Discomforts were few while traveling for us. Sweating wasn’t a problem, even under the hot August sun. Most insects, no matter how many generations they’ve mutated, couldn’t pierce my barrier, and they left Ember alone. The Geiger counter app on my cube but kept mostly stable. No mutants tried to extort us for our money or eat us. The road was mostly fine; it might have been repaved 200 years ago. We crossed miles of territory with impunity; there wasn’t even VHA patrols, which was worrying. While the discomforts were few, our problems had just begun.
It started with a woman’s death scream and a presence off the path. Ember leaped into a nearby tree while I felt for the entity while playing bait. Thanks to concealment, I should feel like a normal human, the perfect lure for a flesh-hungry mutant.
If this was a trap, it was a poor one.
What I felt was oily, alive, and wild. I didn’t consider its meager energy reserves because culture determined strength, not energy alone. Wizards rarely contained their energy in their bodies. Their mana was pulled from the air, flowing flawlessly through their bodies when they cast spells.
The being had some energy in its body, but the feeling it produced felt wrong. Standing near it made me feel a primal need for a shower.
I reviewed what we heard. There was a woman’s scream then a new presence invaded my senses. Like a turd in a room, there was no avoiding its stench.
“You smell like her.” A voice said.
There was grit to its voice that felt so sinister. Blood coated its mouth, and it didn’t shy away from showing off massive canines. I could smell human flesh on its breath.
To my energy sense, it was an ink stain with the appearance of a man stepping out with oily black hair, amber eyes, and nude. I never afforded smell to my energy sense until the oily wild mass appeared. It was so bad it changed how I understood my energy senses.
I felt for Ember; she had changed her hiding place, and I set my cube on record.
“No, not the filthy leech. My woman.” The man growled.
“Sorry, man, it’s been a dry spell for years,” I said.
The man sniffed the air, exposing his throat with no care. I thought about slicing it open then and getting rid of the man-eater.
“You have not touched her, but she lives with you and is not your kin. Not a friend because I smell her righteous fury.” The man smiled. “My name is Sebastion Wolf, and I am Emily’s mate.
“I’m guessing you’re one of her suitors or a stalker,” I said.
“She is my woman. I have had her virginity.” The man growled.
Yes, he literally growled at me like some kind of animal. It would be cute if Ember hissed or snarled, but some naked guy growling was weird. On the bright side, he was full of information about our houseguest or lying his ass off.
Really, how hard was it to not cheat on my brother or lie about saving her virginity for marriage. If this was true, it was a confirmation I didn’t want to give Jason. As much shit as I gave him about her, he valued her and put us on this path to save her family. We compromised to only try hard to save her sisters, but semantics.
“So you were the first man to take her asshole,” I said.
The man snorted. “I had all her firsts, and she will never forget it.”
Suddenly I was leaning on a stalker with a good chance he kidnapped and raped Emily. There could also be the chance the man was an opportunist. Since her family was gone, she was suddenly vulnerable. Sebastion could also be lying about taking her firsts and only boasted to throw us off and waste our time with useless questioning. Maybe he thinks we’ll throw her out and make her vulnerable to him.
I glanced at one of the taller trees. My bag had some rope, and the strongest mutant was around a grade 2. Ember and I needed our time on the town, but this guy was so happy to talk. If we tied him high enough, nothing should get to him until we’re done. Grade 2 mutants weren’t much more dangerous than most animals or grade 1s.
Grades were determined by generation. Each grade was another generation of mutation. Witches, Ogres, and Trolls were grade 4 to 6 stable. Which meant they no longer mutated. On average, the higher the grade, the stronger the mutant.
“What’s that on your face?” He reached to wipe away blood, and I punched him into a tree. “My fist,” I said.
The man’s growl was short-lived as I kneed him in the solar plexus and felt satisfied that he needed breath to function. My initial strike had been weak to get a feel for the guy’s durability. Once I was confident he wasn’t breaking, I punched him again. This time, I felt a satisfying crack as Ember moved in and delivered a series of pinpoint strikes.
The man’s limbs fell like limp noodles.
I knocked him out with an uppercut. But I would remember how Ember fought and maybe try out her forms later.
Black fur burst out from the man’s body, and he began taking on wolfish features. I wasn’t having it.
A tail fell out from the man, and I grabbed it hard. I heard a pained howl as I used the appendage to lift the man and slam the wolf man on the ground. His bones started snapping and rearranging, so I kicked him into another tree. He bounced off, so I kicked him again, hearing more snaps and cracks each time.
Each kick struck the wolf as I kicked him faster and faster. The damage healed before my eyes, but my momentum hadn’t changed. I upped my speed and continued pummeling the werewolf.
Ember’s hand stopped me from continuing. “Too much more, and he will die. You don’t want an entire pack of his kind declaring a blood feud. Grab his tail and give it a hard tug if you want to ruin his reputation.”
“Wait, werewolves can’t heal from that,” I said.
“There are some injuries their bodies often heal imperfectly. In his current state, guiding the recovery of his spine is impossible. Unless he finds a Vet that can perform canine spinal surgery, he won’t recover.” Ember said.
