How Not To Be A Werewolf (Editing)

The Magician In The Window

We agreed to meet with Victoria in the living room before dinner. Kian went to his room, apparently to replenish his blood levels. He might just take the opportunity for a nap while he had access to a bed. That's what I planned on doing, anyway.

My brain was far too hyped up to let me rest. I guess being made a fugitive and then hunted down for murder will do that, as well as seeing a vampire get staked until he turns into dust.

Damn my overactive imagination!

The bedroom was pretty comfortable, and thankfully not as garishly decorated as the rest of The Brown House. It wasn't luxurious like the rooms in the Church Of Dracul. That I was glad about. I wasn't sure that my newly heightened senses could take much more of their, or Victoria's, idea of style and fashion.

The room had been pretty sparsely decorated, the colour scheme a simple pastel blue with white furnishings. It contained a single bed and a low dresser that sat underneath a large window that almost took up the whole wall opposite the door.

I admit, as much as I was scared of Victoria and what she could do, having a window this far underground was pretty bloody cool.

The view showed a leafy forest scene. Although I didn't recognize it, I had a feeling it was showing me somewhere deep inside Moonstone forest. It made me feel somehow relaxed and on edge at the same time. Sitting down on the bed I continued to look at the magical scene, for want of anything better to do.

As I continued to watch the sunlight glistening through the trees I could swear figures were moving around in the shadows. I didn't know why it made me feel so nervous, it was just an image in a fake window. God knows how many miles we were underground.

I really had to get a fucking grip.

Keeping an eye on the shadows, I continued to watch the image of the forest. There was something there, I was sure of it, and I didn't want to just give up without finding out what was making me feel so scared of the image in the window.

For a moment there was nothing, and then I saw it.

Movement in the shadows behind one of the trees in the far left-hand corner. As I focused on the point the image of a man suddenly appeared from the darkness behind the shelter of a large oak tree. He was quite old, tall with a long white beard that matched his shaved white hair. He was dressed in long dark blue robes that hung in loose pools on the forest floor. A large purple ring hung from a golden chain around the man's scraggly neck and glistened in the fake sunlight.

I didn't need Kian's mind-reading tricks to be able to tell that this man was a magic-user. Like Victoria, he oozed with a sort of magical magnetism, but his magic seemed darker and more oppressive than anything I had felt from Victoria.

I had a hunch that the bad feelings I had picked up fron the window were due to the old man's presence. Realizing that he was busy looking on the ground around him I cleared my throat, unsure if he was going to be able to hear me or not.

"Uh, sorry, but what are you doing in the window?" I asked, making the man jump and swear loudly as he hit his head on a low branch.

"How is it that can you see me, boy?" the man asked. His voice was deep, youthful and powerful despite his appearance. "My invisibility spell can only be broken by the most powerful of magicians, and I sense that you are no magic user."

"No shit, Sherlock." I replied, trying hard to resist rolling my eyes at him. "I'm a werewolf, not a magician."

The man looked at me angrily and pulled out a thin piece of wood from inside his robes and pointed it at me.

Shit. He has a wand.

"A werewolf, eh?" he sneered, "My master has been looking all over for you, Alec Colby. He just missed you when you ran from the Church Of Dracul. If Jay had done his job properly you would have met him then."

"Sounds like he's gone to a lot of trouble to try and meet me, what does he want?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't going to regret asking him.

"He wants to offer you a deal."

At the magician's words, I felt a coldness make its way up my spine causing me to shiver reflexively. I didn't know who the fuck this guy's master was, or how the hell he knew my name, or how he was associated with the crazy vampire guard Jay, but I didn't like the sound of him at all.

I'm a wanted fugitive, what kind of deal could guy want to make with me?

In the back of my mind a voice came up with a possible answer; maybe he just wanted to help me clear my name?

Then again, I had never been that lucky, and, even if that was the offer, the scariest part was what might be wanted of me in return for this strangers help. 

What price am I willing to pay to get my life back on track?

"Look, I don't know who your master is." I told the magician after taking in his statement, "And, I'm sure as hell not going to make any deals with you. You're not even really in that window. It's just an image."

The magician smiled at me with an evil grin. I knew then that I had said the wrong thing. He was very real and I was in some really deep shit.

Damn my smart mouth!

I really had to learn to shut up and not antagonise people.

"The Master thought that you might object to meeting with him," the magician said, "So, he sent me to collect you. He does prefer to do his business deals face to face."

"What do you—"

I never got to finish my question as the magician waved his wand at me and I felt myself being slowly sucked out of the bedroom and into the window, a silent scream playing on my lips.