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Blood or Chocolate: A New Generation, Part 1

Chapter 6: Suspicion and Spies

I was torn. On the one hand I had a note, something that could give me a way to find the killer and avenge my brother. On the other I had a human who knew what we were. I was the only one who could handle this one. She knew me and she was ready to talk to me. I could only imagine how she would clam up if Gabriel or Jacque came in to speak with her.

Funny how the moment something involving humans came up I noticed how different and intimidating we all really were. I had almost-in the harmony of the valley-forgotten there was any difference between us and the bank-tellers or the little old lady down the road. It surprised me that these instincts could show their faces the moment things went wrong.

I guess that's what happened with Claire, she was ordinary up until she had to fight to survive. It really was extraordinary how she managed to fight against her attacker and later us in her room…I wondered-no if she had loup-garou blood it would have presented itself when she was attacked.

In the end it was Gabriel who made my decision for me. "Go with the twins, you need to take care of that. Jacque and I will deal with the note, and you can always help us after you're done."

He was right. So after kissing him roughly goodbye I followed the twins to the human girl.

Claire was sitting up in bed and despite herself her face lit up when Philip entered. Apparently she didn't like being alone with Jenny and her "medical" supplies.

She had calmed. She was propped up with soft pillows while Jenny re-stitched and padded her various ripped wounds. She winced occasionally-despite the local anesthetic.

When she met my gaze this time she didn't flinch away or cry out, she just watched me as I approached her bed cautiously and sat at the edge by her feet. Pierre stayed hovering at the door not sure what to do with himself.

"Go to Jacque-ask him if you can help in a different patrol. I'm going to be too busy for a while to lead you."

"Sure Viv," He left the room quietly, shutting the door behind him. That elicited a gulp from Claire-who I'm sure was doing her best not to belie her calm.

"So you really do-I mean you are a…leader of all of them?" She took the opportunity to start. I was glad because I didn't know what to say.

"Only half the loup-garou of the town. Another couple leads the rest. How'd you know?"

My eyes rested on Philip the moment Claire's did. "Philip explained a lot to me-not everything- but enough to understand."

I continued to shoot daggers at Philip. Regardless of what I had planned on telling her it was not his place.

"Look Viv, I know I might have overstepped my boundaries a bit but it was the only way to calm her and you were going to have to tell her anyway, the law-"

"The laws of your pack do not apply to mine. I found her. My pack decides her fate not yours-let alone you. Understand?"

In truth I knew I would follow valley tradition. I did not want to kill this girl so swearing her-or threatening her-to secrecy and making her live in the valley was really my only other option but I still did not like Philip thinking he had the right to make this decision. He was already making me keep things from Gabriel that could be important to what was going on around here just to save his ass, and now just because he'd gotten the girl to trust him he thought he could decide what we did with her?

"And what do you think you're going to do with me?" Claire also didn't appear to like it when people talked about her fate like she wasn't even there.

"Probably just make you swear not to tell a soul about the things you've seen here, now will you tell us what happened? Starting with when you were abducted."

Claire's eyes were cold for a minute like she didn't believe I was telling her the whole truth. Well she was right, but I wasn't about to forbid her from leaving before I got any information from her. I nodded for her to start from the beginning.

"I live with my uncle in Bayville. My parents are…gone. Anyway I was going to visit by aunt in Manchester when I blew a tire. I pulled over, got out of the car, and bent down to look at the tire and-" Claire broke off, not the way a traumatized person would, but the way an old person did to collect their thoughts. "I-I remember someone grabbing me from behind. Thin arms. I remember thinking when I was being pulled back that someone that thin couldn't be so strong. I tried to fight but…anyway I don't remember anything until I woke up in a cave, tied up."

"Describe the cave, was there anything unusual about it?" I pried.

"I know it was slanted, you know like part of it was on higher ground than the other half, it was pretty dirty, there were claw marks on the walls and I think it was near a stream…"

"Which way?"

"Huh?"

"What direction was the stream flowing?"

"Um…I…I'm not sure…all I know is when I escaped-"

"You escaped?" I asked skeptically.

"Yeah well it…the creature, person, whatever it was, was gone when I woke up. And my dad had taught me how to dislocate my thumbs to wriggle out of almost anything so I got out of the ropes that were holding my hands together and I ran. I think I was running down hill, I didn't know where I was, I was just trying to get away from that cave. I didn't think to look at the surroundings, I should have. I knew to, but…but when you're in a situation like that you just can't…you just can't think." Claire trailed off for a moment.

"Anyway I had been running for what felt like miles, I was exhausted and…then I thought, since I was so far away and since I had gotten away without being noticed that even if my attacker realized I was gone only seconds after I left, whoever it was wouldn't know what direction I had gone in…so it was okay to rest a minute. But I was factoring a human killer into this equation. Not a …an animal." The girl paused voice bitter.

"It caught up with me. I didn't see its face, or its body really. Just a shapeless form in old coveralls and then…then it sort of exploded and I couldn't…I couldn't believe…My parents always told me to suspect the unexpected but…it was so surreal, so strong. I barely had the brains to try and fight it off. I can't believe I begged…" Claire looked more ashamed over her weakness than scared of us now.

I let all that sink in for a moment before asking, "Before the attacker changed into its fur did you see any identifiable markings? Scars? Long hair? Short? Six fingers or toes?" I quipped, the room seemed too tense.

