“Thank you for not dying. Or turning onto a Feral.” He helped her to sit up, only to pull her against him again. His arms shook as he held her, and she knew he was all too aware that he’d almost lost someone else he loved. “Is it gone? The singing you told me about.”
“No. I don’t think it ever will be. The virus had already started to change me. You stopped it, and maybe the lycanthropy has made changes too. That’s probably why I can feel you.” She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “Maybe I’m not quite human anymore. Or Feral, or werewolf, or anything. I’m a little bit of them all. I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I have the strongest, most unique mate a wolf could hope for. As if I didn’t know that already.” He put his face in her hair and inhaled. “As long as you’re all right.”
“I’m all right.” She didn’t want to move. Not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, either, but now that he’d reminded her, she knew they couldn’t stay here. “Shane, the Ferals are planning a major attack. Tonight. They’ve got the Beast Plague loaded into these giant bug foggers, and they’re hiding them in trucks that look like supply deliveries. The cities have to be expecting there’ll be food and stuff sometime. Those Ferals are going to drive right in and try to infect everyone there.”
His muscles tensed against her. “Oh, fuck. And I guarantee you, that would work here. Supply trucks are delayed all the time, when they don’t just disappear. Guess we know why, now. We’d let in anything that looked like a truck full of food. Do you know where they’re going?”
“Kind of. They said… The Bird of Fire. The Laughing Desert Haven. The Place of Bright Lights.”
A hush fell over them. He sat, still and thoughtful, until she heard him say, “Son of a bitch.” Then he twisted about until he could pull the walkie-talkie out of his pocket. “Holly. Do you read?”
“I hear you, Shane. Erin?”
“She’s alive. She’s fine.”
“Thank God.”
Erin heard more than Holly’s voice over the air. After she spoke, other voices broke in, cheering with unrestrained joy. The pack had waited to hear about her. Her eyes misted over.
Shane continued. “Listen to me. All of you. The Ferals are making a major play tonight. They’re planning Trojan horses full of the Beast Plague to take to the cities. Holly, get Alok on the phone again.”
“I never hung up with him. He wanted to hear if Erin was all right. He’s cheering, too.”
“Tell him to call whoever he still knows who’s involved with the Beast Plague shit and get them to intercept the trucks. Everyone else, get ready to move out. The Ferals are going to hit Phoenix, Laughlin, and Las Vegas.”
14
Riding the Trolley Down Armageddon Avenue
“Say whatnow?” Filipa Perez said. She’d led the biggest of the Phoenix packs for a decade now, and after guiding her pack through the start of the Great Beast Plague in a major city, she probably thought she’d seen everything.
Almost everything. Shane watched as Erin mouthed descriptions at him, complete with pantomime to emphasize them. “There’s Ferals driving delivery trucks headed towards Phoenix, Laughlin, and Las Vegas. They’re trying to slip by as supply delivery, only to create an outbreak of the Beast Plague when they get there. There’s humans driving the trucks, though I’d bet they’re in the start of a long, slow infection process. In the back, there’s small packs of Ferals, as well as gadgets that disperse pure virus into the air.
“Lawson, if I didn’t know you, I’d say you’d lost your goddamn mind. That’s crazy as all hell, what you just said.” Filipa snorted audibly over the line.
“But you do know me. Since when do I call you with crazy-ass stories?”
“What you called up with last time started to sound a little crazy-ass. Smart Ferals, humans working with them. Coyote Trail was the state capital of crazy-ass bullshit for a little.”
“And it’s not getting any better. Wish I didn’t think we were all about to catch a bunch of that in the teeth. The Feral landscape’s changing. They’re about to show that off in a damn big way,” Shane said. “I proved what I said last time. I can prove it again. They’re going to be taking Highway 69 to I-17 south. Ride up there and check it out. I’m trying to get us some official help, but I wouldn’t count on it. Not with this much riding on it. If I’m wrong, you tell everyone the sun baked all the brains out of our heads. But if I’m right…”
“All right. Because it’s you. And if I find Ferals in semis, you owe me a damn big explanation.”
