Life With A Werewolf

Voice From The Dead Part 3 - How Not To Have A Meeting

          A home must always be and feel like a home if it’s going to give you any sense of sanity. The crazier the life, the more like home it must be. So yes, the Rodriguez compound, so to speak, was almost an operating military base in some aspects. But in many others, it was just like anywhere else. Crazy prepper version, but anywhere else. The house itself was a log cabin design with beautiful windows large enough to let in natural lighting. I would not have been surprised if they were bullet proof. The roof had solar panels, and a couple of home made wind turbine generators that towed the line between sketchy and functional. There was a generator elsewhere as well that Roam happily pointed out as I made my way in.
          “I get a discount from a couple of the local fast food places” he said. “I buy their oil for a dollar a gallon. We filter ourselves and wammo! Electricity. Though we don’t need the generator all that often, surprisingly.” Which was a good thing. Running diesel generator on fast food cooking oil meant that you’d have a home that smelled of constant french fries, which would drive me nuts.
          The inside of the home was everything ours was not: Neat, organized, clean. Part of me missed our eclectic cluttered house already. Tanika sat at a kitchen table, sipping on a cup of coffee. As we walked in she stood and approached, giving Elouise and I a good sturdy handshake. “Come,” she said, “everyone is waiting in the back. I’ll bring you some coffee.”
          Our shared adventure with “The Nobility” didn’t seem to have much of an effect on her. She still had the strong frame, mediterranean influence, and of course, was still a werewolf, much like Roam. Of course their two children where also werewolves. They were seated at a somber table in a room that seemed to be built into the center of the house. I recognized the reinforced walls, the multi-display computer equipment, and of course, the large sliding door that could seal and lock from the inside. It would take something strong to break into this room. Or break out of it.
          Cecily was sitting at far end of the table with a laptop in front of her. She was staring at something on the screen with Killian sitting next to her. All of the rest of the gang was there, Crash, Sean, Kris, Zack. I grabbed a seat next to Zack, Elouise sat across from Crash. “Everyone here,” Roam asked, and yawned.
          He stretched a moment, then gave a sad smile, “it’s been some time since you’ve been in here, Crash.”
          “I don’t miss it,” he said. “Please, just tell me where’s the grave. I’ll pay my respects, and go.”
          “You’re going to be stepping into a storm,” Roam said. “We thought you should know that.”
          Crash waved a hand at the rest of us. “Nobility tends to leave humans alone.”
          “Your friends,” Cecily said, “pissed the Nobility off last year. It’s not safe.”
          “How ‘not safe’,” Zack asked.
          “I wouldn’t plan any sudden air travel,” she said. “And have you thought about a life insurance policy? You could make some lucky guy or gal a lot of money soon. Just not anyone sitting here, though.”
          Zack folded his hands and looked down, biting his lip a bit. “Look,” Roam said, “We want to take you down there, but you must be safe first.”
          Crash stood, snarling. “I never asked for an escort. Tell me where the grave is.”
          Roam threw his hands up, while Killian began laughing. Crash glared at him for a moment, and Killian just smiled wider. “You’ll never change, will you wuffy?”
          I filed the “wuffy” comment away for later. That would be funny. But now wasn’t the time for it. I guessed it was some sort of pet name or something. Of course, I guessed wrong.
          “We’ve been tracking the team that took out Sophia,” Roam said.
          “Took her out where,” I asked.
          “Well, you know, the team that killed her,” he replied.
          “Oh, from the way you said it, and how emotional you are, I thought you meant for pizza.”
          “You know,” Cecily, snarled, “You can be a real asshole when you want to be.”
          “Oh wuffy,” I smiled, “I’m just getting started.”
          That will come to be known as mistake number one. One second, I’m sitting in a chair smiling, the next, Cecily is pinning me down, growling. I couldn’t see that Elouise was being pinned in the corner by Roam, or Tanika who was trying to hold the guys back. Crash grabbed Cecily by the shoulders and threw her backwards into the wall with a force that would have stunned or injured most people. Cecily though, stood, shaking her head for a moment, and said, “come on, wuffy, I’ve wanted this for a while.” She was snarling at Crash who stood in front of her.
          Roam jumped on the table, waving his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Can we please be civil for five minutes and not act like a bunch of Children! Behave!”
