“She’s going to turn on you, just like she did on me. You see, Terry Henry, there is no one you can trust,” the Forsaken countered.
Terry moved back and forth, keeping Kirkus in front of him. Both opponents were tentative. They’d already fought earlier that morning, but back then, Kirkus had a small army with him.
Kirkus had seen what Terry was capable of. But he also could hear the pain in Terry’s mind from his aching muscles.
The Forsaken attacked, angling in toward Terry’s injured shoulder, swinging and pounding on that side. Terry blocked blow after blow, but his shoulder wouldn’t cooperate for a counter-punch.
Terry lashed out with a forward snap-kick, then a sweep as he tried to knock the Forsaken off balance. To the human observer, the two combatants were only a blur. To Yanmei, their speed was still remarkable, but her enhancements allowed her to keep up.
To Terry, he felt like he was moving slowly.
To Kirkus, he saw openings, but wasn’t able to exploit them before they were gone. He reached for Terry’s leg during a kick, but the colonel wasn’t going to let the Forsaken grab hold. He countered by stopping mid-kick, changing his angle, and driving his foot into Kirkus’s face.
The Forsaken was thrown back against the wall.
Terry cornered him, driving a knife hand from his good arm into Kirkus’s stomach. The Forsaken gasped as the air exploded from his lungs. Terry followed through, curling his arm and jamming his elbow into Kirkus’s throat.
The Forsaken’s head bounced off the wall. His knee caught the colonel in the thigh, and an uppercut slipped underneath Terry’s raised hands and pounded into his chin.
Terry stumbled backward, covering himself and shaking off the stars. He danced around to make himself a harder target while he gathered his wits.
Kirkus took the respite to drag air into his starved lungs.
The two warriors rested for a moment as they nursed their wounds and glared daggers at each other.
***
Char aimed her pistols, the Glocks that she had taken from Jackson Browne and carried ever since. She knew rounds were chambered and the weapons were ready to fire. “Stay behind me,” Char snapped at Cory.
Gene moved to the side to give himself room. Aaron slipped past Cordelia and stood between her and where he sensed the inbound attackers were coming from. Clovis pranced around and started to bark again. Aaron hissed at the dog, and the big coonhound pup cowered behind his human.
The Forsaken’s minions came running, dressed in rags and carrying clubs. Char almost felt bad, but not bad enough that she didn’t shoot. One by one, she picked them off, firing a single round at each attacker.
One shot, one kill.
Gene started growling. He was still in pain from the razor storm and wanted to make someone pay.
From the side tunnels, a small number of people popped out. The explosion of gunfire decimated them. It was over in an instant.
The humans had been lackeys. Terry would have called them cannon fodder.
Next were the Forsaken, but they weren’t too keen to wade into battle with disciplined troops and Were folk. Merrit headed for the first one that appeared on the flank, but Gene bumped the Werewolf out of the way.
The Werebear bore down on the Forsaken like a freight train. Gene hit the creature and drove him into the wall. He pounded him mercilessly with his massive paws, shredding skin with each strike and then attacking anew. He didn’t slow until the Forsaken had been torn to pieces.
But the creature still lived.
“Any more in there?” Mark asked the Werebear. Gene cocked his head as he looked at the captain. Mark continued, “Just watch my back!”
Mark pulled his fighting knife and started removing the creature’s head to finish it off once and for all.
The Forsaken that walked into the tunnel in front of Char carried an arrogance common in the stronger of creatures. She holstered her pistols and pulled her knife.
“Sure,” the Forsaken said. “I’ll start with you. Are you ready for me, bitch?”
The Forsaken knew she was a Werewolf, so she didn’t understand if he was trying to be an ass or just noting her status.
“That’s alpha bitch to you, dickless,” she answered with a smile, crouching and starting to circle her enemy.
He waited, casually. Char wondered what his game was. She didn’t sense other Forsaken nearby. She had already walked on the ground between them, so she didn’t believe there were any traps.
Could he be that overconfident? she thought, wondering if he heard her.
