I watched the action behind Donald. Slate was under a literal dog pile of wolves, with Lupin on top, pulling them off with his teeth. I still didn’t see Dree anywhere. I was on my own for the moment. Stalin wasn’t just a crazy guy from Russia.
“So you wanted me to see those pages,” I said. “For what, bragging rights? Your penmanship sucked, by the way.”
He laughed and reached down to my belt. He came away holding my dagger. “Now this looks familiar. It’s a different line, of course. Did Lorelei give you this? Your grandfather was always more for firearms, if I remember correctly.”
“Don’t talk about Poppa like you knew him,” I spat. “He hated your kind till the day he died.”
Donald hefted the dagger in his hand and thrust it at an invisible assailant. “Oh, but we both know the irony of that, don’t we? Your late great aunt was one of us. Tell me, how did that strike you? Knowing your whole family vendetta was based on a lie?”
“You’re not exactly innocent little pups though, are you?” I said. “One form of trash is as good as the next. So what if you didn’t kill her back then—you’ve killed plenty more and turned at least a dozen on your own. Sick fuck. You need to be put down.”
“Drop her,” Donald said. The woman holding me let go of one of my arms, and I reached for a pen. Before my fingers wrapped fully around it, she grabbed my neck—skin to skin. I felt the flash in my brain coming and willed it down.
No, goddamnit. I don’t care what happened in this bitch’s past! I just want her and her boyfriend here dead! Leave me alone!
I didn’t get a chance to see if it worked, because as suddenly as she’d clamped onto me Donald’s right hand girl was ripped away. I glanced back and saw Dree’s familiar pelt digging into the woman’s neck. So that’s where she went. I bent down for the gun, but when I popped back up Donald was gone.
“Goddamnit!” I screamed to no one in particular. I took out my frustration on the corpse of a nearby wolf. A howl from outside the building had all the remaining wolves in retreat. Apparently they needed to regroup.
Lupin and Slate joined me and helped restrain the woman Dree tackled. She hadn’t killed her…yet. This could be useful.
“Do these go semi-auto?” I asked Lupin. He nodded and flipped a switch just above the trigger. I let a round loose in the woman’s gut. She screamed.
“Now, I’ve heard a gut shot is one of the most painful wounds you can get.” I tapped the remaining pens on my belt. “I have a nice quick injection here that can kill you quickly, if you tell me some more about your boyfriend there. Care to make a deal, roller girl?”
She spat at me, and I put another bullet next to the first. “Okay, then. Let’s do this the hard way.”
Sirens interrupted me before I had time to properly motivate Laurie Loveless. Lupin went to the door and looked out.
“They’re about five blocks away,” he said, “We have to go, now.”
I wasn’t about to let this one go without giving me something. I grabbed her face in both my hands and looked her straight in the eyes. “Spill your past for me, bitch.”
The flash wasn’t as disorienting when I willed it. I was part of a pack, sprinting through the woods in pursuit of something. It ran just ahead of us, concealed by shadows. I looked right and saw a massive dark brown wolf leading us. I was just behind, and the others followed me.
Our Alpha led the hunt. We entered a clearing and fanned out, following our instincts to box in our prey. We were drunk with adrenaline and the scent of blood. When I saw what we hunted, I wanted to leave the memory immediately.
She’s just a child, for God’s sake! What could she have done to deserve this?
A tiny girl, probably no more than ten years old, sat in the clearing. She wore a torn yellow sundress with bare feet. She had caught her ankle in a root and twisted it. She couldn’t run anymore. Her eyes were bright with fear.
Donald gave the signal—a single, short howl—and we closed in around her. I clawed at the inside of Lauren’s mind, but I was in for the duration. The worst part was I could feel her anticipation, her joy, at hunting this girl. It didn’t matter how old she was, or what she may or may not have done. Lauren lived for the hunt, lived to please her Alpha.
