Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…

Sid shifted his position, gathering his long, skinny rear legs under his haunches and dangling his front paws over the edge of the ledge as he tried to keep comfortable. His body already felt stiff from sitting too long in one place; his efforts to distract himself by mentally reciting what he recalled from his readings of Poe were in vain. Yellow eyes gazed unblinking at the window across the way from his position, ears flicked to and fro to catch any sound.

Perhaps his vigil was folly. He had no proof, after all… None but what could be the dementia of an aging mind. Perhaps the soft sounds he’d heard the previous night were nothing more than memories of days past, when he’d been a werewolf in his prime. Perhaps he was only looking for trouble, not being burdened enough as it was.

Or perhaps there was indeed something else hunting the streets of New York.

Sid tensed at a rustling sound from somewhere behind him, but it was only an occupant of the building behind him closing the curtain for the night, shutting out the cheerful glow that had disguised the barrier’s ugly illumination. He settled his body back into a more relaxed position, embarrassed by his reaction.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before…

Idly, Sid wondered why it was Poe that he’d chosen to amuse himself with. He’d memorized many a cheerful romantic poem to enchant his wife with, but the darker tone of the ancient poet was fitting on this blackest of holidays. Halloween. Somehow, it always felt different to Sid when the full moon fell on the holiday, as if there was indeed some truth to the tales told so long ago. It was why he’d chosen tonight to stalk his prey. Tonight, his body didn’t feel decrepit. His blood seemed to sing with power, and if it weren’t for the bare patches in his fur, he’d almost be mistaken for being much younger.

A soft scuffling sound reminded Sid of his task, and he flattened his body to the ledge so as not to be seen, his eyes on the window before him. The pane had been pushed up, and something within the darkness of the apartment wrestled with the screen for a moment before finally tearing it free with razor sharp claws. So you are infected, Sid thought grimly as a black shape flowed out of the window, dropping onto the fire escape and agilely navigating the steep steps to the street below. Couldn’t resist the call of the moon tonight, General, could you? Sid waited until the dark wolf had passed beneath him and into the street before dropping into the alley himself, his old bones barely creaking as he landed.

Slinking, sliding softly beneath the flickering leers of the plastic jack-o-lanterns squatting on window sills, Sid followed the dark wolf’s weaving pattern down the block, ducking behind trash cans whenever he sensed the other’s backward glance. His prey was following the line of the interconnected USMF buildings, a move which Sid grudgingly approved of. He’d suspected this was why no one had seen the massive wolf in the halls; the dark one was keeping outside the buildings and entering and exiting through the windows.

When the creature paused beneath the windows to the first floor labs, what was left of Sid’s hackles rose along his spine. So you are the one who’s been destroying the lab, you bastard. He’d tried to give the other the benefit of the doubt; it was always possible, after all, that Aki and Major Elliot had continued their secret liaisons within the lab. Sid had thought he’d frightened Aki off when he’d told her he kept flesh eating bacteria in the lab and refused to tell her where it was located. But last night, the lab had again been vandalized, and this time, he’d known it couldn’t be Aki, because she’d left the previous morning for Moscow, to locate the third spirit.

He waited a few moments, then followed. While his leap through the window lacked the younger wolf’s grace, he landed silently. Careful to keep the nubs of his claws from scraping the floor, he took a few tentative sniffs, then followed the scent trail the general had left behind. It wasn’t necessary; Hein was heading straight towards the labs on the fourth floor, the heart of the Bio-Etheric Center. He was able to judge the distance between himself and the younger wolf by the faint scuffing of Hein’s claws; he was too new to have learned how to keep his claws raised off the floor.

Sid lost the scent on the fourth floor; someone had spilled chemicals nearby and hadn’t cleaned up; the acrid odor stung his nostrils and made his eyes tear. Where is he? I know he’s up here, somewhere… Sid strained his ears, holding his breath so he could hear the faintest of noises. There was a soft sound somewhere ahead and to his left, one he recognized as being used by a scientist that had recently transferred from Houston, and Sid’s tongue lolled as he grinned. Gotcha!

