Chapter Twenty-Two

Catcher

It took me only an hour and a half hour before I was back in the sedan, driving across the bridge into Manhattan. And an hour of that was not wait time I had approved.

I couldn't sit still at home next to the reserve. It didn't matter how warm the house felt now with our pack settling in. It didn't matter, when all I could think about was Cassie and the Leandros boys and how much danger they were in right now. They could be callous and flippant and flash their bravado as much as they wanted, but I knew the Evati. I'd heard some of the gruesome things they'd done and I knew how much they despised the Harbinger.

If Ishiah, Promise and Robin were off looking for leads regarding the Evati, I knew I could drum something up as well. Hell, Delilah frickin' knew what I had been. She would be salivating if I wanted to meet with her and I didn't mean in the sexual way. Though I could've possibly used something like that to get some information out of her should I be able to get her alone; that was if she didn't kill me first.

Even if I didn't go out to hit the pavement, I would feel better if they had another body in that house with them. I wasn't much of a fighter, but I could hold my own. And if anything should happen, I was completely willing to have Dante strapped onto my back and start running when the shit hit the fan. I might not be a fighter, but I was a damned fast wolf.

It came down to idle hands. I refused to just wait around when my friends were in danger and it wasn't just because I had a thing for Cassie. Family was family. Now that we had a pack I understood that even more than before. I'd always had Rafferty and we'd had our families; loving, loyal, and limitless. If something were to happen to Cassie or Cal then that opportunity would be torn away from Dante. He needed them both. I knew he needed them both, and Niko and Promise…even Robin and me and Raff. That boy needed as much of a fighting chance as he could get to overcome his own nature as well as defeat his evil step grandparents.

And Cassie and Cal…those two had such little confidence in their maternal and paternal instincts that if anything happened to Dante…lord, I couldn't even fathom the damage that would cause. So I decided to leave my pack for the moment. I didn't want to be the clean up crew; I wanted to be a bodyguard. So a marched into the living room where Rafferty was lounging on the couch with a net-book in his lap and told him just that.

My cousin laughed at me. "More like canon fodder," he snorted, then when he saw I was serious his humor was gone and so was my consciousness. The bastard had knocked me out. It couldn't have been for more than an hour or so, but it still pissed me off –pissed me off whenever he used his talent on me.

I woke up with a mild headache –a side effect from fighting his internal suggestion –and a fire burning in my gullet, which was just my rage not knowing where to go. "Raff, what the—" I cut myself off when I noticed he wasn't the only one in the kitchen. Unlike Cassie and Cal I didn't want my younger pack mates learning curses from me. Hunter and Chase would learn them soon enough, especially living in New York, but I didn't want to be their lesson.

I dropped my tone to a low growl, something humans couldn't do adequately enough to inspire anything but amusement. They also often got the meaning wrong, which was probably because they didn't understand the way wolves communicated. Rafferty did; years with me stuck as a wolf and a good year or so running with a real pack in Yellowstone and he knew all too well what I was saying. I'm pissed off, cousin, and I dare you to try and stop me again.

"That was wrong on so many levels, cuz," I snapped, stalking into the kitchen to give him a piece of my mind. The twins were already scrabbling over themselves to get away from me, apparently my growl was pretty intimidating…for puppies. Rafferty, on the other hand, didn't regard me with much more than a wave of his hand, which just pissed me off even more.

Mia was in the room with my cousin and her kids and actually stepped between us with her hand raised in a placating manner. That gave me pause since in all the time we'd known her she never got between me and my cousin. That didn't stop me from giving her a glare though, until Rafferty spoke. Not to me, but into a phone he held to his ear. Whoops, well, he should have known better than to take a call when I was going to wake up ready to lash out.

"Well, I'm telling you, I think it is a horrible idea," Rafferty said to whoever was on the other line with his usual snark. Obviously, the receiver hadn't asked for his opinion, but he was certainly full of them and I listened closely because his next response would tell me who it was. He chuckled at whatever was said and replied, "Fair enough, but it's still stupid."

So it was Niko. Ishiah and Promise would never call Rafferty unless it was an emergency and, while my cousin did seem tense, he wasn't ready to pack up and rush off to the rescue. If it were Robin there would be a whole lot more eye-rolling and if it were Caliban his response would have been much tighter and rougher since the little Aupheling didn't know when to stop or how to hold his tongue. So it was Niko and he had probably spoken in agreement with Rafferty, hence the chuckle. Sure, it was probably a bad idea, but try talking two half-Auphes out of a decision already made.

