her, like the man Goldie had slung over her shoulder.

The other clan was the Hawthorne clan of the Aos Sídhe, like the LOTR elf I had seen earlier, and ruled by Elric, a progressive young prince of the Summer Court. Where the Fairies excelled in misdirection and illusion magic, their counterparts in the Hawthorne clan specialized in nature magic. It was they who had grown the insane wilderness without damaging the roads, buildings, or infrastructure. They were also the ones who brought in Knockers, Brownies, and other Summer Court Fae to repair damaged structures or tear down ones that were lost causes so the materials could be used to help in repairs elsewhere and new woodland regrown in their place.

Now that process was nearly complete and both clans had split Shadowtown down the middle, for themselves or those allied to them, though there was a growing population of non-Fae as well, like Greta’s bartender friend. Usually, even the non-Fae were employed by one of those two clans in some way though, and those of us who could interact with the normies outside to buy needed supplies or construction and repair materials were a valuable resource in Upper Shadowtown.

It would seem that this community of Arcane had its seedy underbelly though. In tunnels and caverns built well below the sewer systems by Goblins and other nasty creatures sat Lower Shadowtown. It was ruled by Malafis, a self-styled Queen of the Winter Court. It was said that not even the backstabbing and power games of the Winter Court could take her down because of her powerful scrying abilities. As long as she had a mirror or another reflective surface, she could spy on anyone, anywhere.

Not only did she rule most of Lower Shadowtown with an iron fist, but she had made her presence known in Upper Shadowtown as well. She had information merchants and ran a currency exchange on the BriarRose side. Most of her criminal enterprises were focused outside of Shadowtown and spread across several states since she didn’t want a war within Shadowtown itself. Outside Shadowtown everything was fair game though. Drug trafficking, assassins, theft; if it was criminal, she probably had her hands in it somewhere. She even made some money by smuggling in things that the Aos Sidhe in Upper Shadowtown had trouble getting their hands on, for a price. She held a shaky truce with those living above and her only real problem was her daughter.

The rumor was that decades ago Malafis had tried to poison her daughter in a fit of jealousy over her great beauty. Now that daughter wanted to see the world burn, particularly her mother, and she had a small army of Dwarves under her thumb to help her. Over the last six months, she had carved out a piece of Lower Shadowtown for herself, made several attempts on her mother’s life, and was starting to sell drugs inside Shadowtown. Nobody spoke her daughter’s name aloud in Shadowtown, lest it invite trouble, so she was locally known by the same name as the product she peddled, Snow White.

Snow White was a variant of cocaine that was particularly addictive and potent to Arcane and Cerriwyn warned us to avoid it, and the woman herself if we could. As long as we kept to Upper Shadowtown and were careful when dealing with those from below, we would likely be fine if we chose to stay. At least we now knew all of the major players, and who to avoid. The BriarRose Family, the Hawthorne Family, the Blackapple Family, and the White Family. The four different groups were now locally known as the Four Families, and everyone in Shadowtown had ties to at least one of them somehow.

“You’re making it sound like we’d be dealing with the mafia or something,” Goldie muttered before summing up with a grimace, “Okay, so there’s four Families ruling here. Snow White rules the White Family, evil Queen Malafis rules the Blackapple Family, Prince Elric runs the Hawthorne Family, and your BriarRose family is ruled by…” She trailed off as she realized that we hadn’t heard the Fairy give their chieftain’s name yet.

“Well, sort of? I mean it does fit since the ‘Families’ pretty much run all of Shadowtown, or want to,” our tiny guide admitted. Then she gestured to a small clearing with glowing flowers and mushrooms growing all over the ground and a single oak growing in the center. “Look, we’re almost there. Oh, and our leader is Chieftain Rissara, but most people around Shadowtown call her the Fairy Godmother. She will be so happy to hear that you have brought the man we have been looking for.”

“Just to be clear, there is a reward, right?” Greta asked tiredly from Berry’s arms.

The fairy turned back toward us to flutter backward as her minuscule head bobbed rapidly up and down in assent. “Yes, and trust me, it will be worth it. Chief Rissara is going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

As I thought about what offer the Fairy Godmother might make us, I had to wonder what Porgie had done to earn her ire. He probably deserved it since I recognized his name as that of a pedophile who had escaped from prison, so I didn’t have much sympathy for him, but I was curious. “So, Cerriwyn, what did this guy do that earned him a price on his head among your people?” I asked.

The Fairy’s tone turned suddenly cold as she answered, “He lured young Miss Ella into one of the uninhabited homes with sweets while she was running an errand for Chief Rissara, and then he attempted to do unspeakable things to her. If her guardian Fairies hadn’t been there to stop him and chase him off…” Her angered voice trailed off in disgust and sympathy.

“Ella?” Goldie asked, hoping for clarification.

“A human child that the Chieftain encountered in the city outside of Shadowtown last year and took a fancy to. She was in foster care and being abused by the two other girls there, and the woman who was caring for them all. Chieftain Rissara spirited her away and placed an enchantment on her to allow her to pass the protections over Shadowtown. We have been caring for her since and she has a comfortable living space beneath the roots of the great oak,” the fairy explained as she pointed to a large hollowed-out area beneath the massive tree.

Now that she mentioned it, I could smell another human scent other than Porgies, a much sweeter one. I looked toward where the Fairy pointed and saw a sturdy, round wooden door in a space beneath the massive roots as we approached the tree. The door gave the den privacy, and I couldn’t hear anything, but she was probably asleep at the moment anyway.

The thought of what he had tried to do to that child made me feel sick to my stomach and very angry. Okay, yeah, that fat bastard deserved whatever he was going to get. “Is she okay?” Goldie asked in concern.

“Yes, she was a little scared and upset at the time, but her protectors cast some illusions to chase him off before he could do anything more than scare her. If we could do more than illusion and misdirection magic, we would have been able to capture and punish him ourselves, that is why we put the price on his head. He tried to harm a young girl under our protection; he must pay the long price. I’ll go get the Chieftain and be right back,” our Fairy guide replied as we reached the base of the large oak at the center of the small clearing.

All of the flitting around of the Fairies in the tree seemed to stop and the clearing became silent and very still as Cerriwyn flitted off and Goldie dropped Porgie unceremoniously to the ground. Berry placed Greta down a lot more gently. The Witch had to sit down since she was still unsteady on her feet, but we had been warned that she would need to rest for a few days.

We waited in the eerily quiet clearing for a while, and in that time, Porgie began to stir. He had barely started to move and complain before Goldie put him in a headlock and held him in place with her superior strength. “You won’t be slipping away this time, you fat piece of shit,” Greta taunted as he struggled to free himself.

Several awkward moments passed with Porgie whimpering in Goldie’s grip and struggling to free himself. I would have expected him to yell and curse at us, but as soon as he had seen the Fairies in the air around and above us, he became like a terrified animal. I wondered just what illusion the Fairies had used to scare him away that it had him that spooked by their mere presence.

Cerriwyn returned shortly afterward, accompanied by a Fairy with golden wings and hair who seemed to exude power and confidence. It was she who spoke first. “I have heard from Cerriwyn that you are all new to being Arcane, new to Shadowtown, and beholden to none of the Families here. Yet, you have done a great service to me and mine by bringing the defiler to us. You may collect your monetary reward through the Shadowtown bank; these marks will let them know to transfer the funds to you from my account. I also have an offer to make the four of you.”

I felt a tingling sensation on the back of my right hand and saw a strange violet-hued cursive glyph there. A glance toward the others showed similar marks on the back of their hands. “Yeah, Cerriwyn mentioned something about that, an offer we can’t refuse?” Goldie replied, sounding unsure whether to take it as a joke or to be concerned. I couldn’t be sure if she had felt the tingling as well or just wasn’t concerned by it.

“Indeed,” the Fairy Chieftain said with a laugh. “You will have to excuse us for leaning into the mobster tropes. The offer is such: I wish to employ you as my enforcers. All of the other Families have those who see to their important tasks and protect their interests, but I have not seen the need until now. Fairies do not have the physical prowess, size, or versatile magic to do so, the best we can do is misdirect. I need powerful Arcane who will protect my interests, and the people under my purview. The Witch is inexperienced, but I can feel the great power that she has inherited. The rest of you are powerful in your own rights as well, and none of your kinds currently reside within Shadowtown yet.”

“So, you want us to be your hired muscle and do things that you can’t do yourselves, what do we get out of this?” Greta asked tiredly.

“You will be paid well for your services at the end of each month, but I also offer you security. I will grant you one of the larger houses where Cerriwyn awaited you when you arrived, and you will all be considered full members of the BriarRose Clan, and under our protection, so long as you remain loyal to us. You will have access to our Healers if needed and I will use my contacts in the human world to create new identities for those of you who need them so that you can safely traverse the world outside of Shadowtown. As you protect my interests, so too will we protect you when required,” the Fairy offered, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise and suck in a breath that I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

The Fairy Godmother wasn’t done yet though. “If we can, we will also help you all to develop and learn to control your abilities. There are several experienced Witches who work in our half of upper Shadowtown who could be convinced to teach you, and we will do what we can for your friends as well.”

“Well, we’re not really friends, we all just met recently,” I said with a sad shake of my head. The deal sounded good though, very good, especially since Goldie, Greta, and I were all running from something. I didn’t want to grow in my abilities though. I had to admit that the enhanced senses were really cool, but they were also annoying at times, and I was terrified of what was going to happen on the full moon. I sighed and added, “As good as your offer sounds, I’m not sure if I can take it. I’m looking for a cure to my condition, and I won’t be very useful to you if I can find it.”

Rissara’s voice was both sad and sympathetic as she shook her tiny head. “I am truly sorry, young one. There is no cure for any of you, save a final death. You have all been changed by your exposure to various supernatural forces; you are Arcane now, and there is no going back to being human. You have it the worst, but perhaps in time, you can learn to control yourself in your lupine state. I shall look into it for you and until then, perhaps I can find a secure place to keep you from harming anyone while the moon is full.”

My heart fell at that announcement, and I could see Goldie side-eyeing me with a concerned look as she continued to hold Porgie in a grip that he couldn’t escape. My throat constricted and tears were on the verge of falling as I choked out, “I… I see. I guess I’ll be taking your offer then.” It probably wasn’t a good idea to make a deal with the Fae, especially while upset, but she seemed to be sincere and protected the people she considered her own. Goldie and I also needed a place to hide out and Shadowtown would be perfect.

“If Red is in, I’m in,” Berry said as she put an arm around me. Surprisingly though, she didn’t grope me or anything, it was just a simple consoling hug of support. That was a bit of a shock coming from the usually randy slime girl. Maybe there was more to her than just lusting after me after all.

“I said she’s mine, you pink slut!” Goldie snapped. “But yeah, if she’s in, then I’m in. It’s not like we have anywhere else to go.”

“What the hell, I need someplace to live and to learn how to control this fucking magic anyway. I guess that I’m in too,” Greta added after a moment’s consideration. “It does sound like a pretty sweet fucking deal.”

“Very well, welcome to the BriarRose Family then, I will have Cerriwyn show you to your new home when we are done here,” the Fairy Godmother replied, sounding very pleased with our acceptance. With our fates now decided, her tone turned as cold as Antarctica as she turned her attention to Porgie, who Goldie still held securely and pulled into a kneeling position. “And now to deal with you, Defiler.”

The overweight man whimpered something that sounded like, “Please,” but Rissara immediately cut him off.

“Hold your tongue, Defiler!” she snapped furiously. “You have attempted to harm a child that I consider my own, and if the information that I have acquired from human authorities is accurate, you have done unspeakable things to a great many young girls and would have done so to Ella as well. You abuse the innocent and powerless, make them fulfill your sick desires, and traumatize them for the rest of their lives in doing so. You shall reap what you have sown. Malafis, I assume that you are watching.”

The moment that she spoke the name of the head of the Blackapple Family, the scent of burnt ozone tickled my nose and the air nearby seemed to rip open, revealing a pair of women. The first was tall and pale with ebony hair and had cold blue eyes and ethereal beauty. The other was obviously an adult from the large breasts and generous curves, but was even shorter than I was, probably around four foot eight. I imagined that everyone was large and intimidating to an adult that small. Her hair, eyes, and complexion were all a sort of muddy brown, but she remained unmoving and didn’t react as the much taller woman dragged her through the tear in space to join us.

“I see that some people completed your little quest after all, Rissara,” the tall woman, who could only be Malafis, said as she looked us over with cold and calculating eyes. “I have made the golem and enchanted it, as you requested. Now, as for my payment…”

“Yes, yes, once you have placed the defiler’s soul into the golem, it will remain yours to use in one of your seedy little whorehouses in Lower Shadowtown, for all eternity as far as I care. As long as he suffers the price for his actions.”

“Oh he, or rather she, shall. I can assure you of that. The soul will remain aware but a prisoner inside the golem. The dissonance between his male soul and that lovely little female body will be the most sublime torture, especially since he will feel every single sensation, but be unable to resist or do anything of his own volition. The golem will only respond to and enact the commands of those that I give control over her, or those who purchase her time,” the dark-haired elven woman replied with a chilling smile. “This is actually a good deal for me; a whore who doesn’t need breaks, food, or sleep, can heal from even the roughest treatment quickly, will provide any service that her clients desire, and can live for millennia. I may have to create more if this one works out well.”

“You know the deal we struck, Malafis,” the Fairy Godmother warned.

Malafis rolled her eyes but nodded. “Yes, only others like him, who deserve such punishment according to the very restrictive guidelines that you oh so tediously set out. Our deal was struck, and I am bound to honor it, as agreed.”

“Good,” the Fairy answered simply before turning back to Porgie. “Let us see how you like being on the receiving end of the treatment you have given others. You will be small, unable to resist, and forced to enact whatever sick sexual acts that others desire from you, just as your victims were.”

Porgie's eyes were wide as he begged, “No! Please! I…” His eyes only went wider, and he screamed in terror, as Malafis began to chant something under her breath and plunged her now glowing hand into his chest. There was none of the expected blood or gore, only his screaming. Screaming that morphed into a keening unnatural wail as the dark Fae pulled something from inside of him, something incorporeal that I sensed was there but could not smell, see, or hear.

When Malafis removed her hand from his chest, there wasn’t even a spot of blood on him or his clothes. The expression of existential horror that had been etched into his face remained as his pulse and breathing ceased and he fell from Goldie’s hurriedly released grip. The Fae sorceress of the Winter Court didn’t give the collapsing meat sack a second glance, nor cease her chanting, as she turned to the unmoving golem that she had brought and thrust her hand into its ample chest.

An eerie light filled the golem’s brown eyes, and I half expected her to start screaming where Porgie had left off, but nothing happened as Malefis removed her hand and her chanting ceased. It was breathing and could hear a heartbeat, but both seemed artificial to my ears, only there to convince others that it was alive, not because it actually needed to. A cruel smile lit up Malafis’s face as she said, “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Rissara. Come, Georgia, let’s get you to your new home at The Singing Siren and put you to work. As sturdy and accommodating as you are, you should be very popular there. Oh, and remember to smile.”

Another tear in space formed as Malafis chanted under her breath, and the golem said nothing as she pasted a smile onto her face that didn’t reach her eyes and followed the ebony-haired Fae obediently through the opening. “Holy shit. Note to self; do not fuck with the Fae,” Greta muttered under her breath as the tear in space vanished behind Malafis and her new ‘employee’ and the clearing went quiet.

I heartily agreed with the Witch and suddenly wondered if working for the BriarRose Family was such a good idea after all. We had already agreed though, so I would have to hope that our interests aligned or, at the very least, that we wouldn’t have to do anything too detestable. A barely audible sigh drew my mind away from my conflicted thoughts and toward the Fairy Godmother.

“I apologize for the four of you having to see such dark magic right after agreeing to my proposal,” Rissara said as she took in the uncertainty on our faces. Only Berry seemed unconcerned. “Having to deal with Malafis is distasteful, but her magic is much more versatile than mine, and I know that she will be as bound to our deal as I am, so no others will suffer who do not deserve it. That man was a repeat offender, had no remorse for his crimes, and has repeatedly escaped human justice. When he attempted to harm one of mine, I was bound to see him pay appropriately for his crimes.”

Cerriwyn quickly came to her chieftain’s defense, even though none of us had actually voiced our uncertainty. “She hates having to harm anyone; we Fairies may be mischievous at times, but we are usually gentle people and prefer not to harm others without good reason, which is why we have had no enforcers until now. He tried to harm a child under our care; honor demanded that he pay the long price for all of his crimes. As with all Fae, it is our nature to redress the wrongs done to us or those under our care. She would do the same to anyone who committed grievous crimes against me, the Arcane who work for us in Shadowtown, and now any of you as well.”

