Bad Company

by D V Wolfe

  I was frantically flailing under him, trying to find it. He was growling low in his throat and I was pretty sure Rosetta’s lotion goo was the only thing that was making him pause in ripping out my jugular. He lowered his head, probably finding a spot I’d missed and I could feel his hot breath and the brush of his teeth against my skin. He let out a whimper followed by a growl as I assumed he got some of the wolfsbane in his mouth. My thumb brushed against a knife handle. Not mine. His! I grabbed it and jabbed my arm up into his chest as hard as I could, burying the dagger somewhere between his ribs. He let out a whimpering cry of pain and then collapsed on top of me. I was pinned.

  Gunshots were ringing out in the trees around me and shouts, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. I pushed against the Alpha’s corpse, trying to get out from under him. Still pinned. There were pounding footsteps coming from the edge of the wood, and I hoped death would be quick. I couldn’t turn my head to see how many were coming for me, but I had a horrifying thought that maybe Mick, Vince, and Noah hadn’t made it and now their attackers were coming back for me, as I lay under the corpse of their leader. I’d be lucky if they killed me quickly.

  “Laying down on the job,” Vince panted from above me. I looked up to see him grinning down at me. He raised his .45 and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “Typical.” Vince pulled on the corpse and I pushed from underneath until I could roll free. I rolled to my knees and tucked the .357 into the back of my jeans. “You might not want to do that,” Vince said. “I think there are a few more, lurking around.”

  I picked up my silver knife and pulled the Alpha’s out of his chest. “I’m out of ammo.”

  “Where’d you get that knife?” Vince asked, looking down at the Alpha’s knife in my hand.

  “Just picked it up,” I said. Gunshots rang out around us and Vince took off.

  “I’m getting Tiff!” I yelled after him.

  “Then, get the hell out of here!” He yelled back.

  I sure as hell was going to get Tiff out of here. I cut her ropes and she leaned against me as I helped her up the path. She’d been cut and the burns on her arms told me it was with the silver knife. She’d been tortured. Most likely for information or because of me.

  “This…” she said, her voice coming out as a whisper as I half-dragged, half-carried her back to Lucy, “this doesn’t look like midnight.”

  I shrugged. “We were just too excited for the fun to begin, so we came early.”

  “You kids and your constant need for instant gratification,” she groaned as I helped her onto Lucy’s passenger seat. As soon as I got her tucked into the truck, with the window up and the door locked, I ran around to the driver’s side and rolled the engine over. We drove through the tall grass around the edge of the stand of trees, looking for the other three. I was starting to see double and I glanced in the mirror to see a tiny trickle of blood running down my neck. The damn Alpha must have pierced the skin when he fell on me. I blinked hard and willed myself to see clearly. There was a flash of color and Noah flew out of the trees waving the .45 in the air. I hit the brakes.

  “Stay here,” I said to Tiff. “I’ll be right back.”

  “It’s Vince,” Noah was screaming. “He’s been bitten.”

  I drew the two knives out of my back pockets and followed Noah into the trees. There were bodies everywhere. Mick was hunched over Vince who was laying flat on the ground, shivering. Between Mick, Noah, and I, we were able to carry Vince out of the trees and set him down in the back of Lucy’s bed. Noah and Mick climbed in with him. I climbed behind the wheel and as quickly as I dared, I flipped a u-turn and headed back for the Jeep. We got Vince into the backseat, Noah jumped into the passenger side and Mick climbed behind the wheel. I took off with Tiff back towards the main road and I watched the Jeep carefully turn and follow behind us. No werewolves came sprinting out of the trees to follow or try to stop us.

  “I’m glad,” Tiff whispered.

  I turned to look at her. “What was that?”

  She cleared her throat softly and tried again. “I’m glad you were early...at midnight, they were going to cut out my heart and yours…”

  Then, she passed out.

