The Reckoning By 331
This is what happens after the Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
I do not own anything and it all belongs to Kelley Armstrong. I am just using her characters and adding a few of my own.
Chloe's POV
Oh no. Not here. Not now. We weren't ready. Then again I don't think we'd ever be ready to be attacked by psycho scientists with guns, but, I'd really like to at least feel like we actually had a chance of getting away undamaged. Or at all, really. But we're us, so it's what we get. But why did it have to be now? Couldn't they have waited until we had some sort of weapons or something? Or at least until we were leaving.
I looked at Derek. He was still sniffing the air. He caught my arm and led me around towards the back of the bookstore.
"We have to find the others," I said. He nodded.
"Do you have a phone?" Phone! That would be so helpful in these kinds of situations. I shook my head.
"No, but I think Angie has one. How far away are the werewolves?" He sniffed the air again.
"Probably a couple stores down. Can't be sure, since the only wind in here is the air conditioning, and it's not so good with scents. We have to move. Go find Angie, I'll get Caleb and we'll meet over by the coffee stand on the left side of the store."
"Your left or mine?" He scowled.
"We're looking the same way,"
"Right, just nervous," He stared at me for a minute, hugged me quickly, then went off to find Caleb. I moved toward the manga section. Angie was sitting on the floor, back against the shelf with about seven books strewn around her. She looked up as I walked over.
"Do you know how unorganized this place is? People are so lazy, they just stick a book any old which way back on the shelf where ever they happen to be standing. It took me 10 minutes just to find the second volume of Soul Eater, while there's like twenty volume ones over here,and a volume three stuck down here. People are so........." she stopped when she saw my expression.
"Phone." I said. She took it out of her vest pocket and handed it to me. I saw Caleb's number on there, and pressed it. It rung for like 2 seconds when a strained, gruff
"Hello?" answered.
"So you found Caleb?"
"Yeah, he was in the sci fi section. You two get over here, and call Shane while I call Andrew. Hurry!" Derek hung up on me as I shoved the phone in my pocket, dropped my book with Angie's on the floor (it was the new House of Night book, Burned), grabbed her arm and made my way over to the dark head of hair sticking up above the sci fi shelves. Derek was fidgeting with anxiety, while Caleb stood perfectly still. But his eyes betrayed his illusion of calm. Derek was on the phone with Andrew, murmuring into it like it was so fragile it could snap at any moment, and probably would if Derek was squeezing as hard as I knew he would be. I went to contacts on Angie's phone, and called Shane. He picked up on the first ring.
"Angie? Get out of there now. There's werewolves."
"We know. Where are you guys?"
"Oh, it's Chloe. We're down the hall over by the movie theater. We're next to the concession stand. Is Derek with you?"
"Yeah, that's how we know about the werewolves. He's on the phone with Andrew right now. Call the others. We'll call Damien and Arabelle, and you call Sarah. Everyone else is with one of those or has already been called. Meet us by the giant snow globe in the middle building of the mall."
"No! I mean, that's where some suspicious looking supernaturals are hanging out. I saw them before, but didn't think that they might be a threat until now. We'll meet up at Macy's. We didn't come in there, so they won't be guarding it yet. Unless they're just some werewolves out for a shopping day. But there's a large possibility they're not, so don't do anything stupid. I'll call Sarah. And watch out for any people who might be following you or just look suspicious. Make a path that's hard to follow, and have Derek scout the way. We'll see you at Macy's." He hung up. I told the other's what he'd said, and Derek proceeded to call Arabelle while I called Damien. He didn't pick up until the fourth ring.
"What, Angie? We're about to totally prank Joey, and you almost gave us away!"
"Damien, it's Chloe. We have a problem."
"What kind of problem? If you need money, ask Lacie, because if you already spent all $600 on your debit cards, then you have some shopaholic issues. And I do not lend people money."
"No, nothing like that. Derek and Shane smelled werewolves, and I don't mean each other." It was silent for a minute.
"Chloe? What's going on?" It was Lacie.
"There's werewolves here that Derek and Shane don't know and―,"
"I know who they are." I looked at Derek. His eyes had gone cold, and he had screwed up his face like he had just smelled something nasty. I felt my blood turn to ice. There were only two possibilities in this situation. And Derek had said 'they'.
"Liam and Ramon." I whispered. Derek nodded. I cringed, and Caleb and Angie looked back and forth between us, confused.
"Who is it? And how do you know them?" Caleb asked, his voice dead serious. Angie just looked really scared.
"You don't know them. All you need to know is that they're bad, and don't mind hurting us." Derek was sniffing the air again.
"Hello?" I jumped, but then realized I hadn't said anything to Lacie. I put the phone back up to my ear.
