Chapter 7 - Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night

Morning. Day break. A new day had dawned upon Edmonton. Everyone waking up in the morning may not have been fully aware of all the events that went down in the night while most people slept or got snippets of information from the eleven ‘o’clock news: a massage parlor worker killed by a Puerto Rican man posing as a vampire; a violent act of vandalism led to a even more violent sexual assault on a lawyer notorious for defending vampires in the court of law; and now as Kaitlyn Russo and Seth Rollins watched on Global Edmonton’s morning news show, a house in their own neighborhood was burned to the ground. A house that was an alleged property used by vampires. Also on the lawn were two burned crosses and more propaganda from the New Sarepta Church of the People. Normally, Kaitlyn Russo would be getting ready for work and more than likely to be called into investigating this particular crime. But not today. All on Kaitlyn’s mind now was just relaxing in her pajamas and eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Kaitlyn sat over the counter in the kitchen, eating her cereal and browsing through a magazine, occasionally hearing the television summarize parts of the events that went down last night. “… Police officials have yet to officially comment on any possible connections to the series of anti-vampires crimes that occurred last night…”

“Please, change the channel. I’d rather not relive or think too much about last night,” Kaitlyn asked politely of Seth, who obliged her request. He then asked “Thought you’d be all over this story?”

“Not today,” Kaitlyn said with a spoonful of cereal in her mouth. “Don’t really want to think about work right about now.” Around that time, the telephone begun to ring and Kaitlyn got up to pick it up. She hesitated to pick up the receiver after noticing on the call display screen the number belonging to her work. Rolling her eyes and exhaling, Kaitlyn picked up the phone and said “If this is a work-related call, I am so hanging up on you, Simon!” Surprisingly to Kaitlyn, the voice on the other end belonged to young Cameron Swift, who said back to her “Sorry to disappoint you, but he got called over to bring files from our faux-vamp killer case to our Mountie friends. Just wondering if you got a chance to check your e-mail this morning yet?”

“If its anything like the other stuff you’ve forwarded to me over the years, well, I was a lot happier not knowing something like ‘tub girl’ existed. A lot happier.” Kaitlyn said as she walked over to a table where her laptop was. She sat down, flipped the top open and turned on the computer.

“Well this was sent from work, but figured you may be interested in seeing this even though you’re on your little mini-vacay.” Cameron replied back. Kaitlyn opened her e-mail account to reveal a message with a link to a video. “Can you give me a basic rundown of it?” she asked.

Cameron went on to summarize: “Basically, our dear Pastor Love went on a tirade, saying his church was not responsible for everything that went down last night, doesn’t condone nor condemn any actions, blah blah blah, something about Edmonton being doomed like Sodom and Gomorrah, city of whores, all that lovely stuff about tolerance and love this God fellow seemed to be big on. Oh, and I forgot to add we all got a special condemnation to the fires of hell with others who revel in ‘fang feces’.”

“How touching,” Kaitlyn sarcastically said as she got up and walked over to the refrigerator. Seth went over to the laptop and began to type something. “Hmm, let’s see… ‘Tub Girl’… oh my gosh! If I had a working digestive tract and still able to eat food, it’d be coming back up right now!” he exclaimed in horror, disgust and loud enough for Cameron to vaguely hear it.

“Who was that?” Cameron asked Kaitlyn.

“Oh? Nothing. Just had the T.V. a little too loud!” Kaitlyn said - while shooting a “What the hell?” look at Seth and tossing a small orange at him as well “Anything else you got for me?”

“Well, word is everyone and their mother is calling city hall and wanting the mayor to take action now. Our new boss may be coming in a lot sooner and starting up his anti-vamp squad within moments of stepping in command.” Cameron said.

“Well I have a feeling Simon will call me later and talk more.” Kaitlyn lamented. “If you see him trying to do so, tell him to wait until Friday, okay?”

