Denn's Mobile Circus - 7. Chapter 6: The Insidious Unnamed

The time getting to that evening was spent training. I found out that with the exception of being able to see in color at night, when a werewolf wasn’t Shifted, their senses fell back to their original level of operation. Strength, speed, and agility did as well. So lesson one was learning how to activate senses and enhancements.

My objective: read the ingredients off the back of a 2-liter Pepsi bottle…

Which was all the way across the yard.

In order to accomplish the lesson, I had to focus on the bottle and pretend like my eyes were zooming in on it. This would cause my enhanced sight to kick in.

…But it was also going to let the wolf out.

“You’ll have to show some restraint. Let it out a little, not all the way,” Aurey, my trainer for the task, instructed.

“How do I do that?” I didn’t see how it was possible. “I thought it was Shift all the way or not at all.”

“Well, now you know different.”

“But what if I can’t just let a little out?”

“Then you’ll learn. You ready?”

I looked back at the bottle and sighed.

“Yeah. Okay.”

I focused on the label and pretended my eyes were zooming in to see it more clearly. Surprised/Scared me when it actually started to happen a few seconds later. It also threw me off balance. Zooming in felt a lot like walking toward the plastic bottle. I went to catch myself from the faux sense of movement, tripped, and ate grass.

With that taste still fresh in my mouth, I made my second attempt. I was ready when the zoom-effect kicked in. I was not ready, however, for what kicked in five seconds into the task. Ripples of those sensations, trademarked by Shifting, whispered through my body. I could feel my mind as it began to expand at the same slow speed of the zoom. I could feel the rush as it teased me with a tiny sample of its power. I didn’t know it was going to feel like this. I thought it was just going to rush up at me all at once.

I tried to keep my focus on the task, but it was like sitting an alcoholic, after a hard day at work, in a room full of the finest liquor and telling them not to drink any of it. Yes, that alcoholic might last an hour. Maybe two. But all that time, the thought of how good it would feel to have the highest grade of liquor running through their veins would be eating away at their mind, until, eventually, there was no more mind left to eat. And as my sight suddenly zoomed in so fast and so close on the bottle that I could read: ‘…and the Pepsi Globe are registered trademarks of PepsiCo Inc’, I felt my eyes start to tingle. And I let that ‘liquor’ run through every single one of my veins.

That was me for the next twenty tries, before Aurey suggested we take a smoke break.

Each of those twenty tries, I went in saying that I wasn’t going to go all the way. Each time, I would up lying. Each time I lied, it was torture. It meant having to put the wolf back in. To feel my body weaken and my mind constrict, as it dumbed itself back down, was not at all pleasant.

“God, this shit is hard.” I shook my head, having just taken my first puff.

“Always is.” Aurey nodded.

“So, it’s always going to feel this way?”

“`Fraid so. Most you’re gonna do is get used to it.”

“Man…” I shook my head. “I’m starting to think I’m not gonna be able to do that. Because I’m really tryin’ and it is not working.”

“Well, first, you gotta stop givin’ in. I know it’s hard. But you gotta hold back, ‘n’ not go all the way. No matter how good it feels.”

“And I’m tryin’, but damn. Feels like I come to life when I let it out all the way.”

“As you should. But just imagine if you were the only werewolf in a group full of humans in trouble. ‘N’ the only way to save ‘em, is if you can read the disable code on the back of a bottle that’s all the way across the room.”

That proved to be a very good scenario to keep in mind when the second round of attempts started up. It brought me success when I was able to activate enhanced sight by the tenth try without losing control. Once that control was established, I was able to activate the rest of my senses like it was nothing.

The difficulty returned when we moved on to activating strength, speed, and agility. Because this affected my entire body and not just one piece of it, I had to let the wolf out a little bit more. That, I was able to get by the horns pretty easily. It was what happened while the abilities were in use that spanked my ass for a minute. It felt good to have that kind of strength, agility, and speed. It was really easy to get caught up in that feeling. When it happened, the wolf came out all the way.

Need for food put a temporary pause on things. Then, we were back out and on it again. Kyla, who’d long since come back from the store, joined Aurey as my co-trainer. She added a different flavor to things. Whenever I was about to step off the edge, she’d pull me back with a verbal warning, like – “All right, Micah, you’re gettin' a little too crazy. Crank it down a few notches.”

