Chapter Two It had to have been a dream. Damon Dane Smith stumbled through his morning routine, this one thought present in his mind. It didn't seem real, it couldn't be. After so many months of wishing and hoping that something like this would happen, Damon couldn't believe it had actually occurred. He was a member of a Defense Team, the key member of the team. He was going to start work on the eventual capture of a dangerous creature today. As he gulped down two pieces of toast, hurrying to catch up with Nushi, who was giving him a ride today and waiting for him, Damon pinched himself twice to make sure he wasn't still dreaming. The pinches proved the reality, which was a relief to Damon as he hopped into Nushi's hover-car. It was top of the line and Damon arrived at his building in less than five minutes. Jokingly, he kissed his roommate goodbye and went inside. After making his way to his desk and setting down his briefcase, coat and other essentials, Damon went right away to the office of Emma Thomson. Emma Thomson, the Head of Werewolf Department at DAEC Inc., had worked for the company since she graduated from college. Emma was friends with Fuki, but this definitely wasn't the sole reason she got the job here. Starting off as a simple staff member in the Werewolf Department, with the help of her minor in the study of werewolves, Emma had worked her way up to the top in the most honest way possible--true, candid work. Emma loved her job at DAEC and often loudly voiced her wish that she had majored in werewolves (instead, she had chosen to major in radiology) so she could have helped out the company more. Damon had never really interacted with Emma, but had only heard good things about her. Softly knocking on Emma's office door, Damon was admitted when a joyful "Come in!" rang through. Damon immediately realized that like most of the women working at DAEC, Emma was another upbeat, happy, loving person. He went into the room and saw Emma sitting at a desk chair, furiously writing. Her long blond hair half covered her face, but Damon could see enough to know that she was beautiful--she had big blue eyes, a small perky nose and lips ready to smile. Her tanned skin nicely contrasted with her light hair; Emma completely fit the stereotype of a Californian, which she was. Still writing, Emma waved her free hand at one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Sit for a bit, kay? Get comfortable. I just need to finish this report--it was due yesterday." Damon smirked and selected a seat. He didn't have to wait long, for it seemed Emma was basically through with the report when he walked in. A minute or two later, she looked up and for the first time actually saw him. "Oh! You're Damon Smith, right?" she asked. He nodded in reply, blinking at her. "I didn't expect you so early, but I suppose Fuki was right when she said you were super excited, huh?" Damon blushed at this accurate perception of him and answered, "Well, yes. This will be my first time on a Defense Team and I wanted to get as much work done as I can in the time I have. I don't know that much about werewolves, just the basic stuff really, so I figured the first person I should talk to was you." Emma smiled at Damon and she stood up. "You thought right. Come on; let's go into the office space. I'll give you a couple generic books on werewolves, then you can focus on the profiling part of pre-fieldwork." Damon looked confused. "Oh, right. I'm sorry, I forgot that this is your first time. Okay, this is what we do when we're preparing for fieldwork, which is what we call it when we're actually out there, capturing the creatures. First, no matter what, you research the creature. I don't care if you're an expert on that creature--you research. General facts, specific facts, everything. Then, after you feel comfortable with the creature you're dealing with, or sometimes this step coincides with the research, you profile. You write down everything you know about your specific creature and things you don't know but suspect about them. This will eventually help you find the creature. For this step, I suggest heading to Tash McMahon. Do you know Tash?" Damon replied in confirmation. Tash was the only other male on staff--of course he knew him! "Tash is a genius in this field and he can definitely help you, since this is your first time. The profile keeps on being added upon and reworked throughout the whole assignment, but you should always keep copies of every different version of the profile. After you capture the creature, too, you create a new profile, one that is just facts based on the actual creature. Do you understand the point of the profile system?" Grinning, Damon nodded, "Yes, now that I think about it, it seems that a lot of my former deskwork was typing up and filing profiles. I guess I never really looked at them, though." "I know how that is," Emma replied. "Before I was Head, I did that type of work, but never paid attention to what I was working on. Don't worry about it. After profiling, though, there's the real fieldwork. There's a lot to that, though. When you're up that stage, I'll tell you more about it, 'kay?" Emma continued to talk randomly as she pulled books off shelves and desks and out of drawers and handed them to Damon. Damon was amazed as she kept on talking, even