by Jan Stryvant
Sean turned on him and was shot three more times before he grabbed the man's hand and crushed it around the pistol, which held up rather well. Looking up into the pained eyes of the man holding the gun, Sean recognized him as one of the members of the Council of Ascendance's senior coven, however it wasn't Harkins.
Spinning the man around, Sean knocked him to the ground, was surprised when the cramper wand didn't work on him. So Sean kicked him between the legs, hitting him in the balls, and then while the man curled up in even more pain, Sean relieved him of the rings, amulet, and earrings he was wearing. He even had magical bracelets on both of his arms, and Sean got those too, then he gagged, zip-tied, and slept him just to be safe.
Pulling the blankets off the bed he noticed that the woman there was nude, rather attractive, and glaring at him.
"You here willingly, or are you here as a slave?" Sean growled freeing her of the effects of the cramper spell so she could reply to him as he started to search the room for traces of Harkins.
"That's my husband you killed!" she gasped back at him.
"He's not dead," Sean growled back. "Where is Harkins? I thought he lived here?"
"Harkins hasn't lived here since he married Teresa Sticks. She didn't want to raise her kids in this place."
Sean swore loudly as he started going through the drawers by the bed, he could hear fighting outside now, there were guns firing and even a couple of explosions.
"Where does he live?" Sean asked as he found one of the magical devices that could be used to kill all of the lycans.
"Like I'm going to tell you!"
"Okay, fine." Draining the device of it's magic Sean walked over to where her husband lay on the floor, "I'll kill your husband, let's see if that changes your mind," Sean raised his foot to crush his skull.
"Wait!" she cried and quickly rattled off an address that wasn't too far from here.
"Nice to see that you care," Sean smiled.
"We're not animals, like you!"
"No, you're worse," Sean said, and after sleeping her with a spell he returned to the hallway. Stepping out of the room he could see that there were bodies everywhere. Most of them were mages, and they were being gagged and hog-tied.
Several of them were wolves. Sean went to check them, one was dead, two were wounded seriously, but Sean was able to heal them enough for their own bodies to take over. Three more were under the effects of spells, which Sean quickly dispelled.
Looking around he saw that there were only five wolves trussing up the downed mages and helping the wounded.
"Where's Jon and his team?" Sean asked.
"Down on the first floor!" one of the team members who doubled as a medic told him.
"Damn. Get everyone up, get those girls down here, send everyone who can fight downstairs. Harkins isn't here, we need to get moving."
"Is he downstairs?"
"No, he's not here. He doesn't live here anymore!"
"Shit! I hope he doesn't have one of those kill switches!"
"Yeah, me too," Sean growled and ran down to the end of the hallway and started down the stairs. There was one of them on the first floor and he was sure Jon and his team would need all of the help that they could get.
Friend of the Devil
Harkins woke up when the alarm on the nightstand started to beep. Silencing it with his hand he sat up quickly and looked around the bedroom. His wife stirred briefly in her sleep, but otherwise everything was quiet. None of the house alarms had gone off and it was still quiet outside.
"Damn idiots probably tripped the alarm for the garbage man again," Harkins swore. Still, it was best that he got up and checked in with the people back at the compound. Just because they'd made mistakes three times this last week that was no excuse for him to slack off.
Getting out of bed, he stuck his feet in his slippers and picking up his robe he put it on and wrapping it around him, he tied the belt and walked out of his bedroom, carefully closing the door behind him, so as not to wake up his wife.
The doors to both of the girl's bedrooms were closed, he debated checking in on them a moment, but decided instead he could check on them after he checked in with Hodges at the compound.
Walking down the hallway, he left the bedrooms behind and walking past the living room and then the kitchen, he came to his office. Opening the door, he walked over to his desk, not bothering with the room lights. Last thing he wanted to do was ruin his night vision and then be tripping over kid's toys and other stuff all the way back to bed.
The light on the alarm on his desk was blinking. Picking up the phone, he was surprised to find that the line was dead. Searching his pockets, he realized he'd left his cell phone back on the nightstand.
Grumbling he picked up the magical communicator that sat on his desk. He hated these things, since the advent of the telephone nobody had bothered to do a thing to improve them. The sound quality they had was like a sixties child's phonograph, and they needed to be recharged constantly after use. Rumor was someone in Eruditio had been working on an improved version, but then the cell phone came out and killed it dead.
Harkins snorted, they all relied too much on modern conveniences and not enough on their own powers. Just another sign of weakness in the modern world.
Turning the device on, he spoke into it. "Hodges! What's going on over there! Don't tell me that they alerted on the garbage man again!"
Harkins counted to ten, as he waited for a reply. When nothing came he spoke the name of the man who was supposed to be on watch.
"Kenneth! What's going on over there?"
"Sir! We're under attack! They're everywhere! I've already lost most of my men! We're being overwhelmed! They're everywhere!"
"Trigger the damn kill switch! Now!" Harkins yelled. Not only would that kill off his own lycans, leaving that damn Valens kid with a hollow victory, but it would set off silver bombs and some other very nasty devices all over the property. Harkins doubted that all of Valens' animals had that damn protection trinket yet, his own people figured that something that powerful had to take months to make. And Valens hadn't had months, at best he'd only had maybe one of them.