On one hand, I was terrified of accidentally crossing any of the Fae now, but on the other, I felt like the Fairy Godmother, and her people would also have our backs no matter what happened, so long as we remained loyal to them. I was slightly more reassured as Rissara vowed, “You have my word that I will not ask you to do anything as… distasteful as Malafis just did. Most of the assignments that I give you; I will leave you to resolve at your own discretion and with your own methods. Should I ever ask you to do something that you find truly horrendous, then you may back out of our arrangement with no ill will from me or my people.”

I found myself believing her and reassured by that promise. She seemed sympathetic and caring, and everything that I had heard so far told me that Fae were bound to promises. She had just given us an out if we really wanted it and we found ourselves incompatible with her needs. She didn’t have to do that and it raised my opinion of her and the BriarRose Clan a great deal. I could work with them, at least until we got a better feel of who we were dealing with beyond these first impressions. “Thank you, Rissara, I appreciate your consideration for us,” I told her honestly.

Greta and Goldie seemed to feel the same, though the former took a long look at the tiny Fairies, then Porgie’s corpse on the ground nearby, and sighed tiredly. “We’re going to have to dispose of a body now, aren’t we?” I groaned in agreement since it had been a long and eventful night, and I was getting tired.

To my surprise, Berry relinquished her hold on me as she offered playfully and with a hint of concern, “I can take care of it. Why don’t you all go to whatever house we’re being placed in and get some rest? I think that I can find you when I’m done by following the pull I feel from this sexy bitch. But first, I was promised some sugar!” The slime girl turned to face me, wrapped me up in her arms, and gave me a very long and passionate kiss.

I was about to protest that I hadn’t promised anything, and she had just arbitrarily said it was going to happen when I felt her lips on mine, and her tongue insistently probing. I was so surprised by the kiss that my mouth involuntarily opened to give her access and the next thing I knew, our tongues were jousting. I vaguely heard a protest from Goldie, but I was also discovering what a good kisser Berry was for someone who had only come into being a few hours ago.

Her lips and tongue were moist, but not slimy like I had expected, and she had a slight warmth to her that Goldie unfortunately lacked by being undead. She was also raw overwhelming passion, while Goldie always tried to match my own pace. It was an interesting contrast, and I was a bit lightheaded by the time that Berry finally released me.

With that, our new employer bid us goodnight, asking Cerriwyn to show us the house we would be living in. The silver-haired Fairy would also stay with us for the night so that she could show us around Shadow town when we woke, and take us to the bank and anywhere else that we might need to go to get what we needed to settle in. As she led us through the forest to our new home, Goldie carried the exhausted Witch, though she made it clear that she would rather be carrying me, or at least holding my hand.

I was lost in thought though. So much had happened during the night and with dawn and the horizon I took in the strange supernatural town around us as we followed the Fairy to our vehicles and then across the street to our apparent destination. I found myself wondering the entire time about what the future would bring.

The house that Cerriwyn led us to was one of the largest homes in the area and directly across the street from the park/forest where the Fairies made their home. It was a large two-story brick affair that was mostly hidden by crawling vines growing over it and the small grove of cherry trees that had taken over the front yard. The backyard was similarly overgrown but there was a small deck at the back of the house that would be nice to relax on with all of the trees back there.

Overall, the house was in good shape, and the Fairy told us that only relatively minor repairs and some major cleaning had been needed to make it livable. The Fairy Godmother had been considering housing little Ella there but decided against it since the house was too big for one little girl to live alone in, and she wanted her close to the Fairies so they could see to her needs properly. There was no furniture, but Cerriwyn promised to show us where we could get some in Shadowtown, as well as where we could get extra sets of keys made. She planned on showing us things like that after we went to the bank the next morning.

The place did have a working fridge and stove and even a washing machine and dryer that had been left there when the place was eventually abandoned. The latter two were in the large unfinished basement and hadn’t worked when the Fae first assessed the places in the neighborhood, but they had been able to repair them in preparation for possible tenants so now they worked properly. Everything else we were going to have to get on our own to make the place comfortable for us.

Still, even with four of us staying here, this was a lot better place to live and stay hidden than we would have been able to find outside of Shadowtown, and now it was ours. It had the unfinished basement, three bedrooms, a full bathroom on the upper floor where the bedrooms were, and a half bathroom on the main floor as well. The best thing was that it had working heat, electricity, and running water.

At first, I wasn’t sure how they had managed all of that until Cerriwyn explained it. Knockers, Brownies, and other Fae who were good at fixing things and cleaning maintained the water, sewage, and electricity systems for Shadowtown and were paid well to do it. We didn’t get our electricity from the main power grid either. There was an old, abandoned coal power plant within Shadowtown that the Fae had repaired which now provided our electricity, though they didn’t use coal to fuel it.

The heat that the plant used to create the steam for the turbine was provided by a small colony of Bluecaps that made the power plant their home. They were similar to the Wisps that I had seen floating in the air all over the city, only instead of emitting bright light in various colors; they produced extremely hot blue flames, which were plenty hot to make a continuous supply of steam to supply our power.

We had a mated pair of Bluecaps nesting in our basement as well, as did most of the buildings in Shadowtown, to provide our heat and hot water. In return, they got a nice cozy nest and the people hosting them usually kept them fed as well so they wouldn’t have to leave to gather food on their own. We were told that they usually eat seeds and that both of the markets in Shadowtown and the various convenience stores, carried birdseed that suited them fine.

Cerriwyn introduced us to the pair when she showed us the basement, though their names were damn near impossible to pronounce so the pair allowed us to call them Blue and Belle. They actually resembled Fairies when you got a close enough look, though their wings and the rest of their tiny bodies were sheathed in bright blue flames. They seemed friendly enough, but even when they were being careful to keep their flames and heat low for us, we couldn’t get too close without risking a burn, especially Belle. She was expecting the couple’s first child soon and apparently, that made her burn hotter than usual.

Once we had said our goodnights to the pair, Cerriwyn quickly finished our tour of the house so that Greta could get some rest. The Witch looked like she was hanging on to consciousness by a thread and our Fairy guide thought it best for her to get some rest as soon as possible so she could restore at least some of her mana reserves. Greta seemed to agree since she didn’t even stick around for the tour of the second floor, she just claimed the bedroom at the top of the stairs as hers and closed the door behind her.

Fortunately, that left the master bedroom available for me and Goldie when Cerriwyn bid us goodnight to find a comfortable spot on our windowsill to nap until we all woke up. The master bedroom was a south-facing room, and for the moment the trees outside would prevent any direct sunlight from getting inside, so Goldie wouldn’t have to worry about exposure before we could get some curtains. I made a mental note to do that as soon as possible since the leaves on the trees were in vivid shades of red, orange, and yellow, and would likely be gone altogether soon.

I was trying to get somewhat comfortable on the carpeted floor of the master bedroom when I heard the knock at the door. Goldie had managed to fall asleep already, but from what she had told me, she was used to sleeping in uncomfortable places and she didn’t get cold so the lack of blankets wouldn’t bother her either. I was trying to get comfortable using my jacket as a pillow when the knock came, so I reluctantly got up and went to answer the door.

I assumed that the early morning knocker was Berry, and looking through the peephole confirmed it. I had expected her to take a lot longer to dispose of the body, but at least she wouldn’t be waking me up. Stifling a yawn, I opened the door and was instantly groped and passionately kissed. I was gasping for air by the time she broke the kiss, did she forget that some of us have to breathe?

“Mmmmm, I missed you Red. The body is disposed of, so how about we make up for lost time?” she practically purred into my ear before licking it and releasing me. Something was odd, other than just being practically molested by a very amorous slime girl and the talk of getting rid of bodies. She seemed a bit taller and bigger overall, even her already large chest seemed a bit bigger. I looked up at her in confusion and then moved my eyes over her, trying to figure out what was different.

When my eyes reached her abdomen, I stared in shock for a moment and backed away. There, plainly visible through her translucent pink body, was a human skull dissolving inside her stomach. “Ptthhpt! Ew ew ewww!” I sputtered and spat before wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my hoodie. “You just kissed me after eating someone?! I think I’m gonna throw up…”

“So, that’s a turn-off then? It’s not as if he even touched my lips and tongue, I just… absorbed him. We could turn off the lights if you want,” she replied as she moved closer again, seemingly oblivious to why it might bother me.

Under normal circumstances, seeing her digesting something might be cool, though how under any circumstances even interacting with a slime girl could be considered normal was beyond me. Welcome to being an Arcane, Red, weird shit is your life now. Her nonchalance about the whole thing wasn’t making me any more comfortable about it either.

“Yes, that’s a turn-off! You just ate a person! And even if I was interested in having sex with you right now, which I’m not, turning off the lights wouldn’t help!” Even if I didn’t have good night vision, just knowing what she was currently digesting was making me sick and upset.

“Hey! It’s not as if I killed him or ate him alive, it was the quickest way to get rid of the body and I was hungry. What are you complaining about? The body is disposed of, and nobody is ever going to find it. That’s what you wanted, right?” She couldn’t even seem to see why I was upset about it, as if…

Well, fuck. Of course, she couldn’t understand. She was a magical construct with only a few hours of real-world experiences under her belt, she was probably mostly following whatever instincts that she was created with. Hell, it was probably a minor miracle that she could talk and communicate with us in any meaningful way at all. Greta hadn’t created her to have a life of her own but to have a single purpose before vanishing into oblivion. It was only because she had no control over her powerful magic that Berry came into being the way that she did.

The Fairies seemed to believe that she was bound to me, and she was more than a little obsessed with me because of that. She had disposed of the body for my sake, and she had done it in the fastest and most efficient way that she could conceive of, by doing what was natural to her. Because we hadn’t thought to tell her otherwise, and here I was freaking out at her. Now I felt like a heel.

Berry wasn’t the problem here, I was. How was I going to adapt to all of this Arcane stuff, if I kept freaking out at every weird thing that caught me by surprise? She was right too; it wasn’t like I could taste the dead human on her lips and tongue, just a hint of a slightly citrus-like flavor. It was really no different than Goldie kissing me, and that probably should have freaked me out more than this had since we had gotten together because I could sometimes smell and taste a hint of blood from her feedings with my newly sharpened senses.

I was upset about this because I had seen the death happen and had seen the remains of her meal that was still being digested inside of her. I had met the man that skull belonged to, had seen him die before my eyes, and, in a way, I had contributed to that death. This had been a grisly reminder of that. It also blatantly displayed that Berry was what most people would consider a monster, but then, weren’t we all?

I let out a sigh and tried to look anywhere but at her abdomen. “I’m sorry, Berry, I… it’s been a long night and there’s just been… too much death in my life lately.” And I had been responsible for much of it. “I think I need to try and get some sleep.”

I didn’t give Berry a chance to reply, I just turned on my heel and fled to the bedroom and Goldie. I didn’t have the energy to deal with whatever advances she might make. I almost thought that I heard her sigh in return before she spoke to my retreating back. “I’ll… I guess that I’ll wait for my meal to finish digesting before I come upstairs.”

My sleep was full of nightmares once again. Granny, and her death at my hands, made another appearance, but mostly I dreamt of the life that I had been forced to leave behind, and would never be able to return to, and my inevitable path toward becoming a monster. I woke up not long after falling asleep, screaming, with tears running down my face.

When I awoke from the nightmares, I must have woken Goldie as well because I was aware of her holding me tightly in her arms and whispering softly in my ear. “Shhh… it’s okay, Red. It was just a nightmare. I’m here, and you’ll be okay. Everything is… okay.”

Even as sleep-dazed as I was, I could hear the catch in her voice, the slight sniffle as her body shook ever so slightly behind me. Did she have a nightmare too? I tried to turn around in her arms, but she was too strong and holding me too tightly. The slight catches of her breath made it sound like she was crying. It was hard to believe since she hadn’t seemed bothered by anything that had happened since we met, she seemed to take it all in stride so easily.

After a moment of listening as she clung to me and tried to assure me that everything was okay, I whispered in the dark, “Everything is not okay. Not for me, and not for you. What’s wrong, Honey? Did everything that happened tonight get to you too?”

A heavy silence settled over us for several moments before the blonde Vampire haltingly replied. “A little, I guess. Mostly it was your… warmth.”

“My warmth?” I asked in drowsy confusion.

Goldie took in a deep breath and pulled me closer. “It comforts me, but… at the same time... it reminds me that I’m not really alive. I’m… just an animated corpse. I don’t really need to breathe, and my heart only beats when I focus on it. You know, when I was first turned I… tried to resist the temptation and my need for blood…”

There was another brief hush after she trailed off and I finally spoke again, uncertain if I truly wanted her to finish her thought or if I just wanted to fill the uncomfortable silence. “What happened, Goldie?”

She hesitated before telling me, “I… I start to decay if I don't feed. Eventually I… couldn’t resist the call for blood, I ended up going into a bloodlust and feeding on a family to restore myself. I… can’t let myself lose control like that again and… I don’t want to rot away. I’ve been trying to live this parody of a life since and enjoy what time I have. It’s why I don’t hesitate and try to live in the moment, but sometimes… I’m reminded that I’m a monster.”

“You are not a monster. None of us are,” Cerriwyn’s small voice said quietly from the windowsill. “Monster is just a label, a word that humans use to define that which they do not understand. Monsters, myths, fairy tales, fables… they have so many labels to define and divide us but do not let the humans tell you who and what you are. They do not know you; most do not even believe you, or any of us, exist. The only person that can define you is you, through your words, actions, and self-discovery. Many of us who exist beyond the ken of men have chosen to label ourselves as Arcane, those touched by magic. We cannot change what we are, so we choose to own it.”

Goldie and I fell back into silence at those words, each lost in our thoughts. Maybe we were both trying to define ourselves or, at the very least, decide who and what we wanted to be. It was a while before I fell back to sleep. How much choice would I really have in who and what I was going to be once the full moon came? If I could learn to control it somehow, I thought that I might be able to live with being Arcane, but I was so damn scared of becoming a monster.

I woke up feeling unexpectedly warm and comfortable. Not wanting to leave the pleasant coziness of my bed, I just laid there for a few minutes with my eyes closed and snuggled closer to Goldie. She was cold as usual, but the warmth of our bed seemed to raise her body temperature enough to make it slightly less jarring when our bodies touched.

The bed was so warm and cozy, with a liquid feel to it, like the most comfortable waterbed ever. It was so nice that I didn’t want to leave, and yet, I really had to go pee and that was causing me to stir from my warm comfort of the bed. Wait… bed? As my mind cleared and I shook off the fog of sleep, memories of the long and strange night we had came back to me, and they did not include me falling asleep in such a comfortable bed.

My eyes shot wide open, my heart beating wildly until sat bolt upright and discovered that the apparently thin mattress that I was lying on was translucent and a very familiar shade of pink. Berry’s voice spoke hesitantly from somewhere near my head. “I… you didn’t look very comfortable sleeping on the hard floor and I… absorbed a lot of extra mass last night.”

Shit, I had made her self-conscious last night when I freaked out. I replied quietly, not wanting to wake Goldie since she seemed to be still asleep. “Look, Berry, I shouldn’t have freaked out at you like I did last night. I… have a lot of baggage, and I’m still trying to get used to all of this Arcane stuff, but that’s no excuse for getting upset with you and then walking off without properly apologizing. You were trying to help, and it probably was the best way to get rid of the body. Thanks for doing that for us, and I’m sorry for upsetting you and not taking your feelings into account. You’re not just some spell that Greta cast anymore, you’re a person too and you didn’t deserve a lot of what I said. I should have been a lot more tactful.”

Tendrils of slime emerged from the ‘mattress’ to wrap me in what was probably supposed to be a hug as Berry’s voice asked, “Does that mean that we’re…”

“Friends,” I finished for her. “For now, anyway. You never know what the future might bring. I’m not going to try to change who you are, and I know that you have a thing for me, but let’s keep it as friends for now. Thanks for making my sleep more comfortable, and for including Goldie too, that was sweet of you. I appreciate it, and the fact that you didn’t grope me or anything.”

“I’ll take friends with possible benefits!” the slime-girl’s voice eagerly replied. “The bloodsucker is pretty possessive of you, so I figure if I’m going to make any headway with you, I’ll have to include her too. She’s not you, but she’s pretty hot and why would I have to grope you when your fine ass is right where I want it.” She giggled as she said the last and the surface that I was sitting on kneaded my butt.

Well, at least it seemed that she was back to what seemed to pass for normal for her. I might be a blushing mess of a useless lesbian right now, but the attention that I got from both her and Goldie was nice, even if they were both a lot more forward than I was sometimes comfortable with. As long as they both respected my limits and stopped, if I made it clear that I was uncomfortable, I could probably handle it. Goldie was the one that I was willing to give a little more leeway too though since we’d been together for a while now and were developing a relationship.

