Hannah Pole - Song Of The Wolf

The thing flapped its awkward, huge wings, making the air around him swirl, dust stirring and filling his eyes, making him cough and his eyes water. It flew up to the rafters of the building, circling once again and aiming directly at him.

This time though, Dax was ready for it. As the ugly son-of-a-bitch flew at him again, talons poised and ready, Dax held his breath, adrenaline surging as those wings roared towards him, the air stirring, whipping across his face.

He held his ground, waiting…

Finally it was on him, those ugly feet scraping across his shins as that huge beak snapped at his face, aiming directly for his throat. Dax didn’t hesitate, he thrust his knife upwards, the blade catching the skin of the tomb’s wing and piercing its way straight through the thin flesh. He ripped his arm sideways, taking the sharp blade of the knife with him, creating a sizable tear in the wing of the beast.

It let out an almighty scream that sounded a bit like a strangled cat.

Ironic seeing as technically they were wolves fighting birds.

As it tried to turn in mid-air, the injured wing gave out making him spiral heavily towards the floor. Dax jumped up, launching himself at the damn bird as it hit the floor in a heap. That sharp beak snapped at him, lacerating his arm as he struggled to shove it out of the way. Finally he got a good grip on the base of its chin and shoved its head backwards, plunging the knife deeply into the bastard’s throat and ripping it sideways, decapitating the deformed crow shifter. As its body fell limply to the floor, Dax swiped at the sweat and blood on his forehead.

“Nice.” Leyth grinned from the edge of the boat, his own bird-tomb hanging from the ladder, its neck snapped at an awkward angle, wings tangled in the steps.

“What the hell?!” Dax spat, eyeing the two ugly beasts.

“Tombs.” Leyth nodded, looking equally disgusted. They were obviously crow shifters, gone Circle-wrong.

Now as far as they could tell, the only time they could shift and change into their crow counterparts was when the Circle’s Magi directed the change.

The problem being that the Magi weren’t shifters, they didn’t know how to properly direct the body into its alternate form so when they called to the soul of the animal, they only partially shifted, turning them into this ugly-looking half-human, half-animal beast. And they truly were ugly.

“Holy shit.” Tamriel gaped as she arrived on the scene a few minutes later and took in the two huge half-shifted crows. “You really weren’t joking about the Circle’s shifters being gross.”

“Yeah, why on earth they think it’s a good idea to join the Circle I’ll never know.” Julian wrinkled his nose. “Leyth – Sapphire and the team are on the way, I suggest you two get to Doc ASAP.”

“I agree,” Tamriel snorted eyeing Leyth’s various talon-wounds and idly dabbing at one with the sleeve of her shirt.

“Female, I’m fine,” Leyth snapped, looking down at her. His hard features instantly softened as he met her gaze. Leaning in he landed a kiss on her lips.

“Well, you won’t want a sponge bath when you get home then will you?” she grinned.

“Erm.– I mean…oh Tam, I’m so sore – I’m poorly – You need to help me.” He quickly backtracked as she wrapped her arms around his thick neck.

Maker, those two were sickening.

“Put it back in your trousers, Leyth,” Julian growled. “What have we found?”

“Nothing,” Dax grumbled, eyeing the room they were in. He and Leyth had scoured the place from top to bottom and found nothing but a few firearms, a knife set and a mobile phone that had nothing on it bar a call history from a blocked number. Oh yeah, and one hell of a boat. You’d think they might leave at least one bit of information here though; it was thoroughly irritating that they had hit a dead end. No leads. And to top it all off when that arsehole had shot him, Dax had fallen on his back, crushing his laptop and his phone that were both stored in his backpack. Both were broken and useless. Which meant any information his search at home brought up would be sitting there waiting for him and he wouldn’t be able to access it. And in the unlikely event that Alison did manage to surface and get signal for her GPS chip, none of them would know about it.

“Right,” Julian boomed. “Who knows how to drive a boat?”

Alison sat heaving air into her lungs. Her muscles were shaking so uncontrollably she could barely swipe the hair sticking to her sweat-drenched forehead away. She was a killer. She had killed two men today.

The thought made her sick, but more than that, the effort of doing so had left her incredibly weak. She hadn’t eaten properly in almost a month, and the energy it took to take those two tuhrned out had all but killed her. She’d managed to prop herself up against the wall in the damp dark hallway outside the bathroom. Looking at those two wasn’t an option. She was so cold she could barely feel her fingers and so weak she couldn’t for the life of her stand up. Maker only knew she’d tried.

Rocking herself forward so she was on her hands and knees, she crawled slowly over to the door, the one door she had been aiming to get to for the last few weeks. The door she was sure led out of this godforsaken place. Now she’d finally managed to get to it, she was so damn frail she could barely turn the handle. Staying on the ground on her knees, she reached up and struggled to turn the handle sideways. Thankfully it was unlocked; obviously the brutes had little faith that she would get this far.

The wooden thing swung slowly forward, revealing a small stairwell. Alison held her breath, listening intently. She may not be able to change into her wolf form but her senses were still second to none, she would be able to hear if there was anyone in the immediate vicinity.

Thankfully the stairwell beyond was blessedly silent, and scent-free bar the stench of the two brutes that had guarded her. Pulling herself forward, still on her hands and knees, she all but dragged herself up the broad metal steps leading to places unknown. The entire stairwell was brick, heavy thick brick. She could tell she was somewhere well underground because of the sheer thickness of the walls and the staleness of the air.

Finally, after what felt like decades, Alison reached the top step and collapsed onto the metal flooring above, heaving deep breaths and shaking so much it was an effort to keep herself still and not fall back down the stupidly long set of stairs she’d just climbed. Hell, at least she was warmer. The effort it took to haul herself up here had her sweating and her muscles screaming in protest.

She forced herself to still, took a deep breath and held it there, listening again. Other than the laboured thumping of her heart there was nothing to be heard.

It was deathly silent.

Pulling her strength together, Alison looked around. The top of the stairs looked very much like the bottom, just a small stairwell, though the floor and walls up here were made of steel, the metal so rusted it splintered into her palms as she dragged herself forward. The heavy metal door leading out of the stairwell was unlocked like the previous door and as she opened it, every sense tingling with awareness, every nerve on edge. The fear riding her made it difficult to breathe. She could barely hold in the gasp that escaped her lips…

The room beyond was vast and open. As soon as the heavy door swung open the sound of water, waves lapping against metal, hit her ears, deafening her. The circular room had very little in it: huge steel pillars held up what looked like a balcony, the metal flooring giving way to a giant pool of water, on which the tip of what looked like a tiny submarine floated.