by Cheree Alsop
Dr. Worthen’s expression became stormy. “What are you talking about?” He left the door and it swung shut behind him. “Where is my daughter?”
“She was taken,” Aleric replied.
Dr. Worthen stopped a foot from the werewolf. “By whom?” he demanded.
“Gorgons,” Aleric said, keeping his gaze from the head physician’s face. “They’re snake-men; Dark fae.”
“The Dark fae have Lilian.” Dr. Worthen said the words as if he couldn’t believe them.
“She was visiting a friend and—”
“What friend?” The doctor’s tone was cold.
Caught off-guard, Aleric asked, “What?”
“I said, what friend was she visiting?” Dr. Worthen repeated, his words level and quiet with an edge of steel.
“Vallia,” Aleric replied. He felt the change in the air and saw the ice in the head physician’s gaze. He said the words he knew the doctor was waiting for. “She’s a vampiress.”
“Let me get this straight,” Dr. Worthen said. “My daughter was visiting one of your fae friends and she’s now in trouble. Is she hurt?”
The memory of the rose with the blood on it filled Aleric’s mind. He nodded even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.
Dr. Worthen’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Is she alive?”
“I think so,” Aleric replied. The words were hard to admit. “I’m doing everything in my power—”
“You’ve done enough.”
Aleric lifted his head at the doctor’s tone. “What does that mean?”
“It means I trusted you.” Dr. Worthen’s gaze was harsh. “It means I gave you a position here, treated you like a friend, a son even, and you repay me by placing my daughter in harm’s way? You’re done here.”
Aleric stared at him. “Are you dismissing me from the hospital?”
“Yes,” Dr. Worthen said. “Get out of my hospital, now. Bring my daughter home, and leave our lives for good.”
“But my patients…,” Aleric began, thinking of the faun recovering in the Light fae wing.
“You’re not a doctor,” Dr. Worthen told him. “You don’t have patients. You are no longer needed.”
Aleric opened his mouth to protest, realized the doctor was right, and shut it again. He turned on his heel and headed for the back parking lot. Dartan opened the door to the D Wing as he passed.
“Aleric, what’s going on?” the vampire asked.
“Take care of Braum for me,” Aleric said. “I’m done here.”
“Dr. Worthen?” Dartan’s voice carried confusion.
Aleric heard the door to the Emergency Room slam shut.
“Aleric, wait!” Dartan called.
Aleric shoved the door open and stepped out into the sunlight where the vampire couldn’t follow. He didn’t stop walking until he reached the Edge City Precinct. Aleric found Officer Ling and Officer Teri at their desks.
“Tell the Commissioner I’m going to question the Chosen. I need answers,” Aleric told them. Silence filled the room and every officer in the precinct stared at him. Aleric’s gaze narrowed. “If he wants to track down the Fervor, now’s his chance.”
Chapter Two
It wasn’t hard to follow the trail from the mutilated body. Though the body itself had been removed, the smell of blood, fear, and werewolf was something Aleric couldn’t get out of his nose. It was all he could do to keep his pace slow enough for the officers to keep up. In the back of his mind, he heard Dartan’s plea to confront the Fervor in human form.
Despite instincts that demanded vengeance, he would phase from the wolf and keep his promise. It was easy to think of tearing into the Fervor with only the thoughts of protecting those he cared about driving him on. Aleric understood the vampire’s request that he make sure he confront the clan with the emotions of a human instead of the instincts of an animal. The urge to make every one of them pay for Lilian’s pain was nearly too great.
Officer Ling carried a pack of Aleric’s clothes, something that had been hard for Aleric to ask, but which the officer had accepted gladly. Aleric wondered how he and the officer had become friends. Given where he found himself, Aleric knew he needed as many friends as he could get.
The rising sun filtered through the ruined buildings. The bit of sunlight that touched the asphalt at their feet was poor at best, and the officers still used their flashlights to cut through the shadows as they fought to keep up with the werewolf.