The keypad to the lab yielded to his paws, and the door opened with a soft hiss that sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness. The noise stopped, and Sid froze. Then, after the moment, there was a hollow metallic clang! Sid lunged forward, darting around the bulk of a lab table to catch the saboteur at the scene of the crime.

‘And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you,’ – here I opened wide the door –

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Sid squatted down, at a loss. There was nothing here… nothing. He couldn’t even smell the younger lycanthrope. Where is he?

And a better question: What had he heard in the lab? The first noise he’d heard, the one that had drawn him to the lab, had sounded almost like a rustling. He’d heard something like it before; the rasp of feathers. Was there a bird in this lab? But then, why couldn’t he smell it?

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token…

None of his business. He wouldn’t want other scientists interfering with his experiments; he’d treat them with the same respect. He turned away… and was brought up short by a blot of darkness in the shadows, black on black. Sid’s lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl, but the younger wolf was unmoved by his display.

"You," Hein growled.

"Surprised to see me? I know what you’re doing here. You’re the one who’s been destroying experiments," Sid snarled angrily.

Hein bristled, his teeth gleaming even in the darkness. "Spare me, Doctor. I may have no love for the scientific community, but I wouldn’t destroy millions of dollars worth of equipment. The cost of replacing them takes money away from the Zeus."

"Then what are you doing here? Distilling your own alcohol now?"

"Don’t you sense it? It’s here." Hein’s inhuman voice was laced with an emotion Sid couldn’t place. "Damn you, old man… Ever since your spit did this to me, I’ve felt something wrong up here in the labs. I can’t come up here anymore without my hackles rising."

Sid’s ears flattened. He wanted to snap at the younger wolf and put him in his place, but something stopped him. There had been a few times last week when he’d felt something strange. Not in his own lab, but in passing in the halls, or within another of the multiple labs… Nothing he could define, but a wrongness.

He was shocked that such a new werewolf would have picked up on it; Hein must be very sensitive.

"I admit it; I was in here last night. But that’s because I was looking for it. Doctor, are you hiding something?" He could hear Hein’s suspicion, as well as that other, unidentified emotion. Was it fear?

The soft fluttering noise came again, and both wolves tensed. "So you do hear that," Hein said. "Do you know what it is?"

"It sounds like a bird," Sid said reluctantly. He waited for the younger wolf to scoff at him, but Hein appeared to be listening. "I heard it over there…" Sid nodded his head towards where he’d searched before, "but that time, it sounded like… like…"

"Like it was behind that door," Hein completed. At the back of the lab, they could faintly see the gleam of metal, the door to one of the lab’s inner compartments. "What’s back there?"

"I have no idea; I haven’t been in here since Dr. Carter took it over. In fact, this lab is usually locked up tight." How the hell had he even been able to get in? The door had opened just at a touch; that wouldn’t have happened had the door been locked. "Did you break the lock?"

"I followed you in. I couldn’t get in here last night."

Sid rocked to his haunches, considering. The polite thing to do would be to leave. He had what he’d come for; he knew Hein was in fact a werewolf, and that he had at least been in the labs last night. By investigating the noise, he could destroy Dr. Carter’s experiments and be just as guilty as Hein was. The noise he’d heard was likely just a part of the experiment. Machinery or something.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

‘Surely,’ said I, ‘surely that is something at my window lattice:

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this the mystery explore –

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -

‘Tis the wind and nothing more.’

The noise came again, louder, reverberating around the deserted lab. Sid and Hein exchanged glances. Hein’s hackles had risen, and Sid felt his own thin brush of fur bristle. He felt it now: that strange, indefinable sensation that Hein had tried to describe. Wrongness. Evil…

Sid trotted forward, pausing before the door and cocking his head. The light by the lock was green, same as the one on the outer door. He glanced over at Hein. "This door’s unlocked, too. Why now? It’s like… someone’s inviting us in."

