by Hannah Pole
Finally the breaking and shifting subsided, and there was a sharp, prickling feeling covering her entire body. It felt as though someone was sticking pins in her skin, in waves from her head to her feet. Hell, what was going on?
When it was over, Tam sat there, breathing in short, harsh spurts. Eyes watering, tears spilling down her face. She brought a hand up to swipe at them, but the movement hurt. She caught her face with a fingernail.
Trying to move her fingers, she found her hands were restricted; she couldn’t bend her fingers or toes. Her eyes flew open in panic, and were met with fur. Red fur.
Scrambling up into a sitting position, Tam found she had to put her hands on the mattress to keep her balance because her legs were being restricted by her trousers.
Glancing down at herself, she found her entire body was covered in red fur; short, powerful legs topped with paws holding lethal claws were in place of her own legs and, behind them, wagging slightly, was a bright red and black tail.
Had she really done it? She shook herself and tried to stand, shaking the trousers off of her backside. There was no such luck with the T-shirt and bra she’d been wearing. They were still attached to her, but barely. The bra had held out relatively well; the straps had snapped, but it was still clipped around her waist, the knife miraculously still in place. Her T-shirt was torn to shreds, clinging weakly to her furry figure. She reached up to it with a paw, but found she couldn’t grasp the stringy material. She grabbed at it with her mouth, pulling the shreds off.
Getting to her feet, Tam padded her way around the edge of the room, getting used to the feel of her wolf, of walking on four feet. She felt strong. Stronger than she’d ever felt in her life. Her limbs still ached from the change, her bones roaring in protest with every movement, but that pain was quickly subsiding, giving way to newfound energy, strength. She felt like she could run miles and miles.
Trotting back to the mattress, she nosed the girl, still no response. How was she going to do this? She didn’t want to shift back into her human form, just in case she couldn’t change again.
Nudging at the bottom of the mattress, she held back a gag at the thought of what she was about to do. Who knew what this old, ragged mattress was covered in; it smelt vile. Sweat, sex and blood were the most pungent of the scents. Shoving the thoughts of what could have gone down in here and holding her breath, Tamriel bit the bullet and chewed her way through the knackered material until she hit the broken springs beneath. Tugging hard, she removed several of them one by one, and bit through the remaining material, coughing out bits of foam and stuffing as she went.
Finally, there was a sizable hole at the bottom. Clawing at her torn trousers, she nosed the leg underneath the mattress and stuck her nose through the hole; griping the trouser-edge material once more with a canine, she slowly tugged the material through the gap. Finally she ended up with a trouser leg either side of the hole in the mattress. She shuffled the girl further down carefully, making sure her arms were tucked under her torso; it would be difficult, but hopefully she wouldn’t slide off.
Getting herself in position, Tam stood in between the two trouser legs and picked them both up, gripping them tightly between her teeth. Taking a deep breath, she hefted all her weight into shifting the mattress, pulling it with the knackered jeans.
It was difficult to heft the thing forward initially, but eventually it gave way, making her stumble a little. She kept going, tugging the thing, and as the mattress moved forward, momentum made the dragging process a little easier. The hardest bit was navigating her way out of the doorway; thankfully it was only a shabby, single mattress so it did fit, but barely, squeezing through the small gap.
Once on the other side, Tam hefted herself forward, the sharp stones biting at her paws as she went, but the wolf’s tough skin fared much better against the jagged edges than her feet had.
She picked up the pace, trying to move forward as quickly as she could. As the jagged stone floor gave way to concrete, the process was much faster; the mattress had little to snag itself on now the floor was smooth.
She kept moving quickly forward, only slowing at corners where she had to carefully check the area ahead before continuing on.
The mattress scraped against the floor, a noise that was deafening to her ears, making it incredibly difficult to listen for tombs, or anything else that might be up ahead.
