by Morgan Hawke
Hissing, Belus recoiled himself with incredible speed. His lip curled, and his eyes narrowed to bright blue slits. “That hurt.”
Snarling, Thorn grabbed the back of her dress and ripped the silk skirting away, leaving only the sleeved top half, and her trousers. “That’s what happens…” she tore the seat of her pants open, “when you attack a hungry wolf.” She tugged her tail free.
He smiled tightly. “Oh, so you do have a tail….” His smile faded. “Wait, a hungry wolf? I’d heard you do not eat others?”
Thorn smiled broadly, baring both her upper and lower fangs. “I don’t eat humans, because they taste bad.” She lapped at his blood running down her wrist. “You taste just like a rat snake.”
His smile disappeared utterly, and his coils withdrew beneath his robes. “Just what are you saying?”
“You mean you didn’t know…” Thorn licked her lips and rose into a crouch, her finger and toe claws digging into the carpet, “that wolves eat snakes?” She inched toward him on her fingers and toes. “And I really like the taste of black rat snake.”
Belus eased back from her, his frown deepening. “You don’t say?”
Thorn eased to the side. The best way to kill a snake was by taking out the head from the back. She needed to get behind him. She dashed past him, aiming low to stay under his reach.
Belus twisted sharply and snatched for her.
Thorn skidded to a stop just out of reach, tearing the carpet with her claws, and dashed past him on the other side, forcing him to keep twisting in the same direction to follow her, and then again.
Belus jerked to a halt, finally reaching his body’s limit.
Got you! Thorn launched off the carpet, hands out and mouth open, aiming for the back of his neck. Midway in her leap, her body shifted into her wolf shape, the form her body used to hunt and kill. It happened so fast, she didn’t have time to stop it.
Belus turned his head, and his eyes widened. He dropped flat to the floor.
Thorn sailed right over him, crashed hard against the wall, and tumbled to the floor. She yelped and thrashed, entangled in her human clothes.
With blinding speed, Belus lashed out with his snake’s tail, his heavy coils smashing down on top of her.
Thorn gasped and struggled for breath, her body shifting back into half wolf in sheer shock. She choked and shoved. “Get off me!”
From above her, Belus grabbed both her wrists. “Enough!” His head dropped onto her shoulder, and his slender fangs stabbed into her.
Thorn shouted. She knew good and well that his bite wasn’t deadly, but it still hurt like hell.
Belus pulled back, releasing her from his fangs. “That should calm you.” He released her wrists, letting her fall back on the floor. His coils retreated.
Thorn leaned up on her elbows. “Bastard….” A wave of dizziness struck. A buzzing started in her ears, and her eyes went out of focus, all the colors running together in a big smear. “What…?” She flopped back on the floor, too light-headed to move.
Belus leaned over her, a great, dark, blurry shadow. “Much better.”
25
Barely able to think past the buzzing in her head, Thorn felt hands on her shoulders pushing her over from her back to her belly. Her cheek pressed against the carpet. The sound of ripping silk was loud. Cool air washed against her back.
The shadowy blur that was Belus leaned over her. “Damn….” He sighed. “No matter.” He pushed her over onto her side. Using what felt like strips from her torn clothes, he shoved her knees up to her chest and then swiftly tied her wrists to her ankles.
She was lifted into the air, and the world spun. She groaned. What the hell was he doing?
Belus carried her right through the door into Rafael’s office and then to the wall behind his desk. Set between two crammed bookshelves was the sliding panel to the dumbwaiter. Belus slid the panel open and hefted her into the box suspended by cables. Folded up with her knees against her chest, she just fit without actually touching the sides. He scooped up all her hair and shoved it in.
As she was lying on her side in the cramped box, Thorn’s sight became crystal clear just long enough to see Antonius slumped against the wall by the office door. His shoulder was bleeding. Belus must have bitten him.
Belus smiled. “Fragile load to train-station office, if you please.”
The shelf Thorn rested on trembled and then began to lower.
