Cloak of Wolves

by Moeller, Jonathan

  Wait. Every direction?

  I looked up. The ceiling was far overhead, buttressed with massive steel girders. Heavy lights were mounted on the girders, bathing the arena with their glow, and I saw thick ducts for the HVAC equipment and speakers for the sound system.

  And catwalks so technicians could repair the speakers.

  Hybrid wraithwolves moved along the catwalks.

  Of course. Warren’s little speech was just a distraction. It must have taken all his remaining self-control to stand there and rant instead of attacking, but he had been able to do it because he knew the sucker punch was coming.

  “Guys!” I shouted, pointing. “They’re above us!”

  Some of the human wizards and the Elves looked up.

  And everything exploded into chaos.

  “Kill them!” roared Warren, his voice dropping an octave as he began to transform. The six officers guarding the aisles transformed as well. With tearing metallic cries, the wraithwolves on the catwalks leaped over the railing, plummeting towards the basketball court like missiles of claws and fangs. One was headed right towards me, and I shoved power into a spell. The fireball soared from my hand and struck the falling wraithwolf in the chest. It exploded in a bloom of fire fifty feet overhead, and the detonation threw the burning wraithwolf into the seats.

  Another wraithwolf crashed into the stage. The creature landed atop one of Tamirlas’s Elven knights and ripped out the Elf’s throat before the others could react. Tamirlas bellowed and flung a spell, and a blast of magical flame burned through the wraithwolf’s head. The creature stumbled and fell, shrinking back into human form.

  The other wraithwolves rushed from all directions, and the soldiers and the Elves fought back, hurling blasts of magical fire and lightning and ice. A wraithwolf lunged at Tyth, and she hit it with a lightning globe. As the creature stumbled back, I flung a sphere of fire that drilled through the dense bone of its head, zipped to the left, and killed a second creature. A third bounded at Tyth, and Riordan killed it with a swift slash of his blade of dark force.

  I caught a glimpse of Warren. He was bigger than the other wraithwolves, substantially, and unlike the others, he had a scorpion tail. Armored plates of bone covered his body. He was the alpha wraithwolf, and the others obeyed him. Alcazar and two of his soldiers flung a constant barrage of spells at Warren, but he growled and advanced step by step, his claws ripping up the wood of the basketball court.

  I gathered my will to strike at him, and a metallic crash caught my attention. One of the wraithwolves hit the stage, and Tansy Brauner fell off it with a shriek. She landed hard on her back, and the creature raised its claws to rip out her throat. I began pulling my power together to strike, but I knew I wasn’t going to hit in time.

  Arnold Brauner yelled, jumped off the stage, and swung a folding chair like a club. The chair smacked across the wraithwolf’s muzzle, and the creature stumbled. It roared and swung its hand, and its talons tore through both the metal of the chair and Brauner’s left arm. He yelped but kept his feet, keeping himself between Tansy and the creature, and the wraithwolf tensed to spring on him.

  And I almost let the creature do it.

  It would have been easy. A half-second of hesitation, the wraithwolf would kill Arnold Brauner, and then I would kill the wraithwolf. That would make sure Brauner didn’t go after Moran Imports ever again. Hell, Brauner would be remembered as a hero – former governor dies in defense of his wife and Duke Tamirlas. He’d probably get a statue or something at the State Capitol, maybe a park named after him.

  But like I told Russell, I didn’t want to be the kind of woman who used her power to kill everyone who got in her way.

  I didn’t want to be a thing like Kyle Warren.

  Even by proxy, as it happens.

  I hit the wraithwolf with a sphere of fire and burned through its skull. Tansy screamed, and the creature staggered back, hit the ruined stage, and fell over, its body shrinking into human form. Martin Brauner scrambled to his mother’s side, helping her up, and Arnold stayed with them, clutching his wounded arm. His eyes met mine across the court, and I saw him realize that I had saved his life.

  I didn’t have time to spare to chat, because the fight was still on.

  But we were winning.