“Can do. Enjoy your time off, Russo!” Cameron said as he hung up. Kaitlyn placed her phone down. She then looked at Seth, who was talking as he typed, “Maybe this ‘Lemon Party’ thing seems a little more interesting… Augh! I’m blind!”. She slammed the screen shut much to Seth’s shock.

“Come on, really?” Seth asked. “Although I gotta thank you for saving me from further damage to my already fragile ghostly mind, he later added.

“Yeah, don’t mention it.” Kaitlyn said. “I figured you would have been desensitized to stuff like that by now?”

"You would think so but no. All the joys of being nothing but a concentrated, unfiltered soul. You can never tell how it’s going to react to different situations.” Seth said, giving a brief exposition his own belief of how ghosts seem to work.

“Must be nice to walk through life like that.”

“Not really, I think it’s more so because I haven’t crossed over to the other side.” Seth hypothesized.

“Well, maybe you should meet Doctor Whitehorse then. I know she’s been eager to meet you.” Kaitlyn said as she poured another bowl of cereal.

“Does she look like Jennifer Love Hewitt?”

“Yes – if she was from a dimension where every woman looks like a middle-aged chubby Native Canadian.” Kaitlyn said with a smile.

“Spoil sport.” Seth pouted. For now, whatever tensions the two of them had between last night and now were alleviated.


Later in the afternoon, Kaitlyn drove down the block where the fire she spotted from her balcony last night occurred. The property was all blocked off by fire and police vehicles. She drove slowly by and looked at the two giant crosses that were on the lawn. Groups of arson and crime scene investigators took pictures and carried away evidence into vehicles parked close to the scene. Kaitlyn looked to see if she recognized anyone on the scene, then slowly drove away in order to keep an afternoon appointment with Doctor Laura Whitehorse on the U of A campus.


“It’s been a reoccurring dream I’ve been having the last few weeks.” Kaitlyn told Doctor Whitehorse, who sat behind her desk in her office located in the Humanities Department Building. “I find myself walking in this old roadside diner. It was this old off-the-road greasy spoon dive that my dad used to take me to lots after we traveled home from camping and hunting trips. I see my dad, Uncle Sully, and myself as a ten-year old. I see this attractive woman playing with this old pinball machine in the far corner of the diner. Opposite of her in the other corner is this really big dog. Then some guy from the kitchen comes up behind the woman at the pinball and forces himself on her. He’s got her pinned against the machine, touching and pawing at her. My ten year old self sees this and screams. I find myself trying to get close but then I feel something on my leg. I fall down and realize I got my ankle snapped in a jaw trap. I try to break free from the trap as I can see the dog then leap up and take the man down. I somehow snap my leg off from the knee cap to try and comfort the woman, only to wake up at that point”, Kaitlyn took a deep breath after describing the dream to the esteemed professor.

“Interesting,” Doctor Whitehorse said and nodded in interest as she wrote down notes on a pad of paper. “Dreams sometimes are not a literal translation of the real world and may not have any effect on the real world. Sometimes dreams are just the subconscious trying to work through a real life situation in a most absurd situation. Which is one way of looking at it, especially if one takes into account Freud’s theory on dream analysis…”

“Well, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, right?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Correct. Or depending on how far one wants to go, there could be symbols that represent so much of a person’s past and present struggles.” Doctor Whitehouse answered in agreement. She then went on: “For example, the crying child version of yourself could be a symbol of your innocence lost as a result of your own crime. You feeling trapped could be a symbol of how you felt that night or how you feel now in regards to feeling like you are doing all you can but still feel powerless to do anything about it. The dog could be a symbol of your own instincts, to give into primitive emotions and exact vengeance – an eye for an eye as it were.”

“Sounds almost accurate to me.” Kaitlyn said.

“However,” Doctor Whitehorse went on to say, “What has me worried here is the prominent role the canine representation has in your dream. It only reacts when you were trapped and unable to save the woman, right?”

“Right.”

“Seems to me that in some ways, you keeping the wolf spirit in you under control for such a long time is making it long to be free once again. And not just the animal form either, since you have done that more recently. I am talking the full beast.”

