Chapter 43 NICHA.

SAME DAY
I saw many young men come out of their stone and mud houses. They looked at us with grim hatred in their eyes, it was the first time I had ever seen someone glare at me with more hatred that Jereum.
"Now why not we try to understand ourselves and avoid doing anything we would regret." He was looking at Jereum, whose hand was still on the handle of the blade and wore a devious grin.
The man was just as I had expected him. He had a long grey beard and an ugly scar that ran down his left eye but surprisingly the eye was undamaged. He looked at us and for a moment I thought I had seen the same grim hatred in his eyes as well
"My name is Alzaraq, I am the leader of the pack of Lobos, and, as you can see, your presence here is highly unwelcomed."
'I apologize for any rude implications," Jhan said, giving Jereum the same look that implied he relax himself and stop red glint glaring at the crowd of Lupine people.
The man looked at the black wolf, and then at me. His eyes grew wide and his expression relaxed. He glanced at the crowd behind us and I turned to look at bunch of young men and youths. They glowered at us; eyes bearing deathly gazes. The black wolf sat silently beside us and for a moment everything went quiet.
'My brothers and sisters, we have come to a mutual agreement with the vampires. They have agreed to speak to their leaders to aid our fight on the bases that we have a mutual enemy." His voice was loud and commanding.
A taller man stepped forward; he had long brown hair and tan skin. He looked at me with the same hatred the crowd behind him bore.
'They cannot be trusted. These demons may appear human but do not be fooled, they are of demonic entities."
'Trust? You speak of trust? It is your kind that almost took the life of one my clan members—one of my family. Let me ask you a question, East valley has been the very spot of multiple vampire disappearances do you imply that you knew nothing about this?" Jhan shot back and I saw a slight falter in the man's expression.
'The one that you have in your bars was an emissary for the enemy. He was sent here to spy on us and return information to Hardaj the false ruler. As for the ones that destroy your people, they were ignorant. They have been called to order—"
I looked at the wolves that were clustered together at a distance to the side, a devious smirk that resembled Jereum's on the face of the girl.
'But how about the ones they killed? The ones they tore apart? Do you just expect us the vampires to forget about them? We have homes, family, people we care about enough to look out for and so far we have not done anything to damage your kind. But we have been the ones affected."
Jhan's words seemed to break through the cold hate that had covered them. I could see the hatred in some of their eyes decline.
'If we want to work together to defeat this enemy then we still have to set our conditions. First of all there will be no discrimination; we fight this fight as one—"
The taller man cut Jereum off. 'I would rather die than be one with a demon." And he spat to the ground.
'That is enough Namareh!" Alzaraq bellowed.
The man had a haughty look to his face. He locked glares with Jereum who was glaring back equally.
'Lupine and demon will never be brothers." He stormed away, leading a dozen others who followed him.
'I apologize on his behavior. We have legends of a powerful blood drinking demon that destroyed part of our land millennia ago. The people take these legends very seriously."
'We keep no grudges," Jhan said.
"Come, I will tell you a little about our history."
He entered into the hut and we followed behind him. Inside the hut was more decorated than I expected. Strange ceramic figurines of wolves were set on the ground alongside portraits of strange looking men that had a wolf's head on human bodies.
The walls were adorned with these paintings. Some of them were beautiful and depicted the profile of a woman that was being cradled by a wolf, while other were rather creepy and depicted scenes like a wolf that stood on two legs and carried a human baby in its hands. I looked away from the paintings, not wanting to see anything that same scar me forever.
Alzaraq sat on the ground and we did the same. Stress lines adorned his forehead and it made me wonder just how old he was. The wolves were not immortal, but they were strong and agile and almost always in good health which helped to prolong their life span to about one hundred and fifty years.
He heaved out a heavy breath.
'It was not always like this." His voice was hoarse and he sounded tired.
'We haven't lived here all the time. We originate from the remote mountains, west from here. I am the leader of the largest pack of wolves. I have led them for many years and we have lived in our own peace and isolation from the world. Some wolves did make occasional visits to this very forest but that was a long time ago.
'The reason for the surprising and shocking appearance of my kind is because recently, another wolf by name Hardaj has threatened me and my people.
'Hardaj is my nephew. His father died in the hands of one of your kind a very long time ago but since then he had bore a hatred for all vampire kind. He told me to join him in his fight to expand the pack and claim territory from the demons, when I refused he put together an army of wolves with his same beliefs and together they and drove me away from my home and destroyed my village.
'Hardaj challenged me for my seat as the leader of the pack. I agreed to his battle but then I was ambushed by his followers. I was forced away from my own village and this is where I and some of my people that are against Hardaj's ways found refuge."
"So this Hardaj, he wants to destroy you and your people. And then once he's done with that, he'll come for us vampires?"
'Hardaj bears no true grudge against me or my people, he simply wished to enslave us and force us to join him on his conquest for domination."
I seemed to be drowned in his words. So he had the same thoughts and goals as this enemy he would have been the one to prepare an enemy and ambush us. In fact, if he changes his mind at any time, he would join his nephew and attack on us. I almost couldn't trust him as this war will bring death to his people and that may cause him to forfeit and join the enemy.
'We wolves have stayed in our part of this world for millennia. Dying away and bringing forth new generations."
'But surely your people couldn't live in such a designated place, totally isolated from the human world," Jhan said, and I found point in his statement. 'Human kind has grown to be the most dominant species and staying perfectly hidden from them would need some inside support."
'A few of us have lived with the humans. We have people who blend into the human world and handle our supplies. These people give us information about the latest changes in their political world and tells us if a change can somehow affect us. It is how we make sure about our security."
Someone walked into the hut. The girl gave a low bow and said something in an alien language to Alzaraq. He nodded and she turned to us.
"Night told me to come get you all, there are people she wants you to meet."
I looked at the others who wore equally confused expressions.
"I'll stay here and discuss more about our situation at hand, the res of you can go."
We nodded to Jhan and stood up, following the girl out of the hut. The villagers here didn't still quite like us so I maintained na distance from their houses. The village was larger than I thought, it could accommodate about five hundred people and children.
We got towards the edge of the village and there I saw, standing close to the black wolf three peculia young men. One had ash coloured hair and the same generic reddish skin, another young man had reddish-orange hair and, surprisingly light skin, he was the only light skinned person I've seen so far in this village. The last young man had brown hair and tan skin.
"Jabari, Tom and Cole," She said, pointing to ash hair, reddish hair and brown hair.
"Hi," I said, glaring at Tom. He must have been the wolf that wanted to eat me.
"Hey," He said with an annoying smirk.
I had to introduce us.
"This is, Tia and Jereum." I said, pointing to them respectively. Tia smiled lightly and waved but Jereum had his hands in his jacket pocket, the same annoying smirk on his face.
"Jereum?" Tom said, chuckling mockingly, "What kind of name is that?"
In an instance Jereum was in front of him, knife blade pressed against his throat.
"The kind of name that woul allow me slit your throat if you don't shut up pretty face."
I saw the anger in Tom's eyes. He probably wanted to attack but knew better than to play with a vampire pushing a knife to your throat.
Tia started taking to Jabari who seemed to have taken a good amount of interest in her, Cole was laughing at the Tom's facial expressions saying that Tom looked like he was laying an egg.
I looked at them all. Just like us, a small pack. I was about turning back to the larger hut when I noticed the dark skinned girl with snowy white hair behind me. I staggered back, knowing that I had almost bumped into her.
"Hi, I'm Nicha...."