Madam Yvonne hummed happily as she put some spices into the concoction she was brewing. Truly, she had underestimated that Nadine. She had been shocked when Nadine had come in a few hours ago and dropped off the vial containing some lycanthrope's blood. Madam Yvonne had tasted it and found out that Nadine wasn't shitting her.
For the first time in a long time, she had hope that she would get revenge on the lycanthrope who had scarred her face.
Madam Yvonne stirred her brew which contained the lycanthrope's blood and waited for it to boil.
A visitor entered and immediately, Madam Yvonne positioned herself in front of the brew, effectively hiding it from the person's view.
The visitor turned out to be Nick.
“Ah, Nick. To what do I owe the pleasure? Are you here in your capacity as a detective or an Alpha?” Madam Yvonne said jovially.
Ignoring her, Nick sniffed deeply, “I smell blood.” He said suspiciously.
Blasted lycanthrope, thought Madam Yvonne. Their sense of smell was so strong that they could perceive even the smallest amount of blood.
“Well, yes, I'm on my period.” Madam Yvonne lied smoothly.
As expected, Nick blushed, looking embarassed, “I'm sorry.”
“Whatever.” Madam Yvonne waved it aside, “Why are you here? Do you want to see what the future holds for you?”
“No. Madam Yvonne. Lycanthropes are getting killed. I hope you don't have a hand in that?” Nick asked.
“How dare you!” Madam Yvonne yelled with righteous indignation, “I'm a woman of my word. And I gave my word when I made a treaty with your clan; never to harm a lycanthrope.”
“I just wanted to make sure you weren't a part of this, because if I catch the killer, it won't be good.” Nick threatened.
“You have nothing to worry about, detective. I'm not the one hunting.” Madam Yvonne said, crossing her arms.
“That's good for you. We don't want a repeat of what happened the last time.” Nick told her.
Madam Yvonne sighed, “There is no need for threats, Nick. I've put the past firmly behind me. You can leave.”
“I'll see myself out.” Nick said as he left. He didn't know why he was still suspicious of Madam Yvonne. What happened between his pack and the woman was in the past.
Meanwhile, Madam Yvonne seethed with rage at the audacity of the mongrel, Nick. How could he barge into her sacred grounds? The lycanthropes had always disrepected her, right from the moment she'd met them.
* * *
Long time ago, when Madam Yvonne was just Yvonne, she'd always seen visions of the future. Yvonne would see someone dying and the next day, she'd hear that the person was dead.
Yvonne was so confused that she made the mistake of telling her mother, who was a deeply religious christian.
Yvonne's mother had dragged the little girl along to see many preachers and exorcists who would charge them a lump sum and pray for Yvonne and then proclaim her healed.
One day, at school, Yvonne told her teacher that she would lose her father. Two weeks later, the man died.
Her teacher accused Yvonne of witchcraft. Yvonne became a pariah. Even Yvonne's mother was so scared of the little girl that she sent her off to stay with her younger sister; the family's black sheep who was a self-proclaimed shaman.
Unlike Yvonne's mother, her aunt encouraged her to use her gifts and opened a shop where people came to see their future and in return, paid Yvonne's aunt for Yvonne's services.
One day, when Yvonne was still in her twenties, she and her aunt went up into the woods to perform a 'sacrifice'; a parody of a real sacrifice which Yvonne's aunt swore helped her third eye.
When they got there, they saw a group of about fifteen scantily dressed humans converged there.
Yvonne was scared. Something about them didn't seem quite human. She closed her eyes and concentrated deeply. Yes, these people were animalistic.
“What do you want here?” one of them asked. This one was a young man.
“We want to hold a ceremony.” Yvonne's aunt said, unafraid.
“Well, you can't do it here.” Another young man said.
“I'm sorry, but who do you think you are? I've been holding this ceremony here for years. This land is a government reservation, it doesn't belong to you.” Yvonne's aunt said.
“Aunty, let's get out of here.” Yvonne pleaded.
“No, Yvonne. We won't. We won't cower before these people. Haven't I taught you anything?” Yvonne's aunt scolded.
“But Aunty, these people are dangerous. They aren't human!” Yvonne yelled.
An unnatural silence descended on the woods. Even the birds on the trees stopped chirping.
“She knows! She knows! She must die!” the second young man yelled.
“Calm down, Trent.” The first young man said.
“Don't tell me to calm down, Nick. She'll tell the humans and it will be over for us.” Trent addressed the people.
