Chapter Nine

Cal

It was one of those moments in life where I knew exactly what the person had just said, but my brain just couldn't wrap around the belief that the words came out of their mouth. It happened often enough around Goodfellow, because everything out of his mouth was either hot-air or shocking or shocking hot-air. I'd become accustom to those blips of information or too-much-information; they didn't have me instinctively curb the impulse to punch him and/or walk away from him like they used to.

But this just had me floored. I stared at the two of them, leaned against the counter between the kitchen and the living area for support. Beside me I knew Nik had on the same expression of disbelief only more subtle. "I'm sorry, what?"

Promise had Dante in her arms, his chubby legs to either side of her hip. He seemed comfortable enough now that she'd been spending so much time at the apartment. And with his pale skin and hair matching the rich chocolate of her blond striped braid he looked rather natural there. Next to her, was Goodfellow, with a jutted chin and a straightened back; a united front for the first time out of battle. She said nothing, but he -per usual- had plenty to say.

"I apologize I didn't realize you'd rotted through enough brain cells for plain English to be incomprehensible." He enunciated every next word with slow, cocky, relish. "We will watch the kid." He turned to Promise, taking little Dante's hand and shaking it back and forth playfully. "He's due to be graced by the presence of beauty and unfathomable magnificence. So go, be the reckless, gun-blazing, blade-swiping, duo you are so prone to being. Get the job done and come back to your happy family. If you're lucky some of my majesty might rub off on him before you return, though it is highly unlikely as it is something one really needs to be born with and," he raked his green eyes over me. "Well, he doesn't have much to work with."

Insults aside I was still reeling at the first suggestion. Promise and Robin were offering to babysit...together. It was inconceivable. "I...really?"

"This job means more to you both now," Promise said with her usual lilting grace. "And I assure you, Robin and I will see to Dante's safety as you complete it. Although, I do ask for you to make haste." Her lavender eyes flickered over to the puck; clearly she didn't have as much confidence in her tolerance of his self-proclaimed magnitude. "There seemed to be no other way to accomplish this mission without separating the two of you and while I feel confident in aiding whomever steps into the fray, as I'm sure Robin is, we understand the bond you share both in battle and life."

Meaning Nik and I refused to go into a fight without the other, which was true. I glanced over at my brother, still unsure about this. I was certain our apartment and friends would be mostly in one piece if we left them alone, but my fear was leaving Dante. I'd seen both Promise and Goodfellow midst a fight; they were amazing, far better and more experienced than me, but he was my son...my responsibility. Niko sighed though his long nose and met my gaze. "Well, we know where to go. I'm sure if we hit the nest now the majority of the pack will be out playing."

It was nearing three in the morning. Goodfellow and Promise had called and arrived at the apartment at nearly the same time on both accounts, and with the same information. The Lupa pack was holed up in a converted warehouse, much like our own, in Brooklyn. There were even whispers of their hostage being there. I debated for another moment. Almost asked Nik to go with the other two while I stayed with Dante, but then I remembered the few times we did split up. Niko had been kidnapped too once, sliced up like a Thanksgiving turkey and strung up like a human sacrifice of mistletoe for a crazy puck named Hob. I'd almost lost him then and I couldn't let it happen again.

"Fine, let's make this quick."

It took Nik fourteen minutes to arm himself with the same number of bladed weaponry, while I shoved as many clips as I could in the liner of my jacket. I strapped my favorite ka-bar to my hip and my Glock went to the small of my back. The Desert Eagle holstered under my arm. I was tempted to fasten the Colt Robin had presented me with after our escape from the Vigil to my ankle, but the weight would have been ridiculous and the .38 would do the trick if I aimed for one of their beady yellow eyes.

It was the usual routine for going out hunting, only it changed drastically when we made for the door. I'd never really paused to say goodbye before. Never kissed anyone on the cheek or ruffled anyone's hair, or patted a shoulder in departure. But I did all three to Promise, Dante, and Robin –in that order. Nik murmured a thank you and we were off with the warning of "be careful" following us out the door. It was just surreal. It was also I damned trap.

There were wolves there, no mistake, but they were kamikazes. Not that they expected to be; they probably though that they were bad-ass enough to take out one sheep and half-sheep, but then they never met the Leandros brothers. Nik and I sliced and shot through them with ease –there were only three of them– and proceeded to ransack the warehouse looking for the child. I panted as I jogged down the upper catwalk. I didn't care if I made noise; the battle with the she-bitches had been all hair-flying and snarls anyway. It also left plenty of time for a fast werewolf to collect her hostage and flee.

