by Toni Griffin
Chapter Four
Another week had passed and with it more murders. Two more men had turned up dead, both had been associated with the as yet unknown nephilim. It was looking more and more likely that Carter's gut might be right. The incubus they had been tracking had gone to ground, hadn't been seen for nearly two weeks now. Adze didn't like it. It never sat well with him when creatures went to ground for long periods of time. Usually meant when they came back, they were a lot deadlier, and that wasn't good for anyone, especially the humans. They'd also received word there was a possibly leshy causing havoc just out of Perth. Adze wasn't looking forward to dealing with that one. The time zone change alone was a bitch.
Andrew Collins, the second nephilim they were tracking, had raped and killed another girl last weekend. They'd been unable to locate him in their stake-out of the city bars, so they were widening their search tonight.
Friday night was in full swing as Adze, and his team shifted forms to their hounds. Even though they could blend better in human form, their sense of smell was so much better as a hound, and that's what they were relying on tonight—the acrid smell of a decaying nephilim and the familiar tug in their head, leading them to their quarry. They needed to find Andrew Collins and stop him before he hurt any more innocent women.
We all know where we're going? he asked his men through their link.
He got an affirmative back from each of his team.
Right, let's split up and see if we can find this guy. Keep in contact. I want regular updates every thirty minutes.
You got it, boss, Pyro said as he and Cacus took off to the east. Nicor and Oriax took the north, and that left him and Daevas the west and south.
Being eleven o'clock it meant hundreds of people were out on the streets making their way from one bar to another. It made traveling as a hound difficult and slow because they had to stick to the shadows to stay hidden. As a result, they were slinking behind trees and down alleys.
Adze and Daevas found a concealed spot where they could keep an eye on the front entrances to several bars all at once, then settled in for a long night.
Trams glided along the tracks, occasionally blocking their view, but the machines soon moved on. As the hours passed, more and more women were seen holding their shoes instead of wearing them. Men and women alike were exiting the bars being held up by their friends.
Adze often wondered exactly what it was that caused some nephilim to go bad. He'd met some really great ones in his time, hell, he'd even gotten drunk a time or two with some. Then again, Adze and his team had also encountered the worst of the worst. With all the revelers out partying right now, it would make their job of scenting their prey a lot harder, not impossible, just harder. Adze was always up for a challenge, though.
All clear here, boss. Nicor said for the fifth time that night bringing Adze out of his thoughts and back to the hunt at hand.
When nothing came from Pyro for a minute Adze reached out to him and Cacus.
Pyro, Cacus you all clear?
Sorry, boss, we might have something here, Pyro told him.
Adze stood up immediately, his ears flattening to his head.
Where are you?
Swanston Street, Melbourne Central, they've just left TGIFridays, Cacus said.
Shit, what the hell is he doing there?
No idea, we could smell him, this is where the scent led us, Cacus informed them.
Good job, follow him and keep us posted. Do not engage unless it looks like he's going to harm someone. We'll be there as quickly as we can. Oriax, Nicor, you on your way?
Yep, be there soon.
He and Daevas left their hiding place and took off for Swanston Street. It would take them a good ten minutes or so to get to the others. He just hoped no one was hurt before they could get there.
Boss, looks like we're going to have to engage. He's dragging her into an alley.
Shit! Adze swore.
Oriax, Nicor, how far out are you?
Pyro gave their location again, and Oriax replied.
Just 'round the corner. Should be with you in thirty seconds.
Good. Engage at will.
You got it, boss, Cacus replied.
Adze ran, Daevas hot on his heels, neither of them worried about being spotted anymore. Hopefully, people would think they were a couple of dogs. Besides, they were tracking to the alley so fast Adze and Daevas would be gone before anyone could get a really good look at them.
They passed a building construction site before rounding the corner to the alley, Adze heard a battle already going on ahead.
Thankfully, the few people on the street were either too intoxicated or too absorbed in their own lives to notice anything happening down a dark alley.
Adze and Daevas moved to join their teammates.
A woman was passed out next to a dumpster, her short skirt was hiked up, so her panties were showing, her top looked like it had been torn and her lipstick long since worn off. Her shoes and handbag lay haphazardly beside her. Adze took a moment to check that she was still breathing and wasn't bleeding anywhere before he turned his back on her and concentrated on the fight in front of him.
Andrew Collins was putting up one hell of a fight. He'd managed to pick up a thick chunk of wood and was swinging it at anyone who got even remotely close to him. His strength as a nephilim made this an extremely dangerous situation for all of them.
Oriax lay on the ground to the right, blood seeping from a wound to the head, his chest still rose and fell thankfully.
Adze's hackles rose at the injury to his friend. He growled and showed his teeth as he stalked closer to the nephilim.
"You don't scare me," Collins yelled as he swung the plank again. His eyes darted from left to right, the pure crazy in them making them gleam in the low light of the alley.
On the count of three, I want this man taken down, Adze told his men.
One
Collins took a step forward and swung at Adze. He easily dodged the blow. This fucker was going down.