I waited a little longer as Niko explained something to Raff. Coming a bit closer I could hear the human's low tones and carefully chosen phrases, but all I could make out was "be there if we need you" and "I hope it doesn't come to that". Ten to one I probably hoped it didn't come to that either, but I wanted to know what 'that' was. Rafferty wrapped up the conversation around the same time that my fury dwindled to an aggravated sigh.

"We'll be here. We'll protect him. Just tell the stubborn idiots not to gate him into my couch; I like that couch." I frowned as my cousin hung up, trying my best not to over analyze that statement. Why would they gate someone here? Was it Dante? Were they going somewhere dangerous enough that they would have to gate Dante here? That didn't sit well; mommy and daddy would barely let him out of their sight last I saw and now they were tossing him our way?

Rafferty gave me a sidelong look and placed the cell phone pointedly on the counter. "Now you may go to them. They'll probably need your help. I would go as well, but it seems we are the back up safe house for orphaned half-auphes."

"Don't say that," I scolded. Seriously, 'perish the thought' actually ran through my head for a moment. "What's going on?"

"One of those peris showed up at Promise's pad. Threw down a personal ultimatum and Castiella decided to take him up on it."

My brow furrowed. "A duel?" I'd heard enough about them from the Ina Clan in Guyana. It was their means to keep some semblance of peace even in warring times. Made me wonder if they every tried that with the Auphe; what a slaughter that would have been. Regardless, Rafferty was right. That was a damned stupid idea. Even if it was just one peri against her with a ring of witnesses, who was to say those witnesses didn't pick up the slack? And for that matter, they might have taken Dante's young age into account, but I knew most of the peris didn't consider Cassie to even be peri herself, why would they imply that she had right to a duel? Or were they really that prideful and righteous…yeah, right.

"It's a trap," I said. And Raff nodded.

"They know."

That concept hit my brain like seeing a pink elephant walk through a full bar of men with Stetsons. "Then why the hell…" I answered the question myself a second later. It was Cassie and Cal; they didn't stand down from a fight either of them, plus this was an opportunity to get the Cheris clan out of Cassie's hair completely. Win the duel and all the clans were supposed to leave her alone, but that probably was moot. Unless this duel was only for her killing the Cheris clan leaders… "I'm going."

"As I said you should." And I went.

I went alone. If the fail-safe was sending Dante to Stanton Island with Rafferty then we needed just as much protection there. Rafferty wasn't given an address, so I had to drop the car off at one of the lots that over-charged (especially in Promise's neighborhood), and sprint to the vampire's building. From there all I had to pick up their scent, which wasn't hard. Their combined smell was like nothing else in the city and it wouldn't surprise me if they still ran into trouble even if the Duel went smoothly. The Evati would pick up this scent in an instant. Peri, Auphe, and human, shit they didn't even take the puck with them.

Cal's was the easiest scent to pick up, I knew it well enough and it was actually more pungent to me than even Cassie's –though not in a favorable way. I jogged down the streets in pursuit, nose in the air like a hound even in my human form. People looked at me funny, some paien even gave me the stink-eye, but no one stopped me and I didn't stop. Until I got to the subway stop.

I lost the scent. Cursing colorfully, I paced back and forth outside of the stairs leading to the underground train. There were too many smells here; there was no way I'd be able to track them down in the transit catacombs either. So many human, paien, and various other animals of the feral and domestic variety were leaving their carbon footprint inside those cramped tin trams.

I tried to call Cal, then Niko, but both phones were 'currently out of service'. That didn't bode well, unless they changed over to one of their burn phones without telling us. Somehow I doubted it was that simple. Peris were an honorable race to their own, but when it came to the other races they weren't as loyal. They had a protective instinct toward the humans, but that was about it. All other races were visceral and unworthy. They hid those inclinations well under civility and polite snubbing, but after a few drinks the slandering abounded. I was lucky that I entered a clan that was willing to change their minds once they got to know me, but not all were like that.

