Seeds of Autumn

  Chapter Ten

  17th November

  Ariana had woken too soon, she hadn't managed to fully catch up on her sleep. But the pack was moving around her and she couldn't sleep through it. She followed them to the kitchen, where another meal was served and Ariana tucked in heartily. It was already lunchtime and the betting shop hummed with activity. Lily was holding down the fort and Ariana took her a chicken sandwich.

  'Thanks,' Lily said, beaming at her. 'How are you getting on?'

  Ariana glanced through the window, all of the customers were noisily riveted to the action on the screens and were paying the two young women no attention.

  'Okay, thanks. Do you know what happened last night?'

  'Yes, my sister told me this morning. Is Teri all right?'

  'She seems okay. I haven't spoken to her properly yet today.' Ariana glanced back towards the kitchen.

  'Go on, you'll be missed soon. Fortune will want to dote on you for a while yet before he moves on to the next shiny thing.' Lily winked and turned her attention back to a trashy magazine on the counter in front of her.

  Ariana felt a mixture of amusement and caution as she made her way back down the hall. Lily was bold and friendly, undoubtedly very capable with the patrons, despite her youth. She was painfully honest too. Ariana knew that Lily had not meant anything negative in what she said about Fortune, but the idea was planted in Ariana's mind that Fortune was fickle in his attention and she realised that each new recruit had had their moment to bask in his fatherly warmth, but it soon passed. Perhaps not so for Eyes, there seemed to be a deeper connection there.

  'Flames, I need you here, out front as much as possible. Teri, you will help him. Stone, you and I will take Eyes and Wind Talker out to secure the border.' Fortune barked his orders and everyone gave curt nods of acknowledgement.

  'Can I come?' Ariana spoke up. Shadow smiled slightly as he sipped his coffee.

  'No. You must continue working with Shadow. I need you up to speed as soon as possible,' Fortune snapped, his genial tone missing. 'Another time,' he said a little more softly with a sympathetic look her way.

  Ariana tried to shrug off the disappointment as the pack went its separate ways. She and Teri just managed to catch each other's eye briefly and exchange the mental promise to catch up properly later. She followed Shadow down to the basement.

  'Sit down.' Shadow pointed to a bench along one wall as Ariana reached the bottom of the stairs. She went immediately to it and sat down, looking at him expectantly. She felt like a schoolgirl again. 'I am going to teach you how to read your opponent and glean something honest about them.'

  Ariana raised a sceptical eyebrow.

  'Really? That's such a variable thing though, isn't it? Every individual has different tells.'

  'I'm not talking about tells. I'm talking about reaching into their soul with your mind and sensing their deepest fear, or greatest love, their current mood, sometimes even a very specific thought.'

  Shadow was fetching items from the cabinet. Ariana watched him carefully. She wasn't sure what to make of his words. She had never believed in souls or mind reading, but a few days ago she hadn't believed in shape shifters either. She had already taken part in a ritual that resulted in her clothes moulding to her body as it shifted between human, fox and monster. She definitely had some sort of telepathy with her pack. Was this really so far fetched?

  Shadow moved into the middle of the room and sat down on the floor. He laid out a small dish and a selection of herbs, which he set light to with a match. Thick smoke immediately spiralled up from the dish and the air filled with a strong smell. Ariana wrinkled her nose against the unusual fragrance.

  'The incense will help to focus your mind. First you must learn to look inside yourself and draw the power from within. Look into the smoke.' His voice was faintly hypnotic and Ariana felt compelled to do as he said. Her eyes drifted out of focus as she stared at the smoke and the vague thought occurred to her that the incense was fogging up her mind rather than making anything more clear, before everything became a blur.

  She blinked a few times and the room came back into focus. Shadow was still sitting in front of her, on the other side of the smoking incense. She felt calm, but her thoughts seemed sharper. Her mind latched onto each fleeting thought and seemed to take an instant to absorb every nuance.

  'This feels strange.' Even as she said it the words punctured her mind, sharp and deliberate, each leaving its mark within her.

  'Everything is clear now, isn't it? You know your own thoughts with a clarity you have never felt before.'

