Kaitlyn Russo felt herself running. Running as fast as she could. It was dark. Everything was so dark. All she could see around her was lots of trees. Everything was in monochrome. Her perspective was low to the ground. She saw a man running ahead of her. Running away from her in fear. But she would catch up to this man. The man screamed in vain as Kaitlyn found herself on top of him, snarling and growling…
… Kaitlyn’s eyes slowly opened to first reveal a familiar looking pillow. It was a pillow from her couch set. Her head was throbbing crazy, as if like she had a hangover. She slowly tried to get up, feeling slightly stiff. Kaitlyn felt around her body for a moment – only to realize she was completely naked, except for a down-filled comforter that covered her. “Shit!” Kaitlyn quietly shouted, thankfully realizing she was back home in her condo. She wrapped the comforter around her body like a robe as she noticed the television on the Global Morning News. Still feeling a tad disoriented, Kaitlyn could barely make out what Jennifer Crosby was talking about. Putting together the pieces, Kaitlyn came up with “DKE House”, “wolf attack”, “dozens severely injured” and “separate attack that may be unrelated…” Seth Rollins phased through the couch with a cup of green tea which he gave to Kaitlyn, who was still trying to regain some semblance of clarity.
“As much as I miss Andrea Engel,” Seth lamented, “If I still had a working penis, I’d be totaling jackin’ it right now to Miss Crosby.”
“Could you at least let me put some clothes on before you get all pervy here?” Kaitlyn chided Seth and gave him a look that could be best described as dirty mixed in with pain from her throbbing head. Kaitlyn felt around her neck and felt a lump at the back. “What the hell happened exactly?” she openly asked. “Beats me,” Seth answered. “All I know is around midnight I hear this scratching at the door, I opened the door and this wolf comes in and gets on the couch. I try to shoo it off but it growled at me.”
“Oh god!” Kaitlyn’s heart felt like it was going to fall down into her stomach. “Was I responsible for all that?” she asked, looking at the television, seeing the carnage from Delta Kappa Epsilon’s house.
“Doubt it, unless you got yourself a posse and never told us about them,” Seth replied back, hoping to put Kaitlyn’s fears to rest. “But I swear I was around there, I think, and I know I attacked someone,” she worried out loud. But Kaitlyn would have to put those worries to the side for now as the phone rang. Not even caring or paying attention the call display, Kaitlyn answered “Hello?” On the other end was Simon Fererra: “Look I know you’re still taking your personal day but dammit, there’s a shitstorm brewing down here!”
“What’s going on there, Simon?” Kaitlyn asked.
“City hall is being pressured to do something about everything that’s gone down in the last forty-eight hours, Joanie’s been feeling pressure from every side possible, me and Wolf Hunter are going to the Delta’s house, and I’ve been instructed-slash-ordered to bring you into the investigation by any means necessary.”
“I may not be in the best condition to do anything” Kaitlyn moaned.
“Jesus, what did you do? Soup for one, salad for one, wine for three?!” Simon jokingly asked.
“Wish I knew exactly myself.”
“Well, Sperling wants you and Swifty at the University Hospital to interview a guy who said he survived the attack. Myself and Sergei are gonna be investigating at Delta House.”
Kaitlyn sighed and eventually capitulated. “Fine, tell her I’ll be down there in a few hours okay?”
“Yeah, sure, okay. We’ll meet up later. Bye” Simon said as the line went dead from the other end being hung up. “Oh god, where are my clothes from last night?” Kaitlyn asked, slightly panicking.
“Relax, Grant sniffed them out just before he went to bed and saw you sleeping on the couch. Gosh you looked so cute,” Seth said, teasing Kaitlyn, who walked towards her bedroom, clutching the comforter around her. “So not in the mood right now, Seth!” Kaitlyn bellowed just before she slammed to door to her bedroom shut.
“She’s never in the mood.” Seth muttered.
Simon Fererra and Sergei Koloff walked up to the front lawn of Delta Kappa Epsilon’s house. Both of them did their best to shake off a small crowd of reporters and curious onlookers that were gathered on the other side of the police barricades. Once on the other side, Fererra and Koloff walked passed a team of crime scene investigators collecting evidence off the lawn. A few uniformed and plain-clothes officers interviewed hysterical students, most of them unable to fully comprehend at what really went down here the night before. Sergei just looked around the entire front yard, observing the damage done. It seemed very familiar to something he had witnessed somewhere else before. Something he had encountered before during his travels across the globe. Simon stood on the front deck of the house alongside a uniformed officer and watched both his temporary partner doing his own investigation, followed by a couple forensics team members removing articles from the house for their own inquiry.
