Chapter Nineteen
The woman, the babies, the man, the screaming.
I wake with a start, my head hurting the worst it has in weeks. My eyes are met with darkness and my nose can't make out anything; all of my senses have been dulled to uselessness. The floor is cold and hard beneath me: metal. I turn my neck so my forehead touches it; the coolness soothes my headache some. My body is horribly sore and stiff. I've probably been lying on the floor for hours now.
I try to bring my hands up to rub my eyes, but they're bound behind my back. I twist my wrists, testing the strength of the rope tied around them. If I could bring them down and over my legs I could bite at the knot with my teeth, but my shoulders and knees sting with pain the second I try to use them. There's no way I'll be able to shift like this. Into Wolf or any other form.
Wolf? What do we do? How do we get out of here?
There's no answer. She's there somewhere, but her presence feels disconnected.
Wolf, I need you, we've got to—
A pair of hands grasps onto my leg and move upwards, feeling like a blind man might over a wall for a door.
Goosebumps erupt over my skin.
"Falon, are you awake?" a voice whispers from the darkness.
River. Thank god, it's River. I turn on my side to face him and his hand squeezes my thigh. The breath from his sigh of relief blows gently over my face. As long as we're together we can figure this out.
"Yeah." I roll my forehead back and forth over the floor. "I can't see or smell anything. Wolf is asleep or something," I croak.
"It's the drugs. They'll wear off."
"Since when does a drug affect us like this?"
"Since they invented it," he says, turning me over with his bound hands, "I'm gonna try and untie you."
He curses at the rope, tearing at the knot in it.
There are others around us. I can feel them even before I can hear them groaning and shifting around. "My head is on fire. The memory is burning a hole through it," I cringe.
"It's because of the others," he explains. "You've never been around this many before. If you can't feel Wolf, it should go away soon," he says.
"River, what happened? Did you see Blythe?"
"Blythe? Why was she there?"
I bite my lip, wondering how much to tell him. "She saved me from the werewolves," I say. It's not a lie, just not the whole truth. "Did Cara and Ramsey catch you?"
He laughs. "Catch me? Nope." I can see his crooked smile in my mind. "I managed to lose them and circled back for you."
"How the hell did you outrun them?"
"I didn't. I shifted into a mouse and hid. They passed right by me." His hair brushes against the exposed skin on my back as he bites at the knot.
"A mouse? How?"
He spits bits of rope out of his mouth. "Sheer desperation. Got a broken wrist and dislocated shoulder out of it."
He's got to be a mess of broken bones by now. "Then rest. I can move better now."
"I'm fine. The drugs are numbing a lot of the pain," he says, continuing to tear at the rope with his teeth.
"How'd you get caught?"
People around us start whispering to each other. The drugs are wearing off fast now. My senses are starting to come back and the headache and memory are slowly fading.
"Same way you did. Bastard jabbed me in the neck," River says. He tugs on my wrists. "Start pulling your arms apart, it should break."
I do as he says and, with his help, the rope snaps.
"Your turn," I say, grabbing his arm.
"H-hello?" a young boy squeaks. I catch his scent: an odd mix of cookie dough and freshly cut grass.
"Where are we? Who are you people?" a woman asks. She smells like spices and herbs. And fear.
"Use your senses, girl. We're kin," an older man's voice answers. He stinks of cigars and scotch.
"Why are we here? What are they going to do to us?" the boy asks.
It's dark, but the little light streaming in from holes in the walls and ceiling shows about six other shadowy forms, some sitting, some standing, some still lying on the floor.
River stands. "Nothing. Whatever they've got planned, we're getting out of here."
"No one gets out of this, son," the old man says, "if this is what I think it is."
"What's that?" the woman sobs.
"The hunting ground. Where they train them to track us," he replies.
I can just barely see the boy moving closer to the older man. "Train who to what?" He's not very big. Can't be older than eleven.
"The werewolves and vampires. Train 'em to track us, son. You been livin' under a rock?"
"I live with my aunt. S-she's human. I was with her. A big wolf—t-that was a werewolf? It c-came after me. I don't know what happened to m-my aunt. Why are they—"
"It doesn't matter why, boy. Just that they do. And there ain't nothing we can do about it. Been happening for centuries. We run, they find us, they kill us. Nothin' gonna change it now," the old man says.
