The Stray Human: A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves, werewolf community center book 1

by Abigail Smith

  We hung from ceilings, walked quick but quiet. Cassy came up to try and teach us pickpocketing. Unfortunately we didn’t have time, and it wasn’t like we’d be pickpocketing much in the battle to come. Even with that it was so much information all at once, and some exhausting exercises made to get us ready as soon as possible. Cassy also dropped off several magazines and clips of her enchanted bullets.

  After six hours, we were allowed a break to refresh, to get some water and a snack, and to replace bandages in Fumnaya’s case, then sit down at the back of the gym where those softish mats were hung up with velcro.

  “Wow, this is so cool,” Fumnaya said, a dumb smile on her face.

  She was sweating just as heavy as I was but didn’t seem quite so disturbed by it. She had fairly long, light auburn hair and dark skin. She had a similar build to me and was about the same height.

  “So,” I said, in between pants. She chuckled. “Hey, what’s so funny?”

  “You started the suture conversation with that very same ‘So…’ and I couldn’t help but laugh at the awkwardness you’re recreating.” She flashed me a bemused smile.

  “Okay, so I’m bad at starting conversations.”

  “Here’s a better starter. I wanna know how you got the nickname of E-lis.”

  “Lisa and Beth sounded stupid.”

  “Why not Elly? Or heck, why not your full name? You don’t see me going, ‘call me Fum, or Naya.’” I snorted at her example. “What?” she asked.

  “Fum!” I said, giggling like an idiot.

  She chuckled, too. “See?”

  Silvia came in and sat down with us. “How’s the training going?” she asked.

  “Good, I guess. Going to need to work on my hanging upside down muscles, though,” I admitted.

  “Hey. Silvia, right? You’ve been here the longest out of us. What’re each of the guys into?” Fumnaya asked.

  Silvia blinked. “Uh,” she said, giving a blank stare.

  The way I perceived it was, she’d been here so long that everyone who was a regular was like family. You don’t classify family like you do dating prospects.

  “Okay, let me rephrase this a little. Say I wanted to go out with Gavin, what would be the best way to go about that?”

  Now, I knew Gavin was the red herring as you wouldn’t outright admit who you were planning on wooing. Silvia, though, wasn’t as wise as I was.

  “D-don’t try and date my brother!” she said in a partly whining and partly defensive tone.

  “Okay, how about someone other than your brother?” Fumnaya said, waving her hands.

  “Why’re you so eager to get into some werewolf pants?” I asked.

  “Why aren’t you? Haven’t you read any paranormal romance novels?” she asked.

  “They come up in my feed, but they are ultimately not what I’m looking for,” I admitted.

  “You’re missing out. But don’t worry, it’s not like that’s all I’m going to be doing around here.”

  “That is, if you stick around,” Silvia said.

  Fumnaya gave me a look. It seemed to ask, ‘Why is Silvia being so rude?’ “I’ve been hounded by the two big shots of the community centre since I got here, and it’s technically not a given that I’ll stay even after this thing is resolved.”

  “Oh… oh, no, that’s terrible. Why won’t they let you stay?” Fumnaya asked.

  “Because she’s not a magic user, nor a werewolf,” Silvia explained.

  “Though, since you were taken over by a wizard, there might be a chance you had the power to wizard and would be allowed to stay,” I hazarded a guess.

  “Hey… if you go, I go! I’m not going to let the girl who saved me get thrown out of the magical community!” She put a lot of weight on my guess.

  Fumnaya gave me a big hug, and even reached an arm around Silvia to pull her in. Despite the suddenness, I found myself embracing the hug, despite how—

  “Ew, ew, ew, you’re both sweaty! Ew, ew, ew! Lemme go!” Silvia whimpered.

  Fumnaya and I both shared a laugh and let her go.

  “Time to get ready for the operation!” Fumnaya said, hopping up.

  Chapter 42

  “They are on the move. It’s one big parade. They must want to do this in a hurry,” Miriam said as she held her hands around a crystal ball.

