Nightshatter

by L. E. Horn

  Nonlethal force covered a lot of ground for a wulfleng. We would have to count on the wulf’s resilience to survive, particularly if we had to get all members to the finish line.

  With a twisted grin, Ace put me in charge of the smallest team in terms of numbers, our ragtag mix of the newest recruits. The wulfan had a look in his eye that made the small hairs on my neck stand on end. I nodded and gritted my teeth. Our training hadn’t included strategy, and I’d taken it as a sign the wulfleng were considered the brawn to the wulfan’s brain. All I knew was what I’d learned as a foster kid—you used your brain to avoid trouble and fought like a tiger when it found you.

  Good thing you have an enforcer in your head.

  I’ll need your help with this one.

  You’ve got good instincts.

  My men gathered around me. The two that had refused my anatomy lessons eyed me warily as I assembled all nine of us together. Keith’s gaze burned with a hate that rivaled Ace’s.

  He’s a snake in the grass, warned Sam.

  Yes. I dug into the pouch allocated to each team and pulled out a handful of bright-blue rags.

  “All right,” I said, handing them out. “Tie these around your arms. We’re team blue.” As they took the rags from me, I realized they might have applications beyond this exercise. “Let’s consider these a permanent accessory, shall we? I like distinguishing us from the others while we train.”

  Not a bad idea, the peanut gallery commented. Although orange might work better.

  How about neon lights?

  Don’t be a smartass.

  “I’ve been working on a name,” suggested Danny, his face lighting up. “Kinda liked Nightshifters.” He grinned self-consciously. “I think it’s a good label for us.”

  Reese nodded. “That’s what the books call it. Shifting.”

  “You read shifter books?” Nate asked, surprised.

  “The clean kind or the dirty kind?” Travis waggled his eyebrows.

  Danny, intent on his quest for a designation, ignored them. “I think Nightshifter rocks.” His green eyes were alight with enthusiasm.

  “Rocks? Who says that, anymore?” Nate’s mouth quirked.

  “I kinda like it,” added Reese.

  “It does fit.” Travis looked at Lucas, who merely shrugged.

  If you pretty boys are done with labels, we have some work to do.

  They need this. I thought enforcers were patient?

  Some are. I caught the impression of bared teeth.

  I looked around, meeting everyone’s eyes. “All right, Nightshifters, listen up.” Keith sent me a look that could have peeled paint off a wall. I ignored him, watching as everyone helped each other tie on the armbands. Danny helped me with mine. The wulfleng bicep was larger than a human’s, but the cloth had enough stretch to accommodate it. “We go in as wulves, but we need our human brains in control, or this will head south in a hurry.” I waited until everyone finished fussing with the rags and looked to me for direction, while my inner strategist assessed and made recommendations. “Reese, take point. Lucas, hold the rear.” I gestured to the two other men: Luis and Mark. “Luis, I need you and Travis on flank positions, watch for the other teams for they might try something. Mark, stay just ahead of me, keep alert. Danny, shadow Keith—you guys run behind.” Danny nodded, but Keith looked resentful. “Nate, you’ll have my back.”

  We stripped and left our clothes in neat piles. I fastened the pouch around my waist and saw a spark of challenge in Mark’s eye as he followed me into the change. My wulf wouldn’t take his eyes off him, and no sooner did we drop to all fours, than he moved off ahead of me.

  I cut him off with a fluid leap and snarled at him, letting my wulf do his thing. Mark didn’t last a millisecond under that regard, and he lowered his head, falling back into line. I cast my gaze over the men, touching longest on Luis, who averted his eyes. Keith watched me, not challenging, but not submitting either.

  Well done, soldier. But watch that kid.

  Thanks, beautiful. And I will. I shook my fur into place and growled. Reese moved silently off down the trail, swallowed by the night. Luis bowed his head as he passed me, heading out to our right flank as Travis loped left.

  They’d given the location of the first flags to each team, deep in the circle of derelict buildings. We used this first leg of the trip to establish everyone’s relative roles and positions, adjusting the distances between us until my inner redheaded strategist was satisfied. I sensed not only my recruits but the other wulfleng around us as we neared the buildings, and I called everyone in close with a few short yips.

