by S T Branton
"Nice. I haven't seen that one before," I complimented.
"It's new," he acknowledged. "Seemed to work pretty well."
Thrash came at me again, and Pip lunged for the much larger creature. She leapt into the air while aiming her body into his center mass. He swatted at her like a fly. His hand made contact, and she soared back in the other direction. I was worried about her, but as soon as she hit the ground, she bounded right back up.
I got the feeling she wasn't a stranger to being tossed around. She said she was the smallest of her kind, which probably translated into being used as a toy more often than she would have liked. If there was a threshold for how often you can be used as a ball in a game of catch and thought it was acceptable.
The monstrous Guild Agent had turned to watch her fly through the air and bounce on the ground, so he wasn't paying close enough attention to me. When he stepped toward Pip, I swung the butt of the axe around and caught him on the side of the head.
Thrash stumbled a little and I lifted the axe as high as I could, then brought the blunt end down hard on the juncture right between his shoulder and neck. This made his knees buckle. As soon as he crashed down, I whacked him under the chin with the flat side of the blade. He smashed down to the ground.
“You don’t mind if I take this?” I hissed as I pulled my switchblade out of his pocket right before we all ran.
I didn't leave the axe. That thing was mine now. I followed close behind Archie as we ran through the streets and eventually toward a van seeming to wait for us at a corner.
"Thanks for saving my skin back there," I told them. "And everything contained within. How did you find me?"
As I said it, the door on the side of the van slid open and Dog looked out at me. This wasn't Dog the shaggy black creature I had drugged and gripped for dear life on the airplane. This was Dog in human form, as sleek and handsome as ever. Seeing him took me a little aback, and our eyes lingered on each other for a brief moment before he reached out and wrapped his hand around my wrist.
With a yank, he pulled me into the van with him. Pip and Archie piled in after me and slammed the sliding door shut. We arranged ourselves on the seats and hooked our seatbelts, although that seemed a tad ridiculous considering the circumstances.
"I'm sorry I wasn't out there," Dog apologized. "My injuries from the last fight still haven't healed as well as I'd like. If they were, I would have jumped in there with you."
"I know," I told him.
"Are we ready?"
I looked up and saw Ally peering at me in the rearview mirror from where she sat behind the wheel. I nodded, and we took off down the street.
Chapter Twenty-One
"You really are building up quite the collection of near-death experiences," Ally commented. "They seriously did a number on you."
I hissed as she dabbed more rubbing alcohol on the deep gash of my split eyebrow. I knew I wasn't exactly at my best right now. A single glimpse of myself in the mirror was enough to confirm everything I felt. I had been beaten up pretty bad, some of it probably happening while I was still unconscious. Unconscious or not, I felt every punch and bounce against Thrash's back. Still, it wasn't at the top of the list in terms of awful things I’d been through.
"I've had worse," I told her.
"How much worse?" Pip asked.
I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. "This is permanent press tumble dry at home compared to the heavy-duty towel load at an industrial laundry."
"Wow," the lizard girl said.
"I'll stick with dry cleaning," Ally said through a grimace as she tossed a bloodied cotton ball in the trash can at her feet and reached for a butterfly bandage.
"How are you doing over there, Archie?" I asked.
Since we got back to the flat, he’d been hard at work on his runes. He seemed driven, with more enthusiasm than I had seen in him in a long time. He lifted his head and nodded.
"I'm working on something that could be amazing. I have this new idea based on how well Cabot was able to take you down," he told me.
"Glad to be your inspiration.” I adjusted into more of a sitting position on the couch so I could watch what he was doing more closely. "You know, you should maybe consider sticking to some of the more traditional weapons sometimes. You looked like a serious badass with that crossbow."
Ally grinned. "That was my idea."
"It was?" I asked.
"Absolutely. You gotta have a crossbow if vampires are loose." She waved her hand around like she was gesturing at a bunch of little vampires jumping around in front of her before she put the butterfly bandage in place over my eyebrow and smoothed it onto my skin.
"Well, I can't argue with that. But I still want to know how the hell you found me. I didn't know where they brought me. How did you know?" I asked.
From where he sat on a chair diagonal to the couch, Dog turned his dark eyes to me.
"I have your scent," he murmured in a low voice.
I waited for him to say something more, but he left it at that. My heart jumped a little, and I turned to the rest of them to try to ignore it.
"Thank you. All of you, really. I would absolutely be a goner if you guys weren't there to save me. And the part that would piss me off the most is Thrash would have been the one to smear me across the ground. But I got to keep his axe, so sucks for him." I grinned and winced at a sharp pain through my eyebrow. It was worth it.
"I'm glad we found you in time," Archie said.
Splinter scrambled up my leg and onto my chest. I nuzzled him. He pulled his hand from behind his back and stuffed a crunchy snack food of some kind into my mouth.
"I'm glad you got cheese-drunk and stayed in the flat before I wrapped that firehose around my waist," I told him. "There's no telling what might have happened to you if they found you. Besides, we were really high up, and you get sick with heights. You’d have left me for Ally, wouldn’t you, you adorable little traitor?"
