by S T Branton
“So, give me the assessment, Sensei.”
“Not bad. Obviously, you got a few solid licks in.” I rubbed my temple ruefully. “But you have to pay more attention to positioning. You were all shitstorm out there. A freaking maelstrom wrapped in chaos with a side of bedlam. A little more control would have gone a long way.”
“Preventative fighting,” Maya said. “Like preventative medicine.”
“Something like that,” I said with a shrug. Maybe it wasn’t the most direct comparison, but hey, whatever helped her understand.
A shiver ran through her, and she rubbed her hands over her bare arms. “Damn, it’s cold in here. How do you handle this without a fur coat?”
I glanced down at my standard tank top and sweats combo. “I don’t really feel it once we start. Must be all the adrenaline.” I glanced at her naked body. “Doesn’t help that you’re standing there bare-ass naked. Go get your clothes on, we need to transition to part two of your training.”
I believe you are taking quickly to the idea of having a partner, Marcus remarked. Could it be that my spectacular presence has positively influenced you after all?
I chose to ignore his smarminess for the moment—I just wanted to help Maya. Her first few days in the city had been rough, plagued with either nightmares or insomnia. It seemed crucial to be able to get to the bottom of what was going on in her head so that we could make some real progress in her training.
That’s where Marcus came into the picture.
“I don’t know what’s going on with me,” Maya said, after getting dressed. She ran her fingers through her hair, an expression of genuine bemusement spread over her face. “Ever since we left Washington, I’ve felt like something’s missing.”
“You’re homesick?” I asked.
“For Silver Banks?” Maya shook her head. “Not a chance.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “How do I say this? When I was being controlled by Lupres, it was like I could hear him inside my head. Now, it’s like he’s gone, but he’s not. Like there is residue of him splattered around in my mind.”
“Gross.” I rubbed her arm, giving her the warmest smile I could muster. “Hopefully, part two of your training will start to clean out that residue.”
“I can only hope so.”
“Are you sure this will work?” I asked Marcus.
It is certainly worth a try, is it not? I am benevolent, so it cannot hurt her.
She looked at me with a puzzled expression. “What?” she asked, and then looked down at the amulet hanging around my neck. “Oh, you’re talking with him.”
“Precisely, but now it’s your turn,” I replied. “Marcus thinks that he might just be able to help you out with the traces of Lupres you feel in your mind, walk you through a psychic reframing, or something like that.”
Maya laughed. “Sounds like a bunch of hocus-pocus pseudoscience to me,” the veterinarian said.
“Spoken by the woman who was just kicking my ass in the form of an over-sized, bipedal wolf-beast?” I raised a brow for effect.
“Touché!” Maya rubbed the back of her neck. “Guess it’s time to get over the need to suspend disbelief. What do I do?”
“She’s all yours,” I told Marcus, as I took the necklace off and held it out to her. “Just put this on. He’ll walk you through the process. It’s probably past time for the two of you to get better acquainted, anyway.”
Maya did not seem comfortable with the situation, but she relented and settled back into a sort of meditating stance, clearly listening to whatever Marcus had to say. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she sunk down, sitting on the cold concrete; I could tell he was lulling her into a trance, guiding her down into a different level of consciousness. He had never done this with me, but then again, I’d never been turned and then brainwashed by a Were god.
She stayed silent and motionless for at least ten minutes. When she finally stirred, it was like a cave-dweller walking into bright sunlight. Blinking, she rubbed her eyes and stared at me. Then she stood, took off the pendant, and gave it back.
“How’d it go?” I waited for her to answer before I put the necklace back on, just to encourage her to tell the whole truth.
“I’m not sure.” Maya yawned. “I think I fell asleep. And now I feel like I could eat a horse.”
“Jeez.” I put on the medallion. “What happened in there?”
I am simply helping to clear her subconscious of the roots Lupres attempted to put down. She will likely not remember such trips deep into her subconscious, but they are necessary to rid her of the last of Lupres’s influence, as you surmised. Perhaps a benevolent mental presence, or the possibility of one, can help her to regain some stability as well. As for her physical sustenance, I am afraid I must leave that to you.