“Once we’ve got this under control, I’ll tell you all I know. There’s no time now. Do you have good numbers for the packs out towards Laughlin? Cell towers out here are down.”
“No. I lost touch with them a week or so ago. All calls go straight to voicemail and I never had land lines for them, if they even still had them.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. What about Vegas?”
“There’s no packs in Vegas now. It’s all city-run security inside and outside that wall. Their dicks are hard to prove they can protect themselves without us.”
“They’d better hope they’re right.” Shane cocked his head to listen. Engines in the distance, many of them, throaty and loud as their riders pushed them hard. “I gotta go. Pack’s almost here. Good hunting tonight, Filipa.”
“Thanks, Lawson. What are you going to do?”
“Make a damn hard decision. Let me know how it goes.”
“Will do.”
Shane hung up the phone and scrubbed his hand over his face. Tension pulled all his muscles taut until it felt like his entire suit of skin was too tight on his frame. At first, he blamed the stress, but the restless energy at the core of him said otherwise.
The wolf wanted to hunt. Human skin couldn’t meet the need to run down the prey that dared threaten both mate and den.
“Do I hear motorcycles?” Erin asked from where she reclined on the couch. He’d settled her there with a glass of iced tea and a bowl of canned beef and barley soup before he called Phoenix. The ordeal with the virus had taken too much energy out of her, and he had the sense she’d expend more before the sun came up.
“A whole pack of them. I called them while you were cleaning up. No, you sit right there. They’ll come to you.” He pointed at the couch she was trying to stand up from.
She made a face. “I want to protest my physical limitations and the need to acknowledge that you’re right, damn it.”
“Protest all you want. While you sit there.”
“Fine. But I’m complaining to your boss.”
“I am the boss.” He smirked at her. “Eat your soup. I’m going to let them in.”
She tucked the handle of the spoon between her two center fingers and flipped him off with it.
The pack converged on the house in a rumble of engines. By the way they arrived, all at once and driving in formation, he got the idea they’d all met up elsewhere beforehand, probably Holly’s place since she both lived close and had remained tethered to her landline. I don’t miss the days before cell phones. Now they’re on the way back in, and I could damn well do without.
Holly hopped off her ride. “Alok called everyone he knew. He even called people he didn’t know. No dice.”
Shane frowned. “No one’s taking him seriously?”
“Nope. Some of them are still pissed off he’d dare to leave the program, so they don’t want to listen to him. Others have that ‘we’re safe in our impenetrable fortress’ bullshit going on. He was also cussing in Tamil, Urdu, and Telugu about one guy who said he’d listen when Alok published a scientific paper on what happened here.” Holly rolled her eyes.
“Do you speak all those languages?”
“Urdu, yes. My Tamil needs work and my Telugu is awful.”
Once again, Holly’s unexpected array of skill sets baffled Shane. “Right. I was afraid he’d have problems. Let’s go inside. We have decisions to make— Levi?”
Still brui
sed, still bearing the ugly wounds that had nearly killed him, Levi stepped out from where he’d hidden himself behind Travis’s larger form. “Hey, Shane. The docs let me out on account of me being a miserable pain in their asses. Thought maybe you’d feel better if someone stayed with Erin while the rest of you took care of business.”
“I am damn glad to see you up and around.” Shane pulled his packmate into a tight hug. Thinner, not as solid as he’d been a few days ago, but still plenty strong enough to give Ferals a fight for their lives.
Levi squeezed hard then let go. “So am I. Erin recovering all right?”
“She is. Come on. You can see for yourself.” Shane opened the door to let his friend go first. The rest of the pack followed them into the house.
As expected, Erin hadn’t remained on the couch, though at least half the soup had found its way into her. She seemed steadier on her feet to Shane, less apt to teeter over with the grace of a drunken giraffe, but still too fragile for his taste.
“Levi! They let you out! You’re all right!” she exclaimed.
The wounded wolf crossed the room fast to catch her in a crushing hug. “Thanks to you. You saved my ass, and I haven’t been able to thank you for that. You’re a damn hero.”
