CHAPTER TWELVE

CAL

Familiars. Every Dungeons and Dragons, fairy-loving, human pretending that witches were real knew what a 'familiar' was. Usually seen as a loyal, fluffy, intelligent woodland or jungle creatures that gave guidance and aid to their dear friend. But truth was stranger than fiction, right? And like everything else that seemed too belly-rubbing good to be true it was dead wrong. Animals that intelligent were never normal animals. They were monsters in Bengal tiger or grey wolf clothing. Within a second it could transform into something much less cuddly and chomp down. Probably when it felt its dear friend no longer benefited it. That was just the lay of the land. That was how the world worked.

Our familiar wasn't loyal, fluffy, or that extraordinarily intelligent, but, what the hell, he guided and aided us right up to the door of the apartment we needed all the same. Might as well let him cash in on the unfortunate carrion we found in the meager studio apartment off of Flushing Avenue in Queens.

I watched the muscles under the withered tan skin of the undead cat roll as it circled around the male werewolf carcass, sniffing cautiously. I nudged my toe to the second body, this one in full wolf form with blood on her teeth, but just as dead. I glanced over at my brother, then Goodfellow. "Well, this was a bust."

Niko gave me a warning look, then turn and left the apartment with his cell phone appearing by his ear. I didn't ask what he was doing. One or both of these two were Catcher and Rafferty's informants, which meant the Kin were that much closer to figuring out where the werewolf healing duo was. Either that or they just killed the couple once they found out where the postcards were going. I still didn't want to be the one to call up and tell Catcher that his elusive mailman was lying in a puddle of his own blood and guts in the center of his kitchen.

Spartacus peered over at me from his perch on the male wolf's shoulder, where it wasn't torn open to display all internal organs in ruddy browns and filmy purples. I met his ember-flickering hollowed eyes. "Good boy, Sparty, have at."

"Really?" Goodfellow groaned, scowling at me. Spartacus ignored his 'master' and started gnawing at the dried muscle around one exposed rib. I shrugged, though I did have to avert my eyes. There were was even some things I didn't want to see; it gave me bad flashbacks to when Niko forced me to watch National Geographic like it was a Friday night horror movie.

"Better the dead than the living," I told the puck. Salome and the last mummy cat left over from the fleet, which I dropped off at Goodfellow's apartment when I only half remembered I was a monster, were ditched for the day. Robin claimed that Spartacus had the best nose of them all and none of us wanted to deal with corralling three zombie cats along the streets of New York. He was right about Sparty anyway; waving the postcard under the cat's smeller (if he could still be called a cat) had us trailing after our only lead of the moment.

Probably interesting watching three grown men following after a hairless cat like a row of little chicks. When we tried to get our consolation bloodhound to sniff out Dante he sneezed at the blanket and continued cleaning his claws, apathetic to my desperation. Why he decided to be amiable with the werewolf's scent was beyond me, but we followed.

Unfortunately, our intention had been to ask the werewolf how the Kin found out about his part-time mail route or, more importantly, if he knew where the Lupa pack might be. Instead we picked the lock to an apartment already tossed and two bodies strewn across the floor two or three days dead. I wandered into the kitchen, stepping over Sparty and the werewolf. The refrigerator was littered with receipts, notes, and a few photos. One of them caught my eye.

A humanoid female with an impressive set of wolf teeth grinned at me with her arms wrapped around Catcher's neck. I only knew the ruddy-haired man was Catcher because of his eyes. He always had a stare that was far more intelligent than his forest-native ancestors even as a wolf. I remembered him from that picture in his room too. The one where he and Rafferty were standing with arms slung over each other's shoulders on the mountain face of some ski slope, grinning and loving life. It was the same smile. The werewolf must have been elated to be back on two feet.

I plucked the photo off the fridge and passed it to Goodfellow. "That's Catcher and I'm assuming the female here," I motioned to the still wolf body on the floor of the foyer. "Is the other smiling face."

Robin grunted, surveying the photo with a tilt of his head. "Which means they were either grateful clients or close friends and judging by the amount of patience and virtue one would have to contain to be friends with the werewolf cousins without trying to kill one of them I would assume the first."