“Are you sure the Commissioner agreed to this?” Officer Darold asked for the hundredth time. “It seems like a bad idea.”
“He’s stuck at the morgue with the body,” Officer Ling repeated with seemingly infinite patience. “He said to radio him as soon as we found members of the Fervor and give him the location. We’re not to go in until he arrives. He has the rest of the precinct on full alert for our call.”
“Are you scared?” Officer Teri asked with teasing in her voice.
“You know I’m not,” Darold shot back. “I just don’t think following that animal is going to get us anything but killed. Why you place your trust in him is beyond me.”
“He saved our lives with the demons, remember?” Officer Ling said.
Officer Rellen agreed calmly with, “He’s proven himself.”
“Proven himself to be a cursed mess with the chaos the fae have brought to our city,” Darold replied. “What good have the fae done for anyone?”
“We’re tracking down the Fervor,” Officer Ling pointed out. “This is the closest any of us have gotten. Half the Fervor’s on the wanted list. The Commissioner’s been waiting for a chance like this.”
“What’s to say the wolf’s not working with them?” Darold asked.
Officer Ling’s sigh said that his patience with the officer was growing thin. “He’s helping the head physician at Edge City Hospital track down his daughter. You know that. Stop making it into something it’s not.”
“But look at him,” Darold said in a quieter voice. “He’s got a crazed look in his eyes. He’s like an animal possessed.”
Aleric followed the scent around the corner and paused. A building waited ahead. In the hazy light of dawn, he made out the forms of four people standing guard. Two acted as sentries on the balconies of adjoining buildings, and two stood in front of the long, rectangular building in front of them. The scents of the Fervors were strong. They came in from every direction. Aleric was sure he had found the right place.
Officer Ling held out the pack and Aleric took it in his jaws. He ducked around the last corner and phased quickly. The pain to his shoulder made his breath catch. He had been hard on the injury. Running through the night in search of Lilian and now tracking hadn’t exactly been the rest and relaxation Dr. Worthen had prescribed. Thinking of the head physician left a bitter taste in Aleric’s mouth.
He pulled on his clothes and chucked the backpack in a corner to retrieve later.
“How do we know for sure this is the place?” Officer Darold asked. He stood in Aleric’s way, barring the path to keep the werewolf from walking by.
“I know,” Aleric replied simply.
The officer refused to move. He crossed his arms and planted his feet. He had a few good inches over Aleric, and glared down at him with an annoyed expression.
“I’m not going to risk my life on some guess of yours.”
“It’s not a guess,” Aleric replied.
He shoved past the man harder than was necessary. Officer Darold stumbled into the wall. Aleric felt the man’s surprised stare on his back.
“Where are you going?” Officer Ling asked when Aleric left the alley.
“To find Lilian,” Aleric replied over his shoulder.
“The Commissioner said to wait for him!” Officer Teri called out.
“Tell him he’d better hurry,” was Aleric’s reply.
“An animal possessed,” Darold muttered from within the shadows of the alley.
Aleric walked straight up to the sentries
at the door. Both rose from their lounging positions and waited for him to reach the two short cement steps.
“Can we help you?” the woman on the right asked with a thick accent.
“I’m looking for the Chosen,” Aleric said.
Both of the clan members’ eyes widened at the name.
“You’re in the wrong place,” the man on the left said. The circled FV tattoo on his arm told Aleric otherwise.
“I’m exactly where I need to be,” Aleric replied.
“If you’re smart, you’d leave,” the woman told him.
Aleric studied her face. Her mouth drooped and her words slurred slightly. A glance at her eyes showed a dulled expression. Her lips held a hint of a greenish tint to them. The man appeared the same way. Their scent told of a slight acidic smell that was foreign to his nose. They were both on moss. Aleric’s muscles tensed.
“The Chosen has no time for low-life scum that parades around with cops,” the man said. When he chuckled, his face showed no expression.
“Better get used to it,” Aleric replied. “You’re going to be spending a lot of time with police officers soon.”