“I’ve… uhh… got to go bathroom,” I said, quickly excusing myself as I got up. That stimulation from Berry had only made the need more pressing, so I snatched up my purse and headed to the room in question. Once I was finished my business and had cleaned up using some wet wipes from my purse, I returned to the bedroom to find that our Fairy guide was still asleep on the windowsill and Goldie was still out like a light.

I wasn’t surprised to see that the others weren’t up yet since it was barely noon, and we hadn’t gotten to sleep until after dawn. Goldie wouldn’t likely wake until near sunset, and I was still sleepy myself, though I figured that now was as good of a time as any to get something to eat and then run a couple of important errands. “I need to leave Shadowtown to get our things from the place where Goldie and I have been hiding out,” I said quietly as I tried not to wake anyone.

“You shouldn’t go alone, I’ll go with you, and we can spend some quality alone time together,” Berry quietly replied in a concerned tone that quickly changed to teasing.

“Yeah, well, I’ll probably need your strength for the door anyway. Goldie usually opens it, but you can probably manage it. I’m probably going to grab something to eat while we’re out too.”

“That’s okay, we all need to eat, and I’ll keep quiet and hidden while you do it, Red,” the slime-girl agreed as she flowed out from beneath Goldie, gently easing the Vampire to the floor before taking her human shape again, though she didn’t look much bigger than when we had met. I stared at her in confusion for a moment since she was quite a bit smaller than the bed, but then I remembered how she had also changed into a small backpack before too.

I nodded and put on my waist pack/purse, leading the way out of the bedroom. Once we were outside, she once again turned into a pink backpack and as she flowed into place I inquired, “How do you change sizes like that? The shapeshifting is cool, but shouldn’t mass remain constant? Unless… are you using magic?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Berry replied, shifting slightly on my back and shoulders. “I’m working by instinct here, but I think I’m kind of pushing all my extra mass somewhere else when it isn’t needed. Maybe it’s some kind of natural magic ability for creatures like me? Though I’m pretty sure that I’m one of a kind so we might never know.”

After eating some breakfast at Rosie’s Diner, with Berry in backpack form and watching my back, I headed toward the old church where Goldie and I had been hiding out. Thankfully, I was able to avoid the few people who were out and wandering the dilapidated neighborhood in broad daylight. Once Berry had dissolved the piece of bent rebar securing the cellar doors shut, I quickly packed up mine and Goldie’s meager possessions and put them into the saddlebags and cargo net on the Ducati.

From there we headed back into Shadowtown, and then to our new home where we found Cerriwyn awake and waiting for us in the living room. After making a couple of trips to bring in the stuff that was packed on my bike, the Fairy started giving me and Berry some basic information on Shadowtown and the various services that we would be able to find in town. There was the Shadowtown Bank, the Currency Exchange next door to the bank, cafés, restaurants, bars, stores of various types, and even a large delivery service with almost a dozen trucks and drivers who could blend in among the normies.

The latter helped to keep the various businesses in Shadowtown supplied by collecting orders from their suppliers’ warehouses outside of Shadowtown. Malafis used magic to smuggle in some of the harder to get items that were needed in Shadowtown, but nobody in Upper Shadowtown wanted to depend on her any more than was absolutely necessary. The price of dealing with the Winter Court, and Malafis in particular, was often a hefty one and Cerriwyn warned us to avoid it at all costs. If we really needed something that badly, then the BriarRose clan would try to help us get it.

One item of note was that most of the businesses in Shadowtown were open 24/7 because there were as many nocturnal Arcane in town as those who were active during the day and slept at night. This came as a great relief to me since I had been worrying about being able to get to the bank during business hours with Goldie needing to avoid sunlight. Maybe we could get her some protective clothes with our reward in case the Fairy Godmother needed us to handle something during daylight hours.

We were discussing the possibility of getting some things enchanted for Goldie to keep her safe from the sun when the Vampire herself came downstairs to join us. “Where’s the Witch bitch?” she asked after looking around and then plopping down on the floor beside me to give me a kiss.

Returning the kiss, I shrugged. “Greta was still asleep the last time I checked. Cerriwyn has been telling us more about Shadowtown and I’ve been putting together a to-do list on my phone for tonight while we were waiting for the two of you.”

“It will take several days of rest before she will be fully recovered from her overuse of mana,” the Fairy warned us. “She will likely sleep for most of that time, but we should wake her and ensure that she gets something proper to eat. Food is as important as rest for her right now.”

Nobody wanted to be the one to wake the irritable and foul-mouthed busty Bavarian beauty, but I managed to convince Berry to do it. Without a sound, the slime-girl made her way up the stairs and a moment later there was a loud shriek. “Hey! Watch where you’re sticking that fucking slime or yours, Bitch!”

My mind went to all the bad places when I heard that. I knew very well how gropey Berry could get and my face was beet red when the pair descended the stairs a few minutes later. The pink slime-girl was looking very pleased with herself as she descended the steps ahead of the Witch, who looked dead tired and even bitchier than she had when we met her the night before.

I was about to ask just what she had done to wake Greta when I noticed the Witch rubbing at her right ear and the side of her head. “You got that gross shit all up in my ear and now my hair is slimy. You could have just shaken me or called out like a normal fucking person,” the busty blonde muttered.

“Sorry about that,” I told her, my cheeks still bright red at the thoughts that had been going through my head. “We should all go to the bank so we can cash in our rewards, and Cerriwyn said that you should probably eat something too. I could go for a burger or a nice, rare steak anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Let’s go eat and get whatever shit we need to do over with so I can go back to sleep,” Greta grumbled grievously.

Cerriwyn seemed eager to go as she took to the air and fluttered toward the door. “Follow me then, ladies, Shadowtown awaits,” she called out cheerfully.

Once we had all climbed into Greta’s van to conserve gas, Cerriwyn guided us to our first destination and pointed out various spots of interest while Goldie drove. Greta was letting the Vampire drive because she was still exhausted and, even if she had tried to hide it, we would have seen right through her. So, when Goldie offered to drive so she could rest, Greta took her up on the offer.

Our first stop was Shadowtown Bank since our Fairy guide thought that we might want to have some of the local currency for our other tasks. Most people used American dollars for day-to-day transactions in Shadowtown since it was easier, but a lot of Fae paid those employed by them in drams of gold and silver, which was why the currency exchange next to the bank did such a brisk business. The exchange of favors, magical or otherwise, seemed to be used as currency nearly as much as good ole greenbacks though, as we saw when we witnessed the exchange between Malafis and our new employer, the Fairy Godmother.

The Aos Sidhe who acted as our teller ran her hand over the marks on each of our arms in turn, causing them to vanish with a tingling sensation and quickly tapped out some notes on her computer. Once that was done, she would help each of us to set up a new account. Opening accounts with them was a little bit different than I was used to though. There would be no bank cards, checkbooks, or electronic transactions, if we wanted those types of things then we would need to get accounts with a bank that wasn’t run by Arcane and hidden from the outside world when we had our new identities set up.

Once we did have outside accounts, we would be able to arrange electronic funds transfers to them through Shadowtown bank, so long as we had the money available. Mostly the bank just handled deposits, withdrawals, and money transfers like we were there for and provided a safe place to keep one’s money and valuables. For a very reasonable monthly fee, customers could rent a safety deposit box, and they had another option as well.

Our reward for bringing in George Porgie was paid out in gold and silver, and once exchanged for the currency that we were all more familiar with, it was a little more than fifty thousand dollars in total. The Fairies really wanted him to pay for what he had done, I guess. Even split four ways, that was a nice chunk of money for all of us and would help us to get settled into our new home more easily.

One by one, the pointy-eared lady at the counter served each of us, setting up an account to place our new funds in and to take out enough money to get some of the things that we might need for our house. We each left the lion’s share in our accounts though, since we didn’t want to be walking around with that much loose money on us. We figured that a couple thousand each would be enough to get the most important things while we priced out the pricier items like furniture.

We let Greta go first so she could sit and rest while waiting for the rest of us, but my turn was right after hers. After giving my name, new address in Shadowtown, and naming the BriarRose clan as my new employer, she had me look into a small mirror that hung beside her station. Looking at the other two tellers, I noticed a similar mirror beside each of their stations as well.

“Just look into the mirror and say your name, Miss Hood. The magic mirror will record your voice, facial features, and aura for your account security. This mirror and the others are linked, so the next time that you come in, the mirrors can be used to confirm your identity,” the teller, whose name was Lalia, explained.

I did as I was asked and, after a moment, my reflection repeated my name in my own voice. Then she had me repeat the process again and the mirror said in my voice, “Identity confirmed. Welcome back to Shadowtown Bank, Red hood.”

Okay, that was just a little spooky, but at least the teller was quick making my deposit and then withdrawing the drams of gold and silver that had an approximate value of $2500. At least my withdrawal didn’t weigh too much and was easily put into the purse on my hip. As I was doing that Lalia inquired, “Will that be all today, Miss Hood? Or can I interest you in one of our safe storage options?”

“What? Like a safety deposit box?”

Lalia nodded in response to my counter-question and offered, “We rent those out for a fee of two drams of silver a month. There is another option for a one-time fee of three drams of gold though; we have someone on staff who can create a private demesne for you that you can access to from almost anywhere to store important items or funds that you want access to more quickly and conveniently than making a trip to this bank.”

I considered the options for a moment and calculated the prices in my head. Both services seemed reasonably priced, especially the one-time fee for the demesne. Even if it were only the size of a safety deposit box, having a secure place to store money and other valuables that I could access anywhere seemed worth the price, especially since the Shadowtown Bank only had one branch. After a moment, my decision was made and I replied, “Sure, I’ll take one of those demesnes.”

“Great! I’ll withdraw the fee from your account balance then and take you to see Jeannie then,” she eagerly agreed. Then, once the fee was withdrawn, she made her way out from behind the counter and led me toward a group of four desks off in a quiet corner adjacent to the tellers. “This is where we usually interview for lines of credit and such, but Jeannie’s desk is here too. for convenience.”

She led me toward the desk that said, Jeannie Wilson: Financial Security Advisor. The desk was well organized with a computer on top, a stack of forms to one side and a very pretty, pink-hued crystal bottle that added a bit of color and character to the otherwise boring workstation. Maybe it was a vase, but there were no flowers in it at the moment. To my surprise, Lalia tapped on the bottle and said, “Hey, Jeannie, I have a customer for you.”

My jaw dropped as the bottle suddenly started pouring forth pink smoke, which then seemed to coalesce into the shape of a woman. She was slightly exotic and attractive, with blonde hair and blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, but a slightly middle eastern look to her face. She had an incredible figure, and her large chest was straining the top of the purple night shirt that she was wearing as she covered a yawn. I was still trying to get my mouth to work properly as Lalia left me with ‘Jeannie’ and I sputtered. “G-g-genie.”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” the blonde agreed as she sat back in the chair behind the desk and propped her feet, complete with pink bunny slippers, up on the desk. “Ah, judging by the stunned look on your face, you must be new to Shadowtown. My name is Jeannie, but I’m not a Genie, I’m half Jinn and half human, my mother just has a horrible sense of humor.”

“But… you… lamp!” I sputtered. Way to play it cool, Red.

“It’s not a lamp, it’s a bottle, I just thought it was pretty, so I used it as the entrance to my demesne. Keeping it here saves on a commute so I can work from home. I’m only half Jinn, so no phenomenal cosmic powers for me, kiddo, just a long lifespan, an ability to turn into smoke, and a talent for certain types of magic. I certainly don’t grant wishes either… unless you’re here to wish for a demesne of your own, which is probably why Lalia brought you to see me.”

I found myself almost disappointed, though I suppose that if she could grant wishes, she probably wouldn’t be here as a working stiff. I was blushing as red as my favorite hoodie as I replied, “I… umm… yeah. That demesne thing sounded kinda useful, so I paid the fee for one. I’m Red, by the way.”

“Yes, you are,” she teased with a grin. “Anyway, now that you’ve gotten used to my awesomeness enough to speak full sentences, let me tell you about what I can do for you, and then we’ll decide on a medium for accessing your new demesne. What I’m going to do is a little bit of space magic, mixed with soul magic. Every Arcane has a connection to magic and with some, like Witches or the Fae, that connection is obvious, allowing them to use magic to manipulate the world around them, but even with those with a less obvious connection, their very souls are touched by it. Do you follow me so far?”

I found myself nodding as I considered what she had said. “So, as a Werewolf…”

“Yes, that connection is there. It’s why there are no cures for curses such as lycanthropy and vampirism because the magic doesn’t just affect your body, but permeates your soul as well, becoming a part of you that cannot be separated. A soul touched by magic will affect the body as well, changing it. For some, they get magic, some change to reflect their curse. Those with a command of magic can create their own demesnes with time and effort, or they can come to me to hurry things along,” the half Jinn explained before asking, “You said that you’re a Werewolf, right?”

I nodded and she smiled. “I’ve never worked on one of your kind before, this should be interesting. Anyway, for folks like you, who can’t go around throwing around magic spells, the only time that your magic gets a workout is when you’re changing forms, but while that means your magic pool is constantly growing, that growth is slow since you have no way of consciously controlling the flow of that magic unless you can learn to control your shifts. The demesne is made by tapping into your soul itself, and the stronger that your soul and its magic becomes, the larger your demesne will become to reflect that.”

“But if I have no way to control that magic, how could I use a demesne?” I asked uncertainly.

“Most magic users use a focal point to enter their domain,” Jeannie explained. “I have my bottle, but I’ve heard of others who use paintings or other items. A demesne is like a room that only the owner can enter, and we create doorways that we can use to enter them, the key to those doors is our magic. You can’t consciously control yours though, to when I tap into your soul to create your demesne, I’m going to need to create both a door and a key for you as well. For your sake, it would be better if both door and key were something that you could always keep with you. Some people use body art so they can’t be separated from the key for their demesnes. Body art I could help you with, a magic mark isn’t hard to create, but if you want specific items for the door and the key, you will have to bring them to me.”

After several minutes thinking it over, and a few suggestions from Jeannie, we decided on what would work best and then Jeannie used her magic to create my new demesne. It was uncomfortable for a moment, a sensation like something inside of me was being stretched too far for a moment before snapping back into place. By comparison, creating the key was much easier. It was just a slight tingling on the palm of my right hand and then there was a tattoo of a key there.

Jeannie assured me that since the tattoo was magical in nature, that only other Arcane would be able to see it. As for the door, the half Jinn had been especially creative with that while following a suggestion I made. Instead of tying all of the magic externally on an item that I would have to carry around with me all of the time, she had tied it to a single concept inside of my own mind.

As long as there was a door or lock for me to press my hand against, I would be able to use it to enter my demesne. In theory, it didn’t even have to be a real lock or door, I should just be able to draw one if needed, so long as the general image and idea was there, and I was focusing on opening my demesne. Jeannie also suggested getting a tattoo incorporating a lock somewhere on my body that I could reach easily for emergencies.

Then it was time to test it. Jeannie took a pen and a stack of post-it notes from her desk and scribbled a rough padlock on it. I was half expecting to have to try again on an actual door, but I was pleasantly surprised, and a little shocked to find myself suddenly inside a dark, unfamiliar, and empty space. Fortunately, during our short talk, the half Jinn had prepared me for what would lay inside.

It was larger than I expected. I was expecting not much more than a small closet, but this was easily the size of the bedroom I had slept in last night, though it could use walls, floors and a few personal touches. That would be the easy part. This place was a part of me, part of my soul, so Jeannie said that it should respond to my thoughts. Nothing that I created in here would be real, of course, just very realistic illusions. Only whatever I happened to bring from the world outside would be able to be taken back outside, and I would need to have items on me or maintain physical contact to move them in or out of my domain.

I didn’t bother doing any decorating or anything more than getting an idea of the general size, before focusing my thoughts on going back to the real world and reappearing in the spot I had vacated a few minutes earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn’t appear anywhere I wanted since when people without some sort of space magic left the real world for a demesne, they could only return to the magical placeholder mark that took their place when they left. If that spot happened to be occupied, then I would materialize in the nearest unoccupied space.

Well, at least now I knew it worked, and I had a safe place to store my bike and other important stuff. I supposed that in a worst-case scenario it could give me a safe place to sleep as well. I had half considered it as a possible cage for myself when the full moon came around, but Jeannie had said that all that was really required for me to return to the real world was for me to want to leave my demesne. She had also warned me that since I was a werewolf that the wolf was part of me, so that would extend to her as well.

A moment after I returned, Goldie was brought over to get her own demesne and I left her and Jeannie to it while I went to join Greta and wait for Berry to finish setting up her bank account and stuff. Berry was finished first and it was almost ten minutes before Goldie joined us in the waiting area, her mind thoroughly blown after her time with Jeannie if the expression on her face was any indication. Out of the four of us, Goldie and I were the only ones who invested in a demesne, but Berry didn’t really have any belongings yet or need a lot of space and Greta could probably create a demesne of her own once her magic was more dependable.

