A WEREWOLF IN OCTOBER - CHAPTER 9 (Line Editing left)

[booksabaking]

Warehouses tended to look like warehouses. Which was like saying people tended to look like people and cats tended to look like cats, sure, but not quite. Warehouses, in Jayla's experience, had an air about them that told you they knew you weren't supposed to be anywhere near them and that, had it been physically possible, they would have called your mother to tell on you.

Jayla took one last look at her phone before she turned it off and tucked it in an inside pocket. 4.03 am. Less than four hours until full sunrise.

"Everybody ready?" Lisa spoke in her ear. With the headset on it began to sink in that they were about to, basically, enact a heist.

It's both ridiculous and awesome that they had a whole set of these on hand. I wonder if they need to break into places often? It would have been pretty damn exciting, if the goal hadn't been to rescue a possibly tortured friend and if she didn't have to go in partly blind.

As things stood, Jayla could only force a smile and a "Sure!"

The rest of the pack chimed in one by one, signaling they'd all taken up their positions. Isha and Rahul had already cut radio contact.

Leveling up in my gang activities. Jayla fixed her eyes on the window they'd decided on, psyching herself up. They'd need to make the fence and the wall in less than a minute. The fence had barbed wire on it and had to be fifteen feet from top to bottom, way higher and stabbier than the one back at the mansion.

"Radio silence in ten seconds," Lisa said, words terse with tension. "On your mark. Set. Charms!"

Jayla had already pressed the charm and was off at 'set' because that's how it always went for her, but Arturo still reached the fence first. She could hear the rest of the pack on the other side of the warehouse, their steps gaining speed. Around her neck the charm she'd been equipped with started to hum.

The fence rushed under her fingers and feet, the barbed wire approaching with ominous speed. She kept her eyes on its needles, thought of all failed gym classes she'd suffered through, and was as surprised as her old teachers would have been when she vaulted the wire with ease. She landed with a thud on the other side of the fence, legs shaking from the oddly pain-free impact with asphalt. Seemed she'd underestimated exactly how much being a werewolf had increased her athletic skills.

Dizzy with speed, she touched the warehouse wall. Arturo, who'd been a blur until he'd stopped running, stood waiting for her.

"Will this really work?" Jayla gasped at him, shock more than exertion stealing her breath.

"Bit late to have regrets," he said. "Boost me."

Jayla put her hands together and made ready to help him jump, heart in her throat.

"I get why we can't all know the full plan," she said, because her current choices stood between talking and screaming, "what with the glamour and the truth spells in our possible future, but I'd feel a lot better if I knew a little more."

"Sssh!"

Jayla bit her tongue. Calm down. Don't hand this whole thing over to the vampires.

She kept her eyes on Arturo, taking in his frown and the faint tremor of his hands and shoulders. At least she wasn't the only nervous one. That made it a little easier to focus on what she should be concentrating on; listening.

Listen she did, for three breathless minutes.

"What the hell?!" came the first distant shout, followed by more confused voices and running steps.

Arturo moved closer to her, teeth worrying at his lower lip. He didn't speak, instead put his foot in her hands and waited.

One round of practice is not enough for this. Jayla took a deep breath, braced herself and heaved upward. Arturo flew like a glove. Please don't let him get hurt.

He grabbed hold of the window sill on the second floor with ease. Jayla punched the air in victory, which earned her a look from her vampiric companion, which she ignored. She took one last sweep of the yard, listening to the yelling and running happening on the other side of the building, and backed off from the warehouse.

Even with a running start she had to scramble to grab Arturo's outstretched hand.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." She flung her free hand out as Arturo pulled her up. Her fingers found purchase, but only by the skin of her teeth, or rather, nails. Managing to not fall kept being super weird. She'd always been terrible at sports and gymnastics.

"Keep it together," Arturo hissed at her. He'd managed to brace both his feet on the window sill and sat crouching at an awkward angle, the hand not holding on to her grasping the upper part of the window in a death-grip. "If we don't do our part, we're all screwed."

"Don't say stuff like that while I'm hanging off the side of a building!"

Arturo ignored her and let go, leaving her hanging from two hands instead of one. Small improvement. She managed to shield her face before he struck the glass.

Despite knowing there would be no sound, the impact of his elbow and the rain of shards were eerie in their silence. The charm around her neck pulsed and vibrated as it drew the sound waves of the shattered glass to it, swallowing all noise. At least she could still hear herself and Arturo speaking. Never getting used to magic.

Window dealt with, the charm quickly muted down to the soft hum that kept her heartbeat, breathing and whispering from reaching the wrong ears.

Arturo jumped inside. Jayla followed as quickly as her arms would allow her, which was pretty darn quick.

"If only Mr Anderson could see me now."

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Practically never. Left or right?"

Arturo glared at her. Jayla couldn't find it in herself to take offense. He'd grown paler, which was an achievement, and he was trembling ever so slightly. Jayla hoped she wouldn't need to carry him out because she would definitely - no doubt, no room for doubt – have her hands full with Jesse. Unless this was the dream scenario and he was utterly and completely unhurt and able to shift into something super fast when they got him free.

"You're the wolf here. What can you smell?"

This would be a terrible time for a nose job pun. To her relief, she managed to rein that one in.

The corridor they'd landed in was empty, with a number of doors to pick between. The running steps and shouting below distracted her. She had to trust that the pack were leading the vampires on a merry chase, but that diversion couldn't last forever. It's not meant to either. Stop stalling and do your werewolf thing!

Each deep breath she inhaled through her nose activated the charm, sending soft puffs of vibration against her throat. She closed her eyes and tried to let instinct take over. A lot of foot traffic had come through this corridor in the last couple of days, if she was interpreting the scents right. Telling any of them apart would be a time-consuming challenge.

Thankfully she only needed to recognize one.

"It's that one."

