by R. Lee Moore
She followed behind the two wolves, her weapon pressed up tight against her shoulder sweeping in a wide and wary arc in front of her hoping she was being led into one of the industrial buildings that lined the road. If the targets made their way into the residential area, the situation was likely to take a drastic turn for the worst. Mixing in civilians was a good way to get a lot of people killed even if they were behind locked doors. Bullets tended not to care who they hit, innocent or not.
Without warning, both wolves snarled and bolted across the street towards a row of parked cars. Tamina shouted out to them in alarm, but neither one of them was listening. They were too intent and focused on chasing after the scent they'd caught for anything to stop them.
She watched as Siobhan peeled away from the gray wolf and rushed in a blur of speed down the length of the street before turning back in a wide circle towards her partner. The gray wolf launched itself into the air and leaped over the hood of one of the parked cars. For a moment, the light of the moon turned the wolf into a floating silhouette as it rose up off the ground and vaulted over top of the vehicle. It looked almost cinematic, right up until a burst of gunfire met the wolf in mid-air and began tearing it apart.
Tamina ran as fast as her shattered ribs and bruised body would let her, searching desperately for the muzzle flash. She could see the rounds impacting into the gray wolf. Most of them thudded into the thick armored vest the werewolf wore. Others found their mark and stitched up a bloody line into the wolf's throat, piercing through the underside of its jaws and ripping across the side of its massive head.
She saw the wolf tumbling through the air with a high-pitched pain-filled yelp, and she began peppering the vehicle where the shots came from with a rapid-fire burst from her shotgun. The combination of heavy slugs and the rain of phosphorous fire rocked the vehicle back, shattering glass and punching fist sized holes into the frame. The interior began to smoke and catch fire casting flickering shadows all around it.
A figure rose up from behind the side of the vehicle, the flames licking the inside of the vehicle illuminating and casting shadows across the man's face as he took aim and began returning fire. The shots streaked past her close enough that Tamina could hear the snap cracking through the air past her head. The shooter was concentrating on her, and didn't see the streak of red fur that dove at him from his flank until it was far too late.
Siobhan's sleek frame slammed into him sending him flying off to the side out from behind the car. Before he could react, and even before he'd hit the ground, her jaws had snatched him back out of the air by his throat and driven him down to the pavement with a bone crunching crash.
By the time Tamina got to the two of them, the red wolf had near bitten clear through the gunman's throat leaving behind a gaping hole of gore and fountaining blood. The man wasn't even recognizable through all the carnage the she-wolf had inflicted in her rage.
Tamina ran her eyes over the twitching remains critically. She couldn't tell if this was Vanya or not. Siobhan had torn most of his face clean off.
“Is this him?” she demanded. The red wolf had already moved on and was dancing around and sniffing at the fallen gray wolf anxiously. “Red! Is this him? Is this Vanya?”
The she-wolf snarled angrily enough at Tamina to back her away from both the corpse and the wounded and whimpering wolf laying beside it. Tamina held a hand out to attempt to calm the werewolf. She understood the emotion from personal experience, and didn't hold it against her. She needed Siobhan focused though, and worrying over a fallen comrade wasn't helping anyone. They still had work to do.
“Red,” Tamina said as calmly as she could.
The wolf lunged forward and snapped at her. If she'd been trying to kill her, Tamina wouldn't have had a chance. It was just a warning. Angry as all hell, but still just a warning.
Carson ran up quickly and knelt beside the fallen wolf. Siobhan growled at him too, but he ignored it and busied himself looking over the wounded werewolf.
“Officer down, Pierce and Lehigh. Immediate medevac,” he said holding his hand up to his ear-piece. He focused his attention on Siobhan and motioned towards Tamina with a nod of his head. “I got this. Go.”
Siobhan gave a worried growl shifting back and forth on her paws for a moment, then she turned and vaulted herself back down the street leaving Tamina struggling to hobble along behind her and keep up.