"Which means this is moot," I grumbled. "If these two knew where the Lupa were they aren't telling now."

"We might be able to find out where Rafferty and Catcher are—"

"I don't want to know," I cut in, leveling a look of irritation on the puck. I didn't. I didn't want any clue as to where the Jeftichews were because that would give me the temptation to plea for their help, or use them to get Dante back. I was getting that anxious. I was getting that paternal and it fucking scared me. I wanted to tell Delilah where they were because, damn it, Rafferty could give a pack of wolves heart attacks in tandem with brain aneurysms without breaking a sweat. Breaking his morals, yes, becoming something like the anti-healer bastard we killed last year, sure, but he could do it and I would have my son safe and sound in my arms. It was a dark, desperate thought, which was why I didn't want to know. "Let's get out of here."

In the same moment I said it, Niko slipped back into the apartment with a deep scowl and suspicious glance over his shoulder. "We have company and I don't believe it's a visiting friend."

I pulled my Eagle out of its holster. "Human, nonhuman, or monster?

"Human," Niko replied, facing the door that he left ajar. "Five. Gray jumpsuits. Black van outside. I couldn't see the plate, but my guess is there's a moon and star insignia on the corner."

"Mother fuckers," I growled. The Vigil. I lifted my gun and waited, well aware that Niko was eyeing me with caution. They'd contained me once, they'd drugged and experimented on me, and I never really got to pay them back for the experience. Nik knew well I would shoot the first prick that walked in the door and with this in mind, he stepped into my line of fire. "Nik…"

"Gun down, blade out. They're humans. There's no reason to stoop to their level," he countered.
I didn't obey, but I did lower my Desert Eagle as the first two unsuspecting lackeys stepped into the apartment. They took one look at the three of us and the two dead bodies and promptly dropped the supplies in their arms to hold up their hands in surrender.

"Sorry, we were told this area was vacant," one murmured; a stout man, compact limbs, an impressive black mustache and a scar that bisected one furry eyebrow. Beside him was another man, this one lanky with skin that probably hadn't seen the light of day for several months. His blue eyes had a bit of that staring-at-the-computer-for-too-many-hours look to them.

"We're just the cleaners, man." Ah, correction. Blue-eyes was high. Amusing. The rest of the group ambled up into the space outside the hall, peering over shoulders to see what the hold up was. The leader of this half-baked team squeezed by and my gun came back up.

"Oh, that fucking figures," I snarled. Samuel King; I was utterly not surprised to see him. Vigil croonie, George's uncle, and the man that almost unmade the world with the Auphe four years ago. He limped in front of the first two guys, regarding me with a raised eyebrow and no weapon. It was a step up from last time when I was trying to blackmail him into getting us into the Vigil headquarters so I could save Cassie. He arrived at my apartment with a gun that time, now all he had at his side was a tiny flare gun strapped to his thigh.

"That should be my line, Mr. Leandros. What are you doing here?"

"Friends of a friend," I replied.

Samuel snorted through his wide nose. "Paying your respects"

"Sure."

"Then I assume you'll be letting us do our job without incident." He motioned for his team to enter the building, ordering them to clean up quickly; they had another call waiting. I stepped out of their way, holstering my gun now that it was clear bullets wouldn't be necessary to take out the lab rats.

"What the hell is that?" Stocky whispered to High-as-a-kite. They had names embossed on their jumpsuits, but I didn't bother to commit them to memory. They were staring at Spartacus, unsure how to remove him from the carcass. I patted my thigh, catching the mummy cat's attention. Eyeing the hazmat crew, Spartacus slunk off the carrion and over to me, weaving between my feet before he clawed up Robin's leg to perch on the puck's shoulder. To give credit, Robin didn't so much as flinch; I knew how sharp those claws were too.

Robin followed me out of the kitchen, but where he moved off toward the entrance I spun to face Samuel. He wasn't in a jumpsuit like the others. Instead he was layered in as much black as me and Niko, only he didn't have the arsenal I did.

"Sammy, I have some questions for you."

