Chapter Fifteen

Harold woke to a polite knocking on the door, followed by a more demanding knocking.   

“Just a minute!” He shouted irritably and pulled on the clothes from the chair he threw them on the night before.  Scratching his back and stomach he smelled Josephine, a bellhop who was barely able to contain himself and lunch.  Opening the door surprised the bellhop who had apparently been completely distracted by Josephine.  He walked back into the room scratching his bum.   

“Good morning Sir Sleepsalot!”  Said Josephine with a cheery smile.  She was wearing what Harold thought were overly tight jeans and a very baggy Quinault Lodge sweatshirt.  The bellhop pushed the trolley into the room and put the food down on the table.  Once done, he turned to Harold with his hand out and his eyes on Josephine.  He was smiling like he thought he had a chance with her.  Harold gave him a ten dollar bill.   

“Ma’am, you sure there’s nothing I can get for you?  Anything you need, or want?  I can deliver it to your room personally.”  His smarmy tone grated on Harold and he had to suppress the urge to backhand him.   

“No.  If I need anything, Mr. Smith here can take care of it for me.” She said with a nod in Harold’s direction.  The bellhop turned to look at Harold who glared at him.  This was enough to make the boy rush out the door rolling the trolley into the door jamb on the way out.  

“To impatient to let me enjoy my lunch in the restaurant?” Asked Harold.   

“You’re welcome.”  Replied Josephine in a haughty tone.  She opened the curtains and balcony door.  The smells of rain, forest and lake entered the room and mixed with the smells of food.  Harold felt himself wake up a little more.   

“Sorry.  The boy annoyed me.”  Harold gulped down the glass of milk and then picked up the burger.  The smell of it brought a smile to his face.   

“I was thinking.  If I can’t find any reformed vampires, I’ll go into sales.  I should have no problem selling anything to anyone.”  Harold laughed out loud.   

“No doubt!  You’d have people clearing out their credit cards!”  A question came to Harold’s mind, “What do vampires do to earn a living?  Assuming you do.” He paused his devouring of chips to gulp down a glass of orange juice.  

“Nothing.  Our wealth is established and very old.  Victims are sometimes robbed if they have something valuable, but anything we purchase is done using money that’s been invested over the centuries.”  Josephine walked out to the balcony and breathed in deeply through her nose.  Harold was about to ask her about her backpack of money when she came back in and sat down across from him.   

“You’re about to ask me where I got all my cash from aren’t you?” She looked pleased with herself.  

“Yes.”

“Robbery.  I stole it all from businesses and shops.  I knew I needed cash rather than using the guild’s credit, so I just broke into places and emptied safes.”  She seemed even more pleased with herself.   

Harold finished his meal.  “No doubt leaving behind fingerprints, footage on security cameras, and other evidence?”  Josephine frowned at Harold.   

“I’m not stupid.  I wore gloves and a mask.  I also smashed any cameras I saw with a cricket bat or rocks.  I could have leapt up to them and yanked them out of the walls, but smashing them is a more human thing to do.”   

Harold wiped his mouth and beard.  “Well, then you can use your ill-gotten gains to pay for the hotel stay.”  He didn’t really care Josephine had stolen all her money.  It wasn’t worth it to him to make a fuss about.  

“Fine.  You get the next one.  So today we’re going to explore the woods some more.” She said this as if announcing something they had already discussed.   

“We are?”  

“Yes.  We’ll do some hunting too.”  Josephine leaned forward and sniffed the coffee that was left in Harold’s cup.  “We’ll be out late and I don’t want you to get hungry.”  Harold took his cup of coffee and finished it.   

“That being the case, I’ll skip showering and find a lake or stream to bathe in.”   

Josephine wrinkled her nose, “Do you have any idea how much you smell?  Please take a shower.” She sounded honestly disgusted.  

“Fine.  Meet me downstairs in the lobby. 20 minutes.”  With that he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.  When Henry finished showering, he nearly walked into the bedroom naked but smelled Josephine still there.  Wrapping a towel around his waist he poked his head around the door.  She was on the balcony looking over the lake.   

“Why are you still here?” Harold asked as he walked into the bedroom to get some clean clothes.  He could guess why.

