Unnaturals (44 page)

Still no Ruth.

`Just one. When the time comes, and if you have the grace to choose, I beg you let my sister live.'

Mason didn't reply. The big Bloodells opened the rear door of the van.

Did they have Ruth?

 

Scarla snapped her arm back into place. She could afford more noise. They were alone in the van except for the dead girl — Yani's gift to her Mistress.

`Ruth?' She whispered, aware that many Bloodells now stood just outside. It was time to act. Scarla pulled the cloth off Ruth's face, brushing hair away. A small Bloodells amulet hung on Ruth's neck. Scarla tore it off.

`Hmm?'

Scarla nearly squeaked. She had been right. Ruth was strong. Much Earthbound energy lived in her. She would fight and call her Hunter to come.

`Shh,' she hissed. `Call him. Call Hunter to come.'

`Scarla?' Ruth's voice was low and thick.

`Yes, call Hunter. Quick.' She froze as the door was ripped open.

`No!' Her mistress's anger was clear. White energy covered her hands. `You will die for this!'

`Yes,' Scarla said, unafraid. `And He will come and—'

Flesh peeled from her body as the white energy consumed both it and the collar around her neck.

She accepted the pain knowing Hunter was coming, his face the last image in her mind before an agonising darkness claimed her.

 

Mason's fingers dug into the timber desk as he waited for any sign of Ruth. He had to be sure it wasn't a trap. He had to be sure she was there. If only he could feel her.

`Jon, take Justin and spread the word,' Renee growled. `Let the other packs know what has come to pass, that Bloodells have broken the treaty and they are called to arms.'

Mason glanced at the pack standing tall, more Wolf than men. Renee touched each one in turn. `You are my Wolves,' she said. `Huntress' own pack. Let none question you, none defy you. Be the Wolf you are. Go.'

Wolf nails raked the concrete and the huge drainage grate servicing the warehouse howled its protest at being ripped out. Good thinking. They'd use the tunnels to move through the city.

Movement drew his full attention to the monitor. Eleanor crowded him. Michelle looked agitated. The van shook.

`Something's wrong. She used killing energy then. See the energy trace.' A long finger touched the screen. `Someone just died at her hand.'

`We're going now.' Renee grabbed his arm, Ralph behind her. `Ricco, stay here and be our link to Max.'

`She killed her?' Mason felt numb. `What happened? It doesn't make sense.'

`No, look!' Ralph pushed past Renee. `There. See. A woman's hand, with a wedding ring.'

Mason wished he had Wolf's eyes. He could see a small hand, was pressed against the back window of the van. But, was there a wedding ring?

As they watched, Michelle catapulted backwards into the men behind her; the Bloodells rushed forwards into the van. Light flashed from within the van.

Ruth!

`Let's go!' Renee grabbed him. Ralph took hold.

`MASON!'
Ruth's cry burnt into his mind.

`No prisoners.'

Energy flooded out. Hunter howled. Cold washed over him.

 

Ruth tasted the burnt flesh in her mouth. A face filled her vision; the Bloodells woman. The one who had come into her home.

The one who had killed Nikki.

`You're fucking dead!' Energy responded to her anger. Light filled the van. Ruth lashed out. Contact — metal shrieked— the van door tore off its runners. Cool air raced in. Fading sunlight threw shadows over those standing outside the van. She didn't care how many watched — they would all die.

A big Bloodells rushed towards her. She lashed out with her feet. Contact— bone crunched. He howled and shot backwards.

Ruth stepped out of the van. A wall of cold faces stared back. Bloodells. Good.

`Where's the Bloodells bitch?' she yelled. No one moved.

The big man, face bloodied, stood up behind them. Him — he had been with her. `You,' Ruth pointed past the men staring at her. `Where is she?'

`Here.'

Ruth could see her, standing beside the big man as if he could protect her. Her face had been bloodied as well. Good.

`You cannot escape,' the woman said, moving closer. `You may be stronger than expected but there are too many of us. If you fight, we will kill you.'

Ruth smiled, letting malice fill it as she stepped forward. The men shuffled back, making her smile wider.

`I'm not going to fight. I won't even lay a finger on any of you.' She pointed at each man as she spoke. `But every single one here will die. It will be you I watch screaming for mercy as the life is ripped from you.'

