Savage Supernaturals

The Truth Comes Out

Leon stood watching as an older man got out of the truck, he was broad shoulders, mid-size build, no more than six-two, with shoulder-length salt-n-pepper hair. This in and of itself was not imposing; coupled with the look on the man’s face and the fact that he was heading with a prime objective of kicking Leon’s ass, was very amusing to Leon. Sam saw the grin forming on the vampire’s lips, that is until it was apparent this was no mere man, nor puma, this guy was a wolf. It was Sam’s turn to grin as Leon slammed into the corvette as his fangs popped out, Tarak was beginning to transform.
Speaking to Leon in a low guttural growl, “You keep your f***in’ hands off her vamp,” in a primal growl Tarak added, “I’ll rip your throat out if you so much as look at her again”
Tarak was not taking his eyes off Leon, however, his tone softened, “Little Bit, what’s going on?”
Sam was enjoying watching the vampire get what was coming to him for being so, so… vampy with her. She knew that she had to stop the fight, this would get them nowhere, worse Sam was not positive that Tarak could beat Leon. The way things had gone tonight for her, she could not risk someone else she loved.
Sam stepped forward placing her hand on Tarak’s arm before either could attack again, “Tarak, Leon is, in his own way, helping, I guess.” Sam looked over to Leon, and added, “Of course it is for his own reasons, but to be fair, he hasn’t hurt me.”
Tarak now looked her over, stepping away from Leon making sure to shove him again as he let him go, “what was going on when I pulled up then?” he asked them both.
Leon decided this was a good time to give his opinion, his fangs retracted as he fixed his designer shirt and hair. Only then did he speak, “She is being a child, I was merely showing her the error of her ways. Now, as I have told her, and now repeat myself to tell you,” Leon sighed, “It is near dawn, she will come with me to find her betrothed, that beast has answers to several questions each of us has. If you wish to accompany us I am sure there is a doghouse available for you in the ruins this cat calls home.”
Tarak was stuck on one word, betrothed. Looking at Sam, “I am going to ask this one more time,” Tarak said in a forced calm, “What the hell happened here.”
Sam could not handle the hurt and confused look, nor the anger she saw in Tarak’s eyes. She dropped her gaze to the rocks on the road. Once more at a loss to explain. She would tell Tarak everything, just not in front of Leon. Sam wiped a tear away, turned to the vampire to avoid Tarak’s questions, “Ok Leon if Tarak comes with me I’ll go and help you but if not; No deal” Looking back to Tarak, “I’ll explain it all soon,” she said with a pleading she hadn’t intend to use.
Leon shook his head, “This is no negotiation, you will come with me and we will find what I want, should your dog choose to come does not affect that.” hearing Tarak growl, “Down Fido, you got the jump on me once, count yourself lucky. Try it again, one of us dies and I’m already dead.” Leon said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Tarak stepped toward him as Leon once more extended his fangs, but Sam stepped in-between them, “STOP IT, don’t you two think enough lives have been lost tonight?”
Leon raised an eyebrow and smiled, “it is only Weres, not a great loss as far as I can see, so one more is fine by me,” Leon said with a wink to Tarak.
Tarak launched at Leon transforming in mid-air, Leon wasted no time attacking, each had their own fight style, each was out to kill. Sam was shoved to the ground as the two went at it, getting up, dusting off her butt, this was too much she wasn’t going to see someone else hurt over her. Tears streaming down her face she turned to leave, “kill yourselves, but don’t blame me, I got enough real blame without you two adding macho bulls*** to it,” she cried.
Walking down the road not looking back until Tarak grabbed her, “Ok hellcat, calm down, we can kill each other later,” glaring back at Leon, Tarak wiped the blood from his mouth, “right now you can fill me in on what happened in Heartsville... you ride with me, I will follow the grim reaper to where ever that f*** his house is. You and I will talk, you can tell me what the hell is going on. Once it’s night, sleeping beauty over there will wake up and we’ll head wherever it is that he has in his little head.” Tarak looked over his shoulder, “This is the deal, like it or not, one thing we agree on is this is not a negotiation.”
