Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
Sloan
Sloan was on her feet and to the door, while the others were still trying to figure out how to respond. Thoughts of something somehow having happened to Kade poured from a fear she hadn’t known existed.
Sloan reached for the door handle and tore it open. The door had been locked, but under Sloan’s aggressive strength, the frame splintered. She peered out into the darkness. Edison stood with a hand on his chest and a frightened expression on his face.
“Wow, take it easy Hercules.” Edison was already motioning for her to follow. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”
“Is Kade all right?” Sloan refused to move until she knew at least that much.
“What? Kade?” Edison looked confused for a moment before the fog cleared from his brain. “Yes, its not Kade. It’s the new werewolf Aareth turned before he left.”
“What’s going on?” Babs joined Sloan at the door. “Can I help?”
“Stay here and make sure the others are recovering like they should.” Sloan chased after Edison. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Edison was already up the hill and traversing the training courtyard behind the capitol building when Sloan caught him. He was perspiring profusely, a worried look on his face.
“What happened?” Sloan asked.
“Jaxon is the werewolf Aareth had chosen to bite before the mage engine battle. He’s one of the approved Azra guards Croft and Theo had suggested. With Aareth gone, I’ve been trying to help him through the transition process.”
“Yes, I know all of this. What’s wrong?”
A primal howl ripped through Sloan and Edison’s conversation, the same kind of howl Sloan had heard Aareth make before he had learned to control his inner beast. It was a sound of pure rage and aggression.
“How did he turn already?” Sloan asked as the two made it into the capitol building and ran for the lab Edison used to conduct his experiments. “It took Aareth a long time from when he was bitten to when he first made the transition.”
“Yes, well, Croft helped with that,” Edison said.
The vampire and the inventor finally rounded a corner and opened the door to Edison’s lab. What met her eyes terrified Sloan on numerous levels. So much was going on at once, she wasn’t sure how to react.
In the far corner of Edison’s lab, a series of steel chains had been anchored into the floor, walls, and ground.
A black beast—part man, part wolf—strained against his bonds.
The werewolf was not as large as Aareth, but the way he pulled on the bonds around his wrists and legs until he started bleeding showed he was no less aggressive.
Croft stood in front of the beast with her wand. A dull yellow light glowed from the tip. A circular mirror showing a large full moon levitated in the air above Croft. It was clear she was using some kind of spell, but exactly what kind was lost on Sloan.
“I told her we should wait,” Edison whispered to Sloan, “but she was insistent we turn him now. She opened a window into the past. Once Jaxon saw the moon, he turned.”
“When you’re finished tattletailing on me, you can be of some actual use,” Croft said. She brought her wand down. The spell conjuring the full moon dissipated into the air like a light mist. “I’ve done my part, and now it’s time for you two to do yours.”
Croft turned from the raging beast. The werewolf snarled at her, lunging forward and snapping his salivating jaws inches from her face. Croft didn’t even flinch. Instead, she made her way past Edison and Sloan.
“Easy there … easy, big guy, I know your body is going through some changes right now, but it’s expected by someone your age.” Edison ran to Jaxon, talking in a soft voice and open, nonthreatening hands. “I know your hormones are raging and you feel strange in your own skin, but this is normal.”
Sloan couldn’t believe her eyes. Not that Croft had changed the werewolf, but that she had done so without telling Sloan, and now she was just going to leave a distressed human being in her wake.
“Thanks for the head’s up.” Sloan clenched her fists by her hips. “You could have told me what you were planning. And what, now you’re just going to leave? You have a responsibility to Jaxon. You can’t just transform him into a werewolf and disappear.”
“I’ve done my part.” Croft hesitated by the door leading from the laboratory.
“You’re the one with all the experience with werewolves.
Edison has studied them before. And he needed to be changed now.
The more werewolves and vampires we have on our side when the fighting happens, the better chance we have at survival. ”
“You sound like your sister.” Sloan should have kept the words down, but it was the truth. “Leah wanted to create super soldiers to fight her war. You can throw Eleanor’s name in there, too.”