He didn't seem particularly frightened by me, but that might have had something to do with Nik standing behind me ready to stop any vengeful act I might attempt to proceed with. "I probably can't answer them. This is a demotion if you haven't gathered. After I led you into the facility you ultimately escaped from they removed me from that clearance. I didn't know much about the Preventative division to begin with, but I have no idea what's been going on within that division now. I'm not even allowed beyond the lobby level."

I glared. I didn't care what they did to him. He aided their little experiments, whether his hands were on the scalpel or not. "I just want to know what they did to us in there. What they were planning for Cassie."

He ran a hand over the dark skin of his cheek and rubbed at one temple. "I don't know, Cal. My assumptions are just that and I doubt they hold anymore credence than yours. That division of the Vigil is under review right now, because of your escape and Goodfellow's threats. They don't know if they want to remain indebted to a puck or if they should just clear out and cut losses."

"That would be a lot of loss," Niko observed. Robin had told us the deal he made with Samuel; he didn't want Ishiah to have to pick up the literal pieces of his brothers after Castiella and Nik slaughtered them and I didn't blame him. It was nice having leverage on the Vigil anyway. One false move against any of us and another would tell the paien, preternatural, world all about the little labs the bastards had. We would reveal The Vigil weren't the silent observers they claimed to be if we had to. Apparently, that was enough of a threat that they hadn't even shadowed me or Robin for months, even after we exploded their second largest facility.

"Better for it," one of the techs muttered from the kitchen. She was a handsome woman in the way that she looked like she could pass for the opposite gender pretty easily, especially with no make-up and her hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. She stood just as tall as her male team members and almost as broad; not that such was saying much -most of these cleaners were pretty scrawny. Samuel cleared his throat to try and get her back in line, but she wasn't having it. "I don't agree with their actions. You should know that many don't. Those labs are cruel and inhumane."

"Bennett."

She disregarded her superior's warning and stepped up next to the fridge. "Don't act like you disagree, King." She panned her eyes over to me, they were an interesting brown –more yellow than chocolate and rather intense. "The nonhuman monsters of the world should be killed or contained, no different from human monsters. For a long time I thought that was all of them. But then there are nonhumans like you and the puck that were imprisoned there. As well as beings that were no more harmful than a human with a slingshot. Some nonhumans are not much different than humans on the primitive level. They just want to survive; there is no sin in that. And really, what sinful thing have you done recently?"

I considered a joke about masturbation and the holy bible, but refrained. The truth was I hadn't been a very bad boy recently. Other than slaughtering my 'brothers and sisters' in Nevah's Landing and some might consider that pest-control. The last humans we had killed were of the Vigil and it had been indirect during the explosions that set me and Cassie free. As much as the urge hit me on occasion I didn't kill unless it was merited. Threatening and harming were completely different animals though.

Bennett smiled at my silence; it actually made her more feminine. It suited her. "I'm guessing the silence is because you can't think of anything."

"He killed humans, Bennett," Stocky interrupted. "He killed our colleagues."

"Because they were hurting him. You can't cage an animal and not expect it to fight. It's the basic nature of all of us; fight or flight." She returned to look at me after admonishing her co-worker over her shoulder. "You want to know what they did to you and the girl. I can't tell you anything for sure, but there are rumors—"

"Bennett," Samuel said sharply.

I rolled my shoulders in growing irritation and cast a vicious look upon their leader. I wasn't against throwing him up against another wall, or knocking him out and forcing Bennett to tell me what she knew.

"We don't have the time. The Kin have been on a bloody path, searching for something," Samuel told me as if that would sequester me. Bennett sighed then went back to helping her team with hefting the female wolf into a body bag. "It's like an arms war. They are all trying to get to the treasure first, but we have no idea what it is."

Which meant Delilah made the mistake of telling someone she knew how to become All Wolf. They were all after Rafferty and the stubborn bastard wasn't answering our calls. He answered one –the first one– to tell us to stop being babies, he was on his way. Moron. It wasn't just Delilah now, it was all the Kin. How the fuck were we supposed to stop all the Kin and, damn it, I knew Delilah wouldn't kill Dante without reason or me witness to it, but if another pack got him…

"Is it you?" Samuel asked. "Are you what they're after?" He probably saw the deadened look cross my face. I lifted my eyes to refocus them on his searching gaze.

