AN: Faoladh pronounced Fway-a-lah is an Irish word for werewolf. They are often depicted as a bipedal half man/half wolf creature. Much like the Louisiana Rougarou.
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CHAPTER 14
Gathering
Kenny pulled Joe's head above water and drug him up on the pebble strewn shore. As soon as Joe started to groan and move Kenny left him and went back to Frank.
"Frank, how are you doing man?" Kenny ran light hands over Frank looking for other damage. "I know you're hurting but we'll get that fixed soon okay."
Joe felt like he'd coughed up half the river before he got a good deep breath. "How is he?" He was still too dizzy to stand so he crawled the few feet between them.
"Right arm is broken, clavicle on that side is dislocated. I think a couple of his ribs are dislocated too but I'm not sure. We heard his back snap and Henry and I didn't get him pulled straight before we saw you go down." Kenny reached for Frank's face to check his eyes but stopped when Frank growled and tried to bite at him.
Joe reach forward and caught Frank's jaw in one hand. "No biting. We're pack and Kenny's trying to help." Joe pushed a little power through the pack bonds to remind Frank that Joe was the one in charge.
Kenny checked Frank's eyes and saw the mismatched pupils. "Come on Joe, let's see if we can get him straight." Kenny started to move to Frank's shoulders.
"No you take his legs. This is going to hurt and I don't want him biting you if he loses control." Joe rubbed a hand over his face and switched places with Kenny.
"You think he won't bite you?" Kenny moved to Frank's feet.
"I think I don't want to explain to Henry how I let you get chewed up." Joe reached under Frank's shoulders and got a grip. "Alright? One, two, three." They yanked in opposite directions until Frank's body was in alignment. Frank screamed and passed out just before they laid him back down. Joe set Frank's arm while he was still unconscious.
"Now what?" Kenny asked as he settled himself more comfortably.
"Now we wait." Joe knew that yanking on a back injury like they had just done had caused tremendous damage but they couldn't risk Frank starting to heal in a crooked position. And now that they had him straight they shouldn't move him again.
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Hardison and Parker crossed a bridge across the Clackamas River and started to backtrack along Hwy 224. It didn't take long before they found the road that would take them south to the golf course.
"What's our play here?" Hardison asked as he slowed to take the driveway for the golf course.
"FBI. We get fewer questions when we're FBI." Parker slid into the back of the van and found the bag that had their FBI gear in it.
Hardison followed the maintenance access road at the north end of the golf course and followed it around. As they made their way between two of the putting greens a woman in the uniform of a golf course employee sped toward them in her golf cart.
"Hey! You can't drive through here! What do you think you're doing?" She had been forced to the passenger side of the van to avoid a head-on collision. Leaning down to view them from under golf carts roof she glared up at Parker.
"This is official FBI business. I'm afraid it's classified." Parker lowered her sunglasses just a little so she could look at the woman.
"What do you mean by that? I'm calling my supervisor!" She grabbed a radio from the seat next to her.
"I wouldn't use that radio if I was you." Hardison called loudly
"And why is that?" The woman's tone was snarky but her finger stopped moving toward the radio button.
"The radio waves might set off the explosive device. I recommend that you and your supervisor evacuate this entire place." Hardison stared straight ahead.
The woman lost all the color in her face a moment before she sped away as fast as her cart would allow.
"I'd give it ten minutes until the cops arrive." Parker checked the time. "We need to improvise a backboard." Parker looked over her shoulder at what was available in the back of the van. "We've got a ladder and ropes but we need something more solid to put the guy on." Parker's eyes lit up when they landed on the desk that Hardison usually set his computer equipment up on. "We can use your desk."
Hardison parked to the side of the green as close to the trees as he could get. "Babe see if you can get one of the werewolves up here to help me unbolt the desk. It'll go faster if they help."
Parker grabbed a small bag from the back of the van before she wove her way between trees and scrubby bushes. It didn't take long before she found herself on the shore line just a few yards from the waiting werewolves. "Which one of you is Joseph?"
The wolves had heard her coming through the trees so they weren't surprised to see her. "You're the human Eliot lets call the shots." Joseph had really been hoping for someone else.
"I'm the human that's here to help you out. But if you can't stand to be helped out by a mere human I'm more than happy to leave you here. You've got thirty seconds to decide. The police oughta be here in seven minutes and I plan to be long gone by then." Parker crossed her arms and gave them her best 'Eliot glare.'
