“Good,” she replied as she adjusted her grip on her weapons. “Tell him to come see me. I’ve got a couple presents for him.”
The Full Blood’s lips curled into a savage grin. “I thought you’d already gotten to him, but now I see he’s simply run off.”
In the distance, car engines revved and faded as headlights swung wildly down a path leading through the nature preserve.
“It probably won’t be long before the cops or a ranger shows up,” Cole whispered to Paige.
“This’ll be over long before the cops make it out here,” she replied.
“Oh, I hope not,” the Full Blood said in an English accent that tarnished his voice the way rust corrupted glistening steel. “Your founding father didn’t show his face, but I’ll still have plenty of witnesses to see what happens to murdering ghouls like you.”
“Founding father?” Paige asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The Full Blood drew in a lungful of passing breeze as if sampling a finely aged wine. “I thought he would come to your aid, but I guess I was mistaken. That changes nothing. I warned you to clear a path for my kind the last time we met. If you refuse to step aside, then I’ll just have to remove a few more Skinners from this world. Funny,” he added with a tilt of his growing head. “I thought more of you would come to defend this piss hole of a city. Perhaps there are fewer of your kind than we thought. How interesting.”
When the Full Blood lowered his chin and dug its claws into the earth, Paige raised her weapons. “Take one more step and I’ll gut you just like I gutted your friends!”
“Thaaat’s it,” the dark Full Blood snarled. “If you scream loud enough, you’ll catch someone’s attention.”
“Who else are you after?” Paige asked.
Standing upon two legs but keeping his body hunched over, the Full Blood approached and stared at her with his unnaturally clear eyes. The upper portion of his skull settled into a more human shape, and his snout retracted to a mildly protruding nose. “The one that’s hiding like a tick wedged in the middle of this continent.”
“I’m the only partner she needs,” Cole said.
The shadowy beast lifted his chin and then cocked his head to one side. His eyes narrowed before widening into glittering circles. “You know what? I believe you really don’t know about the man I seek.”
“Honest mistake, so I’ll give you one chance to leave,” Paige said. “If you go back to your forest or wherever you were before, we’ll call it a night. If not, then—”
“Then what?” the Full Blood roared. “I warned you when I collected Henry to stay away when we came to reclaim our territories! This is where all old debts are repaid, Skinner. The diseased leeches who spit their venom from their bloody cities will be gutted soon enough. Tonight, I send a message to all of those who think they’re strong enough to hunt us. It’s too late to save this place, so do what you can to save yourselves. The only chance you have is for you to tell me where I can find the others of your kind.” Baring his teeth, the Full Blood added, “All of them.”
The Half Breeds stood in the shadows, swaying on their feet and panting with anticipation.
When Paige spoke, it was in a snarl that rivaled the Full Blood’s. “You wanna do more than bark? I’m right here.”
The single puff of air that came out through the Full Blood’s nose was as much of a chuckle as a growl. He stretched out both arms and dropped back down into his compact, barrel-chested form. The challenging smirk remained on his face as his teeth nearly doubled in length. Barely another second passed before he bolted forward.
“Paige! Look out!” Cole shouted as he dove to push her out of the way.
Both Skinners were human, which meant neither of them was fast enough to avoid what was coming. Just when he thought he could shove her to the ground, Cole felt a rush of air as Paige was snatched away from him. Cole landed on his side, rolled over and popped back onto his feet with his spear raised in front of him. He didn’t expect the Full Blood to be close enough to reach out, grab him by the shirt, and toss him through the air.
Being whipped around like that took away his perspective. The ground rushed along the edges of his vision, and the moon flew by in another direction. His feet knocked into his legs. His arms flailed through empty air, and just when he thought he’d figured out which way was up, he was proven wrong. He hit the ground on his back, expelling all of the wind from his lungs in the process. Paige wasn’t in sight, but the Full Blood was only a few inches away.