The wolf was still on the trail, which meant that Vanya was still out there. Him, and whoever else had made it through the breach unnoticed. In the condition she was in, feeling like she was being force-fed shards of glass every time she took a breath.
Tamina wasn't thrilled at the thought of taking on Vanya and whoever else was with him with just Siobhan as backup. There weren't any other options though. The two of them were the only ones out here. The rest of the assault force was still in the airfield, and if they didn't chase the maneater down, he was going to get away. No one else was going to get to him in time.
Siobhan turned off the street, slunk down low to the ground and started creeping slowly along the side of one of the large apartment complexes that lined the road. Tamina shuffled up painfully behind her with her weapon at the ready and her eyes scanning every doorway and every darkened window they came across. She didn't want to be here. There were too many civilians in the area, and even if they were holed up in their apartments, the potential of innocents getting caught in the crossfire was already weighing heavily on her mind.
They crept along the side of the building, stopping only when a large grass covered courtyard flanked by identical buildings stretched out in front of them. Tamina whispered for Siobhan to stop as she crouched down and gazed out warily across the open space in front of her.
She could tell Siobhan was anxious. The wolf sensed something, someone that she couldn't see, and that worried her. As far as Tamina could tell, there was nothing and no one out there. Perfect for an ambush.
“Where?” she whispered to the wolf beside her.
Siobhan inclined her head around the corner of the building and nudged her muzzle out towards a fenced in playground area in front of a small parking lot packed with cars. Tamina scrutinized the approach critically. It was a death trap. If anyone was waiting in ambush for them like the other gunmen had been down the street, they wouldn't make it ten feet before they were cut down. It was too open, and there wasn't any cover between the corner of the building they were at all the way to the other building and the playground. That wasn't going to work.
“Can you circle back around the other side of the building,” she whispered. Siobhan tilted her head, then nodded in silent agreement. “I'll keep watch here. You go back and see if you can get their attention, so I can make it to the other side over there.”
The sleek red wolf snorted as she turned back and started back around the way they'd come.
“Red,” Tamina called out quietly after her. “Don't get yourself killed.”
The werewolf ignored her and ghosted away into the darkness. Tamina watched until she was out of sight, then turned back to focus herself back to the playground ahead of her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see a safe way across the distance. She'd be exposed the second she stepped out from behind the corner.
Even if she'd been in perfect shape and wouldn't be forced to hobble and limp her way across the open courtyard it would have been a no win situation. The enemy had a clear line of sight, and the second she made a run for it, they'd cut her down without mercy. There was only one way this was going to work. Siobhan had to get their attention. Keep them occupied and concentrated on her to give Tamina the opportunity to hit them on the flank. Even that wasn't a sure thing. They were werewolves, so they knew she was here just like Siobhan had. The only hope she had was that they'd consider the she-wolf a bigger threat than she was. If they had any sense in them at all, Tamina thought, they would.
There was a sudden ear-splitting howl that echoed and reverberated throughout the courtyard that drew an immedia
te response. Shots rang out to answer Siobhan's challenge, and Tamina watched as muzzle flashes burst out from the shadows around the playground in rapid succession. She squinted off into the darkness in the direction they were firing, and could vaguely see the shadowed frame of a werewolf darting erratically back and forth from cover to cover.
Siobhan was quick and agile enough that they couldn't keep her in their sights long enough to hit her. They were going to have to give her their full attention and concentration if they wanted to take her down. She was making sure of it.
Tamina pulled back from the corner and let the sounds of gunfire and the responding howls from Siobhan fill her. She couldn't move until the gunmen had been fully engaged. If they saw her coming, it would be all over. She had to wait and listen for the right moment, taking the time to prepare herself both mentally and physically for the run across the open courtyard. It wasn't going to be easy, even if they weren't shooting at her when she made a run for it.