“So as long as stay out of feeling trapped I should be okay?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Hard to say really,” Doctor Whitehorse stated. “It may not be as simple as you feeling physically trapped, but perhaps trapped emotionally. Trapped in the sense of not knowing how to react in a seemingly hopeless situation. Tell me Kaitlyn, how has work been lately?”

Kaitlyn thought for a moment, “Been feeling a little overwhelmed I guess. Got my captain on my back side for various things.”

“How has been your social and or romantic life?”

“Socially? Usually go out with the guys from work. Romance? Too afraid to try again. Not so much the sex, just allowing someone to get close to me. Then I either push them away for going too far or worry about going all wolf on them and ruining everything I have worked for in terms of leading a normal life.”

“Have you ever thought of tracing you pack down?” Doctor Whitehorse asked straightforward.

“It has crossed my mind but I have so much doubt about the night it all happened. Like was he really a werewolf when he raped me, or did a werewolf save my life that night?” Kaitlyn asked, fearful of knowing the truth.

“There might be a way to find out, involving both hypnosis and an old Yaqui tribal ritual.” Doctor Whitehorse suggested. “Would that be something you might be willing to try?”

“I’ll think about it.” Kaitlyn answered as she looked at the watch on her left wrist. “Hate to do this, but I got another appointment to keep,” she said as she got up and shook Doctor Whitehorse’s hand.

“No worries, just call me if anything else comes up, okay?” Doctor Whitehorse asked of Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn nodded in agreement as she got up from the chair, placed her coat on, and begun to walk out of the office. As she now stood outside the office, Kaitlyn checked her cell phone to see if there were any text or voice messages for. Thankfully there were none at the moment. She began to walk down the hallway and then heard a now to her familiar voice calling from behind her. “Detective Russo!” the voice called out. Kaitlyn turned her head and saw Sergei Koloff running up to catch up with her. Kaitlyn stopped and waited for Sergei to come closer. Once he was in speaking ranged Kaitlyn both said and later asked, “Mister Koloff, fancy meeting you here. What’s up?”

“Was meeting with a friend from the old country here,” Sergei answered. “Now it is just after one here and I’m now after something every man wants at that time.” Kaitlyn shot him a slightly cold, dirty look but then smiled as she saw Sergei pull out a fair-sized sandwich from inside his coat pocket and then heard him say “Lunch. Care to join me?”


Kaitlyn and Sergei sat on a park bench in the middle of the university’s busiest spots in terms of students and faculty members walking to and from classes. Sergei took a bite from his sandwich, offering the second half to Kaitlyn – who politely declined the offer. With his mouth slightly full, Sergei spoke “So, Detective Russo…” Kaitlyn politely cut him off and said “Please, I’m off duty. You can call me ‘Miss Russo’, or even Kaitlyn if you wish.”

“My apologies, Miss Kaitlyn,” Sergei humbly acknowledge. “So how does such a beautiful flower such as yourself end up in a gritty and grimy line of work?”

“Chalk it up to family tradition.” Kaitlyn answered. “My dad was a cop, one of the best if you ask around. My grandpa and his grandpa were also cops. My dad was so proud I was continuing on the tradition of a Russo on the force here, especially when my brothers showed almost no interest in pursuing that as a career path.” She stopped talking as she noticed Sergei nodding approvingly to her story. She then turned and asked “And how about you? How does one pursue the art of werewolf hunting?”

Sergei looked up at the sky briefly and began to recount his story: “It too is related to tradition and family. Back in Ukraine, my baba used to always tell us stories as kids about a werewolf who always protected her home village from outsiders. During the famine, this werewolf held back Stalin’s troops. In the second World War, German troops also felt this creature’s wrath. As a small child, I was enthralled with such a tale. Then one day, my sister and I were walking in the woods and we found this wounded wolf pup. It looked so innocent and lost, my sister decided to sneak it back home and kept it hidden as our father forbade us from having any kind of pets. She nursed it back to health and decided to take it back to the same spot where we found it days later. She never came back,” Sergei then paused, sighed and continued on with the story. “Few days later, father and other men from our village went out to look for her. They found her eventually, torn to shreds. No one would really discuss it from that point, but I always heard the whispers from the elders. They blamed it on a werewolf. Once I left there to study at a university in Kiev, I became what some would call obsessed with learning all I can about the werewolf mythos in order to find the beast that murdered my sister.”

