The Beast Within (14 page)

“But if a mage is controlling him?” Matthew offered. “Binding him by ritual and forcing him…?”

The words of the three men buzzed around Aaron’s ears but made little sense. He had pushed to the back of his mind Qi’s declaration that he was not like the other ‘dogs’. It had not seemed relevant at the time. He was a werewolf. It didn’t matter who had bitten him, or what their rank was. He was a werewolf, regardless. But now… Aaron stared into the polished surface of the coffee table. Behind his human facade he imagined he saw the dark thing, how it lived inside him instead of becoming part of him. His uncharacteristic black pelt. The ability to shift at any time, not just on a full moon. The rapid changes he was undergoing that coincided with the appearance of the brimstone in town—the mark of an otherworldly being entering this world.

“It’s not possible.” A tremor ran the length of his body.

“What?” Tony clearly noticed the distress in his voice. He turned toward Aaron, forehead drawn in concern.

“The bites were so painful I blacked out,” Aaron continued, uncaring that the others were staring at him outright. “But the one, it was like fire. Like hot pokers from a blast furnace being jammed into my abdomen. It was so dark I couldn’t see. I thought I was dying it was so dark. But then the hair—wiry and sparse—I saw it sticking out of the black hide.”

“No,
mi hombre
.” Carlos switched back to the endearment, which meant he already believed what Aaron was saying. “It can’t be.”

“It all makes sense, doesn’t it? When you think about it?”

“There has never been a case like this before,” Carlos protested.

“Well, then, meet Mr Precedent.” Aaron looked across at Tony, who stared at him with concern and confusion. “I was turned by Cerberus. I’m the son of the Hound of Hell.”

Chapter Sixteen

Brimstone’s Child

“It’s okay,” Aaron said for the fifth time. And for the fifth time he remained unheard.

His revelation had brought down a chorus of inflamed protest. Matthew and Carlos exchanged a barrage of speculation while Tony interjected to argue this or that point. Their voices, meant to reassure, to share with him his pain and fear, grated against his sensitive ears like a wire brush against porcelain. Aaron listened to the weres discussing the implications of his existence, watched Tony steal surreptitious glances his way, and merely nodded, a puppet on a string, as his mouth again formed the same words.

“It’s okay.”

It wasn’t. Not by far. But that was what people said to reassure others and themselves when life started to fall apart. It was the mystical incantation to fix everything, to convince those in horrifying situations that they would soon move through, that sunny days rested just beyond the dark tornado swirling around them. But magical thinking would not stop real magic or the demons from which it sprang. And there was his own personal demon who seemed overjoyed to find him wholly submerged in its darkness at long last.

As Aaron crashed into his emotional low, the dark thing resumed its struggle for control. It scrabbled against his insides in an effort to take over, howled and barked into the cavernous pit that had once housed his undoubtedly shredded soul. Aaron braced his back against the cushions as if physical reinforcements would help contain the unsettled monster. His impulses screamed for him to shift. Changing would satisfy the beast and squelch his riotous thoughts. But changing, he suspected, would also hand over the keys to the empire. One shift and that would be it for him. Even though he wanted rest and peace, he didn’t want to earn it through being eaten alive from the inside out by a demonic dog.

“Regardless, tomorrow night is our deadline.” Tony’s voice cut in above the others. “If we accept our current theory that they are going after Kapre, we can also assume their attack will come when they’re strongest, with the full moon at its zenith. It will also be when Kapre is at its weakest. The most qualified acqxterm agents will either be home, sleeping, or out in the field on nocturnal hunts. Braven will be gone and the night manager is mostly incompetent. The only people in the office will be rookies and non-field rated support staff. They will follow protocol and try to evacuate. By the time the alarms summon our active agents from their houses, everyone inside will be dead. Our teams will storm in with only their take home weapons. It will be a bloodbath. I’m sorry, Aaron, we can’t keep Braven in the dark any longer.”

“I agree.” Aaron’s voice sounded small against the enormity of the expectant silence pressing against him. “I’ll tell Braven myself tomorrow morning.”

“I’m sure she already suspects you’re a werewolf, at least,” Tony said.

“Probably. She didn’t get to the top of the command chain by not knowing the ins and outs of supernatural beings.”

