by Tim Myers
She was turning around as I jumped, and I felt one of her bullets graze my shoulder as I reached her.
It was all I could do not to rip out her throat, but instead, I knocked the gun to the side and pinned her down before she could shift.
Bowen was there a split second later, the gun in his hand.
I told Jennifer, “Shift, and you’re dead. I mean it.”
“I don’t care,” she said, starting to cry. “You killed him, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Where are they? Did you kill them before we got here?”
“They’re in the bathroom,” she said as I put pressure on her chest with a sharp set of claws. “He wanted to kill them, but I wouldn’t let him.” She cried a little more, then asked, “What happens to me now?”
“Your mother wants you home,” I said.
“I’d rather die than go back there.”
I grinned at her. “Good.”
Was there a flicker of hope in her eyes? “You’ll do it? Please?”
As she braced for my claws, I said, “No, I want you to suffer. I wasn’t sure before, but Mom it is.”
Bailey came out a few seconds later, followed by Bowen and Jasmine. Bowen had an arm around his sister, and though she looked shaken up by the ordeal, she wasn’t hurt.
“We would have shifted, but they had us bound in silver,” Bailey explained.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“What about Harkins?”
I started to answer when we heard Jim’s cry from the other room.
I bound out, knowing my friends could handle Jennifer.
Jim, one of the best friends I’d ever had, was lying there on the floor, his neck snapped, and Harkins was gone.
With one last glance back at Jim’s body, I took off into the night to find his killer and put him down for good.
Chapter 11
“Go back,” I said as I heard Bowen approach from the rear. “I’m doing this alone.”
“You’re hurt,” he said.
“I can handle him.”
We were both shifted into wolf form, and it was difficult to talk, to focus on the words, even to think. I was in full killing mode, something I’d fought to keep from experiencing since I’d first joined the brotherhood of the Wolf.
But tonight was a night for killing, and I was ready.
“We go together,” Bowen said.
We followed the trail of blood as we ran side by side, and I was glad I had managed to wound Harkins in my battle with him. I was leaving a trail myself, from the shoulder and from the throat, but I walled off the pain and ran on. It was easier to do than I would have imagined, and the only thing the small part that was left of me worried about was ever being able to come back from the blood lust once it was satisfied.
We found him spread out on the ground against a dumpster, and he wasn’t moving.
Bowen said, “Don’t trust him.”
“I’ll go,” I growled.
Bowen nodded, and leapt to a stack of pallets where he could look down on us.
I approached slowly, smelling the air, searching for some sign of life. Had Harkins’ blood spree finally ended like this, curled up dead in an alley?
As I neared, I could feel every hair on my back stand to attention. He’d fooled me before, and I wasn’t going to let it happen again.
I nudged him with my muzzle, and Harkins suddenly came alive. He rolled onto his back and arched it in a way that flipped him up onto his feet. He wasn’t dead at all, apparently only waiting for us to find him.
As his teeth snapped in the air where my neck had just been, I noticed blood spilling from a new slash over his one good eye, and realized that Jim hadn’t gone down without a fight. My friend had died valiantly, and I felt a moment’s burst of pride as I worked my way closer for a kill shot.
This had to end, here and now.
Harkins and I circled each other, our fangs bared, low rumbles coming from each of us. We were true brothers of the Wolf now, fighting for our lives.
I was fighting for something else, too.
Retribution for what he’d done to my friend.
Harkins made his move and went for my throat with a mighty jump.
I was ready for him. I waited until the last possible second, then slashed out with my claws.
The blow was so strong, it separated his head from his body, and the two masses fell at my feet.
Harkins had made his last kill.
Bowen shifted as I did and joined me. We watched in silence as Harkins slowly transformed back into human form.
Finally, Bowen put a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go back to the others.”
“You go. I have to call somebody to take care of this first.”
“Throw the body in the dumpster like the trash it is,” Bowen said.
“It’s what he deserves, but I have to do this the right way.”
He nodded.
I found a telephone and called Dalton.
He said, “What is it? I’m eating dinner.”
“I got Harkins. He’s dead.”
“I’ll be right there.”
As I waited, I kept staring at the head. Harkins’ eyes were opened, what I could see of them. The damage Jim had done to his last good eye had helped me kill the werewolf. I thought about my friend, and how much I’d miss him. Still, he’d died a noble death, and that was something. Jim had often wondered about his strength, worried that he wouldn’t have what it took to make a stand. He would have been proud to know that he’d helped put a bad one down.
As for Harkins, there was nothing noble about him. He’d brought shame to Dogtown, and he had deserved a worse death than he’d gotten. Bailey’s serum had enhanced his physical skills, but they’d also magnified his basic character flaws. Everything had been magnified, and a monster was still a monster.
Dalton drove up in a squad car a few minutes later, and I was glad to see that he was alone.
He nodded to me, then looked down at the body. “You do that?” he asked as he pointed to the severed head.
“I did.”
Dalton patted me on my good shoulder. “Good for you. It needed doing. Where’s the girl?”
“She’s safe enough,” I said. “I’m taking her back to her parents.”
