“You’ve got me all sussed.” Never mind that her dickhead peeps attacked me. Dog eat dog world—or hybrid wolf eats humans who try it out on the streets of London—however you wanna label it. Maybe leave out the eating part. I didn’t chow down on humans. Well, technically...
I laughed at myself.
Whoops!
“And you’re proud of being this way?” she asked.
I changed my mind on the talky crap. It was proper annoying, not a distraction at all. I was so done with talking. Let her think what she wanted about me. I didn’t care. I thought worse things about her. Killing for a living didn’t make me all lollipops and rainbows, and I never wanted to be that anyway.
“Answer me!” she yelled.
All that mattered now was getting away from this crazy witch.
“Fine. Ignore me. I’ll make you talk, don’t worry about that. You killed people I cared about, then killed more. You won’t be done until you’ve completely eradicated my family. I loved those people. We’d been through a lot.”
Silence from me.
“Maybe I should make you watch me take your bike apart first. That’ll hurt you more than any real flesh and bone creature in your life.”
Quiet game rolled on. I wasn’t getting into it with her. Had bigger things to worry about. Let her have her dreams of skinning me alive or whatever.
I summoned Bob and Rose. “See where we are.”
They shot out of the car, taking in the sights and smells around them, being my senses, showing me our immediate surroundings.
We were heading west. Not long until we hit the Westway. She was taking me into the slums.
Now, to get out of this.
Okay, option one was to try and kick the window in. Judging by the thickness of that stupid glass, that was a quick no.
Option two was to try and kick the grate in. No doubt, these peeps were packing guns. If I stirred up too much of a fuss, they’d just blow me away. Boom. Bullet to the brain, and that was me out of the way. Or Violet could blast me with some magic.
Option three: Bleed to death.
Fuck option three!
Option four was to try and get into the boot. It was the better option that should’ve been first. Hey, my brain wasn’t working too good!
Some cars had that thing where you could fiddle with the backseat and get into the boot. Seeing as moving hurt, this was gonna be a motherfucker to pull off. But a trip to the slums with these two wasn’t an option.
First, though, Violet needed to stop looking at me.
“What are you thinking?” she said.
“Nothing much.”
“You are. You’re scheming. I can tell. I’m not a queen for nothing.”
Not really a queen.
“There’s no way out of this car, Akira. It’s over. I’d tell you to sit back and relax. However, once we park up, that’s the end for you. Well, the beginning of the end. Talking to you has made me stick to my original plan of making you suffer. I’m glad it’ll be me and not those ridiculous banshees. Same cause as me, really, but I saw you first. Did you not see the woman outside the shrine? She was walking past, trying to get a look at you, and then the moon transformed. She lingered too long, tried to run. Banshees are quick, as you know, but she hesitated. A fool’s fatal mistake.”
On that, we could agree.
“I watched her get torn apart. It was messy. How many do you think the wolves killed? That flash grenade of mine will only stun them temporarily. And that was only that group.”
As if on cue, more howling, closer than before. And SCU sirens.
“You managed to stay out of danger, though,” I said.
“Of course.”
Where was a pigeon flying into the windscreen when you needed one? That’d make her look away. I mean, poor bird, but it needed to take one for the team. It’d defo give me the window I’d need to put my plan into action.
Here, pigeon…
The car slowed down, pulling up to a red light.
Violet was still looking at me.
Maybe pissing her off would make her sulk and not wanna look at me until she had a scalpel in her hand. Really lay on the nasty talk? Push all the buttons?
“Boss?” the driver said.
“What?” She didn’t take her eyes off me.
“This car behind. It’s being weird.”
“What are you talking about?” She sat up, looking out the rear window. “The white one?”
“Yeah, boss.”
“It’s just waiting for the lights to change.”
“But—”
“Stop making a fuss!” Violet bit back at her minion. “I knew I should’ve asked Fran to drive.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Howl. Mega close.
She turned her head to the driver’s side. “That was too close. Can you drive through the red light? I don’t want to be outside too much longer. I’ll feel better on the Westway.”
What difference would that make? Wolves would never hang out on elevated main roads? Right. Must remember that.
At least I still had a drop of sarcasm left in me. It was more than I was getting of anything else. Violet was back to me.
“Are you scared, Akira?”
“Bit peckish, actually.”
She scowled at me, and it really transformed her face to gargoyle levels of ugly. Suited her.
“You—”
The back window exploded before she could say anything else, and I slipped into the gap between the back and front seats, getting proper jammed in there. I let out an almighty yelp from the pain that shot through my body.
“Drive!” Violet cried.
Before whatever-his-name was could slam down on the pedal, his window burst open. I didn’t see the kill but heard the wetness of it, the gargling of the driver having his throat torn out.
Nasty.
I managed to pull myself out of the gap just as Violet screamed, and the silver flashed. In such a close space, it’d really burned my damn retinas. It’d take a moment for my eyeballs to get back to normal.
I didn’t have a moment. There was a wolf out there, and I had no idea if that silver shit did anything for long enough for me to hang onto my entrails.