Belus closed the sliding door to the dumbwaiter, enclosing her in darkness.
Thorn descended.
Somewhere close by, people were shouting. A train whistle shrieked. The stench of green wood, iron, and engine oil burned in her nose. Beneath it, she could smell water, wool, and hay.
Thorn winced, her half-beast wolf ears tipping back to lie against her hair. It was loud, smelly, and annoying, and she was trying to sleep. On top of that, whatever she was curled up on was scratchy. She shifted, and hay crunched under her. Her bare feet slammed against bars. She couldn’t stretch out. What the hell…?
She opened her eyes to iron bars enclosed by wood planking. The space was not much larger than her curled-up body. What the hell is this?
A quick glance around her revealed that she was in a cage clearly designed for shipping a wild animal on a gray rough wool blanket that had been tossed over a pile of hay. Another blanket had been thrown over her. What light leaked in between the planking was yellow, obviously from lanterns.
She leaned up on her elbows, her silver locket watch swinging between her bare breasts. All trace of her clothing was gone. The blanket slid down her bare shoulders to her waist. Bitterly cold air brushed through her light fur. She grabbed for the blanket to pull it up over her.
A lightning bolt of memory slammed through her fogged brain. Being trapped in the room by Yaroslav, Belus, the fight, the bite, the dumbwaiter…She jolted hard. I’ve been kidnapped?
A train whistle sounded, and the cage shuddered around her. The yellow light flickered.
Thorn’s heart slammed in her chest. She was on a train going God only knew where. She needed to get out of this.
She pushed up onto her clawed hands to sit up, and her head spun. She groaned and slid back down to her elbows. Belus’s venom…. She wasn’t going to be able to escape until she was free of the effects. She pressed her brow to her forearm. I’ve been kidnapped…. It was so stupid. What the hell could that snake possibly want from her?
The silver watch thumped against her breast just like a heartbeat. Yaroslav’s watch…!
She turned onto her side and gripped the watch with both hands. A heart beat between her palms. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Yaroslav, where the hell are you?
Black pain stabbed the back of her skull so hard she yelped and grabbed her head. “Ow! Shit….” What had Belus’s venom done to her?
A chuckle sounded, very close to the box. “Oh, dear, you didn’t try to use any sort of magic, did you?” It was Belus, and he sounded amused. “I’m afraid the box is sealed against any and all external magic. Nothing gets in, and nothing gets out.” His voice changed locations, as though he circled her box. “In case you were wondering, I do indeed know what that watch is for. You may use it later to call your vampire lover when I’m done with you.”
Thorn twisted around, following his voice, but she couldn’t see a damned thing through the planks. “Where are you taking me?”
“Oh, that’s right, I never did tell you my news.”
Thorn released a deep, low growl. “Snake….”
“There has been a sighting of the plague beast in the port city of Constantza in Romania.”
Thorn dug her claws into the blanket under her. It looked like Agent Hackett was going to have to deal with a werewolf other than her, a crazy one, and possibly the walking dead. It was almost sad she was going to miss it. “Yeah, so?”
“Well, according to my sources, there is an American ship in the port called the Fairwind, with a rather interesting passenger list. I
t includes one Thorn Ferrell.”
Thorn winced. She was supposed to go home on that ship. “So?”
Something very like claws scraped across the top of the box containing her cage. “My dear Thorn…” Belus’s voice purred very close to the box, “if I can find this information, so can the plague beast, which obviously has some interest in you.”
Thorn rolled her eyes. “The only interest he had in me was that I wasn’t carrying the plague to where he wanted it to go.”
Belus chuckled. “I strongly suspect otherwise.”
Thorn shook her head. “There’s no other reason….”
“Oh, but there is! Do you have any idea how rare werewolves are? They are quite difficult to make. The slightest inaccuracy in any part of their aspect tends to cause insanity, not to mention very short life spans.”
Thorn froze. Short life spans?
