by D V Wolfe
“This much,” I said, showing him.
Vince sighed and set the water down. “I’ve got some contacts in eastern Nebraska. Let me see what I can dig up.”
I glanced at Noah and saw he was looking towards the bathroom, longingly, and shifting around on the bed beside me. “I’m going to go outside for a bit and think,” I said to Noah. “As long as you don’t mind Mick and Vince being in here, you could throw yourself a parade in that bathroom.”
Noah looked relieved. I grabbed my cell phone and headed outside. The front of the bungalow didn’t really have a porch. A rotting wooden bench leaned against the wall to one side of the front door and I sat down, elbows on knees and my face in my hands. I was so numb. Another friend, another person just trying to help me, snuffed out. Why did I let her come? Why did I ask her? I could have come and evaluated the situation and then called her for her advice. She could be safely at home, drinking wine and chopping vegetables or whatever Tiff did in her free time away from the salon and away from her Faoladh duties. Instead, she was a prisoner, maybe murdered already, by a pack of asshole werewolves, possibly being controlled by something that just wanted to kill me. Every time that finger made its way back to pointing right at me.
I was staring into the half-empty parking lot and it took me a minute to realize my cell phone was ringing. Excitement surged through me, hoping it was Tiff. I’d tried her cell phone twice on the way home. Straight to voicemail.
“Tiff!?”
“No, it’s me,” Rosetta said. “Are you in Missouri with Tiffany? I thought you and the kid would be coming by for Sunday supper.”
I gave a weary sigh. I’d forgotten to call Rosetta when we took this job. I filled Rosetta in and took the tongue-lashing she gave me for not calling her.
“And they took Tiffany?” Rosetta asked.
“It was my fault,” I said. “I was right there and I should have been able to stop it.”
“With what?” Rosetta asked. “Bane, from the sounds of it, unless you’d been Rambo with a silver-ammoed Gatling gun, there wasn’t anything you could have done to stop it.”
“I shouldn’t have brought her with me,” I said.
“There’s no use in crying over spilled blood,” Rosetta said. “Tiffany is as sharp as they come and I know she doesn’t look it, but she’s been around and at this, for a very long time.” There was a pause and then Rosetta said. “So you think the demon is controlling the pack?”
“From what Vince, Mick, and Tiff tell me, something has to be controlling them,” I said.
“Well there can’t be too many things that can do that,” Rosetta said. “I’ll get Stacks off his ass and into researching it and I’ll tell Taggert to get along to help him.”
“Thanks, Rosetta,” I said.
“Don’t lose heart, Bane. Just make a new plan.”
After I hung up with Rosetta, I stood up and headed back inside. Time for a new plan. Noah was sitting on one bed, the .45 sitting on the covers next to him. Vince was sitting next to Mick who was in and out of wakefulness as they filled him in on what happened. They all looked up when I walked in.
“Anything?” Noah asked.
I shrugged. “Rosetta sends her love.”
“We were thinking,” Vince began. “We go back at first light and get Lucy. The pack will be sleeping or at least mostly in their den…”
I shook my head. “Vince, they’ve been hunting by day. I doubt there won’t be another full-frontal assault waiting for us.”
My cell rang again and I flipped it open, expecting it to be Rosetta or maybe if we were extremely lucky, Tags or Stacks with something helpful.
It was Tiffany.
“Bane,” Tiff said and I strained to listen to every rise and fall of her voice. Was she hurt? Did she have a claw around her throat?
“Tiff,” I said. “Are you alright? What did-”
She cut me off. “No time for that. You need to listen to my words…” She paused so that I’d understand. When a hunter is in duress, captured, has a gun on them, etc., we slip in lyrics from Black Sabbath’s “Crazy Train”. I already knew she was under duress. I had a feeling that this call meant that she hadn’t been able to leave the pack of her own free will and call us for pick up. This was a demand call. I could hear it in the way she was carefully forming her words. They were watching her. And listening.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“Bane, the elders have impressed upon me that you are what they want. If you will come and surrender yourself to them,” Tiffany paused and I could hear what she wasn’t saying, which was ‘fuck that noise’. “Then,” she continued. “They’ll let me go.”
“When do they want to do the hostage exchange?” I asked.
Tiff paused and I could feel her wanting to argue with me, but she was most likely surrounded, so I pleaded with the universe that she would just hold it in. “Tonight, at midnight.”
“That’s a long ways away,” I said softly, glancing at the glowing numbers on the bedside clock, spelling out 2:07am. “Will you be safe until then?” I tried to phrase it as a ‘yes or no’ question so that Tiff wouldn’t have to let what we were discussing slip.
She hesitated. “Yes.” She finally said. “A sentinel will take you into the den. Stand by your truck at midnight. No weapons, no tricks.”
The line went dead.
I tried recalling. Voicemail.
I slumped down onto the bed next to Noah. It took me a few seconds to realize that Vince, Noah, and even a bleary-eyed Mick were staring at me, waiting for me to speak.
“Well?” Noah asked.
“Hostage exchange,” I said. “They want to trade Tiff for me at midnight, tonight.”
