Silence of the Wolves (12 page)

As he reached the hidden door at the front, it clicked softly, sliding to the side and allowing him entry. Leyth didn’t bother knocking or calling out. Dax would have known he was coming long before he got there.

‘Hey, man,’ Leyth yelled as the door automatically closed behind him. ‘Gonna let me all the way in or keep me in the damn box?’ The box in question was a glass container just inside the door; it was bulletproof, fireproof and magicproof. The Maker himself wouldn’t be able to escape it.

‘You’re clear. Come in, man.’ Dax’s deep voice snorted through the speakers either side of the door; there was another quiet click and the next door slid open. Leyth held a hand up to shield his eyes for a moment while they adjusted to the bright lights of the monitors that lined each and every wall in the room. The monitors ran from floor to ceiling, and were controlled from a desk Dax kept off to one side; the monitor to the right was divided into hundreds of sections, all of which were security camera footage of the pack’s land. Leyth knew, without looking, that the wall behind him was the glass front to the building that would be covered in much the same thing, though revealing a panoramic view of the land surrounding Dax’s house. In front of him stood the wolf himself; his dark hair was slick with sweat, sticking to his forehead. His tank top was wet through and his sweatpants looked like they’d seen better days. He’d obviously been working out. ?

‘What’s up, Leyth?’

‘Sorry, man, I don’t have time for niceties,’ Leyth interrupted.

‘Fine, never really liked all that bollocks anyway. Got your text, was just about to clean up…’

‘Yeah, thanks,’ Leyth interrupted again, ignoring Dax’s scowl. ‘Listen, you know Alison has gone missing?’

‘Yeah, I’ve caught bits about it.’

‘Julian will fill you in properly, but I need a favour.’

‘Sure, man, what can I do for you?’

Leyth filled Dax in on what he and Carl were going to do, being that they didn’t know where they’d end up or if they would even be able to track Alison at all; he couldn’t really give Dax all that much information on what exactly they would need. But then, this man was an absolute genius. A grumpy, brooding arsehole maybe, but a genius nonetheless.

‘Give me a minute.’ Dax strode over to his large black desk and sat down in the huge black leather chair. He pushed a few buttons on the keypad, abruptly making the formally black wall in front of them flash bright white.

‘Christ!’ Leyth cursed, as he rubbed his eyes, mourning his blinded retinas. Dax started tapping away on his keyboard and images began to flicker on the screen; a map, a GPS tracking dot, and several camera images of the local town before, in the middle of the screen, a grainy security camera image popped up.

‘That the alley?’ Dax muttered.

‘Yup.’

‘Time?’

‘About 9 p.m., Thursday last week.’

The grainy image did an awkward rewind, as Dax forced the thing backwards.

‘It’s the Council’s security footage; I’ve just downloaded the files for the last month for this camera and the surrounding ones.’

‘Damn, that was fast.’ Leyth grinned as Dax hit play and he watched the alleyway in its quiet stillness. After a few minutes, a grainy image of a man dressed in black staggered into view. And yup, there, being dragged by her hair, kicking and screaming up a storm, was a very blurry Alison.

Leyth’s mouth went dry as anger washed through him; he was such a moron for leaving her.

‘I’m going to get you some supplies,’ Dax growled, stalking out of the room.

Christ, the anger radiating from that wolf was so damn strong it practically scorched Leyth’s skin. Mind he, like every other wolf in this pack, was going to be furious that Alison had been taken. A male in fear for a pack female’s life was a dangerous thing, though with Dax it was a little different. He wasn’t just furious. He was worried and scared.

‘Here, put these on,’ Dax growled as he came back into the main room, handing Leyth two little black pins.

‘What the—?’

‘Oh come on. You’ve seen micro coms before, haven’t you?’

‘Er, I can’t say I have, no!’

Dax bent Leyth’s head down and pushed the pin just inside his ear; the cool metal slid in easily, making Leyth curse at the sting of pain.

‘Shut up, you baby. Open your mouth,’ Dax snapped, picking up the second pin. Leyth complied, opening his mouth as Dax slid the little pin into his cheek at the back of his mouth.

Dax swung himself back down onto the big leather chair. He held a hand up at Leyth as he slid a headset on and spoke into the mic: ‘Test.’ He said the word so quietly, it was barely a whisper across his lips, but the word reverberated through Leyth’s eardrums. ‘What the hell?’

