by K. N. Banet
We walked downstairs together, the silence all-consuming.
“You two ready to go?” Mischa asked as we found her at the front door, a handheld microphone in her hand with a wire going to the wall. It was an old school intercom system, probably not using wifi for safety reasons. Old, landline type technology was safer than most internet-based stuff, but it surprised me to see the old model looking brand new in her hand.
“Yeah,” I answered. “Heath?”
“Ready to go. Tired, stressed out, but ready.”
“You’ll have another few hours to sleep during the first half of the trip,” Mischa said in a friendly way as she thumped Heath on his shoulder. “Take it.” She walked to the front door with the obvious expectation we’d follow. “You know, I was a little pissed off when I heard Jacky was in danger with you again, but you’re not a bad werewolf. Get some sleep on the drive, and don’t die. You’ve got your own family to worry about.”
“Thank you for the consideration,” he said, nodding politely. “You know I mean you and your family no harm.”
“Oh, I know. You seem to be a lot of things, Heath Everson, but none of us have ever thought of you as a fool.” Mischa’s smile was wicked and dangerous. “Hasan thinks you’ve gotten too powerful for what you are, actually.”
“He and I have discussed it,” Heath admitted softly, which surprised me. I turned to him, and he shook his head. “I’ll tell you the story on the drive,” he promised.
Mischa snorted as she pointed at the truck. It was old with a military look to it.
“It’ll get you there and back with enough space for the entire family to sit. It’s not protected from the wind, so we put in a dozen blankets to keep people from getting too cold. You two can ride up front with Hisao or in the back on the way there. I don’t care either way.”
She went back inside, leaving me and Heath to stare at it.
“You ready?” he asked softly. “And I mean, are you really ready for this? Be sure, Jacky.”
“I am.” I didn’t have the option not to be. “Do you think we could talk for a minute?”
He looked around and shook his head, then headed for the truck, looking at everything that was loaded. Hisao came out next and jumped into the driver’s seat. I didn’t see Gwen before I climbed into the back, but she came out to wave as Heath got in after me. I waved as the truck started to move.
The road leaving the town was smooth, but it became bumpy quick, around thirty minutes into the trip. Groaning, I laid back and noticed Heath chuckling silently, his shoulders moving.
“You okay?” he mouthed.
I shrugged. “Did you get a chance to talk to Carey and Landon before we left?”
“I did. What about Oliver and Dirk?”
“I texted them and Carey. She didn’t tell me if you had called, but it was nice talking to her. She’s worried about us. Dirk and Oliver had already been briefed by Davor. They were a little upset with me for not getting in touch sooner.”
“Maybe you should do better at keeping in touch with them,” Heath pointed out, friendly advice I didn’t need. It was a flaw I knew I had.
“I’m not used to having to call in every move I make, and it’s barely been like two-and-a-half-days since we left…I think. The time zones have me all fucked up.”
“Of course.”
An hour in, I moved to one of the benches and let Heath have the space to pass out in the blankets on the floor. We had six hours before we left, but stress exhausted some people, and we had a long night ahead of us. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to grab some sleep.
Two hours in, I went up front to see Hisao, climbing through the back window, letting Heath sleep alone. My brother concentrated on the road and hadn’t spoken for the entire trip. I wanted to keep him company.
Three hours in, and I finally said something to him.
“Thank you for doing this for me,” I said, looking out my window.
“It’s my pleasure,” he said just as quietly. “May I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why have you been avoiding Heath?” he asked softly.
“I…” I almost said I wasn’t, but the lie would be obvious. “I haven’t wanted to give people the wrong impression. He’s my friend and my ally, but I know if I lean on him too much, people will be upset.”
“Like our family?”
“And other werewolves and werecats. He knows. He’s been doing it to me, too. We have to ride a fine line between allies and friends. We can’t let many people know we’re actually friends.”
“Correct,” Hisao agreed. “I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else wrong. I understand why our kinds dislike each other, but I’ve learned one thing in my job. No group is all good or all evil. There are werewolves I would be honored to work beside, and there are werecats I would be okay killing. I have no problem with you being friends with Heath. In fact, I think the friendship is an important step toward lasting peace.”
“You’re an assassin, and you want peace,” I whispered. It seemed contradictory.
“I’m an assassin for our family because one was required, and I take the art and skill of killing seriously. That doesn’t mean I want to do it all the time, and it also doesn’t mean I want to fight a war. I go after bad humans in my free time. It’s a personal decision, one that doesn’t have anything to do with Father or his position. It’s my way of helping the world continue moving forward.” He reached out and ran a hand over my head the same way Hasan did. It sent shivers down my spine and not in a good way. “I know I make you uncomfortable. I make Davor uncomfortable, as well. I was never close to Liza because she was scared of me.” His hand moved back to the steering wheel. “But I’m not so cold or dangerous, I would never hurt people without good cause. Everyone forgets that.”