Tarak pulled Sam into a hug, “Sam come here, you need me, you need someone on your side. I don’t know what happen but that much is obvious. Come on, baby girl let’s go.”
Sam turned into Tarak’s embrace, wrapping tight around him, soon everything that had happen that day came crashing down around her. The tears started and soon she was uncontrollably crying, her whole body was shaking. Tarak reached down and scooped her up like she was an infant and headed for his truck, he opened the door and helped her in. Looking over the edge of the door, calling to Leon, “Lead the way, grim.”
Leon slid behind the wheel shaking his head, speaking to himself, “Animals should either be caged, trained, or put down. Right now, I know two I wouldn’t mind putting down myself.” Wheeling the car around he headed back to Jackson with Tarak following.
The drive was silent, Tarak let her just lay there without asking questions. This was something that Sam truly loved about Tarak, he seemed to know when to just let her be. Sam laid in Tarak’s lap as he stroked her hair telling her everything would be fine.
This was not true, but she really wanted to believe it. Sam just didn’t want to face anything, she just wanted to pretend that everything was a dream, even if it was just for an hour. Tarak called Jeb telling them not to worry about Sam; he had her and when the time came he would bring her back.
As Sam felt the rhythm of the road, her mind went back to everything that had happened. She had no idea how to explain it all to Tarak, much less get him to understand how she felt. How her life was flipped on its end. Tarak was not her true brother by birth, but there were few other ways that he had not filled that role in her life. A small smile played across her face as she thought back to how he looked when he got out of that truck. Tarak wasn’t as tall as Leon, he was about six foot two or three. He always said it depended on how tired he was. To Sam, Tarak stood ten feet tall, at that moment Tarak towered over the deadhead.
As they pulled into the driveway Leon pointed to the dawn... “Find your own way around the house, thanks to you two I have little time, I will be retiring now.” With that, Leon turned going into the house.
They walk into a middle-class house that was decorated hap-haphazardly, Sam assumed this wasn’t Leon’s true home or it would have matched his fancy taste.
Tarak joked, “Damn we missed the sun up by this much” he said with a chuckle and held up his forefinger and thumb with very little space in between.
Looking around Sam soon found the kitchen. She was surprised to find a coffee pot even more surprised to find filters and coffee. The best way to keep Tarak happy was to make sure he had a cup of coffee. Once the coffee was brewing she sat at the table with Tarak, she made a gesture around the room, “What do you want to bet this ain’t his house. The upside is, I think you scared him.” Sam said with a half-hearted smile.
Tarak smiled, but didn’t fall for the attempt at leading the conversation, “I want to know what happened, kid, why did deadhead say you are betrothed? Jeb said you allowed Heartsville to be attacked? I want to hear what really happened from you, and don’t bulls*** me, we both know I will know if you do.”
Getting up he searched the cabinets for the coffee cups finding them on the opposite side of the kitchen, “Damn vamps,” he muttered pouring the coffee and setting Sam’s in front of her, “Sorry kid, you got to deal with black, I had enough scavenging looking for the damn cups, god only knows where the hell the sugar is. Now Talk.”
After an hour of talking and half a pot of coffee, Sam had told Tarak everything, avoiding the specifics of why she hated Jim. When she finished she sat looking at her cup slowly turning it watching the coffee grounds swirl at the bottom. She was not used to a cappuccino machine, at least that’s what she thought it was, she had obviously done something wrong. If there was a witch around she could do a reading with all the grounds that were left in her cup.
Tarak stood up, causing her to jump, Sam looked up as Tarak stood engulfing the small kitchen, pushing his chair back, “Ok little one, cartoon time, let’s go let you relax and get some shut-eye”
Sam jumped up, “What?” she asked. “Aren’t you going to ask anything, or nothing?”
“Nope, you told me your side and that was what I asked for.” He walked her to the couch grabbing the remote off a nearby table, he sat down on the end of the couch and patted his lap. This was what they did almost every Saturday morning when she was a kid, smiling faintly she laid on the couch with her head in his lap as he started flipping stations.