Cole knew he needed to move, but he couldn’t. The Full Blood loomed over him, gazing down and drizzling saliva onto his arm. When Cole dug the business end of his spear into a huge paw, the massive creature seemed genuinely surprised. “I see you’ve already met Randolph,” the Full Blood said as he reached down to grab Cole’s weapon. “Either that, or he’s losing his teeth in his old age. Needn’t worry about that from me.”
Cole rolled away as the beast’s claws dug a row of trenches through the ground where he’d just been. When he felt the brush of a twig against his backside, he stopped rolling and scrambled to his feet. The Full Blood stood upright, flowing easily into his taller form. While this one looked a bit smaller than Mr. Burkis, he made up for it with speed and ferocity. Even with a burst of panic-induced strength coursing through him, Cole only barely managed to deflect a powerful swing with his spear, then felt the shock wave of the creature’s attack rattle all the way up to his teeth. Somehow, the petrified weapon remained in one piece.
Unable to get a look at Paige, Cole had to assume she was holding her own against the Half Breeds that snarled and clawed at her several yards away. Even if she wasn’t, he knew he couldn’t do anything to help her. The Full Blood roared and swiped at him again and again. When the beast finally delivered the overhand swing he’d been waiting for, Cole jumped aside. The thump of its massive paw against the earth was followed by the clang of iron jaws of a bear trap snapping shut around the Full Blood’s wrist. When it reared up and pulled the trap from the ground, Cole drove his modified spearhead into its chest.
The creature’s entire face twisted into a mask of pure rage. Although the tooth attached to Cole’s weapon pierced its skin, the bone beneath its flesh was like an iron plate. Cole leaned into the strike, but knew he’d reached his limit. After plucking the weapon free, he aimed for the stomach and stabbed the outermost layer of thickly banded muscle. The Full Blood pivoted on its feet and slapped the weapon away. Cole’s hands were nearly torn apart, but the thorns in the spear’s handle kept it rooted within his grasp. After that, he could only run away before the fury of an unnatural cataclysm rained down upon him.
Cole knew he’d never moved so fast in his life. He barely even felt his feet touch the ground until he dug in and skidded to a stop beside the campfire. The Half Breeds had nudged the kettle away from the flames when they’d sniffed at it, but there was still some of the concoction inside. Cole grabbed the kettle by its handle and hurried to retrace his steps. Heat from the handle would have burned a whole lot more if he didn’t already have a thick layer of blood and scar tissue on his palm.
The Full Blood ran toward him in easy, loping strides, the bear trap rattling from one wrist like a grisly accessory. It gripped the earth using all four paws and panted expectantly at the sight of its next meal.
Cole veered to the left, planted his feet, grabbed the bottom of the kettle and tossed the contents toward the Full Blood. Since the hulking werewolf hadn’t slowed down, Cole also slammed the kettle against its nose. Scorched iron met snout with a muted clang. The Full Blood snapped his head from side to side and huffed angrily through both nostrils.
Working his jaw only seemed to aggravate the beast. It arched its back and erupted with a bellowing roar as muscles swelled to form a thicker shell around a growing, two-legged form. Even as he brought his forepaws up to hold them like arms, the Full Blood was too enraged to act as anything other than an animal.
“Come on,�
� Cole whispered. “Come on!”
Just when it seemed that he had made the worst call of his short fighting career by goading the huge creature, smaller footsteps scrambled in from all sides. The Full Blood glanced to his right and spotted a trio of Half Breeds baring their teeth. Some more of the leaner werewolves closed in, while most of the ones fighting Paige left her to attack the Full Blood that was now covered in the bait mixture.
The Full Blood leapt back, but wasn’t able to get far enough away before the Half Breeds clamped onto his legs. One of the wretches bit down on the bear trap and was tossed through the air when the Full Blood finally shook loose of the metal jaws.
As much as he would have liked to watch the bigger werewolf wrestle with those things for a while, Cole had already spent too much time separated from Paige. She was still tangling with one Half Breed, but a straight, solid jab from Cole’s spear was enough to back it off. When that werewolf turned to face him, it caught a sickle blade straight across its jugular.
