Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
The loup-garou rushed me, claws out, like a monstrous freight train of muscle and meanness. I braced, expecting the worst and prepared to take it, just so long as it didn’t get to Zee.
Purple sparks rained. Zee’s wings exploded in front of me, blocking my view, and then a bone-crunching smack sounded. “And fuckin’ stay down you weird-ass giant bug thing.”
Zee had swatted it.
A scream erupted—the sound like nothing I’d heard or felt before. Physical dissonance sliced through my body and bones. Clamping my hands over my ears, I dropped, trying to muffle the horrible noise. Zee rocked. His wings flapped. I saw sparks fly, but the scream splintered my sight too, until the world became a blur.
It cut off. I shook the fuzz from my head and blinked, sharpening my focus.
The loup-garou held Zee off the floor by his neck, while the creature’s other claw-tipped hand rested against Zee’s exposed midriff, over his arrow tattoo, ready to slice him in half.
Zee kicked uselessly, and his wings flapped, but the beast had him. He couldn’t focus enough to translocate or he would have already.
“Easy...” I spread my hands, showing the loup-garou I was unarmed. It didn’t need to know I was more lethal without weapons. “We’re just here to find the truth. Talk to us... tell us what’s happening... we’ll listen.”
Zee’s choking sounds triggered my rage. This creature had a few more seconds, then it was going to wish it had never met us.
Victor was out there somewhere, and as we’d now established, the creature staring at me and threatening to cut half my heart in half was not Duke, because Duke was out there too. Any moment now, they’d barge back in. A dragon, demon, vampire, and werewolf force would be enough to make any beast hesitate.
A wet gurgling sound came from the creature’s lips... Laughter?
That couldn’t be good.
“I don’t want to be the asshole here,” I warned. “But if you continue to hurt him, I will destroy you. I think you know I can, right? We’re pretty similar, you and me...”
The bubbling laughter cut off and the creature’s gaze fixed on me. I saw something more in the creature’s eyes too.
I . . . knew them?
With a howling screech, the loup-garou flung Zee across the bar. He struck the wall behind the counter, shattering bottles, and dropped into a mass of broken glass. I vaulted over the bar and dropped behind it, wincing at the countless cuts all over Zee’s bare arms and face.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah . . .” he croaked, pushing onto his hands.
I stole a glance over the bar, but we were alone and the door hung open. The loup-garou had gone, perhaps after Duke and Victor.
“Zee, are you really alright? Can you stand?”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re just surface scratches. I got this.” He wobbled to his feet. “It’s a giant bug, right? You saw that? Some kind of fuck-off enormous ant thing?”
It was more than that. “Zee, it’s Jenny.”
“The fuck?!” He flung his wings wide and gave himself an all-over shake, dislodging more glass. “Gen Z Jenny? She’s the gut-slicing murder guru? No fuckin’ way. I liked her socials. Ugh.”
“We need to find Victor and Duke before she does.”
I should have seen it before. Jenny knew the pack’s daily routines, knew the area well, knew everyone who stayed at the motel and when the bar would be empty. But I didn’t know why she’d gone on a murder spree... not yet. Right now, though, our main concern had to be stopping her and finding the rest of Galbraith—and hope he was still alive.
“So, here’s a thought.” Zee limped alongside me out the front of the bar. “We could hop into the Murder Machine, grab Zander—since he’s the only nice person here—and hightail it the fuck out of Misty Psycho Town?”
“We made a vow.”
“Oh, fuck. Ugh. You have morals. Right.”
“Victor?” I called. The motel and its eerily quiet lot swallowed my voice. No traffic, no signs of life at all. The mist had never really left, but clung on even heavier, obscuring the forest in all directions.
“He’s tough. He won’t let her cut him up twice.” Zee tried to reassure me and probably himself too. “Man, it sucks it’s her. Are you sure?”
“Pretty much, yeah. I’m guessing she used the perfume to cover her scent.”
“But she’s so small and cutsey, and she had all those little succulents in tiny pots.”
“Speaking from experience, small and cute is how the best predators hide.”
“Over there...” Zee hobbled toward our van, and the patch of blood sinking into the ground beside it. “That can’t be good. You think it’s Victor’s?”
“I don’t know...” But there was a trail of scuff marks and drips of blood heading into the forest.
“Ugh, of course she’s going into the woods, where all the fun things happen and definitely nobody dies.”
“We have to follow.”