“Jesus,” Kaitlyn said, almost feeling a tightness in her chest. “Did you ever find it?”

“Nyet!” Sergei answered back. “But I spent most of my early years trying to find the creature, only to have other countries call me in to hunt their own creatures. Even to this day, it still eludes me. But I will find it one day, even it means hunting every single werewolf I come across.”

Not good at all! Kaitlyn thought to herself. To hell with worrying about being dissected by Section 31, this guy finds me out, I’m gonna be a pelt in his trophy collection! Kaitlyn could feel her pulse rapidly increasing. She took in a deep breath, once again checking her watch. “Well hate to leave you here but I gotta meet someone else here right away, okay?”

“Not a problem.” Sergei said. “Oh, my colleague I talked to earlier gave me tickets to a cultural exhibit being held here tomorrow night. Would you be interested in being my escort for the evening?” he asked Kaitlyn. Uncertain how to react, Kaitlyn hesitated and replied back “Um, sure. Why not?”

“Excellent.” Sergei calmly said. “Shall I pick you up around seven then?”

“Sure,” Kaitlyn said as she got up from the bench, but not before writing down her telephone number and handing it over to Sergei. “Just give a me call later, okay?”

“Of course,” Sergei said as he too got up and gave a chivalrous kiss to Kaitlyn’s hand. The two went opposite directions afterwards. Dear god, I hope I know what my head is doing here because the heart sure as hell doesn’t seem to! Kaitlyn thought to herself as she made her way to her next appointment – meeting up with her old partner Angie Newhart.


Angie Newhart, a very petite black-haired woman, paced back and forth outside the entranceway to the emergency of the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Building. Maintaining the regulatory distance, Angie lit up a menthol cigarette and just kept looking around as if to see if someone was coming. She finally noticed Kaitlyn Russo, walking at a brisk pace. “Thought you would have quit those things by now?” Kaitlyn shouted to Angie. “Been trying to, but then when you end up pulling an all-nighter, it can be quite the challenge.” Angie replied back as she put out the cigarette and hugged her former partner, friend, and comrade in arms. “How ya holding up, Kaity?” Angie asked. “Heard you’ve been out of sorts lately.”

“I’m doing fine,” Kaitlyn answered back. “Maybe I just needed a little break from two or three days straight of unrelated deaths.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Angie said. “Just came back from spending two weeks in Cuba for my first real vacation in years, and I get a rather violent rape to deal with first day back at work.”

“How is she doing?” Kaitlyn asked, knowing well in fact the case Angie was referring to was that of Claire Sawyer.

“Physically, she’s pretty bruised up. She was forcibly sodomized by at least two of her attackers, bite marks on her neck as if they were done by a…”

“… A vampire, right?” Kaitlyn said, concluding Angie’s summary.

“Yeah. Mentally, well, we both know what that’s like, right? Meanwhile, other than that, no positive I.D. on any of the perps.” Angie said. “She really didn’t get a clear look at any of them. Only thing she said was the one had a thick Irish accent. But I suppose you being off duty don’t want to do shop talk, huh?”

“You could say that, but you actually called me here, remember?” Kaitlyn said, trying to make Angie recall a phone conversation earlier in the day.

“Yeah, just need a little help. You live in the area where this took place, right?” Angie asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, I have a couple eyewitnesses after the fact describing an unknown male, early twenties, who apparently came to her rescue and then fled afterwards. They said they have seen him around there before, though were not sure who he was exactly.” Angie stated as she pulled out a copy of a sketch artist’s rendition of who this man was. Kaitlyn’s eyes nearly jumped out when she recognized the drawing already – that of Grant.

