by Justin Sloan
When they were gone, Felix leaned in and whispered in Diego’s ear, "Believe me, if I wanted you, I’d have you."
Diego doubted that very much, and though he didn’t swing that way in the slightest, he couldn’t help but smile at this guy’s attitude.
"See," Felix whispered again, nodding for him to follow, "my charm’s working already."
"More like your sense of humor," Diego hissed, and then followed him.
They exited through a back window, coming out into the mostly underground city that was now bathed in darkness—the only lights came from faint, flickering solar powered lamps.
How the hell they’d managed to get that old technology to work was beyond Diego, but he figured it didn’t make sense to blow their cover to ask at the moment. Plus, it couldn’t have been too good, considering the rest of the city was a blanket of darkness.
Luckily for Weres, their ability to see in the dark far outperformed the average person’s.
Felix led him a different way from the one in which Diego and Cammie had been led earlier. At the edge of town, where the buildings were carved into the rock wall, Felix motioned to the back of a house where, when he moved aside a sheet, there was a staircase built into the house, leading up to the roof.
"Wait until you see this," Felix whispered with a wink, and motioned for him to go first.
Each step sent a thrill through Diego’s bones—he wasn’t just climbing some random guy’s stairs on a house in the legendary Golden City, he was making a daring escape for his life with the hope that he could save a damsel in distress.
He almost laughed at the whole idea of it all, until he remembered he could easily die, as could Cammie.
"What now?" he hissed when Felix joined him. As far as it looked, they were on top of the roof, and… that was it.
But Felix just chuckled, winked, and walked toward the wall, where he seemed to walk into it, turn left, and disappear.
Diego mouthed "Sweet" to himself, and followed, realizing the rocks had been carved out in an optical illusion, with a narrow tunnel just wide enough for that huge guy to fit through.
This led to a tunnel that, best as Diego could tell, led along the edge of the city. It soon became an ascending staircase, and when he saw Felix disappear above, his heart started thumping.
It was actually happening—he was making his escape.
Diego took the last step out into the open night, at the edge of a bank that, a glance to his left showed him, was too close to the Golden City for comfort. His next move would be a very important one.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"Believe me, we’re going to have to get help from this vampire you serve." Felix stayed low, glancing around. "Get me to her, and we’ll make sure she knows where to go."
"Problem is," Diego narrowed his eyes as he spoke, "I still don’t know if I’m ready to introduce you to her. And, by the way, I don’t serve her, or at least not unwillingly."
"Well, problem is to me that if you don’t take me with you, I could just as easily bring you back to your cell and laugh at what an idiot you were, while you get torn to bits in the hunt.
"You wouldn’t let them do that to me," Diego said, not sure of it himself, but hoping it was true.
"I’m willing to leave everything, betray my family, to join you and the new army of Old Manhattan," Felix said. "What I’m not willing to do is play games with you. Add that to the fact that your little Were friend is out there fighting for her life while we waste time talking, and I’d say you better get to it."
Diego considered him, cursed with the knowledge that this guy was right, took off the robe to tie it around him and transformed into a puma.
The robe’s cloth felt odd when he was in animal form, but Felix was right—it wouldn’t do to arrive back in Old Manhattan nude. Next to him, Felix had stripped and tied a similar robe, though much larger, around himself before he transformed into a massive gray wolf.
He gave a short growl and nodded his head to head northeast, and then they took off, running into the night.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Old Manhattan, Edge of the City
There wasn't likely to be much of a battle with Yuko and Akio fighting at Valerie’s side, but the night owned the city now, meaning Royland and his vampires were leaving Enforcer HQ to join the onslaught of the CEOs’ mercenaries. It was nice to know the city would be better covered. As badass as the three of them were, they just couldn’t be everywhere at once.
They ran through the city, fast enough to get to the fighting with speed, but not be noticed.
"You two don’t have to be doing this," Valerie said with a thankful glance back to the two Japanese.
"As we said before," Akio said, pausing briefly to leap over an overturned car. He landed, spotted a straggling enemy in black, and was over there spilling his guts before the man had a chance to turn and see his attacker. "Once you’re on Michael’s team, you’re on the team."
"But," Yuko saw another and had her turn at taking out a soldier. She shot him, connecting with his forehead and watching him drop before she turned back to Valerie with a worried expression, "we hate to remind you that we must leave soon. Our Queen’s command is to find Michael, so we will."
"I’m getting the chance to fight alongside Yuko and Akio," Valerie said with a grin that showed how very much she felt like a giddy school-girl right now. "It’s not every day a vampire gets to say that, so I’ll be happy with what I can get."
They reached the point where her army of former cops had set up a perimeter, doing their best to hold back the highly trained mercenaries.
"Let’s make it count then," Akio said, his eyes already glowing red.
"Remember, try to stay out of sight, please," Valerie said. "I’m the one who’ll have to clean up this mess when you two are gone."
"You’ve got nothing to worry about from us," Yuko said, then turned to her and waited. "We were keeping our world a secret long before you were born."