Claire laughed but then turned serious again. "I don't think the hair was very long…half way down the neck maybe…I guess but I didn't get a look at a face. I guess once it was a… wolf I noticed its face looked kind of distorted. Or more like its…muzzle was disfigured…It didn't look like yours." Her eyes darted over me.

Muzzle…jaw….throat. I suddenly had a thought. "Claire, I need to see your leg." I pulled down her sheet before she could answer.

"Vivian I don't think that's a-" Jenny started.

But I was already peeling back the bandage over the gape in her leg. I looked along the ridged of her wound ignoring the smell of blood and flesh. Sometimes humans could seem like prey, weak and bloody like that.

I saw what I needed to see. I moved toward the door.

"What? What is it?" Philip was right behind me.

"I can't speak with you right now," I pushed through the door. I had to get to Gabriel.

"But-"

"Philip." I turned on him in the empty hall, "I don't know where you get off questioning me. I know you think that because you brought her back to the inn you somehow have right to decide and know everything concerning her but-"

"That's not-that's not why I'm interested, I want, to make sure…."

"She's fine, she's not upset anymore. I don't think she'll be very traumatized and there's no reason for you to be so concerned. Hell, I don't even know why the hell I'm covering your tail, you still haven't told me what you were doing in that area in your skin in the first place. For all I know you could be her attacker and you're just making sure she doesn't talk." I was bursting at the seams with my new revelation and this conversation was only holding me off.

"I was-" Philip started but then checked his voice that had risen with the rise of mine.

I pulled him into an empty room. "Go on."

"I was meeting with someone." Philip's face was stony.

"Who?" I questioned. He didn't really think I would let him leave it at that did he?

"Does it matter?" Philip stared into my eyes for a minute realizing I would never back down. "I was having an affair."

I couldn't help it. My eyes widened with shock. Philip was the last person I would suspect…

"Who?" I asked again, this time out of morbid curiosity, the revelation I had made taking a backseat momentarily.

"Bridget Lefevre." Philip's eyes fell to his feat.

"Jacque's sister? But she's…engaged." I was still processing that this was Philip I was having this conversation with and not his twin, who I expected this sort of thing from, not Philip.

"That's why its called an affair Vivian." Philip's voice was cold. And I thought about it. No wonder he didn't want to let this get out. He would already be in deep for messing around with an engaged female, but for that female to be his leader's sister…

It did not surprise me of Bridget, the first loup-garou I met when I arrived in Green Mountain Valley. She had been flirting with Gabriel the first time I met her, though that wasn't the only reason she rubbed me the wrong way: she was also Jacqueline Delvin's sister and a little too like her for her own good sometimes….

Which got me back on task.

"Look, Philip I'll help you sort all this out later but for now…forget I said anything okay? But I really have to do something. I think I might know who the attacker is."

When I entered the lounge and saw Gabriel and Jacque deep in thought on opposite sides of the room I knew that the two males where frustrated. They could not get anything from the note and there was too much testosterone in the room circulating between the two leaders. They needed air, but they needed answers more.

"I think I know who the attacker is." It was out of my mouth before they had acknowledged I was even there.

"What? Who?" Jacque stood up at once.

"Your sister."

"What? Bridget? But she's not…she not like Jacqueline, she's not spiteful or vengeful. She's just a tease."

"No, not Bridget, though I don't think she's as innocent as you make her out to be. No, I meant Jacqueline."

Jacque snorted. "Giles exiled her years ago, she couldn't be."

"All the more reason for it to be her, just like you said, Jacqueline is vengeful and spiteful, and Giles always thought she had the potential to be this way if she didn't get what she wanted. And really who else do we know that has a vendetta against Green Mountain Valley, that would purposely point a finger at us? No one knows our pack is here, and you guys have always been peaceful. Who else could it be?"

"Maybe that's all true but why now? Why not right after she was exiled?"

"Because she had to recuperate from her fight with me, and she wasn't sure if Giles had died or not. She had to be sure. Which means there has to be someone from inside the valley telling her what's going on, what all our next moves are..."

"A spy." Jacque said, but then returned to his original point, "You still don't know for sure."

"Yes, I do. I have proof. Claire's wound on her leg is just like the ones on the other bodies, bites too large for a Green Valley native-"

"There-" Jacque started.

"No-listen- too large for a native if they didn't have a distorted jaw. When I had a hold of her throat in that fight I pulled up her jugular and into her jaw. She was lucky I was stopped before I ripped her head off, but I did rip some tendons attached to her jaw bones. Persia had been worried about the effects it would have on her jaw and vocal cords. What if it permanently loosened her jaw so her bite was bigger? It could give the allusion of a bigger mouth, a bigger loup-garou when really…"

"When really it could be the small lean frame you saw in the woods." Gabriel finished for me, speaking for the first time since I entered the lounge. I met his gaze from across the room, he understood. But he also had something else to say. "Vivian, I really think you should read this note."

And he held it out toward me.

Looks like a cliffy, sounds like a cliffy…yep it is, but I should have another chapter out in a few days…maybe tomorrow so don't feel too bad : )

And nightow9189? There will be more Gabriel in the next chapter I promise, lots of Gabriel in fact ;) but this one needed some Claire, just for plot sake :D

Everyone if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask and leave a review, a small single sentence even would be greatly loved :D

:D melissaturkey