“Yeah, actually he’s my roomie,” Kaitlyn said reluctantly.

“Well, when you get a chance, tell him to come down to see me. He’s not in any trouble, we want to see if he can give any more details on what these assholes look like.”

“Can do, Ange” Kaitlyn said.

“Anyways, gotta get down to the lab and see if they found anything of value from evidence collected from the scene. Call me later, okay?” Angie said as she walked off towards the parking lot across from the hospital. “Sure thing.” Kaitlyn said as she too began to walk off in another direction, only to be cut off by an expensive looking towne car which pulled right up front of here. All the windows were tinted black, except for the front windshield. A well-groomed man wearing a chauffeur’s hat and coat, got out from the driver’s side. “Miss Russo?” the man asked Kaitlyn, who hesitated in responding “Yes?”

“Madame here would like to speak with you,” the man said.

“Who exactly, is ‘madame’?” Kaitlyn asked, mocking the man’s formal accent.

“Missus Clarice Stanfield,” the man told Kaitlyn as he went back into the car. Kaitlyn cautiously approached the rear passenger side door and opened it. In the back seat was an older woman - appearing to be in her sixties with a very shiny silver permed short hair, and wearing a brown and gray fur coat. She was Clarice Stanfield, a high profile member of both Edmonton’s cultural and financial elite – also a very prominent member of the vampire community.

“Miss Russo?” Clarice coldly asked. “Yes,” Kaitlyn replied back. “How do you know me?”

Clarice pulled out a manila folder from an attaché case that sat between the two of them. She then read from the folder. “Kaitlyn Allison Russo. Current rank - detective, homicide department of the Edmonton Police Service. Parents – Patrick Russo, retired Inspector, Edmonton Police Service deceased; and Madelyn Russo, semi-retired elementary teacher, currently in substitute teacher’s pool for Edmonton Catholic Schools. Citations and commendations are also all in here, if you want me to read them for you.”

“That’s quite alright,” Kaitlyn insisted. “So you have enough information to start a Wikipedia article on me, big deal.”

“Actually, one part I would definitely leave out, unless I want to destroy the career of a respected investigator – would be ‘secret werewolf.’” Clarice said rather bluntly.

“Now you got my attention,” Kaitlyn defensively snapped. “What the hell do you want?”

“Word among my brethren was that you stood up for a group of vampires facing some rather bigoted humans. Well, one of those vampires was a nephew of mine,” Clarice told Kaitlyn. “Unfortunately, it seemed someone finished the job those four men never got to even start.”

“The fire last night?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Was a house I owned and used as a halfway house of sorts for newly arrived vampires to get them acclimated to the city. And to top it all off, poor Miss Sawyer.” Clarice paused and let out an insincere sigh. “We may not see eye to eye on many issues, but she truly did not deserve what happened to her.”

“Least we agree on one thing,” Kaitlyn said back, just as taut as Clarice seemed to be. Clarice went on to explain to Kaitlyn what she meant: “I think we may have more in common than you let on, Miss Russo. I have seen a lot of things over the years I have lived. Some right, some wrong. Even wrongs darker than death or night itself. I have seen all too many times the true nature of man. Lately, I have been feeling like things here in this city are reaching a boiling point. Drug pushers and university students torn to shreds, prostitutes being murdered by misguided men of God, goody-two-shoe ambitious attorneys being raped, and such misguided hatred exhibited by man towards my own kind. I feel like there will soon be a war, one way or another, and when that moment comes, Miss Russo, you might be forced to choose a side.”

“And I suppose you want me to back your side, huh?” Kaitlyn asked.

“It will be ultimately up to you,” Clarice said back. “Will you remain on the side of a race that uses fear, intimidation, misguided words from their bible, and rape to achieve their victory, or will you switch sides and be with your own kind?”

