Authors: Naomi Clark
The taste of flesh flooded my mouth and I
gagged, spitting out blood and probably bits of my own lip. Sly
smacked me hard, sending stars spiraling across my field of vision.
I closed my eyes and gagged again, waiting for him to rip my throat
out.
Noise and chaos spilled out into the alley
and footsteps thundered around my head. I heard shouting, swearing.
I dimly picked out Shannon’s voice somewhere in the babble and
opened my eyes again. A knot of people surrounded us, all yelling
and waving their arms. Sly leapt off me and shot off out of the
alley like his tail was on fire. A few people separated from the
crowd to run after him. Someone leaned down and offered me a hand
up.
I grabbed it and let them pull me to my
feet. My rescuer was a wolf; beyond that I couldn’t say anything
about him. I was almost blind with pain. I slapped my hand over my
bleeding mouth and staggered away from him, hot and dizzy. I leaned
against the wall, pressing my grazed cheek to the cool stone and
fought the urge to throw up.
“
Ayla!” Shannon shoved
through the crowd to reach me, sheer panic etched on her face. “Oh
God, Ayla…” She pried my hand away from my face and gasped, turning
chalk-white. “Ambulance!” she called. “Someone call an
ambulance!”
I tried to speak but it hurt too much. I
settled for sagging against the wall, trying to figure out what had
happened, mentally kicking myself for letting Sly get away. I
glanced down the alley but he was gone and the few who’d started
after him had already lost interest and were milling around me
instead.
“
What happened?” someone
asked. “Who was that?”
Oscar elbowed his way to the front of the
swarm. “Ayla, fucking hell, you crazy bitch!” He was pale and
shaking, eyes too bright. “Did he take my money?”
A surge of hatred shot through me. I balled
up my fist and punched him in the head. He hit the ground like a
stone and people started screaming and yelling again. I closed my
eyes, clapped my hand over my throbbing mouth again and wished them
all away.
It was hard to convince Shannon I didn’t need an ambulance when I
couldn’t speak properly. Once the crowd decided the theatrics were
over and went back into Jack’s, I was left with her, Moira, a
groaning Oscar and a killer headache.
And
mouthache. Lipache. Something
.
“
You’ve got to go to
hospital,” Shannon insisted as I limped down the alley away from
the club. “Ayla, please!” She trotted after me, anxiety radiating
off her. Moira helped Oscar to his feet and they trailed after us,
Oscar alternatively muttering about assault and asking Moira for
money.
I shook my head at Shannon, made a slashing
motion with my hands. I couldn’t stomach the thought of hospital. I
just wanted to go home and clean myself up.
“
The police then,” Shannon
said. “We should report this—you were assaulted! This is grievous
bodily harm!”
Again I shook my head and turned to Moira,
hoping she would get it, one wolf to another.
“
Ayla will have healed by
the time we get her to hospital,” Moira said, apparently picking up
my silent plea. “We should get Oscar home first,
anyway.”
“
I’m not going home! I’m
not a baby!” Oscar pulled free from her and glowered at me. “I
should bloody sue you, hitting me like that. That was an unprovoked
attack! And I still haven’t got any bloody Silky. Fucking waste of
a night!”
“
So the wolf attacking Ayla
was your dealer?” Moira asked.
“
Yeah and fat fucking
chance he’ll be back now.” Oscar fidgeted with his shirt, twitchy
again. “Where else am I supposed to get Silky now?”
“
Where did Molly Brady get
it?” Moira asked.
Oscar shrugged. “Everyone gets it from Sly.
And now Ayla’s cocked that up, hasn’t she?”
I couldn’t have cared less and if I’d been
able to speak without searing agony, I would have told him that.
Shannon glanced over her shoulder, frowning at him. “He can get
himself home, surely? If Ayla won’t go to hospital, I’m taking her
straight home and I don’t want to drag some junkie dog around with
me.”
Oscar flinched at
the
dog
comment.
“Fine, fuck off. I don’t care. I hope Sly gave her rabies.” He gave
me the finger and slunk off, mumbling under his breath.
Moira watched him go, eyes narrowed. “He’s
going to get himself into trouble tonight,” she said.
