Blood Moon

by Graeme Reynolds

  “Then I’ll say it again, in the hope that it might sink into your thick bloody skull. This is a stupid idea. In the history of stupid bloody ideas, it’s right up there with the Star Wars Prequels.” She reached in and rapped the side of Michael’s head with her knuckles. “Any of this getting in there?”

  The grin vanished from Michael’s face, replaced with an annoyed expression that she was only too familiar with. “Look, I know that the tunnel is going to be dangerous, but if we have to do it, then Christmas Day is going to be as quiet as it gets.”

  She shook her head in exasperation. “It’s not just the bloody tunnel, Michael, although I can’t say I’m thrilled to be running through twenty five miles of pitch blackness avoiding oncoming trains and high voltage lines,” she nodded towards the chain-link fence, “assuming we even make it past all that security without being spotted. It’s the rest of it as well. Why the fuck are we going back to Moscow when there’s a death warrant on both of our heads? Let’s just get the hell out, while we still can.”

  Michael’s frown deepened. “You know that I can’t do that, Marie.”

  Marie’s hands moved to her hips and she glared at her brother. “Why? What the hell do you think you’ll accomplish, even if we aren’t executed on sight?”

  Michael waited for her to get back into the car and close the door behind her. “You heard what Daniel said. Krysztof and Lukas are planning an attack. There’s only one way that will end. We have to try and stop them. Talk some sense into them.”

  It was all she could do to stop herself from laughing in Michael’s face. “Talk sense into them? Have you heard yourself? You couldn’t talk sense into either of those two when you were in charge. What makes you think it’ll be any different now?” She paused, uncertain as to whether she should carry on. “And anyway, I’m not sure you’re being completely honest about your reasons for going back.”

  Michael’s voice acquired a sharp edge. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “You know exactly what it’s supposed to mean. Admit it. You don’t like not being the big boss dog anymore and you want the top spot back again.”

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I mean… yes, I’m pissed off that Lukas and Krysztof made a play for the alpha position when I was away, but I’m not surprised. And what Daniel said has been playing on my mind. I fucked things up, Marie. Pretty much everything that’s happened was down to bad decisions that I made. I don’t deserve to be alpha anymore, but I’m not ready to give up on the pack just yet. Apart from you, they’re the only family I have.”

  Marie let out a long sigh. “Well, you don’t have the monopoly on making bad decisions, and I have to take my share of the blame. If I’d done things differently… then maybe…”

  Michael took her hand in his. “What’s done is done. There’s no point in agonising over it. We just have to make the best of a shit situation. Maybe try to make things better. That’s why we have to go back.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Alright, we’ll go back. Lukas will probably have us killed the second we set foot in Moscow, but balls to it. It’s not like I have anything better to do, and there’s nothing here for me anymore.”

  Her brother’s smile returned. “Good. Now, what do you think our next move should be? How are we going to get into that tunnel?”

  “Well, we’re not going to manage much from here. There’s too much security around that control room. Come on. We need to get around to the other side of the facility.”

  Marie got out of the car, and a moment later, Michael joined her. She threw the keys onto the driver’s seat and closed the door. They wouldn’t be needing the vehicle anymore, and if they took it any closer, there was a chance that the ANPR cameras on the approach roads would flag it as stolen. The last part of the journey would have to be done on foot. She looked at her brother. “Michael, if we make it through the tunnel, there’s something else you need to know. Once we get to the other side, things are going to be difficult. We won’t be able to change back until we get to Moscow. Stealing cars… clothes… these things leave a trace for people who know what to look for. We’ll have to do the whole thing as wolves.”

  “I know, Marie. We went over this before, and I know it’s not going to be easy. It’s a hell of a distance to cover.”

  She shook her head. “No, you’re not getting it. What’s the longest you’ve been in your wolf form for? A day? Two?”

  Michael’s face darkened. “You know that it was two days. After Bosnia.”

