Chapter 3: the Hunters Have Tea

"We're home!"

"Not alone!" Sally signalled the house guest. He was a tall gentleman, noble in the face and wiry most everywhere else. Then there was a young girl, who must have been almost twelve looking through Aiden's music collection. Then the old woman who sat with her hand in the other guest's lap.

There was no doubt, the two women were of werewolf blood, but they couldn't figure out what the man was.

"Oh you're right!" the lady exclaimed, she sprung up and it took all of Aiden's and Josh's self-control to appear they didn't expect her to fall. Despite her age, she had a sprightly step and a very firm handshake. "They are such handsome creatures."

The man scowled a bit, and the noise he made sounded like it could have come from a dog. But he didn't say anything other than that. Aiden thought he could hear a rumbling in his throat.

"HI! It's so nice to see you!" Josh started, his smile wide but his eyes furrowed, "who are you... exactly?"

"Ah we were just telling your beautiful lady friend about the mix up." The old lady took a step back and indicated first to the tall man, "I'm Elda. This is Thom. And this is Hope."

"They're from the reserve." Sally obviously couldn't hold her excitement. She jerked like a live wire. "They have news from Nora."

"WHAT! Wait, why didn't you tell us this earlier!"

"You asked if it could wait twenty minutes. You're late by the way." She jumped over the seat and onto the couch, "Quick Elda, tell them!"

"Nora's due in four weeks."

Aiden bit his lip and Josh jumped up with his mouth open and his hands in his hair. "Four weeks!?" They had realized that the process was different for 'wolves, and though they said accelerated, Josh had assumed the pregnancy would last at least five months. He said it, "Ma'ma said that the average werewolf pregnancy is half of a year!"

"We rarely get cases like yours and Nora's from the onset. Usually it's one or the other or born to humans. Not born to…"

"Born to two freaks. Got it."

"Hey!" This was the first time the girl interacted with them. And obviously the use of the term 'freak' insulted her. Josh apologized quickly, forgetting he wasn't the only one in the room with the condition—and like Nora enjoyed pointing out to him, he seemed like the only one who was not so in harmony with his other half. "Sorry, I don't mean that you as a person are a freak, I just meant the… well the condition."

"Stop," Thom said to end his rambling. Josh did, swallowed, and thought to apologize but the look on the other man's face said it all. "We know some people don't embrace the 'wolf as others do. But you have to remember most do not chose the condition. Just have to live with it."

Elda put her hand on his, and pat it sympathetically. Aiden too stood behind Josh and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. This calmed the brunet and he let out a very tense breath.

"So okay, that's great, why not a phone call or something—"

"You got a problem with us, Fangs?" Thom's question was of a polite volume, but the venom in his voice was worse than any bark.

"—And we could have picked you up at the airport or set up a room for you." Finished Aiden, evenly. "Is Nora going to be home sooner then?"

"She could be, but the last full born under a full moon had complications. The mother stayed at the ranch for a few weeks after delivery. Just missed transformation by the day."

"OH SHIT!" Josh this time did jump up, "You mean you think Nora's going to give birth on the next moon?"

"We can't tell something that detailed yet. Werewolf births aren't an exact science. But yes, it will be pretty close."

"Will she be at any risk?"

"All 'wolf pregnancies are risks," stated Hope unhelpfully. "And anyway, we wanted to let you know that because of the nature of how close the birth will be to the moon, we must discourage you from seeing Nora for the delivery."

Josh seemed as if the child had struck him in the face. This news was not welcome. Werewolf or not, it would be his child, and no amount of transformation will keep him from being there when his own offspring, no matter the condition, took its first breath.

"I don't care if I am transforming right there, I want to be there when my girlfriend delivers it."

He bit it back a bit when he saw Hope wince. Her blue gray eyes flashed a bit of resentment and Josh quickly clarified, "I mean, son or daughter or whichever the case may be."

"We're not going to stop you," Elda said, "Not if you really want to go, but I want you to know that the risk will just increase when you're there."

