Ch. 124: Break In

CHAPTER 124:
Evan~
It’s been a long few weeks. Every day I woke up and joined my cohort to train, ate breakfast, and spent hours in the cells with Amber. We talked. Well, at first I just asked her more questions and she answered them. Over the last few days, however, she started to ask me questions. A few about the pack, some about what it’s like being a werewolf, and most just about me. How I grew up balancing it all - she’s fascinated about how I went to school with humans who were clueless about werewolves being among them - and about my parents - my relationship with them. She asks about my likes, what it’s like to go eat out at a restaurant and what my favorite one is. And so many more.
It’s like once she started she couldn’t stop. And I am compelled to answer her.
“So, what do you mean by that?” she asks me, face turned to the side.
I had been describing live concerts and some of the metal shows I’ve been to.
“I mean that I don’t really think you’d like that style of music,” I try to clarify.
“How would you know when I don’t know?” she asks. Another question.
I laugh.
“What?” she asks, shyly smiling.
“Now look who only speaks in questions,” I chuckle at the memory of just a short while ago, before we knew each other’s names.
“Okay, fine,” she pauses dramatically. “Not a question: Play me some.”
“Right now?” I ask.
She raises an eyebrow at me, with my question.
“Okay, okay, one second. Let me look for something I think would be more your speed,” I say while scrolling through my phone. “Ah, here. This is New Metal, a subgenre.”
I play her a few Linkin Park songs, and she listens intently before she starts moving to the music. She sways her head to the beat, and I can’t help but smile.
“Can you play more?” she asks after the second song.
“I’m going to ignore the question format,” I laugh. “Sure.”
I put on some songs by Amon Amarth, Skeletonwitch, Rammstein, and Godsmack. Then some more rock-metal like Avenged Sevenfold, and she loves it all.
“Okay, what else out there in the world do you think I won’t like? We should try it!” she beams at me.
I roar with laughter and we’re so close that when I accidentally make contact with her hand I freeze up. She’s still relaxed and laughing at my reaction. Her pleasure at making me laugh is palpable. She’s here in this dark dreary place, but she’s an absolute ray of sunlight.
Something hits my heart and I know I’m falling for her. The realization sends me into a panic. I let go.
She scrunches her face in confusion.
“Did - did I do something?” her voice so small as her hand falls, her expression is so vulnerable.
But I can’t forget the contrast with her face out there on the battlefield. I can’t forget what she’s done. Who she was raised to be. The decisions she made. I can’t forget who I am and how she’s a danger to my pack, my Alpha, to my future Luna.
“I need to reject you, and you have to accept,” I say finally.
She looks like she was punched. Her mouth hangs open, there's visible pain in her eyes. Her fingers move slightly, trying to reach for me.
“How - how can you ask me that?” she says, voice hollow.
“Amber,” her name on my lips makes me suck in a breath. I need to power through this. “We can’t- I can’t be with someone who attacked my pack, who threatened the lives of my family. I will be our Beta one day, that role is only about protection. It- it doesn’t add up,” I try to let the logical part of me answer this.
‘No. We need mate,’ Xavier insists over and over in my head. ‘We need mate. We want mate.’
‘What we want is irrelevant. It’s wishful thinking that I could accept her fully, that my parents - the pack would accept her,’ I link him back.
‘Try. Explain. They don’t know she’s mate,’ Xavier whines.
“He doesn’t agree, does he?” Amber asks me with her eyes narrowed.
“What Xavier does or doesn’t agree with doesn’t matter,” I push out through clenched teeth as Xavier continues to chant his demands.
“Yes it does. I’ll never accept it. I can’t,” she says with determination. “Evan, you are mine, and I am yours. I know things are… are complicated. But if I can give up everything - my family, my lifestyle, just everything… then you can give up your crazy ideas,” she faces me fearlessly, with tears misting in her eyes. “My whole life has been about pain and tragedy. Manipulation and blackmail. You are the first good thing I have ever been given, and I’ll die before I give that up.”