Her muscles were burning, straining with the weight of the girl, but she wouldn’t give up. She had no idea where she was going, but she’d come to the end of the maze of hallways when she’d found the girl so, in theory, the exit. If there was one, it would be in the opposite direction.
Pausing to catch her breath, Tamriel slumped down against the wall. Looking at the girl, she hoped like hell this wouldn’t all be for nothing.
She found herself briefly wishing Leyth were here; he’d know exactly what to do, but she pushed the thoughts away.
No point dwelling on him. He was gone; she’d told him to leave.
A scratching sound caught her attention and brought her back to reality, it was coming from up ahead. Tugging the ratty blanket over the blonde in the hopes that it might hide her a little better, Tam padded silently to the end of the hallway, peering around the corner. Two men were clattering their way down the hallway, the scraping noise seemed to be coming from a large cane one of them was carrying. They were systematically stopping at each door, checking the damp, dark room behind it before moving on to the next.
This was one of those points, she thought, where you have to choose between right and wrong, light and dark, easy and difficult. It would be easier for her to slip past the two men while they were in one of the rooms and escape, intact and unscathed.
But she just couldn’t leave the girl behind, there was no way she was going to drag a body-laden mattress past them unnoticed. What’s more, if she tried and failed? The girl would likely be killed during the fight. No. She’d have to take them out first.
Tam snuck down the corridor silently, keeping to the walls, watching the two men intently. They were so focused on talking to each other that they weren’t looking in her direction, but that could change very quickly.
When she came within about fifteen feet of the men, she stopped and crouched. She could hear their conversation echoing, bouncing from wall to wall, though they were talking in hushed voices.
She could only make out bits of what they were saying, something about the Council. Still, she didn’t have time to play decipher the bad guy; she needed to take them out.
Inching forward, she waited until they’d reached one of the gnarly wooden doors, leading to a room that was likely to be similar to the one she’d been kept in.
Both men were wearing full leather from top to bottom and hair shaved so short that she could barely make out the colour of the stuff.
Both were pale-skinned but, thankfully, their eyes were normal, not the soul-less black of the tomb she’d encountered earlier.
They looked like one another though, like soldiers that were made to look exactly the same. The only difference was their size; the man on the left was larger than the one on the right, neither looked to be in particularly fit shape though.
As the larger of the two men cracked the rickety wooden door and stepped inside, she crouched, gearing herself up to attack.
One by one was better than fighting the two of them at the same time. She launched herself at the remaining man, her body flying silently through the air, much further and faster than she’d been able to go in human form.
Her front paws hit the guy in the chest, sending him thrashing to the ground. He looked her in the eye as he fell; she watched those vicious brown eyes glaze over and turn black in a matter of seconds, and that terrified her more than any enemy, zombie or otherwise, could have.
Trying not to think about it, she sank her teeth into his throat faster than he had time to react, ripping his throat from his body. Not quite decapitation, but hopefully it would work just as
well.
Blood ran down her throat, warm and fast, making her stomach rumble and her soul howl. She spat the flesh to the floor, her stomach turning at the thought of his innards touching her but relishing in the fight, the adrenaline, the hunt.
Whipping around, Tam threw herself into the room the second man had walked into. She could hear him breathing. His heart rate had sped up, suggesting he knew she was there.
She paused, scanning the room. There was a hint of death in the air, she could smell it clearly, but it wasn’t strong enough to know exactly where it was coming from. She waited in the dark for any sign of movement.
The tense moment seemed to stretch on forever until finally something glinted in the light thrown in from the open doorway; knives, and lots of them.
She heard the hiss of air against metal as the knife flew a split second before it was on her. She managed to dodge, but barely; the thing caught her leg, slicing its way through fur and hitting skin before clattering into the wall behind her. There was a thud as the next one hit the door.
Tam skidded out of the way and bolted in the direction the knives were coming from. She hauled herself around, claws scraping against the wet stone floor as she went, and launched herself at the shadow.
