Once he was atop the building, Liam paced between the ventilation and air-conditioning units, savoring the cool touch of night air upon his face. He turned toward the ledge and raced to the brink of a long drop to the pavement, but stopped himself by digging his claws into the roof. Gripping the ledge with both hands, he gazed down upon the city. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he watched the growing number of flashing lights and cars racing below like fireflies trapped beneath a glass table.
He could smell the Skinners drawing closer.
Some of the Half Breeds were strong enough to poke their noses from their dens, but most were probably content to sleep. Randolph might have found some of the wretches, but he couldn’t have found them all.
Liam’s heartbeat quickened and his breath poured from his mouth like steam from an engine. Leveling his gaze to a point in the distance had something of a calming effect. Things were clearer when he only looked straight ahead. The Full Blood closed his eyes, pulled in one more breath, and sifted through the thousands of scents every passing breeze carried upon its wide back.
There were dozens of reasons to hate humans and plenty of lessons his own kind needed to be taught. At that moment, however, Liam felt no need to justify his actions other than it was a hell of a night for a siege.
He held on to the breath he’d taken, raised his nose to the heavens and howled.
Where any other sound would have died off or been carried away, this one continued on. Where any other creature would have run out of breath, Liam pushed his howl out further and further until it reached every last ear for which it was intended.
The howl was a great and terrible thing.
In comparison, the other howls that rose up in response to it were frayed and ragged. When the creatures answering the Full Blood’s call could howl no more, they scampered from their dens in savage, barking stampedes.
Liam allowed his voice to taper off so he could listen to the Half Breeds’ desperate replies. They were hungry, eager, and still in pain from their first transformation.
They were perfect.
Now that the wretches had been coaxed from their pits, the dead would pile up and the wounded would replenish the Half Breeds that had fallen, until every street became a butcher’s killing floor. Perhaps some of them would run to another town or tear through another city. Skinners would fall until the most powerful among them would finally be flushed out of hiding.
Liam could barely contain himself.
The blood in Cole’s arms hadn’t stopped burning since Liam left the hotel. It took less than an hour to reach downtown Kansas City, where his early warning pains flared up all over again. Looking over to Paige, he asked, “Do you feel that?”
They’d stopped along a quiet street with an all-night diner on the corner. Paige had allowed Daniels to examine her arm during most of the drive, but pulled away from him now. “Yep,” she replied. “Daniels, you stay put. Have some coffee or something and we’ll call you when we’re ready to get you.”
“Mind if I track down something a bit more to my tastes?” the Nymar asked as he reflexively curled his lips back to show the set of feeding fangs that drooped lazily from his gums.
“You know the rules.”
“Sure I do,” Daniels assured her. “The maid at the hotel even came back a few times while you were gone because she—”
“Don’t need the details,” Paige cut in. “Just get what you need and don’t be messy about it. If you don’t hear back from us, find your way back to Chicago and call that number I gave you to tell them we’re gone.”
“Miss Sunshine means we’ll pick you up when we’re through cleanin’ up this town,” Cole said in a drawl that would have offended any true cowboy. “I’ll leave you with something you can use in case you get in trouble. That shotgun’s still in the trunk, right, Paige?”
She nodded, told him to hurry, and got out so she could circle around to take her seat behind the steering wheel.
Once Cole had dragged Daniels around to the back of the car and opened the trunk, he asked, “Is Paige really all right?”
“That ink didn’t work like she thought it would, but I told her we needed more tests. It’s not my fault!”
“I just wanna know if she’s all right.”
Although Daniels was clearly rattled, he forced himself to reply, “She’s in pain, but seems to be handling it. The muscles in that arm are thicker, but appear to be hardening as well. While the shapeshifting properties are present, the ink has also bonded the metallic elements to her living tissue more than I thought it would.”
“So…her arm’s turning into metal?”
“No, nothing so dramatic. I need to test some tissue samples, but I know she’s losing feeling in that arm and is having trouble moving it. There may be other effects, but I can’t just guess as to what they may be.”
Having seen Paige’s trouble in getting her weapon to change shape, Cole already knew of one more effect. That didn’t need to be spread around, though. “Is she in any immediate danger?”
“She didn’t use that much ink, and while the effects don’t seem to be going away, they’re not spreading either.”
“I don’t have a lot of time here,” Cole pressed. “She won’t tell me anything until this is over except that she’s fine. Is she or isn’t she?”
“There could be prolonged, possibly permanent damage to those muscle groups, but there really isn’t anything I can do for her at the moment.”
“And if she was poisoned, she would have died already,” Cole said. “Right?”
Daniels winced and started to shrug. “Not…necessarily.”
Slamming the trunk shut, Cole walked around the back of the car toward the passenger side. “Thanks. Big help. Go get somebody to drink.”
“Hey! What about my shotgun? I still need to protect myself, you know.”
“You think I’m really giving you my shotgun? Are you nuts? You’re a vampire. If something comes close, flash them the fangs.”
Daniels had a few choice words for that, but Cole didn’t listen. The Nymar was still gesturing after Cole was in the car and being driven away.
“What’s that about?” she asked.
Cole looked in the side mirror and waved at Daniels. “Looks like he’s wishing us luck. He wouldn’t take the shotgun. Real noble guy.”
“Sure. Whatever.” She drove slowly for a few seconds, which was all the time she needed to spot the cop cars racing down an adjacent street.
Cole watched carefully as she gripped the wheel in her left hand and allowed her right to lie across her lap. She seemed able to move a little better than a few minutes ago, but continued to flex her fingers as if they’d been asleep. The tattooed lines had faded to a few traces, and the muscles beneath the incisions were losing the gray hue they’d had earlier that night. “So,” he said, “was all that worth losing the Blood Blade?”
Paige ground her teeth and snarled, “Ask me later.”
“What’s the plan now? Just follow the cops?”
She sucked in a breath and seemed ready to clam up for good. When she exhaled, it was more of a reluctant sigh. Judging by the look on her face, the pain she felt cut deeper than any set of claws. “We took a gamble on a lot of things lately. I should have known better about this one.”
“We were caught by surprise, Paige. There’s no shame in admitting it. We’re doing all we can. It’s not like there are policies for werewolves tearing through an entire city.” He paused and then asked, “Skinners don’t have a policy for this, do they?”
“No,” she said with a tired laugh. “But if we get ripped apart on some video that winds up on the Internet, at least other Skinners will know what not to do.”