What a mess.
“Where’s the cure being stored?”
He tells me the address, and I commit it to memory. Then I open the vial again and make him drink the Bishop’s Mantle. He screams and writhes and begs, but I don’t feel remotely tempted to have pity with him. He deserves to die in agony.
I decide that it’s more important to distribute the antidote rather than interrogate Constance. That can wait till later, when time is less of the essence. I run across town using the fastest route I know, using mostly roofs and hidden alleyways.
By the time I get to the warehouse, I’m drenched in sweat. Even for me, that run was exhausting. I dispatch the two guards effortlessly, not making much of a fuss. I don’t care about having their bodies lie in plain sight. I’ll be long gone by the time anyone notices them, and right now, I don’t have the time to erase my traces.
The warehouse is jam packed with metal containers, all of them looking the same. Fuck. How am I supposed to find anything in here? The only way…
I shift, hoping that my theory will work. I still have the scent of the man in my nose, the man who said he’s handled the antidote before. I breathe in deep, concentrating on my sense of smell. Please let it work. Please.
I pace along the main corridor between the containers, sniffing from left to right and back again. I’m almost at the end when I can finally smell him. Yes, it’s the same scent. I jump, following the trail with big leaps until I reach a battered looking container. Bingo.
Instead of trying to claw it open, I shift back to human, groaning at the pain. Shifting twice within such a short period can be painful, especially if I have to hurry. Still, it can’t be helped.
Wincing, I pick the padlock and open the container door. Inside are dozens of crates stacked into wobbly looking towers. Have these people never heard of labels?! This is getting ridiculous, and my sense of smell won’t help me in here. I bet the human has touched most of the things in this container.
I start pulling crates off their stacks and opening them, randomly pulling out the items inside. Nothing interesting. One box has about a thousand metal spoons in it. If I had the time, I’d wonder what the hell they’re planning to do with those, but I need to find what I’m really looking for. Finally, after at least ten minutes of frantic searching, I find a small cardboard box within one of the crates, containing ten bottles filled with tiny blue pills.
I open one of the bottles and give it a sniff. It smells similar to the poison, but it’s not quite the same. One of the other bottles even has a scribbled label.
A.dote.
This must be it. The cure.
I just hope there are children left to heal.
Chapter Twenty-One
It doesn’t take me long to find two cats that belong to Ryker’s group. I tie a blue ribbon around both their necks; the sign I agreed with Lennox and Gryphon that we need to reassemble as soon as possible. They run off, and I trust they will find the two assassins soon. Other cats have been shadowing them ever since we left the Meow headquarters, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
I run home as fast as I can, carefully clutching the pill bottles. Somehow, I’m scared to even put them into my pockets. I want to keep an eye on them at all times. They’re our last hope to save the sick shifter children.
Ryker is waiting for me outside my home. He meows as soon as he sees me and stands up on his hind feet, obviously seeking my attention.
“I don’t have time,” I tell him in frustration. “Is it urgent?”
He nods, and I can feel how he’s trying to tell me mentally that it’s important for him to talk to me.
I sigh. “Give me two minutes to hand these to Lily and then I’ll come meet you in the backyard.”
He gives me one more stern look, then runs off. Urgh. I’m going to have to shift again. This time, it’s going to be really fucking painful.
Lily is in the lab with Beth. Both of them look at me expectantly as soon as I enter.
“I have the antidote,” I say, surprised by how exhausted my voice sounds. “Take it and see if you can analyse one of the pills. We need to know if there’s a way to replicate them. These are all we have, and who knows how many shifter children are out there.”
I don’t tell them yet that it might only work on very few of the children.
They get to work without another word, while I go upstairs to call Mystery Man. I could probably ask one of the cats to carry a message to him, but this will be quicker.
He answers on the first ring.
“I’ve got the cure,” I say without wasting time on greetings. “You can collect it here for your granddaughter.”
Silence meets my words.
Then, the sound of him clearing his throat.
“It’s too late for that. She passed away twenty minutes ago.”
I drop the phone. Fuck. We were too late. A shifter child, murdered, dead because of some humans who didn’t even know the girl. They think we’re the monsters, but, in fact, they are.
I want to cry, shout, hurt someone, but all I do is hang up the phone and walk outside. There’s nothing I can do or say to make it better.
* * *
Ryker is waiting for me. I don’t say anything, just shift, ignoring the pain. It feels almost good to have this physical pain to focus on rather than the emotional agony that’s tearing at my heart.
“What’s wrong?” Ryker asks in his melodic voice. He gently puts one paw on my much bigger one, and I look at him surprise. I didn’t expect such a tender gesture from him. For a cat, he seems very emotionally intelligent.
I almost don’t tell him, but then the words tumble from my mouth before I can stop them. “One of the children died. The granddaughter of the man who gave me this house. I’ve got a cure now, but we’re too late. Most of the children will die. Maybe all of them. We’ve failed, Ryker. There’s nothing we can do but sit and watch them perish.”