“I’m on it. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Yes!” Maya grinned for maybe the first time since she’d gotten to New York. “I’m a hundred percent down with that. Something that’ll make me feel human again.”
CHAPTER TWO
Seated across from me in the booth, Maya picked up her wine glass and held it up to the light. She let a contented sigh slip through her tiny smile. “It feels pretty damned good being out of Silver Banks. The only bar there served wine in plastic cups, poured out of a box. I could get used to being back in a city with a bit of class.”
I laughed. “Remind me not to take you to any of my usual haunts. Some of those joints might make you feel like you’re right back in the heart of rural Washington.”
I sipped on my own drink, a gin and tonic. Usually my summer drink, its cooling effects were exactly what I needed after our heated work out. The heavy pour offered just the right kick of alcohol. Looking up at Maya, I said, “I guess if things ever get normal here, you could find work pretty easily in New York. People in the city love their animals. There’s little cosmopolitan ankle biters everywhere.”
Tilting her head, Maya gave me a little nod. “Yeah, guess I could. I was always a little divided about my time in Silver Banks. It was pretty backward in a lot of ways, but I couldn’t help but love the work there. I had bounced around a good bit before landing the job, and I needed to pay off my school debt, so it made sense for a time. But the work there…”
She trailed off, her eyes looking vacantly across the room. “The work there was what?”
Maya came back to me. “I don’t know. I guess the work there was just very authentic. Something about people in the country and their relationship with their animals, it just seemed so much more…familial, or something.” She laughed and waved her hand at me. “It sounds so silly.”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “Only as silly as we let it be. You think that Buck, the mixed breed adopted by some country folk, is more valuable than the chihuahua in a handbag on Fifth Avenue?”
Maya tapped the rim of her wine glass. “I’m going to need another one of these if we continue down this line of questioning.” She flashed me a smile to let me know that our back and forth was still on friendly ground. “I don’t think that an animal being treated as an accessory really respects its inherent dignity. All life has dignity.”
“That’s why you’re vegan.”
“Exactly.” Maya ran her finger down the right side of the menu, taking in our options. “And it looks like I’ve died and gone to vegan heaven.”
The waiter came and took our orders, eyeing Maya the entire time. She ordered something that sounded like a fancy salad in a wrap, and I ordered a burger, medium-rare.
As the waiter left, I said, “Looks like our waiter has eyes for you.”
“Vic, he looks like an out-of-work actor. Also, he’s a dude, and they’re not really my thing.”
“We’re in New York.” I shrugged. “I guarantee he’s an actor. You were saying?”
“Dignity of animals. It’s why I’m vegan, and why I think it is a cosmic fucking joke that I get turned into a werewolf by the gods.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “
Vegan werewolf. Has a nice ring to it. Sounds like a book I saw on Amazon.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it.”
I cocked my head to the side. “And now is the moment when you tell me what exactly ‘it’ is.”
“You know,” she paused and glanced around the room, making sure we were out of earshot. “Kill someone. Maul them with my…” she glanced at her own hands, which, only an hour earlier, were razor-sharp claws.
Maya was a saint, and I was lucky to have her as a friend. I could only pray that her moral sentiments wouldn’t cause too much hesitation when I needed her.
“When the time comes,” I said, “you need to know that the dignity of life isn’t quite that black and white. You go down this path, and you’re going to need to make a decision. Killing someone who is intent upon ending the lives of hundreds or maybe thousands becomes pretty clear in the moment. Unfortunately, I’ve already faced the decision, and when it came, it was easier to make than I expected.”
We sat in the quiet for a while. Maya obviously mulling over my words, and I hers. My mind floated back over the previous months. The battles against the gods hadn’t quite turned me into the ultimate killing machine, but it had taught me a lot, as had Marcus. It struck me that having Marcus’s no-nonsense military attitude and Maya’s heightened sense of compassion might help me to strike the proper balance.
