Undercover Wolf

by Paige Tyler

  Sawyer had slung his submachine gun over his back and was carrying the young boy in his arms, heading away from the battle still going on in the corridor behind them. Harley quickly followed. She had no idea where they were going, but she hoped this direction would get them somewhere safe. She didn’t want to leave Caleb and Erin behind and couldn’t help but feel like they were playing right into the hands of the traffickers by splitting up like this, but they didn’t have a choice. They had to get the kids out of there and couldn’t do that with that green creature and his buddies on their tail.

  At every intersection, Sawyer stopped and sniffed the air. Harley prayed he had some clue where they were heading because no matter how well she’d studied the floor plan of the building before coming on this mission, she’d still managed to get completely turned around down here in this semidark maze.

  Over the radio in her ear, everyone called out warnings and instructions to each other over the constant sound of gunfire. The support teams offered suggestions, too, but their voices were hard to hear as they tried to give Jake a route to get him and the others past the collapsed ceiling. Nothing they recommended seemed to work, though.

  On the bright side, Harley was certain she heard everyone who was with Jake say something at least once, convincing her that they were all still alive. That was the best she could hope for. Unfortunately, she hadn’t heard a single peep from Caleb or Erin since they’d gotten separated. She refused to think about what that meant.

  Harley was so focused on making sure no one slipped up behind them that she almost slammed into Sawyer’s back when he suddenly slid to a halt. The tension in his shoulders told her something was wrong.

  “What is it?” she asked, trying to get her gun out while keeping her grip on the girl.

  The movement jostled her anyway and the girl let out a tiny squeak of pain. Her eyes fluttered open and Harley found herself gazing into the palest silver-gray eyes she’d ever seen. How could someone kidnap, starve, and abuse a child this precious?

  “It’s okay,” Harley said gently when those beautiful eyes filled with fear. “You’re safe now. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.”

  It occurred to her then that the girl might not speak English, but the words calmed her down regardless. She looked like she was about to say something in return, but Sawyer interrupted them, his voice low and urgent.

  “I smell the vampire.” He transferred the boy to one arm, so he could draw his handgun, his head moving left and right rapidly, testing the air currents through the corridors. “The thing is somewhere close and getting closer. There are other people with him, too. Eight or ten of them.”

  Harley cursed. Lifting her nose, she sniffed the air, straining to pick up the scents. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl regarding her curiously. She was probably trying to figure out why Harley was sniffing the air like a bloodhound. Harley considered telling her she was a werewolf, but there was no time. Later, they’d talk.

  She inhaled deeply again, finally smelling the vampire. It was so nasty that once she had it, she wondered how she could have missed it. Her stomach clenched at the thought of the vampire catching up to them with the kids in their arms. How were they supposed to fight like this?

  Sawyer must have come to the same conclusion because he took the first right they came to, heading away from the vampire’s scent and breaking into a run. Harley didn’t have trouble keeping up, but it was rough on the girl in her arms. She didn’t complain, though. Instead, she latched her tiny fingers into the straps of Harley’s tactical vest and held on for dear life.

  When they reached another right turn, Harley picked up what she thought might be the smell of fresh air coming from somewhere up ahead. That meant they had to be close to one of the exits to the maze of underground passages. But before they’d gone more than a dozen strides in that direction, she was hit full in the face by a stench so overwhelming it made her stumble and almost drop the girl.

  Rancid blood and foul, rotting mud, like something from the bottom of a swamp.

  Sawyer shouted a warning, but Harley was already racing back the way they’d come, hunching over to protect the girl in her arms. She glanced over her shoulder to see the vampire and a handful of his goons coming into view, weapons coming up as they blocked the path between them, fresh air, and freedom.

  Multiple rounds slammed into the back of Harley’s tactical vest and the girl in her arms screamed as she and Sawyer ducked back down a side corridor and the protection it offered. Harley leaned against the wall for a second, evaluating if her vest had held up as she gathered herself for a sprint back the way they’d come.

  Beside her, Sawyer’s head snapped up. From the way his nose was working, this situation was about to get worse.

  “Bad guys coming this way,” he shouted over the hail of automatic gunfire the vampire and his friends sent skipping along the concrete floor near where they were hiding. “We’re going to be pinned down in the crossfire with nowhere to go.”

  Harley’s stomach plummeted. They’d been played from the moment they’d started this operation. The ceiling dropping to split everyone up, two weak and injured kids left in locked cells, the big, green shifter creature drawing Caleb and Erin away while they herded her and Sawyer down this path into ambush. They were being divided into smaller, easier-to-handle pieces by a group of international traffickers who seemed to know everything they were going to do before they did it.

  Sawyer set the still-unconscious boy on the floor against the wall as gently as he could. Harley did the same with the little girl. She clutched at Harley’s arms, terror in her eyes.

  “No, baby,” she said softly, carefully extricating herself from the girl’s tiny grasp. “You have to stay here. I have to fight and can’t do that with you in my arms.”

  Harley had no idea if the girl understood her, but at least she didn’t try and grab on to Harley again as she stood up.

