Over Our Heads

by Jan Stryvant

  The access door led them into a garage, which had two cars parked in it. One was a rather plain looking van, which Oak and the others immediately connected to the attack on their coven house last week.

  "Oh yeah, Roger's gonna love us for this," Rock growled.

  "Hush," Oak chided his packmate. The other car was a rather old, but sweet looking muscle car from before Oak had even been born. When this was all over, he'd have to see about 'liberating' it for himself. Assuming one of the council members didn't try to claim it first.

  Just past the cars, there was another door, a heavy steel one. Using hand signals Oak got the others to take up supporting positions, and then went and put an ear to it.

  Silence.

  Checking the door, he was again surprised to see that it wasn't locked and carefully eased it open. There was a long set of stairs descending down to an opening. The air was strong with the scents of their quarry.

  Stepping back, he turned and whispered to David.

  "Sir, it'd be best if you stay up here. Once we get down there, it's gonna get nasty."

  David nodded and backed away from the door, standing over by the still open access way to the drainage tunnel.

  Signaling his men, Oak readied his rifle and carefully started down the stairway.

  Sean was in bed with Roxy, Jolene, and Daelyn, and was currently taking some time to show Daelyn just how much he loved her. At times like this he couldn't believe that a guy like him, a gamer geek and computer nerd, had three beautiful, sexy, and very smart women not only interested in him, but willing to spend their lives with him.

  If it wasn't for his lion, he doubted he'd be even be able to deal with all three of them, and not just for the stamina and strength he got, his lion always seemed to know who needed him the most. Sean had to admit, he'd be lost without his lion.

  'We make a good team,' his lion spoke up in his mind.

  'The best team,' Sean had to agree. It was rare that they actually spoke to each other now, they were just so deeply intertwined now.

  'Something isn't right,' his lion said.

  'What?' Sean asked, pausing mid kiss, trying to listen, as just then Jolene sat up and gasped.

  "Someone is breaking in!" Jolene gasped looking around. "They're in the garage!"

  Daelyn groaned and swore, "Dammit! Couldn't they wait like fifteen more minutes?"

  Sean chuckled, "Only fifteen? I was thinking like another hour!" as he quickly untangled himself from both Daelyn and the bed sheets.

  "They're coming down the stairs," Jolene warned as she started grabbing stuff and getting dressed.

  "I can hear them," Roxy growled, she had her pistol in hand and tossed Sean's to him.

  "How many?" Sean asked, pulling on his pants and then shifting into his hybrid form.

  "More then four," Jolene said, still getting dressed. "I can't tell any better than that."

  Sean nodded and leaning out the door, he sighted down the hallway, checking to be sure that it was clear, then carefully crept down it, peeking out around the corner, into the living room, and looking at the bottom of the stairway as a werewolf in what looked like combat BDU's stepped off the bottom of the stairway.

  "Freeze!" Sean yelled and as the werewolf's rifle came up, Sean shot him twice in the head, knocking him down.

  "Werewolves!" he called back to the others.

  "What the hell?" He heard Roxy say as three more quickly charged down the stairs and Sean was suddenly trading fire with them. He grunted as he got winged with a bullet and felt his shield fire up.

  "They've got silver!" Sean warned the others and giving up on shooting at them, he brought up his offense framework and started popping sleep spells and paralyzation spells at them.

  Sean got two of them with the sleep spells, but the other four ducked into cover, making him pull his head back, as they concentrated fire on him, hitting him in the shoulder and the side of the face several times. At least the shield was working as it was supposed to, as it started to firm up and deflect or splatter the bullets still coming at him.

  "Can't you stop them?" Daelyn called from somewhere behind him.

  "If I cast anything nasty down here, we'll all get caught in the backlash!" Jolene yelled back.

  Sean thought about that. He'd been about to cast a fireball, but in this tight a space Jolene was right, that could be a problem. He started to cast a couple of shield spells, as a grenade came his way, causing it to bounce back in the direction it had come from. When it went off, the sound and shock of it stunned everyone in the bunker.