          Then he gave me a dark look for a moment and turned to Crash. “I will give you the damn address, you can GPS it yourself,” Roam snarled. “If you don’t want to take out those guys who killed Sophia, we’ll do it our selves.”
          “Like I said when I left,” Crash snarled, “I don’t want your stupid war. Not anymore.”
          He started towards the door, and we got up to follow him. Tanika stood next to it, pointing an accusatory finger. “You have any idea what you’re walking your ‘pack’ into? Do you? The nobility wants all of you dead. They want to capture you, and kill your humans one by one in front of you.”
          “Nice guys,” I said.
          “And you,” Cecily snarled, “Are taking this way too soft. I know you’re supposed to be some kind of soldier, but I wonder if you even know what it’s like to fight a war.”
          The guy’s faces dropped at that. I felt a rage build inside of me, and turned to Crash who just shook his head. Taking his advice, I began to walk out of the war room they had prepped, my vision growing hazy red. I apparently had began clenching my fists at one point, but I don’t remember doing it. “Look at you, you coward. Running away with your tail between your legs.”
          I turned. Later, I’m told I had a face that the rest of them hadn’t before. A dark snarl that was only matched by my rising voice. “War you say? Getting shipped off to the middle of a country that a week prior you gave two shits about to fight for a bunch of people who don’t care if you live or fucking die? Driving a supply convoy from one fob to the next only to have your entire vehicle flipped upside down with hell and damnation raining down upon you? Being trapped in a fire fight that ends with you collecting pieces of your friend to ship home in a body bag? No. What’s that like.”
          Then I turned back around and walked outside at some point, though I don’t remember it. There was a beer in my hand, an an apologetic Roam in front of me. “We crossed a line,” he said. “We had assumed you came up to help us. We are sorry.”
          I drank from the beer more to calm my nerves than anything. I sighed, and stared up at the sky. The deep blue shown a few stars making their way through dying day. I could tell that they would have a beautiful night out here. Get far away from civilization and out in the open enough, you never truly have a pitch black night. My blood pressure had eased down at least a few notches. “I don’t walk away from fights I choose to join,” I told him. “But I won’t be dragged in. You either come clean, or we go home.”
          A few more heavy paces and then I was leaning on Crash’s car. Of all the people I expected to come out and talk to me, I never expected it to be Kris. He sat against the car on my other side and said “Jesus, I never expected any of that.” I gave him a shrug. “It was the highlights. From one deployment.”
          “You went through how many?”
          I shrugged again. “Enough.”
          “If you ever want to talk about it, Jason. We’re hear for you.” I nodded. Crash and I had talked about it a few times. He’s heard all the stuff that I haven’t and won’t print here. But Kris? Could I really tell him anything? What would happen? I wouldn’t feel any better and he’d just feel worse, knowing what I went through. Knowing the bullshit that I had dealt with. No, that wouldn’t be right. “I appreciate it,” I said. “I really do.” Which I do. The desire is there in him to deal with it, even if the strength is not.
          There’s real steel in him, I know. The kind of strength that can take a hit like that and not break him But it took me a while to get the nightmares to go, the guilt, the anger, the despair. Those intense feelings that spring back up as if you’re living through the moment again when you give your mind a chance to rest. Is it any wonder why so many service members drink?
          How much of that is right to give to someone else? That’s the burden that most service members deal with. There’s a reason why they don’t want their loved ones to know. The burden, although shouldered by more can make it easier, it makes their lives worse to make yours better. Part of you wishes they could remain innocent. That you could bottle that innocence and preserve it on a shelf next to the canned peas and carrots. To save that part of them from pain. It was my job to take the pain before. It’s not my job to share that pain with them now.
          I gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder, but didn’t say anything. Crash hadn’t come back out yet, which I knew was trouble. It was that moment that I made a pact with myself. No matter what happened, Zack, Kris and Sean wouldn’t have to see action. They wouldn’t have to suffer or fight. Elouise grew up dirt poor in an area where that meant you saw as much action or more than some soldiers, so I wasn’t worried about her. But the guys? No, I couldn’t see them damaged like that. I could never live with myself if they had to. I would do everything in my power to keep them innocent. I just had no idea how hard it was going to be to keep them from the fight.