Valerie brandished her sword, much heavier and intimidating than the sleek katanas the Japanese vampires held. If she were looking at a guy in this situation, she’d have to say he was overcompensating for something.
She dashed forward, taking full advantage of her vampire speed and power. Before they knew what hit them, she was past the main line of attack and was hitting the secondary wave, the ones preparing to join the attack and the groups with grenade launchers. She severed a launcher’s arm and then his neck as he was preparing to fire, so that the shot went low and blew a hole in their own forces.
"What’s that, twenty for the price of one?" she asked when she saw Akio appear next to her, katana reflecting in the explosion.
"I see why Michael likes you," he said, and pushed out an energy that terrified her in a way she'd never felt before--it sent the attackers running, likely pissing in their pants. "We can't let them off so easily, can we?"
With a nod of his head, he pursued, chopping them down as he went.
Valerie had to marvel at the way he moved with such skill and precision. It was more than a vampire with speed and strength, but with the samurai skills of old. A man who had spent years, probably hundreds of them, perfecting his fighting technique.
It was beautiful.
"I hope you’re only admiring his sword play, nothing else," Yuko said as she appeared at Valerie’s side, pistols smoking as twenty armed men behind her collapsed, dead.
"You're not into swords?" Valerie asked.
"I prefer guns, but make do,” Yuko said, then nodded to four mercenaries who had just leaped over a nearby wall and were aiming at them. "Let us see what you are capable of."
Valerie gripped her sword tight and carved through the first attacker, then drew her pistol and took out two more before moving to behead the last.
She turned to see Yuko give a nod of approval before spinning away, to move on to another fight.
And now Weres were joining them too, and Royland led a squad of vampires. Royla
nd’s squad took out a group twice their size, though not as easily as Valerie.
With this round of backup arriving, it was quickly becoming clear that this fight would be over much quicker than anticipated. Lucky for Valerie, there were still quite a few that needed dealing with.
There was no way this could be the main fight yet, but she knew she was going to enjoy the target practice while the CEOs debated their next move.
She hoped they would get the message—that they would have to send everything they had at them if they wanted any chance at all. Of course, then Valerie would be waiting to take them down too…. And she’d be looking forward to it.
The Fallen Lands
The chase had led Cammie to the edge of what she assumed had once been a giant landfill, but now was shaped like several tall mounds of earth, almost like giant ant hills.
As she ran past, a figure darted by at the edge of them. The Weres were pulling in, preparing for the kill.
Fuck them for thinking there was even the slightest chance of that becoming a reality.
She kept her eyes open, and then saw what she was looking for. The mounds had areas on them that went into the hills, like where a car had been before all of this, and more had settled on top of it all.
As much as it smelled of piss, she was going to have to take that over death.
The first one available would be too easy, and so she ducked past it and circled a mound to the left, away from the direction of the wolf she’d seen.
There, three mounds away—it was perfect. An old truck, it looked like, had been part of the mound of trash and even had part of it smashed. The effect in this place was that she would be able to crawl under the hole the truck bed had made, and hide out, or at least set up a defense of some sort.
When she made it, only scraping her side a little--to such a small degree that it’d likely heal in the next few minutes, she was amazed to see that the opening led even farther back. It had even been cleared out, it seemed.
Then she saw the skeleton of a dog—or a wolf—and realized her mistake.
Of course, these were here. They were part of the hunt, another piece of the game, and now, as was confirmed by the howls that suddenly picked up surrounding the area, she’d played right into their trap.
She’d lost, she realized. They were coming for her.
But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t take a few down along the way.
A scuffling sounded and then the first wolf made its way into the hole—only to have its throat torn out the instant it got its bearing.
Three more came, one from a different direction that meant she had to look out for multiple entrances. She quickly maneuvered so that she didn’t have her back to any of them, then growled to show the blood already dripping from her teeth. The other three tried to maneuver around her, but she refused to allow that.
However, that meant she was now up against a corner with a low ceiling. Not much she could do here but go right through them. When the first one made its move, she side-stepped before meeting it, putting the beast between herself and one of the others.
The third came at her, and she took a scratch from its claws in order to miss its bite, and then heard a crunch in the neck of the one she had in her clutches.
She spun, growling, now with one to her left and right, exactly where she didn’t want to be, but at least one was down.
More howls came from outside, sending a chill up her wolf spine.
The two wolves charged at once, and she took a step back, but not quick enough. In an instant, they each had their teeth piercing her flesh. She snapped at the one on her right, but it left her exposed on the left—her punishment was a piercing pain that caused a burning sensation along her left side.
But she refused to give the attack credence, and continued her assault on the other one. Several bites later, and it fell. She didn’t have time to celebrate, however, as the last of the three came in for the killing bite.
Cammie fell back and transformed so that she became a woman instead of a wolf, bringing her knee up into the wolf’s chest as it leapt, so that it flipped over her and slammed into the wall.
Instantly she was a wolf again, and moved in to finish the other wolf off before it had a chance to recover.
The howls continued. Cammie knew that, while she could fight like this for a while, she was pretty much screwed.
