"Read this and sign it when you're ready. If you do decide to fill it out, you can returned it to the station and we'll look it over. It's a pledge to return, or a warrant will be put out for your arrest for obstructing an official investigation."
"Thanks, officer. I'll be sure to read this carefully." Chuck wrapped an arm around Stephanie and frowned at her pale features. "Did you need any other questions asked, or can we go leave?"
"That's it for now, but I need your phone numbers and address in case we need to reach you." The information was exchanged, and the pair was left alone. Stephanie was very curious what Chuck was planning, but he glanced around with suspicion at all the strangers and neighbors.
"Let's get out of here, then I'll explain everything," he whispered to her. Chuck led her to her car and got into the driver's seat himself. They drove away from that horrible scene, and a few blocks away he told her his thoughts. "You and I both know Gregory did this, and there's a good chance he's not going to stop until he sees us behind bars or worse."
"Isn't he ever going to stop bothering us?" Stephanie asked him. She couldn't believe how terrible a person Gregory had become, and she shuddered just thinking about all the times they'd met. Now they were tinged with a darkness she couldn't shake off.
"I think at this point it's a matter of pride. He knows we won't join him, so he's making an example of us to everyone else in his pack. That way he gets his revenge on our refusal, and keeps his people in line."
"So what are you going to do? I mean, why go to the city at all if he's not going to stop?"
"I've got to try to get him off of us, even if that means I have to tear him to shreds," Chuck informed her. She gasped and her eyes grew wide.
"You're...you're going to murder him?" she asked. Her tone showed she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You left that life behind you when you came out, remember? Why would you want to go back and kill somebody else?"
"Because you're worth it." Chuck's voice was firm. He was unwavering in his conviction, but the fearful expression on Stephanie's face made him sigh. "It's not that I want to go back and do this, Boss, but we don't have a choice. In this wolf world, it's either them or us. If I go to him then at least they won't be catching us when we're not ready like they did with Bob."
"Bob..." Stephanie repeated in a soft, low voice. He was a terrible husband and an awful human being, but he didn't deserve that end. She wondered if someone else around them would die for Gregory to prove his power over their lives. "Well, if you're going then I'm going."
"Absolutely not," Chuck argued. He was angry at her demand. "If a fight comes up, you'll only get in the way."
"I'm going because I expect a fight to come up. Even if I can't run very fast or throw a decent punch, I'll at least be there to watch your back and clean up your wounds when it's all done." She paused and turned away from him. "And if things don't go that well, then I can at least go down protecting your body." He frowned at the defeatism, but admired her willingness for self-sacrifice.
"If I told you you're going to see more death like what happened to Bob, would you still go?" he asked her. Stephanie paused and her face paled. She'd promised herself that was going to be the only time she'd see such violence, and now she was trying to step right into the thick of it. "Or even if you were the one who had to kill the other person?" He received the same silent response, and then he sighed. "I don't think you should come."
"I still don't want to see that happen again, but I'd rather be by your side than not know what happened to you," Stephanie finally admitted. She looked up into his eyes and smiled. "You're willing to fight for me, then I should be willing to fight for you." Chuck searched her eyes and saw she was dead set on getting her way.
"You know, I could just tie you up at my house and leave," he pointed out. "You wouldn't be able to follow me that way."
"And if you didn't come back, I'd probably starve to death," she countered. He flinched at that possibility.
"I concede that point, but you're being a little premature in my death, aren't you?" She shrugged at his accusation, and gave him a mischievous grin.
"Maybe, but I'm still going."
SUPREMACY (IN THE LOUP: BOOK #15)
The city was dark and empty as the lone vehicle slowly drove through the rough-looking neighborhoods. There were two occupants inside the vehicle, and one of them was very nervous.
"And you're sure we were allowed to leave the town?" Stephanie asked Chuck for the umpteenth time that night. "I mean, I really don't want to be dragged into jail for being accused of running. They're probably going to do that anyway with Bob's murder, but I'd rather it happen later rather than sooner."
