Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

In a strange way, the word did sound different that time.

Tossing a dismissive wave in Milosh’s direction, Nadya continued, “We have been collecting samples of as many shapeshifters as we could from this country, just as we’ve done for our own. With all that’s happened here recently, there’s a lot more for us to collect.”

“Yeah, the fur’s really been flying.”

If Cole was there, he might have laughed at that. This audience wasn’t nearly as kind.

“More fur will fly in the place we’re going. Since it seems there are already at least two Full Bloods, a pack of Mongrels, and Half Breeds there as well, we may already be too late.”

Now, Paige hoped it was the Amriany who were attempting to pull a cheap laugh out of her. “There are that many shapeshifters in one spot?”

“At least. Possibly more. Our Dikh Chakano was almost knocked from his seat by the amount of power coming from this spot on his map. We got your message while we were in the air, and if you hadn’t already proven to be a valuable fighter, we wouldn’t have wasted the time to get you.”

“And what if I’d refused to help in a fight as lopsided as this one?” Paige asked.

Nadya was quick to reply, “Then we would have taken your weapons and put them to good use.”

Another indecipherable announcement was broadcast through the speakers, but Paige didn’t need a translation. The jet was approaching ground level. She could tell by the lightness in her stomach and the crackle in her ears. “You’re certain the Full Blood that attacked Kansas City is here?”

Gunari nodded. “The sample I bought was collected from a tower where most of the fighting took place during that siege. The seller was trying to make money by auctioning the patch of fur online.”

Dreading the answer she would get, Paige asked, “Was he a police officer?”

“No. Just some idiot trying to cash in. At least some stupid people can be useful.”

Paige showed him a friendly smile, enhanced with a hint of relief. “Finally we’re speaking the same language.”

The plane touched down at Atoka Municipal Airport on a strip of concrete that barely seemed long enough to accommodate it. After tires screeched against concrete, the Gulfstream came to a stop that nearly sent every one of its passengers into the nose cone. As soon as it rolled off the strip and completed a quick 180-degree turn, the engines cooled off and the door popped open.

Gunari stormed the stairs that swung down from the side door as if the war he wanted to join was ten feet in front of him, carrying a duffel bag of supplies, weapons, and ammunition in each hand. Drina had been one of the pilots, which meant this was the first time Paige saw her. Her long, dark blond hair was pulled back and held in place with a black baseball cap. After looking Paige over with a set of striking green eyes, she slung a FAMAS assault rifle over her shoulder and headed down the stairs. Nadya came out next, with Paige following close behind. Milosh made no effort to hide the fact that he was keeping an eye on the Skinner as he brought up the rear.

Gunari’s briefing had been quick and concise. According to the Amriany Far Seers, shapeshifters were converging in or around the small town of Atoka, Oklahoma. One of them was supposedly confirmed to be Liam, which meant he was probably after something. Although Gunari didn’t know what that something was, he didn’t want a Full Blood as dangerous Liam to get it. Despite many years of disagreement that existed between the two groups, Paige assumed any Skinner would agree with that line of reasoning. Other than the Full Blood, there were Mongrels and Half Breeds circling the city. Since the Amriany Far Seer hadn’t been completely clear on that point, Paige decided to take that with a grain of salt.

“There’s something wrong with your plan,” she pointed out. “The slowest of those creatures can run from one state to another in less time than it took your plane to land. How do you know they’re still here?”

“We’ll soon find out,” Gunari said. “Get into the car.”

Idling next to a row of shacks next to the airstrip was an SUV that looked as if it had been sitting there through the last dozen dust storms that whipped across the Oklahoma landscape. The Amriany piled in, and Paige made sure she was the last to get inside. If things went too badly, she would gladly take her chances with gravity by jumping out of another moving vehicle.

“You guys really have your stuff together,” she said. “Private jets. Cars at every airfield.”

“What’s the matter?” Milosh scoffed. “You don’t know how to call ahead for a car?”

“Sure. It’s the jet that I have a little trouble with. Must be some deep pockets back home.”

“Don’t worry about our money, Skinner,” he replied in a way that harkened back to their earlier conversation about kernels. “Be more concerned with making yourself useful. Otherwise, you’ll be watching that jet take off from the ground as it leaves you here when this is through.”

“If we make it through, you mean.”

Milosh smirked and nodded. “Right.”

Before they made their first turn onto West Liberty Road, Paige could feel the heat in her scars become even worse. She’d started feeling it when the jet was still on its way down, but now it was an intense, stabbing reminder that Full Bloods were nearby. Out her window she could see only a low building with a wide garage door and an empty parking lot. Turning to look at the other side of the street, she spotted a group of dark shapes rushing at the SUV like a fleet of pickup trucks barreling through an intersection.

Drina was behind the wheel of the SUV and she steered hard toward the incoming shapes while gunning the engine. “Hold on!” she screamed.

All Paige could do was jam both feet against the floorboards and wedge her arms against the door and ceiling. The impacts against the SUV came in a flurry of solid thumps that knocked the vehicle off half of its tires and flipped it onto its side. The Amriany shouted back and forth at each other in their native language while they and Paige tried to find the fastest way out.

Milosh and Nadya were in the backseat with her. He climbed up to stand on an armrest so he could reach up and shove open his passenger door. After sticking his head out for all of a second, he pulled it in again before it would have been lopped off by a set of claws that sliced through the air like a set of conjoined filleting knives.

Swearing under his breath, Milosh pulled a 9mm from a holster clipped to his belt and fired as he climbed up and out of the SUV’s side door. All around her, Paige could hear glass shattering and metal groaning as it was bent and peeled apart. Since she was on the bottom of the pile and had to wait her turn to escape, she busied herself by pulling the gnarled wood of her right-handed weapon from the holster on her boot and willing it to shift into its bladed form. It grew into a roughly formed machete by the time her left hand had found her Beretta. She fired reflexively at the claws that raked through the roof, which had been turned into a thin metal wall only a few inches away from her shoulder. The metal came away to reveal the snarling face of a Half Breed.

It wasn’t one of the normal creatures she’d been hunting for so many years. This was one of the newer beasts that had emerged since the werewolves were forced to either evolve or be wiped off the face of the earth by Lancroft’s Mud Flu. Its fur was thicker and more like the wiry coat of a Full Blood. Even though her bullets snapped its head back and chipped away at its solid body, they were barely enough to force the creature away from the SUV. She continued firing, however, until she scored enough head shots to put it down. Before she could get too excited about that, another Half Breed stalked toward the opening the other had made. Its eyes narrowed into angry slits, and a long, wide snout opened wide to reveal a set of curved tusks that stretched out from its upper and lower jaws.