The man ran at him. Aleric stepped to the side, intent on shoving him away with ease, but the man turned at the last moment and bulldozed into him. It was a move Aleric should have avoided. He wasn’t a fighter and had never been trained as such, but with the moss, he had figured the lethargy would affect the attacker’s reactions as well; he was completely wrong.
The man acted faster than most humans. It was as if in dulling the rest of his senses and his ability to feel pain, it allowed the man to focus on brutality instead.
As soon as Aleric hit the ground on his back, the man was on top of him wailing away with both fists. Aleric blocked them with his arms. He heard Officer Ling trying to come to his rescue, but a struggle ensued.
Officer Darold shouted, “The Commissioner said to wait. If the werewolf dies, it’s his own fault for disobeying orders. You have a job to do.”
Aleric blocked two more punches as he looked around for an out. A glance upward showed the two sentries watching them with guns raised now. If they opened fire, it would go from a bad situation to one much worse than Aleric had planned. He had to take them out, but he didn’t have a weapon or the training to use one if he did. He decided that wasn’t going to hold him back.
Aleric used his werewolf strength to roll. He pinned his assailant’s knee beneath him as he did so, forcing the man to roll to his back. Aleric slammed a fist into the man’s jaw so hard the human’s head rebounded off the cement. He stilled.
“He hit Amos!” the girl yelled.
Aleric saw the glint of the snipers’ weapons in the light of the rising sun. He drew the gun from Amos’ side and rolled. Two bullets hit the ground near Amos’ head and directly where Aleric’s had been. If they had landed, they would have stopped Aleric’s fight before it had a chance to get started.
Aleric lifted the gun.
“How hard could it be?” he muttered. His heart raced. He willed his breathing to slow. The scope of the gun to his right reflected the sunlight. “Point and shoot,” Aleric said quietly. He raised the gun as if pointing his finger and he squeezed the trigger.
The man on the roof swore and dropped his rifle to grab his shoulder. A bullet hit Aleric in the arm. He spun and fired at the other sniper. The bullet clipped the metal handrail of the balcony with a loud ping. The man lifted the gun. Aleric shot again and hit the wall behind the man. The gun leveled at him. Adrenaline filled Aleric. He was about to shoot once more when a gun fired behind him. The man dropped to the ground. Aleric glanced back to see Officer Teri with her gun raised.
“Think you can shoot my brothers?” the Fervor woman demanded, her voice filled with rage.
She was on Aleric spitting and scratching like a werepanther. She knocked the gun out of his hand in her haste to claw out his eyes. Aleric tripped on Amos’ outstretched leg. He fell onto his back. The woman pounced. He shielded his head with his arms to keep her from his face. He heard Dartan’s voice telling him not to be emotionless, to think about those he confronted. He thought of Dartan’s brother slain by werewolves, of family members who wouldn’t see their loved one again.
All this rushed through Aleric’s thoughts in the space of a heartbeat as the woman fueled by moss attempted to gouge out his eyes. Yet one thought snuffed all others out. He pictured Lilian, hurt, afraid, hoping he would find her.
Aleric shoved his legs outward with the strength of the werewolf. The woman flew backwards, hit the warehouse wall, and fell to a heap on the ground.
“Whoa.”
Aleric looked back to see Officer Ling and Officer Teri hurry toward him. He pushed up to a sitting position as Officer Rellen checked the woman.
“Did I kill her?” he asked, his voice soft.
“No,” the older officer responded. “You knocked her out something good, though.” He let out a whistle. “And this is one we’ve been trying to bring in for years.” He raised his voice. “Officer Teri, tell the Commissioner we’ve got a few of the wanted here. We’re going to need an ambulance and some more squad cars. Ling, Darold, bring those snipers down here. We’ve got to patch up those bullet holes before they bleed out. They won’t do any good to the precinct dead.”
Aleric rose to his feet. His arm ached where the bullet had lodged near his shoulder, but adrenaline raced through his veins. If Lilian was somewhere in the building, he was determined to find her. He put a hand to the door.
