Silence of the Wolves (13 page)

Footsteps echoed in the distance, bringing her crashing back to the here and now.

She needed to be alert; she needed her mind on the task at hand if she was going to get out of here.

The grimy corridor was horribly dark and wet. The brick walls pulled at her T-shirt, soaking through to her body and grazing her skin as she crept along. Tam found herself wishing like hell she could find a way to keep herself from sight. Something slithered its way past her arm, tugging at her. She grabbed at whatever it was, frantically trying to pull herself free, but it felt like wind against her fingertips. Stopping in her tracks, she glanced down at her arm and couldn’t see what it was for the life of her. Her shoulder disappeared into the darkness. She felt a slight pull as her hand slipped into the darkness, hitting skin shortly after.

Abruptly, the memory of Leyth appearing on her windowsill hit her. She let her fingers slip from her arm until she could feel the light tension of the air above it; wrapping her fingers around the whisper of tension she lightly tugged it towards her stomach, and around her shoulder, allowing herself to sink slowly into the darkness. As her body slid into the gloom, her skin quickly disappeared into the blackness of the shadows, hiding behind it. The footsteps quickly got louder; thundering towards her. The heavy sound bouncing off the surrounding walls, assaulting her senses with the clatter of foot against stone, the scent of death wrapping around her, as fear curled its way around her. The feeling of impending danger hit her like a tonne of bricks. She shoved the tight ball of fear away, telling it to take a back seat.

Tugging at the darkness around her, Tam allowed herself to sink further into it, biting back a silent curse as her skin was cloaked in shadows, making her invisible. Tamriel stood frozen to the spot as a gaunt, pale looking man raged around the corner. His pale, flaking skin looked almost blue in the dim lighting from the bare bulbs hanging above her head and his bones stuck out of his skin at sharp angles, making him look like he’d been starved for months. His almost-skeletal face framed eyes that were black as the night. They held no trace of life what so ever. Shit, this man was creepy. She could smell putrid death as he came within range; as if his flesh was literally rotting from his bones. As the zombie stalked past her, she couldn’t move, fear holding her in place.

He walked up to one of the wooden doors lining the walls and brought a set of keys out of his pocket, sliding the thing home.

He struggled to turn it sideways, thrashing it around before finally there was a quiet click. Slowly, he turned the handle and thrust the door forward, the movement making his body jerk, his arm jarring, his shoulder dislocating itself. With a curse the zombie clasped a bony hand around the joint and cracked it back into place, the effort making his entire body shake, his head rolling back and smacking the wall.

Tam barely held in the scream as the man’s eye bounced out of its socket, flying its way down to hit his chin. It was still attached but barely by stringy veins, running from the eye, through the socket into his skull. The zombie gripped its loose eyeball and used it to check the hallway behind him, the bloody eye looking over his shoulder, before sliding it back into place with ease. Bile rose. Tam clasped a hand over her mouth to stop from throwing up all over the place as she watched him crack the door, slide inside and slam the rickety thing behind himself.

Breathing hard, Tam stared at the wooden door. Torn between fear screaming at her to run as far and as fast as she could, and the curious need to go and check the room, to see what the zombified freak was doing.

Tuhrned, we call them tombs because they’re like the walking dead.
Leyth’s voice rumbled its way out of her thoughts, making her ache for him, pain constricting her chest, making it harder to breathe. He really was telling the truth. Why the hell hadn’t she listened to him?!

Pulling herself together, she inched closer to the door, straining her ears for any sounds that were coming from inside. Harsh breathing.

‘Please,’ someone begged. ‘Please don’t.’

Tam held her breath trying desperately to listen, but all she could hear was her own heartbeat, thumping loud and clear, making her flinch at every thud. Once again, the image of her wolf flooded her mind. She remembered exactly how its ears had looked, black, tipped with graceful red fur.

Pain hit her hard, her ears ringing with the sudden rip of agony. Tam tried desperately to shove the sensation away; now was
not
the time. Her hands shot up to the side of her head, cupping her ears.

Holy crap. They were moving, distorting, cracking. The sound of it roared through her head, making her wince.

You’re a werewolf.
Her stomach threatened to hurl at the memory but, hell, things were weird enough already. She had nothing left to lose.

And honestly? A sharp set of teeth were surely going to help in this situation. Giving herself over to the pain, to the memory of her wolf, she let go.

The heat pulsating from her core all but engulfed her, overtaking her until all she knew was pain and heat; it was so deadly focused on her ears, she had to bite back a scream as they writhed and shifted on her head.

