AN: "Is fearr é seo ná glao díolacháin!" is Irish for "This better not be a sales call!"

"Leathcheann." is Irish for "Idiot."

Súile Dé is Irish for God's eyes

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CHAPTER 2

Legends

Hardison placed the call to Kempton Foxman and put it on the speaker system he'd had installed to give phone calls the maximum quality that was available in technology land. Ever since Hardison had started finding out how extraordinary Eliot's hearing really was he'd decided to upgrade all of their audio systems.

Ring…Ring… "Kempton here." Eliot could hear the crunch of gravel and the shift of clothing. Kempton must be walking a dirt road somewhere.

Parker looked confused for a moment at the sound of Foxman's voice. She had expected to hear the voice of an old man and not someone closer to her own age. "Is this Kempton Foxman? The Kempton Foxman that wrote to the alpha of the Portland City Pack?"

"Who is this? How would you know about my letter?" Kempton sounded suspicious.

Eliot growled and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is Eliot Spencer and my pack. We would like to talk with you about the letter you sent me."

"I would prefer to speak to the alpha alone." Eliot got the feeling that Kempton was a traditionalist. It would blow his mind if he found out that all of Eliot's pack was human.

"You can speak with my pack and answer their questions, or I can forget I ever saw your letter." Eliot knew that Kempton would talk even if he didn't like it. You didn't write a letter requesting a hit if you weren't desperate.

"Mr. Foxman why do you want your brother killed?" Parker was direct and it made Eliot grin even though he tried to hide it. Hardison put a hand over his face for a second but looked at Eliot and shrugged in a way that clearly communicated. 'Oh well. That's my girl.'

"Mr. Spencer?" Kempton really didn't want to have this conversation with a group.

"Answer." Eliot growled.

"Because… I'm sorry, what is your name miss?" Kempton paused.

Parker looked at Eliot who nodded at her. "Parker. My name is Parker. I'm here with Hardison and Eliot. We need to know more about what is going on before we decide what to do. So why do you want us to kill your brother?"

"Because he is a risk to our secret." Something in Kempton's tone was off. Eliot couldn't smell a lie over the phone but he still knew that Kempton lying to them.

"Is your brother the Beast of Bray Rd.?" Hardison was certain that was who they were talking about but it would be best to hear it from Kempton.

"Yes. If you have heard about him then you know. He is a danger to us all." Kempton sounded sad but he was still lying, Eliot was sure of it.

"What's changed? Your brother has been being sighted in the same area for at least eighty years. And Eliot says that since he's become a local legend no one would believe that there is really a werewolf there. So he's not actually a risk. So has something changed? Something we don't know about?" Parker waited for his answer.

"You don't understand." Kempton's voice came out in a whine.

Eliot growled. "No we don't. That's why we've called. Your brother isn't a risk to the wolves, so if you still want him dead that sounds like a family matter to me. And I see no point in putting my pack in the middle of a family feud." Eliot thought that Parker was right. There was more to this than was in the letter and more than Kempton was saying but Eliot was serious about not wanting to put Parker and Hardison into the middle of whatever this was. If it was up to him he'd hang up now and forget about Kempton and his brother.

"Alpha, please. You know that sometimes death is a kindness. I want to free my brother and I see no other way." Eliot could hear Kempton's heart beat and all of them could hear his short jerky breathing. Eliot thought that Kempton must have put the phone to his chest. He wasn't sure if Kempton did it so that Eliot could hear his heart beat or if he just needed to escape the phone call for a moment.

"Tell me! Why?" Eliot put as much authority into his tone as he could but without being there in person Eliot couldn't use dominance to force a confession.

