by Geonn Cannon
The men around the room began voicing their agreement with Tyson. Soon the only holdouts were Lorne, Keighley, and Huxley. Lorne stood up and stepped away from Huxley. "I think seeing as my outlook isn't exactly peachy, I should abstain from voting for any long-term plans. But I also think you know which way I was leaning, Mr. Keighley. It's over."
Huxley said, "It's lose-lose, Jacob. They have our names, they know our faces. I'm assuming we're not looking at the full force of the wolf army. If anything happens to them, I have to believe our names get sent to the authorities. Someone will pay attention, and we'll lose everything."
"Why did you even follow his lead in the first place?" Ari asked. "All it would take is one health inspector noticing granules of an unidentified substance in their food and your restaurants would be shut down."
"He had us convinced it was the moral thing to do," Tyson said glumly. "And we all remembered growing up, the family stories about wolves and the righteous hunters who cut them down. We thought we were playing the hero in a story about monsters."
"Reality is a little different than that. Enough lives have been lost. Last time this war ended in a peace treaty," Ari said. "A hunter and a wolf declared their love for each other. I think this time we should do something simpler." She stepped forward and held her hand out to Huxley. "Mr. Huxley, I suggest we declare a truce between our people."
He stared at her for a moment and then looked at her hand. "Hell." He reached out and clasped her hand. Ari squeezed and he returned the pressure without trying to crush her fingers. "For what it's worth, Miss Willow... I apologize for my part in this ill-conceived endeavor."
"I appreciate that."
Wakefield cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together. "The wolfsbane that's still out there... one reason we mass produced so much is because it has a very brief window of viability. The shelf-life is something like five or six weeks."
"That's good to know," Ari said. "Thank you."
"No, thank you." Vance seemed legitimately relieved. "This war has already gone on far too long. We were just too stubborn to admit it."
Keighley bent his knees and threw his weight back, pressing his shoulder into the center of Gwen's chest. She slammed into the wall with a sickening crack, crying out in pain as Keighley brought his elbow up into her chin. She rocked back against the wall and went limp, releasing her grip enough that he managed to get his arm free. Milo lunged for him but Keighley anticipated her. He grabbed her arm and pulled so that her own momentum sent her flailing onto the floor. He jumped over her, caromed off the wall, and ran out of the room.
The entire scuffle lasted barely thirty seconds. Ari overcame her shock and confusion to drop down next to Gwen.
"Just got the wind knocked out of me," she gasped. "Go! Get the bastard... go!"
Ari ran out of the room, no longer thinking about the monumental thing she had just achieved and focused only on catching up with Keighley. He'd left the front door open when he fled and she raced through it. She saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eye and realized she'd fallen into a trap. Keighley had been waiting next to the door and grabbed her as soon as she was through the door, spinning her by the arm and letting her go. She was pulled off her feet and landed hard on the driveway, tucking and rolling to minimize the damage. The pain was exquisitely sharp, and it took her brain a moment to process just how much it had hurt. She pushed herself up with her left arm, vision swimming as she watched Keighley flee toward his truck.
Someone came up behind her, hooked both hands under Ari's arms, and hauled her off onto the grass. She was unceremoniously dropped on the soft ground just as Keighley's truck sped past them, his tires veering off the pavement in an attempt to hit her as he fled the scene. Ari looked up at her savior and smiled.
"Hey. You saved me."
Dale said, "It's kind of a habit of mine."
"I've noticed."
"You okay?"
"I hurt." She sat up with Dale's help, hissing through her teeth. Her blouse was ripped from skidding across the pavement, but the skin underneath had been spared.
Dale stroked Ari's hair out of her face, then gently probed her shoulder to see if it was broken. "What happened in there?"
"I ended the war."
Dale's eyes widened. "Ari, that's amazing."
"Not yet. We've got a rogue general out there. I think he's going to do his best to end the war with a bang instead of a whimper."