  The black shadow that was Reese detached itself from a tree and approached as we gathered. His wulf eyes gleamed, their odd colors unsettling—the blue one shone sapphire in the moonlight, and the darker one gold.

  “Two teams ure wurking tugethur tu stage an ambush at the furst station,” he reported. “Six in amung the buildings.” He flashed a fang. “Mure in the trees arund thum.”

  Danny hovered near me. “I dun’t like this,” he said. “Ace cud tuke advuntage of this to get to yu.”

  “Sabutage is ulso purt of thu game.” I lifted my head, glancing around at the Nightshifter team. “We wait,” I said, and Keith growled. “We wull cutch up latur. Thuy expuct us to rush into their trap, to take us out urly. We ure not thut stupid.”

  Danny shot Keith a look and the smaller wulf subsided. But as I moved past him, I caught a whiff of something rank, and my heart stuttered. I met Danny’s eye, and saw him nod, his expression bleak. He smelled the madness too.

  We waited in the shadows, and only moments later, heard a shrill scream followed by the sound of fighting as the trap sprung on another team. Danny glanced at me, a flash of emerald in the moonlight. Others shot me a look, and to my shock, Lucas smiled, his red tongue lolling.

  Score one for the foster kid. Sam gave me a glimpse of Chris, Garrett, and Malcolm sitting with her as she kept them abreast of my movements. It provided a much-needed boost, knowing they were with me.

  Always, Sam promised.

  I waited until the sounds of fighting abated, then took my team in. We passed three wulfleng moaning on the ground, bloody and beaten. One snarled as we slipped past, his eyes shadowed, but human.

  Danny pulled close to me. “Shud we stop und help?”

  The same thought had occurred to me, but I remembered Bradford’s instructions. “The med team is folluwing,” I said. “Thuy’ll take cur of ut.” I wondered how the team would cope with the many wounded the night promised, but my agenda did not involve nursing injuries.

  What you do will save many in the future, Sam reminded me.

  Yes. I sighed and sent Reese on ahead. Danny glanced at me, then ran along the buildings, nose lowered to the ground. He took Keith with him, a smaller brown shadow.

  Reese popped up out of nowhere. “Wu’re clear,” he said and vanished again.

  He’s good. I sensed the admiration in her words.

  They all are.

  The other teams had grabbed their flags and moved on, all except the ambushed one. We passed more of their members, and as I counted in my head, I realized the entire group had been taken out. The game was down to five teams.

  We found our first flag buried in the dirt at the base of an old limestone plinth. I dug it out and sniffed it. The overseers had saturated each flag with a distinctive scent that provided the location of the next. I let each team member sniff it before putting it in the pouch at my waist.

  Reese sank his muzzle into the cloth, then without a word, he turned and headed off, nose to the ground. I could smell it too, although here, where all the first markers had been buried, other scents led off into the woods. Ours reeked of a strong musk, almost skunk like, that made me want to sneeze. Travis did so as we followed Reese into the darkness.

  The scent trail traveled as much through the branches, tree trunks, and up the sides of rock as along the thick carpet of pine needles. It soon became obvious that
our best trackers were the most agile of us: Lucas and Reese. On Sam’s recommendation, I left Danny with Keith as rear guard, but moved Lucas with Reese out ahead, or above, depending on where the scent led us.

  Lucas had come into his own, out here in the dark. He and Reese moved like shadows in the wind, silent, noses buried in the scent.

  Then there came a strange metallic clang, followed by Lucas’s scream.

  He and Reese had been following the scent along a rock ridge. I descended on them at a run with Nate on my heels, to find Lucas shivering in pain, one foreleg seized in the vice-like grip of a steel bear trap.

  “Easy,” I said to him, and he nodded, the muscles of his narrow jaw clenched, his wulf eyes fixed on me. I studied the trap. It required human hands to release the lock, combined with leverage to open the toothed jaws. I shifted to human and fetched a branch for leverage, but there was no way I could pry them open.

  Travis pounded up from the flank position to hover protectively over his cousin.

