by Martha Woods
“No argument there,” Vincent agreed, Damon nodding beside him, “Whatever it takes, their protection comes first. We can come to terms with what we do later.”
That was something much easier said than done obviously, it was no small thing to just switch yourself into war mode and ignore what it’s doing to your mind. But being able to look around once all was said and done and be able to see the living faces of the people that you’d given all of that to protect… I imagine that would make a world of difference.
“CHRISTINE!” I shouted, slamming the car door behind me and running over to where the werewolves had gathered, “What’s going on? Where are they?”
Christine shrugged, the pinch in her brow betraying the worry underneath her otherwise nonchalant expression. “This is where we thought to meet, your friend Cara told us about it on the phone. But… none of them have shown up here at all. This was where those brothers were supposed to meet us, no?”
“It was…” And yet, we were alone here. This was the exact opposite of good, you didn’t need to be a genius to see that. “Get your people and search around, maybe they’re nearby. But even just meeting them once… they’re probably already on their way to them.”
We didn’t share anymore words, separating and moving towards our own people to organize whatever plan we could. This was getting more and more reckless by the second, and not for the first time I was wondering just how worth it was going to be to let these brothers go ahead and make their own plans for themselves. After this I think we’ll have to get together and have a very serious talk.
“What’s going on?” Damon asked, leaning on the car next to Vincent, “I thought that we were supposed to be meeting up with someone?”
“They’re not here, either they got held up or they already left, we need to go find them now.” Looking up at the nearby buildings I could see at least one that looked like it could make for a decent perch, one nod at Vincent and he already knew what I was asking.
“Just because I can climb buildings doesn’t mean I like to, I hope you know this.” Taking a running start, he pumped his legs along the wet asphalt towards the wall, not even stopping for a second before slamming his foot down into the ground and rocketing upwards, hands leaving pits in the brick of the wall as he tore his way towards the top, reaching the balcony on the roof faster than I could even blink. I’d definitely been on buildings that he’d climbed up before, but I’d never seen him do it. It was… really something.
He scanned the horizon in every direction, eyes glowing in the dark so brightly that I could see it from down on the ground, his figure a dark silhouette bordered by the light of the moon, coat flapping in the wind with every gust that brushed by. There was nothing to do really but wait, so with the time that we had I figured that I should clear the air properly with Damon.
“Hey,” I said, bumping him in the side with my elbow, “About before… are you alright? With me talking to Anthony I mean.”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine!” He said, reaching down and squeezing my hand, “I’m not thrilled that he knows all this stuff about me but… if I didn’t want anyone to know I shouldn’t have done it in the first place right? That’s generally where you can put the blame.”
“But still, I mean that’s your life, that’s one of the most important things that you’ve ever done in your whole life! That’s not something that we should just be gossiping about!”
“But you weren’t gossiping,” He said, “What you were doing was looking for information about this hunter that could help keep people alive, and what he was doing was… giving that information when he deemed it relevant. I’m still not crazy about the idea of spies just as a general rule, but if his only intent was to keep you and as many other people as safe as possible then I can’t say that I’m really against him. It sounds like he might not be such a bad guy, even if the version of him that I knew never even existed.”
“Parts of him did, he definitely likes a drink a little more than the average person would, but he doesn’t seem like… as much of a goof? I mean he absolutely seemed strange, even a little awkward, but there wasn’t anything incompetent about him. I’m pretty sure that given the chance he could find out something about everyone that we knew in the space of a single day. That’s pretty scary but it’s also… kind of cool don’t you think?”
Damon sighed, though from behind his hand I could see the ghost of a smile desperate to not be seen. “Fine, I can admit that that’s kind of cool, even if it is still pretty creepy. I haven’t said a single thing about meeting that guy to anyone other than Tristian, and that was years ago, how Anthony managed to find out about it I’ll likely never be able to figure out. I suppose that’s just a testament to his skill isn’t it?”