“I said shut up!” Nick told Trent. To Yvonne's bewildered aunt, Nick said, “Woman, take your apprentice and flee. Forget you ever saw us, if you say anything, I'll find you and kill you.”
Yvonne's aunt looked into Nick's cold eyes and saw that he was serious. She took Yvonne's hand and fled.
Some days later, Trent disobeyed Nick's order not to hunt Yvonne and her aunt by going into town to look for them.
Thanks to their unique occupation, it wasn't that hard for Trent to find them.
That night, while Yvonne and her aunt were watching TV, their door was knocked down and Trent in lycanthrope form jumped in, attacking them.
Yvonne saw that the lycanthrope was Trent and before she could tell her aunt, Trent clawed at her, tearing her dress and scratching her face in the process.
Yvonne cried out in pain. Her aunt hit Trent from behind and he faced her.
“Run!” She said to Yvonne.
Yvonne ran out of the house without looking back, which was just as well because if she did, she would've seen the horrific sight that was Trent ripping her aunt apart.
Yvonne holed up in a shelter for weeks, feeling so powerless. The newspapers carried headlines of an unidentified animal mauling her aunt.
She tried to report to the police but they didn't believe her and told her to get some therapeutic help.
Yvonne then went back to the woods and reported Trent to Nick and the council of elders. Trent denied it and produced some lycanthropes who corroborated his alibi of hunting for deer (the lycanthropes no longer ate human flesh since the 1800s as a means to stay unnoticed).
Yvonne was sent back with a warning never to disturb the pack again. There and then, she made a silent oath to avenge her aunt.
Yvonne went back to her life as a seer and waited for an opportunity for her to get Trent.
Now, that opportunity had come in the form of Nadine and she wouldn't let anyone come in the way of it.
Nadine stared at the medal around her neck as Madam Yvonne locked it from behind.“How exactly does it work?” Nadine asked, fingering the pendant.“Once a lycanthrope is near, the medal will feel hot. It's that simple.” Madam Yvonne said, pleased with herself.“How did you do it?” Nadine asked. She was sounding like one of her eager students.“There are some inscriptions made on it. The ink I used for the inscriptions have lycanthrope blood in it. Lycanthropes can tell each other in human form. This will give you the power to do so.” Madam Yvonne explained patiently.“Wow! That makes my job easier.” Nadine said happily.* * *Two days later, Nadine sighed in frustration. The medal didn't make her work any easier. It wasn't like a tracker or anything, so after walking around the streets, the medal had not alerted her to the presence of a lycanthrope.Nadine was also frustrated by her naivete. She hadn't asked Dustin to show her a picture of Marlowe or to tell her his address before sh
Nadine got to the bar and even from the parking lot, she could hear the music. 'The Devil's den' was proclaimed in front of the building with neon lights.Nadine went in and the first sight that hit her was the women dancing provocatively on the tables, wearing only bikinis.Nadine ordered a coke and the barman gave it to her. She sat at the counter and sipped her lukewarm coke as she surveyed for anyone who exuded lycanthrope vibes.“Yo. Is Marlowe around here somewhere?” Nadine asked the barman casually.The barman shook his head and went back to mixing drinks.* * *Nick stepped into the bar and flexed his muscles in readiness. He was going to get this huntress and have a word with her. He pictured her as being big-boned. Obviously, only a large woman would be able to defeat a lycanthrope.At one table, Nick saw a huge woman sitting alone and texting on her phone.He sat down next to her, “Hey. Are you the huntress?” Nick asked with the tone he used when interrogating criminals.
For some reason, the next day after her confrontation with Nick, Nadine did not feel so gung-ho about hunting. In fact, Nadine didn't feel so gung-ho about anything. She looked at her apartment and cringed. Clothes and books were strewn about, take-out boxes littered everywhere and the place was so dusty.Nadine steeled herself and began to clean her apartment. While doing that, she was free to remember what had happened with Nick in that bar. Hell, her hand spotted a bruise which still hurt.Nadine couldn't believe that Nick had accused her of killing the three other lycanthropes. How could he?Nadine noticed with surprise the tears that rolled down her cheeks and she angrily dashed them away.Why did she even let Nick affect her that way? Why did she care what he thought of her? Why did she feel hurt after discovering his deceit and lies?Nadine took a deep breath and steeled her shoulders. She wouldn't take him up on his stupid offer. She
Nick didn't like looking a gift horse in the mouth, but he needed to know why Nadine had changed her mind. That day she'd called him, she had rudely stated that she was on board with his offer and had hung up on him.So here they were, at some drive through, pretending to watch a movie while they discussed their plans covertly.This was so nobody from the pack would see Nadine and Nick and suspect that she was the huntress. His pack might decide to get mob justice by lynching her, and that didn't bode well with Nick's plans. He needed her to help him, before—. Before what? He thought.Nick knew he couldn't arrest Nadine. He sighed and said to her, “Once we're through, you'll stop hunting lycanthropes and hand over your weapons to me.”Nadine couldn't believe her ears, “Ok. I'll stop hunting lycanthropes once I get Dave back. But you're deluded if you think that I will hand over my weapons to you. Those cost a bloody fortune!”
