Madness Descends

8. Hostage

It should take Artemis about 15 minutes to fly his BMW down here, so Rei hoped he could hold their interest till then. Staying on Briar's truck he played cat and mouse with the driver. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, Artemis pulled right in front of Briar's truck. Watching Artemis slow traffic behind him allowed Rei to sneak up behind the truck, the driver focused on Artie's car. When people saw that they were slowing down, they turned down other streets. Leaving just Artemis, the truck, and 3 other cars in front of Rei.

"Artemis, what are you doing? We don't know who is in there." Rei yelled into his phone.

"Calm down, brother. Turn right at the next intersection, I'll stay in front. See you shortly." Artemis gave Rei the code word, meaning he was going to be the bait, leaving Rei to give chase.

"Here we go." Rei turned down the road Artemis told him to, parked his Jeep, ran, on foot until he was behind a building. Dove burst forth from Rei, running in the direction of his brother.

Looking like a big, black, stray dog, no one paid any attention to him which made tracking a breeze! About two blocks ahead of his brother and the truck, Dove pulled himself up, allowing them to get closer. While the plan he and Artie had wasn't dangerous, didn't mean it wasn't going to hurt. Good thing he healed quick. Feeling the familiar static of his and Artie's "twin talk", was all Rei was waiting for.

Artemis sped up a little, laying the bait. The driver responded by picking up his speed. Just as Artie passed the alley where Dove waited for the truck to pass.

"There's Artemis, 2, 1, jump!" Dove hurled himself in front of the truck, the world went black as soon as he felt the impact. Artemis took Dove's distraction and stopped his car, jumped out, and got the bastard driving Briar's truck, but the driver took off on foot.

"Hey! Stop! Who are you?" Artemis ran by Dove, who was in tremendous pain, bleeding everywhere, knowing he had to get a bite to bring back to Rei, or this plan was a failure. The driver stopped suddenly, turning to face him, which caught Artemis off guard, forcing him to change tactics and go on the defensive.

"How do you want it?" Artemis growled, eyes going from steel gray to glowing silver.

"You're not enough wolf to take me, but you are welcome to try." The driver challenged.

"Oh how wrong you are." Artemis hissed, slipping into unconsciousness, letting his wolf, Stryxx emerge to handle the threat.

A eerie sound, resembling laughter, came from the driver's mouth. Sudden, dense fog started rolling in from the base of the driver's feet, surrounding him until it completely concealedq from view.

"Are you running away? I can't believe you're running away!" Stryxx growled. He turned to go help Rei, thinking the driver was gone.

"Where do you think you're going? I didn't run away, young wolf, I never run." The driver emerged from the fog, not as the hooded figure, but as a wolf clearly from his father's generation.

"I can see why Draken has been so quiet these last few hundred years. I pity him for having both sons grow into such huge disappointments, risking his future as Alpha, and by extension, the futures of his sons, over a powerful wolf spirit that hasn't lived in the world for centuries. Is that girl worth getting you and your brother killed?" A huge black and gold colored wolf with glowing blue eyes emerged from the fog.

This wolf was definitely from his father's generation. There was no way for him to fight this wolf and win. Their best bet was to get Rei, retreat, and plan a counter attack.