“
I don’t care,” Shannon
replied. She slid her arm round my shoulders. “It’s not our
problem.”
We made our way back to the car in silence,
dodging the few gawkers who stopped to get a look at my bloodied,
swollen face. My cheek flared and ached where Sly had hit me and my
whole body stung. I was sick of getting beaten up by that feral.
Next time he could just eat Oscar alive if that’s what he
wanted.
***
It was close to midnight when we got home. Shannon had dropped
Moira off along the way and spent the rest of the ride checking
that I was sure I didn’t want to go to hospital. I just kept
shaking my head.
Moira was wrong; I wouldn’t be healed by the
time I got home, but there wasn’t much a hospital could do to speed
up the process. All I wanted was a hot bath, not hours sitting
around in the emergency room waiting for some nurse to poke me and
shove painkillers down my throat.
Our street was in darkness when Shannon
pulled into the driveway. I dragged myself out the car and limped
to the front door, waiting for her to catch up. My night sight
being keener, I saw the graffiti on the door before she did.
“
This is exactly what I was
talking about before,” she began as she joined me. “We—” She
trailed off as she saw what I was staring at. “Oh hell.”
That about summed it up.
Once again, the Alpha Humans’ insignia was sprayed across the
woodwork, this time with the legend
abomination
painted above it. It was
chillingly similar to the scene of Adam’s murder. The same word had
been sprayed on the wall over his body. My heart skipped and
Shannon gripped my hand tight enough to make me wince.
“
We’re calling the police,”
she said, voice tight but determined. “Right after I’ve taken care
of you.” She unlocked the door and ushered me inside.
Her hands were shaking as
she sat me down in the kitchen. I stared at the tabletop, listening
to her messing around in the cupboards, looking for the first aid
supplies she kept.
Abomination
. The word was branded
into my mind’s eye. Without thinking I bit my lip, then howled.
“Fuck!”
“
Ayla!” Shannon was next to
me instantly, a damp cloth in hand. “Let me see.” She moved my hand
from my mouth and pressed the cloth to the wound. It had stopped
bleeding in the car and now I’d opened it up again. “You might need
stitches,” she told me, sitting down next to me and twining her
fingers with mine.
“
Be alright in the
morning,” I managed to say around the cloth. “Should shift.” The
idea of shifting made my head ache even worse though.
“
Do you want anything?
Painkillers? A drink?
“
Bath?” I asked
hopefully.
“
I’ll run one for you.” She
stroked my hair. “I’m sorry, Ayla. I’m so sorry.”
I looked at her questioningly. It wasn’t her
fault I had to go picking fights with bigger, badder wolves.
“
I shouldn’t have agreed to
help the alphas. I should have just left things. I just wanted…”
She waved her hands, as if the words had escaped her. “I’m sorry I
said all those things. I didn’t mean any of it. I’d die if I lost
you, Ayla. I’d just… I couldn’t cope.” Her blue eyes gleamed with
tears and my heart squeezed. I gripped her hand, not too hard, but
hard enough to tell her I was sorry too.
“
Love you,” I
said.
“
I love you.” She kissed my
forehead and rose. “I’ll go run you a bath.”
I slumped back in my chair,
pressing the cloth harder to my lip. Damn that feral. I’d liked
that lip ring. I huffed, thoughts switching between the Alpha
Humans’ little love note and Shannon. Did Shannon’s words mean
things were okay again? I’d thought we were heading for another
argument there on the doorstep, before we saw the graffiti. She’d
been about to say
I told you
so
, hadn’t she?
I ran my free hand through my hair, trying
to push everything aside. We could deal with it in the morning. I
did agree with her on at least one point: she should never have
agreed to help Eddie.
A few minutes later I hauled myself
upstairs. Shannon was just turning off the taps as I entered the
bathroom. Fragrant steam rose from the tub, perfuming the room with
orange blossom. I stripped and plunged in, moaning in bliss as the
hot water hit my skin. Shannon perched on the edge of the bath,
finger-combing my hair for me.
“
I’ll tell Eddie tomorrow
we’re done,” she said.
I nodded, ducked my head under water and
rose up again, shaking off like a…well, like a wolf. The water
stung my lip, but it was a better sort of pain, a clean pain. I
touched the split lightly, winced and reached for the shampoo.
