by Mason Sabre
Cade reeled back, shock slamming into him with force. It was wolf—tainted wolf. The boy was a half-breed.
The limp form in front of him suddenly murmured.
The boy was alive.
Cade backed up fast, putting enough distance between them. The thing in front of him was nothing more than a child, but the creature of every nightmarish dream he’d had as a child himself. His mind told him to run—get the hell away from all of this. It was trouble he didn’t need.
His wolf fought him inside, though, urging him to go to the boy before the Humans showed up. His mind flashed with images of the boy—waking suddenly, alone and afraid in the dark. Left in the dark for the Humans to find and do with as they pleased. He had survived this far. He had survived a bite, at least, and had somehow made it to there. That in itself was quite a feat. He didn’t deserve to be left to such a dreadful fate now.
Darkness surrounded Cade. The night had come in swiftly, but it did not hinder his vision. Others could see perfectly in the dark, even in this form. There was nothing but endless trees and the occasional hoot of the owl above.
He swore under his breath, fighting with what his mind was telling him he should do and what his heart was telling him was right.
Cade had only ever seen one half-breed before. But it hadn’t been a boy. It hadn’t been something defenceless. Not like this. It had been a man. He had deserved what had happened to him, though. He had deserved every feverish moment of the transition as his Human body fought against the lycanthrope that surged through his veins. He had been one of the many Human hunters who loved nothing more than to slay innocent Others, and he got himself bitten by a child as he had tried to kill her. Of course, the child had died, but then, so had the half-breed piece of filth. He had snapped his own spine with the spasm of the shift as his body had raged with hunger and sickness.
If the Humans didn’t get this boy first, he would surely die some painful death by himself in the woods. Cade didn’t know what he would do with him if he did try to help him. Half-breeds weren’t allowed to live. They didn’t belong—not in the Human world and not in the Other world. They were abominations that roamed in limbo between the two races; nothing but dangerous rogues who feasted on anything when the hunger took them.
Stephen, Cade’s best friend, said that the reason half-breeds were feared was that they had power. Although not physically stronger than a pure shifter, they were mentally stronger. They could choose to shift at any time. They were not bound by the Luna cycle. Silver had no effect on them. They weren’t dragged down by the same limitations as Others. They were a threat to both sides because if they could overcome their maker, if they could destroy them, they would have the great power of pure-bloods and Humans combined. They would be a superior race of their own. But it was all centred on if. If they could survive the manifestation of the creature they would become, if they could take out their maker, if they could take the power. If …
If they lived that long.
The boy was still out of it. He didn’t appear to have moved at all. Unable to help himself, Cade approached the boy once more and crouched down next to him. He reached out and carefully pressed his fingertips to the boy’s throat. He was hot, feverishly hot, but he was alive. Shifting took it out of the most pure and experienced of weres, but for someone who was born Human, Cade couldn’t imagine the amount of energy a shift must take. He knew that the boy must have shifted to be covered in so much blood. The blood around his mouth was also an indication that he had bitten and torn flesh off something. He would not have been able to do that with Human teeth.
Cade couldn’t leave him there, though. He couldn’t leave him to the Humans and what they would call mercy.
“Fuck,” he swore softly. Grabbing the boy’s bag once more, he slung it over his shoulder and then crouched down to slide his arms under the boy. “What the fuck am I doing?” he muttered to himself as he lifted the boy into his arms.
Chapter Three
The boy was lighter than Cade had imagined, his frame slight. He could feel the boy’s hip bone jutting into his stomach as he carried him. The transformation was perhaps taking too much of a toll on the boy’s young body. If he wasn’t feeding, before this incident at least, he was going to waste away to nothing … fast. The almost emaciated form he now held in his arms told him that the boy had most definitely not been giving in to his hunger cravings. There was also no doubt in Cade’s mind that he had not been turned within the last few days, but longer. The scent of wolf from the boy was strong.
None of that mattered right now, though. What mattered was getting out of these woodlands and to Cade’s car—to safety. It would not be long before the Humans were searching for the ‘giant monster’ that had eaten a boy in the street.
Cade held the boy tightly to his chest as he moved swiftly through the woods. All the while he listened, though—listening for any sound of someone approaching or any kind of threat. Yet, what exactly it was that Cade was doing, he didn’t know. But he couldn’t leave the boy there to the Humans. He couldn’t leave him to the shit they would do to him when they found him … and for what? Their own stupid fear, fuelled by their own stupid lies. It was pathetic. They were pathetic.
Cade glanced down as the boy’s eyes suddenly shot open. Before Cade could say a word, the boy arched his back in a bid to get away, stiffening like a board. Cade tightened his grip on him, trying to hold him in place. “No, no. Not now,” he ground through gritted teeth.
The boy twisted awkwardly, forcing Cade to crouch down with him so that he didn’t slip out of his grasp and land painfully on the ground, smashing his back and doing himself more damage.
The boy hit the ground, arms and legs flailing desperately. He scrambled away, half-blind with panic, backing up in the direction of the Humans.