‘Ahhh, man, not so loud!’ Dax snapped, slapping a hand over his ear and fiddling with various dials.

‘How’s that?’ he asked. The words came out of his mouth but seemed to echo straight into Leyth’s skull.

‘Um, yeah?’

‘OK.’ Dax’s voice echoed in his mind. ‘The com in your ear is a mini-speaker. You’ll be able to hear everything I say. The one in your mouth is a microphone, so I’ll be able to hear everything you say.’

Leyth nodded.

‘These are for Carl, and the djinn,’ Dax continued, handing Leyth a little bag with more pins in it. ‘And this…’ he said, snapping out what looked like a miniature metal gun and thrusting it into the back of Leyth’s neck, ‘is a GPS chip.’

‘Ahhh! Fuck!’ Leyth hissed, rubbing at the sore pinprick on the back of his neck.

‘I’ve been trying to convince Julian to use them for ages… It seems you, my man, are our first test subject,’ Dax explained.

‘Could have warned me first,’ Leyth grumbled, trying desperately not to think about the implications of Dax knowing exactly where he was at all times.
At all times
.

‘There are three more chips in this, and here are some spare needles.’ Dax handed Leyth the metal gun and a small padded bag,

‘For Carl and the djinn?’

‘Yup. I’ll set a monitoring system in Julian’s office so he can keep track of you, and I’ll be wearing micro coms and have my portable system with me while we go hunting for a live tomb.’ Dax grinned, an expression that was quickly wiped away as an almighty scream echoed out through the room.

They both fell instantly into a defensive pose; Leyth’s palm twitching to release his bolo, Dax’s eyes scanning the area.

They quickly realised that the scream was coming from the speakers surrounding them. The noise was a recording from the CCTV footage. The two of them eyed the screen just in time to see the grainy image of Leyth bolting out of the little gap between the buildings, Tamriel’s pale, limp body slumped over his shoulder.

‘Goddamn,’ Leyth cursed. ‘I can’t believe I left her there.’

Dax grunted and slapped a hand on Leyth’s shoulder. ‘Tamriel looked dead, man. Anyone would have done the same thing.’

There was no more action on the screen. Leyth and Dax stood silently, watching, not daring to breathe. Abruptly, four men dressed in black shot around the corner and ran into the alley.

The first man had a headless black-clothed body, wrapped in clear plastic, flopped over his shoulder, the next was carrying the head like a football under one arm, also covered in plastic.

The last two carried an unconscious, bleeding Alison. The group of them sprinted off down the road, towards the abandoned buildings to the east of Folkestone.

Only a heartbeat later, a van Leyth and Dax both recognised as Carl’s swung to a halt on the roadside next to the alley. Carl’s spindly body shot out, followed quickly by Sapphire.

Several seconds later, they reappeared; Sapphire barking something into her phone, Carl cursing and throwing punches at the wall beside him.

Leyth and Dax stood, just staring at the screen for a moment.

‘Crap. I gotta go find her,’ Leyth growled.

‘Hell yeah, you do,’ Dax grunted. For just a second, Leyth could have sworn there were tears sparkling in his eyes.

‘Keep me updated. Shout for me if you need
anything
,’ Dax barked, ushering Leyth out of his house.

‘Will do, man,’ Leyth shouted over his shoulder as he ran back to the mansion’s gravelled driveway to find his car. The battered old Jeep might not be as fast as his bike, but they would need it if they had to transport any wounded back to the clinic.

A shiver ran up Leyth’s spine at the thought of his pack, his brothers, getting hurt in the cross fire, but then fighting was such a huge part of their lives that it was inevitable that injuries would happen.

He cursed the damn Circle for the violence and destruction they had wrought.

Tamriel woke to the sound of whimpering. Who was that? She tried to crack an eyelid, but it just wouldn’t open. Rubbing a hand across her face, she found something crusted across her skin, cementing her eyes shut. Pawing at the stuff, it came away easily.

When she finally managed to get her eyes open, it took a second for things to focus; her eyes adjusting slowly to the pitch-black room she was in.

Dried blood crusted against her face, making her hair stick to her forehead. Tam shoved the cold and sweaty strands away, absently wishing that she had a hairband to tie it back with.