The quiet sounds of the forest and our advance were broken by a shotgun report. The wolf to my left yelped and dropped to the ground. The rest of us regrouped to face the new threat.
Lauren knew the man with the shotgun as the child’s father. He charged in and scooped up the girl, then turned to run. We didn’t need a signal to follow. This time Lauren led the charge. We nipped at the man’s heels and sank into his pant leg. We tasted blood, and it was intoxicating. We wanted more.
Let me out. I don’t need to know any more. I hated Donald before, and this just further convinces me you all need to die. Just let me out of your head!
The man ran toward the lights of a small house. He was burdened, so we closed in on him easily. I leaped and bit down on his calf hard enough to bring him down. He threw the girl and screamed at her to run for the house. She limped, but made it inside before the others of my pack caught up.
The man leveled his gun at my head, but Alpha lunged and knocked it away so the sting of the shot only grazed my side. The rest of the pack boxed the man in, and I locked my jaws onto his gun hand. His weapon dropped.
Alpha didn’t go for the man’s throat. Instead he ripped at his abdomen, spilling his intestines and making him scream for mercy. Alpha pulled and gnawed at the man’s insides while we watched, holding him down at first. After a while, he stopped struggling. His scream turned to anguished sobs, and then just to moans. Alpha backed away and let the others get a piece of the man. With his heart still beating, the blood stayed fresh and warm. We tore him to pieces while his daughter looked on from the house.
“We have to go, PJ!” Dree pulled me away from Lauren, but I shrugged off her hand and leaned in close.
“You’re even more of a monster than I thought,” I said to her. The woman twitched with pain, but still managed a self-satisfied smile.
“Don’t get all high and mighty on us,” she hissed. “Our blood is on your hands too.”
I knew I should have let her bleed out some more, maybe let the cops call paramedics or something just to prolong her pain and suffering. I didn’t. I stood, leveled the machine gun at her nose, and refinished the floor with the contents of her skull. Some dogs just need to be put down.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Slate drove us back to the shop—Lupin included this time. I didn’t ask why he went all lone-wolf (pun intended) and stayed clear of me. I figured he had his reasons. I killed the time by looking at my phone. I had a voicemail from Justin.
“Hi, PJ. I’m at the hospital. I just wanted to let you know I had some time to process samples of your blood and Slate’s. I think I’ve isolated the antibody that causes all the damage. I think I can reproduce it synthetically, so you wouldn’t have to bleed yourself dry all the time. If you get this message before tomorrow, I’m going to be in the blood lab most of the night. Drop by if you can. Thinking of you.”
“Slate,” I asked. “Any chance you could swing by the medical center first?”
“Of course,” she said. Dree and Lupin didn’t comment, but I saw the smile on Dree’s face.
“It’s not that,” I said. “He has something to show me.”
Dree snorted. “I’m sure he does.”
We made it to Justin’s hospital in no time, with the way Slate drives. I wasn’t sure where the blood lab was, so I just found the first nurse’s station. The woman behind the counter gave me a look meant to make me feel small. I didn’t play along.
“Hi, could you tell me where the blood lab is? Or Doctor Justin Frasier?”
She gave an exasperated sigh and typed something in the computer. “Blood lab is on the fourth floor, east wing, but your doctor checked out an hour ago, Miss. If you have an appointment with him, I’m sure you can reschedule.”
Checked out?
“He told me he’d be working here all night. Can you check again?”
She cocked an eyebrow, but did as I asked. This time she turned her computer monitor around and pointed to the line with one extremely long acrylic fingernail.
“Checked out an hour ago. That’s the log. The time system is attached to our badges, so it’s not like someone could have forged his name. My advice, go down one floor and wait like everyone else. You don’t look that sick.”
I didn’t thank her. Something wasn’t right. I pulled out my phone and dialed Justin’s number—no answer. My pace quickened as I went back outside. I was running by the time I met Slate in the parking garage.
