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Darkness. Spinning and tumbling, going faster and faster and in all direction, yet perfectly stationary at the same time. There was no past, no future. Nothing. But in the emptiness of his existence something stirred. Something familiar.
The sound of birds penetrated the darkness and pulled him to the surface. He vaguely felt something hard pushing against his back and let out a soft groan. Slowly he opened his eyes and blinked a few times.
At first he wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but from somewhere deep inside his foggy mind the words ‘sky’ and ‘trees’ emerged. But where was he?
“You could have bumped your head.”
He looked at the owner of the voice, he registered the blonde wavy hair falling around the face of… someone. A girl. The girl, whoever she was, took his arm to help him up.
“Are you alright?” she asked him.
“Yeah…” he muttered. “I-I’m…” He got up with the help of the girl. “I’m… I think I just got a little light-headed.” He still felt that way, his head spun and it was hard to focus. At least he felt stable enough to stand on his own two feet. He glanced around. Where was he? The place seemed familiar, but his hazed mind couldn’t bring up any information.
“I’m not surprised,” she said, gesturing to the gravestones. “I mean, your grandfather just passed away.”
Grandfather? “Yeah, uhm….” He raked his fingers through his hair and glanced around. Gravestones, passed away, they were at a graveyard. That was at least something. “My grandfather…” he muttered. Grandfather, he felt the word must mean something, but he couldn’t quite grasp it. He looked at the gravestones, the names on them seemed unfamiliar. His foggy mind couldn’t make sense of what he saw, and on top of that he had a headache. Probably from falling, he may have bumped his head after all.
“From a stroke,” the girl added. “You were telling me just before you passed out. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured her.
“Okay. Well, I’d say have a good day, but…” she made a helpless gesture to the gravestones
“Yeah,” he said, still unsure what was going on, “you too.”
The girl nodded and looked down for a moment. “I’m sorry,” she finally said, looking up again. “For your loss.”
Right. Graveyard, death, loss. Things started falling into place again, but a lot of gaps remained. “Hey” he said, trying to think of the right answer, “I’m sorry for yours too.”
The girl looked down again, nodded slightly, then smiled and looked up again. “Thank you,” she said and walked away.
He frowned, blinked a few times and turned around. “Hey!” he said to the girl who walked away. “What is your name?”
The girl didn’t answer him, and he watched her back as the distance between them grew.
He looked at the graves again. Pete Morton and Chloe Morton. “What is my name?” he muttered. Who was he? He closed his eyes for a moment and looked around. There wasn’t anyone here who could answer the questions, the girl had left and now he was alone.
“My name…” he thought to himself. “I must have a name.” Suddenly a name emerged from the depths of his mind. “Midnight! I am Midnight… No, no that’s not it.” Even though the name was familiar, he knew it wasn’t his. Once more he looked at the graves. If one of these belonged to his grandfather and both had the name Morton on it, that meant his name had to be Morton too.
“Jack!” he suddenly exclaimed. “Jack Morton. That’s my name.”
After a sigh in relief and a mental pat on the back, he examined his surroundings more closely. Figuring out his name was a step in the right direction, now to figure out the rest. All he knew was that he was at a graveyard. But where was the graveyard? Where did he live?
The headache started to get worse. He shut his eyes and held his head. It felt like hot needles stabbed the inside of his skull and something kneading his brain. He growled and felt the bones in his jaw click and change, his mouth momentarily changing into that of a wolf. He fell to his knees, supporting himself with a hand, sharp wolf-like nails on human fingers dug in the ground.
A memory surfaced, he saw his grandfather explode.
“No!” he cried out. He panted, staring at the ground below him. The girl had lied, pops hadn’t died from a stroke. Edward Coventry, his father, had exploded him with magic. Memories flushed back in. He recalled how he had bonded with Midnight and everything that happened after. He remembered the girls name now too, Alyssa Drake, and he remembered his love for her.
A sob escaped his throat, he closed his eyes and dug his fingers in the earth. Alyssa had blown the amnesia powder in his face, she had betrayed his trust. He loved her and he had thought she loved him too, but apparently not enough.
The memories of Alyssa flooded his mind. He remembered again how they had met, all the things they had done. He slammed his fist in the ground, his eyes moist, but his mouth twisted in anger. She had taken every happy moment on Belgrave away from him, their first kiss, the hotel room, but also the time he had spent with the Knights of St. Christopher. He snarled. First she was into Edward and hadn’t even wanted to listen when he tried to warn her about what kind of man he was. And now this? He got up, glaring in the direction she had left in.
