Silver (23 page)

He grunted and picked up a phone. “I’ll call
in the Hunters,” he said. He tipped his head toward the garage.
“Grab what weapons you’ll need.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t trained with any
of them.”

Meg appeared from around the corner that led
to the storage room; I couldn’t remember when she had left. She
carried two small guns, a harness with four silver knives, and
several things that looked like grenades attached to a strap. “Take
these at least. I’ve wrapped the hilts on the knives so the silver
won’t bother you, you're alright with a gun, and the smoke grenades
are self-explanatory.”

I hesitated, then thanked her and fastened
the harness around my chest so that the hilts of the knives would
be accessible for a quick draw, shoved the two guns behind my belt,
and strapped the grenades across my chest in the opposite direction
of the knives. Roger handed me a thin black trench coat to hide the
weapons. I pulled it on and a strange scent touched my nose. I
glanced at him.

“
It’s been treated with a
variety of oils to hide your scent. You don’t want anyone
recognizing you before you locate Chet,” Roger explained, worry in
his voice.

I gave them both a reassuring smile. “I’ll
see you guys there,” I told them. “I might need a distraction, but
I don’t want any werewolves hurt if we can help it.”

Meg and Roger watched from the door until I
met up with the pack, then the couple turned quickly away. They
would have their hands full rallying the Hunters days earlier than
expected.

The door opened again. “Jaze?” I turned in
time to see Roger toss out a set of keys. I caught them and met his
eyes. “Take care of yourself,” he said in a stern, fatherly tone. I
blinked at the unexpected reminder of my own father and turned away
before my emotions could betray me.

The garage was already open when I reached
it. I started the motorcycle and gunned it past Chet’s pack who
already waited in their own cars parked in front of my house. The
address in my head cycled over and over in time to the rhythm of
the road. I turned off the freeway to find the football stadium
that had been abandoned two years ago. It loomed off the freeway
like a hulking giant, alone in the middle of nowhere with an empty
parking lot surrounding all sides. The stadium had been scheduled
for demolition, but the date kept getting pushed back until most
believed it would be a relic of the city for years to come.

I drove through the huge, empty parking lot
and circled the perimeter. The gates were locked and I wondered how
Chet got in. Then an engine revved and Max crashed through the
fence in his truck a few feet away. I shouted my thanks and he gave
a wolfish grin and a military salute.

I was supposed to wait for the Hunters, but
my thoughts warred between worry for Chet and my own stubbornness
in not wanting to listen to others' orders. It was an Alpha thing
and something Dad and I had butted heads about on more than one
occasion. I parked the motorcycle near the main doors and practiced
self-control by pacing the perimeter and deciding which door would
be the least conspicuous to break into. Mason had somehow turned on
the power to the building, and lights flooded the interior, making
the stealth required for my plan a bit more difficult.

A ramp down the back led to a huge loading
door for semi trucks. Next to it was a normal sized door whose lamp
had burned out. I crouched in the shadows and watched the door for
several minutes. Eventually, it opened and two men armed to the
teeth stepped out. They lit cigarettes and the scent of their
second-hand smoke along with the musk of werewolf drifted past my
hiding place.

I debated for a few seconds. The Hunters
should arrive any minute. I could either wait and let us all go in
blind to whatever situation Mason had set up, or I could scope the
place out and possibly make it safer for the Hunters. I pulled one
of Meg's improvised smoke grenades off the strap and tossed it down
the ramp, then picked up several rocks and threw them one at a time
at the loading door. After the third rock hit, the werewolves ran
out into the smoke, guns out and their eyes searching blindly.

I ran down the ramp with my hand on the wall
closest to the door, holding my breath and with my eyes closed. I
stepped swiftly and lightly, feeling my way past them and into the
building. When I reached inside, I pulled the door shut and jammed
a chair underneath the handle from the inside.