Arturo didn't wait for further clarification. He sidled up to the door she'd indicated and tried the handle. Locked, as expected. No match for her new, handy werewolf strength.

"I'm never getting used to this," she confided in Arturo as she let go of the crumbled doorknob, her silence charm still shivering in the aftermath of metal wrenching out of shape. He only nodded in acknowledgment and took a step back.

"Ladies first, huh?" Jayla didn't wait for an answer this time. She pushed the door open, bracing for whatever she'd find behind it.

There wasn't much furniture in the room besides old filing cabinets and a rickety wooden chair. A rickety wooden chair that had an unconscious Jesse tied to it. In addition to the clothes he'd been wearing when he'd been taken, he had a thick leather collar strapped around his neck. His arms were pulled behind the chair's backrest, likely tied to it.

"I think I've seen this Bond parody." She knew the charm stole her words, but it was still weird to talk right in front of Jesse and not have him as much as twitch in reaction.

Thankfully the charm didn't stop her from hearing him. He was breathing.

"Let's get him out of here."

Arturo followed her into the room, easing the door shut behind them. With the broken doorknob it'd be poor camouflage but better than leaving it open. Their window entrance was also a concern; this far away their charms wouldn't stop the noise of wind blowing in through its broken glass.

"He's bleeding."

"What?" Jayla turned to look at Arturo, attention drawn as much by the barely suppressed rage in his voice as by what he'd said. I thought he barely tolerated Jesse.

"He smells fine to me."

"Then you're not paying close enough attention." Arturo stalked over to Jesse's chair and circled him once, keeping a wary distance. "Those monsters have been bleeding him."

"What, like with Rahu-" Jayla's teeth smashed together with a painful click. Her silence charm had stopped vibrating. Only long-range silence left then. "Okay, we're running out of time. Should we carry him?"

"You should get out of here, is what you should do!"

Jesse had opened his eyes. He was looking at her. Glaring at her. Jayla didn't know whether to sigh in relief or flinch.

"I know you've probably been through hell since yesterday, but that's no way to talk to your dashing rescuers." She tried for glib but ended up closer to hurt.

Jesse struggled to sit up straight. When he moved, the metallic smell of dried blood wafted up to meet Jayla's nose. Arturo took a step back from the both of them, ending up in a corner between two filing cabinets.

"You'll get stuck here too if you don't run right now!" The usual mask of amused calm had crumbled. Jesse's eyes were wild despite being heavy-lidded with exhaustion, his pupils pinpricks of panic. "I can work my way out of this one. Have before. You two don't need me dragging you into this."

"You dragging us?" Jayla's eyebrows rose to try and high-five her hairline. "I know you stole their magical gadget, but the pack kept it. Seems we're in this together."

Why had Arturo taken up watch there in the corner, staring at Jesse's back? Was he eyeing some terrible injury? How badly was Jesse hurt? Had those fuckers been feeding on him?

"As if I just happened to stick around and get cozy with the local werewolves at the wrong time."

Jesse gave a frustrated pull at whatever was keeping him secured to the chair, provoking a soft rattle of what sounded like chains. He didn't seem able to keep his eyes focused on her. She began to pick up the smell of pure iron and silver, hidden under the distraction of the dried blood.

"Jayla, I actually really like you. You seem like a great person. You all seem like great people. Which means I need you to start running now. Vampires don't take werewolves prisoner."

Yeah, not listening to that noise. "Jesse, we're not gonna leave you! You're the main reason we're here in the first place."

"I think that's his point." Arturo finally stirred from his corner and came around into Jesse's field of vision. "Why didn't you tell us you knew Ava?"

Jesse kept his eyes roughly on Jayla, which she suspected meant something.

"Because I don't. Only by reputation. The wand was the first time I made a delivery to her in person and I'm not stupid enough to look like myself when I hand over stolen goods."

"Why 'stick around' and 'cozy up' to us?"

This was taking way too long.

"Man, we can play twenty questions later." Jayla made her way around behind Jesse so she could get at the chains. "We'll just get you…"

The words died in her throat as she got a good look at Jesse's bindings.

"Did you bring oven mitts?" Jesse rattled the silvery chains looped around his wrists. "They chair is reinforced with the damn stuff too. The collar around my neck is both silver and iron, so you shouldn't touch that either. In fact, you should get out of here!"

"Nope, no can do." The chair looked like any old chair. She tried touching the tip of a finger to one of its legs. It stung enough to make her pull her hand back on pure reflex, but it didn't leave a mark on her skin.

She sought Arturo's eyes over Jesse's shoulder.

"I think we could rush him out of here if we work together. You ready to lift?"

Arturo ignored her, eyes fixed on Jesse. "As soon as I have an answer."

"You suicidal idiots!" Jesse hissed, then doubled over, bound hands straining against the chains. His forehead almost hit his knees and he shuddered, like he was holding back the urge to vomit. He swallowed, loudly and thickly, then groaned.

Downstairs the sound of running feet kept ebbing and flowing.

Jesse swallowed again, then said, barely above a whisper, "If you must know, I stuck around because your network has a good reputation and I was in trouble. I knew these guys were after me. Thought I might hide out for a few days until things calmed down. Didn't know about the hunters. Can you run now?"

"Not without you." Jayla stared at Arturo as she spoke, daring him to contradict her. She might have bared her teeth a little. They may have been a little sharp too.

Jesse groaned. "Jayla, you are super sweet, but you barely know me. Do not risk your life carrying this damn chair!"

"If you wanna play the 'you don't know shit about me' card, acting all concerned for my safety isn't exactly convincing me to leave you behind. You saying you have this under control would be more convincing if you could sit up without throwing up."

The reply she got to that came out too muffled to be heard.

Downstairs the steps kept running back and forth. Shouting in the distance had joined in, which probably meant more bad news inbound. Jayla swept her gaze around the room, regrettably not finding anything to wrap her hands with. She'd have to make do with what she had on her.

