The Frenzy War (30 page)

Snarling, the werewolves pressed closer.

With his Glock drawn, Willy peered inside the SUV parked in the alley: empty. Setting both hands on the Dumpster behind the vehicle, he swung his legs onto the metal lid, pushed himself forward, and leaned over the top of the wall, staring at the courtyard below. He vaulted over the wall and landed in loose garbage. With his back against the brick wall, he held his Glock in both hands and scanned the courtyard. Then he moved forward, facing the passageway that led to the front of the funeral home, and stopped at a metal exit for the Dominis' business and saw it had been left ajar.

Willy knew Karol had probably just finished calling Candice for backup. He also knew that backup would not
arrive for some time but Karol would arrive at the scene momentarily. He could not decide whether to go in on his own or wait for her.

Fuck it. I'm a lieutenant now.

Besides, going alone meant less risk to Karol. He swung the door open and took out his flashlight, which he activated. A circle of light, not unlike a full moon in the sky, appeared on the wall. Raising his Glock, he stepped inside and looked around, swinging the flashlight in each direction.

Some kind of service corridor.

He followed the corridor, his flashlight beaming off' the floor, walls, and ceiling. Opening a door, he shone the flashlight along white porcelain bricks and stainless steel squares and knew he had entered the Dominis' crematorium. He crossed the room to another door and opened it.

Somewhere ahead, a man screamed.

With the hair on the back of his neck standing on end, Willy sprinted forward. He passed a number of doors before reaching a final door at the end of the corridor. Then he heard it: the snarling of animals. Snarls like he had heard when Patty was murdered, only multiplied.

Oh, Jesus Christ. It's all true.

He seized the doorknob, but his hand froze. Then he flung the door open and aimed the flashlight at an unbelievable tableau.

The snarling of the werewolves grew louder, and Valeria heard the scrabble of claws behind her.

Henri cried out and fell to the floor with one of the beasts clutching the wrist of his sword hand between its powerful jaws. He screamed, and at the same time Valeria heard the clanging of metal as his sword fell somewhere behind her. She also heard Michael fire his tranq gun, producing a startled yelp from the beast remaining behind her, then draw his Blade.

“Shoot it!” Angelo said.

She aimed her tranq gun at the beast gnawing on Henri's arm, then raised it to fire at the two creatures advancing on her.

They stopped in their tracks at the same time.

“Save Henri!”

She dropped her aim again, but Henri had managed to pull his own tranq gun from its holster. He pressed it against the breast of the creature and squeezed the trigger, the sound of the shot muffled by fur. The beast's entire body seemed to flinch, but it refused to release its hold on his arm.

Valeria fired at the closest beast, the tranq dart sinking into its chest. The creature yelped with a spastic flinch and jerked it out. Holstering her gun, she drew her Blade once more, which allowed Angelo to sheathe his sword and draw his tranq gun, which he fired at the other beast.

Brandishing her Blade, Valeria prepared to aim a blow at the neck of the werewolf chewing on Henri's arm, but the beast pulled Henri so that the screaming man blocked her path. Not yet unconscious, the other beasts moved slower. Angelo drew his Blade again and extended it before him, holding the two monsters at bay. Just as Valeria wondered
how Michael was managing with the only werewolf that had not been tranquilized, the creature leapt over Henri, landing beside the two dazed creatures.

Three on three,
Valeria thought.

Then light flared in her goggles, and she heard a man's voice.

“Police!”

W
illy clamped his Maglite on top of the Clock's barrel so he could hold the weapon with both hands and aim within the light. The moving circle revealed only glimpses of the figures tangling inside.

A man wearing night vision goggles turned toward him, looking almost inhuman. Then the light passed over the head and shoulders of a pair of furry and ferocious-looking creatures that snapped their heads in his direction, their eyes a solid shade and their teeth almost as long as human fingers.

Werewolves.

Willy recoiled, and his heart skipped a beat. His first instinct was to shoot the creatures on sight, and he had to remind himself that he was tasked with protecting them from their human antagonists. At this moment, that objective seemed insane. The monsters darted out of the light, and he
heard snarls coming from every direction before him. His flashlight exposed the legs and arms of other people and monsters, their blurred motion preventing him from getting a count. Another tight-lipped face with goggles came into view and ducked away, the corner of a long coat swooping through the beam like a bat.

On the floor, a man thrashed around, his arm pinned between the jaws of a powerful-looking beast. A sword sliced the moon circle, its silver blade reflecting light at Willy, and severed the man's forearm. He screamed and rolled away from the werewolf as blood gushed out of his new stump, painting the floor.

Moving his flashlight in a circle, Willy caught a man sheathing his sword inside his coat and picking up another sword from the floor. Before he could decide what to do, the man disappeared into the blackness.

