Red Moon: Chapter 8
#14 of Red Moon
Red Moon: Chapter 8
The man shivered as he slowly walked through the woods. He didn't move slowly because he was trying to hide his presence, that would be impossible, he was simply moving slowly due to the two foot deep snow that forced him to go at a slow crawl. Each step was a miniature battle to move forward while keeping the powdery snow out of his boots that were already soaked through. Though there was no waiting for better conditions, he had to be out there now or the opportunity would pass. Like with any kind of prey, if you startle them, then they flee and would require tracking.
He had been going like this for several miles, the only thing that he could hear was his own breathing, not even the birds that didn't fly south for the winter were singing their songs. The woods were an eerie place, never knew when you were being watched by someone or something. That same uncertainty was exhilarating as well to him, it put the hunter and the prey on more equal grounds and the man always did like a more fair fight even if he knew that he was going to win.
He smiled to himself, he knew that confidence well and it had betrayed him before. He remembered the pain of having something go south even if it did go well in the end, he had just been lucky. That wasn't going to happen this time, he was prepared. He was well informed and knew exactly where to go and what to expect thanks to a certain wolf. It almost made him laugh thinking that he would be working with Sergei since he had been responsible for allowing his overconfidence get the better of him in the past. The wounds were still there when he looked down at them, a small price to pay he supposed, water under the bridge as long as everything went well.
After some more trudging through the snow, the man stopped in what appeared to be an entirely random location, but it was where he was told to stop and wait so he would. Many would have guessed the validity of the information and at times he did, but he believed that when there were lives on the line, it was worth giving it a chance. If the information was wrong or had been rendered null, he had contingencies in place.
The man looked up when he heard the echoes of someone walking through the woods with heavy steps, the snow crunching.
"So he was telling the truth about that." The man smirked and stood his ground as he waited.
After several minutes another man walked out of the woods into the clearing. When he saw the other person, he looked surprised. "Well well well. What do we have here?" He looked to his left and to his right as if he was looking to see if there were more unexpected guests.
"It's just me here." It wasn't a lie, but if anything happened to him in the next few minutes, it would quickly become one.
"I don't know if I've been betrayed or handed my first target." The other man pondered sarcastically and smiled, a silver canine visible. "The dog was never trusting."
"No, he never was." They looked each other up and down, trying to size the other one up. Physically the silver toothed man was at a disadvantage, but the other didn't have the duffel bag filled with weapons that was shouldered. "I'm confident that he'll have chosen the right side to support."
"I'm confident as well. He still remembers what your kind did to him, what you made him lose."
"We'll see who Sergei has put his faith in. You, humanity." The man pointed to the silver toothed man as he dropped a heavy duffel bag to the ground that was actually a lot lighter than it was several hours before. "Or me, his pack." He then pointed at his chest.
"I suppose we shall."
Back in Moscow, Sergei rummaged through boxes that were in the storage room where Dmitri said he was shot from. He knew that he wasn't going to find anything, but he needed to be alone for a moment now that he was free to do a bit of wandering. He had been on the silver-toothed man's short leash for way too long and having a bit of a breather was welcoming.
He wondered, as he kicked aside a box that rattled, if Vasili was up to the challenge. He had done all he could to inform the wolf of the man's tactics and how he operated. Still, it was going to be a tough fight and if somehow, the man came out on top, he would surely kill him by detonating that small little device that sat in his chest. He clutched his chest, thinking about how much he had put on the line to get to this moment. It was a dangerous game he was playing, but if it worked, he would finally be able to go home without the old treaty between the German and Russian pack holding him back.
Not many knew of the details of the plan he had other than Vasili and the Alpha. It had all come together by accident when the Matriarch had died. Unlike what many believed, she didn't simply die of old age, she could have actually lived another fifty or so years with her lifestyle which put the Alpha on edge. He had come to Sergei with a proposition, help him find the murderer and he would do what he could to let him return to Germany.
It hadn't been that hard to find the man. He had come to Sergei who had intentionally distanced himself from the pack. At first he had plans to kill the man right then and there, but the man liked to talk and ended up monologuing about he needed a wolf to help him set up a trap for the rest of his pack. It was disconcerting when he also seemed to know about his past as well which intrigued him enough not to shred the man's throat out during the fight. It had been a brutal but swift one that had some bloodshed. The man lost half of his fingers and somehow he got stabbed in the chest which was how the little silver device got into him.
Then for the next few weeks leading up to the funeral, he fed information both ways. He told the man about where wolves were going and he then told the alpha anything the man was willing to share. It was a thin rope he was balancing on. His only hope was that Vasili, who was known as the best fighter, was up to the task. The man did bring every single ounce of silver he had with him to Siberia along with a colorful array of weapons and traps. Only if he knew that half of them had been tampered with when he hadn't been looking. As much as the man had claimed and acted to be the best, he was actually really sloppy.