With our banking done, we quickly headed next door to the currency exchange, where a Leprechaun happily exchanged our gold and silver for their current market value in American dollars. The exchange wasn’t really all that interesting except for meeting the Leprechaun. Cerriwyn assured us that there would be many more interesting things to see when she showed us around Shadowtown after breakfast so we could spend some of our hard-earned money. First though, we needed to find a place to eat before Greta passed out.

We ate breakfast at a tavern called Witch’s Brew, which Cerriwyn informed us was run by a Witch named Simone, something that Greta tiredly confirmed as we entered the building. Like most businesses in Shadowtown, it was open all day and all night to serve Arcane of both nocturnal and diurnal varieties. Much like the other buildings in Shadowtown, the outside was mostly overgrown and partially supported with vegetation, but there was electricity and lights, and the inside seemed warm and homey with hardwood floors, sturdy wooden chairs and tables, and both the tables and the top of the walnut-hued bar were clean and polished.

The tavern wasn’t terribly busy at the moment, there was only one customer shrouded in a black cloak sitting at the bar and another small group like ours at a table near the back. Behind the bar were more bottles of various alcohol than I had ever seen in one place before, neatly stacked on shelves that covered most of the wall back there, and a gorgeous and curvaceous redhead with pointed ears who was wearing a green dress. The latter offered a friendly smile as we stepped inside. When a verbal greeting followed, it was spoken in a distinctive Scottish accent.

“Welcome t’ Witch’s Brew, I’m Dierdre, yer bartender if yer drinkin’. I’d’ suggest the house mead, or we do have a nice ale on tap too if that’s yer preference. If yer ‘ere t’ eat, I guess I’m yer waitress too since Farah’s on her lunch break wit’ her friends o’er there,” she said playfully as she gestured to the table in the back where her waitress was probably one of those seated.

The Fairy with us immediately took charge. “Hi, Dierdre, these girls are new to Shadowtown and will be working for the Fairy Godmother, could you get them some breakfast menus? Oh, and bottle of your special blend?”

The redhead raised an eyebrow and carefully sniffed the air. By the time that she had produced a trio of menus from beneath the bar without even looking, her eyes had settled upon Goldie. “Aye, only the Witch there smells vaguely familiar, ne’er smelled anythin’ like the others afore. You ‘ave the stink o’ death on ya though, Blondie. Vampire?”

“Yes,” Cerriwyn answered before Goldie could find the words. “Can your supply handle another blood drinker?”

“Aye, there’s plenty o’ folk in Shadowtown willin’ t’ donate blood, an’ we pay good money. More’n I need right now since we figured there’d likely be more bloodsuckers in town eventually, so the boss will probably charge her same as she’s chargin’ me, jus’ enough t’ make a slight profit.” She bent over and a moment later reappeared with a large, chilled wine bottle in hand, placing it before Goldie. “There ya go, Blondie, I hope ya like the taste o’ Orc, that’s the vintage we seem t’ get most. The Families don’ want folk like us preyin’ on the unwilling, so ya can buy yer blood ‘ere when ya need it.”

Goldie popped the cork and sniffed the bottle experimentally before taking a tentative sip. Her eyes widened and a smile tugged at her lips. “It’s not bad,” she admitted, “and I’ll be glad not to have to leave town for my meals.”

“Oh, Dierdre, I need to speak with Simone as well, is she awake?” our Fairy guide inquired.

“Aye, I just took o’er for her a l’il while ago. She’s in the back placin’ an order, I’ll go an’ get her while yer friends decide what they’ll be eatin’.” With that, the redhead hopped gracefully over the bar and sauntered over to a door on the back wall near the table where the other small group sat. Damn, I’d never be able to pull off something like that. I could barely reach the bar, let alone hop over it, especially while wearing an ankle-length dress like she was. It was as she walked away that I noticed that the hem of that dress was swishing around a pair of hooves rather than feet.

“She’s a Baobhan sith,” the Fairy explained, noting the direction of my gaze. They’re Fae, but like Goldie, they need to drink blood to live.”

“If you use the term ‘live’ very loosely in my case,” Goldie muttered between sips from her bottle.

While she was drinking and we were waiting for the proprietor of the bar, Goldie, Greta, Berry and I took seats at a table near the bar. Only Greta and I looked through the menus though since Goldie had her meal already and Berry was still feeling full after disposing of Porgie’s body early that morning. I decided on my new favorite breakfast, steak and eggs with toast, bacon, home fries, and orange juice while Greta decided to have the pancakes, also with orange juice.

Once she returned to let us know that Simone would be joining us shortly, Dierdre took our orders and dropped them off with whoever was working in the kitchen before grabbing our drinks and then returning to her post at the bar. It wasn’t all that long before the door at the back opened, and Simone emerged to head straight for our table. She was a tall, slender, and somewhat pretty Witch who was just as redheaded as Dierdre, though her build was far slighter and more modest when compared to the Baobhan sith.

She seemed friendly, greeting our group with a smile and nodding her head toward Greta in acknowledgement. It was Simone who had told Greta about the price on Porgie’s head and taught her the bare basics about being a Witch after all. Apparently, she would also be Greta’s new official teacher in witchcraft, or at least that was what we were told after Cerriwyn had a hushed conversation with the bar’s proprietress. Like any other business owners in the BriarRose territory, she had an arrangement with the Fairy Godmother.

In Shadowtown, business owners don’t really own, lease, or rent the buildings that they run their businesses in, at least not like in the outside world. They are granted the property and permission to do business there by the Family that runs that area of Shadowtown in exchange for a handsome portion of the profits after supplies and labor, and the occasional favor, such as training a newbie Witch. If a business owner did not hold up their end of the bargain, they could find themself homeless, without a business, and on the wrong side of one of the Families, which as not an enviable position to be in when in Shadowtown.

Of the four Families, the BriarRose Family seemed to be the most lenient and didn’t call on favors from their tenants willy-nilly or make those favors exceedingly difficult. Like the Fairy Godmother had promised us in our jobs as her enforcers, it was also up to the person doing the favor just how to do it and in cases such as this, where a lot of time and energy would be spent on it, those favors could be negotiated. So, Simone negotiated that Greta would work part time at Witch’s Brew while getting her lessons, in addition to her enforcer duties with us.

I thought this would send the novice Witch into a swear-laden complaint, but she seemed alright with it since she would be learning to properly control her magic from the other Witch once she was recovered from her mana exhaustion. It could also be that she was just too damn tired to care very much as we ate our meal. She had already nearly nodded off once while we were waiting for our breakfast and while Simone and the Fairy had their quiet conversation.

Once Greta and I had finished our breakfast, we dropped the Witch off at our new shared home and, once we were certain that she was safely inside so she could sleep, we headed off on the rest of our tour. Since Goldie wouldn’t need to leave Shadowtown to hunt down a meal, we planned to take our time and get some things for the house, with the shared funds that the four of us had withdrawn from the bank. As tired as Greta was when we dropped her off, she was happy to let us handle that kind of stuff while she rested and recovered.

Before we went anywhere else though, I needed a cup of coffee. I wasn’t as tired as Greta was, obviously, but I hadn’t gotten nearly as much sleep as I should have and I was feeling it. With that in mind, Cerriwyn had us make our first stop at The Bean Stock, a local coffee shop. They didn’t sell baked goods or sweets like The Muffin Man, but they didn’t really need to since their coffee was far superior. It was the best cup of coffee I ever had, and they also sold pre-ground coffee, fresh beans, and a variety of herbal teas to make at home.

Cerriwyn said that the coffee shop was run by a half-Fae named Jack and that he used his demesne and his nature magic to grow the best beans and herbs that he could. Jack was actually the one to serve me when I ran inside to grab a coffee to go, and I seriously wondered if his other half was hill giant or something since he was absolutely huge. I know, at five feet even pretty much everyone is huge to me, but this guy was over six and a half feet tall. Still, he was friendly to the point of being boisterous, and his coffee was so good that I vowed to return to buy some of the packaged stuff for the house once we had a proper coffee maker.

As I drank my cup of joe and Goldie drove while following Cerriwyn’s directions, the Fairy pointed out the various landmarks in the BriarRose area of Shadowtown and gave us the rundown on some of the more popular shops and the people who ran them. Our first stop for shopping was Hubbard’s department store, the old lady who ran it prided herself on having practically everything that the people of Shadowtown might need. We were able to get things like kitchen appliances (like a microwave and my coffee maker), pots and pans, a television, some dark curtains, a few other basics for the house, personal hygiene stuff, cleaning supplies, and some new clothes for Berry, Goldie, and me.

We didn’t go crazy, but tried to get everything that our home might need. For basic furniture we went to a secondhand shop called Second Chances, where they sold goods that had been found abandoned along with the homes in the area and repaired for residents of Shadowtown to buy cheaply. We managed to score a couch, recliner, kitchen table, four chairs, a couple of dressers, and a trio of nightstands. Those still cost a good chunk of our shared funds, but they weren’t nearly as expensive as buying new stuff would have been.

For some stuff we went to some of the specialty stores in Shadowtown. For dishes, cutlery, and other basic kitchen stuff we went to Ms. Moon’s Tableware, which was located next to Kat’s Music. Like a lot of the places in Shadowtown, they had simple old fashioned wooden signs over the doors with the shop name and a picture carved into them, a dish and a spoon for the shop that we entered and a cat with a fiddle or violin or something for the other. I wouldn’t have thought that a music store would bet much business, but Cerriwyn said that playing music was a popular pastime in Shadowtown, especially among the Fae.

Once we finished at Ms. Moon’s, Cerriwyn suggested that we go to Princess Pea’s Bedding Emporium to get beds for our rooms, since we hadn’t been able to find any at Second Chances. They had a good selection of bedding, pillows, comforters, and such in addition to selling handcrafted wooden beds and really cozy handmade mattresses. I almost fell asleep while testing the queen-sized bed and mattress that Goldie and I bought for our room. We got beds for both Greta and Berry as well, but the slime girl wasn’t really sure if she was going to use it much. Worst case scenario, we at least had somewhere for a guest to sleep.

Our final stop for the night was Jiggety Jig’s Market, a grocery store in one of those little strip malls that had been repaired and embraced by nature, much as the rest of Shadowtown had. The market took up half of the little mall while three other stores occupied the rest; a butcher shop, a bakery and a place called B. Nimble’s, which was basically a place where people could buy incense and scented candles made by the owner, a half Fae named Bethany. I didn’t think we would have any use for candles, but I made sure to remember the bakery and the butcher shop, especially with my recent meat cravings.

“That’s the second half-Fae that you told us about,” Goldie mentioned as we entered the market. “Is it common for Fae to have children with humans?”

“No,” the Fairy replied with a shake of her head. “At least not with humans who were raised among their own kind. Fae sometimes steal away children who are being mistreated and adopt them though, as the Fairy Godmother has with little Ella. Those children grow up among the Fae, sometimes Underhill, so they can fall in love with Fae and, sometimes that results in children. The Winter Court often casts out such mixed-blood children, but those of us in the Summer Court see such children as precious. They are proof that Fae and humans can coexist.”

We finished off our shopping tour of Shadowtown by buying some groceries together at the market and then going to get some things from the butcher’s shop and bakery as well. I also promised myself that we would buy some coffee and herbal teas from The Bean Stock on our way home. It was a good thing that Goldie and I had our new demesnes, because they were getting a lot of use storing our purchases during our shopping excursion so we wouldn’t have to pay O’Hare Fast Shipping to deliver them to our home. The delivery company’s rates seemed fair enough, but I didn’t see why we should spend the money when we had two demesnes to store things in until we got home.

As we shopped, Berry was flirting with Goldie nearly as much as she was with me. I think that, in her own way, the slime girl was trying to show the Vampire that she wasn’t trying to threaten our relationship and that she was willing to share me, if Goldie was too. While seeing Goldie on the receiving end of the shameless flirting for once was interesting, especially with how it seemed to fluster her, I wasn’t sure if Berry was hurting or helping her case.

They were both still flirting with me the whole time too, and seemingly trying to top one another, so I was a blushing mess. It is so unfair that Vampires can’t blush, at least then I wouldn’t feel singled out. I still couldn’t flirt back with them very well either. I was just too inexperienced and every time that I tried, or they said something to make me blush, I would become a stammering mess of useless lesbian.

I tried to put it all out of my mind as we stopped to get my coffee and then returned to our new home, where Cerriwyn bid us good night, promising to contact us when the Fairy Godmother had an assignment for us. We had a lot to do with setting up furniture and stuff and turning our house into a home. After we got all that work done though, I rewarded myself with a nice dinner.

One of the thick juicy steaks that we had gotten from the butcher’s shop, medium rare, really hit the spot along with a baked potato, a fresh dinner roll from the bakery, and a cup of one of the nice herbal tea blends that I had bought along with my coffee. I would have had some of that delicious coffee, but I was tired and now that I had a bed, I wanted to sleep in it. That night, for the first time since Granny’s death, I slept without nightmares as Goldie held me close in our cozy new bed.

Rosie’s Diner
Detroit, Michigan
Friday, November 4th, 2022 - 12:49 p.m.

Agent Nicholas Hunter stared into his cup of coffee as he considered the situation. His search for Phoebe Hood had not gone well, despite the information that the girl’s roommate had given him. Carrie Underwood was only able to tell him a bit about her habits, that she preferred to be called ‘Red’, and that she had a habit of wearing a red hoodie. Unfortunately, she knew nothing of where Phoebe might have gone and had not been contacted by her when he last spoke with her.

While Phoebe may have panicked and left some evidence when trying to obscure the facts of her grandmother’s death, she proved to be quite adept at covering her tracks since then. She was too smart to let herself be caught on camera, had left both her car and phone behind, and had left a false trail heading north up toward Canada. She hadn’t even used the phone to make any calls or internet searches that might provide clues as to her intentions.

Two weeks ago, he still had no clues to her location, so he had decided to put the case on the back burner for a while. If she really had been bitten by her grandmother, then something would come up during the next full moon. So, he had changed tracks and decided to start tracking that new Witch that had been recently awakened in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

After brutally killing her predecessor and inheriting the Witch’s power, Greta Heinrich had left a trail that a child could follow, but she was probably traumatized and in shock from her ordeal and not thinking clearly. He couldn’t blame her since evidence, including the remains of her brother and the murder weapon, had painted a very grim picture of what had happened there. He was willing to accept it as being self-defense and, given how many other half-eaten corpses of missing tourists had been found by the FBI team he had assigned to investigate, she had probably done a great service for the community of Hershey and the tourists passing through there.

Greta hadn’t thought to change vehicles or disguise herself, so her movements had been far easier to track than Phoebe Hood’s. She ended up in Detroit and was last seen in this area. When he had arrived two days ago to search the area for the new Witch, he had a strong feeling about why she had practically vanished soon after entering the city. She had found a Fae settlement.

He had known that there was one in the area and figured that he had found it once he felt inexplicable surges of fear whenever he glanced in a direction that he couldn’t seem to focus on for long. Those were Fairy spells and powerful ones at that, but he had grown up being trained to deal with mind tricks like that and kept his glances short and his thoughts under control when he looked in that direction. Blurry and indistinct satellite photos of the area seemed to confirm that there was something unnatural about that neighborhood.

The few Arcane within the current government knew that the settlement was somewhere in the area and let it be. Agent Hunter was inclined to agree since the land they had claimed was long-abandoned and, for the most part, they didn’t seem to be harming anyone outside their community. In fact, reports hinted that they were taking in other Arcane and getting them off the streets as well. Arcane like Greta Heinrich and, quite possibly, Phoebe Hood.

Now he had eyewitness accounts that both girls were likely now in that settlement, which was what had him staring dourly into his coffee. On Halloween night, two waitresses and several customers witnessed a series of odd events outside this very diner, which couldn’t quite be explained by kids in costumes. He was able to string together those various accounts and come up with a rough idea of what had transpired.

It began when a pair of customers heard someone shouting obscenities. When they turned to see what was happening as they passed by a pair of young women to enter the diner, they saw that the source of the yelling was a young woman roughly fitting Greta Heinrich’s description who was chasing an overweight man wearing a gray hoodie and sweatpants in the light of the street lamps. That wasn’t the strange part though. The two witnesses swore that neither Greta nor the man she was chasing were there when they briefly looked that way a moment earlier.

The answer was clear, they had come from the Fae settlement. A couple of minutes later, several witnesses mentioned a pink blob of something slamming into one of the two young women leaving the diner before oozing into the shape of yet another young woman and restraining the one that she had hit. The young woman who was hit and then restrained was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket and closely matched the description that he had been given of Phoebe Hood, except for the red hoodie that she tended to wear.