Chapter Seventeen
Ari had passed K1 Sport and Outdoors hundreds of times, on foot and in cars. She was fairly sure one of her stashes, maybe the one in St. Mark's, was buried in a bag that originally came from K1. In all that time it had just been a building to her, an innocuous part of the scenery. Now she knew that it was owned by the man who had attacked her mother in college, a man who had dedicated his life since then to a wolf manoth that would put past hunts to shame. Dale had helped her up and Ari limped to the car with her. Gwen came out of the house and Dale rolled to a stop long enough for her to get into the backseat before leaving the Venatorial Club behind them.
"His store," Ari said, unable to elaborate her entire idea.
Gwen nodded. "That makes sense. Are you okay?"
Ari grimaced and rolled her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just took a tumble. I'm used to it."
Gwen gripped the headrest of Dale's seat as she took a sharp corner. "Detective Macallan called us when we were on our way to the club. They found Jacqueline Ramsey's body. She's handling the investigation and she'll do everything in her power to make sure Serena Ahearn doesn't go to prison for defending her family."
"Good. Thank you."
"You did all the work," Gwen said. "I'm just reporting. Do any of your friends on the police force happen to be working traffic?"
Ari shook her head. "No. Dale, you might want to slow down."
Dale eased off the gas. "Sorry... I don't want to give him too much of a head start."
Gwen said, "We know where he's going. We can get there before him."
Dale said, "Where is K1?"
"It's off Olive, near I-5." She rubbed her eyes and tried to visualize the address. "You know that little gray building that says BEST RIBS IN TOWN, and you thought it was a barbeque place? It's like two blocks away from there. Big, ugly glass building with an oval sign over the door..."
"It's got a fish on it," Dale remembered. She scanned the cross streets, envisioning the late night trips through abandoned streets to pick Ari up from wherever the wolf had taken her. She had gotten good at finding the quickest route between two points, and even with the traffic of early afternoon getting in her way, she could clearly see a path. "Okay. Hold on. I can get there before he can." She slowed to take the next turn and pressed her foot down on the gas. Ari and Gwen both held on tight as they were thrown around the car by Dale's driving.
Gwen said, "What was it?"
Ari said, "What was what?"
"The little building. If ribs isn't barbeque, what was it?"
"Oh." Ari smiled. "Comedy club."
"And that's the joke they advertise with?"
Ari chuckled as Dale took another turn and pressed her against the side of the car. "Geez, Dale!"
"Sorry..."
"Don't apologize, just a little warning next time."
"Consider this your warning." She pulled the wheel again and Ari flattened her palm against the window as she looked over her shoulder to see if there were any cops speeding up behind them. When she looked forward again she saw that Dale had swerved to avoid a sawhorse attached to a tall orange bucket by a string of yellow tape. "Uh, Dale, this is a construction site. Dale, this is a construction site."
Dale nodded. "I know. But they finished the road first so they can get their vehicles up to the building."
"Is that a fact?" Gwen said.
"It's close enough to a fact," Dale said as she pulled up onto the sidewalk to avoid a gap in the asphalt. The car was jostled by its passage over broken rock and turned-up
dirt. Dale didn't bother driving around the next obstacle, choosing instead to snap through the caution tape like a marathon runner reaching the finish line. She turned the wheel almost violently and the car fishtailed right, tires squealing as they passed Best Ribs in Town.
Gwen pointed. "There!" Ari saw the glass building that housed Keighley's company, but her mother was pointing at the truck that had just run up onto its front curb. Dale slammed on the brakes at the corner and squealed the tires again as she came to a stop. Keighley turned at the sound, shouted something they couldn't hear, and ran for the building. Gwen threw open the back door while Ari looked at Dale.
"Don't take this the wrong way..."
"Stay here?" Dale said. "My part of the danger was getting you here. Go!"
Ari took a second to kiss her before she got out of the car and followed her mother into the building. Keighley had close to a full minute lead on them, but the front of his store was so crowded by customers that he had to slow down to get through them. Gwen was blocked by a family buying their gear in bulk and she took half a second to search for a way around them before she pointed at Keighley and shouted, "That man stole my purse!"