It wasn’t long before Tarak was lost in thought, while Sam was beginning to fade off to sleep when her cell rang, sitting straight up looking at Tarak,
“What if he’s dead?” she asked in a panicked voice.
“You answering the phone ain’t gonna change that, is it?” Tarak asks in an infuriatingly calm voice.
Sam huffed, “No, but....”
“Then answer the damn phone.”
Picking it up she saw the caller ID it was Chief Morehouse, “Hello Sir”
“Sam?” said a gravelly voice.
“Yes sir, it’s me.”
“Where are you?” he asked in a concerned voice, not the accusing one Sam expected.
“With Tarak, at Leon somebody’s house, he’s a vamp though” Sam explained.
“Damn it Sam, that is Marsond, Marshal over Jackson,” Cheif Morehouse said in irritation.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Sam lied, but this didn’t seem to be the time to point out she didn’t care who he was.
“Well the lecture about paying attention to power players in our world can wait, how did Thomas die?” he asked.
“Oh my gosh Chief Morehouse, I am so sorry I forgot to call back, He isn’t dead just seriously injured. He is still in Heartsville with Dr. Horroka”
After a summary of what happened, Chief Morehouse told her to hand the phone to Tarak, she did and laid back down. They discussed several things as she faded into darkness.
She awoke to a soft shaking of her shoulder. Sam sat up a bit disoriented before remembering whose house they were in.
“Wake up, kid,” Tarak called from the kitchen, “we got a couple of things to do before our buddy gets up. Get your scrawny ass moving, five minutes till I am in the truck” Tarak called.
Stretching, wiping the sleep from her eyes, “How long was I out?”
Tarak was already getting the keys, making his way out of the kitchen, “ah I don’t know, couple hours.”
Sam knew he had just filled up with coffee, which meant he wasn’t kidding, at most she had five minutes, she slid her shoes on, ran her fingers through her hair, then made a quick detour to the bathroom. As she came out of the bathroom he was walking out the door, she followed him out.
“So what do we got to do?” Sam asked
Climbing into the truck Tarak revved the engine; looked over his shoulder as he pulled out, he simply stated, “Heading back to Heartsville, Morehouse is meeting us there.”
A whirlwind of emotions went through her as they made their way through Jackson, by the amount of traffic she thought it was close to noon. Was she already going to face the pack? Was Uncle Thomas better? Was he dead? Did they find who did this? Was Chief Morehouse taking the pack over? Could he if he is a wolf? Staring out the window buried deep in her thoughts she didn’t realize they had pulled into Starbuck’s and Tarak was talking to her, “SAM! Damn, I pulled in here for you... what do you want, damn it?”
Jumping, turning to look at Tarak, “Oh Ummm, upside-down caramel macchiato”
Tarak turned to the intercom, “gimmie a large ups...”
“Venti,” Sam interrupted him.
Tarak looked at her, “a what?” he asked in confusion.
“That’s what a large is called,” she said with a shrug.
Shaking his head he turned back to the intercom again, “gimmie a venti upside-down caramel monkey toe and the biggest black coffee you got”
Once the order was repeated by a laughing girl, he pulled up to pay the young lady and got their coffees.
As they pulled back onto the highway Sam poured the black coffee Tarak had ordered into his travel mug. She kept sneaking looks at him.
Tarak looked over at Sam, “You wanna know something, by God I taught you to ask, so what’s eating you?” he asked.
She took a couple of drinks of her coffee then looked out the window, “Why are we going back without finding Jim? Are they ready to pass judgment on me?” she asked.
He looked surprised, “No one will be able to pass judgment on you but Thomas, you defied him, not the pack. I will tell you this though, that’s a reason I’m a Lobo, I follow my laws. I have no pack to answer to.”
Tarak looked from the road to her, “But sis, you are in a pack, you have to follow orders, Little Bit. Now for why we are going back, Morehouse wants to see the area and get any scents he can. He also wants your accounting of the night.”
They drove in silence while Sam thought about all that, finally asking, “I just don’t understand, why attack Heartsville? We never mess with anyone.”
Looking straight ahead Tarak only said one thing, “Heartsville was not the beginning or the end.”
