Monsters and Maidens

Qayah, the most beautiful woman in the world. Of course, when I laid my eyes on her I was blown away, and I immediately felt something I had not felt in a very long time, rushing back at me overwhelmingly. A feeling I am well familiar with but had become lost to me for a lifetime. My feelings for Qayah were older than she could understand, and as I was blown away by her beauty just like the first time I saw her all those long years ago, I was also troubled by the question of how she could be alive. Because the Qayah I knew... She died the same night my mother died and my family left Feverton.

After discovering what had happened at the manor, I decided to go to town and start the process of proffering a very quick solution to this catastrophe that was about to befall the town before it was too late.

Harold Lugard, the first werewolf was loose on the world and judging by what I have read in the journals of William Lugard, it could only get worse from there. The last time Logan was loose in London he murdered over two hundred and fifty people, including women and children. Then his whole family of monster hunters had to hunt him down and run him out of town. His older brother, William followed him here to kill him, and when he got here Harold and some wolves he had turned were already terrorizing the town. It was only with the help of the town witches that William was able to defeat him and his followers but in the end, William could not get himself to kill his brother, because monster or no, he was still his brother. So, he sought the help of the witches to put Harold to sleep forever.

"If the witches helped William then, they should be able to help now," I whispered to myself as I walked into a diner in town. I was there to see a woman named Ramotta, she was supposed to be one of the leaders of the witch's society in town. Normally, I would not go anywhere near the witches. The idea of a person having the power to make your blood boil in your veins and your organs rotten just by staring at you never sit well with me. The witches and vampires kept their distances for a well-known reason, mutual terror. The witches fear the unpredictability and violent nature of the vampires while the vampires are terrorized of how perfectly matched they are with the witches, the witches could hurt them without even physically touching them.

I walked in and sat down at one of the tables in the diner and the people I met inside stared at me weirdly as if they knew who I was. As if they could tell that I could kill all of them and drain them of every single drop of blood in their veins in a matter of a few minutes. As if they could tell that it took all the strength of my being not to be ripping out their hearts and sucking the blood out of them at that moment. The waiter was a woman in her fifties, she must have been very beautiful in her younger days if she could be that good-looking at that age. She was tall, huge, and had an imposing build. 

"What would you like to have, Mr. Lugard?" she asked, and I could not get myself to utter a word.

"What did you call me?" I replied after a moment of staring at her stupidly.

"Lanrey Lugard is your name, is it not?"

"And how would you know that?"

"Well, sweetheart, a little bird told me that you would come seeking me today."

"Damn witches," I whispered.

"Yes, we scare you so fucking much, don't we?" she smiled brightly.

"I am here to seek your help in finding a family member of mine and killing him."

"I know," she sat down on the chair in front of me.

"Then you know that this must be done with utmost urgency. You are aware of the danger that could befall this town if we waste time."

All the while as I spoke, she was just staring at me. Then she suddenly said, "Why do you care, Mr. Lugard?"

"Why do I care?" I retorted.

"Yes. Why do you think it is your problem to save this town from Harold Lugard. You are no hero yourself, I am aware of what you did that made you and your siblings leave town for all those years. This place might not seem like much to you, but it is our home. And I will not allow you and your family back here just so history can repeat itself."

"And you think you hold the power to make us leave? To make me leave?" As I spoke to her, I felt the anger starting to overwhelm me. By then, my eyes had already started turning black, and the iris blood red. I tried covering my fangs with my lips but it was just about some seconds before they were fully out.

"See? That is why I can not allow you to stay in this town, Lanrey. You and your brothers are just too volatile and powerful to be here." This made me regain myself almost immediately. 

"I think that the founders made such decisions," I retorted as I took a long breath to fully regain myself.

"Yes, the founders will decide," she stood up and went back to work.

I sat there thinking about what I had to do. We would be run out of town again, and if that happens, I would not be able to do anything about Harold. My siblings did not give a fuck about the town or even Harold. They just wanted Badmus buried quickly so that we could return to Lake City. So, I could not ask my siblings for help, and I just had to scratch the witches off the list too. I was left with three other good choices and one of those choices was most probably going to be a failure. It was either I ask the vampire community for help, they would be very eager to help, but the vampires have all the rules and ways that I and my family had such distaste for. That was the reason why we avoided fraternizing with other vampires for so long. The second choice was of course to alert the wolf packs. There were originally four packs. Their ancestors were turned by Harold, during his first rampage in the town. My fear was that they could all be connected to him, but most importantly, the wolves would never trust a vampire, especially not anybody from my family. We had bad, violent history and the wolves do not forget. The third, and most likely choice to succeed was to ask for help from the Skinwalkers. The original people of Feverton were witches and Skinwalkers, shape-shifting clans that could take the shape of whatever they want. The skinwalkers were our allies once, and they should be able to help. They have the numbers and could help convince the witches to help too.

I decided to call Baroka and ask him for the skinchanger that I would have to speak to, but as I dialed his phone number and he picked up, the door of the diner opened and the beam of the afternoon sun escaped into the room. She then strolled in, gently, with a happy smile on her perfectly shaped face. She was as I remembered her to always be. Happy and carefree.

"Qayah," I whispered as I sat there with my jaw-dropping. 

"Hello, Adeezah," one of the customers greeted her, and she responded, "hello, Mrs. James."

She walked past me and smiled at me without any sign that she recognized me. Her fragrance filled my nose and I could tell it was her scent. I sat down there wondering what the hell was going on. It was Qayah, she looked exactly the same, she sounded the same, she smelled the same, and she had the same beautiful smile. But as familiar as she felt, she was not showing any sign that she had ever met me before, and the last time I saw my Qayah, she was dead. I held my head in my hands, trying to block out everything, wishing the hallucinations would stop.

"I'm having them again," I whispered to myself.

"You are doing what again," I heard her say. The voice was so near to me that I suddenly looked up. She stood there smiling radiantly, expecting a reply from me.

"I'm sorry, I startled you. I saw that you were not eating anything, and you seem stressed.

"Oh, I am having a headache. The heat is getting to me," I replied and smiled back at her. It felt like I was reliving a moment in my past, it was the moment I met Qayah.

"Oh, I knew you were not from around here," she smiled. 

"How could you tell?"

"How many people do you see here wearing dark clothing? And here you are, having on a dark suit in the middle of the heat season, Mr..."

"Lugard, Lanrey Lugard," I retorted, extending a handshake and she took it.

"Lugard? From the manor?"

"Yes, that's my family home," I replied.

"You're home for old man Badmus's funeral then. I never knew there were any of you guys left. The story says most of your family perished mysteriously. I only knew of the old man and his son."

"Stories are wrong all the time, Qayah," I smiled.

"Qayah? My name is Adeezah."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Miss Adeezah."

"I think what you need is a good meal and a change of clothing. I'll get you some coffee and eggs." But as she left to get the food Ramotta emerged from the back door, looking angry.

"You need to leave now, vampire, or we are going to have a problem," she whispered. I stood up and walked out of the diner. Outside, I looked at the wall and saw flyers of three missing people pasted on the wall of the diner.

"Shit, it is happening already," I whispered.