Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
By Elena
Disclaimer:
Just your average run of the mill standard disclaimer. The characters of Xena
and Gabrielle and all their friends belong in their entirety to Universal and
Renaissance, and to their writers and whoever else owns the property. No copyright
infringement was intended. I just want to borrow these lovely characters and
play with them for a bit. I promise to pick-up my toys when I'm through. Any
other characters in the story come from somewhere inside my gray matter, and
are not taken from any literary source or any other source whatsoever. If you're
going to blame someone, blame me. But be warned I'm still paying off my student
debt so I ain't rich!
There are also some names and places from Werewolf The Apocalypse
by White Wolf. If you are familiar with the game system then the way I use some
of the terms may seem a bit odd. But, I've been told the same about myself.
Violence:
Well, yeah. Quite a bit of slice and dice, some may be a bit graphic. Werewolves
are rather messy you know.
Sex and Subtext:
Not in this particular one. Not everyone jumps in the sack on the first date.
There will be just a wee bit latter on. One warning though. This series involves
the idea that love knows no gender. So if homosexuality or bi-sexuality bothers
you click the back button, delete, close, or whatever and move on.
Type: This is the first story in my new werewolf series. No, it's not
complete. This is just the start. It is the first in a four part interconnected
series. There will be Xena-Uberness in this for those who know how to watch
for it.
Constructive comments can be sent to: elena@beltran.nu
Last Itsy Bitsy Thank You: Many thanks to Patti who is an invaluable source of information on all things horse! J
Continued from Chapter #5
The tree lined path was more than wide enough for the two horses. A gentle ‘clip-clop’ followed the two riders as their mounts moved smoothly under the canopy of trees. Jenny cast a surreptitious glance at her ridding companion as the two of them made their way in an easy walk along the path.
They had been alternating between walking and trotting the horses around Jamie’s family’s property. Jenny had fallen in love with the pristine beauty of the place. A small stream ran through the middle of the property and some cliffs surrounded a near by river. A few small houses fell within the property lines. Jamie had explained that they belong to her family, but were rented out to some of her clan members.
Jenny noticed that the dark hair woman relaxed visibly as they began their ride. There was, however an undercurrent of alertness and danger flowing from her blue eyed companion that was misleading. Jenny had no doubts that, for all of her relaxed posture; nothing would take the werewolf by surprise.
"Jessan and I had to camp out there when we were five for our first trials." Jamie was saying as she pointed out a small grove of trees to her left.
"When you were five? Was your parents with you?" Jenny asked.
"Nope." Jamie seemed quite proud of this. Her grin lit up her sky blue eyes.
Jenny stared at her companion in shock. "Wait! You’re telling me that your parents let two five year olds go camping all the way out here by themselves?"
"Actually, I was still four, my fifth birthday wasn’t for another week. Jessan had just turned five." Jamie said.
"But, you were just kids!" The green-eyed woman stared at her in shock.
"Yeah, we were also fully able to control the change by then too." Jamie smiled wryly at her companion. "Werewolves are bred to be pretty tough Jenny."
Jenny fell silent for a while as she considered the dark hair woman’s words. Though her riding companion was somewhat brash Jenny had a feeling that there was another underlying reason for the young woman’s stoicism.
"So, are all werewolves like you?" Jenny asked, trying to stop Perdy from eating the foliage at the side of the path as they continued down the path.
"Like me?" Jamie looked at the blond woman with a smirk. "No, the others are a lot nicer."
Jenny, having pulled her mount away from the foliage for the moment, laughed at her friend’s remark. "Oh, I don’t know. You seem pretty nice to me."
"Shh!" Clear blue eyes sparkled. "Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to maintain you know."
Both women laughed easily as they continued out into a sun soaked pasture.
It was not quite dusk as the two women trotted their horses into the yard. Jenny had enjoyed herself immensely and was slightly disappointed that their ride had come to an end. She dismounted from the brown gelding and led the horse into the main stable after Jamie.
Jamie stripped the saddle and tack from both horses. Jenny picked up a body brush and helped her friend brush out the saddle marks on Perdy then Borius.
"You must be starving! I know I am." Jamie said as she worked the brush over the dark stallion. "You want to stay for dinner?"
Jenny looked over the tall horse’s flank at Jamie. "Sure, sounds good. I didn’t realize just how long we were out."