  'Yes.' She wasn't really seeing the room, she was seeing her own thoughts. She pictured herself, as she was days ago, normal, and as she was now. She saw herself as the ginger fox, a beautiful lion and a soaring eagle, then as the monster; tall, powerful, dangerous. 'I know myself.'

  She saw herself at the Caerton Martial Arts tournament in the summer, winning another trophy, her face smug, she saw herself with Rhys. She was boasting about her victories. There was something in his face that she hadn't seen at the time, just a hint of reservation towards her as she casually glanced at the trophy in her hand.

  Her thoughts returned to the present and she focused on Shadow, sitting before her, watching her carefully.

  'You saw something about yourself that you didn't like.' It wasn't a question.

  'I can be, well, kind of smug and annoying.' She grimaced.

  'I have observed this too.' There was a trace of a smile on his face and Ariana had to laugh.

  'Okay, so what now? I have seen my own soul, but I can't go into a trance like that in the middle of a fight.'

  'You won't need to do that again. You have tapped into the ability within yourself and will be able to recall it at will now.' He pressed his fist into the smoking dish and snuffed out the burning embers of the herbs without flinching. He stood and tidied up briskly. 'On your feet,' he barked as he put away the ritual tools and Ariana did as she was told. Her head felt clear, the bizarre sharpness had left her and her normal senses returned, still sharper than they had been before she changed, but manageable.

  She moved into the middle of the room, still thinking about what she had seen, yet she saw the attack before Shadow struck and she blocked his fist easily. He spun around her and ducked below her arm as she tried to land a blow. They danced their dance, neither of them taking a hit. Ariana evaded him easily, jumping over a sweeping leg, rolling across his back and ducking under an attempted strike. But he evaded her just as smoothly and she began to feel frustrated. As she twisted under him and blocked a strike, she allowed her body to change, she needed an advantage and so she took the biggest one she could muster. Thick hair sprouted instantly all over her body, she shifted form and became enlarged and empowered as the monster inside took shape on the surface.

  Ariana leaped up and out of their tight dance, changing the rules in an instant and went for his shoulder with her massive jaws. As her teeth sank in, he shifted to match her and her mouth met with fur and sinewy tissue. Shadow snarled and recoiled away from her bite, then leaped in low for his own attack. Their dance resumed, but this time it was vicious and feral and both of them tore flesh with claws and teeth. Shadow had the advantage as the larger and far more experienced beast, and he sank his teeth hard into her shoulder and pinned her firmly to the ground. As one, they shifted back into their human forms, Ariana was panting hard and her body shook with pain. Shadow drew a deep, steadying breath as he continued to hold her firmly to the floor, and Ariana watched in amazement as the open wounds on his shoulder and chest healed before her very eyes.

  Her hand shot out to touch his near-black skin where seconds before had been a gaping wound from her teeth.

  'So fast,' she murmured and he glanced at the spot where her fingers rested. He cleared his throat and jumped up, releasing her.

  'Yes. You too.' He gestured toward her and as she sat up she looked herself over, her flesh and skin were sealing themselves up.
The blood stained her skin and a little had got onto her clothes where she had continued to bleed for a moment after she shifted back into her human form and exposed her clothes to the blood. 'I wasn't expecting you to shift. Did you forget the lesson?'

  Ariana stood up and met his eyes.

  'I must have.'

  'Well, remember it later. You may need it. Perhaps it was too much of me to expect you to use it in combat right away.' Shadow turned away and reached for a large bottle of water in the cabinet.

  Ariana watched his back and focused her thoughts, she reached into him, not just his mind, but into the very essence of her mentor. She saw him watching her, she felt his thoughts and feelings as he had fought her and knew that he had been working very hard to keep up with her. Like a knife, the truth penetrated her mind: that he hated how hard it had been to beat her. He should surpass her easily at this stage and his jealousy was almost tangible.

  'Huh,' the sound escaped her lips before she could stop it and Shadow's attention turned back to her as he held out a bottle of water.

  'What?'

  'I had better not let that go to my big head.' She smirked and took the water from him, turning and leaving him to ponder her words.

