Fallen…
I had so many questions. How? Where? What was this weapon?
There were people moving in the space. SCU and werewolves, collars still fully fixed on, some Type Zero cars with extra iron cladding parked up—a reassuring sight that wolves could at least move around the city somewhat.
The kind of transport High Alpha would’ve taken…
Two familiar wolves caught my eye. I strode over to Ally and Drew, Aki following, pulling them both into a huge bear hug. Drew let out a little squeak at the force of it, but they both hugged me back with the same enthusiasm. They both looked utterly exhausted, puffy-eyed from crying. Ally’s amazing white quiff was flat, and she had an angry cut down the dark skin of her left cheek. Drew had gone from fair to deathly pale, no longer the blonde surfer-looking guy he usually was.
“It’s good to see you both,” I said.
Ally and Drew had been set the task to tag along with Aki and I before we’d gone to Japan, a backup measure that hadn’t lasted long.
“We’ve missed you,” Ally said. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”
She looked behind me. “Akira.”
He didn’t say anything. I turned to see him staring into space. It was a miracle he’d got out of the vehicle and followed me.
“I’m so sorry, Akira,” she added.
I shook my head. “Not now.”
He continued to stare into space, here but not here.
“I can’t believe this has happened,” Drew said. “The Spire? I don’t… I can’t… Sorry, mate.” He released a shuddery breath. “I’m just glad you and Akira are okay. We thought we’d lost you.”
I introduced Zach and Ryoka, the entire mood of this moment smothered in shadow. It felt almost dirty to make introductions, even to hug them.
I patted Zach’s shoulder, then Ryoka’s, as lost as they were right now. There was a hazy path ahead, and we were hovering at the fringes to make the next move, to gain more information.
Quentin, my holographic butler, manifested in his usual tux, a beaming smile on his blue face. His mustache was gone.
“Mr. Dawson,” he greeted, “how wonderful to see you again. How may I be of assistance?”
“Your mustache…” It was the last thing I should be worried about, but I’d never seen him without it.
“Do you like it, sir?”
“Looking good, Quentin.”
“Thank you, sir.” He bowed gracefully. “How may I be of assistance?”
“We’re heading upstairs now, so if you could attach yourself to the needs of all of our guests, please.” He would not have allowed anyone into my apartment without me here, nor would he have responded to any request. Quentin was purely programmed to answer to me.
“As you wish, sir.”
* * *
Aki put one foot in front of the other with no problem. On that level, he was functioning. But he still wasn’t speaking, still staring into space.
I helped him unstrap his katanas, then sat with him on my black sofa in the open plan living room/kitchen space of my apartment. It was as clean and spotless as it always was, completely lacking in lived-in charm, or any sort of charm. I always thought it was soulless. Yes, it had two levels, a wonderful view of Murakami Park through the panoramic windows (when not blocked with iron panels) and was a luxury I was grateful to have when so many didn’t have two dimes to rub together. But still, it wasn’t a home. Not like Aki’s flat, which was full of warmth and, well, a soul.
Zach and Ryoka joined us, sitting on Aki’s right, giving him enough distance.
“Aki?” I said to him, taking his hand. “We’ll need to start making preparations to head to Bow. But this isn’t me pressuring you. When you’re ready. Okay? I’m right here. This is your call. You say the word.”
There was only one way to proceed—get Aki to Bow and break the curse. I’d been told there was an SCU unit stationed at the spot, waiting for our arrival. They were there for backup when things went wild. Because they would. Too many wanted Aki to fail. It wouldn’t be as easy as getting to Bow and releasing the death power.
I never expected easy.
Now to break through this awful fog smothering Aki.
I heard Quentin offering to make bacon and eggs for our guests. It didn’t seem like anyone accepted, some only wanting a drink, speaking in hushed tones. Food was the last thing on my mind too. It would certainly be the last thing on Aki’s mind. Still, I had to take care of my guy no matter what.
“Do you want something to eat?” I asked.
No response.
“I’ll bring something over, okay?”
Nothing. Empty. Just blinking.
“I love you, Aki.” I kissed his cheek and stood up, not wanting to leave his side, yet not wanting to clog up his space too much.
How did I bring him back to me? This was another piling on of pain for him, more pressure, more to crush his fighting spirit.
A kiss wouldn’t cut it this time.
“Quentin?” I said, heading into the busy kitchen area.
“Yes, sir?”
“We still have that supply of chocolate raisins, don’t we?” I knew the answer and was already opening the drawer I kept a stockpile in. I just liked hearing Quentin’s reassuring tones.
“Indeed, sir.”
A werewolf guy and a woman SCU agent moved out of my way, sipping orange juice somberly as I removed a packet of chocolate raisins. Not the greatest nutrition, but Aki’s favorite. They made him so happy, and they were a weapon I had to use against the sorrow that’d gripped his heart. Chocolate raisins and my love for him.
Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I made my way back to the sofa. There were five wolves and six SCU agents in my apartment, with a further ten of each down in the underground carpark, plus fifteen agents patrolling the surrounding streets.
“Do you want some of these?” I asked him, opening the purple and white striped packet.