Finally, our meals came. “I still have a lot of questions,” Maya said as I took my first bite of the pink, juicy burger. “But I’m not opposed to learning as we go. What’s the next step?”
I laughed wryly. “That is constantly the million-dollar question. So far, the incidents—New York, California, and Washington—were isolated. But the vamps knew about the deal with Silas Monk. So information is still traveling from coast to coast. That makes it seem like there’s something significant going on behind the scenes. We have to find out what that is. How much do these gods know about each other? Are they working together or against each other? What’s their endgame?”
“Seems daunting,” Maya remarked. I could see she’d been somewhat cowed by the onslaught of information, and I made a mental note to dial it back a little bit, at least until she adjusted.
“Yeah, it is. Even more so now that I’m starting to see a clearer picture of what we’re up against. Lupres is the first god who projected a definitive strategy of immediate scale, you know? Before him, it was all personal vendettas or somewhat isolated power plays. Then Lupres came out of the woodwork with a plan to turn entire communities into his minions.”
I find this to be an astute observation, Victoria.
I almost jumped at Marcus’s voice. “We keep waiting for the next sign of trouble, the next emergence of some badass god, but wars aren’t won reactively. It’s time that we start gathering intel, and maybe, if we’re lucky, make some new friends along the way.”
Maya nodded. “Perfect. I’m ready to get to work.”
“I’m impressed,” I said. “You’re taking to this a lot better than I would’ve expected.”
She shrugged. “I’m a professional, Vic. Every situation gets more manageable once you break it down into tangible tasks. It’s how I got through a billion years of vet school. And it’s how we’ll get through this.”
“Ok,” I said with a cruel smile. “Then finish your rabbit food, and let’s get going. I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
“Another friend of yours?” she asked.
“Not exactly.”
CHAPTER THREE
The shortcut I took led through a dark alley. I know what you’re thinking. Dumb ass move, with a capital ass.
Given my recent past experiences with alleys, maybe I should have known better, but I’d traversed this particular route on my own so many times that I must have let my guard down in the face of familiarity. Maya, whom I had asked to trust me, followed timidly, single-file, down the narrow passage. She didn’t say anything, but her nervous energy was palpable.
I headed for the yellowing streetlamp that marked the end of the alley. Right in that dim pool of light was where the vamps stepped out of the shadows, forming a half-circle around the only way forward. I recognized them for what they were immediately, but as I looked more closely, my brow furrowed. The vamps I was used to were mostly wiry, deathly pale creatures just starting to show the effects of whatever horrible concoction they’d taken in order to turn themselves.
These were entirely different. They loomed over us, their silvery irises eerily luminous in the dark. The weak lamplight played off contours of muscle in necks and shoulders and arms, all poised and ready to strike. The vamps’ faces were bloodless and cruel. Several of them bared their teeth already.
“Damn it to hell,” I muttered. “Haven’t I killed you all yet?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maya apparently frozen in fear. Her hands were balled into tight fists at her side.
“We are resilient. Favored by the gods.” The vamp who spoke was bald, the skin of his head reflecting a waxy sheen.
“You guys are roaches,” I said. “And I’ll keep stomping on you until you stay down.”
He laughed. His lip curled. The gums in his mouth were disturbingly grey. “You will never be able to stop us.”
Who was this guy? He didn’t look or speak like a mobster; at least, not any of the ones I knew. Was Lorcan finally branching out in search of better help? “Watch me,” I said. The Gladius Solis outshined the streetlamp, washing us all in its golden light.
The vamp’s thin smile widened. “So naïve,” he said, which was the full extent of his answer. He didn’t have time to say anything else before I rushed him and ran the blade clean through his torso. Its blazing heat burned the bony fingers that clutched reflexively at the edge before falling limply away. As he disintegrated around the weapon, his cohorts swarmed me.