  When Sean got his wits back, he cast a cone of ice and swept it back and forth across the room several times, putting a thick coat of ice down on the floor and the furniture. He also got several exposed muzzles, and even covered one of the wolves in a thick layer of ice, freezing him solid.

  Four of the wolves took that moment to charge forward, no doubt trying to overwhelm him.

  "Fall back!" Roxy called.

  Without asking, Sean did just that, moving back down the hallway, then taking cover in a doorway as one of the wolves started shooting down the hallway with his pistol.

  "Where is everyone?" Sean asked, glancing back at Roxy, who was in a doorway behind him, on the other side of the hallway.

  "Dae and Jo are going out the backdoor," Roxy said, "and so should we! Dae mentioned something about 'live steam.'"

  Roxy ducked back into the doorway as the wolf at the end of the hallway was joined by a second and they concentrated fire.

  Swearing, Sean stepped into the middle of the hallway. He really didn't like the idea of playing 'bullet sponge' after what had happened back in the tower. However, silver bullets wouldn't kill him now, while they definitely could kill Roxy, and there was no way that he was going to allow her to get shot with one again.

  "Go," Sean grunted as the first three shots hit him in the chest, the third one splattering in front of his face as the shield energized again from all of the energy it had drained off the previous three bullets. Apparently the shield collapsed fairly quickly, after it stopped getting hit with silver. But at least his opponents hadn't figured that out.

  Sean drew his pistol back out and started to shoot at them again. It wouldn't kill them, but it was slowing them down as he was hitting them in the head.

  "Come on, Sean!" Roxy called and he quickly turned and ran down the hallway, diving through the access hatch that led down into the machine room and shop that was on the level below this one. He saw Roxy's tail as it disappeared around a corner and took off down the stairs after her. Her comment about Dae saying something about 'live steam' worried him. He wouldn't put it past her to vent the steam turbine into the living quarters to kill everyone, and while Sean had no idea if that would kill him or not, he wasn't keen on finding out. Especially as his regeneration was being taxed by the damage he'd taken. Those spells he'd cast hadn't been cheap either and the shield wasn't recharging him as fast as he would have liked.

  Coming around a corner he saw an open door and Daelyn standing just inside of it. The moment she saw him, he saw her hit a big red button and turned and ran. Roxy didn't even break stride as she charged through the doorway and scooped up Daelyn and kept right on running.

  Sean noticed that the door was closing and putting on a burst of speed he dove through.

  Dusk had come down the stairway last, his weapon slung. He wasn't going to be taking place in any firefights, unless it was a matter of life or death. His job, plain and simple was to find the book that Roger was so interested in, and then get it, and David, back to the van. It was the whole reason for this raid, and as the fastest of all of them, he had been chosen for it.

  The shooting had started before he'd even entered the room at the bottom of the stairway. Dusk saw Oak go down, but from the way Oak was still moving, Dusk knew it wasn't silver. That made him breathe a sigh of relief. He'd seen what silver did to you, they all had. It was one of those lessons you all got growing up. They'd take someone who the
instructors had judged to be worthless, and then in front of the rest of the group, they'd shoot them with a silver bullet, and you'd all get to see what happened.

  The lesson of what happened to people that the council considered to be worthless was just as strong as the one about the effects of silver on a lycan.

  And he got to see it two more times before he'd been assigned to Oak's pack. Life working for the council of Gradatim could be harsh, as well as painful. But under Oak's leadership, they'd done well and been rewarded many times now.

  Coming into the room, he dove to the left, away from the line of sight of the lion-were who was taking shots into the room. Damn, he was a big one! Oak was close to seven feet tall, but that lion had to be at least eight!

  Rolling into the kitchen, Dusk popped to his feet and started to search the area. He quickly dismissed the items that were lying around, which included a couple of cell phones, a metal box full of necklaces, and a newspaper. Looking out into the room, he saw there was a wooden box sitting on a table in front of a couch. It was about book sized....