It helped me feel things out. Notice the moments when I was getting a little too caught up. By the end of the first session, I had it down. But that one session lasted longer than both halves of my first one combined.

Just as we were sitting down to have a smoke break, Denn, Brendi, Kev and Lavonna, stepped outside the main house and came over to where we were.

“How’s the training been going?” Denn asked.

“He’s already on the part where I usually help out for the first time,” Kyla answered.

“Past that, actually,” Aurey corrected.

All four of the leaders halted. Their eyes fell on me, hard.

“Oh, you have to show us this,” Brendi said.

So I did. Showed them the senses. Showed them the strength, speed, and agility. Even though I was paranoid at being put on the spot suddenly, I managed to give them a flawless show.

And all I got was hate for it.

Not hate-hate, though. Fun hate.

It normally took one to three days just to get down the senses, and another three to five days to get down strength, speed, and agility. To get all that down before a single day was out had them wishing they had my Trait. So I posed the question, “You would go through everything I’ve been through so far just to have this Trait?”

“Hell, it’s almost like we did,” Kev answered.

“How so?”

“After Aurey and Jo-C got kicked out of your Breakout,” Denn answered. “We didn’t know what the hell was going on. We didn’t know if we’d lost you or what. So we called everybody we knew for help.”

“I remember Jo-C saying something about that. He said my Trait was so rare ya’ll had to seek knowledge on it.”

“According to the only person who was able to help us, it’s the rarest of the rare Traits,” Aurey revealed. “Last time somebody had it was two hundred years ago.”

And, cue unicorn.

Fifty years I could’ve understood. A hundred would’ve been stretching it. But two hundred years? That was two full centuries.

“That has to be a typo.” I let my disbelief show.

“Oh, sweetie, that’s nothin’. The person who helped us, our Governess, she’s got the Gift form of your Trait. Until she came along, it’d been close to five hundred years since the last occurrence,” Brendi revealed.

“Holy shit!” That blew me even further away.

“Yeah.”

That was left to marinate on my brain as we moved on to the other reason the leaders came outside. The search for the Fat Woman had officially begun. Though we were once again technically off the grid, we would be provided with updates on progress. Lockdown for me and Jo-C’s would remain in force until further notice. Those things aside, we were to proceed as normal.

With the progress I’d made so far training-wise, me, Aurey, and Kyla wanted to see how far I could go in a day. Dusk was approaching, but we wanted to keep training, with the next lesson being fighting. Denn shot down the idea, though. While he was curious to see how far I could make it too, orders were to keep things as normal as possible for my Transition process. I’d already done more than enough for one day, so further training would have to wait until tomorrow.

Training over, me, Kyla and Aurey hit the showers. I could not get my mind off the day’s lessons all while I was bathing. The things I could do blew me away. I had to mess around with my senses a couple of times just to assure myself it was real. It got me to realize that while this step in my life had its bad points, it also had some very good ones.

Like what it had done to my body.

I caught sight of it in the mirror over the sink while I was drying off. The more I checked it out, the more I realized Aurey’s words were true. The tone and muscle I’d gained fit me like a glove. And I hadn’t noticed earlier, but the foreskin wasn’t the only change to my downtown department. I’d picked up a little more thickness in the penis and in the sack. It wasn’t enough to turn them into monsters, but that was fine with me. Too much dick was the same as not having enough in my opinion.

All dried off, and with clothes on, I left the bathroom and dropped off my laundry in the bedroom I’d slept in. Jo-C made an appearance and gave me the grand tour of the safe house. The room Denn and Brendi usually took was further down the hallway in the direction I hadn’t been yet. That hallway led into a pretty nice-sized den. Off the den and to the right was the kitchen.

With the tour concluded, we started back down the hallway toward the front door. I’d noticed that nobody else was around. The television in the den had been off and it didn’t sound like anything was going on in Denn and Brendi’s room. I was getting ready to ask Jo-C about it as we stepped outside. Got my answer without having to ask. Everyone was outside. They stood as a group with Denn and Brendi at the front. Brendi was holding a cake with a candle on it in the design of a zero.

“What’s this?” I asked, guard caught off.

“We were serious when we said today was your birthday,” Aurey answered.

“You are now officially zero in werewolf years,” Brendi added.