Teeth weren’t what she received. As the pain subsided, and the heat rushing from her core boiled down to a minimum, she saw that her hands were still as they’d been before. Very human. Her face was the same as ever, but her ears were no longer where they should be.

There was nothing but skin in their place and, as she gingerly lifted her fingers, probing the hair on her head, she felt fur; two furry peaks, no,
ears
! Strutting out from the crown on her head. Tears welled up and threatened to spill from her eyes, making her sight blurry. What was happening to her?!

Pull yourself together!
she snapped at herself sternly. Act first and worry later. Swiping at unwanted tears, she sent her senses out into the open, listening intently. Silence. Then laboured breathing.

Abruptly a scream thrashed its way out of the room briefly, deafening her. Jesus Christ. She rubbed at her poor ears as fresh tears began to prickle her eyes. She had to help whoever was in there.

Inching forward, the coppery stench of blood hit her nose as surely as if it had slapped her in the face. It was coming from the room.

With determination heating her veins, Tam crept forward as quickly as she could, keeping the darkness wrapped around herself she reached the door. Following her nose, she fumbled silently with the wood, coming finally to the small crack. Crouching slightly, she peered through it.

The tomb was leaning over something; a body, a woman as naked as the day she was born. The girl was thrashing weakly against the thing, trying to get it to release its grip on her. After a moment, the zombie came up for air, its mouth leaving her, blood streaming its way down its gaunt face. It was eating her. The tomb struck again, fangs sinking into her neck. It swallowed in great gulps, sucking at her, draining her life. Her weak attempts at resisting subsided as she visibly gave up.

Tam pulled her knife out of her bra and thrust her way into the room. The smell of blood hit her, making her stomach growl and her canines lengthen. The two sharp points tore at her gums as they shot into her mouth; she winced, but shoved her confusion aside.

The tuhrned hadn’t yet seen her; it was so engrossed with feeding on the woman’s neck it didn’t hear the door crack open. Didn’t notice Tam as she threw herself at it; sending a heavy kick at the tomb’s back, she felt bone snap as its spine gave way beneath the force of her.

It fell to the floor with a thud and she didn’t waste a minute stamping on the back of the thing’s head, breaking its neck. The impact of the zombie’s skull on her bare foot sent pain jolting up her leg, jarring her ankle.

‘You. Have…’ the woman whispered, clutching her torn throat with her hand.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here. Just hang on.’ Tam nicked the thin material of her top with a sharp, pointy tooth and tore a section off, pressing the material to the woman’s neck.

‘Cut. Cut. Its head off—’ The injured girl choked.

Tam swung round as the tomb rolled itself over. With all the strength that she had, she raised the flip knife into the air, bringing it down hard on the tomb’s neck; it cut through skin like butter hitting bone and she gave it a harsh push as it battled its way through bone and hit the concrete with a crack. Ripping the knife sideways, she tore through the remaining skin until its head was completely severed.

She watched, fighting the urge to hurl as the tomb’s black eyes faded slowly, revealing lifeless, blue irises. Once he was a man. No more.

The woman on the floor choked out a cough, Tam whipped around, trying to push the images of the tomb’s severed head away. The memory was like a scar, an imprint that might fade but would never leave. She had a feeling she would be having nightmares about those eyes for the rest of her life. Kneeling next to the woman, she put pressure on the wound.

‘Stay with me, we’ll get through this.’ Tam stroked the woman’s salt and pepper hair from her forehead.

‘Run,’ the woman croaked, her voice hoarse. Her eyes locked onto her. ‘Now.’

‘No, I’m not leaving you. You’re wolf, right?’ The woman forced a nod.

‘Shift. When Leyth changed form, he healed his leg faster. Try to shift.’

‘Can’t.’ The woman waved a weak hand at her leg. Looking down, Tam realised there was a web of pins sticking out of her flesh.

Grasping at the tiny things, she hissed as her skin hit the metal. It stung like hell.

‘Silver,’ the woman rasped. Without allowing herself to think, Tam ripped the thin metal pins free, throwing them to the floor as they slid out of the woman’s leg. Her skin roared in protest, but she kept going until she’d released every last one. Tam’s fingers were burnt and blistered as a result of the contact with the metal, but she didn’t care; she had to help this woman.

As soon as the last of the silver pins had left her skin, the woman let out a roar, her bones breaking and re-arranging themselves, her body collapsing and rebuilding itself. Finally, fur broke out of her skin in waves, black and grey, covering her skin until sitting at Tam’s feet was a beautiful wolf with black fur covering her ears and face and blending gracefully into grey fur on her sides. Her eyes opened, icy grey. They looked almost exactly like Leyth’s eyes.

