2 TALIESIN
Four creatures detach themselves from the thick darkness of the woods.
They’re low to the ground, stink of decay and rotting meat, and their eyes glow eerily red.
I’m weak, my arms are shaking, but I step over Francois's body and plant my feet.
Sirens wail in the background, search lights sweep the woods, but I can only focus on what’s in front of me. Not the fact I just saw Imran turn into a fucking owl.
It’s a different world outside Quo's walls.
One I have no idea how to navigate.
The nearest creature lets out a low, blood-curdling growl. It rears back, letting out a rabid bark—and lunges forward.
I brace for the impact, leveling my pathetic sharpened toothbrush, like that will help, but mid-stride, the creature’s trajectory falters.
A wet, sickening crunch echoes through its torso. I watch, frozen, as the hairy, mangy beast warps and morphs. Its elongated jaws shrink back into a human chin, sending a skinny dude crashing face-first into the mud.
Behind him, the other three creatures (jackals? coyotes?) are already melting back into human forms.
“Fuck,” the skinny dude gasps from the dirt. “The wards… the prison field is hitting us. It’s forcing the shift back.”
I keep my shiv leveled, my pulse hammering in my ears, but Gods, do I recognize that accent?
The kid on the ground pushes himself up from the mud, rubbing a hand over his wild hair. “Bevan? Holy shit, is that Taliesin Bevan?”
I lower the shiv by a fraction. “Charlie?”
“Fuck man, did you…fuck, did you just break out of Quo?”
I don’t bother answering, it’s pretty obvious. “We have to get out of here, now.” In the distance I hear the roar of engines. ATVs. They’ll be here soon. “Can you help?”
One of the group still in the shadows steps forward. “I’m not getting caught up in this,” she growls. The next second, she and her friend disappear into the night, probably morphing back into the wild animal forms.
But Charlie nods. “The sirens are moving east toward the main road. If you stay out here, the ATVs will trap you against the rock-face. Follow us. We know the blind spots in the valley where the patrol can't reach.”
The remaining guy nods. “But we gotta go fast.”
The searchlights are sweeping closer, the white beams cutting through the rain like blades. I look at Francois, pale and unmoving at my feet.
I could leave him. I should leave him.
My hand tightens on my shiv. He’s a snake in the grass and we don’t need him.
Pack. Protect.
I said, we don’t need him. Yes, his oily green toxins helped us, but he’s still just an Elite with a superiority complex. If I leave him, the RRT will drag him back to a dark cell, and I can have Rory to myself.
PACK.
The beast inside me flares, insistent. Fucking annoyingly insistent.
“Godsdammit.” I start to bend down, my body moving by its own volition, then grab him by the collar and heave.
Charlie steps in, bracing de Vaux’s other side.
He’s heavier than he looks and I’m weaker than usual; nonetheless, we set off at a slow, painful run.
“You better be worth the effort, Frank, you asshole.”
We hit the deep treeline just as a searchlight splashes across the stone behind us. Then the forest swallows us whole.
Hopefully London got Rory far away from here. Finding her will have to happen once we’ve shaken off the search party.
Following these guys seems the best option currently.
Charlie's eyes drift to the still-unconscious figure of Francois. “We could shift and get away easily, but it would mean leaving your friend.”
Hmm, two things.
He’s not my friend.
And I’ve never shifted.
I just grunt in reply and keep moving. The rain is like ice needles, but I don’t care. The transition from the muggy, sweat-drenched air of the prison to the fresh, pine scent of the woods hits like a physical blow.
A defibrillator.
My lungs expand, taking in the wild, alive, dampness.
We move fast, the other Ashgrave shifter running point in his coyote form. The roar of distant engines and the piercing white fingers of the searchlights strobe through the upper branches, but Charlie guides us through the deepest hollows, away from the search grid.
The further we run from the prison, the further we leave the suffocating dampness of the Null-Wards behind.
And that’s when the heat hits my blood.
It starts as a low, simmering itch beneath my skin that morphs into a violent boiling point within seconds. I stumble over a rotting log, my knees buckling as an agonizing wave of fever expands through my veins.
“Tally?” Charlie looks back, but his voice sounds like it’s underwater.
My jaw aches fiercely, my teeth suddenly feeling too massive, too sharp for my mouth. I can hear the wet, heavy grind of my own bones sliding out of their human sockets, lengthening and shifting.
The “beast” isn't a voice anymore. It’s an explosion.
I fall heavily to all fours, my fingers tearing deep into the forest floor mulch as a guttural, terrifying sound rips from my throat. I don't fight the monster inside me.
I welcome him.
Until I look at the man lying beside me. Francois. His scent—sharp, chemical, and oily—clings to the damp air. My newly formed ears twitch, filtering the distant roar of RRT engines and the crunch of tires on gravel a mile behind us.
Pack. Protect.
AHH!
A force violently wrenches through my spine, cracking my ribs back into place with breathtaking force.
Snap.
I’m Taliesin Bevan once again. Charlie stands several yards away, white-faced. “Holy fuck, Bevan.”
No time. “Where now?”
The other jackals have gone. Charlie looks like he wants to flee too, but I see him stiffen his spine and swallow. “This way, we go down the ravine and there is a network of caves. No one knows about them apart from a few of us.”
Good. “We can leave him,” I indicate to Francois, “hidden there while I look for the other two.”
“Other two?” Charlie pants.
“Yeah. Fuck, what are you doing out here anyway?” I ask. We’re fifteen miles from Ashgrave and every Ashgrave kid grew up knowing never to go anywhere near Quo.
Charlie looks grim. “Jim’s missing. You know, Layla’s dad?”
What? “Fuck. Since when?”
“Three months now. We’ve been going out in teams. Starting to think a feral got him.
That's why our crew was out here,” Charlie adds, wiping rain from his eyes.
“We’re the only ones in the gang who can shift into something useful for a hunt.
Most of the block back home either don’t shift, or are fucking squirrels or something completely useless. ”
I glance back toward the mechanical roar of the ATVs. “So it’s unlikely the guards will turn into predators?”
“Duh. Screws are low-magic grunts, Bevan, you know that.” Charlie spits, ducking under a low branch. “But if they call in Elite peacekeepers? Then you’re fucked.”
I’ve got so many questions for Charlie but not enough breath to ask them all.
And in truth, I shouldn’t. I don’t want him mixed up in my shit. The kid has enough on his plate. “Can you point me in the direction of the caves? After that, you’ve got to get out of here.”
“No, man, I can stay. I’ll help,” Charlie pants.
“No, Charlie, I’m serious. If you get caught, you’ll get thrown in Quo for aiding escapees. Then who’d look after your sister?”
A look of pain crosses his face. “Fine, OK. The network starts right down there, behind that thick cluster of briars.” He points a finger into the dark.
I look from the ravine back to Charlie’s pale, exhausted face. The sirens are echoing off the rock-face. Are they closer?
“Thanks, Charlie,” I grunt, shifting my grip on Francois’s heavy, limp body. “Hopefully I’ll catch up with you soon. And I’ll be looking out for Jim.”
Charlie hesitates, then swallows hard, looks at the approaching searchlights flashing through the upper canopy, and nods once. “Good luck, Tally. Don’t let them drag you back.”
Before I can even reply, his bones let out that wet, sickening click-crack and he drops to all fours. With a low whine, he spins on his paws and vanishes into the thick brush, heading north toward Ashgrave.
I blink the rain out of my eyes and take off again.
Nothing is going to stop me finding Aurora.
But first I’ve got to dump de Vaux somewhere safe.
Relatively safe.