NERO STUMBLED as he appeared in Wisconsin. He’d been thinking of his last goodbye to Josh, and suddenly he was here again, holding a Crazy Cat Lady T-shirt. Just like before, Cream and Coffee were already wolves, playing happily with each other while they kept an eye on whether Nero would wear the tee. Pauly stood defiantly in front of him, daring him to say no, and Mother….
Mother had leaped backward with her T-shirt half off. She’d been stripping before her shift but was now was reaching for her gun to shoot the shields that had abruptly appeared at her feet.
“What the hell?” she said.
“Don’t shoot them!” Nero commanded as he dropped the tee. Then he took a breath, his gaze going again over every single one of them—even Pauly, with his smirk and his cell phone hidden behind his back so he could take a pictures of Nero in the T-shirt. Especially Pauly, who dropped the tease and was taking a defensive stance beside Nero.
“God, it’s good to see you guys,” Nero said, his voice choking up. He wanted to hug every one of them. He had so much he wanted to say to them, about how he’d missed them and that they were more important to him than he’d ever realized. All of those words crowded into his throat, but they didn’t have the time.
“Are you okay?” Mother asked, her gaze still trained on the shields. Cream and Coffee had come closer as well, their noses working overtime as they sniffed the things.
Focus! Nero ordered himself. Reunions could happen later. “Look, I don’t have time to explain. This is a fairy mulligan, and I’m trying to save all your lives.”
All of their heads snapped up at that, but it was Paul who asked the question. “We die? From the demon?”
Mother had a different reaction. “We don’t make fairy deals! You know that!”
“This is different. This is your lives.” And before Mother could voice her next objection, he answered Pauly’s question. “The demon has a fire blast that takes all of you out. You need to carry the shields and drop them in a defensive place. You’ll have about twenty seconds to get behind them when the blast starts building.”
“Sticky eggs?” Mother said as she pointed to Bitterroot’s addition. “How is that going to help?”
“I have no idea. But you can carry the shield in your wolf form. It’s got a harness I can strap onto you. Over the hoodies.” He picked one up and shook it out. “Just before the blast, you flatten out behind the shields and under one of these.”
Pauly shook his head. “We can’t attack wearing one of those.”
“Yes, you can.” He hoped. “We’ve run simulations.”
“Simulations!” Mother snapped. “You mean these haven’t been tested?”
Nero ground his teeth. “No! Because there wasn’t time! Now stop arguing. Coffee, you first. Pauly, you help Cream. Mother, get furry.”
Everyone moved into place, working in a coordinated fashion even with the unfamiliar equipment. That’s what happened in a good pack. When the time came for action, they all worked seamlessly even with the unpredictable. And hell, these shields were unpredictable. The hoodies were obvious enough. They worked like a wolf sweater vest with a long back to cover the tail. But the straps to attach and release the shield were confusing, and worse, Josh’s compound smelled awful.
“What are these supposed to do?” Pauly asked as he was closing the buckles across Cream’s chest.
“Channel the plasma fire that turns all of you to ash. It’s a one-time deal, so if he looks like he’s going explosive again, run away from the blast area as fast as possible.” He jerked his chin to a tall oak tree. “That’s the edge there. The van stayed whole.”
There was a pause as everyone turned to stare at him, at the tree, then at the van, and back to him. They were processing, calculating distances, and probably dealing with a massive “holy shit” factor. But to their credit, no one said a word. They just returned to work.
Mother was full wolf now, so Nero started putting on her harness. Coffee and Cream started moving around in the things, testing how easily they could run, pivot, and strike. It wasn’t easy, but they were professionals. They adjusted, and the shields wouldn’t be carried into the battle itself.
Pauly was the last to strip before going wolf, but then he paused as he looked at the remaining two shields.
“How are you going to get yours on?”
He’d… hell, he hadn’t thought about that. God, that was something they’d have figured out if they’d been able to test the things. “I don’t need it,” he said. “I survived the first time.” He didn’t explain that it had only been sheer luck that he’d managed to live. The timing had to be perfect, and since he didn’t intend for Coffee to get shot, he wasn’t sure he could be in a full energy state when the blast went off.
“Nero…,” Pauly said, obviously guessing at the problem.
“If I don’t make it, finish off the damned demon. And don’t mourn me. Believe me, my dying today might be the more pleasant of outcomes.”
All of them stilled at that. If they hadn’t understood the gravity of the situation before, they did now. But Pauly was the only one still able to talk. “Nero…,” he said, his voice choked.
“No time,” Nero barked out. “Get furry.”
Then suddenly a familiar voice sounded from right behind him. “Huh. No tinglies. Somehow I always thought transporting would be tingly.” Nero spun around as Josh shrugged and dropped his backpack on the ground. “I kind of miss the sound effects too. But this was just, bam, I’m here.” Then he grinned at Nero’s shocked face. “What, did you think I’d let you face this alone?”
“Josh,” Nero breathed, and then he bellowed. “What the fuck did you do?”
Josh’s expression softened. “Not everyone leaves when you tell them to. Some of us choose to stick around.” Then he looked around at the wolves, identifying them one by one. “Cream, Coffee, you’re both a lot prettier than in Nero’s pictures. Pauly, stop bristling. I’m here to help. And Mother, please don’t pee on me. Trust me when I say I’ve already endured the Nero initiation. I don’t need any more hazing, thank you very much.”
