Season of the Moon

         

I am old.This new modern world seems so young and innocent to me. Fresh faced people busily rushing here and there. I wish I had their frantic energy. I sit here in my mouldering mansion, its gilded wallpaper peeling, dust motes clogging the stale air, and I wish...well I wish for things that will never be, at least not for me.
         I was born in the year 1028, I was twenty six at the time. I am a vampire. I am old enough that I don't often crave or need blood anymore. When I do, this bold new world provides it for me all bagged up and ready to go. It's amazing what money can buy.
I have lived several lifetimes and slept through a few. I've seen the world many times over. I've watched customs, fads, and religions come and go. I love the mortals of this world. I love their ability to laugh, to love, to die. I have spent the last three hundred years trying to protect them from all manner of soulless creatures that stalk the night....I am known as Hunter.

ONE

         Cassidy Johnson felt the little hairs on the back of her neck prickle and raise. She hated being out this late but the book club meeting had run over and she hadn't wanted to leave. Her nerves were jangling and her stomach quivered. "It's just your paranoia showing," she muttered into the cool night air. It was the last thought she ever had.
         Hunter sat listening to the news with half an ear while he pondered what to do for the evening. Suddenly his attention was grabbed by something the pretty little reporter was saying.
" A young girl, Cassidy Johnson was found brutally slain this morning. This is fourth such murder this month. Authorities say that evidence points to one killer. The extreme violence of these attacks....." as Hunter once again tuned out the TV he snatched up the phone to call his friend Javier.
Javier Sanchez was in charge of the F.B.I.'s Chicago office. He would know all there was to know about these attacks.
         "Hey Hunter, how's it going? I assume this is not a social call." Sanchez's deep gravelly voice rumbled over the line.
"No," Hunter replied, " what can you tell me about these murders, serial killer do you think?"
Sanchez sighed." I think we need to have a chat. Come on down to the office, I'll meet you there in half an hour." Without waiting for a reply Sanchez hung up.
         As Hunter walked into Javier's office the mixed aromas of tobacco and coffee threatened to overwhelm him. Sanchez growled " have a seat bat boy." Javier Sanchez was a large, round man with skin the color of polished ebony, and laughing brown eyes that masked the hard nosed grizzly bear that he really was. Now in his early fifties Sanchez had met Hunter nearly twenty years ago on his first major case. Because of the odd nature of the crime he had been investigating he stumbled on to the fact that Hunter was not exactly human. Sanchez guarded Hunters secret closely, but couldn't resist hanging small nicknames on him in private.
         Hunter slouched his lanky body down in to the only other chair in the room and said, "Now tell me." Sanchez looked gravely at the seemingly young man across from him. " I was picking up the phone to call you when you rang me. These assaults are being perpetrated by one sick individual. The bodies are slashed and torn. The internal organs seem to have been chewed out." Sanchez paused, "The reason I was going to call you was we have found copious amounts of hair and saliva at all four scenes. D.N.A. tells us the samples are canine. Either this guy works with an extremely large, hairy, slobbering dog or..." Hunter interrupted, "Or else its a werewolf."
"Is that possible?" Sanchez asked. "I mean, well, working with you I've seen my share of impossible things, yourself included, but are there werewolves?"
As Javier waited for a reply he studied his friend. Unruly raven locks tumbled about his head,eyes so deeply blue they were almost black, and a tall lithe frame with just enough muscle to keep him from looking gaunt. The man should be a movie star Sanchez thought.
         Hunter smiled briefly. "Yes, although I don't know much about them werewolves are as real as you and I. They are an endangered species. In fact there have been no legitimate reports of them in the last century."
Sanchez frowned. Although having a human looking mosquito for a best friend had broadened his thinking, it was still hard to grasp that most of his childhood terrors were real." So if our killer is a werewolf what do we do? I'm fresh out of silver bullets." Hunter chuckled. " First we need to make sure it's truly a werewolf, then whether this monster is human or wolf we go after the bastard."

TWO

         Three days after Sanchez and hunters late night meeting the only thing that had been determined was that they were dealing with a werewolf. They were no closer to finding him and now there was another victim.
Sixty seven year old Father Loomis was found half way between the church and the rectory. His insides were strung between the two buildings like a barrage of shining earth worms. Sanchez was trying to keep his breakfast down as he surveyed the carnage. " Any witnesses?" he asked a tired looking detective.
Lieutenant Dickerson, head of homicide glanced up briefly. " Not a one, and nobody heard a thing." He replied. " The father here makes five Vics, same m.o. in method. Looks like we may be dealing with a serial killer." Sanchez stuffed his hands in his pockets and grunted doubtfully.
Dickerson, who had worked with Sanchez in the past and respected him now eyed the big man curiously. "What else could it be? The victims don't fit a profile but the kills sure do."
"I'd say we have a real live monster in our midst." Sanchez replied.
         Hunter rose and listened to his messages. Another killing, this one a priest. Every night Hunter had been prowling through every dark, dank hole in the city hoping to find some clue to this monsters whereabouts. One thing that bothered him though was if this was a werewolf why was he killing no matter the phase of the moon? Maybe Zander could tell him.
         Alexander (Zander) was a vampire even older than Hunter. He was a stocky, red headed young scholar who stayed holed up in a gigantic villa overlooking the city. A state of the art security system kept him safe, and between the mountains of books he owned and a computer system to rival the C.I.A.'s he kept busy.
Zanders snooty butler led Hunter into the library, a room where every wall and most of the floor was covered in books. "Ahh, Hunter! What brings you to see an old curmudgeon like me?" Zander enthused warmly.
Old curmudgeon indeed thought Hunter, the man didn't look a day over nineteen. " I need your help." Hunter said. "These killings in the city have all the earmarks of a werewolf but the attacks range through all phases of the moon. How can that be?"
Zander raised his rusty eyebrows, rose from his chair and began to pound furiously on his computers keyboard. He frowned for a moment and then,"Yes, here we are. I'd say you are dealing with a chap by the name of Baldor. Quite a nasty chap old boy."
"Baldor?" Hunter asked. "who is this Baldor and how is he getting around the full moon? Is he killing as viciously in human form as he does as a wolf?"
Zander said " No. He is a wolf when he kills. From what I have gathered Baldor has found a way to simulate the stages of the moon in such a manner that he can transform at will.This allows him to hunt out of season, so to speak. I believe he is rather fond of his monster within." Zander tapped again and added," Baldor does not choose his victims randomly, they have all in one way or another insulted or hunted him. Be careful my friend."
Hunter thanked Zander for his information and started to leave, then he paused and turned back. "Just where on the world wide web do you find information like that?" he asked. Zander laughed wickedly "You might be surprised what all I know about you old boy!"

THREE

         Hunter awoke to a loud ringing in his ears. It was the phone. "Hello" he muttered groggily. "Hunter old boy! I have found a picture of your wolf. Would you like me to fax it over?"
Hunter glanced at the clock. "Yes, but let me give you Javier's number at the bureau and you can fax it to him. I'm on my way there now. anything else?"
"Well I don't know if this will help" Zander said, "but I did some research on the priest. He has actively sought to destroy earthly demons, it may be he had a clue to what Baldor really was. Which means he knew the man."