The Wanderer

five: Leverage

Alexis sighed in defeat and sat down on the floor. Akire was able to note that he was still thinking of his life since he plopped down on the center of the room where sunlight was filtering in the most. She huffed, telling him that she would not hesitate in getting a bit of burn just to slit his throat.

"Fine, no more lies. Please listen, hear me out! I have no intention of killing you or involving you! I did not even know you were here until I caught your scent from that old, weird looking hag in the street. You have to believe me that the reason I am here, right now, is because of YOU. I have to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"From The pack. I wasn't totally lying when I told you about the pack that needed a new leader. It happened about two weeks before you left for here. I wanted to be pack leader and I challenged whoever was up for the promotion. Unfortunately, I lost by default- which is another long story, one that you might not really be interested in..."

"And-? You have about 2 seconds to keep your head Alexis!"

"Okay, okay! No need to get violent, really, you should try to control that temper of yours!" 

Akire moved too swiftly for him, after a hiss from burning skin and a small cry from Sam, Alexis found himself pinned to the wall, the platinum coated blade was a few millimeters from his neck. He smelled burning flesh but he knew Akire was already healing.

"I am here because of the boy, okay? The pack is after him. I learned about his whereabouts from the pack I tried to infiltrate. I was lucky the new pack leader allowed me to go lick my wounds somewhere and did not rip me to shreds. However, I am faster and keener. I booked passage to this country and wanted to get the child before they did."

"Why? You can't really be serious about bartering your life for a chance to become a different lycan, can you?"

"I need leverage! I need a pack, Akire! But I cannot allow myself to be just part of it. I was pack leader of one of the strongest wolves in Ireland. He's my ticket to that! I will not just have an ordinary pack! I will have a stronger, faster -"

He stopped talking as he felt the blade sear his skin. He gazed at Akire's face. He did not need to look into this vampire's eyes to know how angry and strong she is. With a flick, his head will be on a platter. He closed his eyes against the burning pain on his skin.

"Listen, Love." Akire stressed the endearment but it was no way meant to be sweet or endearing. "I will not let you touch that boy! You will not use him, bite him or kill him for his blood! Do you understand what I am telling you, Alexis?"

Akire knew that if Alexis was going to pursue in capturing the boy, she would have to end his life now. There was no other choice. 

She had to protect the child and at the same time, part of her knew that dying by the sword than some freak accident for some blood myth would probably be better for Alexis. 

He needed to die a warrior.

Alexis swallowed. "If I wanted to steal him from you, I could have done it last night while you were weak. I stayed, Akire. I did not expect you will come between me and this little boy. Having you here, in danger of being hunted down by a huge pack of lycan, has really put me on a different perspective."

"I'm here now because of you. I could not put my needs before you. You're my only friend and I owe you my life a thousand times over! I cannot promise you anything where the boy is concerned but I can promise you I will not do anything to jeopardize our friendship. Please, believe me! As long as you are with the boy, I know I can control myself."

"Did you kill his mother?"

He answered with a firm No and Akire knew he was telling the truth. She slowly eased up, never letting her guard down. When she felt no resistance or energy from Alexis, she backed away fast and had Sam behind her back before he could straighten up.

"Really, Akire. Where's the trust?"

"So, I gather you were the wolf Sam heard running past the dojo? How did you even find him?"

Alexis had moved towards his backpack and was starting to pull out several scrolls. Akire had felt the cold metal containers when she rummaged for food in his backpack but decided against inspecting them as she was lost in thought about Alexis' possible betrayal. 

"I tracked them with my nose, how else? Mostly, I sniffed out other wolf packs around here and oddly enough, there were none in this town, at least, nobody stayed long enough. These other breed of lycans have a distinct smell. You won't be able to identify it unless you've actually smelled their blood at least once."

He did not elaborate, letting the thought hang in the air. Sam was still unusually quiet whenever Alexis talked. Akire was still a little bit suspicious so she did not tell Alexis about the Wolf Pride part that the little boy told her. She could feel him pressed against the back of her legs, clinging onto her coat. 

"Are you saying you've actually smelled one before?"

He nodded. "A long time ago, when I was traveling with my dad. I haven't transformed yet and was waiting for my first full moon. But all the enhancement of being what I was had already manifested.”

“We were in Dublin when we first met a guy named Abner Thorton. My father knew he was a wolf and was wary right away. We did not want to fight with anyone, you see, but the strange scent had made him worry. He had never smelled a wolf like that before..."