The nearest man instantly reached out and grabbed Keighley's jacket. Keighley spun and threw his weight against the Good Samaritan, knocking him backward against a glass display case. Ari cut across the front of the store, past the checkout aisles until she found one that wasn't open and therefore wasn't blocked by a row of shoppers and gear-laden carts. She ran through the shortcut and grabbed for Keighley's jacket but he sidestepped away from her.
He cut through an archery display on his path to the back of the store. Ari passed a golf display and grabbed a sleeve of balls, tearing it open and throwing it. She doubted it would work, but it hadn't cost her any time and there was always a chance. Keighley heard the clatter and looked back to see the three golf balls bouncing uselessly in three different directions. Ari cursed the idea as idiotic at the same moment someone pushed their cart out of an aisle and Keighley slammed into it at full speed.
"Oh, my gracious!" said a woman far too young to be using such quaint colloquialisms. "I am so sorry! I had no idea..."
Ari caught up and stooped down to grab Keighley. He grabbed her arm and pulled her down, lashing out with his foot to catch her knee. Her shoulder was already injured from her earlier fall so she twisted so she wouldn't land on it. She crashed down onto the tile and felt a spike of pain through her hip as she lay dazed. Keighley rolled onto his knees and slammed his arm across Ari's back.
As she sprawled, the woman whose cart had impeded his escape yelped in horror. "What on earth are you doing to that poor girl?"
"She's not a girl. She's a monster." He got back to his feet and took off again.
The woman crouched and helped Ari up. "Goodness. Are you all right? That brute..."
"I'm fine." She saw Gwen coming and pointed to where Keighley had gone. Gwen nodded and changed direction. The woman watched Gwen go, then looked at Ari.
"Is this some sort of hidden camera thing?"
Ari nodded. "Sure. Yeah. You might want to do your shopping elsewhere." She looked into the lady's cart and saw she was buying baseball bats. She grabbed one and said, "I'm going to take this, though, if that's all right."
"After the way he treated you?" The woman held up another bat. "Take the aluminum one."
Ari grinned, made the swap, and chased after her mother.
The doors to the back of the building were still swinging when Ari reached them. She pushed through and nearly tripped over a tangled pile of clothes. She used her toe to move the blouse, confirming it was her mother's before she moved on. The storeroom was heavily packed with rows upon rows of merchandise waiting to take its place on the shelves at the front of the store. She heard running footsteps but they echoed off the tall ceilings until it was impossible to tell which direction they were coming from. Ari knew her mother had changed to utilize the wolf's heightened senses and prowled forward with the bat resting against one shoulder.
She heard someone coming up behind her and spun around to see not Keighley, but a man in a grey polo shirt with the K1 logo. He was short but walked with his shoulders back and his chest out like a tin-pot dictator. He glared at her and raised a hand as he approached. His nametag identified him as Brandon.
"Miss? Miss, do we have a problem?"
"How many people are back here?"
He put a hand on her elbow and leaned to one side, half-ushering and half-guiding her away. "Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me. We've gotten several complaints of you disturbing customers in the store, and..."
Gwen barked loudly, a sharp and piercing sound that didn't echo as much as footsteps, and Ari pulled her arm away from the manager.
"If there's anyone back here, get them out. I'll leave the second I stop the man who raped my mother from killing her. Is that okay with you, Bradley?"
She didn't wait to hear his answer as she ran toward the bark. She heard Keighley's voice as she approached.
"Should have just finished you when I had the chance."
Ari came around the corner to see Keighley standing his ground in front of Gwen. Her mother was a beautiful wolf, tall at the shoulder but long and lean, her coat bearing more silver than Ari remembered from their runs. Her teeth were exposed and her ears flattened against her skull as she and Keighley faced off. Ari started forward but slowed when she realized her mother was facing the man who had changed her life so completely. He took away her plans, put her in the center of a war she wasn't prepared for, and had given her a child she didn't want. Ari lowered the bat and watched as the two silently dared each other to make the first move.