“We need to get to Justin’s condo. I think something’s wrong.”
Dree leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“He wasn’t there,” I said. “He told me he’d be in the lab all night, but the nurse said he checked out.”
“Maybe he just went out for dinner or something, or to get some fresh air. Did you try calling him?”
I nodded. “Do you think Donald’s wolves might have got to him? If they’ve been watching the shop, they must have seen his car. They could have tracked him to his condo or the hospital.”
“I’m fairly certain this wasn’t Donald,” Lupin said.
I turned around to face him. “What do you mean?”
“All this time I’ve been separated from you, I’ve been keeping tabs on Donald’s movements. His people don’t know about Justin.”
“We’re here,” Slate said. We all got out and took the elevator. It seemed to go half the speed it usually did. I was the first one out and down the hall. I banged on Justin’s door.
“You better be in there, Doc. You’re giving me a hell of a scare.”
No answer. I knocked again, harder. The door pushed open. Slate’s arm blocked me from going in. She shook her head and waved Lupin in first. She followed, and Dree picked up the rear.
The condo looked no different than I remembered leaving it. Everything was in its place. We checked the bedroom, and I definitely didn’t see anything amiss there. Unfortunately, he hadn’t cleaned up much from our tryst earlier.
We went back into the main room and I saw it—a candle with the Virgin Mary on it, sitting on Justin’s coffee table. It was the kind Manuel sold at his shop. I picked it up and saw the stamp of his botanica on the bottom. What did it mean?
Fuck, Manuel. I’ve known you a long time. You couldn’t have been involved in this, could you? Why would you side with these wolves? No, that couldn’t be it. He had wolfsbane burning the other day. Why would he make a deal with them and then smoke them out? My thoughts went back to my visit, and something bubbled to the surface.
I didn’t tell them anything. Said you liked my candles, that’s all.
The candle held down a folded piece of paper. I opened it up and saw it was a program for a Wednesday Mass. The church was just outside Manuel’s neighborhood. I’d driven by it a hundred times. Someone had written “10pm, Tonight” in a neat scrawl at the bottom.
“Lupin, I think you were right. This wasn’t Donald—it was his business partners.”
I looked at the clock on Justin’s stove. We had about twenty minutes to get there. Dree came over and touched my shoulder.
“How can we help? Talk to us, PJ.”
“We need to go to church.”
I handed the program to Slate. “Do you know where this is? If not, I’ll drive.”
She shook her head. “Be my guest. Should we be armed for this?”
“That might be a good idea. We’re probably going to see more of those guys that were guarding the den. Expect silver rounds and automatic weapons.”
We went back to Slate’s car and she popped the trunk. She dug around for a few minutes and pulled out another duffel bag. “I’ll be honest, when I bought these I never thought I would actually have to use them.”
She pulled out two bulletproof vests and handed me one. I put it on, but gave her a confused look. “There’s only two, and a silver bullet can kill you just as easily as me. Who gets the other one?”
Lupin answered the question by taking the jacket and giving it to Dree. Slate nodded in agreement. “We will manage,” she said. She pulled out a couple of bulky pullover hoodies. “Put these on to cover the jackets.”
Once we were suited up and piled into the car, I looked at everyone. “I don’t exactly have a plan for this. If any of you have any bright ideas, now’s the time.”
“Well,” Lupin said with a sigh. “We’re going to church. We might as well start out with a prayer.”
Amen, wolfman. Amen. I prayed nothing had happened to Justin yet. It would be just my luck that the first decent guy I’d dated lost his head.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Wait for me,” Manuel said on the phone. “This is going down in my backyard. I want to be there.”
“You’re sure?” I asked him. I hadn’t actually intended to get him to come; I just wanted to give him a heads up. “This isn’t your problem. Maria will have my head if I bring you back injured…or dead.”
“I do this for Maria,” he said. “I can’t have this kind of thing happening where our children grow up. Whoever did this will pay. Maybe not from me directly, but they will pay.”