  “I’ll take the ones coming this way,” she said, moving to face the direction Sawyer had smelled the bad guys approaching from. “You keep the vampire and his crew busy.”

  Sawyer gave her a nod, then pulled his MP5 off his back and darted around the corner to send a spray of bullets down the hallway they’d just escaped. Harley heard the thud of bullets impacting flesh, screams, and then the sound of boots scuffling on concrete.

  “They’re charging us,” Sawyer said calmly, like he was commenting on the weather.

  A moment later, four men came at Harley from the end of her side of the corridor. She barely had time to put herself between the shooters and the kids before bullets began to thud into her tactical vest…and other unprotected areas of her body. Pain tore through her and she screamed.

  Not pausing to think about anything other than the need to protect Sawyer and the two children, Harley ran forward, going for head shots. She closed the distance between her and the four men, seeing their eyes grow round as she let out a growl that would have made Caleb proud. She would have loved to flash her fangs right then and really make them piss their pants, but while she could definitely feel a tingle in her gums and fingertips, that was as far as her wolf would go, even in the middle of a gun battle that had her bleeding like a stuck pig.

  She shot two of the attackers in the face. The upper receiver of her Glock locked back on an empty magazine, but rather than bother with reloading, Harley dropped the weapon and reached out to grab the arm of the nearest man who was still breathing, yanking him to her body to use as a shield as she advanced on the fourth gunman.

  Harley felt the man jump and twitch as the other guy shot him multiple times, but she kept charging forward until she was right on top of the last gunman. Dropping the body of the guy she was holding, she reached out to jerk the gunman’s rifle out of his hand, then used the butt to smash in his throat.

  She’d ended up getting hit two more times in the short fight, onc
e in the left thigh and the other through the muscle along the outside of her right shoulder, but the four bad guys were down, and they weren’t going to get back up.

  Harley hefted the AK-47 assault rifle she’d taken from the last man and spun around. The sounds farther down the corridor told her the fighting was still going on, and she was terrified of what she’d find when she got there.

  Bodies were strewn about the corridor and the two kids were wedged tightly up against the wall, the boy awake now, his stick-thin arms wrapped around the girl to protect her from all the violence around them.

  Even though there were handguns and assault rifles lying on the floor, Sawyer and the vampire seemed to have no interest in them. Instead, they tore into each other with claws and punches, slashes and bruises crisscrossing both their faces. Seeing Sawyer bleeding like that broke something loose in her chest and anger rippled through her, finally making her fangs come out.

  But her anger evaporated in an instant as the vampire backhanded Sawyer across the face so hard she heard bone break. Sawyer flew backward through the air, slamming into the far wall with a cracking sound, making a dent in the concrete. The vampire took a step forward, almost assuredly intending to finish Sawyer while he was stunned senseless.

  Harley wouldn’t let that happen.

  “Hey!” she shouted, pulling the trigger on the large caliber assault rifle even as she tried to assess the damage to Sawyer from the corner of her eye.

  The bullet hit the vampire in the neck and slammed him sideways across the corridor, thick, red blood so dark it was almost black streaming from the wound. The hiss the creature let out as it turned its dead eyes toward her was enough to send shivers up and down her spine.

  Harley pulled the trigger again and again, stepping closer and closer as she continued aiming for the junction of the creature’s head and shoulder. She remembered clearly what Jake had said about how to kill a vampire. Behead it or rip out its heart. Ripping out this thing’s heart didn’t seem like an option, but blowing his head off his shoulders? That seemed like a reasonable possibility.

  She was three feet away from the vampire when she fired the next round straight into the center of the thing’s neck, hoping the large bullets coming out of the weapon would snap its spine. The mess it made was horrendous, but the vampire barely seemed to notice the damage.

  The next round from the AK sent the thing stumbling back another few steps and tore away enough flesh from its throat, Harley could easily make out part of its cracked and chipped spine. Another couple shots and this thing would be dead. Then they’d be safe.

  But when she pulled the trigger again, nothing happened.

  Harley only had half a second to realize the weapon was empty before the vampire backhanded her across the corridor.

  She hit the floor so hard she bounced, coming to a painful halt against the concrete a few feet away. Pain throbbed through her face and neck from the slap, through her back and head from hitting the floor, and from every part of her still dealing with the previous gunshot wounds. Her vision wavered, black specks floating in front of her, and in the few seconds it took for that to clear, she completely missed the vampire scooping up a handgun and advancing on her. By the time she was functional again, the thing was pointing the weapon at Harley. There was a smile on its face even as blood continued to pour out of its neck, deep and dark. A bullet through the head wouldn’t do a thing to a vampire, but it would kill her for sure.

  Behind the vampire, Sawyer scrambled to his knees and reached for one of the AK’s lying on the ground. But his movements were clumsy and uncoordinated, and she knew he’d never get the weapon up in time.

  Harley tried to push herself to her feet even as she heard the vampire’s finger tighten on the trigger. She lifted her head in time to see the little girl on the floor reaching up one lone, timid finger toward the vampire.

  Crap.

  Harley opened her mouth even though she had no idea what to say. She couldn’t let the little girl get involved in this. But before she could get a word out, that tiny finger touched the vampire’s left hand.

