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Red Moon: Revolution: Chapter 28

There was blood. In a fight of tooth and nail, there was always blood and lots of it. It soaked into the carpet, down to the foundations where it would never leave and would be smelled for years upon years to come as a reminder to all werewolves that came later, the price that had been paid that day.

The walls were covered as well, the parts that had not been destroyed by claws or the mass of snarling muscle that had been forced through it. The hall way had been torn asunder.

The fight was quick and bloody. There was no careful calculation or planning involved. It was over almost as soon as it had started with the female, the mate of Ridel, who had gone missing, had attacked in rage and forced her two other companions to join.

It was over now and one side had won.

He got up slowly, tired, weary, but still determined to finish the job. A body lay on the floor, its fur matted and the skin torn from tears and bites. It was motionless, dead, it had failed its mission, one that involved the beings down stairs.

He lifted his nose to the air, he could smell them. It was faint, but he could, the small amount of air that came up through the vents. It was time to finish the job.

He stepped over the body, not looking at it’s dead open eyes that stared up. It had not seen him in the final, distracted and unable to react when he closed his jaws around that jugular and bit down, tearing it out and letting his life blood pour onto the ground. He gurgled, eyes bulging as he fell down onto weak fore arms and the slumped over where his breathing ended only some moments ago.

The stairs were tough to get down, he had a cut along his inner thigh, dangerously close to his pride. It hurt, but it was not fatal and with a werewolf’s healing abilities, he would be good in a few days.

Each step left a bloody paw print behind him, a trail down into the depths of the building where he followed his nose and instincts until he got to the door that held his goal behind it.

Arden took the time to shift back into his human form. With the blood of his dead friend on him masking his own scent, Sergei would have mistaken him for Vasili. He felt tired when he was finally on his own two legs, naked, but so dirty. He felt a mix of feelings inside of him. He had to kill Vasili, or he would have killed him, Sergei, his wife, anyone who would get in the way. The kill had been in the spur of the moment, there was no thinking involved. He had seen the others distract Vasili, bitting at the much larger wolf’s sides. It was a primal, almost… Feral reaction, going in for the kill. He supposed that all of them were a little feral on the inside, Vasili was just unfortunate to be too feral for his own good.

Arden knocked on the door. Two weak and slow thuds on the wooden door that would have done nothing to stop Vasili if he had killed him and the other two who were waiting for the arrival of the Alpha and whoever he brought with him. They would assess the damage on move on from there. He would let them do that, for now he just needed to let Sergei know that he and his treacherous wife were safe.

There was the silence of hesitation from the other side. Was this a trick, had Vasili gotten through and had managed to think of a way to trick them. No, Vasili would have barged through the door and killed anything on the other side in an instant. It was just lonesome Arden, bearer of news, good for some, ill to others, depending on how it was looked at.

He had lost his closest friend, a brother really. They had been together, back to back, through thick and thin for ages. Some whispered about their doings behind closed doors, but there was nothing of the sort. They loved each other as brothers would and it tore Arden to know that it was he that had delivered the killing blow to his brother. He would live with it forever, and all for what? To rescue some woman who didn’t even deserve their protection because she was pregnant? Did she deserve it?

The Alpha had deemed it so and that was how Vasili and Arden differed. Vasili was head strong with an opinion set in stone. Once he believed something as fact, whether it was or not, he rarely changed his mind. Arden on the other hand was one to follow orders, the rules, not to question ‘why.’

Why did it have to happen like this? Why did Vasili have to give in to his rage? He had kept it in check before, coming so close to losing it and then coming back from the edge. Why couldn’t he just let things so? It would have been so much easier for everyone. But, alas, that was not how it went, Vasili was dead.

The door jerked slightly as the knob was twisted from the other side. A face appeared through the small crack between the door and the frame before the door was opened the rest of the way.