They finished rubbing down the horses and settled them down in the stalls. Jamie gave Jenny a carrot for Perdy and fed another one to Borius. The two women then walked out of the stable and off in the direction of the house.
"Hey Alfred." Jamie greeted the butler as they entered the front door. "This is Jenny."
Jenny put out her hand to shake the older gentleman’s and smiled. "Hi. Nice to meet you."
"Umm…likewise Ms…Jenny?" Alfred said, shaking the young blonde’s hand in confusion.
"Oh, it’s Jenny Lyden. But just call me Jenny." Jenny replied realizing Alfred’s dilemma.
Jamie was looking quickly through the phone messages during their exchange. Placing the small pieces of paper back on the hall table she turned to the butler.
"How about a nice hearty meal. Maybe have Cook do up some chops?" The dark hair woman turned towards her friend and raised an eyebrow in query.
"Yeah, that sounds great!" Jenny agreed. "If it’s no trouble that is." This she said to Alfred who waited patiently.
"No, Ms. No trouble at all." He smiled kindly at the green eyed woman, then turned and made his way to the kitchen to inform his wife Sarah about dinner plans.
"Well!" Jamie rubbed her hands together. "Want to play pool before dinner? Or do you want the nick tour first?"
"Umm. I don’t know." Jenny shifted from foot to foot. "Actually, how about the tour first with a quick stop at the rest room?"
Jamie blinked at her friend. "Oh! Yeah, sure! Heh. Sorry about that." She grinned at the blond and led her to the downstairs restroom.
After showing her guest around the house Jamie led Jenny back down to the main level and the billiards room. The blond was a little overwhelmed by the vastness of the place. Not only were there five main bedrooms on the upper level, an additional four guestrooms were situated at the other side of the house. Each room had some sort of ensuite bathroom. A few of the bedrooms also had little terraces attached, which looked out over the back of the house and down towards the surrounding countryside.
While the upstairs seemed to be reserved for living quarters the main floor was definitely reserved for entertaining. Along with a good-sized study that was Jamie’s another larger study was also situated towards the back of the house. This had a more lived in looked, yet remained just as tidy as the dark hair woman’s own office. Jamie explained that this was her Uncle Jacobs office, with a smaller office attached for Jessan.
"Jessan works for your Uncle?" Jenny asked as they moved off to see the other rooms on the main floor.
"Yeah, he’s the all around errand boy." Jamie replied as she opened up yet another door. "He lives downtown right now, but he’s going to move back soon so that he can finish up his apprenticeship with Uncle Jacob. They had to go to an Elders’ Council meeting yesterday."
"This is the main entertaining parlor. The other one just off the entryway is a bit smaller." Jamie continued as she pointed out the room whose door she had just opened.
"Oh, you mean like a party room?" Jenny asked taking in the vast expanse of the room. Various expensive looking couches and chairs were arranged into several groups.
"Yeah. But, I haven’t been to one yet that didn’t make me completely bored!" Jamie smiled at her friend.
"You, board?" Jenny teased the blue eyed woman. "Naw! Can’t imagine it! All those people talking about their latest nose jobs and such. Or would that be fang jobs?"
Jamie laughed and led the blond woman off to see the rest of the house.
After seeing the huge dinning room, somewhat "smaller" conversation room, and now the billiards room Jenny was beginning to think that the mansion was actually some sort of dimensionally transcendental place. From the outside the old mansion had not looked as big as it obviously was on the inside.
"What game do you want to play?" Jamie asked her blond hair companion as she racked up the pool balls.
"Umm…pool?" Jenny answered as she picked up one of the sticks.
Jamie paused to look at her for a moment. "How about you just break and whatever falls in first, solids or stripes, you get the rest of those kind in, ok?"
"Ok, I can do that!" Jenny enthused, moving to position the cue ball.
Five minutes latter the small blond had cleared the table and sent the eight ball into a corner pocket. Jamie stared at the woman in amazement. She had stood quietly by the side of the pool table for the past five minutes as she watched Jenny consecutively sink each of the striped balls into the various pockets.
"Huh. Glad I didn’t bet on that." Jamie looked over into merrily sparkling green eyes. "You a pool shark or something?"
"It helped me get through college." Jenny replied as she pulled balls out of the pockets. "Haven’t played in a while though."
"Gee, couldn’t tell." Jamie smiled at her friend, turning as the door to the billiards room opened after a brief knock.
"An Office Andersen is on the phone, Lady. He says it’s rather urgent." Alfred spoke from the doorway.
