Kat flew but managed to twist herself and land on her feet, then she immediately went back after him. As she closed the distance, she saw him unsteadily gain his feet. He shook his head, as if to clear the fogginess that must be overcoming him after so many repeated hits to the head.
He had yet to see her coming. Or so she thought. Leaping at him, she had intended to knock him off his feet once again. Instead, he turned toward her and brought a claw skyward, burying it in her chest. The power of the impact, her velocity meeting his ferocity, snapped her sternum. Clawed fingers sliced through lungs until at last it reached her spinal cord which broke as she slammed against him, buckling around his arm, which was now buried up to the middle of his forearm.
Blood poured out of her body, staining the white fur on her chest and darkening the fur on the wolf as she hung there, limp, unable to move. Kat could not feel the lower half of her body, the nerves controlling those functions had been sliced. Blood gurgled up through her maw as her shredded lungs filled with the thick, red fluid.
That her body would repair all of this was scant comfort to Kat who felt a sense of panic take hold. She had never felt this helpless in her life. The Wolf moved slightly, and her head lolled to one side and she searched his canine-like face. He stared down at her with zero recognition in his eyes.
With one claw, the wolf pushed her off his arm and she thudded to the ground. Pain coursed through her body, but after going through the shift as many times as she had, this was next to nothing. Though it did make it hard to concentrate. And concentrate she must. Her body would heal. But it would heal quicker if she could direct it . . . will it to heal.
Slowly, the Wolf crouched down over her and tilted its head in a canine-like manner, to study her. The wolf grabbed one of her arms, lifted it, and let it go. It dropped unceremoniously onto the pavement, and the Wolf cocked its head the other way.
Kat didn’t understand what it was doing, or what it would do next, so she desperately concentrated on repairing her body. She worked first on her lungs, mending the tears and reabsorbing or breaking down the blood as best as she could to clear them out. She felt her ability to breathe return to her. As she began work on healing the damage to her spine, she realized it was too late.
The wolf bent down toward her, its maw opening wide. She had run out of time.
Chapter Nine
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shots rang out and she watched as a bullet struck the wolf’s forehead. Blood and skull fragments exploded away from the impact. Another bullet took the Wolf in the shoulder as it rocked backward from the first hit. A third bullet took it in its chest, knocking it farther back. The Wolf collapsed and rolled away from her and she closed her eyes, setting all her thoughts into repairing her spine.
As feeling incrementally returned to her body, she rolled her head to look at where the shots had originated and spied the man from earlier. The one the Wolf had been stalking. Kat could see him fully now. He was a scruffy looking man who appeared to be in his late forties. A salt and pepper blanket of hair thinly covered his chin and cheeks. Thin to the point of gaunt, his face was slack; pouches could be visibly seen under the man’s eyes. This was a man to whom sleep was a stranger, Kat surmised.
The man held a gun with a steady hand, pointing it past her to where the Wolf was now gaining its feet. Without hesitation, the gunman aimed the SIG again and fired off nine more shots in rapid succession. The sound echoed off the surrounding buildings, falling silent moments after the last of the bullets left the chamber.
Kat knew they would have little effect and so continued to heal her body. There was a lot of damage and the severity of it to her spinal cord made healing a more intricate exercise than she was used to.
“Fuck!” the man cursed, and the clip of his gun dropped out and onto the ground as he released it bouncing with a clatter. Frantically he searched his jacket pockets and pulled out another clip to reload the weapon.
Fur covered legs flowed past her as the wolf leaped over her body to charge the man with the gun. Kat was desperate. She needed to stop this.
“CLINT!” she managed to shout again. “What about Sarah?!”
The Wolf stumbled and rounded on her.
Kat managed to prop herself up, never taking her eyes from him.
“What would Sarah think of what you are doing, Clint?” She saw confusion in his eyes as they narrowed, peering at her.
Sluggishly, she got her legs under her, facing him.
“It’s Kat, Clint. Remember?” He continued to stare at her. The gunman had stopped trying to load his gun and was staring at them both.
“Please, Clint,” she pleaded, “let me help you. Together we will get her back.”
The Wolf shook his head, like trying to jar something loose inside. It peered at her once again, and then away.
Kat took a step forward, raising one hand toward him.
“Come with me, Clint. Sylvanis is here. She can help you. Help us, find Sarah.”
The Wolf turned toward her once again. She thought she could see recognition there, but perhaps it was only her wish.
With a final shake of his head, the Wolf turned and loped away, quickly disappearing.
Kat stood there; her arm raised out toward his retreating form. A moment passed, and she let it drop. She stared off after him. Her body was still repairing the damage caused by the fight, and it was almost healed. She should have gone after him. Gone after him and try to reason with him some more.
No.
She could not force him back. He had built walls that refused to allow the Wolf to take complete control. He was there, still. She had to be patient. Had to help him regain control of himself.
Lost in her own thoughts, Kat realized the man still stood there. She turned her head to look at him staring at her. She gave him a nod in gratitude for helping her before turning to go.
“You’re her? Aren’t you?” His voice, a deep timbre, was rough around the edges, like the rest of him.
