Paper Tigers

by Meg Collett

  Maybe she knew we were coming for her. Maybe that’s what she’d wanted when she came home to the slaughterhouse only miles from the school. And worst of all, maybe I was wrong for seeing her as more human than she was.

  T W E N T Y - T W O

  Ollie

  I moved through the trees on my toes, careful with every step. The night was oddly warm, sticky almost, as though it were summer in Alabama. I pulled at my jacket collar and glanced left.

  Beneath the night sky, I could just make out Luke as he kept pace several feet away. His form slipped in and out of moonlight, the branches above him slashing shadows across his face. He had his rifle across his chest and his finger along the trigger guard.

  Just as I had a thousand times already during our hour-long hike up the mountain, I checked on Sunny to my right. She’d kept up, but she was straining. Sweat dripped down her jaw, and her steps were too loud. She carried no weapons aside from her throwing knives—tiny, sharp things that were useless in the dark. She wouldn’t see a target until it was right in her face and already too late.

  Hatter hiked beside her, so close their shoulders almost touched. He held his sniper rifle and had a lethal-looking bayonet strapped to his thigh, along with a radio attached to his belt. I had one as well. Somewhere behind us, Squeak, in his night-form, prowled along. Eve and Haze watched our backs from a truck we’d left near the road in case we needed a quick evacuation. Ahead of us, A.J. sniffed out the path.

  I first glimpsed his slowly swishing tail as we crested the ridge. He turned his long snout in our direction, and his black eyes stared at us over his shoulder as we approached. Luke, Hatter, and Sunny closed in, and we crouched next to A.J. behind the last line of trees before they broke off along the sharply descending mountain edge.

  In the valley below, the slaughterhouse hid behind straggling trees and creeping weeds that curled and clung to the crumbling, faded bricks. I’d expected Zero to leave the lights off, but the darkness was so absolute and the night so inky that my heart sped up with fear.

  This is bad, I thought before I could stop myself.

  A.J. let out a low sound. The scruff along the back of his neck stood on end. His lips peeled back in a snarl, and a long line of saliva dripped from his fangs. His wicked growl set my teeth on edge.

  “What does he smell?” Luke asked me. His whispered words crackled through the surrounding woods.

  What is it? I directed the thought to A.J. without speaking. He met my eyes and held my gaze, my reflection cast upside down in his pupils. He whined.

  Aswangs, he thought back. Too many.

  Goosebumps spread along my arms. Not just from his words, but also from hearing him speak in my thoughts. I’d been able to hear aswangs in their night-forms since the beginning, but it still unnerved me. It wasn’t natural. I imagined hunters felt the same way when ’swangs wormed into their brains and forced them to feel pain.

  “’Swangs,” I whispered to the others. “He says there’s a lot down there.”

  Luke’s fingers began their tapping dance. Hatter cursed and raised his sniper rifle to scope out the valley below. As he swept the gun back and forth, a twig snapped behind us.

  I spun around, the knife in my silver knuckles flashing in the moonlight.

  It was just Squeak. His nostrils flared wide as he panted. ’Swangs, he told me.

  That’s what A.J. said. Do you know how many?

  Too many. It chilled me that his words echoed A.J.’s so perfectly.

  Hatter lowered his rifle, and Luke read his best friend instantly. “It’s bad?” he asked.

  Hatter’s jaw flexed with tension. “It ain’t good. There’s an army down there.”

  “I thought Hex said just a few ’swangs had gathered?” Sunny asked.

  Her question bothered me. A.J. and Squeak prowled the ridge, tasting the air and snarling back and forth in a language I couldn’t discern. They could keep their thoughts to themselves if they focused, and apparently, they’d been practicing.

  I asked them aloud, “It’s Hex, isn’t it? He’s here.”

  A.J. paused and glanced back. The ripple of his hide was answer enough. He was scared. And only one person could scare an aswang like A.J. Hex was down there.

  My father had beaten me here.

  “We’re screwed,” Luke said. “We should go back. Reassess and regroup.”

