Chapter 9: Home Is Where?

“Why didn’t we stay at the bloom fields?” Grenada asked Hausten as they walked out of the vampire threshold together.

“Because that is all we ever do,” he replied and held her small hand tighter in his as they walked past wandering eyes. Since their relationship was made public, the other vampires had looked at them in different ways; some in wonder, some in admiration, and a very small portion in jealousy. It was no news that Hausten, the son of Alarick, was easy on the eyes and as such a prime husband for any woman who landed him as a partner. Grenada did not like the attention, but Hausten did not seem to mind.

“That is untrue, Hausten, we have these picnics out in the forest,” she retorted.

“Yes, yes we do,” Hausten said. “But today,” he continued. “Today, I just want us to walk and explore the beauties of these woods we have been given as a gift.”

“You are a gift,” she said quietly, with a smile. Hausten often wondered at the way Grenada dropped these heavy words like they were nothing like they were words she had practiced all her life like she was the inventor of them that held Hausten spellbound. Oftentimes he found himself lost as she spoke, not because he was too airheaded to understand, but because she spoke with so much wisdom and calmness that it made it hard to want to say anything while she spoke. She had him at a point where it was impossible to want to be anywhere else.

As soon as he was sure that they were far enough from the community, Hausten spun Grenada, pulled her close to him, and planted his lips on hers gently.

She went still for a second, then relaxed to allow herself to pull him in. As they kissed, the world seemed to disappear, leaving just the two of them in it.

These two young star-crossed lovers who would soon be pulled into battles too heavy for their age stayed in each other’s arms as nothing else mattered. When they were together, everything in the world became an infinitesimal concept just created for the sake of existing.

But they were wrong; the world did exist, and along with it, other supernatural creatures who were not interested in the idea of being friends with these two young lovers. The bush around them began to make creaking sounds, making Hausten pull away from Grenada immediately. Unhappy to be pulled away from what she internally described as paradise, Grenada frowned at Hausten, who held her hands, pulled her closer to him until her head was on his chest and her ears close to his lips.

“Part of being a werewolf is that I can hear and sniff things that I should naturally be unable to, and I can tell you that we are not alone Grenada,” he whispered.

“Of course, we are not,” Grenada said softly, looking at him with a smile. “The winds, trees, and all the powers that be are here with us.”

Hausten closed his eyes tight and pulled her to him again; while Grenada was wise for her age, she was also painfully innocent. He could hear the claw scratches, the howls, and the pants; they were surrounded by werewolves, not one, not two, more. They were in danger. Slowly, the werewolves revealed themselves from the woods and made a circle around Hausten and Grenada. Grenada, finally sensing something was wrong, pulled away from Hausten’s chest and looked into his eyes. She did not want to look at what danger they were in; she did not need to look; she could hear them loud and clear. She shut her eyes and wrapped her hands around Hausten. If they were going to die, then she was dying in his arms.

Wrapping her hands around Hausten triggered something in him. Everything Rue had ever said about being a man, including the part where he had to protect the woman he loved with his life, came to play. Abel Alarick did not raise a coward, and he was not going to run from a fight. But how was he going to fight five supernaturals in their true form as mere humans? This fight was not fair. Hausten shut his eyes tight and willed his wolf to come out; for a few seconds, it seemed impossible, and then he heard a growl. It was quiet, familiar, and Hausten immediately knew what it was. He was not going to go home naked, so he calmly loosened Grenada’s arms from his and smiled.

“Grenada,” he whispered. “Let me go and keep your eyes shut; listen for me and only me. Take what I give you, and do not open your eyes.” Grenada nodded with her hands stretched out, and her eyes shut tight. Hausten began to undress while the wolves stayed watching them; for some reason, they did not attack; they had wanted to pull them far away from the vampire community where they could properly discard them when they killed the duo, there was a brook in the front, and they heard that people disappeared into the brook, so they were biding their time.

After Hausten undressed to his underpants, he put the clothes in Grenada’s hands. She immediately knew what he was about to do and held his clothes tightly to her chest. Hausten’s bones began to crack. As they cracked, he screamed in pain; in a few seconds, he had transformed. He looked, and through the green blurs of his new sight, he saw his love, Grenada hugging his clothes tightly, his eyes shut. These wolves had made her afraid, and for some unexplainable reason, that single fact triggered rage within him. He looked in front of him and watched as the wolf in front of him took a stance, he pretended like he was going to attack that wolf, but as soon as that wolf made to pounce, he ducked and went for the one just behind Grenada while the one that came after him landed face-first to the floor. The wolf behind Grenada was not anticipating his attack, so it was not ready.