  Dusk was just about to make a dash for it, when suddenly what looked like a fountain of ice hosed down the room! The lion was casting magic!

  Oak and Tannin's rifles were hit, and both of their barrels shattered as they tried to keep firing, but worse than that, Hawk got hit directly, his entire body being covered in ice!

  Oak, Tannin, Rock and Shade charged forward then, and Dusk could hear the sounds of the lion retreating. So running into the room he drew his combat knife from his sheath and started to chip away at the ice that was now covering the box. He was almost through it when he heard a loud 'crack' and then the sound of something shattering.

  Turning around, he saw that Hawk's body had toppled over and that Hawk had shattered into a dozen pieces!

  Growling angrily, and trying not to throw up at the sight of one of his packmates killed in such a gruesome fashion, Dusk pried the box up from the table and opening it, he saw that there was a book inside. A leather one that looked like the example of what they would be looking for.

  Grabbing it he stuck his knife back into its sheath as he dashed over to the stairs. Oak and Tannin were nowhere to be seen, but there was an open door at the end of the hallway that the lion had retreated down. No doubt they were going to finish him off for what he'd done to Hawk.

  Shade and Rock, he noticed, were both clearing the other rooms, just in case.

  Running up the stairs three at a time, Dusk came out into the garage and ran straight over to David, holding the box out to him.

  "Sir! We have it!" Dusk said and sliding to a stop in front of him, he handed the box over to David.

  David took the box and opened it, sure enough, there was a book inside of it, and the aura of faint magic surrounding it was unmistakable. Closing the box he allowed Dusk to hustle him out of the garage area, back into the fake drainage tunnel, where Sam and Gerald now waited, having pulled the van inside.

  "Is that the book?" Sam asked.

  "Yes, Sir," Dusk nodded, and ducked his head submissively."

  "I didn't ask you, wolf, I asked David!" Sam growled.

  "There's no need to be cruel, Sam. Yes it's the book," David sighed, "we're done here."

  "Ah! Good!" Sam laughed and looked at Dusk and pointed at him, 'Canem Malum!'

  Dusk's eyes went wide! He could feel the pellet deep in his chest burst open, freeing the deadly silver housed there to insure his compliance and submissiveness to the council.

  "But, but, I..." Dusk felt the burning then, the all consuming fire that spread through his body with a pain like no other that he'd ever felt before, or would ever feel again. He screamed loudly, his howls of pain echoing throughout the tunnel, the pain so overwhelming that he didn't even hear it as Sam cast five more times, once for each of his packmates, as he condemned them each to a painful death.

  But he heard their howls of pain and anguish, echoing his, as he collapsed to the floor and died.

  Oak was hot on the heels of the lion as he dove through the closing door and launching himself after him, his eyes got wide as he felt it! The ceramic pellet deep in his chest suddenly burst open, the dreaded silver powder inside flowed out to mix with his blood!

  Looking down the hallway at the other women, he could see the spell caster they had been told was here, but she wasn't casting at them, she was fleeing! He heard Tannin behind him howling in agony, his own joining with his second's as the door slammed shut cutting off the sounds of Tannin dying behind him, as Oak's own momentum caused him to drop onto the lion on the floor under him.

  He had no idea just how the lion had done it, how he had triggered the silver capsules to break open, but he was going to be sure and take him with him!

  Putting the muzzle of his gun to the lion's back, he pulled the trigger as many times as he could, feeling it jump in his hand, and listening to the lion grunt beneath him, until suddenly he was overwhelmed with agony and knew no more.

  David sighed and shook his head, "What a waste."

  "Getting soft on us?" Sam said and held out his hand for the book.

  "No, but they were an effective pack," David said handing the book over to Sam, "I'd used them in the past, doing Roger's...."

  Just then the door leading down into the rooms below slammed shut and a hot sweltering breeze blew out of the garage towards them.

  "I think we better leave," David said, looking back at Sam, who was now pointing a wand at him.

  "What are you doing?" David blurted out.

