~The Keepers~19:13 Sep 14 2007
Times Read: 509
Once the kids were asleep, I went back to tending to Cullen’s wound. He looked at me with a smile as I cut a strip of gauze. “You handled that very well.” I laid the gauze on his cut and began taping off the square with strongly adhesive surgical tape.
“Thanks.” I sighed. “I have to keep order in my home somehow.”
“Yes, but you reasoned with them quite logically. You made some good points.”
“Thank you again.” I cut another strip of tape and laid it on his back across the bandage.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“That depends…” I cast him a sidelong glance and continued. “What’s the question about?”
“It’s about something Evan said.” I pursed my lips and tried to make up my mind as to whether or not I should let Cullen ask his question. I knew it would be about my past.
“Go on.” I agreed with the knowledge of how I needed to answer the upcoming question.
“What did he mean when he said ‘once in the pack, never out of the pack’?” I slowly filled my lungs with air before I continued with facts about werewolves.
“A werewolf pack is slightly different from a regular pack of lupus running around the wood hunting for their next meal. In werewolf society, the members are never exiled from the pack if they did something very bad, as they would have been in a regular pack of wolves. The werewolves find no need to boot out a member when they are already outcasts. Why cast out a member of an outcast society when everyone is an outcast already? Doesn’t make sense to them why that should be done, so, if one werewolf eats human flesh and the others refuse to, they just give him a little space,”
“And that raises the question, were you ever in a pack?” Cullen butted in.
I was silent for a moment. “Yes, at one point in my life I was.” I spoke smoothly and at an even and unrushed pace. He sat up and hung his legs over the metal table as he took off his shredded shirt and revealed his toned chest muscles.
“Were you a werewolf?” he prodded. I didn’t want to answer that question, but I knew he already had enough facts to conclude that I had –at one point of time in my life –been a werewolf.
“Only for a year.” I answered rapidly and walked away.
“A year’s a long time, Gwynne.”
I didn’t say anything. I walked straight to a dip in the cave’s wall where I had set up a curving couch that followed the line of the slick stone and sat down. It was dark in this little secluded pocket… dark enough to where you could think and not have to worry about anything else except your thoughts. I sat there with my face buried in my hands, my mind spinning with the memories of that horrible sixteenth year of my life… from the first day of the infection… to the cure I made for myself… I remembered all of it.
I remembered running with the pack of werewolves in the Phinizy Swamp, preying on the gators we found there. I remember the first human the pack brought down… but I didn’t chase him, or take part in killing him. He was a human… and so was I somewhere beneath that horrible beast I had become every night when I couldn’t control my temper.
Then the memory of phasing from wolf back to human came back to me. It was so painful… so demoralizing. I remembered always coming home exhausted in the mornings, my school grades dropping because I never studied. The fevers, the bruises, and the sore hands and feet that plagued me were terrible, but some part of me loved it.
I loved to run with the pack. It made me feel free… and capable of anything. I forgot about my problems and just ran as fast as I could over everything laid out before me. I cherished the moon and the stars above me, the wind surging around me, and the earth under my paws. I felt so real then, so normal.
Then I recalled the bounty hunters. I was out with the pack during the full moon hunting for deer. That’s when the hunters came for us. Somehow, they knew where we would be headed and they waited to ambush us there. I was the first to catch their scent and I alerted everyone of their presence there. I was asked how many. I counted ten separate smells… but I miscalculated terribly.
We tried finding a way around them, but they were spread across the landscape too perfectly. We were fired upon and forced to turn around and head back the way we had come. By that time, they had closed in behind us with more men and trained dogs. There were at least thirty men now, all armed with sniper rifles and barking dogs. We were forced into a circle with our backs to one another. There was no escape, but the pack leader formed a plan. He told us to stay low in the brush and to move forward slowly on his command. We obeyed with precision.
We cut through the hunters keeping downwind of the dogs and almost made it through the ring safely. Then I ran into one of the men. I didn’t smell him, he was scentless, but that was all that was needed to alert the other hunters of our escape. I was ordered to remove him from this life. I had never fought anyone in my life, let alone take someone’s life. I knocked him unconscious though, that was all I would suffer myself to do. We pushed faster through the thick wood desperate to escape now. I was the fastest runner of us all, so I took the head easily.
Then I heard rifle fire behind me, and a sharp scream. There were growls, barks, bays, and howling cries from behind… but always from behind. I made it back to safety with half the pack. We surveyed our loss and it was great. We had lost a fourth of the pack, including the leader. That was a terrible blow in itself. They had no choice but to elect a new pack leader right away.
We held counsel, but I held my muzzle shut. I had no part in this pack. They just accepted me out of pity, and I had screwed up, costing many werewolves their lives. The leader’s eldest son took the rule next, but I never ran with the pack again. I couldn’t take looking into the eyes of those werewolves and seeing their pain of loss. It was too much to bear alone.
The next month I found a fix for the werewolfism, and took it. I never phased again… I locked away the memories of that year in a tiny box and threw away the key. Now, Evan was the only thing left reminding me of what I used to be, what he would always be because he was born that way… because he had no choice.
“Gwynne?” Cullen pulled me out of my thoughts. “May I sit with you?”
I dried my eyes and moved over a little, not that I had to considering the couch was quite large, but because I felt like I couldn’t be close to anyone… like I wasn’t human anymore. Cullen came and sat next to me… bare chest and all.
