Of Wolf & Man

Chapter Eleven

Rachel was dreaming. She knew she was. She saw the wolves again, running down the beach, felt Tina in her arms. She didn't feel scared this time. She felt angry; she knew that she was strong enough to fight this time. She knew that she could save her friend this time.
"Tina, stay close to me. I'll protect you." Instead of hearing Tina's soprano voice Rachel heard the baritone of a man's voice. And a thick Russian accent.
"You protect me? It was years ago that I was the one protecting you girl. You have grown much since we last saw each other."
Rachel turned and saw that she wasn't holding onto Tina as she originally thought. There was a man, pale with black eyes and pale blonde hair that reached his shoulders.
"Who are you?" Rachel pushed him away and he stood up to his full height. He wasn't much taller than her but the eyes. His black eyes made him seem taller than even Liam. Where was Liam? Why wasn't he waking her up?
"I am your maker, my darling. It is I who gave you life. My blood flows through your veins, has made your body strong."
"Are you my father?" Rachel couldn't remember what her parents looked like. Helene kept any pictures of them hidden and the Russian investigators never showed her one or asked what they looked like.
"Father? No, your father was foolish enough to think he could hide you from me. But now that I have found you, you will be mine."
"Hide me? Why would my father need to hide me?" Rachel asked. Her head was starting to hurt. She didn't understand what was going on. Who was this man? "Tell me who you are."
"All good things in time, my dear, you will remember me and soon we shall meet again."
He moved his hand to touch her face, but Rachel recoiled. "Be not afraid of me young one, you will learn to love me as a father one day."
"I will never be anything of yours." Rachel spat at him. His eyes grew darker, if that was even possible, and he hissed at her. His eyes began to burn into her soul and she couldn't look away.
"You already belong to me girl. I always collect what is mine. Oh, and before I go, a message for your Lycanthrope friends."
"Lycanthrope? What is a lycanthrope?"
"Tell them that I will have you and they will die if they stand against me."
"Who is going to die? What is a lycanthrope?" Before she could finish her question, he was gone, and she was standing alone on the beach watching the wolves run.
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"She's not waking up Russell! Sedate her before she loses any more blood!" Liam managed to turn Rachel away from Russell so that he could have a clear shot of sticking her with the syringe.
"Keep talking to her Liam!" Russell was preparing the syringe with the sedative.
"I need a little more time. I'm not sure how much she's going to need."
"Hurry, she's getting pale!" Rachel was turning green and he was worried she was going to die. "Rachel! Rachel dammit open your eyes!" He couldn't bear to look at her with the scissors in her hand anymore. Next thing he knew Russell had the syringe in her neck and she was slurring a hiss at him. For a second he thought he saw fangs in her mouth. He rushed forward to catch her before she fell. The scissors stabbed into his forearm as she fell into his arms, but he didn't care, he moved her back to the bed. "Hurry, we don't know how long it'll last."
Russell ran back to the bed, grabbed the tweezers and dug into Rachel's muscle.
She didn't move, and he was able to pull a fragment of Liam's claw from her arm, a two-inch sliver.
The blood immediately stopped flowing. Russell let out his breath and grabbed the strongest bottle of serum he had. The color was so dark it was almost black. He opened the bottle and slathered it onto her arm and started to bandage it again.
Halfway through the bandaging Rachel gasped awake. Russell looked up at Liam and motioned for him to hold her down. Liam grasped her shoulders and kept his eyes to the ceiling. Russell rolled his eyes and finished up the bandaging.
"What's going on? Why are you holding me down?" Rachel spoke to Liam's neck since he wasn't looking at her. She could see his carotid pulsing fast and it made her nervous to have him so close to her.
Russell cleared his throat and spoke, "The pain from flushing the wound caused you to faint and you started dreaming again."
Rachel gasped and said, "Your cheek, it's bleeding." Russell removed his gloves and dabbed his cheekbone where Rachel hit him. He pulled his fingers away and saw that he was bleeding.
"Don't worry, I'll just put some serum on it and it'll heal up nicely." Russell grabbed the serum and dabbed it on his cheekbone. The cut stopped bleeding and closed.
"Wow why hasn't my arm done that?" Liam let go of Rachel and went to the kitchen. Rachel sat up and tried to keep her arm as still as possible.
"Rachel your arm had some debris in it that we didn't know was there at first. I was able to remove it and your arm stopped bleeding. It should heal now. Not as fast as mine did but you should heal up within the next 24 hours."
"How bad was my dream this time?" Rachel asked. She wasn't sure she wanted to know but she needed to know what happened.
"Well we didn't know you had fainted and when I found the debris Liam was overjoyed and let you go, next thing we know you have the scissors and you're standing on the table threatening Liam."
Rachel grabbed a pillow and buried her head in it, embarrassed at her actions. She lifted her head out of the pillow and asked "I can't believe I did that. Liam said you're one of his colleagues, do you have any idea why that keeps happening to me?"
