Chapter 73

After just a few minutes, Hotch and Sebastian caught up with the others, and Hotch mentally smiled at the way Willie was jumping around and on top of Michael and Jenny and licking all over them. Sebastian huffed. He's even more of a kid when he's in his wolf form.

I can tell you all are very close, Hotch told him as they walked up to join them and then he looked at the oldest wolf. I thought you were going hunting?

Christian growled. Damn thing was quick.

No, you're just old and slow, Jenny teased as she nipped his back hip making him yelp.

What were you hunting? Hotch asked.

Shhh! We're hunting wabbit, Willie put in in his best imitation of Elmer Fudd.

Hotch's eyes widened. Rabbit? Really? I pictured something a little bigger when you said you wanted to hunt.

If you have never done it, do not make fun of it. It is more difficult than you would think, Christian insisted.

Hotch was glad he was in his wolf form and not able to laugh out loud because he surly would have. After a second, his nose rose into the air and his nostrils flared.

I smell dinner, Michael said as he also sniffed the air. There is your deer, Aaron. Care to join me in bringing it down?

I think a deer might a little too challenging for his first hunt, Mike. Maybe we can find him a mouse or something, Jenny suggested.

Hotch huffed. I'll go.

Then let's do this, Mike told him and ran off into the trees to the right and Hotch took off after him.

I will go and keep an eye on them, Christian said and then took off after them, too.

Sebastian looked at Jenny. You knew he would take that as a challenge, he said as they started walking.

Yep. That damn man is more alpha male than Mike has ever thought about being. She leaned over and licked the older wolf's nose. But he needs to experience it, so I thought that would be the best way to get him into it.

You think Mike will be mad when Aaron beats him to it? Willie asked them.

Sebastian looked at him. No, I think Michael will be impressed.

XXX

After following the scent of what Hotch thought were a few deer for several hundred yards, he slowed down. Mike slowed down, too, and looked at him. Why are we stopping?

Hotch sniffed the air. We're getting close.

How can you tell that?

The smell is getting stronger. He stopped completely and looked at the lighter colored wolf. Can you not hear them walking through the leaves?

Mike's ears twitched forward straining to hear, and Hotch looked off to the left. What? Mike asked as he looked the same way.

They split up.

Which way do you want to go?

Hotch looked at him. You're the one who has done this before, you tell me.

Mike looked through the trees and sniffed the air. The scent we started to follow is going that way.

Hotch glanced behind them, though, as he thought he sensed something. After a second or two and not hearing or seeing anything, he looked back at the older vampire. Then let's go, he offered as he started out again, and Mike rushed to catch up with him.

After about a hundred more yards, they crept through the trees very slowly as they got closer to the deer. It was a massive buck with a beautiful set of horns, and Hotch mentally winced as he suddenly didn't like the idea of killing such a magnificent creature. Before he could give Mike his opinion, the deer startled and took off, and Mike took off after it. Damn it. It must have smelled us.

Hotch didn't even think about it, he just took off, too, as the instinct to chase overrode any other thoughts.

As the deer darted around the trees, Mike and Hotch naturally swept out to the sides a little so no matter which way it turned, one of them was there. Hotch couldn't take his eyes off the buck and he wondered for a second how he was not tripping or running into trees, but he quickly pushed that thought to the side and dug in a little harder.

He was gaining on the frantic deer, but then it suddenly turned back towards Mike who lunged at it as he snarled and growled, but the deer turned again.

Hotch turned the opposite way, though, and Mike yelled in frustration. When the deer pivoted on its back leg putting it right in Hotch's path, Michael's eyes grew wide. It's like you anticipated that!

But the deer darted right past as Hotch skidded to a stop and whipped around.

Michael's eyes locked with his. Why did you let it. . .

He didn't get to finish his question as Hotch let out a vicious snarl and lunged at him with teeth bared. Michael's paws slipped on the dirt and leaves as he tried to backpedal and then he sank to the ground as his eyes slammed shut not wanting to see the attack that he thought was coming. Please!

After finally catching up with the younger men, Christian was about to call out to them but then stopped in his tracks and gasped as he witnessed Hotch launching into the air, but then he whined in confusion as Hotch's lunge actually took him over Michael cowering on the ground and slammed into something on the other side of a large clump of bushes. The ancient vampire's claws threw up dirt as he struggled to get closer as the sounds of snapping jaws, clashing teeth, and deep chested growls made the hair on his back stand straight up.

When he rounded the edge of the bushes, his mind couldn't process what he was seeing. Hotch was fighting something, or at least that's what it looked like. All he could see was Hotch, and him snapping, twisting, turning, and biting at the air made no sense what so ever. He looked at Michael and the look in Michael's eyes told him he didn't believe it either.

What the hell is he doing? Michael asked as he forced himself up off the ground.

Christian glanced at him but before he could say anything a brutal rumble escaped Hotch, but it was cut off abruptly as Hotch's jaws clamped together and suddenly Hotch wasn't the only one in front of them. A black beast's body hung limply from Hotch's muzzle because its throat was in Hotch's mouth.

Christian changed into his human form and ran a hand down his face. "Bloody hell, Aaron!"

Michael changed and looked at the ancient vampire. "Is that what I think it is?"

Hotch dropped the bloody beast and swallowed as he changed and then looked at the two men. "Why didn't one of you help me?!"

Sebastian, Jenny, and Willie rushed into the group. "What happened? We could hear. . ." Sebastian started but his jaw dropped as he took in Hotch's bloody face and the dead thing on the ground. It looked like a large dog that was suffering a bad case of mange, but it didn't have padded paws like a dog. Instead, it had three extended toes that ended in sharp talons.

