The man turned back to him. He drew the pistol from his holster on his left side and rose what looked like a plastic gun at his chest.
Seeing this, he growled. “Nothing will work on me my friends.”
The man now looked worried and scared. “We will see about that.”
He pulled the trigger.
A popping sound flared softly through the room.
Jimmy next felt a pricking feeling to his left chest, just above his nipple.
He then felt a burning feeling emanating from the same spot. He recognized the feeling. He felt this before.
It’s the drug Rachel brought to me up in Upstate New York. My God, how did they find it? How did they know about it? It was destroyed. Rachel did it. She told me she did it with Brandon’s help. He felt it continue to move deeply into his chest and felt it flaring down his left arm. It made him clench his hands. He then felt it moving towards his head. The burning continued, but thankfully, it didn’t last. He suddenly felt cool again. He also noticed that he could still see the eyes at the back of his mind shining stronger than ever. They were also beginning to move. They came forwards and pushed his away without him even calling them. The wolf demanded on coming out so he stepped aside.
His brown eyes now flared to a bright yellow haze.
The man with the blonde hair gasped with an audible fear. “That’s impossible.” He saw the eyes. He saw his white tanned skin turn to an ashen black. He saw the ears begin to grow tall at the sides of his head. He saw the black fur explode all over his face as the snout blew forth from his mouth. Seeing the hair, seeing the face, knowing the drug wouldn’t affect him, he knew what it meant and who this was.
“It’s him. It’s Kalima!”
The other two with him immediately winced with total shock. They just stood there and gasped. They were locked in place by the very fear of the thoughts alone.
They know me. They know who I am. Stop that one. I need to know what he knows, my friend.
The man with the Blonde hair had seen enough. He knew what this beast could do and wanted no part of it. Why he was there, it no longer mattered. The only thing that did was that he had to get out of there. He knew too much. He couldn’t let that information fall into the hands of the one they feared having it the most.
He turned as he heard bones shattering behind him.
The two others turned with him, finally getting their legs to move.
As they did, a sharp and powerful flaring bang came to the other man’s right arm. He was the furthest on the right as they turned to the door, the only door out of the room. Because of this, he went first, taking the full blunt of the blow.
Do not kill them my friend. We are not like them. We do not kill them like that.
Fully formed, now standing a good two feet over the humans, Kalima roared as he reached out with his right arm and claw. He swiped the human male there, and with great force, the force of a freight train striking a much smaller car, sent him flailing out towards his left.
He felt his arm shatter. He felt his skin bounce oddly around it. A resounding heat then echoed through his skin and flew hard into his chest. His arm crashed directly into his side and it caused several ribs to shatter beneath it too. He screamed with all of it.
The woman was just missed by her partner as he flew behind her. She turned in time to see him fly to the far wall. She then watched him crash into it with such force that some of the plaster came off the wall with chunks. They then fell to the floor with him and covered him with their chalky white dust.
She then saw the wolf’s face. She saw his black ever-reaching darkness. She felt his steaming hot breaths against her face. She saw the rage in his overwhelming and powerful yellow stare.
He bent down to her and grabbed her arms with both hands, and with her firmly within his grip, he lifted her off her feet.
Don’t do it.
She had never felt such strength before. She had never seen such a beast before at that. He was so different from the other wolves she had seen before. He stood on his hind legs, this was the most obvious, but he also looked more massive. He looked bigger, stronger. He looked just like they told her he looked. He was frightening. He was terrifying. He looked like the king that she knew he was.
He pulled her up to his face, and snarled. He showed her his massive canine fangs, which were easily as long as her nose was against her normal face. He pulled back jaws, and opened his mouth.
She looked at them just before she looked in to his powerful gaze.
“Go ahead and kill me freak. That is what you’re good at isn’t it?”
He reached in closer to her face.
Don’t kill her. She is not a threat to us.
He heard her words. He puffed out with a casual breath, and not wanting to, set her back to her feet. He then let her go.
She felt this; she felt her feet standing on the floor. She felt his massive clawed hands leave her biceps. She couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe how weak he was for not being able to do what he had to do. She wasn’t about to let him forget this again.
“You couldn’t do it. You are weak just like she said you were.” She reached for her pistol, the real one with the real bullets, silver at that, and drew it on him, very much intending to use it to kill him.
He growled.
He agreed. All right…do it.
He saw her pull the gun, and without another thought of compassion in him, he spun back to her face. He opened his mouth so quickly that she never had the chance to blink clearly enough to see it.
He bit down, with his bottom jaw punching through her left cheek and his top jaw crunching through her right. Both jaws then came together as he crushed her face in between them.
She didn’t even scream. She died too fast. She just felt all life leave her, and he watched her body fall lifeless to his pawed hind feet.
Feel better?
He did.
There was more. We have to find the one with the blonde hair. He is their leader.
He heard the sound of an engine revving and realized that it was coming from just outside the window. The other human, the one he wanted, it had to be him.