"Don't chicken out on me now," she said to Arturo as she pulled her shirt over her head and tore it in half (which sucked because she really liked that shirt, but she liked having hands more). "Once I'm done bandaging my hands, we lift. I won't be able to run fast enough if I do it by myself."

Arturo hesitated, glanced over his shoulder, then gave a stiff nod.

Shaking her hands out as if prepping to take on a heavy set of weights at the gym, Jayla paced behind Jesse and tried to remember the vague layout Ava had sketched out for them. No help. They'd have to go out the window. Would silver mess with her ability to do ridiculous jumps? Don't think Arturo is the kinda of person to forget mentioning something that important, even under pressure. Wish vampires also got werewolf level super strength. Would have been so convenient right now.

With her hands wrapped in torn-up shirt, Jayla watched Arturo position himself in front of Jesse, at the ready.

They were doing this. This could go so very badly.

To distract herself, she commented, "You weren't kidding when you said those talismans don't come off unless you want them to."

"Not even the jacket does," Jesse mumbled, swaying in his seat. "Jayla, don't do this, get-"

"Hello there, child."

Right before the situation went further to hell, Jayla had time to think, I really hope this is part of the plan.

---

Arturo whirled around at the sound of the new voice, far too close to the back of his head. He ended up face to face with a woman who had sharp eyes and a sharper smile, and brown hair caked with dried blood. Despite having seen her only at a distance through the lens of a camera, he recognized her as the vampire who'd led the intrusion into the pack's backyard.

And then he couldn't move. Or speak.

"Get away from him!" Jayla shouted. He couldn't turn his head to look at her, couldn't call a warning, couldn't throw himself on the stranger to buy Jayla time to flee.

Glamour shouldn't be this hard to fight. Unless...

"You've been starving yourself, poor thing," the sharp-eyed woman said, all pleasantness and faux concern. "Dear me. Don't tell me you've become addicted to werewolf blood, darling child."

She caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, an absurdly motherly gesture. He couldn't flinch away.

"Immortal blood is always far lovelier, I know I know, but you'll have better luck keeping yourself alive on air. I can understand why you're so desperate to get this shapeshifter back if that's your poison."

"Who the fuck are you?"

The sharp-eyed woman tsked. "Such a loud dog you've brought along."

Her attention moved away from Arturo, gave him a second to draw breath freely and almost move, before her eyes burrowed into him again. He wanted to scream.

"There, much better. Won't hold as long as with you, my dear, but I'm thinking that won't be necessary. You care for these two, correct?"

"Yes," came crawling through his gritted teeth.

The terrible woman chuckled. "Stubborn. Then again, I can't blame you for being cautious, having literally been raised by wolves. Did you even take your first blood?"

Her hand was by his face again, carding through his hair, like you'd pet a horse.

"No."

"Pity. I had a lovely young lady marked out for you." A vague image came to mind at those words; a woman, shaking and crying, huddling in the corner of a room, the stench of blood heavy on the air. Not her blood, no. This sharp-eyed woman's blood, plastered on the other's back, the remnants of a horrific game of tag.

It hit him in the gut first. That should be a logical reaction, really, but before it had always been centered on taste, on growing fangs and biting at his tongue until it went numb with abuse. This time the hunger hit him like a hunger for food. It made him hollow and weak, trembling on legs that wouldn't hold him, dizzy with deprivation. It clawed at him in a way that couldn't be ignored as nausea or addiction. He could hardly breathe from it.

Time lost meaning. He thought she might be searching him, looking through his clothes, but his vision faded in and out, along with his hearing.

"You won't be needing this."

Something left his jeans pocket. It took him a moment to realize it was the music box Lisa had entrusted him with. It made a loud crack as it broke in half. He couldn't even move his eyes to track its fall to the floor.

"There you are," his Maker said, all smiles, broken glass and sweet poison. "You'll have to forgive me for leaving you on your own for so long, my dear. I was young and foolish when I made you and didn't have the resources to face two self-righteous werewolves."

She leaned in as if to whisper a great secret to him, eyes glittering with delight. "You were my first. My very first child. How I've missed you."

She did not know him. She couldn't have missed him. Arturo clung to these facts, debris in the storm of his uncooperative body and the murderous hunger rising inside him like a tidal wave, rushing up and out of his throat, making fangs of his teeth. Not the time for poetry!

"Ah, I forget myself." She stood far too near him, right in his personal space. Even the pack checked in with him before coming that close. She had a hand on his shoulder, proprietorial and heavy.

"I'm sure you barely remember me. Do not worry, that doesn't offend me. You can call me Mother, should you wish. Aunt will also do in a pinch. We'll get to your name once things have calmed down around here." She sighed, pleased rather than annoyed. "There seems to be dogs loose downstairs. The rest of the family will deal with them."

I did not sign up for your creepy cult! Don't touch me! Arturo didn't manage to say. The only thing keeping pure panic at bay was the knowledge that the glamour wouldn't last forever. He tried to count down the minutes to freedom, but time kept eluding him.

'Mother' took hold of the flower stems and hairs on the leather cord around his neck and ripped it off. She cradled the silence charm gently in her hand, a eerie contrast to the force with which she'd removed it.

"You won't be needing this any more, sweetie. We don't need to be quiet about what we do."

That could either mean she subscribed to the 'let mortals know of vampires' ideology or that she wanted to hear people scream. Arturo's money was on both.

The pack should have noticed by now that things hadn't gone according to plan. They'd regroup and deal with this setback. Back-up was on the way. Don't. Panic.

Jayla made a noise between a groan and yell. A good sign. Time on the glamour had to be running out and Jayla had a better chance of escape than him. If creepy sect lady kept her attention on him, there was a chance they'd all get out of this alive, with a fair number of limbs intact. You couldn't fire off an endless amounts of glamours, and multiple targets were tricky even for experienced vampires.

