Chapter 17 – Talking with Lisa’s parents

When Aniya’s limousine stopped in front of Lisa’s mansion, she told Davis, her faithful driver and bodyguard, that he could go home because she was going to stay for the night. Anna Kent held the door for her, and Aniya noticed as she exited the limousine that Lisa McCarty was leaning over the window on Davis’s side, smiling at him, wearing a very loose top that let him take a good look at her cleavage. Surprisingly, he didn’t even glance at her, making Lisa twitch her left eye and disguise the anger in her voice. “Hello, Mister Davis. Do you want a drink or a cup of tea before leaving? I have a freshly made peach tea that I was enjoying in the back garden. You can keep me company while Aniya and her friends go greet my parents.”

While looking in the back mirror to check if his passengers were already out, Davis answered with a serious look, “Thank you for your kind invitation, Miss Lisa, but I must return to the Rossi Mansion. Mister Dan might need my services. Perhaps on another occasion.”

While tapping her hand on the steering wheel, Lisa retorted with a big smile, “I will remember this agreement on another occasion, then! Have a safe voyage, Mister Davis.”

She stepped back and watched the serious driver gulping and driving the car away with a worried look. Lisa approached Aniya and the others, pointing back with her thumb and saying, “One of these days, Aniya, I will get him. Mark my words! So, who do we have here, anyway? A nervous young girl and… Oh, he is handsome! Who are you, pretty boy?”

Jack Holland glanced at Anna Kent, perfectly aware that she didn’t seem to like very much the way Lisa McCarty was looking at him. His dark brown eyes, framed by his short dark brown hair and thick eyebrows, made him look older and always serious, and Lisa always felt attracted to older men, making him a perfect target for her lust.

That was until Aniya grabbed Lisa’s left arm and pulled her away. “Hold on, you crazy ginger, the man is already taken! Or will be, if my plan works! Is your father home? I want to talk with him.”

Lisa answered while looking back and noticing the way Anna Kent was piercing her with her eyes. “Sorry! I didn’t know! My father is in his office, taking care of that assignment you gave him yesterday. We had a few visits in the morning, but he will probably explain that to you better than me. I can tell you that one of those visits was a strange man who got way too aggressive, and I had to point my sword at his neck and escort him out.”

Aniya was about to say something but went silent the moment a maid opened the front door for them. Lisa guided the group to the office, and as soon as they entered, she locked the door and went straight to the stereo to play some music to disguise their conversation, while Aniya was introducing her guests to Mister Frank McCarty and receiving a tight hug from Sharon, Lisa’s mother, who greeted the surprised couple with a hug as well.
When the music played, Aniya pointed to an empty chair in front of her and told the worried Jack Holland to have a seat. Anna and Lisa sat next to him, with Aniya standing, staring at him and taking slow, deep breaths. The same faint yellow glow surrounded her, and as it was increasing the brightness, Aniya opened her purse and took from there the dreadful blue flower that she placed over the desk near Jack Holland, who almost jumped out of his chair until he heard Aniya’s voice, ordering him to remain seated and to focus on her voice.
While the pain was coursing through his body, Jack noticed Anna and Lisa curling in their seats, terrified and unable to face Aniya and her light when she yelled for him to cover his nose and get used to the smell of the flower. As he was obeying, he kept on staring at the frowning blond, surrounded by a bright, blinding light.

The pain disappeared, and as Jack was sniffing the flower Aniya placed under his nose, he asked in a trembling voice, “What… is happening? I was… never able to…”

As the surrounding light was disappearing, Aniya made a gentle smile and said, “What about if you let your girlfriend explain everything to you while I talk with Mister Frank?”

Without waiting to check if he understood completely the implications of her words, Aniya faced the smiling man. “So, Lisa told me you had some visits this morning and one of them was escorted out?”

“Yes, I called some of those names on your list, at least the ones I could contact without raising any kind of suspicion, because they were photographers, journalists, or some famous people from television and radio. One of them, a well-known anchor reporter for a television channel, became rather aggressive and refused to take part in any sort of gathering of a group of coward Werewolves that preferred to lock themselves away instead of embracing their true nature.”

“Did you use the wolf’s bane to get them to believe in you?”

Frank McCarty nodded with a pained look plastered on his face. “I told them that their name was in a file that the Hunters had and that they needed to be careful. I then took one blue flower from the top drawer of my desk that I had inside a transparent plastic bag and showed it to them. Most of them immediately covered their noses, some ran to the door, and that guy smirked as if he was daring me to take the flower out. His look was disturbing, to say the least.”

