***Thank you dear reader for your views. They are like food for my soul! But even better is a comment. Please tell me what you think?
****Oh and I forgot to mention in the earlier parts of the story – Lidia is not with the pack. She's having an evening of pampering at a beauty spa. LOL
Dean poured gasoline over the body and threw on a match, watching as the flames consumed Tiffany's corpse. Sam stood a few feet away with shovel in hand. The clearing they had chosen was far enough away from the fair to avoid anyone spotting the smoke or getting a whiff of the burning flesh.
'Do you still think this was a hex bag?' Sam asked, beginning the tiresome task of returning the earth over the hole.
Dean considered this a moment, using his boot to tip some of the pile over Tiffany's shallow grave.
'I've never seen anything like that body. But then every hex bag seems to do something different,' he remarked.
They finished their task and dawdled back to the car.
By the time they had driven back to the field and parked, the evening had darkened into night. The lights of the fair flashed in multicoloured excitement.
Dean checked his watch. 'Time for the fireworks,' he noted.
As if he had summoned them, the first rocket screamed into the sky, bursting outwards in a large, green blossom of sparks. The PA system belted out some upbeat music, the display overhead keeping time.
After the first explosion, Dean didn't look up. He moved away from the PA speakers and scanned the crowd hoping to catch sight of Astrid. There were a few girls in white dresses wandering through the throng, most of them young enough to still be in junior high.
Someone backed into him, knocking his drink over Sam.
'Hey! Dean shouted.
It was just a gawky kid.
Dean grabbed the front of his red hoody.
'Nice move there buddy,' he said sarcastically.
The boy squirmed, apologizing.
'Stiles! You OK?' his friend said, stepping up beside Dean. His eyes flashed red for just a second in a blatant warning.
Dean picked Stiles up by his jumper and pushed him at the were wolf.
'Keep your pack under control!' Dean warned in a low voice.
Stiles threw his hands out to the side in a helpless gesture.
'I tripped!' he protested first to Dean and then to his friend. 'Some of us lack the natural grace of the hunter.'
Dean scoffed. The kid was closer to the truth than he knew. He gave them both another frown and let them walk off.
The young man's cries were drowned out by the music and the fireworks overhead. Ben flailed at the thick smoke surrounding him and invading his throat. He'd caught sight of it out of the corner of his eye and jumped back with wolf like reflexes.
That hadn't stopped the ominous, black column from reaching him, enveloping his form and clouding his flashing yellow eyes. It streamed into his open mouth, choking him.
Ben fell to his knees.
His last thought was a regret.
'Never should have come to this stupid pack treaty.'
The dark thing knew a lot about Ben now. It knew that Ben wouldn't be missed by a pack. It knew Ben had come here on his own, slinking around the edges of the fair, too afraid to approach one of the packs. Now the dark thing knew what an Omega was.
Slowly, the dark thing wafted back into the trees behind the Fortune Teller's tent where it had made a meal of Ben the Omega. The energy of Ben was unsatisfying and the dark thing knew it would need to feed much sooner.
It was about to return to the slick, liquid form when it smelled something delicious. An Alpha was near.
Before the fair - before Tiffany and Ben, the dark thing knew nothing of werewolves or Alphas and Betas. It only sensed their supernatural energy and hungered for it. While it sought out its target and fed to grow strong, the dark thing was happy with this source of nourishment.
But now it had the scent of the Alpha, awakening a deep gnawing need. The Alpha would give the dark thing enough energy to face the source. That much energy would swell within its being and give it power to destroy.
The witch would pay.