The room was cold and damp, the musky scent of mould hung in the air along with something else. It smelt,
tasted
, bitter. Bile rose in her throat as she realised that the sticky, bitter scent invading her senses was fear.

When moving, Tam had to grit her teeth against the pain shooting up from her stomach. The damn wound was nearly healed, but that didn’t do much against the roaring pain she encountered every time she moved. She found she was sat on a dirty, broken mattress; the thing creaked as she shifted, broken springs digging onto her skin. Her aching body was cold; the chill of the room seeped through her flesh to her very core. At least whoever had taken her had the damn courtesy to put her on a mattress, even if it was an old broken one. It smelt like sweat, blood and sex.

Urgh. She leapt off it, wiping her hands on her jeans as if they were infected. Her feet hit the cold stone floor as she backed right up against a wall. The brick was wet; cold water met her fingertips and soaked through her clothes. Dripping, she could hear dripping. Where the hell was she?

Memories of getting clocked by something hard in the street came slowly back to her. A zombie with black eyes. She’d been taken by a tuhrned
.
Cursing herself for sending Leyth away and for not listening to him, Tam strained her eyes into the darkness. She had to get out of here. But, hell, she couldn’t see a thing.

The tiniest slither of light was creeping in from the other side of the room. It looked like a crack in the wall, perhaps? Not wanting to move or make noise, Tam focused on the light, letting it wash over her senses. A sharp, prickling pain started to itch at the back of her eyes.

Abruptly, an image of the red wolf from her dream came to mind. Tam wanted to push the distraction away and concentrate, but the wolf was so comforting. In her mind she looked it in the eye, memorising each feature.

Blinding heat soared from her core, washing over her. She embraced it, trying to chase away the chill that had settled into her bones. The pain behind her eyes became more acute. She shut her lids, trying to push it away but to no avail; her eyeballs felt like they were moving, writhing beneath her lids. She gritted her teeth and bared through the worst of it.

After several deep breaths, the pain and the roaring heat began to subside. After what seemed like decades, she opened her eyes.

Crikey, she could see everything. Cracked brick walls surrounded the tiny room she was in, the floor was cold, grey stone and yup, by her feet was a tiny single mattress, soaked in blood.

On the far side, there was a heavy wooden door. Why her vision had suddenly become so accurate she had no idea. She had always had better vision than most, but the room was frigging pitch black. What had changed?

Changed…
Ever heard of werewolves, Tamriel?

Doc’s heavy accented tones reverberated through her. Nope, all still human.

Tam did a quick pat down of the rest of her body. Her bare feet were cold on the wet stone floor, but she was thankful they’d left the rest of her clothes on her. Her jacket and Leyth’s knives were gone, as were her house keys. But they obviously hadn’t found the knife that was stashed in her bra. She guessed she had to be thankful for small mercies.

Quiet whimpering cut through the silence once more.

Tam grabbed at the knife and walked, being careful not to make any noise, over to the door. Pressing an ear lightly to the wooden surface, she did her best to ignore the throbbing headache thundering through her brain and held her breath, listening intently. Silence met her.

Other than the quiet whimpering in the distance, there were no footsteps, no talking or hushed whispers. Though that didn’t reassure her. She didn’t know how thick the door was or what it led to.

Sternly telling herself to grow a pair, she unclipped the knife’s blade and slid it down the crease where the door met the wall. As the knife clipped the catch, it made a quiet clang. Tam tensed, holding her breath, reaching out with every sense she had and hoping like hell no one had heard the noise.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she relaxed back into it, thrusting the knife carefully against the metal catch once again, trying to angle the point of the blade. After several painstaking minutes, the lock jolted backwards with a loud clunk, making her flinch.

Someone must have heard that.

Don’t wait to be found, she told herself.

Moving quickly, she hauled the door open and slipped through, closing it carefully behind herself. Keeping to the edge of the damp brick wall, Tam crept down the small hallway.

It stank to the high heavens, forcing her to take short, shallow breaths, trying her best to stop the pungent scent of old stagnant water, waste and the underlying terrifying scents of fear, the coppery twang of blood, and the undeniable smell of sex. She had absolutely no doubt that any sexual encounters that happened in this disgusting cold place hadn’t been between lovers, likely hadn’t even been consensual. She closed her eyes briefly against the thought, pushing the anger and sorrow for whoever had been involved away.