"I'm back. Derek and I know who the werewolves are, but that doesn't make things any less dangerous, except that we know for a fact they're here for us. Shane should be even more cautious, because I bet they could use him in the same way they could use Derek. Find Shane and the others, and stay together. We'll meet up with you at Macy's."
"We're already here with them. But Chloe, what do you mean by how they could use Shane? And how do you know them?" Derek looked impatiently at me. I spoke quickly.
"We don't have time to explain. Just find the others and get to Macy's." I hung up before she could answer. Derek led us out of the bookstore. We split up to walk on different sides of the hall, me with Derek and Angie with Caleb. This way, if Liam and Ramon found us, at least Caleb and Angie could get away unnoticed. But we still stayed close. Derek stopped and sniffed every 20-40 feet or so, but hid it by ruffling through his bag, or tying his shoe, or pretending to drop something. We'd made it about 10 stores down before Derek paled, and said
"Run." I signaled to Angie, and both pairs of us off sprinting down opposite sides of the hall. We tried not to hit people, but came pretty close to tripping or crashing a lot. We apologized quickly to those we jostled, but kept on running. Derek led us into Kohl's, and we grabbed a couple of random items and dashed for the dressing room. The lady handed us those item card things and though she protested, we all dashed into a stall on the men's side. Derek sniffed the air again.
"Where are they?"
"In the kids department."
"If we take the back out through the furniture department, and use the escalator, we can double back and get to Macy's." Caleb said. Derek shook his head.
"They'd follow us. They're tracking my scent. The only way for you guys to get there safely is for me t―,"
"Don't you finish that sentence. You're crazy if you think we'll let you go out there alone. And besides, they know they only way to get to you is through me, and they know my scent, too. So either way, the only one they'll follow is me," Derek scowled at me, but he knew I had a point.
"Fine. Caleb, you and Angie head to the escalator and make your way to Macy's. We'll keep Angie's phone, and you have yours back. We'll lead them away, and we'll head over to the food court, and you have everyone else meet us there with the cars. Hopefully we'll make it. Make sure you stick to Shane, and in a mall this big, running is always better than fighting." They nodded, but their faces said they didn't like it. Even though they knew this was the best option we had. Derek sniffed again. His eyes widened and he pushed us out of the stall door and we bolted for the exit. I looked back, and I swore I saw a familiar, blood curdling face among the clothing racks. Derek pushed me to go faster, and I turned my attention back to running. When we were safely out of the store, Angie and Caleb shot down the hall to our right, towards the escalator. Derek herded me down the left passageway, and we dodged grumpy shoppers as we sprinted for our lives. We ducked into a two door-ed store. We jumped over the racks of clothing and ran out the other side. It led us into the central building of the mall. We came to a balcony and looked down. There were a lot of people just milling around, but if you looked closely, you could see there were some people who just didn't quite fit into the picture. They were situated in groups of two or three, trying not to look conspicuous, but that kinda made it all the more obvious. They looked like they were trying too hard, which made them easy to spot if you were looking for them. They usually had one of them with a cellphone to their ear, which meant they were constantly communicating, and that if we were spotted, all of them would know exactly when and where. The Edison Group. Derek grabbed my arm and pulled me off to the right. We ducked down one of the less crowded pathways, and sprinted across to the bathrooms, one of the one's with more two or three exits. But it was empty, which meant it would be bad if we were found in here. Derek pulled me along, and we were about to exit through the southernmost door, when Derek stopped abruptly. I followed his line of sight, and my heart stopped. Liam was staring at us from across the passageway. Derek spun me around quick and we headed for the northeast exit, when Ramon stepped out from around the corner. There was a third exit, but it was past Ramon down another row of stalls. Derek pushed me into a stall and stood in front of it. Ramon made a step forward, and Derek growled. He laughed a harsh, guttural laugh, and Liam's rasp echoed from the other door.
"Well, if it isn't just the two we wanted to see." His raspy voice did not mix well with his southern accent. I tried to keep breathing, but my wind pipe felt like it was shrinking to about the width of a toothpick. Derek was holding onto the stall door so tightly, his knuckles turned white, and I thought he was gonna break it off.
"What do you want?" Derek growled, but they just laughed again, with a bit of a bitter ending.
"What we want is you. If I remember correctly, the Pack still wants us for man-eating, and last time you agreed to come with us, but then annoyingly chickened out and ran away. I'm sure the Pack would love to get a hold of you, considering what we, I mean you, did." Ramon leered at us, and Derek just glared back. Liam spoke.
" And your girlfriend there. Seems like you're still together. How cute. I promise I won't let you leave without a fun night with me, okay cutie?" I swore I barfed a little in my mouth, but I didn't have enough strength from the fear to really worry about that at the moment. Plus, I was already in a bathroom stall, so I was covered. Liam just chuckled menacingly.