He hisses, and suddenly, his claws are piercing the top of my claw. I growl at him, confused why he’d suddenly turn hostile.
“You’re not a dog who simply lies down and covers his eyes when life doesn’t do what he wants,” Ryker snarls. “You’re a cat. We don’t give up. We keep persevering, even if it all looks hopeless. Yes, one child has died, and it’s tragic, but there are many more out there who we might be able to help.”
“We?” I ask, hating how pathetic and emotional I sound. I’ve never felt this weak in all my life.
“We. Together. You’ve got your humans and shifters, but us cats can help. We’ve found a way to find out which children have been poisoned.”
I perk up a little. That would give us a massive advantage. We could target them straight away, giving them the antidote without having to ask every single child whether they’ve had sweets and whether they feel any ill effects.
“How?”
“They smell different,” Ryker says matter-of-fact, as if I should have known that. Well, I probably should, but I’ve not actually met any poisoned child yet. “Your human thief has been helping us in discovering which smell means that they’ve eaten the treats.”
“Benjamin?” I ask in confusion. “But he doesn’t even understand you. He’s not a shifter. He’s just, well, human.”
“He listens, he observes, and his body language is very expressive. He’s built a bond with several of my family members, and somehow, they understand each other.”
I mull over the new information. This could help immensely.
“I’ve been told that the cure I found will only save children who’ve eaten the poisoned sweets within the last two days. Do you think there’s a way to smell who’s ill and past that point?”
Ryker crocks his head. “Maybe. I’ll check with Storm, she’s been leading on this. If there’s a way, we’ll find it. I’ll be back as soon as I know more.”
He pats my paw one more time and looks at me knowingly, then jumps up the wall surrounding the backyard and down on the other side.
I
sigh and shift back, welcoming the pain.
Gryphon and Lennox arrive almost at the same time, both of them panting hard. They must have run the entire way, just like I did earlier. I give them a glass of water each and show them to the living room, where the other Meow members have assembled. Benjamin returned ten minutes ago, accompanied by a small white cat called Nyx. She lies at his feet, showing no intention of leaving. I ignore her. We have bigger fish to fry.
“Let’s make this quick, we don’t have much time,” I announce, before giving them a quick summary of what’s been happening.
“He lied,” Gryphon says as soon as I’ve finished. “Or he didn’t know any better. My mark, a guy pretty high up in the Healer hierarchy, said that the antidote is very effective. When I prodded him a little, he admitted that we could save every single child that they poisoned.”
“He told you that?” Lily asks in surprise.
Gryphon grimaces. “It took a lot of persuading. He was almost dead by the time he finally divulged that last secret. I got a lot out of him though. Nothing that can’t wait though.” He looks at me and smiles. “You can stop looking so grim. We can save them. All of them.”
“Some may already be dead, like Mystery Man’s granddaughter,” I say gloomily.
“Mystery Man?”
Ah. I haven’t told him about my strange benefactor yet.
“Doesn’t matter. If your guy didn’t lie, then that means we can let the cats guide us to every single child who ate the sweets and give them an antidote. Until the pills run out, that is.”
“Can the cats distinguish between shifters and humans?” Lennox asks.
I nod. “Easily. They always know immediately that I’m one of them. Kind of, anyway. And they’ve been keeping their distance from you because of that very same reason.”
Lennox huffs. “I’m not a dog. Wolves and cats aren’t all that different from each other.”
“They beg to differ,” I reply dryly. “Is there anything important that you found at your mark’s house?”
He shakes his head. “Five easy kills. Didn’t know much. They were just workers helping the Healers with their operation. I found some interesting documents though, but your messenger arrived before I could have a proper look. I’ve brought them with me to look at later.”
“Were any of the people you guys killed part of the pack?” Beth asks.
“None of mine, at least I didn’t recognise them,” I reply. “Although one of mine is still alive. Do you mind having a word with her? She was a little hesitant when I tried to get some answers, so I left her with some poisoned needles in her fingertips. She’s going to be ready to talk by now.”
Beth grins like I just gave her the best birthday present ever. “It will be my pleasure. I’ll make her sing like a nightingale.”
I nod. “Don’t listen to her when she tries to pretend that she’s low down in the pecking order. She’s higher up than the man I interrogated and he headed up the lab. She must be important.”
Bethany rubs her hands. “Even better. Do you want her alive after that?”
I shrug. “Not if she’s given you all the information we need. Who else is involved? Have we cut off all the heads of the snake? Are the Fangs behind all of it? Who in the Pack sold the children for experimentation? That’s just the short list of questions.”
Beth sighs. “Alright, seems like I’ll be busy for a while. I better go now. Good luck with the antidotes.”
Once she’s gone, Gryphon clears his throat. “I can answer one of those. The Fangs are definitely involved. I found some of their coins in my mark’s house.”
It only confirms what we all suspected already, but it makes the whole situation seem even worse. Even if we deal with all the Healers in this town, that’s just the beginning. But for now, we need to focus on the children. Time’s running out for them.
