Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5 (13 page)

The black wolf then let go
of the buck and stood up. Slowly, his skin began to shift back to
it's original tan brown form. The white wolf's skin began to change
as well. The fur seemed to melt away and become skin on the
person's body. The front legs and paws of the wolf changed back
into arms and hands. Once the very last remnants of the wolf
disappeared, the man who took its form stood up straight and stared
down.

"Well done Reynaldo," said
Jose Morales, "well done."

Melina was sitting in Roy's
truck and listening to Scream by Usher. As soon as the song was
over, she started fiddling around with the radio. She was
distracted by the radio dials, but was still still able to see Roy
and his brothers come out of the woods. Melina then smiled and
raced out of the car.

"Roy!" She cried out as she
ran towards him.

Roy didn't even hesitate. He
held out his arms and let Melina throw herself into them. He then
held her close and wrapped his arms around her waist. He even
smirked at Al and D. Al just rolled his eyes while D chuckled
softly. D turned quickly to help his twin readjust the heavy burden
on his back.

Melina's eyes widened as she
soon as she noticed that the burden had antlers. "What on earth is
that?"

"What's it look like?" Al
said as he slammed the buck into the pickup. "It's a dead
deer."

"Stag," D
interceded.

"What?"

"It's a male deer," he
explained, "so it's called a stag."

"No, no," Roy said
interrupting both his brothers, "the British call the male deer
stags. We Americans call them bucks. Females are called
fawns..."

"No," said Melina, "the
babies are called fawns."

Roy nodded and then
continued, "so the females are called deers."

A long pause followed as
they all processed the new information until their father
interrupted angrily, "what difference does it make?"

There seemed to be no
further argument so D just helped Al tie the buck down.

Roy started to go over to
help but Melina held him back.

"What?" He asked.

She then slung her backpack
over her shoulder and reached into the pocket. Smiling and with an
extreme flourish of her hand, she pulled out a dark black
jacket.

Roy looked puzzled but only
for a second. Once he recognized the jacket, he gasped in joy and
grabbed Melina. He then hoisted her above his head and twirled her
in the air.

"Oh Mel," he cried, "How I
adore you!"

Jose was busy putting on his
own clothes but hearing his son shriek got his attention. "What?"
he asked as he pulled on his shirt, "what's going on?"

Roy put Melina back on her
feet and grabbed the jacket. He then ran over to his father and
said, "look Papa, the jacket Uncle Pablo bought for me on my last
birthday. You know the one that got ripped a few nights ago when I
transformed. Melina mended it! She mended it for me!"

Jose's eyes widened and
grabbed the jacket. Where the tears in the seams used to be not to
mention the gigantic holes neat little stitches were now shown. The
jacket looked more than fixed, it looked almost as good as new. The
cloth was cleaned of all the food, dirt, and drink stains and shone
brightly in the sunlight.

"Mi dios," Jose exclaimed,
"this is wonderful hijo. Absolutely wonderful! Your Melina is truly
skilled."

Roy smiled at the praise,
although it wasn't meant for him. He then ran back to Melina who
had his clothes already for him. He quickly put on his jeans,
Bowling for Soup t-shirt, his socks, and his shoes. Last but not
least, he put his newly mended jacket on. He then turned around
expecting to see his Melina happy but she wasn't. She was staring
at the ground in sad contemplation.

"What's wrong baby?" Roy
asked as he titled her chin up.

Melina sighed heavily.
"Seeing you with your family...it reminds of how things used to
be."

She didn't finish the
sentence but Roy already know what Melina was going to
say.

"Have you heard from her?"
Roy asked.

Melina shook her head. "Not
since we saw her at the diner. My mom and dad have been going out
of their minds with worry. Marietta is even starting to freak out
and I don't know what to do. I have no idea what's going on Roy. My
family is falling apart and I don't know how to save
it."

Roy took Melina in his arms
and held her close. Melina hugged Roy back and they stood still
together until Al's shrieking voice brought them back. "Hey Romeo
and Juliet, would you get over here!"

Roy grunted and considered
shouting at Al to shut up but Melina reached up and put her hand on
his cheek. It seemed they had reached a point where no words needed
to be exchanged. Therefore, Roy just took Melina's hand and walked
her back to the car.

"Why did you guys need to
get a buck anyway?" Melina couldn't help but ask.

"We may look human most of
the time but it doesn't mean that the wolves instinct go away," Roy
explained, "and a wolf's main instinct is to hunt. Therefore, we
occassionally go out and we hunt live animals. It's as natural to
us as getting an itch and scratching it."

Melina processed the
information in her mind. "So you guys get urges and you go out and
hunt to satisfy it."

Roy nodded. "Yeah that, but
the thing about fresh meat is it one of the best cures for us
werewolves."

"Cures?" Melina
inquired.

"Yeah whenever we get
ailments we go out and hunt animals because the fresh meat enhances
our werewolf selves. Our immunity get stronger and we heal
faster."

Melina took a few moments
and then asked, "is there someone in your family who is
sick?"

Roy didn't say anything as
he pressed on the accelerator.

They had all driven to the
woods in separate cars. Al and D owned a jeep, Roy still had his
truck, and their father owned a huge white van with the SilverMoon
dinner logo emblazoned on the side. The buck was tied down in the
back of Roy's truck and covered up by a blue tarp. Still Melina
couldn't help but worry about the tarp flying off. Hence why she
kept glancing back at it.

"Would you relax?" Roy said
finally.

"I am sorry," Melina
snapped, "but I can't help but worry what people will think if they
see a dead buck in the back of the truck!"