  “I second that,” Hatter added.

  Sunny stared at me. She already knew what I would say. When had she gotten so good at reading me? “We might not get this chance again.”

  “It’s a trap down there, Ollie.” Luke’s fingers rasped against each other.

  My father was here because he wanted Zero, just like Dean wanted Zero. As much as they hated each other, Dean and my father were the same. They wanted to win this war by any means necessary. My mother might have been good for Hex long ago, but after her death, without her as his moral compass, he’d fallen into old habits.

  The scary thing was that I might have agreed with him if I’d known his intentions when I first arrived at Fear University. Back then, before I had my home and my family and my mother’s legacy, I would have done anything to win. No matter who I killed. Who died. No matter the cost. But things had changed. I’d changed. In my heart, I knew Zero wasn’t safe with Dean or Hex.

  I would kill her before I let Hex or Dean get their hands on her.

  The thought spurred me into action. “We’re doing this tonight. You and Hatter can take Sunny back down the mountain. Wait at the truck with Eve and Haze. Me and the guys,” I said, nodding to A.J. and Squeak, “will go down into the valley.”

  “Fuck that,” Luke said right as Hatter said, “Hell no.”

  Sunny spoke next. “We’re not leaving you.”

  “Our plan won’t work anymore.” I checked the valley again. It was too dark to see the aswangs moving around without a scope, but if I was still enough, I could feel them. Their thoughts, muted and faraway, ghosted through my mind, too ephemeral to catch. “A.J. and Squeak can’t take on that many, and Hex will be with Zero. Even if we wait until daybreak, we won’t have the advantage.”

  “So we don’t wait,” Luke said. “They won’t expect us to come at night when they’re strongest. Your pack can distract and divert as many ’swangs as they can. Hatter and I can get you to the front door and hold it. You can deal with your father. You’re ready, Ollie.”

  “And what will I do?” Sunny asked Luke.

  Her hand was in her coat pocket. She’d brought ’swang saliva. It was ready and waiting in a little syringe. My heart ached at the thought. She would take it, and I couldn’t stop her. Worse than the thought of having to kill Zero was the realization that I needed Sunny.

  With Hex and his pack here, along with countless other aswangs, our old plan was dead. It was time for a new plan.

  Luke and Hatter were useless against Zero. Perhaps A.J. and Squeak were too. If they weren’t immune to her form of mind control, then I needed them outside distracting the aswangs while I got past my father. I couldn’t fight him alone; it would give Zero too much time to escape. No matter how I sliced it, Sunny and I were going in that slaughterhouse tonight, and Sunny was going after Zero.

  I just prayed we’d walk back out.

  She was staring at me, reading my thoughts again. “Ollie?” she murmured.

  “Can Eve give the antidote herself if she needs to?”

  Sunny nodded. “I lied when I said the bane measurement was sensitive. It’s not. She’ll be fine if she has to inject anyone.”

  I let out a long breath. This was it.

  “Please be careful,” I begged in a hoarse whisper. “Please.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  “What?” Hatter glanced between us then to Luke, who looked just as confused. “What’s happening?”

  “How long does it take?” I asked Sunny.

  She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. She was too small and delicate. Her pretty doe eyes were
wide and shimmering with fear, but also with bravery. So much bravery. I took the time to memorize that expression on my best friend’s face because it would be a while until I saw it again once she dosed herself.

  “Wait,” Luke said, realizing our intent. Hatter surged toward Sunny, understanding at the same moment. Luke grabbed his arm and held him back. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “You’re coming inside with me,” I told Sunny. “I’ll handle my father while you get Zero. Don’t hurt her, okay? Just get her back to the truck.” We’d equipped our ride with enough lights to illuminate the moon. “We’ll meet you there. Stay focused, okay?”

  Sunny nodded. “Now?”

  Had I been the praying sort, I’d be praying right now. I’d get on my knees and beg whoever gave a fuck to let my best friend get through this. Was this how Luke felt every time Hatter hunted with him? I couldn’t stop my gaze from sliding to him, his river-moss eyes full of sympathy.