It caught her with a fist, cracking her in the jaw, making her yelp. She bit down on the hand that caught her, tearing through skin and hitting bone. Using the momentum of her fall, she twisted around, taking the fist with her, snapping his wrist.
As her paws hit the floor, she used the motion to launch herself back up towards the shadowed man’s head, clawing her way up his chest and biting down hard onto his collarbone.
The man howled and went down like a sack of bricks, hitting the floor with a crack. Tam wanted to move her death grip upwards to his throat, but she couldn’t move. The guy had pinned her legs to his torso in the fall to the floor. Bracing herself against him, not daring to let go, she tried to pull herself off but to no avail. The stench of blood and death hit her senses hard; she could taste the metallic warmth of blood on her tongue, mixed with the salty heat of sweat.
He was panting like a dog. Thankfully he appeared as worn out as she, but neither of them were giving up just yet. She was so close to his jugular, the means to end the fight, it was almost painful. But if she unhooked her teeth from his skin, even for a moment, he was going to break her. He’d clutched her two front paws between his arms, all he needed to do was snap them to the side and it would break her ribcage. She knew it. He knew it.
She shifted her weight a little and he flinched. Christ, he was as jumpy as she was. She slowly tightened her grip on his collarbone, allowing her canine to slide further into his flesh, scraping bone ever so slightly. He hissed at the pain of it, shifting his weight in an effort to move his body away from her mouth and she deliberately loosened her grip on him; just enough that he would think his subtle movements were working.
He moved his arm slightly in an effort to angle his body away from her further still. That was all she needed; slipping her paw free of him, she snapped her jaw open, leaving his collarbone torn and covered in blood.
In one swift, hard movement, she hefted her weight upwards, slashing awkwardly at his exposed neck, her canines catching skin and tearing it away as she went.
She felt it as she tore through his jugular; blood gushed steadily into her mouth, sliding down her throat. She tried to close herself to it, but it didn’t work, just made her choke.
The guy gargled against her. Using the last of his strength, he hefted her off, launching out with a fist in a final swing; he caught her in the side of the stomach.
Something hard pierced through her fur, shooting pain ricocheting throughout her entire body.
She was so consumed by the burning roar of the knife entering her body that she didn’t notice the guy heave his final breath. Didn’t care.
Chapter Ten
Leyth and Carl scoured the building, top to bottom, and still found nothing. The stairs Leyth had climbed earlier only went up and there were no other stairwells anywhere.
‘Sapphire and my team are ten minutes out.’ Carl put his phone back in his pocket. ‘They’re bringing in the big guns.’
‘Vamps?’
‘No. Minotaurs.’
‘Really?’ Leyth sent a prayer of thanks up to the Maker; at least Julian was taking this seriously.
Minotaurs were the biggest, baddest beasties around. The legends that told of giants were largely based on the Minotaurs’ human form; they were huge and built like a brick shit-house. Evolution had given them the ability to partially shift, which was otherwise unheard of. They could turn their entire body into that of the bull, but keep their bone structure as that of a human, giving them a formidable edge in battle.
‘Let’s keep looking for another way into the base,’ Carl suggested.
‘Good idea. I’m going to check the stairs once more. Maybe we missed something,’ Leyth said. Carl nodded as they made their way to the stairwell.
Opening the door, the space looked exactly as it had the last fifty times they’d checked it. Whitewashed walls, steel grey stairs leading only upwards. Leaning against the doorway, Leyth cursed.
‘We’re missing something,’ he said.
‘Hell yeah. But what?’ The two of them set about patting the walls down for hidden doors, feeling underneath each step for a trigger and toeing the floor for signs of a trap door. Nothing.
Leyth could barely contain the roar building up inside him; something was wrong. Very wrong. It wasn’t these rooms; it wasn’t the base they’d found. Something was wrong with Tamriel.