Don’t let him get away…We need him. We have to know what he knows.
He turned. His paws thundered. He ran with a full stride, came to the window, and smashed through the glass. He was so big that he even took both sides of the wooden window frame with him as he broke through it and flew through the air.
One story down, he came down to the hood of a sedan, just as the car began to move towards his right. The impact crunched the entire hood of the car, with the engine running beneath it, down to the pavement underneath the tires. The pressure likewise caused the entire back end of the car to carry up. His pawed feet slid off the metal of the hood, and with it, the car slid out from under him, and with that, the back end flew up and over his head. He could even feel it fly close to the tips of his ears.
Free now, the car came down to his right, and crashed hard back to the pavement. It smashed upside down. The roof jarred. All of the windows shattered into heavy chards of broken lumps of glass.
He was not about to get away from me!
He roared, bellowing out a loud and vibrating echo throughout the nighttime air. He gave a good one with everything he had.
Good! Let me come forward.
Finished, he saw his human eyes now come forward, and they pushed his wolf’s eyes away. With them gone, he began to change again. The black fur faded and disappeared from his now lighting skin. He grew short again, as his paws slid back into human feet. The claws on his hands returned to human fingers. His ears shrunk back to human lobes. It took only a second for him to be Jimmy again.
He looked back to the car. He moved to it. He went to its driver’s side. He had to get to his knees to look inside it.
The man with the blonde hair was lying on the roof. He was also upside down. His face was covered with lacerations and was covered with blood. He was
grasping for air. His breathing was short. He was gurgling with the blood that was now rolling out of his mouth and covering his lips.
Jimmy looked right at him. “Who are you?” He had to know. He was determined to get his answers, one way or the other.
The man laughed. “You are too late Blood Walker.” He gagged some. His words did come out clearly though. “You are just too late.”
He knew the man was hurt badly. He could feel his heart beginning to fade. He could feel his breaths growing shallow too. If he was going to get what he needed, he was going to have to do it quickly.
“You’re dying. Why waste your last breaths? Tell me what you know.”
The man laughed again. “I won’t tell you anything.”
His breathing grew shorter. He started gagging again, now almost uncontrollably.
He didn’t have the choice. I’m going to have to get into his head. He knew what he had to do, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do it. He rarely ever used his Wanderer’s abilities. It was inside him, but he just was not prepared. Again, he was unpracticed.
The man gagged again. His heart skipped several beats. It was now or never.
He reached inside. He took the man’s head with both of his hands. He looked inside his mind and found an overpowering warmth that surrounded his wolf’s eyes. He grabbed this feeling, and he pulled them to him. He gripped the power and looked out into the void. The man was there. He felt his pain. He felt his coming death.
The man felt his hands wrap around his head. He then saw the wolf’s brown eyes flare to a bright and powerful blue color. He screamed.
Jimmy suddenly saw through his eyes. He saw his own face. He pressed in with his mind. He concentrated as hard as he could.
He saw a man with reddish blonde hair. He knew his name even though he had never seen his face before now. He even heard his voice.
Go to Washington and find the Wanderer Kenar. Bring him to her. The man sounded confident as he told him this. He sounded sure of himself. He sounded rehearsed.
I will Martin. I will but how can I get to him without him seeing us coming?
Martin was their leader. He was the leader of the Gathering Storm. He—his name was Francis, Francis Juniper, and he had been with them since he was in college. They recruited him at a party he went to with a friend. They told him that not all myths were fake. Some monsters were real. He would learn it soon afterwards how right they were.
He will not when she is with you. Again, Martin was sure of this. He knew it was true too, because he didn’t doubt it. He didn’t doubt him.
He then saw himself through goggled eyes. He saw himself knocking on Kenny’s door of his apartment. He watched himself open the door.
Kenny stood there, across from the living room in the kitchen. He saw his face. He saw his friend.
They shot him with the dart gun. He shot him himself.
He next saw a woman’s face. He saw her turn to him with long black hair. He saw her, and felt himself afraid of her. They all were. She was not what she seemed to be.
I will take him back to New York. Stay here and wait for my call. I will tell you what to do next.
The woman with the long black hair had the palest skin. She didn’t look real. She looked almost plastic.
He knew why.
The answer was there. He could see it, but then he saw a bright white light. It flashed in his eyes. It was bright but it didn’t hurt to look into it. It just called to him. It just pulled him to it with a firm yet gentle tug.
He’s dying. Let go Jimmy. Let go.
He closed his eyes. He released the warmth.
The void flared. The blackness consumed his face.
He opened his eyes.
The man with the blonde hair, Frank, was staring back at him with an empty stare. His eyes were now black. His face looked pale. He knew he was dead.
Jimmy caught his breaths. So that’s what it looks like to die. He felt tired now. He also felt winded. He felt like he had just run around the building a thousand times. It was a funny feeling. He tried to shake it off.
It took another minute to return to where he was.