Greta then slipped on something and crashed into a pale blonde woman who seemed underdressed for a cold October night, causing them both to fall to the ground. What followed was a very loud shouting match between Greta Heinrich and the other blonde woman as they disentangled and got to their feet, their clothes wet despite the lack of any rain or puddles on the ground near the diner entrance. Several witnesses were able to pick out the words, ‘Witch’, ‘Werewolf’, and ‘magic’ during the argument, but after the heated exchange, the four seemed to put their differences aside and went off together in the direction where the man Greta had been chasing fled.

Nobody had gotten a good look at the man who was being chased, but if he too had come from the Fae settlement, then he was some sort of Arcane or at least the descendant of one. Only an Arcane would be able to ignore and pass through the powerful Fairy magic like that keeping the settlement hidden. This left Agent Hunter in a bind.

While he knew what to look for and had an enchanted totem that would allow him to pass through the barrier, if he didn’t give into the fear it summoned, he got the distinct feeling that the Fae who ruled there would become hostile at the appearance of a Huntsman in their community. There was a lot of bad blood between Huntsmen and certain Fae, especially those of the Winter Court. Yet it would seem that both of his current cases were hiding there among the Fae and other Arcane.

This could be a good thing or a very bad thing. If they had fallen in with the Summer Court, then whoever was in charge would likely see that the Witch was properly trained, even if it was only for their own safety. They might even help to keep Miss Hood contained on the full moons and help her learn to control herself or at least lock herself up somewhere secure if she truly had been turned by her grandmother. If they had come under the Winter Court’s sway though… well, he didn’t want to think about what they would do with a Werewolf and a potentially powerful Witch.

The other two with them that night at the diner needed to be considered as well. The pink one was likely a magical summon of some sort and would have likely vanished once her purpose was complete, this also indicated that Greta had gotten at least a small amount of training since awakening. The other blonde woman was a concern though. It sounded like she was Arcane as well, or at least in the know about them, but there were certain clues in the narrative that were a cause for great concern to him.

She was not dressed warmly enough for a cold autumn night, which had him concerned when combined with the unnatural paleness that witnesses had described and the display of strength when she had lifted the Witch off the ground. Every instinct screamed ‘Vampire’ at him, and he could only hope that she was in control of her bloodlust and that she wouldn’t feed on Miss Hood. A Vampire was bad enough, but an Elder Vampire could be arguably more dangerous than a werewolf. The possibility that those three girls might have fallen under the sway of the Winter Court sent shivers down his spine that his now cold coffee could do nothing to combat.

Agent Hunter sighed and put a twenty on the table, enough to cover his lunch and a tip, before getting up to leave. He would stay in the area to keep an eye on things until after the full moon, just in case Miss Hood turned and needed to be put down. As much as it irked him, there was nothing more that he could do for now, but watch, wait, and see how the situation played out. With a weary sigh, he headed outside to his car so he could find a good spot to keep an eye on things.

Witch’s Brew
Shadowtown
Monday, November 7th, 2022 - 1:30 p.m.

We spent most of the past week settling in, making our new house as cozy for us as possible. Thankfully, the Fairy Godmother hadn’t needed us for anything serious yet, and just showing up had been enough to settle the situation, so we were able to spend most of our time settling in. It was almost like a home now, though Goldie and I were still getting used to the quirks of our new housemates. For one thing, we had learned that during the rare times that Berry actually needed sleep, a bed wasn’t going to work out for her.

She had only needed to sleep once, for a few hours, since we had been living in our new home but that one time that she did, she turned into a puddle of pink goop that got all over the place while she was unconscious. It took her a good fifteen minutes to pull herself back together after that. With that in mind, we bought a small inflatable swimming pool and put it in her bed frame. As for her mattress, that was sadly a lost cause, but at least nothing else was damaged.

She and Goldie still seemed to be competing for my affection, but at least they weren’t at each other’s throats, and seeing Goldie just as flustered as me when the Slime-girl flirted with her was letting me see Goldie’s more shy and reserved side. Berry was also trying to learn more about us and take our personal comfort into account. For one thing, she wouldn’t eat around me and she wore the clothes we had gotten her to blend in better, and so we wouldn’t have to see whatever she was digesting.

Then there was Greta. After a week mostly spent in bed while recovering from mana exhaustion, she was looking a lot healthier and less tired this morning. She was feeling good enough that she was now at Witch’s Brew to receive her first formal lesson from Simone and scheduled to work her first shift as a waitress once that lesson was finished. She was currently in the back with the pub’s owner doing the former while the rest of us had an early (for us) breakfast.

While Berry disappeared somewhere to find some live rats or mice to eat, Goldie and I ordered our meal from Dierdre at the bar and sat there to keep the Baobhan Sith company since business was slow at the moment. The redheaded barkeep quickly produced a bottle of blood for my Vampire girlfriend and then took my order to the back for the cook, whose name I learned was Harry. Once she was back, she smiled and gave us that alluring smile of hers as she placed my orange juice and a cup of coffee on the bar in front of me.

“Yer all ‘ere a wee bit early today,” the stunning redhead said conversationally as she glanced at Goldie. “The sun’s still out.”

“Yeah, well, ummm… it’s that other time of the month and I have to go out of town for a few days,” I grumbled. I had been feeling irrationally irritated since I woke up, felt like my skin was about to crawl off, and had a hard time not snapping at the redhead behind the bar. I knew she didn’t deserve it, so I was trying hard to keep my temper in check.

“Yeah,” Goldie added while placing a hand reassuringly on mine. “it’s Red’s first full moon tonight since being bitten, and Berry and I wanted to be with her, for moral support at least. And… if things don’t go well, our strength might be needed to keep her from getting away and hurting someone. The Fairy Godmother suggested a nice out-of-the-way place where we can lock her up while the moon is up until something more permanent can be arranged, but we’ll need to leave Shadowtown after we’re done eating to get there before Moonrise. We were considering putting her in my demesne for the night so she wouldn’t be exposed to the moon, but there probably wouldn’t be enough air for her to last until the moon sets without suffocating.”

Dierdre gave me a sympathetic look as Goldie took a long sip from her bottle of blood, and I did the same with my coffee. “Oh, aye, well good luck then, Red. You be careful out there, lasses.”

I quickly quelled the flash of anger that I felt at her pity and snapped my mouth shut for fear of snapping at someone. The rest of our time there was spent somberly and quietly, the mood thick with a feeling of dread. I was angry and so fucking scared, and my stomach was so twisted in knots that I had to force myself to eat my breakfast and almost threw it back up again. Berry had returned from eating her own meal shortly before I finished mine so with no excuses to stay any longer, Goldie paid for both of our meals, we said our farewells to Dierdre, and the three of us left Witch’s Brew to hit the road.

Belle Isle
Detroit, Michigan
Monday, November 7th, 2022 - 4:48 p.m.

I couldn’t see the moon in the sky, but I knew that it was close to rising. I could feel it in my bones and with each passing beat of my heart which seemed to quicken by the moment as my anger intensified. No, not anger, this was something more primal and predatory and it made it difficult so keep still in my cage as my body wanted to move… to hunt, even before the moon was in sight.

The Fairy Godmother had told us that there were two abandoned zoos on Belle Isle, and we managed to find them easily enough after taking the bridge to the island. Both were run down, eerily quiet, and littered with old trash and graffiti, like something out of an apocalypse. It took a while before we found a cage that we felt would be large and sturdy enough to contain a werewolf, but we did find one eventually. Not a moment too soon either since it was getting close to when the moon was supposed to rise.

The cage was filthy, and I didn’t particularly relish the thought of sleeping inside of it, but it was better that I awoke dirty and uncomfortable than risk getting loose and spreading my unwanted curse to someone else. I nodded to Goldie, who somberly tightened the thick chains and fastened them in place with a hug padlock. Both items we had gotten a few days ago to make sure that whatever cage we put me in tonight would remain secure and prevent me from getting loose when I eventually changed.

“Hey, Red, just throwing this out there, but you might want to get naked,” Berry suggested as she looked me over. If her tone had been more playful than serious, I would have thought that she just wanted to see me in the buff. I still gave her a suspicious glance though and she hurriedly explained, “It’s not because I want to see you naked. Well, I do, but that’s beside the point. If you keep your clothes on, they’ll probably get damaged or destroyed when you transform, not to mention dirty in that cage. I know you brought a spare set of clothes, but those are in the van and why damage what you’re wearing if you don’t have to?”

She made a valid point so, after a moment of hesitation, I started stripping off my clothes and handing them to Goldie through the bars so the Vampire could hold on to them for me. Thankfully, Berry only leered a little, and I think that was mostly to try to make the situation less tense as the sun sank in the sky and the moment that I had been dreading for a month quickly approached. Just great, now I was cold, naked, uncomfortable, and about to turn into something from a horror movie.

“It’ll be okay, Red,” Goldie tried to reassure me. “Berry and I will be here watching over you all night.”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak past the lump of terror that was now firmly lodged in my throat. Finally, I managed to squeak out, “What time is it?”

Goldie looked at her newish cell phone and reported, “It’s 5:02, Red.”

“Wait, wasn’t the moon supposed to rise at 4:58?” I asked, briefly hoping that all my worries might just be for nothing. I didn’t need to ask, though since I had made sure to memorize the times that moonrise was supposed to happen over the next three days.

“Yeah, but let’s just stay here a bit longer to be sure,” the Vampire replied, erring on the side of caution.

We silently watched the sun sink below the horizon and soon after twilight settled upon us, I felt it; a foreboding tightening sensation in my chest before my world erupted in agony. It felt like my ribs were being pried apart and my spine stretched, and I was barely aware of the sound of cracking bones as the agony intensified in my pelvis and shoulders. I could barely see through the miasma of searing pain and tears that clouded my vision, barely aware of the passage of time as the agony moved to my face and limbs and time became irrelevant along with everything else but the pain.

Goldie watched Red begin to change in equal parts horror and fascination. Her dead heart seemed to flutter in a mix of anxiety, worry, and sympathy even as she knew that this was all she could do for Red, stay close and make sure that she didn’t hurt anyone while changed. There was nothing else that she or Berry could do for the girl they were both head over heels for, not even anything to help with the pain that contorted her face and had her screaming as muscles pulsed and bones cracked and shifted beneath the skin of her naked form.

Contrary to what she had seen in many horror movies, the changes began in Red’s torso; her ribs seemed to stretch as the ribcage grew more prominent, and that only seemed to be highlighted more as her back arched in an unnatural way and she screamed. Bones shifted and cracked beneath the surface as they contorted and rearranged themselves, causing both her shoulders and hips to widen perceptibly. Muscles trembled, screams interspersed with pained whimpers as the changes started to spread to her face and limbs, though thankfully, the changes in her limbs seemed confined to a slight stretching of her hands and the bones popping and realigning to give her lower legs and feet a digitigrade appearance.

The pain must have been excruciating from the start and her screams only became more intense as her face seemed to crumple and rearrange itself. Ears shifted position and shape, her lower face stretched into a muzzle, and her nose darkened to match the emerging muzzle. By this time Red had fallen to the floor of the cage, curled up in a ball as if to escape the agony afflicting her and making it hard for Goldie to keep track of the changes any longer, save for the muscles becoming more prominent and powerful looking, the growth of fur, and the tail that sprouted from the base of her spine.

Screams faded to whimpering for only a moment before her werewolf girlfriend rose to her feet and let loose a bone-chilling howl that ruptured the too-brief silence that had followed her transformation. She hadn’t seemed to gain much size, still being just over five feet, and she had an odd curve to her spine as she stood upright and howled. Goldie might have thought her cute, like a puppy, if she hadn’t immediately lunged for the bars that separated them while growling and snapping her jaws.

Holy shit she was muscular, and those added curves provided by her broader hips and chest would put any fitness model to shame; those abs were amazing, and those thighs. She wondered what it might be like to bury her head between the latter, but quickly chided herself. “She’s not herself right now, stop thinking sexy thoughts about her.”

Over the top of all of that, her powerful muscles were covered in a light peach fuzz, barely distinguishable from the pale white skin beneath and covering most of her torso and part of her limbs while clearly displaying three extra pairs of nipples that were spaced across her abdomen with the lowest pair just above her pelvis. Her tail, wolf-like ears, back, and shoulders were more densely furry, the thick and luxurious black coat contrasting the lighter white of her fuzz-covered skin. Her forearms, the outside of her upper arms, and the backs of her hands shared that dense black fur, as did her outer thighs, lower legs, and the tops of her feet.

As expected, Red walked on the balls of her feet and they, and the underside of her toes, were likely covered in pads like those on the fingertips and palms of the clawed hand that reached through the bars to savagely swipe at her, though Goldie stayed safely out of reach. Those claws were definitely something that even she would have to be wary of, as long and sharp as they were. She had claws on her toes as well, and both fingers and toes seemed a bit thicker than normal.

She could still see a bit of the Red that she knew and loved in the wolf’s face, starting with the shoulder-length black hair with two black wolfish ears now sprouting from within. There was only a slight muzzle with a black canine nose and a mouthful of sharp teeth ready to tear her to bits, but she still had Red’s softer features. That softness was contrasted by the savage orange eyes surrounded by black spots that only made that fiery gaze more intense and almost seemed like a parody of the dark gothic makeup that Red usually favored. Her black lipstick had remained through the transformation, and that, the raven hair, dark eyebrows, and black spots around her eyes contrasted with the white peach fuzz that covered the rest of her face.

She was still trying to take in the whole picture when Berry commented, "While I like the extra tits, I can do without the whole bloodthirsty savage beast part."

Goldie let out a soft sigh, a habit of living that she prayed that she would ever shed. She feared sometimes forgetting what it was to be human, as much as Red seemed to fear becoming a monster. “Maybe she can learn to control it,” she replied hopefully, though looking at the savage look in Red’s eyes right then, she wasn’t sure whether this was something that Red could overcome on her own. This was going to be a long night.

Berry seemed to agree with that nascent thought as she sidled up beside Goldie and teased, “Do you want to fool around until she’s back to her normal self?”

The Slime-girl was an even worse flirt than she was these days and Goldie felt Berry’s warm hand squeezing her ass. “This is not the time, Slime!” she snapped as she turned to glare at the pink-hued human-shaped blob of slime for even suggesting something like that at a time like this. She was met with wiggling eyebrows and a playful grin that didn’t reach Berry’s eyes. She was worried too but trying to lighten the mood by acting like her normal sexually forward self.

Berry attempted to keep that playful grin in place but after a moment it evaporated as if it had never been there as she winced and looked away. “Sorry, I’m… not very good at this. I don’t have much experience with tense situations like this, or much of anything, really. All I have is the memories I’ve made with the three of you, instincts, and some basic knowledge that I inherited from the Witch who cast me. I don’t think that included any social skills and, even if it did, Greta is…”

“Prickly,” Goldie finished as the other young woman trailed off. Maybe the Slime-girl really did care about Red after all. She had been sexually obsessed with her, but it was hard sometimes knowing what was going on in her head, especially since she had started extending her flirting to Goldie as well. Because she was so forward sexually, sometimes it was easy to forget that Berry was new to this world and dealing with people in general. “Is that why you’re so…forward?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s part of it,” the Slime-girl replied thoughtfully before smirking and adding, “but you’re both cute as fuck when you get all embarrassed. With Red, I think a lot of it is a mix of instinct and love at first sight… or maybe the love at first sight is instinctual itself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a summoned creature, and for some reason, I’ve bonded with Red,” she replied, pausing for a moment in thought before elaborating. “She is my purpose for living and if anything happened to her… I’m afraid that I will just fade away, like any other summoned creature whose task is complete. Sure, it was infatuation and lust at first, the way the spell was phrased, and maybe a need to be close with her to ensure both of us continue to exist, but now there’s more to it…”

Another pause where the only sounds were from the Werewolf growling and straining against the bars of the cage. The Berry spoke once more, a wistful edge to her voice. “I sort of know what Red is feeling at all times due to our bond, and when you’re emotionally bonded with a person like that you can’t help but see the good and bad in them. Red is a very good person, the only bad that I can really sense in her is her own fears and insecurities, and it makes her hard not to fall in love with. Even now…”

Goldie followed her gaze toward her caged girlfriend and asked, “Even now… what?”

“She’s fighting it, I can feel it. She doesn’t want to hurt us; she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. It’s faint, but she’s in there and fighting for control,” the Slime-girl told her somberly.

“Can she win?” the Vampire asked in return, fearing the answer.

Berry shook her head sadly. “Not yet, not tonight, and maybe not ever, but maybe the Fae will know some way to help her get control someday. For now, all we can do is be here for her and support her as best we can.”