"You keep pushing so." 'Mother' gave his shoulder a playful smack. "Good thing I've had a lot of practice raising stubborn children. We'll need to reestablish our connection before I let you on your own again."

If he could have moved, Arturo would have gagged. The fact that 'Mother' had begun unbuttoning her jacket helped underline the dreadful direction this train-wreck of a situation had set off in.

His eyes fixed on the veins in her throat without encouragement. 'Mother' didn't even need to lean her head back or trail her fingers along her neck. His attention locked in on what she had on offer under her skin. His mouth began to water, his fingers itching. Yet he remained a robot at her beck and call, trapped under her gut-wrenching look of approval.

"A quick drink." Her words came through slowly, as if from deep under water. All he could see was the blue that would be red soon, pulsing and beckoning. "Enough to make you more agreeable when we deal with your tag-along."

The words had no meaning. There was only the blood.

"Madam Matriarch, a moment of your time, please?"

Arturo still couldn't flinch, but his focused snapped back to reality. 'Mother' stood before him, neck bare, but her attention had wandered, its choke-hold on him lessened by a faint but welcome degree.

"I keep forgetting about your annoying little charms."

'Mother' remained within sight, unfortunately, but her hand was gone from his shoulder. He could flex his ring finger.

"Madam Matriarch," Jesse continued, oozing ease and pleasantries. "Would it be terribly forward of me to make a suggestion?"

"Yes." Arturo expected the sound of a slap, a punch, maybe even the breaking of bone, the snap of vertebra. Instead, 'Mother' kept smiling. "But do go on. You've been a great amusement thus far and I have time to kill."

A warehouse full of werewolves and she had time? He needed to alert the others. Whatever 'Mother' was waiting for had to mean danger to everyone in the warehouse who wasn't a card carrying member of her cult. The hunters were very likely on their way. Ava's local allies could only distract for so long until actual back-up arrived in town.

"While having your child drink from you sounds like a very sensible plan," Jesse said, making every one of Arturo's metaphorical hackles stand on end, "I'd like to offer my services in that regard as well."

"Would you now?"

"What can I say? I know when to root for the winning team." There was no tremor in Jesse's voice now, not a single hint of fear.

Arturo desperately wanted to turn around; if not to yell at Jesse then to at least see his face. He had to be smirking. That damn, cocksure, I'll-rob-you-blind smirk of his that shouldn't have gotten so familiar so quickly. A week! A week was no time at all to get to know a person.

"You're suggesting...?"

"That you let your dear child have a go at me before he's allowed a bite at your throat."

Nausea made a familiar comeback, shouldering aside hunger. Arturo wished he could retch.

"He's not had fresh blood for seven years from what I've heard. Can you even imagine that level of hunger?"

'Mother' gasped. "Not once?"

"Heard it from his own lips," Jesse blathered on, sharing secrets as easily as normal people grumble about the weather. "Those werewolves did a number on him. I've met vegans less devoted to their dietary choices. Been throwing myself at him for a whole week and he hasn't budged."

'Mother' clucked her tongue.

"I won't be able to leave any of my children alone with you, will I?" Her tone of voice remained far too normal. You'd think there'd be more evil cackling or yelling when a grown woman called people she'd kidnapped and brainwashed 'her children'.

"Are you really going to slut-shame me? You stayed and watched."

There came a sharp crack of flesh on flesh. No sound of bones breaking though, only… No!

The room already stank of dried blood. The fresher copper from broken skin threatened to break the back of an already old and sickly camel.

"Language," 'Mother' said, all poise and grace, a fun-house mirror of how Dorothy would have chided Vivian if she'd gotten a bit too sailor-mouthed at the dinner table. "Though I admire your candor. It's refreshing to have a food source around that knows to appreciate the experience."

A loop of NO! was not a helpful line of thought, but Arturo couldn't break it anymore than he could move his feet. He could hear his Maker moving back toward him, unhurried, her breaths even. His own heartbeat, hammering away at his sanity, drowned out hers.

"Would you like that, child?" she stage-whispered to him. "To sink your teeth into our shapeshifter friend here?"

"Yes!"

'Mother' laughed, far too quick and far too loud. Jesse made no sound, only shifted in his seat. The scent of fresh blood had faded. Seemed he hadn't been bragging about how fast shapeshifters healed. One thing that had been true at least.

The danger of the situation then started to escape him. He could recall whys and hows if he focused hard, though with nothing to ground him but a one-sided conversation and the empty hallway outside the partially open door, it was getting harder and harder to remember why he was here.

He couldn't move his jaw so he couldn't have cut himself on his fangs, yet his mouth tasted of blood.

"Child, I think it's time for your first proper meal." A gentle hand took his elbow and easily turned him around, as if he hadn't been frozen to the spot for God knew how long. "Your siblings say he's quite the treat. Good practice too, before I can introduce you to our other travel companions."

The woman with blue hair mouthed something at him as his gaze landed on her. Her eyes were wide and her body shook as if struggling against invisible chains. She did not smell of food. Not like the man in the chair.

"I'll be fine," the man said, smiling through his trembling. "Like I've said before, I can take it. There'll be no hard feelings."

Sound died away. There was only screaming hunger and blue waiting to be red.

---

"This is insane," Rahul muttered for the fourth time, his grip on Isha's hand tightening.

"Complaining doesn't help," Isha murmured back at him.

The guardian tattoo hissed, which made them both jump. It had never made noise before. Isha hadn't even known it was meant to. It floated loops around them, solid as any real snake, though electric pink and levitating.

No one had looked at them since the spell went up, but they still kept their pace brisk as they advanced through the warehouse.

"I can't believe we agreed to this." Rahul quivered, worse even than back at the werewolves' den. "I can't believe we're going along with a plan we only know pieces of. We even went in first! I can't believe-"

"Can you not-believe quieter?"