“I'm sorry I asked, Gwynne.”
“No, you had every right to ask.” I said, my voice breaking at the end and dropping off to a whisper.
“It must have been hard for you.” He placed a hand on my back and began stroking it.
I wiped my misty eyes and nodded. “It was.”
“Is this where you got bit?” he asked me and fingered the canine bite mark on my left shoulder nearly encircling the entire arm.
“Yes.” I moved out from under his touch and covered it with my hand. The scar was still burning hot like fire, a constant reminder as to what I had been transformed into for one, miserably long year.
“I'm sorry I can't empathize with you, but I sure can sympathize with you, Gwynne. At least I have a right to that one.” He smiled, trying to make me feel better than I did. I managed to smile back, just to make him think I was happy. “You know, I was wondering,” he kept talking, “Could I stick around here for a while? I mean, I don’t really have anything to do for a while, and I thought that maybe you needed some help around here… you know, getting the creatures transferred to new sanctuaries.”
I thought about his request for a moment, and then nodded. I needed all the help I could get, and vampires and werewolves could only do so much.
“All right.” I agreed. “You can stick around for a while.”
“That’s great.” He smiled, then planted a kiss on my cheek. I grinned back hoping he didn’t see it.
The next morning I woke up on the floor next to Evan on his feather mattress. He was snuggled up like a little puppy in the bend of my body snoring softly in his deep sleep. I clearly remembered sitting at my desk reading a very important email telling me where and when to relocate my creatures. But apparently, I had been moved…. Something warm was at my back. I turned my head minutely trying to see what it was.
It was Cullen.
He was lying on his back and his arm was against me keeping me from rolling onto the cold floor. He was very quiet as he laid there with his eyes closed in light sleep. His fingers were laced across his bare chest and his breathing was even and controlled.
Then his left eye cracked open and looked at me. He smirked and gave me a little nudge as I smiled slightly and turned over again. Evan felt the slight movement and shifted his sleeping position. He flipped over to face me and buried his face in my neck right under my chin. I was a little insecure about his move… but he was just a kid. He wouldn’t be phasing and clamping his mouth around my throat any time soon. I ran my hand through his brown hair and he purred wolfishly, snuggling deeper into the bend of my neck and jaw line. This child was definitely content.
“He makes me wonder how long he’s slept without anyone at his back.” Cullen whispered in my ear so close that I could feel his lips moving. I wrapped my arm around the boy and he snuggled closer. “Makes me wonder how long you’ve slept with no one at your back.” His fingers ran along my arm and stopped around my waist.
“I've always slept with the wall to my back, Cullen.” I whispered as delicately as I could.
“That’s a shame.” He pressed his lips to my shoulder and smiled, his eyes sparkling.
Voices came to my ears, voices outside, men’s’ voices.
Bats flushed into the cave and Trevor took form a few feet away from us. He looked at all of us on the floor with a scowl of distaste. Evan woke up and groggily glowered at the vampire.
“You know,” Trevor began apathetically, “there’s a generous amount of people around what used to be your house poking and prodding through the rubble. If I was anything other than a vampire, I’d tell you to get the hell out of here.” he casually walked over to the fridge as he spoke and pulled out a vile of blood, drinking it down cleanly and without wasting a drop. I heard the voices again and jumped up.
“We need to get out of here.” I said to Cullen and Evan.
“Well you can’t go out there looking like that, Gwynne.” Cullen said and I looked down at what I was wearing. I was still in that dress Tara had picked out for me. I decided that I had to change before I could make an escape to the neighboring Keeper’s farm.
“Evan, gather your things and grab a jacket. It’s getting colder out there by the minute.”
“There’s at least three feet of snow on the ground now. Thought I’d let you know that before you trudged out there in your little tennis shoes.” Trevor said as he lay down in his coffin and put his hands behind his head like a pillow.
“You know, Trevor, when those men find that door to this cave out there where the basement was they’ll pepper you with bullets and stakes and you’ll be sorry your apathetic little life was over.” I said and rummaged through a dresser of spare clothes I was smart enough to keep down here.
“Well Gwynne, I’d be happy if my life ended… I’ve lived long enough as it is.” I pulled out some leather pants and a white long-sleeved shirt along with a belt, heavy socks, knee boots, gloves, and a corset. That was what I used to travel in. And as far as I was concerned, Trevor could rot here. I suited up and went to check on Cullen who was packing some supplies.
I turned the corner into the supply room and saw that he was completely as I had left him… shirtless with a bandage on his back. He didn’t hear me come in so I just observed him working. He packed dehydrated food packets, water, first aid, herbs, and other necessary items for travel. I leaned up against the doorframe and it creaked. He turned his head then froze.
“Why’d you stop packing?” I asked him with a smirk. His jaw dropped as he tried to say something, but no sound came out. “It’s all right, Cullen. You don’t need to answer that.” I walked over to him and kept packing for him. He continued to gape at me.
“Gwynne…” he whispered and took my hand. I stopped and looked at him. “You look beautiful.” He smiled. I managed to return a smile.
“Thank you, Cullen. How’s your back?” I tried to change the subject.
“It’s good, thanks for asking, Gwynne.” He moved my hair off my shoulder and smiled again.