"There's a lot we can do about it" River asserts. He stoops to help the boy up off the ground. "When they come for us, we stay together. Fight. If you run, you're abandoning your kind and halving our chance, and yours, of getting out of here alive."
"They're going to kill us all," the woman cries.
"No. We stick together and we'll get out of this."
There's a bang on the outside wall and the woman screams. The boy starts to cry.
"Stick together," River repeats, emphasizing each syllable.
He's about to say more, but I grab his wrists and start tearing at the rope with my teeth.
Doors open behind us and the room floods with light. Only it's not a room. It's the trailer of a semi-truck.
I shade my eyes with my hand. I can smell him before I can see him. Another werewolf, and he reeks of excitement. He closes the door behind him and my eyes are lost to the darkness again.
"When I open these doors again, run. You get away, you get to live," he says, yanking someone to their feet.
I bite at River's rope so hard my gums start to bleed. I can't shift yet. I can feel it. And if River can't either he's going to need both of his hands if we're going to fight.
"Stay with me. Don't leave my side, okay?" he says, pulling his hands out of my grasp. "No matter what happens, do not let Wolf out. You have to promise." He looks at me expectantly.
There's no way I'll make that promise verbally, so I nod my head.
River pushes some of my hair behind my ears then faces the doors, every muscle in his body tense.
How is he going to fight with so many broken bones?
Us. Protect, Wolf says.
I'm sure she can feel every ounce of my relief at hearing her voice.
Yeah. We'll protect him. I didn't really promise him anything. If I need to use Wolf, I will.
I hold onto the back of River's shirt, confident that we can make it through this. He turns back and smiles at me. I know he can feel it too. We're stronger with our kind around. The difference in my strength with just River around was considerable. With six more like him? We should be unstoppable.
Get them ready. I'm about to release the binders, the werewolf says.
A multitude of growls echo through my head in response.
What is this? Get who ready? When he flings the doors open, the light from outside blinds me and the smells overwhelm my nose. It's a forest.
River yells at everyone to stay put and fight, but half of them take off running. The noise in my head from the werewolves outside is excruciating. They're howling and growling and claiming their prey.
The old man was right. This is hunting practice.
The few left, one of them the boy from earlier, look at River.
"Run, you stupid bastards! You get to live if you make it out of the forest!" the man screams at us.
"No! Stay and fight! They're lying! They won't let us go!" River yells.
But their fear is too much; the promise of safety is much more alluring than risking their lives in a fight.
River pleads with the others, "If we split up, we die. We can't run anymore. Stay with us. Fight."
The boy blows into his hands and places them over his heart, soul shifting into a horse, then jumps out of the trailer, the other two, a man and older woman, following suit in human form. They don't even look back. The werewolf man stares at us, waiting for us to flee too, but we stand firm.
"Get the hell out of here! We didn't bring your asses all the way up here so you could have a little tea party," he snaps, walking towards us.
He reaches a hand out towards River and Wolf moves my body forward, packing her own power behind a sharp right hook. I catch the guy square in the jaw, splitting my knuckles open, and he hits the side of the trailer. He slumps to the ground, clutching his chin.
"We have to run, River. Come on!" I beg, pulling on his shirt. "Maybe we can save them!"
He looks at me and his expression is nothing but hopeful. "Let's go," he says, and we dart out of the trailer.
The full light of the forest stings my eyes, but I don't stop. River trails a bit behind me, but I know, even if the drugs have worn off, adrenaline will mask some of the pain from his broken bones.
I listen for a werewolf to claim us, but they must've gone ahead after the others. That gives us an advantage. We don't have anyone on our tail. We can hunt them.
Watching the ground as I run, I search for a trace of the others. But for every pair of human footprints, there are four wolf prints right on their trail. I spot prints from the boy's horse and decide that's a good place to start.
This forest is huge. It has massive trees that I've never seen before and very little underbrush. It feels dead as I run through it. Not a single tree glows with a soul. There are no animals, no birds, and no sounds other than our breathing and footfalls.
Death. Scarred, Wolf explains.
I run faster. River tries to keep up, but I have to slow my pace for him.
"Can you shift yet?" I yell over my shoulder.
"Maybe one form. But I need to save it for a fight," he yells back.
I look behind me and see him struggling with the rope on his wrists. I stop running and he nearly slams into my back.