Erin beamed with happiness and relief, face tilted up over Levi’s shoulder. “I’m not. You wouldn’t have been hurt if you hadn’t been out there to get me.”
“Hell with that. Ferals attack people. That’s not on you. Better they got us than some poor human bastard.” He let go and held her by the shoulders at arm’s length so he could stare at her. “Tyler would have said the same. If we hadn’t been out there to get you, there’s stuff we wouldn’t have learned about until it was too late. Without you, I’d be dead on the road. You’re my hero, and I’m proud to have you in our pack. You hear me?”
Tears glistened in Erin’s eyes. “I hear you. Thank you. For all that.”
Shane folded his arms across his chest and smiled. They didn’t have many moments here in the calm before the storm, before they did what they had to in order to keep their town safe. Or more than their town. Whose heroes are we tonight? Whose heroes should we be? Have we already done enough, or do we have a responsibility to do more? We’re just a pack of werewolves with motorcycles. What can we realistically do?
He didn’t have the answer. Only questions, and the never-fading presence of his brother in the back of his mind. “I love you, little brother. I’m proud of you. Keep making me proud.”
“All right, folks. Listen up,” Shane said. “We’ve got a decision to make, and we haven’t got much time to make it in.”
Everyone fell silent. All eyes turned to him to wait for him to speak. Tonight, more than any other time since he had taken over as pack alpha, he felt the weight of responsibility press down on him, as heavy as all the souls between here and three innocent cities that sat down the highways.
“By now, you’ve heard what’s happening. I got hold of Filipa Perez down in Phoenix a few minutes ago. She said she’ll take the pack up the highway to stop the trucks headed there. She was damn dubious about it, but she agreed. We can’t do anything else about that. It’s in Filipa’s hands now.”
Murmurs and nods. Erin sat down on the couch again to cradle her glass of tea.
Shane continued. “We tried to get anyone else to listen to us about Laughlin and Las Vegas, but no one’s paying any attention. Laughlin’s pack is out of touch, and we’ve got no way to warn them. That means we’re the only motherfuckers out here who know what’s really going on. And we’re the only motherfuckers who can do anything about it – but there’s not enough of us to stop the attacks on both Laughlin and Las Vegas. We’d have to pick which one to try to save – if we want to try to stop one at all.”
Travis frowned. “Why wouldn’t we want to stop one?”
“Because we might not have any indications the Ferals are coming after Coyote Trail, but that just means we don’t know about it,” Shane said. “There’s an outside chance they might decide to attack here. We know their leader is still pissed at us. We know he’s got it in for us. If he decides tonight’s the night to move on that, who’s going to protect our home?”
Heavy quiet descended. The pack glanced around, meeting each other’s eyes, reading the expressions they found on each other’s faces to gauge the thoughts of those in the room. Shane knew them all well enough to guess what they would say, and his pride in his pack had never loomed larger.
It was Jake who cleared his throat and spoke up. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try to stop at least one of those trucks, boss.”
Others chimed in with similar sentiments. All eyes locked on Shane.
The alpha nodded. “That’s what I thought. Truth is, I couldn’t face myself in a mirror if I didn’t try. So. Laughlin or Vegas?”
“Have we tried to get hold of the Laughlin PD?” Kerri asked. “They could pass a message to the pack there, couldn’t they?”
“You’d think, but the police don’t deal much with the pack there. They’re jealous as hell of Vegas’s reputation, and they’d love to prove they don’t need the packs to keep them safe.” Shane snorted his derision. “Last I heard, they weren’t up to snuff, but no one can make them listen. We did call them. They blew us off.”
Travis crossed his arms tight over his chest. “Sometimes, I wish my mama didn’t raise a good man. It’d serve them right to blow us off, then find Ferals climbing up their asses. Except we all know I couldn’t do that to anyone, asshole or not.”
“None of us can,” Rigo said. “Whether they would deserve it or not.”