  She returned to the kitchen, where Teri sat with a pile of books and notes, reading and scribbling while idly playing with one of her necklaces with her free hand. Ariana sat down opposite her new friend. She noticed the necklace Teri was toying with was a silver-coloured Celtic knot with a gibbous moon at the centre. Ariana smiled and glanced over the books on the table, all science texts and totally lost on her.

  'That's pretty,' she said, pointing at the necklace.

  'Thanks,' Teri smiled at her and dropped the charm. 'Fortune gave it to me. It's not real silver, obviously.'

  'It's not obvious to me,' Ariana said, stifling the sting of her own ignorance.

  'Silver hurts us, just like in the myths about werewolves. It burns the skin. I think this is nickel.'

  Shadow placed a careful hand on Ariana's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. She startled, having not heard him follow her.

  'I will see you later.' He was gone through the back door before Ariana could react to his warning tone. She shrugged it off and returned her attention to Teri.

  'What's all this?' Ariana asked, gesturing the books and papers.

  'Before I changed I was in the middle of a PhD.' Teri explained. 'I want to finish it.'

  'I can understand that,' Ariana replied. She too felt that she had unfinished business with her old life. With a sudden stab of guilt she decided that the following morning she must call Ron at work and excuse herself, take some annual leave to come to terms with all of this, it was too late in the evening to call him now.

  'Seeing as Fortune won't let me leave the betting shop right now, I am trying to get something productive done. I was supposed to meet with some other new friends tonight, but he won't let me go. It's so stupid, it's in the city centre. The Witches are hardly going to get right through the city to get to me.'

  'Why do they want you, anyway?' Ariana was suddenly struck with the question and as she asked it, a dozen more flooded into her thoughts.

  'I don't think it's me in particular. Is it? Fortune thinks they just want to be able to track the pack to here, to find out where we live.' Teri looked at Ariana with confusion in her eyes.

  'Then why did you say that? About them tracking you into the city centre?'

  'I don't know.' Teri's brow furrowed. 'It just popped out. I guess on some level I am afraid that they might be after me. I grew up in Fenwick. Even though I've lived here for over a year maybe they still see me as theirs.'

  'I think it is really important to listen to our gut instincts about this stuff. Especially now. I mean, that's what this is all about isn't it? Our gut, animal instincts. We are closer to beasts than humans, after all.' As Ariana spoke she felt the truth of her words acutely, realising it consciously for the first time. Teri and Ariana looked at each other in silence for a long minute.

  As night fell, the pack reassembled and Fortune gave out assignments for the night over a dinner of yet more meat, which Ariana felt obliged to eat with some salad, for the sake of variety. She felt thankful that she had never been inclined towards vegetarianism.

  Flames and Wind Talker were planning to continue Wind Talker's training in rituals, while the rest of the pack were to patrol the border in pairs.

  'I'll take Eyes East, to the Fenwick border. We are the most physically capable, if we encounter the Witches.' Fortune gave Eyes a pat on the back and Ariana cocked a sceptical eyebrow at the be-suited Eyes. Sure, he looked lean, but she had yet to see him fight and couldn't remotely imagine this straight guy being up to much in a serious fight. 'Stone, you take Teri north.'

  Teri sat up straight in her chair, her eyes bulging.

  'I can leave the shop? Really? Can't I go to...'

  'No, I need you on pack duty.' Fortune pressed firmly. Teri's face sank a little, but Ariana gave her a reassuring smile. At least she was getting out to patrol and be of use to the pack. She knew Teri would be pleased about that at least.

  'We'll take south then,' offered Shadow's Step. Fortune nodded in agreement.

  'What about west?' Ariana asked.

  'Our territory borders the river, we have no pressing concerns on that side, but we will check it tomorrow. I need Flames and Wind Talker here tonight.' Fortune finished as the pack began to move out.

  Shadow took Ariana south from the betting shop, they walked briskly as their human selves and Shadow was on edge, his gaze darting around, his fists clenched at his sides. They approached a small independent petrol station on the main road south into the city centre. Shadow led her across the forecourt and into the little shop. A buzzer sounded their arrival and a spotty young man at the counter behind the glass looked up from his magazine expectantly. He took one look at Shadow and gave a wary nod of recognition. Shadow swept through the shop with an air of familiarity, scooping up a packet of nuts and bottle of water before stopping at the counter. The young man behind it gave them half a smile, but he looked as though he were fighting the urge to back away from them. Ariana frowned slightly, bemused by this reaction to them and she wondered if this was going to be typical.