Vince turned his watch to check the time. “That gives us about twenty-two hours to come up with a plan.”
“What plan?” I asked. “You hand them me, they hand you Tiff, the four of you get the hell out of there.”
Noah snorted. “Well, we’re not using your plan.”
I shook my head. “It’s the only one that would mean that I can guarantee the four of you get out of here alive and unharmed.”
Vince rolled his eyes. “And it’s a bullshit plan, Bane.” I opened my mouth to protest and he held up a hand. “Bane, we’re hunters. We don’t do shit the easy way when it means leaving a fellow hunter as a dinner guest for a pack of werewolves. Think of another plan.”
They weren’t listening to me. I was so pissed that I stood and started to pace. “Well, my truck is still out there. I have eight more rounds of silver for the .357, Noah has about what, nine shots left for the .45 and you, Vince?”
Vince looked a little uncomfortable. “I’ve got six silver rounds left.”
“For each gun or total?” I asked.
“Total,” he said.
I nodded. “Ok, so we have enough silver to kill, if we don’t miss with a single round, twenty-three of the furry dickbags.” I shrugged. “Well, that’s not too bad. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell exactly how huge this pack is.”
“Yeah,” Vince said. “I noticed that too. This has to be several packs united under one alpha.”
I nodded. “Tiff said that could be the case.” I looked from Noah back to Vince. “Besides the size of the pack, our shots-to-kills ratio isn’t so good. How many did you two get last night?”
Vince shrugged. “I was driving so I think I only put down two?”
“One,” Noah said.
“And I had five,” I said. “Of course I was at point-blank range seeing as how they were about to shake some pepper on my legs and chow down. I spent six, how many did you two run through?”
“A clip on each gun,” Vince said.
“Two clips,” Noah said quietly.
I nodded. “So we’re not so good at a distance with these jerks. I propose we come up with a way to get right up on top of them.”
“We could just drive right into the den, not slow down or stop, maybe run some of them over with the Jeep,”
Vince said. “Then come out shooting?’
“They might kill Tiff if we go that route,” I said.
“What if we snuck out there and grabbed a couple of the dead ones, skinned them, wore their skins and snuck in like a...Trojan horse,” Noah said.
We all turned to look at him.
“What?” He asked.
I shook my head. “You’re volunteering to gut, skin, and wear a werewolf carcass?” I asked.
Noah looked a little green at the description.
“Anyway,” Vince said. “It wouldn’t work. Packs know each member’s face as well as their distinct smell. They know which ones fell tonight.”
We all were quiet for a moment. “I think Bane is right,” Mick said, his voice croaky. We all looked at him. “To get Tiffany out unharmed, you have to do the trade for her.” I nodded and Vince and Noah immediately began to argue with him.
“We’re not sending her in there to die,” Vince snapped.
“Not to die,” Mick said. “To decoy.”
Something clicked into place in my head. “While I’m doing the prisoner exchange for Tiff, the rest of you…”
“Are setting up an ambush,” Vince said, looking like he got it too.
“How are we going to ambush, like forty, bear-sized werewolves?” Noah asked.
“By taking their Alpha out first,” I said. “Without the Alpha to control the rest of the pack and tell them what to do, there should be chaos. We’ve got enough silver bullets for half,” I said. “Silver knives for the rest.”
Vince was looking skeptical but Noah smiled. “There’s the shit plan I knew had to be coming.”
I gave him the finger.
“I’ll call around and see if I can round up any more ammo for us,” Vince said. “I know that if we don’t shoot them right in the head or the heart, it usually takes more than one bullet to put the bastards down.”
Vince got up to get his cell phone and I looked at Noah. “Grab the map. Let’s get this shit plan rolling.”
At ten am, we were doing what we could to try to map out how an ambush would work when a thought occurred to me. I got to my feet. “We’re going,” I said, tucking the .357 into the back of my jeans. “Now.”
“The trade-off is set for midnight,” Vince said.
“Yeah,” I said, “When they have the advantage. They can see in the dark. We can’t. We have to use light to get around which makes us easy targets. If we go now, when the sun is up, at least we’re on even footing with them.”
“Ok,” Noah said, “but what if they decide to hurt Tiffany because we came early?”
“Why would they?” I shrugged. “If they want me, I can’t think of any reaction except for ‘surprised delight’ that I showed up early.”
“Sounds good to me,” Vince said. “I hate waiting around anyway.” Vince and Noah scrambled to grab what they needed. Vince hadn’t been able to find more ammo locally, but he’d taken a trip to a local pawn shop and come up with a couple of extra silver knives that looked like they’d come from a mismatched cutlery set. Mick sat up and pulled his boots on.
“Uh, what are you doing?” I asked Mick.
“Coming with you,” Mick said. He looked better, but definitely not back to one hundred percent. He held his hand up when I started to protest. “You’re down a person, you’re jumping the gun, it sounds like Tiff is in serious trouble and you can use all the help you can get.” Mick cut his eyes to Vince. “And Vince will never admit this, but I’m a better shot than he is.”
