by DG Wood
Bunny moved to put herself between her daughters and Cassandra.
“Well, they’re not. Get out of my house, and take him with you.”
Bunny pointed at Toma, doing her best not to look lower than the waist. Cassandra just replied with a light-hearted chuckle.
“Oh, Bunny. I’ve been saving myself for your family. My first kill.”
And that was the last thing Cassandra said. She walked up to Oliver and grabbed his face. She planted a hard kiss on his lips, which he pulled back from to stare into eyes that were becoming swirling pools of yellow ink.
Darkly reached for the gun under her belt. There was nothing there. Cassandra glanced at Darkly and held up the gun she had successfully lifted off a Mountie. She removed the clip from the gun and threw it down the stairwell, then dropped the gun on the floor.
“Shit,” said Darkly.
“What’s wrong with your eyes, Cassandra?” asked Oliver, stepping backwards into the naked Toma.
Cassandra smiled through a mouth that was narrowing, pushing the teeth forward. Her head then fell forward, as loud cracks accompanied the buckling of her back and the emergence of a hump. Cassandra threw her head back and half howled, half screamed, then fell forward on all fours, knocking Oliver back onto Toma. Both men toppled to the floor like dominoes, and Cassandra’s growing claws landed on Oliver’s chest, digging into his flesh.
Bunny screamed, as Cassandra opened her mouth to bite off Oliver’s face. At the last minute, before a face became a gaping, bloody crater, a shot rang out. The bullet entered Cassandra’s skull and partially exited her forehead. The tip of the silver bullet looked back at Oliver like a third eye.
Darkly turned slowly to look behind her. All the eyes on the landing followed hers. There, standing at the top of the staircase, was Buck, Geraldine and Gus. It was Buck who had fired the shot.
“All she had to do was kill you, Darkly. That was her only job. Revenge is a poor reason to hunt. We hunt for love. Shall we take this outside?” asked Geraldine rhetorically.
Darkly nodded, and Buck waved his gun at Toma, who then joined Darkly.
“Give him your coat,” Buck said to Gus.
Gus removed his coat and handed it to Toma, who covered himself. Gus ushered Darkly and Toma down the stairs.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rathscowl, I suggest you forget what happened here tonight. Or I will come for your daughters.”
Zoe and India grabbed hold of their mother.
“We understand,” Bunny agreed and glared at Oliver, who was still in shock.
“Ah, yes. Quite.”
“Good.”
And with that, Buck lifted Cassandra off Oliver and threw her body over his shoulder like a sack of flower. Geraldine descended the stairs first, followed by Toma, then Darkly, then Gus and Buck.
“I’m sorry, Darkly,” whispered Gus. “A lot’s changed in a year. Geraldine’s more than family now.”
The group left the house, where a Land Rover waited in the circular drive. Buck threw Cassandra’s body in the back and opened the front-passenger door for Geraldine. Gus opened the back-passenger side door for Darkly and Toma.
“Oi.”
Darkly turned to see the chef standing in the doorway to the home.
“Leaving without saying goodbye? How ‘bout your number then, love?”
The chef picked his fingernails with a large knife.
“We don’t want any trouble,” warned Buck.
“Could have fooled me. Murder is sort of the definition of trouble, isn’t it?”
At that point, two waiters appeared from both sides of the house, each with guns pointed at the Land Rover.
“The undersecretary is a target of extremists. It’s my job to protect him. Let the girl go. I’m afraid it wouldn’t have worked for us, darling. I’m married. Be on your way.”
Buck raised his hands in the air and shook his head at Darkly. She grabbed Toma’s hand and ran.
“Take them into custody,” the chef commanded his waiters.
“Belay that order.”
Oliver Rathscowl stepped onto the front landing.
“Sir?” asked the chef, incredulous.
“Let them go,” confirmed Oliver.
“Sir.”
The chef nodded at his waiters, who lowered their weapons. Buck and Gus got into the Land Rover, and it pulled into the street.
