Kelly Meding - Wrong Side of Dead

“How many more of you are in service to Thackery?”

“Don’t tell them,” Teen Wolf said. “Don’t tell them anything else, you coward.”

“I don’t want to die!” Fat tears rolled down Freckles’s cheeks, and I was torn between believing his fear and suspecting it was all an act.

I squatted in front of him, elbows on knees, hands dangling loose in front of me. I tilted my head until he met my gaze, his silver eyes glimmering. “We all die at some point, kid. There’s no stopping it, not for any of us. The only thing you can do right now, in this moment, is change how you face death. You can opt for fast and painless, or”—I jacked my thumb at Teen Wolf—“piece by bloody, painful piece.”

Freckles sobbed in earnest now, unable to wipe away tears or snot. His misery was palpable. He was just a boy, raised by a madman to do his bidding, facing an impossible choice—a boy with a vicious monster lurking deep inside of him.

His monster manifests itself as a wolf. What’s your excuse, Evy?

I mentally batted away the question. I could second-guess and self-analyze my own internal demons at a later date.

“I don’t want to die,” Freckles whispered between choking sobs.

“Tough shit,” Baylor said, taking over the role of the heavy. “How many fingers do you want attached when you do?”

“Three.”

“You—what?”

“Three others,” Freckles said.

“Bastard!” Teen Wolf lunged against his chains. Paul popped him with another tranq dart to keep him docile.

Freckles whined at the sight of it.

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” I said. “Three others serve Thackery. How many Lupa are in or around the city?”

“I don’t know,” Freckles said.

I sighed. “Didn’t we go through this once?”

“I don’t, I swear. We serve; we don’t ask questions.”

“Two weeks ago, one of you was following me around the city. You found a human male recently infected by a half-Blood and took him to your Master.”

“Yes.”

“Who found him?”

“Not us. Our brother Mark.”

“Mark is one of the three still free?” I asked.

“Yes,” Freckles said.

“Why?”

“Ask Mark.”

Oh, I intended to, as soon as I found him. “Do you know anything else?”

He looked at me with weepy eyes, a sad smile tugging the corners of his mouth. “I know I’m about to die.”

“Did you know that your saliva can cause a serious infection in human beings?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know if there’s a cure?”

“No.”

“No what?”

“I don’t know.”

Well dammit it all anyway. Not that I was surprised. It wasn’t information that Thackery was likely to share with teenage werewolves who lived to do his dirty work. “Okay, then, kiddo, here’s the million dollar question. Where is Thackery?”

His eyes went wide. “You’ll kill my other brothers.”

I could have bullshitted him just to get the answer, but something kept me from doing that. “If we catch them, yes, we’ll kill them. You’re our enemies.”

“No!”

“No, you won’t tell us where Thackery is?”

He clenched his jaw in a show of mock bravery. I didn’t even have to signal Carly. She disappeared behind the beam. Freckles’s eyes bulged and his left shoulder jerked. The easy movement was Paul’s signal to send a second tranq into the Lupa’s chest. Moments later, a finger landed in the dirt.

Freckles choked. I barely managed to stay still while my insides shook.

“Where’s Thackery?” Baylor asked.

After the fourth finger, it became obvious that Freckles wasn’t going to budge on this one. I stepped away, curiously close to losing my … well, whatever I’d eaten last. Might have been lunch. We were running out of time. I gazed up at the morning sky, and a shadow swooped toward us.

Phineas shifted midair, choosing to remain in his bi-shift form. He surveyed the captured wolves with cold disinterest, then held his hand out to Baylor. Baylor gave him the ancient, decorative knife I’d last seen in the empty lot. Phin clasped it in his hand, approached Freckles, and gazed down at him.

“Lupa,” Phineas said, “you have been judged by the Therian people, and their sentence is death. What say you?”

Freckles tried to look up. The heavy doses of anesthetic prevented it, and he managed a sideways tilt. Tears, drool, and sweat coated his cheeks and chin—the very picture of misery. I swallowed hard against the tide rising in my stomach and tried to not feel sorry for him.

“Our master will avenge us,” he gasped.

“Unlikely,” Phin said. “You and your brothers are his pawns, nothing more, and you are easily replaceable.”

Freckles muttered something that might have been “fuck you.” In a swift movement that I almost missed, Phin drove the twin blades of his knife into Freckles’s chest and twisted. Blood gushed over the gleaming gold. Freckles slumped against his bonds. It was a fast death, and yet I still wanted to cry.

Teen Wolf howled. I didn’t watch the second execution, or listen to his response to Phin’s question. I walked away, disgusted with the entire scene, and determined to not let the others see my weakness.

Sounds of the city seemed so far away, hiding behind the tall walls around the construction site. I leaned against a support beam and listened to rumbling engines, car horns, someone’s blasting radio, the deeper roar of a bus trundling past.

“You’re upset,” Phineas said. He circled the support beam, hands clasped demurely in front of him, wings still out. A fierce anger hung around him. His eyes sparkled with life, and his cheeks were flushed. He’d enjoyed killing the Lupa, and he wasn’t hiding the fact.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Liar.”

“They were just kids, Phin.”

“Yes, but they were also our enemies.”

“Logically, I know that. And I also know that Wyatt might die because of them, but …” I didn’t have the right words to express how I felt. I wasn’t even sure how I felt to begin with, only that this entire exercise had wrung me out. Left me sick of the bloodshed and hate and tangled web of lies I’d lived in for too long.

“But you feel they are innocent victims because of Thackery’s manipulations,” he finished for me.

I blinked. He’d just articulated it perfectly, damn him. “Yeah, I think so. I know what it’s like to have your strings pulled by other people.”

“My orders are to kill the Lupa, Evy.”

“I know, and I won’t ask you to go against the Assembly’s wishes.”

“But?”

“No buts.” Yet. Not until I figured out my own thoughts on this and could live with the decisions I made.

“Guys?” Carly said. “We gotta go.”

Phin held out the ceremonial knife, thankfully cleaned of blood. I took it from him.

“I’ll stay here and monitor the scene,” he said. “If anyone shows up looking for the bodies, I will contact you.”

“Okay,” I said. “Be safe.”

“You as well.”

We exited through different parts of the construction site and assembled in the van a few minutes later. I took shotgun without asking; the rest of Baylor’s squad tumbled into the back.

“What now, boss?” Paul asked.

“We have more information than before,” Baylor said, “but we still don’t know where to look for Thackery or the missing Therians. Who’s got a source that might be useful?”

I zoned out as the others debated the few informants they had among them. My two biggest sources of information were no longer available. Max, a gargoyle I’d trusted until he turned his back on me, had left the city several months ago with his coven. Smedge was a bridge troll I hadn’t seen since the second day of my resurrection. He was an Earth Guardian for the Fey, and I wasn’t likely to meet him again unless it was as enemies.