“Arden.” Sergei said as he used the door as support to keep himself from falling over. He would have stood no chance against Vasili. If others hadn’t come to his aid, he would be dead now. Him instead of Vasili.

“It’s over.” Arden said, burying any emotion he had behind his blood stained teeth. “The alpha is going to be here soon. Stay here for now.”

“Vasili?” Sergei asked.

“Dead.” Arden said. The words hit Arden hard. Simply hearing it was what made the truth sunk in. “I- I killed him.” He didn’t know he had to confess in front of Sergei. He didn’t know him as well as Vasili did, the two hated each other and Arden did his best to stay out of that neck of the woods, but now he just had to get it out. “I saw the opening. I didn’t have to take it, but…”

“Arden.” Sergei tried to calm down this smaller naked man that now had tears streaming down his face, leaving small trails where the tears had washed away the blood. He didn’t know how to handle it, he was never good with the really emotional stuff. He had enough trouble dealing with his own emotional ordeals, how was he supposed to deal with this.

“Arden, is that your name?” Sergei turned around. Arden was still mumbling guiltily. Erika had gotten up and was walking towards the two.

Arden wiped a smear across his face and looked at this woman who he had killed to protect. “Yeah.” He answered. “What’s it to you?” He didn’t like that this outsider had seen him like that, it was embarrassing and emasculating.

Erika looked to Sergei quickly to see if he was going to stop her from getting closer, but he didn’t move to stop her, so she did get closer and when he was within reach, she pulled in the bloody man with no regard to hygiene and gave him a hug. “I know it hurts, but don’t blame yourself.”

Arden didn’t pull away, he let himself be hugged. It was what he needed, someone to just take some of the pain away so that he wouldn’t keep pushing it onto himself.

“I saw how you looked at Vasili when you two got me from the police station, you look up to him like a brother.” She held him lightly, not a tight hug. “I know, I looked up to my brother when I was younger. I know how it feels to lose that person.”

“I- I did it.”

“That wasn’t him.” She shushed.

Sergei watched in astonishment as Erika kept comforting this full grown werewolf and it wasn’t long before she got him going back upstairs to find some clothes.

“How did you do that?” Sergei asked and wiped a smear of blood from Erika’s cheek. I was expecting to have to deal with him until someone came down from above.

“That was nothing.” Erika said with a light smile, though it did hold some empathy for Arden. “You were a lot worse when you were in that hospital. Took me a month before I got you out of bed to even start physical therapy. I thought my monthly mood swings were bad, you were horrible.”

“I was not.”

“Whatever you say.” Erika sighed and looked down the hall where bloody paw and foot prints led back upstairs where she could only imagine was a scene of carnage where Vasili had met his end. “I hope he learns to move on or he;s going to have a hard time doing anything with the weight that’s on his shoulders.”

“He’s a werewolf. If he doesn’t now, he has a long time to learn how to cope with his demons.” Sergei said this partly because he himself hadn’t truly left all of his demons in the past. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“I don’t, but sometimes you have to say the right things, even if they are a lie.” She looked down at the blood on her hands. “What happens now that he dead? They aren’t just going to let me go.”

Sergei shrugged. “I don’t know. They won’t kill you now that all of this has happened, it would mean everything that happened would have happened for nothing. My guess is that they’ll put you somewhere you can be watched. I wouldn’t be surprised of they just put you back in our apartment. It’s close and easy to keep tabs on.”

“And when the baby is born.” She put her hand on her stomach.

“I don’t know.” Sergei didn’t know and that scared him, but that was a long time from now. “We’ll worry about that when it comes. You stay here, it’s safe now. I’m going upstairs to see what’s going on.”

Sergei retrieved his crutches that were leaning on the wall in the back corner of the room. He kissed Erika on the forehead before leaving her behind.

If the smell of Vasili was strong when Arden had stopped by, it was almost unbearable by the time he got to the top of the stair well.