"I can't get to it, Sir! They drove us out of the control room! Hodges is gone, I can't reach him!"
Swearing, Harkins dropped the device and grabbing the draw of his desk he yanked it open.
"Having a bad night, are we?" a voice growled softly in the room.
Harkins' head came up, and he cast a light spell almost without thinking about it. Sitting in a chair in what had been a dark corner, was Hyena. He was still dressed in a long dark overcoat and the black fedora hat, thought both currently looked a lot worse for wear, as well a set of black trousers. However the shirt he was wearing was without a tie and appeared to have blood stains on it.
As Harkins watched, Hyena pulled out a cigar and biting off the end of it, which he spit on the floor, he lit it and started to puff on it.
"I didn't say you could smoke in here!" Harkins said and then looked back down into the drawer of his desk for the remote magical trigger for all of the lycan traps and kill spells they'd laid down back at the compound.
"You didn't say a lot of things," Sal said as he put the lighter back in his pocket.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harkins said and started opening the other drawers, looking for that damn remote.
"I finally caught up with the Valens' kid," Sal said, conversationally.
"Then where the hell is he?" Harkins grumbled, and started looking over his desk, "is that why they're attacking now? Because you killed him?"
"Look at me when I'm talking to you," Sal growled.
Harkins looked up and snorted, "I've got bigger things to worry about right now than you."
"Oh yeah, I heard. That Valens' kid. He's a mean son-of-a-bitch. I wonder how many of your people he'll leave alive when all of this is done."
Harkins' eyes got wide then.
"You let him LIVE!" Harkins yelled, glaring at him.
Sal laughed, "No, he let me live."
"Fuck!" Harkins swore and looked in the desk drawer again, that damn remote had to be somewhere.
"Stop wasting your time, I've got it in my pocket," Sal chuckled.
"What! I need that! I need to stop them!"
"You ain't stopping shit," Sal growled, "you lied."
"I lied? So what! You're a paid killer, that's it! I give you money and tell you who to kill, and you kill them! Is that so hard to understand! I don't owe you the truth, I don't owe you anything! Especially not money, if you couldn't kill one fucking little wet behind the ears twerp!"
"You broke your oath to me," Sal growled. "Twelve years ago, all of you, all five council leaders swore an oath, to me. You all swore to leave the kid and his mother alone."
"I told you, we didn't break it, those gang members did! Valens was already learning magic!" Harkins started glancing around his desk for a wand, he was suddenly aware that he was alone in a room with a man who killed people like him for a living.
"The kid told me otherwise. So I checked, and guess what? He told me the truth. You broke your oath to me. An oath you swore on your life." Sal growled and stood up.
"And now it's time to collect."
Harkins swore and cast a sleep spell. Nothing. Paralyzation. Still nothing. Reaching down deep he threw out his strongest spell, a force spike that picked up Hyena, threw him into the wall with enough force to destroy all of the plaster, shattering half of the man's bones and pinning him to the wall with a large spike through his gut.
Collapsing into the chair, Harkins caught his breath. He was spent, that spell had taken everything that he had to cast.
"You sure talked a tough game," Harkins said with a snort, "but if you can't take on a kid, you sure as hell shouldn't have tried taking on a grown man. Yeah, I lied. So what? The powerful always lie to the weak. It's our right."
Getting up, still a little shaky on his feet, Harkins walked over to the dead body pinned to the wall. Hyena had said he had the remote, so the sooner Harkins got it, and triggered it, the sooner this farce could end.
He was just starting to reach into Hyena's pocket when suddenly a hand grabbed him by the neck! Looking up he saw Hyena smiling at him.
"You should have known better than to try and kill a man like me," Hyena growled and started to squeeze Harkins' neck. As Harkins watched, Hyena transformed in front of his eyes!
He was a lycan!
"Oh, I see you finally figured it out," Sal laughed, and then gripping tightly, he crushed Harkins' neck, and then dropped the dying man to the floor. Looking down at the spike sticking through his body, Sal grimaced. Getting off of that was going to hurt.
Inside the Storm
Chad looked around at the two assembled groups as they prepared to move out and attack. Rather than try and breach the walls, they'd simply brought a bunch of ladders that they'd bought that afternoon from one of those large box stores.
"Why ladders?" Daelyn asked, looking at them.
"Because they're quiet," Chad grinned. "The last thing we want to do is give anyone a warning that we're coming by blowing holes in the wall.
"Dwarves are not very fond of heights," she pointed out.
Chad shook his head, "Now you tell me. Oh well, too late to change things."
"We'll manage," Samis spoke up. "It's only a ten-foot wall."
Chad checked his watch, "Okay everyone, let's go!"
Chad watched as Roxy and Daelyn got in the two trucks with the dwarves, and headed off to their attack point. They were going to be taking the kennels, and freeing those inside. A lot of the dwarves were effectively sapper and engineers. Chad figured they had the best chance of getting inside and disarming any traps.
