by Sasha White
Jack shrugged. “Could be anyone. Probably one of the ones you’re closest to. If I were going to bet, I’d put my money on Ken, Ralph, or Monty. Though really, it could be any of them.”
This didn’t make me feel warm and snuggly. “Maybe we don’t have a mole.” This was wishful thinking. I knew we did, and my tail agreed.
“Oh, I’m sure we do.” He stroked my face. “But you can count on me. I’ve got your back.”
“And I’ve got yours.” I couldn’t let it go, though. “But, wouldn’t we have spotted something, if we had a mole?”
“Don’t know. I mean, our side has moles in the Prince’s ranks, right?”
“I guess. I don’t work that side of undercover. Just the human side.”
Jack gave me a searching look, like I’d seen him give a perp we knew was lying. “Come on, Vic. I’m on your side. We need to determine who the mole is, you’re right. So, does our side have double agents?”
“Yes. But I don’t know who any of them are.” This was true enough that I could get it past Jack. I hoped.
“So, they have double agents, too. And it should be someone we’d never suspect, right? Or else, they’re a pretty crappy double agent.”
“I guess.”
I didn’t want to stay on topic now, but Jack pressed on. “So, maybe it’s a like for like thing. Say it’s Monty who’s the mole. Who would be his counterpart on the Prince’s side? Or Ralph’s or Ken’s?”
I considered this. “I have no idea.” I didn’t. I wasn’t clear on the Prince’s real hierarchy. You had your major minions and your lesser minions. But if they were set up like Necropolis Enforcement or not, I didn’t know for certain. Nor did it seem remotely relevant.
“Is the Count the right counterpart to the Prince?”
“Not…not really.” I rubbed my forehead. “We don’t line up like they do, I don’t think. Our leaders are the Gods and Monsters.”
“You mean the beings who never show up when you need them?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jack snorted in disgust. “Where were the Gods and Monsters today when we needed them? Nowhere around.”
“They work through us, mostly.”
“Right. Bang up job today.”
“We’re all still here, and you said you didn’t mind being undead.”
“I don’t. I just think that maybe our side’s not listening to the right leaders. Or rather, our leaders aren’t taking much of an active interest.”
“They do. They’re always there when we really need them.” I considered mentioning that Yahweh and Usen had saved me when I’d really needed it but refrained.
“Won’t matter.” Jack got out of bed, stretched again, shifted between human, wolf, and werewolf forms for a bit, then trotted to the bathroom. “Whatever comes, we’ll handle it,” he called as I heard the shower start.
This was odd behavior on top of odd behavior, for Jack and for a newly turned werewolf. Canines weren’t enamored with bathing. We did it because it was expected of us, but a werewolf pack out in the field could and would enthusiastically roll in dung before they’d willingly take a bath. We were animals and animals liked to smell like they should, not like perfumes and soap.
In the time I’d known him, I couldn’t recall Ralph ever trotting off to shower after a big battle. I never did it, either. We bathed daily, but because we had to fit in, not because we wanted to. But I could hear Jack, happily humming away, while the smell of soap wafted through this side of my apartment.
The realization that something was wrong and I had no idea of what to do reared up and waved its paw at me. If Black Wolf had still been unalive, I’d have called him for guidance. I’d have done the same with any of his pack. But they were all dead, killed off one by one. It was one of the reasons werewolves didn’t run in packs any more. The Prince’s side had used that against us, lying in wait for the moment a werewolf strayed even a little bit from their pack, pouncing on him, dusting him when he was all alone.
Ralph felt we should have banded more strongly together. The other undeads didn’t. We scattered into different teams, made up of a variety of undeads. It had kept the remaining werewolves unalive. But Ralph said we weren’t as strong. And part of me knew he was right.
He was angry with me, and he had every right to be. He could be the mole, and the Gods and Monsters knew enough signs said it was possible. But he was the only one who would understand, immediately, why I was freaked out. I hit his numbers on my wrist-com.