“I’m done with her,” he thought to himself, gritting his teeth. They could have made it work, but she had rejected him, like she had done before. Because he was a werewolf, a monster, as she had called it. He was done crawling after her.
With the effect of the powder gone, all his memories had returned. Everything that had happened since he had been accepted into Belgrave University, but also everything that happened before that, including the letter that had changed.
He hadn’t thought about that in a while. That had been a rejection letter first, but in front of his eyes the words had changed into an acceptance letter. He had been so busy with his goal, to infiltrate the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose to get revenge on his father, and everything that happened after that, that he hadn’t thought about it anymore. First they wanted him and now they made him forget he had ever been a member? Why? Because he was a werewolf?
“Thanks Midnight,” he said, tapping his heart. “I owe you one.”
Jack turned around and started running. He had to warn the other Knights.
Back at the campus he frantically searched for his friends, he knew they had to be here somewhere.
But he couldn’t find them.
Without much hope he went into the bar where they had done their midday drinking. He took place at the counter and asked for a beer. The bartender placed it in front of him, but he barely noticed it. Where were Hamish, Randall and Lilith? Had the Order taken them? His hands turned into fists, if they had hurt them in any way…
“A beer please,” a familiar voice asked.
Jack’s head jerked in the direction of the voice and looked at the tall, blond student next to him. “Ha-” he began.
“We don’t know each other,” Hamish interrupted him with a hushed voice, not looking at him.
“But…”
“The powder worked,” Hamish whispered, emphasizing the last word, still not looking at him. He smiled when the bartender gave him a beer, payed for it and walked away.
Jack looked over his shoulder, he saw Hamish take a seat at a table with two students he didn’t know. A deep frown creased his forehead and he stared at his beer. We don’t know each other. Hamish hadn’t even looked at him. The powder worked.
“Of course…” Jack whispered to himself. Hamish wanted to pretend they had forgotten everything, so the Order would leave them alone. At least he knew now that Hamish was okay, even though they had used the powder on him too. Probably on the others as well.
The following days Jack went on with his college life. He attended his classes, did his assignments, and pretended not to recognize the people he had met at the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose.
Books and papers lay scattered on his desk, an assignment was due in two days, but Jack stared at the wall. The past few days he had realised one thing: he had no goal. There was nothing he could focus on. In high school he had the motivation to get into Belgrave to push him further. Coventry was dead, his job was done, his task complete. And with both the Order and the Knights not in his life, he had nothing to do and no-one to talk to. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do after university.
A ringing sound filled his ears. Magic, someone of the Order had done some magic. He ignored it.
His eyes fell on the record player he had paid for with a piece of paper and some magic. A spell Gabriella had taught him, before things had started to go from bad to worse. Slowly he rose from the chair and chose a record to play. After putting it on he cranked the volume up and let the music blast from the speakers.
***
Randall Carpio walked through the dorm, as the resident assistant he had to respond to complaints, and he had been receiving a few noise complaints. And indeed, he could hear the music through the door. He sighed. Couldn’t they just smoke some pot in their room or do something else that didn’t bother the other students? He’d rather not report students.
He knocked on the door. “Turn down the music!” he called. “I’ve received complaints!”
The door opened and he looked at the owner of the room. “Seriously dude, turn down the music.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jack said. “Sorry. But now that you are here, I have a complaint about the room.”
“Okay, tell me.” Randall followed him into the room closed the door behind him. The music got turned off and he looked at Jack. “So, what is it?”
“Have you heard from Hamish?”
Randall nodded slowly. “I got a note, another pre-law student is in this dorm, he passed a note through her. He wrote that it was best to pretend we don’t know each other for a while.”
“What happened to you?”
“Well…” Randall sighed. “I had to check something, being resident assistant. I knocked on the door and they threw the powder in my face. I think I fainted, because I woke up on the floor.” He narrowed his eyes as he thought back. “I think they wanted to make sure it worked, because they asked some question, and man, my mind was a haze. I couldn’t remember a thing. They told me I had fallen and I believed them too. I left the room again, but I didn’t know where to go, I had no idea what I did there in the first place. Then I felt something stir in me and soon it felt like there was a battle going on in my brain.”
“Yeah,” Jack interjected. “Werewolves have a certain immunity for magic. Maybe they helped us get rid of the effects. When I tried to remember my name, the first name that came up was Midnight.”
Randall nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, exactly. Awesome, isn’t it? Being a Knight.” He gave Jack a playful bump on the shoulder. “Aren’t you glad I scared you into the basement?”