‘Any better?’ Tam put pressure back on the wolf’s neck, which was still bleeding.

The wolf whimpered, its breathing slowing.

‘No. No you can’t die. Stay the hell with me.’ The wolf weakly pawed at Tam’s hand, closing its eyes. She stroked the creature’s fur, whispering to her the entire time. Eventually the wolf’s breathing slowed to a stop. Her heart stopped beating.

In her last moment of life, the wolf looked at peace. Tam leant her head against the wolf’s soft fur sobbing. The tears that spilled over just wouldn’t stop coming. She cried for the woman, for herself, for this situation and everything that had changed about her life. She cried for Leyth, for the fact that she’d pushed him away and might never see him again. Even though now was the time she needed him the most.

Back at the alleyway where Tamriel had first gone through her change, Leyth was carefully inspecting the pool of dried blood on the floor. Tam’s scent was all over the place. But that made sense; she’d been here not too many days ago. Maybe it was his subconscious missing her, looking for any sign that she was near. Shoving thoughts of that beautiful female away, he tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

‘Leyth,’ Carl grunted, his thinning silver hair stirring gently in the breeze; his raspy American baritone was like music to Leyth’s ears.

‘Hey, where are the djinn?’

Djinn were supernaturals that had no form; they could take the image of a human on, and shift their features to suit it.

Most of them chose one look and stuck to it, but their natural form, though shaped like a human, was completely devoid of character; they had an undefined opening where their mouth should be, two slits that went straight into their otherwise completely flat skull in place of a nose, and the same again for eyes. They had no hair to speak of, the females had no breasts, and neither gender had genitalia. The only defining body part was their ears, pointy and elf-like.

Leyth didn’t want to know how they reproduced, though he imagined they just shifted that area of their body to work for them.

Djinn couldn’t take the form of animals, but they could drastically change their features. Their best ability, however, was to make themselves spectral; ghost-like. They could walk through walls, doors and people. And change between ethereal and solid at will.

‘They’re around here somewhere—’

‘Carl, look, I’m sorry about all that’s gone down, man. I should have waited,’ Leyth explained.

‘Nah, man, we were only two minutes out. I would have done the same thing, to be honest, especially with John’s pup going through the fever early,’ he said, slapping a manly hand on Leyth’s shoulder. ‘Just
please
check your phone next time!’

‘Yeah. Sorry,’ Leyth muttered.

‘Sorry to interrupt this male lovefest,’ Jake, one of the two djinn, said as he walked straight out of a nearby brick wall. As Jake began to change from his ethereal form to a more solid, human form, he began to grow short blonde hair, his face taking shape and transforming him into one of the most stunning men you could possibly ever hope to see in your life. His brown eyes were searching the surrounding walls, probably looking for his brother.

‘There’s nothing in the buildings around here. The flats are completely empty bar a few older couples. The offices—’

‘Are as empty as Jake’s bed.’ Jones, the second djinn’s invisible form sauntered out, straight through the brick wall opposite; slowly growing brown hair and highly chiselled manly features as his spectral body began to take solid form. His eyes were almost identical to Jake’s; the only real sign that they were brothers.

‘Are you insinuating that I can’t get laid?’ Jake chuckled. ‘Weak.’

‘Not so much an insinuation, as a fact.’

‘Fact? Oh, Jones, are you confusing my bed with yours?’

‘Unfortunately, I think that’s wishful thinking on your part.’

The djinn were notoriously bitchy. ‘Guys.’ Leyth cut them off. ‘I need you all to put these on.’ He pulled free the little plastic bag with the micro coms in.

Carl, of course, took it like a man, only grunting slightly as Leyth pushed the little pins into his ear and mouth as Dax had done previously to Leyth.

Jake and Jones, on the other hand, bitched and moaned, cursing Leyth to the high heavens.

‘Dax, Julian, can you hear me?’ Leyth said, hoping like hell one of them was listening in.

‘Yup, loud and clear,’ came Dax’s voice, the grumble reverberating through Leyth’s head.

‘Ah, hell,’ Carl and the two djinn barked, slapping their hands over their ears.

‘Sorry…’ Dax chuckled, pausing before adding, ‘Is that better?’

‘Yup,’ Carl grunted. ‘Can he hear me?’

‘Yes I can.’ Dax snorted down the mic. ‘Julian’s in a meeting, but he’ll be back online in a bit. Shout if you need us.’