They rounded another corner and managed to dodge the vampires rushing by. Isha clutched at her chest. A heart-attack might be near. Not the most heroic of ways to perish when storming a vampire nest.

They tried a third door once the vampires were out of sight. Another empty room.

"The hostages must be in here somewhere." Isha bit her tongue. She didn't have to see Rahul to sense the 'oh you get to talk' look he sent her way. "How many vampires have you counted?"

She wished desperately to have their headsets back on. There had to be a way to make the silence charms interface with them.

Rahul shut the door slowly, careful of making any noise louder than the click of a latch bolt. Their charms protected their voices from carrying and the guardian tattoo kept them from being seen, but doors left opened or slammed shut could draw unwanted attention, with or without accompanying sound. Worse yet, neither spells would last forever.

"Nine," he said, still whispering. "We're missing at least one."

Ten vampires. With only five humans to survive on, that should be the maximum, unless they'd kidnapped people not reported missing. Isha had plenty of doubts in her own knowledge about the world now, of course, but all she'd learned about vampires and their dietary needs couldn't be lies. There would be no point in misinformation that could get her killed on a hunt and the werewolves had made the same estimate as her. Since the people rushing about the place harrowing the werewolves didn't look the least bit malnourished, hers and the pack's calculations made sense.

With their luck, the tenth would turn out to be some sort of ancient all-powerful urvampire.

"Another illusion!" the voice of a young, angry man echoed from down the hall. Isha stepped closer to Rahul, one hand cramped around the hilt of her silver dagger.

"There has to be real ones about, I can hear them!" a young woman shouted back from yet farther away. "Keep looking! They can't outrun us!"

"But they can beat the crap out of us if we manage to catch them."

"Don't be such a wimp!"

The voices faded away into the distance. Rahul clamped a hand over his own mouth before Isha could, the other grasping at his silence charm. Her own charm had stopped vibrating too.

From here on, they'd have to fully rely on their snake protector.

She weighed their options. They'd fine-combed the first floor as well as possible while working on a narrow deadline. A large open space full of boxes took up most of the building. There could be people in those boxes, but they looked rather air-tight and thus not the most hopeful or likely of prisons. They'd go through those as a last resort.

"Let's check upstairs."

Easier said than done. They had to trek back out of the hallway and into the main area, keeping close to the wall or risk being trampled. A ginger wolf darted past them, tongue lolling out of its mouth in a grin. An illusion to be sure, since Isha had seen that wolf before and knew Jayla would be taking a different way into the building, together with the pack's vampire.

Briefly, Isha got caught up in the continued absurdity of a werewolf pack that included a vampire and an antiques store. She bit back a gasp as Rahul pulled her into a side corridor, narrowly avoiding brushing against three vampires pursuing the wolf illusion.

"I thought vampires were faster than that," Rahul said after the three black-clad people had jogged by.

"Preserving energy," Isha said with more conviction than certainty. "It must take a lot out of them to run at top speed. Kinda like a cheetah. And they're looking to wrestle with the werewolves they're chasing. Even with superior numbers they'll want to keep from being too out of breath when they catch up. Right?"

"Right." Rahul didn't sound reassured but neither was he arguing. They got out of their hiding place and made it the rest of the way to the main hall in silence.

The main room of the warehouse had a disorganized look to it, in the spirit of storage spaces everywhere. Unlike the rest of the building, this area had no second floor, only a metal walkway, high up on the wall. It connected back to the upper floor above the halls they'd exited. Boxes of different shapes and sizes had been stacked haphazardly about the large room; some brushed the far-above ceiling, others stood all by their lonesome for who knew what reason. Most could hide a vampires or five, if they didn't mind squeezing together tight.

Rahul's hand clasped in hers, her own knuckles going white, Isha began to lead the way to the rickety staircase on the far side of the room.

"Over here, suckers!"

Isha froze, let go of Rahul.

"Come and get some!" The shout came from the warehouse's main entrance. There, buck-naked, stood Vivian, waving her arms above her head like a drowning person calling the attention of a nearby ship.

Rahul huddled close to Isha, the snake tightening its loop around them.

"What the hell is she doing?"

Three vampires burst from the shadows. Two jumped down from the metal walkway above and the third darted out from behind a stack of boxes. They all moved with blurring speed, diving at Vivian like birds of prey.

Vivian, the madwoman, laughed in their oncoming faces and began to shift.

"No time."

Isha grabbed Rahul by the hand and ran for the staircase. She only took her eyes off her goal when loud yelps drew her attention back to Vivian and the vampires. To her surprise, Vivian had turned full wolf, unharmed. She set off out the main door, accompanied by a black and a gray shape. The vampires were getting to their feet, cursing.

Running up a metal staircase without making it vibrate was a challenge. One they didn't quite overcome. The three discombobulated vampires began sending suspicious looks in their direction when they had half the staircase left to climb.

"What the fuck are these wolves up to?" one of them said, loud enough for Isha to catch as she paused to let the staircase recover its stillness.

"They're trying to wear us out," a second vampire replied, clutching at his head. A streak of blood leaked from in-between his fingers. "Stop running after them! It must be a trap."

"Of course it's a trap!" the third one said with all the dignity of a five-year-old. "You don't have to talk to us like we're actual children, you asshole."

"Yeah, just because you're the oldest after Mother you don't get to boss us around."

Isha and Rahul reached the top of the stairs and set out on the walkway. Isha tuned out the vampires' eerie family drama and focused on getting to the door at the end of the path without drawing attention. Another wolf rushed by below - likely another illusion - and the three squabbling vampires set off after it at a cautious pace.

The door at the end of the walkway wasn't only unlocked, it stood ajar.

"That's either a great sign or a terrible one."