I kicked in the last door along the catwalk, revealing another dusty storage room picked clean by homeless scavengers. I coughed at the dust that crept out of it like a cloud. Fuck me, it didn't even smell like wolf in here. Not one room was fashioned for living or even just sleeping. This was a set up. I spun and leaned to the rickety railing to call down to Niko. "Nik!"

"I know, lets go!" he shouted back. He was already at the front door. I flipped over the railing, hanging from my arm just low enough that I didn't break my legs dropping to the first level. I wasn't wasting time with the stairs. This was a set up, but there was no ambush. There were no strategically placed bombs or hired muscle. Okay, scratch that, there wasn't sufficiently hired muscle.

When we ducked out the door there were a dozen revenants waiting for us, but that was more an insult than a threat. They were the equivalent of a Romero zombie, only they weren't dead –not yet at least. The monster community like to use them for dirty work; they weren't the smartest, weren't the most charming, but they were nasty as hell and you could pay them in rotting body parts. Toss in a live one for a Christmas bonus.

Niko led the way, katana slicing off arm, knee, head as he went. I knocked a couple of shots into a few skulls; it was the only way to kill the bastards. They could regenerate pretty much anything you shucked off. Six down and six to go, Nik grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me to face him. "Gate."

I stared, shot a revenant without his lower half crawling towards us without looking, and grabbed his arm with the other. "No." Niko pulled back. He swung around with a graceful arch of his blade, decapitated two more skin-slogging tools. "Go, you take me it'll be too taxing."

"Nik—"

"Go!" He shot me a stern glare. I knew the significance here. Niko hated my traveling; hated what it did to me, hated what it could do to me. He never condoned it once he saw what I did on our way to stop Suloyak. But he knew; he knew as well as I did. This was a distraction. Delilah led us here. She let the information leak to Promise and Goodfellow and she led us right here. So she could get to Dante.

With a parting shot to the last lumbering revenants head, I traveled. Even if more came, my brother would be fine. He could handle anything. He was Highlander, ninja, assassin, and any bastard on the dark side's worst nightmare. I let my spent clip drop to my bedroom floor, not caring that there was a bullet or two left in there. I shoved the next in and pulled out my Glock with my free hand. Ignoring the splice of pain that careened through my head and the fluttering pattern of my heart in strain from traveling with the inhibitor in my brain, I ran out of my room and into the apartment.

"Promise! Robin!" Busting into the main living room, guns up and at the ready, I scoured over the already dead bodies of two female werewolves. Blood on the floor again. Crossbow bolts stuck out of both their hides, while one of them had several blade slices dissecting her fur covered body. They weren't the females with Delilah yesterday; both of these were caught between wolf and human as an inbreeding experiment gone wrong.

I cursed and bolted through the open front door. Robin's car, which was parked illegally out front when Nik and I had left, was gone. I had to rest assured that they got into it and drove like a bat outta hell. Wolves were fast, cutting through alleys and bounding over rooftops they could outrun a car, but only if it was stuck in New York traffic. It may be the city that never sleeps, but it did take a nap around this time. Less cars, more cops, but I had faith in Robin's driving skills. And I knew he had the balls to run over a few over-sized dogs along the way.

That was until I got four blocks down from the apartment and saw smoke billowing from the hood of a jeep on its side and wrapped around a street light. The globe of the light was bent over and touching the crunched front of Robin's red Buick. The doors to the jeep were flung open on the exposed side and the canvas covering all but shredded at the back. A brief glance inside, I could see two bodies, one furry, the other humanoid and both were still.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I skidded to a halt at the side of Goodfellow's car, slamming into it with the force I was running. The car was empty, every window cracked or shattered. The seats were covered with the glass and many pieces glittered red in the flickering lamp light. Blood cascaded down the front seat like a shining waterfall on the leather. A shoulder wound and considering the amount of blood and the claw marks at the curve of the headrest, I suspected the wolf had dove onto the hood, punched through the windshield and proceeded to try and drive her claws through Robin's chest.

On the plus side it left a blood trail. I could smell him clearly in the air; the sharp mineral scent of tangy rust and lush forests. I was going to kill her. I was going to kill her and I was going to take my fucking time. I had to slow down when the scent faded –shit, missed a turn– I doubled back, careening off the mouth of the alley way.