She took the time to change out her near depleted magazine as she peeked out over the corner. The last thing she needed was for her shotgun to run dry right in the middle of a fight. She could see them, two figures taking turns rising and falling back behind cover as they kept up a steady alternating stream of fire at the red-furred werewolf rushing their position. All eyes were on Siobhan, they weren't even glancing over in her direction. It was now or never.
Counting down under her breath, Tamina braced herself for the run. She took a slow, deep breath struggling to fight back the pain. Pushing it down deep where she could ignore it and focus on the task at hand.
“Ready or not,” she whispered to herself. “Here I come you son of a bitch.”
Throwing every bit on strength she had left into it, Tamina surged out from around the corner, brought her weapon up to her shoulder, and ran for all she was worth. The pain was enough to grit her teeth tightly together, but she knew she had to fight and push through to the other side. If she gave in, if she stopped running, they'd kill her. There was no other way.
She'd made it nearly 2/3 of the way across when one of the figures turned in her direction. There was a flash of light, a crack of thunder, and suddenly it felt as if someone had swung and driven a sledgehammer into her shoulder. She spun and twisted from the impact, the momentum she'd built up the only thing keeping her moving forward until she stumbled and crashed into door on the far side of the courtyard.
“Motherfucker!“ she screamed out in pain and started firing out blindly towards the playground. The round had hit the same shoulder she'd already injured.
The weapon's recoil against her wounded shoulder was jarring and painful, but not enough to keep her from stroking the trigger as fast as she could. Her life depended on it. A little pain was nothing when compared to being slaughtered and letting Vanya get away.
Through the haze of pain and smoke surrounding her, she could see one of the two figures she was firing at rising and retreating back. She concentrated her fire on him until he was out of sight. Her shots, as ill aimed as they were, only served to drive the man back under the constant hail of fire and flames thrown at him. She'd missed with every single shot, but managed to catch the surrounding foliage on fire all the same.
She turned her attentions to the remaining gunman, and emptied the last of her magazine into the fenced off playground. With the last stroke of her trigger, she was rewarded with a howling scream that dropped the man to the ground and out of sight.
Using the wall behind her to keep her steady, she worked her way up to her feet as quickly as she could. Tamina slung her weapon over her broken shoulder, wincing at the pain, and drew her sidearm. She inched forward along the wall, eyes trained cautiously on the playground waiting for the return fire. None came. She'd either killed the man, or wounded him enough that he was at least temporarily out of the fight. The advantage was turning in her favor for once. At least it looked that way.
“Red!,” she called out across the courtyard at the wolf she saw slinking warily over the open field. The werewolf looked in her direction, but never stopped moving. “He's still out there!“
The warning came too late for Siobhan to react in time. Gunshots rang out in the night air and started peppering at the wolf's feet. Siobhan bolted as fast as she could across the remaining distance, and it looked at first as if she'd made it unscathed. The high-pitched yelp of pain that sounded out as she darted into the parking lot said otherwise.
Swearing under her breath, Tamina ran out from behind her cover and began firing off blindly in the general direction from where the shots had come. She could see Siobhan huddled behind a car fighting to get back onto her feet. The wolf had caught a round in one of her front legs that had shattered the bone leaving what remained twisted and bent.
Tamina limped as fast as she could to get to Siobhan, keeping up her spray of fire to keep the remaining man's head down as she ran. She stumbled the last few feet, and found herself diving uncontrollably behind the car next to the she-wolf.
The wolf was in bad shape. Her wound wasn't enough to kill her, not by a long shot, but it was enough to make her combat ineffective. At least in this situation. She wasn't going to be able to move fast enough on her three remaining legs to do anyone any good.
“Stay down you idiot,” Tamina growled painfully. “You're just going to get yourself killed.”