They then all proceeded to sing happy birthday to me, completely off key. It made me laugh. When they were done, I blew out the candle, and my unexpected birthday party began.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *

I’d expected food preparation on that to start after I blew out my candle. When it was instead brought out and set on the two tables that’d been setup in the backyard, I asked, “When did this get cooked?”

“While you were out here training,” Koko answered.

“Ah.”

With that obstacle out of the way, all everybody had to do was line up and get what they wanted. I didn’t eat nearly as heavily as I did at breakfast, but still ate pretty hearty. Once everybody was fat and full, the table was cleared off and the liquor came out. There was a pretty healthy selection, but all of them were names I’d never seen before.

“Ya’ll get this liquor at the swap meet too?” I joked at Kev.

“We got this at the store.” Kev laughed. “This is werewolf-made liquor. That’s why you don’t recognize the names.”

“First our own cigarettes, now our own liquor.”

“Human grade liquor don’t cut it against our metabolism. It’d take you about three or four bottles of their strongest stuff, straight, just to feel a buzz.”

“Damn. We got it like that?”

Kev nodded and smiled.

“We got it like that.”

“So…should I even drink any of this? I mean, will it spank my ass if I do?”

“I’d say start out light, then gage it from there.”

“All right. But you bet not be lyin’. If I take a sip and pass out for three hours, I’m comin’ to find your ass when I get up.”

Kev gave me a look and chuckled.

“Nigga, you still the same. Always so damn paranoid. Just do what the hell I said and enjoy your damn party.”

“Oh, I’m gon’ enjoy my damn party, but you heard what I said.”

“You know what? Let me make your ass somethin’ so you can use it to hush your mouth.”

What he made me turned out to be pretty good. It tasted like a cherry sour candy, but it had the kick of a liquor I’d sipped on before called Fireball. With that in hand, I waited for Kev to make his drink before I followed him over to where a dominoes game had started up at the table next to the one surrounded in liquor. Aurey and Jo-C were seated on one side of the table. Imani and Koko were on the other.

“What’s goin’ on over here?” Kev asked.

“A big mistake that I chose to go along with,” Jo-C remarked.

“Boys versus girls. Pack versus Pack,” Imani gave a clearer answer.

“Who’s gettin' they ass spanked?” Kev asked.

“Them…so far,” Jo-C answered.

“Oh, okay. Let’s see how this turns out.”

Both of us took seats to watch events unfold. We watched as the two teams played through three games: Aurey and Jo-C cleaned up on the first one; Imani and Koko seemed to decide that such action was strictly prohibited, and completely roflstomped my Packmates for a win on the second game. When they did that again on the third game for the victory, Jo-C set his dominoes down on the table.

“You know what? I’m done. I’m leaving this table right now, and I’m going inside where people are not cheating.” He directed the comment to Imani, then turned to Aurey, “That’s why I told you it was a bad idea playin’ dominoes against her.”

Imani chuckled.

“Okay. How am I cheating, Joseph-Carter?” she inquired.

He pulled back.

“Oh, please don’t act like you don’t know.”

Imani gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

“Yes, I knew me and Koko were going to win this game. But only after we lost the first game and won the second one,” she said.

“So why even play? Why even let us think we had a chance?”

Imani fixed Jo-C with a look.

“Didn’t I just explain to you how the information came in? When Koko and me sat down to play, I knew we were going to lose. Lose. If I wanted to cheat, I never would’ve sat down to play in the first place.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’ve got an unfair advantage.” Jo-C did not relent.

Imani paused, then chuckled.

“Boy, whatever.” She waved his comment off and began to gather the dominoes.

“So, thank you for playing. Have a nice day,” Koko added.

“Uh…Beyonce, didn’t nobody say yo’ name. Please hush yo’ mouth,” Jo-C remarked, standing to go.

Imani chuckled again.

“Oh, look at him. Done had a few sips and his black-cent dropped,” she said.

Jo-C paused, then turned to face Imani.

“That’s right, woman, cuz I’m a thug. And this thug don’t need your authority to authorize what he do and don’t do. So Imma go in this house and you ain’t gon’ say shit but ‘see ya later!’”

“See ya later.” Imani waved.

“Ya goddamn right!”

And Jo-C took his leave of us and went into the main house through the back door. As soon as the door was shut, all of us busted up laughing.