There was a huddled form at the end. Someone crouched over an animal with a long blade buried deep. The spindly legs of the creature, twitched pathetically but the sounds coming from its mouth were hardly meek. Robin was panting, blood dripping down his arm as he struggled to keep the wolf pinned. "Tell me, eseis chydaia skylos! MILOUN!"

"Robin!" I dropped to one knee as I reached him. His green eyes, glinting with the most vicious light, peered up at me without recognition for a moment. He was a mess. Blood caked the side of his head, brown curls plastered to his forehead. The red smeared a path down to his chin and there was a heavy chunk of flesh taken out of his shoulder. His blade arm was shaking with adrenaline and blood loss.

"Cal...fuck, Cal, I'm sorry."

"Not the time," I snapped. I snagged the blade from his hand, wrenched it out of the wolf on the ground, then replanted it somewhere in the vicinity of a lung. At first, I though him crazy for demanding the werewolf talk to him (in wolf form they couldn't do much more than snarl and snort) but then I noticed the length of her front paws, how the pads were elongated to an almost human length. Her muzzle was short like the make up for a Cats Broadway reject and her eyes were human. I was banking on human vocal cords too as I leaned in bearing my teeth right back at her. "Where is she? Where's Delilah?"

There was a garbled sound as blood filled the bitch's lung, but she replied; in words that was so thick with a feral growl that I barely understood them for the English curses they were. I got the gist though. I raked the sword a few inches up. Her back paws shook they were so tense, toes spread in pain. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Foul, disgust, Auphe."

"Yup, that's me. Now tell me where my son is you fucking flea-ridden dog. Before I have my friend here skin you alive to make his next pair of fur chaps." It was a bluff, although Robin was fully capable of such a violet act if he so desired, he was currently leaned against the alley wall breathing heavy. I wrestled my phone out of my pocket and tossed it to him. "Call your boyfriend."

Robin fumbled with it, but did as he was told. Ishiah could get Robin back on his feet. The puck was a big boy and I wouldn't be much help to him anyway. I turned back to the wolf, smiling widely, fiercely. "Or I could just do it." I holstered the Eagle –the Glock already back in my waistline when I saw Robin. The female's blue eyes widened when I pulled out the black matte knife. I didn't know if it was for the weapon or the sadistic look on my face. Then she went for my face. I shoved the serrated knife into her skull on instinct, regretting it for only a moment since she wouldn't be telling me jack now.

"Shit," I braced my foot to her jaw and yanked back to reclaim my weapon. "Where's Promise?"

Goodfellow motioned with my cell phone to the three story wall at the end of the alley. He didn't have to say any more. I'd seen the vampire cling to a wall like a freakin' spider, I had no doubt she could climb up one as well, even with a small child on her back. Delilah would have been hot on her heels, but Promise would be faster. "Ishiah on his way?" The puck nodded. He looked weary, but I could tell the majority of emotion on his handsome face was guilt.

"Cal, I—" I covered his mouth, glaring.

"Notnow." I took my cell from his palm and started for the opening of the alley; there was no way I could scale a three story wall. "Tell Nik to track my phone!" He probably though I was mad at him, probably blamed himself for this, but the only one to blame was me. I should have known. I shouldn't have been stupid enough to believe it would be that easy to find their hideout. I shouldn't have been so cocky as to think me and Nik would be home before dawn, tucking Dante into his bed. I was so fucking stupid for leaving him! My son, I lost my son.

I took in a deep breath nose in the air. Wolf was clear in the wind, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Damn it."

"Lost little half sheep?"

I spun, Desert Eagle locked on her forehead and my back ridged. "You fucking bitch."

Delilah smiled, slanted eyes hooded, one hip cocked, and her arms cross under her breasts. She wore the leather pants from before, as if to remind me of what Dante had done, but the shirt she wore was thin, low cut, and obviously worn to entice or tease me. Wasn't working. "Looking for something?"

"I'm not playing, Delilah. You tell me where you took him right now."

"Or what? You shoot? How's your aim?" I decided to show instead of tell. I aimed for her upper chest, but she dodged quick enough that it only grazed her shoulder; hardly a wound that would slow her down, but the look of surprise that it actually touched her was satisfying. She wiped the smudge of blood, still grinning. "Protective father...rather sexy on you."

"Fuck you," I snarled. I took two purposeful steps toward her. "Tell me where my son is. Give him back to me right now."