"I can only speculate and unfortunately Liam and I are forbidden from revealing anything to you. Our boss would kill us, as would your Aunt."
"Being kept in the dark is extremely frustrating...uh, I didn't ask for your name and Liam didn't tell it to me."
"How rude of me, I'm Russell. Sorry I didn't introduce myself; I was worried about your arm and your massive blood loss. This reminds me, I should get you a glass of serum to drink."
"Do I really have to drink it Russell?" Rachel pouted, she was hoping she wouldn't have to, it tasted terrible.
"Sadly, you do, I'll add it to some orange juice. It cuts the bad taste and makes it taste a little more tolerable." Russell gathered up the bandages and the bowl of water and walked out of the bedroom. He called out from the hallway "Do try not to fall asleep Rachel!"
Russell walked to the kitchen and saw Liam standing over the sink looking broken. "Don't take it so hard on yourself brother."
"How can I not take it hard Russell? I've done this to her and now I can't stop the dreams. Nicolai possessed her. I've never heard of this happening in the texts."
"Nor have I. I'm not entirely sure that blood has been shared with humans the way it has with Rachel and Nicolai. Obviously, Nicolai didn't plan for her to stay alive or else he wouldn't be hunting her. Either he planned on turning her when she became of age or he planned on having her as a snack along with her parents. He already has them; he needs her now. Whether he plans on changing her or not he wants her and he's not going to stop looking."
"We could kill him." Liam turned away from the sink with conviction in his eyes.
"Do you have a death wish, other than the one you have now?" Russell said.
"No, I just want her to be free." Liam looked at Russell and imagined seeing Rachel before him, free from vampires and werewolves. Free to be a normal human.
"He's eons old. The Igosavich Clan is the oldest in existence. Older than us and that means stronger than us too."
"I know the legends; I also know that they can die. They are not full immortals just like we aren't. They age. It may take longer than us but they do age. How many vampires have we killed over the years? We can do this."
"And what if we can't brother? We will die and Rachel will be left without protection then they will come for her and succeed and Hector's sacrifice will be for naught."
Liam sighed and Russell knew that he had won. "We shall put this conversation from our minds and focus on taking care of Rachel. She needs to replenish her blood supply. Do you have any juice?"
Liam opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. Russell took it and poured the juice into a glass. "Do try to cheer up Liam. And get my scissors out of your arm."
Liam looked down; he'd forgotten they were there. He gripped them and pulled them out of his arm. He gasped a little not realizing how deep they were. He grabbed a bottle of serum out of the cabinet and poured it into the wound. His arm healed and he tossed the scissors into the bowl of water Russell brought into the kitchen.
"Do you have any food? Or does one of us need to go shopping?"
"I'll go; I'm not supposed to be around her anyway."
"She cares about you, you know."
"Don't be silly. You'll just get my hopes up for nothing."
"When I told her that she had tried to stab you she got really embarrassed."
"Well anyone would, you shouldn't stab a stranger. It's not polite."
"Stop acting all sullen and go get some proper food." Russell shooed Liam out of the cabin and went back to the bedroom.
Rachel looked around the bedroom and saw the mess she had made. She felt bad for trashing Liam's house, again. She knew that someday she would repay him for all of his kindness and hospitality; she just wasn't sure how she would do so, or if she'd be alive to get the chance.
The man in her dream frightened her. How did he know who she was? He'd said he knew her when she was young, did he know her from the orphanage? Was he a friend of her parents? She shook her head; she knew he wasn't. Those black eyes were evil; she knew that for sure. Maybe he was the one who killed them. But then why would she be dreaming about him? She was so confused. Her head and her arm hurt. She also wondered what a Lycanthrope was. Was it another supernatural creature she had to deal with, on top of the vampires and werewolves? She was beginning to have a hard time keeping up with all of the information.
Just then Russell walked into the bedroom with a glass of orange juice. He set it on the night table and grabbed a bottle of serum from his bag. The color was a beautiful shade of emerald and he poured what she would have guessed was a tablespoon of it into her drink. He swirled the glass a little to mix and handed it to Rachel.
Rachel took the glass in her left hand and sniffed it. She could smell only orange juice. It made her mouth water. She took a tentative sip and it tasted like orange juice with a slight aftertaste. It reminded her of a screwdriver. She loved drinking them on hot summer days.
Rachel took a bigger gulp and felt some of the pain in her head lessen.
She set the glass in her lap and looked over at Russell; he was packing up his bag and making sure not to look at her. Rachel looked over at the table where she seemed to go when she was dreaming and saw that there was blood all over it. It was dripping onto the floor like a gory crime scene. She moved to get up and Russell stopped her.
"Don't get up, please. What is it that you need?"
"I'd like to clean up the mess I made, if that's alright." Rachel pointed at the bloody table and moved to get up again.
"Oh gosh, I forgot about that. Don't worry about it; I'll clean it up real quick." Russell jumped up and ran into the kitchen and was back with a bucket and a sponge before Rachel could completely sit up.
