by Lucy Lyons
“We’re going to get Rae back. You go ahead and grab a pair of sandals from the pile over there. I’ll call Ashlynn and see if she’s still in cell phone range.” I stepped out of the locker room and called Ash, leaving a message when it went to voicemail. I texted her a shorter version, asking her to get a hunting party together and consult Henny, our human pack witch who was also Rae’s midwife.
“She didn’t answer, did she?” Dirk asked when he joined me, but he didn’t sound as upset as I’d expected.
“No, but I can’t sense her, so she might all the way back at camp and just out of range.” Dirk nodded, flexing his hands and clenching his jaw. “Ready to go get the troops?”
He looked around and shook his head. “I just can’t get it out of my mind that she’s nearby,” he explained. “I’m sorry, I need to stay here in case . . .” His voice broke and I finished his thought in my own head.
In case they throw her out with the trash, like they did Grandmother Cailleach. Neither of us said it aloud, but I couldn’t disagree with him.
“Stay with Maria and follow any direct order she gives you that doesn’t supersede my authority. She’s the one creature here who will keep you alive when the others try to prove your inferiority by tearing out your insides.” I sighed. “I think you’ve had enough of that for one day.”
“Thank you, by the way,” he replied.
“I wasn’t going to let you die,” I blurted. “No need to thank me for that.”
He chuckled. “No, I meant after. Thank you for helping me come back. I needed the help. I just wasn’t strong enough.”
I tapped his chest where I’d seen the light envelope him the strongest. “You are now.” He nodded and grasped me hand briefly then releasing it.
“I hope so. I’ve got a feeling I’m going to need it.” I left him after reminding him to stay with Maria until she introduced him to friendly members of the Red Daggers, her elite fighting Fae charged with protecting the lesser fairies on the west coast.
I texted Fin, my fellow security head at Pulse and the warden for our preternatural jail. He’d asked me to handle the upstairs so he could focus exclusively on the prisoners below after an escapee had attacked Caroline while she was visiting our old campsite. He called back right away, and I explained what had happened and asked him for his best trackers to help us find Rae. Werewolves were a little faster and stronger than the wererats, but his people had far better eyesight and sense of smell, and he promised me three of his best to help us track underground, as well as Nick’s best soldiers to cover us and bring us weapons.
I placed a call to an old Venatores contact and left a message for her to do some digging, just to make sure we weren’t about to go chasing hunters who were sanctioned by the Catholic church to kill us all—not that it would’ve stopped us, but if we were hunting the hunters, we’d need all the biggest guns we had, including Caroline and Nick, and I didn’t want to dump this into their laps as they tried to keep their own little miracle safe.
There was still no cell phone tower up the mountain where we’d built on a parcel of land the pack elders had owned since long before I was attacked and infected with the wild magic that made me a werewolf. I waited at the foot of the hill as long as I dared then raced up to the camp to gather the wolves who happened to be there and get advice from our witch Henny and her husband, my former Venatores professor and mentor.
After accidentally transmitting my thoughts to Caroline, I was afraid to try to assemble the wolves by thought, but in the essence of time, I gave in and released an emergency call. I was immediately met with an emergency call from Goldie, a teenage wolf who we’d rescued from her sadistic alpha and his psychotic witch mate.
Ashlynn has gone after Rae.
My gut twisted into a pretzel, and my foot turned to lead on the gas pedal as I tore up the winding road to the longhouse and cabins we’d built for the wolves to use at the full moon or full time if they wished. I skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust I’d brought with me up the gravel road and jumped out of the car to Goldie, Henny, the professor, and Bernie, the old alpha.
“She left a couple of hours ago. Said she was sure she’d heard a cry for help from Rae. I didn’t get anything, but you’re the alpha now. What did you hear?” Bernie asked. I shook my head and bit off a string of curses that threatened to spill from my lips
“I was at the dojo. It’s too heavily shielded for me to get anything when I’m in there, but I found Dirk badly wounded when I went to their place to send them to the club for safety.”
“Clay, it’s our job to keep them safe,” Goldie countered, and I curled my lip up without thinking. She flinched, and I scrubbed at my face, taking a deep breath and releasing it before pulling her into my chest.
“Hey. I’m sorry, kiddo. I didn’t mean it. I’m just really, really worried about Rae and now Ashlynn. I was trying to keep them safe and give them the support they need to have the baby. Caroline’s the only reason Rae could stay pregnant, even with all the help Henny was giving her. Now Caroline’s had her baby and could be the kind of support a new mother needs.”
Goldie clung to me and trembled, making me feel like an even bigger heel. I hugged her hard and released her turning to Bernie and the professor and motioning them away from the cabins. Henny took Goldie’s hand before she could follow us, and I heard her giving the youngest member of our pack instructions for necessary items to pack in her medical kit.
“Ashlynn may be on the right track or hundreds of miles off course,” I told the two men at my side. “Dirk was wounded, he’s healed, and he’s staying at the dojo until we join him because we think wherever she’s being held is close to the dojo and the club.”