“Matthew and I will be able to shift by the morning.” Carlos glanced at Matthew, took a deep breath and continued, “By then the rest of the clan will be here.”

“The rest…?” Aaron sputtered. “What do you mean? What did you do, Carlos?”

“What I had to do,
mi hombre
. This is a war against weres just as much as it is against Kapre. We have right to fight for ourselves.”

“Bringing in the entire Trinity clan on the same day as the invasion only implicates you—us!” Aaron said.

“There is no way around it, I’m afraid,” Matthew replied.

“You should have told me,” he said, directing his ire at Carlos.

“You said yourself Trinity is no longer your concern.”

“I also claimed this area as my territory. I have every right to view your actions as hostile.”

“If that is what you wish,
mi hombre
. Your agency will be fighting Cerberus and Six Rivers, leaving you and”—he waved a hand at Tony—“possibly your partner to call Trinity out on breeching protocol. It is your right as alpha, of course, but not only will you distract my forces and let Six Rivers win, you will be severely outnumbered and your fight, however justified by clan law, will quickly become futile.”

Aaron felt Tony’s guard rising, sensed Matthew’s desperate desire to steer the conversation back into neutrality, but neither of them mattered. There was only Carlos and him in the room. Two beasts—one an old leader, powerful in his own right—the other younger, rogue, but by his genetic makeup likely much stronger. They could shift and fight and Aaron would stand a good chance against his former lover.

A very good chance.

This revelation knocked the air from his lungs. He was Carlos’ equal, if not superior. He could, if he chose, be headstrong and stupid, take his former mentor in a fight and secure control of Trinity entirely. No one could stop him. Yet, instead of heightening his aggression, this knowledge drained the tension from his body. He no longer needed to prove himself to Carlos or anyone, at least not on the physical front. How he appeared as a leader, however, was still up in the air. Acting on childish impulses would have him labeled as Six River’s new alpha had already been, a useless whelp, unworthy of respect. As he was for now only a pack of one, he needed to be judicious.

As Aaron sorted this out, Carlos watched him with a shrewd expression, as if all of his thoughts were being broadcast directly into his mind. Aaron returned the scrutiny and leaned back into the cushions, relaxing into his new power and position. Carlos gave him an almost imperceptible approving nod. Even though it was clear Carlos had been steering his outlook toward this particular maturation, Aaron couldn’t find the will to be aggravated by it. Regardless of how he had gotten there, he was finally free of the pack’s hierarchical control.

That, however, didn’t mean he didn’t require assistance.

“Next time I would appreciate a heads-up on any pack movement within my territory,” was all Aaron said.

“Of course,” Carlos agreed, a small smile playing at his lips.

“We’ll leave you, now.” Matthew stood and gestured to Carlos to stand.

An alpha would usually bristle at an underling taking the lead in that manner, but Carlos merely dipped his head in acknowledgment and stood. Matthew was special, of that there was no doubt.

Tony led them to the front door. Aaron trailed the group.

“Call us after your meeting with your boss tomorrow,” Carlos said. He amended with, “When it is convenient, of course.”

“I will.” Their new roles were going to take some getting used to on both sides, but Aaron was already pleased with the progress. No longer the pitiful head case charity, he was alpha. Alpha of what, he didn’t quite know, but alpha just the same. “I’ll walk you to the parking lot.”

“I’ll say my goodbyes here.” Tony opened the door for them. He nodded at the weres, then brushed Aaron’s sleeve as the three of them passed. “Will I see you tomorrow, then?”

Aaron sensed rather than saw the hesitancy in Carlos’ step, the quirk of Matthew’s lips as the pair continued their descent, leaving him some privacy to give Tony his answer.

“I’ll be back in a minute.” He returned Tony’s suddenly shy smile, and followed the weres to the ground level.

As Matthew opened the ground floor door, Carlos turned to speak. A rush of wind buffeted them. They all froze. The scent of hellfire stained the back courtyard, turned the weed-choked lawn ochre in his mind.

“He’s here.”