"It is a long story, but I know no other way to explain. Please let me tell you about my brother." Kempton took a deep breath and started into his story. Kempton spoke, uninterrupted, for the better part of an hour as he told the three of them the story of how he and his brother became werewolves. "So when I saw that my brother was dead and so was Wisakachek I ran. And I kept on running. I eventually ended up in the arctic. Even though I now know how hard it truly is to kill a werewolf I believe I was not far from death when my alpha found me. He knew what I was and he helped me learn to control and accept it." Kempton seemed to have found the end of his story but Eliot still couldn't see an answer to their questions.

"That still doesn't explain why you want your brother killed." Eliot growled.

Before Kempton could answer Parker jumped in with another question. "How old were you when you became a werewolf?"

"I was a month away from my tenth year." Kempton sounded a little lost.

Hardison looked horrified. "Nine years old?" He didn't mean the question for anyone in particular. He just couldn't keep the question to himself.

"Yes I was nine years old. Alpha, I didn't know what had really happened at the time and I didn't hear about the sightings of a werewolf in Wisconsin until a year ago. This is not the sort of thing you see on the news and no one in my pack knew where I had come from or if I had any family at all, so no one would have thought to tell me if they heard anything either."

"So what went wrong? I assume you left your pack to reunite with your brother. So what went wrong?" Eliot waited.

"He is still under the curse Wisakachek laid on him. It takes a full month for him to complete a change from human to wolf and back. He has no control over his change at all and is forced through this same cycle month after month. At night he becomes a mindless beast, aggressive, and after sunrise he is scared I think, too skittish for me to approach anyway. For three hundred and fifty years he has been trapped in this endless cycle. I can't get closer than a quarter of a mile to him before he smells me or maybe he feels me like in a pack bond, regardless, as soon as he detects me, he screams and runs away. I contacted Sue Northup to see if her pack could help me to catch him or," Kempton swallowed and collected himself again. "or kill him. She said that he wasn't a risk and she wanted no part of it. Matchitehew has been alone and trapped in this curse for so long. I wish to help him but after observing him for many months I think the only way to help him is, to end this, to kill my brother."

"We will discuss this and call you." Eliot nodded at Hardison who cut the call.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Eliot and Parker went out for a run. The first time that Parker had wanted to run with him was back in Boston and Eliot had let her come but he'd been afraid it was going to be one of those ridiculously slow jogs that he'd seen couples in the parks enduring. He was surprised at her speed and endurance and had come to look forward to the times that they ran together. Running helped him clear his head and having Parker keeping pace beside him reminded him that he wasn't alone if he didn't want to be. Parker was excellent at communicating with body language and never seemed tempted to clutter a good run with chatter.

Lately Parker had been adding more Parkour elements to their runs. They were running on a sidewalk near one of Portland's busy streets, when Parker nudged Eliot with her elbow and nodded towards the chest high concrete wall that separated the sidewalk from the steep hill below. Eliot raised an eyebrow at her. She nodded at the wall again and with a smile leapt up onto the wall but still kept her running pace. Eliot shook his head and jumped up behind her. Eliot could see where the wall ended in twenty feet or so to allow access to the stairs that lead down to a small park. Parker didn't hesitate at the end of the wall or hop back down to the side walk instead she shoved against the end of the wall with her left foot and leaped in a diagonal at the handrail on the opposite side of the stairs. Springing off the handrail with her right foot in a diagonal that took her back to the other side of the stairs again but at a lower level than she'd started at, Parker tucked into a summersault that let her roll on the cement wall that bordered the stairs. Springing out of the summersault Parker took a couple more running steps along the top of the wall and vaulted over a green trash can at the bottom of the stairs, two more running steps and she vaulted the trashcan on the opposite side of the walkway. Parker raced ahead through the park turning the whole thing into her personal playground and obstacle course. Eliot did his best to match her but there were some things that Parker could do on a whim that Eliot was pretty sure defied the laws of physics and not even his super-human-werewolf-abilities would allow him to pull off some of the same moves.

Finally deciding that he'd had enough gymnastics for one day Eliot reached out and gave Parker's ponytail a gentle tug to get her attention. He turned back to the sidewalk and back toward the brew pub. After a couple of blocks they slowed to a pace that was still a run but no longer the punishing near sprint that they had been traveling at.