“When we get out of here we need to head south. My car is down there somewhere and we need to cover the escape of the creatures. You’re willing to help me out on this one right?” I asked him.
“Of course, but why can't we take my car instead?” he asked me.
“The government would have found your car and towed it by now … what do you say to that?” I asked smugly.
“I moved it last night after you fell asleep at your desk.” He bested me.
My eyes narrowed. “My car is faster,” I snapped quickly.
“I highly doubt it,” He answered just as quickly.
“We’ll race.”
“I don’t want to wreck my car.”
“You scared?”
“No, just avoiding foolish actions.”
“Cullen, admit it. You’re afraid that I would beat you.” I crossed my arms and grinned in delight.
“I am not, Gwynne.” He said getting a little edgy in his tone. “I just don’t want to wreck a very nice car I have paid off, got it?” I looked him straight in the eyes smirking.
“You’re just scared.” I turned to walk out of the storeroom but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“I'm scared one of us will wreck and get killed, Gwynne. I'm more concerned about your life than I am about my car or racing.” He clarified quite intensely. He had a good point… good answer.
“All right.” I smiled. “But my car is still faster than yours.” I walked out of the storeroom with a smirk on my face.
“I highly doubt it!” Cullen yelled after me. I just went and fed Alaric.
I was trying to devise a plan to get these creatures off the sanctuary and into the sanctuaries of other Keepers nearby… but there would be no way I could pull that off if those Governmental Agents were hovering about spying on me. I had to call a meeting for the ISK representatives ASAP. I sent out a message to every representative in the ISK and gave a meeting date. Then I downloaded all the data on my computer to a microchip disguised as a necklace charm and tucked it away. I put my computer into delete mode and it began disintegrating all the data.
“Trevor!” I yelled from a cross the cavern. He flitted and appeared right at my side.
“You called?” he said and cocked his head a little annoyed.
“I need you to do something for me.” I laced up a boot tighter and he smiled.
“That depends on what you want me to do.”
“I need you to get the creatures out of here while I deal with the infestation up top.”
“Delighted to do such a task…” he glanced at Evan who was packing up his few belongings of articles and favorite books. “Is the pup going with you or me?”
“Evan is going with me.” I stressed his name. Trevor just grunted and glided away with abnormal grace.
“How are you going to get the creatures out of here when the trap door is right in the field next to your house? I'm sure there are a lot of people standing around that opening.” Cullen said as he came out of the storeroom carrying three large hiking backpacks, muscles flexing from their weight.
“I'm sure it will be quite difficult… but not entirely impossible.” I smiled and took a bag away from him to lighten his load.
“We’re going to attempt it… with all those animals?” he was a little worried…well… maybe a lot worried.
“Calm down, Cullen. No worries. I’ve got this under perfect control.” I walked towards the escape rout of the cave that opened right up in the field.
“Gwynne, there’s no such thing as ‘perfect control’... and you should know that!” he trotted after me as he spoke.
“I want you to beg me for forgiveness when you see this.” I said and went straight for the door.
“Wait! Gwynne… this is a bad idea,” I grabbed the handle and turned it. “You don’t know how nasty it is out there…” it stared to open and he backed up. “The Government will…” he stopped talking because shock took over his emotions and his facial expressions.
Instead of seeing the blinding sunlight reflecting off fresh falling snow in the doorway, a dark tunnel leading straight underground met his gaze. It was large enough for a giant, but small enough to be undetected by Governmental devices. This was how I planned to smuggle my work out of here safely. I have to admit… it was brilliantly planned and going to be well executed.
“Evan? Care to open the facilities?” I asked the boy werewolf and he nodded with a wide, wolfish grin.
Door after door was opened and the creatures came pouring out sorting themselves according to their breed and kind. I had given them the lecture ‘if you can't exist with the others –though they may be enemies in the world –you cannot exist at all’. Harmony was my key to keeping all these creatures in line and coexisting with one another in good peace, even if it was just tolerating each other.
I fiddled with the data charm around my neck as I oversaw the creatures of fantasy file into the tunnel that headed due south. As Evan made his way through the line, he gave Cullen a stylish shirt with a wily smirk popping up on his face. Cullen thanked him with a head nod and began to slip the garment over his head. The shirt was a little medieval in its style, but it looked good on him. At least Cullen could pull off the really old stuff. He hooked the two backpacks over his shoulders and slid into the end of the line when it passed by.
I stopped and looked over the cave I had spent so much time in, where so many fears had taken form, and where so many memories had developed and engrained themselves in my mind. I almost felt sorry I had to leave all this behind unprotected and free to anyone who wanted to pilfer through it. I was leaving behind so much… so many antique things with costly value and rarity. It was all so sad in the end, but this was life… you had to move on one way or another.
“I'm going to miss taking naps here.” Trevor was standing at my side overlooking the cavern with me.
I let out a long and sad sigh before nodding. “I'm going to miss this place too.” I agreed. “So much has happened here through time and I really do hate leaving it unprotected and in the hands of the Government. It’s rather sad, really.” I raised my brows as if everything I was seeing was already gone, just a distant and vague memory of my eternal past.
“It’s all right, Gwynne. All that you see here before you will always be carried with you up here.” he gently tapped the temple of my head and smiled. “Memories are all I have left. I claim nothing as my own these days… not even land. Material things cause too much trouble and disputes.” He looked at his coffin and sighed. I just crossed my arms and smiled at him.