  'Thank you. Are you working until midnight?' Shadow asked, his voice sounded odd and Ariana stifled a laugh when she realised that he was trying to be friendly.

  Ariana backed off and wandered around the shop for a minute while Shadow engaged the poor boy in conversation. She felt a prickle over her senses and looked out onto the forecourt. She could feel power reaching out to her. She stood staring out of the window, breathing deeply and feeling everything. Her senses were deeply diminished in this form and it frustrated her slightly. She wanted to bask in the sensation but it was like feeling sunlight through a tinted window. With a sigh she went back to Shadow just as he was turning to leave. Together they left the shop and Shadow spoke softly as they crossed the forecourt, between the pumps.

  'Can you feel it?'

  'Yes. What is it?' she whispered back. Shadow glanced at her and then disappeared, it was as if he had stepped around a corner. With a cautious glance around at the deserted street and petrol station she followed him across the veil. To the boy in the shop, it would look like they had stepped behind one of the tall pumps.

  When she steadied her feet and looked around she gasped. The pump next to her was a twisted pillar of metal with cables flowing from it like tentacles and petrol pooled around the base. The smell was overpowering. Ariana looked around at the rest of the station. Right in front of her in the centre of the forecourt was a spiralling column of fire. Ariana screamed and leaped backwards, bumping into the pump behind her. The column of fire seemed to move towards her and she scrambled around the pump. Shadow stepped between her and the fire and Ariana watched open mouthed as the fire diminished and in its place was a roughly human sized fiery shape.

  Shadow took her by the elbow and helped
her to her feet, his other hand held up towards the fire creature, commanding it to keep back. Ariana stood and stared open mouthed at the flaming thing as it twisted and flickered before her.

  'How goes the night?' Shadow asked loudly. The flames flared and died again and a soft whooshing sound escaped it.

  'Quiet,' it seemed to say.

  'Good,' Shadow replied as he politely bowed his head. 'Ariana, this is a fae, a fire elemental, to be precise. It guards this property for us,' Shadow said authoritatively.

  'But it's fire!' Ariana exclaimed. 'Isn't that really dangerous?' A fire elemental at a petrol station seemed like utter stupidity to her. Shadow chuckled.

  'Yes. Yes it is, but this being feeds off the potential for fire, not the flames themselves. It's more of a danger sprite really. We allow it to feed on that danger in exchange for keeping an eye on this part of our territory for us.' As Shadow spoke, the fae lost interest in them and drifted away, sinking into the ground nearby, leaving a small puff of smoke. Ariana raised a sceptical eyebrow.

  'Okay,' she whispered. 'I thought we were patrolling the border?'

  'We are,' he replied. 'We need to do regular sweeps on both sides of the veil. This side of our territory doesn't share a border with any other shifters. From here to the other side of the city centre is unclaimed. We have little to guard against in the human world. But Hepethia needs our attention.'

  'Couldn't the Witches circle south then, and come in over our southern border with no interference?'

  Shadow chuckled, an odd sound from him, and he shook his head.

  'No, they would have to get through the Glass Wolves. They hold Burnside.'

  Ariana took a deep breath as her thoughts leaped back to her old life. Burnside was the financial district of Caerton, but it was also where the main bus station was and she had had cause to pass through the area more times than she could count. It was so strange now to think of all of the times she might have passed shape shifters in the street. The Blue Moon had sensed the change coming in her, they had smelled her shifter blood in passing, as would almost any other shifter she had encountered. How many times over the last few months had a shifter caught her scent and tracked her back to St. Mark's? Would they have been relieved that she was not their problem? Or disappointed that she would be embraced by a rival pack? Knowing now that the city was full of these hidden creatures caused her to re-frame everything she thought she knew.

  Shadow gave her a considered look, but asked no questions, nor gave any gesture, he simply waited for her moment of realisation to pass. There would be weeks ahead of her, if not months or years, when these moments would capture her briefly. He knew it too and wasn't going to baby her, he would simply let her deal with the memories in her own way.

