Reagan’s POV
Sleep never really came to me last night. My mind was awake and running with all kinds of bad thoughts. I knew the warriors were here, but I also saw the strength of the men, if Aaron and Clive were almost ineffective against them, what chance did I, or these warriors have against them? My anger at them just coming here, onto our land, is staying with me. They hurt our Alpha and killed his mate and child. That kind of act cannot go unchallenged. We don’t wander onto their land, as we have treaties in place. My fury at the sheer gall of them and what they have done has me almost shaking in anger. They came here and killed four of our pack members, that I know of already. Who knows what else they did during the night? That was the scariest part.
They are shadows in the night, unseen until it is way too late. I am terrified for my family and for the pack. We are going to have to do something about this, we have to be able to sleep. I can already tell that I will have to grab some sleep today if I can, so I can stay up tonight. Until we get them taken care of, I will not be able to really sleep properly again. They do not care about starting a war with us. They were almost mocking us with how they treated us yesterday. Disrespectful to our pack, and our species. Clearly unconcerned about the uproar they are causing here at Blood Tracker. I saw nothing but cockiness coming from the two men in the group. They will not stop unless someone kills all three of them, or they will just keep coming back and picking us off, one at a time.
I cannot live like this, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hope Aaron reaches out quickly to Blake for some help in dealing with this. It is already so serious with their willingness to kill the Luna of the pack. No one will be off-limits to them. They could feel her power, they knew who and what she was to the pack, and yet they killed her anyway. I am still horrified at seeing what they did. I won’t say that I liked her, but that was just a terrible way to go. Seeing your child murdered right in front of you like he didn’t matter. Her heart had to have been broken. Their screams are still vivid in my mind as I remember what happened last night.
It wasn’t even completely dark, it was dusk. I mean it wasn’t bright, the light was filtered, but I thought that they cannot be in any sunlight. They must be more powerful vampires. Stronger if you will, than regular vampires, to be able to do that, but I admit my knowledge of them is not great. I wish I had paid more attention in class when they discussed it. I attempt to call my father again, but cannot get in touch with him, or my mother. I know that they would know what I needed to do. I cannot allow this time to pass without being able to defend myself and my family. I don’t know who to call now. Aaron is knocked out, Clive is with him, and he has not told me that Aaron has even woken up yet. The pack is in a total panic right now, and rightly so. No one wants to lose their mate, or pup to a disgusting bloodsucker.
I reached out to my parents again this morning. Neither of them answering me is starting to get me worried. I tried to call Cheryl, as she and I started talking again, occasionally, about 10 years ago. My parents had shown them what had happened to me, and according to mom, both Blake and Cheryl had felt terrible about what had happened. I didn’t tell my parents the whole story at the time it happened, about what Garrett and Marc had done. They found out later on, as I didn’t need any more issues arising, with anyone else in the pack. I felt safe and comfortable here, and I just wanted to put it all behind me. I was in a good place and I didn’t need them telling some more crap to someone else here, and taking the chance of getting it started back up again. I like my peace of mind. I do not want to be engaged in any drama. I just want to be happy with Clive and my children. Cheryl didn’t answer either, and now I am getting concerned. I hope there isn’t a problem at Black Moon.
I am really concerned for my parents. I feel like I need to see if a warrior can go over there to check on them for me, as I know that I can’t go over there myself. Blake might have felt guilty over what had happened to me, but he has not forgiven me or lifted my banishment. I am quite sure that he would throw me in a cell if I dared to go over there. I mindlinked Judy to see if she could get Darren to call and ask if everything was OK there, as I was worried as neither my parents nor Cheryl would answer my calls. She said that she would call herself as Darren was currently at the pack hospital, with Clive and Aaron. I am glad that she is someone that I can trust to help me when I need it. She was thankful for the opportunity to be a mom and appreciated that I didn’t try to micro-manage them over the children.
They are excellent parents and I know that they would die protecting their children. They were all anyone could hope for in their own parents. I appreciated the love and care that they give them. I have my hands full right now, but just like with the situation with Eloise, I would have taken them back if I felt that they were at any risk of being hurt. I think that Darren and Judy are some of the best parents in the pack. I am so glad that they are so willing to help me, whenever I need them. I know I can count on them to help me out. I made breakfast for the children and then took the younger children to the pack daycare. I have something that I needed to do, and it cannot wait. I left the 5 warriors that had come on duty this morning with them. The pups needed to be protected, and the workers appreciated me leaving them there. They had half of the normal number of kids there, about 30 of them because some were scared to leave their homes. I told them I would be back in about 4 hours and then headed to the pack library with my 5 oldest children.