With that, the subject was dropped and both drank their coffees for several miles. She sat with her feet pulled up in the seat setting her coffee on her knees, “Tarak?”
“Hmm”
Not sure she should even talk about what she was thinking, certainly not sure anyone would believe her. “I had a reason for running, it wasn’t just that I don’t wanna marry Jim. Well it is, but I got more reasons than I told you earlier,” Sam said softly.
Tarak did a sideways look at her than the road, “Spill it, Little Bit”
Biting her lip not sure how to start, no matter what this wasn’t going to be good. Tarak cocked an eyebrow, “this good or bad?”
“Well, I don’t really see any good, except you may understand my reasons why.” Sam swallowed hard, she couldn’t just back out now. Even if she tried, Tarak knew her too well. “Okay, here’s the thing, Jim has always had a thing for me, not like Markus. Markus was a harmless, teenage kid.”
Tarak laughed, “Not to Samuels”
She shrugged, “Ok not really harmless, but he never hurt me, plus he never paid me a bit of attention till I was about thirteen.” Shifting in the seat pulling her legs down, Sam sat for a minute and Tarak let her. After a deep breath, Sam continued, “But Jim, he wasn’t harmless and he didn’t wait till I was thirteen neither”
Tarak’s grip on the steering wheel tightened so much that Sam was sure he almost broke it, he pulled off the road, threw the truck in park. “TALK!” was all he could spit out and that was a growl that Sam knew meant the wolf was not too far underneath.
She told him how he always followed her into the woods, how he came over anytime no one was home, “You remember when I asked you to teach me to wrestle and you thought I wanted to wrestle the boys?” Sam dared a quick glance at him, before finishing, “Well, you were close. I was only nine or ten and that man wanted me Tarak,” Sam finished in a whisper.
Not sure if he would think she encouraged it by keeping her silence all these years or not, Sam began to ramble about how she took care of things, how she learned his weak points, just like Tarak had taught her. Tarak sat staring out the windshield, “Did you tell Thomas?” was all he asked.
“I couldn’t, that’s his brother in law,” Sam hated the pleading in her voice, but she had to make Tarak understand.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked. It was Tarak’s turn to chance a glance at Sam, “Didn’t you trust me?” he asked with a tone of hurt that Sam couldn’t miss and it broke her heart.
Sam saw the hurt in his eyes. She had expected accusations, or doubt, even the thought that he would laugh at the idea someone would want her. Sam was not ready for the hurt.
“I knew what you would do,” Sam said with a lowered head, “I’m sorry.”
“You would have never had to worry about him again,” Tarak stated
“But I would worry about you, I could have lost you.” Sam said gently, as she laid her hand on his arm, “Tarak, I lost my parents, I could never risk losing you. I had no proof.” With a harsh laugh, “And who would have believed me over a pack council member?”
Tarak turned to face Sam with more anger than she had ever seen in him, “I would have believed you, f*** everyone else!” he snarled.
“Tarak I’m ok, really!! You took care of it without even knowing it. As I got older and you taught me more, I got him to back off.”
It was easy to see Tarak grinding his teeth, he spoke through clenched teeth, “He why you went nuts with boys, messing with them the way you did?”
Turning beet red with humiliation at him bringing that up, Sam turned looking out the window, “Maybe, can we just go now? I told you so you knew it wasn’t just because I didn’t want to marry the man who my pack-master chose.”
Tarak threw the truck back into gear as they pulled back onto the road heading to Heartsville once more, “Just so we are on the same page when we find the son of a bitch, the grim reaper better be there to ask his questions, because I’ll kill him the first chance I get.”
Sam immediately corrected him, “Yeah well get in line, I have first dibs on the mother f***er. Don’t forget he led whoever it was to Heartsville.”
Within thirty minutes they were crossing the bridge to Heartsville again, Tarak pulled up to the house alongside Chief Morehouse’s Mercedes. The emotions of the night once more hit Sam as she got out of the truck. As she swung the door closed Sam looked at both the locations that changed her life forever. The spot that Terry had laid, still had blood drying on the ground. Her eyes moved to where she thought Thomas had died, that spot was burned into her memories. Even though Thomas was in the house, she could see him lifeless on the ground.
