48: Even Playing Field

Recap:
*Nate figured out he can hear the wolves of Tanner's pack due to his ability to hear animals and because Tanner's pack had lacked their copy of the stone for a while now.

*Marge foresaw, when asked, that the relationship she and Robert had was doomed to failure.

    "You disgust me." Tanner spit out venomously after backhanding someone that was brave enough to deliver the message that they'd failed to kill a vampire. "All of you!" he growled to the gathering in his office. "A vampire on our lands, and you let him live! There were six of you!"

     "Tanner, he went into the river and didn't come out. We believe he's actually hiding in the lake somewhere." Harvey, the one who'd been slapped, tried to reason with him.
        Tanner shooed everyone out of his office except Harvey.

     "I don't want your excuses!" Tanner barked as he got right in his face. "Clearly, you feel determined to prove your own ineptness."

      Harvey bristled with the insult. He respected Tanner and felt that the man had the right idea about how they should live. He'd been with Tanner from the very start, Tanner himself having been the one to turn him. He was the only one left besides Tanner of the original five to settle in Hidden Springs. Julian joined them later, and Harvey still felt the sting from the day that Tanner named Julian his beta.

      He took a deep breath to quickly calm his anger and said, "He won't long survive his exit from the lake."

      "No, he won't, because I'm sending Julian out with you. I had thought that you could handle supervising the sentries, but clearly, I'm going to have to send out a real wolf to do a pup's job." Tanner said. 

       Harvey wished he'd slapped him across the face again instead. He was over three hundred years old, and he considered himself a senior member of the pack. He'd proven his loyalty to Tanner on a multitude of occasions, but it was always his failures that Tanner remembered.

       No one knew how old Julian was; he would never say.

      Tanner felt enraged when he considered how he would now have to divide his forces before the meeting tonight. This particular vampire had to be the one that lost Gabriella, and he knew the thing was a highly-skilled mind-reader. He hated vampires, especially those with extra abilities. He'd dealt with two superior mind-readers in the past, but those could only read humans. They were the reason he stopped having humans in his employ.

     This one must be able to read us. I don't know how. Perhaps I should instruct Julian to capture, not kill. I'd like to study him.

      "Fetch Julian for me." he said absently to Harvey, dismissing him with a distracted wave of his hand. Harvey lightly bowed his head and did his best not to storm out of the office.

      After a few minutes, Julian had still not entered his office, and Tanner felt fury rise in him again. How hard is it to tell Julian to get his ass in here? Just as he was about to stand up and find out what was taking him so long, Julian entered.

    "You wished to speak with me, Tanner?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

     "Yes. Harvey needs babysitting. He has failed again. A vampire entered our lands, and even though we had six after him, he escaped. I believe it is the one from Appaloosa Plains: Nathaniel Hamilton. He has the most motive."
      "Indeed." Julian agreed, his eyes narrowing.
      "I need you with the sentries tonight." Tanner said, getting to the point.

      "Tonight?! But the meeting..."
      "I need you leading the group hunting the vampire." Tanner interrupted him.
      "If then, he is indeed Nathaniel Hamilton then I will gladly kill him, but-"
      "I want you to capture him, if at all possible. I'd like to study him."
       " ' If at all possible'?! How am I to capture him if he's eluded six? And if I see him, I want to kill him." Julian growled.

      "You will not kill him unless that is your only option, do I make myself clear?" Tanner spoke, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
    "Crystal." Julian snarled. Then he continued with his aggravated tone, "You want to study that thing?! Have him here ... in this house?!"
     "Afraid of a little competition for your woman, huh?" Tanner said and smiled sadistically.
    "Speaking of my woman," Julian said, ignoring Tanner's jibe, "I would rather be at the meeting even if the thought of fighting that particular vampire is sorely tempting." 
      "I want that vampire caught. You have to miss the meeting."
      "And you won't hand her over." Julian stated his question, a mild challenge hanging in the air.
      "I have no intention at all of handing her over. I'm every bit as intrigued by this idea as you are."