  One of Tamirlas’s knights had fallen, and I think one of Alcazar’s men was down, dead or wounded. But we had killed most of the wraithwolves, and the rest were falling.

  Only Kyle Warren was still on his feet, his bone armor scorched, his claws ripping furrows in the wood of the floor. He looked back and forth with a furious cry, and then whirled and bounded back towards the locker room.

  His pack was slain, and he was running for his life.

  “Stop him!” thundered Duke Tamirlas.

  I ran after Warren, Riordan and Owen keeping pace with me.

  ***

  Chapter 19: Let Us Clean The World

  Owen burst through the doors to the locker room.

  Except the locker room wasn’t on the other side. Owen found himself in a wide utility corridor, and memories from televised basketball games flashed through his head. During the games, he had seen shots of teams running down this wide corridor, flanked by their trainers and coaches and various media people. The locker rooms were likely another forty or fifty yards down the corridor. For that matter, there were half a dozen doors on either side of the hall. Owen didn’t have any idea where those might go – offices, maybe, or utility rooms.

  “Shit,” said Owen, looking around.

  “Don’t worry,” said Nadia. Owen glanced back at saw that she had followed him. So had Riordan and Tythrilandria. Nadia lifted the bronze dial of her aetherometer. “I’ve got a fix on the bastard. He’s not getting away. He went…um, that way.” She pointed, and Owen saw that a door about fifty yards down the corridor was ajar, its lock smashed open.

  “This place is a maze,” said Owen. “There are a hundred places he could hide. If we bring the Elves and the soldiers, it might be a slaughter.”

  “You want to take him alone?” said Riordan.

  “The four of us?” said Owen. He took a deep breath. “I think that’s best.” He tapped his earpiece. “Giles? Alcazar? You there?”

  “Where are you, Owen?” said Giles. His voice was tense. “All the wraithwolves are down. There was a panic among the guests, but Lord Tyrdamar’s knights and men-at-arms have arrived and are keeping things under control. EMTs are on their way to the Arena, and they’ve picked up the men we left at the church.”

  “Warren’s still alive,” said Owen. “He’s hiding somewhere. I’m going after him. Nadia’s leading us to him, and then she, Riordan, and Lady Tythrilandria are going to take him.”

  “You want some help, Lady Tythrilandria?” said Alcazar.

  “Negative,” said Tyth. “We’re afraid of an ambush, captain. You saw that Nadia and I have…um, scouting abilities. We’re going to use that to turn the tables on Warren and surprise him.”

  “As you command,” said Alcazar. “Should you need us, we will come at once.”

  “Thank you, captain,” said Tyth. She looked at Owen. “You want us to surprise him?”

  “Yeah,” said Owen. “He hates my guts, you saw that. If I go ahead alone, that will draw him out. Except I won’t be alone, and you guys can turn invisible, follow me, and then hit him when he attacks.”

  “You realize that will put you at considerable danger,” said Riordan.

  “This has to end tonight,” said Owen. “We can’t let Warren escape. There are two million people in the Milwaukee area, and every one of them is at risk. Warren won’t stop killing until he’s brought down.”

  “You’re right,” said Nadia, her voice dark. One of the memories that Owen had absorbed from Nadia flickered through his mind. He couldn’t remember it clearly, thank God for that, but he did remember the image of blood and fangs and wraithwolves. The thing that Kyle Warren had become wouldn’t stop killing, not for any reason. “All rig
ht. Let’s catch up to it. This way.”

  “I’ll take point,” said Riordan, stepping to the front, that strange sword of darkness in his hands. Owen was not inclined to argue.

  They moved down the corridor and to the damaged door. Riordan eased it open and behind were the harsh LED lights of a concrete utility corridor, bundles of cables and pipes running along the wall. They moved down the corridor, following both Nadia’s aetherometer readings, Owen’s aurasight, and the claw marks Warren had left on the polished concrete, and came to another half-open door. Beyond was a large room filled with enormous humming air handlers.