Nick~
I figured it was as good a time as ever to get back to the basics. To the research. I’d had time to think about Kyle’s information on the Soul Eaters, done some initial research with mostly dead ends, and I needed to try again - find out anything I could about them. How to defeat them most importantly, but anything else could be helpful. Maybe how to weaken or distract them. Whatever.
I started with my usual paths again, my same contacts at the other packs, to see if they’d stumbled on anything since the last time we’d talked. But no real luck there. Except for my last call to the Gamma at Blue Moon up in Washington.
“Well, not really, no,” Gamma Hans concluded.
“Can I ask what you mean by that?” I prodded.
“Well… I don’t think it’s exactly trustworthy. I’d rather not risk it,” he tried to backpedal.
“Really, Gamma Hans, my Alpha can determine whether it’s worth the risk. Wouldn’t yours want all the possibilities too?” I angled, trying to convince him.
“Well… there’s a rumor. I heard from my friend down in northern California. He claims… there’s a vampire who defected from The Collective,” he explained.
“How can I get in contact with this vampire?” I ask immediately, a pen in my hand ready to take a note.
“Now, kid, I mean this with the utmost respect but - please don’t go running head first into this. If I share this, I need you to promise me that you will run it by your Alpha before taking another step. And then get your Beta involved. I don’t trust Vamps, and one that is claiming to have left The Collective? Psh. Even less. He’s either lying about leaving or he’s lying about being part of it in the first place. We don’t know his real angle here,” he insisted gruffly.
“Yes, sir,” I said, taking note of where the vampire had last been seen.
“Thank you, Gamma Hans,” I said to him as we hung up.
I looked down at my notepad and grinned at the break, then loosened the fingers I’d been crossing when I agreed to the Gamma’s terms.

The Monday after I borrowed a car to head up north. Ally was at school and all was stable, so now was the best time to make a move. If I could get to this vampire, get some helpful information out of him - maybe I could use that to our advantage. And just maybe this whole thing can be over with. Once it’s done with, I’m coming clean with my parents and the rest of the pack about who Ally is to me. With me just having saved them in some way, they’d have to come around to the idea. They’d have to.
I skip through songs all antsy on the drive and I can’t seem to pick something and stick with it. My mind racing through scenarios of all sorts. Getting there and getting attacked by the vampire, getting there but not finding him, finding him but he’s clearly lying, and just about everything in between.
The car's mapping system has me there in just under four hours. The address is for this run down bar. Had it been night it would likely be pretty seedy. Right now, it’s just barren. I get out of the car and shut the door, taking a quick scan of the area.
‘This isn’t right’ Asher says in my head.
His hesitation pauses me. I stop and pull my phone out. I send a quick text to Evan with my location pinned on Maps. Just in case.
<<From Nick to Evan>>: Vampire lead. Possible info on TC
Just in case.
I hit send and stuff my phone back in my pocket before casing the street. There’s not much here, and I only see two people walking about. It’s a pretty dead small town. Finding no obvious red flags besides the pacing Asher is doing in my mind, I head around the back. If the vampire is here he’s going to prefer something indoors and dark at this time of day.
I make my way over quietly, my head on a swivel, constantly scanning for threats. My ears don’t pick up on any odd movement besides the person walking into a store across the street. When I reach the back I see a cellar window cracked open just a tad. I lean down and press my ear to it. There’s movement. But no heartbeat. This has got to be him.
I don’t know what I’m walking into so I decide it’s best to have the element of surprise. I slowly crack the window open further, inching slowly, not making a sound. Then I slide in.
Inside is not as dark as I would have thought but it still takes a second for my eyes to adjust. Asher pushes forward just a tad to share his stronger vision and I’m grateful for it. I move slowly around random shelves filled with bottles and miscellaneous knickknacks until the space opens up to what resembles a bedroom.
That’s when I notice the sounds have completely stopped. I freeze immediately and strain to hear or see anything. All I can smell is blood, a variety of it. And it’s not coming from any one direction.
“Now I knew pups were reckless, but it’s just plain rude to enter someone’s home without their permission,” a man’s voice says from a few feet behind me.