Paige grabbed the Half Breed’s ear, pulled its head back and nearly sawed it from its shoulders. Recognizing the glassy look in her eyes, Cole pulled her away and said, “Come on! We need to get out of here.”
She blinked a few times as if looking at the campgrounds for the first time. “How’d you get those Half Breeds off of me?”
“I sicced them on the big guy.”
Paige had no trouble spotting the Full Blood. It contended with the Half Breeds by wildly swinging his arms to toss the smaller werewolves into the air or ripping them to shreds. When one refused to be shaken loose, the Full Blood gripped the gnarled creature by the head and slammed it down while letting out a bellowing howl. As he ground that creature’s skull into paste, the Full Blood cast his eyes at all the other Half Breeds and roared in a way that forced them to scamper back while twisting their heads aside to bare their throats to him. The minute he ran out of breath, the Half Breeds again caught the scent of the bait mixture that was on him and renewed their attack.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Cole said.
Paige dusted herself off and discovered several gaping wounds in the process. Grabbing a plastic syringe from her belt, she injected the healing serum and growled, “We’re not leaving.” She waited for a Half Breed to get ripped apart and ran in to attack the spot on the Full Blood that the gangly werewolf had been chewing.
The huge, ebon creature started to climb onto its hind legs, but was dragged down by the weight of the Half Breeds. He howled a command for the Half Breeds to back off, which gave Paige a chance to drive her modified weapon in again. This time Cole lent his spear to the cause. Twisting around to bat away the two humans, the black beast left himself open to the persistent Half Breeds. When one of the wiry animals sank its teeth into the spot where the Skinners’ modified weapons had hit, the Full Blood lifted his head to the moon and screamed. Every Half Breed tried to join in with howls of their own, which turned into frenzied yelps as the Full Blood launched itself into the air.
By the time its paws hit the ground, the Full Blood had already shifted to its more compact form. It disappeared in a thick blur of motion, taking the last of the Half Breeds with him.
“God damn it!” Paige shouted. “Grab one of these bodies and take it to the car. Bring back that lighter fluid from the trunk.”
Cole surveyed the area, now a bloodied landscape of gnarled bodies and sprung bear traps. The soil had been churned up by so many different sets of claws that the ground itself looked completely different from when they’d arrived. Even the campfire was a sputtering relic of what it had been an hour ago. “How the hell do we explain this?” he asked. “What do we say to the cops? They’ll be here after all that shooting! Someone had to see what happened!”
Stepping up to glare directly into Cole’s eyes, Paige told him, “We didn’t come here to explain anything to anyone. If someone saw what happened, they can explain however the hell they want. If the cops get here quick enough to stop us, we tell them we were attacked by wild animals. There’s no law against that.”
“How do we answer all of their questions?”
“We won’t have to if you get that lighter fluid and help me torch the rest of these things!” Paige snapped. “Now pick up a damn body and drag it to the car!”
Cole didn’t have much to say to her after that. After pulling in a few deep breaths and wiping the sweat from his eyes, he picked up a damn body and dragged it to the car.
Chapter 19
The closest thing to a cop that Paige and Cole passed on their way out of the nature preserve was a terrified park ranger sitting in a state-owned SUV. The ranger flashed his lights, hopped out of his vehicle, and waved his arms like he was cleared for takeoff. “You headed into the campgrounds?” he asked after Paige rolled down her window.
After all that had happened, she did an admirable job of looking like she was out for a drive and not hauling a dead werewolf. “No,” she said. “I heard shooting coming from back there, so I just wanted to leave.”
“There’s a hell of a lot more than shooting. Some pack of animals tore through here and overturned a Winnebago. If you see anything along the roads, don’t stop. Just keep moving and get to the highway. The police are on their way. Jesus, are you two hurt?”
“I think there’s a fire back there,” Paige told him. “You might want to take a look at that.” Even though the ranger had something else to say to her, he let it go when he caught sight of the flickering glow coming from the nearby campsite. When he looked back at her, Paige had already rolled up her window and was driving away.