Shannon took the bottle from me and started
lathering up my hair. “I can’t take the stress of seeing you hurt
like that again.”
“
S’not great for me
either,” I said, closing my eyes. Her fingers working on my scalp
felt delicious, diffusing my thoughts and melting away some of the
aches.
“
No, of course not.” She
fell silent for a minute, stroking my bruised face with soapy
fingers. “I really think we should consider moving back home,” she
said finally. “I know this city has a reputation for good
human-wolf relations, but this graffiti…and after yesterday too… I
don’t feel safe here, Ayla.”
The graffiti freaked me out the least. Alpha
Humans weren’t really that active here; certainly less so since
Adam’s murder. I was fairly confident graffiti was the worst we
would get from them. Sly was the bigger threat. Not to us
personally, but to the Pack. Whatever he was doing affected the
whole Pack and while a part of me agreed with Shannon, a bigger
part of me felt I couldn’t just run away.
That was old ground now though. Saying it
would just turn into another row about Pack that I didn’t want to
have right now. So I just nodded and enjoyed the feeling of her
hands working on me, the hot water lapping over my tired body and
the scent of flowers wafting around me.
When the water grew cold, Shannon helped me
out of the bath and we went to bed. I fell asleep with her arms
around me, hugging me like I might vanish in the night and I
dreamed of blood-red graffiti and the gravelly howl of the
feral.
***
The sound of my phone ringing broke the heavy fog of my sleep. I
groped around on the bedside table for, knocking the damn thing
under the bed in the process. I opened my eyes and rolled to the
edge of the bed to reach under it. By the time I’d retrieved the
phone it had stopped ringing. I swore and checked the caller
ID.
Vince
. For some reason a tremor of anxiety shook through me.
Sitting up and brushing my hair from my eyes, I called him back.
Next to me, Shannon muttered something unintelligible and snuggled
closer to me, her face pressed against my thigh.
“
Ayla, you okay?” Vince
asked as soon as he picked up. “I heard about last
night.”
I grunted, not surprised. It was a wonder my
parents weren’t already hammering on the door demanding to check me
over.
“
I’m alright,” I said,
poking my lip gingerly. It stung, but it had scabbed over. I’d have
a lovely long scar when it healed.
I
should have shifted last night
. “Just a bit
sore.”
“
I’ve just got off the
phone with Greg,” he continued. “He’s not opening up today—Oscar
got home last night blazing drunk and smashed the pub up before
disappearing again.”
I remembered Moira’s portentous words.
“Yeah, he wasn’t in good shape when I saw him.”
“
I’ve been telling Greg for
days it would come to this, but he wouldn’t listen,” Vince
continued. “Anyway, since I’ve got the day off today, I’ll come
over and cook you some lunch. Good food always works wonders when
you’re feeling rough.”
Chicken soup for the
werewolf soul
. “Thanks that would be nice.”
I glanced at my watch. Shannon and I had both overslept,
unsurprisingly. It was nearly noon. “I need to call the police,” I
realized, remembering the graffiti. “Alpha Humans tagged our house
last night.”
“
Shit.” Vince was silent
for a second. “Are you and Shannon okay?”
I looked down at my sleeping girlfriend,
brushed a lock of hair from her face. “I think so. It’s just
paint.” I didn’t mention that it was the second lot of paint. “You
haven’t heard about anyone else getting tagged, have you?”
“
No, it’s all been fairly
quiet since Adam.” I could picture Vince shrugging. “I think all
the media attention after that sent them underground
again.”
“
Yeah.”. Alpha Humans had a
bigger following elsewhere, in cities where wolves weren’t as
welcome as they were here. Until Adam’s murder, I hadn’t heard any
rumors of them being active here. Back where Shannon and I had
lived before, there’d been the occasional attack or scuffle between
Alpha Humans and wolves, but never anything really serious. There
were other activist groups out there too; I guessed Kaye’s People
Matter was one of the newer ones. There was a werewolf group called
Brother Moon that was dedicated to improving wolf-human relations
in third world countries. None of it really interested me. I liked
my little corner of the world as it was.