Nick was surprised that Nadine had invited him to her apartment. Sure, he had scratches and bites all over him that she wanted to dress, but he was still shocked. After all she had accused him of doing, Nick didn't believe that Nadine would still care enough to look at his wounds.He stood and waited for Nadine who went to change out of her armor.“Sit!” Nadine gave the curt order when she reappeared and Nick obeyed.Nadine entered her bathroom and came out with a tin first aid box.“You don't have to do this you know, my kind heal fast.” Nick assured Nadine.Nadine gave him a scowl that screamed 'Shut up!' and went to work, cleaning the nasty cuts.When she dabbed the antiseptic saturated cotton on one of the numerous bite marks on his neck, the pain caused Nick to inhale sharply and in doing so, he caught Nadine's scent.It was a floral scent, but she also smelled of battle.Uh-oh.Nick instantly hardened in his jeans and cursed inwardly. He had been forced to wear Marlowe's jeans af
Nadine sighed and twiddled her thumbs. Being locked in a car with Nick did nothing for her self-control. Every time she inhaled, Nick's sexy cologne filtered into her nostrils, and every time she looked at him, she remembered him doing wickedly delicious things to her.“You're nervous.” Nick noted.“I'm not nervous, I'm restless. We've been out here waiting instead of us barging into that building!” Nadine said. She and Nick had been parked outside some gambling parlor for hours, waiting for Syd, who they had been tailing for a day to come out.“You know we can't do that. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves.” Nick replied. “You're a hunter, you know that hunters can wait patiently for their prey.”“Fine. Fine.” Nadine replied, looking away. “Let's keep ourselves busy.”When she saw the suggestive glint in Nick's eyes, she groaned, “I didn't mean like that.”“What did you mean?” Nick asked, chuckling.“Uh, okay, tell me something about how lycanthropes operate.” Nadine said.“E
Nick and Nadine didn't speak to each other as they left. The level of devotion the woman had shown to Syd was unbelievable. Deep in thought, they went their separate ways; Nadine to her apartment to treat the gash on her forehead, and Nick to the woods, to leave Syd's body as a warning to the rival pack to stop hunting outside their territory.When Nadine got home, she took a shower and dressed her wounds, all the while wondering if she would want to die with Dave.The effects of the Dragon Rage fully wore off and Nadine felt like she had been run over by a truck. Not to mention that her head was pounding.She trudged to her medicine cabinet, brought out a card of Ibuprofen, popped a tablet and swallowed it with a cup of water.Nadine knew she was supposed to clean her armor, but she was too tired to do that. She left it on the floor in her sitting room and went to her bedroom to sleep.After a few minutes, she fell asleep and had a dream where Dave had
Nadine let herself into Madam Yvonne's place.“Ah. Nadine!” Madam Yvonne exclaimed, grinning brightly, “Long time, no see!”“Well, I've been busy.” Nadine replied.“The more important question is, have you been productive?” Madam Yvonne asked as she busied herself making tea.“Uh, yes. At least, I believe so. We got some info on some lycanthrope who has an obsession for human males. It should be her, right?” Nadine asked.“If you want me to use my powers to find out, I can't. I don't have anything of hers.” Madam Yvonne said as she poured the tea into a cup and took a sip, “So, who's 'we'?”“Huh?” Nadine asked, confused.“You said 'we have info'. Who's 'we'?” Madam Yvonne asked.Nadine groaned inwardly. How had she let that slip? She didn't want to lie to Madam Yvonne, so she told the truth, “I'm partnering with Nick Law.”“The detective lycanthrope?!” Madam Yvonne asked, almost choking on her tea.“Wait! You knew? Why didn