Rob Thurman - Moonshine

For a moment it seemed like we would stay upright; then we went over. All the windows on the downside of the bus shattered at the impact, spraying glass upward. It was tempered and the one piece that grazed my jaw barely scratched the skin. There was no way to keep my feet as the bus tumbled over, but my natural grace, such as it was, kept me from falling face-first. Ass first was a different story. I looped an arm around the metal pole by the door and swung around, landing on my back as the bus hit and teetered on its side before stabilizing there. I blinked, feeling the grit of pulverized glass through my jacket. Inhaling an experimental breath, I took inventory and discovered I was in one piece, more or less. Turning my head carefully, I looked through the cracked windshield and saw what had caused the wreck.

We'd been rammed… by a garbage truck. The front of it was barely in view, but the shape was unmistakable. The engines of the hulking green metal monster growled, although the driver's seat was empty. Abandoned, a hit-and-run, but I did see something. It was gone so fast I might have imagined it, if I hadn't known better. A flicker of dark blond hair disappearing fast through clogged traffic and around a corner, was all the clue I needed. Within minutes there would be the telltale sounds of sirens, police and ambulance, and getting these people back to Cerberus would be a hopeless cause. Just like Niko had planned, and one helluva plan it was, considering he'd come up with it on the spur of the moment. Sitting up gingerly, I reached over and shook Fenrik's shoulder. He hadn't been wearing his seat belt—naughty, naughty—and was crumpled and bleeding against the door beside me. "Fen, on your paws. It's time to cut our losses."

Blue eyes rolling toward me, the bloody face twitched as he threw off the shock of the collision. Growling low in his throat from either pain or confusion, he pushed up to his knees and started crawling back toward the emergency exit. Flay, who'd been several seats behind me, was already kicking the rear door open with both feet. I followed in Fenrik's wake as the men and women in the bus started to come to their senses. Some began to shout for help, while others simply moaned. None, however, seemed fatally injured, and that put them heads and shoulders above where they'd been five minutes ago. I kept crawling and within seconds tumbled out onto the street, shortly followed by Jaffer, Mishka, Lijah, and that nameless, tongueless decomposing piece of shit.

A crowd was beginning to form in the deadlocked traffic and I winnowed my way through it with several well-placed elbows. Leaving the scene of the accident—in any other city it might have raised some protests. Leaving the scene with the overly hairy, the white-eyed, and the disturbingly slimy of skin—you'd think that would trigger something . At least one "Holy shit." But there was nothing but murmurs and the occasional whistle at the sight of the overturned bus. I wasn't all that surprised. Over the years I'd learned that people saw what they wanted to see. And what they didn't want to see, they absolutely refused to. I'd be wishing for a little of that blissful ignorance when we faced Cerberus with this news. The displeasure was bound to be nice and visual, painted in bloody scarlet strokes. Yeah, the shit was sure to hit the fan, but like those people on the bus I was still in much better shape than I had been. But unlike them I knew it, and I knew something else they didn't.

I knew who to thank.

"Where have you been? I was beginning to worry."

Same ugly room, same hideous bedspread, same bossy and demanding Niko. Okay, that wasn't strictly true. Niko looked less demanding and more concerned than anything. It would've been touching, if he hadn't had dinner set up on the small table by the bed. Vegetable lasagna, garlic bread, and a salad, it obviously hadn't come from the soup kitchen next door. "Darn, hope I didn't spoil your appetite," I sniped as I leaned wearily against one wall.

"It's for you, thankless brat." He pulled out the chair and planted me in it with a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Thankless is right." Goodfellow's peevish voice came from the bathroom. "I'm starving and neo-ninja here wouldn't allow me even a bite." Moving into the room with a roll of duct tape under his arm, he toweled off his hands.

I looked at the tape, then him. "I knew it had a mind of its own, but you're taping it down now? Jesus."

"As if mere duct tape would hold it," he snorted, and tossed the roll onto the bed. "I fastened a little surprise to the back of the toilet tank. If you don't have a weapon hidden in every room, then your decoration skills are sorely lacking."

There was no denying the truth of that statement. I picked up a fork and took a bite of the lasagna; it was cold, but good. It was past midnight and the last time I'd eaten had been the orgy of steak and beer around noon. "Not bad, Cyrano. Thanks."

"I'm glad you're in the condition to appreciate it. I know Cerberus couldn't have been exactly pleased over what happened."

" 'Not exactly' is one way to put it." If not exactly pleased could also mean eating Fenrik alive. Someone had to take the blame for the accident and the loss of the livestock. Since he'd been driving, Fenrik had been the one to take the fall. I'd escaped relatively blameless, along with the others. We were still on Cerberus's shit list, but far enough down that we'd survived for now. If we didn't screw up in the near future, we might even live out the week. I took a bite of the garlic bread and chewed mechanically. I hadn't liked Fenrik… Hell, he was a cold-blooded Kin killer. A cold-blooded Kin killer who, in turn, hadn't much liked me either. He'd been driving those people to their deaths without a second thought. It was business to him and nothing more. Yeah, a killer, but… I dropped the bread onto the plate and pushed it all away. Within the savage circle of his life, Fenrik had been honorable. Loyal to his own. Loyal to his Alpha. It had been hard to watch him die. I'd shared only one meal with the guy and nothing that could be considered an actual conversation, but watching his entrails spill steaming onto the floor wasn't the highlight of my day. It had, in a word, sucked.

"Here, Loman," I offered with a sudden lack of appetite. "Eat up."

Robin accepted the plate with alacrity and settled onto the bed, pausing only to waggle his eyebrows at Niko in invitation. It was proof positive Promise wasn't going to join our little party or Goodfellow would've had nothing left to waggle. Niko, as always, ignored him and looked me up and down. "I'm guessing Cerberus didn't take his displeasure out on you or you would've signaled us for assistance."

Guessing, hoping. Niko had known when he'd rammed that garbage truck into the bus that he'd been taking a chance. He'd made the right choice, but it had also been the hard choice, and he deserved credit for both. "No, he saved the displeasure for someone else." I pushed the ugly mental picture from my brain and let my lips quirk upward. "How long did you wait outside the warehouse?"

The gray eyes narrowed with haughty question. "Did you see me by the warehouse?"

"No," I admitted ruefully. "Big surprise."

"Then how do you know I was there?"

"The same way I know Goodfellow's staring at your ass. It's a law of nature. Can't be changed."

Niko glanced over his shoulder, eyes narrowing further. Not bothering to look innocent, Robin shrugged and gave an unrepentant and utterly wicked grin as he continued to work his way through the lasagna. Turning back to me, Nik said, "I waited as long as was necessary."

Until he had seen me… undamaged and in one piece. And if he'd seen me, he would've seen Cerberus. They'd come out of the office this time into the warehouse proper. The office was good-sized, but for true bodily destruction you really needed room to work. "You saw them, then," I said quietly.