Leyth grinned at the two djinn as they gently fingered the micro coms attached to them, obviously trying to make sense of them. He had been a little worried about the djinn wearing the coms because of their spectral state. He couldn’t work out how the little metal pins were going to fare if they ghosted their arses through a wall, but then they wore bags, clothes, belts and jewellery, all of which became spectral with them, so it must have something to do with the particular magic they used to make themselves invisible. Leyth pulled the small metal gun that Dax had used to inject him with a chip out of his bag and slipped in a fresh needle.

‘GPS chip,’ he said in answer to Carl’s confused expression.

‘No way, man, I refuse to be chipped like a damn dog,’ Carl protested.

‘Pipe it, shifter,’ Leyth snapped, walking over to him. ‘We’re dealing with the Circle here; precaution is the name of game. If they get one of us, we need to have a way of letting the pack find us.’

‘Fine,’ Carl growled. ‘But you’re taking the thing out afterwards.’

Leyth nodded in response; he didn’t want to tell him that he wasn’t actually sure if that could be done.

After he’d shot the tiny chip into the back of Carl’s neck, he replaced the needle with a fresh one and stalked over to the two djinn.

‘No frigging way, wolf, you ain’t coming near me with that thing!’ Jake slapped at him with a hand. Leyth paused and opened his mouth as if to argue, watching the djinn as he braced himself for a bitchy response.

Instead of arguing, as Jake obviously expected him to, Leyth palmed the guy’s head and pushed him down, quickly shooting the chip straight into his neck without hesitation.

‘You arsehole. I do
not
want to be chipped. I am
not
part of your pack, I just happen to work with you bunch of mutts.’

Leyth stifled a grin and he turned around as if to walk away, allowing Jones to think he was off the hook. The djinn in question took the bait without question, quietly wandering over to check out his brother’s minute wound on the back of his neck. Stupidly, Jones then turned his back on Leyth, a movement he felt rather than saw, and took full advantage of, swinging around abruptly and bracing a hand against the djinn’s shoulder, gently burying the tip of the needle into his neck with the third and final GPS chip.

‘For God’s sake,’ the brunette djinn barked, rubbing his neck. ‘Leyth, you are one hell of a dickhead.’

‘You know, I might work for you lot,’ Jake spat, ‘but I have goddamn rights…’

‘Wait—’ Carl held a hand up, quickly cutting the frantic ranting off.

He started sniffing the air. ‘Someone’s been here today.’

‘What? The only other person I can smell is Tamriel.’

‘She was here earlier today. Her scent is everywhere. It’s fresh.’

Leyth snapped his phone out and dialled Julian without a second’s hesitation.

‘
What
?’ the alpha snapped on the third ring.

‘Julian, have you spoken to Sapphire since she went to watch Tamriel?’

‘Yes, Leyth. She’s on her way now,’ Julian confirmed over the mini coms.

‘She was here, at the scene where Alison was taken. She was here
today
, Julian,’ Leyth snapped.

‘Shit. I’ll get Sapphire to hit the gas and call you with an update.’

‘Thanks.’

It took only minutes, but felt like hours, before the phone went off in his hand. He almost snapped the thing in half as he hastily answered it.

‘It’s Leyth, talk to me,’ he barked down the phone.

‘Hi, it’s Sapphire. She’s not here.’

‘What?’

‘She’s not at home,’ Sapphire explained.

‘Find her. Please find her, Saph!’ Leyth pleaded.

‘Leyth. There’s more.’

‘Tell me.’

‘Her flat’s been raided. It looks like the Circle has been here. I can smell death and magic, and the entire place has been turned upside down.’

‘I want everybody available on this. I need
everyone
. Call Julian, let him know what’s happening.’

‘OK, hon, don’t worry, we’ll find her. She’s one of ours now, after all.’

Carl and Leyth checked the entire space from top to bottom.

‘I’m gonna shift,’ Carl said. In a matter of seconds, he’d stripped off and started the shifting process, his bones cracking and reforming, his skin stretching and shaping to accommodate his new shape. As a shifter he could turn himself into more or less any animal on the planet, but he’d have to know every detail about the animal to be able to guide his body into the correct shape. As his body began to take the form of what looked like a dog, his face had elongated to form a snout and his bony body reshaped to form four legs rather than arms and human-sized legs, and his spine had stretched to form a long tail. Carl’s skin started to writhe on his bones, giving way to wave upon wave of grey fur, until he stood fully shifted, finally taking the form of a very grey, shaggy, equally tired-looking dog. Greyhound maybe? That would make sense; dogs were less suspect than wolves if they needed to go public.