Still no response.
My weapons were useless at the moment.
“Aki… I’m so sorry. You probably don’t want to keep hearing that, but I am.”
There were still no reports of High Alpha and his family being found. No survivors, in fact. Everyone in here was waiting for an update, for the phone to ring.
“I’ve said this to you so many times before, but I’m here. I’m not moving from this spot now until you want to. Okay?”
Every word was fluff. I needed to say more, to be more solid.
His lips parted slightly, but no sound came out.
“Beta? Sir?” a male wolf said from my side. He was a brown-skinned young man called Jay, fairly new and a soldier in the wider werewolf army. Everyone loved his white blonde braids, and he had a reputation for being a bit of a heartthrob.
Not in this moment, the same terror in his brown and gold eyes as everyone else.
He still saw me as his commander. “Yes?” I responded.
“We’ve just had word that The Chief is about to give an address.”
“Okay. Thank you.” I grabbed the remote from the coffee table.
Another message from The Chief. Fury blazed in my veins. Tucked away safely somewhere in his bubble, out of my reach. If he came onto the battlefield, and I met him head-on, he’d rue the day his mama and papa met.
The screen came to life, the same background as before from the last address this piece of filth had given. This time he was wearing silver armor, as if ready to start striding into war. All he needed was a helmet.
Everyone gathered around the sofa to watch.
It looked as if I might get to say hi on the battlefield, then feed his intestine to him.
“Believers of a new world. We have achieved the impossible, a once in a lifetime feat. There were those who did not believe the Hope Device would work after so many failed tests, after so many false starts, and the iron rain had been a potential hindrance to our plans.”
The Hope Device?
“Yet here we are, the symbol of
the beast removed.” There were cheers behind the camera. He grinned, gesturing for silence. “I address the werewolves directly. You can attack with iron rains, you can try to crush our spirit, keep us underground, but we will not be beaten. You have seen the force of our power now. Your time is over. Stand by for more.” The transmission cut off.
The Hope Device. The bomb, clearly. But what else could it do?
“It appears the elves have been underestimated in the most grievous way,” Ryoka said. “Nowhere is safe.”
I looked to Zach, who was staring at his brother, his shoulders slumped.
This was awful. I had to find a way to get to Aki, to bring him back, to fill him with fight. I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t lose him to this. I even wanted to scoop him up and take him away from everything, be completely selfish, and leave the moon curse and all of this behind.
When it came to Aki, I just wanted to protect him, to take the pain away.
No power in the world could do that, though. Not for him, not for anyone. Pain was a thing to be experienced, suffered, and battled. But longing was just as strong, and I was longing to hear his voice again.
This curse had to end. The wolves in the apartment needed saving too, as did every other lupine.
My first clear sign of the devastation that wasn’t the billowing smoke appeared on the screen as the regular news broadcast returned.
The Spire was nothing but a vast pile of smoking rubble, with a small trace of silver fire burning at the edges of the destruction in the gardens that surrounded it, slowly fading in the iron rain.
The rescue operation was being conducted by the SCU and humans, a whole army trying their best to find survivors. But the devastation was immense, and there was the high risk of silver sickness if the bomb carried a form of fallout with it.
So many buzz words coming through the television: Recuse Efforts, Survivors, High Alpha, Sarah Murakami, Riku Murakami, Devastation, Werewolf, Elf… I muted it, leaving it on for everyone else.
“Come on, Aki,” I said. He wasn’t watching the screen. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
Quentin appeared before the TV, not smiling.
I stood up. “What is it?”
“There is a silver presence approaching the building, sir. Elves.”
My phone blared in my pocket. I answered. “Yes?”
“Sir, there are elves in the street,” an SCU agent from outside spoke. Dan. I’d been on one date with him. We didn’t spark, but we sometimes met up for a drink as friends. Sometimes being more like a while ago what with life getting in the way.
“How many?” I asked.
“Three, sir.”
“Just three?” How were they in the streets with the rain pounding down?
“We’re running a sweep of the area now.”
“Be ready,” I said, readying a pistol. “We’ll need to evacuate now. This area has been compromised.”
Killer me ignited. So, they wanted to follow us here and attack this sanctuary? I’d answer them with bullets and fists. But there was a risk of another bomb attack, another use of this Hope Device. We had to leave.
“Everyone downstairs,” I ordered. “Now.” I was back in beta mode, taking control of the situation. Everyone seemed to accept it readily.
While people started to file out of the room, Zach and Ryoka insisted on waiting for Aki.
There was an emergency exit from the carpark that went under the canal near this building, coming out into Murakami Park.
“Come on, Aki,” I said, taking his hand. “We have to get out of here.”
He took my hand, standing up, let me lead him out into the stairwell, moving fast with me down into the underground carpark.
An emergency alarm sounded, and residents of the building were being evacuated too, guided by SCU agents, funneled to the backstreets rather than into the carpark or main roads, directed away from the action completely.
Civilians didn’t need to see this.
Jay waited for me by a vehicle. “Sir,” he said, “we’re awaiting your command.”