There was a bustle of activity of people, a mix of Brennan’s people and pack members were already cleaning up the mess. This had to be hidden from the public. A massive wolf had just bolted though half of the city and disappeared around the building, there could be no evidence left that would lead to an investigation by outside authorities.

Vasili’s body was already gone, whisked away to some unknown location before he would be brought back to Russia for burial. Even though he went down as a feral beast, that was not him, he had been an integral member of the pack, often seen as the Alpha’s strong arm, he deserved a proper send off.

There was no saving the carpet, people wearing thick rubber cloves and masks were hard at work pulling the carpet up and tearing down what remained of the walls. Nothing could be left behind.

Sergei shuffled past them towards the front of the building where a group of individuals were discussing things.

“We’ll have everything burned by tomorrow. There will be nothing left for the public to discover.” One of Brennan’s men with a clipboard was speaking to Director Brennan and the Alpha.

“Make sure you don’t rush either and reduce exposure to the blood.” The Alpha warned. “We can’t afford any incidents.”

“The city will be breathing down my neck after this and my contacts can’t keep everything off of us.” Brennan was in a loose fitting t-shirt and pants with an elastic waistband. She had come right her from home with no time to get out of her pajamas. It was so ironic, she finally got a day off and this happens. She was destined to work forever.

“We’re being safe and if the city sends an inspector, they won’t find anything.”

“Very well, see to it.” Brennan dismissed the man just as Sergei came up to them.

“Sergei, how is Erika?” The Alpha asked. He was in a more business casual attire, button shirt and jeans.

“She’s fine.” Sergei answered. “Though, that’s what I want to talk to you about.”

“In time.” The Alpha promised. “For now, I can assure you that I won’t let her come to harm. For now though, there are other matters to attend to. Ridel was found badly wounded in an alley way by some random person and was taken to a hospital. His mate is going to kill someone if I don’t find out which one.”

“I can do that with a phone call.” Brennan said and pulled out her cell. She dialed and walked away with the small rectangular device held up to her ear.

“This is a mess, Sergei.” The Alpha said. “A mess that I allowed to happen. I didn’t have the guts to do what was necessary. I let this happen before someone else fix my problem and it just had to be Arden. He’s a mess, taking it better than I thought, but a mess.” The Alpha led them, slowly for Sergei’s sake, to an empty office.

“Some have been questioning my ability to lead as of late.”

“You’ve been doing a great job.” Sergei countered. He didn’t know much about werewolf politics, but he did have a higher opinion of the Alpha who had always seemed reasonable.

“Others don’t agree, ever since I allied us with Brennan, there had been talk.” He shrugged. “There will always be talk, but this has been persistent and it will only get louder now that this has happened and I can no longer hide my failing health.” He looked at Sergei who had a stone face. “Don’t look so shocked, I’m old.” As if on cue, he shook and a few dry coughs shook him.

“So what are you going to do?” Sergei asked.

“I’m going to see this to the end, this Inquisition business. Rommel has contacted me and told me that another Director has come forward with information regarding the Coordinator and is willing to work with us. The end is near, after so long, it is near and I’ll see to it that the end comes swift for the Coordinator, but after…”

“You’re going to hand off the torch.” Sergei understood why he was being told this. He was a witness to the Alpha’s plan so that if something happened unexpectedly, he would be able to push forward any plans that needed to be done. He guessed that Vasili had been a witness and now that he was dead, the Alpha needed someone to replace Vasili in that regard.

“I am, to Dmitri, but that raises another problem.”

“Trevor, his mate. They can’t have a pup.”

The Alpha nodded. “Dmitri will face opposition from deep within the pack for this and that needs to be addressed. You are one of the few that Dmitri will listen to, when the time comes, I will need you to speak with him. I don’t know if it will be necessary, he is hard headed and may not like what I am going to ask of him, but if I need you, will you help.”

Sergei frowned. “What are you asking of him?”

“To gain more support, he will need a pup of his blood. I’m going to ask him to be unfaithful for one night.”