Shane nodded. “If we all got what we deserved, we’d be a bunch of sorry bastards. Here’s my thought. Las Vegas built that wall around their city. They’ve managed to hold off the Feral packs outside their walls for all this time. If there’s any city out here that could react to Ferals sneaking in to spread the virus, it’s them. Laughlin can’t. Maybe we could get a call through to Laughlin’s pack, maybe they’d handle it and we could get Vegas instead, but that’s a lot of maybes to bet thousands of lives on.”
He felt Erin before she spoke, the stirring of her attention towards him and the nudge of warning she intended to give. “Shane. They’re moving.”
“Then so are we. Anyone object to riding for Laughlin?”
No one did. They just stood up, or pushed off the walls where they’d been leaning, to mill in Erin’s direction. As Shane raised an eyebrow, every one of his pack wandered by the couch to touch Erin’s shoulder, or her hand, and tell her how happy they were she was all right. Just for a moment, a brief statement or a smile before they headed towards their bikes, but Shane could see the light in her eyes brighten with every good wish.
He couldn’t help but smile. Erin had her family now. They’d damn sure take better care of her than her blood family had.
Then it was only Levi, and Erin, and Shane left. Levi muttered something about refreshing her tea, grabbed her glass, and took off for the kitchen to offer a moment of privacy.
Erin wrapped her arms around Shane. “You have to go. They’re taking I-40 west to get to Laughlin. They’re not moving as fast as they could, because their drivers are scared and are starting to feel the first effects of the Beast Plague, but it’s fast enough. Be careful, okay?”
“I’ll be careful,” he answered, lips against her hair. “We’ll be out of walkie-talkie range after too long. I’ll call when we get back in.”
“I don’t get the idea that’s going to be a problem,” Erin said, and looked up into his eyes. “I can feel you, Shane. Like I feel the Ferals, only stronger. Don’t make me feel something awful.”
In answer, he leaned down to press his lips against hers. She melted against him, and he couldn’t help but lose himself in the feeling of them pressed together, bodies and hearts. “I’ll never leave you,” he murmured against her lips. “Ferals can’t stop me. I’ll come home to you.”
Reluctantly, she br
oke away, and stepped back to the couch. Shane understood, because he felt the same. If she didn’t let go now, she wouldn’t let go at all. “I trust you,” she said.
To him, the words were sweeter than any other declaration of love. “Levi’s going to stay here with you. You two take care of each other.”
“We’ll manage,” Levi said from the door, two glasses of iced tea in his hands. “Go kick some ass, boss. We’ve got the home front.”
Shane touched Erin’s fingertips one last time, then strode out the door without looking back.
“Kerri, double up with Rigo,” he ordered as he stepped out the front door. “Holly, I’m riding with you. We’re running interception. Those trucks aren’t going to pull over if we ask them nicely. Kerri and I are going to convince them they ought to make an early pit stop.”
Kerri slung her leg back over her bike to go climb on behind Rigo. “Sounds like a party,” she said.
Holly flashed a fierce grin. “Sounds like crashing a party, which is even better than throwing one. Especially if the Ferals are the piñatas.”
“I’ll give you the bat to hit them with,” Shane said, and slung himself onto the back of Holly’s bike. Smaller than he was used to, but it had more power than most rides that size. Bet Erin can soup it up even further. “Plan is, we chase the trucks down. Kerri and I will do a little grand theft auto and stop the trucks. Then we break open the piñatas and beat up what’s inside.”
Rigo leveled an amused look on Shane. “Jefe, you have this backwards. You beat up the piñata, then you eat what was inside.”
“Since I’m not eating a Feral, we’ll just hit them, too. Unless you want to eat them.”
“I have sudden support for the new piñata tradition.”
“Thought you might.” Shane raised his voice. “Move out!”
The ground shook as engines thundered to life. He settled his hands on Holly’s hips for balance and gripped his legs around the seat of the motorcycle. When he ventured a glance back, he told himself it was at his own bike, the one he wished he could ride into this engagement, but he knew better. He wanted to see if Erin had moved to a window to watch them prepare and ride out.
Brave the Night: A Bully Boys Novel Page 19
