CHAPTER 5
Cursed
A couple of hours after a very early dinner, Hardison Parked Lucille in front of a small house just off of highway eleven. The house was set back from the highway at the end of a long driveway and was fairly secluded. The property was heavily wooded and was sandwiched between highway eleven and Bray Rd.
"Who owns this place?" Abby looked at the run down house. The stucco used to be white but most of it had chipped and crumbled away and what was left was tagged.
"For the moment us." Hardison pulled a couple of equipment bags out of the back of Lucille. "The real-estate company been tryin' to sell this place for years but word has gotten out that it's haunted."
"You bought this place?" Eliot looked out over the fallow field and into the trees.
"Rented. Had to rent it for the whole month but rent in Wisconsin is nothing compared to rent in Portland." Hardison waved Eliot over. "Grab that generator will you."
Eliot pulled the generator out and set it a short distance from the van. In no time they had their temporary command center set up.
Parker gathered everyone up and reviewed the plan. "According to what Keme has observed we are near the center of Matchitehew's territory. Eliot thinks we can get Matchitehew to come to us so that's our first step. Next we'll try to remove the curse. Ewen, Abby, do we need to do any prep work on that first?"
"Nati sent several pre-mixed bags with us. She wasn't sure which one is most likely to work and frankly Keme wasn't able to give us enough to eliminate more than two of the bags. So I'm afraid we may have to do the ritual repeatedly unless we luck out on the first try. But other than that there really isn't any prep." Ewen looked at Abby and she shrugged.
"Okay El. I got a couple of toys for you." Hardison handed Eliot two plastic guns. "I'm sure you recognize the tranq gun. It's been loaded with hellebore per Ms. Teo's instructions. That second one is a tracker. It's more accurate over longer distances than the tranq gun is so if you get a chance use that one first."
"Is this one a pellet gun?" Eliot rattled the second one.
"It is. The pellets are actually tiny capsules. If you can lodge one in the wolf's skin the outside of the pellet will dissolve and then I'll be able to track the nano-bots. See the nano-bots have this frequency that…"
Eliot growled loudly. "Dammit Hardison, geek spiral!" Parker giggled and Eliot pointed at her "And don't you start. You'll only encourage him."
"So how do you want to handle drawing him in?" Ewen looked to Eliot.
"Do you think you'd notice if I pissed in your living room?" Eliot's grin was mischievous.
"I think Abby would crack you across the jaw if you tried it." Ewen tilted his head toward Abby.
Abby rolled her eyes but shrugged and agreed. "I would actually. So you better never try it."
"True." Eliot laughed. "Since Hardison set us up with this stuff I'll stay human. You go wolf and we'll see about setting up our new territory." Eliot nudged Ewen, and checked the time. "An hour till dark. Let's mark territory and set up on the south side of the glade."
Ewen stepped to the other side of the van and started his shift.
"Hardison where's the cooler with the meat?" Eliot looked around at the bags and boxes.
"In the back of Lucille. I didn't want to attract bugs." Hardison was already fiddling with something on his tablet. Eliot went to the back and grabbed the small cooler.
In no time Eliot and Ewen disappeared into the tree line. Hardison pulled up the tracking on Eliot's ear bud. "Now I guess we wait." Hardison put an arm around Parker and they made themselves comfortable sitting in the open side door of Lucille.
Abby pulled up a camp chair next to them and pulled out a small compact with a mirror. Dabbing a small brush into the dish of the compact Abby started painting a red swirling pattern across the left side of her face.
"Um…Just a…what exactly are you doing there?" Hardison waved a hand over his own face as he stared at Abby in fascination.
"Many, many generations ago a great-something-grandmother of mine was a bandruí in Nati's tribe. The customs are passed down through the women and with Nati's help we are still pretty true to the ancient tradition." Abby didn't look away from her mirror as she explained.
"A bandruí is a what?" Hardison was already googling even as he asked.
"A priestess in the druid tradition. That's why I came. I'm the one that has to remove the curse." Abby snapped the compact closed and returned it to her purse.
"Oh! Ewen didn't come to get rid of the curse he came as your body guard!" Parker smiled as the pieces clicked together.
"There is a long, Irish, tradition of werewolves as guardians actually. They are called faoladh or conroicht. They are said to be protectors of children and wounded men. Not to say that they don't get into a bit of mischief according to the legends but they aren't considered monsters." Abby settled more comfortably into her camp chair.
"Does Eliot know about those legends?" Parker leaned into Hardison.
"I'm not sure. I would think around Nati it'd be hard to miss but then I'm never really sure what the wolves know." Abby turned a thoughtful look towards the woods. "Maybe we should tell some of those old stories later."
"Tell Abby I'd like that." Eliot's voice came over Parker and Hardison's earbuds.
Parker pointed at her ear. "Eliot says he'd like that."
Hardison fished a small plastic case out of one of the duffle bags in the back. Flipping it open he pulled out a new earbud and handed it to Abby. "You can tell her yourself in a couple of seconds." Hardison tapped a couple of settings on his tablet. "There. Abby can you hear us?"
"Hardison she's sitting right next to you. Of course she can hear you!" Eliot's growly response came through clearly over Abby's earbud.
"Yer just cranky that Ewen got to go wolf and you didn't. I know how you are." Abby told him.
A howl rose high and mournful in the distance. "Okay looks like this party is finally getting started." Hardison tapped on several of the programs he'd minimized on his tablet.