Isha couldn't find the energy to roll her eyes at her brother's dramatics. Mostly because she was feeling more than a little dramatic herself.

"Let's hope for great."

They squeezed through the gap between door and doorframe, happily leaving the shaky terrain of metal walkway for solid floor. Wood could of course creak, but that was not as great an issue for the guard magic. The pack's witch made decent spellwork, Isha had to give her that. Leagues better than Emma.

This time, they hit the jackpot with the first door they tried.

"What the fuck!"

"What? What is it?"

Isha only held the door open long enough to count the people on its other side. Five men and women, none older than their mid-twenties, clustered by the room's only window. They were all handcuffed to a radiator. Isha had never before seen such an obvious kidnapping scene outside of TV. Five pairs of eyes stared at the open door, not seeing her or Rahul. They clung to each other, bracing themselves, falling quiet.

They broke out into hurried and confused whispering the second she shut the door.

"Well," she said, feeling nauseous yet triumphant, "we found the human hostages. Let's hope Jayla and the vampire got their target."

Rahul's only response was to tap her on the shoulder. Isha haltingly turned around and followed his line of sight.

At the far end of the hallway a woman climbed in through a broken window Jayla and the pack vampire must have gone in through. Her limbs moving in jerks and stutters, a spider animated in poor stop motion. Her brown hair hung in clumps about her face, stiff and tangled. She put her hands on the floor, uncaring of the glass that littered it, and straightened up, unfolding herself. Gravity resettled itself around her.

The woman - the vampire - didn't spare a single glance their way, which was a godsend. She strode up to the door nearest to her and pulled it open with no great hurry, revealing its doorknob to be a mangled mess.

"That's a problem for the werewolves," Rahul reminded Isha, tugging at her shoulder. "We need to get the hostages out. Stick to the plan!"

Isha couldn't tear her eyes from the door the vampire had gone through, until Rahul gave her another gentle shove.

"Right," she said, on autopilot. "Right."

A vampire and a werewolf together stood a much better chance against a lone vampire than the two of them did. She and Rahul could end up a hindrance if they decided to rush in and play cavalry.

They rigged the rope ladder first. Unlocking a window took no time, not with the practice they'd had and the poor maintenance of the building. Securing the ladder went even faster. Arranging the smoke bomb took more effort.

"Are you sure it won't blow your hand off?"

"Nope." Rahul held the object up at face level, glaring at it as if daring it to misfire. In his left hand he clutched at the braided strip of leather the witch had lent him 'until he had the smarts to make his own bloody focus'. "But I don't think Miss Sledge would give me a shoddy signal flare. She seems like a stab-you-in-the-front kind of person."

"Fair point."

Isha stepped back and coaxed the guard snake to come with her, away from her brother. It seemed as reluctant to leave him as she was; a good sign regarding spell quality but it made the separation no easier.

She held her breath as he, now visible to all, unraveled the tiny red ball of cloth wrapped around the signal flare. The egg in its center had remained intact, the delicate writing on it immaculate.

"One," Rahul counted under his breath, easing closer to the window. "Two. Three!"

He lobbed the egg out the window. Mid-air it burst in a cloud of black smoke with a faint silvery sheen, spinning in place. Rahul tore his eyes away from it the second it burst and hurried to open the door Isha had closed. Surprised gasps and yelps came from inside, followed by shushing.

Isha stood watch in the hallway as Rahul ushered the five students out and over to the rope ladder. None of them noticed Isha. Going by the wild look in their eyes, the laser focus of pure survival might have tunnel-visioned her out of their awareness even without her guard snake.

"Keep low," Rahul told them, barely above a whisper. "A lady will be waiting for you by the fence. Here name is Dorothy and you can trust her. She'll stay with you until the police get here. Don't run, that will draw attention you don't want. Stay together!"

They made it down the ladder with only a few near slip-ups. Impressive, seeing as they all looked half crazed and three of them wore heels.

Once the final hostage hit the ground, Isha grabbed Rahul's hand again, bringing him back into the guardian's loop. They both twitched, static electricity rushing between them as the spell settled in place around them.

"Warn a guy," Rahul said, beaming with adrenaline and success. "Aren't we supposed to be going down that ladder after them?"

Isha hesitated. "Change of plans."

She had a very, very bad idea. They barely knew the full plan. Going around changing it could end in catastrophe, which Rahul's raised eyebrows aggressively underlined, and yet there was one thing she couldn't ignore.

"No one's come out of there."

It was Rahul's turn to follow her line of sight, over to the half-closed door with the broken knob.

"It's only been a few minutes." He tugged her toward the window. "Come on, Dorothy is waiting for us. The witch crew will be here any minute. Probably Woxell too."

There was no guarantee of any of that. No sure proof, only vague assumptions and guesses.

"I can't just leave."

The idea of following the plan, of regrouping with the hostages and keeping an eye on them while the pack risked life and limb playing tag with vampires, was becoming less and less palatable. She and Rahul had thrown themselves in with this, so this was, if only temporarily, their group.

You didn't leave people behind to fight monsters on their own. Every hand counted.

Rahul's gaze skirted back to the ladder. Down below, the students had begun creeping their way over to the fence. Isha could make out the silhouette of Dorothy, hard at work with her bolt cutters. The smoke bomb either worked as advertised, showing Dorothy what was coming her way while concealing the hostages' scents from the vampires, or said vampires were too busy chasing wolves to also go after escaping humans.

"Fine!"

Isha didn't wait for Rahul to say more, afraid to unsettle his change of mind back to being sensible. They crept down the hallway, closer and closer to the final door, careful not to disturb the shattered glass too much.

People were talking inside the room. Three voices, two men and a woman. Isha thought she recognized one of the men. The other man and the woman were definitely strangers to her.

"Would you like that, child?" she heard the woman say, her tone full of gleeful menace. "To sink your teeth into our shapeshifter friend here?"