She wasn’t sure what he meant. Perhaps he meant the same Tiger from the fight which took place here days ago.
“Yep,” she continued to move away, “I’m her.”
His next question stopped her in her tracks.
“The one from Sacramento?”
She had done her best to keep her actions in her hometown anonymous, but still there had been rumors of a giant cat-woman going around, so it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility someone could have put two and two together and figured out they were one and the same. But something about the way the man asked the question had her believing it was more.
She didn’t answer him.
“You know the rapist you cut? He died.”
Kat squeezed her eyes shut. She had been dreading this possibility ever since Sylvanis had explained how it was transmitted. From what Hank and Sim had said, if she had transmitted it to that guy, and he had lived, she should have been able to sense him. She hadn’t. Had refused to think about it. Too afraid to face the possibilities. Now she knew.
She remained silent, frozen in place.
“Did you know?” His voice was low, hesitant.
“Know what?” The words breathed out of her. She felt exhausted, too weary to talk.
“When you cut him?” Desperation tinted his questions, as if he was looking for an answer, and he desperately needed to hear the right one. “Did you know he would die?”
She sighed. There it was. He wanted to know if she was a killer.
“No.” She tried to put conviction back into her voice, but it sounded hollow, at least to her. “I only learned recently about what might happen to someone who I cut.”
Silence came from behind her.
“Did you come here to arrest me?” She was making a guess. She had no idea if he was a cop. But it made sense. He knew about the rapist. He knew about Sacramento. He had come here —for her.
“If you are. I’m afraid I’m not gonna let you do that today.” She still had h
er back to him and for all she knew he was pointing his gun at her. Though, given what he had witnessed, he should know better.
“It’s why I came,” he admitted. “But no. No, I don’t think I am going to try and arrest you.” He barked a laugh. “To be honest. I don’t even have the authority to do it even if I wanted to.
“Regardless, I don’t want to arrest you.” A firmness came into his voice. “I’ve seen the others. The bad ones. I know where they are.”
Kat whipped around.
“What?”
“The Boar. I know where he is. Though he is not alone. There are . . .”, his voice cracked a little and his throat bobbed as he gulped, “others.”
Kat nodded at this. She moved over to him and unconsciously, he flinched back.
“I won’t hurt you,” she reassured him.
He nodded. “I know. It’s just. You are . . . scary.”
Kat’s lips peeled back in a grin she realized didn’t do much to alleviate the man’s fear. “I’m Kat.”
The man snorted. “You’re kidding?”
Kat let out a soft growl.
The man held out his hands in calm her. “O.K. O.K. Sorry. I’m Ben. Officer Ben Charles.”
“You need to come with me. I have friends. Others, like me,” she told him. “You need to tell them — everything.”
He stared in a mixture of fear and awe at her but nodded.
It was at that moment a scent reached her nose and she raised her head and sniffed, testing the air to try and get a better sense of the smell.
“What is it?” Ben peered around warily.
Kat didn’t answer immediately as she took a strong inhalation and scanned about.
Ben waited patiently.
“There is a smell. It smells like . . . like someone with lycanthropy, but strange.” She struggled to find the words to describe the scent. “Something about it isn’t quite right.”
The idea she could smell others like her didn’t faze the man.
“Well. Could it be your Wolf friend? Something isn’t quite right with him, correct?”
Kat pondered this notion. The man had a point.
“Perhaps you’re right.” She searched the buildings and alleyways around them, hoping to catch a glimpse of Clint, but nothing.
“We should go,” Kat told him. “We have no time to lose.”
Crossing the street, Kat led him over to the alley next to the building which held her clothes on its roof. She quickly retrieved them. Moving over to the doorway where she had changed before, she told Ben to wait at the mouth of the alley. She stood there for a time and stared at his back as he kept watch.
She was about to trust him with something few people outside of the group knew. Her real identity. However, she couldn’t walk down the streets of Chicago as a Weretiger, so this was out of necessity. It left her feeling vulnerable though. She wasn’t sure she could trust this man, though he had risked his life to save hers. Maybe he still planned on arresting her and hoped he could trap her in her human form. He wouldn’t realize she could simply change back.
She shook her head. She was being stupid. This was necessary, and she was wasting time. Stepping back into the alcove, she shifted. It happened so quickly and effortlessly now it amazed her. She donned her clothes and stepped out into the alley and approached Ben.
He turned at her approach and his eyes widened.
“Not what you expected?” she teased him.
He shook his head. “I didn’t expect you to be so . . .”
“What?”
“Pretty,” he admitted.
Kat chuckled. “Why is that?”
Ben’s shoulders rose and fell. “Don’t know. I guess with how well you fought, I thought you would be more . . .” He shrugged again and cocked his head apologetically, “mannish?”
Kat laughed again, shook her head and patted him on the chest as she moved past him.
“Come on. We’re losing time.”
She led him off toward the hotel where Sylvanis, Hank, Sim and she were staying. Neither one of them saw the dark, looming shape of a Werewolf pad off after them.
None of them saw the other figure detach itself from the shadows of a nearby building to follow them as well.
“Are you sure of what you saw?” The worry in Sylvanis’ voice was palpable.
