The Darkness 10: Chupacabra

May 5^th 2:00 P.M.

I had no choice. Gina forced me to reveal myself as a werewolf to my girlfriend. The night of the summit my girlfriend, Ana, followed my phone’s signal to our meeting and Gina took advantage of her presence. Knowing that the vampires were going to go after her because of her new knowledge and direct connection to the supernatural, I was forced to turn her to a werewolf. Since that put my pack at 8, 1 more than the maximum 7, I forced to let Marie leave and join Axel’s Hybrid Pack. Since it was going to be another 5 days before the full moon I decided to question Marina about Gina’s claims.

Ana, Cee, Audio and I met with Marina outside my apartment. “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked her. She has a shy smile when she answered no but the concern was clear. I sighed and told Ana to lower her collar, revealing the scar from my bite. “Wait, whoa! So you’re a werewolf now?” She asked. “Yeah.” Ana answered her question. “I had to turn her, Gina forced me to.” I added. Marina looked puzzled again “Why?” she asked. At this point it was clear she had no clue what was going on. “Gina had two vampires call me for a summit with her in the industrial district two days ago. We met alone, like she wanted, and all she kept asking me was about you and why you don’t drink blood.” I explained “when I told her I don’t know why, she attacked me. We fought but Ana had followed me to the summit, and well Gina basically forced me to protect Ana from her. So, since Ana found out about us, you know what came next.”  Ana shifted next to me, I could sense she was uncomfortable with the conversation. But she had to deal with it. Marina still looked confused “Why does it matter if I don’t drink blood? They have never said anything to me about it.” She questioned. “There was something else, Gina isn’t a regular vampire. Well she isn’t a regular queen vampire.  She called herself a Lich. She was using magic and had 8 fangs instead 4. She was way stronger than normal, do you know anything about that?” I asked. Her face lit up and she looked from me to Audio then Ana and back at me. It struck something in her. “That’s probably why the hive acts weird, especially when Gina is around. They all do what she says, no matter what, it’s like they can’t think for themselves. They’re always on my ass and I thought it was just because I was friends with you guys-” “She’s not able to control you because you don’t drink blood like the rest of the vampires,” I interrupted “whether it’s magic or some type of ‘lich’ power, she can’t control you.” Cee and Audio looked at Marina and mumbled something to each other then Audio spoke up. “Maybe it had something to do with her possession by a wendiego, just like her not drinking blood?” he questioned. Marina shrugged, she knew as much as we did. “What do you want me to do?” she asked me.  I took a moment to think. “Marina.” I said, she smiled and acknowledged me. “Go about your business, just don’t let them know you’ve been here talking to us. We’ll handle this and hit you up when we need you. I’m sending Audio and Cee to go see Black Eagle. He’ll have the answers we need.” May 7^th 8:00 P.M. Marina agreed.

