Nightshatter

by L. E. Horn

  I’d taken pains to disguise my scent, enough to fool wulfan when they were in human form. But if the enforcers hunted on four paws at night, all bets were off.

  I’d lucked out in one respect—they hadn’t tracked me to the bridge. For now they were casting the net wide, hoping to catch me unawares. Only they didn’t know I had spies in key places.

  A burst of concern from Sam, and I reassured her. On it. Haven’t caught me yet. Didn’t think she got the words, but the intent was there.

  How does one thwart a scent trail? Downtown Winnipeg was low on rivers and streams. But the city was rife with disguising scents, and back lanes were particularly pungent. And there was another advantage—a vertical component. To avoid footprints, take to the air.

  I swung west and took a back lane off Pacific Avenue, ending up behind the Winnipeg Antiques and Collectibles Market. Vehicles lined the lane, but one building possessed an old-style fire escape, the lowest accessible level suspended about fifteen feet in the air.

  I waited, extending my senses, getting a feel for the ebb and flow of life surrounding me, as I summoned the wulf and strengthened the muscles of my legs. The seams of my old jeans made ominous noises as they stretched across my thighs and up to my butt.

  Thoughts of a green-skinned giant with scraps of cloth in diplomatically correct places drifted through my brain. I couldn’t be so lucky. Hope these damned things hold together for a little while longer. I sensed a ripple of humor mixed with relief from Sam.

  I glanced at the windows around me and up to the roof, waited for a few people to walk through the nearby parking lot, then focused on my target and leaped. I didn’t need a fraction of the power I’d summoned to latch onto the rail and haul myself up. I climbed as quietly as possible up the switchback of stairs, pausing at each landing to ensure no one was near the access windows.

  The roof already baked in the early May sunshine. I sensed Sam sitting on Josh’s potting bench—Keen chewing on a bone at her feet. She deliberately showed me that Keen had two bones, and Havoc, lying about ten feet away, looked somewhat remorseful.

  It made me smile, which was no doubt her intent. Her contact faded as I walked to the shade of a small cupola. My rooftop aerie felt safe, safer than anywhere I’d slept on the streets. My seams sighed in relief as I let the changes go. I curled up on the warm asphalt and closed my eyes. The restless nights and sporadic partials caught up with me, and I slept like the dead.

  Sam’s presence intruded at first as a dream—her scent and a sensation of fingers touching my face. Before it turned as erotic as our last encounter, however, she grabbed my inner wulf and yanked.

  Sputtering myself awake, I found darkness fast approaching—the dying sun sent late evening shadows slanting low from the cupola. I glanced around as Sam’s presence shrieked a warning. She swept me into her mind, and I looked down with her eyes to a text scrolled across the screen of her phone.

  The identification read Jason. Tell Liam to run.

  Heart pounding, I rolled to a crouch and extended my senses. Even in human form, enforcers would use smell to find me. And now that the shadows moved over the earth, they might no longer be walking on two legs. I cursed my stupidity for sleeping the afternoon, and evening, away. I should have been on the move long before dark.

  A creak alerted me to something climbing up the fire escape. I froze. Only one way up or down. The only other possibility was lateral, across the rooftops.

  I needed to slip free of the noose and get to the Salter Street Bridge for midnight, but I had to ditch these guys to do it. Leading my pursuers to Noah would shut down the local recruitment and wreck our chance to find out who was behind this. Unless he confessed, but I didn’t think Noah was the confessing type.

  I summoned the wulf and a stressed seam in my jeans gave way as the muscles expanded. As I pulled off my runners and tied them around my neck, my mind raced. I struggled to remember the relationship of buildings to each other, the grid of streets and avenues between my goal and me.

  I exploded from the shadows as the enforcer reached the last rung on the ladder. Fortunately, he was in human form and approaching with stealth. He seemed stunned when I sprinted across the roof and leaped off the edge to the two-story building below.

  I sensed movement from the street—another enforcer, running along the lane, and as I approached Pacific Avenue, I saw yet another. They converged on my building, expecting me to drop to the street to escape, which would be logical, considering what faced me.

