Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

“When he was being dragged down,” Paige said. “Liam said something about changing Mongrels into Full Bloods. Is that what you mean?”

The pain was written across Max’s face, and one of his lips curled up to reveal part of a fang.

“Yes,” Stu said. “It changed him, but not into that. Something about …others. Better. I can’t make it out.”

“There were others that were changed too,” Paige said. “Made them better, but not Full Bloods.”

Some of the concentration on Max’s face eased up.

“Yes,” Stu said. “How did you know? This is me talking, by the way.”

“I can see what happened,” Paige explained. “I’m looking at it. I can feel it. I’m also on borrowed time here, so could you just repeat what you hear?”

“Sure, sure. Sorry.”

Looking at the Half Breed and then to Max, she asked, “Should I be worried about that one?”

“No,” Stu said. “The rest sleeps. The …the wretch? The wretch sleeps.”

“Why can’t you talk to me?”

“The …tore box? Torba box? Can’t make it out. Whatever he’s saying, it’s something about something else giving Liam power. Liam can control the wretches and now he can control Max because …shared blood. Something about shared blood. Controls his body, but not his mind.”

In Kansas City, Liam had been able to guide the packs of Half Breeds he’d created with simple commands and barks that steered them in a certain direction or made them cower like any animal showing deference to an alpha male. But that control hadn’t been complete. As far as shared blood, if Liam had turned Max into what he was now, it only made sense that he might be able to control him too.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How can he hear you?” she asked while shaking the phone. “Why?”

Stu paused for several seconds. The only reason Paige knew she hadn’t been disconnected was because she could hear the tapping of a keyboard and his quick, excited breaths. Finally, he said, “Paige. I recorded this. Let me play it back so you can hear. It’ll be easier that way.”

“All right.”

She heard a few clicks and then static. There was some feedback and a clunk, but she guessed that was just from one machine knocking against another. The voice she heard was a cross between a whisper and a distant gust of wind. Once she locked onto it, she could make out the words. It said, “Guarding the …Torva’ox is their power. Full Blood power. Keeps them alive. Makes them stronger. Liam could influence the wretches and now he has absolute control over them. Over me too until the Breaking Moon passes.”

Paige wanted to ask questions but reminded herself she was listening to a recording.

“The Torva’ox is power,” Max continued. “That’s …we can talk like this. Liam lied to us, but more will follow him. More like me. The others will grow stronger …Torva’ox gives them …will die. They will die or be broken. Die or be broken …”

“That’s what I got,” Stu said, breaking Paige’s concentration.

“What’s the Torvox?” When she didn’t get an answer, she looked at the phone. Then she looked at Max. Whatever was happening with him, the struggle against it was wearing him out because the Mongrel’s gnarled head now rested on the floor. The Half Breed, however, never stopped twitching. “What are the Full Bloods doing here, Max? You must want to tell me or you wouldn’t have called out to me!”

“I’m getting something,” Stu said. “I think he’s saying, split. Split apart.”

“Something needs to be split apart?” Paige asked.

The Mongrel’s eyes came open and immediately fixed on her. “Full Bloods …gathering strength …too much strength,” Stu told her. “Want to free plane …no, that’s not it. Sorry Paige. It’s reclaim . Reclaim …territories.”

“The cities,” Paige whispered. “Now that the Nymar have moved to take the cities, the Full Bloods want to kick them out.”

“All territory. Leeches …destroyed. Only …Jesus,” Stu sighed, in a way that made it clear that last part came from him and not anything he’d heard. When he spoke again it was in a frenzied rush. “He says the Full Bloods will destroy everyone and not just in the cities. The whole territory. What’s that mean?”

“Full Bloods claim entire continents as their territories. Shit,” Paige sighed. “They’re really doing it. Skinners have always thrown out worst case scenarios, and this is the biggest one. The one where Full Bloods get sick of living in the forests and don’t allow themselves to be hunted.”

“They allowed themselves to be hunted?”

“Think of it in terms of us getting hassled by bees. We get stung and may move somewhere else because it’s easier, but when we get really sick of those things, we start swatting. If that fails, we exterminate them.”

“Not just …theirs …portion. Not just their portion,” Stu said, sounding more and more like he was on a game show getting pantomime clues from a B-list celebrity. “All. All. All. He keeps saying all. And something’s coming. Oh! I just thought of something. It could be a vortex!”

“A vortex is coming?” Paige asked.

“No, it could be a vortex instead of ley lines. That would explain a lot, but not the whole cell phone thing. The other part about something coming was from him.”

The heat in her scars flared up again, but this time it was a deeper burn caused by the most powerful of all shapeshifters. “See what you can find about a Torvox or whatever that was. I’ll check in for a report later, and don’t call me!”

Paige wanted to run.

She wasn’t a stranger to that feeling, but there was never any time to give in to it. After signaling for Nadya to come back into the first bedroom, they huddled behind the bed piled high with blankets and mattress stuffing. Paige caught a smell powerful enough to let her know the rest of the body belonging to that hand was definitely hidden within the mound.

“Are you sure about this?” Nadya whispered.

The two women kept their backs against a wall, their hands wrapped tightly around their weapons, their eyes glued to the doorway.

“Yes,” Paige replied. “There’s a Full Blood coming. I can feel it.”

“And you’re sure about hiding here? Shouldn’t we run? Or at least get ready to fight?”

“There’s something about that hole in the floor in the other room,” Paige explained. “I think it messes with their senses somehow.”

“How do you know that?”

“Those things were placed here as guards, right?”

“Looks that way,” Nadya said.

“As far as we know, Full Bloods can just about smell one M&M in a pile of Reece’s Pieces from three hundred miles away, so why would they need to post a guard?”

“What if the Full Bloods didn’t post a guard?” Nadya asked.

“No Half Breed could think straight enough to do something like that.”

“Could be instinct,” Nadya said in a clipped whisper.

“Whatever is here is important to the Full Bloods. We need to find out why, and this may be our only chance.”

“If it smells us, we’re dead.”

“And it may also hear us, so be ready.”

The slow, lingering groan of old floorboards combined with churning breaths to silence the women immediately. Paige crouched until her nose came within inches of a cracked bone she hadn’t seen before. The stench of death had been overwhelming at first, but she’d gotten used to it enough to stay there without giving away her position by puking up her last two meals. The bed was between her and the door. Under it, apart from the newly discovered body parts, there were plenty of dust bunnies, a few mismatched socks, and a short stack of porno magazines. She gazed across the top of a crinkled set of fake jugs to stare at the doorway as the Full Blood entered the room. From her vantage point she saw a thick paw press down against the floor and flatten as the Full Blood placed its weight on it. Given the lighting in the room and the narrow slot through which she had to look, she could barely distinguish the light rusty color of its fur. When the werewolf approached the bed and sniffed it hesitantly, Paige gripped her machete tighter.