Aniya slowly nodded and tapped the knee of her leg that she had crossed as she sat and spoke in a low tone, “I need the name of that guy, and we may need to schedule a meeting with that group so that I can make them get used to the wolf’s bane. Tomorrow I am going with my father to meet some of his Hunter friends, but perhaps we can gather here the next day. I think I am getting faster because this time it took me mere seconds to get Mister Jack used to that blue flower. I think it is probably because I am getting better at this.”

Frank slowly nodded. “Lisa told them she used to have problems with the smell of that flower, but none of them believed her. She grabbed the bag from my hand, put her nose inside, and took one long sniff. Of course, they still didn’t believe in her. Some even said that she couldn’t be a Werewolf. I showed them the list I had with their names, photos, their address, and their occupation, and then Lisa showed them her room and the chains she has in her safe.”

Aniya leaned on her chair and glanced at Lisa. She shrugged, facing her father again, who continued, “To top it all off, Lisa pointed to under her bed, where it is perfectly clear the claw marks she made years ago when she thought it was a good idea to get restrained under the bed. They all agreed to return when I had further news about how their names went on a list that the Hunters had when I explained I used to have an undercover agent infiltrated there, but I hadn’t gotten any news since I got that list, and that agent could be already dead.”

“Why that lie? They could suspect you were not telling them something.”

“Better than having them find out I still have an agent there. If, by any chance, they speak about it and the Hunters find out, they won’t go after any agent, because they will think the agent was already caught.”

Aniya made a big smile and said, “You are really good in this secret agent business, Mister Frank. I hope I can fulfil my part. As for me, I already talked with Anna, and she is going to arrange a meeting with some names on that list, luring them with an internship or a visit to my company. I need to get really good at making Werewolves get used to the wolf’s bane, because I want to increase the number of our allies. Talking about that, it’s better if we get going, because I want to get to my hideout, have dinner, and get ready for the change tonight. Mister Frank, if you would be so kind as to call a taxi to take us to the City, I will call an Uber to pick us up there and take us to my hideout.”

Frank McCarty asked with a slight smile as he was grabbing the phone on his desk, “Aniya, you really think you can make our Lisa wake up from her state and make her able to control her beast?”

“I did it yesterday with my friend Nick. I think that if we both work together, we can do it. I have to try, at least. I have no idea how it is to change and not to remember a thing in the morning, but I can imagine how frightening it is to fear that one night the restraints that hold Lisa would break, and she would go after you, without being able to stop her beast from ripping you apart.”

Lisa’s eyes welled up with tears as her father made the call. He then put the phone down and looked at his intertwined fingers over the desk and sighed, “Yes, you are absolutely right. It is indeed frightening, but she is still our daughter, even when she looks like that and can’t recognise us. That guy this morning, despite being Human, had the same animalistic look in his eyes that Lisa has when she changes. Adrian Gordon was his name, and he left while shouting that we hadn’t seen the last of him. I already told our servants to lock everything and to barricade their room doors tonight, just in case.”

Aniya bit her lower lip and asked, with her voice trembling, “Do you think you are in danger tonight? Perhaps you should-“

“No need for that. I have a shotgun in my room with silver cartridges, and Sharon has a gun with silver ammunition on her bedside table. We bought the ammunition overseas and had it shipped to us disguised as gifts. We always feared that Lisa would one night get loose, and we had to stop her and prevent her from killing someone. If that guy comes in his beast form, he would not leave without a few holes in his body.”

Aniya jolted, and Lisa explained, with an awkward look, “We all decided this years ago. If I ever got loose, they had to do whatever it took to stop me, even if they had to kill me.”

Sharon McCarty spoke with tears in her eyes as she was hugging her daughter. “I wouldn’t ever have the courage to kill her, Aniya. That’s why Frank and I go to a shooting range in my family’s hometown to practice every weekend. We wanted to be sure we could wound her and stop her from escaping. We learned that silver hurts Werewolves and poisons them, making them slow and weak. Frank’s mother told him that when she explained his family history, and he got his shotgun from her.”

“I… had no idea you were suffering so much because of this. I have known Lisa and you since I learned how to talk, and I would never…”

Sharon McCarty grabbed Aniya’s hands and reassured her, “You couldn’t now, Aniya, and we couldn’t say anything. The best we could do was make sure that Lisa remained restrained in her room for three nights every month.”

“I will do everything I can to make sure you never have to fear Lisa’s changes, Miss Sharon.”

“I know you will, my dear. I know you will. Despite your diva act sometimes, we all know you were always a kind and sweet girl.”
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