Cole twisted around to look behind the Cavalier at the park ranger gawking at the fires they’d set and fumbling with his radio. There weren’t many carcasses in one piece, but they were all ablaze thanks to the lighter fluid that had sprayed on them. “He might have taken down our license plate.”
“Let him. We’ll change them when we pick up Daniels. Give him a call to let him know we’re coming. Also, tell him to have everything ready to go. We need to find somewhere else to stay.”
“You think the fire will get too bad?” Cole asked.
“That ranger will get to it before any of it spreads too far. Werewolves are too damn greasy to burn for very long.”
“So that’s it, huh? I guess we just wait a few days and bait the rest of those things to some other field? Do we at least get a few days off?”
She glanced over at him and grumbled, “Sometimes I don’t know when you’re kidding.”
“What if I’m not kidding?”
“Then you’re just an idiot. Here, take this and get to work.”
Cole nearly cleared his seat when he felt the knife fall onto his lap.
“Now let’s see how well you skin that Half Breed,” she said. “Get at least two good-sized pieces of hide from its body and pull as many teeth as you can. I’ll take all the claws too.” She grinned and looked over at him. “Dumping that bait on them was a hell of an idea.”
“It didn’t work as well as I thought it would. I was kind of hoping for a lot more ripping and tearing and not so much bowing and whining from those Half Breeds.”
“It was enough that you got us out of there,” she said. “Right now, we’ve got other stuff to do. Make that call and get to skinning.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Cole phoned Daniels to let him know they were on their way and then climbed into the backseat to take his first crack at cutting apart a dead monster. Normally, something like that wouldn’t have set too well with him. The smell alone was enough to bring the bottom layer of his stomach contents up to the back of his throat. At that moment, however, with the campsite behind them and getting farther away with every second, he didn’t mind a little dirty work. It meant he was still alive.
A few hours later Cole was still in the car staring out the front passenger side window. Daniels was packed into the backseat, along with most of his and Paige’s gear. The Nymar had one shoulder wedged against the wind
ow behind the driver’s seat, due to the fact that his left leg was draped over a flat case. His feet were resting on top of more cases, which practically forced him to eat his own knees. Judging by the expression on Daniels’s face, he wasn’t at all happy with the arrangement.
“Why don’t you just throw me in the trunk?” he griped. “I’d be able to stretch out more.”
“Do you mind sharing space with a pile of dead Half Breeds?”
Daniels winced. “You Skinners truly are disgusting ghouls.”
“Hey, for a guy who stank up his motel room as badly as you did, I’m surprised to hear any complaints.”
“For your information, I had a breakthrough in my research.”
“Yeah?” Cole asked. “It smelled like burnt hair. Didn’t I see a cleaning lady leaving your room right when we got there?”
“She took an unfortunate fall and lost some blood,” Daniels muttered. “As for the smell, I needed to use the heating element in order to—”
“You knocked out the cleaning lady so you could feed?” he interrupted.
Daniels pondered that for a second and then flashed him a smug grin via the rearview mirror. “Oh, no. That would be wrong.”
Since the cleaning woman had been able to walk and wasn’t screaming at the time, Cole let it slide. The wound running along the side of his leg was still tender. Paige had helped him wrap it up as Daniels was collecting his things. She’d patched her own wounds as well, but in a way that seemed like the medical equivalent of fixing an oil leak by slapping some tape onto the wet spots.
“You both look pretty torn up,” Daniels said. “Shouldn’t you go to a doctor or something?”
“We’ll rest up as soon as we’re done making these rounds.”
“What rounds might those be?”
They were parked along Cliff Drive, which bordered North Terrace Park. It was late, which meant the street was relatively quiet and the nearby University of Medicine was mostly dark. This was the fourth stop they’d made since racing back into Kansas City, and Cole was beginning to feel as though he’d made the entire trip on foot. “We found a bunch of Half Breed dens scattered around the city,” he explained. “She’s checking them now to see if we cleaned them out or not.”
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