Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

“We’re not there yet,” Paige snapped. “He fought and bled right alongside me, and I won’t just stand by and let a partner go when things get hard. Not again!”

“You want to go up top among those Full Bloods?” Quinn asked.

“We’ll have to eventually, right?”

Quinn’s eyes had the glint of polished stones within the smooth, furry contours of her face. Her snout had shrunken, along with the pointed ears that sprang straight up from the top of her head. One by one she checked silently with the other Mongrels. And one by one they nodded back at her. Shifting her focus to Paige, she said, “We can help you get to what’s left of your plane by distracting the Full Bloods. We can’t guarantee they’ll all come after us, and we sure as hell can’t guarantee the Half Breeds will follow. He’s got less than an hour before the process is too far along to stop. If you’re not back here with that medicine or whatever it is you have, we take care of him ourselves.”

Nadya placed a hand on Paige’s shoulder. “Agreed.”

“Once this is done,” the feline Mongrel continued, “we’ve got some things to discuss.”

Paige took a moment to check the remaining magazines for her Beretta. The one already in the pistol was half full, and there was a fresh one in her jacket pocket. “I’m sure you do,” she said while slapping the magazine back in place and chambering the first round. “Every good deed’s got its price.”

What had once been a flat stretch of land surrounding a little airstrip was now a ravaged battleground. Dirt had been peeled away from the face of the earth by unforgiving claws. The SUV was a dented lump of metal and broken glass, currently good for nothing more than a perch for the ebon Full Blood to survey his newly acquired territory. Minh ripped at the ground, stopping only when she caught a scent that snapped her head up and flared her nostrils.

The Mongrels approached the field in a line and fanned out once they’d been detected. Quinn and two other felines were at the front of the group, while more shapes emerged from the shadows to join them. Two came from behind the wide building with the big garage door, and another came at a dead run from a nearby housing subdivision. By the time that one reached the front line, all of the Mongrels had launched into a charge.

“They come to us for once,” Liam snarled while jumping down from the SUV. “That’ll save us some digging.” The moment his feet hit the ground, clawed hands stretched up from the dirt to grab him. Liam immediately pulled up the leg that had been snagged to reveal the Mongrel that snagged him. Salvatore tightened his grip on Liam’s ankle while trying to drag him down, but the Full Blood was able to pull him up from the dirt. Only the Mongrel’s upper body emerged, but that was more than enough of a target for the werewolf’s left paw.

“Already used this trick in Kansas City,” Liam said while the corner of his ravaged eye socket twitched. “There won’t be a second time.” With that, he sunk his claws into the Mongrel’s belly and ripped him open. Blood sprayed from a gaping wound that went all the way up to Salvatore’s shoulder blade, and when Liam pulled his leg up even more, the evisceration was complete.

Quinn and the other Mongrels leapt forward in unison. Chunks of grass and earth were kicked up behind them as the stampede met a wall formed by the two Full Bloods. While claws and fangs were bloodied, two more figures emerged from the low building with the wide garage door. Beneath that building was the basement where Milosh, Nadya, and eventually Paige, had been taken. The two women paused in the doorway, waiting for a chance to make a run for the airstrip.

“You ready for this?” Paige asked.

Nadya set her sights on the airstrip, pulled in a breath and nodded once.

They bolted from the side door as if the building behind them was on fire. Ahead they could see half a dozen Mongrels tangling with the Full Bloods and a few Half Breeds. When Paige veered to the right to try and skirt the eye of a bloody hurricane, Nadya stayed with her.

The sound of flesh being ripped apart hit Paige’s ears like the tearing of wet canvas, filling the air beneath the victorious howl of a Full Blood. Heavy, thumping footfalls shook the ground beneath her feet. There wasn’t time to stop and fight, and shouting for Nadya to keep running would only draw unwanted attention, so she kept her legs churning and hoped the Amriany woman was doing the same.

A Half Breed ran toward Paige on an intercept course. By the time she’d reflexively drawn her Beretta and aimed at the werewolf, the thing had already been taken down by Quinn. The Mongrel leader screeched at her packmates with blood still pouring from her mouth. Two more Half Breeds had their eyes fixed on the humans but were forced to contend with Quinn as the feline darted between them and raked her claws along both werewolves’ ribs. Paige and Nadya leapt over the first creature to hit the ground in a heap and kept going.

Her entire world was enveloped by the pounding of her feet, the howling of nearby creatures, the constant thumping of her heart, and the powerful huffing of her labored breaths. The ground beneath her shifted from packed soil to softer earth that had been recently turned. There was still half of the field to cover before they made it to the airstrip, and Paige realized they probably wouldn’t even make it if the galloping footsteps behind them caught up.

One quick glance over her shoulder was all she needed to see the smaller Full Blood coming after them. Minh’s dark red fur was slicked back against the low narrow frame of her four-legged form. As her paws grabbed the dirt to propel her onward, her head pumped back and forth like a racehorse in the home stretch. Only one or two more of those strides was all that would be needed for her to get within striking distance of Nadya. A few seconds after that, Paige knew she would be the one feeling her body cut down by the Full Blood’s claws.

She twisted in an attempt to take a shot with her Beretta. Before she could pull her trigger, however, something sprang up from the ground to grab onto Minh’s front paw. It clamped around Minh’s ankle and tightened its grip enough to be pulled almost completely from the earth by the Full Blood’s momentum. The digger reached up with his free hand, grabbed Minh’s shoulder and sank the pointed end of his beak into her back. That forced a yelp from her, which quickly turned into an angry snarl. As Paige turned back around to look where she was going, the blurred form of a cloaked Mongrel bolted past her to hit Minh squarely in the ribs. All three shapeshifters rolled to the side, biting and tearing amid a growing cloud of dust.

Knowing better than to waste time counting her blessings, Paige worked her aching legs harder and focused on the little buildings at the edge of the airstrip. Along the way, she and Nadya encountered several Half Breed carcasses in various mangled poses after being ripped apart by what could have either been a Mongrel or a wood chipper. Paige hurdled those and quickened her pace after making it around the edge of the closest building and getting within sight of the jet wreckage.

There was more of the Gulfstream left than she’d anticipated. The jet lay on its side with one wing reaching toward the sky and the other smashed into scrap metal beneath the bulk of its body. Fires crackled at various points along the fuselage and black smoke rolled up from the cracked tail section. As the stench of burnt plastic and charred steel hit her, Paige slowed to a jog and stopped.

“Where’s the medical kit stored?” she asked.

Nadya came up alongside her and stopped, to bending down to place her hands on her knees. “There was one in the cockpit and another in the passenger cabin near the door.”