"Why are you stopping? We need to keep moving!" he snaps.
"We need to get those ropes off you."
"We need to save the kid."
I square up with him. "And I'm going to need your help for that, so shut up and give me your wrists."
River stares at me, then seems to snap out of the stupor. "We have to keep moving. They'll catch us if we don't."
"I can hear them in my head. None of them are tracking us. They all went after the others."
He doesn't seem surprised that I can hear them, though he clearly can't.
The ropes don't take long to unravel and just as the last strand snaps, the scent of blood fills the air. There's a scream, not human, somewhere to our left.
River wrenches his wrists from me, shifts into his rhino, and charges off in the direction of the scream. I chase after him.
A cracking sound echoes throughout the forest. The growling gets louder, outside of my head this time, and I worry about River being the first on the scene. I shift into my coyote and quickly pass him, sprinting toward the splintering sound of wood.
I don't stop when I see two werewolves, charging at the trunk of a beech tree. One of them sinks its teeth into the bark and starts ripping chunks out of it. Much more and the tree will topple over.
Up on the top branches are two binders: a chimp and the woman from earlier, the one who screamed. Her leg hangs limply over the branch and blood drips down from it in a slow stream, splattering onto the coats of the werewolves as they continue their assault.
I lunge at one of them and bite down on their side, shaking my head back and forth with a mouthful of fur and skin. The werewolf snarls and I quickly retreat, but he immediately gives chase.
I've got this one. Get the chimp. The woman won't be going anywhere, the werewolf on my heels growls in my head.
I look back and see that the beech is at an angle now, enough of one that the other werewolf is climbing up it.
Go back, Wolf orders.
We need both of their attention. I make a sharp turn to the right and the werewolf loses his footing trying to do the same. No sooner am I turned around, heading back to the beech, than River is running past me, horn lowered, charging at the werewolf. There's a howl of pain behind me.
He can handle this.
The chimp in the tree is screaming at the werewolf, going back and forth between chucking branches at him and trying to get the woman to move, but she pushes him away every time.
"Go! Save yourself!" she yells at him.
The werewolf is almost on them. Now is a time when my big mouth should come in handy. I shift back into my human form.
"Hey, you piece of shit! How about hunting someone that'll fight back?" I yell.
The werewolf's head snaps back at me and a growl rumbles up from his stomach through his barred teeth.
I try to say "screw you" in mind speak, but it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it's something I can only do with Wolf. I settle for flipping him off instead, to which he responds with a snarl, then by jumping down from the tree.
The thickness of fur, the weight of the paws, the heat of its breath. There's a burst of warmth and energy from my navel and the grizzly form evens us out. The chimp cheers me on, screeching encouragement, still chucking things at the werewolf.
The thundering of hooves comes up from behind me and the werewolf's tail tucks between his legs. I look over my shoulder and see River, blood dripping down his horn into his mouth, panting heavily. He's favoring his right front leg, putting as little pressure on it as possible. The werewolf roars at him.
Marcus!? he screams in my mind, Marcus answer me!
A voice I haven't heard yet answers him, What's happened?
I think the fucking binder got him. Christ. A binder got him! he yells back.
We're coming, the other replies, This hunt is over. Ben, call the vampires. Tell them to finish the others off before they can escape. Kill them, catch them, I don't care. Where are you, Julien?
The werewolf in front of us, Julien I guess, throws his head back and howls. I look back at River, wide-eyed, as other howls answer him, echoing through the forest form all directions. This is not good.
I shift back and yell up at the two binders in the tree, "Get out of here! They're all coming! You can't stay here!"
They just stare at me. I'm telling them to run, but I have no idea where they're supposed to go. If the vampires are coming, is there anywhere they could go? Nowhere would be safe. Unless they could fly.
"Fly! You can get away if you can fly!" I yell as Julien advances. "River show them! I'll hold him off!" I shift back into the grizzly.
River runs past me in human form and Julien lunges for him, but I grab hold of his back leg and jerk him back. River easily climbs the tree and I know the binders have their best chance at escape now.
I release Julien's leg just as he reaches his head around to rip into me with his teeth. I rise up and throw one paw after another at him, swiping my left across the side of his face and the other across his shoulder, leaving deep gashes behind. He tackles me, hitting me hard in the chest, and my back slams into the ground. I barely get my paws under him in time to keep him from biting down on my throat. I push him as far away as I can and roll to the side, shoving him away, giving myself a chance to get back on my feet.