“Your family buried you in that.” I said, talking about the coffin.
“Yes, I know…. I guess they didn’t know I was a very life vampire when they stuck that empty casket in the ground thinking that my body would never be recovered.”
“Well, I have no intentions of taking a casket with me.” I bantered. He chuckled deep in his empty chest.
“I think it’s a burden I'm happy to leave behind. It gets rather tiresome carrying around a piece of furniture. That thing always gave me a stiff neck after I slept in it anyway.” He rubbed the nape of his neck wincing with the memories of his repeated stiff-necked naps. I ruffled his perfectly styled hair and he leaned away smiling and smoothing it back into place.
“Well, we’d better get going before anyone finds this hole.” I sighed and slowly turned to face the tunnel leading out and away from the place I referred to as ‘home’. Trevor followed me.
“You know, at least I'm leaving here with someone I can tolerate. It would be awful if I had to leave with that Cullen man standing next to me… that’d suck pretty badly,” he joked as I pulled down the thick titanium door and locked it into the rock face of the tunnel wall. I had two more doors like this to close, and it would take the Government a heck of a long time to try and get them open once they were locked into place.
Trevor kept talking as I worked. “Not only am I flattered to be leaving this place with you at my side, but I'm amazed that you aren't blathering and bawling like a little girl. Most people I’ve seen whom suddenly have to leave their homes, break down and weep all over the street as they stare at the structure they called home. It’s quite entertaining to watch them though.” I closed the second door with a sigh and a slight smile… I had another trick up my sleeve, and Trevor knew I did.
“Go ahead and start the fire, Gwynne. Better now than later,” he sighed back and held out his arm for me like a gentleman. I took his arm and raised a little rectangular box with a button in the center.
“Here goes life.” I toasted and hit the button with my thumb. There was a muted ‘boom’ and the floor shook minutely… but nothing more.
“Would the men up top hear that?” Trevor asked me.
“Nope… that cave’s been sound proofed a million times over in the past. As far as my knowledge goes, I don’t think their devices could have heard or monitored that. Hopefully all the stuff burns up before the fire runs out of oxygen and dies.” He patted my hand.
“It’ll be fine, Gwynne. We’ll get out of this alive.”
“I wish that Tara could have said the same.” The image of my sister’s bright and smiling face flashed into my head.
“If it helps,” Trevor said to me in a quieter tone, “I would like you to know that Tara isn’t dead like you think she is.”
This news was a little shocking. Well, all right then, a lot shocking. The fact that I had watched my own house blow up with Tara inside of it would forever be engrained into my head like spiral marks on a fired bullet. ‘Tara not dead’ was something unfathomable and completely against what I had seen, heard, or investigated, but not entirely unbelievable or impossible. For all I knew, she could be a tortured prisoner of the Government this very second!
I heaved a mental sigh at that thought of being the Government’s prisoner… ‘Better dead than a prisoner to them.’ I thought with a heart and head full of hurt. Then I remembered that I was talking to Trevor.
“What are you saying?” I asked the vampire. He hugged me trying to comfort me.
“I'm saying that when I was coming back for the night I saw a few shady gentlemen roving around your property ‘investigating’. I was a little parched so I snagged one and managed to hide the body before the other one noticed anything. He ran off a little startled and disappeared at the road. I really didn’t think anything of it at first because those little incidents happened ever so often and had become routine with me. So, I went on with my business.
“You’re going to hate me for telling you this… but I drained one of your dairy cows.” He said randomly. I slapped his arm, but it stung my hand instead.
“I don’t care about the stupid dairy cows! They’re all dead anyway.”
“I know,” he grinned, “I was just trying to make you feel better.” I glared at him. “Anyway, when I came back from the far end of your property… you know, surveying and stuff… I found this mass of Governmental Soldiers and Agents standing around your house with guns, tanks, and all sorts of high-tech crap. They were yelling at whoever was inside to come out and surrender the property as evidence in a ‘public health investigation’.
“Of course, I didn’t involve myself because you so religiously remind me that I am just an overnight visitor, thus, I sat back and watched the dinner show… and I was quite hungry at this point. The smell of hot blood was so tempting, but I held back. I could hear Tara’s heartbeat inside the house, she was moving around hiding things and getting creatures into the basement. I heard that pup of hers too. He was so scared he nearly wet the area rug!”
“Trevor!” I growled. He shrugged and made a face.
“The man in charge of the health bust was on the porch yelling by now. He was saying ‘if you don’t come out now, the house’ll be blown up and you’ll be very sorry you disobeyed this Government’. Those were his exact words, terrible form of speech.” He shook his head in disgust at the man’s style of communication. I jabbed him with my elbow to urge him to keep talking and stay on the subject. “They were about to bust the door down when Tara opened up. She asked them what the problem was and they exchanged a few very hushed words that I couldn’t pick up. Then I saw some of the men lying wire and little black boxes around the base of the house. I had a hunch as to what those boxes were… but I didn’t feel like getting close enough to look.
“Then some of the men tried to go inside and Tara barred the way with her arms. She was clubbed over the head with a rifle butt and then they stuffed her into a fancy car. The men searched the place then came out empty-handed. Your sister always had a knack for hiding things so effectively. After that, the head man ordered the timers to be set for an hour and they drove off, unconscious little Tara and all.” He finished his narration with a big, dramatic sigh.