  After a minute, Shadow led Ariana off the petrol station forecourt and onto the street. The buildings around them were darker, taller and more oppressive than in the human world. They were twisted and the corners seemed to stretch into deep recesses with shadows as black as pitch. Ariana felt a shudder run through her and she looked about cautiously. She felt the eyes of unfamiliar beings all around them, darkness and fear demons peered at them from their shadows, urban constructs of brick and glass twitched in the windows of the buildings.

  Shadow walked cautiously ahead of her. He moved down the middle of the street, keeping to the pools of light cast by the orange street lamps, and seemed to cast his gaze everywhere at once. Ariana kept close behind him and her eyes darted in the direction of every little noise.

  'Shadow?' she whispered. 'If Hepethia is our world, why is it full of these things? I can feel them everywhere.'

  'The fae are as much a part of our world as the trees are a part of the human world. Try to think of it like that, they are part of the wildlife. Usually harmless to us, sometimes totally unaware of us. Every once in a while something sentient manifests and can cause us a problem, or a demon will find its way here from one of the demon realms, but we are perfectly able to handle it.'

  'Have you told Fortune about my strange ability yet?' she asked, keeping her voice very low.

  'No, I haven't. I honestly don't know what to make of it and I would rather take him something concrete. This attack on Teri has taken over the attention of all of us. I apologise for that. You need our attention, our time and our experience and that has been taken from you.' He gave her such an apologetic look that Ariana was almost moved to tears.

  'It's absolutely fine. It's no one's fault. We just have to get through this and then there will be time to consider my stuff.' Ariana waved a dismissive hand in front of her face.

  She meant what she said and was surprised at her own humility. There was the strangest look on Shadow's face, though, just for a moment and she wanted to ask him what he was thinking when just ahead of them a silent figure slipped out of the shadows into the street. Grins-Too-Widely sat down and waited for them to reach him. Ariana felt a little calm settle over her at the presence of the strange ally. The fox cocked his head to one side, regarding her in that same, careful way. Without a sound, Grins-Too-Widely stood up and trotted away down the middle of the street. Shadow shifted into his fox form and broke into a jog and Ariana followed suit to keep up.

  The three of them ran swiftly and silently through the twisted streets of Hepethia. The buildings resembled the red brick terraces of St. Mark's, but they were a twisted maze that Ariana couldn't dream of traversing alone.

  Her sense of smell was of little help to her here, she sniffed the ground but it was almost devoid of any scent she could identify. Not that it didn't smell of anything, just nothing she was familiar with. There were no people, no animals, no shifters, no rot, just the strange mixture of nameless scents that had to be unknown fae.

  They jogged down the middle of the street, under the orange glow of the street lights, which on this side of the veil gave the streets an even more eerie quality. The orange was bright and the shadows much darker, contrasts seemed exaggerated here, angles more severe and as Ariana turned her eyes to the sky she was shocked to see thick, purple storm clouds rolling over one another in no discernible direction. They weren't driven by wind, the clouds were alive and tumultuous, Ariana could feel their power even from so far below them. Somewhere in the distance lightning flashed behind the clouds and a moment later the rumble of thunder reached them. Ariana watched as the clouds shuddered, the ripple of sound was visible in the reaction of the clouds as they fought with each other. As the wave passed by, the clouds settled again into their hypnotic war dance.

  As she gazed upwards, Ariana had slowed to a walk, and as a heavy rain drop landed on her face she stopped and shook her head. Another drop followed, then another. She looked up again and the clouds had darkened, they were heavy with rain and were about to unleash it on the city. She looked ahead for Shadow and Grins-Too-Widely, they had just turned a corner and she dashed after them, cutting the corner and darting into the shadows.

  The moment her paws touched the black pavement something snatched at her from the darkness and a tightness wrapped itself around her leg. She let out a yelp as she struggled to free herself from the thick, formless shadow.

  A moment later Shadow was by her side, his teeth bared and a threatening snarl trembled from his chest. Ariana felt the grip on her leg tighten for an instant and then it slipped away. She leaped backwards into the safe pool of light and felt her heart rate start to settle.

