Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)

"Where do people come up with this stuff?" I muttered.

"Evil people perform unbelievable atrocities. Werewolves weren't the only things Mengele made. "

"What else?"

"Anything you can imagine, and a lot you couldn't. Beings that should only live in nightmares, but now they walk this Earth. "

"Now?" My voice wavered.

"He released his creations before the Allies found his lab. "

"Why did Mengele bother to make a werewolf? According to you, they've been around a long time. Wouldn't it have been easier to nab a few and proceed from there?"

"I don't know what he was thinking. Maybe he could exert some sort of control over the wolves he created. We'll never know since he destroyed his records. "

"What happened to him?"

"Escaped Germany under a false name. Lived the rest of his life in South America. Died of a stroke in Brazil in the seventies. "

"That sucks. "

"You don't think he should be dead?"

"I think he should have been hung, drawn and quartered," I muttered. "Not allowed to live any kind of life. Did you ever hear any rumors about Hitler being a werewolf?"

"There were always rumors. When people are beyond evil, and they thwart many attempts to kill them, tales like that will spread. "

"If you're not one of Mengele's wolves, what are you? Why doesn't silver affect you? Does silver work at all?"

"On wolves infected with the virus, yes. For me, no. I was cursed by a witch. She called on the moon to make me a beast, and I became one. "

"And then?"

"I killed her. "

His voice was cool, detached, terrifying coming out of a darkness so complete I could see nothing, yet he could see me.

"You said you hadn't killed anyone. "

"I said I hadn't killed anyone here!"

I shivered. "You chose to be a wolf?"

"That was chosen for me. "

"Why a wolf?"

"Her name was Rhiannon. "

"Stevie Nicks complex?" I asked, before I remembered that this Rhiannon would have been born centuries before Stevie ever heard the name and wrote a song and twirled and twirled her skirt as she sang.

I guess it was true that in times of panic the mind goes to its happy place. Or maybe I was just so upset, I could only think in gibberish.

"She'd been named after the Celtic goddess of the moon, and she worshipped it as we did. "

"I still don't see where the wolf comes in. "

"Rhiannon was the Celtic counterpart of Diana and Artemis. "