"Yes!" That was the vampire's voice. The vampire. The one with the pack.

Isha's first instinct was to pull the door fully open. Rahul's hand on her shoulder stopped her. He gestured to the side of the door. Two hand-signals later Isha followed his train of thought.

Her back to the wall and dagger at the ready, she watched Rahul once more step out of the guardian's protective loop and wrap his fingers around the mangled doorknob. Inside the room, the woman blathered on like the stupidest kind of supervillain.

With a firm grip on the doorknob, Rahul threw himself back and to the side. Isha whirled around.

In the seconds she had to take in the room, she first saw Jayla's wide, frightened eyes staring through her. The pack's vampire stood there too, stiff as a board. Right before the door, turned toward Jayla and someone tied to a chair, loomed the ghoulish window vampire.

There was no time for thought. Isha leapt and buried her blade in the vampire's back, right down to the hilt.

---

The second she could move, Jayla threw herself at Arturo, tackling him to the ground.

"Get it off! Get it off!" the messed up 'Mother' vampire - whom Jayla had decided to dub Evil Stepaunt out of pure spite - howled from where she lay trashing on the floor. Whatever had sent her down had drawn blood. Jayla hoped it hurt.

Arturo didn't say anything or shout or even hiss. He twisted in her grip, eyes locked on Jesse, fangs bared and pupils blown wide, black holes in his face. Jayla clung to him with all she had, ignoring his unnaturally sharp finger nails digging into her arms. She got one hand around his neck, in case he decided werewolf was on the menu, but he seemed to only have eyes for Jesse.

New movement drew her attention. Rahul entered the room, slamming the door shut behind him with a thud.

Jesse, still tied to his chair, seemed unsure where to look. He stopped muttering curses under his breath long enough to ask, "Who the hell are you?" at Rahul, who pulled lockpicks out of a pocket.

Jayla couldn't resist grinning and redoubled her efforts to keep Arturo still. As surprise interventions went, this one got a ten out of ten.

"Know anything that'll make glamour go away?" she shouted to Rahul, and what she hoped was Isha stabbing the hell out of Evil Stepaunt. If it is, it's no wonder the pack didn't catch her spying! Invisibility spells being real is the height of weirdness. Awesome weirdness.

"Can you repeat that?" Rahul had gone to work on the back of Jesse's collar. Metal clicked against metal in a way that Jayla hoped meant good things. She'd not exactly listened to a lock getting picked before.

"I thank you for the assistance, but again: who are you?!"

"That's Rahul, a new friend," Jayla managed to gasp as Arturo squirmed in her grip. Vampires might not have the strength of a werewolf, but they were proving to not be that far behind. As Arturo didn't seem worried about breaking her bones while she kept the kid gloves on, holding him was like trying to hug a huge, angry moray eel. "He's going to get you out of that chair and that godawful necklace you're wearing. Rahul, is that Isha over there?"

Jayla could barely make herself heard over the unsettling noise of repeated stabbing, mixed with Evil Stepaunt's screeches of rage and, likely, pain; a cacophony of disturbingly satisfying violence.

"Yes, that's her. What's wrong with your vampire?" Rahul's voice shook as much as his hands but he looked to be making progress on the lock.

"A number of things, I'm sure," Jesse said, words choked and slurred. "But mainly glamour. Get my hands free and I'll fix it."

Jayla managed to not roll her eyes as Rahul looked to her for guidance. "Collar then chains, stat! I can't hold Arturo much longer."

One of said vampire's sharp elbows hit her side, cracking at least two ribs. The sound of her own bones breaking was quite the strike against moral, even though they healed up in no time, too quickly to truly hurt. She redoubled her efforts at keeping him pinned, keen to not have to experience any more broken bones, however temporary.

"Filth!"

A loud crash came from across the room. Caught up with Arturo, Jayla didn't dare twist her head too much to see what had happened, but it was clear Evil Stepaunt had begun struggling to her feet. Where had Isha ended up?

"Isha!" Rahul ducked down and threw himself back, groping around on the floor as if looking for a huge lost contact lens. "Are you okay?"

A faint groan was all the reply he got.

Notgoodnotgoodnotgood. Letting go of Arturo was not an option. Evil Stepaunt or no, two angry vampires loose in the room was worse than one.

"You've got this!" she called out to Rahul, since a pep-talk probably was better than staying a silent audience.

"Yes, I do."

A bright blue flash of light blinded her. There was a soft clank as the metal collar hit the floor, closely followed by four heavier thuds. The room suddenly got much smaller. The door to the hallway broke open with a thundering crash.

Evil Stepaunt's muttered curses turned into another shriek.

Jayla twisted her head as best she could, blinking frantically to clear her vision. All she caught sight of were Rahul and a now visible Isha, crouched below the room's only window. On the opposite side of the room was a splintered hole where the door had cracked in two.

Oh, and the hindquarters of a smallish elephant. An elephant that shimmered blue and reformed itself into Jesse, who caught himself against the broken doorframe.

"That," he said, out of breath, "is why petting days at the zoo are great if you're a shapeshifter. Especially then ones that ignore visitors' safety. I think I've bought us a few minutes."

"Great," Jayla choked out, because the dumbass was coming closer to the vampire who wanted to eat him. She needed to talk fast. "Rahul, Isha, help Jesse get to Dorothy, will you? I'll let go of Arturo when I hear the regroup howl."

Jesse slumped to his knees far too close to Arturo for comfort.

"Now who's being ridiculous and self-sacrificing?" He fumbled with one of his badges, unhooking it from his jacket on the third try. "Keep his head away from me for a little bit longer and then we'll be good to go, all right?"

Since facing the whole building on her own with a blood-crazed Arturo within reach was a terrible plan, Jayla didn't argue. She tightened her grip on Arturo's jaw until bones creaked. Jesse's hand brushed the underside of her arm as he leaned in and fastened the badge to Arturo's ratty t-shirt. We're so damn lucky I'm not ticklish.

