Wolfen (5 page)

Another nosed her chest.

I can’t die like this.

Then—fucking—fire!

The Gray at her back tried to fit its head into the crook of
her elbow, jarring the gun up, and Sinna’s finger tightened in reflex,
startling her so badly she cried out—

Because there was no explosion.

Safety on.

Stupefied, Sinna opened her eyes. The Grays mere inches in
front of her were tilting their heads like confused animals, not attacking. The
leader muscled his way through to sniff her face with a whistling sound
reminiscent of a badly set broken nose, but his facial structure looked normal.
His hair, reeking of rot, slipped over her shoulder, over her nose, and she
gagged, then held her breath, standing perfectly still as those terrible black
eyes bored straight into hers.

After taking in her scent, the leader screwed up his face
and shook his head hard, garbling a sound Sinna had never heard before. He
backed away a step, sneezed, and shook his head again as if trying to get rid
of a stench, and then…

He turned away. Just…turned away, and headed back. The
others followed after him with what might have been questioning squawks,
shuffling down that corridor and leaving her behind.

Whuh…?

Sinna’s eyes widened with every step they took away from
her. What was happening? Grays didn’t abandon a chase, and they certainly never
let fresh meat walk away.

Was this a trick? Were they capable of deception?

No. They were mindless animals, incapable of higher thought
or verbal communication, much less trickery and psychological torture. They
lived to feed and breed—period.

Yet they hadn’t done either.

They’re really leaving me here.

Sinna didn’t take a breath until they’d turned the corner,
nearly passing out from the lack of air. Confused and shaking like a leaf, she leaned
against the wall and sagged to the floor as tears poured in rivulets down her
cheeks. She held a hand to her mouth to contain the wretched sobs that
shuddered through her. The gun clattered from her grip, and she frantically
wiped at her face and hands, desperate to remove every speck of their DNA. She
felt filthy, contaminated, but she was alive.

My God, I’m alive!

How?
Nobody ever walked away from a Gray, much less a
pack of them!

Then:
The others!

Sinna picked up the gun, bolted to her feet, and ran back to
the main hallway, stopping at the corner only long enough to make sure the
Grays were gone. She peeked out. No sign of them. She listened hard, but there
was no sound of movement. Her gut said they were probably lying in wait, but
she saw nothing. Not willing to test her luck a second time, Sinna crept toward
the elevator, stepping with her toes first. The rusted pipe marked the shaft
where her company had hidden. Keeping an eye out for more danger, she
cautiously knocked on the door.

“Nate?”

No answer. Of course there wouldn’t be. The elevator door
was so thick, it’d be a miracle if they could hear her.

She had to think like the soldier. Nate wouldn’t have stayed
so close to a threat, and Isaac wouldn’t have made the climb back up, not with
his bad knees. No, Nate probably had them get into the elevator, which he’d
claimed was two floors down, and exit the shaft onto one of the lower levels.
They might not be that far away.

There was that stairwell on the other side of the lobby.
Sinna looked left, then right as if about to cross a damned street, then ran
across the hallway to reach it.

One floor down. Two. There was the exit!

She burst through the doorway into a cavernous,
gray-on-black underground parking lot with random splashes of color in the form
of abandoned cars. After so much time, they wouldn’t do any good; batteries
didn’t have a decade-long shelf life and gasoline evaporated little by little.
A light in the distance meant a ramp to the top level, and a way out. But also
a way
in
. If the Grays circled around to find the opening, there’d be
nowhere else to hide.

Sinna licked her dry lips. Where would Nate have gone? Away
from the danger, surely. Not up. Down, then? How many more levels did this
place have? She looked over the concrete railing, and her knees went weak. Two
levels underground already, and there were at least two more. This garage was
huge. How would she ever find the others? In the dim light, any movement could
be either one of her group or one of the Grays. She couldn’t trust her eyes.

She had to listen instead.

Taking a huge risk, Sinna closed her eyes and strained for
any small stir in the silence.

Her heart leapt. Was that a voice?

Yes! Voices, and she could tell where they came from. Her
friends were alive!