“Yes?” Ralph sounded just this side of sleepy and still on that side of angry.
“I’m sorry. Something’s wrong.”
“Everything, but what do you mean specifically?”
“Jack’s taking a shower.” There was dead silence on the other side of my wrist-com. “Ralph? You still there?”
“Are you alone with him?” Ralph’s voice was strained.
“Sort of. Cindy, Freddy, Merc and L.K. are on the other side of my apartment. The Necropolis side.”
“Get over to them. Now.” Ralph wasn’t my superior in Enforcement hierarchy and he wasn’t my mate or my pack leader. But the tone of his voice told me that now wasn’t the time to pull any kind of rank.
I scrambled towards the line separating Prosaic City from Necropolis just as Jack walked out, one towel around his waist, the other drying his hair. “What’s up?” He sounded normal. He looked normal. He looked totally drool-worthy, too. But the base of my tail said it didn’t care.
I jumped for the other side, but Jack caught me around my waist, spun and tossed me back onto the bed. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, as he climbed into bed with me.
“Nothing.” Canines don’t lie well as a rule and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to win any awards this time. “Just need to check on the others.”
“They can wait.” Jack grabbed my wrists and shoved me back onto the bed. “C’mon, Vic.” He smiled, a really sexy, enticing smile. “We haven’t even tried to do it doggy-style yet.”
I wondered if, on another day, I would have found this appealing. Maybe. But today it struck me as totally wrong, and off-putting to the nth degree. “Jack, now isn’t a good time.”
His eyes narrowed. “As I understand it, werewolves are a pack-like animal. And that means there’s a pack leader.” He leaned closer to me. “And that pack leader is supposed to be male.” He wasn’t growling, but only just. “And you promised me – together forever, no one in between.”
“What about Susan?” The words came from somewhere, but not the front of my mind.
Jack grinned. “She’s not in between us.”
“But you’re sleeping with her.”
He shrugged. “So what?”
I’d said it in the present tense, not the past. And he hadn’t argued. True we’d only become a couple a day or so earlier, but in my experience, you explained past lovers as being past, if only to appease the current lover. And he wasn’t even trying to make an excuse.
“Get off me.”
He bared his teeth at me. He was still in human form, but I realized he made Ralph’s growl look kindly. “You’re mine. And I do what I want with what’s mine.”
I started to fight in earnest. He’d always been bigger, but as an undead, I’d been stronger. But not anymore. My struggles were futile. In fact, I could tell he was enjoying them. I wanted to cry, but that wasn’t an option. Survive first, cry later.
The shift happened naturally – I was fighting and I fought best in wolf form. But it didn’t work. He still had my paws in an iron grip. I was reluctant to claw his stomach with my hind claws – what if he was just having a bad reaction to the transformation?
Jack grinned, and it looked feral. “You like it rough?”
I decided, confused or not, he was getting the claws. I raked his stomach, but he transformed to wolf, too, and all I got was fur. “Back off.”
“Bad girl.”
“I’ll give you a bad girl.” I lunged up and
caught his throat. But he batted my head away with a paw like it was nothing. On the positive side, this meant one of my front paws was free and I raked at his head with it. On the negative side, he’d hit my head hard and I felt it.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” Jack snarled.
“Me? You’re the one acting all Call of the Wild.” I managed to scramble away and off the bed. Sadly, Jack was between me and the Necropolis slide point. “So what’s up with you and Susan the Dispatcher?”
“Come on. Animals aren’t monogamous.”
“Wolves are.”
As Jack lunged across the bed at me and I leaped out of the way, all the angelic warnings coursed through my mind. Ken’s worries, too. They’d been worried about Jack’s ability to face the Prince because they were picking up something wrong with him. Something I’d either never noticed or ignored.
I focused now, while he played with me. It was play, too. He’d lunge, I’d leap, he’d bat at me, I’d scramble out of the way. He never let me get near enough to the slide point to cross over and he also blocked my path to the door. He was good, I had to give him that. Too good for a brand new undead.