"No fun," Delilah hummed. "Hide and seek, more interesting." She was a wolf in the next moment. All sleek lines and white fur. I repositioned the gun and let loose the bullets. She dodged and weaved as if I was lobbing tennis balls at her and pounced onto my chest. I felt her teeth clip my ear, tearing the thin flesh and cartilage. I buried the Eagle in her side and pulled the trigger on the last bullet in the chamber. I heard her yelp and she rolled off me, but she was still on her feet and I was out of bullets in that clip.

I pushed onto my knees, ripping a clip out of my jacket interior and slamming it home. Delilah was halfway down the street by then, prancing almost and flashing yellow eyes back over her blood stained shoulder with the epitome of a wolfish grin. Still on my knees I extended my arm and shot again and again and again. Then I was running. Racing after her. If she found me that meant her success, which made me fear for Promise. The vampire wouldn't let them have Dante, not if she was still breathing. I tried not to think too much about it; I was a better marksman when my mind was blank, or boiling in blind rage –I was pretty damned good then too.

Three shots running and two connected. Bet the bitch didn't expect that. She went down in a tumble of limbs. Unfortunately, both bullets didn't hit vitals so she was back on those thin legs almost instantly. I stopped firing and booked it down the sidewalk. Out running a werewolf, not the easiest fucking thing to do. Good thing I had a back up plan.

I traveled, right the fuck in front of her and fired again. It was a pained howl this time and she didn't get up as quickly. "Do. Not. Mess with me. My son, bring him to me." Delilah had been skilled enough to avoid a bullet to the brain, but blood still poured from her head, painting white fur crimson from ear to foaming mouth. "Now!"

She shook her head, more to clear the blood from her eyes and launched at me. I aimed for her head again, but with my own skull ringing from the second gate and my hands shaking from the same it didn't work out the way I planned. She shifted back to human and the blurred illusion of it tricked my eyes, letting the bullet fly uselessly passed her torso. She grabbed me by the throat, her other hand catching my wrist and smacking the gun and me bodily into the nearest object, which happened to be the wall of an abandoned building. She growled at me, deep and furious. Yeah, well I felt the same way, whore. "I do not answer to you, weak child."

She pinned me against the building, her vice grip preventing me from planting my gun between those bare breasts in emptying the gun into her heart. I contemplated a gate, but my own chest ached with the speed of my heart and my breath was becoming labored. I could feel blood trickling down my chin, taste it on my lips from my nose. My ears were probably bleeding too. Not that Delilah looked much prettier. Her white blond hair was soaked with red, the bullet to her head had made a nice ridge from her temple back and head's bled...a lot. The other two bullets had sailed through her torso and thigh. If we were playing on the same genetic playing field I would have won this, but she was a werewolf and not only could they take a shitload more than a half human, but they didn't fight fair.

Behind Delilah I could see six more females loping out from the close alleys, one or two bounding down from rooftops, and others slipping out from plain old shadows. I supposed they thought the fight was over; their Alpha had won and now it was chow time. This part of town people either ignored the screams or watched curiously from their windows. In this case, watching a pack of huge wolves tear apart a man with a gun, they would shutter the blinds and pretend it was just another mugging. Delilah smiled at me, it looked so much more twisted with the blood and gore covering half her face. "What? No more fight? No more gates?" She knew very well I couldn't gate again, not in the condition I was in. She knew what Rafferty did to me and it was a big mistake trusting her with that knowledge. I showed her my teeth, not fangs or razor sharp by any means, but I still had the full intention of tearing them into her throat. She seemed to realize this.

She moved faster than my eyes could follow, grabbing my nape and throwing me down toward the concrete sidewalk head first. I felt her knee to my upper arm as it went down, still holding my gun wrist. I heard the bone snap before I felt the pain blaze up my shoulder; a rare damn moment...me dropping my gun. My head met the pavement next. Black whirled over my vision like a bad sixties sitcom segue, but I fought unconsciousness.

"Pitiful father. Weak. You learn now, that Kin are your masters. We will not be looked down on. The Lupa pack, we will have you. My pet Auphe." She grabbed my hair and wrenched my head up. The skyline tilted violently in my sights, vertigo hitting for a moment. "If you want little bird to stay alive, you will bring your healer friend to me. He will aid the Kin. He will make All Wolf. If not I will give you back your son, piece by piece." I punched her, I'm not ashamed to say, right in her head wound. She cried out and the rest of the pack closed in.