“The lobby will be filled with people.” Josephine replied without turning around.  Harold nodded his head.   

“Give me a minute to get dressed.”  Taking his clothes into the bathroom he dressed and once again tried to brush his hair.  He’d used conditioner this time and his hair was a lot easier to brush.  The brush still got caught in his hair, but not as much.  Josephine turned from looking at the lake as he walked back into the bedroom.  She smiled at Harold.  For some reason her smile made him feel uncomfortable.  He couldn’t place the cause, and not being self-analytical, didn’t try.   

“What’s that smile for?  Gratified I used conditioner?”

She laughed, “No.  Yes.  I don’t know. Never mind.  You ready?”

“Let me get my jacket and boots on and we’ll go.”  Harold grabbed his night pack, slung it on, and threw on his jacket and then his boots.  He opened the door for Josephine and waved his hand out the door.  She smiled again and walked out.   

Josephine was right, the lobby was busy.  She walked a little closer to Harold and leaning into him whispered, “Glare.”

Harold did so.  People couldn’t help but look at the two of them, but kept their distance.  Harold realized they must be the subject of many conversations and conjectures.  The scruffy, muscular, scary looking man and the alluring, refined and beautiful woman who didn’t seem to be romantically connected but were connected.  Somehow.  

It was gently raining as they walked out to the parking lot.  Harold pulled out the keys to the Escalade and handed them to Josephine.  “You drive today.” She seemed to be taking the lead for the day’s outing and he thought her driving would be fitting.

“No, you drive.”

“Very well.” Harold opened the passenger door for Josephine and she climbed in.  

Harold got in and buckled himself in.  “Where are we going then?  The mountains, or the sea?”   

“The mountains. More game there and so a more likely place to find werewolves and vampires.” She sounds like someone who knew what they were talking about.  Harold suspected that was true of only last night.   

“Spent the time researching hunting online last night?” ask Harold as he pulled out of the parking lot and steered the car up the South Shore road to the place they’d parked the first night.   

Josephine grinned, “Yes.  I must have read everything about the Olympic Mountains and the Puget Sound.  I also found a website that phonetically spells the native place names.  Very useful for preventing that ‘you’re not from around here’ look from the locals.”  

“Then you’ll have to teach those to me, or do all the talking.”  Harold was curious which option she’d prefer.  Her behaviour in the lobby indicated she wanted to avoid dealing with people.   

“I’ll teach you.” Josephine’s mood shifted as she said it and she seemed saddened.

Harold didn’t want her pulling into herself and going into one of her frozen statue phases.  “Then I am your eager pupil.  Please elucidate the names and proper pronunciation of the local towns, rivers and such.”  

Josephine’s mood shifted again with a laugh.  “The way you talk at times.  I can’t decide if you’re putting on airs, mocking, or went to some pretentious Ivy League university and got a degree in literature.”   

“20 years of private ulfhednar school.”  Harold could have expounded about that further, but wanted to find out more about draugar education. “You mentioned you spend the first year as a vampire learning the Beriyt.  Is that it?  Surely you must spend a few years learning how to, well, hunt?”  Harold knew he was walking into a sensitive topic, but his curiosity was stronger than his restraint.  

“Private school?” Josephine sounded surprised.  “You sound private school, but you look like a lumberjack.  To answer your question, yes, our mentor spends another year or so teaching us how to work within the guild system.  The hierarchy, how to buy a place, using it, hiding…evidence, where you can go, can’t go, how to interact with other guilds, practical things.  What on earth do you spend 20 years learning?” Harold paused for a second and considered how much he should reveal.   

“Well, except for religious studies, most of it is the same as an earðkin education.  Math, sciences, grammar, geography, anthropology, history, etc.  By the time we’re done we have the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts degree.”  He’d left out the training on how to hunt and kill draugar.

“Most of it?”  Josephine was looking at Harold with an expectant look on her face.   

“You spend some of your education learning how to avoid ulfhednar?” He replied by way of an answer.   

Josephine turned away and sat back in her seat. “There it is again.” Harold kept his eyes on the road and just said, “Yes.  There it is.”