as she wrote him a list of other books for him to look at, see if he could buy. "If you do end up buying these books, don't worry about the expense, 'kay? All of these are books I want to add to our library, so DAEC will cover the cost. Just bring back the receipt, 'kay?" Emma finished her speech with. "Okay, that sounds good. I was going to stop by a book store during lunch anyway. I'll see if they carry these," Damon replied and was soon back at his desk, flipping through various books, taking notes. Like most creatures, there were telltale physical signs of a werewolf, even when the werewolf in question wasn't in wolf form. The list started off with eyes. Werewolves possessed distinctive eyes, at least if you knew what to look for. While the colors of the eyes themselves weren't that spectacular or special, how brilliant they were did make a difference. A werewolf could have some normal color, such as hazel, yet their eyes would look splendid anyhow. Browns, hazels and greens seemed to be more common werewolf eye colors, though. Some werewolves even had slitted eyes, but these didn't survive for long--the slits were too obvious as sign. Damon doubted that the wolf he was looking for had slitted eyes, so he didn't bother to worry about that. Another sign Damon noted was werewolves are exceptionally hairy. Not necessarily beastly hairy, but it was normal for a werewolf to have a hairy chest, back, legs and arms. Offhandedly, Damon wondered if this was why no one ever saw female werewolves--they would be too embarrassed to go out. One of the subtler of the signs was the slightly pointed ears. Werewolf ears were very slightly tapered at the tip, a change that can only be spotted if someone is really looking for it. On the other side of the spectrum, there was the most obvious change of all. The change. Once a month, for three nights, werewolves morphed into something else. On the night before the full moon, the night of the full moon and the night after, the humanoid creature transformed into a half-wolf, half-man beast. The werewolf looked almost exactly like a wolf, but was larger--more like how big its human form would be crouched down, still sporting the golden eyes. Werewolves had bushier, coarser fur and a longer tail than a normal wolf. It was rare that a werewolf could be experimented on while it was in wolf form, so little was known about the actual behavior of the wolf. The wolves themselves didn't seem very open to sharing their secrets, which didn't generally help. Damon researched, read and learned until his stomach stopped him with a loud snort. Jerked out of his trance, Damon was surprised to realize that it was almost one o'clock--he usually had his lunch hour from twelve to one. Shaking his head, he stood and decided a late lunch was better than no lunch at all. There wasn't a real set lunchtime at DAEC, although it was mandatory to check in and out so employees weren't tempted to have an extra long lunch. Walking aimlessly down the sidewalk, Damon figured a fast-food place or something of the like would pop out and he could eat there. Before he could find a suitable location, though, Damon realized he was headed for The Other Book Garden. Damon had sort of promised to Kamoku that he would stop by there during lunch--and he needed to get those werewolves books. Damon sighed and entered the shop. It wasn't small, quaint or cozy like one would guess a privately owned bookstore would be. The Other Book Garden was bigger than the average store, with orderly bookshelves along the walls, the books alphabetized and sorted into fiction and nonfiction--the nonfiction in perfect Dewey decimal order. There were chairs for customers to sit in, but Kamoku was known to fix her death glare on anyone who was loitering for too long. Even with all these factors, though, Damon always enjoyed coming to the store. The smell of books invaded his nose, the red brick walls inviting him in. Damon glanced at the front counter and saw Kamoku engaged in a fierce battle with a customer. He recognized this customer--he was a regular, but always claimed that the prices were too high. Every time he visited the store, the old man would try to barter down the cost with Kamoku, who always firmly stood her ground. Hiding a grin, Damon headed for the nonfiction area, figuring he could find his books without any assistance. Fifteen minutes later, Damon considered throwing a fit. The Dewey decimal system must be the most complex code in the world. He had no idea where he was and no idea how to find the books on werewolves. Damon tried to find his way back to the front counter, but was sorely lost. Turning a corner quickly, the blonde found himself not back in familiar ground, but with his head shoved into the chest of someone he knew not. Walking backwards and slowly looking up, Damon found himself staring at the single most handsome man he had ever seen. He was tall; at least a foot taller than Damon's petite height of 5'4". The man looked Asian, with naturally dark skin and black hair. One ear was pierced, golden eyes gazing --- wait. Golden eyes? Now, where had Damon heard about golden eyes recently? Ohh, yes. Kamoku's new assistant, the marvelous new assistant who would be the perfect boyfriend for Damon. This sudden realization hit Damon the same time he became