| Part 4 |
Author's Note: To kick off my 5x09 countdown, stay tuned for the completion of "Rendezvous Berlin" with the last two chapters tomorrow night and then Moon Monday night after the episode. Also check out my new Sceo fic as part of this countdown, "Suffer It All."
After the train to Bucharest, Jackson, who'd matured since his emigration from California and America, found a new understanding and appreciation of Isaac Lahey. Of his insanely hard life. Of his loss in persons both in death and in love. Of his drive to find a piece of his past, of that inseparable bond of brothers that Jackson himself was never fortunate enough to experience.
Most of all, he found a friend in him.
So when they walked through the seasoned streets of the capital's sector five, Jackson was on a higher alert than he had been in years. Certainly, Jurgen had been his patron, but Isaac, in this moment where they stood out as Americans all too well, he needed Jackson. Colette did her best to look as inconspicuous as well, providing their three persons with longer hooded coats, but their fair skin and lighter hair gave them away to anyone who was looking. And looking they were.
As the trio delved deeper and deeper into the ghetto, the werewolves' hearing picked up whispers and movement to the side. There was jumping and running and threats. It quickly became clear that Jurgen had told them a half-truth: Dubnic's pack had found them…but it was increasingly clear that 'found' was not an apt description, where 'stalk' or 'hunt' may have been more suitable to the danger they found themselves in.
Ahead, on one of the corners, a younger woman with fairer skin and brown hair eyed them closely. She subtly beckoned them to follow and, without heed to the danger, Colette obliged, forcing the two werewolves behind her to exchange nervous looks. This woman led them down an even more ruined alleyway and the movement and muttering only became louder, rising and rising until they found themselves into a more secluded clearing behind the building where a number of onlookers glared and snarled. They found themselves surrounded, their entrance quickly blocked by several burlier gypsies.
The three acted quickly, simultaneously shedding themselves of their coats. Isaac and Jackson took up staging positions for the coming fight, their transformed features not unique amongst the crowd. Colette stood ready with two small repeating crossbows at the ready, pointing at two distinguished targets. Although the three in the middle appeared dangerous among a normal crowd, the surround crowd revealed they were outnumbered as they counted at least 20 pairs of inhuman eyes.
"I thought you've been here before," Isaac said, his eyes darting around to catch whoever would move first.
"Once," Jackson replied hastily. "And that was a while ago. With a car. And a boss with guards."
"Could use them about now."
When one of the blue eyed wolves moved, and the rest followed, including the middle three, a feint whistle blew. The gypsy wolves halted immediately at the dog whistle, and Isaac and Jackson instantly pulled at Colette's arms before she could fire, aiming them to the ground.
"What are you—" she began to complain when she looked to where everyone, including her company, was looking. In the back of the crowd, between one very tall and one very short man, was man who appeared to be in his seventies.
"Comment allez-vous, Colette?" the old man began with a smile, making his way through the crowd with the shorter man before him.
"Je suis heureux de vous revoir, Pitivo," she replied, both Isaac and Jackson immediately exchanging a look.
"You have companions this time," the Romani alpha mused, looking specifically at Isaac.
"Were you expecting us?" Colette asked, sheathing her weapons within her bag before handing them to the shorter man, who up close looked no older than 19.
"It was in the cards." He smiled at them and patted the younger guard's shoulder. "Come, we will drink," he said after eyeing Isaac again.
…after making their way into Pitivo's den…
"So domnule Whittemore, what brings you here?" the alpha began, his back to them as he retrieved drinking glasses, the office room shaded from the harsh light of the sun. Jackson sat up straight in the leather arm chair and shook his head.
"I'm not sure what you mean?" the blue-eyed wolf replied.
"Why are you travelling with these souls? Why follow them here?" Pitivo took his seat on the opposite side of the desk, looking at Isaac expectantly. Isaac dug out the bottle of Johnny Walker Black and handed it to him, who received it with a gaping smile.
"I…" Jackson stopped, looking at Isaac to his left. "I don't know."
"Drink. Think. Then we talk."
Jackson nodded, taking the first poured glass and sipping.
"So, domnule Lahey, what can I do for you?"
"You know the answer to that," Isaac said confidently; Pitivo smiled. "There was nothing 'in the cards,' but a phone call to a German mobster." The alpha laughed, leaning back further into his chair and taking a long sip. Isaac retrieved the photo from inside his jacket and tossed it onto the desk.