  “U’m fine,” protested Lucas. “Just stupud.”

  “Not stupud,” corrected Reese, looking at me. “Wull hiddun, but I shud huve seen it.”

  “Dudn’t think thuy wud do thus,” I said, assessing.

  “Being clumsy is my thung.” Travis poked Lucas gently with his nose. Lucas snapped at him, but there was no menace in it, only irritation.

  I decided the time for secrets was past and called on the wulf. My arms and shoulders creaked as they altered, the muscles popping, while I kept my hands human to handle the lock release.

  I sensed the tension increase around me and heard Nate inhale in surprise. Danny and Keith ran up from the rearguard position just as I flicked the lock free and pushed against the jaws.

  Lucas hissed in pain but the second the teeth extracted from his flesh, he pulled his front leg free. I let the steel jaws clang shut and reverted to human to palpate Lucas’s front leg. It was likely a fracture, although the bone remained in alignment. The slices in his flesh were deep and bled freely, but I’d seen enough of wulf healing to know they’d start to seal in minutes. Removing my armband and his own, I knotted them together and slung the limb close to his body, tying it into place.

  “It will be a few days before you can use it again,” I told the panting wulf. I straightened and regarded the shocked and confused expressions around me. They had never seen me do such changes before now. I needed a new word for it, my scientific brain balked at morphed, which indicated a much slower process. The word flashmorph popped into my head, and I liked it.

  No matter what I called it, my cohorts had no idea what had just happened.

  “Lee, whut thu hell?” Nate’s crystal gold eyes were wide.

  “I have special abilities,” I told him. “Do not try that kind of change on your own. It’s dangerous as hell.”

  Oh, good. The don’t-try-this-at-home speech. Like that ever works. I sensed Sam shaking her head.

  Well, I don’t have time to coach them through it.

  It isn’t something just anyone can do, she pointed out. Chris told me you aren’t doing partials. You’re kinda leading the charge, there. I like flashmorph. It’s—sexy.

  Then flashmorph it is. Suits me. I dropped to all fours as I changed all the way to wulf. Lucas would need help to keep up with us. I didn’t care about the rules, but I wasn’t leaving him alone out here.

  Sam considered the options. Travis is already having a hard time keeping up. Danny would be a better choice to keep the entire group mobile.

  I acknowledged her wisdom. Travis wasn’t built for speed. I looked at Danny. “Cun yu hulp Lucas?” I asked. Next to Nate, Danny was the biggest, but lacking Travis’s bulk, he retained speed. He should be able to help Lucas, while keeping up.

  “I cun still run,” protested Lucas, pretty much the most he’d ever said to me. With his front leg strapped to his torso, he’d have to run on three legs, which would restrict him to the ground. With Danny’s help he should be able to keep up.

  You’ll need someone to watch Reese’s back, cautioned Sam. Nate and Travis were too big to be very agile. I looked at Luis, whose smaller frame promised tree ability.

  “Luis, take point wuth Reese. Wutch for traps.” The wulf nodded, looking both nervous and yet pleased that I’d selected him for such an important duty. I glanced at Keith.

  “Keith, I need yu to wutch ur backs. Travis will take luft flank, Mark right.”

  Mark slunk off into the night, and Keith glowered at me before turning back the way we’d come.

  Danny shot me a look, then positioned himself and Lucas just behind me and to the right side.

  Right flank and from behind, agreed Sam. Kid’s got good instincts for trouble.

  Both Keith and Mark? Mark’s an ass, but I’m not sure he’s got what it takes to be an issue.

  Chris says watch them.

  You bet. I sighed and got us moving. The second flag would be close.

  Reese found the second trap before anyone stepped into it. Branches covered a pit about ten feet deep. It might have caused a mere break or sprain if it weren’t for the spikes lining the floor. Staring down at the sharp wooden stakes, I wondered at Bradford’s declaration of non-lethality.

  Unless Bradford didn’t set this one. Chris thinks it’s Ace.

  Nate snorted when he looked down and glanced at me. “Ace?” he asked.

  “Perhups,” I answered. I glanced around, up into the trees.

