Chapter 3-Evasive Maneuvering

"Shit, Roe."

"Yeah, Joe. Things just got a lot more complicated."

"You got a plan?"

"Kinda. I'm thinking we'll stop by your place and trade cars, then hit up the roach spot for some clarification between me and my new friends."

"The roach spot, really Roe?" Joe said, disgust in his voice.

"Yeah, I know, but it'll just be for some conversation before deciding what to do next."

"The roach spot?" Shane asked.

Roe held up a finger to let Shane know she would answer him when she got done talking to Joe.

"Okay, Roe. I'll have a car waiting, just come 'round back, and I'll try to get u a little more info before you get here."

"Okay, thanks Joe."

"No problem, Roe. You know how much u mean to us."

"I know Joe", Roe sighed, I wish it was because of who I am, not what I am, but I appreciate it just the same.

"You're welcome, Roe. Bye."

As Roe hung up the phone, she turned her attention to Shane and said, "The roach spot is a motel on the other side of town. And no, it's not full of roaches, it's the place some of the pack males like to hang out cuz it's close to where the strip clubs are."

"What do the strip clubs have to do with anything?"

"Umm." Roe said thinking about how to word what she was going to have to explain next.

"If I may?" Adrian asked.

"If you know what I'm trying to explain, go for it." Roe said.

"What she's trying to put delicately is that the pack males hang out around the strip clubs because where there are strip clubs, there are prostitutes."

"Okay. I get that, and I get that the pack males go there a lot with the hookers, but why are we going to that motel?"

"I'm assuming she wants to go there because we will attract a lot less attention in that kind of  establishment than in a motel in a different part of town."

"Exactly." Roe said with a sigh of relief. "I chose there because if someone's looking for y'all, and me to some extent, that's not somewhere they're likely to look anytime soon. Hopefully, we will get some things straightened out between us, and move on before that happens."

"What do we need to straighten out? We meet the Alpha, and we leave, separately. End of story" Shane griped.

"Hmm. That is one possibility," Adrian said, thoughtfully "but I for one would like to find out exactly what Miss Roe here is, and what all she's hiding from us."

"What?!" Shane exclaimed, as Roe blushed. "What is she?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I find it hard to believe that this car, which has an​ interesting protection spell on it, is usually driven by an ordinary human." Adrian said with a hint of disdain in his voice. "Which means that either she has friends in high places, or she's not what she seems."

"She doesn't smell like a werewolf or a vampire." Shane stated, shrinking away from her into his seat.

"I don't know yet, but I'm guessing some kind of a familiar," Adrian replied, "or possibly a witch."

"I am not a familiar!" Roe said heatedly. Familiar? Familiar! He thinks I'm a freaking familiar! I can't believe he thinks that, much less that he actually said it. The audacity! "Familiars have been outlawed in the United States for over fifty years, in case you didn't know that. And my family hasn't had a familiar in over a hundred years! I am not a familiar."

"My apologies my dear, but you neither feel nor act like a witch." Adrian sneered at her.

That was a lovely apology. Roe thought sarcastically, then snapped at him. "Well, that's part of what I want to discuss with y'all after I meet with Joe. I think we may have some common interests and enemies."

"What's a familiar?" Shane interrupted.

"You know in the book Dracula, how he made those Renfield things?" Roe asked Shane. "Those mindless creatures that did nothing other than their master's bidding, and rotted at the same time?"

"Um, yeah, kinda. It's in the movie too, right?" Shane asked.

"Well that's kind of what a witch's familiar was. A mindless human zombie thing that only lived to serve the witch, and go do things for her while she stayed safe with her coven. And after the witch got tired of them, she couldn't undo the damage she had caused them and let them go. They didn't have a mind of their own anymore. So the witch would turn them into a cat, or bird, or whatever her favorite animal was.  And when the witch changed them, they totally became that animal, body and mind. Which allowed them to live out the rest of their life as close to normal as possible.  They were still attached to the witch, but could function without them. That's where the witch with a black cat stereotype came from, a lot of the witches turned the familiars into cats."