  My two-story building ran along Pacific Avenue. Kitty corner to it, across a wide stretch of pavement, stood a five-story red building. I had to gain three stories, jump across the street, and somehow navigate the power lines in between.

  No wonder they were sure I’d drop to them.

  Two strides out from the edge of the roof, Sam sent me a surge of pure power. I lengthened my arms and bent from the waist to land palms down on the rooftop. My legs reached forward past them, toeclaws digging into the asphalt roof as I launched into the air. One claw tweaked a wire as I sailed over the lines, my spine snapping straight to achieve maximum extension, clawed fingers stretching to grab the red building’s precipice and pull me safely over.

  A shout from below and the chase was on. Three behind me left five unaccounted for, Jason among them. I stayed on all fours as I ran, allowing the changes to move fluidly between human and wulf as I needed. The building ahead rose another three stories. I made the leap easily and bore down on Alexander Avenue. If I stuck to the rooftops, I might yet lose them.

  I sensed Sam with me, seeing through my eyes as I raced for the roof’s edge overlooking Alexander. My wulf eyes traced the details even in the advancing darkness. In mid-leap, I saw furred forms run to meet me on the opposite roof.

  I landed in a flurry of teeth and claws as the two wulf enforcers on the rooftop attacked. I somersaulted through them, morphing the bones in my fists to form sledgehammer knuckles and add to the muscular power behind them. One gray-haired form went flying to land in a heap—I hoped I’d just knocked him out and hadn’t crushed his skull. I drove both fists beneath the second’s ribcage and his breath exited in a whoosh of air. Leaving him gasping, I kept running, now on two legs to preserve my fists.

  Five accounted for, all unknown to me. But as my brain calculated my escape route, I recognized I was going to run out of roof, and soon. The next pair of buildings dropped down to two stories. My eyes remained focused on the last possible stepping-stone: the Peace Tower Housing Corporation, a seven-story building with two narrow parking lots between it and me.

  I could drop to the ground. Even as I considered it, another wulf gained the rooftops as I raced by, snapping at my heels as he scrambled to follow.

  Chris. Whether word or impression, it came through clear. Sam wanted me to know my enforcer friend was in the city, in a car, and close. Logan Avenue. Logan Avenue ran beyond Peace Tower Housing, four lanes wide and busy, even at this time of evening. If I made this jump, I might outdistance the enforcers and get there ahead of them.

  I looked at the roofline lit with the last rays of the dying sun, and within three strides, extended my fists once more into long fingers tipped with claws.

  I sensed Sam reaching deep, near the end of her own resources. She opened the floodgates to full, channeling as much as she had left. It surged into me, merging with the wulf, and sent electric fire from my hairline to my toes as I measured the last few paces to the edge. For the final two strides, I dropped to all fours, bunching my body into a ball before punching it upward in an explosion of power.

  12

  My leap was the closest to true flight I had ever experienced. Claws skidded on stone behind me as the pursuing wulfan almost went over in my wake. The rooftop seemed an impossible distance away, but I stretched for it, lips pulled back from teeth caught between two worlds. For a moment, I thought I was going to miss. I extended my fingers in midflight, and my claws caught the concrete overhang. My body swung past
and beneath, leaving me dangling. There was nowhere for my toeclaws to grasp, and for a moment I hung there, swinging. I took a deep breath and yanked the rest of my body up to safety.

  I didn’t look back, but raced toward the sounds of traffic ahead, feeling Sam fade as she wavered.

  I had to remain aware of both people and vehicles on the road ahead. Dropping among them as a quasi-wolf-human was not a good idea, unless I wanted to make the evening news. I swerved to look down on the parking lot west of the building, wondering how to drop seven stories without injury. Balconies. I would have to be fast.

  I skidded almost to a stop at the roof’s edge, spinning on a clawed hand to drop over the side, feet first. I swung from balconies like a great ape, finally dropping to the parking lot. Breathing hard, I sprinted across, pulling back on my wulf as I did so. I staggered as the muscles reverted to human, bouncing off parked vehicles and concrete walls, but by the time I hit Logan Avenue, I ran as a barefoot human rather than a freak.