"Nora will want me there."

That was true. Aiden went into the kitchen to see what kind of food was in the kitchen. Josh kept mostly health drinks and protein supplements in the fridge. Of course, the blood stock was in the vegetable drawer but he doubted his guests would like to have blood while they were human. He came back with a can of V8 and half of a carton of milk. "Drink?"

They looked at him dryly then sat back down.

The mood had eased a bit, Thom was reigning himself in from launching at the other homeowner. Elda was smiling at Sally as she brought her a blanket, and Hope was fidgeting with her toes.

Josh leaped up to help him pour drinks, and Aiden suspected he just wanted to be back in familiar company. "I need to ask for work off. Wonder if Nora wants anything from the house. And are you going to be okay if I go?"

"It's your baby," Aiden shrugged trying to decide if the glasses in the drying rack were clean or dirty. "Why would I mind?"

"The cage fight for Snow is next moon. If I remember correctly, these things don't ever go well for us!"

"In town or out of town, things don't seem to go well for us. You should go to the reserve. That's what you wanted in the car, right? I'll be fine."

"Okay, but you have to promise me you will text me every 12 hours. And don't let Mother burry you again. I am not going to do another party transformation, ever."

"Okay, I got out by myself, and I appreciate your first transformation."

"Thanks buddy!" then Josh guzzled down a drink (not actually intended for him) and returned to the living room. Sally nudged him to let the vampire know she was there. "What's wrong with Josh?"

"There's something wrong with Josh?" he asked, balancing all the drinks on the only baking tray they had. It would have to do as a serving tray.

She paused then stared at him, "What's wrong with you?"

"Sally, when we touch you, can you feel anything?"

"Weird woogy things like someone smearing jell'o through your blood stream. But actual touch? No, alas!" She feigned a faint, then added, "Why?"

"Today I spied on the vampire contact from Bristol. And he was talking to a ghost girl who he grabbed. Literally clamped her down. It was only for a second, then she materialized away. I was just wondering if that kind of thing actually works."

"Can you hold my hand?" she asked, reach out. He inadvertently walked through it then apologized profusely for violating her space. Physically, he felt nothing. "Well there you go!"

"Weird then," Aiden let the topic slide when he returned to the were-guests. Sally sat between Hope and Thom, and the girl smiled, scooted closer to the arm rest to make room for her. But Sally didn't need room.

"Aiden, Aiden! Elda and Hope are legacy born."

"That means…" Aiden tried to remember, "They are children of werewolves…who do not show traits of purebreds."

"Right… Purebreds…" Josh, thought about it, "Like Bryn."

"Of course…" Aiden put the cups on the table and instantly without etiquette, Hope snatched a milk. Elda also took one and Thom seemed to contemplate it. "How are they different though, exactly?"

"Purebreds have the werewolf instincts all the time. Most legacy only show the traits on occasions."

"Can you tell what the child will be when it is born?"

"Not really, seems the type is determined on the hour of birth," Elda thought about it then said, "Purebreds are born to women werewolves during the moon. Since gestation happens very quickly in the transformed state, so most births are during transformation. Like your case, most of them are also conceived during the moon. Children born to a human mother and a wolf father tend to be born human. Perhaps exhibiting more human traits than wolf traits. Anxiety during the moon is very common, but not particularly alarming. If there is wolf blood even if they don't show werewolf traits, then they are considered Legacy."

"So what about a werewolf mother out of the moon?"

"Children born out of the moon are a bit more unsure. Some will be Purebred, some will just be Legacy. Some end up being a mix. Like Hope."

"Both of your parents are werewolves?"

Hope looked a bit lost, and had a milk moustache. That she quickly wiped on the back of her knitted sleeve. "They were." She admitted.

"Were?"

"My father was shot at the hand of Vampires. He died human."

"Oh," Aiden felt bad that he asked, "I'm sorry."

"My mom's okay though. She comes visits the reserve during the new moons."

"You're not together?" Josh asked, somewhat shocked.

