When It Falls

by Jan Stryvant

  "Mortars?"

  "Maybe a few of the lightweight ones, if you got 'em," Roxy grinned.

  Sawyer nodded, "I can do that. Let's go in my office and sit down."

  Sawyer led them inside then and while Roxy and Sean took the seats on the other side of his desk from him, Peg, Jolene and Daelyn all plopped down on the couch.

  "Heard about what happened to your place, glad to see you're still alive. You're not planning on putting any of this artillery there, are you?"

  Sean and Roxy both shook their heads.

  "No," Sean told him, "we just bought a place up in the hills a bit north of here. Next time someone comes calling, I want to be able to stop them long before they come anywhere near us."

  Sawyer nodded, "I think I have a few things that will fit the bill, both magical and none magical. But it's gonna cost you, it's gonna cost you a lot!"

  Sean nodded and handed Sawyer his backpack, he'd pulled twenty-five of the necklaces and tags out, and had given five each to each of the girls and stuck another five in his own pockets. The rest that he'd grabbed were all in the pack.

  "I think that'll cover it,"

  "I don't think a few necklaces are going to...."

  "Boss! We got trouble!" Marx yelled from the front of the building.

  They all looked up at the monitor on the far wall that showed the showroom floor, Marx was running towards the back, just as the front door disappeared and the sounds of a loud explosion filled the building.

  "Shit," Sawyer swore and as they watched, a squad of heavily armed werewolves in armor came in through the door.

  Sean shifted as he ran out of the office heading towards the front room. As he came into the room, from behind Sawyer's imposing counter, Marx was taking cover behind the counter with a large rifle of some kind in his hands. Just as Sean ducked down to slide up next to him, Marx slung the weapon over the counter, while keeping his head down and pulled the trigger.

  Sean's ears went down at the sound; apparently it was some big bad machinegun, because it ran for what seemed like an eternity, before it ran out of bullets. Ears ringing, Sean popped up and with his pistol in his hand; he started to shoot at the attackers.

  Two had been torn almost to pieces by Marx's weapon and were lying on the floor twitching; the only thing that had saved them from being torn to pieces was apparently the heavy body armor they were wearing. Sean didn't think they'd be back up any time soon.

  Four more were on the floor, also apparently down, but definitely not out, Sean could see that they were healing quickly as they dragged themselves out of the line of fire. Six more were spreading out at the far end of the room, in defensive postures behind the merchandise, and more were still coming through the door.

  Sean shot four of them in the head, two shots a piece, dropping them, but not killing them. They'd be back up in a few minutes he was sure. For his troubles he got shot twice himself. Surprisingly none of the bullets that hit him were silver. Dropping back down into cover he changed magazines on the pistol, reloading it while calling up his defense and offense framework.

  "Someone must have followed you here," Marx grumbled at him.

  "Ya' think?" Sean growled back. "What the hell are you using, anyway?"

  "M two-forty-nine," Marx said and handed Sean something that looked like an overgrown ar-15.

  "What's this?"

  "Shotgun, it's got sliver in it!"

  Sean swore, "I'm trying to save these people, not kill them!"

  "Yeah, well, I don't think they're listening right now!"

  And with that Marx stood up and started to hose down the shop with the machine gun again.

  Sean swore to himself, what the hell was he going to do?

  'I could use some ideas here!' he thought at his lion.

  'I can stop them all, for a few moments, once. But if you don't overwhelm them in that time, they'll keep coming.'

  'You stopped them at the compound.'

  'You took away the reason they were fighting.'

  Sean grumbled, there was no way to overwhelm them, and he had no idea who was driving them. He needed to get his hands on one of them.

  "Pull back," he told Marx.

  "What? Why would I do that?" Marx said as he took cover behind the counter once more.

  Sean looked at Marx and snarled, "Because I ordered you to, that's why!"

  "You're not the boss of...." Marx stopped and noticed the look in Sean's leonine eyes. "Unn, sure, Boss," and slipping out he started down the hallway.