Neither spoke the rest of the way to the little road where they had parked two nights ago.  Parking and hiding the Escalade together was also done in silence.  Harold was about to start taking his clothes off when Josephine started taking off her jeans.

“What in Oðinn’s name are you doing?!” Harold blurted.  Josephine looked at him and Harold realized she was wearing what appeared to be black tights under her jeans.   

“While you were sleeping the day away, I drove down to Aberdeen and did some more shopping.” As she said this, she removed her baggy sweatshirt to reveal a tight fitting black, long sleeve shirt.  “I found a sporting goods store and bought a couple of outfits.  My other clothes felt restrictive when we were running through the woods.”  Taking off her shoes she spun around with her hands over her head and asked, “Well, what do you think?  I chose black to make it difficult to see me.”   

Harold realized he was staring.  Training or not, Josephine’s allure was tangible and wearing a skin tight body suit just made it worse for him.  Josephine looked up from admiring her new outfit and realized he was staring.  Crossing her arms across her chest she said in an impatient tone, “Well, get furry.”   

“Right.” Harold walked to the back of the SUV and took off his jacket, pack and his shirt.  Stuffing the jacket and shirt into the pack he realized he’d not heard Josephine turn around.  He looked over his shoulder to see her still standing there with her arms crossed looking at him.   

“I’m going take my pants of now.  Were you planning to watch?” Asked Harold.  Josephine turned around.  Harold quickly doffed his shoes, socks and jeans and stuffed them in the night pack.  With a quick prayer to his ancestors he released his ulfhedinn form.  As he was changing, he turned and saw Josephine looking at him with a pitying look on her face.   

Straightening up to his full height, he looked at Josephine.  “Was that pity for an ulfhedinn I saw?”  Her expression changed to haughtiness.  

“Maybe.  I don’t like to see people in pain.  You qualify as a person.” She turned in the direction of the mountains.  “I smell a large deer, but not quite a deer.  An elk perhaps?”  

Harold closed his eyes and breathed in deep through his nose.  It was still raining and the smells of the damp forest went deep into his senses.  Yes.  An elk.  Female and strong.  And much more besides.  Opening his eyes he found Josephine standing in front of him.   

“What’s the world like for you?” She asked.  Harold was a little startled to see her standing so close.  He took a step back with one foot.   

“It’s the same as yours.” As he said it, Harold realized that wasn’t true.  “I just experience it with better senses and through a different theological philosophy.”  He added. “Well, are we hunting elk or do you want to stand around chatting all day?”  Harold didn’t wait for an answer.  Dropping to all fours he loped into the forest in a direction that would put him downwind of the elk.  He smelled Josephine behind him.  He motioned for her to catch up to him.   

“Can you feel the wind? Smell it?” He whispered.  

“Yes.” She was crouched next to him.  

“We’re downwind.  Take some time and breath in the smell of the elk.  It’s a female.  If it had a doe you’d smell it from here.  Can you smell its urine and spoor?”

Josephine inhaled a few times. “Yes, yes I can.” She took in a few more breathes and then turned to Harold, “When you killed that deer the other night you were only ten feet from it before you sprang.  Do you always get so close?  I thought werewolves liked to run their targets into a trap.  Or is that just how you hunt vampires?”  She didn’t ask as if she were angry or resentful.  It sounded more like an academic question.  

“I hunt a little differently from my kinsmen.  I prefer to get close to my quarry before attacking.”  Looking at Josephine he asked, “How close do you think you can get?”  She shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know.  Let’s see.” She stayed in a crouch and began moving slowly in the direction of the elk.  Harold move quietly next to her, occasionally motioning toward a log or different path she should take to minimize the sound she made.  They were about 20 feet from the elk when it suddenly raised its head from the moss it had been eating.  Its nose flared.  It took a step then froze.  Josephine and Harold were motionless for a couple of seconds.  The elk slowly took a step and Josephine moved forward.  Harold stayed where he was.  This was Josephine’s kill.  Lowering its head, the elk took a few bites of moss and Josephine moved forward another couple of feet.  The elk quickly lifted its head.  Its ears were twitching and its nose flared again.  Josephine was only 15 feet from it.  With a sudden leap she flew at the elk and sunk her teeth into the vein just under its jaw.  The impact of her leap sent them both sprawling across the ferns.  Josephine had both hands on the elk’s neck and held tight as they tumbled.  With her teeth still lodged she righted herself and began draining the elk’s blood.  It’s legs twitched and it made a bleating sound then went silent.  Josephine held on and spent the next few minutes sucking out the elks’ blood.  Harold crouched nearby and silently watched.  He was running through the questions he wanted to ask her and how best to ask them.  