“How did you do it?” I asked as I tried to leap over his head and got batted down onto the bed again.
“Do what?”
“Fool me, fool the others.”
He flipped me onto my stomach and pinned me. His muzzle was next to my ear. “It was easy. You wanted a mate so badly. And you had one, right in front of you. That had to be stopped before it could start.”
“What are you talking about?” I tried to crawl out from under, but he was using his full weight to hold me. I decided to focus on the more pressing point. “How did you give us away?”
He chuckled. “It was easy. You were so trusting. I could do anything, you weren’t paying attention. But get over it. It’s time to follow your heart. After all, you’re in love with me.”
“Not anymore.”
“You promised. None in between us, forever.” His voice was a deep, terrifying growl. “You promised on sanctified ground.”
Something slammed into Jack and his weight was off me. I rolled to see Ralph between me and Jack. “She’s not her mother, and you’re not taking her.”
Jack shifted again. Only this time, he wasn’t in wolf or werewolf form. And while he looked human, he sure didn’t look like himself. He looked just like Little Harp. He smiled, and it was the most evil thing I’d ever seen. “Bet me, dog-boy.”
Chapter 57
The Adversary, or at least part of him, was in my bedroom. Inside, point of fact, my until-just-now boyfriend. Meaning I’d slept with the Adversary at least once. Did things get better than this?
Yes, they did, if by “better” I meant “really, horribly worse”.
Ralph and Little Harp attacked at the same time. Ralph was all angry, protective werewolf in action, but Little Harp was using Adversary-type skills, including a set of horrific claws I’d only seen on the vamps in major Nosferatu mode. He slashed while Ralph bit and clawed, and they both rolled around my room. Well, until they crashed through the walls. Then they rolled through the living and dining areas, right before they flipped and slid onto the Necropolis side, I assumed to destroy the other half of my living quarters. Not that I was too focused on that.
I tried to get into the fight, but they were flipping around so much it was impossible to be sure I’d bite the right being. Ralph was holding his own, but I didn’t think it was going to last, especially since I could see him bleeding from a variety of locations. Sadly, I got the feeling Little Harp wasn’t trying too hard. They did like to play with their prey, as I recalled, when they felt they had the time.
And he seemed to have the time. What was a shock, once we were on the other side, was that no one else was there. I knew for a fact Sexy Cindy and the others had gone to sleep over here. So, where were they? I sniffed – nowhere around. I didn’t smell death, so hopefully they’d just wandered off for some strange reason.
The Adversary was playing, but Ralph wasn’t looking good. I ran for my weapons room. But I’d already shown Jack where that was, so the Adversary blocked me. By throwing Ralph at me. Showy, but effective. Ralph slammed into me and we both slammed into the wall. Meanwhile, Little Harp sauntered into my weapons room. This was definitely on the “horribly worse” side of things.
He sauntered out carrying what looked like an elephant gun. Well, it was an elephant gun, but it was modified into a Duster. Yeah, I was one of the beings entrusted with one. “Nice,” he said to me, grinning widely. “All loaded for me, too. What a good girl you are.”
We all had something that would dust another undead – in case one of our own turned to the bad. But, from mildest holy water bullets to the mighty Dusters, we never turned it on each other until that point. Of course, this wasn’t really a situation where I could say one of our own had turned against us. Frankly, if what I was seeing was real, and Ralph’s blood all over me said it was as real as it got, part of Little Harp’s soul had always been in Jack.
I got in front of Ralph. “Get out of here.”
Little Harp laughed, then shifted. It was Jack looking at me, holding the gun which he had cocked and aimed right at me. “Come on, Vic. Let me get rid of him. Then we can go off together, just like you always wanted.”
“I wanted what I thought you were, not what you really are.”
“You’re sure?” He cocked his head at me and looked almost boyish. “Maybe I’m exactly what you wanted.”
“I didn’t want to hook up with one of the Prince’s major minions. To set the record straight and all.”
