Hollow (part 2): Emerging Shadows

An extensive week of surveillance has given the Hunters information on the best path to take into the troubled town. In this time, Estella and Wolfe have begun to know each other better. He’s started to bounce back, though the same cannot be said of our other characters. Still plagued by the inner revolts of his people, Cameron finds his relationship with Camille to be taking another rocky turn. Still, they’re loyal to one another. What else can they do when everything and everyone around them is against them?

Meanwhile, the disappearances of children have spread to other towns surrounding Jamestown and Everstone. A great number of allies to Cameron’s Clan have reached out for protection and help because of kidnappings/murders of their members that have taken place. Neither humans nor vampires are safe, and distrust hangs in the air.

* ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ ** ~ *

Wolfe jumped down from a branch, landing with a soft thud that was muffled by the dampened earth. There’d been at least one vampire watching every main road. It looked like they really didn’t want anyone coming in uninvited. “Looks like they have a private party; Invites only,” he reported to the red head that’d been keeping watch below. “We’ll have to take one of the back roads or just cut through the forest, though I don’t like the idea much.” That was the hunting grounds of the Clan, and he didn’t want any run-ins with his past.

“I vote back roads; less easy to get ambushed,” she explained, hands resting at her side, though he’d learned that in less time than it took you to blink  she could draw a blade and have it at your neck. “Guess we should head back and report to HQ before we head out,” she took a few steps away before noticing that he’d grown very still.

He’d been insistent on bringing his sword and scabbard, since he figured that it wouldn’t be completely out of place for a pair of travelers to be carrying such a thing. They’d stopped at a safe enough distance from where he could scout out the area, but he could pick up on the scent of blood. It couldn’t be more than a day old he gauged by the lack of the rusty iron smell.

“What?”

“There’s something over here,” he walked away from her without any explanation as to how he knew that. By now she’d grown used to that strong “intuition” of his. Asking him about his discoveries never got her anywhere, so she didn’t bother with it anymore. Besides, she never explained herself either.

Though he had started to lead the way, she soon fell into step beside him instead. They both reached the bodies at the same time. Estella said nothing but shook her head when Wolfe knelt beside one of the deceased. “Dead. There’s too much blood.”

“Vampires.”

“You think they did this,” she asked curiously. But…why would they bleed them out like this…

“No, they’re vampires,” he clarified after shifting his body so that she could see what he did. A quick peel back of their lips revealed sharp, elongated canines that peeked out. “Check the others,” he pointed.

All of them. They were all vampires, and all of them bled out, save for one whose head was completely turned around, the eyes rolled back inside the head. It wouldn’t be long before the stench of death overtook the area. Vampires tended to rot fast. Maybe because they were already dead. “Let’s get out of here.” Wolfe rose up and turned to meet her violet eyes. In them was an expression that was hard to read, but he hoped that it wasn’t remorse.

It didn’t take them long to make it back to Headquarters, they’d been eager to get out of the area so they could start to really dig for some answers. Another team would be dispatched to recover the bodies of the dead… er undead. ’Dead undead?’ Whatever. Some of the bodies were terribly mutilated, and he could only guess that whoever it was was quite skilled in the art of torture. Though hopefully, the team would be able to find Clan marks on the bodies (as all Vampires did when they joined a Clan).

At least he wouldn’t have to deal with it now. It was out of his hands. They headed back down to the weapons room to gather their materials. They took the basics, and then some. Returning to Silver Moon wouldn’t be an option, not for a while. As he sat down and exchanged his old boots for some that were less worn down, he couldn’t help but look over at her. She caught him watching her and gave him a friendly smile, which he returned pleasantly.

So much had changed in the last week. He’d been begging for missions that would land him six feet under; he wanted nothing more than to die. Or at least he had. Something changed inside him with each passing moment in Estella’s company. It was as if she were slowly working the poison out of his system, only she was much sweeter than any holy water. They found themselves making a habit out of long nights at the tavern. It was easy enough to talk to her. There were still some subjects he wouldn’t breech, but she never pressed him on the issues. And that’s what he liked most about her. She could understand him, maybe even better than he did himself.

And she’d had fun as well. After her first date---err time hanging out with Wolfe her desire to know him was greater then before, if that were possible. However, she could’ve done without the constant glares and silent treatment that most of the women seemed to give her whenever they saw she was with him. Estella was secretly happy that they never caught his attention. After a few days, he even went as far as to confess that he tired of being the object of desire among so many women.