"It's fine, the chief and judge signed off on the release," Chuck promised her with an exasperated sigh. He really wished she would have agreed to be left behind at his place. At least then he would have had some peace in the car. The situation was tense enough as it was without her asking him again and again if they were going to get a warrant out for their arrest. "Now calm down and try to relax. We're almost there."
Chuck was at the wheel trying to find the location to the old gang hangout. The city they were currently driving in, the same where the last conference had occurred, wasn't the main headquarters of the group. The gang merely had a base of operations for intimidating and eliminating enemies. He figured that if Gregory had committed the murder himself, he couldn't have gone too far in two short nights. Even if he'd gotten a lackey to do the dirty work, highly likely, than he would still be close by to see the results.
The only problem was that Chuck was having a momentary lapse of forgetfulness. He just couldn't quite remember which street the hangout had been in this big city. Perhaps it was the stress of the situation, the tense, beautiful woman behind him, or his own old age showing. Maybe it was all of those problems combined.
"Should we try looking for it another night?" Stephanie suggested to her partner. She wanted to enjoy one more night of his company before his almost-assured death by the hands of a gang of mean werewolves.
Her life had certainly weirded out lately.
"We could, but it's just kicking the can down the road," he pointed out. He peered out to the row of dark, tall tenant buildings on both sides. Chuck was sure it was one of these, but they all looked so alike he couldn't be sure which one. Barging into the wrong one might attract the attention of their enemies and eliminate the element of surprise they were going for. Then again, if they were close enough to the hideout they could've already been spotted by the gang. "We have to get this over with so we can-"
"I know, I know, stop worrying about Gregory," Stephanie finished for him. Her tone wasn't annoyed, it was just strained. He'd told her enough times on the trip that it was going to be dangerous but necessary to probably kill Gregory as a warning to the rest of the gang not to mess with them. She slumped down in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "I just wish I could help you out more."
"How about by looking for a door that has a Marley knocker?" he suggested to her. She glanced at him with a frown on her face. "It's from the Christmas Carol story. The face on the door of Scrooge's home is called a Marley knocker."
"Are you sure you were ever part of a rough gang of werewolf street thugs?" she asked him. She could hardly believe anyone on the streets would be familiar with Dickens.
"I told you I turned over a new leaf."
"Are you kidding me? I think you turned over a whole forest trying to get out of this group," Stephanie insisted, and then she sighed. The young woman set her elbow on the window ledge and leaned her chin on her open hand. "Now all my troubles are dragging you back in."
"Funny, I thought I was the one who bit you and not the other way around," Chuck quipped. Then he let out an exclamation which signified success, and he nodded at one of the buildings they were coming up on. "That looks like the one. I just need to figure out a way inside without being too obvious."
The building was tall, four stories in
height with a full, partially submerged basement beneath, and it was long at about seventy feet. It'd been built to comfortably house at least a dozen tenants and their families, but the whole place had fallen on hard times. The brick outside was chipped and several were missing. The concrete stairs leading up to the front door were crumbling and the windows were either boarded up or had dingy curtains hanging in them. He cringed when he recalled that once he had called such a dump home.
"You mean we," his partner corrected him. He didn't like where this was going. "I know I'm not an elite ninja werewolf assassin yet, but I can at least bring up your nice rear."
"I let you come along because otherwise you would've followed me to the city and got yourself lost, but I'm not going to get you killed doing this raid," he informed her.
"Then don't get me killed. You should be careful enough neither of us has to worry about meeting the reaper," Stephanie shot back. They drove passed the building and she caught a glimpse of a few people standing inside one of the front, ground floor rooms. "You think they're werewolves?"
"That or drug dealers. The gang always liked to control every legal and illegal activity in their territory," he replied. Stephanie stuck out her tongue in disgust, then she glanced up at the building again.