“Yes. There was eight of them there. I saw three of them turn into, into . . .” Ben stumbled over the words.
“Weres?” Kat interjected.
“Yeah. The boar from the video. A rat and a crocodile, or alligator. I can never remember which is which.”
Sylvanis was pacing and she corrected him absently, “Crocodile.”
“Oh,” Ben murmured. “Yeah. So. Anyway. The crocodile was some guy from Australia as far as I could tell. The rat. Well. She is a young girl. Maybe fifteen.”
Sylvanis looked at Hank. They had all gathered in Sylvanis’ room when Kat brought Ben back here to relay the news of what he saw. “Kestrel has gathered them all. This puts us at a great disadvantage.”
Kat agreed. But she didn’t care. Ben had told them Sarah was there. If Sarah was there, they had to go and get her. Kat owed her that much. She owed Clint that much. Not to mention it might be the only way to bring Clint back from what he had become.
“That isn’t going to stop us though, is it?” Kat tried to keep the desperation out of her voice but failed.
Sylvanis turned toward her for the first time since Kat had told her what had happened between her and Clint. Sylvanis’ green eyes locked with hers and she stared at her for a long moment. Studying her. Whatever she saw helped her make a decision, and she nodded to Kat.
“No. That isn’t going to stop us. We will need to strike hard and fast. There is no way we will be able to win this fight in a head-on match. They have the number advantage.” Sylvanis brought her finger to her pursed lips and tapped them. “We need to try and take out the Boar, or at the least, get Sarah away from them.”
“And then?” Hank asked. He had been silent almost the whole time. Though he had grown visibly distressed when Kat told them of the fight.
Sylvanis turned to Hank. “We will have to flee. We cannot win this fight and I will not risk losing any of you to a battle that will lose us this war.”
“Then why go at all?” Sim piped in. “I mean. I know this Sarah is important and what is happening to her is horrible, but is she really worth the risk?”
“Sim.” Hank’s word held a bit of caution. He seemed to have read the situation when it came to Kat’s feelings about this.
Sim turned to his father. “What? It is a reasonable question, Dad. We are talking about the end of civilization here if Kestrel gets her way, right? Don’t you think it might be more important than just one woman?”
Kat growled. Even though she wasn’t in her hybrid form, her growl still sounded feral.
Sim turned towards her. His face held a hint of fear, which satisfied her immensely.
“That woman,” Kat bit the words out, “is the key to getting Clint back. And if we are going to win this war,” she threw that back at him, “then we are going to need him.”
Hank stepped forward and rested his hand on Sim’s shoulder as if to say, ‘It’s O.K. son, you just didn’t think this through.’ Sim considered her for a time and nodded.
“Kat’s right,” Sylvanis agreed. “That is why we need to do this.”
She looked to each of them, searching their eyes for something only she knew. They all stayed quiet but returned Sylvanis’ regard. Even Ben.
Hank shuffled his feet a little and Sylvanis raised an eyebrow toward him, indicating if he had something on his mind, he should go ahead and say it now. There wouldn’t be a later.
“This will be a full reveal of ourselves to the world, Sylvanis.” Hank’s tone held a fair amount of uncertainty, which was uncharacteristic of him as far as Kat had seen. “We can’t enter that hotel as hybrids. We will have to enter in as we are and when we engage Kestrel and
the others, then, and only then will we shift.”
The idea hit Kat like a ton of bricks. Earlier she had been hesitant to let Ben see who she was. This could result in the whole world knowing who she was, or rather, what, she was.
“Shit,” Sim muttered, echoing Kat’s thoughts and summing them up into one word. Shit, is right.
“It was going to have to happen eventually. There was no way we could have stayed in the shadows forever,” Sylvanis replied, though to Kat, she seemed as upset over the idea as the rest of them were. Sylvanis was no lycan, but a druidess, and if Kestrel was there to fight, Sylvanis would have to unveil her power as well.
The only comfort was, Kestrel and her group would be outed as well. A small comfort.
Ben spoke up. “I don’t mean to rush anybody. But I got the impression now that they were all there, the one you call Kestrel had plans for them and they would be leaving soon.”
He didn’t mention anything about the off-duty cop at the hotel, Kat noticed. Ben had filled her in on everything which had happened to him since he had arrived in Chicago. Up to, and including, covering for himself with the off-duty cop so the owner of the hotel room didn’t re-enter his room. Kat guessed it didn’t matter. Ben had told her he had warned the other man away from the room, and so, as long as the other group didn’t decide to leave already, they should find them, in their room, unmolested.
Sylvanis was through explaining and was about to get them ready to go, but Kat wasn’t done with Sylvanis yet.
“What about Clint?” she demanded.
The look that passed between Sylvanis and Hank said volumes to Kat.
“What?” She glanced at them both. “You going to take him out, Hank?” Kat could feel her face grow hot as anger built like a well of lava about to overflow.
Hank didn’t back down from her fire. “If I have to, Kat.” His voice was low and almost drowned out by the thrumming of blood in her ears.
“You of all people should know what he is now capable of.” He shook his head in obvious confusion of her lack of understanding as to why this might be necessary. “You saw the reports as well as I.”
The Gathering Page 9