"I say we accept," Hein said, taking a tentative step forward. Sid batted him with a paw, and Hein halted, growling.

"If we’re going in there, we’re in this together," Sid snarled. "Don’t do anything to endanger my life, got it?"

He waited for the younger wolf to protest. Hein seemed to be a natural Alpha, like Sid himself, and wolf packs had only one Alpha. It was difficult for two dominant creatures, be they beast or man, to work together. But to his surprise, Hein offered a paw and said, "Truce?"

"Truce," Sid accepted. He reared up, balancing precariously on his rear legs. Hein moved to the side, where he’d be able to see inside without being seen, and he’d be out of the way if something came through the door. Taking a deep breath, Sid pushed the button to open the door.

The door hissed open, revealing a maw of darkness. Soft sounds came to their ears, sounds like echoes over vast distances. The blackness was complete; what little light that had filtered into the lab was swallowed once it reached past the door. The scent that reached their sensitive noses was the antiseptic odor of a hospital, with an underlying odor of… what? The scent was so faint, Sid couldn’t identify it.

Nothing came out of the darkness; in fact, there was no indication anything had stood behind the doorway. Hein began to slink forward, ears flicking around to pick up any sound. "Do we go in?"

In answer, the rustling came again, sounding as if it were only a few feet in front of them, yet Sid couldn’t see it in the blackness, nor scent anything beyond that hospital smell and the unidentifiable odor. Something else did waft towards them, however; Sid’s heart hammered in his chest at that wrongness once again assailed his senses.

Sid took the first step, with Hein right at his shoulder. It was wide enough for them to walk side to side, and dark enough that he couldn’t even see the other wolf after the first few steps. He kept one ear flicked towards his companion, the other pricked to catch any sound from ahead.

Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore.’

Poe again popped into his mind, and Sid shivered at how appropriate the poem abruptly seemed. Ominous bird, indeed, he thought grimly, recalling the rustling sound. He hesitated, battling the powerful urge to turn around, to let this go. He wondered if Hein felt the same way, and almost asked. But he wouldn’t show fear to the younger wolf; it would be an invitation for him to challenge Sid’s Alpha status.

Squaring his shoulders, he continued forward, hearing Hein pad along at his side. If he was aware of Sid’s hesitation, he didn’t comment. Then again, maybe he couldn’t say anything. Sid certainly had no desire to make a sound and draw the evil to him.

The temperature had been steadily dropping as they proceeded, and now he could feel his breath misting around his muzzle. There was frost underfoot, and his bones ached with the cold. He envied Hein’s thick black fur as his body shivered uncontrollably.

The blue light snapped on so suddenly that Sid jumped. He could clearly see they were in a small room cluttered with equipment, including a computer that lined one wall… and what looked horribly like a bloodstained examination table with restraints resting against the opposite wall. With some surprise, Sid realized this was one of the quarantine chambers used to keep Phantom-related experiments away from the main lab, but there hadn’t been a connecting tunnel leading to one from the main labs before. Dr. Carter was going to get hell for his unauthorized construction project… Before them was yet another thick metal door. A rhime of ice covered the metal, except where it had been chipped away from the edges to keep it from freezing completely shut. Hein stood frozen in mid-step, then turned to Sid. The sapphire glow gave his fur an eerie cast. "Motion sensors," Sid said. At least, he hoped that was it. He didn’t want to think that something had been waiting for them.

Then he realized that Hein hadn’t been looking at Sid, but behind him. "This Dr. Carter… what does he study?" Hein asked.

