Kenneth was uneasy. Michael was driving him to the “zoo” once again. The Himura warehouse attack had not gone unnoticed and it had sent a chill stillness over the city. Oh, there were still parties and celebrity galas that morons and fools paid thousands of dollars to attend, but the underbelly, the true heart of the city, was still. All major trades, shipments, goods both bought and sold had been stopped.

This was very unfortunate for him because he had a shipment of ‘merchandise’ sitting in a container waiting to be uploaded on a cargo ship and shipped to his people in Asia. That boat had been delayed. The warehouse attack had all but shut down any ships leaving, as part of the “official” investigation. He had to wonder why the officials would suddenly be so interested in an empty warehouse, just one among hundreds down on Pico Avenue.

He couldn’t be bothered by that now though. He had other business to attend to. Trevor had not seen any progress in his work. He couldn’t move until that work was completed. Still, even if Trevor had completed his research, he was no closer to finding where the wolves were hiding. The animals’ destruction would go a long way to help him secure his station when he was ready to move. He had nothing to do but wait, he might as well make use of his time.

Michael stopped in the parking lot of the familiar animal holding facility. Kenneth waited for his door to open and he stepped out into the cool night.

He looked up at the few stars that were visible in the blue-black sky. Those were the survivors, the ones that outlasted and outshone all the rest. He would be like those few dim stars in the sky. He would outlast his competition and shine where no others could. He turned toward the building and entered.

Tony was cleaning up a far empty cell of the spacious room. Kenneth looked around at the empty cages. He eyes came to rest on the last remaining wolf, ‘Dutch.’ Kenneth snarled at the symbol of his one failure here. He had enthralled the other three but this one had somehow managed to block his every attempt.

There was something to be learned though, even in his failures. He grabbed a chair and opened the feeding enclosure door and sat down looking at the animal. His golden eyes seemed to bore into his own with defiance. The animal stood proudly with his tail neither lowered nor raised. Kenneth looked into the glassy golden orbs of the wolf.

As he pushed past the surface of ‘Dutch’s’ eyes the flood of memories poured into his mind. He couldn’t keep up with all the images. A dry desert, swampland flooded with a recent rain, a snow-covered mountain, the crisp clean smell of a cool spring forest morning. Smells of prey, ocean, trees, emotions, assaulted his mind and nose. He tried to concentrate, to focus on the images as they flew past at blinding speed. Even his vampire senses had trouble making out one image from the next. Frozen rivers covered in snow marked by deer hoof prints, the smell of blood and food assaulted him relentlessly.

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He managed to gain some control of himself and throw himself back and away from Dutch’s assault. Kenneth stared at the ground breathing hard. Pulling himself out of the flood of memories hadn’t become any easier, if anything it was becoming more difficult to separate himself from them.

The wolf simply turned around and trotted along one of the caged walls, having suffered no adverse effects from the episode. Kenneth breathed slowly and evenly and collected himself. He idly wiped his mouth with his left hand in thought.

The images never remained in his memory for long. He had to desperately snatch at the half seen, and less understood images from his fading memory and bring to bare all of his concentration and force the images to remain steady. None of it made any sense to him. The images were already fading like he had dreamt the whole thing.

He stood up quickly and threw the chair he had been sitting on outside the feeding enclosure. He didn’t even look at Tony or say anything as he left. He stalked out to his car and slammed himself into the back seat. He didn’t say a word to Michael. He just sat there, scrubbing his face and eyes with both his hands, trying to make sense of a world that suddenly conspired to block him at every turn.

He looked at the floor of his car. The wolf inside that building wasn’t going to give him anything. It had outlived its usefulness. He needed to find other subjects. Tony wouldn’t like having to kill that wolf but he didn’t give a damn what Tony wanted or not. He needed to bring in wolves from the wild. He nodded to Michael and his driver started the car moving. He would have to notify Brian and his team that he would be going camping for a few days.

Turn your defeats into future victories, was how the old proverb went. He would have to take what this Dutch had taught him so he would not be thwarted again. But, what had he learned?

The question hung in his mind for long moments. He couldn’t give an answer. The path to power was being better informed and better equipped than the next guy, or the target. His target was set very high and to win in the coming battles he would have to be very well informed and ready to exploit it when the time was right.

The car eventually pulled up into his compound. Michael waved off the sentry guards and a single spotlight trailed the vehicle. Kenneth waited for the car to stop and Michael opened his door.

He strode up to his house, nodding to the two guardsmen on duty at the front of his house and unlocked the front door. Standing in the front room in very neat business attire was his mate, Natalia. She greeted him with a smile which quickly turned down to a look of concern.

“What?!” Kenneth barked harshly.

Natalia lowered her eyes to the floor, “I’m sorry Kenneth. I thought I should be the one to tell you that one of our farms got hit again, although the damage was minimal this time.”