The memory made Jack smile. The hide attaching itself to him had been even scarier than being chased by a werewolf. At first he had hated being one, but in the end, he was happy to be a werewolf.
“You lay low, okay?” Randall said. “Don’t go to our hide-out. And ignore the ringing, we can’t let them know we know.” He smiled and nodded to himself. “Not yet, anyway, we’ll surprise them when the time is right. Get a little revenge, it’ll be fun.” He winked and turned around, going to the door. When he opened it he looked back and said: “Just remember people want to study, okay? And I’ll see about fixing that.” He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
A few days after the talk with Randall, Jack found himself looking at the bulletin board. A fundraiser would be held and there would be a party that evening where the goal and method would be explained. The only reason why Jack was interested, was because Hamish Duke was one of the four organisers. This would give him a chance to talk with Hamish without it being suspicious.
That evening Jack went to the party. A woman explained what they wanted to raise funds for and how they would do it, but Jack didn’t really listen. He scanned the room for familiar faces. A few members of the Order were here. Alyssa was here. When their eyes met, she quickly looked away. It hurt, but he ignored her and continued examining the faces in the crowd. Soon he spotted Lilith, who tried her best to look over the crowd. And Randall was here too. Both must have had the same idea.
He went to the bar to get a beer, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey,” Randall said. “Did they come over to fix it?”
“Yes, they did,” Jack said. “Thanks.”
“No need to thank me, it’s my job. RA’s do more than hand out rape whistles and ‘how not to rape’ pamphlets.” He looked at a few giddy students drinking beer. “I bet they’re not twenty-one yet,” he muttered, but then he grinned as gave Jack a pat on the shoulder. “But who gives a shit, right?”
Jack watched him walk away and noticed Brandon looking at him at the edge of his range of vision. They still had to be careful, the members of the Order would keep a close eye on them. He made sure not to look at Brandon and continued going to the bar to finally get his beer.
After a few sips he joined the crowd again. He bumped into Gabriella on purpose, spilling a bit of beer on her in the process, so he could apologize and make her believe he had no recollection of her. The look on her face was worth it.
The woman on the stage finished her speech by saying that if there were any questions, they could ask them to either herself or Hamish Duke. Well, that was convenient, Jack certainly had some questions. He joined a group of people Hamish talked with and they locked eyes.
After answering a few more questions, Hamish turned to Jack.
“Yeah, so, I have a question,” Jack said. “When do you suppose we should gather. You know, before the, uhm, run. To talk things over.”
“We will have a meeting soon,” Hamish assured him. He nodded to him and prepared to walk away, but before he did, he whispered to Jack: “We need a distraction, like that fire you made before. Wait until I had a chance to talk with Randall and Lilith. We use the confusion to disappear in the crowd and regroup behind the library.”
Jack gave a barely noticeable nod and walked to a place that would be secluded enough to do some magic without the Order noticing, and that would allow him to keep an eye on Hamish.
It took fifteen minutes for Hamish to get close to Randall and Lilith, but as soon as that had happened, Jack turned his back to the crowd and used a knife to prick his finger.
“Inflammetur” he muttered. Almost immediately the sound installation caught fire and screams of panic erupted. Everyone started moving to the doors to get away from the fire. Jack joined the crowd and quickly made his way out. Once he was certain no-one of the Order paid any attention to him, he quietly disappeared in the night.
Alternating running and walking, using the shades of the buildings to his advantage, he made his way to the library. Just to be sure, he didn’t choose a direct path, but went in the other direction first and took some shortcuts between buildings to get to the location Hamish had chosen.
When Jack arrived, Lilith was already there. They were soon joined by Hamish and Randall.
“Good,” Hamish said, looking at everyone. “We are together again.”
“No-one can break up the sacred brotherhood of the Knights of St. Christopher!” Randall chipped in.
“Gender-neutral Collective,” Lilith corrected him.
“Yeah, of course, that’s what I meant,” Randall said, making a dismissive motion with his hand.
“What do we do?” Jack asked.
Hamish leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “For starters, we need a new place. The Order knows the location of our previous hide-out.” He looked at each of them. “They emptied the place.”
The other three gasped.
“I went there to look, the collection we kept in the basement, all gone.”
Lilith turned to Jack, her eyes burning with anger. “You shouldn’t have let Mrs. Stone into our hideout!”
“At that time we needed her,” Jack defended himself.