  Peeking up over the counter and firing the shotgun, which was obviously fully automatic, if slow, over the heads of the attackers, Sean tried to figure out just what the hell he was going to do.

  Three grenades came sailing towards him as he considered that, so he cast a force wall and knocked them down, and took cover behind the counter as they went off.

  He could see that there were over a dozen in the room now and suspected that there were more outside, just waiting to come in once the others had advanced. There was no way to take them all out at once, even if he wanted to kill them, which he didn't.

  He'd need to isolate them, and grab them individually. Then he could dominate them separately and maybe just figure out how to go about this without killing them.

  Backing out quickly, he moved out into the hallway, Marx was about halfway down the hall.

  "What are we doing, Boss?" Marx asked.

  "We need to start picking them off, individually," Sean growled, "And by picking them off, I don't mean killing them, got it?"

  "You sure about that, Boss?"

  "I'm getting awfully tired of all the killing," Sean growled, "either help or get the hell out!"

  Sean ducked into one of the doorways on the side of the hallway, Sawyers office was at the end other end from the showroom.

  "Rox, you still here?" He called out.

  "Yeah, we're here. Sawyer's bitching about money, but he's here too."

  "Great! Now let's see if we can't grab a few and find out just what the hell is going on."

  Two grenades sailed out into the hallway then, and Sean ducked back inside, taking cover as they went off. Looking around the room, he noticed that there was a door in the wall to his right, that either led to a closet, or the room further down the hall.

  Just then, Marx opened up for a moment, and looking back out into the hallway, a werewolf fell just outside the doorway.

  Another grenade game from the showroom into the hallway, and swearing, Sean grabbed the shot up werewolf and pulled him into the room.

  The guy was a mess, he had been hit at least twenty times and his armor had already been chopped up from taking fire in the previous room. But he was still alive.

  He saw Sean standing looking down at him, and coughed, growling.

  "Behave," Sean growled back and smacked him lightly across the face.

  'Silver pellets.'

  'What about them?' Sean asked.

  'He's got one in him I bet.'

  Swearing loudly Sean pulled out a necklace and put it on the wolf that was gasping and struggling weakly beneath him. Then grabbing his hand he put a tag in it, and then forced his hand up until the tag clicked against the collar just as the grenade outside the door went off, peppering Sean with shrapnel.

  The wolf convulsed under him and then lay still, not dead thankfully, but unconscious.

  It only took a moment to find the protective medallion that the werewolf was wearing, and pulling it off; Sean dragged him behind a table and cast a sleep spell on him.

  "One down," he grumbled and then ran for the door he'd spied earlier as gunfire erupted down the hallway from the direction of the attackers.

  The door led into a closet, but the walls were plaster, so a few well placed kicks and punches and Sean was in the next room, which apparently was a storeroom of some type. Opening the door that led out into the hallway, he saw three fairly bloody werewolves coming down the hall. They immediately started shooting as they saw him, forcing
him back into the room.

  "What's the plan?"

  Sean started and looked to see Roxy was standing behind him, in her hybrid form. There was a hole in the wall where she'd obviously come through it, just as he had.

  "Isolate them; knock 'em out, put collars on them."

  "How am I supposed to knock them out?" Roxy growled.

  "Take off the medallion that they're wearing, and get Peg or Jolene to sleep them."

  "Why the collars and the tags?"

  "Silver pellets, why else?"

  Roxy's eyes widened for a moment, "Let me tell the others," and she streaked back out through the hole she'd made.

  Sean had a moment's thought and then did the same, going back the way he'd come, leading with the shotgun.

  One of the three coming down the hallway had popped into the room as Sean came out of the closet he'd busted through. The werewolf started shooting immediately and Sean pulled the trigger without even thinking about it, knocking the werewolf down as he screamed in utter pain.

  "Shit!" Sean swore, he'd forgotten that there was silver in the damn shot!