Neither of the men spoke for a long time then Bernie looked back toward the camp, shielding his eyes from the sun and chuckling. The prof and I both turned to see what he was looking at, and emotion swelled in me, immense pride in my pack and the people waiting for us to return to them so we could go find our missing members. There stood fourteen pack members, and a full half of them were our strongest fighters.
Henny began organizing the females into two groups, the fighters and the best healers, and then she turned to me to organize the males. I asked for volunteers to help Henny prepare for the wounded and possibly even a new baby, and Bernie and the prof both raised their hands. Once Bernie volunteered, several other wolves followed suit, and within minutes of my arrival, we were ready to caravan back down the mountain and fight the abysmal Seattle traffic to get back to our people.
“Is it strange that I fully expect the last twenty minutes of hell on the freeway to be the worst thing we face?” Goldie asked, petulantly kicking the back of my seat.
“It is for you, young lady,” I replied. “You got your seatbelt on?” I saw her nod in the rearview and grinned. “Well, take it off. We’ll go on foot from here. You get the car to the club and find Colette. She’ll introduce you to my contact if she comes through for us, and I’ll need your telepathy to help guide us through the tunnels using the map they’ll give you.”
“You’re letting me drive the Audi?”
I groaned and counted to five before responding.
“Desperate times, kid. Not a scratch when I get back, OK?” She giggled and I heard the click of her seatbelt. We rolled forward and I stopped again. Everyone piled out of the car. The men with me took off for the woods at the edge of the road, and Goldie slid behind the wheel. She saluted me and smiled as I gave her a hard, serious look. Straight to the club, straight to Colette. I mean it, Goldie. We’re depending on you.
I wove between the cars to the edge of the road, glancing back one last time at the girl with the serious face in the driver’s seat. She gave me a quick nod and faced forward, determination written in every inch of her slight frame.
The three of us wound our way between the buildings. Steven was a fellow bouncer at the club and one of my most trusted soldiers. Jodi was a big, burly wolf I hadn’t dared to ask the origin of
his name, and Jesus, a Chicano werewolf who went by the nickname el Chupacabra. All three had the strength, the speed, and the stamina to make me work to stay ahead. They’d also proven their loyalty when we were attacked by Gregor, the sadist, and his wife, a witch who fed off the wolves and tormented them.
I’d found the three of them facing off with Gregor’s enforcers after we’d thought the fighting was over. I’d killed Gregor, Ashlynn had ended the witch’s reign of terror, and we were all ready to celebrate and start our new lives as a stronger community when Bernie’s brother Robert had summoned us. There were the three of them, barely able to keep their human forms as the full moon came out, protecting a group of young girls that Gregor had promised his enforcers as slaves.
With the added power Ashlynn and I had lent them, they’d dispatched their opponents, and we’d given them our oath that while we didn’t want to call them enforcers, letting that antiquated title be burned and buried with our enemies, they would hold a position of honor among our people for their bravery.
The four of us moved almost in unison as we raced to the dojo, anticipation rising from them as we got close—anxiety from me. My worst fear was that we’d find Dirk already long gone, having raced blindly into the tunnels. We stopped outside the shielding of the dojo where I knew we could speak freely without Maria or her minions hearing us.
“The Fae have offered to claim us as their own and stop with the ‘halfling-waste-of-magic’ crap they’ve been pulling,” I confessed to them, glancing back at the dojo as my spine began to itch between my shoulder blades.
“Yeah, sure they did. What’s it going to cost us?” Jesus scoffed, and I clapped him on the back.
“Oh, you know, they want us to serve as their liaisons between the High Fae and the little people,” I sighed. “I didn’t agree to it, but I don’t want our people hearing some fairy yarn about how we’d be welcomed, and think I was being deceitful.”
But they already knew how the Fae worked. The vampires were honest to a fault. If you were deceived, it was because you were too busy painting them with the broad romantic strokes of popular culture that worshipped them. The Fae, on the other hand, delighted in their illusions and deception, even when it was entirely unnecessary.
“What’s wrong, boss? You look like you just swallowed a frog . . . alive and kicking.” Steven was watching me intently, and I felt warmth rise to my face.
“Hey, good news, I didn’t accidentally transmit my thoughts to you all. Bad news, I just caught myself thinking about how I prefer vampires and other halflings to the High Fae.”
“Oh, man, don’t sweat that. We all feel the same way,” Jodi smirked. “Except the rotting ones. My God, those vampires are just disgusting.” Jodi and I had battled together from my inauspicious beginnings with the pack, and we both pretended I didn’t know he was dating one of the vampire burlesque dancers from the club.
“OK. You’re right, they really are. We’ve got to go in there now. The others will be entering the tunnels with vampires from under the club, but we were the only ones to get permission to go through the dojo. Mind your manners. Don’t stare at the High Fae, and don’t touch anything. Remember illusions are their favorite pastime, and trapping poor, unsuspecting outsiders is a close second.”
They all agreed to my instructions, and as one we turned and strode through the front door to be instantly surrounded by Red Daggers. The soldiers flanked us and escorted us to the deepest sublevels of the dojo where Maria and Dirk waited for us. I glanced at Portia in her crimson uniform and glanced at Maria, who shrugged and backed away from the black, yawning opening in the concrete wall ahead of us.