  “I think I see the gas!” one of her lackeys said. “Oh no, wait. That’s a smudge on the ball.”

  The one who talked was also one of the ones I saw outside dealing with the cops when I returned with David. I assumed that all those women must have been witches, keeping the secrets of magic safe.

  “How long do you think it’ll take them to get to where they are going?” I asked as everyone was in a panic to get ready.

  I was kind of eager to get this over and done with. The shoes they’d given me, while perfect for stealth, were soft-bottomed, meaning any stray rock on our path was going to be felt to some extent. That, and this thing already needed a wash from our training.

  “They are approximately one kilometre away from the new destination. Once there, they will most likely settle down and await the mole’s instruction for how and when to attack, but we’ll be there first.”

  “We’re going to have to wait until nightfall, aren’t we?” I asked.

  “That would be safest, although midnight usually has a lot fewer cars going around in case the mages wish to battle outside,” Miriam said, not looking away from her crystal ball.

  “So, actual magic users use crystal balls to see things? I always thought that was made up,” Fumnaya said, examining the device.

  “Myths usually have a grain of truth in them, though how they found that grain, I have no idea,” Miriam said, and Fumnaya looked at me, looked at Miriam and her lackeys, and back again.

  “D-don’t look!” she said, covering part of the ball.

  I gave her a confused look. There was nothing to see on the ball but the other side of it, which was distorted. The three people scrying looked up at her, and she quickly turned away in embarrassment.

  “You can see something in the crystal ball?” Miriam asked, her face cracking into a very interesting smile.

  “I, uh…” Fumnaya was embarrassed about something or other. I raised an eyebrow and put my hand on her shoulder to help her calm down.

  Miriam looked up. “If I had more time, I might investigate your talent, but for right now, try to relax.”

  I was a bit skeptical. She’d been possessed, and if book gas guy needed someone to possess, wouldn’t it be someone who also used those books?

  “So, wait, I’m actually magical?” Fumnaya asked, giving me an excited look.

  “Some see flashes in crystal balls that have a lot of residual energy from scrying or illusion weaving. It’s more likely to appear for a witch than anyone else.” Miriam sounded like she was trying to stop herself from getting too excited.

  Fumnaya looked really happy at this, and I went over to the bar and scrounged something up to calm my nerves.

  A Dragon Sunrise sounded like fun, and maybe if it lasted long enough, I’d be able to make out more detail of the surrounding area. I just needed something to calm down, and cool colours sounded like a good time.

  Fumnaya came over, and we were also soon joined by the whole gang.

  “How about some Firecrackers for the new girl?” Lorenz suggested.

  “Should we be spending alchemical resources on that when a battle is coming up?”

  “You already made yourself a Dragon Sunrise! You’re one to talk,” David said.

  Fumnaya just sat in the middle with an expressionless face. She was probably silently screaming in her head that she had no idea what was going on.

  “We have three shipping containers full of the most used alchemical reagents,” Gavin said.

  “Yep, and all the alchemicals are already loaded onto the saddle for the fight, so there are no worries.”

  Fumnaya chuckled. “Saddle?”

  “Y-yeah
, so, you know, E-lis and you don’t fall off. And saddlebags,” Silvia said, suddenly very self-conscious about the whole ordeal.

  I took a sip of my Dragon Sunrise, and the colours were taken up to eleven. It was pretty much someone taking my vision in a piece of photo software and setting saturation to the max. Reminded me a lot of children’s pictures of places, due to the limited colours that crayons came in.

  “Whoa,” I said, looking around.

  Fumnaya looked at me. “S-should you be drinking that?” she asked. Her entire body was so vibrant, including her purple eyes, and I squinted at them.

  “D-do you have purple contacts?” I asked.

  It seemed like kind of an odd question. I mean, you see the person’s eyes or contacts each time you look at them, but their eye colour isn’t normally screaming out to you like it was when you took dragon salts.