He smiled, but that disappeared as a large shadow pushed a mass of air toward him.
Gene ran down the Forsaken just like he’d run the previous one down.
This one dodged and didn’t bear the full brunt of the charge, but the Werebear stopped instantly when he passed the creature, wheeled, and impaled the Forsaken with one massive set of claws. He lifted the creature with one Werebear arm and slammed him into the wall.
Merrit appeared at Char’s side. She stamped a foot and snarled, wanting to carve out her pound of flesh.
“Leave it, my alpha. We all fight for you. Since Gene seems to have things well in hand, what do you say we go get Terry Henry Walton?”
North Chicago
Timmons, Sue, Shonna, and as many warriors as could fit climbed into the pod. It took off and pressed them heavily into their seats as it accelerated on an arc that would take it over Chicago, the lake, and back over land where they would start descending toward Mammoth Cave.
“Ted,” Timmons said. He and Sue started to chuckle, but sobered quickly. Terry was still missing, and they had no idea how the others were faring inside the cave.
“Are we doing the right thing, Sue?” Timmons asked quietly.
“Going back to the cave?” she wondered, unsure of what he was referring to.
“Being us, being a couple.” Timmons looked at the leather boots on his feet. What he wouldn’t give for a nice pair of tennis shoes.
Sue put a finger under his chin and lifted his head. “Now listen here. We were meant to be together. Period. End of story. Ted is Ted. No one betrayed anyone else. Are we not friends first?” she asked.
“Yes. We are all friends, much more than just running with the pack,” Timmons answered, looking into her beautiful blue eyes. He caressed her blonde hair, tucking a strand behind her ear.
“We could have left, but we didn’t, and we won’t. We serve our alpha, and in turn, she takes care of us, all of us,” Sue explained, ending with a big smile. “I couldn’t be happier, Timmons. So deal with it, or I’ll have to kick your ass upside-down, backwards, and into next week.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Timmons grinned as the pod accelerated downward. The screen showed an ETA of five minutes.
Sergeant Boris and his platoon wore grim expressions on their faces. They were ready to go back into battle.
Terry’s Prison
Terry’s nanocytes had been taxed to the limit during his confinement, but the food and water that Yanmei had provided were making the difference. His shoulder was feeling better with each passing moment. The workout had his blood pumping.
The workout. Only Terry Henry Walton would consider hand-to-hand combat to the death to be a workout.
He smiled as he flexed his hands, stretching his fingers until he made loose fists.
“Round two, fuckstick,” Terry growled and waded into the fight.
The Forsaken tried a front kick, but Terry was speeding up. He caught Kirkus’s leg, twisting and dropping to slam the Forsaken’s face into the floor. Terry back-kicked him to the groin, then spun and drove his heel into the side of the creature’s head.
Terry let go of Kirkus’s leg and jumped on the Forsaken’s back, raining a devastating series of strikes to the creature’s head.
When blood ran freely from Kirkus’s wounds, Terry picked him up by his legs and spun around, slamming the Forsaken into the wall. TH was enraged, his eyes glowing red. He
looked for a weapon, but there wasn’t one. Only the chains and Terry’s empty shackles.
As Terry dragged the nearly unconscious Forsaken to the prisoner’s corner, Yanmei and Fu jumped away. They assumed that Terry was going to chain Kirkus to the wall.
Terry Henry Walton had no intention of leaving the Forsaken alive.
At one point in time, Terry had given Joseph a choice to join the pack or die. Joseph had capitulated. Terry didn’t know if he’d ever give another Forsaken such an option. Kirkus had left a bad taste in his mouth.
The colonel wrapped the chain around Kirkus’s neck, and Terry pulled and twisted, but the chain’s links were too heavy. They crushed the Forsaken’s neck skin, but they wouldn’t cut through.
He dragged the Forsaken to the doorway and laid the creature with his neck against the doorframe.
Terry slammed the door again and again. He braced the door against the creature’s neck and took a running start to kick the door closed with both feet. Kirkus’s head came free. Terry exhaled loudly.
The battle was over.