Something like anger passed over Croft’s eyes. She shook her head, skewering Sloan with a menacing glare. For a moment, Sloan even thought the witch would reach for her wand, but she didn’t.
“For your sake, be glad I am nothing like my sisters.” Croft paused in the harsh noise of the werewolf letting out a particularly ferocious roar. “I’m preparing to fight monsters when they come to our home. I suggest you do the same.”
“Just, in the process, don’t become the monster you are trying to defeat.” Sloan took a deep breath, calming herself from the anger she felt. “Go and take care of your daughter. I’ll handle this.”
Croft nodded. With a swirl of her cloak, she left.
As Croft’s tall figure disappeared, Elwood’s stout gnomish frame appeared.
His tiny legs were pumping furiously. He wore tiny boots, with blue pants and a red shirt.
A red cap was placed tightly on his thick head.
He stopped for a moment and gave Sloan a salute before continuing on to Edison’s side.
“My God man, what took you so long?” Edison asked, tapping his right pointer finger to his chin. He eyed his helper with a serious stare. “Do I even want to know?”
Elwood lost no time in chattering away in his native tongue that only Edison understood. To Sloan, it sounded like a high-pitched, excited volley of mostly short words.
“No.” Edison cut off Elwood with an extended hand. “That’s enough. That’s also disgusting. You should go get yourself checked out. That’s not normal.”
Elwood was pantomiming gestures that made Sloan grimace. The gnome was waving a hand back and forth behind his rear end like he was ushering away a bad smell. He continued to talk, while shaking his head and grimacing.
“No, what?” Edison looked at Sloan with an expression like he had tasted something horrible. “You’re lucky you can’t hear this. I feel sick.”
Elwood continued on in his high-pitched gibberish. The sound he made contrasted Jaxon’s snarls perfectly.
“Okay, okay enough. If you haven’t noticed”—Edison pointed to Jaxon—“we have a bigger situation here. Well, maybe not bigger by the way you’re describing, it but more important. I need meat, tranquilizers, and a teddy.”
Elwood went to work. His abilities as a conjuring gnome meant he was able to reach behind his back and create anything that would fit into one of his small hands. As quickly as Edison spoke the items, Elwood reached behind him and brought them forward.
In a few seconds, he was holding a raw steak in his right hand, and a bottle of pills and a teddy bear in his left. The gnome looked at the teddy bear and raised an eyebrow at Edison.
“Everybody feels better with a teddy.” Edison took the meat and tranquilizers from Elwood and began preparing the dosage. “Don’t judge me.”
Sloan ignored the circus going on between the inventor and the gnome.
While they prepared the medication, Sloan took time to think back on her dealings with Aareth when he had first turned.
He had always been inside, he’d just needed time to learn how to tame his beast. He had told her the most difficult part was learning that this animal was part of him now.
When he had learned to coexist with it, instead of fighting it, he was able to control it.
“Jaxon.” Sloan stepped forward with her arms out in front of her. As she strode forth, she maintained eye contact with the beast. “I’m Sloan. I was with Aareth with when he changed. I can tell you what he would say if he was here.”
Jaxon’s manic roars subsided for the time being. He went down on all fours, eyeing Sloan with a curious stare. The deep rumbling coming from his chest didn’t stop. He looked like he was a coiled spring ready to be released at any moment.
“Aareth would tell you to be strong. He’d say that he understands fighting what you are now is pointless.
Just accept that you’re different. It may not happen overnight, but you’ll get the hang of this.
Rest in the comfort that you will be able to coexist with this gift you’ve been given.
You’re among friends. The chains are only here for the time being to stop you from injuring anyone. ”
Edison handed Sloan the meat.
She waved it away.
Elwood handed her the teddy.
She waved it away as well.
Jaxon was down on all fours, still eyeing Sloan. He wasn’t taut, ready to spring anymore, and heavy breathing instead of snarls came from his maw.
“Easy friend.” Sloan positioned herself next to Jaxon on the ground.
She remembered being bitten by Aareth the first night he had transformed into the werewolf.
She was faster now, though, and trusted she would be able to dodge the attack if it came.
“We’re going to get through this together. Just don’t bite me.”