“Yes, well, they didn’t take everything,” Hamish mentioned, getting the attention of the others again. “I didn’t trust her, so when she was there I hid some books, mostly the diaries of the old Knights.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, they have all the magical items and books collected by the brotherhood-” he cut off Lilith with a gesture of his hand, knowing she was about to correct him again, “but at least we have the books that matter to us.” He paused. “But they do have the hides we kept there.”
“They have Silverback…” Jack said, the knowledge stabbing his heart with the feeling of loss. Silverback and he had been together for a while and he felt bad for the wolf pelt, even though he was Midnights Champion now.
“There is nothing else to do then,” Randall said. “We have to get Silverback back.” He poked Lilith with his elbow. “Silverback back, get it?” No-one responded to that. “Oh, come on, that was funny!”
The next day Jack went to the office of the Belgrave University chancellor Vera Stone. They sat on opposite sides of the desk, looking at each other in silence.
“This is the part where you tell me the reason for your visit, Mr. Morton,” Vera said with a hint of impatience in her voice.
“You know,” Jack said, leaning back in his seat, “someone once told me that any choices we don’t make are the ones that are made for us.” He watched in amusement how the eyes Mrs. Stone narrowed. “And… I get it now. I do. The choice has been made. I know what I want to do with my life.”
“That is all very nice, Mr. Morton,” Vera interrupted him, “but is this why you wanted a meeting with the chancellor of this university? Because you know what you want to do with your life?”
“No, but I thought it was better to meet here than in your other office.”
“What other office, Mr. Morton?”
“The one where we last spoke about choices. Grand Magus.” Much to Jack’s delight, Mrs. Stone tensed up. “Yes, the powder didn’t work. I’m sorry. I’ve just had a meeting with the other werewolves, and I’ve come to offer a deal.”
“A deal?”
“A deal. You can keep everything you found in our reliquary. We don’t care about it. We just want the hides back.”
“Explain to me why I would want to give you those hides back.”
“Because if you won’t we’ll take them by force?” Jack smirked as the grand magus narrowed her eyes. “Or… alternatively, we won’t go to war. You could give us what we want and then we will leave the Order alone.”
“And I am supposed to believe you will leave my Order alone?”
“Well, not gonna lie, Lilith was all for tearing it down and burning it to the ground, but I have nothing against the Order and I was able to persuade the others of the same thing. We believe the Order itself is not evil. Some good people came from it too. And we, the Knights of St. Christopher, we fight against evil magic. As long as the magic you do is not evil, you won’t have any troubles with us.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “We won’t go against the Order, but we will go after the individuals who will do evil. That is our sacred duty. So, let that be a warning to you and your associates.”
Vera nodded slowly, her face revealed nothing of her thoughts. “So, you have made up your mind then. It’s the werewolves you choose.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“A pity,” she sighed. “I did like you.”
“Are you the one who changed my letter?”
There was a hint of a smile on Vera’s face and she extended a hand. “We have a deal, Mr. Morton. I will return the hides and the cases they are kept in to your and your associates. But I will not stand by to watch how your little pack kills my members.”
Jack took her hand and shook it. “Then make sure they do no evil. Keep an eye on Gabriella, because we will too.” He rose from the chair and nodded to her. “Good day Chancellor. Grand Magus. Just put the hides back where you found them, will you?” He turned around to leave.
“One moment, Mr. Morton. Can I be certain you won’t sneak into our building?”
“I have no business there,” Jack said, without looking at her. “I’d rather not be in the same building as Alyssa.” It was impossible to hide the bitter undertone in his voice. After a sigh he turned around. “But, just in case, you might want to invest in some new locks. Even before I was a member I managed to find my way inside.” A smirk slowly appeared. “You have some sloppy defences for an order of magic users.”
Vera didn’t react to that, but she gave a brief nod and turned her attention to some papers at her desk. “That was all then, Mr. Morton. You can leave.”
The four werewolves watched the members of the Order carry the crates into their hide-out. The problem was they couldn’t use it anymore.
“We go in when they are gone and bring the crates to a safe location,” Hamish told the others.
“But where?” Jack asked.
“There is another base for the Knights of St. Christopher,” Hamish informed them, his eyes glued on the members of the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose.
“Where?” “How do you know?” Randall and Lilith asked at the same time.
“I will show you and I didn’t know.” He looked at the others. “Tundra knows.”
“Tundra?” Randall repeated. “How-”
“I don’t know yet,” Hamish said. “After Jack told us there was a lot we didn’t know I started reading. And I still don’t know a lot, but I’m beginning to understand.” His eyes moved to Lilith. “You were surprised to learn you could read Sumerian.”