conscious of the fact that he was staring. Belatedly, Damon stammered, "Sorry, uhm, my bad. I should have been, er, walking--I mean watching where I was walking." The other man smiled easily and had the grace to blush. "No, it's my fault. Although, I'm hoping ... You're Damon, right?" A bolt of panic shot through Damon. This must be the assistant, but how had he heard about Damon? What had Kamoku told him? Damon stared at the man, wide eyed. "Yyes..." he hesitantly replied. "Oh, good. I'm Murasaki Tairyou, Kamoku's new assistant." Damon nodded. "She sent me to find you--said you'd been lost in the nonfiction area for ten minutes now." Damon blushed and bit his lip, ashamed to have his ignorance acknowledged. Taking Damon's silence as assent, Murasaki continued, "What were you looking for? I'm sure I can help you find it." Damon mumbled something. "What?" Murasaki bent down a bit, in order to hear Damon better. Seeing Murasaki bend down as if Damon was a child, the shorter man blushed bright red. He boldly looked up, trying not to notice that their faces were now less than six inches apart. Looking at Murasaki straight on, Damon enunciated, "I said, that I was looking for some books for work. But ... er ..." He started to lose his nerve. "I forgot my list. At work." Murasaki looked slightly disappointed, but only replied, "Well, alright. Maybe when you find the list you can come back and I'll help you get the books you need." He smiled lightly at Damon, who was forced to look back down at the ground and nod. They strode back to the front of the store, Damon following Murasaki closely, trying to not look at Murasaki's butt too much. Instead, he let his gaze flicker across the names of books as they walked. Damon loved bookstores and found himself wanting to remember some of the titles he saw--they looked interesting. As they reached Kamoku, Damon tried to ignore her look of satisfaction at having the two men meet. Quickly, after a rushed, squeaky-voiced conversation with Kamoku and Murasaki, he left the store. Glancing at his watch, Damon realized he had spent half an hour in the store and still had to find food. Dejectedly, the boy headed back to the building and grabbed a sandwich and soda from the cafe inside. Damn, but Murasaki was sexy. Kamoku was right this time--Murasaki was definitely Damon's type and a whole lot more. The older man, because he was certainly at least a couple years older, was everything Damon had ever dreamed a guy could be. Admittedly, Damon didn't have much experience with guys, having only had three serious boyfriends in his whole 23 years of existence, but he knew enough to know what he wanted. And what he wanted was Murasaki. His lean, muscular physique, his sculpted facial structure, the gentle laugh lines on his face, his easy smile, his tight shirt, his tighter ass... Damon munched on one bite of his sandwich for fifteen minutes at his desk, staring off into space and not getting any work done while thoughts of Murasaki invaded his brain. After forcing down the rest of his meal and drinking most of his soda, the whole time thinking that this meal wasn't good for him, Damon tried to shove all thoughts of sexy boys out of his head and focus just on the werewolf problem. The next step, since he had done all the researching he could with the materials available, he remembered, was to start a profile. Damon remembered Emma mentioning Tash McMahon, so after collecting his messy notes, the blonde headed over to his colleague's desk. Damon and Tash were the only men working at DAEC and both were complete opposites. One would think that the only males in the office would force them to bond and create a pact between them, but it wasn't so. Damon was outgoing and found it easy to work alongside sexy women, since he wasn't attracted to them and found no pressure from either his hormones or them. Tash, on the other hand, not only had a repressive childhood, he was very straight and it was hard talk for him to talk in complete sentences around his female co-workers. It wasn't that he was sexist or constantly ogling them--he tried so hard not to be rude, he turned into a bashful twelve year old. This constantly amused the women, who both tried to be nice about it and teased him persistently--which didn't help. Tash could always be found hiding behind his computer and stacks of paper, very happy to do the paperwork Damon hated. Tash was basically perfect for his job at DAEC-- well educated in all areas of evil creatures but utterly content to work behind the scenes. He had gone to a private Catholic college, where he had double majored in business and the general study of dark creatures (Tash had minored in parapsychology and mathematics.). He was a nice kid and the only flaw Damon could think of was his homophobia, something he had been taught since he was little and found hard to overcome. As Damon strolled over to Tash's desk, hidden in the corner, it was this homophobia that hovered on top of his thoughts. Damon tried hard to rid Tash of this, but he had to take incredible baby steps. It was frustrating, since Damon was sure that they could be good friends, if only the two could get over this lump. He sighed, but knew if he pushed it any faster, Tash would freak and it would all collapse. Damon quietly walked around Tash's paper stacks