I nuzzled his head. It was pretty obvious what would have happened to him, but I didn't want to think about it. He tucked his head under my chin and let out a little sigh that rumbled in his chest, almost like a purr. I rested my head against his and closed my eyes.
"What's wrong?" Ally asked. "I mean, other than you got the living snot beaten out of you and a big axe swung at your head. Is there something else?"
"I'm a little upset," I admitted.
"Why?" she asked.
"We're no closer to helping Senator Cabot. She'll never trust us now. Not after that fiasco." I let out a long breath.
"Well…" Ally glanced over at Archie, who returned her look. Something passed between them without either saying anything.
"What was that?" I asked. "Well, what?"
Ally looked back at me and let out a breath. This was one of those moments when a little voice in the back of my head started saying 'she's your best friend, she wouldn't betray you. She's your best friend, she wouldn't betray you. She's your best friend, she wouldn't betray you.'
"It turns out Cabot was never going to trust you," she continued.
"What?” My eyes widened.
"Because that's not Cabot," Dog told me.
"Explain," I asked sharply, my head snapping to the side to look at him.
Ally opened her computer on the coffee table and started searching through it.
"I tried to warn you earlier, but I failed. It’s why I sought you out. That vampire was nothing compared to the real threat here. Shapeshifters.”
Stunned by the revelation, I sat and processed for a few seconds before I could speak again.
"How did you know?" I finally asked.
"My people have their ways."
"You have your ways about a lot of things, don't you?"
"We do. And we also hate Shapeshifters. They aren't like us. They don't change form because it's part of them. They don't go from a human-like form to an innate animal form. These are ugly, disgusting creatures that shift into looking like whoever they desi
re. They steal the faces of whomever they wish so they can use their appearance to manipulate others and get what they want. It's cruel and it's dangerous. They’re able to look like anyone, which means they can infiltrate themselves into anyone's life, take anyone's place, and do anything while blaming it on someone else."
"They could get away with anything," I muttered.
"It isn't only that. Yes, they can take someone else's face and use it so no one knows they’re committing crimes or anything else they might want to do. But they could also choose a person's face specifically so they can blame that person for what they did. If they want people to believe someone did something, they can make that happen very easily," Dog said.
"Like with Cabot,” I concluded.
"Exactly,” he confirmed.
I shook my head. "I don't understand."
Ally spun her computer around so I could see the screen. It was a paused video that looked like it was taken during the peace summit.
"Watch carefully," Ally instructed.
She started the video and a voice crackled through from somewhere off-screen.
"Senator Bryce Cabot."
The tall, stately woman strode across the stage toward another ambassador—some Russian dude, flanked on the right by an attractive, well-dressed man who could have been his twin and was probably his assistant. The woman smiled as she extended her hand.
"That's Cabot." I pointed at the screen.
"Yeah, that's what the announcer said," Ally muttered. "Keep watching."
My best friend allowed the video to continue for a few more seconds until the two world leaders clasped hands, and something stood out to me.
"What was that?" I asked.
Ally looked at Dog, then back at me. "Did you see something?"
"Maybe. I don't know. Can you go back a few seconds and play it again?" She played the video again, and again something struck me, but I couldn't place exactly what it was. She went through it twice more before I spoke. "Hold on. Go back about ten seconds and stop right when they shake hands and the camera focuses on Cabot."
Ally played it back to the right point, then froze the video. I stared at the screen, trying to see what my mind was trying to figure out from the footage. Cabot's hair looked kind of flat from this angle. Her suit might have fit better a few pounds ago, but that could be fixed by taking it in. Her face looked a little strange. I kept examining it and I went back to her face looking strange. There was no other way to describe it. She simply looked…off. Like she had a glitch. Then it hit me. Her eyes. They flashed red. It only lasted for a second, but in the freeze frame, the color was more obvious.
"Holy shit," I muttered.
"Yeah," Ally said.
"But why? Why would a Shapeshifter want to impersonate Cabot?" I asked.
"What better way to destroy world peace?" Pip asked.
"The war," I realized. "The war Pip heard them talking about. They don't want to start a war for themselves. They don't want something small. They want to create a massive, large-scale war and let the world burn itself to the ground." Then it dawned on me. "Cabot."
"What about her?" Ally asked. "You saw her. At least what's supposed to be her. A creature wearing her face."
"Right. We've been operating this whole time under the belief that Hobbes and his minions were targeting Cabot for an attack.” I shook my head. “That's not what's going on. They weren't planning on attacking Cabot, because they already stole her face."
"What do you think they're doing? Why did the Shapeshifter choose to look like her?" Archie asked.
"Like Dog said. Shifting to look like someone else isn't always about not wanting the blame not put on them, but the blame being put specifically on someone else. They took her face so they could blame her for something. I think they're going to have Cabot kill the Russian ambassador."
I looked back at the screen and the Russian smiling at who he thought was Cabot. There was nothing but trust in that expression. He had no idea he was looking right into the face of an imposter.
“We thought Hobbes was going to murder Cabot and reveal The Far to the world. But he wants the human world to tear itself apart.”