He was so polite, and laid-back that he also didn’t have the heart to push them away, she noted. Still, he never encouraged their advances and tried to make it clear that he was there for Estella and some good company. Nothing else. And Estella remembered the first night that Wolfe let her take his arm. And every night he walked her to her room.

And then there was the dance… he’d danced with her.

“So, guess it’s a good thing I meet your standards for a partner, right,” she winked and went over to get her gear. She still remembered that first flirty comment of his. It had turned into their joke.

“Right,” he chuckled, “you know, just in case I ever need to know, maybe you should show me all the places where you keep your weapons.” The devilish grin on his face made Estella laugh and she wondered if he’d notice her blush.

Instead, she smirked, looking at him back over her shoulder as she packed her bag and grabbed a traveling cloak. “A good Huntress never gives away her secrets.”

“Beautiful and deadly.” He chuckled. She was… amazing. He had to admit that. They decided to eat breakfast before heading out, and even though Wolfe knew the area well, they opted for grabbing a map too. It was late morning when they finally started to trek their way through the dense forestry. His heightened senses gave him the advantage over his enemies. A sweet smell drifted over to him, and he instantly recognized it as Estella’s perfume. Unlike other women, hers wasn’t so strong that it bothered him. In fact, he sort of liked it, had grown used to it.

They made it inside Jamestown with little trouble. It was early morning when they headed out, though the sky was blanketed with dull gray clouds. He hoped it wouldn’t rain.

They kept their traveling cloaks on to hide some of the weapons that were near their waist, and to attract less attention. If anyone happened to notice them though, they’d decided that their cover story was that she was a noblewoman trying to hide an affair from her husband.

They were unfortunate enough to run into a couple of fledgling vampires while wandering through the forest (they decided not to take a direct route in case they were followed), but they dispatched them easily. He had the chance to see Estella fight. So graceful, so deadly. He told himself it wasn’t bad to admire her for that, if it were only the only thing he admired…

Finding their informant was rather difficult, given the amount of precautions he took. Eventually though, they made it to a farm on the edge of town. It wasn’t until then that they relaxed a bit. “So tell us what you got Bryan,” he stood at the table as they gathered to look over the map. He took his index finger and pointed out the places that had been attacked, then those where the disappearances had taken place. “You could’ve just said the whole town was involved,” Wolfe sighed. This was definitely not good news.

“I know… but listen. Be careful around here. I have a feeling we’re being watched, I mean… how else would they have known we’d gone to contact you. They knew what time, where, everything. I’m lucky to be alive. I don’t think anyone could get in or out without them knowing.” The unsaid “watch your back” hung in the air. “There is one area that hasn’t been touched…” he went on, “Here.” The place he pointed out was a few blocks from the town hall. “The mayor lives there.”

“Definitely sounds worth checking out,” Estella nodded. “Thanks,” she rolled up the map and looked back to Wolfe for confirmation. “We ready?”

He nodded, his sandy-blonde hair moving slightly with him. “Yeah. Thanks,” he gripped the man’s hand firmly and met his eyes, “Take care of yourself.” It was so no small task to meet with them. Helping out Silver Moon would make him a target, if he weren’t already one. They made their way back to the town square. They decided that Estella would go to get them a room at the inn while he kept watch outside.

His jaw nearly dropped when she came back and told him that there was only one room. With one bed. Was this some sort of gif—punishment from above? “It’s fine,” he told her, though he couldn’t meet her eyes as he said so. “Let’s go see what we can dig up on the mayor.” They decided to start with his office. It would be no easy task to go in unseen. If he was involved with this somehow, they couldn’t tip him off.

Luckily, there was some sort of event being planned, so everyone was mostly gathered in one place. They snuck in through the back and stealthily made their way to the staircase unnoticed. “It has to be one of those rooms,” he pointed to the back. They’d checked the others. They headed into the next room they came up to and looked around. It wasn’t it. The name carved on the wooden name plate read “Ms. Sang”. Everything was perfectly neat in the room, and he couldn’t really pick up any discerning scent.

“Wolfe,” Estella was heading for the door, moving onto the next room. He nodded, and followed suit.

Finally, they made it to the one on the end. “This is it,” he said and started to go through some of the books on the shelf while she searched the desk. “See if you can find anything good.” They’d been in the room for a few minutes. Everything seemed in order, except there were quite a number of reported disappearances, but they knew that, didn’t they? “There’s nothing here,” he reported, but continued to sift through the piles.