“Though right after our meeting he was pretty well on the way to getting drunk somewhere else, so maybe let’s not fully rule out that he’s also a drunk on the side.” Running my hand through the hair on the back of his head, I couldn’t help but marvel at how soft it still was after all this time, after all that he had been through in his life. “You know, with people that lead the type of high stress life that you do, it’s not uncommon for premature balding to already be taking place by now.”
“Well if you really need to know, before I was turned occasionally, I would take a weekend to enjoy a spa getaway, it helped with my muscles getting some rest as well.” He’d been pretty obviously expecting me to laugh, but all I did was smile gently. There wasn’t anything wrong with taking care of yourself, but I had to admit that the idea of him laying somewhere with serene music playing and those slices of cucumbers over his eyes was… definitely an image. “I’d recommend it you know, you’ve been under a lot of stress, not like you can just drink some blood and sleep for a few days. Even my massages aren’t that good, I can’t get right down into the muscle like a professional can.”
“No, but you can get pretty close.” I leaned closer, ready to press a kiss to his cheek before a piercing whistle broke through the silence, both of our heads shooting upwards towards the descending Vincent.
“There’s movement down the road, about three miles away. Looked to be at least one of the brothers, they looked to be stumbling.”
“Those idiots,” I growled, reaching into the car and honking the horn to get Christine’s attention, “We told them to wait, and now look what’s happened!”
“What is it?” Christine said, all semblance of relaxation abandoned by the time she reached me, “Have you found them?”
“They’re down the road, and they’re hurt. Get your people in order and follow us, we need to get to them as fast as we can.”
Slamming the door behind me and looking into the back to make sure that Vincent and Damon were with me, I didn’t delay before driving forward down the road as fast as I could manage, trusting that when Vincent said that someone was hurt it meant that they were hurt. Three miles wasn’t going to be much at all at the speed that we were going, but that was precious seconds that were being wasted that could have been avoided in the first place. Whether they had just waited for us, or if I’d just woken up earlier when they’d obviously needed me, I don’t know how we could have made this better.
I guess we all just dropped the fucking ball on this one.
“There!” I yelled, pointing forwards through the windshield, Christine keeping pace right next to the window and nodding to herself. Less than a mile of forest sat between us and the outline of the shifters, and by memory I felt like there were a few less than they’d said there were when they’d gotten to the outskirts. Even still, after everything that they’d obviously been through, a number of them still reared up and were almost about to transform before we skidded to a halt, ready to fight us to the bitter end if it turned out that we were an enemy. They only stopped when one of the brothers raised his hand in what I guess was supposed to be a calming motion, but the fact that he was covered from head to toe in blood kind of ruined the effect he was going for.
“Sorry about our appearance,” He said, his voice giving him away as Nathan, “But I’m afraid that we heard a commotion and couldn’t hold ourselves back from helping.”
Caleb stumbled up next to him, switching his hands from the shoulders of one helpful shifter to his brother’s, his face even bloodier than that of Nathan’s. “That’s right,” He sighed, “Couldn’t really help it.”
“And?” I asked, “How did that end up working out?”
When he looked up at me I had to stifle a horrified gasp, even Vincent and Damon visibly recoiling at the sight in front of them. I guess no matter how long you did something there was always going to be one thing that came along and shocked you out of your complacency. Though to be fair, the sight of Caleb shrugging and trying his best to smile, the right side of his face a torn, bloody mess with a very obviously damaged eye was… something that was going to haunt me for a long time to come.
“I think it’s fairly obvious how it went, don’t you think?”
Christine didn’t waste time on words, marching herself forward with a number of her werewolves and picking up the most horrifically injured into their arms, securing their heads properly before turning to face us. “We’ve got some doctors and healers at our warehouse, but we would appreciate any help that you can give us.”
“I’ll make a call,” I said, already getting my phone out of my pocket, “I’ll try and get as many witches as I can to you by the time you get back.”