"You sure this is going to work? The sneaking part, I mean. Aren't they just going to catch us once we're inside anyway?" she wondered. He shrugged at her question.
"More than likely, but if they're not expecting a frontal attack by us and we do manage to get in there deep enough to find Gregory's room then we'd at least have a fighting chance," Chuck explained to her.
"That's a lot of ifs," Stephanie pointed out. She didn't like that many ways for their plan to go wrong. They were reaching the end of the block by now and Chuck stopped at the spray-painted stop sign. This was such a lovely neighborhood. "What if we just walked up there and you asked to fight him? Wouldn't they agree to that?"
"Werewolf duels aren't that gentlemanly," he regretfully informed her. He took a right and slowly drove along the block opposite where the hideout stood. "He's not just going to agree to fight me, especially when he knows what I can do." Chuck found a parking spot on the sidewalk that was free of junk cars and overturned, burnt out garbage cans.
"Didn't you ask what's-her-name, Seville, what happened to the guy before Gregory took charge? He beat that guy to get to the head, didn't he? If he did beat the last guy, why do you think you can be him?" she asked her partner after he'd shut off the car.
"That's a lot of questions," Chuck mused. He stepped out of the car without answering a single one. His eyes roamed the windows of the broken-down, tall buildings around them, and he saw no signs of immediate danger. He stuck his head back inside the cab and put on his most firm face. "Now you-"
Too late. Stephanie was already out of the car and was herself looking around. She was definitely not impressed with the area, and Chuck mentally noted how out-of-place this clean-cut, pale young woman looked in this neighborhood. He started to rethink whether leaving her here was a better idea than taking her with him. There were some pretty rough human gangs around here, too, who if they paid the werewolf cartel weren't bothered by their supernatural neighbors.
"So what do we do now?" Stephanie spoke up in a low voice. She didn't want to alert any werewolf guards, either, so she kept close against the car. The adrenaline pumping through her body was making her both giddy and nervous.
"This is a bad time to be asking again, but are you sure you want to do this?" Chuck again questioned her. He could only imagine the fighting that was coming if he wanted to make it through that wide, tall tenant building. That could hold a lot of werewolves, and he'd seen it do just that plenty of times. He supposed that if there were a lot of werewolf guards inside, that at least told him Gregory was there. They always liked to keep their bosses well-protected, and he imagined maybe Gregory wouldn't be completely oblivious to their plan of making a sneak attack.
"I've gone this far, it's a little too late to be backing down now," Stephanie replied, and to emphasize her point she shut the car door. She used a little too much of her new werewolf strength, however, and the door slammed against the rest of the car. To those two who wanted to be as quiet as possible, the noise practically echoed off every building in the area. Chuck winced and Stephanie's face paled. "Sorry," she whispered in apology.
"Let's just start this," he answered her, and she flinched at the rough, scolding tone he used.
He stepped around to the other side of the car and steered her into an empty alley. Chuck raised his nose in the air and sniffed around for anyone close at hand. There were a few werewolves on the other side of the same block in the buildings facing the hideout. A few humans wandered around a few of the other buildings, probably drug dealers waiting for a pickup or homeless sleeping where they could find a warm, dry place. Other than that, the only distinct smell of activity wafted from their main target, the werewolf gang building. Out of there wafted a great many smells of werewolves, and he figured that with that many in the building that they had definitely found where Gregory was staying.
"Um, Chuck?" Stephanie interrupted his sniffing.
"Yeah?"
"If we drove right passed the building and those guys were standing in the window, didn't they notice our car?" she wondered. The young woman couldn't see how this sneak attack plan hadn't already failed. "I mean, a nice car like this isn't really suppose to be driving around here, is it?"
"They drive through here more often than you think," he reassured her. "There's a lot of chop shops around here, so with that nice a car they probably thought I was going somewhere to cut it into pieces."
"Your old home is a lovely place," Stephanie commented with a teasing smile.
