Catherine nodded at him, a slight smile moving her lips for just a second. “Please, Edward, tell them for me,” she said to her husband before turning to us. “You will have to forgive me. This is all too soon after our loss of Vivian and Riker to this man. I’d been living in blessed denial, hoping that no news meant he was off licking his wounds, maybe having some change of heart. I’d wanted to never hear his name again. Anyway. I will let my Edward do the explaining.”
“It is fine, Catherine. We all understand. But, back to Daniel, he’s been able to come up with another pack of true werewolves,” Edward continued. “Reports are that the group is wild, made up of old and young true werewolves from other packs around the States. He’d spent these last months traveling, using underhanded tactics from reports we’ve just gotten to create an army of those easily swayed to leave their own packs. Weak-minded wolves, sadly. Yet, weak-minded often means physically strong but stupid, gullible, reckless, among other things. Dangerous. Plus, from what Nira said, he’s gotten them extremely organized. I’m sure he used the loss of his pack, brandishing tall tales about what really happened to play on their own pack mentalities to win them over to his cause, no matter how twisted it is. Looks like his sorcerer was not able to create a spell to create werewolves like you and Lex, like the Royal wolves, so he had to recruit those probably too old to fight and those too young to handle being true werewolves yet to do his work. Easy marks. The old often feel useless once their prowling days are over, and the young are often too eager to begin adult work their bodies are ready for but their minds are not.”
“So what is he up to?” I asked, my heart having sunk now just at the mention of his name, let alone the lengths he’d already gone to in order to form an army against us. The old battle to gain knowledge of how the Royal werewolves had been made had been renewed.
Images of those days after Daniel and his wolves had crashed into our SUV, had attacked Lex, killed Vivian and Riker among others, came flooding back to me. Among the horrors of going to battle, true werewolves against Royal werewolves, the bright spot had been Nira and her vampires. Kind, dedicated to helping paranormals, without them, I knew neither Lex nor I would be here today. Lex would be dead along with the others lost those days, and Daniel would have me locked up like a lab rat trying to learn of my magic so that his wolves could shift as easily by spells rather than the painful curse of their birth. He’d thought me an easy target then, untrained, new to my skills.
Daniel had to believe I’d been trained by now. Yet, still he continued his war. Maybe not so much to get me this time, but just for pure revenge. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of how much more dangerous that could make him. He’d been vicious before. Now, who knew?
“So, what has Daniel and his new pack been doing?” I asked, not wanting to know but knowing that I had to anyway. I remained committed to my family even if the idea of fighting this man again terrified me, shook me to my core.
“According to Nira, very organized, almost methodical, attacks are occurring around the city,” Catherine chimed in again. “The vampires have been doing their thing, saving people, but it has become too much for them. Daniel and his pack have wreaked havoc and mayhem all over the city. Nira is losing too many vampires in these battles. He attacks with a seemingly random choice of places. The people in them have nothing to do with him or his cause. He mixes it up, the style of attack, how they go in, the order to what they do. To Nira, it appears the reckless work of a madman, yet she knows better. It is a well thought out plan of attack meant to throw them off their game, using the element of surprise to help them do more damage. The losses, of vampires, of innocent humans, has become too great to comprehend. We have connections with the cops who often call on the vampires to help them. The police are overwhelmed and at a loss of what to do as well. Not that we have answers, but we have gifts and bodies to offer.”
“They hated to call us for help,” Edward took over, or more continued on for his wife. They were definitely a couple who finished each other’s sentences. “I told them nonsense. We owed them much, and would be happy to help. Plus, this man, Daniel, he’s taken much from us. Not ones for revenge, still, this is as much our fight as theirs. We need to help. We need to end this in Vivian and Riker’s memories. They will have died in vain, for nothing, to sit back now and let this madman go on.”