by Zandria West
‘Time’s up!’ the lead demon roars, and as he does, I know where I saw him before. He was the one who I encountered when I first entered Darktown looking for Gabriel. He’s the demon I saw whipping human prisoners in the street. Well that makes sense.
‘As of now, anybody who moves for any reason other than to present the correct paperwork to one of my officers, dies,’ the demon says and grins. Then he turns to his waiting minions. ‘Alright, you can start the inspection…’
A handful of demons in uniform peel off and begin to circulate throughout the camp.
As we watch, people present their papers and the demons stamp them. I’m surprised how orderly it all seems to be. Then I hear a woman screaming and a young boy who couldn’t be more than ten is dragged away from her and into the centre of the clearing.
‘And we have a winner,’ the head demon says, clapping a few times. ‘What’s your name, son?’
‘Lawrence.’ The boy’s voice comes out barely louder than a whisper.
‘Ah, Lawrence, ever been to the city before?’
The boy shakes his head.
‘Then you are in for a treat. You’ll be coming with us for a spell. Isn’t that lovely?’
‘No, no, please, my baby, my baby, you can’t take him –’ a woman sobs desperately.
Something inside me clenches. This is awful. I can’t just stand and watch. There must be something we can do.
I feel Alex’s hand like a pincer on my arm, holding me tight.
‘Got another one!’ one of the demons calls.
A second later, I see Briony. She looks pale and frightened, and so very tiny beside the huge monster who’s leading her.
I watch in horror as she joins the boy in the centre of the clearing.
17
LANA
‘A little girl. Very nice. A matching pair, hey?’ the head demon grins. ‘Shall we keep them, do you think?’
I feel a juddering shock burning through the bond.
Reuben. I can sense Reuben’s utter desperation; it feels like the bond is mainlining it straight into my veins. I struggle against Alex’s hold on me, but he shakes his head. In the far corner of the campsite I can just make out a similar struggle occurring, but the hold Gabriel is exerting over Reuben isn’t physical, it’s magical. I sense the magic, deadening and constricting so that even taking a breath feels like an almost impossible effort.
I can’t make out what’s being said. There’s more movement, more screaming and sobbing, but thank god no more children are found. Briony and Lawrence stand side by side, not speaking, not crying. They don’t chain the kids at least. I guess they figure kids are not going to try to fight half a dozen powerful demons armed with whips and axes.
‘Alright, let’s move out! This territory will be on our list for regular inspections now. Be sure to keep your paperwork handy in the future.’ The head demon smiles and gives the watching pack a cheery wave. ‘Bye for now. Have a nice day.’
I hear the rumble of a rolling growl in Andreas’ throat. I look across and see that his hands are balled into fists, his eyes narrowed to slits. He looks beside himself with fury, but he doesn’t move. He waits and watches as Briony and Lawrence are led away.
Alex doesn’t release his hold on me either, and the magic I feel swirling through the bond continues to keep me almost numb. There’s the sense that everyone is waiting. One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. The waiting is excruciating. Finally, a young boy trots back into camp. ‘They’re gone!’ he calls.
In an instant, I collapse as Alex and Gabriel release their holds.
I sense Reuben’s pain and horror rushing through the bond, flooding it.
I stand up on shaky legs and stagger back into the campsite, and across to where Reuben and Gabriel are standing.
As I approach, Reuben lets out the most blood-curdling growl I’ve ever heard, then shoves Gabriel so hard that he almost lands on his ass.
‘You fucking bastard –’ he yells. ‘I couldn’t do anything because of you!’
‘Reuben, wait,’ I say, looking between the two of them in panic.
Gabriel looks deadly serious and absolutely controlled. He raises his hands as though he’s preparing for a fight, then he turns the palms towards Reuben as if to try and calm him.
‘What would you have done, Reuben?’ he says.
‘I would have torn their fucking heads off before I let them take her!’