Sinna hurried after the sound. Not up the ramp, and not
down, either. They’d gone straight, farther into this level, no doubt searching
for a more defensible location, and the closer she got, the louder the voices
became. Her excitement grew; she moved ever faster. She’d survived, and they
were alive! Soon, she was running, heedlessly dashing around a corner pillar—

—and slammed right into David. She knocked him to the ground
like a bowling pin.

He gave a shout, flailing to fight her off. Sinna rolled
away to get her feet under her. Then Nate’s assault rifle cocked, ready to
fire, and she froze.

David was still wailing, fighting no one, but Sinna’s
attention had locked onto Nate and the barrel of his weapon pointing straight
at her head.

It took him longer than she would have liked, but he finally
swore and lifted his gaze from the sights to stare at her. “Sinna?”

She slowly pushed to her feet so she didn’t startle him,
while Connor dragged David up by his collar. “Not the welcome I was expecting.”
Her eyes darted between his frown and the gun he still hadn’t lowered. She
couldn’t see Amy, but she heard her inside one of the abandoned cars, telling
Matt to keep still and be quiet.

“How…” Nate trailed off into a baffled silence.

“Honestly, I have no idea. Can you put that down now?”

“The Grays were right there. I saw them.”

“Uh, yeah.” What else could she say?

“They were
right there
.”

Sinna nodded, uncomfortable now. “You are not mistaken.
Nate, the gun. Down, please.”

David chose that moment to spin her around and scare ten
years off her life. He looked her over, wide-eyed and gropey in his search for
injuries, then he laughed exuberantly and grabbed her up in a bear hug that
popped her back. “Holy shit, Sin! You’re alive!” He set her back down at arm’s
length and frowned. “But, how?”

Of all of them, the teacher was the happiest to see her.

Wait…
“Where’s Isaac?”

David’s face fell.

“Where the hell is he?” Sinna scrutinized Connor, and then
Nate. Neither showed any reaction. “What did you do?”

“Sinna, no,” David finally said. “Isaac… We think he had a
heart attack in the elevator. We were all there. We tried to help him, but… I’m
sorry, Sinna. He didn’t make it.”

Sinna shook her head. “No…” After all this, he couldn’t be
gone.

Nate’s half-mourning, half-righteous look silently said,
I
told you so.

Amy opened the car door, pushing a hank of matted blonde
hair from her face as she came out. Matt stayed behind, curled up on the back
floor, not even tempted to look.“I’m sorry, Sinna,” Amy said. “I know you were
close with him.” She attempted a weak smile, so out of place on her prematurely
aged face. “He’s in a better place now. And you’re back with us.”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “And how exactly did that happen?”

“I didn’t hear the gun fire,” Nate added.

“I don’t know,” Sinna replied, greatly disliking their
suspicious tone. “I just…got away.”

“How?” Nate had only half-lowered his rifle, now pointing it
at her kneecap.

With the adrenaline burnt off, Sinna was suddenly exhausted,
but her gut still warned of danger. She rubbed her brow and subtly switched the
safety off on her handgun. “What does it matter?” she said. “I’m here, I’m
alive. I thought you guys would be at least a little happy to see me.”

“Well, yeah,” David allowed. “But you gotta admit, it looks
really weird. I mean, all those Grays chasing us, you out there on your own,
and somehow, you come out of it unscathed…?” His eyes widened again. “Wait, was
it that bracelet? Is that what it’s for?”

Sinna frowned. “What? No.”

“What bracelet?” Nate demanded.

“It’s nothing. Just a memento from my old life, is all.”

Connor wagged his fingers in a “gimme” gesture. “Show us.”
It was an order.

Sinna gritted her teeth, tempted to tell him off.

“What are they talking about, Sinna?” Amy looked from one to
the next. “You have something that can keep away the Grays?”

What?
How the hell did she make that leap? She was
going to kick David’s ass for this!

Connor scoffed. “You have some nerve, bitching out me and
Nate about the guns, and all this time you had a secret weapon of your own.”

“Are you insane? It’s nothing.”

“Then why won’t you show us?”

“Yeah, come on, Sin. It’s not that big a deal. Just show
‘em.”

“Come on, hero. Let’s see what you’re packing.”

They all talked one over the other, confusing her, all
demanding she hand over something completely innocuous.