  11

  I let the Jeep pass me on our way back into town. The road was playing double-dutch with my vision and I was having a hard time telling which road was the real one. Tiff was starting to come back around and her screams corrected my driving from time to time. We coasted back into the motel lot and rolled to a stop, parking crooked in front of our bungalow. Tiff crawled out of the passenger side and I pushed my door open and fell out. I stared up at Noah who had jumped out of the Jeep and was all owl-eyes and frizzy hair, way too close to my face.

  “Oh my god,” he screeched. “Are you ok?” I didn’t answer him and he turned around to yell for Mick. My vision was going dark and I heard Noah yell, “I think she was bitten!”

  I tried to protest but instead, I blacked out.

  When I came around, there was a warm body on the bed next to me. I could hear Vince whining about his head hurting and Mick telling him to shut up because it was his second time around with this crap. I could hear Noah muttering as he moved around the room. I pried an eye open and looked over at Tiff, lying next to me. She was sleeping soundly and for just a moment I closed my eyes and thanked the universe that we’d all made it out of this one alive. A little banged up and Cynocephali flu symptoms, but none of us were turned or had our hearts cut out, so I was putting it in the win column. And against all odds, I wasn’t currently being used as a werewolf squeaky toy. Hurray. Somewhere, the demon was probably pissed, but maybe this would draw him out and he’d stop sending other toadies to do his wet work. I opened my eyes again and started trying to sit up.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Noah called, hurrying over to me.

  “Noah, I need that hot towel,” Mick complained.

  “In a second, geez, keep your fur on,” Noah muttered.

  I hurt everywhere. I looked down at my chest to see one of the yellowed towels duct-taped to my black sports bra, over the hole in my chest where the werewolf had clawed me. My neck was swollen from the puncture wound as my body tried to fight off the virus and my arm was throbbing from the claw stabs. “Shit,” I wheezed as I swung my legs off the side of the bed and moved to a hunched over position, my elbows on my knees.

  “Yeah, how are you feeling? Do you feel? I mean…,” Noah babbled.

  “Do I feel like a werewolf?” I asked, looking up at him. Noah looked nervous but nodded. I shook my head. “No. I think his tooth just punctured my skin. I don’t know if enough saliva got in the wound to turn me. Besides being sore, I think I’m doing ok. Much better than I was when we first got back. I looked down at myself. “Why don’t I have a shirt on?”

  Noah looked like he was going to bust a gut. “Well, I couldn’t carry you by myself. Tiffany was pretty weak and so Vince and Mick had to help me and well, the effects of their bites started setting in and Vince, well, Vince….threw up on you.”

  “Glad I was unconscious for that,” I said, looking down at myself. I caught a whiff of my sports bra. Vomit and blood. I tried to put weight forward on my knees and calves to stand up. It took me three tries and Noah’s reluctant help.

  “What are you doing?” Noah asked.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” I said. And do some laundry. I turned back to the bed to look at Tiff. “What about Tiff, has she woken up at all?”

  Noah nodded. “She drank some water and made it to the...bathroom.” He looked embarrassed and I quickly looked down at my crotch. Dry. Ok, so I didn’t wet myself.

  “What?” I asked Noah. His eyes cut to the bathroom door and then I remembered. There was no bathroom door anymore because it was now the bathroom window replacement. I didn’t care, but Noah still had manners and innocence and all those cute little things. I patted him on the shoulder and hobbled past him. Mick and Vince were both under the covers on the other bed. T
hey were sweating with wet yellowed hand towels on their heads. Noah went and replaced the one on Vince’s head. “As soon as I get out of the shower,” I said to them, leaning against the wall to get my bearings. “Noah and I will go get some over the counter goodies for you two and Tiff, and some pizza.”

  I couldn’t remember loving the hot spray of a shower more than I did in that depressing tiny shower stall with a curtain and no door, listening to two whining Cynocephali who were loud enough to sound like they were in the shower with me. When I got out, I gently wrapped a towel around me, trying to avoid my chest wound, and went to the mirror to look at the puncture in my neck. The skin around it was black. Noah. He’d closed it up. Probably also killed any of the virus that was lurking around the wound. Good man. I still felt a little weak but some of that could have been adrenaline wearing off. I rinsed and wrung out my sports bra. I got dressed again and came out of the bathroom to see Tiff on her side, watching Noah take care of Mick and Vince. She looked over at me and smiled.