Ruth wanted to tear the woman's face off and make her howl in agony under her hands. She let it show in her face. The men shuffled a little further back.

`She lies! This one does not have the magic or strength to do so!'

Ruth peeled her lips back. `Oh,
I
don't. But I reckon he does.'

She pointed past them, knowing retribution had come, letting her grief well up, remembering Nikki screaming as she burnt.

Now they would all pay.

 

Yani didn't turn when Butcher's wife pointed.

He didn't need to. Wolf scent and a sound he had not heard for thousands of years rumbled behind him. A Hunter. Death had already come to many who'd stood behind him. Their blood scent filled the air. The others would die too, but not him. Not Yani.

`Kill them!' Michelle screamed, as her gift flared.

Yani grabbed her arm, feeling the energy sizzle across it.

`Let me go!'

`Shut up and move.' He yanked but it was too late. Butcher's wife had fallen onto Michelle, fists flying. Bone shattered, blood tainted his vision.

He drove his fist hard into the small woman's head. Pain shot up his arm. Knuckles broken, he stepped back, shocked.

Butcher's wife, unharmed, dropped Michelle at his feet, unconscious but alive. Then the woman looked at him, eyes impossibly black for a human, and Yani felt fear. Death filled the small woman who was reaching for him.

Then she was gone.

`Get her,' Michelle managed to say through her healing jaw. She spat a gobbet of blood. Butcher's wife sprawled near one of the vans. She lived, unmarked, though slivers of Michelle's energy flickered on her. Energy that could kill had only stunned Butcher's wife.

Yani lifted her, and turned. Michelle's lips moved but he heard no words. Behind them was only slaughter and the roar of the Three Ancients: Wolf, Huntress and a Hunter.

Here. Now. Unstoppable.

`Yani!' Michelle slapped him hard, breaking his horror. `Get in the van for fuck's sake!' Michelle ripped the door open and he dived in, Butcher's wife cradled in his arms. She would keep them alive.

`Dose her, fast! If she wakes up, we're fucking dead.'

Michelle started the van. It shook with a savage roar. Hunter had seen them.

`Go! Drive, Michelle. Don't let him touch us. Jump once we're clear!' Yani knew all would be lost if Hunter touched the van. In all his long life he had seen a Hunter only once, in his childhood. That Hunter had been uncontrolled, killing all Unnaturals. He remembered how it had been then.

Deep in his pocket he found the last dosing ball, laced with a drug and Michelle's magic. He pressed it into the unconscious woman's mouth and muscles still tense under his hand slackened.

The van swerved, sending him crashing into the side of it, still holding the woman. If she died, they would not have bargaining leverage. Darkness filled the back window. Wings thrummed above them.

`What the fuck is that?' Michelle pushed the van hard, motor screaming, as they hurtled away from the truck stop.

`Just jump. Don't let him touch us or he will follow. Do it!' Yani screamed, looking at angry red eyes. He was nearly on them. A death that could bring you back — over and over — to watch you die again and again. `Michelle, jump. NOW!'

Cold hit him and the eyes vanished. Darkness of another kind surged around him. One he was safe in.

 

Hunter howled in rage.

Gone! His prey had slipped out of his reach by a hair's breadth.

Lights flashed at him. Humans. In their cars. Upwards he thrust, pushing himself high above the humans below.

Inside, Mason, his own human, raged. Strong, ruthless and driven. Hunter smiled and spoke to him.

`I am you and you are I, Mason. Two parts that make one mind. Choose. Are we to be two or one mind?'

Silence greeted him. Good. The Mason human was smart and more than capable of being a True Hunter, if he controlled his own darkness within.

`So, I am talking to myself?'

`I have always been part of you, Mason. But it is you who has to choose, as Darla has foretold. I am part of the darkness that gives you great power. But you split us, to kill and hunt as
you
desired.

`
I am no longer a voice buried in your past. Was it not good to taste their blood, tear flesh and desire Huntress as my mate? You felt the same. Are we one or two?
'

Hunter circled back, heading towards the carnage at the truck stop, Mason's silence exciting him. After all, what he felt Mason did. What Mason felt, he did.

`You are me, Hunter. I accept the desires you have. I feel them too. We are one. But I still claim my humanity. I am still Mason. And they have my wife, Hunter. They have our wife.'

Hunter grinned as fingers of Mason reached into his mind, completing him. His Song filled the sky, rejoicing as two became one.

