Silence of the Wolves

  All too quickly the fire died, leaving her palm as it had been. Her palm still stung with warmth from the flames, the heat of it resonating through her skin, her body capturing it and using it to warm the chill in her bones. Whatever it was; her imagination or, god forbid, something else, it helped her to see exactly what she’d needed to.

  There was a large, dark patch on the floor. She could clearly see the stain darkening the otherwise grimy but grey concrete. To the untrained eye, it would have looked like grease or oil, but Tam knew exactly what it was. Dried blood.

  She should call the police, she should tell someone that she was here but, hell, what if they made her leave the investigation? She would be without a story and she wouldn’t find the answers she needed.

  Someone had taken the time to try desperately to scrub the place free of the crime, but you couldn’t always wash away everything. Some of the blood remained soaked into the concrete and it looked like someone had lost gallons of the stuff. Glancing at the wall, Tam noted that there were small spots of it on the brick.

  Searching the area, she couldn’t help the prickle of fear that rose up her spine; she’d definitely been here before.

  On the opposite side of the small courtyard she found another dark patch of blood. It had also been hastily cleaned, leaving only the stained concrete and an echo of the scent that once was.

  This blood patch was much smaller. It smelt like woodland and held a distinctive earthy tone to it… female blood? It was definitely a woman. Memories of a blonde’s long, wavy hair hit her hard.

  She was alive, but only just. Tam had tried to save her; she was being beaten to death by a man. Black eyes.

  Tam tried to clutch to the fleeting memory, but to no avail. She was getting mighty pissed off with this whole memory loss thing.

  Shaking herself back to the present, she tried to focus on the job at hand; the blood patch appeared to be where the trail ended. She hunched down, fingering the dirt where the girl had once been. There had to be a clue as to what had happened here. She scanned the concrete walls again, straining her eyes, trying to find what she was missing. Tam plonked her arse down on the concrete. There on the ground, between her feet, was exactly the sort of clue she’d been looking for.

  Small drops of dried blood lined the floor, leading away from the larger stain; it looked as if the girl had been carried off. That would make sense; Leyth had said they’d taken her to the clinic.

  Curiosity got the better of her and she followed the droplets. She expected the trail to end on the pavement; surely, if they’d found the girl, they would have gotten her into an ambulance to take her to a hospital of some sort? Especially if she was bleeding this badly?

  As Tam reached the pavement, the sun swept over her, blinding her. She took a moment to relish the light, though its rays carried little heat in the winter’s cold. She let her eyes adjust, and quickly found the tiny splatters of blood once again. As she jogged along the pavement, the splatters started to get further and further apart. Tam was no genius but, to her, this suggested that whoever had carried the woman had been running. Why would they run? Surely they would have had an ambulance or at least a car to take her in?

  Tam continued, curiosity piqued. She followed the thinning spots of blood for half a mile, eventually coming to a large building. It looked like an office block. Though surely it wouldn’t be this empty during the day?

  Instead of going through the door, the blood went straight up the wall of the building and disappeared against the brick.

  OK, so these guys were supposedly ‘supernaturals’, but she just couldn’t believe they could walk through walls. Not when there was a perfectly good door only feet away. Spinning on her heels, she pushed her way inside.

  It was dim. Grey and empty. There was a battered old reception desk looking lonely in the corner but, other than that, nothing. Fear prickled its way up her spine, making Tam want to hightail it out of there faster than you could say ‘run’, but she couldn’t.

  There was something here, a force, an essence, that she couldn’t see but could feel, tugging at senses she didn’t even know she had. A subtle buzzing filled her mind, pulsing through the very fibre of her being.

  She pressed forward into the body of the building, her eyes raking her surroundings, but the room, the whole building, seemed empty. Dust covered each and every surface, unmarred by footsteps and fingers. The sense of danger, however, was so strong, Tam physically couldn’t stop her feet turning her around and walking her out of the deserted, creepy building.

  Once outside, she rested her head against the wall and heaved a great sigh. The odd buzzing that seemed to reverberate through her mind dispersed, clarity bringing her crashing back to reality.