They're all too fast!
He was tempted to unload his gun into the darkness.

The wounded man continued to scream.

“Get him up!” a male voice said.

Two pairs of gloved hands hoisted the screaming man to his feet, and the werewolf spat out the remainder of the arm, the fingers on the hand twitching. The creature tried to rise but pitched forward with a wet-sounding sigh and stopped moving.

What caused that?

The man who had picked up the sword darted into the light again, plucked the severed limb off the floor, and disappeared.

Whipping the flashlight around, Willy glimpsed a woman and another man supporting the screaming victim between them while holding the three standing werewolves at bay.

“Stop or I'll shoot!”

The werewolves advanced on the humans, and Willy squeezed the trigger. The deafening gunshot caused the most aggressive werewolf to flinch with a startled howl, and a bloody hole appeared in his long torso.

The Torquemadan leader removed something from his coat, and Willy heard a hissing sound. The man waved his arm, dispersing a spray, and the werewolves clawed at their eyes and whimpered. He threw the canister at the floor midway to Willy, who heard the metal object rolling in his direction but lost sight of it in the darkness.

A moment later, his eyes filled with tears and his nostrils seemed to catch on fire.

Tear gas!

Covering his eyes with his free arm, Willy dropped his flashlight. Coughing, he slid down the wall and kicked out until he heard the metal canister rolling away from him.

“Get him out of here!” the same man said.

Willy heard a staccato of footsteps as the humans rushed by him and retreated down the corridor. He heard claws on the floor and deep panting, like that of a dog. At least one of the werewolves bore down on him, and he couldn't see the damned thing! His fingers found the edge of the door, which he slammed shut. He threw his weight against it just as a heavy body slammed against the other side. Planting his feet, he twisted the feeble lock in the doorknob. On the
other side of the door, the werewolf roared in anger. And Willy had shot one of them …

Oh, God, I have to get out of here!

His eyes and throat burned. Holding his breath, he snatched the flashlight and staggered blindly down the hall, then opened his eyes again and gasped for breath. Nothing eased his pain, but at least when he aimed his flashlight he could see where he was going, and he ran through an open door.

Where the hell is Karol?

Praying she had not run smack-dab into the Torquemadans, he took out his cell phone, but even with the aid of the flashlight he couldn't discern the details of the phone through the tears in his eyes. He drove himself forward through the crematorium, confident that a left turn would bring him to the door he had entered in the first place. His brain felt like it was boiling in the tear gas.

Feeling fresh air on his face, Willy slammed into a closet door, rebounded off it, and staggered outside, where he filled his lungs with fresh air. Coughing, he fell to his hands and knees and turned his head in time to glimpse two of the Torquemadans hauling their wounded comrade, a black man, over the top of the wall. The wounded man was black. Staggering to his feet, Willy raised his Glock, but the Torquemadans vanished. He ran forward but stopped when he heard something growling nearby.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he lifted his gaze to two black shapes perched on the railing of a fire escape ten feet above him and realized they must be the sentries he had seen posted outside earlier. Taking a step back, he swallowed.
The werewolves leapt from the fire escape and landed on the ground before him. They rose like men and snarled at him like beasts, their eyes blazing with hatred and spittle flying from their jaws. As frightening as the creatures inside had been, these two, fully illuminated by the lights mounted on the surrounding walls, seemed far more ferocious. A similar monster had torn Patty apart.

Willy aimed his Glock. Maybe a head shot would take one of them out before the other one could tear into him.

On the other side of the wall, the SUV peeled out.

The werewolves turned at the sound and glanced at each other. The one on Willy's right dropped to all fours, sprinted to the wall, and leapt over it in a great bound. The remaining creature stepped toward Willy, whose gun shook in his hands. A powerful figure landed in the space separating him from the monster and roared at the advancing creature. Another werewolf.

The newcomer rocked back on its haunches, ready to spring into action. The werewolf stalking Willy roared back and tried to dart around the smaller wolf to get at him. But the newcomer issued a barking command and feinted left, blocking its way. The two werewolves faced off against each other, and Willy debated whether to take the shot while he had it. Then the predatory werewolf turned, ran for the wall, and jumped over it. The remaining werewolf rose and faced Willy, who continued to back up. Even though slighter than the two wolves that had just departed, the creature stood taller than him.

But not for long: the wolf's legs had three segments
rather than two, and the bottom extensions drew in upon themselves, becoming shorter and human. Its body absorbed the black fur as if sucking it inside the skin, and the lupine head assumed human dimensions.

Oh, God, no!

Willy experienced a wave of nausea as the werewolf reverted into a naked human female with glistening black skin.

With her breasts rising and falling and vapor billowing from her mouth, Karol nodded at the entrance to the passageway. “Since I saved your life, how about getting my clothes for me?”