“And you did nothing to stop them?” I asked, sounding a little disappointed that he took no action against the Government’s men.
“Yes, I was very lazy and didn’t move from my treetop chair.” He said and gave a fake frown.
“Good, knowing you, you’d try to bring down the stars on those men single handedly. You were always so rash.”
“Hilarious. That’s quite generous of you to poke fun at me like that.” He said unenthusiastically.
“Well, you were always my good little guard dog.” I smiled.
“Hmmm… ‘Growl’.” He said with an apathetic bob of his head. I just laughed and kept walking. He kissed the top of my hand and picked up the walking pace.
The walk through the dark tunnel was pretty bad in itself, but add a herd of creatures friendly and not… you’ll get your varied outcomes. I had to break up a few fights between the griffins and the centaurs… but other than that, it was an eventless walk to the farthest field at the edge of my land. Before Cullen opened the hidden door into the upper world, I had Trevor be useful and check to see if anyone was out there.
He pressed his ear against the door, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He was silent for a few moments before he stepped back and gave the report.
“Two winter squirrels, a rabbit, eight crows, one cat, and a very large deer.” He looked at me and his eyes flickered. I guessed he was waiting for his thanks because he stood there with a ‘well?’ expression on his pretty face.
“Thanks.” I said and unlocked the bolted latch, pushing the door up and out of the tunnel. A shower of snow fell in on me, but I ignored it and stepped into the massive snowstorm ripping away at the landscape. It was cold and very white out there. I squinted as my eyes tried to adjust to the light of the blizzard.
Cullen, Evan, and Trevor followed me out into the storm that blew our garments around and stung us with its beating chill. I turned and looked to the north were the ruins of my house lay infested with the filth of the Government. I locked my jaw as I stared in anger and vengeance. I’d get them back for this… and soon. The three boys stared at me bracing themselves from the bullets of snow, two with no expression of pain or notice, and one wincing as the snow beaned him through his jacket.
“What do we do now?” Cullen yelled over the howl of the wind.
“Trevor, Evan, you both take the lead and head to the Hipson’s Sanctuary. I’ll follow up the rear with Cullen and cover tracks,” I ordered and motioned for them to take the head of the line. Before they walked away from me and after they exchanged scowls with each other, I grabbed them both by the collars and hooked them in so I could glare at them both. “Work. Together.” I ordered with no jokes. They glowered at one another.
“Ready, pup?” Trevor said with his lips curling up over his large sparkly-white vampire teeth.
“Readier than you, bloodsucker.” Evan shot back with his dark brown eyes shifting to bright, molten amber due to the amount of anger in his bloodstream.
I slapped them both in the back of their heads. “Work together, damn it!!!” I screamed at them. “If you two don’t work as a team we’ll get caught and you’ll both be killed by me when I get back up to you! Got it?!” I growled.
Evan sighed, “Sure, G.”
Trevor smirked at me evilly, “As you wish, Gwynne.” I let them both go and took a step back. Trevor kissed me on the cheek before sauntering off through the snow effortlessly as Evan hunched over and braced himself against the wind that threatened to blow the whole world over. I watched them go before I turned my attention back to the creatures filing out of the tunnel as fast as they could. I had to get to my car and take care of the mess at my house. Besides, that was what I had planned to do in the first place. I had to take care of my business.
I turned around and began walking away from the tunnel and away from the parka-clad Cullen. He shuffled his footing a bit trying to decide whether to follow me, or stay at the tunnel and do his job like I had told him to. He followed me instead. He tripped through the nasty fog of snow and came up to me.
“Gwynne, where are you going?” he asked above the roar of the wind. I didn’t even turn my head when I answered him.
“I'm going to skin me some Government ass, that’s what!” I marched through the pelting snow with a new fury as I headed to where my expensive cars were safely stored away from the elements like caterpillars in a cocoon. As usual, Cullen trailed me like a puppy.
I walked straight to a wooden post of the barbed wire fence surrounding my property. I twisted off its head and uncovered a keypad of numbers. I punched in the code to open the small cavern and jammed the fake post head back on. I sighed and tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for the cavern door to open up like a heavy garage door to a house. A light whirring noise was emitted from the door as it lifted and groaned under the weight of snow and ice, but once the cavern was opened, I wasted no time in getting down there and starting my car.
The engine of the gull-door Lamborghini purred like a kitten as I sat behind the wheel and ran my hand over the leather steering wheel remembering past days of flying down the country roads at 200 miles an hour. Cullen tripped into the small cave and gaped. You could hear the tink of his jaw hitting the level stone floor. I pressed a button that opened the passenger side door and it slid up smoothly and with no groans or shudders.
“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to get in?” I yelled at Cullen and revved the engine grinning. He finally found his feet and began running towards the sleek black and ruby pearl car. He slid into the black leather seat cautiously and slowly pulled the door down to shut it. He looked over at me with a very stunned expression.
“Why so dazed?” I asked him with a wicked grin. He gawked at the car’s interior and ran his hand over the sweet chrome and glossed wood dash.
“Where did you ever get enough money to buy this?” he finally spit out.
“When you’ve been saving ever since you were two, it builds up after a while.” I pressed a few buttons and shifted the gear into ‘drive’ with a quick motion.
