Roar

by Skye MacKinnon

  "Who's the father?" I repeat coldly. I hate that he knows more than me. He's dangling the answers over me like the proverbial carrot and the only way I can reach them is with his help.

  "You'll figure it out, in time. But no, you won't. You'll be dead in a couple of minutes. Now stop wasting my time and fight. It's what I've called you here for, after all."

  Lady Lara gasps and raises her sword. She's not holding it the way she should, but I don't doubt that she could do serious damage with it. I need to disarm her before she gets the chance to hurt herself or me.

  I sheathe my knives to make sure I don't injure her by accident. then dance around her, trying to get her from behind. She's fast, though. I don't know if Delaney's influence is helping with that or if she's simply a natural fighter, but her footwork is surprisingly good. She swings the sword in wide arches and I keep having to jump back to evade the blade. It glistens in the evening light streaming through the window, warning me that it's freshly sharpened.

  I sheathe my knives to make sure I don't injure her by accident. then dance around her, trying to get her from behind. She's fast, though. I don't know if Delaney's influence is helping with that or if she's simply a natural fighter, but her footwork is surprisingly good. She swings the sword in wide arches and I keep having to jump back to evade the blade. It glistens in the evening light streaming through the window, warning me that it's freshly sharpened.

  "Lara, snap out of it," I growl. "You can do it. Fight him, not me."

  Delaney laughs. "She's too far gone. With all that sneaky technology out of the way, she was easier to overwhelm than I thought. Would you like to know what she thinks about you? I can make her tell you."

  I've had enough. In one fluid movement, I pull a dagger and throw it at him. It's not a throwing knife, but it flies true, right towards his heart.

  Until it stops. It hovers in the air mere inches from his chest. I stare at it, not quite believing what I'm seeing. Did he just use his siren powers to stop a knife in mid-flight?

  A sharp pain bites through my right arm. Fuck. I let myself get distracted. Blood now coats the mayor's sword from where it cut my arm. It's a deep wound. I flex my arm. Thank the Great Cat, she didn't hit a tendon. It won't inhibit me too much. I take a few steps back until I'm almost at the door to get out of reach of that wicked sword.

  Lady Lara's expression has changed a little, like a light has been lit in the darkness of her glazed eyes. Maybe she's trying to fight him, deep inside. I don't know what it must feel like to be completely controlled by a siren, but I know that she's strong, the strongest woman I know, despite being only human. If anyone can break that spell, it's her.

  She approaches, swinging the sword again. This time, I duck, then dive under her sword arm and at Delaney. The only way to free her is to kill the man controlling her. I reach for the knife still suspended in the air, intending to push it forward into the siren's heart, but as soon as I touch it, it shatters into dust. Silver particles rain down to the floor. I stare at what once used to be my knife. What the fuck. This shouldn't be possible.

  A movement in the corner of my eyes is enough to make me roll aside, just about avoiding the sword's deadly kiss. It almost seems like Lady Lara is getting better at wielding the blade. I need to finish this fast. I hate to do this, but I'll have to knock her out. Delaney won't be able to control her while she's unconscious. I hope. I'm starting to doubt everything I thought I knew about siren powers. I was aware that he's powerful, but I had no idea how much so. I'm going to mourn that knife later. It was one of my favourites. Yet another thing he's taken from me.

  I face her, feign to the right and she follows the movement, while I twist around just in time. I punch her, my fist kissing the side of her chin right where I wanted to. Her head flies back, knocking her brain around. Just like intended, her eyes flutter shut and she collapses. I catch her before she touches the floor and gently lower her down. I don't want her to wake up with bruises all over. She's going to be confused enough already.

  I only have a few minutes until she'll regain consciousness, maybe even less, so I need to make it count. I pull my remaining larger dagger and a smaller knife that was attached to my boots and focus on Delaney. He seems surprised but still hasn't had the decency to get up from the couch. He simply takes a whistle from his breast pocket and calls for backup. I cringe at the sound, but I don't let it phase me. This is my only chance. Instead of jumping him, I proceed a little more carefully, just in case he does some weird knife-destroying-magic again. Only when I'm two feet away from him do I swing my blades and attack.