Sid turned, wondering just what had made the younger wolf raise his hackles. "He’s a genetic engineer, trying to breed plants that survive better under the barriers," Sid said. He didn’t see anything in this room that backed that up. "He’s quite brilliant… Oh, my…" Their presence had also activated a holographic image that spun lazily in the air, a glowing blue form in the vague shape of a human being, as well as a column of glowing icons that made up the hologram’s controls. "I don’t know why he’d be interested in human spirits," Sid said, puzzled.

It’s probably nothing. We should leave, Sid told himself sternly. But his curiosity was piqued, and as a scientist, he couldn’t just leave until that curiosity was sated.

Besides, something about that vague outline disturbed him. It felt as if it were looking at him…

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes no burned into my bosom’s core;

This and more I sate divining, with my head at ease reclining…

Sid attempted to rear back on his hind legs so he could activate the display, but his hips were having none of it, and he fell back onto his rump with a bone-jarring thud. Realizing what Sid had intended, Hein lifted into a bipedal stance, unaware of the slight changes in his body as it altered bone and muscle to support his weight. Sid envied him; his body refused to make the subtle shift. "Let’s see what this scientist is hiding," the younger wolf said. Hein’s clawed fingers activated the hologram’s controls with no difficulty, and he turned to Sid. "His computer doesn’t seem to have a password," Hein observed. "What kind of fool is this Dr. Carter, anyway?"

"His lab wasn’t locked tonight, either. And I suspect this hologram shouldn’t have been activated by our presence. Someone wants us to see something."

"Someone?" Hein countered. He seemed about to pursue the matter when the hologram display began to change. A lurid orange Phantom spirit, one of the tall, humanoid warriors, appeared beside the human spirit, along with several windows filled with notes that disappeared too rapidly for Sid to read through. But he didn’t need to; what followed made Dr. Carter’s intentions all too clear. The Phantom spirit moved sideways, until it overlapped the human spirit. Rather than the Phantom spirit whipping out the human’s, the two seemed to merge.

Hein swore softly. "Doctor, tell me he’s not doing what I think he’s doing."

Sid’s blood seemed to freeze in his veins. He felt dizzy, lightheaded. He couldn’t possibly have seen what he thought he’d just seen. "He’s… blending human and Phantom spirits? But that’s not possible!"

There was a hiss, and the huge metal door in front of them opened. A blast of cold air made Sid flatten his ears and cringe away, and even the thick-furred Hein shivered. "’Step in to my parlor, said the spider to the fly,’" Sid said, suppressing another shudder. "Shall we continue?"

"We came this far," Hein said grimly. He glanced back, then continued. "I don’t think we have a choice, anyway; the door locked behind us."

They couldn’t see anything through the mist generated by the extreme cold, but they could hear sounds from within: the same soft, distinctive rustling that had led them this far.

"After you," Hein said.

Thanks, Sid almost snarled. But he took the lead anyway. Hein was right; they didn’t have a choice but to advance. And if the hologram was any indication of what Dr. Carter had been doing in secret, then whatever was stored in the freezer would have to be destroyed. Of this there was no question; the sense of evil that had pervaded the lab the past few days had grown stronger when the door opened.

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer…

The mist enveloped Sid as he passed through the doorway, Hein just behind him. He’d barely taken more than a few steps when his hindquarters suddenly slid out from under him, and he slipped sideways, into something hard, metal, and cold. "Careful, the floor is icy!"

Hein walked carefully over to him, digging his claws into the ice to keep from slipping. Sid was envious.

Then he realized what he had fallen against. It was another gurney, like the one seen in the previous room, but this one was occupied. A bloodless white hand hung over the edge, the stiff fingers almost brushing the top of Sid’s head. He flattened his ears when he got a whiff of the body’s scent: This was the source of the wrongness.

Was this the results Dr. Carter’s unholy experiments? And, worse, had it been alive when Dr. Carter had done this to it? Sid had to fight back a wave of nausea as he pictured what must have happened: The doctor had fused the Phantom spirit with one of the body, and it had gone mad, fought loose of the restraints – hence the blood on the table in the other room – and then finding its way into the labs, destroying everything in its path before the Phantom spirit killed it… The scenario made far too much sense for Sid’s liking.