"Fine. But we need…"
"to carry Frank out on a backboard. I need one of you to go up and help Hardison with the board." Parker walked slowly toward the three wolves.
Kenny glanced up at Joe and Joe nodded. Kenny sprinted into the bushes that Parker had just come from.
When Parker was nearly within arm's reach she paused. "May I come closer? I've got something that might help him."
"Drugs don't work on werewolves." Joe crossed his arms in an intentional mimicry.
"I've got a solution that should help for a little while. It's DMSO and tincture of hellebore." Parker pulled a small vile of amber liquid out of her bag. "The hellebore acts as a sedative on werewolves and the DMSO allows it to move through your system faster so that it can be more effective." It was a solution that Eliot had worked up for a tranquilizer dart.
Parker noticed the slight flare of Joseph's nostrils. "I'm not lying to you."
Frank whimpered behind Joseph and that seemed to be the deciding factor. "Okay. Go ahead."
Parker knelt next to Frank and filled a syringe with the amber liquid. She pinched up the skin on Frank's shoulder and did her best to insert the needle smoothly the way that Eliot had taught her. Before Parker finished administering the sedative there was a crashing sound to announce the arrival of the ad-hoc backboard. Kenny hurried over with the top of Hardison's desk and the ladder held under one arm. Hardison followed behind with one of Parker's rappelling ropes coiled over his shoulder. Hardison rolled his eyes in exasperation as he got closer. Parker noticed the torn edges of the desk and she guessed that Kenny must have just yanked the board loose from the brackets and bolts that normally held it in place.
In seconds Frank's body relaxed and his breathing deepened. "Okay put the ladder down and the desk on top. Situate Frank however you want him to travel." Parker stepped back so that the wolves could follow her instructions. Once they had Frank situated with his back and neck supported on the desk top and his legs stretched out over the ladder rungs Kenny and Joe each lifted an end of the ladder. Hardison and Parker worked to secure Frank and the desk to the ladder so that he wouldn't slide off as soon as they started walking with him.
Parker checked the time. "Three minutes. We gotta move."
Kenny and Joe got Frank loaded in the van and Hardison wasted no time in getting them out of there. Their escape required a few sharp turns and sudden stops but they weren't spotted by any of the authorities that had been called out to the golf course for the phony bomb threat.
"Take us to the closest safe house." Parker scooped up her tablet to check in on everyone's locations.
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Eliot and Ewen were in no way subtle as they crashed through the underbrush, wove between trees and jumped fallen logs. Eliot saw movement up ahead and knew that they were getting close. From the glimpses he was getting he couldn't tell if it was Henry or Swiatek. Eliot slowed just a little as he tilted his head back and let out a hunting cry. The cry was answered from farther to his left than where he was seeing the movement ahead of him.
"Ewen, go that way and you and I can flank him if he tries to turn." Eliot gestured to where he wanted Ewen to take up his position. Ewen sprinted across the open ground without hesitation.
"Henry can you hear me?" Eliot tapped his earbud.
"I read you."
"Ewen is going to cross in front of you in just second. He and I will flank Swiatek until we get him where we need to be."
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Nati and Lucas had managed, with the help of the others, to herd Griswold across the foot bridge in Cross Park. Griswold made it across the bridge before any of the wolves in the hunting party did and it must have seemed like his lucky break. With a glance over his shoulder at the pack of wolves that had been following him he suddenly bolted at much faster than human speed. He jumped the guardrail and with no regard for safety sprinted across six lanes of interstate traffic.
"Keep it human until you're off the road!" Nati called as she charged in the same direction as Griswold. The nine wolves behind her including Lucas and Mark followed Nati onto the highway. While they were moving at a speed most track stars would find impressive it still resulted in a number of car horns and thrown fingers before they cleared the chain-link fence on the other side of the highway. Since Nati had arrived in Portland she had heard several people say 'keeping Portland weird' to explain away odd happenings. She hoped that the people of Clackamas had the same mindset.
As soon as they'd all made it over the fence Nati sent Mark and three wolves to the north and four more wolves to the south. She and Lucas kept to the middle and before long they drove Griswold away from the housing development that he'd hoped to hide in. Once they got him past the houses the speed of the chase picked up.
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Nate was driving slow and easy toward Koogan's Point. The point wasn't much of a place just a bend in the river that attracted fly-fisherman and local hikers. It wasn't a touristy location since it was out of the way and the hills there didn't offer the stunning vistas that were such a draw in the nearby mountain ranges.