“There’s five of us so let’s take twenty pills each,” I suggest. “Then Ryker will assign each of us a cat who will guide us to shifter children that are sick. Now that we know – well, assume – that it doesn’t matter how long ago they ate the sweets, it doesn’t matter whether they’re sick already or not. Let’s just hope that we won’t run out of pills.”
“Somehow, I can’t believe that there are more than a hundred children with shifter heritage,” Lennox says. “At least not ones that haven’t been snatched by the Pack, and those are unlikely to have been able to get any of the free sweets. Despite them giving some of the kids to the Healers for experimentation, they can’t afford to get rid of their slaves.”
He spits out the last word, and my neck begins to itch where I once wore my collar. Yes, he’s right. The Pack relies on shifters to do their dirty work. They’d be nothing without us.
Gryphon gets up. “What are we waiting for? Let’s hand out those pills before it’s too late.”
Saving lives feels surprisingly good. Yes, taking lives is fun too, but this feeling goes deeper. With every pill I give to a child, my heart feels a little lighter.
The cat that’s guiding me is called Haru, and he looks a bit like a miniature version of myself. Black as the night, slender and intense green eyes that take in everything around him. Together, we run through the traders’ quarter, and he meows whenever he can scent a shifter child. Most of them have fallen ill already, and to my surprise, not a single parent questions me offering them a blue pill. Few of them are shifters themselves, so I assume one of their ancestors was. The poison must affect children with even just a small connection to the shifter gene. Most of them will probably never be able to shift, but the Healers were willing to kill them nonetheless.
With every child we see, my hate for the Fangs grows. In one case, we’re too late; the boy literally takes his last breath while we arrive at his front door. It’s heart-breaking, but there’s no time to stop and think about what a waste the loss of such a young life is.
When Haru no longer finds any children in the trader’s quarter, we move to one of the wealthier districts. There are only two shifter children there, both of them vomiting heavily. Just in time.
We never stay to see the antidote take effect. I just hope it does. That this isn’t all for nothing, raising parents’ hopes.
To make sure, we return to the very first house once I’ve given away all my twenty pills. The little girl, no older than five, is looking remarkably better, her cheeks no longer as pale. Her mother smothers me with hugs, and I more or less run out of the door to avoid being hugged to death.
Too early for that joke? Yes, maybe. Blame it on my cold assassin heart that isn’t all that cold any longer. In fact, it’s bleeding heavily. The only thing that makes it better is to know that we saved lives today. We killed, we fought, we helped. Maybe that should become Meow’s new motto.
Or even better: Meow. We’re not afraid of you, Fangs. We’re going to come for you, and we will destroy you. We’re going to avenge the children you killed and will make sure you won’t be able to ever repeat this somewhere else.
There. Quite a mouthful for a tagline, but who cares. I certainly don’t.
Epilogue
Lily and I are in my bedroom, enjoying some butter biscuits I got from a bakery on the way back. I decided we’d earned ourselves a treat. Saving seventy-two children from certain death deserves a reward.
We sit there in comfortable silence, munching on our biscuits. After all the rush and excitement of the past few days, it feels good to just relax.
“This isn’t over yet, is it,” Lily suddenly says. It’s not a question. She knows that it’s true.
“No, it isn’t.” I sigh. “We’ve only stopped them from doing this here, but who knows if anyone is conducting the same experiments in other places? For all we know, they could be more advanced already. They could have killed hundreds of shifter children without us knowing.”
Lily shudders. “We need to do something, Kat. We can’t just ignore what the Fangs are doing. I know they’re dangerous, but now that we’ve seen ev
en a fraction of their plans, I don’t think I can ever go back to how we were before.”
I don’t reply. I’ve had the same thoughts. As much as I miss the old days of killing and enjoying my assassin’s life, the world has turned a lot darker since I accepted the Kindler case. I almost wish I’d never done that. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
“We’ll have to be careful,” I say eventually. “We’re likely on their radar now. I’m sure they’re going to send people here to find out what happened. Losing most of their local operatives in one night won’t go unnoted.”
My friend nods. “And we’ll be ready. We have more knowledge now than we had before. Lennox found all these documents that might help us discover more about how far their influence really stretches. We may not be as organised and powerful as the Fangs, but we have hearts.”
I laugh. “I never thought I’d think of that as an advantage.”
“Me neither. Being a cold-hearted assassin always seemed easy. Bringing emotions into the game makes things harder.”
She’s right about that. And not just because I feel sad about the shifter children, especially Mystery Man’s granddaughter. Also because I now have two new people on the team. Two men who I haven’t quite decided what to feel about. Lennox, the old friend who took me on a not-date with flowers. Gryphon, the assassin who’s almost as good at killing as me. Who I somehow seem to recognise myself in.
I need to guard my feelings well. I can’t afford to get emotional. Too much is at stake.
“There’s something else,” Lily says and gets up, walking towards the window. It’s getting late and the last birds are about to finish their evening songs. I join her, intrigued by what’s bothering my friend.
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