Terry ripped the door open and looked into what he had thought was a hallway but was actually a cave tunnel. Sweat ran off his fingers as he offered a hand.
“Come on. We’re leaving,” Terry told the two women.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Terry looked both ways down the tunnel. He noticed a sign that said Tuberculosis Hospital.
“I’ll be damned,” Terry said. He saw where the old building had been extended into the cavern. The eyebolts that he was trying to loosen were mounted through two feet of stone, held in place by heavy angle iron.
“I never would have broken those,” he mumbled.
He stopped his introspection and listened. The sound of a fighting Werebear was close by, and Terry got the impression that Gene was kicking someone’s ass.
“Come on!” he exclaimed, smiling. He knew Char and Cory were near.
Yanmei grabbed him and turned him. He started to put his hands up, but she leaned in and kissed him, gently running one hand down his face.
Clovis scrabbled to a stop and brayed at the Weretiger.
Terry looked up, and when he saw Char, he smiled.
She didn’t look happy.
“Hi, lover,” he ventured. She crossed her arms and looked at him.
Aaron strolled past, still in Weretiger form. He slapped Clovis with a paw, batting the dog to the side.
“Hey!” Cory yelled through narrowed eyes, unsure of why everyone seemed so tentative.
“Aren’t you something,” Yanmei said softly, taking a knee so she could look directly into Aaron’s Weretiger eyes.
Fu cowered against the wall.
Terry saw the Glock appear in Char’s hand.
“Trigger control!” Terry blurted when he saw her finger inside the trigger guard, the same way he’d seen it for decades. She refused to keep her finger off the trigger despite his best training efforts. Char raised the pistol and fired.
“Oops,” she said, a smile creeping into the corner of her mouth.
Terry winced and slapped a hand to his side where the bullet had left a tiny crease.
“That’s trigger control,” Char offered, stuffing the pistol back into its holster.
Charumati’s eyes sparkled purple and Terry was drawn to them, as he always had been. The rest of the world disappeared as the magic sparkled between the two lovers. They ran into each other’s arms.
“For Pete’s sake!” Cory exclaimed, her eyes glowing blue. “Did you just shoot my father?”
Char mumbled something into Terry’s neck as they hugged fiercely.
“Everyone should know a love like that,” Akio whispered.
“Where’d you come from?” Cory asked, shocked at seeing him next to her and Ayashe next to him.
“Japan,” Akio replied simply, before continuing. “I was nursing my wounded dignity, that’s all, Cordelia-san.”
Gene sniffed and grunted as he joined the group. He stood tall on his back legs.
“Don’t you dare, Uncle Gene!” Cory warned, but it was too late. Gene changed into human form, standing naked before the others. The first thing he did was tenderly scratch his chest, crisscrossed with cuts from the razor storm, before reaching around and scratching his butt. Cory stormed up to him and punched him in the arm.
He held his hands out in confusion.
Gene looked around, and once he spotted Fu, the only thing he could think of was that he was naked. He didn’t understand why it bothered him, but he only had one choice.
Gene changed back into Werebear form. He slowly approached the woman called Fu, lowering his head so she could scratch his ears, which she did while looking into his big brown eyes.
Two Weretigers stood together before the rooms of the abandoned hospital. No one had seen Yanmei change, but her clothes were neatly stacked on the floor. Fu picked them up and with a hand twisted into Gene’s fur, she stayed by his side as they joined Terry and Char.
“Time to go?” Terry asked.
“Captain! Lead us out of here,” Char commanded.
“Aye, aye, ma’am!” Mark replied before turning the warriors around. Tail-end Charlie was now on point.
Char and her pack were in the rear. Terry stopped. “My stuff,” he said. Yanmei was a Weretiger and no help. Fu was with Gene and she would know, but Aaron, the only one of their group who spoke Chinese, was also in Were form.
“There’s nothing you need, because we’re not going to go digging around down there,” Char told him. “These booby traps were hell. We lost Adams. I thought we’d lost Akio and Joseph, too.”
