I want to throw up. I’m going to throw up. I do throw up.
Right at the last moment, Hawk twirls in the air, a horrible manoeuvre that leaves me upside down but also allows the thin trail of vomit to hit the ground instead of his shoulder.
“What the fuck, Hawk?”
He chuckles. “You should get used to travel like this. It’s so much faster.”
“Never. Never-the-fuck-ever again. Put me down.”
“But we’re not—”
“Hawk, so help me, I will vomit in your ear.”
That stops his chuckles flat. Within seconds, we’re swooping down and I’m swinging my legs to the side to land neatly on the pavement. At least that’s my plan. Instead the momentum carries me on too far and I stumble several paces before landing on my knees…and retching like an invalid.
Great.
Hawk lands in a crouch beside me, careful to sweep his tail away from the puddle. “I’m sorry. I had no idea you were such a bad flier. You’ve never done that before?”
“I don’t have wings.”
He shrugs and straightens to his full height. “Get up.”
Still groaning and grumbling, I stand and take in my surroundings. Quiet. Eerily so.
We’re back within Dire Wolf territory, but I can’t see a single wolf. There are signs of their passing, more trampled cars, the occasional tuft of fur, but of a living soul? Nothing.
The air feels heavy but weary, as though put through great trials. A weird sensation, but I can’t figure out how else to describe it. The area has seen great battle and now is winding down.
“Come on.”
“What about Rayne?”
I offer Hawk a wry smile. “She’ll catch up.”
We continue the rest of the way on foot, me jogging, Hawk bounding along on hands and toes. He moves with the smooth, loping gait of a cat, tail hooked out for balance. So strange to see him move that way, switching so easily between two limbs and four.
A few yards on we find the first body. A woman, naked but for a few scraps of shredded denim, probably from where she tried to shift. Her body is a patchwork of deep gouges and teeth marks, her mouth spread wide in a silent scream. A little after that, two men—boys really—huddle close together with their fingers just touching. It’s hard to tell through all the blood, but I suspect that these are some of those loyal to Pete.
The bodies increase in number now, some faces I recognize, others I don’t. It looks as though not every member of the pack was willing to follow Aleksandar on his little mission. Those who objected clearly weren’t given much of an alternative, but at least they went down fighting. Fighting for themselves, for Pete, for Wendy.
I slow as I walk through this section, making sure to look into every single face. I need to remember these people and what they went through because of—
“This is awful.”
Though Rayne echoes my sentiment, I half leap out of my skin to find her right at my side. She offers me a wry look as I press a hand to my chest. “Damn it, Rayne.”
“You need to be more aware.”
“And you need to be less sneaky.”
She shrugs. “I told you I’d follow.”
Yeah, but never mind how fast she must have been moving to catch up with us. I remind myself that there is still so much about vampires that I don’t know and that no matter how human she looks, there is still very much of the predator about Rayne.
I can see it now as she jogs through the carnage with me, from the tense set of her shoulders, to the silver gleam in her eyes. The points of her fangs show between slightly parted lips, and I catch the first hints of a growl at the back of her throat.
With three of us together, Hawk goes back to the skies, scouting out ahead and behind, watching us from a clear vantage point. He calls down directions as we move, giving us shortcuts through alleys and over fences.
* * *
Halfway back to the site of the battle we find Solo. He has shifted to better accommodate Pete’s immense body, but still struggles beneath the dead weight. He sighs when we approach and lowers the panting form to the ground.
Pete looks half dead already. The once brilliant white fur is matted with fresh and drying blood. One ear is wholly gone, leaving nothing but a choked-out hole of gore and sinew. The other looks about ready to follow. A similar red mess marks where their tail once was, and even I can see that without it, Pete can’t walk in this form.
Rayne hisses through her teeth and snatches up her phone. She barks into it, giving precise location details and directions to Omega who, from the sounds of it are already en route. Good. The quicker the better.
Pete looks up at me, their red eyes damp and lidded with pain. “Danika?”
“Hey. We’re here to help. Don’t talk.”
“But Aleksandar—”
“We’ll deal with him. We need to get you to a medi-team as quickly as possible.”
Solo grunts and stretches his back until all the bones click. “Aleksandar is going for the new pack. He wanted to hunt them down and exterminate them the moment they showed up, but Wensleydale wouldn’t let him. Now there’s no one to get in the way.”
“He can’t do that.”
“Of course he can.” A shrug. “The pack is his until Wensleydale returns. He can do exactly as he likes. You can already see what happened to those who went against him. I don’t think there’s much we can do.”
But there is. There’s something I can do. But will that make it worse?