Looking to the rest of the town she saw her family eyeing her as if she didn’t belong. She used the hood of the truck to stabilize herself, looking at Tarak for help. He came over wrapped a big arm around her shoulders, “we can do this kid, if you let them intimidate you, then they win”
As they walked up the steps a young woman stepped out of the door. The girl was Rachel Samuels, she was thin, stringy blond hair, with an ample breast line, which was her only redeeming qualities as far as Sam was concerned. Rachel had, what the boys called, a horse face, which made the men in the area avoid her. Rachel was from Knight, where she had a small shop. There she was a self-proclaimed medium, but to Sam, she was a resident freak, know it all, and a fraud.
Sam stopped dead forcing Tarak to stop too, “What are you doing here?”
Rachel Samuels, in the most upbeat sugary voice, “Well Hi there Samantha, I sure am glad to see you.” The girl cocked her head to the side, “I don’t think the feeling is mutual though.” Rachel smiled at Tarak, “Hello Tarak, I came to help, after all, Chief Morehouse asked me too. Ricky is around somewhere, you member him don’tcha Sam?”
Stomping past Rachel, Sam left Tarak to deal with her. Tarak smiled at Rachel and with a smirk, he said, “Gotta love her,” as he went to catch up with Sam. Rachel a bit miffed, turned to follow too, under her breath, “I don’t.”
In the house were many Sam knew, but also more than a few she didn’t. She stood quiet trying to get a read on what was going on; however, Elijah Moondance saw her. He was a werewolf too, same as Tarak, but that was where the similarities ended. Elijah had long sandy blond hair, that hit midway down his back, the few times that Sam had seen him it was always pulled into ponytail at the nape of his neck. Elijah true attraction was in his eyes and smile, he had the most beautiful brown eyes that would just melt Sam on the spot, if that weren’t enough his smile was just crooked enough to make him irresistible. Sam thought he couldn’t be but a couple of years older than her, twenty-five at the most.
He stood a little under six foot, and muscles for days, and boy was he a woof, she had had a crush on him for months but dared not approach him. Mixed breeds are one thing, Canine and Feline would never work. He tapped Chief Morehouse on the shoulder, whispered something, after a nod to Elijah, Chief Morehouse was walking her way, “Sam, my dear, how are you doing?”
Rachel strolled past to talk to Elijah, she said something that made him smile, “bitch...” Sam muttered.
“Sam, dear??” Chief Morehouse asked, “Are you okay?”
Sam brought her focus back to Chief Morehouse, “I’m sorry sir. Just a bit out of it, is Uncle Thomas any better? Can I see him?”
Chief Ari Morehouse was at least six foot three, broad shoulders, his brown hair was cut in a military crew cut, and the start of a small gut around his waistline. Morehouse was getting older, but as pack master of the Centenarian wolf pack, he was a formidable man.
Morehouse took her hand leading her to the couch, “Tarak, I believe there is food in the kitchen from the lovely ladies here, give Sam and I a few moments please.”
Tarak nodded, ruffled Sam’s hair like she was two, and headed for the kitchen. Morehouse smiled at her, “He cares deeply for you, unusual pair you two make. It seems to work for you though, does it not?” Morehouse asked politely.
Sam fiddled with her hands looking down, “He is more family to me than any in this town.”
Morehouse put a finger under her chin, with a gentle but firm lift of his finger, Morehouse brought Sam’s head up to look at him, “You need to learn your true family; no lone wolf can fill all the voids of a family.”
Swallowing hard, licking her lip, “I got Uncle Thomas too”
With a clicking of his tongue making a tsk tsk sound she knew he thought little of her, pulling away from him, “I don’t need anyone’s approval, did you come to judge me or help?” Sam snapped.
Several wolves that stood near stopped what they were doing looking at her, Morehouse waved his hand dismissing them as he laughed, “You know I am here to help, I need to know all that you know. I also need to know all you do not want others to know, you know. In other words Sam, you will tell me everything possible so we can attempt to piece this together.” Standing he held his hand to her, “We will walk, you will talk,” he said.