The words were scarcely out of Matthew’s mouth before Carlos and Aaron tore outside, nearly colliding in their rush. Carlos streaked off into the shadows, following the heaviest scent. Matthew stuck to his heels. They vaulted a privacy fence, one after the next. Aaron ignored them, ignored the smell. He could see tracks in his mind, lava orange, leading in the opposite direction, toward an adjacent parking lot. He started to call for the weres, but the words stuck in his throat. It was stupid, almost certainly mortally so, but he had to see his creator for the first time alone. He ran through the maze of cars, following the footprints burning in his skull. So intent was he on following the images in his mind he didn’t see the form step out from the shadows until almost too late. He skidded to a halt a mere five feet from the hulking creature.

Black and bubbly like the exterior of a burnt marshmallow, with sparse hair dotting its scarified hide, Cerberus was a terrifying sight. Yet, even with its foul gray fangs and coral eyes, the demon dog was nothing compared to the image his inner eye showed. In his mind, the creature’s blackened skin was just a thin, cracked surface overlaying a sea of shifting, burbling magma. Three heads sprouted from a charred tree trunk neck, each snapping and slavering, the viscous froth that dropped from its jowls singeing the earth beneath.

Aaron recoiled in horror. This thing couldn’t be what had turned him. This foul creature could not have forged the shadow that lurked in his chest. As if to dispute this very point the dark thing inside him stretched out, sniffing and questing. It invited Cerberus closer.

The massive demon raised its snouts, nostrils flaring like furnace vents. Aaron stood frozen. An odor of deeply charred flesh and sulfur burned his throat as Cerberus moved closer. A rush of power surged through Aaron, sent electric shocks coursing through his nervous system. His muscles trembled under the dark thing’s desire to greet its maker on equal footing. His vision slid, blurring a moment before sharpening keenly. Aaron steeled himself against his inner demon’s onslaught. His jaw popped. His teeth stretched and elongated. His knuckles sprouted tufts of black hair.

Hair that matched the demon standing before him.

Cerberus was inches away.

Aaron trembled with the effort of restraining the dark thing.

Cerberus trailed his nose slowly up Aaron’s legs, beginning at his feet, snuffling loudly, taking in the scent at his toes, shins, knees, crotch. When the demon’s nose touched Aaron’s stomach it gave a growl. Not menacing, but almost playful. Friendly.

The dark thing gave a violent lurch. Aaron pitched forward onto his knees, his nose almost in contact with that of Cerberus. Pain radiated through his body. Tendons stretched to near snapping. Aaron threw all his resistance into fighting the transformation. Agony shook his limbs as he and the creature inside waged war over the form his body should take. His organs shuddered beneath a contorting, rioting frame. The bones in his ribs twisted against his spine. His legs and arms shook with mounting unspent energy.

Cerberus leaned in and nuzzled deeper, like a free man speaking through the wall to a prisoner. The demonic soul howled for liberation, for its creator.

“No,” Aaron yelled.

He flung himself away from Cerberus. His contorted skeleton screamed in pained protest as he landed on his back, sprawled on the pavement. The moon shined above, a luminous disc marred only by a slightly flattened left edge. He felt its strength running through his body, the undeniable power it fed the raging beast inside its humanoid cage, and knew he was indeed looking at the progenitor of all weres, the alpha of all alphas. The moon’s light disappeared as a cloud swept over its face. Few lights lit the parking lot, leaving most of the illumination provided by a malign glow oozing from between the cracked patches of Cerberus’ skin.

“No.” This time softer, more in answer to his terror than in defiance of the hellhound.

A grating, guttural sound came from Cerberus’ throat. It was laughing.

“Have it your way.”
The voice churned through Aaron’s mind. “
See me.”

The air seemed to solidify like layer of ice over a river. The moon appeared watery, the stars mere pinpoints of light in the blurred darkness. Magma spilled from Cerberus’ wolflike form, devoured the outer shell in a fiery flood. The demon’s head tore into three. The mounds of fiery torn flesh transformed into three necks, three skulls. The body flowed up, the rear legs lengthened and became human, the torso and forelegs straightened and elongated. Each face smiled down at Aaron, a horrifying mix of man and wolf. The muzzle-like mouths opened wide and more abrasive laughter rolled out.

“Why did you change me?” Once the first question had passed Aaron’s trembling lips the rest followed in a torrent. “Why not let the weres have me? Why did you kill the others and not me? Why did
you
change me into
this
?”