With Wendy pledged to me right now I have control of the pack. Not in a literal sense, but since I can simply tell Wendy to give his followers any order…what if I told them? What if I made clear that this isn’t what Wendy wants and that I can act under my own authority?
As quickly as the thought comes I squash it flat. Wendy needs to maintain his aura of power and control. Now, more than ever, he can’t afford to appear weak before his pack.
Pete groans, shaking from head to toe. “I have to warn Wensleydale. He has to know I failed him.”
“Don’t worry about that now—”
“He has to know. If I don’t make it, you have to tell him. Please. Tell him Aleksandar took the pack and that there’s no one left to watch his back. Tell him, Agent. Please.”
“I…okay.”
Relief shows visibly as a ripple of calm through every muscle. Pete flops back against the ground and closes their eyes.
Solo eyes me up and down. “Why are you here?”
“For Pete.”
“I have him, you should have stayed with the others.”
“Now wait a minute—”
“No, you wait,” he snarls. “I know what Duo told you, I heard him. You don’t need to be here right now. With those idiots heading out into who knows what, every agent available needs to be out there to protect the people.”
“And what about this person?”
“You can’t be everywhere at once. You can’t save everybody nor should you try. I. Have. Chalks. Go on and meet with the others.” He chuckles. “In fact, if you want to protect someone, watch over my idiot brother. He still owes me money and isn’t allowed to die just yet.”
A pause, then just like Duo did earlier, Solo seems to glance into himself. His furry shoulders buck with mirth. “And while you’re at it, tell him only the weakest pups dine on scraps.”
“I get the feeling you just told him that yourself.”
My phone rings, ending the gentle banter.
A glance at the screen confuses me, another number I don’t know. Solo shrugs and Rayne is still on her own phone so there’s no one to run it by.
“Agent Danika Karson, who’s calling?”
“Danika? Danika, where are you?”
I blink. “Jack?”
“Where are you?” His voice is frantic, the sounds around him loud and garbled. Is that screaming?
“I’m in Misona with the Dire Wolves. Or what’s left of them. Where are you? What’s going on?”
Jack is panting, speaking quickly and barely audible above the din around him. “I’m on Chadwick Road with some…some contractors. There’s some sort of riot outside. What’s happening?”
That feeling of nausea begins to bubble afresh inside me. “Stay inside. Don’t go out under any circumstances.”
“But I have to. The new protocol—” A loud boom echoes down the line obliterating anything else he might have said. For long, horrible seconds I hear nothing but screams, shouts, and the crashes of breaking glass and furniture.
“Jack? Hello, Jack? Jack. Say something.”
Eventually he returns to the line, voice cracked and groggy. “There’s werewolves everywhere. It’s a riot. They’re wrecking the place.”
Solo looks up from Pete’s rasping form. He growls.
I tighten my grip on the phone. “Werewolves?”
“Dozens of them. And they’re fighting. It’s insane out there. I thought you said you had this under control.”
“I’m trying, Jack.”
He cries out, vanishes from the line for a moment or two, then returns even more out of breath than before. “Rescue your team. I have no choice now. Keep them out of it, but I have to call them in.”
“What? Who?” I feel my fingers shaking, on the phone hand and the free one, but I need to grip something or else I’ll lose my mind. “Jack? Jack!”
Interference begins to mess with his voice. “I need…when…for the next…but they…and the military…can’t have you…with the wolves…revival…”
“Jack? You’re breaking up. Jack?”
“…part of Project Revival and then they…martial law and…you can’t have the…inside SPEAR…”
I pull the phone away from my ear, despairing at the shitty signal. Solo snatches it from my grip and tucks the speaker right up into his own furry ear, listening intently. After several seconds of waiting he tosses it back to me.
“He’s gone. What’s happening?”
“I have no idea, but we need to get to Chadwick Street.” I tap the button on the side of my communications earpiece. “Erkyan? Duo? What’s going on?”
A pause, then Erkyan’s voice. “This horrible. Rapid response comes, but we are too few. More wolves from other packs join.”
Solo nods. “Duo says Aleksandar’s movement has the other packs mobilized. They see it as an act of aggression. Frankly, can’t say I disagree.”
“But what does that mean? To wolves I mean.”
“That’s there’s more than one pack we need to deal with tonight. And that we’re going to need all the help we can get.” He shrugs. “Like I said, I’ve got Chalks. You three get going.”
Rayne hurries over, tucking her phone back into her pocket as she comes. “The Omega team is on the way, but they’re having to take side streets. Some sort of riot is happening in the West Side and no one can get through.”
“We can get through.”
“Well, I can get there, but what about you?” She looks me up and down. “You’re good, but…”
I glance to Hawk watching us from above. My stomach turns in miserable anticipation. “I think I’ll have a lift.”