  She cursed and kicked the wall, staring at where the spots of blood ended. Swearing loud and hard, she eyed the blood spots on the floor again. They really did come to an abrupt halt against the wall rather than continuing on to the building’s main entrance. Running her palm against the brickwork, she searched for loose bricks, a hidden door. In fact, Tam was so lost in her investigation, she didn’t even notice the putrid stench of death until it was smothering her.

  Gagging and whipping round, she only managed to get the impression of dark, black eyes before something hit her. Hard. The pavement came up to meet her, bruising her face as she crashed against it.

  Whoever had hit her, took hold of her hands and tied them behind her back. She opened her mouth to scream, but could only manage a squeak before they dragged her by her feet into the ground, through loose pavement slabs that led to a cellar door.

  Damn. She thought. Should have checked the floor.

  An hour later, Leyth was pacing the length of Julian’s office, inwardly cursing himself for being such an idiot; with Tamriel, with Carl, and now with goddamn Alison.

  He just could not believe that he hadn’t realised it was her lying there, injured and alone in that alley. He’d been so wrapped up in making sure Tam was OK, worrying about her and the change, that his sense had deserted him. She was lying with her face to the floor. He hadn’t seen her face or even picked up her scent, his inner voice pointed out, but he slapped it away. Even if he couldn’t see her face, he should still have recognised her scent.

  ‘I can’t believe you left her there,’ Julian spat at him.

  ‘I’m so sorry, man. I’m so damn sorry,’ Leyth muttered. ‘I just didn’t realise,’ he continued. Christ, he’d never spent so much time apologising in all his life.

  ‘This is all shit,’ Julian spat, his blonde hair falling in waves over his shoulders. Slamming a fist on the desk, he swore again. ‘Find her, Leyth. You find her… Or it’s on your head. To hell with John’s pup, she’ll be fine. Find my kin, OK?’

  ‘Fine,’ Leyth growled, despite the heated urgency boiling away inside him. ‘But you put someone on her. Make sure she goes through the change and comes out on the other side unharmed.’

  ‘Fine.’ Julian nodded. His demeanour suggested that he was far from happy about losing valuable resources on something so menial, but he was a smart old dog and he knew how stubborn Leyth could be. And right now? He was determined to be as stubborn and pig-headed as was necessary to make sure Tamriel was safe.

  ‘Right. Tell me about today. Make it quick. I want you out looking for Alison, not here.’

  ‘OK, I found the tomb courting the kid, who I think is a half-breed vampire. The tomb was one of the Circle’s vampires.’

  ‘It must have been a half-breed too; they were both outside, right?’

  ‘Yeah, they were both in the shadows, but the sun was definitely out.’

  The myth about vampires burning when the sun touched them was partially true. Full-blooded vampires were ridiculously sensitive to the sun. It was as though they got mega sunburn at an accelerated rate. They don’t burst into flames but, like any injury, it could severely incapacitate them. And would likely lead to death if they couldn’t escape the sun’s rays.

  Half
-breeds, however, had human blood in them. They were usually still sensitive to the sun, but not as badly. You’ll know them if you see them; they’re generally caked in sun block and hiding underneath hats and large sunglasses.

  ‘Sir, the, uh, the tomb’s eyes were normal.’

  ‘Are you sure it was a tuhrned?’

  ‘Yeah, dead sure. When I intercepted him, he was completely normal; his voice sounded human and his eyes were brown and held life. It was only when he clocked me that his eyes glazed over; turning black and he started talking like a tomb. It was like he was possessed.’

  ‘Oh, hell!’ Julian scrubbed a hand across tired eyes. ‘We thought this might be a possibility. We know the Circle takes control of the body… But we could never work out what made you want to give up your body if your soul died. Maybe they still have full control, but give their body to the Circle when it’s needed?’

  ‘Maybe? Sounds like it could be.’

  ‘Right.’ Julian absently stabbed the tip of the pencil he was holding into the desk as he closed his eyes for a moment, his brows drawn together in concentration.