"Ok, thanks Alfred. I’ll get it in my study." Jamie replied to the grey hair butler who nodded and stepped back out of the room, closing the doors behind him.
"Be right back." Jamie told her friend, setting down her pool stick and exiting the room.
Walking through the door to her study behind her Jamie moved around the oak desk to sit in her office chair. She picked up the phone and switched over to the incoming extension line.
"Hello, Officer Andersen? This is Jamie McConnor, how can I help you?" She spoke into the phone.
The young officer’s voice sounded tersely over the line. As she listened to him the color drained slowly from her face. Jaw muscles stood out tensely as she gritted her teeth together.
"I see. Thank you officer. You have my condolences." Jamie schooled her voice. "I’ll be getting in touch with Jacob latter. Please let me know if there is any more news."
Thanking the officer once again the young woman hung up the phone and stood to leave. It was then that she noticed Jenny standing in the doorway, a worried look on the small blonde’s face.
"They found two more bodies." Jamie told her, ice blue eyes looking strait ahead.
"Oh gods! Werewolves?" Jenny asked, coming to stand by her friend.
Jamie took a steadying breath and let it out completely before replying.
"Yes, and Officer Kenneth Barns and Brian O’Brady. I’ll need to call their families latter." Jamie said tonelessly.
"Why not call them now?" Jenny asked.
"I need to set up a funeral and get a fund started before hand." The dark hair woman shifted slightly and looked up at Jenny, smiling sadly.
"You knew them pretty well, didn’t you?" The small blond asked softly.
Jamie took another breath and moved her jaw back and forth a few times. "I had met Barns a few times when he’s been over to report to Jacob. He has a one-month-old son. I’m going to set up a trust fund for him."
Jamie moved out of the office, Jenny followed behind her as they walked down the corridor to the dinning room. The werewolf moved gracefully, her stride even and steady. A subtle hint of body language the only clue that let Jenny know that something was wrong.
"Brian…Brian is the son of the woman who runs my pub." Jamie continued after they entered the dinning room.
"Oh, I’m sorry." Jenny was at a loss. She didn’t know how she could help. She desperately wanted to hug the other woman, to somehow take away some of her friend’s pain. However, she didn’t think that the stoic werewolf would appreciate that.
"Yeah. I’ve been friends with her two sons since I was a kid. This is going to hit her hard." The young woman’s jaw worked again as she swallowed.
A huge meal of pork chops and vegetables was spread out at one end of the long table. The two women sat down across from each other. Jenny looked over at Jamie who looked like she was on auto pilot; cutting up pieces off the two chops set before her.
"Yeah. It’ll be hard on everyone I’m sure." The small blond remarked. "I know it must be hard not to know who’s behind this and all. I know I for one feel really powerless. There was nothing I could do to help those two guys I saw in my dream."
Jamie glanced up at the other woman and gave her a small smile. "Well, hopefully Uncle Jacob can learn something more. We also may be able to find out more with Ted and Diane on Saturday."
That said the two women continued their meal in relative silence. The werewolf’s thoughts focused on the latest victims, while Jenny regarded her new friend pensively. Both wishing there were something more they could do.
Chapter #6
The next morning found Jamie hard at work in her study. Her dark head bent over the laptop in front of her on the oak desk as she typed steadily at the keyboard. Reaching the end of a paragraph the blue eyed werewolf sat back and stretched her arms above her head.
Deciding to take a break the compact young woman stood and walked around her office to look out the only window at the falling rain. It had been raining off and on since Jamie had gone running that morning. The soft rain and fall chill did little to dispense the feeling of impotence the young woman felt. Her dreams had returned to haunt her as well, taking on a mocking tone at her inability to do anything so far to prevent anymore deaths. For the past two days she had added a morning run to her routine. Her normal evening run did little to help curb her restless energy.
Ice blue eyes stared out at the wet gloomy landscape. Jamie recalled with a heavy heart her conversation with Kate late last night. All arrangements for the rite of Gathering for the Departed were set for Monday. Kate had been touched that Jamie would be the ritemaster for this. Having the clan’s second in command, and a woman close to her family perform her son’s death rite had caused the older woman to breakdown in remembrance.
