Chapter 28

So, instead of killing the wolf, I aimed low. I slipped my knife through her back leg, breaking the bone and tearing into the muscle. Her paws landed on the ground and she let loose a cry so loud that it registered to my abused ears. It was a clean slice and werewolves are used to pain, but I used a silver knife. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would burn like hell.

The wolf stood awkwardly on two paws. By luck, I had injured the back leg on the right side and her left forepaw was the one she damaged. She still growled, or at least I think that’s what she did since I couldn’t hear it over the car alarm, but she wasn’t dumb enough to attempt a third go.

I felt something hit the ground and whipped around. Loki had the wolf in human form on the ground, there was blood oozing from his nose and it looked like he’d been hit in the side of the head. Two steps. That’s how far I got to them before a fourth wolf appeared. He smelled muskier than the others, the way a wolf freshly changed would. His eyes were dark gold and his coat black. The change is painful, but it only takes about five minutes.

And, stupid me, I was just now paying attention to what my senses were telling me. There were another six werewolves within a half a block. All of them in the same place. If they were all changing to wolf, we’d be pretty fucked.

The black wolf turned to Loki and started backing him up against the building. I looked behind me and saw that Billy was beating the sable wolf with whatever she had grabbed. It was growling and snarling and spitting mad. Reggie was on the ground and she wasn’t moving, but I could still sense her, so she was alive.

I felt like cursing. All my options were bad, but I knew which was worse. Reluctantly, I turned back to Loki. “Keep him occupied!” I said. Then, without waiting for an answer, I took off down the street. The red wolf howled something angrily from behind me. I didn’t like the chances of it being a warning.

The cold had seeped into my legs and shoes, but I ignored it as I ran. In twenty minutes, I’d let myself be free to shiver and cuss Basil’s name. Right now, I had some wolves to deal with. It took less than a minute for me to run the block and skid to a stop where my senses were telling me the werewolves were.

An alley. How original.

I paused just outside. The car alarm was still loud to my ears, but I could hear the growling and curses from the fight as well. I could hear noises from the alley. Several grunts from wolves making the change and another voice crooning quietly. The latter was Basil’s. I’d recognize that accent anywhere.

I took a second to quietly catch my breath and decide whether to make a point or try to keep the peace. I heard Billy yelp in surprise and decided that she kind of made my decision for me.

I whipped around the corner and took one second to aim before letting my knife loose. It left my hand and seemed to immediately sink to the hilt into a wolf’s side. I was careful to aim for the shoulder, but it was still a painful target. The wolf bellowed and dropped the ground. It whined pathetically and pawed at Basil’s leg. All of it happened in about twenty seconds. In that time, I saw Basil, dressed for work, the one wolf I hit and the other four in the midst of their change.

Basil turned toward me, looking mightily pissed. His entire frame shook and his gray eyes turned gold. They didn’t look right in his tanned face, but his fury was too great to keep the wolf at bay. He didn’t change, but I think that was why his body was shaking. He held it back by pure force of will.

“What do you—” he began before I punched him in the jaw.

I felt his jaw snap shut. He was lucky to have fast reflexes. If he hadn’t moved at the last second, his jaw would be broken right now. I’d done it many times before.

“Me!” I demanded. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Then, to make my point clear, I kicked him in the ribs hard enough to send him to the ground. So now we were both soaking wet and he was covered in the alley slime. It was what he deserved.

He growled and it sounded just as menacing coming from his human throat than if he were a wolf. “Watch it, little girl,” he warned.

Too bad I was so over this. If he wouldn’t respect my race, then I would give him a reason too. I snatched him off the ground and held him against the bricks of the alley. My hand went around his throat and I started squeezing. Not enough to where he couldn’t talk, but enough to make my point. He grabbed my wrist and started tightening his grip. I let him because, although my bones immediately began to protest, I knew he wouldn’t actually break it.

“Listen carefully,” I said. “I don’t know what the fuck is up with you lately, but you need to smarten up again.”

His hand bit in deeper. Threatening.

He wasn’t usually like this. He wanted to take care of the lone wolves sent to the city. Sometimes that made him a bastard, but never like this. He’d never openly tried to kill us. Especially not in the fucking street while we’re looking for a child. Someone had been poking at his buttons and they hit the right one. There was fury in his eyes, but only some of it was directed at me. So I knew he wouldn’t break my wrist. He could attack us and battle us, but for him to snap my bone, a girl he’s known since she was sixteen and had never done anything bad to him before?

He wouldn’t be able to do it.

Snarling, he released me and I did the same to him. The yellow was dying out of his eyes. He was filthy and his normally wavy hair was a mess. It stuck up in all kinds of directions. There was a wildness about him that I’d never seen before and he smelled…more like a wolf than normal.

One of his wolves had finished their change when I was locked together with Basil. I learned this when his teeth sank into my arm, just below the elbow and yanked me around. Pain seared across my arm, but I pushed it aside to deal with the bigger issue. That being the wolf attached to me.

With the power of a hundred-and-fifty-pound wolf, I had no choice but to follow the movement or dislocate my shoulder. I spun out and onto my knees again, getting the alley filth all over myself as well. He shook my arm like it was a toy and he a puppy. The pain radiated deeper and his teeth sunk further into me. Another shake like that and I’d be dealing with a broken arm.

I was still thinking furiously about how to fix this when the ground vibrated. Crackling shot across the pavement and thousands of tiny holes appeared, radiating into the alley. Reggie, blood slowly dripping from her temple, stood at the entrance to the alley. Loki and Billy behind her, toting the injured wolves. The red one hobbling to catch up.