Now he had angered them with his first move, they were ready to draw blood, and he was ready to die.

Why was the feeling further than the vampire boundary today? Gonzalo thought as he undressed, getting ready to get onto the day’s business of chasing the vampire community just to get a glimpse of his son. But today, he was not feeling his son’s call from the vampire community; the call was taking him further and further into the path that led to the brook of the damned. Anyone thrown in there would never be found, not even by witches. It was said that murderers who wanted to get away with their sins took the evidence of their crime to the brook of the damned and dropped it in there. Why was his son’s wolf calling out to him from the route that led there?

Gonzalo decided to follow the call. While he was not ready to show himself to the boy because of the fear of confusing him, if the boy was heading towards danger, it was his job as a father to pull him away from that danger. So, he listened to the call, and towards the brook of the damned, he went.

As he ran, the call became more distressed; something was definitely wrong with his son, then he heard it loud and clear, a painful howl, and a sharp scream. He stopped for a second and dug his heels into the sand, then picked up the pace and went faster.

He got to the place where the call came from just as soon as one of the wolves threw Hausten in the air and let him fall, while the other one charged towards Grenada as she laid beside Hausten, who seemed to be transforming back to his human self. Filled with protective rage, Gonzalo summoned all his anger and went charging at the offending wolves. He was angry at first that these wolves were trying to cause another war, but more importantly, they were about to harm his son to do it. He went like a bull that had seen red, angry, strong, and fierce.

Hausten landed on the floor with his side and howled loudly; Grenada opened her eyes and watched as Hausten’s wolf-self panted on the floor. He had fought a good fight and had lost. She knelt beside him and put her head on his fur as he began to transform back into a human. This was it, she thought. At that moment, following a loud growl, one of the assailant wolves flew over her head and landed on the floor in a thud. Something had thrown him off, and she hoped it was not a vampire because Hausten was still in the process of changing, and she did not want anyone to find out what he was.

She found the courage to turn and face the wolves, and she saw that a grey wolf with green eyes like Hausten’s was fighting the wolves off. He was very strong, and clearly, the wolves were afraid of him because they scampered off almost immediately. Hausten transformed completely and stood up to look at the wolf who saved them. Right in front of them, Gonzalo transformed; Grenada watched in shock as it looked like Hausten had aged a few decades older right before her eyes.

“You are…” Hausten whispered.

“Now is not the time, Son of Alarick. Put on your clothes and get away from here, right now. Go home. You are far away from your boundary, and there are other supernaturals around here. Unkind ones. The moon is falling; get back to your home immediately.”

Hausten nodded and walked away, with Grenada clinging to his arms like old twigs clinging to the trees from whence they had been formed by nature.

Gonzalo sped to the werewolf community, hoping that he was going to get to the community before the wolves who had just seen the striking resemblance between him in Hausten. He was not fast enough; by the time he got to the community, a small crowd of people had gathered, and they had questions. The fathers of the young wolves he fought off stood at a corner, angry.

“You hurt our sons,” they said angrily.

“Your sons went after the daughter of the leader of the vampire; they would have caused another war!”

“Just like the one you caused?” Vance said.

Cursed be the day he decided to go for a delegation meeting with members of the community who were not part of the park.

“Yes. like the one I caused.”

There were murmurs among them, and Gonzalo spoke up.

“17 years ago, I made a bad decision. I chased after a vampire woman mischievously until she got into an accident and died. It was my fault that the vampires came after us.”

“You owe us 80 men!” someone yelled at him.

“I wish I could take that away, but I cannot. It has happened, and that is why I am insistent on younger werewolves not making the same mistakes I made. I want you all to do better than I did.”

He looked into the crowd at his pack. They stood surprised, wondering why he had taken the fall for a crime they all committed. They wanted to come out, but he looked at them sternly, a way of telling them not to do it.

“I do not also think the vampire girl was why you stopped the werewolves today,” one of the fathers said.

Gonzalo swallowed hard. They knew. He was not prepared for this moment.

“Tell us why there is a werewolf that looks like he came from your loins canoodling with a woman from the vampire community?” another man said.

“Why does a young man who looks like you live among the vampires? Why does a werewolf live among them? What are you planning?”

“You cannot lie, Gonzalo; looks certainly do not lie. Some of us have seen him.”

Just your sons, but keep lying, Gonzalo thought, but he did not say a word to them. One after the other, the men spoke to him in unkind words, reiterating their lack of confidence in him and his leadership.

“Gonzalo, you said your son died while you gave him to the vampires to raise; why Gonzalo?” another man asked. He stood there in silence, watching them attack him with their words. He wanted to speak up, to defend himself, to tell them that Daciana did not know, that she had thought the boy died, that they had all thought the boy died.

