They had been out in the desert for a few days. The uneasy truce between them had been unsettling at best. It seemed that Nicolas wanted only silence and any attempt by William to break that silence was met with the other man walking away into the desert and sitting down several hundred yards away. This had been maddeningly unhelpful towards any end of rescue or survival. Nicolas seemed to not care about food, water, or shelter. Luckily for them there hadn’t been any helicopters in sight since the night they arrived, thank God for small favors. The one good piece of news was that Nicolas was now fully healed and he had eaten a few things.
The second night out in the desert, after William had cleaned up their camp area and further obscured their whereabouts, he was ready to crawl back into the hide he had dug that first night, only to find that a pair of rattle snakes had taken up residence there. He froze in place as he watched the two sit there sleeping, their coils just barely moving, shifting around each other for warmth in the rapidly cooling desert night. William shifted into werewolf form and killed both of them silently and swiftly, his claws neatly separating their heads from their bodies. He took the larger one to Nicolas and he ate the smaller of the two. Nicolas took the fresh kill and ate it without a word.
They had lived like that for the last few days. Eating the occasional kill or finding various shrubberies that were edible. More than once since being out here he silently thanked Efraim and his survival lessons in the Mountain. At the time he would have never thought them necessary but now he was very grateful that he had them.
His thoughts had turned to Ansuya more times than he would like to admit. What was happening to her? Was she ok? Was she even alive? The not knowing part was driving him crazy.
He hadn’t felt any movement from the presence in the back of his mind that was Aceso, Katherine, or Charles. They remained in the City. He was wondering if maybe he and Nicolas should take their chances and try to travel overland back to Mt. Shasta. It would take weeks and it would be hard, but anything was better than just waiting around here for someone to come and get them. Of course, that was if Nicolas decided to talk to him or answer him at all with anything other than him getting up and walking a few hundred yards off into the desert. So, when William came back to find Nicolas surrounded by three men and three wolves. He was at once disturbed, happy, and confused all at the same time.
William walked up to the seven of them as they turned around. William immediately recognized, Efraim and Billy. “Billy! What are you guys doing out here?” This was met with a look of surprise by the Shape shifters; even the three wolves cocked their heads to side in confusion. William shook his head, “I mean, I’m glad to see you, but how did you know where to find us? Why are you here?”
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A light brown furred wolf, with a distinctive swath of black fur along his spine, stepped in front of his pack. He raised his snout to the wind. William watched as his ears shifted in all directions and his eyes scanned every part of their surroundings. When the wolf was satisfied, he shifted. The Shape shifter was about seven feet tall, maybe a little taller, and his golden eyes moved from William to Nicolas and back to William.
The werewolf said, “I am Lethe, Alpha of my pack. I believe you know Billy Jones and Efraim Goldstein?” William nodded to both of them. Lethe nodded to a shorter male, “This is Ryan Yamamoto, our healer” The man stood only about five feet seven inches, maybe eight, he nodded to the both of them. Lethe pointed to the other two wolves in the group, “The charcoal gray is Pepromene, our Sage, and the grey with the white spiral on her right side is Paregoros our Tracker.” William nodded to each of the females in turn.
Lethe turned back to William, “My pack and I were sent here to find you and find out what happened with the Elder and the task that you were given.”
William glanced over at Nicolas who was studying the sand under his feet. The explanation would be up to him then. “Ansuya was captured.”
Lethe’s face hardened noticeably and his lips became rigid, just barely covering his fangs. “How did this happen?”
William took a deep breath, “She gave herself up so Nicolas and I could get away. We were ambushed on the roof of the building we went to, to access the FBI archives or whatever that place was. We got almost no warning at all, and by the time we got to the roof, the vampires were already waiting for us. They were led by Kenneth.”
“Who’s Kenneth?,” Efraim asked harshly.
William shook his head, “I don’t know, but he definitely knows us. He’s the guy we were looking for in that database. The only reason I know it was him, is because we met in the strip club where we picked up Chelsea.” Even saying her name brought a surge of guilt. Kidnapped you mean. We kidnapped her and threw her into a death trap that she wasn’t even remotely ready for. He couldn’t shake the thoughts away and the guilt of that settled very roughly on his shoulders.
Lethe remained rigid. “What happened?”
“We ran to the roof and seven of them were waiting for us, Kenneth was out in front. Ansuya told Nicolas and I to run and she jumped in the middle of all seven of them. She moved almost too fast for me to see. Her gun was taken from her without firing a single shot and Nicolas and I ran. We didn’t look back to see what happened. We ran back to the little grove where we exited the Whyte Plain but I don’t know how to enter that place on my own, so Nicolas and I started walking east and have stayed here ever since.” William didn’t bother looking for approval. He knew that Efraim and all these Shape Shifters probably saw him and Nicolas as cowards, or worse, traitors for leaving behind an Elder.