  "Unfortunately for you, this raid was a complete failure. While everyone was killed, the book was never found and sadly, you were killed in the battle."

  "Wait! No...."

  David's protests were cut off as Sam triggered the wand, a massive fireball hitting David square in the chest and blasting him back into the garage, where it exploded, consuming him quickly as he screamed in agony. Not unlike the wolves had done a moment before.

  "Was that necessary, Sam?" Gerald asked.

  "Roger had him sent here to watch me," Sam replied, "so yes, it was necessary. Now help me toss this animal's carcass in there, and we can close the door and go home."

  Grumbling Gerald came around and grabbing one arm of the dead werewolf he helped Sam drag him over by one of the cars.

  "Ugh, I hate the smell of burning flesh," Sam complained.

  "Well next time, kill the animal in the garage so we don't have to drag it back in," Gerald laughed.

  "There won't be a next time!" Sam grinned as they headed back to the van. "Once I got this book figured out, I'll be in charge and you can worry about the dead bodies."

  Gerald hit the release to close the garage door and got into the van, "Hey, you promised me I'd never have to get my hands dirty again, and I'm gonna hold you to it!"

  Sam laughed and started the van up, "After we get rid of Roger."

  Rude Awakenings

  Sean grunted as he hit the hard concrete floor and the howling wolf landed on his back. Something about the werewolf's howls set his fur on edge and just as Sean started to lever himself up off the floor he felt the muzzle of a pistol press into his back and before he could twist out of the way, the gun went off.

  The first bullet punched into his body, the second just behind it, as the shield had already collapsed back down to its default location. The third bullet punched through just as the shield started to rise up off of his body, engulfing the gun and the silver bullets inside it, as well as expanding through the body of the wolf on his back.

  Coughing up blood as the bullets punctured his right lung Sean growled at the pain as his body struggled to heal the wounds, the transformation of the silver at least dumping enough power into his regeneration to keep him from going negative.

  But that's when things got strange.

  The werewolf laying on his back was pressing heavily against the bare fur of Sean's back, so the shield had immediately expanded to enclose him, the conversion of the ammo in the magazi
ne in the pistol dumping more energy into the shield which started to shed heat as the extra magazines in the werewolf's BDU's started to convert, and being there were so many of them, they got hot as well, and started to cook off with a series of loud 'pops.'

  Roxy swore loudly then, and looking up, Sean could see that she was backing off from him, shaking her hand.

  "What the hell?" Roxy exclaimed.

  "The shield is shedding heat," Sean grunted as another small explosion when off between him and the dead or unconscious werewolf on his back. "He's carrying a lot of silver ammo and it's starting to cook off from the heat!"

  With a grunt Sean forced himself up and onto his side, tossing the big werewolf off his back. Immediately the shield excluded the werewolf and then, because he was at the edge of the shield, it set the werewolf's clothes on fire.

  "Shit!" Sean swore and rolling the other way he moved as far as he could away from the werewolf.

  "Well don't just stand there!" He growled at Roxy, "Do something!"

  "He was trying to kill us!" Roxy growled.

  "I don't care!" Sean said and coughed up a bullet then and spit it out. He could feel the burning sensation in his back that meant he was still healing. Checking his monitor program, he could see he wasn't negative at least. The shield was still shedding heat, but with the removal of the extra silver, that had stopped.

  "I got it," Jolene said, and suddenly a jet of water hosed down the werewolf putting out the fire.

  "Thank you," Sean sighed and spent a few moments catching his breath and coughing up another bullet. Sean then got to his feet and going over to the wolf he was surprised to find him still breathing. So he removed all of the werewolf's weapons and stripped him naked. Then Sean hogtied him, using the paracord he found wrapped around the hilt of the werewolf's knife.

  That done he went and gave each of the girls a hug.

  "What happened back there?" he asked Daelyn when he got to her.

  "Last ditch defense," Daelyn sighed. "It vents all the steam from the turbines into the bunker for five minutes and seals the doors. Keeps anyone from following us and kills anyone who was trying.