----------------------------------------------------

      "Good, you've returned." Derek said to Marge and Robert as they entered the yard. The sun had started to set, and Derek was anxious to get started. "Where is it?" he asked, looking at Marge.
      "Here." Marge said, pulling it out of her bag. It had already started to gleam in the dying light.
      As the sun set, the moon rose, and Rocky and Jeanine joined them.
      "Four against somewhere over twenty. Nice odds." Rocky pointed out dryly.
      "I'm not afraid." Jeanine scoffed.
      "Who said anything about fear?" Rocky argued.
      Marge spoke up, "And the number is five, not four." She looked pointedly at Rocky.
     "In league with a vamp." Rocky clicked his tongue dispassionately. "Never thought I'd see the day."
      "Shut up, Rocky." Rob barked. " 'Never thought I'd see the day'. You're fifty. What do you know?"
      "Fifty-seven." Rocky corrected him.
      Rob rolled his eyes while Marge wondered how old Rob was.
    Derek calmly stopped the discussion. "Let's get this started. The moon is high enough." He pointedly looked at Marge, indicating that she should begin.

       Marge held aloft the stone in both of her hands and started chanting. As the moon rose higher, every wolf's eye was upon her. The moon came out from behind the trees, and the light from it fully hit the stone and the wolves. The stone appeared to explode with light, lighting up Marge in an incandescent glow.

      Robert watched, transfixed, as he'd never seen this happen before where the spellcaster would start glowing themselves. He became soon distracted from his thoughts as he noticed that he and his pack mates had transformed with nary a hint of pain.
       For a few seconds, they all looked around in mild amazement. They'd expected at least a mild tingle.
      Derek looked curiously at Marge and wondered if the difference had to do with the fact that she was a vampire. At any rate, none of them had time to figure it out.
      Marge stopped chanting and asked Derek, "Where shall I put it now?"
      He handed her a key and instructed her to put it in a desk drawer with a false bottom. She did so and returned him the key.
      Once the key had been given back to Derek, he fished out of his pocket a copy of the stone.
      "I thought your kind couldn't even touch its copy?" Marge asked. Rob wondered what his brother was up to.
      Derek smiled with malicious mirth as he explained, "I'm not about to give that monster back the copy. This is a fake."
       "Shit." Rocky spat. "He's going to be pissed when he finds out."
       "Which he won't until next month's full moon. By that time, we will have relocated."
       Marge questioned, "Leave Appaloosa Plains?"
       "I didn't say that." Derek answered cryptically.
      Robert's transformed eyes locked with Marge as they both wondered what his brother's plans were. They were playing a dangerous game.
       "I doubt he hands over Gabriella easily. We need to be prepared for anything." Derek instructed as they quietly ran through the woods.
       "I wish I could be able to hear their thoughts." Marge mused.
       "Vampires cannot read us."
       "Yes, I realized that." she said dryly. Idiot.
       Derek smiled at the annoyance in her tone and said, "It makes for a more even playing field, wouldn't you say?" He stifled a laugh.
       "I wouldn't really know, remember? I have nothing against you." she reminded him, irritated at the laughter in his voice.

       Their company arrived at the top of a hill overlooking Tanner's estate. Marge's eyes quickly caught movement off to the right.
        "Look there." she said quietly to Robert, slightly pointing to what she saw.
        "It's a hunting party." he said darkly. "They're going to try to attack us even before we can reach them!" Robert exclaimed quietly with a small growl.
       "Hold." Derek ordered. "Let's wait and see. At any rate, we hold the high ground here."
       "Unless they plan on circling around and attacking us from the rear." Jeanine pointed out.
     "Then we retreat to the very top of the mountain." Derek said, agreeing with Jeannie's supposition.
      After they'd backed to the top of the mountain, they had a more difficult time seeing the estate. However, they could see a small disturbance near it.
      "They're not hunting us." Robert finally figured out. "They're hunting Nate."
      "I'd given him up for dead." Derek pointed out.
      Marge snapped her head in his direction, but before she could ask her question, Derek spoke up again.
      "Then this is good. Tanner has been forced to divide his forces."
    Robert stared at the moving trees below them and said in wonder, "So many against one vampire..." He left the statement hanging.
       "Whatever the reason, we must take advantage of this and get down there before the party can rejoin their brothers." Derek said, and their small party started off again towards Tanner's.