Since they had met, Goldie had never seen the Slime-girl this serious before, nor so sad. Maybe there was more to her than the overbearing flirt that she portrayed. She hadn’t truly looked beyond that role and, though it shamed her to admit it to herself, hadn’t really seen her as a real person until this moment, beyond being competition for the girl she loved.

Maybe she was wrong about her, and maybe there didn’t need to be a competition either. Maybe she should give Berry a chance and get to know her better too and if the three of them meshed well… Goldie had never been a prude, even back when she was a somewhat shy and awkward Human still, and she had had friends in poly relationships. So, if they meshed well and Red was interested in that sort of thing then why should they hold themselves back?

“We’ll find a way to help her,” she stated firmly as an unfamiliar scent carried by the evening breeze tickled her nose. “We have company coming,” she added in warning and saw Berry following her gaze past some of the larger dilapidated animal enclosures.

The scent was Human, male, but strangely there was a hint of magic as well. Some other kind of Arcane perhaps, or a Human with a magical artifact? Whatever it was, if it presented a danger to Red, Goldie would end it. A similar determination burned in Berry’s eyes as they scanned the darkness beyond the nearest cages. A moment later the scent was accompanied by faint footsteps that grew clearer by the moment. The pace was casual, and confident, not bothering to hide their approach, or perhaps sensing that trying to would be a wasted effort.

“Show yourself,” the Vampire warned as she sensed their visitor hesitating behind one of the nearby cages. He was close enough now to smell metal and gun oil with a hint of gunpowder. He was armed. She heard a heavy sigh, and then a man dressed in a dark suit stepped out from behind the cage and into the moonlight.

Agent Nicholas Hunter was fortunate enough to be within sight of the right street when a van that matched the description of the one owned by Greta Heinrich left the illusion that covered the Fae community. It had been a lucky guess, being one of the three major thoroughfares that once, and likely still, ran through the abandoned neighborhood. Getting the maps had been simple enough, but there was always a chance that when the Witch chose to leave the safety and protection of the Fae, he would miss her.

She could have chosen one of the other routes, left from the other side of the community, or taken one of the lesser used and more rundown side roads. Using his binoculars to get a good look at the van’s license plate, he confirmed that it was the right vehicle and put his car into gear to tail the van from a safe distance. He found himself surprised when the vehicle turned to take the bridge to Belle Isle.

What could they possibly be doing heading there in the late afternoon? Wait, there were the abandoned zoos there. Could she be planning to lock Phoebe Hood up there tonight in case she turned? Well, that likely confirmed that Phoebe had been bitten, which may have contributed to why she ran after killing her grandmother in self-defense.

He continued to follow from a safe distance and soon his theory about the zoos was seemingly confirmed as he watched the vehicle pull into the overgrown parking lot that faced one of them. Surprisingly, the Witch didn’t seem to be there, and the suspected Vampire was braving the afternoon sun. More surprising was the fact that the pink summoned creature was there as well. It should have dissipated not long after its task was done. Did the Witch summon another to come here in her place?

It was only after they had long left the parking lot that Nick got out of his car, not wanting to risk either Phoebe or the potential Vampire hearing him or picking up his scent. Opening the trunk of the vehicle, he extracted a clip of silver bullets for his gun, a small spool of silver wire, three wooden stakes, and a medallion. The stakes and the wire were quickly concealed under his suit jacket, and the clip replaced the one already in his weapon.

As for the simple silver medallion, that went around his neck. It was imbued with old magic, and it and others had been passed down from Huntsman to Huntsman in his family for as long as they had been hunting ‘monsters’. The enchanted medallion was drawn to magic, so that summoned creature would lead him straight to Phoebe and her blonde companion.

If Phoebe Hood could not be contained or controlled, or she or the others with her proved to be dangerous, then he would have to end them. He was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary, but his motto was that it was better to be prepared than dead. Phoebe Hood could kill him, or do far worse if he was not careful, and if the blonde was a Vampire as he suspected then so could she.

Nick waited until the sun had set before following the medallion’s pull toward his prey. He was navigating his way through the ruined zoo when an inhuman howl shattered the quiet of the night. Quickening his pace, he made his way around dilapidated cages and enclosures as stealthily as he could, the pull of the medallion around his neck becoming ever stronger. Then a woman’s voice called out, “Show yourself,” from the other side of a cage he had ducked behind to mentally prepare for a possible fight.

It couldn’t have been Phoebe. If the howl earlier was any indication; she was indeed a Werewolf as he had feared and had transformed. It was the blonde then, and he was moving stealthily enough that no human should have heard him coming. She was definitely some sort of Arcane, and the odds that she was a Vampire were rising by the minute. She could have been some sort of Fae, of course, but what the witnesses at the diner had reported hearing and seeing told him that her being a bloodsucker was far more likely.

With a heavy sigh, Nick stepped out from his cover and into the moonlight, his hands raised to show that he meant no harm. He could see the human-like summoned creature standing slightly behind and to the right of the blonde and both seemed ready to act if he did anything that could be even remotely taken as a threat to their safety. As for Phoebe Hood, the Werewolf in the cage behind the pair could only be her.

She seemed small for a Werewolf, but all of the information that he had on her stated that she was small in her human form as well. Still, even at five feet tall as a human he would have expected her to reach almost six feet in her hybrid form. She didn’t seem to lack the raw strength of her kind though as she furiously worked at the bars of the cage to try to escape. She had managed to bend the bars slightly, but they held firm and they, and the chains and padlock that they had secured the door with, looked like they would be enough to prevent the small Werewolf from getting free.

“Keep your hands where I can see them,” the blonde warned again, this time opening her mouth just wide enough that he could see her vampiric fangs. “If I think that you’re reaching for a weapon, you’ll be dead before your hand can touch it.”

Despite the blatant threat, he was more hopeful about this situation than he had been a moment earlier. Not only had they taken measures to prevent the young Werewolf from getting loose while in that state, but neither the Vampire nor the pink woman behind her had made any threatening movements yet. The Vampire had spoken instead of attacking immediately, given him a warning, and seemed to be waiting for him to explain himself. He hoped that meant that she was able to control her bloodlust and could be reasoned with. Maybe this night wouldn’t have to end in bloodshed after all.

Meanwhile, in Romania…

A large, muscular man in a black trench coat climbed the steps to the cathedral with carefully controlled excitement. There could only be one reason for Cardinal Romanov to have called him there at midnight, he had work for him, and Piotr was a man who loved his job. He idly wondered what he would be asked to hunt this time, scratching his beard in thought before reaching the cathedral doors and reaching for the handle.

Beneath his coat he wore simple and serviceable black fatigues, only opting for tactical gear when on the hunt. Both his beard and his thinning hair were black and shot with silver. He was no longer a young man, and the fact that he was still alive at his age and the oldest member of the Holy Huntsmen stood as a testament to his skills.

Piotr made his way inside the cathedral and, not waiting for any sort of guide or permission, strode confidently up the steps that would lead him to the Cardinal’s office. Once there he briefly tapped at the door before letting himself in and facing the man with the eye patch who sat behind the large desk and in front of a stained-glass window depicting the Holy Host driving demons back into the depths of Hell. He didn’t waste time on pleasantries, choosing instead to get right to the point as he usually did.

“You summoned me, Your Eminence?” It was more of a statement and an invitation to get to the business at hand than a question.

“Yes, Piotr,” the Cardinal replied with a grim nod. He showed his age far more than Piotr, his hair white where it had not disappeared entirely, a host of wrinkles on his face, and the midsection of his robe bulged from long-maintained poor eating habits.

Cardinal Romanov paused ever so slightly before imparting the reason for said summons. “The Seer has had visions of a new Hellspawn that has been let loose upon this unsuspecting world. She has predicted that it could threaten our operations in America to cleanse a known hive of Hellspawn and Fae.” He spat out the last word as if to get it off his tongue all the sooner.

The Cardinal had no love of the Fae, having crossed paths with them several times in his younger days, when he was doing God’s good work, much as Piotr still did. One does not escape such encounters with those monstrous creatures unscathed. Of all Hellspawn, he hated the Fae the most and had contributed to driving their kind out of Romania. He rubbed absently at his eye patch. The Seer had told him where the Fae bitch who had taken his eye now resided, and this new Hellspawn and those she consorted with threatened his chance at vengeance.

The Cardinal was so focused on those thoughts that he almost missed Piotr’s response. “What type of Hellspawn, Your Eminence?”

Cardinal Romanov smiled, but there was no warmth in it, as he said, “It is the reason that I called you instead of one of your compatriots, Piotr, it’s a Wolf.” He passed a folder with the location of the beast and all other known pertinent information across the desk.

The smile that Piotr summoned in return could only be described as one of manic glee as he snatched up the folder and flipped through the contents. Of all the Hellspawn, Werewolves were his favorite to hunt. They were among the deadliest and presented the greatest threat and the greatest challenge. Oh, he could kill it with a silver bullet easily enough, but what would be the fun in that?

To make things more interesting, the Seer’s notes claimed that the Wolf was in league with a Vampire, a Witch, and some sort of magical creature that she could not identify in the Book of Demons. They were all holed up in that Fae nest that the Cardinal had mentioned too. This would be the biggest challenge that Piotr had ever faced. He was grinning broadly as he said, “I will gather my team and make the preparations. May God’s will be done.”

“May God’s will be done,” Cardinal Romanov agreed as Piotr left his office with the file in hand.

Piotr had barely left the room before taking his phone from his pocket and making a call. “Songbird, ‘Grandfather’ has given us a mission. We’re off to America to hunt a Wolf. Get started working on the passports and tell Cat and Duck to meet me at the usual spot so we can start planning.”

“Yes, Piotr,” Sasha replied on the other end of the line. “The passports and travel documents will take a few days to pass American scrutiny. It shouldn’t take Sonia and Ivan long to get to the warehouse, but they won’t be happy about having to leave the bar and prepare for a new job, we just came home two days ago, and you promised them we’d have at least two weeks before taking another job.”

“I will handle Duck and Cat,” Piotr said, his enthusiasm not at all faded at the thought of their inevitable complaints. This was too good to pass up, and he would need his whole team for it. After a moment of thought he added, “Tell them I’ll be breaking out the good vodka, I feel like celebrating.”

Goldie narrowed her eyes as the figure in the dark suit stepped into the moonlight and warned, “Keep your hands where I can see them. If I think that you’re reaching for a weapon, you’ll be dead before your hand can touch it.”

The man kept his hands in the air and didn’t make a move for the weapon that she could smell on him. “My name is Nick Hunter, I’m an agent with the FBI, and I investigate supernatural threats.” Then at the glower that the Vampire gave him, he quickly corrected, “Don’t worry, I try not to kill them unless it’s absolutely necessary and they are an immediate threat to the public or risk exposing the existence of the Arcane.”

Neither Goldie nor Berry said a word as they continued to watch him cautiously, so he continued to talk, probably in hopes of keeping the situation from escalating. “My family have been dealing with rogue Arcane for a very long time, but only the rogue ones. I have been tracking Phoebe there, and a new Witch named Greta Heinrich, since they were both turned, to make sure that they aren’t a danger to people. Greta is the one who summoned that slime creature for you, right?”

The Slime-girl in question moved to stand beside the Vampire and took a defensive stance to block the agent’s view of Red. “Hey! I have a name, you know! I’m Berry, and who the hell is this Phoebe person you’re talking about?! I swear, if you’re a threat to Red I’ll make you regret it!”

Agent Hunter’s eyebrows rose in surprise. An independent summoned creature with a personality? And that defensive of someone other than the magic user who had summoned it? He had never encountered, or even heard about, something like this before. He took a deep, slow breath, attempting to not appear threatening as he considered this new hiccup.

“So, she does go by Red then?” the agent finally said thoughtfully. “Her former roommate did say that she prefers that name. I assure you, I am not a threat to her, in fact, I see her as a victim in this and have shut down the police investigation into her grandmother’s death. As long as she is taking measures to ensure that she cannot harm anyone when the moon is full, and your Witch friend is receiving some sort of training for her magic, I have no issues with either of them.”

Goldie frowned, not convinced yet, and Berry remained in a defensive stance as the Vampire asked, “What is it that you want then?”

“I just wanted to be sure that none of you are a danger to the general public. Red is a Werewolf, you have an untrained Witch and a Vampire among you as well, and the last anyone saw of any of you, you vanished into thin air after chasing down an unknown man. I assume that you have all taken shelter in a Fae settlement?” Agent Hunter explained before asking for clarification.

“Yes,” Goldie answered, though she was still guarded. “The man we were chasing was a pedophile with a long history, one of the clans of the Summer Court placed a price on his head after he assaulted a young girl under their protection.”

Agent Hunter winced as she mentioned that the man had crossed the Fae. Even the Summer Court could be ruthless in their punishments when someone crossed them, but to attack a child under their protection? The Fae are nearly as possessive and protective of those they welcome into their clans as they are of those born to them. Fae children are rare and those adopted by them are treasured beyond measure, the price for attacking one of them would be steep indeed.

“I assume that the man is still alive and will be suffering for a long time then,” Nick said with a grimace. If the man truly was a criminal, then he likely wouldn’t be missed and he knew better than to get between the Fae and their justice, especially when that punishment was deserved.

“You could say that, but it depends on your definition of alive. You are dead right about the suffering part though,” Goldie replied with a shrug, though her eyes did not stray from watching his every movement. “We got our reward out of it, and more, they offered us a deal.”

“Making deals with the Fae can be dangerous,” Agent Hunter cautioned. “May I ask the nature of the deal?”

Goldie crossed her arms and stated simply, “No. I won’t reveal any more to someone I can’t trust without the Clan Chieftain’s consent. All that you need to know is that Greta is getting training for her magic and they’re helping us make sure Red won’t hurt anyone when she’s like this.”

“Fair enough,” the agent said with a sigh. “I have information that might be useful to you, so I would like to meet when Red is feeling more herself. If you can get permission from this Chieftain, then I would like to know more about your current situation as well, so I can be certain that none of you are a threat to the Arcane secret or the normies. There is a business card in the front pocket of my jacket, it has my cell phone number.”

Goldie glanced toward Berry, who didn’t move other than to stretch her arm out to carefully reach inside the pocket and hand the card in question to the blonde Vampire. The card displayed the name that he had already given the pair, had the FBI letterhead on the top, and had both his cell phone number and a branch number to contact him. She gave it a quick glance and nodded before warning, “If I smell you anywhere near us before I contact you then the deal is off, and I will consider you a threat to us.”

Another sigh escaped the agent, but he nodded in agreement before speaking once again. “Call me once the third night of the full moon has passed, I will leave the time and place of our meeting up to you so you can be sure it isn’t a trap.” With that, the agent slowly backed away from the pair guarding the Werewolf girl. Then, once he was far enough that they were only shadows in the darkness, he turned around and headed back to his car.

I woke up, cold and aching, on the hard floor of the cage. As I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and took a look around, I saw Goldie lying a few feet away from the bars on the other side with what looked like a big pink umbrella shading her from the morning sun. I tried moving, only to discover that everything hurt, even my throat was sore.

I felt strange too, not quite my normal self anymore. Was that because of the change, or was it just that I expected something to feel different? I was about to dismiss it as my imagination when I caught sight of the bare skin of my arm, where my grandmother had bitten me. Before there had been a bite wound there that had refused to heal properly, but now there was a mark there instead. It wasn’t a scar, more like a silver tattoo in the shape of a crescent moon that glowed dimly in the midmorning light.

There were my hands too, my fingernails were longer, thicker, and sharper, like they had been filed into a stiletto style. They were almost like claws. I groaned as I shakily attempted to get to my feet and look for any other changes. Surprisingly, the sound didn’t wake Goldie, but Berry reacted immediately.

“Red! Are you okay?!” the Slime-girl asked, sounding worried as the big pink umbrella turned to viscous liquid that oozed through the bars of the cage. Once inside, the slime’s shape once again shifted to Berry’s familiar humanoid form.

“I feel… weird,” I admitted uncertainly, as I glanced again at my fingernails and leaned against the bars of the cage to steady myself. “I’m kinda cold too, and really hungry.” Talking felt strange too, and not just because I was parched and had a sore throat. Running my tongue around the inside of my mouth and across my teeth provided the answer to that though. My canines were sharper and definitely longer than they were before I changed.

At least I wasn’t covered in fur and trying to eat Berry. I wondered briefly if she really tasted like cherry Jell-O like she claimed, and the thought immediately brought a blush to my cheeks. At least I didn’t feel any different on the inside, at least, not compared to the past couple of days leading up to the full moon. I still felt… feral, for lack of a better word, as if the littlest thing might set me off and like I needed to burn off energy, despite how sore and tired I felt.

“I’ll wake up the bloodsucker and grab our clothes, so we can get out of here and get you something to eat,” Berry quickly promised.