"My mom runs with a pack. It's pack culture to eat those born not purebred. I think she did me good by not keeping me near the pack." She scratched her curly brown hair then shrugged, "I still love her. It's not like she abandoned me."

"Hope's mother had the instinct telling her she was not going to give birth during the moon. She had come to the reserve with only a few days left and gave birth hours before transforming. Hope had been fighting her for a week and finally she risked everything to sneak from the pack to the reserve."

"Nearly died," Hope said, somewhat proudly, "But after a week or so, she managed. Even as she lay transformed the day after I was born, she did nothing but curl her paws around me and sing me to sleep."

"We brought Hope with us so that you can speak with her and ask her what it's like being Legacy born of two 'wolves." Elda took Josh's hand and he jerked a bit at how intimate that felt. "So you can find out what you can expect."

"Well I'm going to be there for my own kid's birth."

"You were told that's not wise," barked Thom. He stood through Sally and the ghost yipped before re-materializing by Josh.

"I think that, as the father, he gets to choose whether or not he wants to heed your suggestion."

"Like you know anything about being a father, Fangs."

Aiden didn't let that one get to him, equally evenly, the vampire just nodded to keep the peace. "Either way, you are not a deciding party here."

"You're going to cower behind your Bloodsucking owner?" Thom obviously didn't like that Josh wasn't putting Aiden down, "You're a sad excuse for a wolf and I hope your baby is born during your blind transformation."

Thom was addressing Josh now, and angrily he reached forward – in retrospect, to grab his leather jacket off of the seat Josh had been sitting on. But Josh thought he mean to attack him and he shielded himself with his shin.

Aiden swept forward immediately, before he knew what he was doing, and flashed his fangs, deepened his eyes. "Back off, dog." The vampire had tried to be polite, it didn't seem to work, "You don't know anything about Josh and you have no right to judge his worth as a father or as a person."

His roommate put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and tried to eas the vampire out of his frustration. "Come on Aiden. It's okay, I just over-reacted. He wasn't going to attack me."

"Never mind that, he still insulted you."

"He might be right."

"Don't say that, Dude." Aiden was still glowing angry, "You're going to be a great father, wolf or not. And no jerk who invites himself to our house and scorns our hospitality is going to tell you or me that you can't cut it."

Hope had stood in front of Thom too, barring him from reaching out and strangling the vampire. And she was surprisingly effective. "Sit down Thom."

He did. Still snarling.

"Sorry," Elda said, "Thom was born of a pack in California. They have … more serious convictions about vampire blood. And 'wolf births."

Aiden wiped his fangs on his sleeves and let his eyes shallow. It took every nerve in his body to prevent himself from taking a deadly bite out of the house guest's open neck. The wolf blood ran through him, there was no doubt about it. In feeding frenzy, Aiden could smell that wolf poison pulse through the punk's neck- but the more he thought about it, the more he realized he was not a werewolf, he was not anything.

"Aiden was a dad before he was a vampire. Sure, vampires can't have kids of their own, but that doesn't mean Aiden doesn't know what it's like to be a father."

"Aiden had children?" Elda repeated, in some surprise.

This knowledge quelled Thom a bit and though he listened to Sally's words he never took his beady eyes off of the undead host. "Doesn't change anything."

"Changes quite a bit," thought Hope. "Look, Thom. Go get a smoke, I'm going to talk to Josh one on one like Ma'ma wanted me to. And I don't want you to go feral on our sponsors. Elda won't be able to stop you on a blood hunt."

"There are no blood hunts anymore."

"Outside, Thomas. Or I will bite you."

Despite how comical the threat sounded to the Haunt's trio, Thom obviously took this to heart, and if he had dog ears, he would have folded them back. He was muttering as he went out the front door, already fishing through his pockets for a fag and a light.

When the door closed, Elda signed and apologized, "There are very few of us who can leave the reserve for more than a few weeks at a time. Since it does take a few days to travel from the reserve to the nearest town, and a few hours to the airport, even less of us can afford the luxury of traveling for long periods of time." She put down her carrot juice and smiled, "My grandson is not the most understanding of members in our family. And unlike the rest of us legacies, his is a much sorrier story."