“Good.” She nodded, looking at Nathan and Caleb, wincing in sympathy but also recognizing that he could still walk. “He’s in a bad way, get him to us as fast as you can. Did anyone follow you?”
“No,” He said, shaking his head, “We fought, and we fought hard, but they’re not following us anymore. They need to get back and heal up just as much as we do. Oh god my head...”
Christine stepped close, leaning down so that they couldn’t her our conversation. “He’s handling it well for now, but he’s going to be in tremendous pain in about fifteen minutes maximum. I recommend that you get him to safety before that.”
Right as I was about to ask how exactly we were supposed to do that with the one car that I’d thought to bring and all of their arms filled with already grievously wounded shifters, when the honking of horns pulled us out of our moment of crisis and right into all out confusion.
“What the…” I screwed my brows together, trying to get a look at who it could possibly be through the headlights, but the fact that they hadn’t tried to hurt us in any way just yet was a good enough sign for me to hold Christine back. She looked like she’d been prepared for a fight when we’d gotten here, and I don’t think it would take much in the way of excuses for her to jump right into one. And if the lack of an attack on us hadn’t convinced me, that unmistakable swagger from the driver of the lead car definitely was.
“Well hello Amy,” Joseph whistled, “Looks like one hell of a problem that you’ve got here, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I replied after a moment to gather my thoughts, there was just too much that was going on tonight and I’d barely been awake for twenty minutes, “It’s not what I was expecting to do tonight.”
“Neither, you really do need to give that Cara a raise or something, she called me up right after she called you apparently, she’s been thinking two steps ahead this whole time.” Thumbing his chin, he laughed to himself, “Actually I suppose that I’m the one in charge of her paycheck aren’t I? She’s definitely getting a raise in that case.”
“Not that I don’t think that we should talk about raises, but don’t you think helping everyone out of this bullshit should take top priority?” I gestured back at Caleb, who was looking woozier by the minute, “His eye isn’t looking too good after all.”
“Of course, of course!” Joseph said, holding his hands up and walking towards Caleb. Leaning forward and placing his hands on Caleb’s cheeks, he turned his head lightly and briefly assessed the damage. “Hmm… might still be a chance to save it if we act quickly. You and your brother get in the car with me, the rest of you spread out into the other cars, there’s going to be room for all of you even if you have to squeeze.”
“Great,” Caleb, being led to the cars by Joseph and Nathan, “Exactly how I thought this night would be ending, this is fantastic.”
There wasn’t much point in us standing outside in the cold any longer, all we had to do was get back into the car and follow the werewolves back to the warehouse. I had a call to make to the witches to see if they could spare some of their best, that was the only way that some of these people were going to keep eyes and limbs, otherwise we were going to be looking at a lot of amputations and down time, not the welcome I was hoping to give them.
“Amy?” I snapped out of my thoughts, just in time to see the cars beginning to leave down the dirt road. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered, pulling out my phone and pressing dial, “Just doing some thinking.”
EVERYONE SEEMED to be on call tonight, I barely had to say more than three words before the witches were offering to help me, Tariq was even coming down personally to lend himself to protection. With his skills I had no doubt that anyone who attacked would be in deep trouble, but I don’t think even this hunter would be that brazen. He’s relied on ambush tactics lately and for most of his career it sounds, a citywide assault wouldn’t just be out of character for him, it would be absolute and undeniable suicide.
We’d been standing around for a few hours while the healers did their work, the warehouse getting much harder to stand in once shock had worn off and pain started to hit them in earnest. Caleb in particular had an extremely hard time of it, I couldn’t even begin to think of what he could have been feeling with those wounds, but whatever it was, it was definitely not enviable that’s for sure.
