by Martha Woods
“The witches are all too far in the city to be able to attack them conventionally, most of them live together ever since the serial killer, but the vampires could still be at risk. I’ll have to check in with Joseph and make sure.”
“If anyone can handle them it’s that loudmouth,” She said, reaching down for the two of us and hauling us up to our feet, “But that’s no reason not to check in, not every vampire is a Joseph after all.”
“What are you two talking about?” Archie said, lapsing quickly into unconsciousness again, “Let’s just… get home.”
Thankfully, for a group of bloodthirsty killers that were content to ambush us two to one, they had left the car untouched except for a few scratches that had been gained by the debris from the roof crashing down on top of it. If someone was to look at the car as we drove by it would just seem to be a regular car, no reason to look any further.
What might draw their interest instead however was the state that the driver was in, which I only noticed after a good minute of us driving down the deserted road after we’d finally managed to drag our agonized forms into the car and shut the doors. “Why are you naked?”
Christine chuckled, wiping blood out of her eyes and flicking it out the window, “That other form is pretty handy for defending yourself, especially against enemies that are as numerous and as aggressive as that. The downside… everything you wear tends to end up completely unwearable, it’s just something that I’ve had to get used to over the years.”
That certainly explained the bundle of torn fabric that I’d seen her toss into the back of the car, I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before. I guess that’s why they usually go all out with the full moon when it comes around, and why they hold themselves back to just beating each other like humans when they have to defend themselves, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to keep destroying clothes like this, not in this economy.
I should have been looking out for more signs of an ambush, but deep down I knew they weren’t going to try and attack us again so soon, not just because they wanted us to sit back and think about if a war was worth it, but because at the rate that they were pissing us off we very well might just decide to incinerate the whole forest and blame it on a freak forest fire. We have enough witches, it absolutely wouldn’t be out of the question, and I have a feeling that they know that.
“Why would they attack him?” I asked, pointing back at Archie passed out in the back seat, “He might have been able to defend himself against them for a while, but wouldn’t someone more…”
“Valuable?”
“I didn’t want to say it like that, but yeah, wouldn’t someone more valuable have been a better target.”
“You attack the higher targets if you want to disrupt tactics, in can be very effective if you do it quickly and efficiently, but it also carries the risk of… well, you’re trying to kill people who are in a high position for a reason. If they tried to attack me I would have been surrounded by at least a handful of other wolves, how far do you think they would have gotten.”
“So they attacked him because..?”
“If you want to really choke an enemy without risking too many of your own men, either because you don’t have many or because you’re just a coward, you go after the lowly soldiers who can’t hope to do anything against you, you find them and you slaughter them by the dozens so that everyone else gets the message through the blood. That there is no limit to the people that you’ll kill, no matter how defenseless or how unimportant they are to the rest of the group.” She shrugged, clearly speaking from memory. “If you do it for long enough and if you do it viciously enough, they’ll turn against their own and give you whatever it is that you want from them.”
“That does sound pretty rough, at least we handled them well enough here.”
“We did,” She said, grinning, “Did you really throw one of them through the roof?”
“I wasn’t expecting him to be there so suddenly!’ I laughed, “It was purely instinct I swear.”
“And the one that you set on fire?”
“That one was because he pissed me off, I’m sure you can understand that Ms. ‘Rip their jaw off their skull’.”
“It was a tactical decision, and it’s an effective way to disable an enemy.”
“Yeah I’m sure, I saw King Kong, you totally stole the move from there.”
“I had to take something out of sitting there for three hours watching a big ape somehow be terribly boring.” Adjusting her mirror, she narrowed her eyes behind us and pointed back. “Are those hunters coming up behind us?”
I glanced back, shaking my head to clear my vision before recognizing Julian in the front seat. “Yeah, but why are they all the way out here?”
Pulling the car over to the side of the road, we waited until they stopped their car and flashed their lights at us, stepping out and waving to show that it was really them. “Well,” I said, popping my door open, “Let’s go see what they want.”
Walking forward I’m sure I was quite the sight, gashes along my arm and bruising already starting to stretch across my skin where my neck was exposed. Considering it had only been an hour or so since I’d seen him last, he was taking it pretty well all things considered.
“Hi Amy,” Julian said, waving before glancing over my shoulder, “Why is she naked?”
“We ran into some trouble like this morning, it got… a little out of hand. How are you doing?”
“The rest of the hunters have been informed about what happened, the bodies have been collected, well, what’s left of them at least.” He scratched the back of his neck, flicking his head back at the two hunters with him. “Everyone’s kind of out for blood right now, but we’re still following instructions. No killing unless you have to, we’ve got to have some kind of standards, if any of them still want to give up then we’ll be more than willing to give them safe haven.”
“Good, that’s good.” Leaning back against the trunk of the car, my head starting to pound with the stress of everything that had happened, I sighed, “Do you want to talk about this back at the hospital? So that I can get something for my head and Christine can get some clothes to wear?”