“Adams?” Terry sighed. “Goddamn it! Fucking Forsaken.”
“Yeah, fuck those guys,” Cory said as she grabbed her father’s free arm in both her hands and held on tightly. Clovis ran ahead to bite at the strap hanging from one of the warrior’s packs.
“I taught her that,” Terry claimed as Char shook her head.
***
The pod hovered over the other three. Timmons and Sue looked for a place to land, but couldn’t see anything nearby. They could see Blevins and Heitz sitting in the jeep with their feet propped on the dash. They both looked to be asleep. Or dead.
Blackbeard, Geronimo, and Kiwi stood in the small space between the pods and waved.
Timmons made slow circles until he found a spot nearly a quarter mile away. He set the pod down and the Werewolves led the platoon on a fast run through the woods until they met up with the platoon standing guard duty around the pods.
Ted was in the recovered pod working with the computer interface. Timmons tried to storm in, but Sue stopped him. No one knew Ted better than her.
“Why?” she asked Timmons. He couldn’t answer besides wanting to express his dismay at Ted’s untimely departure. They knew it would only serve to drive Ted further into a shell.
Sue went into the pod while Timmons tried to find out where Char and the others had gone.
“First time flying the pod, Ted?” Sue asked with a smile.
“Piece of cake,” Ted said while continuing to touch the interface screen. Sue rubbed his back like she used to do a long time before. As he did back then, he did not acknowledge her efforts. “Wait for us to come back, Ted, and then we’ll all fly out of here. I have a good feeling about this.”
Ted mumbled something. Sue wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or not. It didn’t bother her. She left the pod, walking into Timmons’s waiting embrace, and Ted never looked up as he continued to manipulate the pod’s touch screen.
“The cave is this way,” Timmons said, pointing and striding away. Sue and Shonna fell in behind, as did Boris and the rest of his platoon.
They all noticed that the oldsters were sleeping, but the cover assembly was open on the fifty cal to prevent any discharges. Blackie had told them that Max had lit up Ted’s pod. The warriors were both impressed and appalled.
Maybe they were just surprised that Corporal Heitz could hit something. They kn
ew his vision was going.
By the time they reached the cave mouth, Timmons had called a halt. He could feel that the group wasn’t far from the entrance and they were casually walking their way.
He felt Char and Terry Henry together.
“They’ve got him!” Timmons said. He turned to face the platoon and yelled, “They’ve rescued Terry Henry Walton!”
A cheer went up and continued as Mark and the first two warriors came from the darkness.
Mark smiled and nodded, stepping aside to help people over the last boulder and out of the cave.
They filed out, with Char and Terry Henry coming last. As usual, the Were folk bore the brunt of the attacks. Even Akio looked in bad shape, which was the first time Timmons had ever seen that.
Joseph had an arm over Merrit’s shoulder as the Werewolf helped him. Akio pulled Joseph to the side and handed him a sword that he’d been carrying on his back, forgotten in the turmoil of Terry’s capture.
“Damascus steel. You need a sword, Joseph-san,” Akio said. The Forsaken took the sword and bowed, unsure of what else to do.
Other members of the Force emerged from the tunnel carrying a body.
Timmons could sense something else was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Char stopped when she reached the rest of her pack. “We lost Adams,” she said quietly before continuing to walk.
Sue gripped Timmons’s arm. “He was never the same after we lost Xandrie,” Sue whispered. “I hope he died with honor.”
Terry and Char stopped. They turned and walked back to Sue and Timmons. “He died in service to his alpha. He paved our way to my mate, and for that, among a million other things, he will be remembered fondly. Adams was a good Werewolf, an outstanding member of the pack.”
Char held her head high as she made sure that Adams was honored for his sacrifice. They would lament his passing later, but for now, this battle was won.
Terry clenched his jaw and nodded to the Force de Guerre as they greeted him warmly, lining both sides of the path to the landing site. Two Weretigers, four Werewolves, and a Werebear followed closely. In the middle of it all, Cordelia walked as both an insider and an outsider, her dog Clovis at her side.
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