“You made us search the woods for a child that was never missing; you knew where he was.”

At this point, Gonzalo was tired of listening to them. There was so much to say, but he realized that he could not give them the answer they sought, so he walked away with all of them chattering behind him. He had to go explain to Daciana.

When he got home, he met her seated at the front of their home. Farkas and Fiend had returned home.

“Gonzalo, you look gloomy,” she noted calmly

“I have lied to you, Daciana.”

“What is it, Gonzalo?”

“Our son is alive.”

“Oh, I know you knew. You are not the only one who felt him. The day you both met, I felt both of you in the same place at the same time. The energy was strong. It is okay, Gonzalo. How do we bring him home?”

“I am working on it, my darling. I am working on it.” He said as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her on the head. His wife had gone through hell in the last decade and more, and getting her son back was how he could pay her back.

“Daciana, he is white furred and green-eyed…his wolf,” Gonzalo said to Daciana as they sat down.

“White fur,” she whispered with a teary smile.

“Yes, he takes after you,” Gonzalo said slowly, and they watched the sun recede into the sky, leaving a golden structure behind.

It was getting darker; Hausten and Grenada walked through the woods, clinging to each other; their love had been renewed for each other. Grenada’s faith in Hausten as her protector had increased, and Hausten was held bound by the fact that she stayed with him on the floor, his head on his body as he transformed back into a human. She had now seen it in both forms, and she was in love with both.

“Someday, the community will find out that you are a wolf, Hausten. What will you do then?” she asked as they neared the vampire community.

“I do not know, Grenada. I fear that they will take you away from me,” he said.

“No one can take me away from you, Hausten,” she said as she held onto him tighter as if she was afraid that something would come out of the bushes and separate her from Hausten.

Sensing her fear, Hausten rubbed her arms and said, “No one will keep us apart, my love, no one.” Grenada nodded. As they walked past some flower bushes, Grenada saw a blue tulip rise out of nowhere. She stopped and stared at it, pulling Hausten back with her.

“What is it, Grenada?”

“The tulip, it came out of nowhere,” she said, pointing at the tulip which was now receding.

“What do you think?”

“I think the witches are trying to send me a message. If they had to come all the way out of the bloom fields to send this message, then something may be gravely wrong, and we need to be careful,” Grenada said.

They walked faster to the community and suddenly stopped when they saw a number of huddled people at the threshold.

“Why are there people there?” Grenada asked

Hausten shook his head and said nothing, but his heart knew that something was wrong. This was not normal.

Immediately Hausten and Grenada got to the gate; a vampire pointed at them and said, “That is he, the strange being who lives amongst us.”

Hausten felt his heartbeat increase. He tried to feign innocence, to put up an expression that indicated that he knew nothing of what they spoke. But even he knew that that was a lie. They had found him out, and he did not know-how. Dez Alec pulled out from the crowd and stood in front of Hausten. Grenada kept her hands firmly on Hausten’s and would not let him go even Dez Alec shot daggers at her with his eyes.

“I saw him with her at the road leading to the brook of the damned, as he transformed into a white wolf and fought with other wolves. He is not one of us; he is not human as we believed. Hausten, the son of Alarick, is a werewolf. He is of the cursed clan.”

“Let him go, Grenada, and come with me immediately,” Dez Alec ordered. Without leaving Hausten or even moving an inch, Grenada looked at her father pleadingly. Dez Alec got furious by the minute, and Hausten, not wanting Grenada to defy her father any further, unclasped his hands from hers and whispered in her ear.

“Go with him, My love. Nothing will keep us apart.

Grenada’s eyes watered as she let him go and walked to where her father’s kin stood. The man turned and took Grenada away. She refused to turn back to see what would be done to Hausten, and her heart could not bear it. The farther they went away from the scene, the harder she cried.

“So, you were the wolf Gonzalo sensed when he was here, Hausten?”

Hausten said nothing. He did not have enough knowledge of werewolves to understand what the call was about.

“I looked at Gonzalo in the eye and called him a mad man, and the man was right all along, you were here? You knew that you were an abomination, and you went after my daughter? What were your plans? To taint her? To dishonor me? Were your intentions to make a fool out of me? Did you think you could marry her? Surely you knew that it was impossible for a vampire and a werewolf to be married, so it is clear that you simply wanted to defy her and then return to your accursed murderous kin, leaving her heartbroken and unfit for marriage. How dare you, Hausten? We thought you were noble! We brought you into our clan, and you betray us like this?”