“That sounds like a plan,” He said, waving goodbye to Christine before turning around, “Sorry about the intrusion.”
She waved them off, sitting back in the driver’s seat and waiting for me to get settled, popping open the glove box and shaking a bottle of pills at me. “If you need something right now one of these should tide you over for now, we’ll get you treatment once we get back.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I said, opening the bottle and swallowing a pill before grimacing at the taste, “Tastes like shit. That’s medicine alright.”
“They can’t make them taste too good,” She laughed, “Do you want people to get addicted to them?”
“Good point.”
One quick call before we made it to the industrial district was what allowed Christine to have a change of clothes already waiting for her when we stepped out, a long coat draping around her enormous shoulders before we all walked inside, the gathered werewolves taking Archie in their careful hands and taking him into one of the urgent treatment rooms. I wasn’t in such bad shape so I was a lower priority, the medicine that Christine had offered me was enough to keep me functioning for the time being anyway. I wasn’t going to be losing here without getting the cuts and bruises checked out, but they’d stopped bleeding at least. Silver linings in everything.
“So what happened out there?” Julian asked, pulling a seat out for both of us once we were in Christine’s office, “Clearly it wasn’t nearly so pleasant as the run in we had, so I think we should know what happened as soon as possible.”
“They attacked Archie,” Christine said, pulling out a glass and pouring herself a drink so strong it made my eyes water, “It was a trap to lure at least me out, I don’t know if they anticipated that Amy would be joining me. Good thing she did too, I probably would b
e dead right now otherwise.”
“Something big enough to kill you?” He asked, whistling in amazement, “Now color me impressed, I guess they’ve actually got some balls to back up their bluster.”
“The last one fell apart though, he didn’t even try to fight after the other five were taken out, trying to give us a warning to surrender or be destroyed, typical stuff.” The medication was starting to be outmatched by the rest of the headache, my teeth clenching in my jaw in pain. “She sent him back with a warning, I think they’ll get the message.”
“A warning huh?” He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow at the smirk she gave him. “Screw it, I don’t want to know. The important thing is what we do from here, any ideas?”
“Can you get me a phone? Or go have someone deliver a message to the vampires? Cara is already taking care of the witches and I’m sure we would know if they were in danger by now, but Joseph could have his hands full enough already.”
He nodded, snapping his fingers at a nearby hunter to go and get me a phone, before looking at me strangely. “Don’t you already have a phone?”
“I think I left it in the car, I haven’t exactly been thinking straight for the last thirty minutes. I suppose you could just go grab that one then.”
The hunter nodded and left, leaving us in momentary silence as we tried to work through the literal mountains of problems that were starting to form in such a short amount of time. I hadn’t even gotten the warning from Claire a full day ago, this is a little bit of an advanced schedule to take. “What I don’t understand,” I said, tapping at my head to try and straighten my thoughts out, “Is why were they so content to wait until now before they attacked us directly? Surely it would have been a better idea to just hit us all at once before we were able to get somewhat organized?”
“Could be that she’s the more proactive one,” Christine said, “She has more reason to hate the shifters, he could just see this as… play time. How many hunters have you met like that in your time, the kind that just likes to toy with their food before they kill it?”
Julian scoffed, shaking his head, “Too many goddamn times, I’ll tell you that much. A liability is all they are, and if he’s one of those then it’s no wonder that the other hunters just turned their backs on him, I’ve had to deal with a couple of those myself in my time.”
“In some ways though, that might make it easier to try and negotiate with him, or at least see this as more trouble than it’s worth to keep attacking us.” I hummed, running my fingers along the table. “If he’s not totally invested in annihilation, if he really sees all of this as just a fun game to play, there could be something there after all.”
“You want to try and negotiate with this piece of shit?” Julian asked, “Didn’t he decide that kidnapping you was a good decision to make to get you two to open up to each other?”
“I’m not saying that it’s a completely good idea, but it’s an idea at least. I mean, we left three dead shifters behind in that house and sent the others back in pretty bad condition, that’s something at least. And as far as I know we’ve got more people than he does, we could use that to our advantage.”
He sighed, running a hand through his hair before shrugging, “I’ll look into it, or maybe you can talk to your connection about setting up a meet somewhere in the city. No way am I getting any of my boys to walk out into that forest with all this shit going on.”
“That’s fair enough,” I said, looking at the doorway as the hunter who had left previously came back, carrying a ringing phone in his hand, “Is that for me?”
“It’s your phone,” He said, tossing it over to me, “It’s definitely not for me.”
Tapping the answer button and holding it to my ear, there were a lot of voices that I thought it might be, but the one that I hadn’t expected to hear was Claire, all frantic tones and panicked shout. “Amy? Are you alright? I just heard about the attacks, I didn’t know anything about them!”
“I’m fine, we’re fine,” I said, “A few hunters were killed this morning, but we managed to save the other person they tried to kill. We’re… pretty hurt though.”