We parked a few blocks from the church. This late at night, most of the stragglers from the evening service were already gone. I was thankful for that—less chance of someone getting caught in friendly fire.
Manuel pulled up behind us. He was dressed in white, from head to toe. It was his formal outfit—I’d seen him wear it for christenings and other official business. He was going for the intimidation factor tonight.
“Let’s get inside,” he said. “Most people in this area wouldn’t violate the sanctity of a church with bloodshed. It’s a good sign they asked to meet you here. It means they want to talk first.”
We crossed the street and walked up to the front door. It was unlocked. Manuel led the way, and I followed next. He paused by the door to dip his fingers in the holy water and cross himself before sitting in a pew near the back of the sanctuary. No one else was there yet.
Slate surprised me by kneeling before she sat down at the pew. Lupin did the same. I hadn’t even considered that wolves might be religious, much less Catholic. My reverie was interrupted as four men entered the front of the church, dressed in bulky jackets and flashy tennis shoes. They looked around the sanctuary carefully, noting everything, then held open the door for a fifth. He wore a tailored suit, and his hair was slicked back. He crossed himself and took a seat in the pew in front of us. He didn’t turn around to speak.
“Your boyfriend is safe,” he said, “for now. I needed assurance that I had your full attention.”
“Why have you broken the truce?” Manuel asked.
The man nodded, but still didn’t turn around. “Peace, Santero. I want to preserve things the way they were. This deal with the wolves has tipped the balance of power. The drugs they bring in have purchased a lot of firepower and extra men for my competitors. I find my organization is at a distinct disadvantage.”
I was getting tired of this Godfather bullshit really quick. “What do you want from us, Scarface?”
The man laughed. “I want to help.”
“You have a pretty fucked up way of showing it,” I said. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? For all I know you’re the one who hired Donald. All you thugs look the same to me.”
He snapped his fingers, and one of the bodyguards stepped forward with a cell phone. “The number is already dialed,” the man said, “Just press send.”
I did, and the phone rang twice before a surprisingly calm Justin came on the line. “Hello?”
“Justin, it’s PJ. Are you okay? Is this Goodfellas reject telling the truth?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “They have me in somebody’s house. Guards on every door and window. I don’t know where I am.”
“Hang in there. I don’t think they want to hurt us…for now.”
“PJ, don’t trust them. I’ve dealt with gangs like this before. They’ll double cross you as soon as you give them what they—OOF!”
“Justin? Justin, are you okay?”
A low voice came over the phone. “He’s fine. Do what we want and he stays that way.”
The phone went dead. If that was meant to reassure me about our present company, it failed miserably. If anything, I was less trusting of them now. Justin was right. I needed assurances that if we did what they wanted they wouldn’t try to clean up loose ends afterward.
“You have all the leverage,” I said. “It’s not exactly a fair bargain. Sure, I’ll take out Donald and his pack. I was going to do that anyway. But what’s to say when we’re done you don’t order Paco and Jose back there to waste us all?”
He still didn’t turn around. I wanted to put one hand on his chin and the other on the back of his head. I’d turn it around for him, permanently. What was his deal? Was he afraid to make eye contact?
“I am a man of my word, chica.”
Manuel spoke up. “You gave your word before that my shop was off-limits. Why should we believe you?”
“I apologize for that, Santero. My men acted rashly and without my authority. Tensions are high in my organization from this wolf business. It was an internal problem that was taken care of.”
The same thug that brought me the phone handed Manuel a newspaper open to the second page. An article was circled. The headline read, “Three Beheaded in Apparent Gang Execution.”
“This doesn’t prove anything,” Manuel said. “How do I even know it was you?”
“Read further,” the man said.
Manuel turned the page and a photograph fell into his lap. I looked at it—three heads, severed, sitting neatly on a table. Manuel looked at it carefully and rubbed his bandaged hands together.
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