The werewolves banged on the door, but the
smoke also contained one of Meg's mild ether formulations and a few
seconds later I heard the thud of two bodies as the werewolves
passed out. I checked Nikki's phone she had let me borrow so her
parents could text me when the Hunters arrived, but no message had
come. I tried to call Meg and Roger to warn them about the
firepower the werewolves had, but the signal wouldn’t go through. I
gritted my teeth against a stab of worry, slipped the phone back
into my pocket, and crept through the bright room, wishing for
darkness. Even though the other werewolves would be able to see as
good as I could, I felt better fighting in the dark; but I reminded
myself that lack of light would hinder the Hunters and I was
fortunate Mason had seen fit to light their way.

I left the loading room and walked down a
long hallway. The walls had been stripped of cameras, for which I
was grateful, and bare neon lights hummed above me. I walked
carefully, every sense alert for the slightest sound. Exhaustion
warred with adrenaline through my body. It had been a long few days
with meeting Chet at school, talking to the Hunters, going on a
date with Nikki, and now prowling around an abandoned stadium just
after midnight. I needed every fiber of my body to be ready for
attack, and the lack of sleep definitely came at the worst possible
time.

A footstep scuffed in the next hall and I
slipped into a closet just in time to avoid two sentries. Metal
clicked on metal and I pictured them as armed as the two at the
door had been, machine guns possibly loaded with a thousand silver
bullets and tipped with silver bayonets, grenades, and the
occasional serrated knife waiting to slide between a pair of ribs.
Each werewolf was a walking arsenal. I wondered if Mason expected
me tonight, or if he was always this cautious.

The guards passed and I slipped back out
into the hallway. It was only a matter of time before they came
back around or discovered the blocked doorway by the loading ramp.
I could only hope the Hunters arrived soon. I checked Nikki's phone
again; there was no message and I wondered if the stadium
interfered with the reception.

Two hallways down I came to a set of stairs
that led up. An elevator waited next to the stairs and the numbered
lights at the top indicated that it was on the third level and I
stood in the lowest level of the basement. I walked slowly up the
stairs with a knife in one hand. I didn't like being armed, having
practiced every day without weapons, but with the state of my body,
I knew I couldn't take a chance.

I stepped onto the upper basement floor and
voices drifted down the hallway. A strange litter of chaos filled
the hall. Televisions, stereo systems, motorcycles, computers,
guitars, game systems, operating equipment, speakers, all of it
high end and very expensive, cluttered every available space. The
air smelled of electronic wiring and gasoline, new plastic and
metal, along with the scent of sweat and excitement from
werewolves.

I stepped past the disorder carefully, my
attention on where I placed my feet, when a familiar laugh rang
out. I froze, every cell in my body springing to full attention. A
growl rose in my throat and I barely remembered to keep silent. My
fingers ached to tear out Mason's throat, my teeth begged to sink
into his jugular and end the torment he had caused of my life. A
shudder ran through my body and I crouched. I closed my eyes and
concentrated on taking deep breaths, but the need to phase surged
so strong I felt my teeth elongate and muzzle start to grow despite
my actions.

I thought of Nikki, of our time together in
the saints’ meadow and on the motorcycle, of walking through the
night-lit city with a hundred cars streaming by and the peace of
our own silence surrounding us like a bubble. I remembered the
smell of her hair and the brush of her hand against mine. With
careful concentration, I was able to will my heartbeat to slow and
the phase to reverse before I gave everything away. When I was sure
I had my instincts under control, I stood carefully back up,
thankful that no one had chosen that moment to patrol the jumbled
hallway.

I sent a quick text to Nikki's parents
describing my location and where Mason was, but I had little hope
that the messages were getting through this far below the stadium.
I made sure the phone was on vibrate and slipped it back into my
pocket, then unhooked one of the smoke grenades and stepped quietly
forward.

A set of double doors stood open about
halfway down the hall. The scent of old sweat mingled with new, and
rubber mats and a few battered helmets had been tossed out the
door. Leave it to Mason to take up residence in an old football
locker room. I shook my head at his lack of taste and slid against
the wall by the door.