“That boy such a fool!” Imani shook her head.

“He does keep us amused,” Aurey said.

“You guys want in for a regular game?” Koko invited me and Kev.

“Yes, ma’am.” Kev accepted.

“Sure, why not.” I accepted too.

We stayed for three games, and one more drink. I let Kev make it for me once again and stuck with the same mix as the first one. Figured it was lightweight and wouldn’t mess up my groove. Didn’t know that in reality it was just as strong as the darkest liquor in creation. It just didn’t slap across the face; it crept up. And by the middle of that second drink, I started to feel it. I tried to keep it secret and set my pace to a single sip every ten minutes. But at some specific point, or maybe over the course, I got a little too jovial, and Kev said,

“Startin’ to feel that liquid courage over there, ain’t you?”

“I am starting to feel a tingle,” I admitted.

“Look at the birthday boy over there gettin' tipsaaay!” Kyla teased me from her spot not too far away where Denn, Brendi, Andrea, and her were playing a card game.

“Yes, indeed. Over here sippin’ on this werewolf liquor.”

“Good shit, huh?” Denn said.

“And so smooth. You don’t even feel it ‘til it’s on you.”

“Our kind does know how to make some good drank.”

Oh yes they did. Which was why I still took it easy on the drink for the rest of the game. By the time it was done, I had a nice little buzz going on.

At the finish of the third game, Aurey announced he was done and was going inside to get his gamer fix.

“What system ya’ll got?” I asked.

“All of ‘em,” Aurey answered.

I took that to mean all the current generation systems. After following Aurey inside and seeing a black box that sat on the ground, like a fat computer tower where the game system should’ve been, I was informed that he had meant every system. It was something Takuro and his likedminded friends in our W.I.L.D division dreamt up. If a game playing system existed, it was on this thing. From the Magnavox Odyssey, to PC, to the systems that were currently out, the ‘Black Box’, as I was told it was called, could do it all.

What I’d seen it doing from the moment we walked in through the end of its introduction was playing something that looked a lot like a game called Street Fighter. It was first in my top three of favorite fighting games ever. I owned the latest in its series. While the game looked like that one, the things and characters I saw on screen were new.

“Which Street Fighter is this?” I asked.

“Four, but on crack,” Jo-C answered.

“What do you mean?”

“You play Street Fighter?”

“Since the second one.”

“Ah. You’re an old school player,” Takuro spoke up.

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, this one has every character that has ever been in the game, the Ism select from Alpha 3, a choice to decide if you want the parry system from Street Fighter 3, or the focus system from Street Fighter 4, and some other little things. You’ll notice them when you play.”

The entire time he talked to me, he and Taj were involved in a match. I was listening to him, but I was also taking glances at the game on screen. At no time did Takuro get distracted. He was able to play just fine while conversing with me.

It took my mind back to the kitchen when I’d first met him. I recalled how he never turned to face me while we talked, even though it was obvious he was completely paying attention to me. But he was also paying attention to his computer. And he was also paying attention to cooking. It made me curious as to how he could do it.

School had taught me that the brain did not multitask like a computer; it reprioritized. The reprioritization takes place so fast, though, it feels like the brain is multitasking. To me, that didn’t seem to be the case with Takuro. If I would’ve known him better, I would’ve asked him what his Trait was. I had a feeling that had something to do with it.

I had a seat and waited until it was my turn to play. When that time came, I was ready to have at it. Watching the game in action was awesome. All the new options took playing it to another level. I picked one of my favorite characters to start. A warrior named Akuma. I was squaring off against Taj, and his so-far undefeated fighter, Yun.

A good Yun player was a pain in the ass. A great Yun player was a major pain in the ass. I held my own, though. The game was different, but it wasn’t that different from the one I owned. Got smashed the first round, returned and backhanded Yun across the room the second round, got a little too bold on the third round and lost.

“Looks like I’ll have to watch out for you. You nearly killed my win streak,” Taj said after his victory.

“Would’ve had you if I didn’t get cocky,” I admitted.

“I know. That’s why I’ll be watchin’ out for you.”

And yes, he did.

Lost to him four more times before I had to take a break, go outside, and have a smoke.

“My brother still in there killin’ everybody?” Imani, who was sitting at the same table we’d played dominoes at earlier, asked.