Cassie was an 'other' race and worse yet that 'other' was Auphe. Cal was no different to them. Son or no son, I was certain at least one of them, maybe that Joel-guy, would cut them down regardless to any claim Castiella had on the Cheris clan name. A duel would be the peri thing to do. A duel between the peri and Cassie and no one else. That's what they told her, that's what they proposed, but I knew by the hair standing on the back of my neck that they were coaxing her into a kill zone. Why did they have to be so impatient? Why couldn't they wait for Robin and Promise to come and help them? Why couldn't they at least have waited for me to come pick up Dante to get him out of harms way?

A fire truck barreled through the little traffic down on this end of the island, blaring its horn and flashing all its lights. Buildings still burned even when my friends were in trouble. Crimes were still committed and the world still turned, but when a police car and another full sized fire truck followed soon after I took notice. So did many other rubber-neckers trying to see where the fire was, literally. Per usual the fire wasn't visible above the building-blocked skyline, but the smoke was and that billowed like black ink into the midnight blue sky.

It was more than a few brownstones up in smoke. The fact that I could see the edges of flames between high rises and though the red highlighted smoke meant that one very large, very flammable building was on fire. The direction was the industrial side of lower Manhattan. I could here the onlookers commenting that it had to be a warehouse, maybe abandoned…hopefully abandoned. What I knew was that a warehouse building was a perfect locale for a duel, or a fake duel and a trap.

I grabbed the nearest body emerging from the subway depths, scarring the shit out of the poor guy. "Does this line take you to the eastside piers?"

He stuttered over his words, then regained his New York flare, yanked away from me and responded with, "Yeah, asshole. End of the line. Go there."

Don't mind if I do, but I didn't take the subway. If this fire was as aggressive as it seemed hey would have that stop closed off. So I ran. It was only a few miles away, judging by the rise of the smoke. I booked it as fast as my human legs could carry me. Which wasn't fast enough. I ground lurched softly under my feet a quarter mile in, like a car just hit a lamp post behind me. There was no accident in the vicinity though. I only knew because the flames leaped up in the distance, indicating an explosion or a massive back draft. My bets were on explosion because it happened again a few more blocks closer. Either someone was set fire to a firework warehouse or the duel was set up in a ring of C4. Was I running in the right direction? Or was this a freak accident and my friends were in Queens brushing their hands off after a job well done?

Another fire truck was screaming to get through the next intersection, but a fender-bender and a fishtailed eighteen wheeler had blocked its path with no means to back up, since New Yorkers liked to chase after the fire and ambulance trucks to get through the lights and several of them were clustered up at the tail end of the emergency vehicle. That was three trucks and I didn't think any of them had actually reached the fire yet.

I ducked across the street were traffic had jammed up, sliding across a taxi's nose and slipping into an alley way to get to 42nd street. Two miles down. East Village was a parking lot, Soho no better, but it made crossing the street a whole lot easier. A third explosion, but this one sounded softer and I caught the musical sound of glass breaking; that was a back draft. The smoke was starting to drift on the wind and hang lower in the sky line.

Crossing over St. James, I caught a glimpse of a black van weaving recklessly south, following my path. Could have been a van like any other van, but I knew in my gut that was the Vigil. And I trusted my gut. If the Vigil was pursuing this I knew I was headed in the right direction, but I wasn't going fast enough. I needed a better plan. Cal was susceptible to smoke inhalation, so was Niko, and I doubted Cassie and Dante would fair well in that inferno either. Maybe the kid was safe with Rafferty? That would be good…unless he really did become an orphan tonight.

No, I couldn't think about that. Fast, I needed to go faster, but without wheels or wings. Hah, that was it! I didn't have wings, but I certainly didn't have to confine myself to pedestrian pavement. In the next alley, I kept up my momentum and kicked off the brick siding to dart to the other side, repeating until I was high enough to grab onto the lifted fire escape. I clamored up the metal staircase and blazed across the roof. I was close enough now that most of these buildings were large and flat. Some warehouse large even. I sprinted toward the edge, but stopped quite suddenly. The fire was visible now. It brought swelling fear into my heart. That was a devastatingly huge fire. It had already taken out a square block, eating away at the back of the origin building. The fire trucks were within a few blocks, but in an instant one was turned over and I nearly fell off my building. I dropped to my knees from the shock that rocked the ground. I could see barrels sailing through the air from the center of the burning warehouse, debris of wood and beam and concrete everywhere. I could smell the arid oil on their air, thickening it in my lungs. Those assholes. They brought them to this place, knowing damned well Cal used explosive rounds, but why did they commit to such a suicide duel?