  “Well, then, you know that after a while you start forgetting that you’re anything other than a wolf. This is going to take us five days at least. And a hell of a lot of that time is going to be spent running, with very little rest. If you start to feel like you’re losing yourself then let me know straight away. If we push ourselves too hard, we could spend the rest of our lives pissing against trees in a forest somewhere. Okay?”

  Michael nodded. “Okay. If I start losing the plot, I’ll let you know. Just make sure that you do the same.”

  “Believe me, you’ll be the first to know. Come on then, let’s get this over with.”

  They walked across the car park and out onto the road. The pavement ended a little way further down. On any other day, they would have no chance of making it across the motorway without detection, but at this early hour on Boxing Day, the road was silent. There was still, however, a risk that a passing police patrol car, goods vehicle or taxi would spot them. And detection was absolutely not an option. She hated this. There were too many variables outside of her control and she was only too aware that her mind wasn’t fully focused on the challenge before her. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the task at hand, John’s death nagged at her, gnawing on the fringes of her consciousness and pushing itself into the forefront of her mind whenever her attention wandered. She couldn’t afford to be like this. If she was distracted or not paying attention to her surroundings, the chances of her and Michael making it through this alive would reduce to almost nothing. Michael, for all his bravado, had never been in the field. He needed her, and her brother was the last person on the face of the planet she gave a damn about. She couldn’t afford to let him down. She wouldn’t let him down.

  They reached the end of the pavement and checked for any signs of life, but the roads were deserted. Marie strained her enhanced senses for the sounds of any approaching vehicles, but the world was silent and still. The road travelled for another hundred yards before reaching the roundabout on the motorway slip-road. The far exit passed beneath the motorway to a small junction on the periphery of the Channel Tunnel complex that led to the control room. A small track that bore a No Entry sign disappeared into darkness on the site’s eastern boundary. That was their destination. Five hundred meters. Just over a minute at a flat out sprint. Of course, they’d be able to cover the distance in less than half that time in wolf form, but that wasn’t an option. Not yet. She still needed her hands to operate the bolt cutters nestled inside her coat. She gave her brother what she hoped was an encouraging smile, then began running, feeling the adrenaline flood through her system. There was no time to worry about discovery now. No turning back. The time for planning or thought was behind them. She sprinted past the slip-road, over the slippery grass that covered the roundabout and down the other side. There were cameras in the small tunnel beneath the motorway, but they were automated (she hoped), calibrated to read the number plates of approaching vehicles. Not designed to capture the images of two people on foot. No sense in worrying. They were past them in a matter of seconds. Unless someone had been monitoring the video feed, their passage would have gone unnoticed. Moments later, they burst from beneath the motorway and crossed the junction, coming to a stop behind a tree a little way along the dark track.

  Marie had hardly broken a sweat, but Michael was breathing much harder than she would have liked. She only hoped that his werewolf form was fitter than his human one. He grinned at her. “Piece of cake. Don’
t know what you were worried about.”

  She forced herself to return the smile. “Yeah. Well, that was fuck all. It gets a bit trickier from here on out.”

  They hurried along the track before turning right into the woods and ascending a small hill. Once they reached the crest, Marie crouched down and surveyed the landscape while Michael struggled to catch his breath beside her. The Channel Tunnel complex stretched out before them, a blaze of orange light from the distant terminal with the twisting neon snake of the floodlit access road coiling itself around the dark perimeter. She focused on enhancing her eyesight, and watched the colour drain out of the landscape until the scene before her was set in a stark monochrome. She looked over to Michael and saw that his eyes were also shining phosphorescent disks. “There. Do you see it? Just to the right of the tracks. There’s a gap in the fence. We can cut the perimeter fence behind that water tower, then it’s just a short run along the road. Once we’re past that, it’s a straight run into the tunnels.”

  Michael looked uncertain. “That’s still almost a hundred meters of road we’ll have to run along. I don’t like it. Why not just cut the fence straight opposite the access to the tracks?”