Jamie had listened while her friend had relived aloud the childhood mischief that Brian, Sean, and Jamie had gotten into. The dark hair werewolf felt horrible though, saying as much to the other woman. Kate had chastised her in her typical matronly fashion, telling her that she was doing all she could given the circumstances. At the end the older woman had rung off saying simply, "When you find the bastards that did this Jamie make ‘em pay for my Brian!"
Staring out the window as far as she could see Jamie silently promised once more that she would do just that. Born under the full moon and infused with the Lady’s sometimes black rage Jamie promised she would show just how painful it was to invoke her wrath when the killers were found.
The phone rang, nearly startling her out of her skin. Frowning slightly she moved around the large desk to answer it. Her Uncle’s familiar baritone came through the earpiece.
With little emotion Jamie related the news of the Brian and Kenneth’s deaths to Jacob. He was silent as she continued, telling him of her arrangements for the funeral for Brian and trust fund opened for Kenneth’s widow Amy and her young son. After adding that she would be attending a ritual on Saturday to find out more about the murders Jamie sat on the edge of the desk to listen to her Uncle’s reply.
Jacob told her about the Elders’ Council meeting that he and Jessan had been attending for the past few days. The council had recessed for the time being while some of its members underwent a ritual. Jacob further explained that he, Jessan, and two other elders from the council would be preparing for the ritual within the hour.
"I’ll probably be back tomorrow night, Jamie. You know how long these things can be." Jacob told her.
"Yeah, don’t let Jessan dose off or anything." Jamie smiled slightly.
"He’s getting better. Jessan will be ready to complete his training soon." The clan leader said. "You take care now."
"Bye, Uncle. Good hunting." With that she rang off, replacing the receiver back on its hooks.
Standing in one place and making a slow turn around the office Jamie came to a decision. She quickly saved the document and shut down her laptop. Grabbling up a heavy wool sweater lying draped over the arm of the sofa she pulled it on and headed out of the house and down to the stables.
She would take Thena out for a ride and head over to the sites where each of the bodies were found. Thinking about each of the location where the victims had been found, it suddenly occurred to her just how close they were to the mansion.
As she took down the mare’s bridal and headpiece from the rack in the stable’s tack room, Jamie wondered why it had never occurred to her before. It was an obvious clue that no one had connected yet. Her nape hairs stood on end and she narrowed her eyes.
There was something very weird going on. Her nostril flared as she unconsciously tried to get the scent of the killers. She was quite sure there were more than one and that they were practicing some form of black magic. Leading the now saddled white mare out of the stable Jamie swung up into the saddle and set Thena to trot out of the yard and towards the crime scenes.
The pounding of the large floor tom penetrated Jessan’s skull. The small cavern that he was sitting in with his uncle and the two elders glowed with ethereal fire. A single candle sat lit on a ledge set into the stone wall. The candle’s flame, normally only enough to read a text, spilled out into the cavern and cast away any shadows.
Jessan sat cross-legged next to his uncle. Jacob and the two elders were keeping up a steady rhythm on the drum, lending their voices to the low reverberation. Not yet a full shaman, Jessan was not allowed to join in with the singers. Instead, the young werewolf listened to the rise and fall of the almost howling sounds the other three made.
One of the worst problems that Jessan had was keeping his mind on the task at hand. At least when it came to long, drawn out ceremonies that the elder members of the clan seemed to relish. They had been at this particular one for several hours now. This was only the warm up to the actual ceremony. After the warm up the spirits would be called and Jessan was to use his mind as a vessel for the visions they would bring. Jacob and the elders would then interpret his dreams.
Jessan sighed and tried to focus again on the drumming. He knew it would still be at least another hour of this till the spirits could properly be called. Time edged around the group and expanded indefinitely. For some reason the elder clan shamen preferred to use the longer rite of Vision Weeping than the one that Jacob had been teaching him.
Be respectful of your elders, Jessan! The young man thought, shifting slightly in his seat.
Jessan thought back to the news from Jamie earlier. He had a feeling that his cousin might be on the right track with the high magic link. If that was the case, the spirits they were calling on may have a harder time trying to find the killers. The involvement of the rite the four werewolves were enacting was quite powerful, but the visions it brought often were a task themselves to unravel.
The pace of the drumming picked up and the other werewolves’ voices changed to match it. Jessan could feel the pull of the otherworld around them as the spirits were called to join them. Sensing the right time in the ritual, Jessan twitched his mind sideways and was pulled into the spirit realm.