“Thanks, Berry,” I replied with a tired and uncertain smile. “Uh… speaking of Goldie, why is she sleeping in the open like that? I thought she was going to sleep in one of the cages so she wouldn’t get sunburned this morning.”

“Nice chompers,” Berry teased with a grin at seeing my smile, causing me to immediately blush and close my mouth as soon as my query was made. I could see right away her regret for making me self-conscious as she looked away guiltily and mumbled, “Sorry. Yeah, well we had a visitor last night, the bloodsucker called him a government spook, so neither of us wanted to be too far away.”

“Wait, what?!” I sputtered as I gaped at her wide-eyed. “What happened?!”

“He must have followed us from Shadowtown,” the pink-hued girl supplied. “He said he’s been tracking you and Greta both for a while, though he called you Phoebe at first, so obviously he was wrong about you. You’re Red. He left peacefully after making sure you couldn’t hurt anyone and asking a few questions, but neither of us wanted to take chances. Blondie tried to keep watch all night, but she passed out and needed her sleep so I figured I should watch over you both and protect her from the sun until you woke up.”

A chill ran down my spine and it suddenly felt like I had ice water flowing through my veins. A government man was tracking me and now knew where I was? This was bad. This was extremely bad, and I had to shove down the anger that threatened to boil over at the thought. I was scared and worried, but in my current state, it was the anger that threatened to overwhelm me. “W-what did he want?” I managed to ask as I clenched the bars with shaking hands.

“He said he just wanted to make sure you weren’t a danger to anyone or might reveal the Arcane secret, and something about seeing you as a victim and shutting down the investigation into your grandmother’s death. Anyway, he wants to meet up after the full moon. He said he has some information for us,” Berry replied, though she didn’t seem sure about the whole thing.

I wasn’t sure either. If this guy was after me and Greta and this was a trap, then we could both be in trouble. On the other hand, if he knew about the Arcane and really did have useful information for us… maybe he knew about Werewolves and how I could learn to control this curse. Either way, we might have to invoke the protection of the Fairy Godmother and the BriarRose Family sooner than I thought.

My mind was spinning in circles as my stomach loudly protested its hunger. Dammit, I couldn’t think clearly like this. I needed to eat something and try to calm down a bit. I could talk it over with the others later, the problem wasn’t going to go anywhere by waiting an hour or two and I wanted to tackle it with a clear head.

While I was lost in my thoughts and worries, Berry had slipped through the bars and gathered my clothes. She quickly passed them through the bars to me before dressing in her clothes while I did the same. A few minutes later, she retrieved the keys for the padlock from a very sleepy Vampire and unlocked my cage as Goldie attempted to wake up.

We were all quiet on the way back to Greta’s van, lost in our thoughts. I found myself worrying about this mysterious government man and how this would affect us, despite my earlier resolve to shelve it for later. There was something different about Goldie and Berry too, in the way that they interacted.

Berry seemed almost as concerned for the Vampire as she was for me and had gone out of her way to keep her safe from the sunlight. Goldie seemed less hostile and more forgiving of the Slime-girl’s quirks this morning too. Just what had happened between them last night? It was something else to consider later, when I was less tired, irritable, and hungry.

Rather than finding a place close to Belle Island to eat our morning meal and then getting some supplies to take back to the abandoned zoo as we had originally planned, we ended up returning to Shadowtown to eat at Witch’s Brew. Greta would be there working again, and Goldie thought that it was best if all four of us talked about the government guy who had approached them last night while I was wolfing out. Apparently, he had been tracking both Greta and me for a while and we all thought that she had a right to know what was going on.

We also wanted to talk to the Fairy Godmother or Cerriwyn and get their advice about this matter, and to get Goldie out of direct sunlight for a while. Spending all day outside would be very uncomfortable for her and she would likely end up with a nasty sunburn. Eating at Witch’s Brew would also ensure that my Vampire girlfriend wouldn’t have to hunt for a meal to keep her energy up today.

As soon as we arrived at Witch’s Brew, we asked Dierdre to get Greta and her teacher/boss, Simone, from the back where our Witch roommate was getting a magic lesson while there weren’t many customers around. Goldie wanted to give Greta the broad strokes about last night’s encounter with the FBI agent, who seemed to be in the know about the Arcane since both she and I had been specifically mentioned. Simone offered to send a message to the Fairy Godmother by magic to save us a trip to their little forest retreat and hopefully, she would send someone to the pub to discuss the matter with us or summon us when it was convenient.

The four of us were all seated at a table with Goldie sleepily sipping at a bottle of blood, while I awaited my breakfast, when Greta asked, “So, this fucking FBI asshole has been tracking me and Red for a while now? Any idea what it is that he fucking wants?”

“He claimed that he just wants to be sure that we’re not dangerous to Joe Average or going to reveal the existence of the Arcane to them,” Goldie replied with a tired shrug. “He also mentioned that he has some information for us, probably specifically for Red since he wants to meet us after the full moon is past. On one hand, this guy seems to know a lot about the Arcane, so maybe he’ll know something that can help with Red’s Werewolf situation. On the other hand…”

“He could be baiting a trap for us,” I finished as Goldie trailed off uncertainly.

Goldie nodded as a frown settled upon her pretty face. “Yeah, it’s something to consider. He did say that we could choose the place and time for the meetup though, which we can use to tip things in our favor. That’s why I’d like to talk with the Fairy Godmother, to see what she thinks and what she suggests doing about this. He knows that we’re here now, but I tried not to reveal anything too important.”

“So, what do we do about tonight and tomorrow?" Berry asked as she cast a concerned look in my direction. “He knows where we’re keeping Red when she goes wolf, so do we go back to the zoo and hope he hasn’t set up a trap there or do we try to find some other place where she can’t hurt anyone?”

“I’m not sure that we can find some other place to lock me down on such short notice,” I replied darkly as I glared down at the table and tried to keep my moon-fueled anger at the situation under control. “I don’t want to hurt someone because I’m not locked up properly tonight, so I guess we’ll have to risk it.”

It was then that Dierdre brought my breakfast to the table, so the conversation died for a while as I ate, and we all considered the problem. If anyone came up with any halfway decent ideas then they didn’t voice them, so the silence seemed to drag on as I ate. I was almost finished my meal entirely when Chief Rissara, otherwise known as the Fairy Godmother, arrived with Cerriwyn and a large contingent of other Fairies from the BriarRose Family.

They arrived a lot faster than I thought. In fact, I had been expecting for us to be summoned to the Fairy Godmother rather than her coming to us, with a retinue no less. I was still trying to finish a mouthful of steak as the chieftain approached our table to inquire, “I trust that one of the abandoned zoos was satisfactory last night?”

“Yeah, except for the unexpected visitor, everything went to plan,” Goldie responded. “Thank you for the suggestion, Chief Rissara. It should work well enough until we figure something more permanent, unless, of course, that government spook decides to set a trap for us tonight.”

“Yes,” the head of the Fairy clan agreed grimly. “I would like to know more about this man, especially if he has been prowling about outside of our territory and stalking those under my protection.”

Goldie shoved the business card that she had gotten from the man in question across the table as the group of Fairies alighted on one of the corners. “I’m not sure if I trust him, but he didn’t just try to kill us last night and then he left us in peace after our conversation. If he was being honest then his concerns are valid, and he might have kept the police from coming after Red, but I’m not going to trust him just because he knows about the Arcane and flashed a badge at us, metaphorically speaking.”

“Agent Hunter, what an appropriate name,” Chief Rissara hummed thoughtfully as she stood over the business card that was nearly as big as she was and examined it. “Just a moment, allow me to try…”

The Fairy Godmother knelt to place both hands on the card before chanting something for several minutes that was too quiet for even my newly sensitive ears to hear with her small voice. “She’s using a scrying spell,” Cerriwyn quickly explained for the sake of those of us who were still new around magic.

Finally, after a long and awkward silence, the card began to glow for just a few seconds before Chief Rissara rose to her feet once more. “Very clever, he has protected himself against scrying, so he can’t be tracked. He’s using a Huntsman artifact for that though, and I recognize the ‘scent’ of it. I dealt with one of its past bearers after all. He must be one of Abraham’s descendants. Abraham was a decent sort, he never crossed us and left most Arcane alone unless they were an unchecked danger, like that Vampire in Romania.”

“So, you can’t find out anything from that card then?” Berry asked, looking disappointed.

“Oh, that is not the case at all,” Chief Rissara countered cheerfully. “This does verify his story to some degree since those artifacts will only work for someone of the proper bloodline, and that means we’re dealing with a Van Helsing. I had heard that some of them moved to North America and changed their name, but I was not sure whether to believe it. If he has taken Abraham’s ways to heart, as his behavior last night would indicate, then he should be safe to meet with. Trust me, there are far worse Huntsmen that we could be dealing with.

“So, we’re probably still safe locking me up in the zoo tonight?” I asked, hoping for clarification.

The Fairy looked contemplative for a moment before agreeing, “Yes indeed, young Red. Though to err on the side of caution, I believe that I will send Cerriwyn and three others of my kind along with you to serve as lookouts and keep you hidden from sight with illusions.”

I let out a long sigh of relief as some of the tension that had been building up left me and my shoulders became less tense. “What about the meeting that he requested?” Goldie pressed. My girlfriend still seemed somewhat suspicious, but I couldn’t really blame her. If the Fairy Godmother was willing to send four Fairies along with us the next two nights to keep a lookout and keep us hidden, it probably meant that she wasn’t sure about this Agent Hunter yet either.

“You will call him on the morning after the third night of the full moon to arrange a meeting that night,” Chief Rissara instructed carefully. “You will be at your strongest at night, Goldie, so he should not find anything unusual about you choosing such a time. Now, as for the place…”

Belle Isle
Detroit, Michigan
Thursday, November 10th, 2022 – 8:37 a.m.

That second night was much like the previous one if you didn’t count us having Fairies accompany us or the lack of any tense meetings with government agents. Goldie and Berry accompanied me to the zoo and then, when the moon rose, my world erupted in pain until I was shoved in the mental back seat by the Wolf. Then I spent the night fighting vainly for control as my other, more furry self, attempted to break free from the cage until she wore herself out.

The next morning, I again woke up tired and sore on the cage’s filthy floor and we woke Goldie so we could return to Shadowtown for breakfast, a hot shower, and a change of clean clothes. To hear Berry tell it, their night was pretty boring while Wolf-me was trying to break free, and that was a huge relief. The lack of any traps that night, or further visits from Agent Hunter meant that the government Huntsman was keeping to his word.

The third night of the full moon was basically a repeat of the second. I still woke up feeling tired, cold, and sore this morning, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the anger and feral instincts that had been simmering inside me since a few days before the full moon seemed to have subsided enough that I didn’t think I was going to angrily snap at someone again. I still felt bad for snapping at Berry over a simple “How are you feeling this morning?" the morning before.

I decided as I got dressed that I would have to do something nice for Slime-girl to make it up to her. I did apologize right after it happened, but I still felt bad about it. That guilt resurfaced as I stood up and stretched and Berry once again immediately noticed and brought my clothes into the cage while asking, “Feeling any better today, Red?”

“Yeah, much better,” I agreed with a smile. “It doesn’t feel like I’m gonna explode with anger this morning at least. I’m really sorry about yesterday, Berry, you didn’t deserve that.”

“Oh, I’m sure I can think of some way for you to make me forget all about it,” the pink Slime-girl offered with a grin. Then, the moment that I had taken the clothes that she was offering in hand, she sort of oozed over and around me, holding me in her warm near-liquid embrace as I felt part of the blob that had ensconced everything but my head and outstretched arms massaging my bare breasts… and other places. “Yeah, now that’s an apology,” her voice teased from behind my right ear.

“Berry!” I squealed in protest, even as I could feel my nipples harden and a warmth build up in my groin from whatever she was doing to me. Thankfully, she let go as soon as I protested and didn’t take it too far, though she was giggling playfully as she did. As flustered and turned on as I now was, it was nice seeing Berry act more like her normal self, as frustrating as she could be sometimes. It was hard to admit, but I kind of liked the attention from her, and I felt bad when she was walking on eggshells around me.

“Hey, I’m sleeping here,” Goldie protested from the shelter of a nearby cage. She did get up though since she was already awake and stepped out of the cage to glare at Berry as I hurriedly changed into my clothes. “What did we talk about last night? Geeze, it’s like you weren’t even listening.”

I somewhat recalled the two of them talking about stuff the past few nights, but with the Wolf in charge, it was like it was all filtered through a static of rage so I couldn’t really remember any details. At least they were getting along better now, and Goldie didn’t seem to be at Berry’s throat as much. Whatever it was Goldie was talking about though, Berry at least had the good grace to look embarrassed. “You mean about maybe sharin…”

“No! The other thing!” Goldie half shouted to cut her off.

“Right... that consent thing you were telling me about,” the Slime-girl said as she looked at the ground. “Sorry… both of you. I’ll… try not to be so impulsive.”

I had finished throwing my clothes on and looked at the pair in confusion. They were actually getting along, well, for the two of them anyway. And what was Berry about to say before Goldie suddenly cut her off? I gave the pair a suspicious glance and asked, “Okay, what’s up with the two of you?”

“I’ll tell you later, sexy,” Goldie offered before giving me a good morning kiss. “Tonight, when I’m not standing in the sunshine, we don’t have a meeting with a Huntsman to worry about, and when we can relax and have a nice long talk.”

I decided to let it go for the moment and nodded my agreement. “Sure, Goldie. Let’s wrangle some Fairies so we can get back home. I want a nice warm meal, a hot shower, and a very long nap before we have to meet with this ‘Agent Hunter’ tonight.

“Yeah, I can get behind all of that,” the Vampire agreed. “You look as tired as I feel. Let’s gather those Fairies and get home. I’ll call the spook to arrange the time and place while we’re on our way back to Shadowtown.”

Rosie’s Diner
Detroit, Michigan
Thursday, November 10th, 2022 – 11:45 p.m.

Agent Nicholas Hunter sipped at his coffee, his eyes taking in everything around him over the rim of the cup. Not that there had been much to watch besides the waitress, tired from a long day, occasionally shuffling between the few occupied tables in the diner to take orders, deliver them, or offer to refill coffee cups. Rosie’s Diner was quiet as midnight neared, with only two customers other than himself as he waited for the arrival of Phoebe Hood and her companions.

Phoebe, or Red, as she preferred to be called, had called just a couple of hours ago with instructions to wait at this now-familiar diner for a midnight meeting. It seemed that she was as clever as he thought, choosing a public place where she and her friends could easily make a run for the safety of the Fae settlement if things did not go in their favor. She had also not given him much notice of the intended time and place of the meeting, likely to prevent him from setting up some sort of trap or ambush.

He didn’t intend anything like that, but she was wise to be cautious. From what he had seen so far, these Arcane girls were doing their best to avoid anyone else being harmed by their curses. If they didn’t care about that then he likely would be using this opportunity to deal with them permanently, but for now, he was willing to see where this went and leave them be, so long as they hadn’t fallen in with Fae of the Winter Court. He shuddered at the thought of what they might do with a Werewolf, Witch, Vampire, and whatever that pink, summoned creature was.

That wasn’t to say that he was not prepared in case things went badly. His agency-issued gun was currently loaded with silver rounds, and he was wearing several charms enchanted to protect him against magic and scrying. Most of his Hunting gear remained in the trunk of his car though. He was trying to be prepared for trouble while still coming to this meeting in good faith.

Nick’s eyes once again drifted toward the diner’s entrance as the pendant worn under his shirt vibrated, signaling the approach of some form of Arcane, most likely a Witch or one of the Fae from the intensity of the vibrations. A moment later, the door swung open to reveal an attractive human-looking woman in her thirties with long black hair who talking on her phone and dressed in jeans, black ankle-length boots, and a thick green jacket to ward off the autumn chill. That was not the Witch he was waiting for; she looked nothing like Greta Heinrich, and she was alone.

The diner was on the outside edge of a community of Fae and other Arcane, so this might have been some sort of coincidence. Nick didn’t believe in coincidence though, especially when Arcane were involved. His assertion was confirmed as the woman immediately approached his table, sat down opposite him, and said, “Someone would like to speak with you, Agent Hunter.”

The woman offered him her phone and he took it carefully. Nick did not like surprises, but he figured that he knew who was on the other end of the phone, and she had every reason not to trust someone in his position. “This is Hunter,” he said into the phone with a sigh.

Unsurprisingly, the voice that answered was familiar after talking to her only a couple of hours ago. “It’s Red Hood, Agent Hunter, the meeting place has changed. Simone will take you to the new location in Greta’s van. You can either accompany her and follow her instructions or you can leave and forget about this face-to-face meeting ever happening, the choice is yours.”