  She sighed. Michael was great at the bigger picture stuff, but was bloody useless when it came to the practicalities. “Think about it. Cutting the fence is going to take us longer than anything else. If we do it there, we’ll be right under those lights. Then we’ll have to change once we’ve made a hole. This way, we’ll be shielded from the control room. Yeah, we’ll be exposed when we’re on that road, but we’re talking three, maybe four seconds instead of a couple of minutes. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “I know you do, Marie. You always were the smart one, even when we were kids. I’ve not thanked you properly for coming to get me and… for what it’s worth… I’m sorry about John. I know he meant a lot to you.”

  She forced a grin and tried to ignore the stab of anguish that shot through her chest. Instead, she took Michael’s hand. “I would never have left you. You know that. Now, if you’ve quite finished being a soppy bastard, can we get our heads back in the game? You ready to do this?”

  Michael nodded, although the expression of unease on his face told another story altogether. “Yeah. As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Then let’s stop pissing about and get it over with.”

  They descended the hill carefully and made their way back to the small wooded area below. Further along, the track split in two, with the left track leading to a small reservoir on the north-eastern edge of the complex. Marie pushed her way through the undergrowth, ignoring the grasping brambles that snagged her clothing, until she came to a chain-link fence. Removing the bolt cutters from inside her coat, she began to snip away at the fence by one of the concrete support posts. Michael began to get undressed behind her, and she made a very conscious effort not to turn around. Despite everything, she couldn’t help but smile. They were about to risk their lives, and run for thousands of miles in their wolf form, but she still refused to see her brother naked if she could help it.

  In a matter of moments she’d cut away enough of the fence to allow them to pass. Trying to ignore the sounds of Michael’s ongoing transformation, she quickly removed her own clothing, gasping as the frigid air brought her body out in goose-bumps. It wouldn’t matter in a minute. She’d be warm in a thick fur coat. Still, this situation brought back some uncomfortable memories of the last time she’d tried to transform out in the open, when she’d been attacked by Connie. That hadn’t ended well and a small kernel of fear sprouted in her gut that she would fail to coax her fledgling wolf into a full transformation without a clear external threat. She shook away her doubt. Her beast was immature, but she’d managed to bring about the transformation once, and that meant she could do it again. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, cleared her mind and went searching for her wolf.

  It didn’t take her long to find it. The beast lay nestled in the darkness, and she could almost visualise it leaping up like an excited puppy, eager for attention, at her call. It wasn’t the lifelong partnership that she’d had with her old wolf. In some respects she felt guilty for carrying on when her old companion had been murdered, and for the new bond that was forming between her and the young creature. It wasn’t anything as straightforward as having a faithful old dog die and getting a new one to lessen the pain. It was deeper. More fundamental. Her old beast had been a part of her since childhood and had sacrificed itself so that she might live. They’d known each other in ways that nothing else could ever match. They were one and the same, while the relationship with the new wolf was just forming and both sides were uncertain of the other. It would not be until the light of the next full moon that the bond would truly be cemented. Until then, she would need to take things very carefully. She was on new ground here. She shouldn’t be able to transform at all yet. It was only her experience that allowed her to bring the young monster out from the dark recesses of her psyche and make it flesh. At the same time, the joy at having that again was almost overwhelming. She’d seriously considered killing herself when her old beast died, and it was only from respect for its sacrifice that she’d carried on. When John had been killed, it had almost broken her. Now, though… now she wasn’t alone anymore. The bleak, empty, solitary existence she’d been destined to suffer had a glimmer of hope shining in the darkness, and it all became clear to her. She understood why she’d latched on to John in the way that she had. And she understood why his death had hurt her so badly. She smiled and felt a measure of peace for the first time in months, then crouched down onto all fours and began the transformation from woman to werewolf.

  Her body felt energised, as if she’d been injected with a powerful stimulant. Clouds of steam billowed from her naked form and the first tingling of the change had already begun in her fingertips. This was really going to hurt, but she’d missed it. The pain, and the power that came with it.