"So what do you think?" Parker glanced at Eliot.

"About Kempton and his brother?"

"Is there a way to help them? Something that doesn't involve killing anyone?"

Eliot worried at his lower lip for a moment. "No I don't think so."

"There's no way to remove the curse?" Parker started to slow a little more.

"I've never even heard of something like that, let alone how to remove it." Eliot slowed them to a brisk walk. "I think Kempton is probably right. The kindest thing he could do is to end the torture his brother is in. I certainly wouldn't want to exist like that. I doubt Kempton's brother is even sane anymore." They walked a couple more blocks and could see the brew pub up ahead.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

While Eliot and Parker were out on their self-torture-I'd-rather-be-shot-than-run-that-far exercise routine Hardison decided to do a little more research. First thing he did was look up the names that Kempton had mentioned in his story. He was surprised to find that the story of Keme and Matchitehew being turned into wolves was a well known story in the Meskwaki tribe. The Wisakachek character from the story appeared in several other stories as well but Hardison was pretty sure that whoever turned Keme and Matchitehew into werewolves wasn't the actual Wisakachek, no matter what Kempton had said.

Next Hardison tried to find information on werewolf curses but his beloved internet was no help there. He kept finding information on how being a werewolf was a curse but no information on cursing someone that was already a werewolf. Hardison sighed and set his tablet to the side and picked up his cell phone.

Hardison expected to listen to the ring tone for a minute or two but was surprised to hear the call answered immediately. Unfortunately it meant he had to swallow a mouthful of orange soda quicker than he'd like and it made him choke a little. "Ms. …ach…Ms. Teo, uhum, sorry soda went down the wrong way." Hardison tried to explain while he thumped his chest a couple of times to settle the feeling. "Ms. Teo this is…"

"Alec Hardison, I know who ya are chil'. Is everythin' okay? Nothin' has happened to Eliot?" Ms. Teo sounded concerned.

"Everything is fine ma'am. I just ran into a problem that I was hoping you might be able to help with."

"Sure chil'. What be da problem?" Ms. Teo relaxed when she knew that Eliot and his people were okay. She settled back in her armchair and waited to hear what kind of problem the children might need her help with.

"Well Ms. Teo have you ever heard of someone cursing a werewolf. Not just being a werewolf as the curse but something on top of that. Something that would take the ability to control the change away from the wolf and maybe other things like changing their thinking?"

"Well I know mos' wolves as has been a wolf fo' a while don' consider it a curse no more but it surely is boy. An' layin' a curse on top of a curse is tricky business. Des Loupgarou aroun' here have betta sense than to get theyselves caught up with witches. So I don't rightly know too much about it. I'm sorry chil'."

"Witches. Like real witches?" Hardison felt a little stunned but then he guessed that he should have known that if werewolves and vampires were real and not just movie monsters then there were probably other things out there as well. "So, um, do I need to talk to a witch?"

"Oh heavens no boy! You keep ya self as far from de witches as poss'ble." Ms. Teo couldn't help spitting out her tea at his suggestion that he should contact a witch. "I wish I could tell ya who ta talk to but I ain't rightly sure. You speak with Eliot about this, he be knowin' a lot more folk than this old lady. He might know someone."

"Alright I will. Is everything okay where you are? You haven't been out hunting the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night lately have you?"

"I been fine. Teo headed back to her folks a couple a week a gon', and things has been real quiet. And I ain't been huntin' in too long. Nobody aroun' here give me cause lately, more's the pity." She chuckled low in her throat. She would miss her granddaughter being around the house but maybe she'd be back for a visit soon.