‘And then what? You’d have managed to kill a couple of them. You were angry enough to take them, I’ll give you that. There were a dozen. They were armed. You couldn’t kill them all.’
Reuben is taking huge gasping breaths. Sweat has broken out across his forehead, damping his head, sticking his shirt to his chest.
‘They took my daughter. They took my fucking daughter,’ he sobs, then collapses onto his knees.
I crouch down beside him. I don’t touch him, but I try and reach for him through the bond, to comfort him. ‘We’ll get Briony back, Reuben. I promise. I’ll help you.’
‘No,’ Gabriel says. ‘That’s not a promise that you can make, Lana. Things are moving too quickly. We’ve waited longer than we should have as it is. Our priority now must be finding your mother. That is of the utmost importance. We can’t afford to be distracted—’
I stand up, icy rage filling me.
‘Reuben’s daughter is not a distraction. If you think I’d just let them take her and do nothing, then you don’t know me at all, Gabriel.’
I turn and see Alex standing, watching with cool blue eyes and an expression that I just can’t read.
‘Well? What about you? Will you help us, Alex?’
‘Help you attempt to break into the secret prison run by the Demon Council and retrieve a small werewolf child?’
I nod. I feel a desperation I never even imagined before. He has to say yes. He has to. This is the right thing to do, it’s what we must do. There’s no choice. But I’m terrified that if he refuses and Gabriel holds firm, the bond between us will be stretched so far it might break. Is that even possible? I really don’t want to find out.
Alex takes my hand. His eyes are still cold, but his voice is gentle. ‘I would follow you into a pit of vipers, Lana, if that is where you thought we had to go.’
I exhale, my legs suddenly wobbly under me. I turn back to Gabriel.
‘We’re going. You can help us, or you can say goodbye.’
He studies me with a heavy, dark expression then shakes his head.
‘Of course I’ll help you. Always. Never doubt that, Lana. But I must say again, I fear that you’re making a mistake. We should be heading for the mountains and your mother.’
‘We will. Once we’ve got Briony back,’ I say, filling my voice with a confidence that I don’t really feel.
‘I’m coming too,’ I turn around and see Andreas approaching us, limping like he’s been hurt. ‘This is my fault. I called the Council. Briony would have been safe if it wasn’t for me. I’ll help to rescue her.’
With a sudden roar, Reuben explodes. He attacks Andreas in a frenzy. I stagger back a step, then my anger bolsters me, and I step forward again. Reuben lands a vicious strike to Andreas’ jaw, and blood splatters over us.
‘Stop it!’ I yell, then grab Reuben bodily and pull him back even as he’s still trying to fight. I turn him so he’s facing me. ‘Stop!’ I yell in his face. For a moment he doesn’t even seem to see me then a look of shock passes over his face.
‘What… what are you doing, Lana? I could have killed you.’
‘Yeah, that’s the fucking problem. And you could have killed Andreas too.’ I turn to where the other man is bent over, blood pouring in an almost continual stream from his nose. ‘He’s going to help us, Reuben. And we’re going to need all the fucking help we can get. So settle the fuck down.’
Reuben growls. ‘He called the Demon Council down onto my pack and they took away my daughter.’
‘Yeah, he’s an idiot,’ I agree.
/> ‘It’s not your pack,’ Andreas mumbles and then swears and spits out a piece of broken tooth. ‘You haven’t even been here for a decade. And you barely know Briony.’
‘I’m the son of Crowe Greyfall. It is my fucking pack. It always has been, and it always will be, whatever else happens. And Briony is my blood.’
I get back in between them, standing up as tall as I can, which really doesn’t feel tall enough. ‘Stop it, both of you! There’s no time for this. We need to come up with a plan and then we need to move. We’re losing time that we need to rescue Briony. You can bicker later.’
They give me sour, angry looks but neither of them argues with me, which is an improvement on all the yelling.
‘So, where is this prison and how do we get in?’ I say, looking from Reuben to Alex to Gabriel.
