THE LAST WEREWOLF

CHAPTER 8 (Dorian)

The fire flickered in Dorian's eyes as he stared at the brick firepit on the edge of his back patio, mesmerized while the flames consumed the clothes he had retrieved from the mountains moments before Avery arrived. He had observed from the shadows as his former coworker, a man named Julian Lock, filled her head with what was mostly lies. The truth lay somewhere between fact and fiction. Dreams and nightmares. Beasts and heroes. 

After Julian had departed, Dorian made certain she reached her vehicle without incident and then hurried home. As the soles of his ruined boots melted under the intense heat, he slipped into a memory of what drove him to accept Eva Fox's offer to join The Bureau's team of investigators.

After graduating college as a criminal justice major and on the verge of being hired by the FBI, Fox approached Dorian and left him with a business card like the one he gave to Avery. Director Fox had noticed his marksmanship on the firing range and his other test scores, which led her to believe he would be perfect for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. But the crucial reason for his recruitment was what he had survived less than a year before, a life experience most would call a tragedy. However, she saw it as a motive to champion her cause.

Dorian's log cabin used to belong to his parents, and he had no intention of returning to his childhood home after college. He had bigger dreams that took a dark turn one fateful night as the full moon rose to its apex in the starlit sky. He had met a girl named Vespa, and she had seemed to be as normal as any person in Colorado. She was from Denver and he had brought her home to meet his parents.

He had only known her a month, but their relationship had kindled to a passionate romance. She had long, dark hair, brown eyes, and olive skin that radiated with heat every time they touched. But Vespa hadn't revealed everything about herself to Dorian.

Dorian doused the flames with lighter fluid to make sure everything in the firepit turned to ash. With thoughts of his former love turning flips in his mind, he sat back in a lounge chair and allowed himself to relax. Soon, he fell asleep in the shadows of the forest surrounding his home.

On that fateful night, he went outside to get more logs for the fire. They were in the heart of a Colorado winter, with the temperatures dipping below zero, taxing the central heat unit and forcing the Steele family to supplement their warmth with a raging fire in the hearth. Outside, snow had fallen on the mountains surrounding their home, another foot of precipitation trapping them indoors, making it impossible to go anywhere by vehicle.

Vespa ventured outside with Dorian to help get wood from the shed. They laughed and carried on, having a hard time keeping their hands off each other. In the skies above, the clouds parted and gave way to a bright full moon. The celestial light beamed down upon the great white expanse of the newly fallen snow, magnifying the glow on the wintry landscape. But as they traipsed across the deep drifts, stepping as high as they could, Vespa stopped and stared up at the moon. She stood, frozen, as if in a trance.

Her brown eyes burned with a light amber radiance, like something had set her irises ablaze with an intensity that made Dorian's heart rumble like a freight train on a one-way track to hell. Her body shook and her skin turned pale as she stared at the silver ring on her finger, one she had worn for as long as he had known her.

She screamed, took off the ring, and flung it at Dorian. He failed to catch it and watched as it disappeared into the deep snow.

"What's wrong?" His words grasped for reason, striving to make sense of what his eyes were seeing. "Vespa, you're..."

He stumbled backward as she hunched over, falling to her hands and knees, her body pulsating and rippling right in front of him.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." Her words screeched over her vocal cords, escaping her throat with a horrifying wail. "The ring was supposed to prevent the transformation."