Hardison smiled and spent a few more minutes on the phone with her before he hung up and went back to his research. Ms. Teo had told him to stay away from the witches and he was inclined to take her advice but he wasn't sure where else to look either. A ping from his tablet caught his attention and he checked to see what the alert was for. Three days till full moon. Hardison had noticed that Eliot became more restless and surly for a few days on either side of the full moon. Something about the full moon triggered another thought. When Eliot had needed answers after he first became a werewolf he'd ended up with the Moonies. Hardison hadn't spoken to any of the Moonies himself but after a few of Eliot's stories he felt like he knew them. Grabbing his tablet he flew through a couple of menus until he found the information he needed from Terebessy's files.

Eliot hadn't done or said anything special when he'd called the alpha in Wisconsin so Hardison decided to go ahead and call the alpha of the Ummoon Pack in Ummoon Ireland.

"Is fearr é seo ná glao díolacháin!" A female voice growled.

"Oh! Um. I'm sorry. Is there anyone there that might speak English?" Hardison hadn't been prepared for someone that didn't speak English.

"Leathcheann." The call was disconnected with the click that said he'd been hung up on.

Hardison checked the number, ran a quick search to be sure Terebessy's information was correct, and he placed the call again.

"Again?" The same cranky female voice as before.

"So you do speak English. Is this Natali Ossory?"

"Who wants to know?"

"This is Alec Hardison." It made Hardison a little nervous to use his name and not some fake name he'd built but Eliot seemed to trust this pack and Hardison didn't think it would set the right tone if he started off lying to them.

"Eliot's computer hacker?" The voice changed from suspicion to delight. "This is Natali. What can I be doin' for ye Alec?"

"I've been trying to do a little research but, as I'm sure you can imagine, there isn't much that's reliable on the internet about werewolves."

Natali chuckled. "No I imagine not. Have you asked Eliot?" There was a pause. "You're not calling because something is wrong with Eliot are you?"

Hardison rolled his eyes. Obviously he wasn't the only one that had noticed that Eliot seemed to be a magnate for trouble. "Nope nothing is wrong with Eliot. He didn't seem to have any ideas on this problem either, so, like I said, I'm doing some research."

"Okay and what's the problem then?"

"Have you ever heard of a werewolf being cursed after they'd already become a werewolf?"

"Oh sure. My people used to be able to do such things. Of course most of the peoples who used to practice those ways have died out."

"Would you know how to reverse something like that?"

"I don't know. It's been centuries since I even considered such a thing let alone tried it. What exactly is this curse? Do you know what it does?"

"Centuries? Like for real centuries?" Hardison couldn't begin to wrap his head around such a casual statement.

Natali cleared her throat to bring his attention back.

"Right. Sorry. Um yeah I have a description here." Hardison grabbed the note pad he'd jotted notes down on when he first started searching the internet for this curse. "So the wolf is going through some kind of really slow change. It takes him a month to complete the change from human to wolf and back and at night he apparently loses the ability to reason or something and apparently he's scared or skittish during the day. I don't know much else."

"Súile Dé. The poor wretch. How long has this wolf been cursed?"

"About three hundred and fifty years." Hardison heard the door that lead into their main meeting room click shut and the tromp of two sets of feet coming down the short hall so he wasn't surprised to see Parker and Eliot round the corner.

"I need to know more about how the curse was placed on him. Do you know any of the details?"

"Nati is that you?" Eliot recognized her voice immediately and wanted to make sure that she knew he was there and that he could hear her.

"Eliot! So good to hear your voice. Alec here was just telling me about a little curse problem that you all might be dealing with." Eliot could hear the smile in Nati's voice.

"The victim's brother contacted us. He wants me to kill his brother. I…well I think he's right. I don't think there is a better way. But…" Eliot was sure that Kempton was right Matchitehew probably did need to be killed to end his suffering but Eliot didn't want to be the one to do it.

"You cowboys, always thinking that killing is the answer to everything." Nati snorted. "Not to say that killin' isn't the answer now and again but we might not need to jump to that solution just yet. Now, tell me what you know about how this curse was applied."