“You know, some things change but some always find a way to stay the same,” Fererra said to the officer. “Frat houses and their crazy parties, huh? Then again, the craziest thing I ever did was help toilet paper a professor’s car,” he added. The officer just nodded as Sergei joined them on the deck as well.
“Definitely wolf,” Sergei commented. “Not just one but at least five.”
“You got all that from just looking around the scene?” the officer asked skeptically.
“There were at least three unique paw prints on the ground. Also from doing a quick olfactory survey I have detected a few pungent, yet distinct odors…”
“Meaning what exactly?” the officer asked.
“Basically, he smells wolf piss,” Simon bluntly answered.
“Is this guy for real?” the officer asked, slightly disgusted.
“Very much so, yes,” Sergei answered as he made his was inside the house.
“Let’s see if can do the same in here then,” the officer said as the smell inside the house hit all three of them. A scent that was mixed with the usual smells of a drug and alcohol fuelled party would have, mixed in with blood from the attack and vomit as well. Sergei walked over to a recliner chair, observing a very interesting stain on the cushion of the chair. Much to the officer’s disgust, Sergei picked up the cushion and took in a deep breath. He then put the cushion down and looked around at some of the blood stains on the hardwood floor and splatter patterns on the wall. Then it had finally hit Sergei as to where he had seen this before. He quietly muttered “Noch bratstva”. Hearing what Sergei had though he said quietly, Simon asked “I know I’m not up on my Slavic speech, but what the hell does that mean?”
“Before coming to Canada here, I was on assignment to track down a group of werewolves who terrorized an importer based in Odessa,” Sergei recounted his tale. “He had some unfortunate run-ins with the Russian Mob, who sought protection money from him. At one point, he had refused to pay any more, despite of fear of mob retaliation. They did eventually retaliate but not in the conventional sense.”
“Meaning what exactly?” Simon asked.
“There was an old tale about a pack of werewolves who always were used as hired mercenaries, soldiers of fortune as it were. They were around for hundreds of years, some say Ivan the Terrible used them during his reign as tsar of all Russia. In Russian, they were referred to as Bratstvo Kresta – The Brotherhood of the Cross. An attack like this is their trademark - scare the locals, kill the innocent, and send a clear message from their contacts. It is referred to as ‘The Night of the Brotherhood’ - Noch bratstva.” Sergei said with dread.
“Sounds like this is a heavy deal,” the officer chimed in with.
“You have no idea,” Sergei came back with. “Their price is not too cheap as well. Someone here has gone to great lengths to send a very strong message.”
“What is that message then?” Simon asked, just as he noticed a laptop computer on top of a broken coffee table. Simon put on some rubber gloves just before he picked it up and opened it. On the monitor was a opened folder with a series of pictures – pictures of a group of students setting up the crosses that burned a couple nights ago on the Stanfield’s halfway house – a house that itself would later burn to the ground.
“Perhaps we should ask the owner of this computer the how and why he has these on here?” Sergei asked as he looked over Simon’s shoulder, then noticed a label stuck at the end of the keyboard. The label read “Property of Charlie Lamb.” “’Lamb’? Isn’t that the kid who got attacked earlier by another wolf?” Simon asked.
“Yes sir,” the officer replied. “Think Swift and Russo are going to question him.”
“Interesting,” Sergei commented. “I would be interested in hearing his encounter. Based solely off the initial intel, that attack seems so uncharacteristic of the Brotherhood. They always move together as one unit.”
“Well maybe one got bored and decided to go out on its own?” Simon jokingly asked. Sadly, Sergei did not share his temporary partner’s sense of humor as he delivered a solemn, stone cold “Nyet!” as he walked out of the house. “Hope this switch-up is temporary.” Simon quietly muttered to himself.
Kaitlyn Russo and Cameron Swift walked into the emergency ward of the University Hospital. The two of them seemed kind of uncomfortable working along side each other. Cameron, despite looking like he belonged more comfortable be the Genius Bar of an Apple Store than a police officer, was way out of his element of dealing with vice and computer crimes. Kaitlyn, who would normally be exuding confidence in her investigative strut, was out of sorts today as her head was more focused on trying to piece together her own lost moments last night. Surely she was not responsible for the massacre at the Delta Kappa Epsilon house. But what if she was? Only way to know for sure was to come down and do some old-fashioned police work, if only to just ease her own doubting and potentially guilty conscience. “So why do you figure Sperling has us doing this?” Cameron awkwardly asked Kaitlyn in an attempt to break through the almost eerie silence the two of them had.