A great hornbill swoops down and claws at the Julien's eyes before taking off into the sky. Julien paws at his bloody right eye and I don't hesitate. Using his same tactics, I lunge for his throat and latch down on it, squeezing and twisting his neck to force him to the ground.
My teeth sink deeper and deeper into him. His breath gets ragged. He claws at my face, trying to get me to let go, but I don't react. I know he's tearing open the skin on my cheeks and down my neck, but I can't feel it.
All I can feel is the pulse in his neck, thumping fast and hard. I don't know if I can finish him off. They've done so many bad things. They all deserve it. But as he squirms beneath me, as his breathing becomes ragged and desperate, as his blood floods my mouth, my grip loosens.
It has to be done. I let Wolf take over. She bites down even harder and Julien begins to scream and plead in mind speak.
Jesus, no! Please, help me! Somebody help me! he screams.
It's too much. I retreat away from my senses, giving them all over to Wolf.
Why is this happening? What have we done? Are we so worthless that they can kill us like this? With no remorse? How can any life be worth so little? I don't understand. What makes us so expendable?
The Order. The Transmutes. Our cowardice. This is a cycle. The old man's words ring through me, "We run, they find us, they kill us." It's going to keep happening. Forever. It's never going to end. We'll always be running. They'll always find us. Nothing I've done has made any difference. They beat us again and again. Why can't I stop this!?
"Falon! Falon, stop!" someone is screaming. "Falon, stop it!"
River.
I take back my sight and immediately wish I hadn't. My muzzle is covered in blood and something fleshy sits wet and heavy in my mouth. Julien is back in human form. His throat has been ripped out, his body lifeless beneath me. I drop the meat in my mouth and vomit all over the ground.
"Falon, get ahold of yourself and come help me!" River yells.
He's dead. We killed him, I whisper.
I killed. Not you, Wolf answers. I killed.
He's dead. Oh my god, he's dead.
"Now, Falon!"
I look up and see River struggling to help the woman down from the tree.
"She can't shift anymore. Help me," he pleads.
My eyes are drawn back to the bloody body beside me. I feel the urge to vomit again.
Killed. To save, Wolf defends, forcing my head to look up at the woman.
She's right. I take a deep breath and shift back, immediately rubbing at my mouth with my sleeve. "Okay, I'm coming" I run towards River.
River grabs the woman under her arms and lifts, passing her down to me. She wraps her arms around my neck and I think she's done it just to keep her balance, but she doesn't let go. Wet drops smear across my cheek.
"Thank you. You came for us. Thank you. I'm so sorry I ran. I'm so scared. I'm so sorry I ran," she cries.
The tears come in a stream, soaking the side of my face, so I wrap my arms around her. "It's okay. We're going to get out of this." I'm glad she can't see my face. My expression betrays my words.
She lets go of me and looks at River.
"We are," he says. He seems convinced.
"Can you soul shift?" I ask the woman.
"No. I still can't feel him. They've had me for weeks. They were waiting for more of us. They've been drugging me for so long." Her voice cracks and the tears begin again.
River puts a hand on her shoulder. "He'll come back when the drugs wear off. You've got a lot more of it in your system than we do."
Close, Wolf warns.
She's right. They're getting closer. Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it now.
"They're coming," I say to River. "What do we do?"
River clenches his fists. "Dammit. The others..." He looks between the woman and me then out into the forest. "There has to be a way."
"River, if I use Wolf I can draw them away. I can talk to their minds, throw them off your trail."
"You can t-talk to them?" the woman asks, moving away from me.
Her uneasiness is offensive. Just because I can talk to them doesn't mean I'm like them.
River, again, doesn't seem surprised. "No. You can't use her," he barks.
"We're running out of options," I say. Wolf is our best weapon. If I want to use her to save us, I'm sure as hell going to.
River walks up to me, in my face again. "Falon, you don't understand. They can't see Wolf. They can't know."
Fan out. Surround them. They're not getting out of here alive.
"Shit, they're here! They're going to surround us. We have to run for it." I shift into the grizzly and stoop down so the woman can get on.
She hops onto my back without question and River sits behind her.
"You okay?" River asks, referring to the weight.
I nod my head.
"Good. Go."