Shamus Cassidey stepped out of the shower and toweled himself dry. Putting on cotton pajama pants and top he walked out of the master bath, into his bedroom. His wife Elizabeth had turned down the sheets on the bed already. Sounds floated up from downstairs as he could hear her closing up the house for the night.
The Elders’ Council meeting had been a long one. Most of what had been discussed was how to handle damage control before they had a city full of scared Garou running around creating havoc. He had left after talking to one of the members about getting in contact with their police and media ties. He would handle the media while his peer would talk to the police.
There were quite a few ‘unknown’ werewolves around the city lately. The term ‘unknown’ was used for a Garou who did not have any ties to a member of the community. Normally the fresh blood was welcomed and integrated into the current city clans. However, with this new threat the other ‘know’ Garou were more suspicious than normal.
Then there were the two new murders to contend with. Jacob had relayed the news to the council soon after getting off the phone with his niece. The Shamus knew that the body count would continue to rise until they found the culprit. That, he suspected, was where most of the fear of the community was placed. Garou were use to being top of the food chain, so to speak. Now there was a bigger badder predator out there that stole the souls and hearts of it victims without leaving a trace.
The stealing of the souls had been determined yesterday when the council had taken a fieldtrip down to the county morgue to view the bodies. Jacob and the two shaman elders had found that both victims had had their souls removed along with their hearts.
That knowledge was chilling. It was also something that needed to be kept out of the media at all costs. A Garou’s link to his ancestors was a highly sacred thing. To have that link broken, it was worse than being made clan less.
Shamus looked up as Elizabeth walked into the bedroom. She had already changed into her sleeping gown and was moving to her side of the bed when the lights went out. The two werewolves looked up sharply at each other. There, in the unnaturally dark corners of the room, several cloaked figures stepped out into the room. An overwhelmingly evil smell flooded the sense of Shamus and his mate as they turned towards the intruders.
Roaring a challenge the elder changed to crinos form and attacked. His mate followed, leaping over the head of one of the cloaked figures and shifting her form in midair. The odds seemed overwhelmingly easy, until Shamus went to slash at the two figures in front of him. Instead of being ripped open by his razor sharp claws they appeared to leap back with astonishing speed. Glancing over at his mate Shamus noticed that she seemed to be having similar problems. The humans were just to fast to do any damage to.
An uneasy feeling of dread flooded his brain as he realized they were not going to survive. He glances over at his wife again. She was still fighting with ferocious determination with three of the figures. With a brief thought of pride Shamus turned back towards the now grinning man in front of him. He watched as a blade descend towards his chest.
Chapter #7
Jenny looked over again at Jamie as they waited for Ted and Diane to finish inscribing the ritual circle. The blue-eyed woman was fidgeting slightly as she watched their friends cast the circle. Because the ritual would require greater protection for those involved Ted and Diane were performing a heavier casting. Diane now moved to stand at the front of the small alter that had been setup while her husband performed a protective high magic spell.
The blond woman plucked at her red tunic. She, Dian and Ted were all dressed in ritual clothing. Jenny normally felt soothed by the soft cotton material, but this time she was very uneasy. For the life of her she could not put her finger on why she had became so unnerved. The dread had started almost immediately after she and Jamie had arrived at their friend’s house.
Shifting her weight to her left foot, Jenny looked once more at the dark hair werewolf. Jamie had not changed into ritual clothing when the three humans had. Instead, she wore a sheathed broadsword strapped to her back. The young woman had explained that it was a grad klave that was bound with a war spirit. The klave identified her rank and job in her clan, although she had not mentioned what either of those might be.
Jenny had figured out that her new friend was second in command of a werewolf clan called the Children of Gaia. There were other clans in the metropolitan area as well. Some were quite large, and some consisted only of a few members. The Children of Gaia appeared to be the ruling clan of the city. Although the elder council represented all of the werewolf community it was Jamie’s clan, from what Jenny had heard, whom the community looked to for guidance.
Ted finished with his incantation and turned towards the three women. He held an athame or ritual knife in one hand as he spoke to the group. His voice deep and resounding.
"Thus we are met in a time that is no longer a time, and a place that is no longer a place."
This said he placed the athame on the alter and picked up the tapered working candle. He then gestured for Diane, Jenny, and Jamie to sit on the floor. He sat down on the floor as well and the four of them moved to make a circle.