She wore a devious, evil, infectious smile. I knew the effects of that kind of injury. Pulling the werewolf’s tail in a certain way would make him incontinent.
I walked up to the bleeding, broken body of the werewolf that had the nerve to be annoying. Perhaps my increased power had gone to my head, but the man felt disgusting. He felt like someone took a baby chick and dumped oil on it.
Then there was Jason. My brother loved Emily; if this guy took her virginity by force or otherwise, Sebastion could cause a lot of drama we didn’t need. Yeah, Jason was the worst brother ever, keeping information from me and then using it as a weapon. I also didn’t support his biculturalism. We were both in the wrong, but we weren’t fighting anymore.
Saving this little recording as blackmail material or damage control seemed like the best play. Maybe I could show it to Emily, work with her to earn her trust or use it as a leash.
I cut off his wing, and he tried to send me into an identity crisis. That’s what brothers do. When I see a pothole in the road, I tell my brother about it.
“Please, don’t do this to me. Emily wouldn’t want this.”
Sebastion’s body had many interesting techniques hiding away within. I wanted only one, but maybe I could follow in Father’s footsteps and experiment in the future.
The werewolf healing factor was fantastic. I tried to sense any energy used, which was subtle, but there was something there to replicate. The werewolf was an open book compared to Ember’s natural control and concealment. I recorded my findings on my cube and decided to practice self-healing whenever I could. My training could be that much harder, thanks to the werewolf. I could see bones moving back into place and the impression of my boot on the other side of the werewolf’s gut disappearing. Once self-healing became instinctual, I would be so much stronger.
I grabbed the werewolf’s tail, and he howled as I pulled until something cracked. My fist collided with the werewolf’s skull to knock it out. Ember cackled as I tied up the mutant and began hoisting it like a kill.
“They weren’t made by our creator, but we competed for a time. In the wild days of the 24th century, they consumed mages as we did. The governors never trusted them, and when one of their alphas signed a peace treaty with the Rocky Mountain Mage Institute, they were excommunicated. Am I any better than that mangy dog?” Ember asked.
“Follow me,” I said.
We traveled through the werewolf’s path where the scream originated. I hoped it had come from a recording device, but the guttural scream had been too visceral. I felt a tiny presence hidden by the werewolf’s stink. The forest opened up to a clearing full of brutality.
To the side, there was a ditch filled with women in different stages of decomposition. Some were only partially ravaged and showed signs of trying to crawl out of the pit.
We returned to the clearing where his fresh kill remained chained to a tree.
Any guilt I might have felt was replaced with vindication. There was a blond woman slumped with her arms tied to a tree. From her crotch up, she had been eaten. A look of horror remained on her face.
My fingers extended to create an energy blade. It was easier than when I cut off Jason’s wing. I completed the steps quickly and even concealed the technique’s presence.
The ease of concealment made me think up a hypothesis. Maybe we were a culture of assassins; that would make sense. I had some evidence, like the focus on concealment, detection, and enhancement over all other factors. Even when I thought of it, I had my doubts. We could have been bodyguards, or the concealment could have been a relatively new development of our nameless culture.
Ember must have seen my hesitation.
“This is how they feed. Many favor the organs of humans, much like my kind needs blood. I’m certain it was quick; we barely heard her scream on the wind. Werewolves are strong; he would have quickly ended her suffering.” Ember said.
My blade sliced through her chains, freeing her. I took her down to the others and then cut the trees down. While I didn’t have a shovel, I could cover their grave. It said something about the werewolf: no scavengers fed on the corpses because of its foul smell. Only flies and ants braved the pit.
“Are you trying to make me feel better or yourself?” I asked.
“My kind are not so different. If we continue our relationship, these sights will be common. You know I’m not human; I have needs that animal blood can’t provide.” I held out my hand, and she took it. “Is this your answer?” Ember asked.
“I don’t know what to think. You’ve given me more than I can repay and backed me up at home. It's not like a blood farm is hard to build. We could whip something up with a nanite forge, some cloned bone marrow, and a life support system. I could probably get it done with seals alone if Jason helped.” I said.
Neither of us commented on where the girl most likely came from.
This was the world. Villages and towns appeared and were destroyed all the time. Some towns used artificial wombs to quickly replace numbers, producing hundreds of newborns at a time. By the barcode on the side of her head, she was one of those. A pure human born from a pod in this dangerous world.
She looked like Emily. Seeing that pompous, dirty girl eaten by a monster made me feel something pure and primal.
“What do you feel?” Ember asked.
“I want to cut the wolf’s head off and place it on a pike. Do you know who she looks like? Jason can never see this. ” I couldn’t show my brother, or he would go to war against an entire stable mutant strain. “We need to get to Tish and party. Ember, I want to have fun and forget about this, even if those poor girls deserved better.” I said.
I reached out with my aura and ignited the corpses.
We didn’t discuss how Ember would suck dry someone at the party.
A howl erupted through the forest, loud and clear. Moments later, more howls invaded our ears. Sebastion’s entire pack had mobilized. Ember kept her parasol up to block the sunlight while we inspected the other bodies.
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