“Let’s get back to the party, Nigel.”
“Yes, sir,” the chef replied dutifully but put-out.
Oliver and his bodyguards returned to the guests.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Darkly and Toma climbed the cast iron gates and dropped down into Highgate Cemetery. Darkly gave Toma the universal silence symbol, with a finger to her mouth. They ran down one of the lanes of homes of the dead, ducking behind the last brick tomb in the short row, and listened.
They heard a car motor near the front gates cut off. Darkly grabbed Toma’s hand and pulled him into the trees behind the tomb.
“They know we’re here. There’s nowhere else to hide,” Darkly whispered while making her way forward. “They know we couldn’t stick to the road. We need to make it over the wall into the public park. That’s where we’ll be most vulnerable. The park exits at the top of the hill that leads down to the tube station. It’s a bit of a hike, but if we’re lucky, there’ll be a passing taxi.”
Darkly and Toma continued their meandering route through gravestones. At the statue of a Victorian woman in repose atop her own grave, they heard the first howl. The wolves were in the cemetery. Their odds of making it out were now greatly diminished. Their scent would lead Buck, Gus and Geraldine straight to them. Angry, not quite themselves, and hungry.
Darkly broke through the last tangle of raspberry bushes and vines and looked up at a brick wall too tall to scale.
“Feel for holes in the brick,” she ordered Toma, not bothering to whisper.
The noise of twigs breaking continuously behind them indicated that the wolves had their scent.
“Hurry,” she added.
Darkly and Toma moved quickly along the wall, feeling for bricks that were missing or jutting out from the wall due to settling of the wall’s foundation.
“Here,” said Darkly excitedly. “Help me up.”
Toma offered Darkly a lift, and she stepped onto a jagged piece of brick above the head of a crumbling angel, where the wall had cracked and begun to separate. She pressed her fingertips into the grooves between the brick and climbed to the top of the wall. Toma hopped up beneath her, as she flung a leg over the cap of the wall. The growling was now only twenty yards away. The wolves were following the path the two escapees took along the base of the wall.
Darkly reached down and offered her hand, pulling Toma up to join her, as a pair of jaws lunged at the air just below their feet, taking them by complete surprise. One of the wolves was more silent and closer than they thought. Buck. Darkly and Toma practically fell into Waterlow Park and were up running across a field, uphill, a second later. They flew across a bridge over a duck pond and continued up a paved pathway toward the exit of the park. Toma looked behind him.
“Don’t look back,” Darkly chastised, but did the same.
Three wolves were halfway across the field that bordered the cemetery wall.
“Fuck,” shouted Darkly at the heavens. “They found a way out.”
The two reached the exit, as the wolves reached the bridge, and scaled the much more manageable gate designed merely to let the neighborhood know the park was closed, rather than to deter grave robbers. The Mountie and the rocker were now doing their best to run down Highgate Hill without falling. The high- street shops were in sight. Darkly looked across the road, where a taxi was letting off an inebriated passenger.
“There!” she yelled and pointed at the same time.
They darted across the road and dove into the back of the black cab, startling the driver.
“Drive!” yelled Toma.
“Hold on a goddamn min
ute. This is my cab, and I have the right to refuse service.”
“Shut up,” Darkly interrupted, “and look in your rearview mirror.”
The driver did as he was instructed and saw three large wolves barreling down on his vehicle. In this case, the fact that objects may appear closer than they are, didn’t cause any hesitation. He rammed the gear shift into drive and shot off.
“Mother Mary of God,” he exclaimed.
Behind the cab, the drunk opening his front door merely shrugged, as he watched the three beasts run past his home.
The driver sailed through a red light, just avoided a collision with another vehicle and drove the wrong way down a one-way before turning onto Junction Road. A mile later, everyone took a breath.
“I think they’re gone,” Darkly broke the silence. “Cheshire Hotel, Paddington, please. Then I’ll need you to make a run to Heathrow.”
“Yes ma’am,” the driver stuttered.