"The Vigil. Those rumors. Did any of them talk about those bastards fucking with Cassie's hormones? Implanting eggs into her?" I didn't care anymore. I didn't care if the Vigil knew. They were the observers, they saw almost everything that went on in this city. They could track down that van and I could get my son back and if they tried to take him from me, Bennett would see what a monster truly was.

"Cal," Niko hissed and tried to pull me back from Samuel. "We don't have time for this either."
I shrugged him off and bared my teeth at him. Didn't do that often, not to Nik, but stress and fear did not condone a very sane little brother. "I want to know!" I spun back on Samuel, lodging my arm against his throat and shoving him back against the door frame. I felt his flare gun nudge to my thigh. "A flare gun isn't going to kill me."

"No, but a tranquillizer gun will drop you before you can kill me," Sammy replied even as I choked him. I tensed and glanced down again. All right, so now I knew what a tranquillizer gun looked like. I already knew what they could do to me, but the last time the Vigil had known who they were facing, would have planned for sedative that could take down a half Auphe. This time Samuel had no idea I would be here, so did I chance that the tranq wouldn't fell me even aimed at the artery in my thigh or did I just let go and try for another avenue like Niko was pleading?

I eased up on his throat, but didn't let Samuel go; I was never one for the easy road after all. The movement that had flourish behind me settled and when I glanced over my shoulder Niko and Robin were holding two of the techs hostage with blades. Niko held Bennett with a short throwing knife to her ribs ready to puncture a lung and Robin held his long sword against High-as-a-kite's carotid. Apparently, when I attack they had tried to as well. Not too smart. The other two were unconscious on the floor with the half-cleaned mess the Kin left behind.

"I told you what I know, Caliban," Samuel surrendered. He always was a good guy. He didn't want his team hurt…just like me. I respected Samuel for a lot of things, I didn't trust him and didn't like him, but he was still a good guy and I still respected him. "Everything else is all hearsay and rumor. Everyone has opinions and all are different." I tilted my head to indicate I still wanted to hear it. I didn't care if they were rumors; rumors came from some kind of truth. "Some say the Preventative division was attempting to create a weapon, some say an ally, either out of the two of you or from the two of you. I don't know any more than that. Please, let them go."

"And they thought they could contain us for that long?" I hissed out. My mind going a mile a minute. The Vigil really did want to create Dante for their own purposes, but what a fucking gamble! To think they could keep Cassie and I locked up for so long? They thought we would just obediently raise our son however they wanted? They thought we wouldn't break out the moment he was more than a bundle of cells? Or had they planned to kill us when Dante was born? And we had no idea, we had no clue it was even possible when we got out much earlier than they planned. Cassie left me…right afterward, she left me to stop the Auphe. What if she'd been impregnated by them? I knew those malicious pricks had done it before; trying to breed her and create their next big thing. There were so many things that could've gone so catastrophically wrong!

"Caliban, I don't mean you any harm. I don't trust you anymore, but I don't mean you any harm. So please, let my team go. We're just here to clean up the Kin's mess."

"They're after someone they believe can create the All Wolf," Niko explained. Samuel straightened under my hold in surprise. My arm was on his chest now, no longer choking him, but keeping him in place. Nik and Goodfellow released their hostages, though no one moved from their standing positions. "I believe the Lupa pack started this race to the holy grail."

"Is there merit in the claim? Could someone really turn a werewolf into a wolf?" Bennett decided to join the conversation again; I kinda admired her fearlessness either that or I pitied her trust in people. Namely me. Nik said nothing in response to her question, frowning.

"That doesn't matter," I answered for him. "Not to me. What matters to me is that the Kin thinks we know where this idiot is and they want us to tell them." I stepped back from Samuel and the tranquillizer gun went directly back into the holster on his thigh. I felt my voice loosing its bite, but didn't stop; maybe the human waver would help my efforts in getting them to help me. "The Vigil's little experiments on Cassie worked. She's dead because of it and now the Lupa pack has my son. They'll kill him if I don't bring them what they want."

"Your son," Samuel repeated. "Castiella produced a child?"

