Page 3 of New Blood

“Alright,” Jude agreed. “Email me what you have. I’ll inform the Alliance.”

“Make it quick. They’ll attack at sundown.”

A click in the line. Striker had terminated the conversation without so much as a thank you or good-bye. Not that he expected one. The call hadn’t been a social one but rather a warning, one he wasn’t going to ignore. Time was of the essence.

Jude jumped up from behind his desk in the over seven-thousand-square-foot log-cabin-style ranch house that belonged to the Werewolf Alliance and from which its governing body operated. It was located on a several-hundred-acre working ranch. Everybody living in the house or working on the ranch was a werewolf and a member of the Alliance, whose sole purpose was to keep all werewolf packs in line so that their collective secrets were kept and humans didn’t find out about their existence. To manage this task, members like Jude used an extensive network of informants and monitored internet and news sources, as well as other surveillance equipment, to become aware of any severe infractions that required the Alliance to intervene.

Jude exited his office and briefly knocked on the semi-open door of his brother’s office. “Austin, we’ve got something.”

His younger brother jumped up instantly and came toward him. He was just as tall as Jude himself, six foot four, with a sun-tanned complexion, deep chocolate-brown eyes, and a stubble beard. Unlike Jude, whose facial features could be described as rugged with a hard ridge across his forehead, giving him a stern expression, Austin had inherited their mother’s finer facial structure. Together with his easy charm, it made Austin a favorite with women. Not that Jude didn’t get his fair share of pretty women, but he’d been told more than once that he was intimidating and therefore only attracted headstrong women. He didn’t mind. He liked taming a woman just as much as the next werewolf, as long as it involved a soft, flat surface and vigorous physical activity in the nude.

“What is it?” Austin asked, his voice piercing his wayward thoughts.

As his brother joined him, Jude motioned to the end of the corridor. “Let’s talk to Hendrick. We’ve got a rogue who’s causing trouble in Northern California.”

Together, they marched to the end of the rustic hallway that was adorned with Native American art and artifacts as well as ornaments that had special meaning in werewolf history and culture. Hendrick’s door was ajar. Jude knocked briefly, and upon hearing a grunt inviting him in, he pushed it open and entered with Austin by his side.

Without looking up from the papers in front of him, Hendrick, one of the elders who was part of the governing body of the Werewolf Alliance, inhaled visibly, a habit that allowed him to determine who was close without having to look up.

“Jude, Austin, what is it?”

“We have a situation not far from San Francisco,” Jude answered.

“Which pack?”

“The Gallagher pack.”

Hendrick instantly lifted his head. His dark-brown eyes were alert, his lips pursed, and his beard showed more and more grey amidst his dark brown whiskers. He was much older than he looked. In human years, he looked as if he were in his late fifties, but in reality, he was closer to a hundred and fifty years old. While his werewolf genes didn’t bestow him immortality and eternal youth like those of a vampire, they allowed him to live more than double the lifespan of a human while aging at a snail’s pace.

“William Gallagher,” Hendrick said with a nod, showing that he knew who Jude was talking about. “What’s he done now?”

“His son Cameron has brutally killed at least three hikers and joggers in and around San Francisco and turned a human woman against her will. According to my source, William faked Cameron’s death to get the local police to back off. But Cameron drew the attention of a group of vampires onto the pack. The vampires work in security.”

Hendrick lifted his eyebrows. “Vampires?”

Jude nodded. “Yes, a security company by the name of Scanguards, which is run by vampires and vampire hybrids, is gunning for Cameron’s neck. They’re planning to attack the pack tonight.”

“How did you come by this information?”

“A vampire named Striker Reed informed me. He works with them on occasion.”

“And why would he tell us what his fellow vampires are planning?”

Jude shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Because there’s a little complication. Last night was the first full moon for the woman Cameron turned against her will.”

Both Hendrick and his brother let out audible gasps. They all knew what this meant.

“They’re trying to kill Cameron before the three nights of the full moon have passed,” Hendrick stated.

“To turn her back into a human,” Austin added.

Jude nodded. “They need our help. And given that Cameron has already killed three humans, it’s our duty to clean up this mess.”

“Do we have evidence of his crimes?” Hendrick asked.

Jude pulled his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled to his emails. He tapped on the latest one. “Striker emailed me what they have. I’m forwarding it to you now.”

A moment later, a ping sounded from Hendrick’s computer, and he used the mouse to navigate to the email. For a few moments, nobody spoke, and Jude exchanged a look with his brother, while Hendrick’s eyes flew over the information on the screen.