  “An HVAC room,” muttered Nadia. “Why do these things always happen in HVAC rooms? He’s in there somewhere. Can’t pinpoint exactly where. But it’s within twenty yards.” She tucked the aetherometer into her bag. “You’re sure about this?”

  Owen nodded and flexed his fingers, ready to pull together power for a spell.

  “All right,” said Nadia. “Tyth and I will be right behind you. Get Warren to show himself, and we’ll take him. Ready?” Tyth nodded, and both she and Nadia cast the Cloak spell, vanishing from sight.

  “I’ll be here,” said Riordan. “Warren knows I can hurt him, so he might not attack if he sees me. When I hear the fight start, I will join you.”

  Owen took a deep breath, nodded, and stepped into the room.

  It was an enormous concrete vault, with a row of six garage-sized air handlers, narrow aisles between them. Beyond the door was a metal landing, a flight of a dozen stairs descending to the floor. Owen noted the scratches on the steps and the concrete beyond as he came to the floor. The scratches vanished – Owen suspected that Warren had taken a running leap and landed atop one of the air handlers.

  He remembered how the wraithwolves in the arena had attacked from above.

  “Warren!” shouted Owen at the top of his lungs, wondering if the Fusion wraithwolf could hear him over the hum of the air handlers. “Lieutenant Kyle Warren! It’s just me. Come out and talk!”

  There was no response, and then a rumbling voice came from no particular direction.

  “Talk?” said Warren. “You slaughtered my pack!” Something clanged. Owen looked around, sweat dripping down his back. “You chose your side, Colonel. You picked the side of corruption and injustice.”

  “Injustice?” said Owen, taking slow, cautious steps down the aisle between the wall and the row of air handlers. “Why don’t you tell me about that?”

  Warren let out a snarling laugh. “Getting me to talk, is that it? I took the hostage negotiation training too, you know. I bet you’ve got the Elves and that wizard bitch waiting outside to kill me.”

  He was only half wrong.

  “I want you to surrender without any bloodshed,” said Owen. “Officer to officer. You were a Homeland Security officer, you deserve that much from me. Christ, Kyle, you were sworn to serve and protect. A lot of people are dead. Can you help me keep more people from getting killed?”

  “Those people deserved to be killed,” said Warren.

  “What about your other officers?” said Owen. “Your packmates? Did they deserve to get killed?”

  There were no words, but a deep, rumbling growl.

  “See,” said Owen, an idea coming to him, “I think you got screwed. You got sold a defective product.”

  “I am more than human!”

  “Yeah, you might be stronger and faster, but you have less self-control,” said Owen. He was about halfway down the vault, and he still couldn’t spot Warren. His aurasight showed the wraithwolf’s malevolent emotions, but he couldn’t get an exact fix on Warren’s position. “Because otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten all your pack killed, and you wouldn’t have killed Doyle’s family just for the fun of it. I think Mr. Hood screwed you over.”

  “You don’t understand anything,” said Warren.

  “I think your buddy Mr. Hood built those Fusion devices, but he wasn’t sure if they would work,” said Owen. “He needed test subjects. He found Doyle and Leon, who were greedy and stupid enough to distribute them, and they found some Homeland Security officers gullible enough to use the devices.”

  “You’re wrong!” roared Warren.

  “And the Fusion devices were defective, you know?” said Owen. “I bet Mr. Hood was taking notes. He figured out that this first batch didn’t work all that great. For the next round, he’ll fix some of the bugs. Maybe not let the wraithwolf have so much influence over the host. But you, Warren? You were just a guinea pig. A lab rat. Mr. Hood tried his little experiment on you, and it didn’t work. You got a bunch of Homeland Security officers killed for nothing, and…”

  That did it.

  Warren moved so fast that Owen had no time to react, no time to dodge. There was a dark blur, and something hammered into Owen with terrific force. He overbalanced and fell hard to the floor, his head bouncing off the concrete, and the armored nightmare form of Warren loomed over him, jaws yawning wide, talons stabbing for his throat.

  ###

  The hybrid wraithwolf moved quick, so quick I barely had time to respond.