Alex winces. ‘Ah, you see, that’s the bit that may pose a problem…’
18
LANA
They explain it to me slowly and then they explain it again. The prison is in the oldest part of the city and is considered impassable. It’s protected by ancient enchantments, unspeakable monsters, a huge moat, and to be honest as they keep listing the reasons why we’re not going to be able to break in there, I kind of vague out for a little while.
I get the picture. It’s bad.
‘Then we have to get Briony and the other kid before they reach the prison,’ I say. It seems obvious. If rescue from the prison is impossible, we have to make sure they don’t end up there. ‘How does the Demon Council travel?’
‘They have a convoy of vehicles. They’d travel faster than we would, but no magic is involved –thankfully.’
‘They’d take the same road we did?’
Reuben nods. ‘It’s the only way in and out. One reason the Grey Pack has remained relatively protected. We fulfil our basic legal requirements, keep a watch on the road and clear out before the Council gets here. Only today, because of the visitors, nobody was watching.’
He shakes his head and narrows his eyes. Too many terrible things have happened today to people Reuben cares about. First to Paul, then to Briony.
‘I’m sorry about Paul,’ I say in a low voice. ‘He was fair. He gave us a chance.’
Reuben winces. ‘I’m sorry too. He should have been taken down in a fair fight. He deserved better.’
I swallow. That wasn’t exactly the response I’d been expecting, but the longer we’re here, the less I feel like I understand a single thing about werewolves.
‘Can we get back to saving Briony now?’ Alex says. ‘The sun is rising, time is flying. Tick tock and all of that.’ His arms are crossed, and he looks tense and jumpy. I’ve never seen him like this before.
I have an idea, though I’ve got no idea if it’s a good idea. ‘Could we get ahead of the convoy and block the road somehow? And then, while they’re distracted clearing it, we grab the kids?’
It’s probably something I saw in a movie once, back on the human side of the Barrier.
I see my men giving each other looks.
‘It might work,’ Gabriel says slowly. ‘We’d have to move fast though.’
‘There’s a path we can take directly over the mountain,’ Andreas says. ‘It’s a tough climb, but if we’re quick it will bring us down well ahead of them on the road. Just before a river crossing. It would be the perfect place to try and intercept them.’
I look to Gabriel, then to Reuben and Alex. ‘Well?’
Reuben turns back towards the clearing. His expression darkens. I look back over my shoulder to see what he’s looking at.
Vera. Her eyes are red from crying.
‘I’m coming too,’ she says, as she approaches. ‘Whatever you’re planning, I’m a part of it.’
‘You fucking hid her from me?’ Reuben says. ‘That’s the only reason you’d have for not registering Briony’s birth. You didn’t want me to find out. And then you have the fucking gall to act like it’s my fault that I never came to see you before now? This is on you, Vera. You knew the risks. If anything happens to her…’
‘Nothing will happen,’ I say quickly, looking from one to the other of them. ‘She’ll be okay. We’ll get her out.’
I don’t like the idea of Vera coming with us. I don’t like her, and I don’t trust her. But she does know the forest, and she’ll be more determined than anyone to find Briony.
‘I’ve just been with Lawrence’s mother,’ Vera says, her eyes not leaving Reuben. ‘She’s collapsed from the shock. The boy’s father died only a few months ago. I promised her I’d do anything I could to get our children back.’
I look from Vera to Reuben. ‘So, we take the high pass that Andreas has suggested, and we try to cut them off before they make it to the city. Agreed?’
Reuben growls his approval and Gabriel and Alex nod, though without any enthusiasm.
‘Okay, let’s go then,’ I say.
‘Steady tiger,’ Alex says. ‘I know you’re keen, but we might need to spend a half an hour getting together some supplies, weapons, a few things like that, if we want to have any chance of success…’
I blush. Of course. I must sound like an idiot to them. They’re all so… experienced at this sort of thing whereas my only strategy is to blunder directly into danger and hope for the best.
