A Necessary Evil

A Torence Frost: Subterrestrial Hunter Novel

A Necessary Evil
Written by Jacob Waton

Chapter Two: Lycanthrope Turf War

I walked over to Aurora very slowly, not knowing what might happen if she really was pissed of with me. Of course she was pissed off at me! I would have been if I saw her in the arms of another. Of course there was one thing that would have gone different if it was me. I would have shot the person dead in the middle of the eyes.
I touched her shoulder and she thrusted her energy at me. It knocked me back. I felt her gaze on me. Like I said, she was not happy at all. But before I had a chance to do anything else I heard my cell phone go off. It was coming from somewhere in the house. I rushed over and started to rummage through my stuff looking for it, still feeling Aurora\'s heated eyes on me.
I found my cell phone under my clog thg that I had lost when Cyrol was here. I took one more look at Aurora before I answered it. \"Hello?\"
\"Torence, that you?\" It was one of my co-workers, Jeremy Vaughn. He was one of the people that I worked with to hunt criminal lycanthropes. \"You sound....different. Are you alright?\"
\"Yeah, I\'m fine. What\'s up Jerry?\" He only let his friends call him Jerry, so I guess he thought that I was his friend.
\"Did I interupt something?\" he queried, stressing on the word \"interupt.\" Now I remember why I didn\'t quite consider him a friend....yet. He was too damn nosy.
\"Can the crap, Vaughn. What\'s the problem?\" Yesiree, that\'s me. Straight to the point, cut the shit, Frost.
\"You\'re not going to like it.\" he said, his voice sounding a bit cautious. \"It\'s Joshua, he\'s been taken by the Be\"
\"
\"Shit.\" Bears was what we called the werebear gang of lycanthropes. Joshua was one of my friends. He was also a werewolf. His clan and the werebear clan were in a turf war and a blood fude. The story is long, but to make a long story short, the leaders of the wearbears and werewolves were brothers. The deceased father of the two left his company, Loki Mainstream Inc. to both of the hershers, but one of the brothers wanted to be the sole owner of the company because he was the oldest. In retaliation, the younger brother went out and recruited a numerous amount of werewolves, promissing power and glory to all who joined him. The oldest brother recruited werebears to rival the other brother. Believe me, it was messy. I had to get Joshua out of this mess before he got himself killed.
\"What\'s the plan?\" I was not ready for this, not tonight. I looked at the clock, 12:47am. Shit. I had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
\"It\'s your call. He\'s your friend. I\'ll help if you want me to help.\"
\"Where are you?\" I asked.
\"Ground Zero.\" he answered.
\"And ass deep in shit.\" I said.
He answered, \"Wouldn\'t have it any other way.\" Now I remembered why I tolerated Jeremy as well as I did. He had the same thing I did, a certain jenna sei qua about killing without remorse. It could be easily said that he gathered some sort of enjoyment out of the thing. I couldn\'t argue.
\"Now that we know how deep it\'s getting piled up, where exactly are you?\" I asked.
\"Fur central.\" he answered. \"It looks like a face off between the Ursa and the Ulfric.\"
Double shit. \"I\'ll be there in twenty minutes, if I\'m lucky.\" I said. \"You packing silver?\"
\"Sure am.\" he said. \"Do you really think you could make a difference?\"
\"I don\'t know, but we\'ll never know unless we try.\" I said. \"See you there.\" I hung up before he could say anything.
\"More lycanthrope affairs?\" said a voice from behind me. It was Aurora. I turned to look at her. Her face was blank of any expression, a perfect mask.
\"Yes, Joshua\'s in trouble.\" I said, carefully studying her. \"I\'ve gotta go.\" I quickly threw on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, grabbed my shoulder holster and my gun, and jumbed into my shoes.
As I was throwing on my jacket, I felt her touch my shoulder. \"nce?nce?\" She made it a question.
I turned to her, ready for a counterattack, and found myself under attack. Well, not really an attack, but it was sudden enough. She had pulled me into a kiss, deep and probing, with a nice long flick of the tongue. She knew how to handle me.
I pulled away and I could feel my face flush. I needed to get out of here, and fast. I had a friend to pull out of the seventh circle of Hell. \"Rorie, I need to go.\" I turned to leave.
\"Be carefull.\" she said. \"And Tori?\" Yet another question in the of of my name.
\"Yes,\" I hadn\'t taken two steps.
\"I love you.\"
I turned to her. \"I love you too.\" I was getting too damn sentimental. I left. Yep, that\'s me, hard as stone, straight to the point, bloodthirsty subterestrial hunter extrorinaire.

