Her eyes narrowed. The first two teams were in position, but the third had yet to reach its mark. She waited until they jockeyed into position behind the tree stump Mason had indicated earlier, and nodded. Cooking with gas now.
She watched as Mason checked his weaponry, every movement calm as he watched the camp below for movement. Nothing happened. Most of the Lycans appeared to be asleep, their lifelines sparkling red to Andy. Her palms itched to draw the blades sheathed across her back, but she held off. The breeze picked up, bringing the scents of the campsite to them. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of stale beer and unwashed bodies.
Mason leaned down and selected one of the pebbles by his knee. A thoughtful look on his face, he hefted it in his hand a couple of times, as though considering its potential. Reeling his arm back he launched it into the middle of the camp. She caught her breath, wondering what the hell he was playing at as it landed in the center of a group of empty beer cans.
With a loud clatter the projectile scattered the cans. The noise woke the snoozing Weres, bringing them to their feet with shouts of alarm. Andy glared at Mason. The idiot had just given away the element of surprise, which was pretty much all they’d had going for them.
He winked at her as he pulled something from the side of his vest. A grenade. Pulling the pin with a vicious twist of his wrist he launched it into the middle of the Lycan camp.
“Fire in the hole.”
Chapter Eight
The pair twisted away as the small canister sailed through the air and landed with a hop, skip and a jump by the campfire. Andy clapped her hands over her ears as it went off with a balance-destroying bang, and lit the night sky up like a sunny day.
There was no rest for the wicked though. Immediately she and Mason were on their feet and moving. Adrenalin surged through her body as they covered the distance between their hiding place and the camp.
The wolves caught in the grenade’s radius staggered around as though drunk, blinking as they tried to regain their vision. In wolf form Lycans could see a mouse taking a shit at six hundred meters, but shine a big enough torch in anything’s face and it was blind as a bat for a couple of seconds.
They were still as dangerous as hell, probably more so when blinded and panicking. Leaving the worst affected to the humans, she went for the Lycans who’d been on the edge of the blast radius. Stun grenades were non-lethal; a percussive explosion and a bright light enough to render most incapable long enough for the attacking force to control whatever was going on. For humans it was sufficient but Lycans recovered fast.
A feral howl of fury erupted from the center of the camp, the sound peppered with the sound of gunshots as Mason’s teams picked their targets. The human forms of the Lycans were swallowed up as their wolf forms exploded from them faster than the eye could see. Instead of a group of teenagers out on a camping trip, they were faced with a pack of snarling and angry predators.
She grinned to herself, an expression without either humor or mercy as her blades cleared leather and lined up her first target, a scraggy-looking wolf already turning towards her. Its lips curled into a snarl as it gathered itself to leap.
“Com’on then, fugly,” Andy taunted, waggling her blades in warning. She fought with them in opposing grips, one blade up and one with the blade curved along her forearm. Matched with a healthy dose of martial arts training, it was a lethal combination. “Let me give you a good belly scratch.”
Massive paws skittered in the dust as it launched at her. The thrill of the fight singing through her, Andy waited until the creature was almost upon her then leapt into action. Time slowed to a crawl as a hop put her in the air, and her back foot lashed out. Her steel-toe cap caught the wolf under the chin, and slammed its mouth shut over the vicious canines within. Satisfaction surged through her as she felt bone crunch. Even if she had busted the creature’s jaw, it wouldn’t make much difference. Already its freaky physiology would be repairing the damage.
“Awww, does that hurt? Lemme give you something for that.”
It staggered away, trying to put some distance between them so it could heal the damage. She didn’t let it and followed. Her blade flashed in the light of the campfire as she slashed it through the air towards the furry throat. The razor-sharp edge cut through fur, skin and muscle like a hot knife through butter. Gritting her teeth, she rammed the blade deeper until it scraped against bone. Triumph surged as she felt her blade hook the edge of the soul. With a vicious yank she pulled it back, and severed the soul from the body. Blood spurted as the beast shuddered, and slumped dead at her feet.
Other howls filled the air as the human teams picked their targets, and overwhelmed the Lycan pack. Mixed amongst the furry death-calls were human screams as the creatures defended themselves. So many lifelines lit up that Andy was almost blinded. Knowing she was going to have her work cut out for her later, she flicked her vision firmly to human and looked about for her next victim.
To her left a group was baiting a big wolf. It was bleeding from numerous bullet wounds, but was still on its feet and lashing out with razor-sharp teeth. A body lay under the massive paws, throat a bloody mess and sightless eyes staring up at the night sky. Donny. Try as she might, Andy couldn’t bring herself to feel sorrow that the mouthy human had met his end in such a violent way, just annoyance that his lifeline had been cut short unnecessarily.