"We were in the woods, headed for home. This Abner Thorton looked like he was alone, lost or seeking something, I never really found out. He was the one who told us about these kind of Lycans. A myth. A fairytale for some. A legend and the Holy Grail for most of our kind."

"How did you know he was that kind of Lycan? How come he wasn't within his stronghold? Their kind had to be careful right? They would be hunted down by most wolves!"

"Funny that you ask the question. I never really understood all of it until I grew up and transformed. You see, my father never really wanted to be a werewolf. But the disease came and our family had to succumb to it.”

“But Da was determined to keep his humanity. Oh we hunted but only game and wild animals that unfortunately wandered in our midst on a full moon. I guess in a way, I understood why he would not have taken advantage of that Abner fellow right there."

"Still, that does not answer the question of why Abner was in the woods alone..."

Alexis unfurled one of the two scrolls he had in his bag. Akire quickly smelled parchment and ink that was as old as the ones that hang on the walls of her home. She missed her mother dearly. They had spent a lot of time doing calligraphy and even painting cherry blossoms. 

"I did not understand then all about what Abner was. I was just a child, too caught up with transforming into a beast. My father never said anything other than the fact that he was of our kind but in a way, different from the family tree." 

Akire sat down and was astonished that Sam readily sat on her lap and snuggled inside her coat. Really, this was getting way to maternal for her liking. She was thankful again for the blood that Alexis gave her because this made it safe for Sam -wolf or not.

"I only found these scrolls again when I visited our old cottage in the woods, after I heard about the talk of the pack. My father made me promise not to touch them or take them until I found out whether I am contented with being who I am.”

“I remembered Abner because somehow, despite my being too stupid to catch on right away, what my father told me about him being our kind but different made me realize that the legend could be true!"

Akire frowned. This was getting confusing. If Alexis' father knew that the Lycan legend of the story was Abner, why didn't he just asked to be transformed? Was his humanity really that important compared to the survival and strength of his son? His family?

"My father did not pursue this dream because he was content with being just a family; our small pack of four. It did not occur to him that we needed to be part of the outside world, to fight for large territories. The woods was home." 

Alex replied as if reading her thoughts. "But in truth, I'm glad he did not seek to be like Abner."

"Why?"

"Because Abner's bite and blood would have killed us right away. He was of the Lycan kind that can will itself to change without the moon. But, he was not part of the original blood line. He was transformed- a successful transfusion had been done to him. Only the pure bloods can really give you that half of a chance. Only the-"

Wolf pride. Akire suddenly felt like she had been handed a grenade that would explode at any minute. She willed herself not to say anything or look at Sam. However, she felt the little boy squeeze her arm tighter as if to tell her that he knew what she was thinking. 

"-I cannot understand some of the writings here. All I know is that Abner gave these to my father, telling him that if he wanted a better life, he can find it in these scrolls. One of the scroll is a map, similar to what Sam has on the paper. The other one has some writings that I cannot decipher."

Akire looked away from him and instead finally looked down on the boy. She could feel his eyes on her face. What did Sam really know? 

"I think I know someone who can translate these words-"

"No!" Akire reached out as if to stop Alexis from doing something stupid. "We cannot risk somebody else possessing those scroll and that map. They would descend on this little guy like vultures and between you and me, I don't think we can fend off too large a pack!"

"But, we don't know if Sam is pure blood. I can smell the same thing I remember from Abner. He stayed with the family for a while, you know. He was even there when I changed during my first full moon."

"We can't let anybody read that, Alex. Right now, we need the map and figure out how to return this little guy to his family without getting killed or ripped to shreds by all types of wolves." Akire reasoned. 

She nudged Sam who looked up at her. "Sam, do you know why your mother died? Did she tell you anything at all about how to get home?"

"I-I d-don't remember..." He finally whispered. The fear that Akire felt and heard from the child's voice told her that again, he knew more than he was letting on. For a kid, he sure was great at keeping secrets!

"Do you realize what kind of danger you are in, Akire? For being here?"

Akire nodded. "Perhaps more than you fathom, Alexis."

"What do you mean?"

Akire sighed. "I came back home to seek Charles Atkins. To destroy him once and for all so that I can free myself of this curse. I just found out last night because of the attacks that he knew I was coming. All those times I've sought him out, he knew where I was and what I was doing. He is always one step ahead of me, taunting and teasing. Now, I'm pretty sure he has other vampires tailing me, reporting of my whereabouts."