Once the tremors resided and the first fire truck finally arrived on scene, I leapt onto the next building. I was cautious now. If there were oil drums in there another explosion might occur any second. So I circled around. Following the black Vigil van's progression out of the corner of my eyes. I could see the block around the building was littered with large, unmoving objects. I figured they were unfortunate peris, until I got closer and saw my own breed lying on pavement graves. I crouched on the two story squat building not on fire three down from the inferno.

Werewolves. There were dozens of them and fire fighters were even braving the building to drag more out, though they weren't much more than charred remains at this point. It was the Evati. Had to be. So did the peris betray Cassie to the Evati to clean up a mess they couldn't moralistically do themselves, or did the Evati trick Cassie into thinking it was the peri that wanted to challenge her? And dear lord, did anyone make it out of that alive?

I squinted down at the emergency crews from my perch, watching the Vigil with diligence instead of the nausea-inducing carnage being complied on the sidewalk. I could identify most of them; werewolf, werewolf, werewolf. I could see nothing with wings and unless one of my friends was now burned beyond recognition—

I dry heaved to the side and closed my eyes for a moment; the smoke and cinders weren't helping, but it was that thought that almost made me vomit. They weren't dad. There was no way. Cassie could gate, Cal could gate, Niko could duck and roll faster than a ninja in fast forward. They were fine. They were, but I didn't see hide or hair of them in the chaos. They were gone then, left the scene of the crime. Maybe they started the fire on purpose?

I forced my eyes back open even as the smoky air caused them to tear. Jets of water were dousing the flames from both sides of the block. The truck that turned over from the final, ground-shaking bomb had been abandoned at the moment. Lights off and looking like something in a post-apocalyptic film set. The Vigil was busy lining up the bodies for identification or maybe they would pile them in the back of a truck as experimental cadavers. I didn't care honestly. There seemed to be no survivors –that I cared about – but more than likely the survivors fled before help and shackles arrived.

I turned my head to cough up some ash from my lungs. The debris was starting to fall pretty steadily by now. Niko's cell still didn't connect when I tried again. There was no guarantee that they had even been here. I couldn't smell anything besides the smoke, burning gas, and cooked dog. That didn't stop me from trying a third time on the phone. Still out of service. What the hell did I do now? Go back to the house empty-handed without a clue?

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a glimmer on the horizon. I wasn't high enough up to identify it around the skyscrapers, whether it be another flashing emergency vehicle on the way or a glitch in a strobe light ricocheting off the windows in some club, but I could identify the object that shot straight up into the sky in the same area. It drove up like a rocket, then spread an expanse of wings to catch a current before making a sharp turn north.

Cassie.

I needed a car. Roof hopping would only get me so far verses her furious flying. A cop car however…

I bounded down from my perch between this building and the one beside, hiding in the shadows. Party foul if the Vigil found me out after all. There were enough hustling bodies that I could slink between the gathering news reporters and Chanel News vans. I could have easily swiped one of them, but the idling Charger gleaming twenty feet from me was calling my name. Not that I had a yen for stealing cars, the adrenaline rush maybe, but not necessarily the illegalities of it. No, I wanted it because it was my ticket through every god-damned light in NYC.

"Hey!" I was spotted when I opened the driver's side door. The news reels quickly veered the lenses onto me, but it was too late to stop the villain. I heard a few threats of opening fire, but with unknown combustible material nearby and the reporter civilians right inside their line of fire, the threats were shallow. When I started burning rubber on my way through the parting wave of humans though, the chase was on. I had a feeling it was half-hearted. One police car and a black van, obviously Vigil driven were tailing me as I barreled up the streets.

The cop made sense – I'd just stole state property – but the only reason the super secret paien experimenters would give chase was if they pegged me werewolf. And if they pegged me werewolf, they thought I was involved with that explosion. Their haphazard weaving behind me gave me no concern though. I was after something more important than felony charges.