At first I didn’t think that Anthony had come back, but when I’d gone for a tour around the warehouse inspecting some of the worse off members of the shifters I found him, unconscious and shifting in what was almost certainly an unpleasant dream. It beat the alternative, given that his left arm was gone from the elbow down and his chest had been torn down the center, a steady flow of magic knitting each of his muscles slowly together once more. I had things that I wanted to ask him about all of this, but for now I was just glad that I would actually get the chance to do so again.
“Hell of a thing, isn’t it?” Joseph crossed his arms next to me, sighing gently as he swept his eyes over the many beds laid out with wounded, “I’ve seen things like this before, did I ever tell you I saw parts of the Civil War? I didn’t fight for obvious reasons, but I’m happy things ended up the way that they did. But those hospitals… there was no way that you could avoid that smell, the sounds, even if you were ten miles away it always had a way of drifting on the wind and finding you, like Hell had managed to claw its way up to earth and was intent on spreading itself as far as it could.”
“It’s almost unbelievable the places that you’ve been, you know that?”
“I know,” He said, smiling audaciously, “Wouldn’t it really be something if it turned out I was just lying to you? How would you possibly find out if I was though? That’s the real kicker.”
“I’m pretty sure that you’re not lying,” I laughed, “But what do I know? I was just an investigator for most of my professional life, no big deal.”
“Definitely a more competent one compared to some of the clowns that I’ve come across in my time, believe me. Half the people left in that department that you said goodbye to can’t detect if their own shoelaces are untied, it’s a wonder that no serial killers have taken this city apart by now.”
“Hmm… that is strange isn’t it?” I said, narrowing my eyes, “Actually… crime’s been suspiciously light lately. You wouldn’t have had anything to do with that right?”
“I know we were just discussing what a good detective you were, so I’m not even going to bother denying it. Yes, in the last six months I’ve killed two ser
ial killers, three regular murderers and one door to door salesman. That last one was an accident.”
“Ok now I don’t know if you’re joking or not.”
“I am joking, it was actually three serial killers.”
“Pshh,” I snorted, leaning back against the wall and stretching my shoulders out, “You’re so full of shit.”
“That I am Amy, on most of the things that I talk about. But all of this…” He swept his arm across the width of the warehouse, slowing his arm and pointing right at the prone form of Anthony. “I’ve seen countless men and women torn up and laying on beds just like this, all of them in pain and wishing for their mothers, their fathers, just someone to hold their hand and guide them through everything when they have absolutely no idea what it is that they need to do. After everything else that I’d been through, losing my brother, killing god knows how many people, I think that was definitely where I’d started to shut down emotionally. It worked so well that I forgot that I even had proper emotions until seeing you and Vincent being disgustingly cute together.”
“Well, I’m glad that you’ve had a good effect from our… displays of sickly-sweet affection, right?”
“Oh definitely, it’s been a very exciting time for myself and the girls. I personally haven’t felt this fulfilled in a very long time, in more senses of the word than I might have meant a few years ago. The only thing that I mourn for is the time that I lost to that emptiness, that need to not feel anything lest I feel too much and become overwhelmed. But that’s what fighting does, and though I love the act itself I loathe the effect it has on everyone around it, especially those who have no interest in fighting at all. The weak, the young, the innocent, they are always the victims of war and fighting before any soldier is.”
I had to agree with him there, you wouldn’t have any idea how many innocent victims I had on my table anytime there was a gang war nearby. It was hardly every gang member coming in on a regular basis, it was always some kid walking home from school, the mailman who knocked on the wrong door on the wrong morning, always the people who just wanted to live their lives were the ones who had it torn apart so completely. The same exact thing was happening here, whatever had happened in the past, their war had been twenty years ago. The people who were laying on their backs in pain hadn’t been involved, they’d been children when their parents had struck a blow against their enemy, they hold no responsibility for what happened, yet here they were paying the price for it nonetheless. The only one I knew for sure who had been involved was Anthony, and even then an arm was a high price to pay for what could generously be called playing a part in a war.
