“Kelsey!” Rue shouted. “Get back here! I can’t do this without you.” Her gaze flew back and forth between the hole through which the wolf had disappeared and Danny, who was writhing in agony.
The skin around his mouth stretched. She stared as hair sprouted all over his face.
Her stomach roiled. It’s happening.
Then the crackling static of a walkie-talkie mingled with Danny’s groans. Voices echoed through the tunnel.
Shit!
Either the police or transit authority personnel had found them.
She looked around, but there was no other way out of the underground chamber. If the police found the hole in the bricked-up archway, they would see Danny in midshift.
Trembling, she held on to her groaning son. Should she rush outside and try to lure the police away? Or was it better to stay with Danny and hope that somehow, Kelsey could—
A shot boomed through the tunnel.
Rue froze, every muscle in her body taut.
The wolf whined outside and then fell silent.
Kelsey! Oh, God, no! Kelsey!
“Stay put,” she signed to Danny, hoping some part of him still understood. She scrambled to her feet and raced to the entrance. As she dropped to her knees, she threw a glance back over her shoulder.
Danny was still in his human form. Had the shift stopped for now?
His gaze followed her. He whimpered but made no move to get up and run after her. Maybe he couldn’t move, pain shackling him to the floor.
Gravel and garbage dug into her hands. She ignored it, crawled forward, and peeked through the hole.
“Damn, did you see those teeth?” a shaky voice said in the semi-darkness to her right. “That beast looked like a wolf.”
“Probably just a feral dog,” another man answered from right above Rue. “Did you hit it?”
Shoes crunched over the gravel. “Yeah, I’m sure I did. It crawled somewhere over there.”
No, no, no, no, no! Tears burned in Rue’s eyes.
Through a blurry vision, she tried to see if Kelsey was lying somewhere, bleeding, but the man’s legs blocked her view. No. Kelsey, please, no. She clamped her fingers around a brick, barely feeling the rough edges dig into her skin. Slowly, she pushed her arm through the hole, ready to hurl the brick at the police officer who had shot Kelsey. If he took one step closer to her and Danny...
“Police! Don’t move!” one of the officers shouted.
Rue paused. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She scrambled back.
Had they discovered her?
But the officer’s flashlight wasn’t directed her way. The beam of light danced over the tracks deeper in the tunnel.
Rue craned her neck and peeked out of the hole. Kelsey?
A shadowy figure pushed away from the wall. Gravel crunched beneath two running feet, not four. The fleeing person passed beneath a lightbulb. Artificial light flickered over red hair.
The boy who was with Danny!
Metal glinted in his hand.
“Gun!” one officer yelled. He flattened himself against the tunnel wall, only one foot away from Rue.
The flash from the officer’s gun blinded Rue for a moment. Her ears rang. Sparks flew as the bullet ricocheted through the tunnel.
Something hot stung Rue’s neck. Oh, God! I’m hit! Panic robbed her of breath. Still gripping the brick with one hand, she clutched her neck with the other. But her frantic fingertips didn’t encounter a wound. Instead, she fished the shell of the officer’s semi-automatic out of the collar of her shirt. Jesus Christ!
When the ringing in her ears stopped and her senses were working again, Rue saw the running boy disappear in the tunnel.
Pistols aimed, the two officers rushed past Rue without seeing her. Within seconds, the darkness in the tunnel swallowed them too.
The brick fell from Rue’s limp grasp.
A growl made her head jerk around.
Kelsey?
Two wolves leaped out of the darkness, but both were too large to be Kelsey.
The Saru! They followed the cops into the tunnel.
Even in the semi-darkness of the tunnel, sharp noses and glowing eyes zeroed in on Rue.
The bigger wolf hurled himself at her but couldn’t get a grip on her through the small hole. His gleaming canines snapped closed inches from Rue’s face.
Screaming, she clambered back. Bricks scraped over the back of her head. Pain flared through her scalp. On hands and knees, she scrambled back into the concrete chamber, away from the snarling wolf. She crashed into something. Numbness spread from her elbow to the rest of her arm. She collapsed onto the floor. For a moment, she couldn’t move her arm.
Get up! Spitting dust, she got to her feet. Her gaze darted through the chamber.
No sign of Danny. Was he hiding in a dark corner? Or had he passed out?
A growl made her whirl around.
The first wolf scrambled through the hole.
Rue grabbed the nearest object, a rusty chair, and lifted it over her head. “Get back!”
The wolf didn’t listen. Huge canines exposed, he lunged at Rue.
“Aaaarh!” She swung down the chair as hard as she could.
A chair leg smashed against the wolf’s flank. He fell to the ground, yelping, then jumped up, shook himself, and kept advancing.
Rue moved back, chair lifted.
Growling, the wolf followed. He limped, but that seemed to make him only angrier.
Rue’s back hit the wall.
A second wolf rushed through the hole, then a third one.
Now three wolves were hurtling toward Rue.
Her knuckles tightened around the chair. Oh, God! There’s a whole pack of them! She gritted her teeth and lifted the chair higher, ready to fight for her life and for Danny’s.