I drove out into the blizzard and headed back towards my house… well, what was left of it. I pulled out a small computer screen and it flew to life with a flash of colors and designs. I glanced at the field I was driving though occasionally as I pressed more buttons and lit up the screen a little more.
“Good afternoon, Gwynne.” The computer said as a digital graphics human face took shake and smiled at me. The face was of a woman in her thirties with strawberry blond hair and violet eyes that sparkled as she spoke. She even looked at me while I spoke back. She was the closest technology had gotten to a human.
“Good afternoon, Viva. Long time no see, huh?” I asked my car.
“That is very correct, Gwynne. How can I be of assistance to you today?” she carried on the conversation just like a real human would.
“I need the snow tires out. I have to move fast and can't risk slippage.”
“You’ve got it.” The car dropped lower then rose back up with a metallic shing like that of a sword being drawn from its scabbard. Cullen gripped the door handle and the edge of his chair as the car swapped out tires. I just smiled in amusement at his frightened reaction. Apparently, he thought we were going to die.
“Relax, Cullen, just enjoy the ride.”
“G –Gwynne, where are we riding to?” he stammered… but not from the cold.
“You’ll see.” I smiled and turned on the playlist mix I had in the car and smiled. I loved my playlists and this one was my favorite. I liked to listen to upbeat rock music when I did my nasty little Damage Control duty. The first song that started blaring and pumping on the speakers was the All American Reject song ‘Move Along’. I sang along with vigor as I pushed the car over the snow at a hundred miles per hour. I turned the windshield wipers on to keep the pelting snow bullets from sticking to the window like little leeches trying to suck away the warmth inside the Lamborghini’s belly.
I pulled on the harness that strapped me into the seat and made sure it was tight. I looked over at Cullen and saw his bulging-eyed expression gaping at my little safety precaution. I shrugged at him and turned on a few switches.
“What’s that for?” he gulped and swallowed hard.
I looked down at my harness and tugged on it. It was tight.
“Better put yours on too. Wouldn’t want you flying out of the windshield if I braked too fast.” I smiled gently and put the car into a higher gear. The car bucked and Cullen’s head whip lashed as he desperately grabbed for the harness and yanked it on as fast as he could.
It looked like we were in a vortex of swirling snow because of how fast we were going. It was neat to me… but I was weird and thought that random things were interesting. I let out a delighted cackle as I took a sharp turn and nearly sent Cullen flying out of his chair and into me. I pushed him back into his chair and let him finish harnessing up before pulling any more wild driving stunts. I continued to laugh as he sat back with a sigh after his belt was on safely. I kicked off the lights and drove on through the blizzard.
“Gwynne, why are we heading back to your house?” Cullen asked me as I took a turn to avoid a cluster of trees that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. The car revved as I put it back on course.
“Sorry…” I muttered and evaded the initial question.
“Why the hell are we going back!!” Cullen shouted at me now. I pursed my lips and glared through the windshield at the pelting snow. I cranked the music down and sighed loudly.
“I have some unfinished business to take care of.” I answered smoothly as my knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel.
“Well, why are we going back there? I mean, it’s flooded with soldiers with big guns and massive tanks! We’ll get killed!”
“No, we’re not going to get killed. We’re just going to pay a visit to the ‘Health Inspector’ and give him a piece of our minds.” I clarified with my own intentions leaking through.
“What!?” Cullen screamed at me. “Do you know how fucked up that man is when it comes to killing people who backtalk him? Gwynne that’s not a very smart move.” He lectured back at me.
“Hey!” I screamed back glaring at him straight on. “Who the hell told you to tell me what to do, huh? Last time I checked, you were a guest in my house.”
“Your house isn’t there anymore.” He stressed every word like it was full of lead.
“Well, this is still my land and that pile of rubble is mine too, Cullen.” I glowered through the car’s windshield as I sped up towards my heap of a house still smoldering.
We were both silent as I pulled to a stop at the west side of the rubble mound. I turned the car’s engine off and sat back with a sigh. I stared through the manic snow blowing around wildly and blurring a fair amount of the landscape’s outline. I stared through the snow just like it was a hazy day of summer. I spotted two soldiers with automatic rifles to the left and four more at the front of the house. Ten more were scattered about sitting down, relaxing as the Health Inspector talked with someone with a shoulder full of stripes.
“What are you looking for?” Cullen asked me after a moment of trying to pick out anything in the snowstorm.
“I'm just counting how many souls are standing around the yard.” I answered back eyeing the Health Inspector as he spoke shivering from the cold of the snow.
“What? I can’t even see through this mess!”
“I can.” I stated and unbuckled the harness.
“Wait, Gwynne, where are you going?!” he began to fumble with his buckles and straps.
“You sit here. I’ll take care of this myself.” I took they keys out of the ignition, grabbed a handgun, and stepped out of the vehicle with a hard look on my face. I had a feeling this was going to be a long and cold night.
I plowed through the snow and drew to a halt ten feet from the front of my car. The two soldiers off to the west of the house heard me and turned in my direction. I heard their gun safeties switch off as they prepared to fire if they found anything threatening. I cocked my gun. They heard it.
“Who goes there!” one soldier yelled into the wind.
I just took another step.
“Halt!” the other screamed and took a step back.