“But why?” Pip asked.
“What better way to prepare a society for an invasion?” Ally grumbled under her breath.
“Divide and conquer,” Archie finished for her.
Dog suddenly cocked his head.
"What? What is it?" I asked.
"We're not alone," Dog grumbled somewhere in his throat.
Pip ran over to the window and peered out. She reached back and gestured for me to join her. As soon as I got within a few feet of the window, I knew what she was staring at. I saw the flashing lights.
"Shit. It's the cops," I grumbled. "We're surrounded.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What do we do?” Ally asked, panicked.
“We have to get out of here,” Archie said. “And if there are any of them left alive, we need to make sure they don’t follow us.”
“Absolutely not,” I refused, the words flying out of me with far more emotion than I intended. “We won’t kill any of them. Not a single one. They think they’re doing their job. Protect and serve and all that. I’ll have to fight my way out, yes, and it won’t be pretty, but I won’t kill any of those humans and neither should any of you.”
“Then what’s the plan?” Pip asked. I turned to her and tried to think. This would be hard, but I had to try.
“I’ll distract them. It’ll be a fight and it will get ugly, but I think I can keep from hurting anyone too badly with this thing.” I tested the weight of the axe in my hands. “I’ll draw them away from the building, and you guys scatter. Go in as many directions as possible, and make it look like you’re running away from the fight like you have nothing to do with it. We can meet somewhere in a few hours when I can shake them.”
“How? You don’t know where you are or where you’re running to. How will you ditch twenty cops who are looking for you?” Ally asked.
“This might help.” Archie held up a glove. I stared at it for a moment, then at Archie.
“Didn’t you say that it wasn’t ready?” I asked. “Also, what the hell is it?”
“Well, no, not technically. It has a design that allows it to send electric shocks along with added force to punches and grip. I call it ‘The Light Touch.’” He looked at the glove like he wasn’t sure what it would do at any moment. “It might not be ready. Or it might be. Or it might work way better than it’s supposed to, which is not working the right way in any case. Frankly, Slick, I have no idea what it will do, but it couldn’t hurt to have it on.”
“Archie, if I use that thing, will it set off a nuclear explosion or kill all the electricity in the city?” I asked.
“Probably not,” he admitted.
I sighed. “Fine, give it to me.”
I placed the glove on my hand and marveled at its weight. It felt tight and flexible, but there was a little added “oomph” to it. Even if the taser part didn’t work, it would be helpful to have a little extra power in my punches.
I looked around at my friends and tried to take the moment in. A little while ago, I was being beaten up and about to be split in two by Thrash. Now I had his axe, and my friends saved me. Comparatively, running from the cops should be a breeze, but if I were to be honest, I was pretty tired already.
“We should meet up somewhere easy to find. What about Picadilly Circus?” Dog suggested.
I nodded. “Good as anywhere here, I guess. You guys scatter. We’ll meet there.”
A sound crashed from a door somewhere below. The cops were breaking into the building.
“Go, get out of here. Make it look like you’re running from trouble,” I demanded, and the group took off. I opened the window to the fire stairs and made a decision. If they were going to get me, it was going to be in style. I drew a breath and climbed out.
After I went down one floor, I noticed that the window two f
loors below me was open. The only problem was there was already a policeman heading past it toward me. As he rounded the corner, I connected with him by smashing the handle of the axe into his stomach, then grabbed him by the back of the shirt and his belt to ram him into the wall of the building with my free hand. He slumped and I rushed past him, hoping he would stay down long enough for me to get down and into that room before he called for backup.
I made it to the window without incident and slipped in, finding myself in a bedroom. The room was empty, and I rushed through it to the door leading out into the hallway. When I got there, two more cops were heading toward me.
They seemed surprised I was coming toward them, as if they thought they were sweeping an empty room. I ducked under the outstretched arm and threw myself at the cop behind him in the narrow hallway. I elbowed him in the jaw, then spun and smashed the other in the face with my fist.
A couple of rapid-fire kicks to the stomach knocked him back. I spun back to knee his partner in the stomach, and when he bent over, did a knee lift to his jaw. He flew back and slammed into the wall, and I laid in a few punches until he slid all the way down. The first one recovered enough to try calling on his shoulder radio.
I snatched the cord and yanked, separating it from the radio, then spun into a kick to his head. He launched back toward the door of the bedroom unconscious and I put my hands on my knees to breathe.
I only had a second to rest since more sounds came from everywhere. Somewhere in the distance, Archie’s unmistakable voice yelled out in the worst English accent I ever heard that he was trying to get out of their way. It made me smile, but I hoped it would work. He sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger doing a Michael Caine impression.
I ran for the door and saw a cop holding Archie by the shirt. He was obviously suspicious of him, but seeing me changed his priorities. As he let go of Archie’s shirt, I flung the blunt end of the axe at his face and he fell backward. He tumbled toward the railing of the long stairwell and crashed through it. I grabbed him as he was about to fall to his doom and yanked him toward me while ducking and rolling to the side. He crashed into the room I came from and I followed him in, curb stomping him into the floor.