and cleared his throat. Tash jumped in his seat and quickly turned around to see who was there. After he saw it was just Damon, the other man relaxed. "Ah, hello Damon. What can I do for you today?" Tash politely asked, his original flush slowly dying down. Even though Tash was uncomfortable with Damon's sexuality, he had long since realized Damon wasn't attracted to him, which made everything loads easier. Damon found a corner of Tash's desk to sit on and quickly told him about his new assignment. "And, see, Emma told me to talk to you about the profile work. I can't do any more research here, so ..." Damon trailed off. "I see. Well, let me just pull up our files on this werewolf character," Tash replied as his fingers rapidly clicked on the keyboard. "Here we go. Seems that as of now, the department knows little about him." Damon peered over his shoulder, wary not to get too close to Tash. Tash continued, "All we know is that he's located in the western sector of the city, just like the DAEC headquarters, he's in his mid 20's, so at a very volatile and dangerous age, and he's part of the color branch." "Color ... branch?" Damon asked, baffled. He didn't remember reading anything about a color branch. Tash kept on typing commands, as he answered, "Didn't you read anything about the different werewolf branches? There are many different branches, as they're called. Because werewolves are forced to hide, they can't find others of their races, so a long time ago adopted the branch system. I believe there are four major branches: colors, plants, animals and shapes. Werewolf first names depend on the branch they're a part of. For example, some plant werewolf names might be Filbert, Pine, Arbre, or Fern. Many werewolf names are in languages other than English, so the trend isn't automatically recognizable. So, since we know this werewolf is part of the color branch, we can be on the lookout for color names. Here's a list of basic colors in the five most common languages of the world. Just learn to recognize these names, in case the werewolf in question has one of these." Tash printed off a ten-page list and handed it to Damon. "Other than the names, which is basically just an identifying method, the branches don't seem to vary much from each other. No common traits or anything. Any questions?" Tash twisted his head to look at Damon, tugging slightly on a necklace he wore, the tug a habitual thing Tash always did. Damon didn't even notice the tug or the necklace anymore, although they seemed to be the first thing everyone else noticed. Tash constantly wore a necklace with a weird little logo on it from some sci-fi book series he was obsessed with, Redstar Flight, or something. Damon chewed on his lip while he flipped through the color list Tash had given him. He couldn't believe that people went by these names; some of them seemed so weird, the werewolf was sure to stand out more. "Other than the first name, how can you tell which werewolf is part of which branch? And what if you just find a human with a color name ... how do you know they're human and not werewolf, without staying with them during the full moon?" Tash smiled and responded, "Good question, Damon. Each branch has about ten last names only that branch uses. Yes, some humans uses these last names too, but I'd say it's a pretty fine chance that a human will have one of these last names and also have the right type of first name. I don't know the color branches last names, but I'll search on that for you." Damon nodded his thanks. "That's all I know right now about this specimen of yours. It's almost time to go, though," he commented, nodding at the computer clock, which read 4:56 PM. Each DAEC staff member left promptly at 5:00 PM. Chewing on his lip, Damon hopefully asked, "Do you want to stop by my house later tonight? I'm probably going to be researching more and working on the profile and could use all the help I can get. The apartment's going to be so lonely tonight. My roommate will be out, so it'd be great to have some company." As soon as he finished speaking, Damon realized he should have left out the last sentence. Tash had turned white. Tash's green eyes were darting around, looking anywhere but Damon, as he spluttered, "Ah, erhm, Damon, I appreciate the, er, offer, but ... I can't? I'm really busy and I don't really go for that type of thing, I thought we had covered that, and, err, I have to ... uhm ... go somewhere tonight, and I'll be dead. Yes, er, I'll be dead. Sorry." Tash looked triumphantly up at Damon, obviously proud of himself for getting out of being trapped in a room, alone, with a homosexual. Sighing, Damon figured he should have guessed as much. Tried to take a step too quickly, but simply ended up going in the opposite direction four or five steps. He nodded, said goodbye to Tash and left the building soon afterwards. That night, Damon looked at the profile work and his computer and knew he should get some work done. He knew this, but still plopped down in front of the TV and started to flip through channels. He ate a TV dinner and actually found something decent to watch, a special on the Discovery Channel on the growing city population of creatures. Damon grinned and settled down more, figuring that watching a show on a slightly related topic counted as research. |