I raised the silenced gun and fired two noiseless shots. The dark figures of the soldiers slumped to the ground quietly. I continued forward with gun raised and ready. I could faintly hear Cullen yelling me from the confines of my car. He wanted to get out… but I had locked him inside. Four or five more soldiers dropped to the ground before the entire party detected me. Soon I had to take refuge behind trees and fallen rubble piles. My car’s playlist was jamming in my head from the earpiece I had in my right ear for communication… which got me to thinking… how was I going to take out the tanks sitting in my front yard?
Number One option: climb up there, open the hatch, and kill all the people inside before using the tank on the other tank. Or, the Number Two option: just use rockets and blow them both to hell. Toughie… but I personally liked the second option. Besides, a big bonfire would definitely warm up my half-frozen limbs. I opted for the rockets and readied my car to fire the two I had available.
I took position and squatted behind a crumbled pillar that used to stand near the right side of the fireplace in my house. I loaded another magazine in my Glock and took out a hand held number pad. I hit a combination and heard the rockets on my car’s hood flip out on command.
Linkin Park’s song ‘Bleed it Out’ came on over the earpiece and I smirked. ‘How appropriate for the moment’, I thought to myself as I peeked around the side of the column and looked at the tanks through the thick mattress of blinding snow blowing at a near horizontal angle. A rocket would even have problems navigating through this mess! Hopefully mine would follow their course and hit their targets.
I punched in the code for launch and watched as a red glow sparked up from the direction of my car. There was a booming thrum as the red streaks flew forward at a rapid speed and melted into the side of both tanks. An echoing boom cracked through the howling wind as a mass of fire and a mushroom cloud of burning fuel rose into the dark sky making it all the more blacker. I grinned and jumped to action.
I was making headshots as I streaked across the yard towards the tanks, downing everyone I could, moving towards my intended target. The second tank exploded again and there was a rip in the skin on my right shoulder. I dropped to a knee to avoid any more shrapnel as I yelled and grabbed my arm. I pulled away my frozen hand and saw hot blood sliding all over my fingers and palm. I gritted my teeth with a growl and lunged forward with a new fury coursing through me.
I made straightway for the Health Inspector quickly moving towards his little escape vehicle with an alarmed look on his face. I fired him and got him in the arm. He yelled out and I soaked in his cry of pain. I shot off more rounds but he ducked into the bulletproof sports car before any of the bullets could hit him. A blaring honk came from the direction of my car… and I turned to see what was wrong. The remaining soldiers spotted my and began firing off their weapons.
The past werewolf blood kicked in and I sprinted the hell out of there! I skidded to a halt at my car door and opened it halfway before sliding in and ripping the Lamborghini out of park and into drive. My arm bled everywhere as I flipped a few switches and rolled out my car’s machine guns. My car’s front bumper slid back like a plated wall and bullets began flying. The soldier’s legs twisted and snapped apart as they were shattered and obliterated by the bullets. White snow flushed red with blood as I sped through in pursuit of the Health Inspector’s getaway car.
“Gwynne! You’re bleeding everywhere!” Cullen reminded me over the blare of the thumping speakers.
“I'm very well aware of that, Cullen!” I screamed at him and took a sharp turn out of my driveway and onto the snow-filled roadway. Fresh tire tracks of the car I was pursuing were still in the snow as I turned around a corner at a good speed.
“What the hell happened out there?” he kept going.
“I blew up a few tanks, that’s all.” I winced from the pain of the shrapnel eating at my arm, making it throb with angry pain.
“Blew up –what! You blew up an effin’ tank! Why?”
“Like I’m really going to let two tanks sit there and try to blow up this nice car.”
“Gwynne, you’re bleeding a lot…. Stop the car.” He decided. I just put out more gas. “Gwynne, stop the damn car!” he reached for the wheel and tried to take it from me but I shoved him back and held my gun to his head.
“Back off, Cullen!” he sat back raising his hands in surrender.
“All right, Gwynne, just calm down… and drive carefully.” He said quietly and in a calm manner. I put down my gun and glared at the tracks in the snow.
The tracks veered off to the left and into an unfenced field. I followed with a sharp turn to the right. The tracks seemed to skid across a layer of ice before gripping the snow once more and picking up speed. I knew there was a cliff coming up.
I began to slow my car down to a stop at the snowy bank. I threw it in park and got out, cradling my arm that continued to throb and pulse each time my heart beat. I looked over the side as the wind tore around me trying to shove me over the edge. The tire tracks went straight down the side of the cliff then disappeared. I growled to myself as I stared around at the surrounding skies littered with snow flurries dancing about manically.
A sound came to my keen ears. My eyes narrowed as I knelt beside the cliff’s edge and listened carefully. There was the sound of a jet or a dragon when it was flying at super speeds… and it was coming from behind me. I turned and faced into the wind, looking for what had made that noise. The car I had been chasing was flying through the air towards me on retractable wings… and there was a machine gun attached.
I cursed and bolted for the open door of my car. I threw my car into drive, opened the skylight, and stepped on the gas, letting my car plummet over the side of the cliff.
“What! The! Hell!!” Cullen screamed as I screamed at my car’s copilot, Viva.
“Activate auto pilot, give me the skylight guns, and get those damn wings on this car!”
Viva nodded with a concerned look on her game-anime face. “Right away, Gwynne, and do be safe,” She said as the car’s steering took to a smoother ride and the car leveled out on metal wings that extended out of the Lamborghini’s sides. The center consol slid back and a massive machine gun rose out and up through the open skylight.