“Stop,” Cade hissed at him, trying to keep his voice low. He grabbed for him—anything to keep him from running into the arms of the Humans and to his own torturous death. The Humans would not let him die easily. “It isn’t safe,” Cade said slowly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Let me go,” the boy shot back, distressed.
Cade immediately stopped advancing, holding his hands up in a non-threatening gesture. The last thing he wanted was to chase the boy back in the wrong direction. At most, he would walk away from the boy—if that’s what was needed. But he wasn’t going to be responsible for the kid being caught. Cade kept his hands up to demonstrate that he wasn’t being confrontational. “I’m not going to hurt you. Okay?”
“Where are you taking me?”
A crack echoed behind them. Cade’s head snapped around in the direction of the sound. The Humans. Clenching his jaw, he held his breath and listened. They were far away—still had to be at the edge of the tree line. Pathetic cowards they were. They’d have an entire army out there just to hunt down one small boy and then hold him up like a trophy when they slaughtered him.
A rumble, then a crack of lightning, sounded through the air. Something thudded and voices suddenly echoed in the woods. The Humans were coming. Cade stifled a curse, sweat forming on his brow as he attempted to maintain a calm exterior and convince the frightened boy that he was harmless, then get him the hell out of there.
“I live just up the way,” he said evenly, pointing to the path that led to his car. It was a little lie, but it didn’t matter so much. He’d tell him he was bloody Santa Claus if it got the boy to come with him and out of the jaws that were about to clamp down and kill his ass. “I was just taking you back to my house.”
“What for?” The boy stared at him, his eyes wide and distrustful. He was still on the ground, but he was ready to run again should Cade make the wrong move and, god, if he did make the wrong move, he was sure that the boy would play straight into the hands of the enemy that was hunting him.
“To help you,” he replied gently, making sure to keep his voice cool and reassuring, even while everything in him screamed to get out of there as fast a
s possible. The acrid smell of smoke crept in at the edges of his senses. He glanced past the boy and to the path he had come along. The Humans were closing in on them.
“I don’t need your help,” the boy protested weakly. “Leave me alone.” He tried to stand on shaky legs, reaching out to steady himself by placing a hand on a tree. Cade held himself back, everything in him wanting to leap forward and grab the boy, and then get them both the hell out of there. His wolf pushed inside. “Give me … my …” The boy struggled to talk as he held out his other hand for the bag. He tried again. “Give me …”
Cade kept one eye on the boy and one eye on the darkness just beyond. It was starting to glow with a faint orange. He barely restrained the panic and urgency that was starting to swamp him.
“I-I don’t need your help,” the boy uttered with difficulty before sliding back down the tree trunk, his legs unable to support him any longer. Cade grabbed the chance and leapt forward, snatching the boy up before he could completely collapse to the ground. He didn’t give the boy any choice now. He lifted him easily and started to run. He wasn’t in his wolf form, but he could still run faster than any Human could. The boy opened his mouth to protest once more, but then his head lolled back as he passed out again. Cade didn’t have time to stop. He ran as fast as he could.
His legs burned with the strain of carrying the weight of two people uphill. Why had he chosen to shift in these woods? He didn’t know, but he was sure regretting it as his calves cramped up, each step feeling like his legs were tearing in two. His neck was stiff and knots formed in his shoulders.
“One more step. Just one more fucking step, and I'm there,” he told himself.
The Humans hadn't come to the car park yet. Cade laughed to himself. “Idiots.” Placing the boy gently on the ground next to the car, he fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the car door. The car park was on an incline that overlooked the woods below. His breath caught when he looked down and saw an orange glow slowly spreading. Fuck. The trees were on fire.
Fury rose in Cade, as fast and as swiftly as the fire he now watched rage through the forest. Apart from stupid and cowardly, the Humans were also unconscionable. They had no respect for the environment, no thought given to the life they were destroying in the woods right now. No care about the immense environmental repercussions of their actions. As long as it helped them flush out what they were looking for, nothing else mattered. Let’s just burn it down and get rid of all the problems.
Sometimes, most of the times, Cade hated the Humans just as much as they hated Others. But then he knew that they were just stupid. Stupid creatures who spent more time hating the world and everything in it than being thankful to be alive. They bitched about clothes and celebrities. They bitched about shit that didn’t matter. They ploughed money into building useless landmarks, yet let children and families live in squalor and poverty, and even die. Cade was glad he wasn’t Human. Whoever had bitten this boy had probably given him a chance at a better life. All he had to do was survive.
Cade stared down at the trees and woods, dread and dismay flooding him. He could tell it was a controlled fire. “Urobach,” he muttered under his breath. He knew all too well what they were. They controlled fire. They burnt towns and communities and didn’t care who was there or who died. They burnt Others alive, whether they were innocent or not. He had seen them when he was a child. He had been hiding in one of the barns on the local farm. He wasn’t meant to be there. It was a farm for Others—Billy’s Place, they had called it. Billy had kept sheep and cows. They had been lame cattle that had been too weak and scrawny for Human consumption. Not enough to feed the greedy fat Humans. Cade had been hanging out with Stephen, and like any young boys, they had played, hunting and rounding the animals up.