  “So about your plan,” I said to Tiff with a grin.

  She rolled her eyes. “We all made it out alive, didn’t we?” She struggled to sit up and I offered her a hand so that she could pull herself up. She smiled in thanks.

  “Yeah,” I said. “thanks to my shit plan.”

  Tiff sighed. “I had to try, Bane.”

  I sat down on the bed next to her. “I know. Did they tell you anything?”

  Tiff shook her head. “They just kept saying ‘the old dark allegiance’. I don’t know what that means, but that was the only coherent phrase I got out of them.”

  “Well it doesn’t sound good, whatever it is,” I said. Tiff nodded. “So what was with that second phone call?”

  Tiff sighed. “I thought I could sneak in a call to you to tell you not to come, but they caught me. After that, they tied me up and their Alpha did some creative artwork on my skin with that silver knife.” She smiled sadly and waved her arms at herself.

  I felt a wave of sadness as I looked at the wounds on Tiff’s perfect skin. “They were made with silver, so they…”

  Tiff shook her head. “They’ll never fully heal.”

  “Why would the Alpha use something like silver? Something that could kill him just as easily?” I asked.

  Tiff shrugged. “Why do humans use poison, or bombs, or guns? Because they know they work.” Tiff shook her head. “Something is definitely holding the reins on the pack. Or….was?” She looked up at me.

  I nodded. “We had to kill them. I don’t know if we got all of them, but we got all the ones that came out to say howdy.”

  Tiff squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and a tear leaked out and ran down her cheek. “I know they were killers and that you didn’t have a choice, but it still…”

  I hesitated and then I covered one of her hands with mine. Tiff looked down at my hand on hers and smiled. “They were your kin, in a way?” I asked.

  Tiff nodded. “But they must have had some crisis of purpose or they wouldn’t have been so easily controlled.” I raised an eyebrow at her and she shook her head. “Bane, Alphas have it hard enough, trying to ride rough shot over a bunch of pissed off, angsty werewolves. Most of them didn’t pick this life. They were bitten and forced into it. Only a few I’ve ever known actually chose it, and they chose it for the strength and power. They’re angry, all of them. Having some outside force control them, made them on the verge of insanity. They were basically rabid.”

  I rubbed gently at the area around my neck wound. “That explains a lot.” I had to admit though, on the whole, this was the best shape I’d ever been in after tangling with a pack of werewolves. I couldn’t take any credit. I knew that this was all due to the presence and fighting skills of the other four people in this room. It was humbling, but I wasn’t ashamed. I was just thankful.

  “Alright, who’s got a wish list for what will put a smile on their faces as they recover?” I asked.

  “Booze,” Vince, Mick, and Tiff all said together.

  Ten minutes later, I had on a clean a-shirt, I had a list and I was about to ask Noah if he wanted to come with me. Noah was running between the beds and to the bathroom, bringing water to Tiffany and more wet rags for Vince and Mick. I took the water glass from him and filled it for Tiff while he took care of Vince and Mick. “Maybe you should stay here,” I said to Noah. “Your patients might complain if I took you away. What can I bring you?”

  Noah grinned. “Food. Lots of it. And something to knock Vince and Mick out.”

  “On it,” I said as we left the bathroom. I gave Tiff the water and headed outside. Lucy didn’t look too bad. She had a little more ‘bling’ in her body, courtesy of Noah and Vince’s shooting skills, and there was some werewolf and Cynocephali blood in the bed, but that was it. I climbed behind the wheel and I’d just turned the engine over when I heard my cell ringing. I rolled onto one cheek and fished it out of my back pocket, gritting my teeth as my sore muscles protested.

  “Yeah,” I said into the phone as I shifted into reverse.

  “Well isn’t today my lucky day,” Gabe chuckled. “You didn’t check your caller ID before answering. You must be distracted.”