The two of them argued all the way to the Jeep. Noah was quiet beside me. He didn’t look as excited about werewolves now that he’d seen them in person.
In the daylight, the trip back out to the sewage treatment plant didn’t seem to take so long. We started up the dirt road through the pasture. When I saw Lucy in the distance I reached for the door handle. “Stop here. We might as well hold onto the ‘surprise’ part of our plan as long as we can.”
We climbed out and continued down the road, trying to stay low and move quietly in case there was a patrol. We didn’t run into anybody, and for some reason, that was worrying me more than what was waiting for us at the den. I knew that werewolves didn’t normally hunt during the day, but knowing that this pack already had, I’d expected some kind of daytime activity.
I moved around Lucy. She looked untouched except for the fresh silver bullet holes and the fact that the body of the werewolf had been taken out of the bed. The other bodies of the fallen werewolves were gone as well. I didn’t want to think too hard about what happened to them. There was a stand of trees fifty yards from the other side of Lucy. That was where the wolves had come from the night before. I could hear Mick breathing hard behind me. I turned to look back at him. He gave me a thumbs up, but I could see sweat streaming down his face. Noah moved beside him and the two of them fanned out to my left while Vince moved right. I went straight down the middle. I could feel the .357 at the small of my back. If they saw me carrying, I was afraid they’d immediately kill Tiff. They’d said no weapons. But what if I fumbled when they came running at me and I didn’t get it out in time? Noah and I had re-applied Rosetta’s disgusting cream shit but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to keep them from dogpiling me and ripping me apart like a chicken wing.
The ground was sloping away as I followed the huge paw prints in the dirt, into the wooded area. There were broken branches and chunks of bark missing on the outermost trees. I glanced around me and I saw Mick and Noah disappear behind some trees far left of me. Vince had already disappeared to my right. I stepped on a twig and the crack was almost deafening as I held my breath, hoping that I didn’t wake up the entire pack. Sounds of tree branches breaking responded to my twig snap and two hulking werewolves dropped to the ground in front of me from the trees overhead. I held up my hands, pretending to surrender, and then when I got close enough to them, I jerked the .357 out of the back of my jeans. They lunged and I shot one in the chest. The other one’s massive arm struck out at me and I felt his claw dig into my sternum. I stumbled back from him, gasping for breath against the pain, and I fumbled for the silver knife in my pocket. I really didn’t want to waste all my ammo, first thing. I raised the knife and the wolf knocked it out of my hand. Fuck. I shot him. Four shots left. I flipped the cylinder open and dug the two spare bullets I had out of the front pocket of my jeans, just as I felt the ground start to shake.
I looked up to see six more of the fursacks crashing through the trees, heading right for me. The one in front was a white massive beast. He lunged while I was fumbling to get the cylinder closed. He was almost on top of me when I fired. He collapsed on me, his momentum knocking me to the ground. I struggled to shove him off of me, relieved that he wasn’t moving. I felt the blade of my silver knife under my fingers and I closed it in my fist. I crawled out from under him as two more came at me. I shot one in the chest and stabbed the other. Pain rippled up my arm. The werewolves’ claws had dug into my forearm when I’d stabbed him. Behind him, the other three had split off, heading in the directions of Vince, Mick, and Noah’s gunfire. I climbed over the body in front of me and started running into the trees. I had to get to Tiff. What if they’d heard the gunfire and just killed her? This wasn’t the prisoner exchange they were expecting. Please universe, don’t make Tiff pay for this.
I pushed through the broken branches hanging limply from the fir trees. It was much dimmer here because the trees grew so closely together. There were sycamores scattered amongst the firs, blocking out sunlight. I hadn’t gone far when I saw Tiff. She’d been tied to a tree, her arms over her head. She was only half-transformed. Her head hung low, her chin resting on her chest and her eyes were closed. My heart stopped beating.
There was a disturbance in the undergrowth next to Tiff and I dove behind a tree. I peered around the trunk and a second later, the tallest werewolf I’d seen yet, stepped into the clearing. The wolf was grey and carried a silver dagger in one clawed hand. It was growling to the three follo
wing behind it. They howled in response and the sound of howls, from what felt like everywhere, answered at once. The grey wolf, who I assumed was the Alpha, growled something and the others left, heading back the way they had come.
It was just the Alpha and Tiff in front of me. Tiff let out a groan and moved her head, looking up at the Alpha. He raised the dagger to show her and she started to whimper. I two-handed the .357 and held my breath. I needed the best shot I could get. He was moving quickly, showing me mostly his side and back, but when he raised the silver knife over Tiff, I didn’t care about the angle anymore. I shot three times, each one hit him in the back, red beginning to spread over his grey fur. He turned slowly in my direction, the dagger still raised and I saw his cold empty eyes. I held my breath and fired again, trying to get him right in the heart. He was so fast, I barely had time to take a breath before he was on me. He hit me in the chest and knocked me over backward, the last shot in my gun going wide of him. Fuck. He was bleeding everywhere, but his jaws were open, inches from my neck. When he’d knocked me down, I’d dropped the silver knife.