“Yes.” I nodded, walking to where she, Kyla, Lavonna, Denn, and Brendi were seated. “I almost had him, but I got too bold and messed it up.”

“Damn. I wish you would’ve beat him. I really wanna play, but I am not playing against him,” Kyla jeered.

“So, he does this to all of you too?”

“Until one of us gets lucky enough to beat him, or we leave his ass playin’ by hisself,” Kev remarked.

“The latter being the one we do most of the time,” Lavonna added.

A thought came to mind.

“Is he using his Gift against us? Is that why he’s so good?” I asked.

“I’m sorry to say it’s natural talent. When it comes to Yun, he’s one of the best players in the world. He won all sorts of Street Fighter 3 competitions,” Imani answered.

“Well, I guess I won’t be tryin’ to fight him no more tonight.”

At least that’s what I thought.

All the time I was outside getting introduced to a new drink, and playing dominoes, the need to challenge Taj grew. Knowing that he was good at the game simply because he was good at it with a specific character left room for hope. Pros weren’t perfect. Even they could fall to a veteran player. So it was with restored fighting spirit, and good luck wishes from those outside, that I went back into the house to try again.

As I waited for my turn, I worked through the knowledge of what years of playing the series had armed me with. It landed me on a handful of characters, whom I considered to be perfect counters to Yun, before I made the final decision of who to go with: Yun’s twin brother, Yang. The two fought in the same style, and shared some moves, but not all moves. The ones they didn’t share were very good counters against the other’s moves. So, while my best option was also my worst, it would make my strategy a lot less obvious than if I’d gone with any of the other choices.

When my turn to challenge came, I prayed Taj had no idea what I was up to. As I picked up the controller and sat down next to him, he pointed at me with his index finger.

“I’m watchin’ you,” he said, grinning slyly.

“Like the police, baby,” I responded, not about to let his pre-game shit-talk throw me off.

He chuckled and turned his attention back to the game. I did the same, without the chuckle.

Round 1: Didn’t get my ass completely whooped, but I saw where I was messing up.

Round 2: Tightened up my game and got the win. The grin on Taj’s face after my victory made me wonder if he had allowed it.

Round 3: Both of us were low on health, but Taj had the advantage by just a little. With the hope that I wasn’t being too cocky again, I lured him in and faked him out. The fake out left him open to be finished. I took it and won.

Aurey, Jo-C, and Takuro started cheering the moment the letters “KO” popped up on the television screen in my favor. Taj dropped his head and let the controller fall out of his hands and onto the floor.

Jo-C tore out of the front room, into the dining room, hit the kitchen, and opened the back door.

“Street Fighter is on! Micah beat Taj!” he broadcast to all in the backyard.

When I heard cheers from there, I chuckled.

Taj lifted his head and looked over at me.

“Just so you know, I knew I was going to lose the second you sat down. But I had to see how you’d manage to pull it off. And all I gotta say is…”

He patted me on the back twice.

“That was a ballsy move, man. Well done.”

He was right. Had he not been faked out by my move, it would’ve left me open for defeat.

“Thanks.” I accepted. “I do like to prove I can play every now and then.”

“Me and you are gonna have to have a rematch with those characters another day.”

“Why not tonight?”

“Because we have a house rule. If Taj loses with Yun, he can’t play him for a week,” Takuro answered.

“Oh shit, man.” I held my hands up and apologized. “I didn’t mean to mess you up like that.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s good you didn’t know. You might’ve taken it easy on me. And we can’t have that.”

I never did find out how long it’d been since he’d lost, but I do know that his loss brought the rest of the party into the house, and more challengers to the game.

I wasn’t sure if the ladies would be any good, but I quickly found out that them women could play the hell out some Street Fighter. I lost to all of them more than once.

Without Taj working domination, the player skill level was pretty balanced. No one person would reign for too long before they got usurped. Some of that could’ve been attributed to the fact that we started playing drunken Street Fighter. If a person won a set of matches, they had to take a shot. And it wasn’t just any shot. It was a shot of liquor that had the force behind it. Business so strong I threw more than a couple of set match wins in order to avoid taking the shot.

Time between matches was spent watching as others fought, playing cards, dominoes, or just chillin’. I was in the middle of a game of spades with Kev and Denn when Dancin’ Machine by The Jackson 5 came on. Jo-C happened to lose his last match, and was on his way over toward us, right as the song hit the part where Michael Jackson does the robot dance. From out of nowhere, he broke into an almost exact copy of the routine.