Dalton frowned. “I need to talk to her first. She was a witness to what happened.”
I had a feeling she was a great deal more than that, but it wasn’t my job to enforce the law. I’d been hired to find a daughter and return her to her family, and that was what I was going to do.
I nudged the torso on the ground with my foot. “There’s not going to be a trial, so why push it? Her family has money and power. Step lightly.”
Dalton nodded after a moment. “You’re probably right.” He kept looking down at the body. “He doesn’t look so tough now. Did you take him down by yourself?”
“I had help from some friends,” I said. “Jim Valentine’s dead.”
“That’s too bad,” Dalton said. “I know you two were close.”
“We were like brothers. Is that it? Can I go now?”
He looked at me closely for the first time since he’d arrived. “You okay? I can take you to the hospital, if you need me to.”
“My friends will take care of me,” I said.
“What happens in Dogtown stays here, right?”
“Something like that,” I said.
As I started to walk away, he said, “I’ll get the reward for you in the morning.”
“I don’t want it,” I said.
“You sure? It’s ten grand.”
I shook my head, then said, “Give it to Jim’s dad. He’s a norm, and he quit talking to his son the day Jim shifted for the first time, but Jim never forgot him. He would have liked his dad to have the money.”
“Whatever you say.”
I didn’t look back as I left.
There was nothing left to see.
Jim’s body was covered with a blanket when I got bac
k to the lab. I pulled back the top, patted my friend’s cheek gently, then covered him again.
I found Bell and Bailey in the apartment, sitting around another body.
“Did you kill her?” I asked as I looked at Jennifer’s supine form.
“No, She got mouthy, so Bailey tranqed her,” Belle said. “You okay?”
“No, but I will be. Where’s Bowen and Jasmine?”
“He took her home, but he said to call if you need him. She was pretty shook up.”
“A lot happened tonight,” I said.
I reached for the phone, and Bailey asked, “Who are you calling?”
I looked down at the sleeping girl. “I don’t want her here one second longer than I have to.”
After Jennifer’s mother picked up, I said, “I’ve got your daughter.”
“Is she…” Her voice was wracked with tears.
“She’s alive. We had to sedate her, though.”
“Where are you? We’ll be right there.”
I gave her the address, and we waited for them to arrive. I hadn’t been looking forward to hauling Jennifer through Dogtown at midnight. My shoulder was aching, and my arm had added its own steady throb. I’d need some of Bailey’s vitamin supplement to heal over this.
I just wished he had something for my heart.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. They must have flown in their black armored Hummer to get there that fast.
I met them at the door.
“Where is she?” Stephanie asked.
“In a second. You know you can’t keep her chained up in your basement, don’t you? She’s going to have to learn to control the beast inside her, and your daughter won’t be able to do it on her own.”
Stephanie looked at me as if I’d slapped her. “I told you before. She’s not one of you.”
I could see there was no use arguing with her.
“She’s in there.”
She pointed to Emmett and said, “Go get her.”
Stephanie said, “Don’t worry about my daughter. There’s a new treatment in Switzerland. They can cure her.”
I didn’t say a word. She would believe what she wanted to, no matter what I said.
Stephanie stroked her daughter’s hair, kissed her forehead lightly, and then they all left as she shoved the balance of my money into my hands.
I had a hunch Stephanie’s tenderness for her daughter would kill her one day, but we each choose our own destiny, and I was finished with them. I’d done my job, and it had cost me more than I would have willingly paid.
Bailey stood beside me, and kept staring at Jim’s body. “It’s all my fault,” he said. “I might as well have killed him myself.”
“We discussed this already. You didn’t pull the trigger, you just made the gun. There’s no blood on your hands.”
“I wish I could believe that was true.”
I grabbed his shoulders, felt fire burning where I’d been hurt, but pushed through the pain. “Listen to me. This can kill you, right here and right now, or it can make you stronger. What’s done is done. You can’t go back and change the past any more than I can.”
He was crying now, and I was surprised to realize that I was, too.
I said, “I’ve already lost one friend tonight. I can’t afford to lose you, too.”
I felt another pair of arms encircle us, and to my surprise, I realized that Belle was crying as well.
It was a bad night, a hard night full of loss, but we’d survive.
There was nothing else we could do.
The next night, we all stood around a funeral pyre we’d carefully crafted for our fallen friend, Jim Valentine. He was wrapped in white linen atop the mound of sticks and branches, and before we lit the fire that would consume his body, I stood. His father hadn’t wanted to come when I’d called him, even after hearing about the reward, and it was just as well that there weren’t any outsiders there.
“Tonight we say good-bye to a noble man. He fought through his fears and came to terms with them, and if it hadn’t been for his efforts, more would have died before an evil among us was extinguished. I was proud to call him my friend.”
I took the torch from Bowen and lit the mound of dry wood. It leapt into life, filling the darkness around us with light, and as the flames consumed his body, I could swear I saw Jim’s face among the clouds of smoke, smiling at us all.
I was a fitting end, a respectful farewell, and I knew I’d have a hole in my heart forever where my friend had once been.
The End