"That cry was north east of us." Eliot was thinking of options when the first rain drop splashed cold against his ear. "Hardison drag everything into Lucille that you don't want soaked; rain's on its way. Parker did you guys bring your paintball guns?"
"Yep, Sparky. Already loaded. Checked the Co2 before we headed out here. Why?"
"The rogue is north of you and I'm south of you. Everyone into Lucille until we know he's past you guys." Eliot turned up the collar on his coat and hunkered down further under the old pine he was near. Eliot could hear the clatter as they followed his instructions and got everything into the van.
"Paintball guns?" Abby looked questioningly at Parker.
"Paintballs are loaded with a silver solution." Parker answered over her shoulder as she tossed a couple of bags into the van.
"Pretty nasty deterrent. We've seen what it can do. Non-lethal but I'm not sure if that's on the plus side if you're a werewolf that got hit with one." Hardison added as he looked around to see if they'd missed anything. Hardison didn't spot anything, slid the door closed and locked them all inside.
The howl came again but this time it was closer and it had a much different quality to it. "He's hunting." Abby whispered and she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck.
"Don't worry. Ewen and I are on the hunt too. We'll keep him busy." Eliot had heard the hunting cry and decided that they couldn't wait for the rogue to come to them if he was on the hunt. A wolf that was running on the thrill of the hunt was less predictable and Eliot didn't want to risk the rogue going after his people before he smelled the bait they'd laid out for him. "Ewen head toward the highway. I'll come around through the trees behind the house." Eliot didn't wait for a response as he broke cover and started running through the darkening wood.
The hunting cry repeated but this time it was very close. Hardison, Parker and Abby, all remained silent and still. They could hear the crunch of gravel as something circled the van. Parker followed the sound of the movement with her eyes and held Hardison's hand tighter. The sudden patter of rain masked the sounds coming from the outside and they all momentarily lost track of the rogue outside. Before long there were snuffling sounds coming from the seam of the rear doors. Hardison covered his mouth and nose to help muffle the sound of his breathing picking up.
Eliot heard the careful silence and Hardison's shallow breathing. "I'm almost there guys." Eliot said it very quietly, hoping the sound wouldn't carry, since he knew that he could hear people speaking across the earbuds when he wasn't wearing one but was near someone that was using one. Hopefully the sound of the rain would hide any of the other sounds his people might be making and the rogue would lose interest in the van.
The snuffling continued for a moment and then everything was silent. The silence stretched on seeming to amplify the sound of the rain. The three in the van had started to relax a little thinking that the wolf had moved on when another shrill excited howl went up. Parker couldn't help the squeak that was startled out of her and Hardison looked at her and then the doors again with round eyes. The thump of impact on the side of the van rocked Lucille so hard that Hardison thought they were going over. A second later there was a slightly less intense thump followed by more snuffling, this time along the side door of the van. Abby moved across the van to get away from the sliding door and closer to Hardison and Parker. Hardison thought that the sound of the metal screeching, as wolf claws pierced the paneling on the side door, was the scariest thing he'd ever heard. Parker aimed her paintball gun at the door and rested her index finger against the frame of the gun, away from the trigger, just the way that Eliot had taught her. "This isn't a toy Parker. You are using it as a weapon. So you will respect it as a weapon." Parker could hear Eliot's growly instructions in her mind as she kept a wary eye on the door.
They all turned toward the sound of the metallic ping as something ricocheted off the side of the van. "You guys stay in the van!" Eliot wasn't trying to hide anything from the rogue wolf now. There was the sound of another hunting cry but this time there was a deeper tone to it.
"That's my Ewen." Abby grabbed Parker's hand and held on tight.
Something landed on the top of the van but wasn't there long. The van rocked as whoever was on the van launched themselves from the roof. There was the sound of snarling and feet sliding in gravel. Hardison grabbed his own paintball gun and moved toward the front of the van to see if he could get a look outside at what was happening. Hardison could see movement but between the rain and the dark he couldn't tell what was happening.
A snarl followed by a cry of pain brought them all to the front of the van. "Do you see them?" Parker had her face pressed to the glass but couldn't make out anything.
A whimpered gasp, broadcast over the earbuds, had Parker and Hardison shoving their way through the side door of the van. Eliot was on his knees curled forward and cradling his left arm. Hardison and Parker rushed toward him.
"Stop!" Eliot's voice cracked like a whip through the rain. "Get away from me!" He panted for several breaths and eyed them. They stood frozen for a moment and looked around to see where the danger was. Seeing nothing they started to move toward Eliot again. "Stop. I mean it. Don't come any closer." Eliot squeezed his eyes shut and his face contorted in a rictus of pain for a moment. "The rogue did something to me. I can feel the change coming and,… and,… I want…" The last two words came out like ground gravel and didn't sound at all like Eliot. He shook his head trying to clear the fog that seemed to be enveloping him. "There's a rifle in a case under my bed at the hotel. Tell Ewen. He..." Eliot cried out and clutched at the bloody wound on his arm. "Tell him to do it." Eliot screamed and jerked to the side. Parker lunged toward him but Hardison grabbed her and dragged her back. They could see the change surging over Eliot but instead of the smooth liquid-like change that made it seem like he flowed from one shape to the other this change was much more violent. They could hear the sound of his bones rearranging and changing shape and each phase of the change seemed to jerk him into another positon until with a completely inhuman cry he rose on all fours. His hackles raised and a snarl showing wicked fangs, he lunged toward Parker, his eyes gone black.
Pffft. Snap. The paintball hit just in front of his right shoulder. With a yelp he turned and sprinted into the woods.