“Yeah.” Zee gave his wings a shake. “And I can’t even get a look from above through this mist. This is the worst fuckin’ motel ever—even worse than ours. I’m leaving a one-star review.”
We followed the trail around the back of the motel, where a few broken air-conditioning units hummed and rattled. The forest suddenly looked very deep and dark and not at all friendly.
“Yeah, after this place, I’m really beginning to miss our hotel.”
“I even miss the gremlins,” Zee said. “I gave ’em names.”
“All of them?”
“Hard to tell. They all sorta look the same.”
“Victor?” I called, but the thick trees stopped the sound dead.
“I even named the real fuckin’ grumpy one Victor—you know, the one who looks like a potato that’s been in the ground too long?” Zee chuckled ... then swallowed, and stared into the murky gloom between the pillar-like trunks.
“I know the one.” The grumpy gremlin looked nothing like Victor, but its personality wasn’t far off.
Zee peered into the trees, searching for our grumpy vampire.
“We could have gone south... somewhere warm. Could be on a beach sipping cocktails, rubbing oil all over you?—”
“You hate sand.”
“I also hate mist, the damp, polyester, frogs, and whatever the fuck this oppressive, suffocating, spooky atmosphere is.” He huffed and stomped on. “Kitten, are we rescuing Daddy Spice again?”
“Maybe?”
With a dramatic eye roll, Zee strode into the gloom.
We tracked the scuffs and turned-over leaf litter for what felt like miles, our steps noisy in the thick silence.
Zee looked up and whispered, “Tracks stop here. She took whoever she has up there, maybe? Or, I dunno ... There’s nowhere else to go.”
“Can you poof up there?”
“Sure, if you want our location lit up with purple fireworks.”
There wasn’t much around, just more trees and a wall of brush that seemed like a great place to hide if you happened to be a seven-foot shapeshifter. Closing in on the bushes, I found a slight gap in their knotted foliage and shoved my way between the thorns.
A ravine opened up on the other side, like a huge gash in the earth, with a small creek all the way at the bottom. That drop had to be near a hundred feet.
Sudden movement snagged my senses. A cool hand slammed over my mouth, and Victor purred in my ear. “It’s me, my dear. Do not fear.”
I hadn’t been afraid. In fact, I’d gone from startled to intrigued, and now I was distracted by having his firmness folded around me and his lips tickling my ear.
“You could say hello like a normal person,” Zee whispered, creeping in to join us in the brush.
“The loup-garou has a den in the side of the ravine, tucked under the cliff edge,” Victor explained, taking his hand from over my mouth and shifting it to rest softly—and comfortingly—around my neck.
“It’s Jenny,” I told him. “She’s the loup-garou.”
His dark-lashed eyes widened. “Ah. Unexpected and disappointing, but perhaps not surprising.”
“Where’s Duke?” I asked, still distracted by Victor’s thumb now gently stroking my jaw. He probably didn’t even know he was doing it.
“The beta werewolf headed into the ravine, perhaps to find a route inside the den. Unfortunately, werewolves when shifted are difficult to communicate with. I do not know his intentions.”
“Do you think she has Galbraith in there?”
“Undoubtedly. The blood trail vanishes over there, but picks up again by the edge here.”
“Alive?” Zee asked.
“Possibly. If he is, he’s unconscious. There haven’t been any sounds of a struggle.”
“Alright, we’re here, so... how do we do this?” The bottom of the ravine was a long way down. Long enough that a fall would kill most things, and would definitely ruin my day. Zee had wings, but I didn’t, and Victor could probably scale the cliff edges. If I had my claws out, I might be able to scramble down.
“I could translocate outside the den, but not inside without seeing the layout. Don’t wanna end up with Gen Z on my insides.”
“We don’t know what we’d be walking into. Luring her out is more likely to result in our success,” Victor added.
“How do you lure out a loup-garou?” I asked.
“Wait.” Zee thrust out a palm. “I got this.” He stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. “Gen Z is literally named after me.” And with that, he hopped off the cliff edge and flapping his wings, descended into the ravine. As he hovered about halfway down, he started speaking in riddles. “For real, for real, your den is literally givin’ right now, girl,” he called. “The aesthetic so understated slay. Major earth-core vibes, bestie. Need me a natural setup like this, for real. Touch grass? Nah girl, you're livin’ the grass aesthetic on god!”
“I have no idea what he’s saying,” I admitted.
“It is rather perplexing.”
A growling snarl appeared to be Jenny’s reply.