‘Alright,’ Andreas calls. ‘Meet back here in fifteen minutes. Get your packs. Make sure you’ve got enough water for a full day’s walk. Reuben, come with me and I’ll get us all armed. Let’s move.’
It’s probably only twenty minutes, but it feels like forever before we’re ready. The low light of dawn is flooding the forest around us. I’ve hardly slept, and my body aches with tiredness and my eyes feel heavy and sore. I shoulder my pack and try not to groan at its weight. I know what’s in there – I packed it myself – and I still don’t get how it’s so heavy. I’m carrying some food, a water skin, a rolled blanket and a change of clothes. And the Dad-Jar, of course. I’m not going anywhere without that. Maybe it’s the thought of lugging it up a steep mountain that makes it feel like it’s full of lead. I know we have to move quickly now, and I’m worried about how the werewolf version of “quickly” is going to compare to mine, given that I’m struggling before we’ve even set off.
We stand in silence for a few seconds. The camp is unusually sombre after everything that’s happened this morning. Some people are burying the dead and the rest have retired to their shelters. Occasionally I can just make out the sound of low sobbing or tense conversation.
‘They’re wondering who’s in charge,’ Reuben murmurs to me quietly. ‘Paul’s dead and his attacker is gone. There’s a power vacuum. It’ll make everyone nervous.’
‘Alright, let’s go,’ Andreas says and leads the way out of the campsite and into the forest.
The first leg of the journey takes us down a gentle slope, but before long the path starts to climb. The werewolves who are leading us don’t slow down at all. If anything, as the slope gets more challenging, they pick up pace. Gabriel keeps the rear position, and I know he’s using some skill of awareness to keep watch on the surrounding forest and make sure we’re not being followed. Alex walks beside me and keeps me company. I’m sure he’s only sticking with me so I don’t feel bad; I’ve seen how fast he can travel when he needs to.
I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and controlling my breathing. Even so, soon enough it seems like the only sound filling the forest is my huffing and puffing. My leg muscles are starting to burn from the effort, and the heel of my right boot is rubbing painfully, a blister starting to form right where the previous one, from the walk with Reuben, has barely healed.
Too bad. Better a blister than being tortured by demons. I try to picture Briony in my mind. We have to get her back. I have to be strong. I can’t slow them down.
Still, I know it’s only a blister but damn it hurts.
‘Can I suggest an alternative to silent self-torture?’ Alex says to me quietly. ‘It’s called first aid. I hav
e bandaids in my pack. We’ll stop for a lunch break soon. You could put one on. Unless you prefer to wallow in agony…’
‘A bandaid would be great, thanks.’ I say, through only slightly gritted teeth.
I’m relieved when we stop a few minutes later for a short break and something to eat. Our meal is dried meat, again. It’s chewy and tastes smoky and strong. I don’t ask what kind of meat it is. I have a powerful desire for fresh fruit and vegetables. And coffee. Oh my god, I’d be willing to kill for a coffee right now. Instead, I have a few sips of lukewarm river-water.
While Reuben and Andreas go ahead to check the path is clear, I pull my boots off and Alex applies some bandaids to the spots where the rubbing is worst. Gabriel comes over and crouches beside us. ‘You should have said something,’ he frowns at me.
‘It’s just a blister,’ I frown right back at him.
‘I’m onto it,’ Alex says quickly. ‘She’ll be fine.’
Once Alex has finished, I lace my boots up tight again and stand tentatively. Stopping seems to have only made my feet hurt more. I take a few hobbling steps.
‘You’re in pain,’ Gabriel says.
‘I’m fine,’ I say firmly. We don’t have time for me not to be.
A minute later, Reuben and Andreas are back, and we’re ready to start walking again.
‘Are you ready, cub?’ Reuben asks, studying me intently.
‘Yep. But don’t let me slow you down, you know I’m not as fast as you in the forest.’