  Warren leaped from the top of one of the air handlers and fell into Owen, driving him to the floor, and I dropped my Cloak spell and attacked.

  Magic surged through me, and I cast the ice spike spell. I wanted to use lightning or fire, but Warren was in physical contact with Owen, and I didn’t know if the lightning would conduct through the wraithwolf and into Owen’s body. Fortunately, the ice spike proved effective. It punched through Warren’s chest and erupted out his back in a spray of dark blood, and the wraithwolf reared back with a scream.

  And as he screamed, Tyth dropped her Cloak, seized the bronze plate of the Fusion device, and ripped it from Warren’s back.

  Again, he screamed, and his armored form shrank down to a human body. Kyle Warren stumbled and fell to one knee, the front of his uniform jacket soaked with blood, his face gray.

  He collapsed onto his side, breathing hard.

  “You okay?” I said, helping Owen to sit back up. Riordan joined us, and Tyth took several quick steps back from Warren, who was reaching for the Fusion device. Not that it would do Warren much good. He didn’t seem to have the strength to stand.

  “Yeah,” said Owen, getting to his feet. “Going to have a nasty headache, but could be worse.” He looked at Warren. “Could be worse.”

  “Idiot,” wheezed Warren, blood dripping from his lips. “You don’t…you don’t understand…”

  “I understand just fine,” said Owen. “You got a lot of people killed for nothing.”

  “You don’t understand,” hissed Warren. “The Singularity…the Singularity is coming, and…”

  He let out a sigh, and stopped breathing, his eyes frozen open in hate forever.

  We stared in silence at his corpse for a moment.

  “Suppose we solved the murder,” I said at last.

  “Suppose we did,” said Owen. He sighed. “Who wants to let the High Queen know the good news?”

  Because we had fulfilled the High Queen’s mission. We had found and caught Ronald Doyle’s killer.

  But it had turned into a hell of a mess.

  ***

  Chapter 20: Thanksgiving

  To my complete lack of surprise, the entire thing got hushed up.

  The Inquisition and the Department of Education couldn’t completely shut down the story. There had been too many witnesses and too many dead Homeland Security officers. But they did spin the story. A rogue rift way had opened in the Ducal Arena, and a mob of wraithwolves had attacked. Duke Tamirlas and his knights, ably assisted by soldiers of the Wizard’s Legion and Homeland Security, drove back the wraithwolves with minimal loss of life to the public. Forty-eight Homeland Security officers fell in the line of duty.

  That news report left a foul taste in my mouth. Kyle Warren and his followers hadn’t died in the line of duty. They had died while planning mass murder on a widespread scale.

  Still, you can’t beli
eve anything you see on the news. Why should this be any different?

  A team of Knights of the Inquisition arrived, and I cheerfully handed over all forty-eight Fusion devices to them. I hoped they destroyed the damned things.

  The High Queen was pleased with what Owen and I had done.

  I found that out in person the Monday before Thanksgiving.

  ###

  Owen walked into his office and stifled a yawn.

  It was a bad sign. It was only 8 AM, and already the prospect of the paperwork that awaited him was exhausting.

  Because there was an enormous amount of work to do.

  The Milwaukee branch of Homeland Security employed about twenty-five hundred people, give or take, and the loss of forty-eight of them was just under two percent of the entire force. The department branch had taken heavier losses during the Archon attack, but battle against open enemies was one thing. The official story was that wraithwolves had attacked Governor Brauner’s dinner, that those forty-eight officers had fallen in the attack, and the general public had accepted that account. But inside the department, it was different. Too many people knew too many details, and they could work out that something had gone very wrong.

  It was easy to figure out that those officers had turned traitor.

  Morale, as expected, was low in the wake of the revelations. Nobody liked to know that their fellow officers had gone bad, though it had happened all too many times before in Homeland Security’s history. And there was an enormous amount of paperwork to process. The families of the killed officers had to be notified and given an edited version of the truth. Owen had spoken with the parents and spouses of the Fusion officers, and he had found it galling to tell them that their loved ones had fallen in the line of duty.