"I thought you were attacking me," Mike started as he looked at Hotch.

"I wasn't attacking you! I was saving you!" Hotch roared. His chest heaved. "Was this another fucking test?" he demanded to know as he advanced to Christian in two long strides.

Christian swallowed and backed up a step. "No, Aaron. It was not a test. We could not help you because we could not see it."

"What?" Hotch yelled as his face showed the anger building in him.

"That's a chupacabra. No one can see it except when it's feeding. How the hell did you see it?" Michael asked him.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Hotch hollered through clenched teeth.

"Calm down, Aaron," Jenny tried as she took a step towards him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" he retorted as his hands balled into fists.

Christian stepped to Hotch's side and put a firm hand on Hotch's arm. "Easy, Aaron. We ar. . ."

His words were cut off as Hotch's hand lashed out and grabbed him by the throat as he changed into his vampire form. "Don't touch me!" he ordered in a sinister whisper through fangs as he lifted him about three inches off the ground.

"Oh shit," Willie uttered. "He must have drunk some of its blood."

Sebastian cringed and then took a tentative step closer to Hotch. "Aaron, please put him down," he begged in a gentle tone. "You must have swallowed some of the chupacabra's blood."

Hotch slowly turned his red rimmed, yellow eyes toward the man who'd changed him. "So what if I did?"

Sebastian stared right back at him. "Those damn things are wrath incarnate, Aaron. What you are feeling is the effects of its blood on you."

Hotch looked back to the man struggling to breathe in his hand and his lip flared, and they were all scared that he was going to kill him.

Jenny took a deep breath and moved in and grabbed Hotch's chin with a gentle hand and made him look at her. "Please, Aaron," she pleaded. "Force it down and change back. I don't know you that well but I know you enough to know this is not you. This is that beast's blood influencing you," she continued as her voice softened and her eyes begged for him to heed her.

Hotch's face scrunched up as he moaned and he squeezed his eyes shut.

"You can do it, Aaron. You are stronger than the blood," Sebastian urged.

Hotch lowered Christian back to the ground and pulled his hand away from him. "I'm sorry," he uttered and was gone.

"Aaron!" Sebastian yelled and then took off after him.

Jenny went to Christian. "Are you alright?"

He was rubbing his throat. "I thought he was going to behead me with his bare hand."

Michael cringed. "I've never. . ." He shook his head. "Son of a bitch!"

"What happened?" Willie asked.

Michael shrugged. "Everything was fine. Aaron is fast, and we almost had the deer, but he suddenly stopped." He sighed. "And then he lunged for me."

"For you?" Jenny asked with wide eyes.

"Well, no, actually, but I thought he was. The look of hatred in his eyes. . . I thought I was dead."

"Apparently Aaron could see the beast and went after it. We watched as he battled nothing but thin air not knowing what was going on," Christian explained. "Of course, once he killed it we could see it."

Jenny looked back and forth between the two men. "It must have been going after Michael."

Christian nodded. "It would seem so."

"You wouldn't have known about it until it was too late," Willie told Mike.

Mike nodded and sighed again. "If Aaron would have kept chasing after that buck, that beast would have had me. I can't believe he's the youngest of us all and he's the one to save me."

Christian took a long breath. "And we thought we were here to teach him," he uttered and then motioned towards the dead beast. "We better burn that thing so humans don't find it."

XXX

Sebastian found Hotch kneeling by the river washing his face off roughly with the cold water. "Aaron."

Hotch tensed and shook his head. "Don't, I can still feel the rage. Please don't come any closer."

The detective sighed but stayed where he was. "What you're feeling is not your fault, Aaron. You didn't know that its blood would do that."

Hotch huffed and then ran his hands through his hair. "How long will it last?"

"I don't know. I've never met anyone who has drunk the blood of a chupacabra. I have heard stories of its blood being used in hexes that cause the cursed to develop strong bouts of anger, though. I think that's where William got the idea."

Hotch turned sad eyes towards the man. "I can't go home like this."

Sebastian cringed and then gestured down the riverbank. "Then run."

"What?" Hotch asked and then winced at the anger still in his voice.

"When you were the wolf before did you notice that it makes you need to feed sooner than normal?"

"Yes."

Sabastian nodded. "It does that to us all. The effects of the blood will work through your system more quickly if you use your wolf form."

Hotch nodded and pushed himself up. "I don't think I drank that much of it."

Sebastian studied him; Hotch had yet to change back. He took a deep breath. "Or if need be, feed on something else to help dilute it."

"I have a bag in my car."

"Then go. I'll call you tomorrow."

Hotch turned but then turned back. "Did I hear them right that I wasn't even supposed to be able to see it?"

Sebastian smiled. "There are a lot of things you aren't supposed to be able to do, Aaron, and yet you still do them."

Hotch sighed.

Sebastian chanced reaching out and putting a supportive hand on Hotch shoulder. When the muscles tensed under him, he almost pulled back but stuck it out. "You saved Michael's life, Aaron, so I am glad you were able to see it, and I thank you."

"And then I almost killed Christian, so it doesn't really mean anything."

Sebastian slowly shook his head. "That wasn't you, Aaron, but it was you who saved Michael, so that means a lot."

Hotch pulled away from him. "I'll talk to you tomorrow," he told him and then was gone.

**Pictures of all of the wolves and the chupacabra are on my website: the tales of hoffer "dot" weebly "dot" com – no spaces and a period in place of "dot". If you are really into this story, you may want to bookmark the site or something because I will be adding stuff to it almost every chapter.