“You’re somewhat of a boogeyman,” I pointed out. “I know there are werecats afraid to cross Hasan, even in a minor way, because they fear you showing up on their doorstep.”
Me included.
“That’s on purpose, but I never intended the family to feel that way.” He gave me a sad look. “So, yes, I want peace, so I can walk among my own family and they won’t fear me. And I see no problem with you and Heath being friends and allies. I wish I could have something similar.”
“Have you ever had a friend? Really?”
“No. Outside of family, I’ve never had a friend,” he admitted softly. “I’ve raised young people to become better than me, and I consider them somewhat children, but I rarely speak to them once they leave my training, and none of them were friends. They were scared young people who needed to learn to kill if they wanted to survive. That’s not a conducive environment to build friendships. Everyone else is only scared of me.”
“That’s lonely,” I said, looking away.
“Hmm.”
We went back to silence, but I felt like I learned more about Hisao in that one conversation than I had in years.
As the drive continued, my thoughts turned to my family. Experience taught me how to distract myself when I had a chance, but as we neared the midpoint of the trip, my thoughts turned to the captives I had to free. People I hadn’t seen in over a decade, scared and trapped by werewolves they didn’t know. They probably didn’t even know why they had been taken. My parents, Daniel, and those two kids I had never even met. What an introduction they were about to get to their aunt.
“What can we do to help them once we free them?” I asked. “My family. The kids are going to need therapy, and they’ll know our secrets. What do we do about that?”
“We can find someone to replace their memories,” Hisao offered, looking at me. “If you want to. They don’t need to agree because they won’t remember the need. The severity of the memories can’t be fully erased, but they can be masked. It’s highly regulated magic, and there is illegal memory manipulation but in this case? I think we can have someone do it.”
“That’s…good,” I whispered. Hopefully, th
at would save them from the trauma and ensuing nightmares.
A yawn behind us was the only signal that Heath was waking up.
“Are we there yet?” he asked in a bleary, childlike way.
I laughed as his head came through the window, and he looked between us.
“Are you doing your best impression of Carey?” I asked as he pulled his head back through the window.
“I was. Figured a laugh was necessary.”
I looked back to see him moving around and rearranging stuff and remembered what he said in Washington. He liked making heavy moments lighter. He believed in laughing and smiling when he had the chance, and something made him feel more comfortable.
“How long have you been awake?” I asked.
He only shrugged, which gave me the answer I needed. He had been pretending to sleep when Hisao and I talked about friends and enemies, war and peace. Hisao wouldn’t judge the chance to make a friend laugh and think it was something more.
I hoped, anyway, or Heath was going to get us into trouble. I didn’t know if Hisao had a line he drew for the mingling of werewolves and werecats.
At hour five, right on time, Hisao parked the car off the dirt road.
“From here, we run,” he said, unbuckling and jumping out.
“It’s going to be a long run,” I mumbled.
Hisao continued as if I hadn’t spoken.
“We’ll be there shortly after sunset. Stay with me and at my pace. We can’t slow down. Feel free to use your magics to communicate.”
We Changed one at a time, letting Heath begin first, so we could put his clothing in a bag. It wasn’t a silly fanny pack like Hasan had made us use, but a high-quality pack for animals that hung over the back. Once Heath was fully in his werewolf form, I strapped it to him with one belt around his trunk. Once again, I found myself wondering if his werewolf form was getting bigger.
“Heath, you should be able to shift back into your human form with that on,” Hisao explained. “I’ve done it countless times, back and forth.”
Heath nodded his big head and backed off, so we could Change as well.
Hisao and I raced through it much faster. We left our clothing in the truck, intending to put it back on once we came back.
“Will anyone steal this?” I asked when we walked away.
Hisao shook his head, but there was no way for him to explain why he felt that way. I just had to trust him.
“There’s a symbol on the side of the truck. Does that mean something?” Heath asked from the back.
Hisao bobbed his head in a nod, telling me that Heath was directing his thoughts to both of them.
“Does it mean no one should steal the truck or what’s in it?” I asked.
He nodded again, then looked back at us. Hisao’s expression, even in feline form, said, ‘Please stop asking questions,’ then he took off at a jog, and we followed, keeping the easy, long-distance running pace.
“Finally, we can talk again,” Heath said in my head. “You might not know how, but it is possible to have private conversations using this. At least wolves can.”
I concentrated on him and tried it out. I never got to use this ability, so I never knew what I was doing. Sometimes I screamed, and it went to everyone.
“Are you sure?” I looked at Hisao, who’s pace didn’t change. I looked at my brother and decided to try something. “Hisao, can you hear me?”
He nodded.
When I looked back at Heath, I asked an important question.
“Could you hear that?”
“I didn’t hear anything after you asked me if I was sure.”
“Awesome!” I grinned. “I bet I’ve done it before without meaning to, but I’ve never really tested this thing. It’s been a year and a half, and I never really considered figuring out all the nuances.”