“Consider yourself very lucky. According to what I saw, your aspect is very well constructed indeed, unlike poor…Max, I believe his name was? I doubt he has too much longer to live.” Belus tsked sadly. “I doubt he even knows he’s doomed.” He scraped across the top of her box. “But I am quite sure that his maker is well aware of how flawed his creature truly is.”
“What has any of that got to do with me?” Thorn tried to sit up again, but her head pounded, and her arms shook. She groaned and dropped down onto the blanket.
“Instinct, my dear she-wolf; the instinct that drives the doomed to propagate has everything to do with you.”
Thorn scowled. “You are not making any sense.”
Belus snorted. “Allow me to use simpler terms. Max may not know he’s dying, but his body surely does. It is the instinct of all living creatures to breed when death is close.”
Thorn blinked. “Breed?”
“Oh, yes. Werewolves can indeed beget other werewolves, but only by mating with another werewolf, and it is highly likely that you, my dear, are the only female he knows.” He tapped the top of the box. “In fact, you are probably the only female werewolf there is at this point in time.”
Thorn frowned. “Then you’re planning to use me as bait?”
Belus laughed. “Now you’re catching on! Yes, bait for both the werewolf and his maker. The heretic very likely knows that his beast is too flawed to survive much longer. I am quite sure he would be highly interested in viewing a creature as finely constructed as you, if only to see how you are made.”
Thorn shook her head. “I seriously doubt that the—” She sucked in a sharp breath and coughed. She’d very nearly said, “the Doctor.” “—your heretic would be anywhere near Max.”
“Oh, but I strongly suspect he is. You see, if Max is as poorly made as I suspect, the silver your Yaroslav shot him with has very likely torn a rather large hole in his aspect. No doubt his maker is scrambling to keep his very useful creature pieced together before it falls completely apart.”
Thorn frowned. “How did you know Max was shot?”
Belus snorted. “You forget, I was already onboard the Valkyrie when you arrived.” His voice was very dry. “I heard it from a number of eyewitnesses.”
Thorn winced. “Oh….”
“So all I need do is stroll through the port city of Constantza with you by my side, and either the plague beast, or his maker, should come to me. Once they do, you are free to go wherever you will.”
“Oh, gee, thanks.” Thorn curled her lip. “You honestly think it’ll be that easy?”
“I honestly believe they are that desperate. The werewolf is about to die, and his maker is about to be in critical need of a new…assistant.”
Thorn scraped a hand through her tangled hair. There was no way in hell she was going to play Belus’s little game. She wanted nothing to do with Max or the Doctor, or Belus, for that matter. First chance she got, she was getting out of this box and off this train. Her stomach rumbled. She really needed to hunt down something to eat.
Belus chuckled. “Ah, so you are hungry?”
“Hungry enough to eat a whole cow.” Thorn smiled grimly. “Or a man-sized snake.”
“My apologies, but I am not on the menu.” Belus’s voice held no humor whatsoever. “I’ll see what I can find for you.”
Thorn sneered. “Good idea; you might live longer.”
Belus actually hissed and moved away from her box. “You know, I really should have beaten you.”
“That would have been a very bad idea.” Thorn let her growl echo in her voice. “Beatings only make me hungrier.”
Long minutes passed, and the cold intensified.
Thorn scowled. She must have been put in an unheated boxcar. Unable to take the chill in her half-beast form, she reached inside and called her wolf’s body with all its thick, warm fur. The change was smooth and practically effortless. The silver watch chain around her neck was just big enough to accommodate her change. She barely felt it within her neck fur.
She blinked. Apparently whatever Belus had put on the box to stop magic, didn’t seem to bother her shift between forms. She rose to her paws, and her head swam. She groaned and settled back down on the blanket. Her ability to change might be okay, but her body was still suffering from Belus’s venom. She’d have to wait for the venom to wear off. Damnit….
She set her head down on her foreleg and stretched out on her belly. The cage was too small for her human length but just fine for her wolf’s body. She closed her eyes.