"You are well connected, Mr. Lahey." He looked at the photo for a moment, glancing up only once at the curly blonde across from him. "I remember this day. There was a storm in the evening after these souls left my city. I lost two of my betas that day, including my nephew. Now his son is fatherless." He looked up at the shorter guard behind them, standing to the right of the door.
"This man, Kızılok, what did he want?" Isaac said.
"Kızılok is but a piece in a greater game, Mr. Lahey."
"What kind of game?"
"Survival," Pitivo said, nodding to Isaac's glass. The omega took a reluctant sip, not once taking his eyes off the man. "I will tell you a tale in two parts. But you must agree to tell me one as well." Isaac nodded. "About your brother." The omega breathed heavily and took a moment before nodding.
"The first is about a young kitsune, who arrived in Europe through the Silk Road. Bewildered with the foreign land, atmosphere, and people, he eventually found his way to Tyre, where he found a captain to take him west to Venice. He explored the beautiful cities of Italy: Tuscany, Milan, and Florence. In the city of da Vinci he met an alluring nymph that seduced him twice, the first out of pure enchantment and the second out of pure lust. When he awoke after the second, he no longer found himself in the city of love and freedom, no longer in the city of de'Medici. He was on a ship, imprisoned with few others—some human, some not—and guarded by a creature he had never encountered before in his journeys and he knew, upon looking into this creature's amber eyes, that his journey was at an end, his sea bound destination unknown. This demonic-looking creature would later be known as a djinn.
"The second is about a young Russian man, occultly religious and superstitious. Hungry for the magic in the darkness. Above all, his appetite is famished to become a bodark-a werewolf that desired to become one. In his travels, from Leningrad to Moscow to Stalingrad, he never found what he was looking for. He decided to travel east, his journey leading him towards Siberia to seek out the old indigenous peoples there. However, when he passed through Biysk in the south eastern Russian Empire, he found not an alpha, but a wretch of an eastern prince. The Dzungar prince wronged the Russian not once, but twice, and left him to die. But in his failure to slay this man, the Russian rose up in vengeance and rage as a beast of darkness: as a weretiger. He slayed the prince and his men and their animals. He enslaved the women and children and his fury drove him further into darkness to the point where the Devil himself finally revealed himself to him and they spoke, the latter pleased with what he had made and saw that it was good."
Silence filled the room for a moment, noises from the outside world only filling the void. Isaac tried to mull the man's words over, sure that they were relevant but too cryptic on their face. He needed Pitivo to piece them together. "How does these relate to Cam—"
"First, your tale, Mr. Lahey," Pitivo said with a smile.
Isaac nodded. He looked over at Jackson before meeting Pitivo's weathered eyes again. "In my sophomore year after I received the bite, my home town was attacked by a dangerous creature known as a kanima." Jackson exhaled noticeably next to him. "It killed several people, my father included. It was unlike anything I'd ever expected. Fast. Strong. Vicious. Poisonous. Even my alpha was afraid of it. Eventually we uncovered the identity of its master. He was a boy from my childhood…an old friend from elementary school. He drowned in my pool in the backyard one night and though my father revived him, he treated Matt exactly the way he treated me. He said blamed Matt for not being able to swim, rather than the older teens drinking around them, including my brother; after all, they pushed him in. No, my father punished the helpless and rewarded the strong as always. That's why he died first. Camden was spared that evening, having 'died' in the line of duty. But apparently Camden's escaped death twice now; I'm trying to find him, and bring him home."
"That seems like a very incomplete tale, Mr. Lahey."
Isaac smirked. "The hunters killed Matt and took control of the kanima. They wanted revenge for killing their daughter, who had killed many innocents related to the pack and my alpha. The cycle of hatred. We stopped them, though, and restored the kanima to its original self." Isaac turned to look at Jackson. "You're in his presence now."
The bodyguards shifted slightly behind them, but Pitivo only smiled wider. "I now know why you are here, Mr. Whittemore," the alpha said, pouring Jackson another drink. "My. Lahey, the first tale is not about the kitsune, but about the djinn. His name is Qaywud—a slaver that had Colette's brother killed." Isaac and Jackson both turned to look at her. "He is under the employ of a man named Vikenti, the biggest crime lord of the Mediterranean and a weretiger."
"The second tale…" Isaac thought aloud.
Pitivo nodded. "Barış Kızılok currently works for Vikenti, as does your brother. Vikenti is not a picky man when choosing the species of his company…only their loyalty. Your brother was merely a hired hand last I saw him. A bodyguard for a contractor. Vikenti is looking to expand his business into Bucharest, but my presence has kept most of the supernatural underground out of this city. Kızılok was sent as a threat, and I am hoping the three of you will be mine."