  Shadow looked up at the sky and then his amber eyes met hers. Run, he urged and set off at a gallop, Ariana followed, sprinting along behind him. Grins-Too-Widely seemed to glide along silently just ahead of them. The rain drops felt heavy on her fur and caused large splashes on the street. Puddles formed far too quickly and soon Ariana was leaping over and skirting around them as they reached out to her from the sides of the road. She suspected that a wrong paw could mean being dragged down and drowned if the rain elementals were in a wrathful mood.

  Before she could get her bearings, they were skidding to a hal
t outside the betting shop. Shadow launched himself at the door, and it opened of its own accord to admit them.

  Grins-Too-Widely slipped silently in through the front door and Ariana followed. The shop was silent and Ariana felt unease seeping through her body. Grins-Too-Widely stood still next to the door into the back of the building and Shadow shifted form smoothly. He bowed to the fox, Ariana shifted form too and also gave the fox a respectful nod. Grins-Too-Widely cocked his head and nodded back, but that eerie voice of his that came from him without his teeth so much as snapping caught Ariana off guard.

  'Cross over now, you are needed.' His voice was almost lazy and he slipped back out through the door without another word or backwards glance. Shadow and Ariana exchanged worried glances and the two shifters crossed the veil into the human world.

  Ariana heard the commotion first and then she felt it. Her pack mates were in a state of panic. Fortune was shouting and there were other voices. She and Shadow looked at each other before sprinting through to the kitchen.

  'Do NOT ask me again! You are staying here!' Fortune was shouting and he slammed his hand down on the table as Ariana and Shadow burst into the kitchen. Fights-Eyes-Open was snarling at their Alpha, his shirt and tie loose at his neck.

  'What's going on?' Shadow demanded. Ariana looked around to see Stone sitting at the table with her head in her hands. Flames was standing by the back door, his arms crossed over his chest and Wind Talker was talking rapidly at him.

  'Where's Teri?' Ariana asked. There was too much noise in the room, no one heard her. She asked again, louder this time and she felt Shadow's warm hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her.

  'Still your head and your heart, feel it,' Shadow whispered at her ear. Ariana's head snapped to him in frustration but she did as he told her and the room began to go quiet around them. She could feel Teri, the bond was still there, but she was far away, beyond the reaches of their telepathy. Ariana could just about tell that her pack sister was afraid. The rest of the pack felt panic, fear and anger and she caught a snatch of a thought from Wind Talker, the need for a plan to “get her back”.

  'She's been taken,' Ariana whispered and Shadow's hand on her shoulder tightened momentarily, telling her she was right.

  Fortune looked at her for the first time since they entered the room, he sighed. Eyes was backing down, he paced the kitchen a few times then slumped into a chair opposite Stone.

  'The southern perimeter is secure.' Shadow's Step spoke softly into the silence. 'We were in Hepethia and didn't sense it until we crossed over.'

  Fortune nodded solemnly. 'Where was she taken from?' Shadow asked, his voice still calm and quiet.

  'Redfield,' Stone replied, lifting her head. 'I deliberately didn't take her into Crossway, we went north to patrol Northgate and Redfield. I thought that the Wrecking Crew would provide a nice buffer so that the Witches wouldn't get near Teri. I was wrong.' The Wrecking Crew were the pack to the north of the Blue Moon's territory, the rivals who marked their border so strongly. They too shared a border with the Witches.

  'We ran the park, which I realise now was the mistake. I think the Witches may have fae allies there.' Stone's voice was heavy with responsibility and Ariana felt so sad for her. 'They appeared from the south and ambushed us. Teri lost control and ran, they chased her and herded her over into Fenwick.'

  Ariana frowned, her mind racing across the territory trying to figure out the geography.

  'But that means they came right up through St. Mark's,' she said softly, all eyes turned to her. 'They must have come right into the heart of our territory and tracked you north into Redfield in order to come at you from the south side of the park and to have avoided the Wrecking Crew. At least I assume we would have heard about it if The Wrecking Crew had got into a fight. They'd have warned us the Witches were coming. Right?' She looked around the room at the downcast faces of her pack.

