by John Conroe
Nika and Declan left to begin the search; Nika speaking in a dead-on perfect Australian accent that left the kid wincing.
Darion hurried out, maybe more motivated to get away from the scary mad vampire than to begin his investigation.
That left me alone with the mad vampire. “Hungry?” I asked her in an obvious attempt to get her mind off the murdered children.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No appetite.” One of her hands unconsciously touched her stomach, as if it was more than a lack of hunger.
“You feel alright?” I asked.
“Of course. I’m Darkkin. I don’t get sick, remember? And don’t try to steal my anger. It’s an honest rage. Those children were healed perfectly, then murdered. I want him, Christian, I want him dead.”
“In time, Tanya, in time.”
Chapter 24 – Declan
I glanced at Nika as we rode the elevator down. “Arsey, huh?”
“Just figured you were missing the Aussie accent, what with some of the interns blaming you and all,” she said, staring straight ahead.
“Some? Try all. And I wasn’t missing it,” I said.
“Bloody ‘ell ya weren’t,” she said.
“You know it’s hotter when you say it anyway,” I said, almost immediately regretting my words.
She snorted. “Older than your grandmother, kid. Besides, I’m not the blonde you like, am I?” she asked, arching a brow.
I clamped down my shields, but obviously the damage was done.
“Now you block me?” she asked, incredulous. “A little late. Listen, Declan, I don’t go around trying to read my friends, but I do check up on their mental health when they bring down enough electricity to power the city. I saw what I saw,” she said. “Besides, it doesn’t take a mind reader to see it.”
I groaned, leaning my head against the wall. “Tell me it’s not obvious to her?”
“Sorry. Want me to lie?” she asked. I shook my head. “Well, she’s observant, and you wouldn’t be the first guy whose attention she captured.”
“I’m like the ten thousandth, which is what makes it more pathetic,” I said.
“Pathetic? Hold up there, kiddo. Pathetic is the guy who sees her picture in a magazine and develops an obsession. You, on the other hand, have seen her in wolf and beast forms, fought at her side, witnessed her own obsessions, and yet never flinched. How many hot and bothered assholes would be okay with her changing into a seven-foot werewolf? Try none.”
“Yeah, well, you said it yourself: she’s obsessed with Chris,” I said.
“Of course. He saved her from a monster, helped her adapt to becoming what she is, gave her a new life of hope, helped her mother, and fought to the death for her. That’s all gonna leave a mark on a girl’s heart. But if I know anything, I know he is well and truly taken. At some point, she’ll realize that, too,” Nika said. “Listen, I have some work to do before we’ll have a starting point for your computer hunt. Why don’t you go down to the gym and help a team member who is feeling inadequate with her combat performance? And speaking of which, can you really make ammo effective against those robots?”
“Yeah, already made some for Arkady to try out against Thing One. The runes on the bullets disrupt the centipedes’ electronics. Takes quite a few hits though,” I said, mind already on the gym.
The elevator dinged and Nika got off, but not before she pushed the button for the gym floor.
When the doors opened again, I immediately heard the sounds of sparring. And they sounded frustrated.
Stacia was faced off with Thing Two, dressed in workout gear and still using those metal batons. As I watched, she launched an attack too similar to the one she’d used the other day. Thing Two caught her feint and smacked her with one of its padded blades, knocking her flying, batons clattering.
“They learn pretty fast,” I commented. She picked herself up, frowned at me, and then got a drink of water.
I walked over and picked up one of her batons. “You really plan to fight them with these, like that?” I asked, waving at her semi-clothed form.
“Well, no, but if I can beat them like this, then it should be easier in beast form,” she said, frown moving to a full glare.
Moving over to the weapons locker, I poked around till I saw what I was looking for. “Train as you would fight, Levi always says.” I repeated my instructor’s favorite phrase, tossing her the heavy metal staff that was obviously made for a vampire to wield. A big vampire. It was seven feet long and made of steel and had to weigh seven or eight pounds.
She caught it and held it lightly despite the weight. It was still way too long for her.
“Awkward,” she said.
“In that form, yes. In your combat form, it’s probably too small. I think we should find some demo tools. Or firefighter entry tools or whatever. The pedes have never fought a were with hand weapons before. Improvised ones, yeah, but hardened tool steel? Never.”
She looked at the big bo staff in her hand and then at Thing Two, frowning.
“Is this some stupid trick to get me to strip down naked?” she asked.
“Well, I’m not going to lie… that would be ideal, but look, I’ll turn my back and everything,” I said, doing just that. Behind me, I heard the metal bar rattle against the floor as she set it down, then witnessed her sports bra and shorts go flying over my head to land on her gear bag. Then I heard a grunt and the distinctive wet popping sound of a were transforming. I turned slowly, thinking she would be caught in the throes of the Change but instead found myself looking into the green eyes of a seven-foot tall, two-legged, white-furred, over-muscled wolf-beast of tooth and claw.