At the hotel, Darkly pulled out a drawer to a vanity, flipped it over and tore off an envelope of cash taped to the bottom.
“This will be their next stop,” Darkly said, handing Toma the envelope. This is two thousand pounds. You need to get back in the cab and get on the next flight out of Heathrow to Seattle.”
Darkly looked around her for a pen. She picked one off the floor and grabbed Toma’s hand, writing a number on his palm.
“When you land, go to a payphone and call this number, collect. The man who answers will come get you and take you to Marielle and your son. Don’t leave them again.”
Toma nodded. Darkly could see in his eyes that once he got where he was going, he was staying put. Good.
“And drop the a, Tom. Go!”
Tom paused at the door long enough to thank Darkly, and then she watched him from her room’s window get into the cab and drive away. Darkly then threw a few personal items into a bag, and left the hotel via the back entrance. She walked down a short flight of steps, took a step into the alley and turned in a circle. What was she doing? Where was she going? She walked to the brick wall and leaned her hands and forehead against it. She took two deep breaths to collect herself.
“You look like you could use a drink.”
Darkly looked around for the voice. Across the narrow alleyway was a young man in a sleeping bag.
“You’re right,” she replied. “Helluva night.”
“Bet it doesn’t beat my night,” he said with a big grin.
Darkly walked over to him.
“I don’t suppose you know where a Canadian girl can find a taste of home?”
“Canadian, huh? Maybe I do. There’s a place on Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. The Maple Leaf.”
Darkly reached into her bag and pulled out a fifty pound note. She handed it to the man.
“Whoa. That’s fifty pounds.”
“Thanks for the tip.”
And with that, Darkly, knew where she was going next.
Darkly got off the lift at Covent Garden tube station and glanced at the large color map on the wall. Maiden Lane was a short stroll through the old market, now renovated posh tourist shops. She could see The Strand below where she stood, and the crowds of theatre-goers returning home. She turned onto Maiden Lane before reaching the hustle and bustle and was greeted by a red neon maple leaf.
There were a few memories of home inside, like the stuffed moose head and a pair of tattered mukluks nailed to the wall. Darkly was pleased to see meatloaf and mashed potatoes on the menu. She sat at the bar and ordered a pint of her favorite lager from home.
She was finishing off the plate of comfort food and about to order a second pint, when she felt the arm brush against her back. She had faced the windows and entrance out of habit and turned to consider Buck’s face. He was seated on the stool next to hers. He was good. She never saw him come in.
“Can I get your second?” Buck asked, pointing at the near empty pint glass.
“I’d like that.”
The bartender appeared in front of Buck.
“Two of what she’s drinking, please.”
The bartender nodded and delivered two cold pints to two people who had earned their thirst in ways he could not imagine.
“Did you beat it out of the homeless guy?”
Darkly spit the words into her plate.
“We’re not monsters, Darkly. I paid him.”
“I gave him fifty quid.”
“That’s mean of you, Darkly. I gave him one hundred.”
At that, Darkly lightened up a bit.
“So you really thought you’d be rid of me for good by now?”
“Sicking Cassandra on you was Geraldine’s idea. I knew nothing about it. Even if I had known, I wouldn’t have been too worried. I don’t believe there is any situation you can’t handle, constable.”
Buck looked at a booth in a corner of the pub. Darkly followed his eyes to see Geraldine, Gus, and two new members of the werewolf species staring back at her.
“Things have become rather political since moving to London, Darkly.”
“I can see that, Buck.”
“We’ve revived some old traditions. It made sense at the time.”
“And now?”
“Now?” Buck mused. “Now, I long for simpler times.”
“I think you’ve adjusted to big city life just fine, sheriff.”
“We’re an adaptable species. It’s part of our success. And, make no mistake, Darkly. No one, not even you, can stop our success. We’ve set things in motion that will bring this whole world much desired peace in the long run.”
Darkly took a drink and shook her head.
“I’ve heard it all before in the interrogation room. Oh, I believe you believe the end justifies the means.”