“Wait, I think I have something,” the red-head crossed her way over to show him the paper. It had been lying among the ashes in the fireplace. “Looks like they were really trying to get rid of this.”

Wolfe took the ring from her hand. ‘I’ve seen this sort of design before. And this stone…’ it had a dull glow to it because of the ashes clouding up the outside, but he knew the fire the burned inside it. His brows furrowed together, the muscles in his back tightening. He felt her eyes on him before she decided to speak. “We’re going to his house.”

“Should we let them know we’re coming?”

“No, I think a surprise drop by should give off the right effect.”

*             *             *             *             *             *

She wasn’t sure what exactly she had expected to happen, but…

“Untie me right now!” the man shouted indignantly.

“Let me think about that one sec---No. Now, I want you to stop lying and just be honest with me,” he put his leg up on the chair and leaned forward a little to look the man in the eye with that tough guy look she couldn’t help but lov—find entertaining. “See, we can’t untie you. If we don’t. Trust. You.”

“I’ll have you all hanged!”

“No, I don’t think you will,” he got up but in the process kicked the chair back. “You’re playing a very dangerous game. Whatever they promised you, it’s either a lie or it’s not worth it. Usually it’s a little of both. I have seen people get their throats ripped out, and their hearts. They will take everything from you. I could care less if you kill yourself, but so help me if I find out you have anything to do with the rest of—“

“Look, okay. I … I met these people, but—“

“They’re not people.” There was a great deal of hatred in his voice, but she could tell it was a front to hide the pain.

“I didn’t do this because I wanted to,” the white-haired man stared up at him, “I did this because I needed to protect my family.”

Camille… They’d done the same thing to her. Given her up and sacrificed her to save many. But he understood now that they’d been wrong. The ends didn’t justify the means. “This town is your family too, what about them?”

“They were going to take my daughter too! I couldn’t let them! They said if I kept quiet about it that they would keep her safe, and that they wouldn’t kill all of us.”

“And you believed them? These people trust you to keep them safe, not to make deals with the devil!” His arms were shaking, his breath heavy. Something had gone off inside him and he was visibly holding himself back. Estella reached out and touched his forearm gently. He didn’t pull away right away, but he wasn’t exactly calm either. “Just tell me, and we can help you.”

He seemed to consider it for a moment. Defeated, the man let his head fall back down and closed his eyes decidedly.  “I will tell you everything but… you must promise me one thing.” Wolfe waited for him to go on, his face empty of all emotion. That kind of calmness worried her. “You must take care of my daughter; you have to take her out of here. Please.”

Wolfe nodded. “I swear that I will do everything in my power.”

“We will,” Estella nodded, feeling a little left out. She knew he had some sort of personal stake in all of this. Probably something about his past. ‘But he doesn’t have to go through this alone. We’re a team.’ And that’s exactly what her eyes told him even as he turned to look at her. She wasn’t sure if the fire in his eyes was directed at her, or if it sparked from something he was thinking about, but she didn’t let her gaze waver. His hand came to rest on her shoulder, a touching gesture that eased her worries.

“You have our word.”

The man looked from one to another, his eyes glistening. “They showed up a month—maybe two—ago…” He went on to explain how a small coven of vampires had appeared. That was shortly after a series of letters from his family in other towns had stopped arriving. “They were trying to warn me about something in their letters, but … everything they said was so confusing and guarded. A week before the damned things got here the letters stopped… “ Wolfe empathized, but time was waning and they needed the information, so he urged the man to continue. At first nothing happened, he went on, besides the usual disappearance or two associated with feeding, but then the children in the town began to disappear.

Enraged families gathered together planned to fight off the fiends, but they hadn’t managed to even decide on a plan when the crimson-eyed beasts entered the room inside the city hall. They took those that were the most vocal about their plans, and killed them. Later on they would find their families and kill them as examples as well.

Those that were left alive were taken by the vampires to act as their watch dogs, and to ensure that they wouldn’t turn on them they were given vampire blood to drink, creating a blood bond. When prompted he answered regarding the children. “People have spotted them out in the forest… they’re turned.” For them it was too late. Though Wolfe wondered why they were only changing children. And who was their leader, he asked. “That I don’t know. He’s never shown himself to us.”

“And the ring,” Wolfe inquired. Estella had helped the man up and was untying him now.