"You can tell them that I
bagged it for hunting season," Roy muttered.

"Are you even allowed to
hunt deer in Salem anymore?" Melina asked.

Roy shrugged.

"Furthermore," Melina went
on, "how are we going to use the hunting excuse when people realize
there are no bullet wounds in the thing?"

"Look," Roy stated, "it
doesn't matter baby. Really it doesn't."

"Yeah it does," Melina
argued, "the point of being a hidden is keeping a low profile. You
drive into town with a buck that has it's neck broken questions are
bound to be asked. Questions lead to curiosity and curiosity leads
to things being found out."

"Yeah well then I guess it's
a good thing we are not driving into town," Roy
asserted.

Melina raised an eyebrow.
"Then where are we going?"

The house wasn't as big as
Roy's but it was just as isolated. Perhaps even more so,
considering where it was built. Instead of a field, the house was
literally built in the middle of the woods surrounded by thick tall
trees. The bricks of the house were various shades of red, brown,
and black. The colors of the bricks matched the porch, shutters,
and door. They all matched so well that it made the house blend
into the background. The fallen leaves in the scenery also helped
with the blending so much so that come nightfall the house seemed
almost invisible. In fact Melina wouldn't have been able to spot it
hadn't Roy taken a sharp turn from the road. He started driving
towards the house along a dirt path. As they got closer Melina
could see a house hidden in between two trees. Roy's truck bumped
along the dirt path until it finally reached the house and parked
up the driveway.

His brothers and father
parked their cars a few feet away from the house and got out.
Almost instantly, a woman came out of the house as if she had been
at the window expecting them. Upon seeing her, Jose ran up to the
driveway and up the cobblestone stairs. The same path from those
stairs lead to the front door where the woman stood.

"Sarai," Jose said as he
took her hands in his, "how is he?"

Sarai sighed deeply and hung
her head. "No es bueno Jose, no sirve para nada."

Jose's face grew pasty white
and raced into the house. Al and D were busy taking the tarp off
the truck. Melina had been watching Jose and Sarai and turned to
Roy who was busy undoing one of the knots.

"What's going on?" Melina
demanded.

"What do you mean?" was
Roy's reply.

"Roy, that woman who talked
with your father just said not good and not good at all. This I
hear after you tell me that fresh meat can help cure werewolves.
What am I suppose to think? What on earth is going on?"

Roy sighed deeply and rubbed
a hand over his face. After running his fingers through his hair
was when answered her question. "Our Uncle Adrian (my father's
eldest brother) is sick and we don't know why."

Melina gasped.

Roy sighed again. "It
happened so suddenly and we have tried everything to help him but
nothing has worked. We don't know what it is but it's killing him.
He hasn't been able to even leave his bed for the last two months.
It's why we got this."

He flicked his thumb in the
buck's direction. "This is one of the most effective cures we know.
If this doesn't help cure him, I don't know what will."

"You must be very close to
your father's brother," Melina murmured.

Roy shook his head. "It's
not that."

"Huh?"

Roy turned around so he
could lean against his truck. He then titled his head back so it
would rest against the window. "Adrian is my packs' alpha, if he
dies than we have to to choose another alpha. Every place where
there are werewolves there are different traditions. In Salem, our
tradition is every wolf in the pack must fight in the challenge
until only one remains."

Melina was astounded. "You
mean you have to kill each other to choose your next
leader?"

"No," Roy said firmly, "we
just have to fight until we publicly admit defeat. In other words,
we have to fight our friends and families until we humiliate
ourselves."

Roy then crossed his arms
angrily and stared down at the ground. "Hmph! We might as well
tattoo the word loser on our foreheads for the rest of our lives.
We sure as hell don't live it down and neither do the
kids."

"Kids?" Melina
repeated.

Roy nodded darkly. "When I
say all the werewolves I mean all the werewolves so yeah even the
kids have to compete in it and that includes Johnny and
Robbie."

"What!" Melina cried as she
covered her mouth with both of her hands. "But Johnny is only ten
and Robbie is fourteen!"

"I know," Roy muttered
bitterly, "but it doesn't matter. It's tradition so to speak. Of
course, Robbie is all for it being the braggart that he is. He
really believes he will be able to defeat the other pack members
and become the next alpha. As for Johnnny..."

He sighed heavily as he
stuck his hands in his pockets. "For christ's sake, the poor kid
cries every time he sees a zebra get eaten on animal planet! The
only reason he can stand bugs getting eaten is because he feels
that since they are so ugly it's no big loss if they
died."

"Jesus," Melina murmured
with her hands still over her mouth, "and they are going to force
them to fight?"

"Yep," said Roy
conclusively.

There was a long dramatic
pause before Melina asked, "isn't there some other way?"

Roy chucked bitterly. "Yeah.
Adrian can get better."

"Other than that," he added
as he turned away, "there is nothing else we can do."

Al and D had already hauled
off the dead buck out of the truck and carried it into the house.
Roy could tell by the faint blood spatters along the walkway. He
was about to jump over his truck as a quick shortcut when he heard
Melina mutter, "I bet if Aradia was here she would think of
something."

In spite of its modest
appearance, the house was big and more than able to comfortably fit
Roy's relatives. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and more waited in all of
the rooms looking completely forlorn. Of course, there was a
bedroom that was on the top floor. Some people seemed to be making
their way from or towards it but the others mostly avoided it.
Melina walked into the house hand in hand with Roy. Suddenly
intimidated, she clung to him with both of her arms. Roy stopped
himself from smirking.