Where to go now with wolves in tow? Where would be safe? Nowhere, that’s where. Nowhere was safe, everywhere was now compromised if my apartment building was. No SCU station, no werewolf station—nothing. And we’d be further away from Bow, further away from bringing an end to this madness.
I was hesitating, committing the cardinal sin of a beta. Dithering got people killed. Yet I was stunted, clawing for anything I could get hold of to take the right course of action.
Everyone was looking to me, to my command, for me to be their beta and do what was best for them. High Alpha was missing, so it fell to me to be that man again.
Dithering would not do.
Clinging to my composure before it spiraled away, I simplified my thinking. Getting out of here was the first step. That—
My phone buzzed. “Yes?”
It was Dan again. “Sir? The elves are asking for you. They’re insisting it’s safe, that they’re friends, no bomb threat. Hold it! Stand back, I said!”
“Friends? Are they insane? No bomb threat?”
“Shall I erase the problem, sir?”
I was about to give the order to execute, when Dan barked, “I don’t care what your names are!”
“Hold on. What are their names?”
“Xavier and Melody, and River. I can’t see their faces.”
I didn’t need to hold my tongue, the shock made sure it tangled itself in a sufficient knot.
Who was River? “I’m coming out,” I said.
“Gabriel, no,” Ryoka protested. “You can’t---”
“I have to,” I countered. “Jay? Make sure you get everyone out of here.” I took Akira’s hands, no change to him. “I’ll follow, okay? I just—”
“Xavier?” he whispered, meeting my eyes. “I have to see him.”
“Aki? You spoke.” His voice, so weak, lacking its usual oomph, threw me off. “Aki—”
“I need to see him, G.”
“I can’t keep you here, Aki. I can’t. Even if it is Xavier and Melody.”
“Please…” He looked away, staring into space again.
What was I supposed to do? Have him dragged away? He’d just spoken for the first time since the attack.
“Jay?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Be ready to move when I say. Ryoka? I want you and Zach out of here.”
“No,” Aki’s uncle replied.
Though Zach hadn’t heard me, he seemed to get the gist, shaking his head.
“Please,” I said. “You have to get to safety.”
“There is nowhere safe for us now.”
“It’s an order.”
“I’m not a wolf, you are not my beta, and I wouldn’t care if you were. I will not leave my nephew’s side, nor will his brother, and nor will the people who are gathered in this place. Civilians are being removed, and that is all who will be.”
“Ryoka, please.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Jay added, “I don’t want to go. I want to be here to fight. With you, with Akira, for High Alpha. We all do.”
I looked around at the wolves and the SCU agents, and they all nodded or smiled, not making any moves to get away.
I didn’t protest or repeat of my orders, didn’t rage, didn’t claim any dominion over them. Their amazing display of loyalty was enough to shut me down. I wasn’t taking my own advice to leave, anyway, and a beta was supposed to lead by example.
“For Akira,” I said. “For High Alpha. For the end of the curse.”
“For Akira. For High Alpha.” A collective response.
Aki didn’t so much as blink.
“Okay,” I said, galvanized. “Time to talk to some elves.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabriel
They were smothered in silver light, the raindrops sizzling as they struck the shields that hid their faces.
Some of the SCU agents covered the entrance to the underground carpark, m
e taking point ahead of everyone else. There were five agents with guns trained on those silvery figures.
“Gabriel.” That was Xavier’s voice all right.
Three of them. “What are you doing here?” I asked, my own pistol trained on these visitors.
“To see you,” he replied. “Can we come in to talk? I don’t know how much longer our shelters can withstand the rain. Oh, sunshine!”
That was the name he used for Aki, who was now standing right by my side.
He didn’t answer.
“Please,” Xavier added, “we’re not part of them. Really. I would never do anything to hurt Akira.”
Them? “You kidnapped him.”
“Yes. But not to hurt him. You know that. You know he is our friend.”
“Not to all of you.”
“We don’t follow the new leader,” he said, menace in his tone. “He is the great betrayer.”
It really was true about Xavier and Melody not revealing information about Akira, then? Maybe. “I can’t trust you. And we don’t know who River is.”
“The Chief,” Xavier replied.
The tension that rippled amongst us was palpable in the extreme. “The Chief?”
“The true leader, not that usurping creature who slaughters in her place.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, Gabriel. We’re on the run. There aren’t many of us on this side of the coin. Many have been caught up in madness. Please let us inside to talk. I beg of you.”
This was a knife-edge decision. “The Hope Device,” I said. “What is it?”
“It is a powerful weapon of war that has been developed over the past decade as a means of collateral against the wolves. No one actually believed it would fire, the production fraught with constant breakdowns, an overcooked idea.”
“It was only supposed to be used as a bargaining tool.” That was a woman speaking, a familiar voice.
The Chief. River.
“You’re telling me you wanted to use it as scare tactics?” I said. “A silver bomb like that?”
“Yes,” The Chief replied. “I would never want to reap destruction like we have seen. Only as a very last resort. I wanted peace, even in my rage against High Alpha’s decision to keep us underground. The kidnap of Akira was to be our way out, a peaceful negotiation.”
Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4) Page 80