  Sam was quick to follow my reasoning. No cameras here. If they aren’t monitoring . . .

  I hadn’t expected Ace to come at me like this. I’d thought he was a more direct kind of guy. But then, direct with a mutant wulfleng could get him killed.

  “Gud catch,” I told Reese, and he dug around at the base of the tree just beyond the pit to retrieve our second flag.

  I received it from him to put into the pouch, but my mind buzzed with static. If Ace had upped the game, be damned if I would risk my team because of his attempts on my life. As we moved on, I reorganized.

  Danny didn’t like the new order and said so. Nate backed him up. Reese stood silently in the shadows, watching us.

  “I knuw,” I said. “But this is huw it’ll be.”

  They ducked their heads in submission, but their lips pulled tight with worry.

  I’m with them on this one. This isn’t a good idea.

  I’m not putting them between Ace and me.

  You could call foul. If we’re right, this would not amuse Bradford.

  No. If we want those responsible, I have to keep going. Don’t know when we’ll get another opportunity. The only way through is forward.

  I took point, leaping for the trees, with Reese ranging along the left side and Luis on the right. Nate was behind me with Danny and Lucas, and I put the others to the rear.

  The scent drifted between the branches, and I followed it, aware of Luis and Reese mirroring my movements through the trees on each side of us. Below, the others worked hard to keep up over the rough ground.

  We traveled for a distance, and I knew the third flag must be close. In midleap, something closed around my left leg, high up past my ankle, pulling me down and tearing my claws from the branch I’d reached for. The snare tightened and like a slingshot threw me toward a ridge of jagged rock.

  Time slowed. I sensed the rock coming at me and twisted. The wulf reacted before the human mind could, so that in the microsecond it took for the rock to come at me, the tendons and ligaments in my limbs altered. My hands and feet met the surface and transferred the tremendous concussion through my arms and legs. As my claws reached and sank through the moss into the rock itself, I had no doubt the impact should have shattered bone. Dangling from my claws, my pulse thundered in my ears. It was the first time the wulf had acted on a flashmorph without my direction, and every hair on my body stood on end at the implications.

  If my wulf seized control of them, what effect would it have? Without my conscious visualization, the changes could
run rampant, until I no longer found my way back to human or forward to wulf.

  You can’t let him get control. I sensed Sam’s horror.

  I know. But he did just save my skin.

  Reese landed on the top of the ridge, looking down at me with wide eyes. Nate and Danny, still supporting Lucas, arrived below me. I looked up and down before choosing to climb.

  I breathed deeply to dispel my inner angst, but now was not the time. Retracting my claws from the rock required I shed the sheaths to reduce them to almost nothing. I used natural nooks and crannies to ascend to where Reese waited. By the time I reached the top, the bungee rope around my leg had tightened again. I turned, grew a long razor claw, and sliced through it. I leaned over the cliff. From below, Danny stretched up to sniff at the spot where it anchored to the rock, about seven feet off the ground. His teeth flashed as he snarled.

  If anyone other than me had hit that trap, I was sure they would be dead.

  Ace is playing for keeps, Sam said, and I heard the tremor in her mental contact. Maybe it's time for a rethink.

  I considered but shook my head. No. We go on. He can’t have too many more in place. Ace wouldn’t expect me to have got this far unscathed.

  He might want to pick you off one at a time.

  Nine of us. Nine traps? I doubted it. Ace wouldn’t risk many more. Not if his bosses wanted me kept alive. He was taking a chance as it was.

  What if it’s his bosses that are testing you?

  Helluva test. These aren’t set for stun.

  I shook my head, sending tangled blond hair flying, and moved off again through the trees. I don’t think there’ll be more traps like these. I think his next attempt will be more personal. Especially if I add incentive.

  Liam—she began but broke off when I howled.

  Startled at first, the Nightshifters soon took up my challenge, until the forest rang with our cries.

  Come and get me, you bastard, I thought.

  Oh, Liam, Sam said, resigned. But I also sensed, deep down, the barest hint of appreciation.

  You are a cave girl at heart, I pointed out.