Truthfully, I didn't want to go find Eli, not one bit. My life had already gotten complicated enough, without suddenly drawing attention from werewolf hunters. Even if Eli hadn't necessarily meant to endanger me, the attack only happened because Eli ran into me and had taken me back to a place that the hunters were familiar with.
I was still off-balance at some of the things that my wish had apparently spawned. I suppose I could understand the natural universe correction – werewolves had suddenly become a thing, so the counter balance to them, aka hunters, became a thing. I had NOT expected them to kidnap Cathy, which also raised a huge red flag. She was at her place when they attacked.
This meant one of two things: One- Eli was behind the attacks, and waiting to betray me, and the past day had been a giant ruse. Given that he fought with me, killing some of the order, that was highly unlikely.
Two- He was just REALLY, REALLY terrible at covert actions. The order realized he wasn't marching in lock-step with their beliefs, and started tailing him. They figured out that Cathy was a werewolf, and kidnapped her. Thankfully they hadn't gone full genocide and decided to kill my mother for fraternization, but still, things could have gone far worse.
This was probably the reality. He wasn't secretly going to betray me; he was just so inept at covering his tracks that allowing him to be near me was a liability in itself.
When I went looking for him, it wasn't because I wanted to; truthfully, I would have been fine with not seeing him again. Bad luck followed him, apparently. Drama followed him. I didn't need either. I had my own shit to deal with. Cathy had wanted me to, however, and I figured I might at least make her feel a little better by telling her he was safe.
Of course, he wasn't. I figured that shit out roughly the same time I got near the fortress. His scent had a noticeable sulphur undertone. It was subtle, but it was there. I could only presume it was that demonic presence he seemed to hold in himself. It wasn't overpowering, but to be painfully honest, at points it wafted like a particularly lingering fart if I concentrated on tracking it. This was a secret that I would never share with him, because nobody wants to be known as “the guy who kind of smells like farts”.
I actually started to snicker, as I began to think up private, flatulence-based nicknames that I would never share with him.
The animal side of me was intrigued by him. I wouldn't say that he “really liked” the demon, because that just wasn't the case. And the wolf most certainly didn't trust him. A demon was just a fucked up angel, after all. Still, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I still was going to keep him at arms length until I got my own house in order though, and the wolf agreed with me completely on that. My pack was my EVERYTHING, and I would never put it at risk for anyone I couldn't trust implicitly.
Suddenly, I smelled blood, and lots of it. Werewolf blood and Eli's weird, quasi-demonic blood. I moved more quickly, ready to fight. My senses heightened, and I was ready to change..only to find him passed out by a fire. Now closer, I could see evidence of multiple wounds healing, including a bite wound. He was in the incubation stage already, and probably had been for some time, as the flames had nearly burned down to embers.
I saw the charred knife, and realized he'd cauterized the wounds on his abdomen. “Well, Eli, if you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough,” I said, showing a grudging respect. The corpses of the werewolves still were on the ground, changed back to their human form in death. I wondered how they had changed, since the moon wasn't full last night. Were they moon-cursed, like Cathy? Cathy had made it sound like most werewolves were still quite lunar-tied. Either way, his kill count was impressive.
Of course, that also raised a simple question: why the fuck was he killing werewolves again? My animal instincts went on high alert again. Maybe he WAS going to betray me. I debated tearing his throat out right then and there. Letting the incubation complete would make him more dangerous, even if the only effect that “demon blood” had on him was to somehow make him more of an edgelord.
As I contemplated what to do, I heard a twig snap.