Nero’s gaze shifted to Mother. It did indeed look like she wanted to piss on the newcomer. They all did. “He’s….” What? His lover, his best friend? “He’s one of us. I trust him with my life. More important, I trust him with all of your lives.” And that was the best endorsement he could give for anyone.
“All right, everyone,” Josh called, “let me check your harnesses. When it’s time, they’re quick release. Tug here.”
While Nero got Pauly into his shield harness, Josh did a thorough job adjusting straps and checking… he had no idea what. Then it was time for Nero go to wolf, but he couldn’t change without saying something to Josh, though he had no idea exactly what.
And when Josh looked up to see him staring, his expression turned surprisingly stubborn, as if he was fighting as much emotion as Nero was and was also refusing to let it out. “I made my own choice,” he said. “It wasn’t a noble sacrifice or a lovesick act of desperation. I’ve found my passion, and I’m not willing to let it all be erased. No matter what happens now”—his eyes glittered sharp with unshed tears—“or between us, this is what I want.”
Nero couldn’t argue with that, especially since he was suddenly struck by the difference between the Josh he’d first met and the one who stood before him now. The Josh from before had been drifting and was a bit of a whiner. The most important thing in his life was putting on a show at a convention in the hopes that he’d get laid that evening. The man before him now vibrated with conviction. He had a strength that was impressive and a determination to walk his path as he saved not only the lives of Nero’s team, but a whole section of Wisconsin too. He was focused and stronger than he’d ever been.
“I’m so proud to know you,” Nero said. “And I’m so grateful for everything, Josh. If it ends today—”
“Shut up. It doesn’t. Get furry so we can get on with it.” Then he took a breath. “Wait! I need a gun first.”
“What? Why?”
“Trust me on this, okay? Do you have a .45 anywhere?”
“Mother’s Glock.” Nero pulled it out of a lockbox and handed it over. Josh checked it over with quick efficiency, then shoved it in the back of his pants. “Thanks. Now get furry.”
Damn, the guy was even issuing orders now. Good for him. So Nero complied. He shifted quickly and stood calmly while Josh strapped a bad-smelling shield onto his wolf body. And if there were extra caresses as Josh worked, moments when Josh burrowed his fingers deep into Nero’s fur and squeezed, then it was only because they’d always communicated better with their bodies than they had with words. And that was why, when all was in place, Nero tilted his head up and licked Josh’s face—a big wet swipe right over his lips.
“Ew!” Josh wiped the slobber off with his hand. “That’s disgusting.” But he was smiling as he said it. And then he reached into his backpack and pulled out his computer plus a headset. He slipped on the headset first. “Okay, everyone, bark if you can hear me.”
Nero jerked sideways at the sudden sound next to his ear. Apparently Josh had put in a tiny speaker, but wolf ears didn’t need anything so loud. He barked loud and sharp at Josh, as did everyone else on the team. And then, when Josh didn’t seem to understand, Nero went right up beside his ear and barked as loud as he could.
“Hey!” Josh exclaimed, and then his eyes widened in surprise. “Oh. Too loud?”
Nero nodded.
Josh quickly tapped on his keyboard. “Better?”
Five wolves yipped in unison.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Then he pointed to his laptop screen. “Okay, I put cameras in your hoodies too, and some sensors, so I can see what’s happening on levels you can’t.” He glanced at Nero. “You can thank Stratos for the programming. I didn’t have a clue.” Then he turned back to his screen. “I’m going to stay here and watch everything. I don’t want to interfere with your attack, but if I tell you to move, you’ve got to listen, okay? Bark if you understand.”
Silence. No one answered because they were all looking to Nero for his decision. Fortunately Nero had no doubt. He yipped once, and then he barked louder for good measure.
That was good enough for his team. They all yipped their agreement, and then it was time for them to go. Nero looked one last time at Josh, who gave him a thumbs-up. Everything was set on his end, and so he turned and began to run for the bastard demon.
It was awkward carrying a shield on his back, and he was grateful for the distance to the lake. It gave him time to test out the added weight, to figure out how to leap and how to strike. It would have been better to have more than a few minutes to do this, especially since he also had to mentally prepare for this attack. But he’d replayed this moment in his head so many times that it was a relief to finally be here. That he had Josh in his ear too made it especially sweet, though the guy sure was chatty.
“So it turns out that back in the fifties, a guy wrote a dime novel based on a real-life serial killer that liked to murder ice fishermen. Must be a Wisconsin thing. Anyway, since he was a horror writer—like an early Stephen King—he made it into a paranormal thing, a demon with weirdly colored skin and orange blood who haunted lakes in order to eat random Wisconsinites. The writer never made it famous, but the locals loved it. They retold the story countless times, and now it’s an urban legend here. I think it’s the origin of your lakeside people-eater. It’s a good thing that I’m a fast reader, because I had like ten seconds to read the ending before I got zapped here. It told me everything we need to know to kill the demon. Bitter—you know who—gave it to me. The writing’s not bad, but—”
Nero did a hard, sharp bark. They were nearing the attack area and needed to focus.
“What? Am I talking too much?”
Another bark, this time lower and more growly.
“Got it. Okay. Go on and take ’em out. Take ’em down. Do your… do your stuff.”
Nero snorted. He doubted anyone else got the reference to Independence Day, but Nero recognized it from their last movie night. And then there was no more time for memories because he was starting the first attack run.