“Enough!” she finally snapped. “Okay, fine. Here. See? It’s
nothing
.”
She wrestled with the button on her jacket cuff so she could roll it back and
show them the three-inch silver band on her wrist. David had been correct. The
unadorned cuff had been made for a man, but the metal was pretty soft, pliable
when warmed sufficiently, which meant it was real silver. She’d heated it and
shaped it to fit her thin wrist, ends overlapping. If she wanted to brand the
hell out of her arm, she could hold the cuff over an open flame and stretch it
open barely enough to allow her to tug it off, but since she wasn’t too keen on
that option, it stayed put. Didn’t move an inch on her arm. “It’s just a
bracelet,” she said. “It doesn’t do anything.”

Amy looked crestfallen. Nate rubbed at the back of his neck,
probably embarrassed he’d let it escalate into such a fiasco. But Connor stared
at the cuff with a calculating look that put Sinna on guard.

“Seven of us left that church this morning,” he said.
“Before that, all of us fled our homes to get there. Not one of us thought to
pack jewelry, except you. That’s not the sort of thing you think of when you
run for your life. Food? Sure. Weapons? Even better. But jewels?” He shook his
head. “And now, here we all stand, with Grays prowling around out there, and
you, wearing that cuff,
miraculously
survive them. Don’t tell me there’s
nothing special about it.”

Sinna rolled her eyes. “You got me,” she said dryly. “I
secretly harbored a weapon most deadly and off-putting to the Grays, and I
selfishly hid it because I knew you’d want to take it from me.”

Connor was not amused. “Hand it over.”

“Fuck you.”

“Hey, guys.” David raised his hands for peace. “Let’s not
fight, okay?”

“You want us to believe you’re still the good guy?” Conner
said to Sinna. “Then prove it. Take it off.”

“It’s skin tight. It doesn’t come off.”

He shrugged. “Then I’ll take your hand.” And he brandished a
knife to do just that.

“Connor! Stand down!”

“She’s making waves, Nate.” Connor clutched his blade
tighter, snarling in Sinna’s direction. “Someone needs to shut the bitch down.”

“That’s an order!”

“You think you’re so clever?” Connor said softly to Sinna.
“Let’s see how clever you really are. You go ahead and keep that cuff.” He
sheathed the knife in the back of his pants. “But I’ll be taking that gun
back.”

Before anyone could react, Connor lunged, grabbing for the
weapon in her hand. Sinna gasped and turned away, but he was much stronger and
she was cornered. His impact sent them both sideways, slamming into the pillar
and the wall as they wrestled for the gun.
Jesus, the safety’s off!
Sinna twisted, grappling with all her might. Still, he was winning, bending her
wrist inward and turning the gun toward her. She pushed off the wall to gain
some room to maneuver. She got mere inches, nowhere near enough to put up a
decent fight.

Connor fit his massive hand over hers and grinned savagely.
“Nighty night.” His finger squeezed hers, the trigger with it, and the gun went
off with a boom so loud, it rendered her momentarily deaf. Both of them
stopped, widened eyes locked onto each other, waiting for one of them to drop.

Seconds ticked by so slowly. Sinna’s ears began to ring,
drowning out her heartbeat but not the
whoosh
of her breaths. In and
out. In…and out.

Then Connor let go and stumbled back, looking down at his
side. When he pressed a hand to his shirt, it came away stained with blood. At
the sight of it, searing pain shot through Sinna’s torso, and the gun dropped
from her suddenly limp hand. Warmth trickled down her belly. Her knees buckled,
and she sank to the floor.

David caught her before she crumpled. Nate checked Connor as
Amy scurried back inside her car burrow, staring out with wide, panicked eyes.
None of this made an impression on Sinna; her mind was numb, while her torso
burned in agony.

Then David pressed on her—hard—and it was pain beyond
anything she’d ever thought possible. So much so, her breath locked up in her
chest. She couldn’t even scream. It roused her out of shock and cleared away
some of that god-awful ringing. Voices sounded muffled, as if under water, but
little by little, she began to comprehend.

Nate was furious, yelling at Connor, shoving at him. Connor
didn’t reciprocate, but she could see his hand twitching for his knives. The
dog had slipped his leash; Nate’s rifle wouldn’t keep him in check much longer.
David tried to get their attention, but had no more success than Sinna did,
trying to convince herself she’d survive this.