“You said that’s because Timber knows Sumerian,” Lilith recalled.
“And the first memories that returned to me were those I had made with Midnight,” Jack chipped in. “I told Randall already, when I tried to remember my name the first thing that came to mind was ‘Midnight’.”
Hamish nodded and turned his attention back to their former base. “The memories of the werewolves, they subconsciously resurface when we need them. Image the things we could learn, the knowledge we’d have, if we could tap into the memories the werewolves had collected their entire life, through their Champions.”
“You mean,” Lilith began, “that the memories of Cassie are somewhere locked in Timber too?”
Hamish tensed up, but nodded slowly. “I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s possible.”
“But how did you learn about the other place?” Randall asked.
“I… just knew. When I realized we couldn’t use this place anymore I started to wander around to search for a new place. And then I stumbled across the underground base, I somehow knew where to look for the entrance. It had to be Tundra guiding me there.”
When the members of the Order had left, the four werewolves snuck to the house, keeping a close eye on their surroundings.
“All they need is that stupid locating spell to find us again,” Lilith mentioned as she followed the others into the basement. “I’m sure they have a personal item of all of us in stock, just in case.”
“We’ll deal with that later,” Hamish said. “With two ex-members of the Order I’m sure we can figure out some defences against that.”
“We could have tried to figure out something if they hadn’t emptied out the reliquary,” Jack sighed.
“The other base has some books too, covered in a thick layer of dust, the place certainly needs to be cleaned. And we need to add a bar. But it’s a place where the Knights could retreat to if this place was compromised, so that’s where we’ll hide the hides.”
Randall chuckled. “Hide the hides,” he repeated, but he sighed when the others didn’t seem to care about the, probably unintended, wordplay.
The four of them moved the crates out of the house and Hamish lead them through the forest. They followed the path for a while, but at a big oak tree Hamish left the path and followed an animal track deeper into the woods.
“This is still Belgrave territory,” he said. “There is a boulder up ahead, after it you’ll see a bush of fern. The entrance is hidden under the big leaves.”
“So, it really is an underground hideout,” Lilith commented.
“The place even has electricity,” Hamish informed them and went through the fern first. He tuned on a flashlight and lead the way for them
The followed the tunnel that seemed to go metres into the ground, but halfway through Hamish suddenly stopped and turned to his left. He put his hand on the wall and pushed, opening a well-concealed door. “The door is made of iron,” he told the others, “with dirt glued to the front to make it look like the rest of the tunnel.”
“So even a ball of fire shot from the entrance wouldn’t reach us.”
“There is a room at the end of the tunnel, some broken chairs and a few skeletons lay there. Five, so we do need to take one away. If they do use fire magic they will see the charred bones and think they were successful.”
“Did you put them there?” Randall asked.
Hamish chuckled. “No. Someone in the past, I don’t know who, but probably a Knight.”
When everyone and all the crates were inside, Hamish closed the door, turned on the lights, and lead them further. Soon they came into a spacious room. One wall was filled with shelves, they were mostly empty, but a few books and a couple of items were put on the middle shelf. There was only the basics of furniture, a large table and some straight wooden chairs around it were in the center of the room and a cabinet with some very old maps stood against the wall.
“We do need to bring in some more items to make it home,” Hamish muttered. “But we’ll be safe here.”
“The foosball table, the bar,” Randall continued, winking at Jack. “You know, the essentials.”
“Of course,” Jack agreed.
Hamish gestured to one of two doors. “We can use that room for storing the pelts and their crates, the other for supplies. There are no bedrooms, but this is more of an emergency hide-out. We can meet here at predetermined times to plan and to update each other, we can gather here for our after-kill drinks, but studying, socializing, we should do that at campus.”
The four of them cleaned their new hide-out together and brought in some more furniture to make it cosier. A sofa, and the aforementioned items they had in their previous hide-out too. They used the cover of the night to move everything, to avoid the Order learning about their new base. Hamish brought the books he had hidden and put them on the shelves, and Randall had taken the fifth skeleton and put it on a standard, calling it their new friend, and placed it in the corner of their new base. When the cleaning was done, Hamish made some celebratory cocktails for everyone.
They agreed that they would continue to hunt evil magic; they would check it out when they heard someone use magic, but only act if the magic would harm anyone. Lilith reluctantly agreed to that.
Hamish and Jack turned to the books together to learn more about the hidden memories of the werewolves; they wanted to understand how it worked and discover ways to access those memories. It would certainly be valuable in their quest against evil magic. If there was any information about it, it seemed to be well hidden, but they were determined to find it.