“I have a feeling she’s worried about me falling apart on a crime scene,” Kaitlyn answered. “You? I have no idea. Maybe she figured you needed to be out in the daylight away from a computer.”
“Or maybe she’s trying new dynamics when the chief announces who is all going to make up his ‘Vamp Squad’?”
“Huh, haven’t really thought of that. Didn’t even know any of us were even up for consideration.”
“From what I heard through the grapevine, it’s going to be a giant multilateral task force. Every department is going to be pulled into it..”
“Wonderful. So I’ll be having witty small-talk with some new person, huh?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Possibly,” Cameron replied back. “Or this whole experimental switch-up was just meant as a temporary shake up.” Kaitlyn looked confused as to what Cameron was trying to imply, but would have to worry about its context later. Right now, the two of them came up to Charlie Lamb, who was laid up on a hospital bed. Janice Addison was by his bedside. Cameron and Kaitlyn showed their respective badges to the young couple, which illicit a negative response for Charlie: “Great more cops! Thought you’d be with Animal Control and here to tell me you got that wolf that did this to me!” Charlie then showed his leg where the wolf had sunk its teeth in to.
“Sadly, we’re not here for that,” Cameron said, unsure if that was the way to go.
“Right,” Kaitlyn added. “We want to see how much you can recall about last night.”
“Last night? Me and my girl here went to a party,” Charlie said, “We left the party, come across a wolf and the fucker just went after me. End of story.”
“Well, we’re looking more for any information about the events that occurred back at Deke House,” Kaitlyn probed further. “Like if you noticed anything out of the ordinary as you left.”
“Any other vehicles? People around that looked suspicious?” Cameron added.
“We were both kinda wasted and weren’t paying too much attention,” Janice answered. “Only thing that caught our attention was that one wolf.”
“Did you see which direction the wolf headed?” Cameron asked.
“Dunno,” Janice answered, “I threw my shoes at it when it looked it is was gonna rip Charlie’s leg off here.” Kaitlyn touched the back of her own head, feeling the lump that was still there. Okay, so instead of being responsible for a bunch of innocent deaths and injuries, I just gave a flesh wound to a drunk. Kaitlyn thought to herself then breathed a big sigh of relief. “Well,” Kaitlyn then said to Charlie as she handed him a card. “Give us a call here if you do remember anything else.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever. Just find that wolf for me!” Charlie said. Just as Kaitlyn and Cameron were to leave, they stopped and looked slightly surprised as Simon Fererra and Sergei Koloff came into the same area. “Actually, don’t bother giving us a call,” Simon told Charlie. “We need to talk to you about your little photography project.”
“What are you talking about?” Charlie asked confusingly.
“We have a laptop that contains potential evidence in another investigation”, Sergei answered. “Yeah,” Simon added in. “Either that or you had a real nice view of that fire that happened a few blocks from where your attack happened.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, fella!” Charlie snapped back, allowing a bit of his Irish heritage to show throw with his temper and accent. In an unfortunate twist of fate for Charlie, Angie Newhart and two other officers walked by, escorting Claire Sawyer – still showing signs from her attack two nights ago. The “fella” triggered something inside Claire’s head. The way it sounded, sent a shiver to her very core. “That voice,” Claire said quietly. Then fueled by anger and adrenaline, Claire tried to lunge after Charlie; screaming at him “That voice! He’s the one there! He’s the one who attacked me!” The two officers did their best to restrain Clair, who kept hysterically screaming and sobbing. Angie then joined Kaitlyn, Simon, Cameron, and Sergei over next to Charlie. “So, who wants to take him in?” Angie asked.
“I swear to God, I have never met that woman my entire life!” Charlie pleaded. Janice had heard enough and got up only to try and slap Charlie across the face. But her hand was blocked by Sergei, who dragged her away as she shouted “You asshole! You told me you had nothing to with it!”
“Well, victim I.D’ed him, an accessory after the fact may have sold him down the river,” Simon sharply stated, “And he’s got some nice before and after shots of the Stanfield house fire. Guess you’re Mister Popular today here, huh?” he sarcastically asked Charlie as he slapped on a pair of handcuffs onto Charlie’s wrists.
