Roll of the Dice

Chapter 6

It was an early morning in mid-July. It had been three weeks since the gang had helped Izzy with her supernatural wound. And since then they all had noticed an increase in strange activity around the city. Over the course of those weeks more people had been showing up dead. Their bodies pale and shriveled up; bite and scratch marks, appearing somewhat randomly on the corpses. Chris, who had gotten a job delivering papers as a summer gig, had been riveted to the coverage of the most recent attacks.

Chris had arrived early to work that day and was casually leaning against the wall of the apartment complex he lived in, a stack of papers at his feet. He popped a cigarette into his mouth and lit it, looking out over the dark streets. He knew he needed to quit, especially since he knew that if his coaches found out he would be kicked off all his teams. But quitting smoking was a lot harder to actually do than to think about. He took in a drag and slowly let out the smoke as he waited for the rest of the motley delivery crew to arrive. Casually, he glanced down at the paper to see yet another body on the cover of the morning paper the headline screaming: Twentieth Body Found. Mayor Calls For City Wide Emergency Task Force.

Chris rolled his eyes. The next thing that would happen would be the Military getting involved. Which meant his parents would be called in for duty, again. He shook his head. He flicked the cigarette butt away just as the others pulled up. They gave the usual greetings and took their stacks of papers before heading off. Chris checked his phone. A text from Lily. She was up unusually early. Meet at the Reference Library after work. More research needs to be done. He sent a quick reply. Sounds intriguing. See you there.

Chris slipped his phone into his pocket and rode off.

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Amadan had called this meeting weeks ago. They'd all had enough time to feed. Now, it was time to actually get to work. Normally, the Scarborough Bluffs would be filled with couples walking their dogs, engaging in early morning exercise routines or some other nonsense. But with the city-wide emergency put into effect many people had decided to leave the city for the safety of their families. So, the park was unusually quiet.

Amadan casually crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against a nearby tree: his black hair blowing in the wind, his eyes staring blankly at the ground. The soft sound of paws could be heard approaching. He casually looked up to see a mangy dog sniffing at his shoe. Amadan tried to brush the dog away with his foot, but was greeted with a growl and a sudden transformation as dog became man. The man was stocky and short; a thick beard covered his face, his hair dangling over his eyes and shoulders. He crossed his arms, a slight scar running down his arm in the shape of a thin rope.

"What was that for?" The man growled.

"A dog? Bastian, the fiercest werewolf to ever live, and you become a mangy dog?" Amadan asked.

"You said to blend into the community, so that's what I did," Bastian replied.

Amadan snickered. He could tell that Bastian wanted to make a snide remark in return but before anything else could occur other dogs began to collect in the park. Each dog transitioned to their human form. All of them stood proudly in the nude. Amadan stiffened, obviously uncomfortable being surrounded by a clan of naked Werewolves.

Unlike Amadan, who was tall, fair and slender, the Werewolves were short, muscular and dark. Their skin decorated with the scars of their battles. Their hair matted and long. The wolves were built for battle. There was a reason why the Master used the wolves as his first line of offense in battle.