"Oh, I didn't know any of that." Shane said sounding puzzled.

"Yeah," Roe said ruefully, "the packs aren't great about informing their wolves about other cultures. Of course, most packs don't mingle with the rest of the supernatural communities so it usually isn't an issue."

"So, are you a witch?" Shane asked.

"Well, yes and no." Roe said. "Yes, I am a witch, but I haven't come into my full powers yet."

"Don't witches come into their full powers when they turn eighteen?" Adrian interjected, his voice full of contempt.

"Well, some do, and some don't. It depends on the line." Roe replied vaguely.

"The line?" Shane asked.

"Bloodline, the ancestry of the witch. It's sort of like the werewolves get their status in the pack by fighting, but their innate ability is determined by their parents and grandparents. Usually a pair of omegas don't produce an alpha. It's not unheard of, but it's not common. And the ones that do, usually one of their ancestors, like a grandparent or great grandparent was an alpha."

"Okay, and?"

"And in the case of vampires, it's usually about who sired the vampire, and their power, and in rare cases gaining power through the blood of another."

"Correct, but what does that have to do with witches?" Adrian asked brusquely.

"Well, it depends on the witch's ancestry too. Their power is determined by whether they are from a powerful line or not. Usually the less powerful the line, the earlier they come into their full powers. However, sometimes the weakest never get a power boost, what they're born with is all there is to it."

"So, what you're saying is that either you're going to be very powerful, or you're extremely weak." Adrian said scornfully.

"In general that's how it works. I already know which way I'm going to go, but it's not quite that simple in my case."

"Oh, do tell." Adrian said drolly.

"I will, but right now, I'm thinking we need to do a little evasive maneuvering, in case we're being followed." Roe said.

"The only evasive thing right now is you." Adrian griped.

"Evasive maneuvering? What are you planning on doing that's evasive?" Shane asked dismissively.

"Well, for one thing, you're going to have to be quiet for this to work." Roe said, as she turned through a gate into a dark parking lot, and quickly backed the car into a parking spot up against the building.

"For what to work, hiding in plain sight?" Shane asked.

"A spell. Just because I said I hadn't come into my full powers yet, doesn't mean I don't have powers. I can hide the heat and scent of the car for a little while, but I can't do that and cover all the sound too. So please stay quiet, and slouch down back there."

Shane and Adrian looked at each other and slid down in their seats, as Roe slouched down in her seat and muttered a few words to herself and held her hands, palms up next to her shoulders.

A few minutes later a car slowly drove by the entrance to the parking lot. All of the windows were rolled down, and two guys had their heads stuck out the back windows.

"I don't see them or smell them." One of the guys said.

"Keep going" a third male said. "They probably saw us and turned again."

The car accelerated down the road and as soon as they couldn't hear it any more, Shane asked "How long are we going to sit here?"

"Sshhh," Roe hissed at him. Why did I have to pick these two up? They're a lot more trouble than I had expected. They're both bad tempered, Shane's impatient and Adrian's so full of himself I could scream.

A couple of minutes later another car drove slowly by the lot where they were parked. It also had its windows down. Roe and the guys could hear the people in the car arguing as it drove by.

"How did we lose them?"

"It was that stupid human girl that picked them up and shot Scotty."

"What could she have done about it?" another one scoffed. "She's only human. The vampire has to be controlling her if they got away from Jack's guys."

"Yeah, that's probably it."

"The Major's gonna be really pissed about us losing them."

"We'll just have to keep looking around town to see if we can't find them. Even if we tell him, he's just going to tell us to stay and keep looking anyway."

"Yeah, you're right about that."

When the car finally drove out of hearing range, Roe dropped her hands. "Okay, let's get going, we've still got to go meet Joe." she said as she cranked her car.

"Where are we going now?" Shane grumped.

"We're going to Blood Moon Rising."