“Where are you going?” Officer Ling asked. He paused halfway up the fire escape to the man Aleric had shot. Groans and sobs sounded from the balcony above him.
“I’m going to find Lilian,” Aleric answered.
“No, you’re not.”
Aleric glanced at Darold. The officer stood at the bottom of the stairs.
“The Commissioner said to wait, so we wait. You got us a couple of listers. Big deal. You don’t have any right to be here. We’ll find your girl and bring her back to you. It’s our job.”
Aleric held the man’s angry gaze. “Your job is to wait here for your Commissioner. I’m going inside to find Lilian. If you get tired of cowering behind your orders, you can find me inside.”
Aleric opened the door and stepped through. He paused within and waited for the door to shut behind him.
“Did he just call me a coward?” Officer Darold asked.
“Sounded like it,” Officer Rellen answered.
Ling chuckled.
Light filtered weakly through windows high above Aleric’s head. The warehouse entrance led into a long hallway with branching doors to each side. Aleric walked slowly along the hall. He could hear voices in the rooms mingling with several television sets, what sounded like pool balls on a pool table, a woman scolding someone, and groups of people talking.
Aleric closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His senses thrummed. He knew he was in a dangerous position, but there was one other thing he had to know for sure.
He found it, the single thread of scent lingering through hundreds of others. It was faint, but unmistakable. The sunlight and jasmine aroma filled him with hope. Lilian was there. He opened his eyes.
“I don’t hear anything. Is he being stealthy?” Aleric heard Officer Rellen say from the other side of the door.
Lilian had been hurt and taken against her will. Nobody should do such a thing to a person so sweet and kind. The thought fueled Aleric with anger. The voice in the back of his mind questioned if being emotionless would have been smarter, safer. He would ask Dartan if he survived. At that moment, he would free Lilian if it was the last thing he did.
Aleric sucked in a breath. “Chosen!” he yelled.
“I don’t think being stealthy’s his thing,” Darold replied dryly from the other side of the door.
All of the doors along the hallway opened at once. Men and women with wild eyes and crazed expressions peered at him. When they saw who it was, the doors were flung wide an
d Fervor members flooded into the wide hallway.
Aleric’s muscles tensed, but they didn’t attack. Instead, they waited, starting up at him with fists clenched and teeth bared like animals. Many of their lips were colored green from the moss. When they did attack, Aleric knew it was going to hurt.
In the expectant silence, he heard a tiny splash. Aleric looked down to see another drop of blood fall from his right hand to the cement. Nurse Eastwick would be very upset with him for not tending to the wound before he entered the warehouse. With a painful catch, Aleric remembered he was no longer welcome at the Edge City Hospital. The Fervor had ruined that for him when they kidnapped Lilian.
“Chosen!” Aleric shouted. “Show yourself!”
“You don’t have to make such a fuss.”
A man appeared at the far end of the hallway. He had posts in his face and neck that caught the dull overhead light. Tattoos traced his skin in swirls and jagged lines. His head was shaved and he had a long beard that was braided and threaded with gold beads.
At the man’s words, the entire crowd of Fervor members dropped to their knees, their faces pressed to the ground, the werewolf forgotten.
“Where is she?” Aleric demanded.
“Who?”
Aleric could tell by the man’s tone that he knew exactly who.
“Lilian. You took her from the vampiress’ lair.”
“You know of a vampiress?” the Chosen said. “Interesting. I’ll bet she’d like it here.”
Aleric glared at the Chosen, his anger rising at the man’s mocking demeanor. “Give me Lilian or I send your clan to the officers waiting outside.”
The Chosen lifted a well-manicured, ring-studded eyebrow. “Well, now. If my sources are correct, you only have four officers out there. That’s not much to work with. They’d be a bit busy with my clan, not to mention my new pet.”
He yanked on a chain. Aleric’s heart slowed when a male werewolf dressed in ragged clothes and wearing a chain collar appeared. Blood colored his shirt. Aleric knew from where he stood that the scent would match the blood of the dismembered man in the alley.