“Holy shit, you Change fast,” I said, eyeing her massive form. She was big, but much smaller and leaner than the weres at Arcane. Near the end of the semester, a couple of them, including Delwood, had learned to take the beast-man form. Delwood was much more massive than Stacia, which only made sense. “The kids at Arcane would still be writhing around on the floor,” I said.
She said nothing, which was mostly because she couldn’t speak anymore. Instead, she stood and watched me as I looked her over. I had fought next to her and sparred with her, but I had never studied her beast form up close and personal before. Her eyes were a lighter green, approaching yellow, and very predatory as they watched me. She stood, heavy torso heaving with breath as she shook off the trauma of the Change, staring at me like I was lunch. Huge hands flexed, making long, needle-sharp claws glitter in the florescent light.
I picked up the heavy staff and stepped forward, right up into her space. “Here, take this and swing it at that bug over there and stop acting like I’m Irish takeout.”
My abrupt manner startled her. Matthew, my were friend at Arcane, had told me that taking either wolf or beast form left him feeling very predatory. The trick was to not be prey-like, even for an instant. It pushed the beast back and let the human come forward.
Her heavy paw-hands closed around the rod automatically and her head turned to follow my pointing finger. Then she growled, deep, and it raised the hair on the back of my neck as part of my brain tried insistently to let me know I was in danger. I stamped down that part of my primitive caveman brain and stepped back, slowly, as she turned her body to face the big metal bug.
She hefted the staff, which seemed kinda twig-like in her big paw-fist, and stalked forward. The staff was really too small, but I had a flash of memory. My first day here, parking Beast. I backed out of the gym just as she roared and jumped forward into combat.
The elevator was too slow, and I only had to go up one floor to the parking garage, as the gym was on the first level of living quarters.
Beast was tucked into a kind of alcove in the back of the parking level, and right where I remembered it, there was a utility closet of sorts. I had looked it over my first day and now I found what I recalled seeing: a heavy-duty pinch bar, only five feet long but at least twenty-five or thirty pounds of tool steel. Behind it, just in
front of the snow shovel and to the side of the push broom, was a heavy sledgehammer, maybe a twenty pounder. Perfect. Grabbing both, I raced to the stairs and ran down to the gym level, arms aching by the time I got there.
A really pissed-off white werewolf was backed into a corner, poking at a giant black centipede with a noticeably bent steel bo staff.
“Time out,” I called, instantly stopping the robot pede and receiving a truly frustrated toothy glare from the were. “Try these,” I said, handing her the tools.
She lifted the sledge in her right hand and the pry bar in her left, swinging them experimentally. Then she put her head back and roared.
“Fight on,” I called, more to the robot, as the werewolf was already closing in. It wasn’t smooth, at least at first, but it was a drastically different fight. Gradually, Stacia learned to use both the steel tools with her differently constructed beast form, creating her own versions of werewolf escrima. The pede now found itself on the defense. The fight raged across the floor and I found myself backing up to the entrance. A whisper caught my ear. “Hey Sabrina, what’s happening?”
Lydia was standing in the doorway, watching the fight, arms crossed. She answered her own question before I could. “Nicely done, Intern O’Carroll. Although I think she could use something even bigger, don’t you?” she asked me, eyes still on the fight. The clanging and ringing of metal was loud enough to make my eyes water. I don’t know how she could stand it with vampire ears.
I pulled my phone and Google searched for companies that sold firefighter tools, then showed her the result.
“Awesome. I’ll call this local company,” she said, tapping the screen where it listed local suppliers, “and get a selection delivered. That’ll leave at least one more team member prepared for bugs.” Her frown told me the rest.
“Lydia, I’ve got the rounds mostly worked out. I was telling Nika about them. Now I just have to rune up a few hundred or so,” I said.
“A few thousand, Junior, at least. Nine mil, ‘cause that’s what we shoot,” she said. Apparently somebody else wasn’t happy being a drag on the team. But a thousand? Damn, there went my nights… and days.
Out on the floor, there was a particularly loud clang followed by a louder thump. Thing Two was down and unmoving and Stacia was lifting the sledge high over her head in what promised to be a death blow.
“Stop!” I yelled, leaving Lydia and running across the floor. Reluctantly, the massive wolf-girl lowered her weapon and stepped back to let me get at the stricken robot.
After a moment of laying hands on the carapace armor, I leaned back. “Interesting. You managed to stun it, at least temporarily,” I said over my shoulder. Thing Two was starting to come back online. Then I heard the pry bar and the sledge clatter to the ground. Before I could turn and look, two massive clawed hands had grabbed my upper arms and pulled, my feet leaving the ground, my body instantly smashing into an iron-hard torso that had two softer appendages right about where my head was nestled.