They took him to New York. He stood up. The woman with the black hair…her name is El. She isn’t what she seems to be.
A car pulled up behind him. He heard it but didn’t turn until he heard a familiar voice, and she called his name.
34
“Jimmy?”
Sasha stood out of the car first. She rushed to her father and flung herself in his arms.
It took a few seconds for him to realize she was even there. When he did, he hugged her back.
“Sasha? What are you doing here?” He smelled her sweet red hair. He smelled her overpowering musty scent. It made him feel like he was home.
She felt the same way. “I just knew I would find you.” She released him, but kept his arms in her hands.
With her doing so, he had the chance to look behind her, and when he did, he saw Brandon standing there. He saw Sharlia move around the hood towards him. He saw Robert there too. He saw all of them and felt like crying. He felt surprised. He felt relieved.
Brandon came to him next. “Hey buddy…long time.” He smiled his usual Brandon grin.
It made him laugh. “It’s good to see you again.” He turned to Sharlia, who now joined him on his right. He looked to Robert, and laughed again. “I take it Rachel got a hold of you.” He finally breathed.
Robert nodded. “She did. She was worried about you.” He looked behind Jimmy, and saw the car upside down and smashed on the pavement. He saw his clothes all torn and tattered all over him. He saw the fact that he had bare feet. Seeing it all, he could only make an educated guess as to what happened. And none of it was any good. “I can see that she was right to be worried.”
Jimmy shrugged. “I’ve been better.” He laughed again.
Sharlia nodded to him with her usual Walker’s calmness. “What happened?”
He returned her nod. “I was able to track Kenny’s kidnappers to here. I know where they’ve taken him.”
She looked back to the old two-story building behind him, and then heard what sounded like sirens blaring back behind her. She knew what it meant.
“We should get out of here.” She moved back to the car, and climbed back behind the wheel.
Sasha didn’t need to hear anything else. She grabbed Jimmy by his right arm and pulled him with her back to the back seat.
Jimmy went with her and sat down. “How did you know to find me here?” His mind was becoming focused again. The feeling of dying was fading too. It was an overwhelming feeling. It felt like staring in to the flames. He felt like standing in the clearing. The bright light—the flames—they were the same thing. They just looked different because he saw it with human eyes.
Sasha sat down in the middle of the back seat. Brandon sat closer to the door, and Robert sat down on the passenger seat besides Sharlia.
Sharlia pulled out and headed back to the street. They had to get out of the area. The police wouldn’t know who they were. They couldn’t take the chance.
Sasha couldn’t drag her eyes off him. “You know I can find you anywhere once I’m close to you.” She shrugged, and held his left hand in her right. She couldn’t believe that he had to ask the question. He should know better.
He did. He thought back to the room. He thought back to all of the things he saw on the wall. Everything came rushing back into him like a heavy wind wanted to knock you off your feet.
“There is more going on here than just them taking Kenny. This gathering storm knows all about me. They know a lot.”
“What do you mean? What have you learned?” Sharlia headed back to the airport. No place was safe to her anymore. She didn’t know where it would be. The plane felt better than anything did, so she wanted to get there as fast as she could.
“They’re humans, but that’s not all of it. There are Walkers with them. They are working together. I’m not sure what they’re pl
anning, but they need Kenny to do it.”
“We know about some Walkers with them.” Sharlia did.
“It has to be Devish’s people behind this. They know about me.” He thought about Rachel and his son. “We have to get back to Rachel. If they know about me, they might know everything, including where I live.” A cool chill flared down his spine. “They might know everything.”
Robert heard the shiver in his voice. He knew why. “She is fine Jimmy.”
Brandon heard this too. “I have my people heading out to them now. She’ll be all right. They’ll find her.” He felt confident in this. He trusted his people. How they did with him, he would never know why.
Jimmy accepted this, but it was still not enough. “I just have to get there.” He saw both of their faces. He saw Rachel’s eyes. He saw his son’s innocent face.
Sharlia agreed, as did everyone else. She stepped on the gas.
35
He walked home after a few hours. He needed the time to think since taking Angel home. He had to replay everything that happened. He wasn’t sure of what to think about—well—anything. Was she mad at him? Was she still interested in seeing him? He didn’t know anymore. Something inside him told him that she wouldn’t. He could hear it in her voice. He could see it in her eyes. He felt it emanating from her very breaths.
She told me that she would see me again. She did say that, but again, he wasn’t sure. Everything she did proved just the opposite of what she said. But why, why would she lie to me? What purpose did she have to do that? Just thinking about all of this was giving him a headache. So much so, he needed the walk. He needed the air. He needed the time.
After several hours, he finally made it home.
He climbed the steps, and opened the door.
His mother was standing in the center of the living room waiting for him.
“It’s about time you came home.” She had paced around the entire house, heading upstairs, heading back downstairs, waiting, hurting, thinking. She couldn’t help herself. She feared everything since talking with Robert.
The Puppets and the Strings (A Werewolf's Saga Book 7) Page 22