“As far as I know, I am the only one here in the area, unless you know something I don’t.” Kaitlyn replied back, hoping to maybe trick Clarice into revealing something. Except Clarice just lightly laughed and said “Nice try, but I’m not going to make it that easy. Anyways, I just want to let you know should the time come, you will have a spot open with me. Take care, Miss Russo, you may leave now.” Kaitlyn quickly opened the car door and jumped out as if her own life had flashed before her. She slammed the door shut as the car quickly sped off. Kaitlyn placed her hand on her forehead and sighed in frustration and confusion, feeling like she had no idea what just happened.


Charlie Lamb was a normal third-year mechanical engineering student and member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Slightly drunk, he and his date for the evening, a nursing student named Janice Addison were walking back home from a party going on at the fraternity’s house. The two of them walked rather tipsily down the street. “You sure this is safe?” Janice asked. “Been hearing stories of vamps in the ‘hood here and women getting attack.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Charlie said, speech slightly slurred. “Some fanger tries to suck your blood, it’s gonna get the pounding it deserves!” he added with false bravado and confidence aided by the copious amount of alcohol he had consumed. His sense of bravery took a test as a quiet snapping of twigs from a nearby bush made him jump.” Yeah, you’re real brave there!” Janice jokingly chided her would-be protector and both looked on in confusion as a solitary Grey Wolf emerged from the bushes. The wolf approached slowly towards Janice, who stood there shaking nervously. But those nerves slowly went away as the wolf smelled the pant legs of Janice and nuzzled up against her lower legs. “Aww, I think its friendly.” Janice stated as she kneeled down and scratched the wolf behind its ear like it was a domesticated dog.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a fuckin’ pet!” Charlie sarcastically said as he tried to assert himself between Janice and the wolf. However, the friendly demeanor of the wolf turn slightly aggressive as it growled and bared its teeth at Charlie. “What the fuck?!” Charlie said as he tried to remove Janice away from the wolf, only for the wolf to step in front of Janice and began to bark and howl. It was as if the wolf was protecting Janice. “Bad move there, wolfie,” Charlie both nervously and bravely said. “You ain’t cock blockin’ me!” he exclaimed as he tried to kick at the wolf. Charlie didn’t realize the quickness of the wolf though as it had sunk its teeth into Charlie’s left calf, essentially dragging him down to the ground. Janice screamed loudly as Charlie tried in vein to shake the wolf off of him. Going into a flight-or-fight mentality, Charlie smacked the wolf in its head, which only seemed to aggravate it. Moving in towards Charlie’s throat, the wolf got scared off by Janice, who tossed her high-heeled shoes at it. The wolf quickly took off down a back alley. With his leg torn up and bleeding, Charlie screamed in pain while Janice tried to do a makeshift tourniquet for his leg from his torn jeans. “Fuck that!” Charlie yelled at her and added “Just call an ambulance and the dog catcher!”


Blocks away from where Charlie Lamb was attacked was Delta Kappa Epsilon’s house. The party was still going on as shouting people and loud music blared from the house. A group of people stood outside, unaware that five Eurasian Wolves stood across the street, along with a shapely woman donned in form-fitting red leather pants and a tight black tank-top. One of the wolves looked up at the wildly curly brownish-red haired woman, who tipped her aviator sunglasses as if it was a non-verbal cue for the pack to advance on the house. No one on the fraternity’s property were aware of what was going on until it was too late. The wolves crossed the street, three of them attacking the party-goers outside; the other two making their way into the house. As the music stopped and a mix of wolf howls and blood-curdling screams now came from the house. The same car that had stopped in from of Kaitlyn Russo earlier in the afternoon now pulled up next to the woman, who got into the car’s back seat and motioned for the driver to drive away.

“I assume Madame will be pleased with tonight’s actions?” the driver asked the woman.

“She better be,” the woman answered and then spoke with disdain “I don’t know what I hate more – using these dumb, primitive mercenaries for our dirty work, or these useless normal mortals.”