Derek Ward

Dreams and Nightmares

Farmer and I kept the Mexican standoff for a few moments as my mind processed the bombshell Farmer just laid on me. Elizabeth was alive! I looked into Farmer’s eyes, needing to see if there was any deception, and terrified that there might be. He didn’t flinch away. It was almost as if he knew what I was searching for, and he opened himself up to my inspection. There was no deception. Elizabeth was alive! All of the emotions I had so carefully packed away flooded my mind. It took most of my reserve to carefully holster my pistol. As soon as the weapon was put away, my legs let go and I dropped to the floor. The lycanthrope I just captured rushed to try and catch me. Vanessa and Farmer just watched me crumple down. All of that deep, dark fear that tormented me had crystallized into a relief and joy so strong my mind just could not cope. I had seen others overcome by emotion, but I never truly understood what was happening to them. Now I did. (more…)

Chapter 18

Operations That Go According to Plan Are Some of My Favorite Fantasies

One of the oddest sensations when doing a job – or in this case, an operation – is the strange combination of excitement and boredom. The actual drive down to the hotel was dull. Florida can be a pretty state, but Interstate 75 doesn’t always go through the most spectacular parts of the state. Mostly its sparse grasslands, farms, and then the edges of the Tampa sprawl. I looked across the cab of the truck. Vanessa spent the entire drive from Tallahassee immersed in the data on her laptop. Barely audible pop music drifted over from her headphones as she drowned out the outside noise. She didn’t speak to me the entire trip. Her body language was oddly neutral. I couldn’t tell if she was just immersed in her studies, or if she was making a concerted effort to ignore me. Hangman casually mentioned to me that my plan was costing Vanessa a good portion of her savings. He made it perfectly clear that her outlay wasn’t something to be taken for granted. I knew he was right, but I didn’t know how to talk to Vanessa about it – so I didn’t say anything. (more…)

Chapter 17

Laying the Groundwork

“What the fuck do you mean it’s in Tampa?” I asked, straining to keep from stammering out my words.

“According to these tracking documents, the emissary’s report was part of a batch of documents that was sent to the holding facility at the University of South Florida,” Vanessa explained, motioning to the display on her laptop, “From the address, the university is in Tampa.”

“Yeah, it is,” I confirmed, “I’ve operated near the school plenty of times.” My mind was racing in several different directions at once, and I couldn’t keep focused on any of them. I closed my eyes to pull my thoughts together. Elizabeth just haunted the sudden darkness. I pushed her aside – I needed to concentrate on the task at hand. “Do you know where exactly the records are? That campus is huge.” (more…)

Chapter 16

Just Because No One Else Survived It….

During my first week in the Society of the Claw and the Fang, I didn’t see or hear from Blackhawk. It was just as well. I was busy as hell getting myself settled into my house and working with Vanessa to get her ready for field operations. I couldn’t bring myself to call whatever the Society wanted me to do jobs. That term was reserved for hunters, and I wasn’t working for the Guild anymore. I liked Vanessa, but my instincts were telling me that something was wrong with the Society. It wasn’t anything that I could put my finger on, but I definitely felt an ill-ease with the Society. Blackhawk’s sudden reappearance did nothing to lessen my suspicions.

A knock at my door woke me up before sunrise – a situation that didn’t make me all that happy to begin with. I was half-expecting Vanessa, but found Blackhawk standing impatiently on my front porch. Blackhawk was adjusting his grip on two brown bags. One bore the logo of a local pastry shop, which explained the smells emanating from it. The other was completely blank, and it piqued my interest. Blackhawk didn’t wait for me to invite him in and pushed past me. My mind was still trying to clear the haze of semi-consciousness, so instead of grabbing my interloping new boss and throwing him out, my hand just sailed past his rushing body. He set down both bags on my table. Before I could get my mouth and mind working together, Blackhawk whirled back to me and ordered, “Call Vanessa and get her over here, now.” (more…)

Chapter 15

This Is Why I Hate Job Interviews

At the Guildmaster’s suggestion I showered and changed into a more respectable looking outfit. My jeans were replaced by black slacks. A borrowed oxford blue button-up shirt and a tie were also his doing. I kept my boots, mostly so that I could easily carry my new back-up piece, a Glock 30, but I did shine them a little so that they didn’t look quite so rugged. My trusty USP was still in a small of the back holster, covered by a simple black leather jacket that Hangman had let me borrow for the meeting. My protégé seemed much better after he woke up. From what I gathered, Hangman managed to impress the state trainer, and Hangman was going to be hazed into the State Guild that afternoon. There was pride in his eyes, but the sorrow of what we lost still haunted him. I didn’t push it and slipped out as soon as Hangman left. (more…)