  ‘Here’s the deal; get Dax and his team to hunt down and capture a tomb. We need to find out what’s going on… Make sure he knows we need the thing alive, OK?’

  Leyth nodded, texting Dax quickly with the details.

  ‘Tell Carl to brief his team, and then meet you,’ Julian continued, ‘Sapphire can watch Tamriel, but I need both you and Carl looking for my kin. Make sure you take the djinn with you too. They’ll be useful. Alison is the most important factor here. Find her. Got it?’ Julian issued orders.

  ‘Loud and clear, sir,’ Leyth responded.

  Leyth was out of the door and briefing Carl in an instant. He agreed to drop Sapphire off at Tamriel’s flat to look after her, and then meet Leyth at the courtyard where he had found the tomb attacking Alison. Goddamn, he was such an idiot for not realising it was her.

  Castigating himself, he thundered out of Julian’s office and into the grand hallway of the mansion; the beautiful paintings depicting wolves and the elements that covered the ceiling and floor did nothing to calm the anger riding him, did nothing to ease the turmoil thrashing its way through his gut, the urgency heating his blood.

  Storming up the staircase to the guest room he was currently occupying, Leyth all but ripped open the suitcase he lived out of, pulling on some combats and a tank top, slipping his reinforced Kevlar bomber jacket on over the top. His bolo knife was right where he left it, on his bedside table. He slid the thing home, into the specially designed sheath he had stitched into every pair of trousers he owned. The knife sat snugly against his calf, the pocket holding it carefully in place, leaving only half an inch of the polished wooden hilt exposed, just enough for him to slide his fingers around the handle and whip it out at a moment’s notice.

  Something in him calmed as soon as the cold metal cooled his skin through the woven Kevlar material of his combats; his bolo was his weapon of choice. But this particular one had its heavy-duty blade made from steel, reinforced with crystal magically woven into the very fibre of the blade by the strongest witch he’d ever known.

  His father was now a traitor to the pack, but in his time as alpha, he’d always wanted Leyth and his brothers to be warriors; their birth gifts had been weapons, and the bolo had been his.

  The witch had been a long-standing friend of the pack and his father had commissioned her to make a weapon that could never break to give to Leyth on the day of his birthing. It made his knife nigh-on indestructible. The blade was part of his very soul; an extension of his own arm and he just couldn’t imagine a life without it.

  With his bolo in its rightful place, and his fighting gear on, Leyth made his way down to weapons storage. The warehouse that backed on to the mansion’s grounds was huge. It held a large gym within its grey walls and the air was cool and fresh. He could hear the sounds of his pack-brothers working out in the gym, but strode straight past them; he was a wolf on a mission.

  The room that held the pack’s weapons was big and simplistic. The heavy metal door squealed as he shoved it aside, then walked straight up to the magnetic strips that dominated the left wall. There, in size order, were a myriad of knives. He bent down to retrieve one of the leather knife pouches and clipped it onto his jacket. He chose one with several holsters; plucking five of his favourite throwing knives, they were weighted perfectly and felt good in his palm as he clipped them onto the leather sheath. He took a flip knife and two hand-daggers for good measure, and strode swiftly to the gun cabinet.

  Leyth couldn’t help but cringe as he pulled a nine-millimetre free, he hated guns at the best of times; knife play and hand-to-hand combat was fine, but using a gun was bloody well cheating as far as he was concerned.

  His father may well have been a coward and a deserter to both his family and his pack, but he had the right idea when it came to the morals of combat. If you had the strength of a wolf behind you, honour came in fighting with strength, not from a distance.

  But Leyth wasn’t dealing with honourable beings here. The Circle were probably the furthest you could get from moral, and wouldn’t hesitate to use firearms to their advantage. Sometimes you had to fight fire with fire.

  Leyth might be stubborn, but he wasn’t stupid. He tucked one of the godforsaken handguns into his belt after checking the clip was full, and attached another few clips of ammunition onto his belt for good measure.

  All but slamming the metal door behind him, Leyth stalked his way out of the pack’s weapons room and past the gym again.