As sloppy as he was, the man was holding up well against the beast that charged at him. He was bloodied, full of scratches, but luckily not any of the infectious bites which he took extra care to dodge. He leapt off to the side as a blinding blur of fur ripped through the air where he had just been. He raised up the six shooter, the only thing he managed to get out of his bag before the fight started and fired. Miss.
Vasili only barely managed to stop himself in time to avoid being properly lead by the human and he could hear the bullet, undoubtable silver, shriek by. He then had to begin moving immediately as another silver bullet came at him. He sprinted on all fours towards the human, bobbing and weaving, like the boxers he loved to watch when he could.
The human cursed out loud as he missed over and over again. The iron sights were unfamiliar to him, he had used his scoped rifle for so long that his skills in other weapons had waned. He wished that he had taken the time to put the weapon together before running into the wolf, but that was the thing, he didn't expect to run into anything and now he was fighting for his own life. Even if Franz, or Sergei as he heard him call himself on occasion, had tried to help him by luring a wolf which was looking less likely by the second, he was still going to kill him. He had a small radio device that he stored in his fake thumb, but it had a short range so that would have to wait until later.
The human dove to his right as the wolf batted at him with a bloodied paw that had grazed him a few times before. He tucked and rolled upon landing and brought his gun up to bear, the wolf had left itself wide open and he quickly aimed and pulled the trigger. *click* It was one of the worst sounds he had ever heard and so he threw the gun at the wolf, knowing that it would do nothing and pulled out his last line of defense, a bowie knife. It wasn't silver, but a single well placed stab to the heart would still kill.
Vasili didn't even bother to move after his last failed charge, he had counted the sixth round and he knew that he was safe from being shot. He would never forgive himself for being shot again by a human, one time was enough for him. He turned his body as he heard that click and if he could have, he would have laughed, instead a low growl come from him. He watched as the man pulled a large knife from a sheath on the side of his leg and tested the weight in his hand.
"I suppose we're going to have to get a bit more up close." The human said, there was a bit of fear to his voice which Vasili couldn't tell was real or not. The human hid his scent well, beneath a menagerie of other odors of chemicals. "Your move."
Vasili didn't give the man any time to prepare, he was relying brute force and viciousness to overwhelm him. He sprinted straight and true right for the man who hunkered down and stood his place.
Too much time had passed for Sergei's liking. It should have been over by now. He looked down at his phone awaiting a call from one of two numbers. One would mean he would live and the other would force him to go on the run to avoid being killed. He felt beads of sweat fall down his face.
"You alright?" Dmitri asked as he sipped at his soft drink. He had his arm over Trevor who quietly ate.
"Yeah, just thinking." Sergei smiled and stowed his phone back into his pocket. He had come back and told Dmitri that he didn't think the man would be coming back, but that he would keep a look out until he felt that he was safe enough.
"You sure?" Dmitri pushed. It normally wasn't like him to care so much, but Sergei had seemed strangle on edge for the past several hours. He always kept looking at his phone and no matter how many times he asked, the other wolf kept saying he was fine.
"I'm fine." Sergei growled in annoyance. He knew that Dmitri was getting suspicious, but as long as he kept quiet, he would never guess what was happening. The Alpha had decided to keep his son in the dark because if he suddenly went into hiding, then that would tip the human off.
Dmitri shrugged. He wasn't going to get anything out of him, he was the most stubborn wolf he knew beside the Alpha. "Fine."
"If you're from the World War, then exactly how old are you two?" Trevor spoke up. He didn't like the stressed atmosphere that seemed to just spring up whenever Dmitri and Sergei were by each other.
Sergei didn't answer, he just sat in his plastic chair and looked away, occasionally looking at his phone. Dmitri was happy to answer though, he needed to think about something else and he felt that he was ruining his mate's vacation slightly.
"Sergei is roughly 100 years old." Even though Trevor had done the math and had guessed so, it still shocked him since it was being confirmed.
"How long do you live?" He had to ask.
"Depends on a lot of factors such as lifestyle, if a wolf has been injured or not." He gave a long list of factors. "But, average is around 600 years."
Trevor nearly spat out a mouthful of coke as he heard the number. He swallowed what was in his mouth and began to cough, he banged on his chest until the fit died down and the few other people that were out of earshot of normal conversation looked away from the dying American. "Oh wow." Trevor said between the last few coughs.
"Some can live a lot longer."
"And you?" It was a rude question, but his curiosity drove him to ask anyways.
Dmitri actually couldn't remember. Years often went by unnoticed to him and there had been times when he had been out in the woods for several years at a time without any way of telling just how much time had passed. "Let's just say I was around when Napoleon was forced to tuck tail and run." He smiled at the glass eyed man who was digesting the information.
He was about to go on and reminisce about some of his more exciting memories when Sergei's phone rang.
He nearly jumped since it had run right as soon as he pulled his hand away from his pocket. He quickly grabbed it and answered without even checking the number.
Dmitri watched careful, he could only hear a faint, low quality mumbling from the phone. Sergei nodded once and then put the phone away calmly.
"What was that about?"
"I've been banished from the pack."