The Demon and His Plaything

16| Uncovering

What do you know? Samantha sat on her bed. Those black vans, the messages from Godrick–she knew he had to know something.

Godrick: Can I call you?

She called him immediately, putting her headphones in.

"Are you okay?"

She exhaled. "Yes, but Godrick... did you know? Did you know what was going to happen?"

He hesitated. "No–I knew something was happening but not what. It wasn't your pack, was it?" His voice was tight.

"No. It wasn't." She was quiet for a few seconds. "Why? Why would Demons and Warlocks slaughter an entire pack?"

She heard him take a sharp breath. She heard muffled talking. He came back, "The entire pack?"

"Fifteen hundred people."

"Oh god," Godrick breathed.

"Is this what Demons do?" She felt small. She felt dumb. Was he the worst possible choice for her to make? All she could think of was what if her pack was next. They had many more pack members, would that be enough to fight an attacking force? Or would the enemy just send more forces against them.

"Samantha–I–" He took a breath. "Sometimes. Yes, Demons do do these types of things, sometimes."

She felt sick to her stomach. "I just don't understand the motivation. The Half Moon Pack wasn't even a wealthy pack. They have a lot of land but that's all..."

Something tickled her brain as she said that. But she couldn't understand what was bothering her about everything.

"They were working for Werewolves," Godrick said quickly.

That made her heart hammer. "What?"

"I don't know who they were but it was Wolves that paid for the attack."

"Rogues?" She aired the thought more to hear it herself.

He was muffled again before he came back on the line. "Whoever they were, they had a lot of money."

She frowned at that. Rogues weren't known to be very liquid... and while it seemed plausible should they have the money, if the aim was to clear the land and take it they'd need to be a big enough pack to withstand the inevitable retaliatory attack and take over from a border pack, like hers or the New Moon Pack, which shared a western border with the now wiped out Half Moon Pack. She thought about the New Moon Pack. Could they be behind this?

"Did you see them?" She asked.

Godrick was slow to answer. "Yeah..."

"I need you to speak with my father." She became animated. "If you can describe them we can work out where they are from... Godrick, what if they come for us next?"

She thought of her brother, imagining a bus taking him away to another pack, his family gone. Or worse.

"I'll do whatever I can. Samantha–"

She felt a link from Derek. "I have to go. Talk tomorrow."

~*~

Derek dragged his feet. His guard duty had been canceled and he was very grateful. He felt drained.

He mindlinked Samantha hoping she was awake. He didn't want to stay at his parents' place. It reminded him too much of Tracy.

"Hey." She opened.

"You up?"

"Come up."

She met him at the front door, quickly leading him to her room.