"Listen, bestie,” Zee continued, wings stroking the air. “Not gonna lie, I get it’s giving cozy cave-girl vibes in there, but you can’t keep ghostin’ those feels. Like, no shade, but mental health check? We need to talk through this in real life. Your vibe’s been off, what with all the actual slayin’, and we’re low-key worried, boo. Dead serious, stayin’ in your comfort zone twenty-four seven ain’t the serve you think it is. My broskis are here for you, but you gotta take that first step and touch grass with us. Can’t heal if you’re low-key stuck in your own head, you feel me?"
The growls didn’t come this time. So maybe it was progress?
“Was Gen Z really named after Zee?” I whispered.
“It is highly unlikely, but we’ll let him take the credit.”
“Nah bro, for real, you just don’t get it.” Jenny’s voice came back crisp and clear now. “Like, literally nobody understands the vibe of being a main character in their villain era. It’s giving social outcast for real, and y’all can’t relate. Being shunned hits different when you’re actually living it. Like deadass, I’m not just in my flop era for fun.”
“Can you translate?” I asked Victor.
“I believe she is trying to express how she’s an outcast, and feels as though nobody understands her.”
“She feels alone.” I flicked out my hands, freeing my claws. I knew exactly how she felt. “Jenny?” I called. “I’m coming down. Don’t attack.”
“Adam?” Victor queried. His hand rested on my shoulder, partially holding me back.
“It’s alright.” Gently easing him off, I smiled, hopefully reassuring him. “We’re not that different, and I know exactly what she’s feeling. I can get through to her. Trust me.”
“Very well, but if you need my assistance, say our safe word.”
I grinned. “Indigo. Got it.” And with that, I dropped over the edge and thrust my claws into dirt, roots, and vegetation to scramble down the ravine’s steep sides. “I’m coming in.” I dropped into the mouth of the den, landing in a crouch.
“Say the word and I’m there,” Zee called from his hovering position outside.
Jenny stood a few meters inside with the slumped-over Galbraith behind her. With a leg missing, he wasn’t having the best day, but he was still breathing. We could still save him.
“Hey, it’s alright . . .”
Jenny had seen my claws, and looked at me harder than when we’d spoken before. “You think you understand me? You think you know what it’s like to be low-key shunned because of what you are? To have this rage inside? This need to be loved but to always be ignored or pushed away?”
“I do know.” I raised my hands, projecting calm, and ventured a step closer. “I meant what I said; we’re kinda the same.”
She sniffed, her expression troubled, and rubbed at her arms. “You kill people too?”
“Uh... sort of. Sometimes? But I guess what I really meant is that I understand the rage. Sometimes it’s all there is, all you can see and taste and feel, and you can’t contain it anymore. You’re tired and angry. You’ve been alone for a really long time, and it hurts. Believe me, I really do know how that feels.”
“For real.” She sniffed. “I saw what they did to Zander—how they kicked him out—but I thought if I burned his cabin, they’d have no choice. They’d have to take him back. I didn’t mean to hurt him, but he came at me with a shotgun, bro!” Her skin rippled, beginning to come undone.
“It’s alright.”
Calmer, she fought the urge to shift. “But the pack still won’t take him back. They won’t accept him. So they’ll never except me, and if they can’t accept me the way I am, then they can all be dead! Everyone made me their villain, so here I am! Low-key gonna murder them all!”
“Uhm, well, that’s one way of looking at it. I was like that too, I guess. And you know what, the more I uh... unalived people, the more it hurt, and the more I had to end more people to try and fix the pain... until nobody was left. That loneliness was my own fault. I did it to myself, Jenny, and I know it hurts. But if you see how you’ve hurt yourself too, then you can maybe try and start to heal? It’s not all your fault.”
She sniffed again, close to tears. “You’re a dragon? For real?”
“Yeah.”
“The last?”
“I thought so... I maybe missed one, but that’s not important right now.”
“How do you live every day knowing you’re alone and different and everyone hates you?” The rage was back, her tears fizzling away. “Why don’t you just eat them all?”
“I’ve thought about it a few times. There are still days I feel like that, but I found two amazing people. They showed me a different view, I guess.”
“Great for you. But I got nobody. My own family didn’t want me. The Whiteacre Riders don’t deserve me!”
Galbraith huffed, still out cold but sounding as though he might be struggling to breathe.
“Jenny, I hear you, I do, but... right now, you have to let Galbraith go. Leaving him there to die isn’t going to fix anything. It’s not going to make you less angry. I know, trust me.”
“Yeah, it will. Actually ... he’s gonna die and I’m going to watch the light snuff out of his eyes because I have sigma energy and I don’t need a pack... I don’t need anyone.” She spun and marched over to where Galbraith wheezed.
I could have been her. If I hadn’t found Zee, if Victor hadn’t checked into the hotel, I may have eaten everyone who I thought deserved it, and this would be where I’d have ended up—in a cave, in the woods, a little bit mad, and very alone. It could still happen. We were all just a few bad days away from going on a murder spree.
“Jenny.” I needed a way to get through to her—reason wasn’t working. “Jenny... what about your plants?” It was a long shot. “All those succulents?” Yeah, okay, it was a stretch.
“The plants are all plastic, bro. I tried to grow real ones, even they didn’t want me. They withered and died to spite me.” She knelt beside the wounded alpha. “It won’t be long now. You’ll die and maybe I’ll take over the pack, hm?”
I was beginning to get the impression Jenny may be beyond my reach, but I had to try. “It doesn’t have to be like this.” I inched closer. “You don’t have to hurt everyone else because you’re hurting.”
“I heard your speech, Adam. You can go now. Or stay and watch him die. You might get a kick out of it too, huh?” The smirk she sent over her shoulder did not convince me this was going to get better. “If we’re so alike, join me. We don’t have to stop here, we can go north, go town to town, make them all pay.”
Victor had told me several times that we couldn’t save them all.
I’d been saved, when I really shouldn’t have been. Jenny didn’t have anyone to save her... just us.
I took another careful step. “Jenny, please listen... It’s not too late. Stop now, let Galbraith live. We’ll help you find a way through this?—”
“You seem nice, Adam. If we’d met before, things could have been different. But I have a taste for blood, and as you know, deep down, once you feel this power, once you see the life drain right out of someone, there’s no going back.” Her form shifted and warped, splitting apart and stitching back together in the large, fluid, long-limbed humanoid outline of the loup-garou.
The other thing Victor had taught me is that you cannot save those who don’t want to be saved.
“Werewolf incoming!” Zee yelled.
I twisted in time to see fifteen hundred pounds of werewolf fur barreling down on me. Duke knocked me aside as easily as swatting a fly. I stumbled, braced against the rock wall, and whirled.
Duke reared up on his hind legs, huge jaws open to snap around Jenny’s neck. But Jenny was on her feet too. She met his assault with a vicious slash. Duke danced back, dropped to all fours, then lunged and sank his teeth into her arm. Jenny let out a screeching wail and punched the claws of her free hand up, delivering an uppercut that sank four vicious claws deep into Duke’s snout.
“Stop!”
“A little late, Kitten.” Zee sauntered in. “Hey, Gen Z, wanna cookie?” He tossed a packet of Oreos at Jenny’s face. Jenny, not knowing what he’d thrown—maybe a hand grenade—recoiled, dropping Duke. Reeling, she stumbled backward over Galbraith’s motionless body.
Zee poofed in front of her, illuminating the entire den with neon purple light.
She made an attempt at swiping for him, but blinded by purple sparks, she missed. Zee ducked, danced away, and smacked an accurate jab between her eyes.
Jenny rocked, dropped to the den floor in a limp fwlop , and lay still.
“Ah-ha!” Zee cheered. “Foiled by Oreos! Told you they’re versatile.”
Victor appeared and surveyed the scene. Duke huffed on the opposite side of the den, clearly in pain, but Galbraith was in a bad way and barely breathing. “We need to get Galbraith out of here.”
“You wanna lick his leg?” Zee asked Victor.
“Why would I lick a werewolf’s leg?”
“To make it better,” Zee replied, as though licking was an obvious solution.
“If you’re suggesting my saliva might help reattach a werewolf’s leg, I fear it does not work like that.”
“It stuck your finger back on.”
While they argued about what vampire saliva did and did not heal, I knelt beside Duke. His nose and mouth were all bloody, but at least he was upright. “Hey... How you doin’? Can you walk out of here?”
His tongue lolled out and the big werewolf gave an acknowledging huff, which I guessed meant yes.
“You guys are going to have to carry Galbraith out. I can’t hold anyone and climb at the same time.”
“What about Gen Z?” Zee asked.
I eyed the unconscious loup-garou. She wouldn’t be out for long. Someone needed to deal with her. “Maybe we can take her back to the SSD? They have facilities...” I trailed off as I was met with two doubting expressions. It would take a long time for the SSD to reach us... and they’d lock her in a cell, away from everyone and everything. Killing her would be a mercy compared to that.
“While you chew on your morals, imma move the alpha.” Zee carefully lifted Galbraith and poofed outside, leaving sparks behind.
Jenny’s rhythmic breathing shortened. She was waking up.
“Sometimes cruelty is a kindness.” Victor made everything sound so reasonable, even murder.
Zee poofed back and tried to argue with Duke that translocating him out would be quicker, but nobody is picking up a werewolf who doesn’t want to be picked up. Despite limping badly, Duke made his own way out.
“Have you guys got this?” Zee asked us. “I need to get Galbraith to the vet lady before he fuckin’ dies and we get blamed for it. Again.”
“Yeah, go Zee, we’ve got this.”
Zee poofed away, leaving Victor and me to deal with the bloodthirsty loup-garou.
I sensed Victor moving closer, and said, “I don’t want to kill people.”
“I know.” His hand settled on my shoulder. “You’re not the same, Adam. There’s a kindness in your heart that even the horrors of this world cannot erase.”
My heart would save the world. That’s what the prophecy had hammered into me my entire life.
Jenny’s eyes flew open. She screamed, igniting that same horrible pitch as before. Victor dropped, hands over his ears, silently screaming.
Jenny sprang—at me.
Four claws thrust into my middle, lifted me off my feet, and slammed me against the den’s rock wall. Her scream cut off, but there was a new agony now, one of pain and burning in my gut, where her claws definitely should not be.
Victor knelt, panting, head down. Blood dribbled from his ear, down his cheek.
She’d hurt him.
And all that kindness in my heart Victor had spoken of rapidly evaporated.
“You should not have done that,” I growled, baring blunt human teeth.
Jenny’s thin, pale lips stretched into a grin. “Your soft heart makes you weak.”
I grabbed her outstretched arm, wrapped my fingers around it, and squeezed. “You’re wrong. My strength comes from my heart.” Without it, I’d have been as cold and vicious as my brother—as all of them. That’s why I was different, why I’d survived, and why I had to fight.
Her smile twitched, then fell away.
I tightened my grip.
She buckled, leaning into the pain.
I squeezed harder. The bones in her arm creaked.
“Wait—” Her claws withdrew, jerking from my middle, but I hardly felt it. I’d heal... she wouldn’t.
“My heart makes me stronger.”
Her forearm shattered.
She opened her mouth to scream. I slammed a hand over it.
“I don’t want to hurt people, but people keep hurting me,” I told her, marching her backwards, toward the den opening. She bucked and writhed, trying to wriggle out of my grip, but my strength was a hundred times hers, all wrapped up in a neat little Adam Vex package. “My heart makes me ruthless.”
Her eyes widened, realization sinking in. She’d had her chances, and now came the consequences.
At the mouth of the den, I dangled her over the edge and the hundred-foot drop to the ravine bottom.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “Truly.”
I let go.
She screamed, but her scream quickly faded the farther she fell—then abruptly cut off.
It was over.
I thrust my hands into my pockets and huffed.
Should I have felt more, instead of just empty sadness for the waste that had been Jenny’s life?
Victor’s hand settled on my shoulder again. I took it, and placed his arm around my waist instead, leaning back against his chest.
“We can only save those who wish to be saved.” His powerful voice reverberated through me, chasing away the hollowness, making itself at home somewhere in my soul.
“She didn’t have anyone.” What I didn’t say was how I could have been her... and I could be again if Victor and Zee were ever taken from me. Alone, afraid, enraged... I’d be like her, but a thousand times worse.
Victor placed a soft kiss on the top of my head. “Come now, do not dwell on it. We have fulfilled our vow; it’s time we moved on.”
Twisting in his arms, I peered into his eyes. “How are you so calm? How have you lived so long without crumbling under the weight of it all? Do you... not care, Victor? Is that how you face every day?”
“I’ve lived many centuries, seen a great many atrocities, and I’ve learned to quickly push the pain aside.”
“Oh.”
“That does not mean I do not feel it.” He grasped my face. “It’s always there, waiting to consume me. We must not let it.” He kissed me hard and quick on the forehead.
Burying my face against his chest, I welcomed his arms closing in like a safety net. We were going to be alright, because we had each other. Nobody could take that away, not even my brother.