by Brandon Hale
Grung laughed. “Deal em, soldier.”
Chapter 18
Talbot
“Need a ride?” Joseph asked from the driver’s seat of his truck.
Scott and Lily stood by the side of the road. Lily looked at Scott and asked, “Is he human?”
Scott gave a single nod. “Yeah, but I can smell werewolves on him.”
“That’s because they frequent my store,” Joseph said. “I saw you guys were walking this way and came out to stop ya. You’re going the wrong way if you want to get to your friends.”
“You’ve seen our friends?” Lily asked.
Joseph gave them a proud grin and said, “They’re at my store, getting some food and water. Four of em, right? Three men and one little lady. I’ll take you to em if you want.”
Lily and Scott walked around to the passenger door and climbed inside. Lily sat by the window with Scott between her and Joseph.
As Joseph turned the truck around and headed back toward the store, Scott said, “You say werewolves frequent your store?”
“Sure do,” Joseph said. “They like to come to this lake and they like the way I fry fish, so they let me stay here. You’re lucky none of em have been here today. If they saw those Day Soldier uniforms, they’d kill you in a heartbeat.”
“We won’t be here long,” Lily said.
“At least stay long enough to get some food and water,” Joseph said. “I don’t know where you’re headed, but judging from the plane in my lake, I’m guessing you’ve got a long walk ahead of you.”
“Our friends,” Lily said. “They’re okay?”
“They’re fine,” Joseph said. “Came down in parachutes. The big guy’s got one mean lookin left arm.”
Lily chuckled. “Yeah.”
“So what’s your story?” Joseph said to Scott. “You a werewolf?”
Joseph was trying to sound casual, but Lily was sure she could hear tension in his voice. He was nervous about something.
Apparently, Scott sensed it too. “Why do you ask?” he said.
“You could smell werewolves on me,” Joseph said. “You’re obviously not a vampire, so I figure that means you’re a wolf.”
“I am,” Scott said simply.
“I want no trouble,” Joseph said. “You folks rest up, then be on your way. The werewolves around here won’t take kindly to one of their own working for the Day Soldiers.”
The road took them around the lake and the store finally came into view. A large fire was burning in the field behind the store.
“What’s with the fire?” Lily said.
“Just burning trash,” Joseph answered. “I don’t really have trash pick-up out here.”
Joseph drove the truck to the front of the store, then turned off the engine. “Let me go in first,” he said, “just in case I have new guests. I want to help you folks, but I don’t want a fight in my store.”
“Sorry, friend,” Scott said, “but we’re not going to let you go get a gun with silver bullets.”
Lily drew her gun and pointed it at Joseph. “Speaking of silver bullets, I’d hate to waste one on you, but I will if I have to.”
“What is this?” Joseph said. “I try to help you people out and you repay me with threats?”
“Our friends,” Lily said, “would have come with you to find us. There’s no damn way they would be hanging out in your store.”
“And I don’t smell any trash in that fire,” Scott said. “It’s all brush and wood. That’s a signal fire. You’re calling the werewolves.”
Lily looked at Scott and said, “We’re getting good at this. Didn’t even have to give each other secret signals or anything. We both just knew he was a fraud.”
“Yep,” Scott said. To Joseph, he added, “Take us to our friends. And you’d better hope they’re okay. I have a rule against harming humans, but if my friends are hurt, that’s a rule I’ll break today.”
“Full house,” Grung said with a grin as he placed his five cards in the dirt floor.
“That’s not a full house,” Ellie said, pointing to a particular card. “That’s a three, not an eight.”
Grung picked up the card and held it a few inches from his face. “Playing cards in the dark sucks.”
“Right,” Greg said with a smirk. “It was an honest mistake, I’m sure.”
“It was,” Grung said. “Are you accusing me of cheating, pilot?”
“I’m just saying,” Greg said, “I’m sitting in the same hole you are, and I’d never mistake a three for an eight.”