"You're lucky it's my son. She was in Tumulus for the past eight months, imagine if it'd been one of them." That silenced Samuel and he looked over at his conscious team. It took him a little while, at least thirty seconds, to process what I was saying. He took two steps into the kitchen and pulled out his gun, shooting a dart into the corpse of the male through the half open body bag. No one jumped at the action, though it confused the hell out of me.

"Lawthers," he barked at his tech under the influence. High boy startled into a bit more aware state. "Call in for back up. Tell them the male was still conscious and attacked us. He knocked Edwards and Kinner unconscious, before the dart was administered. He died unconscious. Bennett and I left to see if we could track the Kin that were here."

"Do this often?" Goodfellow smirked. "Because if so many of the famous and political deaths are becoming less of a mystery the more time I spend around you Vigil."

"No, I don't do this often," Samuel growled. He looked at me. "This child, how old is he?"

"Barely two years," Niko answered. "Time in Tumulus accelerated his age."

"And his mind?" His eyes flickered between me and Nik. "I don't want to be rushing in against orders to save a child that will one day destroy the world."

I set my jaw. Not sure how to respond to that. If I could help it, if I could raise him well enough I hoped that I wouldn't come to that, but he was half Auphe. We couldn't deny the danger there. "I can't say that he won't, but right now he's just a scared little boy." There, that wasn't a lie or false hope.

Samuel looked over to Niko for confirmation and whatever he saw in my brother's face provided it. "How can I help?"

"The Lupa have him and another mixed bred child in a van. Black, plates unknown, but it will be in constant movement, weaving through the city." Niko explained. I noticed that he failed to tell Samuel it was his niece that gave us that information. Part of me wondered how Uncle Sammy felt about her gun-toting boyfriend.

Samuel grabbed Bennett's arm and guided her in front of him. High boy, who I figured out wasn't actually high, just high-strung, was obediently calling in to the Vigil relaying every aspect of the message with ease. It would give Sammy and Bennett time to stay off the grid; and honestly, they were tracking the Kin, possibly even the ones that hit this apartment. "I'll keep in contact, tell you when I find it, but I can't help you anymore than that. If the Preventative division finds out their experiment was successful they will sent a Ghost team in to try and retrieve it. I'll try and keep them in the dark for as long as I can, but I make no guarantees."

"If the Vigil takes him, I make no guarantees either."

Samuel stared at me for a moment, the side of his mouth pulling into a sad smile. "I would never blame you for anything you do to keep your family safe."

It was a jab as well as a truce. He was asking for forgiveness for what he had done to save his brother, for how he had treated me after I'd gotten his niece into trouble, for his decision to join the Vigil in order to keep his own and so many other human families safe. I said it before, he was a good guy. Better than I could ever be, but for everything I would do for my brother I wouldn't...no, strike that I would make a deal with the Auphe in a heartbeat to save my brother if I believed for a second they'd uphold their side.

Suddenly I felt a little guilty for all the shit I piled on Sammy. He was an idiot for trusting the Auphe, but he was just trying to save his family. And here I was proclaiming death to any who touch my son with ill intent. Hypocrisy thou had a name and it was Caliban. "Truce," I offered with an open palm.

Samuel smiled a little wider and took my hand. "Just keep my niece out of this from now on."

I snorted; obviously he did know where we got that information about the van. "Like I can control her any better than you." He nodded in acquiesce.

We followed Sammy and Bennett out of the apartment, but we split at the entrance. They took the back and we took the front, it was a bit different than what we were used to. Robin clapped me on the back once we were trudging, defeated, down to the subway. "We'll make this work, Cal. We'll get him back." I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and he slowed beside me.

This was so fucked up. I wasn't even equipped to keep myself alive, how was I supposed to protect and raise a little kid? I had him for less than a week and his life was in danger. He was kidnapped, caged, and scarred for life and there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't know how to find him, other than to follow the trail of bodies the Kin was apparently leaving behind or scourer the city blindly to track down that damned van. If they were even using the van anymore. Shit, what if they moved him?