  Hatter’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Sunny. No.”

  “I’m a fighter,” she told him, but her voice cracked. Her lips trembled with fear.

  “I know,” he told her. “I’ve always known.”

  He stepped toward her again, and this time, Luke let him. Hatter pulled Sunny against his chest and kissed her for a long moment as her fists clutched his jacket. Standing on her tiptoes, she matched his fervor. I looked away. The gesture looked too much like a goodbye.

  I told myself—promised myself—I wasn’t killing my best friend. She was fiercer than I could admit, than perhaps even she knew. But maybe she did know. Maybe she’d known all along and I’d been standing in her way.

  She stepped away from Hatter. He’d held her as long as he could.

  A.J. growled from the ledge where he was focused on the valley below. Squeak paced beside him, hackles raised.

  Ready? I asked them.

  Their replies were wordless, but they rumbled through me, spiking my heart rate and coursing through my blood.

  Don’t try to fight them all. Just get them away, I told them.

  Hex’s pack won’t follow us. He’ll have given them orders to stay no matter what. We can only hope to draw out the unaligned rogues.

  Then let’s hope that’s enough.

  With that, they sprang off the ridge into the darkness beyond and disappeared.

  “Let’s go,” I told the others. Luke and Hatter didn’t need me to reiterate their purpose: hold off the remaining ’swangs. After that, it was up to Sunny and me.

  As we snaked down the ridge deeper into the valley, thoughts of my father plagued me. I hadn’t prepared myself to fight him tonight. I’d thought I had more time. I should have known he would be here. When it came to Hex, I had a huge blind spot. He would never let anyone take Zero from him, and if Sunny was to get out of the building safely with Zero, I would have to keep him away.

  It took us five minutes to reach the valley floor. We moved methodically, checking around us for ’swang scouts. We kept downwind and stuck to the edges of the moonlight.

  Two hundred feet from the slaughterhouse, we crouched in the woods before the clearing. I shifted and peered around a tree to get my first real view of the situation. My breath caught in my chest.

  Aswangs prowled in thick clumps. A quick, sloppy count put their numbers at around fifty. I caught tendrils of thoughts, slices of voices and words, but they were all meaningless and too disconcerting. I pushed them from my mind and focused.

  Sunny’s jacket rustled. I glanced at her in time to see the syringe flash. She raised a brow, silently asking permission. I nodded.

  She pushed up her jacket’s sleeve, exposing her slender brown arm. I looked away and found Hatter doing the same. Only Luke watched, having once injected his fair share of saliva to stay alive. I clenched my fists. We were getting through tonight, and then things were changing.

  It was time for some freaking peace and quiet.

  Sunny sighed. The syringe fell to the ground and drew my attention once again. She smiled in relief, her eyelids fluttering shut.

  From the ridge toward the south, near the bay’s entrance, a long, low howl echoed through the night. The sound chilled me and prickled my skin. It was A.J. and Squeak’s distraction. Though it sounded like a challenge, a call to arms, a warning to any who came near.

  The ’swangs in the clearing lifted their snouts. Their massive bodies rippled and pulsed through the shadows. They reacted, slinking like black eels toward the sound. The issued challenge splintered the ’swangs not in Hex’s pack. Nearly half the ’swangs bounded into the night toward the south, bettering the odds for Luke and Hatter, but the aswangs that remained were better trained, and they’d fight together as a pack.

  Hatter raised his sniper rifle, his face pressed against the stock.

  A chill seeped along my collarbones, down my arms, and pooled in my fingertips. I trembled. It felt like an omen. A bad one. One that screamed at me to run. To take my friends and leave this place.

  Something horrible would happen tonight.

  We would lose so much. Too much.

  Luke stared at me from the shadows. He smiled. It was a crooked, slight thing that said he’d prefer to touch me or kiss me, but he kept his distance. A distance I carefully managed between us. Because of Max. Because of my issues.