Checking the floor again, Carl walked straight over to the side of the courtyard where Alison had collapsed; a small pool of her blood still on the floor. The mutt sniffed the area and skirted the edge of the dark stain, his keen senses as a scent hound would be more precise than his human senses.

Eventually he found what he was looking for, and shot a bark in Leyth’s direction, signalling him to have a look at what he had picked up on.

Crouching by the mutt, Leyth found the tiniest splodge of blood on the floor. Inhaling deeply, Leyth picked past the generic coppery scent and found earthy tones beneath it that resembled Julian’s own scent. Alison. They’d carried her out of here on foot. The dried spots of blood ran across the courtyard and out towards the road.

‘Go.’ Leyth nodded at Carl, who shot off as soon as he’d heard the word. Leyth had to run at full pace to keep up with the shifter, keeping his eyes on the ground as he went. The two djinn where ghosting in and out of the surrounding buildings, checking for anything suspicious, but nothing appeared to be out of place. Neither of them bothered reforming into their solid state. It took less effort to glide in their spectral form than it did to run in a solid body, and Christ did they move quickly. They literally ran circles around Carl and Leyth as they floated in and out of the buildings around them.

Following the tiny droplets along the pavement, they finally ended up at an abandoned office block. The four of them thundered through the glass revolving door to the building. They were met with nothing. An empty, glass-fronted building that, for some reason, made his skin crawl.

Leyth inhaled deeply; the scent of dust and age was overpowering but, underneath, teasing his nostrils ever so slightly, was Tamriel’s scent. She’d been here too, if only briefly. He hastily moved into the belly of the building. Fear leapt to the surface, his every nerve buzzing with the need to hightail it out of there and get as far away as was physically possible.

Carl glanced at him, his furry face twisted in an expression that was somewhere between fear and determination. Carl motioned at Leyth with his nose to push forward.

Leyth pulled himself together, ignoring the sensation of sickly fear curling his gut into a solid ball.

‘I hate this stuff—’ Jake groaned, sticking his hand out in front of him to test the density of the magic in the air.

‘Me too, it’s a coward’s trick,’ Jones agreed, though he was still in spectral form so his words sounded empty, a ghostly whisper that caressed Leyth’s ears. They moved forward, bracing themselves against the fear.

Damn magis. This was a typical prevention spell. Puts the fear of God into those who cross it; if you were to encounter it unaware, you physically can’t resist the urge to run.

‘Crap, I haaaate those spells,’ Jones drawled.

‘You know, it’s the
only thing
I can’t walk through.’

Shaking himself off, Leyth scanned the surrounding area. The building was dark. Dull grey walls surrounded the empty foyer. There was what looked to be an old broken reception desk, a sectioned-off area that looked like it held a set of elevators and little else. A thin layer of dust covered the room, but the stuff looked like it had been there for years. It didn’t seem to have been disturbed; the only evidence of life seemed to be what they were creating.

Just by the door, there was a smaller set of footprints in the dust that came about a third of the way into the room, then did a hasty turnaround back out of the door. Tamriel. At least she hadn’t managed to come all the way in.

The reception desk that stood against the far wall had nothing on it, and the small corridor with several lifts lining the wall was equally empty. Carl worked his way over to a door on the far side and barked.

Leyth hot-footed it over there and opened the door, keeping his back to the wall, fingers brushing his bolo at his knee. It was reassuring to have the knife there, especially since the knives clipped to his chest weren’t his own.

Tamriel still had those. A stab of pain nailed him in the gut at the thought of her but he pushed it down. These idiotic feelings he had for that female were going to get him in trouble if he wasn’t careful. The doorway led to a small stairwell, and the winding steps only went one way – up. Carl snorted.

‘Doesn’t look like there’s going to be much up there.’ Leyth absently petted the mutt on the head, who huffed and sat down.

‘Fine. You can stay here, I’m going to check it out anyway.’

Carl plodded his way back into the foyer as Leyth began to climb the stairs to the first floor.

‘We’ll check the next floor up.’ Jake’s ghostly voice brushed past him. Leyth glanced around to see the djinn literally float up the stairs.

The room he entered was as desolate as the rest of the building. The grey walls came out to meet him, leading him to room after room of empty offices, some lined with sorry-looking desks, others obviously old meeting rooms. There was a sheen of undisturbed dust that covered each and every object in the various rooms, and very little else. There was no scent to speak of other than the disgusting smell of age and dust that seemed to be clogging his senses.