  There was a thud that Harley felt more than heard, like a rumble of thunder vibrating through the air and into her chest. At the same time the nearly inaudible sound washed over her, a pulse of light filled the corridor, and Harley couldn’t help but notice that the silvery-gray light was the exact same color as the girl’s eyes.

  Time seemed to stop, then the weapon fell from the vampire’s hand as the creature slowly crumpled to the floor. A second later, the little girl collapsed limply back into the boy’s arms.

  Harley was up and running for the girl at the same time Sawyer staggered to the vampire’s side. She breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered the girl was still breathing and had a strong pulse. The little boy was holding her close, looking at Harley curiously.

  “I think she’s going to be okay,” Harley told him.

  The boy nodded and held the girl closer, his gaze filling with hatred as he looked at the vampire stretched out on the floor.

  Harley stood and moved to Sawyer’s side as he knelt beside the vampire, checking to see if the thing was still alive. Sawyer had a bad gash on the back of his head, but otherwise he seemed okay. It was impossible to put into words how good that made her feel.

  “Um,” Sawyer started slowly, taking his fingers away from the thing’s neck after a long delay. “I think I felt a pulse, but it’s really slow…like two beats a minute. I don’t know if that’s normal for a vampire or if it means it’s dying.”

  Harley was about to tell him to check for breathing, then remembered reading something in the STAT files that said while vampires breathe, they breathe extremely slowly, so that probably wouldn’t help. Before she could say that, the little boy spoke.

  “It’s as alive as it ever was,” the boy said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Maya doesn’t kill people when she touches them. She just makes them sleep.”

  Without another word, the boy went back to holding Maya, no longer interested in what the rest of them were doing.

  Sawyer stood a little unsteadily and gazed down at the creature on the floor. “Any idea what we do with an unconscious vampire?”

  Harley didn’t have a clue, but as the vampire’s neck began to heal itself, she wondered if it would be wrong to rip the thing’s head off.

  Chapter 8

  Sawyer sat across the table from the unconscious vampire, counting the creature’s insanely slow heartbeats. It was freaky to think that something could be alive when its heart only beat once or twice a minute. Then again, he’d always assumed that if vampires were real, they’d have no heartbeat at all. So really, was one beat a minute any freakier than no beats a minute?

  A quick glance at his watch confirmed that they were approaching six hours since the fight had ended down in the depths of that underground maze, and there were no signs of the creature even thinking about waking up. He had to hand it to that little girl with the silver-gray eyes. When that kid put someone down for a nap, they bloody well stayed down.

  When asked how long her touch usually put people under, Maya shrugged and went back to the grilled cheese sandwich Harley had made her. Sawyer wasn’t sure if that noncommittal response was because the girl truly didn’t know the answer or because she had no clue what Sawyer was saying. He was leaning toward the latter, considering the fact that the girl hadn’t said a word since they’d found her. The theory was that she was Norwegian, and nobody on either team spoke the language.

  When Sawyer had finally gotten a good look at Harley after the fight with the vampire, he’d freaked out at the sight of the blood all over her clothes. Because she was a werewolf, the wounds she’d sustained wouldn’t be fatal, but the part of him that wasn’t nearly as logical saw her bleeding and started to hyperventilate. Knowing how close she’d come to being shot in the head by that damn vampire hadn’t h
elped.

  Before he had time to get too lost in that moment, Caleb and Erin had shown up, both looking like they’d gone ten rounds with a T. rex. The green, scaly creature had gotten away, but neither of them seemed too upset about that. From the grins on their faces, it was like they’d enjoyed the fight and were looking forward to doing it again. All Sawyer could do was shake his head. Erin had always been weird that way. Apparently, Caleb was no different.

  Caleb and Sawyer had dragged the vampire with them on a hunt through the tunnels to find the rest of their combined teams, Harley and Erin carrying the kids. It had taken a while, but they’d finally found Jake and the others, who were as battered and bruised as they were. From there, they’d linked up with the support team and slipped out of the underground maze, using the cover of darkness to get past the local authorities who’d shown up to investigate all the shooting.

  Sawyer looked up as the door opened and Jake and Caleb came in, the latter carrying a black gym bag. Both of them glanced at the vampire before giving Sawyer a questioning look.

  “The thing is still out cold,” Sawyer said, then winced. “No pun intended.”

  Caleb snorted as he moved over to check the ungodly amount of steel cables they’d used to tie up the vampire and keep him strapped down to the chair. They didn’t know how strong the thing was, so maybe they’d gone a little overboard, but better safe than sorry. It was good vampires didn’t have to breathe that often because if they did, this one probably wouldn’t be able to.

  Their lack of knowledge on vamps was also the reason Sawyer and the other two werewolves were the only people in the room at the moment. Since they’d found absolutely nothing down in those tunnels to suggest where the other prisoners from Paris had been taken or where this auction was being held, Sawyer and Jake had come to the conclusion the only option they had was to interrogate the vampire. But while the need to question the creature might be obvious, neither of them were naive when it came to how badly this could go if the thing got loose. Which was why there wasn’t anyone in the room the vampire could easily hurt.