On the night of the full moon, I decided to take Ana to my Grandma’s farm for her first change. At least there, her change would go interrupted. I took her into the densest part of the cypress woods. “I’m scared, will it hurt?” Ana asked me. “No.” I lied. “Are you sure? I’m burning up.” She asked while pulling at her sweater. I turned away and covered my mouth to keep from laughing at her. “It’s not funny! I don’t like this, Babe!” She scolded. She began pacing back and forth with her sweater in her arms. “The burning is good, you’re going to change soon.” I turned and said. She was couching down next to a tree with her head up and her eyes closed. She was distressed from her body overheating. I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be okay, Babe. It’ll be fast, I promise.” I said before kissing her and taking a step back. I looked around the empty woods, up at the full moon, then at Ana. “Can you hear everything better now?” I asked. She nodded in response. She leaned against a nearby tree and began panting. “Babe, I think it’s starting! My bones are hurting!” she screamed. I knew it was starting and there was nothing I could do about the pain. She paced, kneeled down and rose, slapped the tree restlessly. It wasn’t long before I could sense her aura changing and she began to change. “Babe! It’s too much, I can’t take it!” She begged. “Don’t worry, Baby. I’m right here with you.” I reassured her. She shook her head and cried “Manish! It’s too much! What the hell is that sound?! What is that smell?!” she complained. “It’s just your senses; you’re smelling the farm and the pond.” I explained. “It’s not any fucking farm animals! You can’t smell it?! It’s disgusting and it’s getting stronger!” she scolded. A bit confused and convinced she was mistaken; I looked around the decided to change forms to assure her it was nothing. I took my wolf form, let the surge of power set in then took in my surroundings. Unable to sense anything past Ana’s fluctuating power, my sense of smell was the answer. Through, the animals, the pond water, and cypress trees I could smell it. I could smell exactly what she was smelling. “Dammit.” I growled. “What is it?” she asked.  Her transformation was taking too long and it was going to add to the incoming problem. “It’s a chupacabra.” I answered. “A what?!” she asked. “It’s nothing, they come to the farm every so often to try to kill my grandma’s goats. It’s easy to kill them. No problem.” I assured her. She didn’t respond but instead continued her struggle to transform. Something wasn’t right; her transformation shouldn’t have taken so long. I turned to the direction of where the chupacabra scent came from and snarled. It took my challenge and charged out from behind the trees. The chupacabra looked like a mange ridden Doberman Pincser, eyes almost albino red and long snake like fangs.  When it got close enough, I took my werewolf form and grabbed it in a headlock. It squirmed and hissed at me before I snapped it’s neck and slammed it’s skull into the ground. I left the carcass at my feet and my attention was forced back to the trees. There was movement in the distance. In the darkness, from where my kill had come from, the eyes of 9 more chupacabras glowed menacing as they made their way towards us. I looked back at Ana, who still hadn’t changed, and knew she would be defenseless if one were to get past me. “Dammit! Why are there so many here at once, this isn’t normal” I thought. Ana’s fear crept over her power fluctuating and caught my attention. “Manish? What are those?! Are there more?!” she asked. I looked at the incoming monsters then back at my girlfriend “Just stay back.”  I told her. It wasn’t normal for there to be that many chupacabras in one place. It was long believed that they ran in packs but no one had actually seen it. There was no time to ponder the situation. They all hissed and snarled as I took lead and made my way toward them. They weren’t going to get a chance to get any closer to Ana, they were going to have to face me head on.  “Babe,” Ana groaned. I glanced over and seen she had a tail and claws. “There’s something else out there!” she warned. Confused, I turned to the pack of chupacabras and tried to hear or smell something out other than them but couldn’t. Still, something else did seem off, none of the blood suckers had made a move from behind the cypress trees. I stood on my hind legs and let out a threatening roar. All the crimson eyes flinched and coward; they didn’t make a move. Instead, a huge creature launched it’s self from out of the shroud of the trees and darkness into my presence. It was crouched over, with giant ruby red eyes, long pointy nails, sharp needle like teeth, and long spikes protruding from it’s spine. It stood up and was almost as tall as me: it’s skin was greenish and it smelled just like fresh animal blood. It dragged it’s tail through the sand, waving it’s head side to side and screeched at me. Even though I had never seen such a monster before, I recognized the alpha in front of me. “It’s the alpha chupacabra. Just stay back.” I growled to Ana. My claws dug into the soil then I charged. I met the alpha head on and grabbed it by it’s spines and slammed it into the ground before throwing it into a tree. It effortlessly returned to its feet and lunged onto me. It was way faster than me. It slashed at me relentlessly and aimed its jaws to take a bite out of my neck. I kicked it off of me with a thrust from my back legs and returned to my feet. Before I could do anything else, I was hit with a whip from it’s tail.  I glared at the monster in it’s demonic eyes and it screeched and whipped again. They were too fast to dodge. It hit me with two more then the next got one of it’s spines stuck in my side. The pain caused me to jerk and convulse, I almost couldn’t take it. I grabbed the tail, pulled the chupacabra towards me, and buried my claws in it’s back. It whipped me again so I tossed into the trees with it’s pack. The rest of the chupacabras were set off; the whole pack erupted from the woods to attack me. Time slowed for a moment. I had to protect Ana and would do anything to make sure none would get past me. I had to fight. The first one reached me and I grabbed it and tossed it into the air. The next one was slashed and the third was smashed with a closed fist. The fourth took to biting my leg while the fifth latched onto my back. The first one hit the ground in front of me as ripped the fifth one off my back and slammed it into the third one. The sixth tried to run past me but I grabbed it by the head and crushed it’s skull with my claw. The seventh bit onto my extended arm. I was almost completely overwhelmed when their alpha came bolting out of the woods toward Ana. A surge of power exploded in me. I shifted to my wolf form, shook all my attackers off, and ran for the alpha. I slid into it’s path and snarled. Side stepping it’s frontal assault, I bit onto it’s neck and swept it aside. This was it, the end.I went into for the kill but realized the rest of it’s pack encircled me. I was surrounded, before I would have a chance to kill the alpha, the rest would kill me. I readied myself and weighed my few options; it seemed there was no way out. Everything seemed dismal. There was nothing more to do other than ready for the onslaught I was going to soon face. As they closed in on me, there was a snarl from the distance. I felt a familiar power rush and it flowed through me again. All the chupacabras panicked and their heads swept side to side trying to find out where the snarl came from. 5 wolves exploded from the woods and joined the fray. Cee, Audio, C.D., and Marie prowled on the chupacabras’ circle while Ray made his way towards an unconscious wolf in the distance. With the new power of my pack fueling me, I was renewed. The chupacabras were startled and confused, they looked lost as to whether they should direct their attention toward their alpha or defend their own lives. I took my werewolf form and pinned the alpha face down on his belly, I roared, and raised my claw to slash his spine apart. Before I was able to finish it off there was an ear piercing whine let out by one of the chupacabras. The sound was so high pitched it made us all cringe in pain. While I was distracted by the sound, the alpha took its chance to knock me off with it’s tail and slither away. They regrouped outside the circle my pack made turned tail and ran back into the darkness. Once they regained their senses, my pack took chase.  I turned into my human form and ran over to Ray and Ana. Ana had turned into a small build wolf with long brown fur.  “She’s okay?” I asked Ray. “Yeah,” he answered as he returned to his human form “why did she pass out?” I shook my head with disappointment. I realized I had made a mistake by turning my girlfriend but I had no choice. “She fought the transformation. The pain was too much for her….. How did you guys know I was here? Actually how did you guys know I needed help?” I asked. “We heard your roar.” He answered.