  “Uh, no. I believe it’s a mutation. I actually have purple eyes,” she said, rubbing the back of her head.

  “Thought that was just a myth,” I said, looking closer.

  I suspected if they were contacts, the slight deviation in colour where the clear part ended and the white part continued would be visible with the dragon salt vision.

  “Nope. My mom has them, too, and even with her vision failing, she refuses to use contacts and glasses,” she said, looking a bit sad at that last part.

  “Huh,” Lorenz said, taking a look at them. “Wonder if that has something to do with why the servant picked you,” he mused.

  I sighed and took another sip of my drink. Dan had a great way to chill out and enjoy the place. It all seemed so muted before, but now it was vibrant, like in a nostalgic memory.

  “So, Firecrackers?” Lorenz said, trying to snap me back to reality.

  “Oh, yeah, right!” I said, grabbing the different alchemicals. “Uh, some of these are different colours than before,” I said, lifting two examples.

  “Oh, you might just be seeing some of the magical auras of those items,” David explained.

  “Some that don’t have strong colour will show colour under the effects of spells that allow the detection of magic. Dragon salts and spectrographs.”

  “Wait, scientific machines can detect this stuff?” Fumnaya asked.

  “Some of it, under the right circumstances, yes. That might be a problem if scientists were constantly putting everything they saw under a device. Lots of these come from another realm and are made by a large cultured vat of microorganisms. So, no problem there,” David said.

  I mixed up the Firecrackers and set down three shot glasses in front of Fumnaya. I put about six in front of everyone but Silvia, who got two.

  I only gave her two because the frown she gave from getting one was heartbreaking. That extra liver had better come in handy.

  They all leaned in and watched Fumnaya, not even touching their shots. She was obviously confused as to why they were watching her, but she slowly took the shot.

  I stepped aside, and she belched out some fire. The look on her face was priceless. Everyone chuckled and took their shots, belching out their own flames.

  “I feel like a dragon,” Fumnaya said, taking another shot.

  “Easy now. While it’s all fun, it is in fact a shot of pure vodka.”

  I leaned back on the edge of the bar and looked around. The place seemed so serene, even though this was mere hours before a big battle. I smiled warmly. It was nice to have such close friends and have such an exciting life.

  “You alright, E-lis?” Silvia said, coming over to the side of the bar with me.

  “Yeah, just taking in the view,” I said,

  The sharp blue eyes Silvia had nearly shone with an unearthly lustre. They looked up at me, so big, so bold. Dragon salts made you notice eye colour.

  That’s unfortunate when a loud crunching sound sent us into high alert.

  Chapter 43

  “There’s been a breach! Everyone, out of the building!” Leonardo shouted as he bolted down the stairs and out of the door.

  Everyone around the bar glanced at each other, and we all started to run. There was a flood of other magic-capable people rushing out of the community centre. The first thing they’d be faced with was the tail of the demon from last time swishing around.

  “Oh, shit,” David said under his breath.

  I looked at Fumnaya, and then to Silvia. While most cops were gone in the few days we spent maneuvering the enemy, some were still there, and so were those three girls, holding their orbs. Whatever they were doing, it got the cops out of there.

  “Let’s get to the roof and try to shoot him down like last time!”

  “No, that’ll draw attention to you, making it hard to get the grimoire off the mage. Lay low!” David said sternly.

  “That, and the roof is most likely unstable,” Lorenz said.

  Leonardo stepped out onto the road and turned to face the demon, and possibly the mage. “How dare you attack us so blatantly. Prepare for the full fury of Leonardo Galvos’ army!”

  He shot his hands out and grabbed his knife before floating slightly off the ground, and a blue glyph appeared underneath him.

  “Slip out while we run and sneak away!” David called as he, Gavin, and Lorenz went wolf.

  Silvia transformed, too. Her wolf form came fully equipped with the various weapons she said were already loaded. I was rather impressed with how helpful transforming like that was. They could load up like pack mules and just transform back. Neat.