“Oh, shit, boy! That was pretty good.” I complemented him. “Who taught you dancin’?”

“Me, myself, and I,” he answered.

“Oh, okay. So, do you just know that one routine, or can you actually dance?”

“He tries,” Koko said, as she walked up next to Jo-C. “But then I come along and smoke him.”

Jo-C looked over at Koko with contradiction.

“Not even in your dreams, sweetheart.”

“Is that a challenge?” Koko inquired.

Jo-C answered by kissing the air in her general direction.

“Okay. Let’s do this,” Koko accepted.

I had never seen a person of the ‘ese’ decent dance before, so I was ready to see what Koko could do.

And what she could do with it was like cooking with gas was brand new again.

She had a cool style that could be smooth and elegant, aggressive and tight, or a perfect mixture of the two.

Jo-C was nothing to disregard either. Kid knew how to flow to a beat with an uncanny-like precision. It made me wonder if he’d dissected and studied both the songs him and Koko battled to.

Their performance eventually gained everyone else’s attention. After that second song went off, Kyla joined the dance-off. Then Taj and Imani joined on the next song. And more after that song until eventually, we were all up and going. Some of us had moves. Some of us did not have any rhythm whatsoever. Those performances were the ones that were the best to me. The moves those performing came up with were hilarious.

My bladder interrupted the show and sent me to the restroom to attend to it. Once that was taken care of, I washed my hands and got ready to head back out to the dance party. Kev happened to be walking by the bathroom door as I opened it to walk out.

“There you are. Come here. I got somethin’ to show you,” he said.

I followed.

We went down the hallway, which ended in a split that went left and right. We went right and through the only door located at the end.

“Who’s room is this?” I asked as I looked around.

“Mine and Lavonna’s,” Kev answered, walking over to the large dresser on the right.

There were a few pictures in frames sitting on top of the dresser. Kev took one of them and brought it over.

“Take a look at this.” He handed me the picture.

I took it and looked.

It was a picture from way back. I could tell by the way the four people were dressed and the way they had their hair styled. I guessed the 70s. They stood next to each other in a male, female; male, female pattern. The two females I recognized instantly.

“These are our mothers,” I pointed out.

“And…” Kev said expectantly.

It dawned on me who the two males in the picture were. My eyes immediately focused on the man standing next to my mother.

“…Our fathers,” I answered.

“This is the only picture all four of ‘em ever took together,” Kev revealed.

“This is the only picture I’ve ever seen of him. I always wondered what he looked like.”

“Figured it would be. And, now you know.”

I could see why my mother would’ve been physically attracted to my father. He was a good-looking man. I hadn’t expected him to be tall, but both he and Kev’s father were. It was easy to see they were brothers. They favored each other in the face and body builds.

Our fathers held our mothers in an embrace: arms around their waists, hands resting on their bellies. All of them were smiling brightly.

A beast of a realization hit me suddenly.

“I can meet my father now.”

“Uh…about that.” Kev’s voice took on a serious tone, before he shook his head. “I can’t fuck up your party like this, cousin. We’ll talk about all that tomorrow, all right?”

Wrong.

“Why? What happened?” I inquired.

Kev was silent for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak, halted, then said,

“Our father’s Packs were working a case together. It was some real twisted shit; you don’t even want me to get into the details. They were checking out a location thought to be involved when they got ambushed. There were multiple assailants. They managed to take out both Packs.”

I felt like I’d been bull-kicked in the stomach.

“…He’s dead…” The words came out as a whisper.

Kev put his hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

He was right.

This had indeed fucked up my party.

I didn’t know how it was possible to feel the loss of someone I never even knew, but I felt it.

“Did they catch the fuckers who did it?”

“No.” Kev shook his head. “Aside from the bodies, the assailants left behind no evidence that they were even there. No fingerprints. No blood. Not even a whiff of scent to follow. It was like they got ambushed by ghosts.”

Kev’s words set off a few bells.

“Aurey said something about a case like that earlier. He said it was being compared to…”

The biggest bell of them all went off.

“They got ambushed by a group of whatever the Fat Woman is.”