Nate could have enjoyed the drive if he hadn't been so aware of the dead and 'kinda dead' bodies in the back of the truck. He glanced over and noticed Sophie playing nervously with the edge of her seatbelt. "We're almost there and I don't think anyone is going to pull us over at this point."
"I know. I'm just wishing this was all over and done with." She kept her gaze on the passing fields.
As Nate followed the road that took him into the tall trees something burst from the side of the road striking the front corner of the truck. It slowed down enough for Nate to realize it was the wolf he'd encountered on the shore of Hardtack Island. He was pretty sure the wolf's name was Swiatek. Just as his brain connected the dots Ewen ran past the front of the truck in a blur of speed and Eliot vaulted right over the hood. Henry followed after barely missing the truck in his headlong pursuit. The encounter happened so fast that it left Nate with a surreal and unsettled feeling.
"Well, Toto, we certainly aren't in Kansas anymore." Sophie whispered as she watched the men disappear between the trees. "Can we drop these guys off and just get out of here?" She looked at Nate who was looking just a little more shaken up than usual.
It was only another mile before they made it to the parking area at the trail head. Jim Skookum was leaning against the stone marker that indicated the start of the trail. As soon as Nate parked the truck Jim sauntered to the back of the truck and let down the tailgate. Nate thought of getting out to help but decided he'd had enough of werewolf business for now and it didn't look like Jim was having any trouble sliding the bodies out of the back of the truck and over to a nearby tree.
Jim walked up to Nate's open window. "You folks head home. You won't be needed for what happens next." He thumped a fist on the side of the door and smiled without showing any teeth as Nate got the truck turned around.
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Parker had been tracking the hunt on her tablet but now that the wolves were out of the city she didn't need to coordinate anything. She fidgeted in her seat and readjusted her view on the tablet.
"Babe? Parker?" Hardison tried to get Parker's attention. It took a second for her focus to really shift to the here and now and Hardison waited until he was sure she was focused on him. "I need you to use the keypad for the bay door. We left the clicker at the pub."
"If she is really your packs second shouldn't it be you opening the door?" Joseph asked from the back of the van.
"If you actually want a place for your buddy to rest besides this alleyway you'll mind your own business." Hardison looked at Joseph in the rearview mirror. Hardison hadn't brought the van to a complete stop before Parker was out the door and half way to the keypad.
Making sure to keep her body between the van and the keypad she quickly tapped in the code to raise the door. She ducked under the door and ran to the lift to enter the code there as well. She stopped just as she reached the lift and decided against the logic that said she should let these wolves into the living quarters. She didn't like Joseph, she didn't trust him, she wasn't going to let him into a place where her pack lived. She went to where the keys for all the cars were kept and grabbed the keys for Eliot's Charger.
She hopped in and turned the engine over. She couldn't help the smile that crossed her face at the sound. She pulled out of the bay door before Hardison had a chance to park Lucille. Leaning out the driver's window she yelled to Hardison. "Show them where the freezer is at and let's go!"
Hardison grabbed a tablet out of Lucile and looking back at the wolves he pointed to a wall on the far side of the small warehouse. "Freezer full of meat is on that side. First aid kit is next to it." With that he ran to the key pad that would bring the bay door down and punched in the code.
Hardison barely got the passenger door closed before Parker was speeding back down the alley. "Where are we going?"
"To find Eliot of course." Parker gunned the engine and drifted around the corner and through the intersection.
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Nati, Lucas, and the other wolves had dropped all pretense of being human as they drove Griswold toward Koogan's Point. Nati had let her fingernails change to claws and she reveled in the awkward fit of her wolf's fangs in her mostly human mouth. She of course couldn't see it but she imagined that her normally brown eyes were a bright blue.
The long loping stride of Lucas beside her caught her attention. When she glanced at him she noticed that he'd taken on the half human half wolf shape of the Faoladh. She supposed the only reason he wasn't completely shifted to his wolf was because of her. They had worked together for this hunt and she hadn't fully given up her human form yet. He would be faster in his wolf shape, they all were, but that would leave her behind. She smiled as she continued to sprint ahead. The point couldn't be more than a mile or so in front of them, she had started to pick up a lot of familiar scents, people who would only be here for one purpose.
Nati threw her head back and howled a joyful hunting cry. Over the rise of the hill somewhere in the tall stand of trees she heard Eliot call back to her.