And then he looked upward. Hovering above the body was an image of its spirit – a strange, twisted figure that wasn’t human. If these things still had spirits, then… then they were still alive! It must be the cold; cold slowed Phantom infections, though it wasn’t a method commonly used since it usually harmed the person infected. Sid guessed Dr. Carter was using a crude method of cryogenic freezing so he could study it before the infection inevitably consumed it. Sid didn’t want to think about just why Dr. Carter would need this information. Sid examined the spirit more closely; there wasn’t enough blue for it to be a full human spirit, nor was there enough for a Phantom spirit, either. They were in a precarious sort of balance.

"We’ve seen enough; let’s get out of here-" Sid began, then realized Hein was no longer beside him. While he’d been distracted, the younger wolf had wandered over to the other side of the gurney and shifted to his bipedal stance.

"This… this is one of my men!" Hein snarled furiously. "His entire Deep Eyes squad died on a mission last week! Or so I was led to believe…" He dropped to all fours with a thud, fur bristling and fangs gleaming as he advanced on Sid. "One of your scientists did this to my soldiers!" He growled threateningly, a deep rumble that made Sid instinctively go on the defensive. Despite the cold that threatened to freeze the blood in his veins, the fury at being wrongly accused by this lesser wolf combined with the adrenaline from the Halloween moon gave him the speed to dodge the younger wolf’s blow.

"I had nothing to do with this!" Sid roared. "This atrocity isn’t science, it’s madness! I would never have permitted such an experiment! You know that; think! Don’t let your rage control you!" Finally, Hein seemed to have grasped what it meant to be wolf, and he’d chosen the worst possible time. The cold made Sid’s whole body ache, and he’d lost all feeling in his paws. But he was still able to dodge Hein’s next lunge, and use the younger wolf’s move to his own advantage. As Hein’s neck passed him, Sid’s head darted forward and took it in his jaws. His broken teeth and Hein’s thick fur meant the other wolf wasn’t hurt, but he wasn’t immediately able to shake loose.

Hein attempted to thrash in Sid’s grip, but the cold was telling on him, too, and he soon subsided. "You can let me go," the younger wolf finally said. "You’re right, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m-"

Sid waited. This was a momentous occasion; General Hein was about to apologize to him. But the final word never came, and Sid released Hein’s neck so he could urge the other to continue. He wouldn’t miss this for the world… Then he realized the younger wolf was no longer paying any attention to him. "Holy shit," Hein said finally. "He’s looking at me!"

The body on the table was sitting up, its strange red-orange eyes fastened on the two werewolves. It was awake!

"Do you think he’s friendly?" Sid asked rhetorically.

"Let’s not stay to find out," Hein said, backing away. "We know Dr. Carter’s up to no good; I say tomorrow I send in several squads of soldiers to kill this things."

Sid had to agree. Hein was the only one in any condition to fight, and he was creeping away, belly to the floor and tail between his legs. Sid followed, his eyes never leaving the experiment, which was stiffly getting to its feet. Sid wanted to berate the younger wolf’s cowardice, but then the aura the abomination exuded washed over him. His whole body went numb, and this time it wasn’t from the cold. My God… It… It’s like it’s pure rage… And hate…

Sid decided Hein had had the right idea in leaving, and began to inch away. He increased his speed, backing out of the freezer and back into the outer room. He yelped when his rump slammed into something solid, but it was just Hein. "What are you doing?" Sid snarled, turning to nip at the younger wolf’s flank. "Run, you dumbass!"

"Believe me, I would love to. But the door out still seems to be locked!"