My sword cleaved mercilessly through anything in its path. They were strong, fast, and fierce, but their attack was reckless. The air grew hazy with vamp dust as I cut them to pieces. Behind me, a tearing sound gave way to a piercing howl, and some of the vamps dogpiling on me diverted to address Maya’s new Were threat.
It didn’t afford me much breathing room. Every time I got rid of a vampire, another one took its place. They started to hang on my limbs, jump on my back, and try to weigh me down. I threw all my strength into lashing out.
Normally, that would’ve been enough to shake them off and give me a moment to regroup. But these tenacious dickheads were strong, and they were heavy. The muscles in my arms and legs strained to free themselves. The movement of the sword slowed down.
I couldn’t see Maya at all, my vision blocked more or less completely by a feral horde of vampires. The sheer number of them baffled me. “Marcus, what the hell is going on here? Are they multiplying as we speak?” I hauled a smaller vamp over my shoulder and tossed his body into the throng. “This shit is ridiculous!”
Lorcan’s strength must be growing. Marcus’s voice was grim. Hold fast, Victoria. He cannot have an inexhaustible supply.
I clenched my teeth. At the moment, it sure felt inexhaustible. There was no indication at all that the flow of enemies was slowing or stopping. Sweat ran down into my eyes. “Well, something’s gotta give.”
I turned and skewered a couple of vamps, slicing hard to the side as they collapsed into dust. They really were like roaches—a few apparently translated into hundreds unseen. Craning my head back, I struggled to catch a glimpse of Maya through the chaos. All I saw was a flash of red fur, the blurred strike of claws. More dust billowed around us, thickening the pool of yellow light.
The longer we went on like that, the slower time seemed to go. I couldn’t tell you how many vamps I put down, and yet they kept coming in droves. I thought dimly that Lorcan must have figured out a way to mass-produce them, that he was rolling them out hot off the presses as quickly as I dispatched them. Nectar notwithstanding, I was starting to get tired. My reflexes slowed down. The adrenaline drained gradual
ly from my bloodstream.
But the vamps were relentless. I’d never seen anything like it.
Maya’s disembodied voice yelped in pain. I tried to pinpoint her location, but the little courtyard at the end of the alley was packed full by now, and there were just too many bodies between her and me. Long, sharp fingers tried to tear at my skin and hair. I felt them dragging me down to my knees. “Get away from me,” I growled, fighting to stay on my feet. “You ugly, skeevy bastards!”
“Stop!” The word crashed into my eardrums like a physical weight, resonating down through the alley. The frenzy froze instantly. Vamps dropped off me to stand at attention, their faces morphing from twisted masks of hatred to flat inscrutability. I spun around, searching for the source of the voice. Soon enough, it made itself clear.
The man was still wearing his black duster, and he still had eyes that could cut me in half. That cold gaze latched onto my face as he stepped out from behind the ranks of lesser vamps and stood facing me, hands clasped behind his back. His name sprung to my mind without hesitation.
Delano. Lorcan’s right-hand man.
“We meet again, blade-wielder,” he declared. “I admit, I am impressed. We had thought your soul would have long since departed by now.” His glance shifted to Maya, and a tiny smirk touched his lips. “And I see you have brought one of Lupres’s curs along. It is almost a shame that you killed the brute.” A brief chuckle wormed its way out of his throat. “Who am I kidding? Your work means one less in our way.”
The slimy pleasantries were lost on me. I gripped the hilt of the Gladius Solis in both hands, holding it straight up in front of me. The blade burned bright as ever, nearly drowning the demigod’s pallid face in its glare. “Delano. You’re just in time to join your creepy friends on the ash heap.”
“Is that so? You hardly seemed so confident a minute ago. I suspect you would have been crushed had I not appeared to call off the dogs, as it were.” He smoothed his greasy hair back. “There is no need for such posturing, at any rate. Had I come to kill you, you would already be dead.” He slipped a hand inside his coat. “I am simply delivering a message. Lord Lorcan requests a parley.”