Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 12

When I can comprehend what it is I'm being told, my eyes immediately drift to Helen. Her determined look catches me off guard, her eyebrows pulled down in determined silence as that light gaze refuses to leave the building that Echo had disappeared into. What could I say that she didn't already know? She would make an effort to explain if she had any sort of shame for what they were doing and with my limited information, I couldn't help but fear for the worst. 

"Humans, Helen?" I demand, my voice low and short, I'm surprised at the silence of my wolf on this matter. My body remained cool, my breathing even, it was as if the creature was interested in the answer as well. My voice cuts her, she flinches as if I've struck her even though I've spoken soft enough that a passer by wouldn't hear us. Not as if it would matter, there was no escaping for a mortal and even if we were careless, there was no one around to hear. 

With the dimming light of afternoon approaching, the haze had begun to fold in over the vacant and dirty street. Litter rolled down the cracked sidewalks, parched for rain even though the sky threatened to bring relief. They picked the wrong person to bring here, Pascal or Tyler would have been much more help to the humans who still suffered. I shoulder my bag awkwardly, we stuck out far to starkly against the billboards sporting dark outfits and masks. 

"It's not what you think."

Helen brings me back to reality, I was still angry with her, my senses had gone into overdrive. "I'm not sure I even want to know what this is." My teeth clench, restraining my words for they were to inpolite for my granddaughter. "It's obvious we are not here to help these people, we are here for some sick personal gain."

Kestrel makes a face, adjusting his posture. "We are hunting, you are trying to get in touch with your wolf. The purest form of prey for a lycan is a mortal, it just so happens there are some not so nice mortals in this side of town and it pays well to hunt them."

"So that's it? A job? Bounty hunters?" It brought me to close to Tomas, I clutch my bag tighter and shut my eyes against the onslaught of discomfort. I have to calm myself, the wolf remained in the back of my mind at silent attention. It would appear I had earned some of it's respect, or perhaps it was curious to what side I'd be on. 

Helen's hand drags through her hair as she searches my face before glancing at Kestrel for a long moment. I can't help but feel repulsed that she would leave Tyler for a barbarian. One might feel the same about my choices but some how, watching it before me, I was alright with being a hypocrite should the title suit me. "Something like that. We work a long side the hero's, Nic. They hire us to do what they can't, we are cleaning up towns like this by helping with the crime rate. Is that so bad?"

Hesitation rests on my shoulders. No, it wasn't. It was nobel, to take the law into their own hands was a scary thought but where I drew the line was the delicate balance of them versus us. For only a moment, I could allow this to go on. I could even see myself being a part of it, but it all crashed the ground when the flickering billboard in the haze reminded me all to much of those back in New York, the warning of Red loud and clear that any magical user was property of the government. 

"We can not afford to look superior right now, Helen." I tell her as calmly as I can manage. "While I can see what you're doing, and as a younger man I might have aligned with it, I can not say I support risking what we've attempted to built for some cash and moments of glory. The hero's are one things, lycan scrutiny has run heavy since the failed experimentation of the cat mutations." 

The comparison brings them both to pause, they exchange nervous glances and I pray that it's enough. The lycan, brought on by magic, was the only successful morph of mortals to beasts. With the extinction of werewolves, the only other option for a mortal to claim immortality was to give ones self over to the vampires and coven life could be quite strict. While lycans had packs, lone wolves were common in a society of rarities.