Oh, shit… "We’re going to have to fight it," Sid said grimly. Hein’s ears flattened; he knew that by "we" Sid had meant him. He suddenly wondered if Hein actually could fight. True, the other was a tactical genius, and as a wolf, he had phenomenal reflexes, but Sid had never seen the general actually fight. And his cowardly retreat from the freezer area didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. "Don’t let its rage affect you; brace yourself against it, and trust your instincts. I’ll see what I can do about this door." He saw Hein shut his eyes and take a deep breath, then Sid turned his attention to the door’s control panel. It shouldn’t have locked behind them! Using the wall to brace himself, Sid carefully pulled himself into the bipedal stance. His hips groaned in protest, but for once, his body obeyed his commands.

The abomination came through the freezer door. A thin coat of ice clung to its blue face, and it moved in stiff, jerky strides. Sid turned his head just in time to see the younger wolf make his move. Hein sprang forward, landing with bone-shattering force on the rib-cage. As it fell backwards, he sank his jaws into the thing’s throat and tore it out. Sid cringed at the younger wolf’s violence, even though the half-frozen body produced no blood. He just hadn’t expected the other’s instincts to be quite so vicious.

Neither, apparently, had Hein. He straddled the body, strings of flesh dangling from his muzzle. "Did I just do what I think I did?" he asked in disbelief. "I… I killed it!"

"No you didn’t!" Sid yelped, as the body under Hein began to twitch. Oh, good… Dr. Carter has figured out how to make zombies… Hein suddenly yelped as it slammed its arm into him with enough force to send Hein flying up and over the examination table. His body lay at a strange angle, and he was very still. The abomination started to walk towards him, but it ran into the table as if it hadn’t even noticed it was there. The look on its face was almost puzzled as it backed away.

Frantically, Sid pounded on the panel, but numb paws were no use on equipment designed for nimble human fingers.

The unmistakable rustling noise was Sid’s only warning, and he dropped to all fours a split second before the abomination’s fingers raked the air where his head had been. The wind whistled with the speed of its passing.

Sid rolled between the abomination’s legs, kicking out with his hind legs as soon as he was through. His paws hit the thing’s knees, and it stumbled forward, its head smashing into the control panel with a crunching noise. The panel sparked, and the door slid open.

And still it didn’t die. Of course not; it’s just a Phantom wearing a human body like a suit of clothes… Damaging the clothes has no effect on the one wearing them... But it did seem momentarily disoriented; Sid used the opportunity to run towards Hein, who had finally gotten to his feet and was shaking his head, dazed. "I shouldn’t be alive…" he said weakly. "Something was broken…"

"We’ll discuss this later," Sid said. "This thing won’t die, either. C’mon, the door’s open. We need to get out of here while it’s still dazed… trap it behind a barrier, or something…" They wasted no time in getting out, but once in the main lab, Sid slowed.

"What are you doing?" Hein snarled angrily. "We need to get out of here-"

"Look at it!" Sid said suddenly. The abomination had followed them out of the dark hallway into the main lab. But there was something wrong with it… its movements were becoming slow and even more jerky, despite the fact that its muscles had had more than enough time to thaw. Thaw… "It’s overheating!" Sid cried. "The cold was keeping the two spirits in balance, but with all the exertion, the thing’s warming up, and the Phantom spirit is consuming the human spirit!"

Hein needed no further explanation; he suddenly lunged forward, snapping at the thing’s legs, then darting out of the way. He repeated the maneuver several times, each time dancing out of the abomination’s reach with an ease Sid envied. With each counterattack, the creature moved slower and slower as Hein pushed it to exert itself further and heat up faster.

When it began to fall, Hein raced to Sid’s side, and they watched as the body fell lifelessly to the floor. Sid took a tentative step forward, though he had no idea what he was going to do. The body still carried enough Phantom particles to infect a human, so it would have to be disposed of. And while Phantom infections had little affect on a werewolf spirit, Sid had no idea how they could dispose of it before it spread out of control. Surely Dr. Carter had kept some weapon in case of an emergency, in case this thing went out of control. They just had to find it before…

A blue shape appeared above the body, and Sid froze. He thought, at first, that maybe the human’s spirit was fighting back, but then it stretched out translucent wings, and dipped its beak into the abomination’s chest. It pulled out a writhing orange mass, tipped its head back, and let the Phantom infection slide down its gullet. Then it turned its eyeless blue face towards them.