“Oscar…left knee. Now!” Valerie yelled the order as she lifted her rifle. In concert, shots rang out. The wolf ate dirt as its front knees disintegrated in a shower of blood and bone. Without a word Andy slid between the humans, and slashed her blades across its neck to free the soul.
“Nice move.”
She nodded at the other woman as she danced back, impressed by the teamwork. Pity this lot had tried to kill Mason, she might have actually grown to like them at some point.
Valerie just smiled in reply, a small tight nod as she looked around at the cage the children were being kept in. Three wolves surrounded it, guarding their captives. The team who was supposed to be freeing the children was dead, scattered in pieces around the wolve’s paws.
The two women locked eyes as understanding flowed between them. The children were paramount. Without a word, both women, human and reaper, turned on a dime and stalked towards the cage and its furry guards.
Andy was impressed all over again. Unlike her, Valerie was just plain old human. Easily caught, and just as easy to kill. Despite that, she had a look of grim determination and hard vengeance on her face. Left to herself, Andy had no doubt that if anything happened to her kid, the woman would spend the rest of her life tracking those responsible and taking them apart piece by piece. Slowly.
She could admire vengeance like that.
“Yo, heads up.”
Andy grinned as she approached the cage, calling out to attract the wolves’ attention to herself. However you cut the cards, she was the one who could hold out longest against the creatures, and when it came to it, survive a wolf attack. She might wish like hell they’d kill her, but at some point the pain would end and she’d heal. Then hunt herself some wolves and make a nice winter coat from their hides.
The three wolves turned their attention on her, eyes picking up the light from the fire as she walked past it and shining brightly. Lips curled back from their teeth as they snarled, drool dripping on the dirt beneath them. Unlike the kid in town the other day, these were fully shifted Lycans which meant any human survival instincts they had were buried under layers and layers of predatory desires. Desires and needs that marked the two-legged, soft-skinned creature walking towards them firmly as prey.
“How many wolves does it take to change a light bulb?”
From the corner of her eye she saw Valerie step back into the darkness and work her way towards the cage. Good girl, she’d gotten the message. The three wolves looked at each other and back at her. Puzzlement crossed their furry faces as they tried to figure out why she wasn’t scared or running away.
She deliberately didn’t look behind them to where Valerie was freeing the kids. The cage door was secured with a length of rope, the knots too tight for young fingers but no match for the knife Valerie carried.
“Com’on…it’s a killer.”
She hid her grin and walked closer, waggling her blades to make them catch what little light there was. Reading them was like reading a book. They weren’t used to someone who looked human, and more importantly smelt human, not running the other way in terror.
The trouble was, at some point in the next minute, that puzzlement was going to turn into irritation, which was then going to turn into violence. By the time that happened she needed to be within range. Calmness filled her, radiating out from her core to fill the rest of her being. Input from all of her senses was heightened, and sharper.
She could hear the rasp of breathing as the massive chests rose and fell, the stink of their fetid breath as they bared their teeth and the smell of unkempt fur, like they hadn’t groomed properly for weeks. She’d seen Lycan packs before and this wasn’t a pack. This was a bunch of filthy scavengers who were a disgrace to their species.
Without warning she slipped into the Shade fully, leaving them staring at empty space.
“Actually, who gives a shit?”
Her voice was conversational as she re-appeared less than a heartbeat later between the largest of the wolves. Both turned and lunged at her in the same instant, their teeth slicing the air where she had been. Instead of the soft target they had been expecting though, she was gone back into the Shade, and two sets of teeth encountered only the furred hides of their pack mates.
Ignoring the howls of pain and fury, Andy stepped from the Shade again by the third Lycan. Slightly smaller than the other two, she’d guess it was female, but that was only a guess. She’d never been sufficiently interested in the different forms Lycans took to learn to identify their genders. As long as they bled, that was all she cared about.
It sensed her by its shoulder at the same time she raised the wickedly curved sickle, and froze. The eye nearest to her rolled back in the socket to try and get a bead on her, but it was too late. A soft whimper escaped the creature’s lips as Andy slammed the blade down hard. The point parted the fur and popped through the skin with a small snick. Using her weight and momentum the sickle powered through the Lycan’s throat, and exited the other side in less time than it took to think about it.
Blood pulsed from the ruin of its throat to splatter the dry dirt below. With something almost akin to grace, the creature’s knees folded and it collapsed to the ground. Deftly Andy reversed the blade as she dropped into the Shade and dispatched the soul on the way back in.
She turned her attention to the other two wolves, nipping in and out of the Shade to harass and harry them. They whirled and danced, trying to catch her as she appeared and disappeared. Their extra abilities were no use against a creature who could simply chose not to be in their plane of existence. She kept an eye on how Valerie was doing rescuing the children, and as the seconds ticked by, the gray lifelines active to her reaper senses started to wink out one by one. A signal that some of those kids would survive.
For tonight at least.