Finally sated, Josephine sat back from the elk’s corpse.  Her face had a blissful smile.  “Not bad.”  Said Harold.  He meant it.   

“Thanks.  That was delicious. I’ve never tasted anything so good.” Josephine leaned back on her elbows and looked up at the trees.   

“Hunting like this makes it all the better doesn’t it?” Asked Harold. Josephine nodded her head. “Oh definitely.”  

“Why do vampires lure their victims into a home instead of hunting them like this?  Are they just being cautious?” Harold thought of a prayer to Oðinn and hoped his question wouldn’t put Josephine on edge.  

“Mmmhmm.  That and the homes are customized for us.”  Harold did his best to keep his voice casual.  “Vampiric interior design?  Some prefer French Provincial, others Bauhaus?”

Josephine laughed, “Nooo… things like hidden entrances to take the body out.  Sealed stone floors so blood doesn’t soak in, things like that.  Although, you’d be surprised how often most vampires redo their homes.  It’s a way of fighting off boredom more than anything else.”

Harold cocked his head to one side, “Boredom?”  Josephine sat up and crossed her legs.   

“Oh yes, boredom.  You werewolves may get jobs raising sheep or whatever.  We spend our time impressing each other with our good taste and trying to prove how committed we are to God, Lilith and Cain.  It gets old after about 50 years.” Harold thought her mood was going in the wrong direction.  “Well, I hope these past couple of days haven’t been boring for you.”  

“Oh, no!  The last couple of days have been like nothing I’ve experienced!”  Josephine stood up on her toes and stretched her arms over her head.  “I’ve not felt this good about…anything since I was a girl.” Harold was about to ask her another question when she looked at him with an excited expression.  “I’m going to see how high I can climb a tree!  You want to come?”  Harold smiled and shook his head.   

“No.  My weight would bend the branches too much for you to get very high.  If you don’t mind I’d like to finish this elk.”  It was her kill and Harold didn’t want to be presumptuous.  

Josephine looked at the elk as if she’d just noticed it.  “Oh, please be my guest.  I’d rather not hang around when you eat anyway.  No offense but… well…” Harold waved his hand, “No, it’s fine.  Go.  Enjoy the climb and view. Go.” He said with a wave of his hand up the tree.  Josephine leapt up the closest tree and started climbing.  Harold watched her go.  She was fast and moved with confidence.  Within seconds she was hidden in the branches.  With a quizzical look at the elk’s body Harold wondered how it would taste with all the blood drained.  Putting a foot on the body he ripped of a leg and took a bite.  Some blood was still in the meat and the taste was very good.   

Harold had just finished the fourth leg when he caught the scent of a small pack of wolves.  They were moving in his direction.  Standing up he turned in the direction he knew they’d approach from.  Above him he could smell Josephine coming down the tree.  “Stay up in the branches!” he said in a voice not quite a shout.  

The wolves had caught the smell of the elk and were hungry.   Not hungry enough to get close to something that smelled familiar but different.  Harold crouched down and growled at the lead wolf.  The fur along his back raised.  The lead wolf growled back and walked around Harold at an angle to him.  The rest of the pack growled in low tones and moved around Harold to encircle him.  He had no desire to fight and with a half bark, half growl he picked up the elk and tossed it in front of the lead wolf.  The wolf jumped back and growled at Harold.  Harold stood still.  The lead wolf sniffed at the elk and growled at Harold.   

“Josephine.  Come down and land next to me.” He said without taking his eyes off the lead wolf.  Harold heard her scramble down the tree a little more then a rush of air as she jumped from the tree to land in a crouch next to him.  All the wolves jumped back a few more feet and growled.  “Stand still.”  Harold could smell the wolves’ sudden surprise and their decreasing desire to get into a fight.  They moved around to the lead wolf and the elk.   

