Shadowed Choices

Chapter Two

"Werewolves were created by humans, believe it or not." He said after we sat down. He was two chairs away from me. I was mildly wondering who the other jealous mind he might hearing could be. It could have easily been Petr, but Petr was nowhere to be seen. It wouldn't have been like him to sit around idly like that either. He would have approached me by now.

"Then again, you could have easily called these humans Alchemists." He went on. "Alchemists, well, not even we know when they emerged. They're not technically good or bad; mad scientists if you will. I'm sure you've heard a little of the battle of the Apostols and the Dvoraks before?"

I nodded and made a motion with a hand gesture to continue.

"Good, because I'd hate to make this story longer than it needs to be." He looked relieved. "So anyways, with vampires being discovered, this small group of Alchemists in France decided to try and make something to counterbalance them. In other words, create a formidable enemy, something that would be far less risky in hunting vampires down. Now before I forget, you know how vampires came to be right?"

"Yeah. Necromancy and blood magick. Bad witches." Calling them black witches felt like a racist thing to say, end even though calling them bad witches sounded childish... well, Derek didn't seem to mind.

"Good, saves me from yet from another long story. So to make a longer story short, Alchemists created werewolves; but by creating them in confined spaces underground -- really bad idea."

"Their own creations turned on them by animal instinct?"

"Precisely. It still took a few years, when these large wolves lived out lives far too long for any average wolf. They eventually gained human consciousness, but even then, they still set out to do what they were created to do. They drove out vampires from small villages and made their numbers drop dramatically.

"After about a century of their creation," my brows rose to this, "they evolved. Hence gaining the bodies of humans. This took to a lot of adjusting, but they did it, all on their own."

"I'm glad I met you Derek, you tell very interesting stories." I would have made a cheers to that, but I didn't drink.

"Thank you, thank you," He made slight bows to a crowd that wasn't really there. I had a feeling this was how he was, even when he was sober. It made me crack a smile. I got the feeling this was someone who could bring me out of my shell more. "But I haven't finished yet."

"Ok."

"Full moon don't mean a thing. They can shift as they please. Yes, they are almost immortal but if there are any weaknesses, they aren't telling anybody. They can't turn humans into werewolves, like at all. That was just a myth created to spread fear to any," he began to air quote, "civilized vampires."

"Civilized vampires?" I know I had interrupted, but this was something else unheard of. I was trying to imagine vampires who only drank from blood bags. Who moved in next door and only came out at night. Maybe cut their own lawns (not in the direct sun I think), read the daily paper and watched the news. The world was becoming stranger than I would have hoped.

"Civilized vampires, of course, but you know since they were created under all that blood magic, necromancy stuff, they are oath bound."

"Aw man, that really sucks." No pun intended, but Derek caught it. The side glance he gave me and the slight curl of his lips told me that much.

"So you see, not all of them are as evil as they are made out to be. Some of them are victims too."

"How do you know all of this?"