  Dropping the shotgun, Sean ran forward and quickly took out another necklace as the werewolf convulsed on the floor and wrapped it around his neck. Then digging out a tag he used the wolf's hand to attach the tag to the now unconscious wolf.

  Grabbing the body by the scruff of the neck, as the sounds of more gunfire and Marx's machinegun rang out, Sean dragged him along with him as he cast a couple of cure spells into the dying wolf, then left the body in the closet. Hopefully it would be enough; he didn't have time to do anymore than that.

  Back in the storeroom, Sean could see that there was a lot of blood on the floor, but peeking out into the hallway, there weren't any bodies, however there were more of the werewolves entering from the showroom. They all opened fire again as soon as they saw Sean, so ducking back into the room, Sean went through the hole in the wall Roxy had made, after widening it a little and then through that room to the next, which was Sawyer's office.

  Peg, in hybrid form, was just finishing up with a very dazed looking female werewolf, who quickly fell asleep as Peg cast on her.

  "Where is everybody?" Sean asked.

  "Follow me!" Peg said and ducked out a side door that led to another room, where Roxy was keeping watch out of the door.

  "They haven't come around the corner yet," Roxy said, looking back at Sean.

  Sean nodded, "You two go on, I'll see if I can't grab another one when they get here. Where's Jo?"

  "She's with Marx and Sawyer. Marx is gonna subdue them, and then either she or Sawyer will sleep them."

  "Sawyer can do magic?" Sean said, surprised.

  "He's got about a dozen wands on him. He's also said that he's gonna bill ya' for all the damage."

  Sean snorted, "He would, now go! Both of you."

  The girls took off down the hallway, running fast.

  "There they go!" Sean heard someone yell, and gunfire followed the girls as they ducked around another corner.

  Sean just waited until they ran by him, then he reached out into the hall as a group ran by, and grabbing the last two by their tails, he dragged them into the room and kicked the door closed as they both screamed in surprise.

  Slamming them into the wall, Sean attacked. While Sean was not a very experienced fighter, he had two things going for him. The first was that he was a lot bigger, heavier, and stronger in his hybrid form than the werewolves.

  The second was that his lion was a very experienced fighter and was more than happy to guide Sean's moves and strikes.

  It ended when Sean grabbed them both by the neck and knocked their heads together, several times. Then yanking off their medallions, he slept them both, and put collars and tags on the both of them, both were apparently female, which surprised Sean.

  Going back to Sawyer's office, Sean saw another werewolf bending over the one Peg had slept.

  "I found Eileen!" he called out into the hallway, "She's not dead!"

  "Where are you?" Sean heard someone call from the hallway.

  "I'm...."

  Their voice trailed off with a "yipe!" as Sean's hand closed around their throat and he dragged them back against him and whispered in their ear.

  "What the hell are you doing?" He growled.

  The wolf started to struggle harder against Sean then.

  Sean pulled out the last collar.

  "Put this on," He held it out in front of the wolves' face, but instead they pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the side with it, while flailing behind themselves.

  'A little help?'

  Sean felt his lion rise up, and growl, "Put. It. On!"

  Shaking, the wolf dropped the knife and seizing the necklace put it on immediately.

  "Great, now take this and touch it to the collar," Sean said and held out his last tag.

  Still trembling, they did it, and then convulsed in pain, as Sean eased his grip so they could breathe again.

  "What did you do to me?" The wolf gasped.

  "I got rid of all the silver in your body," Sean whispered in his ear. "Now, you go get your friends and tell them to surrender so we can do that to all of them."

  "But, they'll kill us!"

  "Who will kill you?" Sean asked.

  "Our masters! They told us that if we didn't kill you, they'd kill all of us!"

  "You belong to me now," Sean growled, "and you will do as I say. Understand?"

  Sean felt the wolf shudder and then suddenly smelled the acrid scent of urine as the wolf pissed himself.

  'You're learning,' his lion sent with a laugh.

  "Go," Sean said and pushed him out the door. "I haven't killed anyone, yet. Tell them to lay down their arms and get the rest of them in here."

