Chapter 20: Werewolves, A History

"Trick!" Kenzi shouted, looking up from her not so bad hospital lunch. A smile spread across her face, and she nearly sent her lunch all over the floor when she jumped. She didn't make it very far. Her legs were still bound to the bed.

Trick moved a bouquet of flowers to the side, and looked up at Kenzi. A lot of the equipment had been removed, and the number of wires attached to her went down. And, the morphine drip had been removed.

"You didn't think I'd forget about you, did you," Trick said smiling. There was something behind that smile, something that smelled of creeping fear. And, in a way, Kenzi could feel it. She hadn't read the letter that came with the eyes. Dyson had taken both the box and the letter to The Ash. He must be hoping this turn of events would soften The Ash up. Maybe they'd get that hunting party together and take care of the werewolf.

One team had already tried that, her mind said. And, it got the Morrigan killed.

But, this team will have Dyson on it, Kenzi thought, fighting against the negativity.

And, that's what the creature wants, the negativity said.

And to that, Kenzi didn't have an answer. She couldn't have an answer. The werewolf wanted Dyson, and it was going to use her to get to him.

Why would the werewolf want Dyson, if it wasn't Jessa Mae?

"Long thoughts?" Trick said. He looked up at her, with that same smile, a knowing terrifying smile.

"About the werewolf," Kenzi said, nodding.

"What do you want to know?" Trick said. He sat down and pulled the chair up as close as possible to the bed. He folded his hands in his lap, and looked up at Kenzi, waiting patiently like Gandalf listening to Bilbo go on about one thing or another.

"Everything," Kenzi said.

"That would take a century or two," Trick said.

"Well, what about a condensed version?"

"The werewolves as you know them from Hollywood and comic books, are not the same as these wolves." Trick said. "It's said that werewolves were both a curse and a gift. The Norn created the first werewolf after a rather nasty Dark Fae attack on the tree. The Norn used a human, and the dead body of a wolf shifter."

"That's why Dyson's so testy when the werewolves are mentioned." Kenzi said.

"I think I told you that before," Trick said, looking off to the side, looking inside his mind, really.

"Traumatic experience," Kenzi said. She lifted one hand to her head, and saw the bandages on her arm. "Two of them."

Trick nodded.

"Well," Trick continued. "The Norn gave that human a gift by making a new underfae, one that feeds on Fae. What she didn't count on, what she couldn't have foreseen had she been the Oracle at Delphi, was the way that gift would mutate once it hit the human blood stream.

"It became a virus, one that can be spread through a bite, a scratch as deep as a paper cut, or intercourse. She also didn't see the affect the Fae powers would have on the human."

Trick shook his head, and sighed.

"Bo might have told you about the hunger she feels, but compared to the werewolf's it's a drop in the pond. Er, ocean. Well, a better comparison would be zombies.

"The human looses their mind to that hunger, and their ability to shift is lost. Basically, they become stuck as mindless Fae killing juggernauts."

Trick took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair. He watched the ceiling for a few minutes, looking like he expected some sort of mucus to be dripping from it: maybe something along the lines of basilisk skin or Naga venom. Kenzi couldn't tell, but she knew Trick had a reason for everything he did. He really was this world's version of Gandalf, maybe even Merlin.

"Trick?" Kenzi said. She poked at him with one finger, winced at the pain it caused her, and Trick jumped like he'd been shot by a gun.

"You were spacey there for a mintues," Kenzi said.

"Was I," Trick nodded. "Yes, yes, I guess I was."

"What were you thinking about?"

"The last time I dealt with a werewolf." Trick said, he took out the makings of a pipe, and got it going before continuing. "It was my half brother. He was human. My father made Dionysus look boring if that tells you anything. Anyway, my half brother was jealous of the Fae, and more so with me. I was father's favorite, and the next in line for the throne. He hunted down a witchdoctor he knew, one that had a werewolves head preserved in a glass jar. He robbed the witchdoctor, and make the head bite him, and the witchdoctor became his first meal."

"Woh, woh, woh," Kenzi said, shaking her head. "You can get infected by a dead one?"

"Yes," Trick said. "At least in that case. I've never seen it happen again."

"How did you handle it?"

"Well," Trick said, and sighed, a weary and ancient sigh. "I wrote a little story, in blood, in my blood, and my brother fell from a cliff. We then hacked him into several parts, put those parts in boxes, and sunk them in the ocean"

"Can you do that now?" Kenzi said. "Could you do it, and save me?"

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Trick said, a genuine smile spreading across his face. "As long as you don't do anything stupid." He tapped one arm, and a look of shame overcame Kenzi's face, like a low bordering of black fog or smoke. She was going to live with these scars for the rest of her life.

She smiled, and tried to throw her shame away. "I do stupid things, all the time, but this was an idiotic thing to do. And, I am certainly not an idiot."

The two of them started to laugh.

"I almost forgot," Trick said, he smiled and pulled out a small box.

"Please tell me there's not something gruesome in there."

"Nope," Trick said. He opened the box and handed Kenzi a thin silver blade. The tip was sharp while the rest was dull. She turned it this way and that in her hands. Already she was thinking of where she wanted to put it.

"It's a letter opener," she finally said, but didn't let on what she was thinking.

"The tip," Trick said. "Is sharp as a cut diamond, and will pierce any type of flesh no matter how strong that flesh is." He smiled, wide and natural, and patted his chest right over his heart. "Aim for the heart, it won't kill the werewolf, but it will stun it long enough to take its head."

Kenzi nodded. Trick got up out of his chair and started for the curtain.

"Why does it have to be silver?"

"I don't know," Trick said. "I've never bothered to check, I just know it works."

"Thank you," Kenzi said as Trick went to the curtain and pulled it open. Her face paled as she saw what was hidden by the curtain.

The woman, the young blonde woman, was standing right on the other side of the curtain. She was naked, her eyes were a yellowish-gold, and her teeth were the razor sharp K9's of a German Sheppard.

"You're welcome," Trick said and turned. He found the werewolf before him, and fear gripped the very depths of his soul. "Oh, gods."

The werewolf lashed out with a single back hand that sent trick rolling. She stepped past the curtain, and pulled it too behind her.

"You and I have a lot to talk about." The werewolf said. "You must know the things I know, and know the truth about Dyson."

She took three steps towards the hospital bed.

The lights went out when Kenzi screamed.

And, even in the total darkness Kenzi could see those yellowish-gold orbs getting closer and closer.

Where are you Dyson?