I was going to need some help with my research, and they were all going to be helping me. They were all good with helping once they realized what we were going to be doing. Henry and Tatiana loved to google things on the computer so I had them check all the werewolf online archives that the Elders share with the packs, for ways to be able to kill vampires. I know that we cannot go without sleep for long, and I knew they didn’t sleep very well last night either. I will not be able to sleep with this threat looming over our heads. I grabbed several books and gave Trevor and Jon two books each, and some paper to write on for anything they could find about killing vampires. This was not something I ever thought I would have to worry about. I have never heard of any packs in the area having to worry about it in my lifetime. I just need all hands on deck to get this done. I knew the ranked wolves were busy, and someone is going to have to take the lead in this and quickly. I know for a fact that they won’t just leave us alone. They are killing about 2 people a day, and I know that they will be returning tonight. I can feel it in my bones, and I will not be getting caught by surprise again by them.
I hope that all of the warriors are being careful on patrol, and are armed. Although with as fast as these vampires are, I have doubts whether or not the men can get a shot off before they are on them. I hear Trevor speaking on the phone and when he gets off the phone he is very excited.
“Mom, we need to get a few warriors and go two towns over. I found a vendor who sells Hawthorn walking sticks and he has a few of them. I told him that I needed them for my grandfather. He is holding them for me, but we need to get going now. He will only hold them for an hour for me. Plus, he gave me a discount on them as I told him I was using my allowance to buy them” Trevor told me.
I knew the name sounded familiar to me, and I see in my notes that Ash, Aspen, Willow, and Juniper are all good for killing vampires. The books are noting that Hawthorn was considered the best for it, due to it being such a strong, hardwood, I have heard of it being used as a charm to ward off witchcraft. It was revered as being a religious symbol to humans, as many believe that the branches from Christ’s crown of thorns were woven from it. So, it is believed to lend a higher power to it, making it more effective against vampires, well at least to humans it was. I also noted that Ash was associated with life, and Aspen was once believed to be a connection with the supernatural. The Juniper tree is a symbol of protection from medieval times in England and Scotland. But Willow I had crossed off due to it becoming brittle after time. I need this to work, and not break when you go to use it, so Willow was immediately cut off the list. Trevor found me a wonderful resource, and I agreed with him. Judy got me two warriors to drive us and we headed there immediately. I had one of the warriors contact one of the men in our pack that does woodwork, and he will be ready to go once we return to the pack to cut the walking sticks up.
He also mentioned stopping to get some adhesive tape wrap. He is going to sand them for us, but he was going to make them as safe for us as he can. He knows that we will have to strike with force to use the stakes. We won’t be able to do it if they have splinters or wood slivers sticking out of them. That was smart on his part, I will pick up the wrap next. We got there in 30 minutes. I went in with him, and after Trevor made his purchase, I bought his last two from him. He didn’t seem to be surprised by us buying four specific canes from him. I hinted at needing them as replacements, but he didn’t seem to really care. I was very happy at getting all 4 of them, we will need them, as all the research said to cut their heads off. The elder's notes on vampires said the very same thing. We stopped and got the hand wrap next for the stakes, and I got some extra rolls of the wrap as the kids were still checking to see if we could find more Hawthorn canes. One of the warriors ran in to grab that while I googled where I could buy a sword. I was surprised that you can legally own a sword in California, and an hour later we were the proud owner of 6 swords.
We will need to cut their heads off, to actually kill them, and our last stop was to the local catholic church for holy water. I am leaving no stone unturned here. We are on a timeline, and the warriors were glad to see that I was being as proactive as I could be in this situation. I know that they were just as scared by this situation as I was. I was on my phone a lot, as was Trevor, as we tried to locate some more Hawthorn canes, and luck was on our side. The town on the way back home had an antique shop that had 3 more canes in it. This means we can make the stakes longer, We need them to be about a foot long, I was worried about trying to make them 9 inches long. We need to be able to have a good grip on them, and I was going to speak to the woodworker myself when we got back.