Scratching of wolf paws sounded as more worked their way in, and the best she could do was to take her position. She refused to go down without a fight.
Old Manhattan, Edge of the City
Valerie had followed the trail of mercenaries to a small group just outside the city. Five men and one woman were shouting at each other, one of them apparently arguing for a retreat while the others called him a coward.
You should have listened to him, she thought.
All turned to the sounds of screams in the distance. The look of terror in their eyes told Valerie they knew something wasn’t right, and that something was coming for them.
No reason to make them wait, she figured, so she jumped down on them with gun blazing. Three down, she rolled up and gutted a fourth with her sword, then turned to the one remaining man and the woman.
"Which one of you wants to tell me where Strake’s hiding out?" she asked, slowly rising like a serpent about to strike.
She kept her eyes from glowing, since she didn’t want them running away without answering.
Making the mistake of worrying about the guy, kinda sexist, that, she was attacked with two throwing knives. The second of which caught Valerie off guard and landed in her leg. The woman then turning, reaching for the rifle that was leaning against the wall behind them.
"Big mistake," Valerie said as she cut the woman’s outstretched arm off, then cringing in pain from the knife wound, swept the woman’s legs out from under her. Holding her sword to the woman’s throat and doing her best to ignore the blood gushing from the severed arm and the woman’s screams, she shouted, "Tell me where he is!"
"FUCK YOU, BITCH!" the woman shouted, and so Valerie severed her head.
Now pissed, she turned to the man. As much as she hated taking a life, something about women and children losing their lives made her blood boil.
The man took a step back, hands up in surrender.
"Talk," she commanded.
"I swear, all I know is we’re a second attack wave, of three." He dropped to his knees, mouth agape and wide-eyed at the sight of his dead companions. "We got orders, we attacked, that’s it… though rumor has it he’s out gathering more forces, forces of a…." He looked at her, hands shaking as he said this next part. "A darker sort."
She considered this news—if Strake was recruiting Forsaken and Weres to his side, the fight was going to be a lot harder than she’d anticipated.
"You like to talk, don’t you?" she asked. "Maybe you’d like to continue this little arrangement? Me not killing you, you telling me everything you know?"
He gulped, then nodded.
"Good." She nodded for him to stand, then tied his hands with his own zip ties. "Try to keep up."
Then she turned and started heading back to Enforcer HQ. Fires raged around them, and, as they passed the wall, others glanced in his direction, but Valerie waved them off.
Soon she spotted Royland and handed the man off to him with a command to get him in a cell for questioning.
"Don’t be too hard on him," she said. "He seems compliant, given the right motivation. Maybe we can even get him to join our side."
Royland nodded, and had two of his vampires take the man. "Is it over?"
"It’s only just begun, according to him." She looked out at the carnage, her stomach churning at the thought of more of this. "Which means I’m going to have to find more fighters, somewhere. That, or take the fight to them."
Akio and Yuko walked up behind her, though she was sure she hadn’t seen them there a moment ago.
"Yuko has already contacted Eve, and we must depart," Aki
o said.
"I can’t convince you to stay and finish this war?" Valerie asked.
Akio shook his head. "We made a promise; we will see it fulfilled. You have a little time now, use it wisely. Michael believed in you, and so do we." Akio bowed at the waist, a traditional, honorable bow. When Valerie gave him a bow in return, he rose and smiled. "You will bring justice and honor to this land. Farewell, Valerie-san."
"Thank you," Valerie said again. She glanced back to the tall Enforcer HQ building in the distance, worried about Jackson and how she was going to handle the other city leaders.
Akio had turned to leave when he glanced back at her, then nodded. "You're worried about Jackson, and the others?”
"How did you…?"
He waved the comment off and said, "Reading minds doesn't happen with all vampires, but maybe you'll be able to someday. Just know, I listened to their thoughts, and, while none are entirely honorable, Jackson seems to want what's best. The rest, I cannot say the same for."
A wave of relief washed over her, and she bowed, low. They returned the bow, before walking off into the shadows.
Moments later, a small ship, silent in the night, descended from the dark gray clouds above.
Valerie stared, curious. She would have loved to see what sort of technology they were using. It took the two Vampires but a second to wait for the top hatch to slide up. Akio, his Katana in his hand with the sheath on, jumped in the front seat, Yuko in the back. A moment later the ship rose about fifteen feet up and then a small ‘whomph’ of air and it disappeared and she was now the one all depended upon.
Valerie turned to see Duran, but no sign of Mecha. "Find Mecha; we need to strategize. In the meantime," she looked between him and Royland, "Forget hiding. I want Weres at the walls and patrolling the streets during the day, vampires at night, got it?"
They both nodded as one.
"Keep the UnknownWorld secret, when possible," she added, "but our primary concern is the safety of this city and its people."
She turned back in the direction Yuko and Akio had gone, wishing they could have stayed and helped her on this path, maybe even just shared more stories about Michael and Bethany Anne. But another part of her was tingling with excitement over the idea of them reconnecting with Michael, and what that could mean for this world.
