Paul called Zane and tell him what was going on. The group arrived at the house. Zane was waiting on the porch.
“I assume the boys filled you in?” Mr. Everald said as he started to lift the unconscious werewolf from the trunk. Zane went over to help.
“Yep. I have the perfect place to put him. We have cells downstairs.” Zane replied.
“Why do you have cells in your house?” asked Paul.
They managed to get the waiter in the cell. They grabbed a chair and tied him to it with Thalia's rope. Zane also added chains coming from the wall on his feet and ankle.
“The chains are silver. I never knew why but now it makes sense.” Zane explained.
The door was slammed shut and locked. It was like everyone could relax a little. The four went up stairs. A medical kit was pulled out to clean up any cuts or open wounds.
Paul asked. “Is your brother gonna be okay?”
“Him oh yeah. He'll be fine. It was only a broken neck. He will heal.” Zane explained. “On the bright side we have the werewolf we needed and now we can get everything out in the open.”
“How much do you already know?” Thalia asked.
“Everything” Zane replied with hesitation. “Paul told me everything.”
A dirty look shot from Thalia to Paul. Paul defended his decision. “He got us the files which led us to Drew. So you're welcome.”
The door flew open and a groggy Noah walked in. He went up to the bar and poured himself a shot. He slammed it back. Aiden began to speak but Noah put up his finger and shushed him. Another shot was poured and the annoyed man drank it. Noah began. “Okay where's the mutt so I can talk to him.”
“In the cells. How bout you wait so we can talk things out.” Zane responded.
“We need more action. If it was up to you nerds we would talk forever.” Noah said to the group.
“I'm sorry who captured a werewolf while you were knocked out. In fact it was Paul who successfully stabbed him with the dagger.” Thalia replied while standing up and walking to the bar.
Noah poured a drink and handed it to Thalia, “Fine Paul and Fergus are on my team. You three can talk.”
“No more teams, Noah, we all have the same goal.” Zane said.
“You know your brother is right.” Mr. Everald added.
The decision was made to continue the conversation tomorrow. They had had enough excitement for one night. Everyone went home and came back in the morning. The others were called and they all met at the tunnels. Delilah, Melissa, Beatriz, Tyler, and Quinn were pretty confused about the meeting at a random location.
“You guys have been pretty secretive about why we're meeting here. What gives?” Quinn asked.
“Paul knows. He knows everything. In fact he and Rhea's sister have been going through their own line of investigation.” Aiden told everyone.
The entire group were led through the underground tunnels by Aiden and Paul. They were armed with flashlights and a lot of questions. When they entered Melissa exclaimed. "Wow, looks like you guys have been busy with the arts and crafts.”
Thalia walked up and introduced herself. "I'm Thalia, Rhea's big sister. And it's time for us to trade notes."
The group spent the next hour or so putting all the pieces together. Everyone added things to the wall. It allowed them to answer some questions and fill in some blanks. Paul was finally at ease. He didn't know why it took so long for all of them to come together.
They finished working the cave wall. Tyler walked up to it and stared. "This is absolutely-"
"Convoluted" Beatriz finished.
"So much so," added Tyler.
"Okay we still have some major questions here.” Delilah said.
Beatriz stepped forward and took a piece of paper from the wall, "Does that say why does Beatriz exist? What kind of question is that?"
Aiden and Paul chuckled. They were thrown a dirty look by Thalia. She then walked up to Beatriz, "How much do you know about your history?
"Not a lot. Mr. Everald filled me in on some stuff and gave me some old books." Beatriz responded.
"Our ancestors helped found the town. Once the boys hit puberty they got some powers. But they had to give magic up if they wanted to stay in town. So they would bind our powers when we were babies." Tyler interjected.
Mr. Everald chimed in. "We never figured out why Tyler has powers.”
"The Benoit family dates back so long into the past. Your family was known for having the most powerful women around. Until you guys got cursed only to bear males. Now the male do have access to magic but it is nothing like what the women in your family could do. So it's a weird question but why are you alive?"
Melissa had a lightbulb go off in her head. "Wait, who was supposed to bind your powers? Maybe they just didn't."
