The whole vehicle wobbles from side to side forcing me to duck low and cling or be thrown. From inside, Rayne gives a startled yelp while both Duo and Solo growl menacingly.
Aleksandar peels himself from the paintwork limping and shaking his head. For the first time, an expression of fear fills his eyes. He hauls himself upright and faces the crowd boiling around our van. His followers still call and shout and cheer, but his gaze is all for Pete.
The beastly white form stalks forward on powerful digitigrade legs, bushy tail swishing for balance. Huge muscled arms spread wide, pale claws gleaming like knives. “Stand down, Aleksandar.” Even the voice is pure animal, low and rough and powerful.
How can the small, soft, and timid Pete shift to become this hybrid monstrosity?
I find myself glued to the spot, unable to move or even think about doing so. Maybe I misjudged them. Maybe they really do have this in hand and Aleksandar is about to experience a rude awakening.
Aleksandar turns to our van, amber eyes wide and frightened. He spies me, Rayne, then Duo and Solo. His wide nostrils flare with a loud exhale of rage. “You two should be ashamed. Which pack did you abandon to join SPEAR?”
Solo and Duo share a glance. As ever it’s a little unsettling to see two identical faces and bodies right beside each other, but I’ve become used to the werewolf twins.
In perfect sync, both Duo and Solo arch their left eyebrows.
“Don’t distract yourself,” says Duo.
“You’ll lose,” adds Solo.
As if to compound the sentiment, Pete steps closer still, clawed toes grinding at the road. “Do you yield?”
The fear melts away as though never present at all. “Never. I yield to no one, certainly not the likes of you, too concerned with what’s happening outside the pack to protect your own.” Aleksandar begins to sidestep, always with his back to the van.
“It doesn’t have to be this way.”
I have to commend Pete for trying, even now, to use words. It won’t work, I know that, but the effort causes me to pause long enough to admire their efforts. Though I struggle to admit it, I know Wendy would be proud.
Then Aleksandar leaps onto the roof of the van.
I’ve no idea what he’s intending, but Rayne and Pete clearly make the same leap in logic because several things happen at once.
Rayne slithers out of the van like an eel, eyes burning the brightest, glittering silver. She claws at Aleksandar’s legs even as Pete dives past her to grab his departing tail. They both pull, yanking Aleksandar away from me even as Hawk drops out of the sky beside me and tries to scoop me off the van.
I bat at his hands, still trying to see, still trying to watch Pete win this impossible fight.
But this interference seems just what Aleksandar is waiting for because instead of pursuing me, he releases his grip on the roof and slides down as both Rayne and Pete want. Then, on the ground, he flips onto his back, slips between Pete’s legs, and shuts his powerful jaws on their tail.
Pete howls in fury and pain, scrambling back to escape. But the grip is too strong and without the tail to counterbalance the huge body, Pete tumbles over in a heap on the road.
Aleksandar wastes no time in pressing the advantage. Never once releasing his grip on the tail, he spins again and sinks both sets of claws into Pete’s stomach.
Blood bubbles up through the horrendous wounds and another feral bellow cuts the night.
Rayne reaches the roof just as Hawk pins my wrists and the pair drag me down to the ground on the other side. Away from the fight.
“No. No, I need to see.”
“Danika—”
“Get off me.”
“Wait a second—”
“Let go.”
A shrill, startled yelp cuts the air, followed by a thick, wet tearing sound.
Then silence.
Even the bellowing crowd of onlookers has stilled.
Trapped between Rayne and Hawk, I can hear the petrified hammering of my own racing heart.
“What happened?”
More silence.
“Pete?” My heart is in my throat. “Pete?”
More wet tearing. A sharp gasp from dozens of throats.
Then a bone rattling cheer.
Our van crunches beneath new weight as a furry figure bounds onto the roof. A tall, slender figure with sleek fur in patches of grey and black. A figure holding something long, white, and dripping bright red blood.
Hawk swallows audibly. “Is that…?”
“Mx. Dunn’s tail,” whispers Rayne.
Nausea bubbles within me. I choke it down as best I can, but my stomach still turns in tight, coiling knots. “Pete? Pete, say something.”
The cheers intensify. I can hardly hear anything now, just the roar of many voices calling and shouting, cries that gradually morph into a low, chilling chant. “Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…”
A small stream of red flows between the front wheels of the van, slow, sluggish, and choked with clots of fur and thicker lumps of gore.
“Pete.”
“Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…”
Stamping feet now, marking out the rhythm of that chant.
“Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…”
“Pete, please, say something—fuck’s sake, will you two let go.”
At last, both Hawk and Rayne release me.
I run around the van, but the crowd there is too thick and no amount of shoving will get me through. The wolves are a closed wall, blocking the scene from view.
“Pete. Please, Pete, speak to me.”
“Aleksandar…Aleksandar…Aleksandar…”
Someone howls. The call is copied. Then again. And again. And again.
Within moments, all but a few of the wolves are howling and calling, some even beginning to shift as the excitement gets the better of them.
“Aleksandar…Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…Aleksandar…Dire Wolf…”
“It’s over.” Aleksandar holds the torn tail high above his head, mindless of the blood dripping from the severed end. “Petra fought and lost and now…I lead you.”
“Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…”
“With our alpha gone, captured unlawfully by SPEAR, it’s up to us to do what he couldn’t. We’ll rescue him. We’ll do what that,” he points downward, “pathetic screw-up couldn’t or wouldn’t do. But before we do that…” a long, drawn-out pause. “We’ll clean our land.”
Ice floods my body. Again I shove at the wall of bodies and this time someone moves. It’s not much, but enough to allow me glimpses of Pete prone on the ground in a spreading pool of blood. One ear is mangled and torn, the other ripped almost wholly off. A gaping hole at the base of the spine pumps a steady flow of blood that first soaks into fur before joining the widening stream running off down the street.
Worse still, they’re not moving.
“Get that pale furred mongrel out of my sight. We don’t need weakness like that in our pack. It’s about time we culled the weakest from our pack, from our blood. Pups like that have no place among us Dire Wolves.”
“Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…Dire Wolf…”
In snatches and half glances, I can see some of Pete’s followers lift them from the ground. Body limp, arms dangling, they carry the maimed form to the inner edge of the circle of onlookers. But they can’t get through either.
“I’m not without mercy,” Aleksandar goes on, now speaking with a smug smile on his face. “Those of you who disobey will be punished or cast out. Maybe both. Those who show sense and follow me…well, you’ll be able to tell Wensleydale that you were one of those who did everything in your power to protect our territory and our land. Make the choice quickly. We have work to do.”
“Aleksandar.” I have to bellow to be heard above the din, but his ears twitch in my direction as I speak. “Aleksandar, stop this. Please, you have to—”
“Have to? I have to?” The furry
form slides off the roof of the van. The crowd scatters to make space immediately, giving him a clear path toward me. “I don’t have to do anything you say, SPEAR agent. Unless we break a law, you have no power here.”
Actually I do. The words are almost on my lips before I recognise how foolish that would be. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that Aleksandar never learn that Wendy pledged himself to me. I’d be dead in seconds and Wendy himself would soon follow.
“You killed Pete.”
“I merely showed Petra what true strength and power is. But a young thing like that? I couldn’t kill. No, no, never. Maim?” He shakes the tail, scattering blood everywhere. “Perhaps maim, yes, but I’d never kill.”
“But—”
“Now you and your team have interfered quite enough. I’d thank you, but it might set a dangerous precedent. Instead, I’m giving you thirty seconds to clear off pack territory.”
I bunch my hands into fists. “You can’t do that.”
“I just did. Twenty-nine.”
“Aleksandar—”
“Twenty-eight.”
Rayne grabs my arm. Her skin is a queer shade of green, but she still manages to yank me back against her and drive us both toward the open van. “Come on.”
“But Pete—”
“Will be better off than us if we don’t move.”
“But—”
“Your fanger friend is right, Agent. Twenty-seven.”
I don’t know what to do.
How could this escalate so quickly? How could Pete lose? Why wasn’t I able to help?
Duo and Solo are already in the front seat. The engine starts with a roar and Rayne bundles me in through the side door, following close behind to trap me there.
Hawk shuts it from the outside, then takes to the skies without looking back.
From in here, the yells, chanting, and howling are muted but not wholly gone. I sit on one of the edge seats, numbed and silent, obediently following a touch to my wrist and lifting my arm.
Rayne snaps a seat belt in place around me then double taps the front two seats.
Then we’re moving, leaping forward with a squeal of grinding gears. Another crunch as Aleksandar leaps off the roof and a yelp of surprise from upfront as the remnants of Pete’s tail slides down the windshield.
I lower my head to my hands and take a couple of deep breaths.
They don’t help. Not even a little bit.
Chapter Fourteen
About half a mile away, Duo stops the van. He leans back over the top of his seat, peering at me and Rayne. Ugh, who am I kidding, he’s looking at me.
Solo mirrors the gesture leaning over his own seat with the edge of his bottom lip pulled up between his teeth. “Are you okay?”
Redundant questions for all, please.
I shake my head. “What have I done?”
“Nothing—”
“Wendy trusted me.” I cut across Rayne with a grunt. “He came to SPEAR specifically looking for me and look what happened.”
“You couldn’t have stopped that, Danika. None of us could.”
“But—”
Rayne touches my arm. “You really think your actions kick-started that? Come on, Aleksandar was undermining Mx. Dunn before we ever arrived and look how many of the pack were behind him. This is not your doing.”
“But—”
Solo clears his throat. “She’s right, Danika. You’re human, you can’t see it, but I can.”
“And me.” Duo looks to his brother. “It was so strong.”
“We could smell it—”
“—and so could every other wolf there.”
“Aleksandar is a fighter—”
“—a born leader—”
“—and he never would have allowed Chalks to lead for as long as he did—”
“Except Wensleydale was always around.”
“But not today.”
“Okay, okay, you two.” I lift my hand. “Can you stop that for a second. It freaks me out.”
Both hang their heads in perfect unison. “Sorry.” Their voices come out as one.
Bloody hell.
A thump outside our van signals Hawk returning. He arrives with both Erkyan and Willow, the first clinging to his back, the second cradled in his arms.