‘Prophet!’ said I, ‘thing of evil – prophet still, if bird or devil!-

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-

On this home by horror haunted – tell me truly, I implore-

Is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me truly, I implore!’

Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’

"Are you seeing this?" Sid asked the thus far silent Hein. The younger wolf came up beside him, ears flattened and eyes glittering. It was all the answer he needed.

Sid cautiously stepped towards the bird. "It was you… you brought us here, didn’t you? You unlocked the lab… showed us where to go! Why?"

"Were you trying to get us killed?" Hein snarled. Sid’s skin prickled at the tone of the younger wolf’s growl; for the first time, Hein’s bloodlust had risen to the surface, and it was a formidable thing indeed…

"A great evil was being done," a voice whispered into their minds. Sid started; he hadn’t expected the thing to be female. "Had I not intervened, this would not have been discovered until it was too late. Many would have died."

"We would have figured it out-" Hein began, but Sid slapped his muzzle. The younger wolf growled, but restrained himself.

"Would you have? What cause did you have to enter the lab? You had only a bad feeling to go on, nothing more." Her mind-voice was slightly mocking as she continued, "And since when, General, have you acted on a bad feeling? No; if you had not found this creature tonight, as wolf, you would have later become a cynical man and dismiss what you felt."

She was perceptive, Sid thought as he watched this exchange. But… what was she? Why had she chosen to help them?

He hadn’t realized he’d transmitted the question through his body language until the creature turned toward him. "What am I? I am what you chose me to be this night, Doctor. ‘Prophet,’ ‘thing of evil,’ and an ‘ominous bird of yore.’"

The Raven… "You… you’ve been reading my mind all evening, haven’t you? What are you? Truly?"

"It is All Hallow’s Eve, the night where the spirits of the dead are closest to those of the living. There are many who walk the earth now, thanks to the Phantoms." Her form wavered, then stretched into a human shape. "We are ghosts." Her body became more defined, and soft, washed-out colors began to take the place of the blue glow. "We are angry at what has been done to this world; both the physical and spiritual worlds are under attack by Phantoms." Wavy black hair framed a delicate face that made Sid’s breath catch in his throat. "We all fight however we can," she said. "But there’s so little we can do…"

The woman suddenly began to fade. Sid couldn’t help himself; he lunged forward, screaming, "Nicole!" But she’d vanished, leaving him alone in the dark with Hein at his back. He trembled, and wondered if he really could have seen what he’d thought he’d seen. It wasn’t just the vision of the woman he’d loved but known only briefly that had shaken him, but the image of the bird devouring the Phantom’s spirit, and her words. Both the physical and spiritual worlds are under attack by Phantoms… What if that was why they were making so little headway against the alien invaders? What if it was because the aliens were attacking them on two fronts, instead of one? Were they assaulting Gaia itself?

He turned to Hein to ask what the other thought of what they’d just seen, but the younger wolf’s strange expression halted the words. "Doctor," Hein said slowly, "how do you know my mother?" The red glint in the depths of his eyes seemed to burn, and Sid shuddered in spite of himself. Here was another problem he’d have to deal with. So far, Hein had managed to control his bloodlust, but it was there, beneath the surface, waiting… Sid fervently hoped it was the holiday affecting the younger wolf as it had affected Sid himself, but somehow, he doubted it.

"Let’s get out of here," Sid said quietly. "It’s almost dawn, and I have much to think about." He could still feel the younger wolf’s eyes on him as he trotted towards the lab’s exit. Hein made no move to follow, but Sid didn’t feel safe until he had reached his apartment.

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted – nevermore!