  Sam stayed with me, but only barely. My heart pounded in fear that she’d overextended. She sent me an image of Chris, with an impression of turning onto Logan off Main Street. Just two blocks away.

  As I sprinted across Logan, shouts echoed behind me. I ducked and dodged, reaching the far side more by the good graces of Winnipeg’s drivers than any skill on my part. The few people on the street stopped and stared as I pelted along the sidewalk in bare feet, my runners thumping against my back and the laces digging into my throat. A car raced past me, skidded to a halt, and Chris leaned over to throw open the door.

  Lord knew what the board would do to him for this, but I was never so happy to see him. I dove into the car and he accelerated away before I pulled my toes in after me. He barreled around a right turn and powered on.

  “Liam?” Chris reached across to sink fingers into my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “Sam,” I gasped. “She’s gone.”

  “She was with you? The whole way?”

  I nodded, the pain from the multiple changes fading, allowing me to sag against the seat.

  “Was she feeding you?”

  “Yes.”

  He frowned. “She might have passed out. The board wasn’t impressed with her removing her tracker, so she’s on lockdown at my place with her family and Garrett. They’ll look after her.”

  “You know—”

  “She told me.” He drove with fierce concentration, weaving through darkening streets.

  “Do Josh and you . . .”

  “We can sense each other, but not reliably. Josh has fed me energy a few times.” He paused. “He kept me alive, once, when I was badly hurt.” He hesitated. “I’m surprised you and Sam have such a strong connection so fast.”

  I heard him as though down a long tunnel, my world was shrinking as darkness loomed around the edges. My stomach heaved as I fought to stay upright. I’d eaten nothing today. The flight across the rooftops had used every ounce of my strength and all Sam had to give. I remained dimly aware of Chris using the maze of streets to our advantage, leaving the enforcers behind.

  “Can’t they track you?” I wheezed, squeezing my eyes shut, fending off waves of nausea.

  “Not anymore.” The grin was apparent in his voice and I looked over to see him pull aside his shirt. A familiar butterfly bandage showed white against his neck. “I’m strolling through Kildonan Park, apparently. Or at least, my tracker is.”

  “The board’s gonna fry Hayek.”

  “Hayek marches to his own drum,” Chris said. “Doctors are like gold for wulfan, so they cut him a lot of slack.”

  I looked at him and swallowed. “What about you?”

  He shrugged. “When they find out about my tracker, they’ll know I’ve gone to the dark side, but they have no proof I helped you. This is a rental. Even if they got a plate, it’ll take them to some dude that lives on Eldridge Avenue.”

  “And Jason?”

  “He’s on the street with the others. If they examine his phone, they’ll have him, but I expect he’s lost it somewhere during the pursuit. And Sam has likely already ditched hers.”

  I sighed. “Man, I have good friends.” I let my head fall back against the seat, the black fog swirling around the edges of my vision.

  “Hey, hold on. I’m getting you some McD’s.”

  He pulled up at the familiar golden arches and ordered enough burgers for a hockey team. We sat in the darkness behind the building while I wolfed down several without drawing breath. The fog receded, but I wouldn’t be running anywhere for a while.

  “Will she be okay?” I asked.

  “She shouldn’t have been able to feed you that much in the first place.” He sighed. “The soulbond is supposed to be a wulfan phenomenon, but it seems this mutant virus has its own kick. First Dillon and now you.”

  I didn’t appreciate being compared to Dillon. “If I’d known she’d drain herself, I would have stopped it.”

  “You mean you would have tried.” Chris grinned at me. “This is Sam we’re talking about.” The smile faded. “Josh will look after her. Why did she need to feed you that much to begin with?”

  “I was doing partials as I ran across the rooftops.”

  “Partials? As in plural? As you were running. On the rooftops.” His voice rose and fell with each sentence, and when I looked at him, his jaw had dropped open.

  “Sam didn’t tell you about the partials?”