Hasten was not sure what he was being accused of because he had done nothing wrong. He had no decision in his making; he did not ask his mother to run into a cave to have him and then leave him there. She could have stayed or taken her with him, but she left him there. After all the confusion he had had to go through throughout the beginning of his transition, he now had to stand before the jury to defend a part of him he was not fond of. More than often, he had looked for ways to suppress his wolf. He had spoken to Adolpha to check her books for ways he could stop being a wolf, but he was unable to. Unlike vampires who had to change into what they were when they got older, he was born this way. He had no choice in the matter, but he was being accused of it.

Dez Alec had gone silent, and now there were screams from other parts of the crowd. People were shouting for the head of Hausten. They wanted him dead, and his body sent to the werewolves. Hausten closed his eyes and tried to think of happy moments. He thought of his father teaching him how to hunt and fight. He thought of his brother Rue and his constant lessons on manhood and manliness. He thought of Adolpha, the wise Adolpha and her teachings, her books, her constant staring into space for no reason. Then Grenada, Oh Grenada! He had sworn that nothing was ever going to take her from him, he had promised her that he would always be around, and now it seemed like that was the one thing that was never going to happen, but now, here he was, almost dead. These people were about to kill him, and they held no remorse because of what he was. He had no defense.

After staring at him for a while, Dez Alec called for the guards to take Hausten to the cells. Just as the guards began to tie him up, Rue, Adolpha, and Alarick came bursting into the scene, fighting off the guards and anyone else who came close to them. Hausten stared at them speechlessly as they were sent to the floor, one vampire after the other. Alone, they were vicious warriors with fighting styles distinct from each other, but when they were together, they were an unbelievable force, breaking through any form of barriers set in their way and conquering grounds. One of the vampires Grenada threw in the air landed at the feet of Hausten. The vampire immediately tried to grab Hausten’s legs, but Hausten was faster. Hausten kicked the man, and this time, he fell at Dez Alec’s feet.

Immediately Dez Alec saw the man at his feet; he screamed, “Abel Alarick, stand down.”

Alarick was too far into the fight to care about stopping; he came here to get Hausten despite what his best friend was talking about. He had a duty to protect his son, and that was what he was going to do. Dez Alec ran towards Alarick immediately and squared up to him. Both men got into a scuffle; in the entire vampire community, the only man who could hold Alarick in a fist battle was Dez Alec because he was an older, stronger vampire.

As soon as Dez Alec could get Alarick on the floor, he ordered the guards to arrest all his children, including Hausten. And then he pulled Alarick off the floor, delivered a final punch to his face, and ordered the guards to take them to the cells. As they left, Dez Alec stood in one spot, angry. He had been hurt by his friend and his daughter. They both knew that Hausten was a werewolf, and they had covered for him; they kept lying to him about the turning and covering up the fact that he was a wolf and that he could never turn into a vampire. He felt like such a fool as they carried his friend into a cell.

“Did he force you to do anything?” Dey Alec asked his daughter as she sat down before him, eyes on the floor. Her mother sat across her, staring into space.

“Answer me, Grenada,” he bellowed. “Talk to me. I want to know why I am being laughed at by the rest of the community. Talk to me! Tell me where I went wrong with you? Have I been a bad father? Why would you betray me so, Grenada? All I have done is protect you and give in to your whims for as long as you have lived. So, tell me why you decided to be with an accursed creature?”

“It is not about you, father,” Grenada whispered.

“So, what is it about?”

“I love Hausten.”

“Love? Love? A fleeting emotion, Grenada! I have lived long enough to know that decisions made with love as the driving force are always bad.”

“Maybe living long enough is the problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“I do not want to be immortal, father.”

“It is by design, daughter. We were made to be the strongest supernaturals, the ones who could never die.”

“We could die. Just not by natural causes. Serah died.”

“Speak not of her in that manner. She was married to my best friend. She was his world. He was crushed when she died. These monsters killed her.”

“And you think that he would have, of sound mind and good conscience, bring in the same monster who killed his wife to live with him?

“Well, well…

“Father, Hausten turned for the first time in front of me when he was 16. He was confused. Alarick did not know what he was until that night too.”

“Were you hurt?”

“No, father. He was a scared wolf. He looked at me and whimpered. I went to call Alarick. By the time we got back, he had changed again, and he was weak and scared. Alarick took him home and chained him to the cellar. Yes, father, he chained his own son.”

Dez Alec looked at his daughter speechless.

“Hausten has changed in that cellar every day since then. Until last night when he had to save me because other wolves attacked us.”

“There was another Wolf who saved you and him; I heard,” Dez Alec finally said.