“You’re new to this team,” Grung said, “and you obviously don’t know me very well. Ellie, tell this loser I’m not a cheater.”
Ellie looked at Greg. “He was definitely trying to cheat.”
“That hurt, Ellie,” Grung said. “That hurt.”
“I have two kings,” Carl said. “Does that mean I win?”
“No, Carl,” Grung said. “The game ended when Greg falsely accused me of cheating.”
“But,” Carl said, “the only other person to have a pair was Ellie, and she had a pair of tens. So that means I won the hand, right?”
“The game’s over, Carl,” Greg said. “Stop living in the past.”
Carl leaned against the wall, defeated. “You people are infuriating.”
Light suddenly poured into the hole. They all looked up to see Lily peering down at them. She tossed a rope into the hole. “What are you kids doing down there? Nothing dirty, I hope.”
As soon as they all climbed from the hole, Scott looked at Joseph and said, “You can climb in yourself or you can be pushed in. Your choice.”
Joseph sat at the edge of the hole, then dropped inside. Scott pulled the cover back and locked the padlocks. He looked at the others and said, “Let’s go.”
“We should probably stock up on water and any other supplies,” Lily said.
“Grab some water,” Scott said, “but we don’t have time to ransack the place. We need to get the hell out of here.”
“Okay,” Lily said, respecting the seriousness in Scott’s voice. She turned to the others. “Guys, get an armful and put it in the back of the zealot’s truck. Let’s move.”
Within a few minutes, Joseph’s truck was loaded with extra supplies and the team was on the road, heading west. Scott and Lily were in the front of the truck. The others were in the back with the supplies.
Lily leaned over and looked at the speedometer. “Trying to break the sound barrier, there, speedy?”
“Just trying to get us as far away from here as possible,” Scott said.
“Okay,” Lily said. “I think you need to explain what has you so freaked out.”
“Talbot,” Scott said.
“I’m assuming Talbot’s a werewolf in these parts?”
“Do you remember who Daciana was?” Scott asked.
“Yeah,” Lily said. “Wallace’s daughter. Grung killed her in New York.”
“Right,” Scott said. “Well, several decades ago, Wallace, Daciana, and Talbot came to America. Nobody’s sure where they lived before they came here. Wallace and Talbot were already speaking with a perfect American accent. Daciana’s accent seemed to be from Romania, but nobody’s sure.”
“So is Talbot Wallace’s son?”
Scott shook his head. “No. Nobody really knows how he was connected to them, but most think he was Daciana’s mate.”
“So he’s Wallace’s son-in-law,” Lily said. “Weird. But I’m not sure why that has you so freaked out.”
“Talbot and Daciana were among the first werewolves to suggest an alliance with the vampires,” Scott explained. “Along with Lycaon and Phillip. Phillip was the werewolf you killed in Iveyton.”
“I remember,” Lily said bitterly. “So why wasn’t Talbot part of that original council?”
“He didn’t want to join the council,” Scott said. “When the war started, Talbot led the werewolves in the west while Daciana handled the political side of things. That was when Wallace di
sowned his heritage and – along with seventy-four other werewolves – joined humanity.”
“So Talbot’s a soldier,” Lily said. “Like us.”
“He’s a soldier,” Scott said, “but he’s nothing like us. You know how Dennis liked to play head games?”
Lily thought of the day Dennis came to Iveyton. “Yeah,” she said quietly.
“Talbot is nothing like that,” Scott said. “He likes to kill and he likes to torture.”
“And now that Daciana’s dead,” Lily said, “I’m assuming he’s in charge out here.”
“He was always in charge,” Scott said. “Daciana led thousands of werewolves, but only because those werewolves were devoted to Talbot.”
“And Talbot was devoted to Daciana,” Lily said.
“Completely devoted,” Scott said.
Lily looked through the back window of the truck. “And Grung killed her.”
“I don’t know if what happened is common knowledge to the werewolves,” Scott said, “but if it is, Grung will be instantly recognizable with that sword-arm.”