Chapter 14

The Only Constant In Life Is Change

Two days of cautious travel later, Nick pulled the Suburban up to a travel information center outside of Tallahassee. Nick got out of the truck and made his way to a pay telephone bank as Hangman and I checked the hard drives and all of our information that we had on our conspiracy, if that was what it was. After we were satisfied that everything was intact, Hangman cleared a green metal park bench while I hit the vending machines for snack foods and soda. As I walked back to the bench where Hangman was sitting, I reflected on the past couple of days. (more…)

Chapter 13

Things Keep Sliding Downward

The ride under the stars was refreshing. Hell, getting out of the Manor was refreshing. It wasn’t the carnage that bothered me. It was trying to get a grasp of something completely new to me. The more I looked back on the few interactions between Elizabeth – I couldn’t believe how natural it was to call her by her packname instead of the Lady-Apparent – the more I saw, or hoped to see, the early flickers of infatuation between the two of us. At the same time, my mind was also busily slapping down those lofty aspirations with reality. Completely out of character, I reached out to another lycanthrope in need and probably got what was a normal response that I was blowing completely out of proportion. To make matters worse, the two lycanthropes I normally went to for these sort of things weren’t available. The Guildmaster was far too busy helping Elizabeth – the Lady-Apparent, dammit – gather the packs and restore some order to the chaos that the witch-hunters’ attacked wreaked upon our society. Nick, on the other hand, was being far too amused by my blubbering to do anything but give me an almost malicious smile. So, when Sneller asked us to check on the Guildmaster’s wife, I jumped at the job. Almost literally. (more…)

Chapter 12

There Are Worse Things Than Being on Trial For My Life

The blackness faded as I opened my eyes slowly. The world slowly came into focus. I looked around the cell I was confined in. Something was wrong. Something was out of place. Then, it came to me. Everything was black and white. I had shifted to wolf form in my sleep. I shed my wolf form for true form, feeling my body extend as I emotionally triggered the transformation. My senses became sharper and integrated themselves, making the environment around me more complete. A scent floated into the cell. I looked at the door, where the Guildmaster stood with one of the marshals that had been standing guard. The Guildmaster was in human form, strange for the Manor, and was dressed in a business suit, carrying a briefcase. (more…)

Chapter 11

There’s A Dark Cloud For Every Silver Lining

“It’s nice to see that you managed to almost get yourself killed,” the Guildmaster growled as I walked into his office. I had been rushed into emergency surgery as soon as Nick had returned us to the Guild. A lot of that had been hunters scrubbing out the remains of silver that contaminated my wounds and then letting my body take over before it shut down. From what Nick had told me when I woke up, it had been a close thing. I could feel that my body was still putting itself back together, but I was more or less operational. The Guildmaster’s expression told me he wasn’t happy that I had gone out with Nick, and even less pleased that I had managed to almost get myself killed. I kept my face neutral and sat down in my normal chair.

“What the hell were the witch-hunters doing in West Tampa?” I asked, completely ignoring the Guildmaster’s chiding remark. He growled a bit, but picked up a manila folder off of his increasingly crowded desk. The anger drained from his face to be replaced by an almost worried expression. The expression disturbed me. I knew that as the Guildmaster’s personal hitter, I was one of the few hunters that the Guildmaster could be totally honest and open with. It was one of the reasons that the personal hitter was usually a close friend of the Guildmaster. Still, it was disconcerting to see my leader look like he didn’t know what to do. (more…)

Chapter 10

I Miss A Big Battle

The border between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties was odd in that part of it ran in the middle of Tampa Bay. It made pursuits sometimes interesting, because the laws governing crossing into a neighboring county “uninvited” were very strict. Even amongst friendly counties, the penalties for the offending lycanthrope could be very harsh. Leeches, on the other hand, had no compunctions. Their council system was city-based, not county-based like that of the lycanthropes, and their power was a matter of what each council could grab and hold. So, even though the Pinellas Hunters Guild warned my Guildmaster that some TCV vamps had been “recruiting” in St. Petersburg across the bay, we could not go over and wipe out the “press gang.” Since Lady Thames had declared that Pinellas was neutral, she wouldn’t allow the fighting on her soil. From what I had been told, she had tried to stoke the Clearwater Council into attacking their rivals working in St. Pete, but the vampires had been unable to find their opponents. At least that was what they told Lady Thames. The Guildmaster of the Pinellas Chapter hadn’t been convinced, but had been unable to set his hunters on the interlopers. Thames was being strict on the neutrality issue. (more…)