  'Not necessarily,' Fortune said sadly. 'But it is hard to keep a large scale fight quiet enough not to reach neighbouring packs one way or another, be it through howls carrying or through other communication. And you are quite right, we heard nothing from them. They will have heard Teri though. Shadow, go to the rooftops, see if you can find Sky Runner and liaise with the Wrecking Crew. Ariana, come with me, I need your tracking abilities. Stone, you're with us. Flames, Eyes and Wind Talker will stay here. See if you can summon some supernatural allies to help find her.' The pack stirred into action, Shadow was already gone when Ariana looked for him and she felt a little pang of disappointment that he had left without saying goodbye.

  As everyone started heading in different directions Ariana caught sight of Fortune taking Eyes firmly by the elbow and muttering a warning to him.

  'I mean it. I know you're worried about your family, but the best way to protect them is to stay here. If I get the tiniest hint of you disobeying me there will be consequences.' Ariana looked away, embarrassed that she had overheard and moved quickly down the corridor after Stone. Fortune was behind her in an instant and she glanced back to see Eyes disappearing into the basement.

  Ariana stepped back out into the cool night air with Stone and Fortune. It was the first time she had been alone with these two pack mates and she felt nervous, almost like she had to prove herself to them, she knew Fortune was counting on her.

  The rain was normal on this side of the veil, just another wet night in Caerton. She must have experienced hundreds just like this.

  They moved into an alley a few houses down from the shop.

  'I want you both to change. Stone, you scout ahead from the sky, Ariana, use your fox senses to pick up what you can. I'll stay in this form, a wolf and a fox together is an odd sight.' Fortune explained and Ariana gave a little smirk of agreement, thinking of the times she had seen him and Shadow together. She did as she was asked, shifting smoothly into her fox form. Beside her, Stone twisted in on herself and disappeared upwards, she hovered above them, flapping her owl wings briefly before soaring away up over the rooftops.

  Stone set off on the route she and Teri had taken earlier in the evening, Ariana glanced up to check which direction to go in and followed the silent owl gliding above. Fortune walked a short distance behind. Ariana soon picked up Teri's scent, though she had been in her human form and the scent was less pronounced than it would have been had she been in her cat form.

  They retraced the route slowly, giving Ariana all the time she needed to follow the trail carefully. It was near the telecoms tower that she picked up the first foreign scent and she indicated to Fortune that she had found something. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but she thought it was probably the same wolf that had tracked and bitten Teri the previous night.

  'Can you trace it back to where it entered our territory?' Fortune asked her and she nodded. She set off at once. Following the trail towards Crossway. Where she thought it would lead them east she was surprised to find her nose turning south. With a small whimper she followed the trail, though it was growing cold now, too much time had passed since the intruder had come this way. Stone followed a little behind and Ariana picked up traces of guilt and frustration from her owl mind.

  Fortune walked briskly behind and didn't speak when Ariana led them south. The trail was becoming increasingly difficult to follow, but she kept hold of it right to their border. The Witch had crossed over just south of Fenwick, trying to avoid the obvious places that the Blue Moon might expect an incursion.

  'What about the rest of them?' Fortune looked out across the border, it was just another street in a vast city, nothing remarkable about it, but this was the point where the Blue Moon could go no further, an invisible line that Ariana knew instinctively not to cross.

  She turned north and set off into Crossway, searching for the second breach, the place where the other Witches had followed their own tracker into enemy territory. Ariana knew it must have been closer to Redfield Park, it had to have been close enough to where Teri was so as to avoid detection before they
reached her. So she ran quickly, but made sure not to leave Fortune behind. She skidded to a halt when she smelled it, it was overpowering.

  At least half a dozen of them had been here, just south of the park. They would have made a bee line straight up the main road that came out at the south eastern tip of the park. They must have been seen, a big pack like that must have been seen by humans. She sniffed the air carefully, she put her nose to the ground and tried hard to distinguish the different smells. Soon it was clear that the strength of the smell came down to the number of intruders. They had been in their human forms here, she was sure of it, each individual had a more faint smell than the wolf who had slipped so stealthily into their territory before. That's how they escaped human attention too.

  Fortune gave her head a scratch and she rubbed against his legs, enjoying the contact and his affectionate sign of gratitude. Stone gave a small hoot and set off towards the park. Ariana and Fortune followed her and Ariana kept her nose to the ground, waiting to come across some sign of where the Witches had changed.

