The brown eyed man reached up and ran his hands through his short blond hair. He had acted very cautiously around Ansuya, ever since he had found Chelsea. There was a respect or a fear of what Ansuya was capable of and he always seemed nervous around her. “I didn’t mean anything by it I was just saying that it would be nice for me to get out for a bit like everyone else.”
Ansuya arched an eyebrow, “And why would you need to go anywhere? Haven’t we discussed your role here numerous times? Do I need to explain to you again as to why you are needed here and not out with the others?”
“Well yeah, no I get that,” Nicolas stammered a bit, “but see, Will found these cave paintings up in the mountains and Charles and Katherine thinks that there might be a connection between the paintings and some Native Americans. So, if Setford and everybody needs to keep searching here than maybe I can go back to America and check that out.”
Ansuya’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “Cave paintings? Tell me what you found, William.” So for the second time William relayed all the information that had gleaned from the cave paintings.
“He also had a run in with Shadows,” Nicolas mentioned offhandedly as William finished.
Ansuya didn’t seem surprised by that at all. She just calmly nodded. “That’s not unexpected. Huan Li and I had hoped that our luck would hold for a while longer, we will just have to deal with them, as we always have.” She paused looking off into the distance. Gently pinching her lip, she muttered something under her breath. Aceso caught her mention something about the, “trail of myth and legends.”
She brought herself out of her reverie and looked at the group. “I must go discuss this with Huan. For now, keep doing as you were, except for you William, I want you to stay out of the Whyte Plain for the time being.” William nodded. With that Ansuya rose from the couch, as graceful as a dancer, and left the pack alone in the apartment.
“What the hell was all that about?” Nicolas spat. “What the hell was she muttering to herself? Something about legends? Is that why we’re here? Chasing down rumors and myths?” He threw his arms up into the air and turned around in place in frustration. “That’s great, I mean that’s just great! Hey you, boy! Go find me a leprechaun next, or maybe go hunt down me lucky charms!”
“You can be so insufferable some times,” Aceso barked, instantly silencing the Scout. “Why do you think we’re here, in India?”
“Looking for other forms or species of were-animals, and to recruit them to our cause,” said Charles matter-of-factly.
Nicolas scratched his head, “Did I miss a meeting or something?”
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“No, you just never pay attention,” Katherine said harshly, “Why do you think we’ve been going out all the time? Why do you think Will has been up in those mountains?”
“You know,” Nicolas said noticeably more calm than he had been a few moments ago, “A few years ago I would have said werewolves were a myth. Guess anything’s possible. So, what have you guys been doing? Found anything interesting? Any leads? Rumors? Any rainbows leading you to a pot of gold? I mean I’m real, why can’t Lucky and his pot of gold be real?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Nicolas,” Aceso said with a sneer. “Leprechauns aren’t real, any more than unicorns and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But there are stories, tales passed down by us wolf born of the cousins that were wiped out or disappeared a thousand years ago, or more. That’s where I’ve been, explaining to our two remaining Elders everything I, and the other remaining wolf born, know about those tales and the possible clues that might lead us to other Shape shifters, both animal and humans alike.”
“Well,” Katherine began, “all me and Charles have been able to find are some stories and some old books and some old English newspapers claiming children were kidnapped by animals in the night.” Katherine shot a glare at Nicolas, “And if you make a ‘dingo ate my baby’ joke Nicolas, I swear I’m going to punch you.” The Scout just smiled and shook his head looking back at her with a ‘who me?’ look. Katherine scoffed audibly and continued, “Weretigers are still spoken about openly here in India but nothing beyond stories to scare children it seems like.”
“It sucks that we don’t have anyone in our group who speaks Hindu,” William said. “I don’t know.”
Charles responded, “I think you mean ‘Hindi’, Hindu is the locak Pagen religion, Hindi is the language.”
William sat down heavily and looked over at Charles. Instead of responding to being corrected he asked, “What have you found on that slow-as-hell brick we are calling a computer?”
“Honestly? Not a whole lot,” the dark-skinned man replied. “There seems to be a very healthy source of lore and legends and even some recent stories surrounding the werehyenas in Africa, weretigers here in India, werewolves all over the place, and a few mentioning of werebears in Scandinavia, though I have found more information from some video game than anything else. Of course, there is the men who were changed into pigs in ancient Greece by the Goddess Circe, but there aren’t any other real examples of shapeshifting pigs.”
“Lot of help they’d be in a fight anyway.” Nicolas snorted, “What would they do, just roll around in their sty? Trying to snort Kenneth to death?”
Charles continued with a mild head shake, “Other than that though, the stories and legends to be found online are fairly slim.”
“All the information of the world at your fingertips,” mused William, “and all the crap that goes with it.”
“Well all we have to do now is find some of these Indian weretigers and ask if they want to come with us back to California and kick some vampire ass,” Nicolas said sarcastically, all except for that last part. “I want a piece of whoever thought they could attack me and just get away with it.”
“By now,” Charles said, “Kenneth would have gained a firm grip over his House. He will not be unseated easily. Not to mention that the other Houses, no matter how much they hate each other, will come to his aid against any open attack by us. We need more allies and we don’t know just how badly, if at all, we hurt the vampires on our way out.”