The Things We Fear

He grabbed the stone from his car before returning. If he’d gone back without it Cassius would likely have caused a scene or been more passively aggressive than normal. As much as he’d wanted to know what had happened, doing as the man had asked would make Marcus’ life slightly easier.

He wanted his bed. His bed and food. It had been a long few days worrying about Theo, he could eat a horse, or maybe the entirety of the McDonald’s menu, whichever. He needed to eat and then pass out. Hopefully, for the next week. Maybe when he woke, this would have all been a bad dream. Or nightmare.

He almost missed the cold void. At least in there, he hadn’t had to worry about dealing with dead bodies and his father. The undulating of the shadows caught his attention as he bent over the seat to reach the bag. They didn’t really try and touch him. He’d known they could, but it had always been a barrier they had each respected. As they brushed against him, stretching toward the bag, Marcus had a sinking feeling. They liked the stone.

Placing the gem in his hand, he stared at the innocuous-looking thing sitting in the middle of his palm. It was still pretty. As a decorative rock, he could appreciate. Imagine it would sit well on a bookshelf or on a window, adding a pop of colour to the room. He couldn’t begin to understand why Cassius thought the thing might be capable of protecting him. The shadows were dancing around it, drawn to it, but they weren’t afraid of it. He doubted the creature from earlier would have been affected in any way, but he’d humour the man, if only because Cassius had influence over the vampires and he did not want the man to make Theo’s life difficult out of spite. Marcus had inherited his more petty need for vengeance from somewhere, after all.

His body felt like lead as he tried to hurry back to the house. Exhaustion heavy in each limb. It was dark out. The moonlight and street lamps were helping, but it was still eerie. Strangely, he did not think it scared him as much as it would have done earlier. Maybe being swallowed - dying, because that was what had happened. He had died, or been close to death, floating on the edge of nothingness as it had drained the life from his body. Death had been peaceful, in a detached sort of way. Maybe dying had made his fears less prevalent. When the worst that could happen already had, the darkness was a little less scary. Though he still had no desire to be out here alone. Especially not with a killer on the loose.

Returning to the room, he heard the tail end of a conversation. The body was being brought here. He wanted to protest about not disturbing the crime scene and the police needing to see it first. A strong hand landed on his shoulder, swirling him in its direction. He was being held against someone, ready to protest, when a voice spoke directly in his ear;

“Your dad,” it was almost spat with all the distaste it held, “and the humans can not help here. We have our own ways of discovering things, technologies, senses and magics far superior to those of our human counterparts.”

A shiver ran down Marcus’ spine. The words were spoken reasonably in an even tone, but he could feel the threat in every sentence.

“Behave, I will extract your memories later and you will cooperate,” the man took something from his overcoat, lifting Marcus’ hand.

He wanted to resist. He hadn’t been this bodily close to the other since his childhood, but he was too drained to fight. His hand being opened like a puppet as Cassius put the stone in a sort of cage on a string before putting it over Marcus’ head. He made to protest, but a sharp look from the man had him silenced. Marcus did not like this. Did not want to be close to this man. Did not want to physically wear something the other had given him, but whether his father was using magic or he was simply too tired to put up a fight, the stone was locked around his neck.

“This will not be removed unless I remove it. Whether you care for this fact or not, you are my son, and I will see you safe into adulthood.”

“Right, so you’ll kill me when I’m eighteen then,” he really needed to stop the snark when he was in a vulnerable position.

The man rolled his eyes, “I don’t know why you are so convinced I mean you ill,” he couldn’t help scoffing at that, “But I’d at least wait until you were at drinking age, I’m not that cruel.”

His mouth dropped open. Had he–had Cassius just cracked a joke? Staring at the man, they broke into simultaneous chuckles. The man’s usual mask soon slipped back into place. Taking a step away from Marcus.

“Listen and learn. This is your heritage. Whether you deny it or not. If you want to know more of what is happening here, you will show me, and the other leaders in our community,” his eyes travelled to James’ mother, and the vampire leader.

The other man had yet to introduce themself but as kept glancing at Theo, Marcus assumed it was simply a matter of time.

“The respect we deserve. I know you know, you might play the idiot with the others, but I know my son. You might not have access through us to accurate information, but you’ve likely got your hands on it somehow. And no, before you ask, I haven’t been spying on you. The amount of protection around your home alone would have clued me in. The fact that deputy Gall also has a watch with a sigil carved into the back and there are runes engraved on your mother’s car, clued me in.”

He gave Marcus a look, halfway between exasperated and impressed. Likely annoyed, his son had gone elsewhere for the information rather than asking him. The fact that Marcus did not trust the other to give reliable information was an undercurrent they both ignored for the time being. If Marcus was in this, going to be standing by Theo’s side as he embraced his new vampire (un)life, they would have to have a real conversation in the future. Hopefully, at a much later date.