  "Uh, guys," Sean heard the werewolf say as he stumbled out into the hallway. "I umm, I think you should all put your guns down and come in here."

  "Why? And what the hell happened to you?"

  "He's in there, and he's pissed."

  "He's in there! Why didn't you say so!"

  Sean heard what sounded like four pairs of boots running towards the door.

  "Guys!" The wolf suddenly yelled, "He put one of those necklaces on me! Stop!"

  Sean watched as four werewolves ran into the room, guns at the ready. They saw Eileen on the floor and then looking up, they noticed him.

  "Drop. Your. Weapons!" Sean's lion spoke up again.

  Wide-eyed, they did just that.

  "Damn, I love this mystical shit," Sean said with a grin.

  Raising his voice he pointed to the couch, "Sit!"

  Apparently they were still under the effects, they sat.

  Going over to his backpack, which was still on the desk, Sean dug out four necklaces and tossed them to the four werewolves, three of which were females.

  "Put those on."

  "What are they?" The male asked.

  "Lycan collars. You have to wear them to put these on," Sean held out four tags.

  "Are those?"

  "Yup, and it's gonna hurt when it gets rid of the silver pellet."

  Sean noticed they all put the collars on rather quickly then and grabbed the tags and put those on as well.

  "Will you protect us?" the one from the door asked, apparently unaware of his wet pants.

  "Of course I will. Now strip off all your gear, all of you. I want to be sure that there's nothing on you that your former master's control. Then round up your friends and do the same," Sean told them.

  Sean was rather shocked at how quickly they all shed their clothing, and then went in search of the rest of their brethren.

  "What the hell is that smell?" Sawyer asked when he came back to his office. Marx had taken charge of the prisoners, there were twenty of them. Surprisingly they were evenly split, ten males, ten females. Sean was surprised by that. Up until now, none of the teams he'd seen used by the mages from the other covens used females in combat positions.

  "One of the wolves
pissed himself," Sean shrugged, "I think I was a little overwhelming."

  "Ugh, I'll add that to your bill. How are you gonna pay for all of this, kid? Your building is gone, and they really trashed my place. It's gonna take days to clean this mess up!"

  Sean picked up the backpack and handed it to Sawyer.

  "As I was about to tell you before we were so rudely interrupted, there's four hundred and fifty tags and the collars to go with them in here."

  Sawyer's eyes got wide and he grabbed the pack and looked inside it

  "Did you say four hundred and fifty?"

  "Well, a few less now, I pulled twelve sets out."

  Sawyer looked up at him and smiled, "Just where do you want those weapons delivered? I can have them there tonight."

  Sean laughed, "That's what I like about you, Sawyer, you can be bought."

  Sawyer shrugged, but was stilling smiling, "That may be, but at least I'm not cheap!"

  "Well in that case, think you could front me a couple hundred thousand, in cash?"

  "For you kid, it's not a problem!"

  Vanished

  "What do you mean that they're gone?" Al yelled angrily and slammed the table with his open hand making both Jacob and Chris jump.

  "It's just that, Al, they're gone!" Jacob said.

  "How the hell does a strike team of twenty wolves, their gear, and two vans just disappear? Did you even go look?"

  "Of course we looked! We drove in there ourselves! There was nothing! No vans, no bodies! Nothing!"

  "What about Sawyer's shop?"

  Chris waved his hands in the air, "That's just it! It was just like it always was! There wasn't a mark on the place!"

  "Did you go inside?"

  "No, the police were starting to show up, so we left."

  "The police?"

  Jacob nodded, "It was pretty noisy for a while there. We heard the first explosion, followed by what sounded like a machinegun, then some more shots, then a few loud bangs. It started to get quieter after that, but," Jacob shrugged, "we figured they were working their way into the building."

  "What about their trackers?"

  Chris spoke up again, "We called Dave and he told us that he couldn't find them, nothing."

  "Did he cast the kill spell on them?"