He snorted. “Sure you did. You were hot for me from the first moment you saw me. And what’s wrong with that? We belong together. You don’t fit with him and you never will,” he pointed at Ralph with the gun barrel. “He’s a loser. Besides, you can’t stand him, and you know it.”
“He’s a better being than you’ll ever be.”
“Big words. Impressive and heartfelt, I’m sure.” Jack sighed. “But let’s be realistic. He’s not the one for you, now, is he?”
“I think the bastard’s trying too hard,” Sexy Cindy said as she slammed one of my end tables against the back of Jack’s head. “Or however that quote goes. And like I said to her freak mother, get away from our girl.”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much, my dear,” Freddy said, as he hit Jack at the knees with my coffee table. “From the Bard. And I agree with both sentiments.”
“Shakespeare,” Merc added as he swooped in and grabbed Ralph. “I’m sure he had a ‘get away from our girl’ quote, too.”
“Nice to see you guys, where did you come from?” I leaped over the table and grabbed the gun. Sadly, Jack still had it firmly in hand, but at least I had the barrel pointing up and not at any being I cared about.
“We were hiding,” L.K. said, as he wrapped at bath sheet around Jack’s head and held it there. Jack shook his head wildly, but L.K. held on.
“Where?” I tried to wrench the gun away, but Jack wasn’t having any of it. I decided not to complain – if he had both hands on the gun, he couldn’t take the towel off or get L.K.
“Somewhere we’ll tell you about when enemy dude isn’t right here,” Sexy Cindy said. “Now might be a good time to tell you that he wasn’t an infrequent visitor to our corner, both before you were his partner and after.”
I was well-placed and, by now, beyond angry. I slammed my knee into Jack’s groin. Happily, he made the sound men make when they’re so slammed. I slammed my other knee into his face as he crumpled to the ground, still holding onto the gun.
“We’re officially broken up. I promise. On sanctified or desecrated ground or just totaled apartment building. I’m officially cutting you loose.”
“You promised.” How he could get that out clearly I didn’t want to contemplate.
My doors burst open and four beings swarmed in. Black Angels One and Two looked angrier than I’d eve
r seen. I really hoped they weren’t that angry just at me.
Cain reached us first, grabbed the gun, and wrenched it out of both of our hands. I fell back into Freddy’s conveniently waiting arms. L.K. zipped over to us. Merc still had Ralph, who wasn’t looking anything close to great, but who was, for all I could tell, still unalive.
Miriam grabbed Jack and spun him towards her. “I warned you.”
I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear him clearly. He laughed. “You warned a part of me. That part cared. But it’s dead. Like you’ll be.” He shifted again, and instead of Jack or Little Harp or a werewolf, the Adversary was there, all twelve feet of him. He smashed through my ceiling as he leaped into the air, still holding Miriam.
I didn’t think and I’m pretty sure Ralph didn’t, either. Instincts took over and we both leaped. I caught one leg, Ralph caught the other. We locked our jaws and held on. Then we went on Mister Adversary’s Wild Ride, Magdalena, Cain and Abel right behind us.
We weren’t slowing him down. Hampering, maybe, but not slowing. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I could hear, and the sounds were awful. Miriam was one of my heroes, and he was killing her, slowly and with great malice aforethought.
It’s risky to change form while you’re only holding onto something with your jaws, because the human bite is nothing like the werewolf one. But I needed hands, not paws. I took as deep a breath as I could, relaxed, and did the switch, grabbing his leg as my jaws lost their hold.
It worked. I was still flying through the air attached to the Adversary. I considered my concept of “working” but decided to table it for when my feet were on terra firma. I wrapped my legs around his leg and started to climb up his body.
This gave new meaning to the term “icky” but I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore what I felt moving under his clothes. It wasn’t Jack, it was the Adversary. It wasn’t someone I’d been in love with, it was my most sworn enemy.
He was either vastly overconfident or Miriam was causing him to have to concentrate. Either way, I made it up to his neck. Then I wrapped my arms around it and squeezed. “Let her go.”