A True Hunter.

 

Wilson handed Sally a glass of water, making sure he stood between her and the monitor.

Wilson looked around the bottom level of the gym. `We can go somewhere quieter if you like.' Ricco paced the room, Wolf claws clicking in rhythm against the cement floor.

`It's fine, Wil.' She took a sip. `The jump thing made me feel weird and this is where you need to be, so I'm happy to stay.' She sat back in the leather lounge and smiled but it didn't help ease his worry.

`Good lord. Look at her, will you?' Max hunched over the monitor, carnage clear on the screen. Eleanor sat beside him. Wilson moved sideways. Sally didn't need to see it.

`My daughter has taken to being a Huntress with great ease, it appears.'

`I need to improve the images,' Max said and the flat screen televisions on the walls flickered.

Wilson spun round. `Max, no!'

`What?' Max looked up. Images of death and gore filled the screens. `We need to increase — oh.' His face dropped as he looked at Sally.

`That's Renee?' she whispered.

He sagged; it was too late. He turned and looked at the screen.

`Yep, that's Renee when she's fighting.' He put an arm around her shoulders and Lilly joined them on the lounge. Sally shuddered as Renee tore the heart from the last Bloodells.

`She's amazing.' Sally leant against him, watching Renee bite into the heart.

`What?' Wilson blinked.

Eleanor watched them with hooded eyes.

`I mean its gross. But I know her. That's our Renee kicking arse as… Huntress, is it?'

`Correct, child.' Eleanor glided towards them. `She is still Renee, but has the Huntress within her. You're not afraid, then?'

What right had she to sound so superior? He began to stand but Lilly dug her nails into his thigh, making him pause.

`A bit, but I see how Wil trusts her and— Oh god, what's that?'

Hunter filled the screen, landing between Ralph and Renee. Wilson's mouth went dry. How did he explain
this
? How could he, when he didn't know for sure? Was that still his father?

`That is Hunter,' Eleanor said, smiling. `It is the form Mason takes when he—' She paused, watching the screen while Hunter melted away to leave Mason looking up grimly at the security camera. He nodded and Wilson knew the thumbs up was for him. His father was in control.

`When he does what it takes to protect us,' Wilson finished what Eleanor had begun, feeling the truth of it as he never had before. `The scales and claws are just weapons. It's still Dad under it all.'

`The priestess escaped with Ruth.' Ricco looked agitated. `They're still heading south.'

`Explains why he still looks so angry,' Sally said, sitting forward watching. `Look at that. Renee changes like him. It's so fast and clean.'

Wilson nodded. Watching like this seemed far more voyeuristic than witnessing the night at the Darkells' house. Lilly's hand moved higher on his thigh.

`They're going to check none survive, then return.' Ricco stood, eyes glazed. `Ralph can sense something there. What?' Ricco spun around, looking at it, faint but clear. Howling.

`Ricco?' Eleanor moved cautiously around him as his Wolf threatened to break free.

`Scent has been found. Bloodells move freely through our territories.' He spun back around, facing the TVs.

Ralph stared back at them. They knew.

`How many?' Wilson stood, skin warming, aware of Sally watching him.

`Many! The packs have found dozens of trails. Their scent is strong and fresh.' Ricco danced from foot to foot as his Wolf responded to the distant howls.

`This is it, then.' Max calmly took in the room. `Whatever is going to happen will be tonight, here, in Sydney.'

Wilson had seen him like this before, when under fire at the funeral. And afterwards, when he'd worked with Mason.

`Wilson,' Eleanor's face hardened. Darkness coloured her eyes. `Your gift has come. I will leave Lilly and Nikki here, safe with you and Max. Others must be told. We will need all to fight the Bloodells!' She vanished, leaving them all blinking.

`The Fund is on alert. I'll make sure they are ready.' Max held his eyes for a second and with a small nod turned away and picked up a phone.

Wilson remembered to breathe. It wasn't over yet. Sally's hand found his and he saw Lilly move beside her, blue eyes bright. Lilly's energy hummed around them as it grew.

`Wil,' Sally whispered as they watched the TV. `This is going to get a lot worse isn't it?'

He couldn't lie any longer. `Yes.'

Sally put her hands on his shoulders, turning him round to look at her. She bit her lip. `Wil, I can't help. I don't have any of the things you all have.'