"Please let me help, it is my blood after all."
"Exactly. It's your blood, and a lot of it. I'll clean it up; you need to make more so drink your juice."
"You sound like Liam." Rachel pouted and gently lifted the glass to her mouth and took another big gulp. She felt that drinking the serum this way was better than drinking it with water.
She wondered why Liam hadn't done it.
Russell came over to the bed and grabbed a pair of vinyl gloves and pulled them on.
"Who do you think he gets it from?" Rachel giggled and Russell smiled.
"I heard you call him brother, are you two related?"
"I suppose you could say we are. We've known each other a long time."
"Can I ask how long?"
Russell walked back to the bucket and dipped the sponge into the water. He wondered what he should tell her. The truth was Russell had first met Jonathan in 1984 when he joined the pack and he met Liam shortly after. Being just the three of them for so long they developed an even stronger bond than one already formed when in a pack. They were brothers in all senses of the word. Obviously, he couldn't tell her that story. Russell even mentioning 1984 would put up a red flag.
"About ten years now. We met each other in a bar." That seemed like the perfect answer.
"A bar, that's such a cliché" Rachel giggled again.
"Yep. Liam hung out there a lot with his friends and I helped him out of a sticky situation once and we've been friends ever since." Russell kept his eyes away from Rachel's face, maybe she would buy that and stop pushing.
"What is it about bars that makes guys all become friends?" Rachel asked rhetorically.
"I've wondered the same thing about girls and malls." Russell replied. He looked over at Rachel and she giggled again. He raised an eyebrow at her indicating that she should drink.
Rachel quickly lifted the glass to her lips and took another long drink from the glass. It was two thirds empty and Rachel was beginning to feel less lethargic and she could sit up in the bed.
"Don't overdo it. I don't want you to risk it." Russell said, Rachel nodded and took a small drink from the glass.
"Will you tell me about Liam?" Rachel blurted out without thinking. The question caught Russell off guard and the sponge slid out of his hand and landed with a loud 'splat!' back into the bucket. Rachel laughed at the fact that she made his jaw drop by saying something rather than by her looks.
She blushed and was about to say never mind when Russell recovered and said, "What do you want to know?"
"Why does he always have that pained look in his eyes?" Out of all the things Rachel could have asked that was what she was most curious about.
"You noticed that too?" Russell asked and Rachel nodded. "It's complicated."
"Well to me Liam is extremely complex."
"I think he is to everyone."
"Why though?" Rachel wondered in the back of her mind why she was so curious about him.
"He's battling some inner demons. Sometimes he has good days and sometimes you can't even look at him without wanting to buy him a drink and tell him to buck up."
"Do guys honestly not talk about their feelings?" Rachel asked and Russell laughed.
"We do. We just pretend we don't, we don't share our feelings with women because we don't want to show weakness. Men are all about our strength. Without it we are boys again."
Rachel nodded as if she understood but she realized that men are more complicated than women.
"Do you know any of Liam's demons?" Rachel dared to ask.
"I think you'll have to ask him about them." Russell said. Liam had so many demons, including his feelings for Rachel. But how could Russell say that to her? He couldn't. He knew his brother was in love with this girl, talking with her he could see the appeal and her laugh was very interesting.
Rachel knew Russell wouldn't say anything but she wanted to keep pressing him.
"Couldn't you tell me something?" Rachel said in her sweetest voice. She kept the voice on reserve for when she really wanted something.
Russell smiled. He knew what she was doing, so he decided to play along and give a tiny bit of information on Liam.
"Well..." he said and Rachel perked up. "One of the demons he's battling with his choosing between right and wrong. Our boss has given him specific instructions on a case we're working and Liam is having a hard time following the rules."
"Is this about him not being able to tell me anything?"
"He told you about that?"
"Yes. He said he's forbidden."
"That's true. He wants so badly to tell you everything but he knows that if he does he'll get fired and that could put you in danger. You see, we're not supposed to make contact with the clients because they tend to ask questions. Questions we're forbidden to answer and that puts us in an awkward position."
"If Liam gets fired will the vampires and werewolves find me?" Russell's jaw dropped along with the sponge again.
"Vampires and werewolves?"
"Liam told me I'm the most valuable being in the supernatural world and that a vampire killed my friends but I really think it was the werewolves. I mean it was daytime so vampires can't come out and I saw the wolves running down the beach and one scratched me."
Rachel looked down at her arm while Russell looked at the bucket. The water was dark red from her blood. It looked like wine. Liam put them in a very dangerous position by telling her that. How could he have been so stupid? Jonathan was going to kill Liam and then kill Russell.
Russell looked at the table, the blood was cleaned up but he could still see it there, dripping. Just then he heard the tumblers in the door. Picking up the bucket Russell turned and said, "If you'll excuse me a moment I think I hear Liam at the door with the groceries."
Russell quickly left the room and deposited the bucket into the kitchen before sprinting down the hallway to the front door.