Reggie grabbed Basil by the collar when the wolf attached to me growled and flexed his jaw. If I ever find out who this is, they better run. Fast.

Reggie flexed her fingers and crackling filled the air. “Drop her. Now. Or I do to Basil what I just did the sidewalk. Understand, wolf?”

I didn’t think he did. He had the same mindlessness that the red wolf had. Nothing intelligent in his gold eyes. He growled again. There wasn’t a good enough angle for me to kick him in the side and I couldn’t get the leverage needed with my other hand to do any damage. He held my arm the right way.

“Do it,” Basil grunted.

The wolf released me and I stood up.

Then I kicked him in the side.

I walked back to Reggie’s side. Blood was dripping down my arm and onto the pavement. I was going to need lots of stitches in the stupid thing. If Reggie hadn’t skillfully put herself in front of me, I’d have gone and kicked the wolf again.

Reggie looked to Basil and they locked eyes. They didn’t say anything and I looked away from their staring contest. The red wolf had limped over to the others. My knife was still buried in the one’s shoulder. He was glaring at me, but not snarling. All the wolves… There was nothing of their person in their gaze. All those gold eyes steeped into the mindless brutality of the animal.

“Something is wrong here, Basil,” Reggie said quietly. “If you cannot see it…that is even worse. You need to collect your wolves and go. Stay hidden if you must,” she continued. “But next time you attack me or mine… I’ll kill you. And all the werewolves in Seattle. It’d be best if you remembered that.”

Basil blinked heavily and I could see him struggling to think. When he spoke, his voice was heavier than normal. Slower. “You have failed my kind, Regalia,” he said. “You have… Brought this upon yourselves.” He made a high, keening sound that did the same thing to my ears that the car alarm did. All the wolves dropped back and started slinking around the alley. The only other one in human form struggled to his feet and picked up the one injured with my knife. Basil grabbed the two that my companions had knocked unconscious and followed the others into the shadows.

We stood there for several seconds, waiting for them to attack again. When they didn’t immediately reappear, Reggie slumped and leaned against the nearest thing. It just happened to be me. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” I assured her. I’d need some stitches, but that wasn’t a big deal. Legions were immune to getting turned to wolves. Most races were. Only humans could be changed to werewolf or vampire and it would take something a lot more than this little bite to accomplish that. Plus, it was illegal without lots of court hearings and such.

Otherwise, the human race would have died out by now.

“That was strange,” Reggie said.

“Yup,” I agreed. “Loki, did you sense any magic on them?”

“No,” he said heavily. “I didn’t use my blocking on the wolves either. I did it on the man, though,” he said. “To keep him from turning into wolf. I don’t use it on them when they’re in wolf form because it blocks their human side and they become savage animals you have to kill.”

Reggie and I glanced at each other, but didn’t say anything.

Sirens sounded several miles away.

“Are you kidding me?” Billy asked. Her clothes, much like mine, were filthy, but they were also torn. Her glasses had barely stayed on her face and one of her braids was undone.

“We have the slowest response time for police in the country,” I said. “One of the people in the restaurant probably called the second they saw the first wolf.” Then a shrug. “The police are understaffed in the most crime ridden city. We should probably head out.”

Reggie and I started walking and Loki and Billy followed. Once we were far enough from the sirens, Reggie called Henrik and told him what happened. “Huh,” he said. “Interesting. Lixa didn’t answer your calls because her group was getting attacked by some vampires.”

Reggie stopped dead in her tracks. “What?” her voice was deadly calm.

“Yup,” Henrik said. “Seven of them, I believe. Two dead, four injured, one escaped unharmed. Guess who killed the two?”

My friend took in a deep breath. Then another. Her dark eyes were filled with so much fury. “Okay then,” she said. “Tell everyone that we’re having a discussion tomorrow on how to deal with this problem.” Her voice was so dark and patiently seething. She and Debienne hated each other like a mongoose hates a snake.

Her deadly calm was only the tip of this ice burg.

I was stitched up, wrapped up and free to head upstairs. I had made Reggie wait until I was showered to take care of my arm. It wouldn’t do much harm. I couldn’t get an infection and legion medicine was pretty basic. Close all the wounds and make sure everything’s in the right place then walk away. However, I had been freezing and filthy when I got home and that took precedent in my book.

Loki was already ready for bed back upstairs. I kept forgetting to get another rollaway bed. Hell, the broken one was still crumpled in the corner. A heap of blankets and bent metal. I’d have get a new one quietly, because I had little doubt that Reggie would make a big deal out of my current sleeping arrangements.

Lixa and the others were fine, for the most part. Bruises, some cracked ribs and scratches. Vampires are easier to fight than werewolves. Most of them are untrained predators. Werewolves…fighting something on four feet with fangs and sharp nails isn’t easy. They latch on and you’re screwed. I have the stitches to prove it.

“So…that’s not a normal occurrence?” Loki asked while getting into bed.

I shrugged. “Which part? Getting attacked in the street? More often than you’d think. An organized attack in the street? Not as often. An organized werewolf attack? Not since I’ve been here.”

He sat thoughtfully for a little bit. I went into the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. I needed to do a load of laundry. I was almost out of towels and oversized shirts to wear to bed. I could just wear my tank tops like I usually did, but…some of them were thin from age and I wasn’t sure I wanted Loki to see that much of me.

Even if we were sharing secrets now.