“If we killed Talbot,” Lily said, “it’d be a pretty big win.”
“There’s heroic,” Scott said, “and there’s stupid. Trying to face him in his own territory is most definitely stupid. He has thousands of werewolves here and he doesn’t take prisoners, Lily. Talbot doesn’t want to live alongside humanity. He wants to destroy it. He really believes the crap from the declaration video a decade ago. He thinks humanity is a plague. He sees the vampire as an anti-virus, created by nature to exterminate the human infection.”
“Okay,” Lily said. “You’ve convinced me. Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m working on—”
Scott immediately stopped talking and stuck his head out of the driver’s side window.
“Seriously, Scott,” Lily said, “you’re making it very hard for me to resist a dog joke here.”
Scott pulled his head back in and slowed the truck, eventually coming to a full stop. “Come on.”
He jumped out of the truck and yelled to the others, “Run!”
Nobody bothered to question him. They all leapt from the truck and followed him into the desert on the side of the road.
As soon as they reached a dip in the uneven ground, Scott whisper-yelled, “Drop!” then fell to the dirt. The others followed his lead.
“Scott,” Lily whispered, “what’s going on?”
“Just stay down,” Scott said. “And get your guns ready.”
Everyone drew their guns and waited.
The wait wasn’t long.
Lily couldn’t see the truck over the rise, but she heard enough to guess exactly what was happening. The sounds of screeching metal told her that something was ripping the truck apart. She looked at Scott and mouthed, “How many?”
Scott lifted his head slightly and sniffed. He then turned to Lily and mouthed, “At least twenty.”
To her own surprise, Lily realized she could smell them too. She looked at the ground and saw that the dirt was blowing away from the road. If that wind holds its direction, she thought, we might get through this.
She watched Scott, waiting for him to give the next order. She fully accepted that Scott’s senses were their best chance at surviving the encounter.
“Now!” Scott screamed as he jumped to his feet and began to fire at the werewolves in the road.
Lily – along with the rest of the team – joined him. Everybody fired with speed and precision. Each shot mattered and they all knew it. It took the werewolves a moment to realize what was happening. In that moment, the team managed to kill at least ten of them.
When the remaining werewolves leapt into the air, Lily knew things were about to get very ugly.
The giant bipedal wolves landed behind the group and attacked before anybody had time to even turn around.
One werewolf grabbed Ellie and effortlessly tossed her across the desert. Another wolf wrapped its claw around Greg’s leg, lifted him into the air, then slammed him into the dirt.
Lily aimed her gun at the werewolf attacking Greg, but dropped the weapon when she felt the searing pain of a claw scrape across her back.
A third wolf leapt toward Carl and pinned him to the ground. The werewolf opened its jaws wide, preparing for a final lunge, but the attack never came.
Instead, a silver blade shot out of its mouth like a tongue, then disappeared as it slid back into the creature’s mouth. The werewolf fell to the ground and Carl saw Grung standing behind it.
“You owe me, kid,” Grung said just before diving toward another wolf.
With two quick swipes, Grung killed two more werewolves, then spun around to see three more wolves facing him. The werewolves spread out, preparing to attack from three different directions.
“You might kill me,” Grung said, “but at least two of you will die in the attack, I promise you that.”
A fourth werewolf landed directly beside Grung, but instead of attacking him, it stood by his side, facing the others. The werewolves seemed to hesitate, confused by this new turn of events.
A taunting smile crept onto Grung’s face. “That’s right, bitches. He’s with me.”
Lily slowly climbed to her feet, surprised that whatever wolf attacked her didn’t finish its assault. She saw Grung standing beside a werewolf she assumed was Scott. They were facing three other wolves. Apparently, the wolf that had attacked her now considered Grung the greater threat.
To her right, she saw a fourth werewolf walking away from Greg. He was either dead or unconscious. The wolf stepped beside the three facing Grung and Scott. As far as Lily could tell, they were the only four still alive. She quickly began to scan the ground, looking for her gun.