I had one on my ankle, one at my shoulder near my neck and one trying to drag my broken arm in the opposite direction than the rest of my body. I screamed, again no shame. It fucking hurt. That didn't stop me from snatching the Glock from my back with my left hand and twisting my head to the side so I could shoot the bitch at my throat. My aim was true this time; not only did I miss my own neck by mere centimeters, but I nailed Lassie in the skull. She went down instantly, though her jaw was locked into my flesh in a now literal death grip. I curse and aimed down at the one on my ankle; I couldn't feel my arm much anymore, that side had gone numb, so the ankle was next.

Then I heard the strange distorted sound of wings. The scent of sandalwood among that of feral wolf, blood, and the generic street grime. A moment later I was free with decapitated and halves of wolves all around me. Some of them were shifting back to human already, which wouldn't help our case if any of the silent spectators decided to call the cops. Ishiah stood over me holding a broad sword that should by no means be swung with one hand as it had been seconds ago. There were only three of them –wolf carcasses– the rest skipping off with Delilah to torture me more at a later date. I was lifted off the ground and set on my feet by my good arm, but I shoved Ishiah I away and started off down the road in the direction of Delilah's scent. I heard the peri curse, but didn't stop to marvel at the novelty of it.

The road buckled within the first forced step like I was a champagne glass and some amateur magician was trying to pull the table cloth out from under me. I crash landed on my bad arm and cried out again. It shouldn't have been this bad. She knocked me around a little, but that didn't constitute be being unable to get stable legs under me or vomiting in the middle of the road. I coughed and hacked, having trouble getting air in between falling on my knees several times and vomiting again. Yeah, so I was concussed. Get the fuck up, Caliban! I needed to get to her. I needed to stop her.

"Cal!" Niko! Oh, thank god. He slid to his knees in front of me, despite the barf and rough clips of cracked sidewalk. Huh, did my head do that? I knocked my hand that wasn't useless and limp at my side, to his shoulder gun and all.

"Go!" I motioned in the direction they went.

"No, Cal—"

I pushed the gun into his shoulder, glaring. "Go." Niko clasped my head between his hand, staring into my eyes. Other than smelling like he'd been rolling in revenant shit for hours he didn't look much worse for the wearer. He could get Dante, I knew he could. "Please, go."

"They're gone, Cal, they have him, but we'll get him back. They won't kill him." Niko seemed so sure about that. Gullible bastard. "They won't kill him without you there to see." He amended and that I could see being true. He tilted his face down to look into my eyes. "You have a concussion."

"No shit." That's what happened when your head his thrown into concrete with a super human punch. "Promise...?"

"Still following them," he assured me. "They attacked on the roof. There were too many for her. They threw her off the building as a distraction and took Dante." I loved how being thrown off three or four stories was a distraction for a vamp and wolf. For Nik and I it was death. But that meant Promise was okay, hell she probably landed on her feet all dainty like a cat. The pack just wanted to separate the herd to get to the lamb. And they succeed...for now. "She'll keep us updated. She'll find where he is and I promise you I will get him back even if you can't."

"The fuck I can't."

"I'm kneeling in your vomit right now and you're bleeding from pretty much every orifice..."

"Let's hope not every orifice," Robin's voice teased in the usual puck fashion. I glanced up, which caused a bit of a psychedelic vision shift and not the good kind; not that I'd even know the good kind. Mommy dearest kept me and Nik off drugs and liquor if only because she couldn't get enough of them. Robin was leaned against his boyfriend, but stood on his own two feet. His humor, though in his voice, was nowhere on his face.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my good hand, eyes fixed on him. "Not your fault." It was all I said to him, but I saw a tiny bit of darkness lift from his eyes. Nik looped my arm around his shoulders and helped me on my shaky legs. I dropped my head to my own shoulder, nose to Niko's pulse. "I lost my son."

"He's not lost yet," Niko said sternly. "Just temporarily misplaced. We'll get him back." And we'd kill every Lupa for this. He didn't have to say it; I knew he was thinking it and he knew, even if he didn't agree, that was what I was going to do.

Not sure when exactly I passed out, but sufficed to say it was a good thing we weren't far from the apartment. I doubt any of them but Ishiah was up for carrying my dead weight. Dead weight...yeah, that about summed me up.

Forgive me, Cassie. I tried.