“Yes. He looked like Hausten. He had long hair, the same skin, and green eyes when he transformed again. But his fur was grey. Hausten’s is white.”

“Gonzalo?”

“Yes. Him.”

“Could that be his father?”

“Maybe. But father, you arrested your friend over something he had no control over. It must have been so hard not to tell you what Hausten was. Alarick was afraid too.”

“She is right, you know,” Grenada’s mother finally said. She was still staring into space.

Later that day, Dez Alec went to the cells to talk to his friend. He found out how Hausten was found in the heat of the battle and brought home.

“My daughter says Gonzalo might be his father.”

“What, Gonzalo?” Alarick asked with a frown.

“The same Gonzalo. And if he is, we may have to give him back to his father to avoid a war.”

“He’s my son, Alec,” Alarick said “And there is not a single person in doubt of that, Alarick. I have come to love the child because of how you love him. Every child of mine is yours, Alarick.”

“My three children are in cells because of you, Alec. So much for being their father too.”

“You put me in a difficult spot, Alarick. A very difficult spot. What was I expected to do? I found out from a jester that my daughter was found in the midst of wolves and that one of them was Hausten.”

“And your first call was to arrest him? My son? And then you did not stop there; you sent my other children into cells. Alec, I have nothing to say to you.”

Alarick walked away. Dez Alec looked around him in desperation. The community was afraid. More than anything, they wanted to see Hausten hang. He could not do that without losing Alarick and his daughter. But he also could not ignore the wishes of a scared community. Dez Alec had come to a standstill in his life. He never thought that this would be one of the problems he had to face at some point in his life. A werewolf problem? It was bigger than any problem he had ever encountered, especially as the lives of the people he loved and the ones they loved were at stake.

“I do not want to be immortal. Especially if Hausten could die someday, if he cannot be immortal, I would live my life as a human. Growing old and grey with him,” Grenada said to the flowers at the bloom fields. “You tried to warn me,” she continued. “I saw the blue tulip. I saw it. But I was too late. If I knew what it meant, I should have run. We should have run. What can I do now? I cannot save him. I also cannot be with him forever. I turn in four days. What can I do? Help me. Help me figure this out, witches. Help me.”

One after the other, the flowers began to wither in sadness. She looked at them and said, “You’re sad? Don’t be sad. I came here so that I won’t feel sad anymore. Please send me some cheer. Lorraine. Blossom. Please blossom. Help me feel better about losing Hausten. I want to leave this earth. I no longer wish to be alive. Help me feel better about this.”

The flowers went in motion and surrounded her into an embrace. Vampires outside the bloom fields watched as the flowers gathered to comfort Grenada and again solidified their thoughts about her being strange. The bright lights over the fields came up and traveled all the way to the cell Hausten laid with Rue and Adolpha.

“What are these lights?” Adolpha asked.

Hausten stood up and stared at the lights as they cast upon the wall and formed a blue tulip. Hausten smiled.

“They are from Grenada. A message from Grenada,” he finally said.

“How do you mean?”

“The witches at the bloom fields were the first witnesses to our love.”

“So, the witches approve,” Adolpha said.

“Yes, they do.”

“Interesting. Poor Alec. He stands no chance against generations of witches.”

“I wish my betrothed had witches at her command too,” Rue said with pitiful humor.

And for the first time since they were locked in that damned cell, the three young children of Alarick laughed. They laughed so loud it was hard to believe they were in a cell.

“I am sorry, Hausten finally said.

“What for?” Adolpha enquired.

“Getting you people into this mess,” he said.

“Nonsense! If we were not so outnumbered, there would have been dead bodies left in our wake. You’re my brother, and I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you. Anyone.” Rue said.

“Me too,” Adolpha added. “You come after an Alarick, you die. No negotiations. No arguments.”

“None. Whatsoever.” Rue said.

Just then, they heard a loud sound, and the three of them huddled up together in fear.

“You know what that was?” Rue asked.

“We are all here, Rue. How could we know?” Adolpha asked.

Rue nodded.

Hausten felt his heart move strangely. He heard a growl.

“Are you okay?” Adolpha asked as Hausten had crouched down, his hand on his chest.

“I do not know. I feel something strange in my heart,” he said.

“Does it beat thrice and stop?” Adolpha asked.

Hausten nodded, “How did you….”

“Do you hear a growl?” She added.

Hausten was even more surprised.

“Can you hear a ho…”

And just around then, they heard loud howls.

Adolpha looked at Hausten and said, “You were feeling your kin. They are here. If you felt it as hard as you did, I think your family has come to get you.”

“No. No one is taking me. You’re my family. You are my family,” Hausten said, pacing.

Adolpha looked at him, tears burning.