Fur Central was only the nickname that we hunters call the area where the lycanthrope gangs dwelled, more commonly known as outer Amsterdam, Missouri. Amsterdam was a podung town, used only to get through to get somewhere more important.
The lycanthrope gangs, on the other hand, call it home. I used to come here as a child to visit my grandparents. My first love, Malorie Heanan even lived down the street from where I used to live. And yes, she was my first, but that\'s a different story.
I passed by Rubie\'s, a lonely little cafe that seemed to complete the even lonelier town. Normally, I would stop by for a cup of coffee, but tonight was different. I had to get Joshua and try to salvage this town be the the turf war turned it all to hell.
Further down the road I spotted Jeremy, dressed in black everything. From black leather pants to the black jacket, no name brand either. Hell, it even matched his black due rag. He had street punk assasin badass written all over him. Oh yeah, did I mention that he was an assasin for hire? He carried witm a m a black duffel bag, which I assumed was full of weapons. He was like me, always prepared. Depending on how you looked at that, it could have been a bad thing, but not tonight. I pulled up to him and unlocked the door.
\"You didn\'t tell me that you got yourself a new car. Torence, shame on you.\"
\"Shut up and get in.\" He was referring to my new 2004 Tracker. I had gotten it for a steal. The normal price was $25,000. I had gotten it for $15,000. The reason that it was so damn cheap was that I knew the person who sold it to me. Nuff said.
Jeremy plopped down into the passenger seat next to me. \"Whoo, this islly lly comfy. Alot better than your old Irock. Does it have a CD player?\" He was really starting to annoy me. I let it slide.
\"Where\'s Joshua?\" I asked.
\"Where else but down?\" he said as if that explained everything. Unfortunately I knew exactly where down was.
\"I hate the sewers! Can\'t they have their damn war above ground like normal evil subs?\"
He looked at me. \"Frost, how many times have I told you that all subs aren\'t evil? They just dat sat seems natural to them in order to survive. Wo\'t \'t you kill if that was your only way to exist?\"
\"If I had to kill to survive or exist, I would fucking slit my own throat.\" I said.
\"I would never let you do that to yourself, my little oostie.\" came that familliar voice that belonged to Cyrol. Oostie meant little princess in Indian termigy \gy \"I would much rather bring you over if it came to that.\"
It didn\'t even surprise me that he was here. He always seemed to pop out of nowhere at the worst possible time, but hey, I could use him tonight. \"How long have you been there, Cyrol?\"
He gave me that knowing smile. \"I have never left you, my sweet.\"
Normally, I could sense him before I saw him, but he was just all of a suddenly there, sitting on the hood of my car. I had about half a mind to take ofth hth him on it, but I managed a bleak smile and said, \"Now that you\'re hear, want to help me with something?\"
He gave me that smile that seemed to fill me up phisically and mentally. \"I would be honored to help you with....\" he seemed to think of a word. \"work.\"
This might be the reason why I fealt for him. I looked at him. He looked battle ready and intimidating, with his black leather pants stuffed into those long black boots and silver chainmail. Damn, he looked oh so yummy. \"How did you do that? You know, change your entire outfit if you were still around with me?\"
\"I could show you sometime?\" he made it a question. That was Cyrol, gentleman to the extreme. \"That is, if you\'d like?\"
\"Can thynesyness. We\'re already fucking, so you don\'t have to keep propositioning me with little sexual inuendos.\"
He not nothing, his face in a sort of shock that I could only detect. Anyways, back to the task at hand.
\"No, really Jeremy, I didn\'t bring my sewer hopping outfit.\"
\"I always pack extra. It\'s even in your size.\" Jeremy said.
Now why did that scare me so damn much. I could never think of Jeremy that way. He was an ass. Now wait a second, so was Cyrol. All I could think was, \"Okay give me the clothes and get the fuck out of my car.\" I hadn\'t meant to be rude, but I didn\'t know Jeremy in that way.
Jeremy got out of the car and Cyrol took his spot. \"What about me oostie?\" he asked.
