“The wolves have been bound,” a vampire offered.
“Good. Everyone all right? It has been a long, very long, day and night.”
“You know we last longer than most,” Josh said. “Don’t you worry about us. We will get this done and then take a well-deserved nap in a day or two.”
“Once we get them to the facility, we should be able to sleep in shifts,” I muttered. “Until then, I believe we all deserve large coffees.”
Chapter Twelve
As we drove, the ribbons of orange and purple on the horizon had completely disappeared. The sun had come up on what would be, at least meteorically speaking, a perfect summer day, all sunshine with temps in the low eighties and a nice northerly breeze. I longed for a run with Lex on the island, but instead, trudged toward the new facility while the others carried wolves, paws bound together, into it.
The Royals had purchased an old, now abandoned strip mall that sat out in the middle of nowhere. The parking lot had rows of grass and weeds growing up through the cracks in the unattended pavement. A series of orange cones stood sentinel around a larger hole, some having fallen on the job right into it. The outside of the building, once white with a red awning, stood weathered, with only half the signs marking stores still there.
A bakery and bookstore was still marked with big, sun-faded red letters, while a clothing store and another I didn’t recognize the name of had dark outlines where letters used to be. It was sad how many businesses now sat as ghost towns these days.
“We will use one of the back storage rooms, the biggest one, to put the wolves in,” Lex said, directing the troops. “And, don’t worry Christina, as we have tied up werewolves before, we tied them so when they wake up and turn human they will remain bound. The ties crisscross their bodies. With one pull, the knots will slip and tighten around them after the shift.”
“And, we have camping equipment in one of the SUV’s, in case of overnight jobs,” Nira added, “so while we are dealing with the wolves, you know so that you don’t touch and wake them, you can set up an air mattress and grab a blanket for Chloe. Zeke will carry her in. She can sleep as long as needed.”
“Thank you all,” I said to both Lex and Nira, raising my voice enough to offer it to those standing around us, the ones out of the SUV’s waiting for their instructions as the delivery trucks full of bound wolves parked beside them.
I tended to Chloe in a back room, an old office cleared out except for a pressed wood desk and a rather nice, fake leather office executive’s chair. Having pushed them into a corner, I’d set up the air mattress, covered by a nice sleeping bag which Zeke set Chloe on. As she slept peacefully, I poured out my heart to my friend, telling her everything, exactly as it had happened from that first night with Lex, to the attacks and the magic, to the true and Royal werewolves, to the island, and up until now.
I’d cried, which ended up rather cleansing, giving me the emotional courage to go through with waking up the werewolves and convincing them to see things our way. The coffee Josh had brought me had had a part in it too. I’d gulped the sugary, chocolate mixture in-between taking breaths and talking to Chloe. Once they’d called me to come into another back room to wake the wolves, as I walked out the door of the office, Zeke had grabbed me and hugged me tight.
“You are an amazing woman, Christina. You have been through so much and are the stronger for it. Chloe is lucky to have a friend like you. She will come to see that too, in time. Good luck,” he’d said in my ear, a big smile on his face when he’d pulled away. “We are all rooting for you. The past seven months have shown us that you can carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and magically get us all to a better place. You are truly Royal in every sense of the word.”
“You will never know just how much I needed every one of those words right now. I’m better for knowing all of you vampires. I wouldn’t be here without you.”
By the time I got to a stock room, one long space that ran the length of a few of the stores, I had bolstered myself up for my task, feeling more positive about how this would go. In fact, I felt like I was making a difference, giving these wolves a chance at a better life. Surely they would see any break from the grotesque pain of their transformation as a welcome gift.