Marcus Pelegrimas - The Breaking

“You’ve turned the packs against each other?”

“I convinced a few of them to take the step between Mongrel and Full Blood. Apparently, they’ve forgotten their history lessons as well,” Liam said. “I sent those few out to infect more, and now that we’ve uncovered this source of the Torva’ox, I can wrap ones like Max here around my little finger.”

“But only from a short distance,” she pointed out.

“After the Breaking Moon rises, distance won’t matter.”

“Why talk to me like this?”

“Because you’ve always been the smart one,” he replied. “Between you, me, and Esteban, the Half Breeds have more chaos in their little addled minds than normal. Just think what will happen when our control over them becomes absolute.”

When Minh shifted into another form, Paige could hear the soft brush of expanding muscle against stretching bones and the scrape of claws emerging from her fingers. Soon, a luxurious breath drifted through the air as the Full Blood squatted down to drive her hands into the pit. “Randolph won’t stand for it,” she stated.

Liam’s response was spoken in a voice that sounded as if it was drawn taut between two halves of a vice. “He’s abandoning this territory for another. Probably back to greener pastures in Norway or some other chunk of forest closer to his hometown.”

“There are a few others who didn’t respond to the message you sent. And what about the Skinners? Esteban has already found one of their strongholds. There must be more.”

“Calling anything those Skinners have a stronghold is giving them a lot more credit than they deserve. They’re scattered, hunted by their own police, and dividing into separate camps thanks to the scraps left behind by Jonah Lancroft. We have the leeches to thank for that. Maybe we’ll only torture them a little once we pay them a visit.”

“What of Kawosa?”

“All he’s ever wanted to do is toy with the humans,” Liam said with absolute certainty. “That and tinkering with the newest model of Half Breed. He’s got his wheels turning and I’ve got mine. As long as they don’t grind against each other, we’ll get along just fine. All I want to hear from you is that you’re willing to stand with me against the humans and those goddamn leeches after we’ve received our dose of what lays in the ground at your feet. And if one of us gains it all, they will lay claim to the last gift that Kawosa has never passed on to his kin.”

“In order for one to get all of the Torva’ox, there would have to be no others to draw it away from them,” Minh said. “We’re not the only ones drawing from this source. Whether they know it or not, humans drink from this well. Skinners may take more than normal, but all of them take some. Is that why you’ve unleashed such widespread destruction? To keep the Torva’ox from trickling even into human souls?”

“By the time the next Breaking Moon rises, we’ll have thinned their herd either by turning them into wretches or killing them outright.”

“And,” she mused, “we’ll be in control of the wretches?”

Hearing the breath coming from Liam was enough to paint the picture of his toothy smile in Paige’s mind. “Now we’re on the same page,” he said.

“But this is not the only spot where the Torva’ox flows,” Minh pointed out.

He looked down at the pit as if there was no looking away. “This is where the first Full Blood has been born in the last thirteen decades. There is no stronger source and there is no better time for us to claim it. The Skinners will collect themselves before too long, but for now they are too weak to be a threat. The Nymar are entrenched, which will only make them overconfident. The humans have always been curious, but now they have the means to scour every wooded patch of land, every cave, and every corner of the desert from space.”

“If that were true, they’d be able to find their own criminals.”

“Human criminals are like the leeches, themselves,” he sneered. “They hide for years at a time, skulking in basements like Mongrel rats or spending every dollar they steal to purchase new names and identities. Do you want to start living like that?”

In a softer voice Minh said, “Some of us already have.”

Liam pivoted around so quickly that Paige was certain she’d been spotted. Instead, he hung his head low while speaking in a voice that rumbled like a tremor through the charged soil beneath the house. “The only reason we would ever fall from the top of the pecking order on this earth would be if we allowed it, and there isn’t one damned reason why we would allow such a thing.”

“We used to go where we pleased,” Minh said in a soft, almost comforting tone. “We avoided humans simply because they were noisy, arrogant, and stank of smoke and metal. When we were curious as to how they were living, we walked among them. The ones that stepped out of line, we wiped off the face of the planet. Then the Nymar spread like a plague and lied well enough to convince us that staying in the cities for too long was more trouble than it was worth. I think Kawosa had something to do with that. He is Ktseena. Some say he can look into the soul of any shapeshifter.”

“He may have spawned us in one way or another,” Liam sneered, “but he can’t look into my soul any more than a father can know what’s truly going on inside his son. If he knew what was goin’ on inside of me, he would never have left me alone for so long.”

Minh approached him in the form of a lean, finely toned human. Her long black hair hung down over smooth shoulders and pert, firm breasts. Even in the little bit of light coming through the window, her skin had the color of lightly creamed coffee. “As more power flows through us, the temptation will arise for us to thin our own herd. Esteban already met Randolph, which means the first blood has already been spilt. The last time we fought among ourselves this way, entire cities were laid to waste. Human history records them as natural disasters only because there weren’t enough of them left on those battlefields to record the truth.”

“I don’t know about you, darlin’,” Liam growled, “but I am a natural disaster.”

A cold knot formed in Paige’s stomach. For anyone else on earth, that statement would have been hot air. Hearing it spoken by a Full Blood was like finding out that a tornado was not only conscious but eager to turn the next midwestern town into a swirling cloud of splinters and screaming motorists.

“There are already precious few of us on earth,” Minh continued. “and there will be even fewer after a fight like that.”

“And those of us that remain will have the power we should have had all along! Do you even know what can be done by someone who wields a lion’s share of the Torva’ox?”

“I know the legends, but those aren’t enough to start killing our own kind and laying waste to so many humans. They may be a weaker species, but they are persistent, they are vengeful, and they have numbers on their side. We must not underestimate the backlash that will follow.”

“Surely you’re not frightened by their precious machines and guns and bombs,” he grunted.

Minh’s human face had soft, Asian features. Her hands slipped through the fur on his chest and her thin lips curled into a wide smile as she said, “Their machines are useless without anyone to operate them. Guns and bombs can’t do anything if there is no human hand to fire them, and with the Torva’ox, such a thing can be arranged.”

“Now this ,” Liam said while reaching around to grab her hips with both hands, “is why I’ve continued this conversation. You have vision, my darling.”

“I do,” Minh replied. “Which is why I can see where this road of yours can take us. Perhaps it is too late to hope for us to go back to quiet times when the humans were blissfully unaware of what hunted them, but we must truly know what we’re starting. What do you hope to accomplish? Do you want to rule them?”