Chapter 8

Serena woke the next morning, instantly pulling the covers further over her in the vain hope that if she didn't find the light, it wouldn't find her. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. She grudgingly got out of bed and tried to tame her hair, dressing in her finest and reluctantly heading down to the Hunters' farm.

True to their word and despite his injuries, Abraham had managed to dig a six-foot trench in the field. It wasn't too deep at only about four and a half feet, but clearly he'd put his back out doing even that. It was an appreciated gesture.

"Ah, you're here!" he looked up from where Jeanette rubbed his back and tried to help him click his spine back into place. Serena noticed the case by the chair he'd dragged out into the garden. He caught her looking and picked it up and opened it to show her. "This is what we're doing to cover this up. We've melted some spare silver down and we're making it into musket balls. We've only made one so far and we've swapped it out with the one that hit William. If anyone finds him, they'll think whoever shot him was just a crazy werewolf hunter. I've started writing a fake journal to lead people to a false location. They'll think I was just chasing ghosts. Actually, Abraham Runcorn Hunter is a pretty good name for a werewolf hunter."

"What about the skeleton that will be left?" Serena asked. "Him being halfway through transformation is the exact reason we're having to do this in the first place."

"Well, the chances of machines being built that will be able to tell someone exactly what he was are just..." Jeanette struggled for the word she was looking for. "Look, it'll never happen. It's borderline the work of sorcery. I can't see us going much further than we are in this modern age."

"Well, I suppose it's definitely not a worry we'll have in my lifetime." Serena shrugged. "What happens after that is up to the people of the future."

"Did you get his affairs in order?" Abraham asked. "If you need help, I have a friend who can give legal council."

"He left a letter leaving everything to me." Serena told him. "The house is now mine. I will see to it that what he he's built stays standing for many generations to come." Abraham nodded solemnly. The body was already in the hole, so they started filling it back in. Abraham and Jeanette had wrapped him in a cloth that was decorated with a beautiful pattern out of respect. It was made of a material that would decay underground over time, leaving no evidence of outside involvement should the body ever be discovered. The thought of what they were doing made Serena sick to her stomach, but she also knew there was no other option. If this were ever discovered, the concealment that she would work so hard to build would unravel in an instant. The discovery of such a deformed body would raise some rather difficult questions. But if the body never existed, there would be no questions to answer. It also fulfilled William's wish to be laid to rest privately.

As soon as William had been buried, Abraham and Jeanette headed back to the house. Serena wanted to take a few minutes alone, which they'd totally understood. They'd extended an invitation to join them for lemonade. As much as Serena wanted to do anything but, the idea of having a cool drink was too appealing. Once they were gone, she knelt by the grave site and closed her eyes. She pressed her hands into the ground, feeling the disturbed soil under her fingers as the breeze over her made the hairs on her neck stand erect. With everything she had, she sent a broadcast up to any and all who were listening.

"Friogearde, presence of the moon, guide this departed one to your waiting arms and howl his name so that we might hear it here in the mortal realm. A great Wolfblood has fallen: a carer, a guardian, a friend, a father." Serena ended her Eolas and stood up, dusting herself off and heading towards the house. She'd done all she could.

It was late in the day when she arrived home. She, Abraham and Jeanette had been busily planning their next move on how to recruit more support. Abraham and Jeanette would be in charge of recruiting and Abraham's friend in the legal business would be offered the task of handling any such concerns they dealt with. With those basic principals sorted, she could start building her network of informants and a team to work as enforcement to uphold the territory laws she'd implemented. It was going to be rough starting, but she knew she had the potential to build something to keep Wolfbloods safe the world over.

Sitting down heavily in her usual seat in the living room, she looked around and noticed the piece of crystal sitting on the mantle piece. She picked it up and stared into it, seeing Corran's screaming form still hunched inside. She desperately wanted to get rid of it and forget about it, leaving him to his deserved fate and letting chance decide the terms of his sentence and release. But she just didn't have it in her. Taking the crystal outside, she threw it at the wall of the house where it exploded. Corran was left a crumpled and pathetic form whimpering on the floor in front of her. She stepped over to him, towering over him as he cowered away.

"Fayveer is dead." Her words shocked him so much that he stopped shaking and stared straight into her eyes. "All Wolfbloods are to leave Stoneybridge within a week to find a piece of territory of their own. I have claimed Stoneybridge for myself. You can either go with them or I can phase you all over again and toss you in a river. What's it to be?" Corran wasn't going to wait around an entire week. He leaped up and ran faster than Serena had ever seen a Wolfblood move in human form, easily scaling the back fence and sprinting for his life. Serena didn't know what happened in that crystal, but it was clearly something that not even her arch enemy deserved. From that day, she made a promise to herself never to use that power again. She'd read in the book that when a Wolfblood didn't need the power anymore, it would vanish. She vowed to cease all use of the power so as to let it fade. It was better that way. Either way, she felt it safe to consider the matter closed.

Heading back inside, she sat down in her chair again and tried to relax. She noticed a book left on the table by Willem and so picked it up, beginning to read.

'I applied my heart to know wisdom, to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also was a chasing of the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.'- Rashid ad-Din Sinan: 1191. Serena sat there pondering the quote in the prologue. It had been true. Every time she learned more about the world around her, death pain and misery hadn't been far behind. That was going to change. She now looked at the world in a different light. She knew what it would take to make it right, and anyone who tried to stand in the way of the building of the secret would fall to the fangs of the forgotten.