" Apparently, girly, more people than just us really seem to have take a liking to you, and they'd pay a bunch of money to get you back. We're just supposed to deliver you safely into their hands. But then again, my leg's been sore lately, thank you for that, by the way," Liam grinned garishly straight at me, which made my skin crawl. I remembered how I stabbed him last time we met. He chuckled again as I looked away shuddering.
"And," he continued, "I don't think we're gonna let you go without playing with you a bit. Just so we're even." He took a step closer, and Derek moved little in his direction, growling louder. Ramon did the same, and Derek lunged at him. He caught Ramon head on, pushing him to the ground in cloud of whirling limbs. Liam came straight at me and I lashed out with my foot. It struck him in the face, and he cursed, stepping back, so I tackled him. He was a lot harder than I thought, so I got the wind knocked out of me as we toppled to the floor. I landed on top of him, and he tried to claw my eyes, but I jumped up and stomped on his knee. He howled in pain, and I tried to stomp on his face, but he caught my foot and pulled me down. He got up and held me aloft by the ankle, and I tried to wriggle out his grasp, but he kicked the back of my skull, and I saw black spots. I tried kicking him with my other leg, and I caught him in the groin, forcing him to drop me. I landed face first, and I saw more black dots in my vision. He kicked my head again, and I hit the wall with a crack. I put my arms around my head and groaned in pain, and when I brought my hands back down, they were covered in blood. My vision had gotten worse with the hit, but at least the pain hadn't hit yet.
"Chloe!" Derek yelled. I turned to see his vague shape lunge and crash into Liam's fuzzy outline, who had been right behind me, and sent him sprawling. Ramon was on the floor behind them, seemingly out for the moment, but I saw small movements around where his arms would be if I could see clearly, so I assumed he probably was conscious, just couldn't get up. When my sight came back, I got up and walked over to Ramon. He tried to grab my foot, but I stomped on his hand, and he shrieked. I thrust my foot into where his head and neck connected, and he flew across the room and landed with a crack. And didn't get up, his blood pooling on the floor. I heard a howl of pain and whipped around. Derek was on his back, underneath Liam, who was trying to jab a knife into his eye. I looked around for anything I could use to help. There was nothing that wasn't bolted down, so I just ran over an punched Liam's gut. He faltered long enough for Derek to kick him off, and Derek grabbed me and sped us toward the exit. We headed toward the thickest crowd we could find. The people closest to us gasped and backed away as they saw the blood dripping from the gash on the back of my head, and Derek's black eye and all the cuts from Liam's knife that had thankfully missed his eye (though I don't think Ramon's fist missed it), but we ignored them and kept running into the throng of shoppers. Eventually people made a path for us because of the blood, which gave me a chance to look back without the possibility of hitting someone. And what I saw wasn't good. Liam was pushing people aside to get to us, and he did not look all that happy, especially that the bruise over his eyebrow made it impossible to not look angry. And his bloodshot eye did not look too pretty either, plus the scowl added to the whole 'I'm fucking mad, and I'm going to kill you" expression, which would probably happen if he caught us. And then to add to our complications, apparently we had alerted the mall cops, and they were coming up the passageway to our right, from the fork in the passage that was coming up in front of us (no, they didn't have Segways). They didn't look like they were coming to our rescue either. So Derek averted course and led me down the passage to the left. We sprinted around people, heading for anywhere but here. And then........ we hit the dead end. The only thing that was there were a couple of those one room boutiques, and a Lord and Taylor's that was under construction, so it was closed and locked. We were on the ground floor, and the nearest escalator or even set of stairs was in the Lord and Taylor's, so the only way out was the way we came in. I turned to see Liam and the mall cops sprinting down the passage toward us, and all the shoppers, seeing the commotion, were running for the safety of the little boutiques leaving me and Derek completely exposed in the middle of the circle of stores. Derek placed himself between me and the oncoming threats, and against my will, my eyes started tearing up. Either get arrested by mall cops who wouldn't understand, and possibly call loads of people to find out who we are, or, get ripped to shreds by Liam before we had a chance to even get arrested. Why us? Why?!?
Liam got to us first. Apparently he didn't care about being arrested or causing a scene, he just wanted to make sure we were hurt enough that he could drag us back to the Pack and the Edison group. He lunged at Derek, who pushed me back and caught Liam's impact face first. They were on the ground, rolling again, just like last time. Except this time I didn't have a pocket knife to stab Liam with. They moved too fast for me to grasp what was going on, and I didn't notice the mall cop until it was too late, because I was trying to understand who was where and find a way to help Derek.
I was grabbed from behind by strong arms, but I had dealt with enough bad guys to know by his hold that the guy thought I was just a helpless victim, so I kicked him in the groin. He gasped in pain and I struggled out of his grasp. My head throbbed, and I felt dizzy, probably from all the blood loss. Derek had Liam against a pillar and was punching him, but then Liam's leg lashed out, catching Derek in the jaw. He fell to the ground with a gasp of pain.