"There! Better?"

Arturo went limp in her arms. Jayla loosened her grip on his jaw and turned him to look her in the eye. His pupils had gone from wide voids of hunger to tiny pinpricks of panic.

"Yes!" She could have kissed him, and Jesse, and everyone else in the room for good measure, but they didn't have time for that and Arturo looked like he could do with some personal space. "You okay?"

"I'm myself." Arturo barely opened his mouth as he spoke, huddling against the wall the second he was free of her. "For now. You all need to get away from me."

"Not while you're wearing that." Jesse nodded at the badge on Arturo's t-shirt. "It's never failed me before and it snapped you out of Tall, Dark and Creepy's control right away. I think we can rely on it."

Arturo glanced over at Jesse. Jayla couldn't read his expression, mostly because she was keeping the majority of her attention on the broken door - Evil Stepaunt stirred out there, though wasn't back on her feet yet - but she suspected he was either touched at the gesture or paranoid that it was a trick. She resisted the urge to slap him out of it.

"You hold on to that," Jesse said. He swayed where he stood and Jayla could see the rope burns around his wrists. Chain burns. Her stomach curled into an unhappy pretzel.

"Rahul, how's Isha?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the way her whole body ached and the fact that a big, bloody fight probably stood between them and the exit.

"I'm fine." Isha rubbed at her eyes, like she'd gotten sand thrown in them. Rahul helped her to her feet, one of her arms slung over his shoulders. He had to stoop a bit to keep both of them upright. "Got the wind knocked out of me. Might have sprained an ankle. I can run."

Jayla could tell that sentence should have ended with 'if I have to'.

Rahul looked fine. Arturo looked shaken but had gotten up and stood on his own two feet. Rahul could help Isha. She could help Jesse. They could do this. "Great! Let's get-"

This was when Jayla finally spotted the broken music box.

---

Arturo followed Jayla's line of sight to a gut-wrenching reminder; the next step of the plan, shattered on the floor.

"Awww, hell." Jayla scraped up the three biggest pieces of the music box, her hands trembling. "This would have been really helpful to have against Creepy Cult Leader. Can any of you fix this?"

"I barely followed half of what Miss Sledge said about the silence charms," the younger hunter said, eyes wide and darting about the room. He looked ready to jump out the window. "That thing is so beyond me it might as well be a faster than light engine."

Jayla snapped her eyes shut and grimaced. "We've got an angry old vampire right outside this room. Any and all bright ideas are very much welcome, preferably yesterday."

"S-she's not dead?" The older hunter paled and leaned heavier on her brother. She still held the bloodied dagger in her left hand, knuckles white around its handle. "How isn't she dead? I stabbed her at least ten times! I must have pierced her heart!"

"Don't beat yourself up about it," the shapeshifter said with a weak smile. "She's been a vampire for at least 50 years by the looks of her. You'd need to decapitate her and burn her heart to slow her down permanently. But I think I crushed her hands, so she's got a bit of regrowing to do."

The shapeshifter hobbled-

No, not 'the shapeshifter'. He'd stayed with them when he could have shifted and fled. He'd given up his protection from glamour. Whatever secrets he might be keeping still, he deserved his name.

Jesse hobbled over to Jayla. Arturo did his best to watch them without staring, keeping as much distance between him and them as the room would allow. He could still feel 'Mother'. Her presence crashed against the barrier of the gifted talisman like oil-polluted waves.

The talisman would hold. He wasn't so sure about the rest of their plan.

"That's what you need?" Jesse's voice had dropped to a whisper. He eyed the broken music box as if it might bite him.

"If Arturo had it, it must be important. You know how to fix it?"

"Kinda." Jesse gave Jayla a shaky smile that told Arturo things he didn't want to know. "You'll have fifteen minutes. That's all I can give you. Will that be enough?"

Jayla shrugged helplessly. "No clue. Will it, Arturo?"

Arturo tried to find words, because no matter what was between them this was too much, far too much, worse than blood. His tongue wouldn't cooperate, staying glued to the roof of his mouth.

Jesse took a deep breath. "Don't let me break, okay?"

"Don't let you what?"

Jesse closed his hands around Jayla's, letting his fingers rest on the broken music box.

"I'm counting on you to get us all out of here alive and in one piece. But in the event you don't, make sure Lisa makes my character an NPC that flirts with the whole party."

The air flowed thick as molasses. "Don't let him!" came out far too late.

Blue glow surrounded Jesse in a flash, shrinking at alarming speed. Jayla stared, opened-mouthed and uncomprehending, as Jesse warped and folded in on himself, forming a small shining square in the palm of her hand.

"Did not see this coming," she said down at the new music box, identical to the original except for not being in pieces all over the floor. "This can't be safe!"

Arturo began fumbling for his earplugs. Mad impulse or no, it would be worse to let it go to waste.

"Jayla, no matter what happens, do not drop him. I know what to do next. All you need to do is keep him in one piece and not shift to wolf form. Human hearing only. Got that?"

A little green around the gills, Jayla snapped her mouth shut and opened the lid to the Jesse music box. "I'm ready. I think. You two?"

"We're ready to run," Isha said, voice faint. "I didn't know shapeshifters could turn into things."

"Neither did I." Jayla looked like she'd been told to carry a baby across a minefield. "This is bad, isn't it?"

Arturo drew in a steadying breath. With the amount of blood in the room, that did not help much.

"Worse than bad. But it's done. The quicker we can get it over with, the better. For us and him." He pushed the plugs into his ears. "When you're ready, howl, then activate it."

Jayla visibly swallowed, almost cartoonishly. She put her finger on the trigger spring, gave a curt nod, and then a human howl.

Arturo was off before he could sense the first notes in the air.

(Chapter 8) - (Chapter 10)