Heading towards the other trucks he grabbed Max by the harness, pulling her back.
"Where are you going?" He asked her.
"I'm going with the first squad!" She growled.
Chad shook his head, "No, I've told you already, you're going with me."
"But I'm an experienced fighter! What, you don't like your girlfriend leading the charge? Afraid I'll make you look bad?"
Chad sighed, he liked Max, a lot. It wasn't that she was good looking; even now in her hybrid form she really was rather attractive. It was because she was pretty fearless, and she really did know all of the political ins and outs of the wolf packs.
"No, I'm afraid I'll make me look bad. I've never been in combat before Max, I told you that. Yeah, it sucks that you can't go out there and lead the charge and show everyone just what a bad ass you are.
"But you need to focus on what's more important here!"
Max growled at him, "And just what could be more important than that?"
"Making sure an inexperienced guy like me doesn't do anything stupid while showing me how it's done!" Chad growled right back at her. "Just because I know how to plan these battles it doesn't mean I've ever been in one! I need someone I know I can trust and guess what? That's you."
Chad had the distinct pleasure of seeing Max suddenly look rather embarrassed. He had to admit, he enjoyed the view, she didn't embarrass easy and they'd been keeping score on how many times they each score on one another.
"Umm, sorry." Max sighed, "I hadn't realized."
"Well I don't exactly go broadcasting it to everyone. Last time I couldn't go cause I wasn't a wolf and had a bum leg. Now I sure as hell want to go, just like you do. Now, get in the truck and let's get going."
Hopping up into the truck it was a short two minutes to get into position, and as Chad had suspected, the lycan guards who were supposed to be watching this section of the wall were all off fighting the main attack.
Jumping out of the truck he grabbed a ladder with Max and they ran through the brush and slamming it up against the wall, they both quickly scrambled up it, Chad following Max and enjoying the view, up until the moment they jumped down on the other side of the wall.
Taking cover behind a building, Chad waited with Max as the rest of their force came over the wall and got ready for their next move.
"You had a bum leg?" Max asked, while they waited.
"Long story, I'll tell you later," Chad said keeping an eye on everyone as they got in position, "but that was one of the reasons I got Sean to have someone infect me. Going from being athletic to being a cripple sucked."
"Only one of the reasons?" Max teased.
Chad looked at her, and grinned, "Werewolves are cool."
Max laughed, "Well, duh! Course we are."
Chad clicked this radio, "Delta, go!"
Max grinned and took off around the wall, with Chad hot on her heels, as the rest of his small company charged as well. This was the hard part, their first goal was to capture a small group of eight or so defenders by overwhelming them with sheer numbers.
Then they'd remove their silver, and go after the next group.
Sean and a lot of the wolves had told him that once they were no longer worried about the kill pellets embedded in their bodies, that the captured wolves would side with them. Chad wasn't so optimistic. There were hostages involved, so he doubted any of them were going to switch sides that easily.
Which was why he'd sent all of the dwarves to take the bunker. That was just as an important objective as gaining control of the remotes they were all worried about. Maybe even more so. It took almost a minute to die from silver poisoning. It only took about five seconds to put a collar and a tag on someone and stop it.
The first group they hit from behind didn't even know what was happening to them, until they'd been knocked to the ground.
But that was the only surprise that Chad's men got, because those being taken down made enough noise that the others all heard them.
"Damn! They're using silver bullets!" Max yelled as she got hit, her shield becoming active.
"Get down!" Chad yelled and grabbing her he yanked her down to the ground. "What the hell did you think they were going to be using? Marshmallows? What's wrong wit
h you?"
"But we can't be hurt by silver now!" Max protested.
"Yeah, well obviously they don't know that. Now stop drawing fire and let's see how the Greg and the others are doing."
"You were worried, weren't you?" Max asked with a grin as they made their way over to were Greg, one of his squad leaders, and this men, were putting silver tags on the wolves they'd just captured.
"Of course I was worried about you!" Chad grinned, "Who else is gonna make my dinner if you get killed?"
"Ass!" Max snarled and smacked him on the ass.
"Yes," Chad agreed, "that's my ass." He stopped by Greg, who was sitting on a wolf.
"How's it going with him?" Chad asked.
"Not good, Sir. He's not surrendering!"
Chad snorted, "Yeah, I can see that. Hog-tie them all. Set someone to make sure they don't get free." Chad looked down at the wolf on the ground who was snarling at him.
"Don't worry," Chad told him, "we've got people getting the hostages out."
Chad did a quick head count, they'd gotten six.
"Not a bad haul, now, let's get some more!"
Grabbing Max, he went to see about organizing a flanking maneuver to cut off a few more of the enemy to neutralize them.
"This is gonna be easy!" Max said.
Chad snorted, "They're not stupid. We'll be lucky to get three next time."
Roxy wanted to growl and she and Daelyn came up to the guard post for the kennel. Apparently the guards inside had already triggered the defenses, which were a series of metal riot gates over all of the windows and entrances.
"Wait here," Roxy told Daelyn.
"What are you going to..." Daelyn stopped talking as Roxy was already gone.
"Damn, she's fast," Samis said.