“Shit,” Nick mentally cursed as Red disconnected the call. He couldn’t blame these girls for showing an abundance of caution, he would have likely done the same in their situation, but to expect him to step willingly into the unknown… well, not quite the unknown. He had a sinking suspicion that he knew exactly where the meeting would be taking place, given their close proximity to the Fae community.

There were two possibilities here, either the Fae they were dealing with were from the Winter Court and this was a trap, or they were dealing with someone from the Summer Court and wanted to see how far he was willing to go to meet with them. Nick was leaning toward the latter of the two since then had the Werewolf caged when he first approached them, to keep her from hurting anyone. Still, it was a big risk. If it was the former, then he could be placing himself in great danger. Even if they had fallen in with the Summer Court, Fae can be capricious and if they felt that Nick was an immediate danger to them, he could end up very dead, or worse.

Nick knew that he was going to have to trust his instincts on this one. Still, that didn’t make things any easier as he handed the phone back to the Witch that Red had called Simone. He had learned to trust his instincts, and right now they were telling him that these girls were just being very cautious until he could prove himself to be on their side, or at least not a danger to them.

With a sigh, he placed a fiver on the table to cover his coffee and a tip for the waitress and stood up. “Let’s get going then,” he said to the raven-haired Witch.

“After you, I insist,” she replied, gesturing to the exit.

Nick did as he was asked, preceding her outside and turning toward the familiar van belonging to Greta Heinrich as Simone used the key fob to unlock the doors with an audible *bee-boop* sound. With the signal given he got into the forward passenger seat and then buckled in and closed the door behind him. As the Witch got settled into the driver’s seat beside him, he asked, “You’re taking me into the Fae community, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but we call it Shadowtown,” the woman said with an impassive shrug of her shoulders. “There is a blindfold in the glove compartment in front of you, it’s been enchanted to keep the barrier and protections from affecting you as we pass through, so put it on. You may keep your protective charms on you, but the gun goes into the glove compartment until the meeting is over. If you wish to speak with them, that is the price of admission. This is your last chance to back out, Agent Hunter. If you mean these girls harm, in any way, the Fae that we have pledged ourselves to will see you suffer for it.”

“I just want to talk with them, to see what kind of people they are, and share information,” Nick insisted as he opened the glove compartment slowly extracted his gun, and switched it for the black piece of enchanted cloth. Then he tried to slow his breathing and his rapid pulse as he reached up and secured the blindfold in place before saying, “I’m ready.”

Witch’s Brew Tavern
Shadowtown
Thursday, November 10th, 2022 – 11:50 p.m.

I disconnected the call and took a deep breath to calm myself. Trying to act tough for a federal agent who may or may not be after me was not as easy as it had sounded when we came up with the plan for tonight’s meeting. The Fairy Godmother had felt that it would be wise to keep him off guard, just in case though, and to bring him here to Shadowtown.

By having the meeting here, we would have a distinct advantage. It would show just how much Agent Hunter wanted to meet with me, make it easier for the Fairy Godmother to discern his intentions, and be a lot less likely to come to violence with the Fairies, Simone, and Dierdre watching his every move and ready to act. Simone had even offered to act as the go-between in case there really was a trap. Chief Rissara didn’t want any of us getting too close until she knew his true intentions and Simone was feeling protective of Greta, her new foul-mouthed apprentice.

“Well, it’s done,” I told the others as I placed the phone on the table.

“Do you think the fucker will show up?” Greta asked the Vampire seated across from her since Goldie and Berry were the only ones who had actually dealt with him face-to-face.

Goldie sighed and shook her head, frowning as she replied, “I have no idea. I only met him once, and it was really tense. If he does, he’d have to be stupid to try anything against us here, with the place full of Fae and other Arcane. He didn’t seem stupid to me. Somewhat calculating, but not stupid.”

I looked around Witch’s Brew and hoped that she was right. The place was packed tonight with various Arcane, including a host of Fairies who would be watching our backs and some of their Aos Sidhe allies. The Fairy Godmother had made it clear that if this Huntsman wasn’t like his ancestor and was a danger to us, then he would be considered a danger to everyone in Shadowtown. If that was the case, then they would deal with him appropriately.

Berry followed my gaze around the room and smiled to try to ease my worries, “Don’t worry, Red. The bloodsucker is right, if he does come then he won’t try anything with all these Arcane around. If the Fairy Godmother isn’t convinced that he’s one of the good guys, like he claimed, then I’ll just have to dispose of another body.”

I returned the Slime-girl’s smile with one of my own. It wasn’t all that confident, but it showed that I appreciated her efforts. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what was getting to me worse, the waiting to see what would happen or the uncertainty of the entire situation. Anything could end up happening and this was a man who had been tracking me and Greta down since we came into our curses and became Arcane.

Ten minutes later, which felt like an eternity to me, Simone returned to her place of business in the company of a man in a dark suit. The man was tall, lean, and moved like someone who was in good shape. His skin was lightly tanned, and he had short-cropped black hair and dark eyes. He looked like he might be of Mediterranean or Eastern European ancestry, and he visibly paled as he saw that the tavern was packed to the rafters with Arcane.

He was in the lion’s den, and he knew it. I could smell the tangy scent of carefully controlled fear coming from him as he and Simone approached our table. He might have been some kind of Arcane Hunter, but it looked like he had never been in the midst of such a gathering before. He stopped in his tracks as the Fairy Godmother, and almost the entire BriarRose Clan, fluttered down from the rafters to block his path.

The tavern went deathly silent, quiet enough that even the Fairy Godmother’s small voice rang clearly throughout the room. “Agent Hunter, how good of you to accept our invitation. I am Rissara, Chieftain of the BriarRose Clan of the Summer Court. Those four young ladies are members of my clan and, as such, under my protection. Before you speak with them, you shall speak with me. Should I have reason to believe at any time that you mean them harm, or that you are lying to me, you will face Fae justice and dream longingly for the release of death.”

“Shit,” Agent Hunter mentally cursed as the tavern went quiet and the Fairy delivered her warning. He had walked right into this with his insistence on speaking with Red and Greta personally to ensure that neither was a threat to the public. He knew they had some sort of deal with Fae, and yet he just waltzed right into a Fae community on their terms, completely weaponless. He did not expect a tavern full of Summer Court Fae and various other Arcane would be watching and waiting for him to do or say the wrong thing.

Still, the situation could be far worse. These girls may have pledged themselves to Fae, but they were at least Fae of the Summer Court, and Fairies were generally among the more laid-back Fae from that court. They were generally nonviolent, unless you did something to really piss them off, and their magic was mostly illusion, meant more for distraction and misleading. It was everyone else in the building that he had to worry about.

The fact that they had not only fallen in with the Summer Court but been accepted into one of their clans was a pleasant surprise. It meant that they would most likely listen before doing anything drastic, that they would continue to keep Red locked up during the full moons, and that Greta was most likely getting some form of training for her magic. As long as he was honest here about his intentions, it was likely that he could still come out of this alive.

With all that in mind, Nick attempted to calm himself as he bowed his head to show respect to the Fairy Chieftain and said, “As you wish, Chieftain Rissara.”

“Tell me, who are you and what is it that you want from the girls whom I have welcomed into my clan?” The Fairy asked, watching him carefully for any signs of deception.

“As I told the two that I spoke with on the first night of the full moon, my name is Nicholas Hunter and I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, using my skills as a Huntsman to handle cases involving Arcane,” he explained. “As long as those girls continue to ensure that they aren’t a threat, then I’m content to leave them be after I speak with them.”

“And what, to your mind, would present such a threat?” the Fairy Chieftain pressed. For such a tiny person, she presented a huge presence, even among other Arcane in the tavern that he suspected were far more dangerous.

He didn’t hesitate as he replied, “Those that cannot or will not take measures to control themselves and keep their true natures hidden. Those who leave a trail of dead bodies behind them, who are an active danger to the public, or a risk to reveal the Arcane secret through their actions. I don’t want the general public to know about the Arcane any more than you do. If it was made public somehow that you exist, there would be Witch hunts, and I don’t believe that all Arcane, or even most, are the monsters you’re presented as.”

She said nothing, only watching and listening. In fact, the whole tavern was eerily quiet save for the sound of his voice. So, he continued trying to convince them. “While I have put down my share of dangerous Arcane for the greater good, I believe that many of you just wish to live your lives in peace, and I have tried to help some to do that when I can. I have already killed the werewolf that turned Miss Hood’s grandmother and pinned the blame for her death on him. I am confident that Miss Hood is innocent of anything but self-defense in that case and have shut down any further investigation into the matter. Nobody else will be looking for her as anything more than a missing person.”

Nick’s gaze then turned from Red to Greta as he added, “As for Miss Heinrich, while I am certain she did kill the Witch that she inherited her powers from, I believe that it was warranted in that case and a matter of self-defense. She and her brother were not the first to suffer at her hands, there was plenty of… evidence found on the premises. I have buried that case so deep that it’s melting in magma.”

“I can assure you, Agent Hunter, that we will not allow these girls to become a threat,” the Fairy in charge stated calmly. “At my request, Simone has taken Greta on as an apprentice, to teach her to control her magic and use it responsibly and, as you have seen, we have been taking measures to keep Red contained whenever the moon is full. If that is all that concerns you, then I trust you are satisfied and will leave in peace.”

For an instant, Nick was tempted to just take the opportunity to leave with his skin intact. He couldn’t do that though. There were things that those girls needed to know, that they needed to be warned about, and his extensive knowledge of the Arcane could save their lives or prevent them from doing something that they, and everyone around them, would regret.

So instead of leaving, he stood his ground and spoke up. “Honestly, all I want to do here is make sure that Miss Heinrich is getting proper training for her magic, which now seems to be the case, and to share the benefit of my knowledge and experience with Miss Hood and the blonde Vampire. I’m a Huntsman, and I’m familiar with details about their kind of Arcane that they probably aren’t. There are things that they will need to know if they aren’t going to become a danger to themselves and everyone around them.”

The Fairy Godmother gave him a long searching look and the tension in the room was palpable. Finally, her tiny head nodded as she said, “Very well, I sense no deception and I am satisfied with your intentions, for now. You may speak with them, should they wish it.” Then her questioning gaze fell upon the Werewolf, Vampire, Witch, and Slime-girl.

I listened carefully as the Fairy Godmother questioned the Huntsman, and when she turned to give us that questioning look, I sighed and turned to the others. “What do you think, girls? It wouldn’t hurt to hear what he has to say.”

“If he really can tell us more about Vampires and Werewolves, then it’ll be worth it, I guess,” Goldie reluctantly agreed. “We have been going into this whole Arcane thing blind until now.”

“I guess so. I’ll go with whatever you decide, Red,” Berry added as she gave Agent Hunter a wary look.

“Fuck, go ahead and talk to him if you want. I probably don’t even need to be here for this conversation anyway, and my dinner break is about up. We’re fucking packed tonight, so I should get back to work.” With that, the busty Bavarian blonde stood up and went to talk to Deirdre at the bar and get back to work, leaving just the three of us.

I nodded to the Fairy Godmother and gestured to the recently abandoned chair at our table. Agent Hunter came to join us immediately, though several Fairies hovered over the table to monitor the conversation, including Chieftain Rissara. As he sat down, the Huntsman looked over the three of us and said, “Well, I guess I should get right down to business. So, to start, I’d like to know what you’ve figured out on your own, and how you even became Arcane in the first place. It would help me clarify some things. I’m certain that you only acted in self-defense, Miss Hood, but I’d like to hear the story from you.”

For the next hour, Goldie, Berry, and I told him our stories, and he tried not to interject unless it was to get us to clarify something or to tell us something that we didn’t know. Berry had him stumped. He had never seen a permanent summon bonded to anyone but the Arcane who summoned them before. As for me and Goldie, it looked like we had managed to figure out most of the most basic and important things about being a Werewolf and Vampire.

Goldie was the last to finish her story and the agent, who had told us to call him Nick, gave her a sympathetic look. “I am sorry to hear that you went through all of that, Goldie. I’m surprised that you can control your bloodlust so well, usually, it’s much harder for younger Vampires to resist the urge to feed and they’re hunted down as a result. I’ll be heading to the Chicago area after my business here with you is done, so I’ll look into those two Vampires in Aurora and hunt them down while I’m there.”

The blonde Vampire stared at the agent in shock. “Really? I didn’t expect you to…”

“They’re using their positions to attack the vulnerable, and they would have killed you if you hadn’t escaped. They’re a danger to the people under their care and a risk of turning more Vampires or revealing the Arcane secret. They need to be hunted down,” he stated firmly with a grim expression. “You all seem to have a pretty good grasp about what you’re dealing with and don’t seem to want to hurt anyone, but there are a few very important things you need to know.”

“Like what?” Berry asked. I didn’t think he was talking about her though since she was a bit of a mystery to all of us.

“Goldie, unless the circumstances are incredibly dire, never feed on Red, or any other Arcane under a powerful curse. Feeding on a person with such a powerful curse would only fuel your own and you would become an Elder Vampire.” Seeing her wary glance at the bottle in front of her, he quickly assured her, “Don’t worry about bagged or bottled blood, it needs to be straight from the source.”

“What’s an Elder Vampire? I mean, like, what’s the difference between that and a regular one?” I inquired, looking at my girlfriend in concern.

“There have only ever been three Elder Vampires that I know of. One of those was Dracula,” the agent told us seriously. “If you were to become one, you would need to drink more blood than you do now, as much as five times more in a day, and the bloodlust would get stronger. You would also be far more powerful than you are now and gain new abilities that would make you much harder to take down if you ever lost control and turned on those you care about. Beyond that, even I don’t know much about Elder Vampires.”

If Goldie could have gotten any paler, I was certain she would have. “Well, shit. Okay, unless we’re in a life or death situation, I’ll be very careful about who I feed on from now on.”

Nick nodded and turned his attention back to me. "What was it like for you, Red? The change, I mean."

I frowned as I thought back and tried to remember something that I didn’t even really want to think about. “I don't remember much. All I remember is pain followed by a haze... like when you have a fever and are delirious. I could sorta see through my eyes, but I couldn’t control my body, and it was like everything was being filtered through that fog of animalistic rage that I couldn’t break free from, no matter how hard I fought it.”

“That rage you felt, that’s the curse, the wolf within you,” Nick said with a faint smile. “The fact that you can remember anything aside from the pain is actually a good thing, that means that you’re fighting for control and have a strong will. It’s possible that you could learn to tame the wolf within someday and control yourself during your change. It is a slim hope, but hope, nonetheless. Your first change could have been far worse, but it’s extremely rare for Werewolves to go into heat the first time changing.”

"Heat?" Goldie asked, turning to gape at me in shock.

"Yes, it varies from wolf to wolf, but Werewolves don't just multiply by infection, the females also go into heat in order to mate. It can be as little as once a year or as much as every month. The usual is once every four to six lunar cycles."

I could feel my stomach sinking as I tried to process what he was telling us. "You mean...?" My throat tightened and I couldn’t finish the question.

"Unfortunately, yes,” he replied, catching my meaning. “Typically, you can see the signs on the first day of the lunar cycle leading up to their change. Increased moodiness and irritability mostly, it’s essentially similar to PMS, though I’ve been told that they start feeling a building heat in their... umm… loins as well that can’t be satisfied. Then after they change, they start calling out for mates and get hostile towards other females in their vicinity. If they can't attract a mate, they change focus into attacking men to infect them so they can create one. On the second day, the effects linger, and the arousal and desire to… copulate increases. It tapers off during the last day and night of the full moon though."

“Nononono!” I protested as I violently shook my head. “Not going to happen! I don’t… I’m not even attracted to guys!”

The agent gave me a sympathetic look as he shook his head. "I’m sorry, Red, but it won't matter, especially when the wolf is in control. Now do any of you have any other questions before I leave?"

I was still reeling from the bomb he had just dropped on me and was having enough trouble just trying to keep my breathing under control and not go into a panic attack. Goldie and Berry were watching me in concern, but it seemed that the Vampire did have something that she needed to know, or at least, that she was curious about. “In the movies, they always start with the eyes, claws, and fangs...why did Red’s ribs all break when she started her change? That looked agonizing for her."

"If the change started with a human cardiovascular system, she would have died,” Nick explained. “Her lungs and heart had to change first, or she would have suffocated. and with bigger organs, the ribcage has to get bigger to accommodate them."

I couldn’t think of anything else to ask in my stunned state, but Berry and Goldie both found a few more questions to ask. Nick answered as best he could but eventually, there were no more questions, and he finished the beer he had ordered and got up to leave. “If you girls need anything, or have any Arcane concerns, don’t hesitate to give me a call. You have my number. Next time I’m in the area, I’ll give you a call to see how you’re progressing.” Then he headed to the bar to talk with Simone before they left together to return him to their earlier meeting place outside of Shadowtown.