"Real easy boys and girls." Ted spoke as he set the lighted candle in its holder on the floor in the center of the four of them. "Jenny, you’re going to remember as much as you can about your dream. Jamie, you’re going to recall what those two victims looked like. Try and picture them where they were found."
"Were going to use those visual clues to follow the links they created back to who’s ever behind this." He continued. "Make sense? Alright, let’s begin."
Ted held Diane’s hand and Jamie’s hand on either side of him, while Jenny took each woman’s other hand in her own. Both Jamie and Jenny closed their eyes in concentration, each trying hard to recreate the visual picture of the victims in her mind.
Jenny became aware on an insistent pulling. Something was tugging on her consciousness as she struggled to focus on the task at hand. Suddenly a deep voice penetrated her concentration and her eyes snapped open, only to find she was standing in a wooded grove. The same place she had seen one of the victims in her dream.
"We can follow this line here, that looks like it’s the most direct path." Diane was saying.
Looking to her right Jenny saw that the older woman was standing in the grove with her. As she became more aware of her surroundings Jenny sensed the others behind her. The four of them had evidently shifted sideways into the astral.
The wooded area around them was empty. No bird or animal song could be heard for several miles. Several paths worn into the road led away from where the four of them were standing. The path that Diane had indicated had a thin black line leading down it. A hazy cloud lingered around the area they had arrived at.
"Lady! That’s awful!" Jamie’s voice came from just behind her.
Jenny turned around to look at her friend. A look of utter disgust was on the blue-eyed woman’s face. The werewolf had her nose wrinkled up and was peering around the small clearing.
"What’s awful?" Jenny asked her friend, now noticing how different the other woman looked on the astral plane.
While the three humans had maintained their ritual clothing the young werewolf’s outfit had changed completely. The blue-eyed woman now had on a leather over tunic that would function well as armor. Black knee high boots and dark wool leggings completed her outfit. Her hair had small metal beads attached to the ends and stuck out haphazardly in contrast to its normal tidiness
"That smell!" Jamie made a gesture with her chin at the surrounding haze. "It’s utterly evil."
"That must be what you said the officers found when they investigated the murder sites." Ted spoke up. "It’s still lingering here on the astral plane."
Jenny looked around her once more and sniffed surreptitiously. "I can’t smell anything other than the woods."
"Might just be my heightened sense that are picking it up." Jamie told her friends. "Garou have the ability to sense certain disturbances in the web."
The blond woman turned sea green eyes towards the werewolf. "You have heightened sense too?"
Jamie smiled slightly and turned to look up the path. Stepping forward the young woman drew her sword and motioned for the three humans to follow her.
"Ok, lets go!" Her long strides carried her up the path and over the hill, the others moved quickly to catch up.
Jenny blinked when Jamie turned as the three humans caught up with her. The dark hair warrior’s mouth was opened slightly, her canines elongated. The sight made Jenny shiver a little. An icy fire burning deep within the werewolf’s eyes did not bode well for who ever they came across.
The four of them followed the faint path along the astral plane, on alert for any traps that might have been left behind. Having already found two and dispatched those quickly and without trouble Jenny was beginning to wonder just what was going on. The simple construction of the two traps surprised her, given that this individual or group had been able to take out several werewolves. She said as much to the others.
"Yeah, I don’t get it either." Diane responded. "From that last one the structure of the thing was pretty rigid, without much power behind it. Like that’s the best they can do."
"So far everything is really low tech. Though there is a very distinctive ‘group’ feel about it." Ted added as he kept an eye out for any other surprises.
They were following the psychic strand through some narrow streets. Shops lined each side of the cobbled path and a few of them had people inside. Jenny doubted that these shops existed on a normal earth plane. If they found the killers it would be difficult to pinpoint their location once they exited the astral plane.
"There’s twelve of them." Jamie’s voice startled Jenny. The dark hair werewolf had said barley two words once they had gotten underway.
Her warrior friend had sensed both traps a hair faster than either Diane or Ted though. The werewolf’s sword had quickly dispatched the nasty creatures that had sprung out. Such was the swiftness of the warrior’s attack that Diane and Ted were able to dismantle the rest of the traps quickly before the alarms could find their way back to those who had set them.
"That smells been gone for a while though." The werewolf continued. "Just after we left the grove it disappeared."
"It’s not connected to the link then?" Ted asked.
"Not that I can tell. Must have just been associated with the act of the killing." Jamie answered the tall man.
"Weird." Jenny stated, putting voice to all of their feelings.