"Logically it would be our dad I guess but he hates all this stuff." Tyler explained.
"Your grandpa. You said he likes all that stuff." Paul suggested.
"We're wasting time doing all this talking. I've got a werewolf back at my place and you still want revenge. We should go have some fun and torture him together so we can find out who's he is working for." Noah said while walking up to Thalia.
"Why is torture your answer to everything?" Zane asked his brother.
"At least I'm consistent.”
The team decided to split up with separate tasks. First go talk with the twins' grandfather. Second, get the werewolf to talk. Third, look into his life, see if they can link him to anyone.
"Hey, can you come with us to talk with our grandpa? He always liked you plus you might know what other questions to ask." Beatriz said to Paul
"Yeah I can do that. I just need to have a talk with someone first." he replied.
So far everything had gone pretty smoothly. Getting everyone on the same page went better than Paul thought it would go. However it was time to have a conversation he dreaded. It was time to have the talk with Quinn. The idea was to break it to Quinn alone and to the other as a group. It was important for Paul to tell his best friend as soon as possible. Aiden decided he should go along for this talk.
"Hey Quinn, can we talk outside." Paul said to him.
The three boys walked out into one of the hallways. Zane saw this and decided to join. This was a relief to Paul. Why didn't he think of having a super strength vampire there in the first place?
Quinn stopped and turned around, “Yeah guys what's up?"
"There's no easy way to say that but Rhea's actually dead. The one that came back is basically a copy. Something Thalia put together with magic." explained Paul.
"What the fuck are you talking about dude I hung out with her yesterday." Quinn responded.
Aiden decided to step in to explain. "When they brought me down to the tunnels they showed me, Thalia did something and then Rhea standing before me became just a pile of earth."
Zane added. “Listen to them. The Rhea you saw yesterday isn't Rhea.”
"She did the same thing to me in order to convince me all this stuff was real," Paul added.
The pain Quinn was feeling became evident on his face. As his eyes filled with tears as he got angry. "So the girl I've been spending time with isn't real. It's some Frankenstein? What the fuck are you guys even saying. She's real. I hugged her and could feel her skin on my skin.”
The tears were now streaming down his face. Paul felt terrible. This could have been avoided if they would have all came together in the first place. It also made him question why did Thalia even make a copy of her sister? That seems so illogical. Apparently his friend has the same question.
Quinn started to pace back and forth. Paul noticed his nails start to grow longer and his voice getting deeper. "What kind of sick bitch does that?" He snarled.
Before the group could stop him he sprinted towards Thalia. She had no time to react as Quinn pushed her down and got on top of her. The three outside ran after him. Zane got there first. Quinn’s hands were wrapped around her neck. Paul had never seen someone turn red so fast. Noah decided to help his brother.
As Quinn was pulled away Paul was able to see his best friend in full wolf mode. It's not what he expected. It was more half man half wolf. He was expecting more wolf. Still it frightened him more than he would ever admit out loud. The sound of Thalia coughing and gasping to breath echoed off the walls.
Mr. Everald went to help her. "What the hell is happening now?"
"They've been lying this whole time. Rhea's dead!' Quinn snapped.
"What is he talking about guys?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah we saw her yesterday." Melissa added.
"Tell them." Quinn commanded.
Thalia couldn't talk so Paul decided it fell into him to explain. "He's right. Rhea died on Halloween. She didn't survive the wolf attack. Thalia made a copy. The Rhea that is around now is some sort of magic."
"That's fucked up. You just decided to lie to everyone, even your parents. Who would do that?" Deliah questioned.
Thalia got to her feet. "I didn't want my parents to lose another daughter."
Zane walked Quinn out. Delilah and Melissa followed. Noah was curious. "Okay so what is she now?"
"A golem. It's a creature I made from the earth and pieces of her.” Thalia told the remaining people.
There was silence. No one knew what to say. Noah being Noah decided to break the silence with a question. “Wait did Quinn and the golem like…..do it?"
There was a group groan followed by Mr. Everald saying. "Not appropriate and you know that."