“We found it in your office,” she added, meeting the blonde’s eyes and nodding in the direction of their current informant so that Wolfe would show him the ring. He did a moment later, but the man didn’t need to see it to know which one they meant.

“We killed one of them while we were fighting in that room. He was wearing that. My father used to tell me that vampires wore them to withstand the light of the sun. While they were distracted I took it and I hid it away. I thought--

“Believe me, they haven’t just forgotten about this. These are hard to come by, and very few know how to make them anymore,” Wolfe growled, “This,” he held the ring up, “is why they haven’t left.” He was sure of it, that gut instinct had never led him down the wrong path yet. “They need this, and I’m sure they’ve been keeping an eye on the place.”

More than likely the vampire carrying it had been important to the coven, the red-head thought. If the rings were that special she doubted the leader would’ve given it to just anyone and they would want it back. Wolfe was right. If they’d gone to other towns before and just moved on after a while then it was possible that they’d been planning to do the same here. “Listen, this is very important,” she looked down at the man, “did you ever take it out of your office, did anyone else know you had it or see you with it?”

“No, no I don’t think so,” he stumbled a little over his words.

“Good, then you’ll be safe. We’ll keep the ring, and as far as we know,” Estella gave Wolfe a meaningful look, “you never had it.” She stepped over the rope and then headed back outside the house with Wolfe, though they paused a moment in the doorway.

“Those vampires that were outside the town—“

“The dead ones we sent Silver Moon? They’re not in on all of this, that’s my guess. “

“Yeah, and I’m willing to bet the other ones we found were. Remember when we were fighting them, how quickly they went down? They didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact it was day. Even if it was clouded—if they were fledglings they should’ve been affected by the fact it was daytime. I think they were subjugates…”

“But… I thought only purebloods could…” The man had mentioned that the vampires had given their human hostages blood. “They never keep more than a couple subjugates at a time.”

“So I’m guessing that wasn’t the blood of life they were given,” he sighed regrettably.  They walked back to their room. He was actually surprised to see that their room wasn’t torn apart. As expected he found a little messenger waiting for them outside the window. He opened the window and stuck his hand out to bring in the small falcon. Strapped to its leg was a rolled up piece of parchment, which he handed to Estella to read while he got working on vampire-proofing a box to keep the ring in.

Well everything the mayor had said checked out. “Looks like this isn’t the only place that’s been hit. When they didn’t hear from informants and hunters stationed in several towns they sent out teams to find out. A few of them made it back to HQ yesterday.”

“Alright, well. I think maybe we should send this back to HQ, for safe-keeping,” he tied the ring to the falcon and then carried it back to the window.

Estella stood up quickly. “I’m not entirely sure that’d be safe.” Intercepting that would be hard, but not impossible. She reached out to rest her hand on his forearm, causing him to pause momentarily.

He gave her a brush off. “I think I know what I’m doing,” he sent the falcon back out. It was gone a moment later. Wolfe couldn’t help but feel a little bad about this, but… ‘It has to be this way.’ For their sake they needed to keep quiet. He reached toward her, cupping her cheek with his hand before looking into her eyes. “Just trust me,” he whispered.

She hadn’t known him more than a month, but she could safely say that she did trust him as she nodded. She had to. “Now what?”

*          *          *          *          *          *

They stood together outside the castle in silence. Tonight they were mourning the death of some of their fledglings who had been found just beyond the hunting grounds. Camille stood at the center of the gathering. She’d been determined to find them when they didn’t show up before morning, and even with the constant fear that the clouds would break away, she chose to go out to look for them. When he couldn’t convince her to stay he’d gone with her. Together they had brought back their fallen children and comrades.

Today, he felt that she had earned their respect. Especially of those who had considered their fledglings to be their families. Camille’s persistence had allowed them to recover the bodies before they’d been exposed to the sun. She laid down a white rose over each body. “From fire we are born, and with fire we return home,” she stepped back. Tanya carried a lit torch to the bodies and watched as they were engulfed in a beautiful golden glow.

Cameron took Camille’s hand, holding it gently. This wasn’t over. He would find who had done this, and would make them pay. He wanted to point fingers at the Hunters, mainly that damn nosy werewolf. The area near the bodies had been overpowered with several different scents, most of which he didn’t recognize. But one he could pick up on was Wolfe’s, maybe that’s why he was singling it out. It was extremely unfair. Camille had said as much.

She’d also suggested that she go and find Wolfe so that they could get to the bottom of this. And he still wasn’t letting that happen, not while he was still alive.