There was little hope I would find Cassie, even speeding in the direction she had taken, but I was the only lead I had and I did have some experience pursuing the airborne Harbinger. It was a busy night for everyone it seemed, considering the constant chatter on the police radio. There was also a small computer fastened to the dash, but as good as I was with new technology, I couldn't figure the commands while veering in and out of traffic, sometime over curbs. And from what little I could decipher from the radio garble, something big was going down in a kin-owned haven near Brooklyn Heights. Or went down. One cop called in to the dispatcher to report that there was 'nothing left living'. Cassie had rocketed up from what I thought was the lower eastside, but she could have easily been across the water.

"Little bird, what did you do?" I whispered to myself and turned the radio up. Something happened in that warehouse. Something devastating enough that it had the Harbinger come out to play. There were Kin all over that warehouse explosion. I knew without recognizing any of them that they bodies being pulled out of the flaming rubble were that of the werewolf organization, or at least ones exactly like them. Evati, Stoneblood, Kin, Aggi, they were all the same. Hence why I didn't care who sliced and diced them in the end. And the dispatcher had clearly warned her officers that whatever was happening in Brooklyn Heights had been Kin-centric. If nothing left living was literal and not an over-exaggeration out little Castiella was out for blood, specific blood.

I twisted in my seat to get my phone to call Rafferty; the only reason for her to go on an all out killing spree was not one I wanted to think about. Was it Dante or Cal? Or, good god, both? "Pick up you bastard."

"I did and I'm busy, what do you want?" I let out a breath at his callous voice; at least someone's phone was working.

"Something's wrong with Cassie."

"Meaning what? Is she hurt? Because I have my hands full with her boyfriend at the moment."

Cal was with him…that deserved another deep breath. "She's gone ballistic as far as I can tell. Dropping down on any werewolf inhabited area and tearing them to shreds. I haven't found her, but the Vigils on the hunt too."

"Make sure you find her first. She currently thinks her son and her lover were just murdered. I'm not sure if anything will ground her. Be careful." Rafferty snapped, there was a soft curse. "Cal's dying, I have to go." The line went silent after that, but I was still relieved. If Caliban wasn't dead yet, that meant my cousin could save him, most likely. There was little my cousin couldn't save someone from with the exception of humans…they were too fragile for their own good. Raff didn't say anything about Dante though…oh, shit…what if they actually…the poor baby.

My driving skills were not the drag racing par they used to be after being suck as a wolf for several years. So multi-tasking with my phone had me nearly careen into another cop car, blasted its siren up West Street. I swung wide, but turned after him. The dispatcher called for Vigil assistance near 200 West Street. I even heard the word 'Harbinger' in there. Pretty soon four sirens surrounded me, but I felt more like one of the pack than a fugitive. I went with it.

"Unknown driver, identify yourself or we will open fire." That voice was a lot clearer than the radio and it took me a second to realize it was coming from the computer, which was currently being hacked into from the look of it. No worried, fuzz, didn't bother stealing your secrets.

"Catcher Jeftichew," I called out, not sure if this thing went two-way or if I had to select something.

"Paien or non?" Two-way it was.

"Paien, werewolf. Not Kin, not involved in the incident at the pier warehouse. The Harbinger is a friend not foe. I need to get to her."

"Vigil team leader Echo-Bravo-eight-four-niner, please advise." I was still racing down the road with these guys, but no one was filling the stole car with bullets so I kept the pace. The Vigil probably had a file on me, probably knew I'd been exactly what the Kin wanted just last year, All Wolf all the time. But hopefully I got some good dog points for hating that shit and being super happy back in humanoid form. That's right humanoid; I liked humans...I hoped they knew that.

I could see more smoke a good distance in front of us. Some place still burning on one of the side roads between West and Greenwich, it looked like. "Echo-bravo-eight-four-niner, here. Be advised: Catcher Jeftichew is not a hostile and might be of aid. Keep him in sight of us and out of sight from the Kin."

I breathed a sigh of relief as I almost felt the semi-automatics lower in the cars surrounding me, but that breath was a brief calm before all of us came to skidding halts in front of another inferno. I was near the back of the chaos. Two fire trucks here; one was from East Village even, dozens of police cars. I could see them actually arresting some people, or maybe they were just trying to get the surviving werewolves out of the way.

The fire had engulfed a small club or bar; I knew there was one owned by the Kin around here and I was guessing this was it. Flames had already eaten away at the building to either side, firefighters were minimizing the damage sufficiently and nothing seemed to be exploding in this one. No one was attempting to go inside to check for survivors either, maybe everyone was out or maybe the humans just didn't give a shit anymore.