  “She told me after Garrett spilled the accident story. But you did multiple partials? As you ran?”

  “Didn’t have time to stop and concentrate, so yeah.”

  Chris’s brows had dropped so low they shadowed his eyes. “Why didn’t you just shift to wulf?”

  “Because being a wulf wasn’t enough. I needed stronger legs to jump across streets, and I think I hit someone . . . my fists got really big, like sledgehammers.”

  “Stronger than a wulf? And sledgehammers?”

  “Yeah. I bulked up the muscles in my legs and added stronger attachments. Seemed to work.”

  A slight strangled noise made me look at him, but he stared out the windshield. He said, “I’m not even sure what you’re describing are partials. They don’t sound wulf like.”

  “Well, they aren’t from my wulf, really. I visualize it, and it happens.”

  “Christ. How the hell? Those aren’t partials. I don’t know what they are.” He squirmed around in his seat. “Liam, I do not have words to tell you how far off the map you’ve gone.” His expression remained calm, but I noticed his voice had the smallest tremor in it.

  Not partials? The changes were driven by my wulf, I could feel it. But—the stuff I’d visualized, the way my body had changed—he was right. I wasn’t altering bits of me to wulf. I was morphing selected areas according to my visualizations. How was that possible? My gut twisted, but I had more important concerns. “With any luck, by this time tomorrow, I’ll be a whole lot farther away.”

  He made a visible effort to focus on the task at hand. “Sam said you got in. You leave tonight?”

  “If I can keep clear of the enforcers. And if they stay away from the wulfan recruiter.”

  Chris’s mouth straightened. “Someone on the board got nervous about your whereabouts and called for a scent sweep of the area last night. Jason didn’t find out until Sam contacted him, and he’s spitting mad. When he confronted the board, they confessed about the hunt planned for tonight. Jason forewarned us.” Chris shook his head. “I drove to Hayek’s place before renting the car. Sam was worried you might need a rescue if they found you.”

  “If it weren’t for you, they’d likely have me, partials or not. I ran out of rooftops.”

  He snorted. “I didn’t think you’d get away, but Sam had faith.” He sobered. “Jason said they were authorized to use lethal force. Lucky for you, they won’t use guns in a public setting.”

  “The enforcers that chased me,” I said. “Are they okay?”

  Chris’s eyebrow rose. “Is there a reas
on they shouldn’t be?”

  “I hit a couple pretty hard. And one might have fallen off a roof.”

  The second eyebrow joined its neighbor. “Give me a minute.” He pulled out his phone and texted someone. A few minutes later, he said, “Sam fainted, and she’s been slow to come around. Garrett is contacting Jason for me.”

  Even as Chris told me about Sam, I thought I sensed the faintest pulse of her presence. It smoothed nerves I hadn’t realized were jagged and something within me unknotted. Then Chris exhaled a laugh. “Apparently two enforcers are currently with Hayek—one has a concussion, the other has suspected broken ribs, so they’re sending him for an x-ray. No mention of roof guy.”

  “Maybe he didn’t follow me off,” I said. I only remembered the frantic sound of scrabbling claws. “He must have known he couldn’t make the jump over the street.”

  Silence from the other end of the car. With careful, controlled movements Chris pulled a cheeseburger out of a bag, unwrapped it, and took a big bite. My stomach growled, so I helped myself to another.

  After some chewing, Chris spoke. “It’s a good thing you’re leaving tonight, because you’re out of time. For them to bypass Jason—maybe they worried about you stumbling onto the recruitment program. Or maybe they didn’t want a crazed wulfleng drawing attention to their feeding grounds.” He balled up his cheeseburger wrapper and shoved it into the paper bag. “Jason hasn’t told them about your rabies shots or about Dillon and Chloe’s little experiment. He’s been very cagey about revealing information to them.”

  I contemplated that while I ate. I didn’t envy Jason’s position. He was walking a tightrope with no end in sight.

  “All this enforcer presence will make things dicey for you,” Chris said. “How solid is your connection with your recruiter?”