It happened fast. Too fast to shield up, faster than my glyphs could help me. But my flare of panic receded when I realized that I wasn’t in a death grip but a hug. Feet swinging helplessly, I rode it out till she chose to put me down. The massive white-furred arms loosened and Changed, becoming slim, tanned female arms that rose up, hands grabbing my head as a loud smacking kiss landed on the back of my head.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said from behind me. I didn’t dare turn around although I desperately wanted to. Bare feet padded back toward the door and her gear. I cautiously turned, catching a rear view that every paparazzi in New York would pay dearly to photograph. Part of me was glad to note that Lydia had disappeared. Most of me was captivated by the sight before me.
She started to put her workout clothes back on and I managed to turn my head. I’m not going to lie—it was a battle. But I turned my focus to Thing Two, noting the internal diagnostic damage with my head, and the dented and bent exterior with my eyes.
“That was a closer fight,” I said.
“No it wasn’t,” she said from right behind me. Her approach had been silent.
“Oh?” I asked, glancing back. Her platinum hair swung free, framing her face and her green, green eyes.
“I held back—after the first couple of exchanges. I think I could have finished it quicker.”
“Can you remember where you hit it when you stunned it?” I asked.
She nodded, pointing to the middle of the metal monster. “Right in the center there. Both ends came up off the ground like some kind of reflex and then crashed back down.”
I held my left hand over the sledgehammer-shaped dent in the carapace. “Hmm, there’s a sensor cluster here. Like a really complex accelerometer or possibly a bunch of them. Maybe hitting it there leaves it… I don’t know… dizzy? Could be its version of a solar plexus.”
She shrugged and smiled hugely. “I don’t know,” she said, obviously less worried about the mechanics and more than happy with the results.
“Lydia saw some of your fight. She’s having a selection of heavy demolition tools delivered tomorrow for you to look over,” I said.
She frowned, looking back at the worn tools on the floor. “What’s the matter with these?”
“Nothing. But we thought you might like to peruse what’s out there. Some have nasty-looking hooks and there’s a maul that has a hammer face and a spike point. If those don’t do it, my buddy Mack is working in a blacksmith’s shop this summer. He could probably make you some custom stuff, built to your other size.”
“Custom? Hmm. He wouldn’t mind?” she asked, actually serious.
I felt the grin on my face. “Are you shitting me? He’d have bragging rights forever that he’d made weapons for Stacia Reynolds.”
She frowned.
“You do realize how famous you are, right?” I asked. “Every were—hell—every guy at Arcane is like in love with you. I wouldn’t want to try and guess how many posters of you decorate the dorms,” I said.
“That’s… a little disturbing. I mean, flattering yes, but still disturbing. Do you have a poster of me?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No—better. I have a picture of us sparring in that old warehouse in Burlington. Chris took it for me and I got it framed. I actually look like I have a chance, at least for that one moment. Then if I recall, you flattened me.”
She smirked for a moment. “It’s in your room?” she asked.
Suddenly I felt maybe a bit stalkerish. “Ah yeah. Is that creepy?”
She smiled. “Not even slightly.” Her smile faded. “Those posters… what do they show?”
I frowned. “You, obviously.”
“What else?”
“Just you. One is you in that designer dress you did the photo shoot in, the other is you in yoga clothes.”
“No other pictures… of my other forms?” she asked.
“Oh. One poster, the yoga one, has a white wolf picture imposed in the corner, but it’s not you. It has brown eyes, not green,” I said.
“So how do you think all these fan boys would react to my combat form? Or wolf form?” she asked.
“Well, the were boys would genuflect. The other guys… I don’t know. Probably shit a brick.”
“Genuflect? That’s cute. Most of the guys in the Pack get pissed off when I change so fast. Many of them can’t take that form. The ones that can want me to mate for life and have their babies in a cave somewhere while I make them sandwiches and bring them beer,” she said. “Normal guys get really scared of me if they see the other forms.”
“Well, they’re losers then. That’s stupid,” I said. “You’re a werewolf. That’s what you do. And you seem to change faster and easier than any werewolf I’ve ever seen.”
“When I first got bit, Chris healed me. Some of his blood got in the wound first, though. We think it sorta streamlined the LV virus’s adaptation to my body. That’s Doc Singh’s theory, at least.”
“Oh,” I
said, not liking that Chris had somehow intruded on our moment without even being present.
“But enough of that. Let me change and then we can go grab some food—my treat. I’m starving,” she said.
“Ah, okay. Then I probably gotta get back here and make about a billion rounds of rune ammo for Lydia and Nika,” I said with a groan.
“Hard work?”
“Boring. And it kills my back to be hunched over a big magnifier, etching little runes into bullets.”
“The trials of being a kid wizard,” she mocked.
“Listen wiseass, how about a fourth form? Something like a combat sea slug or maybe lizard girl?” I suggested.
“Hah. Good one, Potter. Now wait here while I go shower and change. Then we can talk about important stuff like custom werewolf weapons,” she said, disappearing into the girls’ locker room.