“We’re free to leave now.” Whispered Harold, “Slowly turn around and walk down the hill.” Josephine turned and walked away.  Harold stayed behind her, walking backwards for a few feet until he saw the lead wolf sinking his teeth into the elk.  

When they were out of sight of the wolves, Josephine turned to look at Harold.  “What was that all about?  Neither of us were in real danger.  We could have killed all four of them.”   

Harold growled, “To what purpose?  The pleasure of the kill?”  Harold had heard things like this before from young ulfhedinn.  The excitement and challenge of the hunt, combat and kill was seductive.  “The hunt is thrilling.  But we don’t hunt solely for pleasure.  To do so is wasteful and shows a lack of self-discipline.”  Josephine looked chastised.   

“Sorry, I…sorry.”  They walked in silence for a while until finally Harold stopped.   

“You’ve found that you can do things you hadn’t even realized you could do.  A new world has opened to you and you want to see how far you can go. How far you can challenge yourself.  I understand.  I and every ulfhedinn goes through this.”  Harold thought back to his days as a young ulfhedinn.  “You want a challenge?  Let’s see if you can pin me in a fight.”   

Josephine took a step back.  “Not on your life!  You’d kill me! Oath or no oath.”  

“No, I wouldn’t. I’ve black belts in four different martial arts and could toss you around like a rag doll.”  Changing direction Harold started walking back up the hill.  “How’s this?  We’ve a lot of territory to cover.  You lead and shout out every scent or spoor you smell that could be wolf or vampire and I’ll shout out when you miss one.”   

“Fair enough.  Try to keep up.”  Josephine took off at a run up the hill keeping the smell of the wolves they’d encountered to her right.  

Josephine spent the next six hours making a large circle back to the where they parked the car.  She stopped several times when she smelled wolf or some other game she was interested in.  Harold watched her carefully.  She was moving differently from how he’d seen other draugar move.  It was obvious she was making a conscious effort to emulate his hunting style.   

Back at the car Josephine put her jeans and clothes on one side of the SUV while Harold got dressed on the other.  Getting into the SUV with the windows up Harold realized Josephine definitely smelled different from how she smelled when he’d first met her on the flight to Seattle.  He didn’t think it was the draug equivalent of sweat.  He’d chased draugar many times and never noticed them smelling different after a long hunt no matter how hard they had run.  He wondered if the change in Josephine’s diet was the cause.   

“How you feeling?” He asked as if asking an athlete after a game.   

“Good.  I could do that all night, but I know you have limits and need your sleep.” Her voice bordered on patronizing.

“Nice of you to take my mortal limitations into account.” Josephine laughed and it sounded like a young girl laughing about something she hadn’t expected to be funny.  Harold looked at her.  He had to remind himself she was a mass murder. Reformed or not.  

It was a close to 11PM when they arrived back at the lodge.   

“I’m going to get a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow why don’t we spend the day on the road and check out the other towns in and around the reservation.  Come the night we can spend the evening checking out the rest of the reservation north and south of the river.  Sounds alright to you?” Harold was doing his best to sound business like.   

“Hmm?  Oh. Yes.  That sounds like a good idea.”  She seemed distracted as they walked through the empty lobby.  

“You alright?” asked Harold.

“Yes.  Just thinking about this night.  If you get up early let me know.  I may spend the evening thinking and not notice the time.” Her plans made Harold curious.  He pressed the button for elevator.  

“Thinking? Like in your statue mode for the whole night?” Josephine laughed a little at his description of her contemplative state.  

“Yes, like that.”   

“Well, I’ll probably sleep to 8AM and have breakfast.  You want me to knock after that?” They had arrived at the doors to their rooms and Josephine walked to hers without looking back at Harold.   

“That’ll be good.  ‘Night.” She said as the door closed behind her.  Harold shrugged and walked into his room.  He showered quickly and with a towel wrapped around him filed his nightly report.  Not bothering to put anything on, he climbed into bed and fell asleep.