Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
The crowd thinned as we plunged down a small side tunnel, which narrowed and twisted, burrowing through the soil like a snake.
The only light was that of the boys’ flashlight up ahead, bouncing off the dirt walls.
And the only sound was their harsh breathing, and the drip, drip, drip of water from some unseen source.
There were people here, however, if fewer of them.
Dim shapes appeared, gazing out of doorways or slipping silently down the narrow stretches, many wrapped in dark cloaks like black ghosts.
I could hear the boys’ breath speeding up, their group drawing closer together, and their steps hurrying as much as the low light would allow.
“Fuck it, I’m Changing. Can’t see shit down here,” Lee said.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea,” Andy hissed. “Why don’t you slap a big old ‘I’m a Were’ sticker on your forehead. I heard some guys are looking for new recruits!”
“If you’re so worried, let’s grab Chay and go home—”
“I’d like to see you try,” Chayton said mildly.
“Is that a challenge?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be, bruh.”
“And what the hell does that mean?”
“It means you came after me; nobody asked you. And I’m gonna do what I came to do. You wanna come with, fine, or you wanna throw down, also fine. I’m ready any time—”
“Would you two cut it the fuck out?” Andy said. “And anyway, I brought a flashlight for a reason,” he added, right before one of the dark shapes lunged at him from a doorway.
And was met by the flashlight, which appeared to be well-made, that Andy used to bash the figure in the head, while his shocked screams echoed off the walls. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
He was hit by a spell for his trouble, but didn’t go down, and when three other figures came to the first assailant’s rescue, the corridor was quickly filled with fur and fangs and fury.
The mages didn’t seem to have expected that, and turned tail immediately, all except for the one Andy was battling, although not by choice.
But because one of his claws had become snagged in the man’s robes.
“Augghhh! Augghhh!” Their twin cries echoed loudly in the stillness, each as terrified as the other, until Lee swiped a paw through the material. And ripped the cloak away from a skinny mage with horror written on his features, perhaps because he was suddenly alone and facing four angry Weres.
He turned and ran, stumbling and tripping, but quickly scrambling back to his feet again.
And firing protection spells behind him as he did so, none of which would have stopped the boys had they wanted to pursue, as they weren’t strong enough despite him using other people’s power to augment his own.
I could taste the bitter mix of their magic clinging to him as he disappeared into darkness.
“Pussy!” Lee called after him, and Andy slumped against a wall, still clutching the man’s cloak and breathing hard.
“You know, it’s good you came to rescue me,” Chayton said dryly. “I don’t know what I’d have done without—”
“Shut up,” Andy muttered and pushed off the wall. “Let’s get out of here before we’re jumped again!”
“You do what you want. I gotta see a guy—”
“Bullshit!”
“Does anybody have any money?” Jace asked, pawing through the boys’ ripped-up clothing on the floor. “We’re gonna need to buy something to wear for the trip home.”
“You didn’t bring any?” Andy asked.
“You didn’t say we’d need it. You said, we’re just gonna go get Chay before he does something stupid—”
“See, this is what I’m talking about,” Chayton said. “I was not doing something stupid—”
“Coming here alone?” Andy said angrily. “Getting jumped by four dark mages?”
“Four shit mages—”
“Yeah, and what if they hadn’t been? What if they were Black Circle—”
“As if.”
“What does that mean?”
“Man, you know what it means.”
“Yeah, they won’t be back for a while,” Lee said. “Not after the ass-kicking Lia gave them.”
He sounded bitter for some reason.
“It was still dumb,” Andy said stubbornly.
“You just don’t like being wrong,” Chayton pointed out.
“I’m not wrong! And if the shoe fits—”
“We don’t have any shoes, either,” Jace said sadly, picking up the remnants of one of his sneakers. “Oh, wait, maybe I—oh, no. My wallet’s in my other pants...”
“Well, that’s just great,” Lee said. “What are we supposed to do? Walk home naked? I’m beginning to understand why Lia doesn’t trust us!”
“Who said she doesn’t?” Jace asked, looking surprised.
“I do. And she did when she sent us back to the hotel when we were here before. We coulda been with her when she faced off against half the damned Black Circle, but what were we doing instead?”
“That wasn’t our fault,” Andy said, as they started padding down the tunnel again, their paws silent on the mix of dirt and stone. “Arnou are dicks.”
“Yeah, but she sent us,” Lee said. He seemed fixated on that.
“So? Somebody had to go—”
“Yeah, and it was us. Not the damned freaks—”
“Hey. They’re not freaks—”
“They’re completely freaks. They’ll even tell you so.”
“Doesn’t mean they wanna be called that, man,” Jace put in.
“And we were with her at HQ, and that was a bigger battle. Well, a meaner one,” Chayton pointed out.
“Yeah, but only ‘cause she didn’t expect a bunch of Relics,” Lee snarled. “You think we’d have been there if she did?”