  Suddenly, my vision goes black and I can't help but stop in mid-motion. No, I can't let this stop me. It's another one of his tricks. I stab where he was sitting, but my knives only find air. I start swinging them around, stabbing and slashing, but even though I can still smell and hear him right in front of me, he's not there. What is he doing now? Is he messing with my head? He must be. I don't have any anti-siren tech on me, but it doesn't feel like anything it's felt like with Gryphon. With him, I knew that he was trying to manipulate me, a tiny voice at the back of my mind. That voice isn't here now. Even with my vision gone, I feel like I can rely on my senses - but apparently, that isn't the case.

  Delaney has turned into a ghost, but I don't think the mutants running up the stairs will be as translucent. They'll be out to kill me and here I am, blind. This won't do.

  "Delaney!" I shout. "Stop being such a coward and show yourself."

  "I'm right here," he whispers in my right ear. I whirl around and stab where he should be, but of course, he isn't there. I don't know if he's playing with my mind, giving me wrong sensory information, or if he has actually managed to turn himself unstabbable. Either way, I've got a problem.

  Lady Lara groans just when the first mutant crashes into the room. Not a wolf, but a man. Hello, trouble.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  With the mutants at least, my senses seem to work correctly. I listen to their heartbeats, smell their sickly sweet scents that remind me of decaying apples, feel the shift in the air that their movements cause. And I attack. Desperation gives me new strength while anger gives me stamina. I need to kill them before I can get to Delaney. I won't let him get away again.

  These mutants are so big that they're surprisingly easy to fight. My knives are slick with their blood as I stab and stab, almost always hitting flesh and bone. It's a new way of fighting but I'm surprisingly good at it. Yes, they get in a hit from time to time, but I'm nimble enough to dance away before I get serious injuries. My arm is still bleeding from where Lady Lara cut me with the sword, though. Luckily, the room is so empty that I don't have to think about crashing into furniture. The only obstacle is the mayor, but she's groaning enough to let me know where she is. She seems to be in pain. I hope I didn't break her jaw. Punches to the chin are one of the best ways to knock out an opponent, but it does carry the risk of damage, like any physical assault.

  Stab. Slash. Stab. Evade. And again. It's a rhythm that only gets interrupted when one of them goes down. I don't know if I need to cut off his head to keep him dead, but I that would need too much of my time. Stabbing my enemies at random is fairly easy even without my vision, but finding their necks to sever their heads from their bodies is hard.

  Two more mutants enter the room and circle me, trying to surround me. I dance back so that the wall is behind me, giving me at least some protection against surprise attacks. One of the new arrivals is devilishly fast. He knocks one of my knives from my hands before I can even counter his attack. Fuck. How am I supposed to find my knife without patting the floor for it like an idiot?

  I feel the shift in the air just before he strikes and I manage to evade him, but only just. His weapon cuts my ear lobe and a strand of hair slowly drifts to the floor. Well, I was going to get a haircut anyway. Think positive. This isn't lost yet.

  While I'm fighting the mutants, I'm aware that I should also be trying to fight Delaney's grip on my
mind. But how do you fight something you can't even feel? There's nothing to push out. My mental barriers seem intact. I have no idea how he's doing it and that makes it even worse. It's an invasion I can't defend myself against. But there has to be something I can do. I refuse to give in to him. I know I won't be able to fight the mutants forever. There are more downstairs, just waiting for their turn. As soon as I cut one down, another will take his place. The only way to end this is to kill Delaney.

  Which is impossible.

  I growl and the sound of it reminds me of one other option I haven't tried yet. I can shift. I don't think it's a good idea, not with the tail problem, but it's better than to die fighting blindly.

  With a deep breath, I jump back as far as I can to give myself a second of extra time, then I shift. It hurts like hell. Every bone in my body aches under the strain, but luckily, the shift doesn't take long. Just when one of the mutants reaches me, I open my maws to rip out his throat. And yes, I can see him.