  Her spine popped as the vertebrae realigned themselves. Her pelvis cracked, bones splintering then resetting themselves into a new form. A sharp stab of pain as her coccyx elongated, bursting through her flesh to become a heavy tail. Thick, coarse hair flowed from her pores, covering her body in a luxuriant layer of fur. Vicious talons split through the ends of her fingers and toes, shredding flesh, while her face twisted and contorted into a savage, fang-filled muzzle.

  In less than a minute it was over. The pain subsided, and the world around her came into sharp focus. She could smell the heavy musk of Michael as he stood behind her. Hear the steady thrum of his heartbeat and the rush of blood as it flowed through his veins. A myriad scents assailed her sensitive nostrils, mapping out the world around her in a detailed pattern. The delicious tang of fear from a fox further along the trail as it sensed the predators in its midst. The harsh, acrid stench of diesel and oil from the complex before them. The hint of ozone as rain droplets sizzled against the high voltage lines leading to the tunnel. For the first time in months, she felt whole again. It was all she could do to restrain the exultant howl that ached to burst from her lips. Instead, without so much as a backwards glance at her brother, she slipped through the gap in the fence and moved as silently as a shadow, around the side of the water tower.

  The road before them was deserted. The freezing moisture in the air formed bright coronas around the floodlights, and two hundred yards away, a brief flare of illumination by the side of the control room, accompanied by the faint odour of burning tobacco, signalled the start of someone’s cigarette break. There was no way that they could know when someone was monitoring the cameras from the flat concrete building. One moment was as good as the next. Taking a second to quell the surge of fear that flared from her stomach, Marie broke into a run, with Michael hot on her heels. The road flashed by in a blur, and within a matter of seconds, they reached the gap in the fence – an access track for maintenance vehicles most likely. She didn’t bother to break her stride.
She streaked over the frost-laden grass, leaped over a small adjoining wall onto the tracks, and ran towards the gaping tunnel entrance as fast as she could.

  Once they passed the threshold to the tunnel, the temptation to slow the pace loomed large in her mind. The initial threat of detection seemed to have been overcome, and a deceptive feeling of safety threatened to settle over her. She knew this was a dangerous mindset to fall into, however, and pushed on. To her knowledge, only four attempts had ever been made to traverse the Channel Tunnel in wolf form. Three of those had ended up with the unfortunate werewolves being decapitated by an oncoming train. While the actual tunnel was wider than she’d expected – perhaps four or five meters in width – there were very few places to escape an oncoming express train. Doors to the service tunnel were positioned every four hundred meters or so, but those would be alarmed and the service tunnel would be wired with CCTV cameras. Using them would alert their enemies as to what they were doing, and were an absolute last resort. Other than those access points, there was nowhere to go. The walls were solid concrete panels, featureless apart from thick bundles of electrical cables that adorned the higher reaches where the tunnel arced into a dark, vaulted ceiling. There was a narrow ledge on her right, but while it would be adequate for passengers to evacuate a broken down train, it would offer no protection against an oncoming locomotive travelling at high speed. Anything on that ledge would simply be sucked under the wheels by the air displacement of the passing train. It would take them around forty minutes to get through to the other side of the tunnel, and if something came the other way during that time – a freight train or maintenance vehicle – both she and Michael would most likely be killed. It was that simple. Keeping the grim thought at the forefront of her mind, she pushed on, increasing her pace and trying very hard not to think about what might be coming the other way.

  It became impossible to keep track of time in the pitch black. All she was aware of was the feel of the tracks beneath her paws, the burning ache in her muscles and Michael’s increasingly laboured breathing behind her. She’d tried to count seconds, to retain some idea of how long they’d been running for, and how long was left on their journey, but had lost count after what she assumed to be about fifteen minutes. Were they past the halfway point? She thought so. Perhaps. Hell, for all she knew they could be about to emerge from the tunnel onto French soil, but all she saw before her was darkness, impenetrable even to her wolf senses.