“Yes?” Andy said, sounding confused. “You, Jason, and Noah are our only Relics, except for the Alphas. Who else was she gonna take?”
“Nobody. She’d have gone alone and gotten killed! This is the woman who faced off against the goddamned Black Circle on her own. She’s crazy—”
“Don’t call her that,” Andy said, his voice suddenly flat.
“She saved Noah’s life,” Jace agreed. “And mine, too. That mage had me, last time I was here, and I couldn’t move—”
“And she went charging after you,” Lee said. “When she should have had her pack. She should have had us. No Lupa should ever have to fight alone, but she doesn’t trust us—”
“Where the hell are you getting this?” Andy demanded.
“I have eyes, don’t I? And it’s not just me—”
Jace sighed.
“What?”Lee snapped.
“You’re doing it. The same thing I did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I ran away, said it was because I’m a screw up, but that wasn’t it. I mean, I am a screw up, but that isn’t why I left.”
“Why did you leave?” Andy asked. “You never said.”
Jace sighed again. “I was afraid. I already lost one pack, kicked out for not being strong enough, and now I have another, but...”
“You think you’re gonna get kicked out again, so you kick yourself out first? Make it make sense!”
“It doesn’t make sense. Fear doesn’t always make sense.
But it’s like... it was easier to leave ‘cause I told myself I wanted to, than to have Cyrus tell me I’m not up to it.
Or have Lia keep me around just ‘cause she felt sorry for me, after what happened to Jayden. I couldn’t take that, okay?
I didn’t want to be a burden. So I left. ”
“That’s stupid!” Andy said angrily.
“And has nothing to do with me,” Lee pointed out.
“It has everything to do with you,” Jace shot back. “You’re just like me, scared out of your mind—”
“Speak for yourself—”
“I can smell it on you. And I get it. It’s easier to make up some bullshit excuse to let you leave, than to stay and fail again. ‘They don’t trust me—’”
“That’s not what this is!”
But it was. I could smell it on him, too, bright and burning: longing, anger, pride, fear. Fear that he wasn’t good enough, that he never would be. That his old clan had been right and he was worth nothing, just garbage to be kicked out into the street.
“And now there’s all these others,” Jace said. “First Lia’s students and now the other vargulfs, hundreds of them, and you think they’re gonna bring down Fireborn, have it be known as the trash clan—”
“And isn’t it?” Lee snarled. “We had a real chance for the first time, maybe the only time, and what the hell is happening? Do you even know how many are in Fireborn anymore? And half of them are toothless old weirdos, not fighters—”
“They’re not weirdos—”
“One of them kept pushing his dentures out at me! Like those things from Alien with two mouths!”
“Heh.”
“It’s not funny! They’re going to ruin this for us, and then we’ll be back on the street—or worse! And I can’t Change anymore—”
“You are Changed—”
“Not into a Relic! Not unless I’m with Lia, and she doesn’t want me! And without that, what the hell do I have? What do any of us have?”
He slumped against the wall, and the boys crowded around, their scents radiating concern. But it was Andy who finally spoke. “You want to be a monster?”
“I want to be able to protect my clan!”
“I’m not a Relic, and I fought the other night,” Andy said. “I fought damned hard. I still have the scars—”
“Yeah, but to be fair, we fought humans,” Jace reminded him.
“Well, somebody had to!”
“It won’t be enough,” Lee whispered, shaking his head. “I won’t be, not like this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything is so... big... anymore. The battles, the war, the politics. I don’t even know what they’re talking about most of the time, in those meetings they have, but it’s going to decide our lives.”
“Not mine,” Jace said calmly.
“Yes, yours!” Lee looked up angrily.
“Nope.”
“And why are you so special?”
“I’m not. But it’s just... I realized something the other day, after Lia came for me. After
she invaded a Black Circle operation and fought one of their leaders for me. And yeah, she went alone, and she kicked his ass!
“And I realized—I don’t give a shit what the Council does. I don’t care about their stupid politics or their mind games or their rules. I care about our clan, about Cyrus and Lia and all of you. And that’s it.
“They can say I’m legal, they can say I’m illegal—I could give a crap. They never cared about me anyway. Only my clan did. Only Fireborn.”
Lee looked at him, and even in his transformed state, I could see the hunger in his eyes. “And if they declare us illegal again? If they say we aren’t a real clan and we’re all just vargulfs to be killed on sight?”
Jace grinned. And then he thought better of it and laughed. And laughed and laughed, until he collapsed against the wall.
Lee frowned. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking about... some dumb ass council member... coming to the house to get us... and what Cyrus would do!”
“Or Lia,” Chayton said. “She scares me more than he does, sometimes.”
“Oh, God!” Jace said, and then he was off again, his yipping laughs echoing down the tunnel.
“You’re both crazy,” Lee said, but it was softer now, and he mussed Jace’s fur, which was droopy over his eyes.
“Not the hair, man,” Jace said softly, and Lee stopped, both thinking about the absent Jayden.
And then they continued down the hall.