"What the heck is that?" Shane asked as Adrian finally cracked a smile.

"Joe's bar."

"What are you talking about?" Shane asked impatiently.

"Blood Moon Rising is the name of Joe's bar."

Adrian chuckled and said "That's a great name for a werewolf bar."

"Joe thought so too." Roe said smiling.

"Let me get this straight," Shane started slowly, "Joe, the Alpha of the Sunset Pack, has a bar named Blood Moon Rising? Doesn't that scare off the humans?"

"No, not really. The humans just think it's a play on the Creedence Clearwater Revival song Bad Moon Rising. They don't know that there's a private area in the back that's supernatural creatures only. Joe did it that way because it was easier to have a VIP area that most people aren't allowed into than to try and turn away all the humans. There's also a back door only supernaturals can get in through, so there's not that much VIP traffic that the humans see."

"That sounds like a good idea. Why haven't I heard about this before?" Adrian asked her curiously.

"It's not really advertised. Joe didn't want people coming and going from his pack lands randomly. He thought he'd have too many rogues coming around, and he just didn't want to have to deal with it. He likes things quiet, or as quiet as they can be around a bunch of werewolves." Roe said with a slight laugh.

"Hey-" Shane started.

"I know what he means. Wolves aren't the quietest creatures, are they?" Adrian asked, finally showing a bit of humor.

Roe laughed. "No, that they are not."

"We're not that bad." Shane griped. "At least we don't leave dead humans laying everywhere."

"We don't do that." Adrian snapped at him.

"Okay, boys, no fighting. We need to discuss what's going to happen when we get to Joe's. He's going to have a car waiting for us to swap into, in case they know what this one looks or smells like. I want you two to stay in the car while I talk to Joe for a few minutes-"

"Why do we need to stay in the car?" Shane crossly interrupted her, leaning toward her seat.

"As I was saying...I don't want anyone to be able to smell you, and the less time you spend outside the car, the less likely anyone is to notice you." She paused. "Also, since we have no idea what's going on, the less people that know about y'all being here, the better. Hopefully, we can have the conversation that we need to have and get y'all out of town before many people know that you're here."

"That sounds amenable to me." Adrian said.

"Fine, I guess." Shane said petulantly, sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms.

"Would you rather continue being harassed by those mystery guys?" Adrian asked sarcastically. "I for one would not. Keeping a low profile while we pool information sounds like a good idea to me."

"Why are you so interested in sharing information? I didn't think vamps cared about anyone other than themselves." Shane questioned suspiciously.

"Shane. Quit acting like a spoiled little pup." Roe scolded him. "I've been around a lot of vampires, and werewolves, suffice it to say that your supernatural creature education is sorely lacking. Now please quit arguing over everything, you don't even know what's going on with anyone outside your pack, much less anything pertaining to another supernatural creature."

"How dare you-" Shane snarled.

"I dare because you don't know who I am yet." Roe snarled right back at him. "Now sit back and be quiet until we're at the motel, you'll understand more then."

"Why should I listen to you?" He complained.

"I can't explain now, we're almost at Joe's. But I can promise you this, if your Alpha finds out you disrespected me, he will have your head." She warned him.

"What are you talking about? How do you know my Alpha?"

"I don't know him personally, but I'm sure he knows who I am." She replied confidently.

"How on earth would he know who you were?" Shane asked scornfully.

"That's one of the things I'll explain when we get to the motel. I promise I will, and then if you still want to leave, I can get Joe to give you a ride wherever you want to go." She tried to reason with him.

"Fine, but as soon as you explain, I'm out of here." Shane said grumpily. "The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because Alpha Rogers already knows I'm here with you, and I know he knows my Alpha."

Shane pouted as Roe slowed the car and pulled into a dark parking lot. "I don't really care why you're cooperating, as long as you cooperate." She looked out the window toward the back door of the building "There's Joe. Sit tight, and give me a minute. I'll be back as soon as I can, then we'll go."