“Darkly, I’ve told some lies about you. It wasn’t to keep my people safe from you. It was to keep you safe from us. I’m giving you one last chance. Go back home. Lead a long life fighting drug trafficking and money laundering. A normal, happy life.”
“And look the other way when it comes to you?”
Darkly polished off her second pint.
“And what if I decide I’m partial to London weather and want to hang around a bit? You got anymore silver bullets in your gun?”
“I owe you. But Geraldine will keep trying until she succeeds.”
Darkly raised her empty glass to Geraldine. One of the queen’s new men raised his glass to her and received a sharp reprimand from Geraldine.
“Oh, they’re bright recruits, Buck. I think I’ll take my chances.”
Darkly leant in and kissed Buck tenderly on the lips. When she pulled away, she had his wallet in her hands. She opened it, and removed forty pounds for the bartender. She handed Buck back his wallet and slipped off her stool. At the door, she saw Geraldine’s group get up to follow her out. Buck beat them to her.
The second they got outside, Buck grabbed Darkly’s arm and spoke quickly, with no sense of humor carried forward from the intimate exchange at the bar.
“Run, Darkly Stewart. Run for the river. It’s your only chance. They won’t be able to follow your scent in the water. Meet me in Romania. One week.”
It was Buck’s turn to kiss Darkly. He grabbed her neck and made a brief meal of her lips.
“Run,” he whispered.
Darkly ran, and Buck turned to grab the royal goon exiting the front door. He grabbed him by the coat and ran his head through the door’s pane of glass like a battering ram.
Gus took his protective place in front of Geraldine, letting the second goon attack Buck. Buck punched the large man in the stomach, which achieved nothing. The man picked Buck up and threw him into the middle of the road. Buck removed his gun, and the man kicked it out of his hand.
“Enough!”
The word was loud enough to stop Darkly, too, who turned to look back and see Geraldine step forward into the empty lane. It was late. The theatre-goers were in cabs, returning to the suburbs. She picked up Buck’s gun. She turned away from Darkly an
d spoke closely with Gus. She then turned back to face Darkly, lowered the gun, and shot Buck in the chest.
Darkly opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Geraldine said something to the two goons, but Darkly did not stick around to learn what that was. She ran full sprint for the Thames. Her heart was beating faster than it had ever beat before. Grief mixed with adrenaline, as she turned onto The Strand. Behind her, she heard Geraldine, Gus and the others raise their voices in unison to howl over Buck’s body.
Darkly bolted past the iconic Savoy Hotel and took a quick glance behind her as she ran across the road and turned onto the dual-carriageway that led to Waterloo Bridge. Two wolves were turning onto The Strand, growling and snapping at the air, forcing two horrified late diners to turn and pound on the just locked door of Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, begging to be let back in.
The Mountie made it to the middle of Waterloo Bridge. No one else was crossing and able to bear witness to what happened next. The Thames is a tidal river, and it was high tide as Darkly climbed up onto the railing, balancing perfectly over the fast-drifting water below her. The two wolves chasing her slowed their pace dramatically when they hit the bridge. A black shrieking shadow suddenly swooped down from the sky and pecked at the wolves’ eyes. A guardian raven. But, Darkly’s attackers could only be delayed. They had her scent and would not stop before plunging their fangs into her neck. She couldn’t outrun them further. There was no choice before her but to dive into the river below, where she would surely drown. This was the end of the road for both wolf and woman.
Darkly calmed herself. Her life moved at the speed of light, every second of it, every beautiful and sad moment projected in her mind like a movie, when she stepped off the railing. Her childhood. Laughing with her mother, watching her mother die. Being swooped up into her adoptive father’s arms on the side of the highway. Telling her adoptive mother that she hated her, then clinging to her waist for forgiveness. Then her life as a Mountie, the death of her partner, the thrill of Buck’s glancing touch. Then the bullet to Buck’s heart and the sound of her own heartbeat louder than she had heard it in her ears since the womb.