“Who died?” He asked instead. Hoping to dodge that particular talk for as long as possible.

“We’re not sure yet. The pack haven’t felt a bond snap and the vampires haven’t felt any breaks in their hive mind connection.”

“Wait what? Hive mind?”

“Later, son. Now we must figure out what has happened. You may come to me tomorrow.”

“I can’t. Theo, it’s his fifth day.”

“And you are not free during the day?”

He was about to say he was spending it with his family at the park, but seeing the unimpressed look on Cassius’ face swallowed the words back down. Giving a nod instead.

“Then you shall come to my house at noon sharp. That should give you enough time to rest after your harrowing ordeal of earlier.”

Recognising a lost battle when he was in one, Marcus gave another bob of his head.

“Do we know if the latest victim was a human or supernatural, at least?”

“A supernatural,” Zoe said, bringing he and his father back into the conversation. “Thus far, most of the attacks have been against the supernatural,” she continued.

“Except Rod,” he spoke mostly to himself.

“Rod and a few elderly from the towns nearby, we believe. They ruled their deaths as age-related, but when tracking the scent, Alpha Toulez’s pack found the sites of several recent deaths across Breckon County. We think it only arrived here two weeks ago, but how long it has been in California for we do not know,” his father answered this time.

“You know what it is?”

“We have several thoughts on what it could potentially be, but at present have no definite clues. When I have your memories tomorrow, we will hopefully have a better idea.”

He felt like a bobble head for how often he had been nodding at the man this evening. More accustomed to saying no out of spite, it was a dramatic change of pace.

“What do we do now then?” He asked the others in the room, noting how several looked uncomfortable.

He grabbed his necklace unconsciously.

“We wait for the body to arrive. If it was a wolf, it was someone not in my pack. There are three other packs though, so it may take some time to realise who is missing. We’ve put the word out, but several do not use phones.”

He sensed there was a story there, but it wasn’t his place to ask.

“It only seems to have gone after supernaturals since arriving here, or mostly.”

“If it’s attacking supes, why did it go after Rod? He’s the only one who doesn’t fit the pattern?” Theo asked, scratching the back of his neck when he noticed all the eyes in the room turned to him.

“What if he wasn’t?” It was one of the witches, Jenna. He thought Abigail had called her upon her return..

He hadn’t been paying much attention. But the two had jumped on each other in relief. They looked related, but he knew Jenna was not a vampire, so he could only guess at how.

“What do you mean?” He was glad someone asked before he could.

They were being polite enough, but with his father in the room, it was as if the entire dynamic had shifted and their once welcoming energies had cooled, keeping him at a distance. Several of the vampires and shifters had even bodily turned away from him, even whilst directly addressing him. It made him want to shout or maybe claw Cassius’ eyes out, but instead, he did as he had always done; acted as though he were oblivious to the people around him and the way their behaviours. The supernaturals were often different to the average humans any way and he ignored them at school often enough. Why fix a winning formula?

“Some humans have magic. Even if at low levels, we’ve all met people with small bouts of psychic abilities. Card readers, mediums, and those with higher levels of sensitivity. What if Rod was one of them?”

“Huh. reminds me of my nan,” Marcus looked at Theo in confusion, “Oh, she always said she would die in the hospital. We’d asked when we were little why she would never go, especially when she was hurt or whatever, but she said she knew she would die there. Threw up a right fuss every time, except that last, which is when we knew something was really wrong. She let the ambulance take her. She did die there. We said she must have known. If you knew where you were going to die, you’d avoid it too, so maybe Rod was similar, knew he’d die in water, so he avoided it?”

“It’s an acceptable theory, and perhaps the best one we have currently.”

Marcus did not like the way Theo beamed at Cassius. Praise from the devil was temptation hiding in pretty packaging. If he accidentally elbowed his best friend, breaking the spell between the two, it was purely coincidental. No, it wasn’t jealousy. For either the praise or the smile being aimed at someone else. Though it may have been a little territorial. He did not like the idea of his world colliding. Though it seemed a little late for that.

As James rushed in, Marcus finally realised his wolfy shadow hadn’t been with him since he’d gone to collect the stone.

“Mom,” his voice broke over the word.

The alpha wolf moved immediately to her son’s side. “What?”

“Lara. Mom. It’s Lara.”

As the body was brought in behind him, Marcus recognised the long blonde hair waving in the air as the four shifters carried her in gently. She had worn it down tonight, no longer slicked back in a ponytail. He’d remembered thinking in passing how long it must have taken to curl hair that length. It still looked perfect.