I had the warriors go with the children to the packhouse for the kids to eat lunch together after we picked the younger children up from the daycare. I didn’t have time to cook for them, as I needed to get a few things done. I had taken 5 hours, instead of 4. I know that all of the kids were hungry, but I still needed to push forward. I will eat when I get this done, I cannot rest until we are ready to go. It was our pack members that I was worried about saving, but I can’t let the vampires come back here without us being ready. Plus, I am just not hungry. I am anxious, stressed, and from the looks of things they will be back tonight. They have been here the last 2 nights and they killed 2 members each time they came. They are killing machines, and if we don’t stop them, who knows who will be killed next?
I am going out on a limb and saying they will probably be back at dusk again. I fully plan on us being ready for them when they get here. I told the man who is the best woodworker we have, what I wanted to do, and what we needed to be done. He was ready for us, and he had 4 more men with him. He showed them what they needed to do as they made these 13-inch sticks into deadly stakes. He measured and cut each cane into three even sections. He told them what they needed to look for as they made the stakes, to use the stronger larger end of the section they were working on, as the handle. For them to cut carefully as the longer the stick was the safer the user would be. I shuddered as he spoke to them, he was right. To use a stake, you are going to have to be close to them to drive it into their chests. Close enough for them to be able to bite you. That does not make me feel any safer. It is a nightmare come to life.
He walked them through the example of what he was doing twice, handed the last section to the man closest to him, and then started to cut the other 6 canes into the same even sections to be made into stakes. He was careful and cautious, and I felt the tip of the first one that he had made with his knife, and the tip was strong. It is going to have to be, to be able to strike a heart. He passed off the next three sections to the other men who all sat carefully and cut with a knee cut with their knives to brace as they worked. No one spoke, and the men worked quickly. After he got all of the canes cut down, he divided them up between himself and the men and they focused on their work.
The men took great care with their work, and soon we had a pile of stakes made. Now that they weren’t actively cutting, I asked him if he knew someone who could sharpen swords. He looked at me for about a minute before saying, “You have been busy today, haven’t you?”
I smiled and nodded at him. A short time later two men showed up with whetstones to get to work on the swords. A few minutes after they arrived and got to work, some warriors showed up and started to help the woodworker and his team to sand down the ends of the stakes, and then start wrapping them. That grip worked out well. It gave a thin barrier and a more comfortable grip to the stake. The grip helped to keep it from sliding in your hand. They called in more men, and we got things sorted out. The holy water was split into smaller containers, so we could give it out to more men to carry. The warriors appreciated me doing this, as they were the ones on the front lines protecting us all. After last night they knew that their own Alpha had been knocked out. That the Delta couldn’t beat the one he was fighting either.
They were running out of hope, but they were glad for what we had done in such a short amount of time. There was not enough to go around and I told them that we would call around tonight to see if anyone else had what we needed. We will need more swords, that is one of the things on the agenda for tomorrow too. The stakes, we will need as many as we can get, and I am going to make sure that we up it to Ash, Beech, or Oak tomorrow. I am going to go with it just needs to be strong hardwood. I know that it won’t kill them, but if we cut their heads off while they are incapacitated, then we might all stand a chance of surviving this. If we don’t fully puncture the heart we are only going to slow them down.
I gave my suggestions to the warriors for tonight, and they seemed to agree with what I was saying. It just made sense. They promised to go to the hospital and run it by Aaron and Clive and asked me to go to the pack hospital with them to tell them what I had come up with. It is just 5 pm, and we still have time before dusk, so I agreed to go with them. We still have 2 hours of sunlight, and I plan on being done by dusk. I took a stake with me, and a bottle of holy water. I still had one in my pocket from earlier. I plan on splitting that bottle into three smaller bottles and giving them to my boys, as I know that they will help to protect their brothers and sisters. We head off to the pack hospital to run the plan by Aaron and see what he thinks. We have got to do something, and until we are up to speed and have the items that we need to be able to successfully protect ourselves, we can only tread water. Only when we can get the men armed properly will we be safe, because right now, we have too few items to spread out to over 600 people.
I know without a doubt that they are coming, and I gave some ideas for the men to send some warriors to the next town to get to try some items we need to help us stay safe for the night. They immediately sent the men out to get it done. I do not know if it is approved for me to be instructing them. But if the ranked wolves are just going to wait for Aaron who is still knocked out to wake to make the call, more members of our pack could be killed while we wait on them to make the decision.
Reagan lays out the Plan