“Jesus… this wasn’t us, that warning I gave you this morning? It was absolutely her, our group just… isn’t reckless enough to do these sorts of things so quickly!” The hum of traffic was clear through the receiver, so it was clear at least that she wasn’t in the forests. “How hurt are you? Is it bad?”
“I think one of my ribs is broken, and I’ve got some pretty bad cuts on my arms and back. Christine looks worse but she already looks like she’s mending pretty well.” Pretty hard not to see when the coat wasn’t even buttoned up. “You should see the other shifters though, we gave them back twice what they gave us.”
“That’s just going to make them angrier,” She said, “But what else could you do? They were attacking you, you had to defend yourself.”
That was true, but it didn’t change that the situation was likely going to get worse before it got better. It could have all been avoided though if they hadn’t attacked in the first place, any actions that we take in self-defense after this is their fault. “Have you seen your leader around lately? Or has he moved on to go and plan with his wife?”
“He’s still at the camp as far as I know, I was only there for about ten minutes before I left to get into the city, and when I was there he seemed… angry, actually. I don’t think that she told him what she was going to do, he’s scrambling just as much as we are it turns out.”
“Good, that’s really good actually.” Well there was an opportunity right in front of me, why not just take it? “Can you speak to him? Maybe convince him to get in contact with us, to set up a meeting to talk about this? If he isn’t on the same page that his wife is then that’s something that we can work with, all we need to do is get him to doubt her just a little bit more.”
“Yeah I can talk to him tonight, he’ll probably send someone in tomorrow with an answer, it might even be me. If it is me then I’ll come and deliver the message personally, just tell the werewolves not to kill me when I walk up. That would kind of make this into an even bigger personal disaster.”
“Don’t worry, they’re not going to kill you. Most of them probably know who you are by now anyway, and if anyone can relate to what you’ve been through it would be all of them.” I looked up at Christine, who just nodded absently before going back to her drink. “Keep in contact Claire, I want to be sure that you’re ok.”
“I’m not going to drop off the face of the earth, don’t worry,” She laughed, “I’ll give you a call tomorrow regardless of if he’s sending me or not, if anything goes wrong you’ll be the first to know. And… Amy?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry about not being able to warn you about this morning, I thought that there would be more time before anyone decided to make a move, I should have known better.”
“You’re just one person Claire, you can’t know everything.” Saying my goodbyes and wishing her luck, I hung the phone up and let it dangle from my hand, reaching over for Christine’s glass. “Can I have that?”
“No,” She said, “You can’t mix pills and alcohol. That would be bad.”
“Ugh, fine,” I groaned, standing up to walk to the door, “Can your people check me out before I go? I want to be sure that I don’t have a concussion.”
“Of course, just walk to the end of the hall and someone should be waiting for you there.” She leaned back in her chair, refilling her glass and placing it against her temple. “Meanwhile, I’m going to take a few hours to just… recuperate a bit.”
Julian shook his head as he accompanied me, looking around the warehouse while we walked the distance down the hall to the doctors. “Hell of a place they’ve got here,” He said, “I didn’t know that werewolves would be so good at healing people. Just goes to show what I knew I guess.”
“There’s probably a lot that both of us don’t know, you could probably write a book about it. I�
��m just hoping that I learn a bit more from all of this, it’d be nice for something good to come out of this whole mess.”
“Something good coming out of this really would be a miracle,” He chuckled, “Trust me, the amount of times that I’ve actually come out of a situation like this actually feeling good about anything that happened can be counted on one hand. And funnily enough, pretty much every time that I can count has been with this alliance behind me.”
“Aww…” I patted his cheek, puffing out my lips. “Are you getting soft on us?”
“I’m just being realistic,” He said, “But also… I suppose I’m also trying to say that I’m grateful for all of this, it’s nice not having to watch my back constantly, most hunters don’t make it to old age and it’s not just because something tears us apart, sometimes the stress is enough to do that alone.”
“I can only imagine, it must have been hard living in constant fear like that.”
“I suppose we all were though weren’t we? But now we’re just a little bit less scared of each other.” He held the door open for me, nodding at the werewolf who seemed to look like a doctor. “Just know that whatever you decide to do, we’ve got your back, one hundred percent.”
The doctor shuffled me in, pushing me down gently into the chair and letting the door swing closed. “Alright, what can you tell me about what happened? I can clearly see the gashes, but did anything else happen that might not be showing?”
“Well, they punched me in the back, it feels like a rib is broken but I don’t know about anything else in there, and I’ve had a really bad headache for a while now, but that might be from earlier.”
“Ah yes, the knockout.” He nodded. “Tricky thing that, always difficult to judge if there has been serious damage taken from falling unconscious, at least in your case we can see it was likely just a minor concussion, it should clear up on its own with some discomfort. Though if you were hit on the head today that could complicate things…”
