Jericho lead the group to the heart of the city. Usually it would be loud and full of people, but now, it was empty and silent.

“Is it usually this…. quiet?” Diana asked as she inspected the surrounding buildings. “I’ve haven’t noticed till now how many people aren’t out. Even at the clothing store.”

“The killings are scaring them. People still think someone out there is on a killing spree.” Jericho explained.

“It’s for the best. Wouldn’t want them getting in our business.” Zoran replied. “We already have to deal with one suicidal human, I don’t want to deal with a pack.”

Jericho nodded, for once he agreed with the fox to an extent.

“What’s he like?” Angie asked, “Caspian.”

Jericho thought about it, trying to think of the best words to describe him without sounding biased. “He’s.. a werewolf.”

“You act as if that’s describing him.”

“Look, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really like him. He’s a flirt and overly sarcastic and rude and just plain awful, but he also really cares for Marcus.”

“How’d they meet?” Zoran asked from behind the group, “Did Marcus bail him out on something?”

“I don’t think so.”Jericho shook his head, “Whatever they have goes far beyond that kind of loyalty.”

They approached a bar slightly sunk into the ground, that had a small set of stone stairs leading to its entry. Painted elegantly on the glass door was the word, Nightshade. Standing in front of the door Jericho saw that the bar was empty other than Caspian behind the bar. His black hair was neatly combed, and Jericho saw that he reapplied dark blue hair dye to the top of his hair, matching his eyes. He was dressed in Nightshade’s bartender uniform which matched what Marcus wore after Jericho woke up from the first wendigo attack. His sun kissed skin seemed to gleam off the bright lights of the bar.

“Come in.” He announced loudly. He glanced at their direction and motioned them forward.

Jericho opened the door and entered the bar with the group. Nightshade was a small place. Five booths lined up against the wall with the entrance while the bar was located on the opposite side of the booths, decorated with colorful bottles and drinks.

“Hey Cas, long ti-“ Jericho started.

“One.” Caspian interrupted, “Don’t call me Cas. Two, where’s Marcus. He wasn’t here yesterday or today. What did you do.” Caspian’s attention wasn’t even on Jericho, yet he could felt him glaring

Straightening up and stepping forward, Jericho spoke, “We need to talk.”

~~~~~~~~~

“I’m gonna kill you all because apparently, it aint that hard!.” Caspian glared at each of them and leaned on the bar counter. Rage and concern, visible in his eyes. “How can one alpha wendigo overpower all of you. How.”

“It wasn’t a normal alpha.” Zoran stated, “It was a nature spirit that was inflicted with the wendigo curse.”

“I don’t see why that’s important.” Caspian snarled. “You are Keepers, you are supposed to deal with this sort of stuff regularly, and you!” He pointed at Jericho, “If it weren’t for Marcus you would have been dead by now, and this is how you repay him? You fed him to a flesh eating monster!” He pushed passed the group and stood by the far wall. “I can’t even pick up his scent anymore...”

Jericho’s heart dropped, “Is he…” Marcus couldn’t even say it. He would be dead and it would have been because of him.

“If he were, you wouldn’t be standing there.” Caspian growled. “ I think that his scent just got mixed in with the wendigo’s. Those abominations are putrid. Why are you here anyway. Shouldn’t you be looking for him.”

“We need your help finding him. You know Marcus better than me. Why would the wendigo take him.”

He glared at the group, inspecting each of them before sighing and rubbing his hands together. “Let me change and I’ll tell you what I know.”

They waited in a booth as Caspian disappeared into the back to change. It wasn’t long before he was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and shredded black jeans. He gave off the whole punk look real well if his hair wasn’t so neat. He took a seat at the bar, straight across from us and opened a bottle of scotch and started to chug it. “Marcus is valuable in the black market, something about his species. There are these rewards out for his capture all around the world, big pay off too.”

“Is that how you met Marcus?” Zoran butted in.

“Yea.” He spoke it off casual as kidnapping was how friendships started. “But I found that his company was better than my family’s so I decided to stick around and not deliver him to god knows where.”

“Do you know what he is then?” Diana asked.

“Yes but I don’t believe it’ll be in my best interest to say.”

“Why not?” She asked again.

“I’m not an idiot. I know about your organization’s dark history and your habit to weaponize the rare.” Caspian replied. “I remember the draft of 1908, forcefully making the Jhins apply for the Keeper’s force.” Jericho didn’t know how to react to the information, he just simply glanced at Diana, waiting for an answer.

“We thought it was for the best.” She admitted. “They were dying off and we couldn’t help as much as we wanted. We figured teaching them to fight and sheltering them within an entire team would be more efficient than responding to distress calls in middle of the desert.

There was a moment of silence between Caspian and Diana who stood over him. They held each other’s gaze for a while, Diana’s resolved look meeting Caspian’s dark glare.

“Do you know where he is? Where the wendigo took him?” Jericho interrupted. He wanted to get back to the task at hand and save this standoffish argument for later.

Caspian fiddled with the nozzle of the bottle before answering, “Yea. I know where he took him.” Tossing the now empty bottle in the trash he got up from the booth, “C’mon. Wendigo’s aren’t exactly the sharing type, he would want to know why Marcus is so valuable before giving him away. My pack found their den a couple of hours ago. I didn’t have a reason to pay a visit till now. The bastard has something of mine and I want him back.”