  He paused briefly, listening intently for Dax’s voice.

  The low rumbles and manly grunts reverberating through the warehouse belonged to his other pack brothers, not Dax.

  No surprise there. That stubborn mutt was the most antisocial bastard on this side of the kingdom. Dax usually spent the majority of his time hidden away in his own private haven, which was the most hi-tech ‘house’ he’d ever come across.

  When Julian had taken over pack rule in Kent and become alpha, he’d decided it was important to keep his fighting wolves on site, rather than scattered throughout the county and, as a result, had commissioned several houses to be built on his land.

  Unfortunately for Dax, Leyth needed to see that grumpy son of a bitch before he went anywhere, but the idea of wasting more time made him edgy, irritable. He stormed out of the warehouse, back to the mansion’s surrounding grounds. He needed to get moving, needed to start his search for Alison. Urgency and fear heated his veins as he strode into the woodland surrounding Julian’s mansion.

  He knew his mission was all about finding Alison; hell, it was his fault she’d been captured in the first place, but this chaotic urgency, this sense that he was running out of time, had little to do with Julian’s kin, and more, he thought, to do with Tamriel, though. But why? She was out of danger for the moment. She was in safe hands with Sapphire.

  As Leyth approached the huge reinforced steel structure, set deep into the wooded part of the pack’s land, the mirrored bulletproof glass that covered the building gleamed furiously in the streaks of sun that escaped through the heavy canopy of trees. The huge mirrored panels reflected the forest around it, making it blend so smoothly into its background that you wouldn’t see it unless you knew it was there.

  As he reached the hidden door at the front, it clicked softly, sliding to the side and allowing him entry. Leyth didn’t bother knocking or calling out. Dax would have known he was coming long before he got there.

  ‘Hey, man,’ Leyth yelled as the door automatically closed behind him. ‘Gonna let me all the way in or keep me in the damn box?’ The box in question was a glass container just inside the door; it was bulletproof, fireproof and magicproof. The Maker himself wouldn’t be able to escape it.

  ‘You’re clear. Come in, man.’ Dax’s deep voice snorted through the speakers either side of the door; there was another quiet click and the next door slid open. Leyth held a hand up to sh
ield his eyes for a moment while they adjusted to the bright lights of the monitors that lined each and every wall in the room. The monitors ran from floor to ceiling, and were controlled from a desk Dax kept off to one side; the monitor to the right was divided into hundreds of sections, all of which were security camera footage of the pack’s land. Leyth knew, without looking, that the wall behind him was the glass front to the building that would be covered in much the same thing, though revealing a panoramic view of the land surrounding Dax’s house. In front of him stood the wolf himself; his dark hair was slick with sweat, sticking to his forehead. His tank top was wet through and his sweatpants looked like they’d seen better days. He’d obviously been working out. ?

  ‘What’s up, Leyth?’

  ‘Sorry, man, I don’t have time for niceties,’ Leyth interrupted.

  ‘Fine, never really liked all that bollocks anyway. Got your text, was just about to clean up…’

  ‘Yeah, thanks,’ Leyth interrupted again, ignoring Dax’s scowl. ‘Listen, you know Alison has gone missing?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve caught bits about it.’

  ‘Julian will fill you in properly, but I need a favour.’

  ‘Sure, man, what can I do for you?’

  Leyth filled Dax in on what he and Carl were going to do, being that they didn’t know where they’d end up or if they would even be able to track Alison at all; he couldn’t really give Dax all that much information on what exactly they would need. But then, this man was an absolute genius. A grumpy, brooding arsehole maybe, but a genius nonetheless.

  ‘Give me a minute.’ Dax strode over to his large black desk and sat down in the huge black leather chair. He pushed a few buttons on the keypad, abruptly making the formally black wall in front of them flash bright white.

  ‘Christ!’ Leyth cursed, as he rubbed his eyes, mourning his blinded retinas. Dax started tapping away on his keyboard and images began to flicker on the screen; a map, a GPS tracking dot, and several camera images of the local town before, in the middle of the screen, a grainy security camera image popped up.