Two
The five of them readied to attack, hackles raised, fur bristling, sharp teeth gleaming in the little light from overhead.
Three
They attacked as one.
But Collins didn't go down quietly.
Pyro took the plank to the side, the wood splintering on impact. The loud pained noise escaping his teammate spurred Adze on. He leaped, his large paws connecting with Collins, forcing him to lose his footing under Adze's large weight.
They tumbled to the ground. Adze's teeth sinking into Collins's flesh as his claws shredded skin beneath his paws. The others lunged forward, their teeth and claws shredding Collins just as Adze's did.
He screamed as they ripped into his flesh. The nephilim tried stabbing Nicor with the sharp wooden stakes of the broken plank, but Nicor dodged the attack and managed to get the guy's hand in his powerful jaws, biting down until Collins let go of what remained of his weapon.
Blood flowed, and Collins's cries grew less and less until they stopped altogether. Adze took the satisfaction in setting Collins's body on fire, releasing his soul into Hell.
The green flames flickered brightly in the alley, lighting the area surrounding them.
Adze and Daevas shifted then went to check on Oriax.
A scream from behind them had everyone turning around.
Standing on wobbly legs, holding onto the dumpster with one hand was the woman that Collins's had drugged and planned to kill.
Her bright blonde hair hung in bedraggled strands around her face, her eyes were wide and glassy, her pupils huge. A sure sign she'd either drunk way too much or had been drugged as they suspected.
Adze put his hands up immediately, trying to let her know that they meant her no harm. Her eyes went even wider if that was even possible as she stared at Adze, her gaze roaming up and down his body.
It was times like these that Adze cursed the fact that their clothes shredded when they shifted back and f
orth.
"Everything's going to be okay. We're not here to hurt you," Adze said, trying to get her attention off his junk.
Her gaze slowly lifted to meet his, her hand pointing at the quickly diminishing green flames behind them.
"Wha….Wha…what is that?" she asked unsteadily.
"What's what?" Adze asked. He sighed in relief as he glanced back to see the green flames had died.
"What happened…Who…are…you?"
"That doesn't matter. Have you got someone you can call to come and collect you?"
"Ummm." The girl wobbled for a second then seemed to go down in a heap. Her eyes closed. She'd either passed out or fainted. Either way, it was best for them.
Adze grabbed the purse on the ground next to her, and he opened it up, finding a phone. He pressed the 'on' button and shook his head when the screen lit up without him having to enter a password. Some people had no common sense.
He called the first number in her recently called list, someone by the name of Charlie. He heard the rest of his team behind him, Pyro and Oriax moving slowly. They'd both have to take it easy for a few days. No more hunts for them for at least a week.
The call connected and a deep voice answered.
"Hello, Trish? I thought you were going out tonight." A sleepy voice said down the line.
"Is Trish a tall, leggy blonde with dimples in her cheeks, and a half a dozen earrings in her left ear?" Adze asked the man.
"Who the hell is this?" The man sounded wide awake now, and he growled, "If you so much as lay a finger on my sister I'll hunt you down and kill you myself."
"Wow, I can see that usually being really scary, but dude you so have the wrong audience…"
"So help me if you hurt her you will suffer," Charlie threatened.
"Charlie, can I call you Charlie?"
"How the hell do you know my name?"
Adze signed and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't blame the man for being agitated, didn't stop him from being annoyed by his attitude though.
"Your name and number was the last dialled in this phone I have. Now, is your sister, this Trish person, the one I described?" Adze asked, wanting to get this over with, they needed to get home and check on his injured team members.
"Yes, she is, now tell me what you want."
"I don't want anything. Your sister got herself into a spot of trouble tonight. An extremely bad man took a liking to her."
"How do I know you're not the bad man?" Charlie asked him.
"Because if I were, your sister would be dead and you and I would never have had this conversation."
Charlie sucked in a harsh breath. "Oh God."
"Now listen up." Adze paused for a minute. "You listening, Charlie?"
"I'm listening," Charlie reassured, even though it sounded like he might be having trouble breathing.
"Good. Your sister is fine. As far as I can see she's uninjured. However, I do believe she may have been drugged, and she is currently passed out in an alley between La Trobe and Little La Trobe Street. I don't want to leave her here all night by herself, so I'm calling you to see if you can come and collect her."
"I'm coming," Charlie said, and Adze could hear the jingle of keys and the sharpness of breath that usually meant someone was running as they were talking.
"Who are you? What's your name?" Charlie asked.
Adze hung up the phone.
He turned to his team, Oriax was being supported between Cacus and Nicor, his head drooping and his eyes barely open, blood covered half his face, his fur matted with it. He didn't look steady on his feet at all. Pyro looked a little better, but not much, he was leaning heavily against Daevas for extra support.
"Right, you five head home, take it slowly and be careful. I don't want either of you causing yourself any more damage."
"You gonna hang around here?" Daevas asked him, as he was the only other one in human form.
"Yeah, just until her brother shows up to collect her. I can't leave her unprotected while she's in this state."
Four hounds and one human nodded at him. They understood why he had to stay.