“What are you doing? Do you know who my dad is?” Charlie asked.
“I’m sure you’ll be glad to tell us when we take you downtown,” Simon replied back as Angie read Charlie his Miranda rights.
Grant Roberts nervously made his way up the stairway of the downtown offices of the Edmonton Police Services. He had a few hours to go before his shift at the Royal Alex begun, but he figured he would return the message left by Kaitlyn to go talk to the investigators in regards to Claire’s rape. While he was assured he was only being brought in as a witness, Grant was nervous just the same. It had been many years since Grant had involved himself with affairs of normal people, and only after Claire Sawyer had convinced him to become more visible for his own people. After she made her impassioned speech to Grant, he did reluctantly accept the role. Then while he was about to get ready for work, Grant heard Claire’s cry for help a block away, and instincts kicked in to come to her rescue. When he arrived, he saw Claire being held down on the back of her car by two men. He saw her cheeks and eyes were badly bruised, mouth gagged shut with a toque, and tears running down her face while one of the other men was forcing himself into Claire from the back side. One other man, acting as a lookout and cheering on the action, noticed Grant and told him it would be best to turn away. Grant defied the request and told them it would be better if they left. The lookout man laughed at Grant as he walked towards him. “You don’t know what you got yourself into fella,” the man told Grant. By that time, Grant’s fangs were out and he threw the lookout man to the ground. Now knowing what was truly going on, the man ran off scared, ordering the other three to follow suit. Grant did not pursue them further, but did go to comfort Claire until an elderly couple across the street turned their lights on to see what the commotion was. Grant lived that story once. He added to his ball of guilt from his days in the infantry. And now he relived it once more as he told the story to Angie Newhart.
“If we were to show you a picture of the lookout man, would you be able to identify him?” Angie asked Grant, who nodded “Yes.” Angie then produced a mug shot of Charlie Lamb. “That was him,” Grant said without hesitation.
“Are you sure?” Angie asked back.
“He was the only one who I got a definite look at. All of them were wearing matching hoodies. Two of them held Claire down and weren’t paying attention, or more so paying attention to the one that was doing Claire at the time.”, Grant answered again without hesitation.
“All right then, Mister Roberts, come with me,” Angie instructed Grant to follow her towards the exterior of an interrogation room. In the room, Charlie Lamb was sitting down with a an older, bald man - who appeared to be his legal counsel - as Simon Fererra appeared to be questioning Charlie. “Yeah, that’s him for sure.” Grant stated to Angie, who just nodded in agreement. “Okay, just wait here a moment and I’ll be back to get more info from you,” she said as she opened the door to hear Simon in mid-sentence “… so I suppose those photos were also taken for laughs as well, huh?”
Just as Charlie was about to speak, his lawyer interjected. “Look, as far as we are concerned, they could have placed on there by anyone. The only witness to him and this alleged rape is a hysterical woman who came after my client…” Angie interrupted the lawyer “Actually got another witness who just fingered Mister Lamb here.”
“Was it that vampire?” Charlie asked, only to have his lawyer hang his head and shake in disbelief. “Like I said earlier detectives, I never touched her! Joey, Ted, and I joked about doing her every time we saw her ads on TV!” Charlie defiantly stated.
“Yeah, makes sense,” Simon said as he rolled his eyes. “Wife would kill me if she heard this, but I got a thing for Nicola Crosbie myself, but it don’t mean me and my golfing buddies are gonna beat her down for getting a forecast wrong.”
“Even if you may not have actually done anything to her, you’re still an accessory to the crime,” Angie told Charlie.
“Look, my client is the real victim here. First he gets assaulted by a vampire while being part of something he didn’t really want to partake in,” the lawyer said, trying to preserve any kind of defense, “Then he gets bit by a wild wolf that no one seems to be interested in tracking down.”
“As opposed to the woman who got beat down and gang raped? You’re not earning any sympathy points here.” Angie snapped back to the lawyer.
“It’s a very flimsy case you got here,” the lawyer came back with. “As for this cockamamie photo scam you’re trying to pin on him, well good luck with that.”
“Just give us a minute here,” Simon said as he and Angie stepped out.
“Even if he didn’t physically rape her, he was part of that whole attack on Miss Sawyer.” Angie emphatically stated to Simon once the door was shut.
“Maybe so, but as much as it pains me to say, this vampire witness may not exactly fly in courts.” Simon frustratingly commented.