“Amazing grace!” Cullen exclaimed just before the deafening ripple of firing bullets took over the sounds of the car’s roaring engine and the raging wind outside.
The enemy vehicle fired back in a spray of metal hail that ricocheted off my bulletproof car in a frenzy of sparks and flashes. A frustrated yell escaped me as I constantly missed the evading enemy car behind us. Cullen kept screaming from inside the car as he heard the bullets strike and turn away harmlessly.
“Viva, will you please do something productive and take evasive action!” I yelled down to my car’s near-human copilot.
“Sorry, Gwynne. Just trying to give you a clear shot.” She apologized. I groaned and strapped my feet in before returning the rain of gunfire.
The car began to loop around as the snow scraped my face and made it numb. I gripped the machine gun as it bucked mercilessly in my hands, making the blood go crazy and the graze on my arm burn insanely. I could feel Cullen grip my ankle as the car flew vertical and took an arch over the other car. Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ busted out over the Boise sound system and I cracked up laughing. Ironic… slightly.
I peppered the hood of the opposite car whooping like crazy as my car completed the arch and pulled up behind the getaway. I spun the gun around and shot up the back bumper, igniting the fuel tank and sinking it back down to the snowy world below. I unstrapped myself and kicked bullet shells out of my chair before I sat down in the driver’s seat chuckling in amusement to myself. The machine gun returned to its place and the skylight window closed as I took the car out of autopilot and landed it. The wings folded back into the side of the car just as the tires touched the mass of snow blanketing the ground. I looked over at Cullen grinning.
“Having fun yet?” I asked him.
His jaw dropped, “Gwynne, you could have been killed!”
I knew that would be his response to that question… but who could really say they were having a good time being shot at and nearly killed driving off the side out a cliff… besides me, that is. I just smiled and concentrated on driving through the field avoiding barbed wire fencing and smashing through gates that had no purpose other than to complete the barriers.
Silence was an odd commodity at the moment, considering that I had turned the music down to background noise and Cullen refused to say anything. He was upset by my daredevil stunt, but I didn’t care. ‘Anything to feel alive’, I sometimes say. I fiddled with the car’s navigation system that showed more than just fences and roads. I requested the nearest Keeper Tunnel and punched in my access code. Cullen over-the-shoulder read the screen with a quizzical look in his eyes.
“‘Keeper Tunnel’?” he asked me. I gave him a sideways glance through narrowed eyes.
“You’ve heard about the ‘Underground Railroad’ during America’s slavery problems right?”
“Of course I have. It’s a part of American History… kids have to learn that stuff.” He shrugged.
“The Keeper Tunnel is kind of like that…” I looked at him and grinned, “Only ours is an actual tunnel.” His jaw dropped again and he emitted an unintentional croak.
“You being serious?”
“Mr. Ramsey, if I had been pulling your leg, you would have lost all of your limbs by now. Yes I'm being serious.” I took a gradual left into a hilly part of the field.
“Wow… I mean, I’ve heard of the Keeper Tunnels, but I didn’t think they were an actual working network.”
“Being a Canadian, I doubt you’d know everything about the South and its Keepers.” I smiled and spotted the runway leading into the stone Tunnel lined with halogen lights shining a pale blue color and reflecting off the snow like a welcoming beacon. “There it is.” I said out of turn as I turned off my fog lights and drove into the elliptical tunnel. Cullen gaped some more and freed himself from his harness to lean forward and peer out the windshield of the Lamborghini.
“Heavens…” he sighed, “I’ve never seen anything like this! How was it made?” he briefly looked at me and studied the tunnel as I answered him.
“Gnomes have their uses when you need them.” He laughed quickly, then went back to studying the tunnel as we drove through. “It’s rather interesting if you ask me. A rather convenient little shot through to the Keeper Sanctuaries when you really think about it. Quite a clever way to spend money.”
“I’ll say.” He agreed with a head nod and a smile. “This is amazing!”
“I'm all for that statement.” He sat back in his chair and looked at me intensely. It was rather unsettling at first, but I got used to it quickly.
“Gwynne, you’re amazing.” A smile flickered at the corners of his mouth as I turned the music completely off.
I couldn’t hold his gaze, but I could feel him staring at me constantly. I snorted and made a face. “I am not.”
“No, seriously. I've never met a woman quite like you… ever.”
Awkward silence pooped out between us.
“Thanks,” I was finally able to say without laughing. “That’s nice of you to say that.”
“Just being honest, that’s all.” He said and turned away.
More silence passed between us like a brick wall, shielding us into our own separate thoughts.
“You know, you’re not exactly what I expected either.” I said glancing over at him. I caught a hint of a smile.
“Why is that?” he shifted in his chair and sat straighter.
I took a turn and answered. “Well, when you normally think of ‘reporter’ you think of ‘one who asks too many questions on or off the record’, then when you’re off the record, things you say suddenly are announced to the entire world. So far, you haven’t done anything like that.” Cullen laughed a little.
“Well, I do believe in keeping my interview’s privacy in tact as best as possible.”
“And you’re very good with words.” I added with a brief shining smile.
“Am I?” he smiled back.
“Only when you’re interviewing someone.” I turned the music back up to an ear-bursting volume.
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