“Wait,” a calm yet powerful voice said from the road. Lily turned around to see that one werewolf had remained by the wreckage on the street.
The werewolf was in a basic human form, but he wasn’t human. He had a human face that was mostly covered in fur. His ears were slightly pointed and his upper and lower incisors were long and sharp.
“Talbot,” Lily said, more to herself than anyone else.
The werewolf smiled. “My reputation precedes me,” he said as he walked toward the others.
Scott immediately transformed back to a human and said, “Talbot, we’re just passing through. We’re not here to start trouble. As a matter of fact, the only reason we’re here at all is because a vampire crashed our plane.”
“Shut up, traitor,” Talbot said. “I’m not interested in you or your little friends.” He pointed at Grung. “I am, however, interested in stumpy here.”
Oh no, Lily thought.
Grung looked at him with hateful eyes and said, “Did I impress you with my skills, fuzzy?”
“You did, as a matter of fact,” Talbot said.
Lily saw her gun lying in the dirt. She took a subtle step toward the weapon.
“Grab the kid,” Talbot said.
One of the other werewolves quickly grabbed Carl and held him with its claw on his throat.
“If a single shot is fired,” Talbot said, “the boy dies.”
“What’d I miss,” Ellie said as she limped her way to Lily.
“We’re doing the part where we talk to the bad guys,” Lily said. “And I think Greg’s dead.”
Talbot turned to her. “No,” he said. “We’re doing the part where we talk to the bad guys. And your friend isn’t dead. I can hear him breathing. So far, you’ve lost no one and I’ve lost more than a dozen good werewolves.”
“We didn’t start this, Talbot,” Scott said. “Just let us pass and there will be no more bloodshed.”
“I told you to shut up, traitor,” Talbot said. “You have no voice here.”
“We didn’t start this,” Lily said. “Just let us pass and there will be no more bloodshed.”
Talbot chuckled. “I like you.”
A shot fired and the werewolf holding Carl fell to the ground. Carl then pointed his smoking gun
at Talbot. “You seem to think you have us at a disadvantage here. Look around. The only dead bodies belong to your people.”
Talbot pointed a relaxed finger in the direction of Joseph’s store. “Look real hard.”
They all turned and saw an army of werewolves in the distance, running toward them.
“Damn,” Carl said.
“Yeah,” Talbot said. “Now, I have a question for the one-armed wonder. His answer to my question will determine what happens next.”
“You seem impressed by him,” Lily said. “Well, expect to be impressed a lot, because the weapon he’s wearing is standard for all of our wounded soldiers.”
“We both know that’s not true,” Talbot said with a dismissive wave. He turned to Grung. “I’ve been told that Daciana was killed by a Day Soldier with a sword for an arm. Was that you?”
Scott stepped forward and said, “Talbot, I challenge you for control of this territory.”
“You have no followers, traitor,” Talbot said. “Your challenge has no teeth.”
“Make an exception,” Scott said.
“Why?” Talbot said. “You have nothing to lose. I, however, have everything to lose. There’s no honor in your challenge.”
They were now surrounded by hundreds of werewolves.
“The lives of my friends,” Scott said. “Their lives are more important to me than your entire army is to you. I have plenty to lose.”
“No,” Talbot said. “Their lives belong to me already. By challenging me, you risk nothing.”
“Talbot, please. Have some honor.”
“Don’t talk to me of honor, traitor,” Talbot spat. “I have refused your challenge. Now, shut up and let me finish my chat with your friend.”
“I killed her,” Grung said.
Lily’s heart sank. Grung, no.
Talbot took a step closer to Grung. He reached out a claw and placed it over Grung’s heart. “I want you to be sure, soldier. It’s very important to me.”
“He’s lying,” Lily said. “He’s trying to upset you.”
Ignoring Lily, Talbot said, “I’m going to ask you again. I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me the absolute truth. If you lie, I’ll know and I’ll kill you all. If you tell me the truth, I’ll let your friends go. I give you my word. Now, what’s your name?”
