Chapter eleven

Last night:

"It's ready." Louis gives a go-ahead to Arthur and Joan. Whit ease, they both jump up the hole and land on the roof.

The moment they look up ahead, their faces just contort. It is as if they had swallowed the most bitter medicine.

They face the full moon which bathes their countenance with its rays. There is a large water tank and on it, due to the luminance of the moon, a silhouette figure of a boy is seen.

"A-Adam?" Joan lets out a fearful thrill. The boy hearing the name turns to them. The instant their eyes meet, the fear in Arthur and Joan gets nourished. "D-dear, what h-happened t-to your eyes? Why are they red? Come on now. Let's get inside. It is dangerous out here. C-come."

As if heeding his mother's words, he jumps down and lands with a squat. In the dark shadow of the moon, just the red lustful eyes are seen. At that moment, Joan and Arthur both instinctively take a step back, but that was all they could do. Their bodies wouldn't move again as they became paralyzed with fear. It was like meeting the apex of the jungle. A predator to beasts. All they can do is hope.

Adam gets down on all fours and then starts to advance. With his red scorching eyes laid on his prey, he moves closer and closer with each step. In the hearts of Arthur and Joan, they kept pleading with their bodies to move. Their hearts are thumbing, they are drenched in sweat, feet are cold but still, they can't react.

He gets before them and he stands. His eyes meet Arthur's and then starts to gaze deep into them. It is almost as if he is staring at his soul. Suddenly, like how the flame of a match stick burns out, his red eyes gradually turn back to amber. He smiles then passes out and falls.

"ADAM!" Joan shouts and rushes to her unconscious son. She picks him into her arms and then goes back down the hole. Like a vapid dog, Arthur follows.

"Okay just put him on his bed. We will take care of the rest." Hannah says. "And here..." She throws a shirt at Joan.

"Really! Now!?"

"Yes. We had a deal. Now get on with it."

*Sigh* Like sniffing a craptastic baby diaper, Joan takes the shirt and sniffs. She throws it away immediately and shrouds her mouth as if about to vomit. She moves closer to the window and sticks her head out. "It's been a while since I tracked down a scent. I'm probably rusty now but a deal is a deal." She breathes in slowly and quietly. She does it for a while. In her mind, it is as if she is the air. Like she is everywhere the air goes. She sees the entire city and she sees the scent lurking in the shadows. Here, then there, and there. "He is..."

"Don't want to hear it. The deal was you go look for him."

"Huh...!? You little..." *Sigh* "You are lucky I'm a woman of my word. I'll be back. And everything better be normal when I get back." She heads out.

"Now then, Louis takes care of Zoe and I will treat Adam."

"Sure." He leaves.

"Oh, Arthur can you...?" She turns and realizes that he is passed out in a chair. "What a useless man." She proceeds with her work. "Let's check on the seal first." She opens Adam's buttons and leaves his chest bare. *Gasp* On his chest is a tattoo. It looks like seven rings chained and coiled into a circle. One ring seems to be fading.

"This is bad. Why is the seal wearing off now? Got to do something." She rests her hands on him. "Bound in the earth, where the seven berth, I lock. The den that..." She continues her long incantation. Her eyes begin to glow white. Her voice starts to sound polyphonic. A gush of wind dives in through the window and starts to wreak havoc in the room. "...Perfecto Cierre." The chaos in the room immediately seizes. Everything goes back to normal. "Seriously, what kind of parent will accept the fate of a Vessel for their kid? Tsk!" She looks back at Arthur. "The kind that sleeps through hurricanes. Now let's work on the memory erasing."

Meanwhile, Joan follows the scent of Cyril. She leaps from roof to roof and flashes in the dark like an angel.

"The scent is getting stronger." She keeps going as fast as she could as she wants to get back to her son as soon as possible. But then she comes to a sudden stop. "This scent...blood! There, in that alley." She proceeds. In a few minutes, she gets to the shady part of the city. She gets on the sidewalk and starts to gally down headed for the ally.

When she gets to the ally, she blankets her nose as the stinging scent of blood is too strong. "What happened here? I smell blood everywhere and Cyril's scent though it is faint." She moves deeper into the ally. She keeps going until she stumbles upon four unconscious bodies. Some were bleeding with knives in them. Limps turned in ways they shouldn't and heartbeats slowed down. "Who did this!? I don't trace Cyril's scent on any of them so I doubt it was him. But then again, there are spells. But Hannah says he denies the learning of any of the spells except hypnosis." *Sigh* "That boy, how did he end up here." As if having a realization, her face goes blank. "Hypnosis! Of course. THAT LITTLE DI..." She pauses as she hears the sound of a siren. "The police! Time to go then." Standing between two tall buildings she looks up. "Huff... That's really high." She looks down at her arms. Her veins start to pop up little by little and it goes on to the back of her hand. Her arms smoulder and her nails also begin to elongate. They turn black and into claws. "Guess my escape will be sky high."

She moves closer to the building on the right, bends her knees then leaps like ten feet off the ground. When she runs out of momentum she plunges her claws into the wall and propels herself high. She does it again and again till she gets to the roof. "That boy has a lot to answer to when I get my claws in him!"

She dashes and proceeds with her search leaping from roof to roof. While she runs, she reflects:

'Back then, it was like that was not Adam. Those red eyes, that familiar suffocating aura, it was almost as if he had become a full Fenrir. Was that why my body couldn't react even though he was transforming? Why Arthur? Why did things turn out like this? Our son can become a Fenrir, a monster.' As she meditates, some past mistakes pop up in her mind and she gets teary. Those tears break out and as they slide, her face begins to gleam as she starts smiling. 'But back then... I saw him smile. Such a beautiful gentle smile it was.'