  They all seemed so stupid now. So pointless. I loved him. I loved Luke. I opened my mouth to tell him; I lifted my hand to reach for him and pull him to me, but Hatter took the shot.

  The sound tore the world apart, and Luke and Hatter surged into the tattered fissure, guns firing.

  “Do you feel that?” Sunny cocked her head at me, her eyes bright and shimmering and empty. She wasn’t brave anymore. She didn’t need to be.

  She was fearless.

  I didn’t feel what she felt. I was terrified. “Get to Zero,” I told her, raising my voice above the gunshots and snarls and the rising crescendo of Luke and Hatter’s battle. “Get her to the truck. We need her alive, Sunny. Alive.”

  She smiled, and I didn’t believe she would do it. But her eyes slid from mine and focused on something over my shoulder. “Uh oh,” she snickered.

  The chill returned. Or maybe it had never left.

  I turned around.

  A massive aswang stood a few feet away from me, his black fur mingling with the night around him and his obsidian eyes winking at me. Unlike the other aswangs, his hide was perfection, unmarred and unscarred. His mate had never marked him as hers.

  My mother had been too human for that.

  Olesya, Hex breathed through my mind.

  T W E N T Y - T H R E E

  Ollie

  He wasn’t supposed to be out here. This wasn’t the plan. I wasn’t ready.

  “Go, Sunny!” I shouted over my shoulder. I didn’t dare look away from my father’s massive night-form. His curved, arching ears twitched.

  Sunny—the brave version of my best friend—would have responded. She would have waited until I’d forced her to leave, but the silence told me she was already gone. No one was behind me.

  My hands went into my jacket pockets and emerged with my mother’s whip and my father’s silver knuckles, the blade out and ready.

  I’m ready this time, I told my father.

  The glint in his eyes vanished. I can tell. What changed?

  I did.

  That’s too bad. You were perfect as you were.

  I was weak. I was—

  The shadows behind Hex shifted, and aswangs stepped out. They poured from around every tree, stretching in a long line behind Hex. Some snarled, and on their teeth, I saw blood.

  The traitors are dead, one ’swang told my father.

  I jolted. Horror swept through me. “No,” I choked out. I almost dropped the whip. A.J. and Squeak. My pack. My friends. “No.”

  Hex’s gaze never left me as he asked, Both of them?

  Yes, Master. And what of our reward?

  Hex snarled, exposing long fangs. The two hunte
rs, he told his new pack members. They’re yours. Take them down.

  The aswangs bounded past without touching me. I couldn’t turn around as they sprang into the clearing behind me. I could barely breathe. Barely stand.

  Then, Luke shouted, “Hatter!” And his voice—the fear in it, the knowing—wrecked me.

  Guns fired, and then they stopped. Howls and fighting and shouting filled the air. It was once again fifty against two. Luke’s yells permeated the fray. I would always find his voice in the chaos.

  Tears welled in my eyes and tumbled down my cheeks.

  You weren’t weak before. But you’re weak now. Hex lifted his nose to the battle behind me, to my friends. This makes you weak. Your mother understood that. That’s why she left me. Because love is weakness in this war.

  Every swell of noise behind me, every clash of bodies, all the little noises of defeat blasted a hole straight through my chest. I stared at my father and fell to my knees, dropping my whip.

  I finally understood. I finally figured it out.

  Love was all that mattered in this war.

  Hex shook his head, his tail slinking behind him as he advanced until his snout was inches from my face. I looked up at him, tears streaming down my cheeks.

  You can only love the war. There’s no room for anything else.

  I blinked at him and the last of my tears fell away. My eyes dried. My fingers flexed.

  “You’re wrong,” I whispered. “You were always wrong.”

  Realization dawned in his black eyes. He had time to react, but he didn’t.

  I slit his throat.

  Blood sprayed the side of my face as my silver knuckles swung away from his gaping neck. He stumbled forward, and I stood. I stepped away as my father fell onto his side. His eye rolled up to me, his side heaving for air. A gurgle bubbled from his snout as his lungs filled with blood.