Feeling my way up across the backseat, everything blurry, I cut myself on some broken glass. Then a hand slammed down on mine. Not a claw. A hand. The figure of a dark-skinned man rippled before me. I knew that face. At least, I thought I did.
“Xavier?”
“Hello, sunshine.”
I was dragged out of the car.
My vision was getting better by the second as I was slung over a big shoulder attached to a big body covered in a velvet red dress and smelling of floral perfume.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded.
“You’re coming with us,” he answered.
For the second time that day, I was bundled into the back of a car. Well, not bundled. The elf took care to place me into the white vehicle that’d freaked out Violet’s driver. Xavier was my friend.
“Hurry,” Xavier said.
In the driver’s seat was Melody, and in the passenger seat was Phi—Zach’s girlfriend.
Mel said hi and kicked the car into high gear, tearing off.
“Hello, Akira,” Phi said. Man, she looked so broken. Her hand went to her mouth. “He’s really hurt.”
My eyes were watering and felt like twin deserts at the same time.
“We’ll help you, sunshine. Don’t worry.” A big arm wrapped gently around me.
The elves had come to save me. Or were in the right place at the same time. Whatever it was, they were here.
Everything hit me at once. The pain, the shock of pretty much every single moment since I’d stepped foot in the tenshi shrine.
Way too fucking much.
I passed out.
Chapter Ten
Petals again.
“What the fuck do you want from me?”
No amount of shouting a
t the floating pink gits would change anything. Everything that made up these dreams was still the same—from the snow and mountain (which might have looked different, but I couldn’t tell), to the broken-up words.
“Four moons you will know…break…moon… Mazoku…blocked…finding…”
* * *
I woke up feeling groggy as hell. Sitting up, I winced at the dull pain in my right side. Dulled meant drugs. So did groggy.
There was a bandage on my nose. It was big and white. Splinter? Had it been set? Felt a bit tingly, and the more I woke up, the more I got the sensation of cream on there too.
I was shirtless, still in my underwear, bandaged on the side I’d got cut. Halfway to becoming a mummy! Also had some plasters on my hands and face from the glass.
Blinking helped my brain wake up, as did a rub of the eyes. I wanted to stretch, but I knew my limbs wouldn’t go for it right now.
Shite bags! I had to go and get myself injured, didn’t I? Dick!
G…
Oh, tenshi. Let him be okay. Please don’t let this have been some fucking massacre, and now a hardcore war was gonna blow up all over the world. My mind went right to it. This was bad. Real bad. I had to get to Gabriel.
The room I was in was painted purple, with a red carpet and bottle-green silk sheets. There were red and orange bead curtains hanging on the walls, some awesome glittery black guitars mounted on the space over the door, and a distressed white dressing table with matching chair over to my right, makeup stuff, and perfume bottles covering the top.
Xavier’s room. This wouldn’t belong to anyone else. The light shades were gold and in the shape of hearts and butterflies. The lighting was soft and muted. I was grateful for not waking up in the dark.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the bedside table that matched the dresser, swigging most of it down. So damn good! Needed more.
As I slowly got my legs over the side of the bed, the door opened a crack, then opened fully.
“Rise and shine, erm, sunshine.”
Xavier was always so warm and friendly. This time, though, there was something missing in his sunny vibe.
He was in a blue dress, big blue boots, with heavy blue eyeshadow and light blue lip gloss decorating his lips. His dark skin shimmered with a blueish glitter, and he had some new piercings in his ears and nose. The goddess birthmark of the elves (a moon and star inside a sun) on his forehead had glitter dusted over it. The elves had their own goddess, not following the tenshi stuff.
“First time I’ve seen your room,” I said.
“Welcome.”
“Thanks for helping me.”
Xavier leaned against the wall with his arms folded. “Couldn’t just leave you there, sunshine. There were two ways for you to die—wolf or Violet. Anyway, I’ll fix you some breakfast. Pancakes sound good?”
“Sounds amazing.” I didn’t really want anything, but my body would need the energy.
“Chocolate chip.”
“Even better.”
“Good.”
“Why were you there?”
“We so need to talk, sunshine.”
“Yeah. We do. And I don’t wanna wait until after we eat.”
He nodded. “Neither do I. Melody?”
The bronze-skinned elf with purple dreads and acid-washed denim dungarees entered the room with a bundle of clothes in her hands. “Hey,” she said. “You good?”
“Not bad. You?”
“Sound. Here.” She placed the pile of clothes on the bed.
“What’re they?”
“I whipped them up.”
Blue jeans, black tee, black leather jacket, and even some trainers that were way cleaner than my old faves.
“You whipped them up?”
“Yeah. Your size. I’m good with fabrics.”
“But this…what time is it? How did you make these?”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“What? Oh, shit! Where’s my phone?”
“It wasn’t in your suit,” Xavier answered.
“That suit was torn up so bad,” Melody added. “Thought those would work better for you.”
“Thanks. I need to make a call.”