All three are clearly shaken, Hawk perhaps more than the others. Several dots of blood mark his pale green face. His clawed hands shake as he wipes the marks away, the long spines of his wings trembling to match.
He swears, something truly filthy and angry. I know most of the words, but Gargoyle isn’t a language I know well. The gist is clear enough though.
I jerk the doors open and step out onto the street.
Wow. Even from so far away, I can hear the remnants of the fight. Howls, calls, and yells, carrying on the night air. My skin crawls.
“Okay, we need to calm down.” Not sure who I’m telling, but I need the pep talk as much as anybody else. “If we stay calm and think this through, it will be fine. We just need to figure out the next steps.”
Duo grunts. “There are no next steps.”
“Aleksandar won. The fight is over.” Solo climbs out of the van.
“But—”
“He. Won. It’s over.” There’s quiet regret in Solo’s voice, but he adds no more than that. Instead he walks back along the street, head bowed, hands clenched into fists.
I let him go. “Okay, fine. So he leads the pack now. What about Wendy?”
Rayne steps close to my side. Her body is still and silent, but her presence is a comfort even now. I’d give a lot for a brief moment alone with her, just to feel her arms around me.
As if sensing my thoughts, she reaches for my hand. Her fingers brush mine for the briefest moment before sliding away. “We still have a job to do,” she says. “Remember? It’s not just Mr. Gordan’s pack. We need to figure out why werewolves as a whole are acting as they are. Perhaps we can visit another pack and get some answers.”
Willow smiles at me. Her teeth are slightly green and pointed, her eyes wide around slitted pupils. Her hands move, a little flutter of signs and patterns with long, dexterous fingers.
“We will work together.”
Or at least I think that’s what she says. Sprite Sign is still new to me, but I have enough for basic conversation.
I flutter my own hands and fingers in response. “Thank you.”
Her smile widens.
Back to Rayne. “Next stop is Grey Tail, then. They aren’t as accommodating as the Dire Wolves, but that’s still somewhere to start. You guys up for that?”
Hawk, Erkyan, and Willow all nod. I glance back to the van at Duo, but he doesn’t seem to have heard me. He’s still at the wheel, clutching it with both hands.
For the first time, I notice how pale his knuckles are and that his eyes are scrunched tightly shut. In fact, his entire body is tense, muscles coiled up like a spring.
“Duo?”
His eyes snap open. “Get in the van.”
“Huh?”
“Right now, everyone in.”
* * *
The urgency in his voice propels all of us into immediate action. Erkyan and Willow move first, diving through the open doors without a word. Hawk eyes the vehicle, then bounds upward, landing lightly on the outstretched arm of a nearby street lamp.
Rayne pulls at me.
“What’s happening? And what about Solo?”
“The Dire Wolves are moving,” Duo snaps. “He’ll follow at a distance, but we need to get off the road.”
“What?”
“Move.”
Back into the van again, but not before I finally notice the sound previously on the edge of my hearing.
All that yelling and howling, it’s closer now. Close enough in fact that I’m stunned I hadn’t heard it clearly before. With it I catch a rumbling sound, like marching, but there are too many feet for it to be anything as human and mundane as marching.
No, this is something else.
Rayne slams the door just as Duo guns the engine.
The van leaps forward, ka-chunking swiftly through gears.
Duo’s eyes are narrowed, his hands carefully positioned at two and ten. He speeds us away from the edge of pack territory and toward more populated and touristy areas outside the Bowl.
But the sound of howls is gaining on us.
“One of you get the radio,” I call out while moving toward the back of the van, smearing condensation with my hand to better see through the glass.
Nothing. Just empty streets.
Why then do I feel so sick and tense? Why is my stomach knotted with deep, crawling fear?
Static crackles through the vehicle’s speakers followed by Duo’s stiff voice.
“Hawk, you got eyes up there? What’s happening?”
More crackling and then, “Uh…do you want the good news or the bad news?”
Great.
“Tell us, Hawk.” Still I watch our rear. “What’s happening?”
“Good news is, I can see Solo and he’s fine. He’s wedged under a car on the outskirts of Dire Wolf territory. I think they know he’s there, but no one seems to care.”
Duo grunts from his position up front. “He’s fine. What’s the bad news?”
A pause.
“Hawk?”
“They’re moving. The Dire Wolves I mean.”
“What?” I crane my neck, but from within the vehicle there’s no way I can see him. “What are you talking about?”
“Aleksandar is at the front, still in hybrid form. Dozens of others, maybe all of them, are with him. They’re running.”
“Where?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I think I do, Hawk. What’s happening?”
The others gather around me, now fighting to see out the back window.
They needn’t have bothered.
Around a corner at the end of the road strides a single werewolf in hybrid form. An instant later comes another. And another. And another.
Within seconds, the road at our rear is a boiling mass of sprinting monsters, a wave that swells and engulfs our vehicle in seconds.
Duo puts his foot down, but we’re not fast enough.
The wolves overtake us en masse, flowing around us, over us, never once stopping, but buffeting us from every angle as they continue on their way.
Moon Fever Page 12