“What about the computer with the photos from the Stanfield fire?” Angie asked. “We let him walk now on anything, we lose everything! The cause of the fire, the actual guys involved with the Sawyer case.”
“We might be in luck,” Cameron Swift came to join the conversation. “DNA evidence just came back from the lab. He was in on the rape for sure.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Angie said, feeling satisfied.
“However, he’s the only one left,” Cameron said. “Early autopsy results from the dozen or so bodies from Deke House confirmed the other three men were among the dead.”
“So, it’s all or nothing, huh?” Simon asked.
“If its any consolation, we went through the entire hard drive and found enough evidence for the fire.” Cameron replied.
“I know fraternities aren’t necessary the right place for enlightened behavior, but why would a bunch of drunk university students want to start practicing such hateful acts?” Angie asked.
“I dunno either, maybe we go back in there, present this to Prince Charming there and maybe he’ll change his tune.” Simon said as he motioned for the three of them to go back in.
Kaitlyn Russo has had very little time to dress up so formally. Here she was now, wearing a stylish, yet simplistic, light purple evening gown, watching Edmonton’s world famous Shumka Ukrainian Dancers perform at the Timms Centre for the Arts. She was here at the request of Sergei Koloff, who had asked her to accompany him to his exhibit of old and modern culture from his native Ukraine. After the performance, the two of them mingled among the crowd. One of the many people in attendance who quickly recognized Kaitlyn was Clarice Stanfield. Flanked by her chauffer and two tall, handsome looking men – her sons Xavier and Alexis – Clarice and her mini-entourage made their way towards Kaitlyn and Sergei, who were seen to slowly exit.
“Ah, Miss Russo, so nice to see you again,” Clarice said with a mix of formality and insincerity. “Did not realize you had such a handsome man in you life,” she said looking at Sergei, who was wearing a sharp-looking tuxedo.
“Well, he’s just a colleague who asked me here,” Kaitlyn answered back.
“She is quite right,” Sergei said as he did a polite bow to Clarice. “Sergei Koloff, Special Constable.”
“Hmm, charmed I’m sure,” Clarice said. “Gentlemen, would you excuse us ladies for a moment? Girl talk time” she said, looking at Kaitlyn, who once again reluctantly followed the odd Clarice Stanfield. The two of them made their way outside of the lobby and onto the streets facing towards the west side of the campus.
“Such a lovely night, isn’t it, Miss Russo?” Clarice asked, trying to make small talk. “Not as nice as last night, am I right?”
“Not sure what you’re referring to” Kaitlyn said.
“Heard some poor soul got attacked by a solitary wolf. I suppose you don’t know anything about that do you, Miss Russo?”
“I’ve gone over it my head and I only wounded him. Then I found out he was responsible for raping Claire Sawyer and possibly linked to the fire that saw one of your houses go up in smoke.”
“Yes. That was something else I heard too. Such an unfortunate turn of events, wouldn’t you say?”
Feeling suspicious and maybe a little ballsy, Kaitlyn said “Missus Stanfield, even though I am off duty, if you had anything at all to do…” Then Clarice interrupted: “Please, you have nothing at all to trace back to me, not without incriminating yourself – especially to your werewolf hunter boyfriend there.” A car pulled up as Sergei made his way out of the Timms center behind Xavier, Alexis, and the chauffer.
“I would seriously reconsider my offer from the other day, Miss Russo” Clarice said as her entourage got into the car. “In the words of one of my favorite movies from last century – they pull out a knife, you pull out a gun. They send one of your guys to the hospital, you send one of their guys to the morgue. Think about whose side you’re going to be on when the time comes.” Kaitlyn quietly fumed as Clarice made her way into the car. She silently stood by and watched it drive away. Sergei came down to where Kaitlyn was standing. “What was that all about?” he asked.
“Not too sure,” Kaitlyn said. “Simon told be about this Brotherhood of the Cross, how they’re mercs with a high price.”
“Yes?” Sergei inquisitively asked.
“How high of a price do they go for?”
“No one really knows. Folk tales told how they held noblemen for all their tithings they collected from serfs. Legend had it that Catherine the Great almost brought them in for the price of the crown jewels of Russia. Why do you ask?”
Kaitlyn watched Clarice’s car turn the corner and drive away. “I think we got our prime suspect,” she said very sternly. But if that whole conversation didn’t implicate her, Kaitlyn just had a feeling that Clarice Stanfield knew more than what she was letting on.
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