"DEREK!" I screamed, and ran towards them. Liam was standing over him, and had a look in his eye I didn't like at all. I spied something on the ground, and knew what I had to do. I picked it up and ran at Liam, shoving his own blade deep into his thigh, in exactly the same place I had three days ago. He screamed in pain, and backed away clutching his wound, trying to remove the knife. I rushed over to Derek and bent to see if he was okay. His jaw was twisted at an odd angle, and I knew it was broken. I hoped Sarah or Mike would be able to fix it. That is, if we ever got out of here to see them again. I was helping him up as I felt another set of hands grip my waist and pull me back. I shrieked and kicked behind me, but the hands didn't let go. Derek tried to get up, but two cops pounced and held him down. We were caught. They guy holding me was a cop (because if it was Liam I would be dead by now), and though I kept struggling, some of the fear left me (not all, because them asking questions could bring up further problems, ones that could put a lot of people in danger). A crowd had accumulated, and they watched as we were dragged off by mall security. They had knocked Liam out, probably with those black but thin club things the cops had slung on their belts, and two huge officers were carrying him. They had Derek firmly by the arms, but he was walking, which made me feel a bit better (but not much). The led us past the judgmental and totally clueless crowd off shoppers off to what I assumed was the mall cop headquarters. It looked more like a bunch of offices except with some video monitors and a small closet for uniforms. They sat us down on hard, uncomfortable chairs, and had one of them stand next to each of us, so leaving wasn't an option. They laid Liam across three chairs, and had a guard next to him too. Most of the other cops left, but our guards and one hot headed looking guy stayed. He seemed to be in charge. He paced back and forth in front of us, then stopped in front of me. I think I saw steam come out his ears.
"What the hell is going on here?!?" He glared at me, since I was the only one who could answer, being the only conscious person with a working jaw. I think Derek tried to growl, but he cut it off with a whimper of pain at the reflex of using his broken jaw. I didn't respond. The head cop got angrier.
"ANSWER ME! I demand to know what the hell drove you to cause a bloodbath in the middle of my mall!" I leaned back in surprise, and the chair fell back. The guard caught me and set me back up. The chief continued pacing.
"You are going to tell me what is going on right now, or we're going to sit here and wait until you decide you want stop the blood loss coming from your head and his jaw." I looked at Derek, and he tried to mime something to me, which I took as 'make something up!'. I took a deep breath.
"We were minding our own business, just shopping, when this guy jumped out of nowhere and attacked us. He cut me with his knife, but my friend here managed to get him off long enough for us to run. He chased us through the mall, and then down that dead end, and lunged on my friend, and then you saw the rest." I didn't trust the cop any more than I trusted Liam, so I though it better not to say our names. The cop frowned. He put his face directly in front of mine.
"Now, why don't I believe that?" I leaned back so he wasn't as up in my face. He stood back up, still angry.
"Maybe's its because the video cameras tell us a different story? I don't know, lets find out, shall we?" They rolled out a TV with an extension cord leading back to the room with the video monitors. They had us on tape since all the way back at the book store, and in Kohl's, and even in the bathroom with Ramon. Thankfully, there was no audio, so they didn't know what we had talked about, and I bet they hadn't been paying attention to these until the fight in the bathroom, and were just trying to get me to confess our real motive. I didn't respond again. The chief cop roared in frustration, making me jump, and I scrambled off my chair toward the back wall. Derek jumped up with me, but I think it was more of a protective thing than surprise at the cop. Our guards rushed after us to pull us back to our seats, but stopped, looking at something above my head on the wall. I turned, and my stomach dropped to my feet.
They were staring at a missing girl poster, that had the name Chloe Saunders plastered across the top, and a reward of half a million dollars printed across the bottom. And the guards kept looking between me and the poster, open mouthed. I guess the dye didn't work after all. Oh hell.
Hope you enjoyed it! But you'll have to wait til I write the next chapter to find out what happens! This is to make up for not updating for a whole two weeks! It annoys me when I have to wait for other stories, but now I kinda see the writer's side, so I feel guilty. But not that much. Because I don't think everybody's brother broke his collarbone. But my goal is to have at least one chapter per week. So unless something comes up, like my parents confiscate my computer, or we go on a trip and I can't bring my laptop, or something bad, I'll try to update every week on either Saturday or Sunday (sometimes I stay up til like one writing and then update, so if you don't see it Sunday night, it'll probably be up Monday morning.). And sometimes I might have a day off from school, or just have no homework and have free time, so I'll write more. But the only days you should really rely on are Saturday night through Monday morning. I might update again before the weekly update this weekend if I don't get much homework tomorrow and Thursday, so cross your fingers! REVIEW! :)