I looked at him. He was really hard to read, especially when he didn\'t want to be read. \"You can stay.\" I thought about what I had just said and added, \"Only if you be a good little vampire and keep your comments to yourself.\" I hate to admit it but I liked treating Cyrol like a child. The only problem was that most children couldn\'t rip me in half, but I didn\'t appearbe wbe worried. I had my gun, my own model of course. It was something in the cross between a shotgun and a hand gun, about as big as the length from my elbow to just below my wrists. It was quite handy and it had a quick reloading mechanism. I called it a sawed off silver missile launcher. I could get off twelve shots with it in five seconds. Not bad.
I started to quickly pull off my clothing and replace it as quickly as possible with the spelunking attire. Of course I wasn\'t fast enough to not show any flesh. Nobody was fast enough to do that. At least nobody that I knew. Cyrol kept quiet andemy emy stayed outside. Good for them.
\"Okay, I\'m done.\" I said, throwing back on my makeshift shoulder holster. \"Exactly where do we need to go?\" Straight to business, as always.
Jeremy peeked back in the window. \"Pull away and then we\'ll be right above it.\"
Go figure. He was pretty much on top of it the entire time. I shifted into reverse and pulled back. I turned off the ignition and pocketed the keys. I got out. So did Cyrol.
Without as, Cy, Cyrol opened the semi-large manhole cover. \"After you, my sweet.\" he said.
I didn\'t say anything, just climbed down the ladder into the darkness. Jeremy followed, soon by Cyrol.
I found myself enjoying the view of Cyrol from behind, although I shouldn\'t have. Dammit! \"Why is it whenever I\'m around you I\'m suddenly reminded of sex?\" I asked.
Cyrol just smiled at me, boyish, and almost full of youth. It didn\'t suit him....at least not tonight.
Jeremy ignited a flare that he pulled from his duffel bag. The darkness seemed to pull away for about four feet and I could see everyone in my party. Things were looking up.
\"Are you sure you can handle your claustraphobia down here?\" asked Jeremy.
\"Yeah,\" I took a deep breath, in and out, in and out. \"Yeah, I\'m good.\"
The stone walls seemed to glow from the light from the flare. They seemed older to me, even though I haven\'t ever seen anything like it before. It suddenly reminded me of a dwarf\'s sense of direction whenever it was underground. It made no sense to me. I guess I was somewhat channeling the spirit of some underground dweller. I found myself sniffing the air. It unnerved me. \"Do you smell that?\" I asked.
\"Smell what?\" asked Jeremy. \"I can\'t smell anything but sewer.\"
\"Torence is right.\" said Cyrol. \"I smell....\" he seemed to be looking for the right words. \"a strong sensation of fur and blood.\"
\"That\'s just creepy.\" said Jeremy. \"Since when can you smell blood like that?\"
\"Since I started to harness the energy from beings long past. I can sometimes gain abilities or call spirits to help me, sometimes.\" I said.
\"What my oostie is trying to say is that she can\'t really control her abilites, because the forces that give her energy recognise her as an Avatar of sorts.\" said Cyrol. \"It is not a matter of controling it as much as letting it in.\"
I looked at Cyrol, trying to see if I understood what he was saying. I understood some of what he had said. \"That better have been a compliment.\" I somewhat laughed.
\"It always is, my sweet.\" he said, smiling.
Whatever. The tunnels stunk of what Cyrol had identified as fur and blood. The problem was that I didn\'t know what from. It was either werewolves or werebears doing something that I didn\'t want to think about.
\"I don\'t even think that this guy needs a flare to see anything.\" laughed Jeremy. \"Can\'t you people see like perfectly in the dark?\" I\'m guessing he was talking about Cyrol.
Cyrol looked at him, his head cocked to one side. \"By \'you people\' I assume you must mean Keepers?\" He made it a question with a whisper of anger. \"Yes, Keepers have very powerful night vision.\"
I fought hard not to laugh my ass off. They might not have the same sense of humor as I did. \"Okay, girls, am I going to have to separate you?\" I had to say something.
Cyrol sniffed the air once again. \"It\'s almost intoxicating.\"
\"What?\" I asked.
\"Blood.\"
I couldn\'t really smell any blood, but the distant smell was getting more distinct.
We all looked at eachother. It was time to get started.