“A very ‘you’ thing to do,” he teased. “Being in Mischa’s house was the worst. Being around your family is really hard when I know they’ll rip my arms off if they found out I was…”
“Yeah, I get it, but it seems like Hisao is cool with us being friendly. We don’t have to act totally weird.”
“Yes, we do. You tend to give everything away in your scent, and I haven’t wanted to put you in the position where your feelings are exposed.”
“This is the cost we have to pay, right?” I sighed in my head, letting him hear it. “We’re not supposed to like each other, Heath.”
“I don’t let other people tell me how I’m allowed to feel. I’m an Alpha. I’m the ruler of my own body.”
“No, you just hide it all, so they never find out.”
“Yes.”
“Well, so you know, I’ve missed being able to talk openly with you, too. It’s been really hard not being able to work out all of this with you.”
“Well, we have five hours. Feel free to tell me whatever you need or want. I’ll be listening.”
I got the feeling if he could have kissed me right there, he would have.
28
Chapter Twenty
Five hours was a long run for anyone, including werecats and werewolves. We all managed, and as the sun crept down, Hisao finally slowed. I wanted to fall on my face and not move another inch, but indulging the feeling was out of the question. We had to breach a werewolf compound, get out five human prisoners, and escape before daybreak, hopefully, without a massive fight.
Hisao changed into his human form and sat down on a log.
“Stay in those forms,” he said. “I just wanted to be able to speak with both of you before doing this. We’re two miles outside their patrol range—”
“How do you know?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“I’ve visited the compound several times to make sure they weren’t sending werewolves in Mischa’s direction. The last time Mischa and this pack fought was during the War, and I took it upon myself to make sure the werewolves never considered it again. That’s not the point. Now, the new Alpha could extend the patrols, but he also might be too busy securing power.”
“He probably won’t assume we’ll attack him at his home base.” Heath laid down and panted, which should have been weird, but he was a wolf, and I was panting, too. Neither of us could sweat. “That’s why he’d keep them here to begin with.”
“And because he would want to show off to the pack how he got Hasan’s family to take his deal, and that he knew our family’s weaknesses,” Hisao added. “Is that enough for you, Jacky?”
I nodded. I knew there had to be a good explanation, but I always wanted to hear it. I didn’t want to trust my family blindly.
“We’re going to get in and try to pick up your family’s scents. We can track them from there. If we don’t find their scents, we’ll search for where they keep prisoners. From the picture, it looked like they were in a proper cell, so hopefully, they won’t be in a highly-populated area of the compound.”
“We’re going to get caught, aren’t we?” I asked.
“There’s a strong possibility,” Hisao confirmed. “We knew that before we got here.”
There was a difference between knowing and accepting the information. I was just beginning to accept how dangerous the mission was. A full compound of werewolves hostile to us. Two werecats in the middle of it. Our scents would get picked up. Heath’s wouldn’t stand out as much, but they would smell us on him, thanks to proximity.
I was afraid, but I couldn’t leave my human family in there, and I couldn’t make my werecat family vulnerable. I could also never forget the pack in question was rotten to the core, allowed female werewolves to be raped, beaten, and killed, and oppressed its submissive members and hurt them.
I had to balance the needs of both my families and hopefully, see justice for those in this pack who were being crushed by its leaders.
A lot was riding on us.
Hisao looked between us.
“Let’s go,” he ordered, then dropped down and swiftly Changed back into his werecat form. We moved silentl
y, following his every step.
“I can smell a patrol,” Heath said ten minutes later. “We need to be careful.”
I had no idea what we would do if we were caught before we even made it inside. I knew we’d be found out eventually, but we needed to find my family first.
Once the compound was in sight, Hisao and I stood and watched as Heath Changed and put his clothes on, breathing hard even in his human form. We gave him a minute to relax and get used to his human skin after so long. Every werecat and werewolf knew the toll it took when we stayed in our beastly forms for a long period. It was just hard and normally made us want to sleep for several hours. Extended periods were normally kept to full moons. We didn’t have that option.
“I’m ready,” he whispered. “It doesn’t look much like a compound, just a village.”
I agreed. It was much like Mischa’s village, the sprawling wilds with a bit of civilization in the middle.
Hisao snorted, and we started to walk as a unit. Heath wore all black, and someone had put a ski mask into the bag to cover his face. Hisao was near all black in his werecat form. I was the only one not completely built for stealth at that moment, so I stuck close to my brother, using him to help block anyone from potentially seeing me.
We entered the village off the road, through two small ramshackle houses, probably homes for lower-ranking wolves. No one was on the streets, and there was an eerie quiet over the village, a direct contrast with the liveliness of Mischa’s home village. There was a heavy weight to the air. I could smell the fear that permeated and the undercurrents of anger.
“This is bad,” Heath whispered.
“How bad?”
“It feels like this pack is going to go into a full-scale civil war any minute now,” he murmured quietly and fast. “That smell in the air? That’s because the inner circle and those loyal to them are keeping everyone down. How could they let this fester? How could they do this to their own wolves?”