"Call Matti and ask her to give Sergeant Carter a heads up."
"Will do."
Adze waited until his team had slipped away into the night, all five of them moving much slower than they usually would be. Once he was sure they were on their way home, Adze shifted back into his hound form and took up residence in a dark shadow.
Charlie arrived roughly a half hour later. He must live in the suburbs to have taken so long at this time of night. Headlights illuminated the alley, and Adze slunk back deeper into the still dark corner he'd found and waited.
A tall drink of water jumped out of the still running car, not even bothering to close the door behind him, and raced into the alley. The man was sexy as sin, and in any other setting, Adze could see himself trying to seduce the man. He wore camo pants and a tight T-shirt, heavy boots sat on his feet, unlaced. The man was definitely military and could probably carry out the threats he'd made to Adze earlier.
Charlie raced into the alley and knelt next to his still unconscious sister checking her over.
He looked around the alley, and that was when Charlie noticed the body of Collins laying on the ground not far away from where his sister lay.
Charlie got up and made his way over to Collins.
"What the fuck happened to you?" he whispered into the night before pulling his booted foot back and letting fly, right into Collins' ribs.
If the man wasn't already dead that would have hurt like a bitch. Adze had to admire the man's balls.
"Fucking piece of shit, if you weren't already dead, you can rest assured I would have put you in the ground myself." He kicked Collins one more time before turning and heading back to Trish. He knelt and picked his sister up carefully, carrying her to his car and placing her in the passenger seat.
When Trish was secure in his car, Charlie pulled out his phone and placed a call.
He waited a moment then said. "Hello, operator, can you please send the police to the alley between Little La Trobe and La Trobe Street. There's a dead body."
Adze didn't wait around any longer. Collins was dead, the girl was safe, and Charlie could clearly take care of himself. He took off down the alley. He didn't know if Charlie saw him or not, but even if he did, Adze was just another animal roaming the streets of Melbourne.
He moved quickly on the way home. It was now well into the early hours of the morning. The sun would be rising in another hour or so. Most of the party revelers had called it a night when the bars closed an hour earlier, the streets were only scarcely populated. Homeless people slept on the footpaths and up against buildings, trying to stay out of the biting chill of the wind.
Adze made it home without incident, he'd let Matti know the job was done first thing in the morning. For now, he had teammates to check on and sleep to catch up on.
Chapter Five
The flight from Perth had been long. Five days they'd spent traipsing through forested areas around Perth tracking down the leshy who had been abducting hikers and children in the woods. Matti had brought it to their attention after the third such disappearance, just before their encounter with Collins, as soon as Pyro and Oriax had healed enough they'd set off for the west coast.
They'd managed to track the leshy to his den and took care of it. After they'd disposed of the fairy Adze placed an anonymous call to the cops to let them know where they could find the missing hikers bodies. He always hated that part of his job.
It helped in these cases that they didn't have to fly commercial. Having their own private jet to ferry them around the country when they needed to leave at a moment's notice was always a plus. What sucked was the three-hour time zone change they now had to contend with.
"God it's good to be home," Cacus said as he closed the door once they were all inside.
"Too right, don't get me wrong, Perth is nice and all but I'm bloody glad I don't live there," Ori
ax said as he threw his overnight bag over his shoulder and headed down the passage to his room.
"Anyone feel like taking a few laps in the pool with me?" Pyro asked.
"I'm up for it," Nicor agreed, as did Oriax and Daevas.
"Adze?" Pyro asked him.
"I need to check in with Matti, see if she has anything else on the books for us, or if she's finally found out who our mystery nephilim is."
"Your loss," Nicor said then headed to his room to change.
Five minutes later the three of them were back out the door, this time all dressed in board shorts with towels over their shoulders. It was early afternoon, but Adze was starving. Back in Perth it would be just coming up on lunchtime. Adze headed to the fridge, where he grabbed a cold bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer, then went to the cupboard looking for something to snack on. He spied a green tin of Pringles and snatched them up, he then took his prizes down the hall to the office.
If Adze was lucky, he could chow through the entire tin before anyone else was the wiser.
He pressed the speaker button on the desk phone and speed-dialled the office. Adze pulled the metal top off his drink, the loud popping noise incredibly satisfying. He took a long swallow then put the glass bottle down.
Matti picked up on the third ring.
"How was Perth?" she asked him.
"Fine. Job got done with minimal surrounding damage, good to be home though." Adze leaned back in his chair, feet resting on the edge of the desk, and took out a half a dozen chips and placed them in his mouth, crunching down.
"Seriously?" Matti asked him. "You couldn't wait until after we're done to stuff your face?"
"I'm hungry!" Adze said around a mouthful of chips, a few stray pieces flying out here and there. He finished his mouthful before eating a few more chips. "What have you got for us?"
Matti sighed. "You're disgusting, you know that right?"
Adze laughed. "Yep." He munched on a couple more chips, washing them down with another mouthful of ginger beer. "So, what's the latest?"
"We've been able to gather enough intel on that case I sent you weeks ago. As previously reported the bloody bastard has been busy," Matti said.