"I don't care. He needs to be taught some manners."

"I admire how you stood up to him for Josh though." Hope admitted, "We don't interact with friendly vampires very much. It makes one wonder if what they say about the rivalry must be true."

"I would think most of it is true," Sally said, "But Aiden's one of the golden ones!"

This made the vampire a bit self conscious. He hadn't been on the bloodless bandwagon for very long, others before him had better self control when it came to the addiction. The compliment wasn't even well earned. But Sally didn't let him argue, so Aiden just said, "I care about my friends. That's all."

"And loyalty's highly respected among 'wolves, especially so for Pack 'wolves." Elda stated, "Thom will come around once he cools down."

"Is he… you know… infected?"

Hope looked around as if she wanted more clarification and just said, "… By werewolfism?"

"Is there even a clinical term for it!?" asked Josh, somewhat relieved that others of his kind couldn't figure out what to call the werewolf trait.

"I think it's known as lycanthropy."

"Isn't that a mental disease?" Josh asked, he had looked it up once.

"Yeah, but I think it's, like… for both?" She scratched her head, "We don't really talk about it much as if it is something that's a sickness. It's just a part of who we are."

"People who are OCD say they are OCD."

"I guess so," she looked like a kid for a moment, very much not sure what to say. "Want to go to the kitchen or something? I'm sure you have some questions as to what to expect with 'wolf puppies."

"Yeah." Josh led Hope toward the kitchen where they could still see Aiden and Elda, but then had a thought, "Do you really call children born to werewolves 'puppies'."

"No," she commented as they wandered out of earshot, "I was just trying to be cute."

It was only a few hours later, the women decided it was time to go to their motel. Despite Sally's protests, they declined the invitation to sleep in the guest room, and insisted they get back to the inn before the last bus.

Aiden offered to drive them, and though this relieved Hope, Elda seemed somewhat reluctant to put the vampire in a car with the volatile Thom.

So Josh packed the little girl some left over Chinese food, and Elda was draping the shawl back over Sally's couch when Aiden stepped out to their porch to see if he could find the hothead.

Thom sat on their stoop with a half finished cigarette. He took a drag when the vampire opened the front door and held it in his lungs till Aiden closed the door behind him.

Thom must have barely been twenty or thirty. His dark hair was a curly mess on top of his oily head, but therein lay some sort of rebellious attitude that reminded the vampire a bit of the 60's and all the fun memories that came and went with that decade.

Punk, Rock and roll…

"Elda tells me you all are Vampire Hunters. You have specialized hunters for vampires – in werewolf packs that is."

"What of it, Fangs?" Thom stuffed the cigarette to his mouth, and there he let it hang. The orange glow brightening every other second or so.

"Just figured you wanted to know I knew." Aiden smelled the air, he let out a breath but unlike the 'wolf. He didn't exhale steam despite the chilly September climate. "I hunt vampires too, you know. Killed more than you in my time, probably."

"Whoop-ti-do." The dark haired wolf shrugged his jacket over his shoulder, he made the show that he was not impressed, "That supposed to make me like you, or something? Killing your own kind…"

"Nah, I'm just saying that I know vamps can be jerks sometimes. I killed my own maker a few years ago."

"How much did Elda tell you?" he growled, though with much more venom than Aiden had anticipated.

"She didn't tell me anything, just that you were hunters. I just wanted you to know I don't hold it against you. There are vampires out there who deserve to die. Just like there are werewolves out there who deserve to die."

This time Thom did look at him, for a moment there was a unreadable twinkle. Then the 'wolf got up, stretched his arms skyward then snuffed out the cig under his boot. "Okay, Fangs. But don't think this means we're friends."

"So long as we're not enemies," Aiden extended his hand to the house-guest. The 'wolf ignored it. "You can call me Aiden."

"My name is Thomas." He wiped the cold from his nose. "And thanks for the milk."