"It's about to get a lot lovelier if we have too much trouble getting inside," Chuck pointed out. With how many werewolves he'd sniffed in the building, that was a near-certainty now. "You remember what you have to do?"
"I know, I know. Stay out of the way and keep behind you. If there's too many for you to handle and one of them's going after me, I'm supposed to try outrunning them until you can deal with them," she repeated in a bland voice. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. "Why does this make me sound like a decoy?"
"Because you are," he replied. He had to admit that giving the baddies one more target to deal with, or in this case chase after, at least meant he wouldn't be handling them all at once. Maybe on her own she could even handle the less experienced werewolves, those who, like her, couldn't transform without the full moon.
"Werewolves aren't, um, cannibalistic, are they?" Stephanie asked him. The mental images of other werewolves feasting on her body made her wince.
"Not generally, or at least not any more often than humans," Chuck answered her question. "If they get hungry enough they have been known to attack and eat each other, but I expect these guys to be well fed. Otherwise they wouldn't be very useful in guarding Gregory."
"So you really think he's in there?" she questioned, and he nodded his head. "I'm not sure whether to be relieved or terrified."
"Probably both. It means we can get this over with, one way or another." Chuck stepped toward her and pushed her away a few feet so she stood against the alley wall. "Now when I'm transformed, it's not going to be easy to communicate with you using words," he reminded her. "You're going to have to watch my body language. Your werewolf instincts should help you figure out what my body's trying to tell you." She nodded her head, and he couldn't help but notice the uncertainty in her stance. "You'll be fine, trust me."
"I trust you, it's me I don't trust," she wryly admitted, and she managed a smile for him through her worries.
"Well, just follow my lead then. We'll go around the back by skirting a few blocks around the building. Then we'll see if we can't find an open window to an empty room."
"Right," his partner agreed with a nod.
Chuck gave her one last encouraging smile before he started
the transformation. His clothes stretched and seams split open. His shoes broken open and the buttons on his shirt popped off. His deliciously muscular body sprouted with thick fur and he hunched over when the bones in his back curved to allow him to run on all four legs. His face pushed out into a long snout, and his eyes darkened to their amber color. The transformation only took a few moments to complete, and there standing before her was Chuck in all his furry glory.
He sniffed the air one last time just to make sure there wasn't any immediate threats, and then he took off deeper into the alley. Stephanie let out a small eep and ran after him. He kept the pace slow enough she had only a little trouble following him. They skirted the street on which their target was located and went around to the next street. Chuck led his partner down the alley which split the next block down the middle, and here he considerably slowed their pace. His ears were up and his nose furiously twitched as he tried to keep an eye out for danger.
Stephanie clasped her hands together in a silent prayer as they passed the backs of one decrepit building after another. Off in the distance they could hear the sounds of human life, but not around here. Here it was too quiet. There wasn't the sound of a single car passing or person walking by. Chuck was suspicious when they reached the back of the gang building without a single encounter of another werewolf. They stopped at the back door and both looked up for a way to gain entrance.
Stephanie noticed an open window on the second floor and she pointed it out to her companion. He nodded and then hunkered down beside her. She frowned and shook her head. The young woman wasn't sure what he was doing. Chuck sighed, stood back up, and in one swift moment he picked her up around the waist and flung her over his shoulder. She let out a squeak of fright, but managed not to scream.
Then Chuck knelt down, tensed up his legs and launched them both into the air. His arm was still wrapped around her waist, but Stephanie clung to his thick fur as the ground beneath them disappeared. Chuck managed to catch the sill with his free hand and he peered inside. Seeing that all was clear, he quietly pulled Stephanie off his shoulder and into the room. He joined her in a moment, and the pair of them looked around the empty room. It was one of the tenant apartments, but the partners noticed that the space had been partitioned so that the room's depth was cut in half. A single door led to the next room, and they surmised that beyond that lay the hallway.