Metal thunked against the wood around her cage.
Thorn lifted her head from her foreleg. What now?
There was a metallic screech, and then the rattle of a chain being withdrawn.
Thorn blinked. Was someone opening her box?
A narrow wooden panel slid to the side, revealing a gap near the bottom of the bars. The edge of a pie tin slid through the gap and into her cage, pressing up against the hay filling the bottom of her cage. The scent of raw steak perfumed the air.
Food! Thorn rose to her paws with only the slightest touch of dizziness and hastily dug the hay aside, gouging the cage’s plank floor in the process. She grabbed the pie tin with her teeth and pulled it in. It held three large, raw T-bone steaks. Yes!
She bit into the first and tore it in half, leaving the bone in the other half. She chewed it to a manageable size and swallowed. It wasn’t the best-tasting meat in the world, but it wasn’t bad. She preferred venison, while it was still warm and juicy. She bit into the other half, chewed the meat off the bone, then crunched the bone with relish.
A panel on the top of the box opened, and Belus peered through the bars. “Are you actually eating the bone, too?”
Thorn looked up at him, curled her lips back from her long teeth, and growled.
Belus blinked. “My god, you’re a wolf.” His brows lifted. “I saw you do this before, but I hadn’t realized how thoroughly wolf you actually became.”
Thorn snorted and tore into the second steak. Well, of course…she was a werewolf. She changed from human to wolf. Why was everyone always so surprised?
Belus closed the panel. “I will leave you to dine in peace.” A door opened and closed.
She crunched the bone from the second steak and realized that the dizziness had completely passed. Belus’s venom had finally worn off. It was time to think about escape. As soon as she was done eating.
She swallowed down the bone to the third steak and noticed that some of the thin, watery blood had dripped on the wood floor of her cage. Still hungry, she lapped at it and then dug at it. The wood tore under her claws. Thorn stared at the deep gouges she’d made without even trying. She opened her jaws in a broad wolf grin. They had put her in an iron-barred cage that had a wooden floor. Idiots! She went to the opposite corner of her cage and began digging in earnest, the splinters flying behind her.
The wood planks that made the bottom of the cage were fairly thick but no match for her claws. It didn’t take long for her to dig all the way through to the floor of the train. Interestingly enough, the train’s floor was made of w
ood, too.
She lifted her head and listened. No one had bothered to check on her to see what she was doing. Definitely idiots. She turned back and continued to dig.
Thorn dug until she opened a hole through the boxcar’s floor large enough to finally stick her head through. The rattling noise coming through the hole was painfully deafening.
That’s when she noticed the flaw in her plan. If she tried to escape through the bottom, she’d be run over by the low-slung, fast-moving train. She’d made a perfectly good escape route she couldn’t use.
Out of sheer frustration, she dragged one of the blankets over the hole, covering it so she wouldn’t have to look at it. However, it didn’t do much to muffle the rattling of iron wheels rolling on iron rails. Thorn flopped down on the hay and groaned. All that work—for nothing!
26
Resting her head on her paws, Thorn noticed that the rattling tempo of the iron wheels passing over the rails was becoming wider spaced. It was taking longer to go from rail to rail. The train was slowing down. She lifted her head and looked over at her hole. If the train stopped, she could easily get out through the bottom of the train.
She rose to her feet, dragged the blanket off her hole, and started digging again. Her claws tore into the wood loudly, but she didn’t care. She needed to widen the hole enough to let her shoulders pass, and she needed to do it fast.
A door opened and slammed closed. Bolts scraped and thunked into place. “What are you doing in there?” Belus’s voice came from entirely too close.
Thorn dug faster. If she had to get out of the hole while the train was still moving, she’d do it. She wanted out of that box.
The panel on the top of the box slammed open. “Thorn? Ah!”
Thorn didn’t bother looking; she kept digging. She was too close to escape.
“We don’t have time for this!” A hard shove moved the entire box to the side.