  “Good to hear from you too, Gabe,” I said. “To what do I owe the displeasure?”

  “Now, now,” Gabe said. “No need to get hostile. Where are you at right now?”

  “States away from you, I imagine,” I said.

  “Bane,” Gabe started. His voice was soft, but I could tell he wasn’t playing around.

  “Iowa,” I said. “We were out here hunting a pack of werewolves.”

  “What about the demon who has you in his crosshairs?” Gabe asked, his voice gathering volume. “What about Sister Smile and...Joel?”

  I sighed. “Well, the demon won’t stick his head out his fox hole unless it’s through another force he’s sending against me, apparently. And I have no leads on Sister Smile and Joel at this moment. We were running out of orifices to stick our fingers in and so when Walter announced the fog in southwest Iowa, we decided that if we were going to wait around for a lead to fall in our laps, we might as well wait in Iowa.”

  “Understandable,” Gabe said. “I mean the scenery alone...” We were both quiet for a minute. I’d pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and I was staring at Lucy’s steering wheel. “Are you...hurt?” Gabe asked, his voice soft again. I felt warmth skitter through my stomach.

  “Oh, I’m ok,” I said. “What about you? Weren’t you on some big mission for your Order?”

  Gabe sighed. “Not my order. The Order of St. Raphael. Please don’t lump me in with those dinguses.”

  I chuckled. “But you are their Chosen One.” Gabe muttered something. “What was that?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. “Well, it sounds like you’re still in one piece. Did you get the pack taken care of?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “For the most part. I didn’t do a headcount but we killed everything that came at us. From what Tiff says, something was controlling them. The popular theory around here is that it was the demon, once again not showing his face and not getting his hands dirty.”

  “Shit,” Gabe muttered. “Demon-controlled werewolves after a demon-controlled tribe of cannibals. I can’t wait to see what’s next on his agenda. Wait!” Gabe said, just realizing something. “Did you say Tiff? As in Tiffany the Faoladh from Dearag?”

  “Yeah,” I said, drawing the word out. “I thought it might be a good idea to bring an expert with me since it was on the way. Though, I kind of wish I hadn’t dragged her into this big stupid mess.”

  “I’m glad you weren’t a total bonehead on this mission. You were smart enough to get help,” Gabe said.

  “Well,” I said. “I aim to surprise.”

  “You always surprise me,” Gabe said and I could hear the smile in his voice. “So where are you off to next?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” I said. “Once we finish tying up loose ends here, Noah and I will
probably see what Walter has been seeing lately. We’ll probably try to get some more hunting in while we keep an eye on the news reports and see if there are any new disappearances, bodies, etc.”

  “I’ll see if the Order has heard anything helpful,” Gabe said. “And I’ll call you back. That is if you’ll answer. I can’t always expect to be as lucky as I was today with you not checking the caller ID.”

  I decided not to tell him that I usually forget to check the ID. “I guess,” I said. “If it’s you, I’ll pick up. I mean, especially if I think you might have a lead.”

  “I’ll try to always have a lead, then,” Gabe said. “Talk to you later, Calamity Bane.” And he hung up. Damn Nya. He must have heard the nickname from her.

  I made it through the grocery store in about twenty minutes and I crammed the bags onto the passenger seat next to me. Then I went looking for a liquor store. My preference would have been for more Stitch’s whiskey, but unfortunately, Mattie only sold a few cases of it to hunter bars, one on each coast, and then Pitch’s kept the rest of the stock, right in the middle of the country, at Crossways. I picked up some Tennessee whiskey, some scotch, and some tequila for Tiff. I got back in the truck, set the booze on the seat next to me, and looked at the bags of chips, boxes of Lucky Charms cereal, bottles of NyQuil, and the tequila. “Looks like the shopping a teenager would do when their parents are gone for the weekend,” I said to myself.

  I’d just rolled the engine over when I heard my cell ring again. Just to spite Gabe, I checked the caller ID. Not Gabe.