James’s Notes: In this episode, we get to meet Dimitri, a dapper, older Russian gentleman that I think you’re really going to like. He may be more than he appears, though…
I finally bid my two friends farewell and allowed Damien to deliver me to his Alpha. He was a little grumpy on the way, after being backed down by Ollie, but he didn’t mention it, obviously hoping I wouldn’t either. He had no idea how lucky he was. If Tasha had walked in to find him threatening her sweetheart, Damien would have found himself on the floor. Drowning. Possibly in his own blood.
The meeting with Wolfgang was painful in creative new ways that set it apart from all the kinds of pain I had experienced over the last couple of days. Unlike Damien, he was unfailingly polite. He was actually as smooth as the beta thought he was.
Like Damien, however,, he was an arrogant douchebag. Our conversation was full of him making little power plays that I resolutely refused to acknowledge. That’s why at one point I could count his nose hairs, since he kept trying to take my space and I just stood there like a hickory stump.
“My pack thanks you for your help, Witcherman, and you will be paid for your time, but that’s it. Your involvement in this matter is at an end. We will handle the creature.”
“Oh how full of crap you are, let me count the ways. First, calling him a creature is really rich coming from your royal furriness. Second, he will eat your sack lunch if you try to take him on in a fair fight.”
Wolfgang was a lot better at putting up with my crap than Damien. “And you think you can take him in a fair fight?”
“Don’t be ridiculous”, I smirked, “I’ve never been in a fair fight in my life.”
The upshot of the whole meeting was that after a lot of haggling, I gave up a good chunk of my fee to get the right to handle this in my own way. Wolfgang is proud, but he’s also a cheapskate, so he finally caved. I really didn’t want to give up the cash, but I’d rather take a loss than have a few dozen dead werewolves on my consciousness. That’s the sort of burden that can end up weighing more than a feather.
After all the arguing and drama, it lead up to me standing in the same darkened alley were just two days ago my mini had been so brutally assaulted. Wolfgang’s pack was gathered here, but keeping a safe distance, per my instructions. It wasn’t as hard to get them to do that as you might think. The main reason for this being the man standing beside me.
Dimitri was a tall, thin man wearing a particularly classy pinstripe black suit. Everything from his carefully slicked-back hair to his pocket handkerchief was studiously maintained. His gray hair and wire frame glasses gave him the look of an antiquarian, or possibly the type of librarian it doesn’t pay to cross.
“ Are you certain you have performed the ritual correctly, Daniel?” His Russian accent was smooth and cultured, the kind that sounds most at home saying words like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
I had spent the last several hours drawing the Arcane Circle that stood on the ground before us. It was a type of summoning spell, not the type you would use on a demon that would cause it to appear in the middle, but the type that would cause the subject of the summoning to be inexplicably drawn to it. It did require a sample from the subject, but luckily blood, fur, and other bodily fluids had been abundant at the scene of our fight.
I sighed heavily but did not roll my eyes, not wishing to give offense. “Yes Dimitri, I’m sure. He’ll be here.” No sooner had I said that, then I could hear all the werewolves phoned seem to go off at once. It seems the scouts they had posted were calling in. I nodded to Dimitri.
“Showtime”, I said with a smile.
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Gray Matters: The Works of Sharon and James Gray 