“That’s the working theory.” Kev shook his head and took his hand off my shoulder.

My eyes went back to the picture. It hurt to know it was the closest I was ever going to come to seeing my father.

“That fat bitch better feel lucky I didn’t know this when we fought.” I shook my head. “It would’ve gone a hundred percent different.”

“No doubt.” Kev held up his hand for a low-five.

I set the picture on the bed and responded with my own hand. It slapped together with Kev’s, then slid into a handshake. The handshake held. Then, Kev pulled me in for a hug. I reciprocated.

“Sorry about your father too, man,” I told him.

“So am I.”

Our hug ended. Our hands let go.

“But, revenge is just around the corner,” Kev said, picking up the picture off the bed and returning it to the dresser. “Come on. I got somethin’ else to show you.”

“I don’t know if I want to see anything else you got to show me tonight,” I half joked, half meant it.

“Don’t worry. I ain’t got no more bombshells like that to drop on you.”

“I hope to shout.”

Kev led the way out of his bedroom and back down the hall. He stopped at the point where we could’ve turned left to go back into the front room, or kept straight ahead, where it looked like three more rooms were located. Facing the wall, he lifted his right hand and pressed it against the center. There was a noise that sounded like a low, electronic chirp, and I watched as the wall slid open to become another doorway.

“Oh, shit. Are you about to take me down to the Batcave or somethin’?”

“Somethin’ like that.” Kev chuckled. “C’mon.”

He entered through the doorway and I followed. It led to a set of stairs that went down. My wonder about what was down there grew with each step we took, until we reached the bottom. What I saw once we did told me that I hadn’t been that far off with the Batcave comment. Our trip had taken us into what looked like a small dispatch center running almost the entire length of the house above.

“What is this?” I inquired.

“Watchdawgz HQ. One of six substations that helps the main HQ protect and serve this fine city.”

“What’s that room in the center?” I pointed at the square-shaped enclosure that appeared to be made out of glass.

“C’mon. I’ll show you.”

We walked around the space to the opposite side. Kev slid open the door that led into the room. A large workstation, equipped with multiple monitors, ran the entire length of the opposite wall.

“This is what we call The Watchtower. It’s our eyes and ears around town and where we dispatch from,” Kev said.

“Wow.” I continued to survey the room. “That’s a lot of screens to watch.”

“It is a busy job. That’s why two people usually do it at the same time.”

Hadn’t noticed it before, but there were two chairs seated at the workstation.

“Why is it in here, and separated from everything else?”

“The glass is soundproof, so whoever’s working in here doesn’t have to hear the noise from the server bay, or any other noise everyone else is keepin’ up.”

“Oh.” I nodded.

Kev showed me the rest of the HQ. Four smaller workstations sitting on desks surrounded The Watchtower. They were where report work, research, and things of that nature were handled. All the way at the back of the room was the server bay, where the computer racks were housed. To the extreme left was the weapons cage, where all weapons and ammunition were kept. To the extreme right was the armor cage, where all the body armor was kept.

“W.I.L.D uses weapons and body armor too?” I was a little surprised by that.

“Oh yeah. You never know if you might be dealing with a werewolf, or a group of werewolves who are jumped up on some shit, or if you’ll be working side by side with a human branch of law enforcement.”

“Oh.” I nodded again. “Yeah, that is true. We’d definitely stick out to humans if we were walkin’ around with no armor or weapons.”

“Like a black dot on a white piece of paper,” Kev agreed. “But yeah, this is HQ.”

“I’ve got to admit it’s pretty tight. But damn, ya’ll live and work here? When do you ever have time to get out?”

“All the Watchdawgz work here, but only me and Lavonna live upstairs. Everyone else has their own place in the neighborhood. They only spend the night when we have a situation where we need all hands on deck.”

“Oh, okay. I was thinkin’ all Packs lived with each other.”

“Nope. Only mobile units, like your Pack, do.”

“Probably because we’re always on the road, I’d assume?”

“You assume right.” Kev nodded. “But, I just wanted to show you this so you’d have physical proof that W.I.L.D is real and on this shit.”

“Not that I doubted it,” I said, taking another look around at everything. “But this does reaffirm.”

“We’re gonna get to the bottom of this real soon.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Kev clapped me on the back a couple of times.

“All right. We better get back upstairs before we’re missed.”

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *