Chapter Thirteen – Jack
Chapter Thirteen
Jack
Tamo stopped laughing to give me a dangerous grin—and I heard the distant sound of a motorcycle engine, gunning in the night, nearing. “You fucker,” I growled. He’d betrayed us to the Pack.
“Their money spends just as nice too, Jack. And what do you care, really? They want the boy alive. Too bad no one cares what happens to you.”
I fell into a crouch, unsure. My hearing was good, the walls were thin, and the night was clear—the motorcycles might be miles off, yet, especially if they couldn’t go off road.
“But the contract,” I protested.
“Guarantees Mark’s safety—since he’s human.
It has nothing to do with the outcome of all this—if it had, Rosalie never would’ve signed.
How can she control what a pack of roving werewolves decide to do with GPS coordinates?
” Tamo stood up, his bulk filling the living room.
“Father-son reunions can be so emotional. Much like, I imagine, reunions between murderers and murderees.”
My stomach sank lower and my balls rose. “You remembered.”
“Of course I did. But unlike you, becoming a vampire has taught me patience. I knew if I waited long enough, my moment would come.”
All the weapons and ammo were trapped under the floorboards of the trailer—which would be fine, if it weren’t for Tamo. I needed to take him out one-on-one before this fight became one-on-four.
I lunged for him, fast as I could, faster than most humans could’ve seen—and he swatted me down with one meaty hand. He had the luxury of time and leverage.
“Really, Jack?” he said, sounding disappointed, as he drew his leg back to kick my head in.
I rolled away, breathing the dust of the trailer in deep. I punched through the floorboards, caught my hand on something and—found myself being yanked high, scruffed by the back of my neck.
“Do you miss your tricks? Where’s your syringe now?
” Tamo asked, shaking me mid-air, before flinging me aside.
I hit the far wall of the trailer, rocking the entire shabby thing, before bouncing down.
“This is the fight we should’ve had, Jack,” he said, catching up to me—this time his kick connected, bending my body around its force, making my ribs crack.
“I bet even as a human, I would’ve beat you.
” He lifted his foot up to bring it stomping down.
I recovered enough to scoot away at the absolute last moment—and then grabbed for his knee-cap.
I twisted it and pulled, like it was the lid to the coffee table.
It slid underneath his skin and I felt ligaments snap.
He bellowed as his leg gave out, an inhuman sound—and Rabbit appeared in the hallway behind him.
“Rabbit—run!” I shouted—as Tamo’s fist clocked me.
Teeth loosened and I felt my brain shimmy inside my skull.
“Ruuuun!” I commanded, with a slur. I heard the front door snap open and then swing on its hinges, as Rabbit rushed out.
Tamo laughed again. “You’re only buying him trouble—wolves love to hunt.
” He picked up my head like it was a basketball, one hand on either side, and lifted me halfway up, keeping me an arm’s length away.
“I’ve been waiting to kill you for a long time, Jack,” he said as he began to squeeze.
The pressure was amazing—I scrabbled at his hands as he laughed, taking his sweet fucking time, and I felt Bella’s planchette swing, hitting different parts of my chest as I writhed in panic, burning me each time and then—I knew.
I ripped it out from underneath my shirt and raked it’s pointed end as deeply as I could against the inside of Tamo’s left arm, hitting bone. Blood spurted out like it was under as much pressure as I was, and he let me fall. I lay where I landed, numb, feeling the seams of my skull shifting back.
“What the—what the fuck did you do to me?” Tamo held the edges of the wound together, but they wouldn’t seal, the silver burn was too deep. Blood was pouring out of him—his death would almost look like a suicide.
I gathered myself up to kneel. “This time I’m not making any mistakes.”
“No!” He shouted—and fell on me. His greater weight took us both down, and we were wrestling on the floor in a growing pool of his blood. “I’m supposed to live forever!”
The only warning I had that he was about to bite me—to replace his blood with mine—was a sucking gasp as his mouth opened and he inhaled. I caught his hair with one hand and held his head up as he pressed down on me, fangs straining. Chunks of his hair tore out, along with ragged bits of scalp.
“No, you’re not,” I said—and shoved the planchette in his eye.
He howled, as I pressed it in with my thumb, soft juices flowing out.
His good hand raked down the side of my body, trying to cross over to reach my hand, but I felt the back of his orbital socket give—and suddenly I was holding up three-hundred pounds of dead weight.
I barely tilted him off of me. “Stay down, this time,” I panted—while beside me his entire body went gray, like ash. Wind came in through the door Rabbit’d left unlatched and an inch and a half of Tamo blew away.
That was one way to make sure he was dead. I staggered to standing, and kicked his remains, sending up a cloudy puff—just as the motorcycles landed. I could hear their kick stands lower and engines cut.
I waited until I heard feet up the stair to yank the lid of the coffee table off, and shouted, “Run, Rabbit!” down the tunnel like he was already inside—and the second they entered I leapt in.
I landed with a thump—half on purpose, so they would follow me, half because I was exhausted. My body had been healing on overtime—I didn’t know what would’ve happened to me if I hadn’t sipped on Zach. I staggered down the hall, using the sound of my own footsteps to listen for walls.
I was halfway down the main tunnel when I heard the first wolf land.
I knew he’d shifted—there was a low growling sound clearly coming from an animal’s throat, and I could hear his claws click on the stone.
He scented me, he had too, and I was glad I’d let Rabbit come down the tunnel earlier.
Even if Rabbit didn’t still smell like his true self, maybe he still smelled like tempting little boy.
Where were the others though? Out in the desert?
No—I heard another wolf land. And as the first two hadn’t triggered any traps—they were joined by a third.
I tried to listen for anyone else possibly moving overhead, footsteps thudding over the munitions under the trailer, and heard nothing.
All of them were in here with me. Which was good, except—I didn’t have much of a plan.
I took off my boots and started jogging down the hall quietly in bare feet.
I knew I passed the cage where the Sleeper was, and wished to hell I could figure out a way to sic he/she/it on them—and the room where Bryan’d been too. The wolves followed behind me, equidistant, playing it safe.
Even though they were creatures of the night like I was, absolute darkness was something else.
You couldn’t help but think about the weight of all those rocks overhead, and how it seemed like the tunnel was narrowing.
Soon I was in uncharted territory—the only thing that kept me moving forward was following a wisp of fresh night air.
There was some way out of here, I knew it—I just needed to find it before they did.
I raced down the stone halls, going deeper and knowing deeper was wrong—until the mine started bending back up.
Oh thank God—if I was going to die, I wanted to die outside—the urge to escape being underground was primal.
I heard claws digging into the ground behind me and then a moment of silence—too long—and then a wolf landed on my back.
It bowled me down, and I recoiled, just missing snapping teeth.
It let out a finding sound, and I knew the other wolves were racing up, now that I was turned I could see-feel the space occupied by their blood-life.
All three of them growled low, the sounds echoing in the small stone cave—and cave it was.
It ended, here, I didn’t hear any doorways.
If I’d run any further, I would’ve hit a wall.
But that air! Where was it from? I could even smell plastic now—the scent of civilization, so close and still so far.
One of them leapt—I dodged and swatted him out of the air. I heard him hit the stone behind, and land with a pained noise, then rebound to join the slowly closing group. They had to know what I did—I could take any of them on, one on one, but if they fought as a group, I was fucked.
The only thing I had on me was Bryan’s lighter.
I pulled it out, closed my eyes, and lit it—I heard them snarl as light hit their dark-changed eyes, and I lunged.
I swept the leftmost wolf into my arms, like I was giving him a hug—and snapped his back.
I heard the sickening sound of it crunching and his subsequent howl.
The nearest wolf jumped for me, and fastened his teeth into my arm before I could get away—I yanked it back, feeling the meat of my muscle rip.
“You going to become a vampire-wolf now?” I taunted, as the third one tried to circle me. I thought I could get away with the lighter-trick one more time, so I snicked it and—
Right behind his shaggy golden head I could see what I’d been smelling. There was a small tunnel, an old airshaft, and someone had shimmied down it to pack C-4 around the edges of its mouth.
If Bryan had managed to do that, then the hole was big enough for me.
I’d left the lighter on, thinking fast. The two whole wolves were advancing and growling.
Could they smell it? Did they know what it was, if they could?
Were there thinking men behind their wild eyes, or was the change to wolf complete?
“Nice doggies,” I said, patting the air between us.
The one who’s back I’d broken scrabbled his hindlegs underneath himself as his non-stop healing power reattached the severed endings of his spine.
“That shit is just not fair,” I said, sidling.
I needed to switch places with them, so that I could reach the tunnel—but the way their lips seemed to curve into almost-human wicked smiles made my odds of accomplishing that minimal.
The lighter went out and I put it in my mouth, talking around it like it was a cigar.
“The first fucker who bites me, burns. The next one, I pull completely apart. And the third, well—we’ll see.
” I crouched low like I was going to attack them—and then raced for the airshaft’s opening.
I leapt up into it and caught my body on its sides and shimmied.
My torso was in—as teeth mauled my leg. I kicked as hard as I could—teeth ripped, but their owner released me, stunned as I cracked his body like a whip.
I grabbed up as far as I could and hauled myself—another wolf caught my ankle and yanked, teeth grinding against bone as I felt the crushing power of his jaws.
I kicked him with my other foot, and felt my heel bounce over the socket of his eye.
“Get off!” I shouted, grinding my teeth against the lighter’s plastic case.
He tried to snap his head back and forth, like a dog playing with a doll, and I could hear more jumping behind him—if I fell back now, I would be ripped to shreds.
As he thrashed, he sent shockwaves through my body, whipping me from side to side in the small space and—I felt a cord at my back, so slim I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t been looking.
But I knew C4 always needs something to detonate it.
I shouted for strength and then pulled myself up further, holding not only the weight of my body up but also his.
The action forced his furry head to cork the lower entrance, and I sent all my strength to my right hand.
I let go of my left, reaching for the lighter in my mouth, and flicked it on.
His golden eyes squeezed shut, as the whiteness of his teeth matched the whiteness of my visible bone.
“I fucking warned you,” I said, and moved the lighter behind me. It caught my shirt on fire—but I heard the detonation cord take with a fuzzing hiss, like a bottle-rocket. I saw a streak of light and then the earth shook, with me inside it, as everything went black.