He could feel it like a twisting ball of terror in his gut. The sense of urgency rushing through his veins made him want to scream. Time was running out, he knew that much, but he didn’t know why or where he was supposed to go. Palming his dagger, he sent out a long line of curses, lobbing the thing at the far wall. He waited for the satisfying thud as the metal sank its way into the plaster, but it never came. It just went straight through the damn wall and disappeared. Handle and all. The wall seemed to ripple as contact was made, then re-solidified as the knife disappeared through it.
‘What—’
‘The hell?’ Carl finished for him, walking over and brushing a finger across the thing. Solid.
Leyth ran a hand the length of the wall; it was honestly as hard and impenetrable as any other wall he’d ever come across.
‘Your knife went straight through it,’ Carl said.
‘I know. I frigging saw it disappear.’ Leyth shook his head.
‘Shit, it didn’t even leave a mark.’ Carl fingered the section of the plaster that Leyth’s knife had entered.
‘This is a load of crap,’ Leyth spat, cursing himself for not knowing what to do. Anger got the better of him, and he roared, swinging a fist back and hurling it towards the wall. He braced himself for bone-shattering impact; even if he managed to break a hole in the damn thing, it would give them a chance to work out what was on the other side. His fist hit the plaster and the jolt of the hard surface ricocheted up his arm, jarring his shoulder, but it didn’t break.
The surface stayed as smooth as it had been before. Leyth’s fist, on the other hand, disappeared straight into the plaster, the tension of it giving way to nothingness. The surface rippled ever so slightly as his hand sunk in, but didn’t crack or break under the impact.
Whipping his arm out of the wall, Leyth studied his hand. It was completely intact, not bleeding nor bruised.
He looked at the wall; it looked exactly the same as it had been before, no cracks or dents, just a plain white plaster.
‘That is one damn good spell!’ Carl observed, running a hand over the wall, curling his palm into a fist.
He hesitated, then also punched his fist through, his hand disappearing as it slid through the stuff.
‘I’m going in,’ Leyth decided.
Tam had to be in there. He could feel it.
‘No,’ Carl snapped.
/> As Leyth turned around to argue, Carl spat out, ‘It’s a strong spell, Leyth. I very much doubt we’ll get signal on the other side and the team is on the way.’
‘I’m not waiting. Tamriel—’
‘Shit—’ the male swore, cutting him off. ‘I’m gonna call Sapphire and explain what’s doing, then we’ll go in together, OK?’
For the first time in a long while, Leyth stood back and truly looked at him; they’d been friends for years. He’d always thought Carl had it good; nice house, great female, good job.
Now he thought he was the lucky one.
Hell, he didn’t really have anywhere to live; he was crashing on the floor of Julian’s mansion. His female, the female he wanted, didn’t want him. Tamriel was so stupidly out of his league that surely it was pointless even trying.
His work? He hated the Council and their rules. But he was a lone wolf; he could up and leave at any point, go rogue in search for better lands.
Carl’s pasty skin and grey hair made him look old before his years; he had huge black rings under his eyes and no meat on his bones whatsoever.
The guy had once been one of the biggest shifters out there; without a doubt, he’d matched Leyth’s muscled size. Now he looked bony, tired, worn down by years of service. Carl didn’t have the option of going rogue, changing his life. He was well and truly stuck where he was without a hope in hell of escape. The Council would take anyone who tried to escape out, it was their way.
And Carl had a female to think about.
He was still completely selfless; focused on the job, working all hours of the day and night to keep everyone else’s life relatively easy. And he’d just told Leyth that he wanted kids, but work was too dangerous for him to feel comfortable doing that. And here he was, about to run into a suicide mission, just because all Leyth had a ‘feeling’. Because he couldn’t wait for back-up, and clearly Carl was too much of a good person to let Leyth go it alone. He really was a true male. No, more than that, a male of honour.
‘OK, ready. They’re only two minutes out, but by the time they get the gear out of the van and get the Minos inside unnoticed, it will be ten minutes at least,’ Carl said, sliding his phone into his back pocket.