"How? He can't be in too many places at once!"

"Vampires can share each other thoughts, talk to each other using their minds. If two vampires exchanged blood or drink from another, they can have access to each others brain channels if both consent to do so. No distance can separate this connection."

"So, are you telling me you and Haito can talk in your head, right now?"

"No. Haito and I never exchanged or shared blood." In fact, Akire was glad they never did but for another reason. "The thing is, the stronger vampire can choose to block out the weaker bloodline in a way that he can hear this person's thoughts without divulging any of his own."

"That's unfair. Us wolves share everything once we belong to a pack. We don't have control over what we see or hear through each other. But, the real question here is why this Atkins have vamps trailing you. Is he evading you because he is afraid for himself or is he avoiding trying to kill you?"

Akire was lost in thought. She heard the cackling voice of the old hag by the street. She had told her about how Akire was holding the fate of two races in her hands. 

She was not confused about who she was. She was not a vampire because she never chose to be one. What survival instinct and determination she had was because she was going to avenge the death of her loved ones. She did not fancy herself part of a coven neither did she immerse herself in legends or vampiric cultures to understand what or who she was. 

However, there was that one night when she and Haito were out and she hadn't fed on human blood for weeks. She shuddered as she tried to black out the memories that started filling her head. The screams, the bloodshed and the destruction. 

Somehow, she managed to kill vampires as well and she did it by drinking their blood. It was not that she abhorred killing them but she could not forget the blood lust and the rage that flowed through her that night. It was like she lost every single shred of humanity in her -even the thought of her brother, parents and Kito!

Haito had managed to get near her enough to knock her out with a huge piece of metal. She woke up in bloody clothes, chained to the window bars. Haito had put a thick curtain in front of the window but she had tied a rope to it so that with one tug, daylight would stream in and burn Akire into nothing. Akire had smelled fear from her friend and it almost broke her heart. 

Haito had recounted the incident from that night and Akire felt ashamed and miserable. She never wanted to kill the innocent -no matter what type of disease they had. 

Humans. Vampires. Lycans. Witches. 

She did not seek to harm any of them. She just wanted Atkins! Unfortunately, her stubbornness to not drink human blood was turning her into something else. Haito did not know what but she was pretty sure there would be things in the past that could explain why she was able to do what she just did.

Vampires bite each other all the time. Most do it for pleasure or to connect with one another. Others do it because they can heal faster without needing human blood. However, when Akire bit those vampires during her blood-lust, they all died instantly.

Was this the one thing that made Charles Atkins stop drinking from her? What did he see through her blood line? Why was it so important then that she had to stay alive? Shouldn't the old vampire kill her if she was a threat to his kind?

"I think vampires and lycans are connected in a deeper way, Love. The symbol on this scroll has both a bat symbol and a wolf entwined in what looks like a vine or something..."

Akire was trying to figure things out when Alexis started packing things up in a hurry. She heard his heartbeat speed up. "What is it Alex?"

"We have to start moving. We can't stay in one place too long. By now, my scent will have left a trail for any wolf pack to follow. If the pack from Paris sniff me out when they land in this city, they will definitely hunt me down."

"Why? They can't know you know of their plans!"

"No, they do not know that I am after their prize. I happened to have killed the pack leader's mate and we both know wolves only have one mate for life..."

Akire nodded in understanding. She instructed Sam to gather his things and told him they were going to try and get him home. In less than a few minutes, Akire had sheathed her sword, covered her entire body with necessary protection from the sunlight. They waited for Alexis outside, under the cherry blossom tree where her family's and Kito's grave were.

"Are you sure you want me to do this?" Alexis shouted as he emerged from the dojo, bag in tow. 

Akire nodded, trying to avoid moving too much so that she wouldn't have to feel temporary burns. She waited a few minutes and soon, the smell of burning wood, gasoline and fire filled her senses. 

She had asked Alexis to burn the entire dojo structure to the ground. It pained her heart but she knew they had to lose the place where their scent has lingered long enough to intensify.

She listened as the beams groaned and the fire snapped. She listened to her childhood memories; her family's home burning to the ground. She had no more house to come home to.

"You have blood on your face." Sam spoke, tugging at the sleeve of her coat. 

"Aw, she's just crying, Sam. We'll get her another packet of blood to replace the blood she's losing now."

Alexis explained to the child with a grave voice. He smiled at the boy, who looked at him with wary and guarded eyes.