Xavier came to sit next to me. “What you need is a shower.”
“We’re not doing that,” I said. “Remember? Not waiting to talk.”
“Fine. Then let me get straight to the point. You’re not going anywhere.”
Not what I was expecting. “You what?”
“You’re not leaving, Akira. I’m sorry.”
“I hit my head too hard, right?”
“Look,” Melody cut in, “you know we think you’re awesome. And we’re cool with you. But we’re working under orders.”
Had I actually hit my head too hard? “You telling me you’re holding me hostage? Is that it?”
“By order of The Chief. She wants some leverage.”
The Chief was the leader of the elves. Saw her once when my dad screwed over her and her kind.
“But…why?”
“Not happy about being stuck underground,” Xavier said. “Need to bargain new terms.”
“By using me?”
“You’re the High Alpha’s son.”
Were they mental? “Come on. You know that’s all sorts of stupid. He’ll go nuts. Won’t negotiate.”
“Not even for his own son’s safety?”
That was like taking a rusty dagger to the gut. “Safety?”
“We’d never hurt you, sunshine.” He touched my cheek with the back of his hand. “But we need something, anything, to stop this. Hitoshi Murakami can’t do this to us. We had nothing to with Mama Rita. Nothing. She worked alone. We were happy living our lives, enjoying our freedom. Now, we’re prisoners, punished. Wolves can mess up, but one elf does something stupid, and our whole species is screwed over. How is that fair? And he broke the truce! He had Zach arrested without consulting The Chief.”
“We need to fight back,” Melody cut in. “Sick of being dumped on.”
So, the whispers Violet mentioned had some weight to them. A rebellion was coming. I mean, obviously. Some geezers tried to blow up the Hyde Park walls, but I was going along the lines of, well, bigger.
“You’ll start a war,” I said.
“I think that’s already started. You were in the thick of what happened.” Xavier stood up. “I think you need to read the news reports this morning. One moment.” He left the room.
“This is crazy,” I said to Melody. “He’ll storm in here and fuck you all up. If you wanna go to war, he’ll bring it. Hardcore. You all know that. You won’t stand a chance.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but this is how things are rolling.”
Xavier came back with a tablet and handed me the device. “Read that.”
20,000 confirmed dead in werewolf rampage horror!
The world is still reeling from the shock of last night’s werewolf attack on innocent citizens around the world.
20,000 deaths have been confirmed so far, with the figure set to rise even further. Many more victims are injured, some with life-threatening injuries.
Sources say the onset of the change in the wolves was almost immediate. One witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells of how she was almost murdered in her own home as a werewolf broke in.
The woman, who is eight months pregnant, says, “I hid in my wardrobe as the front door was caved in. The howling was awful. I covered my mouth, trying to keep silent. But I knew she’d smell me. We all know what wolf senses are like. I wet myself, feared for my baby. I thought I was going to die, that I’d never get to meet my child. But then I heard a loud bang and something heavy hit the floor right outside my bedroom. I was too scared to move. The SCU found me a few minutes later and took me to the hospital.”
The SCU managed to contain the danger by using their anti-magical technology. One agent told us that the devices used replicated wind, and that wind cut through the towns and cities, laced with a potent toxin r
endering the wolves unconscious. The SCU is sweeping across every inch of every country to make sure even the most rural of areas aren’t missed. No more information was provided, apart from a reassurance that measures have been put in place to curb this new threat.
The cause of the sudden rampage is said to be linked to the red moon, which appeared less than twenty-four hours ago. An investigation is ongoing as to how this resulted in this devastating global incident.
There has been no comment as of yet from The Spire.
“Twenty K?” The tablet slipped out of my hands, bouncing on the carpet.
Xavier scooped it up. “It’s awful and will probably increase as more of the injured die.”
This was a major catastrophe.
“Not to sound like that person,” Melody said, “but the timing is good for us.”
“Melody…” Xavier whispered.
“Sorry, but it is. This had weakened Hitoshi now. More than ever before. I don’t think his war will be that hardcore after this.”
She was right but bloody heartless. “This is pointless, then. If he’s weak now, why not strike?” Fuck. Sounded like I was giving them ideas.
“He’ll still try and bring the hardcore,” Melody replied. “Just now, we stand an easier chance. Maybe. Less of a fight to get what we want. What we deserve.”
“Oh.”
“Look, Akira. This isn’t personal. You know that, right?”
“Holding me prisoner ain’t personal?”
“You hate your dad too.”
“Maybe, but I don’t wanna be stuck here when my friends need me.”
Xavier sighed. “Gabriel was the one who attacked Violet’s car.”
Was that my heart stopping for a few seconds? “G?”
“Yes. It was him. He tore that driver’s throat out. If it wasn’t for Violet’s silver flashing device, I would’ve killed Gabriel. I was ready to.”
Fire in my blood. “Don’t ever say that again.”
“I’d have had no choice, sunshine. He was going to kill you. You should thank Violet for sparing him. At least you could have if she was still around.”
I held back raging in his face. “She’s dead?”
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