A stainless steel desk sat near the opposite
wall. I crouched carefully down and tried to make sense of the
distorted reflection. I eventually gave up and broke a rear-view
mirror off of a nearby motorcycle and used it to see into the room.
My heart fell at the sight of almost a hundred werewolves both in
wolf and human form crammed into the low-ceilinged locker room.

Lifting the mirror high, I could barely make
out the form of Mason sitting at the far end, several werewolves in
wolf form lounging around him. More of the expensive items littered
the room; a high end projector showed Scarface on one wall while
werewolves cheered and played a bloody shooter on another. I
couldn't see Chet anywhere. I had counted on Mason to keep him
nearby. A shard of worry laced through me that perhaps Mason had
already killed him, but my instincts told me Mason planned on me
coming after Chet. He would wait to finish the Alpha until I was
near.

I had to alter my plan a bit. It was one
thing to step out and declare Alpha Accord and hope that every
werewolf in the stadium knew the law and would uphold it; it was
far another to realize that the reason Mason hadn't been punished
for breaking the laws was probably because the elders who upheld
them were either killed or out of commission in some way or other.
The thought made me feel extremely alone.

I could throw a grenade and hope to knock
them all out, but by the smell I could tell that there were at
least double the number of werewolves wandering around the stadium
either on patrol or fooling around with the numerous entertainment
items that lay piled up everywhere. I could hope that declaring
myself an Alpha and challenging Mason would be enough for the other
werewolves to back down and let us have it out, or I could just go
in guns blazing and hope to take down as many as I could in the
hopes that the Hunters would clean up the rest.

All the options twisted my stomach. There
had to be another way. I just couldn't-

An explosion sounded and the entire stadium
shook. Cries of terror rose from the werewolves, twisting to
hysteria when a second explosion rang out. I leaned against the
wall for support and tried to keep my balance when a third blast
sounded. Something whined high in the air, then the sounds faded to
leave only cries of terror and pain around the stadium. My pocket
vibrated and I pulled out the phone.

'Hunters have arrived', Meg's text said and
I could imagine her dry tone. I rolled my eyes and fought back a
smile as I shoved the phone back in my pocket. I crouched back down
just before werewolves started to swarm from the locker room.

I searched the crowd for Mason, worried that
he would slip out another way or stay in the room with bodyguards,
but then a form in a tailored black suit ran past. I bit back a
snarl and fell in behind him, pretending to be as panicked as the
rest of the werewolves until we pooled at the bottom of the stairs
while everyone scrambled to escape.

I put a knife to Mason's back and he froze.
“Let out a sound and I'll plunge this so far through your spine
you'll never heal,” I growled in his ear. I grabbed his arm and
pulled him back with me through the hysterical crowd. No one
noticed us in their haste to escape, and only just before we
reached another door did werewolves start to look around for
Mason.

The door behind me was locked, but I broke
the handle and pulled Mason with me into a short, branching hallway
that turned to the right and left a few feet away. I pulled the
door shut behind us and Mason used the distraction to slip out of
my grip and elbow me in the chin. Stars danced before my eyes. I
turned with my hands up and the knife out ready for another attack,
but he knew better than to face a full Alpha head on.

Chapter 21

Mason ran down the short hall and the stars
cleared just enough for me to see him turn left at the end. I
slipped the knife into its sheath and ran after him. I turned left,
then dove back down the hall when a hail of bullets peppered the
walls around me.

“
Think I'm dumb enough to
go unarmed when there's an Alpha after my hide?” Mason shouted, his
tone taunting.

My lips lifted in a silent snarl at the
sound of his voice, but I didn't reply. I pulled a grenade from my
chest and was ready to throw it when the sound of footsteps echoed
down the hall. The coward was running again.

I took off after him, my heart pounding and
adrenaline coursing so strong I almost gave in to the phase only to
meet another spray of bullets around the next corner. I slid
against the wall and cursed the fact that I didn't know the layout
of the stadium well enough to circle around and intercept him. I
could easily lose him or he could catch up to his bodyguards before
we met up again.