  We jumped on and leaned down, hopefully getting down low enough, even with us on top of Silvia, to not be seen by someone with an elevated view.

  Silvia bolted out of the alleyway towards another. I turned to watch the battle unfold. Leonardo erupted into flames and flew straight towards the demon, who simply chuckled and flicked him aside.

  I scoured the area desperately for any sign of the mage. This was the exact demon as last time, I was sure of it, meaning the mage must be around here somewhere! Silvia got to the alleyway and looked around.

  Fumnaya jumped off, and Silvia barked at her before jumping up the walls of the two buildings to get me to a vantage point. Once there, I grabbed the sniper rifle and looked around.

  The scope was now attached. I scanned the battlefield as Silvia went down and picked up Fumnaya.

  Fumnaya had to cover her mouth to not cheer at how amazing that had been for her. Yeah, sure, whatever. Don’t try the stairs.

  “I can’t see him,” I said as Silvia transformed back to her human form.

  “He can’t be that far. Doesn’t he have to control that thing?” Silvia asked.

  “You tell us?” I said, tilting my head and shooting her a confused look.

  I heard some ominous chuckles coming from behind us. “She is indeed quite right.”

  There was the flipping of pages, and a glyph formed on the ground, though as fast as it appeared, it disappeared in the same pattern.

  “Oh, shit,” I said, realizing what was going on.

  Those same unholy syllables sprung from the air roughly where the centre was. “Off this building’s roof!” I shouted to Silvia as I grabbed Fumnaya.

  We hopped onto Silvia, and she ran the length of the building and hopped to another one. If we’d been coming out of the community centre, this one would be left of the building across the road from it.

  A blast of the green smoke filled the roof just as we’d gotten off it. Silvia, not quite used to the weight of the guns and two people, almost didn’t make the other building’s roof. Thinking quickly, I shoved Fumnaya forwards onto the roof, allowing Silvia to get a better grip. We were both out of the way when the cloud reached the side of the building.

  The smoke managed a much larger radius this time. Before, it only roughly covered one rooftop area, now it reached halfway into the neighbouring ones. The demon mage also seemed to disappear within the smoke with a quick incantation. He was pretty much invisible.

  This was like some quick building project area in the city. All
the buildings were about the same diameter and width, only varying slightly by height. Most of them were the same height. So, the cloud was bigger.

  “I’m guessing that’s a cloud of death?” Fumnaya asked.

  “Yeah, kinda. Not instant, but since we can’t get back into the community centre to reverse its effects…”

  Something disturbed the smoke on the left side of us as we faced it. I swung the rifle around and pointed at the area, then put its muzzle closer to the ground and fired. The round hit something, and a burst of flames danced around, making the green smoke orange for a moment.

  “There he is!” I shouted, lifting the rifle to where his chest would be.

  Annoyed at my ability to see him even in his smokescreen, he summoned a fireball to his hand. He held it above his head, ready to fire it off at one of us.

  I paused. Fumnaya looked terrified, and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. We’d rushed into combat without being ready, and I needed to fix that.

  “Silvia, get her to the other roof!” I called out, ejecting the electric round from the magazine and firing just below the fireball with the two ice rounds.

  The flames died instantly as the chest shot shook him up, and then I went lower for the legs to ensure we had enough time. Fumnaya jumped onto wolf Silvia, and they backed up one more roof.

  “Do you really think ice will stop me?” came the demon mage’s voice.

  “It’ll give me enough time to get over my jitters,” I said, jumping on Silvia on her return trip.

  We landed on the next roof. Jumping roof to roof on a werewolf is freaking awesome! Much better than the stairs!

  I kneeled beside Fumnaya in the centre of the side and set the sniper rifle down and performed my Kuji-in. Fumnaya looked to Silvia, who must have told her to copy me. We didn’t have much time, so I rushed through them as the guy started to smash at the ice keeping him in place.

  We both did them, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Let’s take this guy out!” I said with renewed determination.