Robin had been staring at me, not that I met his gaze. The emotions that were swirling in my chest made it burn; red rage, black guilt had been eating away at me from my stomach outward. It felt like acid to my cells, constricting any logical action that might reach my brain. I couldn't think of anything; not one single blip of an idea. My son was in danger, and I couldn't think of a damned thing to help get him back.

Robin grabbed my head, tilting it up to force my eyes to meet his. I smacked him away, glaring; there was only so much affection I could handle coming from the puck, especially when I was in such a foul mood. "We willfind him, Caliban. Now I want you to go back to your apartment and pass out for at least an hour, I don't care if Niko has to drug you." He cast a pointed look toward Nik, who'd stopped a pace behind us. "I'm going grace my lover with my presences while simultaneously finding out everything I can among the tired, inebriated, and depraved patrons of the Ninth. Agreed?"

I didn't answer him, just stared with a more than likely blank expression. Robin tilted his head, a wicked smirk sliding over his features, even reaching his green eyes. I never wished to know what lecherous and unspeakable things that went on in Robin's head and therefore he surprised me with how fucking far he would go to get the reaction he wanted sometimes. Like now. Because he didn't like listless Cal, he decided to awaken horribly appalled Cal.

My gun came out the moment he grabbed for me again, but he caught it and my nape before I could shove the weapon into his side or hip. And then there was no where to go; I froze for a split second like a child faced with their worst nightmare. I assumed he was attacking me to snap me out of my apathetic rut, which he was, but it wasn't the punch or slap I expected. It wasn't even a slap on the ass, which I would have expected. He had my gun wrist pointed high and wide, and my nape firmly in his other hand, so all I had was my injured arm free to grab his curly mop and wrenching his mouth from mine. From there it was my knee to his stomach, the barrel of my gun to his shoulder, and my free hand wiping at my mouth like a five-year-old that had just been kissed by Aunt Edna. "Loman, what the fuck!"

He rubbed at his shoulder, but otherwise looked unfazed. Actually he looked like a preening peacock. "Just giving you sweet dreams, my painfully young, tragically inexperienced, dear friend."

"I hate you," I growled, scrubbing my sleeve over my mouth again. The puck kissed me. That bastard finally crossed the line I had drawn with the thickest mental Sharpie I could find the first moment I met him. "Too far, Goodfellow, too damned far."

He chuckled, gave me a wink, and walked off down the street with his hands in his pockets and a whistled tune trailing behind him. I wanted to spit, but knew it wouldn't do much good; the puck had kept his tongue to himself, thankfully, probably well aware would I have bitten the ever-flapping muscle off should he have intruded that much. Niko was smiling when I looked over at him, still wiping at my mouth petulantly. It wasn't a blatant smile, but his blond eyebrows were raised and just one corner of his mouth quirked up.

"Some protector you are."

"I knew he wasn't going to hurt you." I glared. Nik shrugged. "Scar you for life perhaps, but no harm there."

"We'll see how smug you are when he tries that on you," I growled. "We all know which brother he's partial too." Niko snorted as if something like that was unheard of. Honestly, I doubted Goodfellow would have been able to get past Niko's defenses and I knew he tried before. I knew why the puck assaulted me too; I knew because he succeeded. I felt something other than rage and guilt and that balanced me. Granted it was pure disgust, but it differed from my recent emotional repertoire.

"You find this funny." I snapped. Niko's smile was growing as he followed after me when I started walking toward the subway. "Your little brother was just molested by a lust demon that has apparently lost the meaning of monogamy and you're laughing about it."

"Don't get your panties in a twist; I hardly think he's willing to give up his declaration to monogamy or devotion to Ishiah for you." I felt the twang of the flat of a blade against one heel and glanced back. Apparently, he didn't trust Robin not to hurt me as much as he claimed; his katana was unsheathed.

"Son. Kidnapped. Focus, please," I snapped. Not that we could focus on much. The demand sobered my brother back into a frown and he returned his weapon to its scabbard. I sighed and ran my hands over my face. Damn it I smelled like a fucking forest now; puck cooties all over me. "Let's just go home." It was all we could do. Sit and wait...I was never a patient person, I could not stress this enough.

I didn't have to wait long for my nightmares to be realized. And, honestly, I could have waited longer.