  It wasn't until they entered the park that she sensed it, in the cover of the trees that lined the green space in the middle of dense urban brick and smoke. She hated the smell, everything about it screamed “enemy”, “intruder” and it grew overwhelmingly strong where they had shifted into their beast forms and attacked her pack sisters.

  She snarled and Stone landed on the ground a few feet away, seamlessly shifting into her human form. Ariana smelled blood and dashed to where Stone was standing. Teri had been wounded in the attack, that was how she had lost control. She felt sick with rage, but she could feel that her pack sister was alive, for now.

  Fortune stepped silently to her side and bent to touch the blood soaked ground, he sniffed the blood on his fingers and wrinkled his nose.

  'We need to cover this,' he said, standing up and gesturing at the ground. Ariana started digging, burying the bloody earth under freshly turned soil. Fortune paced the area, examining every tree and stepped out from under the cover of the bare branches and into the open space of the park beyond. Ariana stood and watched the Alpha move carefully into the open.

  The clouds above cleared and Ariana looked up to see the slip of a waxing crescent moon in the sky, a crooked smile on an invisible face.

  She followed Fortune into the park, Stone just behind her. Cautiously they crossed the open field.

  'We don't come here in Hepethia,' Fortune spoke softly. 'The fae that claim this park are mad, wild beyond control and as we have now seen, in league with the Witches.'

  A gust of wind carried a flurry of dry brown leaves across the park towards them and Ariana caught the scent of a shifter. Her senses sharpened and she let out a short bark, catching Fortune's attention. The leaves swirled around them in an unnatural spiral and Fortune stopped still to watch them. A whisper reached out from the leaves, sending a shudder through Ariana, though she couldn't pick out any discernible words.

  'You want permission to enter?' Fortune asked the disembodied voice. 'Granted.' He looked out across the park and Ariana followed his gaze as the leaves dropped to the ground around them.

  Out of the dark cover of the trees on the opposite side of the park three figures emerged. The heckles on Ariana's back rose, but she knew the smell, it wasn't the Witches, this was the Wrecking Crew, or some of them.

  A tall, wiry man with short reddish hair led them, he had stubble all over his chin and jaw and wore loose clothing. He was flanked by one male and one female, both of whom looked as hard as nails, though the female was painfully thin.

  Ariana felt Fortune tensing up as they approached and could hear the rumble of a growl in his chest. Stone was equally rigid, her thoughts a tangle of aggression and apprehension. This was the first real contact Ariana had had with shifters outside her own pack, she couldn't feel their thoughts like she could her pack mates, she wasn't bonded to them. But she could smell them and read their body language just as well, she could smell the adrenaline and knew that these newcomers were anything but friendly.

  'Fortune,' The Wrecking Crew's Alpha snapped, as the two groups drew level in the middle of the park.

  'Rust.' Fortune returned the curt greeting. 'What can we do for you?'

  'One of your bitches rampaged through our territory tonight,' Rust snarled, his eyes darting over Stone and Ariana. Fortune's chest puffed up and Ariana saw his fists curl by his sides.

  'In case you didn't notice,' Fortune growled. 'Witches invaded our territory and pursued one of our own. She was fleeing for her life.'

  Rust let out a bark of laughter.

  'Then your youngsters need to be taught to control themselves.' Rust's pack mates started laughing cruelly.

  Stone lurched forward, growling and snarling at the skinny female. The Wrecking Crew took half a step back, pausing their laughter only for an instant before breaking into renewed jeers. Fortune held a hand out to tell Stone to back down, though Ariana could feel the anger rolling off her Alpha in waves.

  'Get out.' Fortune's voice was barely more than a whisper but it carried the threat of a defensive alpha wolf on his own territory. The Wrecking Crew flinched and without another word turned and walked briskly from the park. Ariana felt the tension prickling over her skin and in the air around them for several long minutes as they watched the Wrecking Crew members leave and waited for all of their tempers to settle.

  Fortune's fists relaxed, he turned and stalked past Ariana and Stone. The two of them fell into step behind him, not a word or direct thought was exchanged all the way back to the shop but Ariana felt the thirst for payback pounding in the veins of her pack mates.