My men and I partially shifted to our fighting forms, half men, half wolves, and I nodded the Cetan ahead of us into the hole. After all, when we reached our destination, I’d have the comfort of knowing most of our enemies were going to be in front of our claws, not at our backs.
Or at least that’s what I hoped.
CHAPTER SIX
Portia conjured a wisp that bobbed just ahead of us, far enough not to ruin our night sight but close enough to illuminate the corridor and all its branches as we wound our way deeper under the city in the long-forgotten tunnels. I couldn’t sense the wolves that were with me, let alone search the vampire networks for clues, but my phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I glanced down, Goldie had started sending the information they’d managed to gather.
I sent her the GPS coordinates, amazed that I was getting any signal at all underground, and put the phone away.
“Did that help?” a soft voice at my elbow murmured. I glanced over at the slight, silver-haired girl in her crimson uniform and nodded.
“Was that you?” I asked, and she nodded and ducked her head. “I’m good with electronics—but no one seems to think it’s as valuable as good old-fashioned murder and sword-fighting and stuff.” I scoffed and shook my head.
“No, they really don’t, do they?” I snuck another look at her, trying to place her among the High Fae, but her small stature and almost ordinary beauty confused me. “I’m sorry, but I can’t quite place your people,” I confessed. “Is it OK for me to ask . . .”
“My father was High Fae—my mother was a halfling. I’m a day walker. I need blood to . . . not go crazy and rampage, but I don’t need to avoid the sun or, you know, control humans. Stuff like that,” she replied. “I’m Haley.”
“Nice to meet you, Haley. Hey, my friend just had a baby. Have you heard?” I asked. Dirk moved closer, placing himself between her and the other Red Daggers as I questioned her.
“Oh, yes,” she squeaked. “It feels nice, knowing I won’t be entirely alone anymore. I’m not the most respected member of the Red Dagger family, you know. I got here by fighting, mostly for survival.” My eyes went to Portia’s back, but the Cetan either didn’t feel my hatred boring into her or she just didn’t care. My guess was on the latter.
“Well, I’m sure once this is all done, there are people I could introduce you to who would like to give you their thanks for being strong before they came along,” Dirk interjected, and I knew he was speaking of Rae.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your instructions get through to you,” she chirped, and as old as she resounded in my head, she looked no older than Goldie, and I hated having her down in the danger zone with us.
“We’re past the shield,” Portia announced, and I didn’t bother to tell her I’d just figured that out for myself when I felt the diminutive Fae next to me fill my head with more power than I thought possible for a halfling.
My phone buzzed again, and I moved to one side to glance at the text from Goldie.
Colette and Fin just found Ashlynn’s dagger in the tunnels under Marketplace. They’ll meet you there.
I relayed the information to the soldiers and my wolves, and Portia’s wisp veered left and continued to guide us onward. Dirk elbowed me and pointed at the tiny bobbing light ahead of us and chuckled.
“If you learn to do that, we can stop asking the fairies for help,” he suggested, and I smirked at him in the dark.
“You’ve got wild magic in you. Why don’t you learn it and start pulling your metaphysical weight?” I retorted, relieved to hear his sense of humor pushing through the strain. We were meeting up with our people and closing the distance between us and our missing women. I felt lighter just thinking about getting our girls back and killing the animals who took Rae.
The wisp veered again, and we followed it down another path a few hundred feet before I started to feel we were going the wrong way. Even in the impossible dark of the tunnels, the beast inside me knew where the sun and moon were in the sky, where every constellation should be far above me.
“This isn’t where the text said to go, Portia,” I called out. I repeated myself when she ignored me. “Master Cetan, we’re going the wrong way.”
“And what makes you so sure of that, pup?” her voice floated to me in the dark as the wisp snuffed out. Instantly, we had our backs to
each other, and I felt the power of the wolf rise in the men. I searched until I found the power that Granny Cailleach had gifted to Dirk and pushed a little of my energy into it, bringing it to life. I managed to conjure a light, not a wisp, but starlight, moonlight, the light of my people.
There were sounds of discomfort and confusion from the Red Daggers, who still hadn’t attacked. I flexed my claws, reveling in the strength of the beast as it slid closer to the surface, aching for freedom that usually only came with the moon.
“Don’t lose that precious control now, pup,” Portia taunted from outside the light. I heard the rustle of her silken feathers and turned so I was facing her position. “There are devils among us, traitors waiting to stab you in the back,” she hissed, and I let my power flow through my men, strengthening them beyond anything they’d ever felt before.
A mighty howl cascaded through the sewer as my closest companions released their joy in wolf song. I felt their love of the wild and the mountains as though it was my own and added my voice to the harmony. As men, our voices were strong, deep, and mellow, and the Fae seemed completely discombobulated by it.
Suddenly, the room was bright as noonday, and we were all forced to close our eyes to it. I did my best to shield the others with the magic that I’d seen Caroline perform, but as a blade slid through and flayed the skin over my ribcage, I knew I hadn’t learned enough to keep my people safe yet.