The wolf quite clearly didn't like it, but she listened nonetheless. Tamina scooted up close to her to check on her wound as she reloaded her pistol. It was bad, but Siobhan would heal a hell of a lot faster than Tamina would in the same situation. It was one of the perks of being a werewolf. Tough to kill, and fast to heal. Given a day or two, she'd be back in action. Provided the both of them survived the night, of course.
Cautiously looking around the hood of the car, Tamina jerked her head back the moment a bullet snapped violently into the front of the car she was hiding behind shattering a headlight and spraying plastic and glass all around. She hadn't been able to see much, but she did see what had happened to the other man. He was still in the playground, and he was very much alive.
She edged closer to the corner of the car, and peered over with a bit more caution than she had previously. The man had a gaping fist-sized wound in his abdomen. He was on his hands and knees with his head hanging down low in front of him choking and gasping for breath in between ragged pain-filled whimpers.
Tamina could see clearly why he hadn't been firing back at her or Siobhan. It wasn't because he'd been hit with a 12 gauge slug, though that probably didn't help. No, it was because he was changing, and it didn't look as if he was able to control himself enough to do anything else.
Every bit of flesh that she could see had split itself open. The skin was writhing and twisting, bubbling as the beast inside began to claw its way to the surface. The man growled and whimpered in pain as his bones began to break and reform themselves into new positions within him. Bits of skin and meat fell in ragged chunks all around him revealing swathes of wet brown fur from beneath. His limbs began to reach out and distend in front of him reshaping themselves from human to beast.
It looked agonizing, and it probably was, Tamina thought. The man was too far into his change to stop it now. He couldn't do anything until he'd shifted fully.
Even so, the Wolfsbane slug that had hit him wasn't making it easy for him. She could see the veins all along his body had raised up and blackened in a spiderweb pattern from the poison lacing through him. If it hadn't been for the Wolfsbane coursing through him, he'd probably have fully shifted by now. Because of it however, he was locked into it, exposed and unable to do anything but suffer its effects.
Tamina reached out with her pistol in front of her, took as careful aim as she could, held her breath, and fired. The first shot struck him just below the temple, the subsequent shots ripped through the opening and shattered his skull to pieces splattering his brains in a fan out the other side. For good measure, when the body collapsed onto its side, she drilled se
veral more shots directly into his chest and heart just to make sure. She'd seen werewolves take worse than that and still be able to kill.
A flurry of gunfire pounded the car in front of her forcing Tamina to fall back and curl into herself to give herself as much cover as possible. When the firing stopped, she could hear an anguished rage-filled howl bursting through the air.
“I'm going to take my time killing you for that you bitch,” a familiar voice raged. “You're going to die screaming!”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Once the shooting stopped, Tamina sat herself up and leaned up against the side of the car with a quick look to Siobhan to make sure she was alright. She checked her weapon, wincing and biting back the pain moving shot through her. There were only a few rounds left, and it was her last magazine. She was going to have to make every shot count if either of them were going to get out of this alive. To do that, she was going to have to make sure when it came time to start shooting, it was on her terms.
“Hey. Vanya,” she called defiantly out over the hood of the car. “How's your night going so far ya, tough guy? Not the way you thought things were going to go, huh? Bet your friend over there was thinking the same thing. Right up until I splattered his brains out all over the place anyway.”
Vanya responded with an enraged feral snarl and several bursts of gunfire that hammered violently into the car Tamina and Siobhan were using as cover. The car rocked back and forth, and the windows shattered into glittering clouds of glass that rained down over their heads. Tamina tucked her head protectively into her arms to shield herself from the falling glass smiling in satisfaction. That's it, she thought to herself, let it all out you psychopath. Give me everything you've got.
“Still here, Vanya. Not so easy when it's not some young innocent unsuspecting girl getting fed to you is it?” Tamina shouted over her shoulder once the firing subsided. She had to keep it up. Fuel his rage until he lost control and did something stupid. “How many friends you lose tonight Vanya? Seriously, I've lost count of how many of you fuckers I've killed. None of them went easy either.”