  Fuck, yes. I'm no longer blind. And I feel stronger than ever.

  I hiss at the mutants, warning them that playtime is over. Then I attack.

  The world becomes a whirlwind of blood and death. I'm feral, driven by instinct. They don't stand a chance. I bite, claw, hiss and when one of them falls, I even purr a little. it becomes a dance that doesn't seem to have an ending - until a cold voice cuts through the rhythm.

  "Stop or she dies."

  I through the wolf I had between my teeth aside - and only now realise that I've been fighting not just men but wolves too - and glare at Delaney. He's finally reappeared and he's holding a knife to Lady Lara's throat. Not just any knife. The blade I saw crumple into dust. Impossible. And yet there it is. Do I want to risk it being an illusion? No, I can't. I don't doubt that he'll kill the mayor if he's forced to. She's nothing but a pawn to him. If he can't control her, he'll control her successor. Humans are exchangeable for him.

  But not for me. Well, not her, anyway. Lady Lara is special.

  I growl at Delaney, flashing my bloody fangs at him.

  "What happened to your tail?" he mocks.

  I can't help but turn my head and look. I never had the time while fighting, but now that the mutants stand still, waiting for their master's command, I can dare to take a look.

  I suppress a groan. Half my tail is gone. It's no longer bleeding and new fur has formed where the wound used to be, but that doesn't make it any less sad. What's a panther with half a tail? Miserable.

  "Now give up and let yourself be killed. I'll keep her alive if you do."

  I scoff, as much as a cat can do such a human thing.

  "Do you put your life above hers?"

  No, I don't. But I don't intend for him to kill her nor me. We'll get out of here alive.

  "Just let him do it," Lady Lara whispers, her face distorted with pain. She's no longer under his control, but he must have done something else to her. That or it's the effect of my earlier blow. Guilt courses through me. It was necessary.

  I roar, showing her exactly what I think of that idea.

  "Why do you keep fighting?" Delaney asks, his voice like honey rather than ice. "Why don't you just give in? It's tiring, isn't it? I keep besting you. You'll never win. I am stronger than you and you know it. You're our creation. We would never have allowed one of our creature to be stronger than us."

  I shouldn't be surprised that the Fangs were involved in the Pack's experimentation. He had Sophie, after all. Still, hearing him call me a creature doesn't do him any favours. I snarl at him as loud as I can. To my delight, he does step back before he catches himself. It's instinct. I'm a predator and he's the prey, no matter how much he pretends not to be.

  I run through my options in my mind. There aren't many. Most of them end with Lady Lara dead. But that can't happen. I'd be the worst bodyguard ever if I let her be killed on my watch. It's bad enough that she got kidnapped.

  "Let him kill me, then end him," Lady Lara says, breaking my train of thought. As if.

  "Don't," Delaney replies, glaring down at her. "I need her dead, not you. Well, you too, if you insist. But this isn't a game of bargains. You will do what I say."

  Lady Lara looks me straight in the eyes and slowly lifts her hand, putting it on the knife's hilt, covering Delaney's bony fingers. She struggles a little, just enough to turn her body to the right. She's no longer covering Delaney's body. The knife is now pointing at the siren yet he hasn't noticed her intention yet. I know what she's planning to do. It's brave, incredibly brave, and yet I hate her for it.

  "Thank you, Kat," she whispers and with one last look at me, she guides Delaney's hand with one last show of force, pushing it all the way across her own throat and onwards to Delaney's chest. It only pierces his shirt before he stops the motion, but I'm already in the air, flying at him, and then my paw hits his hand and drives the knife deep into his chest.

  He looks at me in surprise, then down at the knife embedded in his chest. Then back at me. The expression on his face holds no pain, only surprise.

  Since I don't have opposable thumbs - you never miss them until you need them - I angle my paw to try and turn the knife. It doesn't work, but it does cause him enough pain to make me happy. His death is coming too quickly. I never got to cut off vital parts of his anatomy, let alone torture and interrogate him.