"Keighley!"
He flinched and looked toward her. Gwen took advantage and pounced on him. Keighley realized his mistake at the last second and brought his arms up to protect his throat as Gwen hit him. They both fell and Keighley pulled something from his belt and thrust it toward her belly. Gwen yelped in pain before closing her teeth on his forearm. He shouted a curse and twisted to get away as blood spattered the ground around them. Gwen twisted her head and pulled away from him, muzzle darkened by blood as she fell to one side.
Keighley looked at the horrific wound on his arm with the numbness of shock. His fingers trembled as he turned his arm to see the extent of the damage.
"What have you done," he gasped, shock quickly replaced by horror.
"She's infected you," Ari said. "Turnabout is fair play, huh?"
Keighley glared at Ari and lunged for her, but she swung the bat before he got close enough to grab her. She hit across the side of his head, just above the temple where she would have caved in his skull and killed him. He was unconscious before he hit the ground, and Ari moved to where her mother was transforming back into her human form. Ari unbuttoned her own blouse, leaving her in a T-shirt as she moved to cover Gwen's nudity. She stopped when she saw the slashes across Gwen's side and the slick of blood running over her hip.
"Mom," she whispered, dropping hard onto her knees to press her hand against the cuts.
Gwen's eyes were open, but only barely. Her face was ashen and beaded with sweat. She focused on Ari and smiled.
"You ended my war."
Ari pressed harder against the wound. "No. No, you're fine. You're going to be fine..."
Gwen closed her eyes and grunted. "No, I don't... oh." She exhaled sharply and shook her head. "Ariadne... I love you. You were never a burden to me. I never..." She swallowed hard and whimpered, the pain changing her features ever so slightly before she put her stiff upper lip back in place. "I never once regretted the decision to have you. My baby girl. You were my only accomplishment."
"I love you, too," Ari said. She twisted and shouted for help, hearing her voice echo. She wondered if Bradley or Brandon or whatever his name was had stuck around. She heard footsteps and looked down at Gwen. "Someone's coming. They're going to get you help."
Gwen closed her eyes. "Tell Da
le..." She wet her lips. "Tell Dale to take care of you."
Ari sniffled and shook her head, tears finally falling from her eyes. "She doesn't have to be told. She's good at that."
Gwen swallowed and tensed. "It hurts, baby."
"I know, Mommy. Just hang in there."
She turned and called for help again. The footsteps were coming at a run now, but they still seemed impossibly far away as Ari struggled to keep her mother from bleeding to death.
#
There was no transition from sunlight to darkness that day. Ari happened to look out the window of Dr. Frost's kitchen and realized it was full dark without a second of warning. To be fair, she had been distracted since arriving at the house. She was sitting in an armchair meant for one that Dale had managed to squirm her way into. They were pressed together almost painfully but Ari would have protested if Dale tried to move. She'd fallen asleep sometime after their tiny dinner, her cheek on Ari's shoulder and her lips slightly parted as she murmured through a dream. Ari held her and looked at the woman across the room, her peaceful features and dark hair combed back off her face.
She was in agony, both emotionally and physically. She'd donated as much blood as she could to replenish what Gwen had lost on the floor of K1, and her altercations with Keighley had left her bruised all up and down her side. She was exhausted, but she refused to sleep so long as her mother was still unconscious. Gwen's spleen had been damaged enough to require removal, and three hours later he had stitched her up and told Ari that all they could do was wait.
Jacob Keighley had been taken into custody by his own security, who decided to err on the side of caution in regards to the naked, bleeding woman lying near him when they arrived. Ari's story was that he was to blame for a drug causing people to spontaneously attack each other and they'd been trying to stop him. She also revealed that Keighley was her father, and she was born as the result of a rape thirty years ago. The DNA tests were pending, but she knew it was just a formality. Detective Macallan called to tell her that the statute of limitations on rape was one year from the positive identification of the suspect. Once he was identified as her father, they were going to try him for what he'd done to Gwen.