Seeds of Autumn

by HB Lyne

  Chapter Twelve

  At 11pm, The Blue Moon left the betting shop and made its way to Redfield Park, on the north-eastern border of their large territory. Shadow's Step and Speaks-With-Stone went in their animal forms, scouting ahead, the others as humans.

  Ariana had her swords strapped to her back, their new magic hiding them from human eyes. Wind Talker and Flames both carried bags over their shoulders, packed with supplies and Fortune wore a huge war hammer on his back, imbued with the same magic as her swords, making it invisible to humans.

  'I don't want a fight,' Fortune had explained as they all gathered their weapons and supplies back at the shop. 'I want a peaceful end to this, but we don't know what the Witches will do, if they come, so we need to be prepared in case it comes to blows.'

  He led the way now, every bit the alpha; tall, broad and armed.

  The pack gathered in the centre of the park and waited. It was a dry night, the sky was clear and Ariana looked up to see stars spread across the sky, a crescent moon hung high above, smiling upon the shifters that were so governed by her shifting form.

  Shadow and Stone remained in their animal forms and made regular circuits of the park, Ariana watched them carefully, longing to shift form and join them.

  Eyes grew restless as they waited, unable to keep still for long and paced across the back of their formation every now and then. Ariana could sense that he was itching for a fight and she had to admit to being curious to see what he could do.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time, it was 12.20am, the Witches were late. She heaved a sigh and put her phone away. Fortune turned to her and scowled a little.

  'They're not coming,' he said in a hushed voice.

  'No,' Ariana replied. 'No, they're not. What do we do?'

  The sound of pounding paws across the grass drew their attention, Shadow raced towards them from the far north of the park and Ariana picked up a single word, company.

  Her eyes darted to the tree line and the whole pack tensed up, eyes searching the darkness. But it couldn't be the Witches, unless they had come through Wrecking Crew territory, no, this had to be the Wrecking Crew. 'Will they enter our territory?' Ariana asked no one in particular.

  'If they do, we fight,' said Fortune authoritatively. 'No warning, they've had plenty of those, they know the rules.'

  Ariana looked at Eyes, his jaw was set, his hands clenched into fists.

  Stone flew down from the black sky above and shifted form swiftly and seamlessly as she arrived at the assembled pack.

  'No, we can't fight them,' she said quietly. 'If the Witches show up and we're in combat with another pack it will not only make us look bad, but they could flank us, or use the opportunity to slip past us. Cool heads, people, please.'

  'Stone is right,' Flames spoke up. 'Eyes, Ariana, bring it down a notch. Even I can smell your adrenaline and in this feeble human form that's bad, very bad.'

  Ariana took a deep breath and looked up at the stars and moon, focusing on their light to help soothe her heightened fight instincts.

  Fortune stifled a snarl, but he nodded once to indicate his agreement.

  'Fine. Stone, Ariana, you two with me. The rest of you wait here.' Fortune led them towards the edge of the park at a brisk jog, one hand on the hilt of his hammer, the idea of a fight wasn't entirely out of his mind.

  They reached the edge of the park and Stone led them to where she had caught sight of them from the air.

  'Here, they're approaching from this way.' Stone indicated the street beyond the trees.

  'Ariana, shift form, please,' Fortune whispered and she did as she was asked, dropping to all fours, her clothes and swords disappearing into her fur. She sniffed the air and smelled them heading towards the park, from downwind.

  She caught sight of four of them, all in human form, walking briskly across the road that ran along the edge of the park, and entering the narrow band of woodland. They stopped suddenly, about five feet inside the tree line, right on the territory border. Ariana looked them each over carefully. They were all scruffy and covered in black grease, their clothes were smeared and at least two of them had it on their hands too. The Alpha was mostly clean and wore baggy jeans and a leather coat. The other two men wore overalls and big boots, the skinny woman that Ariana had seen the last time she encountered the Wrecking Crew was dressed in black leggings and a hooded top, also with big boots on her feet. Her long, thick hair was pulled back into a careless pony tail. They looked like they had just crawled out of a pit lane on a race track, except Rust. Ariana tried to focus her mind on Rust, she reached into his heart, digging, searching for that inner truth that must be there. She saw him watching the others work, felt his lazy boredom oozing from him.

  Fortune indicated for Stone and Ariana to follow him to meet them.

  'Rust,' Fortune greeted their Alpha, tension in his jaw. 'What can I do for you?'

  'We got wind of your entire pack assembling in the park, thought we had better come and check it out. I'm sure you would do the same,' Rust replied.

  'Perhaps. But this is our territory, it's our business what we do on it. It's no concern of yours.' Fortune kept his tone casual, though it was clear that a threat hung unspoken underneath it.

  Rust snorted and shook his head.

  'Fine. Fine, we'll leave you to your midnight stroll in the park.' He turned and his pack turned with him, they walked back to the road and then stopped. Rust glanced back over his shoulder, a glint in his eye. He looked like he was about to throw some dig back at them, then thought better of it and walked briskly away the way they had come.

  Fortune growled and stomped back towards the centre of the park, Stone and Ariana exchanged worried looks and followed him.

  'Waste of bloody time,' Fortune was mumbling as they rejoined the others. 'Right, Flames, I need our messenger here now. I want confirmation that the message was delivered, before we do anything rash.'

  Ariana thought Fortune looked as though he wanted to be rash, but was reining himself in remarkably well.

  Flames opened his bag and started digging through it, but before he could even begin the summoning, a gust of wind blew a flurry of leaves across the park and from out of the shadows stepped a beautiful, shadowy figure. It moved gracefully and was glinting with silver among its dark folds, like dappled light. Ariana felt the power of the demon, and knew it was Shadow-of-Moonlit-Leaves, here in its own environment it looked different, at peace, not scraped together out of what was available. She would even say it was beautiful. “Demon” didn't seem the right name any more and she wondered whether her perception of demons from her human life was entirely accurate in the real world.

  'No need for all that.' Its rustling voice seemed to reach out across the darkness and halt Flames from rummaging in his bag. 'I am here. I delivered your message to their Alpha herself.'

  'Did you wait for a reply?' Fortune barked impatiently.

  'I did. What do you take me for?' The demon whipped towards him, like a leaf caught in a gust of wind changing direction. 'She sent this.'

  Something thudded to the ground between the shadowy demon and Fortune. The Alpha bent to pick it up and Ariana moved closer. It smelled of Teri. Fortune turned it over in his hands, studying it closely and Ariana shifted back into her human form to get high enough to see, just as his fist closed around it. It was Teri's necklace, the one with the gibbous moon on it.

  'What is this supposed to mean?' Fortune snarled.

  'Why, the kitten has renounced Artemis, of course, and joined the Witches.'