Kenneth sat down in the feeding pen of the first holding cell in the Zoo. The newly captured wolf trotted up and down the fence, sniffing and pawing at the concrete ground. It was a male who was covered in mostly brown and tan wolf with intent golden eyes.

When Brian and his team had brought back the six new wolves he had complained. “You never told us we would have to go to Idaho to find these guys. Do you know what is up in Idaho, Kenneth? Nothing! absolutely nothing, but mountains and potatoes!”

“Brian, I told you what you would have to do. Look at it like it was a vacation.” Kenneth had replied easily.

“Yeah, a vacation with no city night life, no women, and no decent city blood at all!”

Brian had never been an outdoors type person. Even now after sixty one years of life, he still hadn’t found an appreciation for other ways of living outside of urban areas. The wolves and the dogs were out there in the wilderness. Vampires would have to become just as familiar with it as the wolves themselves if they were to completely eradicate them.

Kenneth tossed a piece of meat into the enclosure and watched the wolf trot up and down the fence line. He had come to learn the hard way that wolves were not food driven the way other animals were. Wolves were impossible to train by any standard means. They did as they wished. In that respect Kenneth found a grudging respect for the animals. But now he had the power to yoke them to his will. Soon this wolf would be just like the three that were sitting quietly together in the far enclosure, completely obedient, with no will of their own except that to obey his commands.

The animal would eventually come to get the meat; it was only a matter of time. Kenneth watched the wolf distress itself finding that it couldn’t dig through the concrete. There were some objects in the enclosures, carpet, a few tires, that sort of thing. This animal wanted out and it was working itself up trying to dig at unyielding concrete, whining pitifully.

Kenneth sighed at the futility of the struggling animal. He got up, grabbed his chair, and exited the feeding pen. He closed the door and locked it. He walked to another enclosure and nodded to Tony as he did so. Tony took a few steps toward the whining wolf and shot it with a tranquilizer dart. The animal yelped suddenly and very quickly became lethargic. Soon the animal was sleeping soundly, with its muzzle pressed up against the fence.

Kenneth walked through the enclosures. He chose one with a relatively calm wolf sitting in the center of it. He placed the chair inside the feed pen and sat down.

He tossed a piece of red meat into the enclosure and the wolf raised its muzzle, looking quizzically at the piece of raw meat. It took a hesitant step toward the food, sniffing deeply the air of the place. It made its way over to the meat and sniffed it.

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Kenneth had seen the wolves act this way a hundred times. They never really trusted the place; he guessed because it didn’t smell like outside. The wolf would eventually eat the meat. It would just take some time. Time that he really didn’t want to spend here with the furry beasts, but such was his lot in life.

He watched the wolf snip at the food, in a quick jab of its jaw and teeth. He focused his eyes on the beast as it ate. The wolf’s sharp golden eyes were watching his every move. Kenneth held the wolf’s gaze. He saw into the golden coloring.

The wolf slowed down its movements. Its food left forgotten on the floor. Its head rose up and seemed to move closer towards the vampire.

Kenneth pushed past the gold of its eyes into the deep parts of the wolf. The darkness that shrouded the thoughts and soul of the beast was infinitely black and foreboding. The dark void of its consciousness was spacious and frightening. His mind wanted to reel back from the hostile place.

It was a reflex, he knew. His mind had not yet become accustomed to the purely wild untrainable nature and will of these animals. This was the forth wolf he will have chained to his will. It was much like the previous three, but unique as well. It made this game very fulfilling, but also dangerous.

He was only aware of the wolf’s mind in all its complexities now, the Zoo and even his own body was far away and ignored. His will was past the spacious void of the consciousness and was now pushing through into the subconscious and memory.

The images and sensations of memory were thick and vivid. He could reach out and touch the images and smell what the wolf knew very well. The taste of blood after the kill was thick in his throat. He could smell each individual tree in the forest where it had grown up. The feel of warm fur during the winter was something he could feel along his bodiless will. The life these creatures led were rich ones.

This is what made this practice so dangerous. He somehow knew that he could lose himself in these memories and feelings. The same way he had hoped to entrap Ansuya in his dream world. The wolf wasn’t aware enough about what was happening to fight back. The past experiences were so vivid and rich that the wolf might easily try to attack him with them. He wasn’t sure that he could repulse that kind of attack.

He made a final push past the memories into a warm, burnt orange, glowing place. It was just as infinite as the rest of the mind of the wolf but here was more intimate. There was a glow that seemed to come from everywhere at once. But when he focused his will on any given point the source of light was nowhere to be found. The place was warm and safe. The soul of the animal was here and not here. The animal was his as he occupied this space.

He forced his will to enlarge. He pushed outward with is mind, growing his influence and taking up more and more of the warm space. As he did so, the soft orange light gave way to the rising shadow of his will. Like a Solar eclipse he dimmed the space with his presence. All too soon his shadow had dimmed every scrap of the warm burnt orange color of the wolf’s soul. He pushed out even more, to ensure that every bit of the light was shrouded. He pulled his will back, leaving the soul a grey, cold version of what it once was.