Only, Billy had suddenly been accused by Humans of stealing horses. He had had two of them, which was true. Cade and Stephen had seen them many times … but they were unwanted, frail things—too old for any use. Too slow for any need. But the real problem had been the mare.
Others weren’t allowed horses. To the Humans, horse meat was the gold of meat. It didn’t matter to them that the horses were useless to them. It was a matter of control and power. So, they had showed up with the Urobach then—fire demons. He didn’t really blame the demons. The Humans controlled them, summoning and binding them with false promises of relief. What the demons—who were nothing more than children possessed by dark powers—didn’t realise was that ‘relief’, by Human standards, actually meant relieving them of their lives, or rather, the suffering, as they liked to call it.
It wasn’t the fire that had bothered Cade at the time. It was the sounds of the animals bleating, terrified, as the fire raged. He had seen the mare, fat, her swollen belly holding her unborn foal. She had been caught inside a circle of flames, and Cade could still smell the scent of the singed fur when he brought it to mind. The mare had bucked in terror, whinnying in a desperate call for help. But Cade had done nothing. He couldn’t. He was just a boy. He had watched as she had fallen to the ground, still alive when the Urobachs got to her. There had been no mercy for her. Only death. A painful death that echoed in Cade’s mind to this day. This is what they would do to the boy—if they found him.
Sweat beaded and rolled down Cade’s back, and he welcomed the coolness. The roar from the fire grew louder, although it was still far away. He tore himself away from the display of Human destruction and yanked the car door open. With another curse, he hastily lifted the boy and laid him on the backseat, then slammed the door shut and jumped into the driver’s seat.
The boy murmured something unintelligible from where he lay on the backseat. “Not long,” he murmured to him. “Not long.”
Cade forced himself not to slam his foot down on the accelerator and peel away the moment the car hummed to life But the Humans would hear that for sure, and then there would be two roasted wolves served up this evening. They’d fry them both in the car and ask questions later.
Cade rolled the car out of the parking lot, wincing at the sound of the tyres on the gravel. But he knew his enhanced hearing was why the sounds were so loud in his mind Thank god, the Humans were as deaf as they were stupid.
When he finally got to the road, relief was still far from him. They weren’t free just yet. He gripped the wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He kept alert, his eyes searching every possible crevice and shadow the Humans could emerge from. His heart thundered in his chest as he approached the bridge, light at the end of the tunnel. Only, they weren’t quite there yet. Cade pulled to a stop. He slipped out of the car and crept to the bend in the road. A blue light flashed its beacon round in circles. A radio crackled, and he watched as the police flagged down a car to search it.
Cade was not getting home that way.
Chapter Four
Getting back into his car, Cade was at a crossroads, and not just the one in front of him, but the metaphorical kind. He’d watched as the Humans stopped cars, searched their boots, pulled the travellers out and asked them questions. The air around him was thick with the scent of burning trees and fire. Cade could go that way, across the bridge and to the heart of the lion. He could pull his car up and have the Humans search it and find the boy—the thing they were after. Would Cade be able to get out of this scot-free? He didn’t know. Giving up the boy would definitely stop a possible war tomorrow. He could sacrifice one to save many.
Perhaps he should just leave the boy somewhere. Prop him up against one of the graves in the nearby cemetery, or hide him in one of the mausoleums. Give the kid a fighting chance and buy him some time … providing the transformation didn’t kill him first. The Humans wouldn’t look in there, he was sure. They were as superstitious as they were thick. Yet, as he glanced in the rear-view mirror of his car at the boy lying on his backseat, he knew that neither was an option. What if this had been Danny? His little brother was just fifteen years old. Cade knew that if this had been Danny, he would want whoever had fou
nd him to take him in and protect him; to give him a chance to fight for his life. His father would want that, too.
Cade pressed the palms of his hands onto his eyes, making the world go dark. His head began to throb. What was right? What was the right thing to do? Hadn't he sworn to protect everything and everyone? Hadn't he signed up for that when he chose to work for the DSA? Wasn’t it his duty as a trainee officer of the law himself to protect all those around him, Other and Human, and now a half-breed? He was not justice. He was a protector and defender.
It had only been two weeks since one of their own had turned up dead. Just a boy—another boy. But he wasn’t like the half-breed. He had been pure and younger; at least half the age of the boy in the back of his car. And what had the Humans done to him? What had those fucking bastards gone and done? Cade ground his teeth at the memory. It had been him who had been called to handle it. He had been the one who had had to tell the mother what the Humans had done to her innocent baby boy. The Humans called Others monsters … How fucking ironic. They had taken the boy and put him on a gantry. Stripped him bare and made him scream. Cade hadn't been there, but he had heard the testimonies of witnesses. He knew how those screams sounded. Pain and fury flooded him as he recalled the boy’s face—or what had been left of his face. Someone had held him to the fires. They had seared half of his skin off and they had done it while he had still been alive. He was just a child, helpless and frightened.
Like the boy in the backseat now.
“Sometimes we have to make the decisions that will make the difference.” His best friend’s words echoed in his mind. Stephen was right.