  To my relief, the mutants are staying back, simply watching as their leader slowly dies. He sinks to the floor until he's kneeling over Lady Lara's lifeless body. I kick him away from her. He doesn't deserve to be anywhere near her.

  He cries out in pain as he falls forward, driving the knife in further. And then he dies. It's a simple moment of one last breath and one last heartbeat. Thoroughly dissatisfying. I snarl at him, but he's gone.

  Urgh. There wasn't nearly enough pain involved. I wish I could resuscitate him to kill him all over again. He deserves it.

  I glare at the mutants, challenging them. If I can't have more of Delaney's death, then I shall have theirs. But they don't run at me as I'd hoped. They turn and run.

  I huff and look after them, listening as they run down the stairs and out of the house. It's as if Delaney was the only thing making them fight. Now that he's gone, they couldn't care less about me, even though I've killed several of them. Their bodies litter the floor. Once again, I'm surrounded by corpses. This is becoming a habit.

  Downstairs, a few sirens remain. They're not clever enough to flee. I gently rub my nose against Lady Lara's pale cheek to say goodbye. I will mourn her later. For now, I have more sirens to dispose of.

  I'm the last to return to the town hall. Lily waits in the lobby, sitting cross-legged on the receptionist's counter. When she sees me, she jumps down and comes running. She takes one look at my face and spreads out her arms. I walk into her embrace, but I'm too numb to return her hug.

  It should feel like a victory, yet the bitter taste of failure is weighing heavy on me. I'm tired, dirty and covered in blood. I lost a friend today. And I didn't dispatch my enemy in the way I'd planned to.

  "Is he dead?" Lily whispers.

  "Yes." Again, I get no satisfaction from the word. Yes, he's dead, but at what cost?

  "Good. I knew you were going after him. I was about to send the guys but now you're here. And look at you. You're filthy!"

  She laughs and strokes my back. "Don't worry, we'll get you cleaned up. The mayor's assistant has organised food for us, lots of it. Your mates are tucking in as we speak.

  I nod, too dead inside to even reply. I just want to curl up in a corner and sleep. Forget about it all. And then cuddle my babies and forget about the world.

  "What's wrong? It's not just exhaustion. Did you find the mayor?"

  I step out of her hug and simply look at her.

  Lily gasps and covers her mouth with her hands. "She's dead?"

  Again, I nod.

  "Delaney?"

  Instead of an answer, I walk out of the lobby, ignoring the police officers and town hall employees givi
ng me very suspicious looks. I need to be with my family.

  * * *

  Only when I'm surrounded by my mates do I finally feel something again. The numbness gives way to bottomless grief. They stroke my hair as tears run down my cheeks, mixing with dried blood and soot. I don't try to hide my tears. I just let them flow. In their midst, I no longer feel like I have to hide my vulnerability. And even if I did, I lack the strength to keep up my mask.

  Somehow, we end up in a shower. It's not big enough for all four of us, but they take turns washing me, brushing my hair, even cleaning the blood from under my fingernails. I just let it happen. I'm not quite there. They tell me how successful they were, how they killed almost all the Fangs on the list, how we're safe now. It should make me happy. I wish I could celebrate. We deserve to celebrate. We're finally free. No more looking over our shoulder. No more worries. We can have a life now. Delaney is dead, the Fangs decimated.

  Gryphon wraps me in a fluffy towel and pulls me to his chest.

  "We're here for you. We'll always be here."

  I look up at him. into his grass-green eyes that always remind me of a meadow on a beautiful day. They glow with love, with care. I can't help but cup his face with one hand and pull him down until his lips meet mine.

  Something inside of me cracks, cutting through the numbness. Sunshine breaks through the clouds. I kiss him like I'm drowning, letting him pull me back into life. He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me close, holding me in his arms. The others join us, surrounding me from all sides. Their touch erases the last traces of purralysis and I can breathe again. I kiss them, one after the other, savouring the taste of life.

  Yes, we're alive.

  We're together.

  And this is only the beginning.