I clamored out of the cop car, now blocked in by my temporary pack of red and blue flashing lights. Held my hands up for them and decided to let the closest armed officer lead me over to a not-so-discrete black van with its moon symbol embossed on the side for all to see. I didn't recognize EB849, but I also didn't know that many Vigil members. Personally, I didn't know any. So I was kinda assuming this was EB849.

"Hi," I greeted the man clad in black and black. He wasn't wearing sunglasses, but his scowl and posture said secret government agent all the same. And he didn't give a shit about it. He rattled off some orders to the arriving cops, but was observant enough to cuff me (literally cuff me) when I attempted to slip away and find Cassie.

"Hey, hey, wait a second!" I twisted easily out of his grip –he was just a human after all– before he could snap the second cuff on and shackle my arms behind me like a criminal. And just to show my appreciation of that courtesy I shoved him back into his own van. "I'm not a foe."

My resistance rewarded me with a gun muzzle pressed to my temple. I growled, but let EB849 up. "You even said it. I'm not a hostile. I just want to get to my friend and talk her down."

"How many fires have you seen tonight, werewolf?" I frowned at his question; three so far, but I didn't want to say it.

"There are six at the moment," he supplied. His narrowed eyes almost slits as he stared me down. He was a tall bastard, skin darker than the richest of chocolate and eyes matching. He wasn't an officer. Robin and Cal had described the organization as almost militant in hierarchy, but this guy was obviously special ops, a cleaner…an assassin. "One of them is a small house fire, one a kitchen fire at a soon to be condemned restaurant probably committing insurance fraud and four of them," he paused dramatically to lift his gun and holster it at his side. "Are due to your 'friend's' psychotic rampage."

He pointed to my left and I subconsciously followed the motion from the corner of my eyes. Another pile of bodies being stacked and tagged and organized. I counted fifteen just in my line of sight. "Her body count? Sixty-seven werewolves of varying association, five civilians –human civilians– and two of my own men. She is a threat, a very hostile threat, and she will be put down tonight."

"You can't," I countered, even if listening to him already had me want to flee. She was killing humans? Cassie didn't seem the type even if they were in her way, which meant she had completely lost it. "I need to see her. I can talk her down. She thinks they murdered her lover and her son, please, who would think straight after that?"

"Son?"

"I can talk her down," I repeated avoiding the raised-brow look EB was giving me. Apparently, news didn't travel quickly to the outskirts of Vigil Co. Made me wonder who knew about Dante and who didn't and what would have been done about that…if he was still alive. Oh, damn, did I hope he was still alive. And I hoped to hell I could actually talk Castiella down from her mental breakdown.

"It isn't up for discussion. You find her first you're welcome to try. We'll return your body to your cousin for you." He patted my shoulder and unclasped the one cuff around my wrist. It was probably the sweetest gesture a Vigil member would offer and I somehow knew he would do just that. If something happened to me he was being courteous enough to assure me my body would go back to Rafferty and not their underground labs. At least, I hoped he wasn't just shooting of his mouth.

"Thanks."

"Don't get in our way."

"I have every intention too," I countered with a playful grin. I certainly didn't feel it right now. Not with knowing my friend had taken a great leap of the deep end, another one was in surgery fighting for his life and their son…could be dead before two. I'd seen Caliban on the brink of Auphe before; I didn't want to witness what a seasoned paien could do with that kind of anger and power finally unleashed. The large man didn't stop me as I weaved around the stacked up cars and cops. The wind was teasing my nose with her faint scent. I jogged up West Street to the next side street, took a whiff then did the same at the next one. Her scent was stronger down that street so I turned, paused and glanced behind me. And there she was.

When I saw her there was no questioning her sanity any longer. I was frozen for several seconds, part of me wanted to duck behind the edge of the building and wait for the monster to sidle passed and part of me wanted to tackle her to the ground and call to her until she woke from her internal nightmare. The second option would have been the death of me. I knew that without doubt. Her image was that of an angel seeking absolute vengeance, both beautiful and terrifying.

She stood on a railing with the Jersey skyline as her back drop. The lights silhouetted her like the cover of a fantasy novel. Her wings were lifted high on her back; they used to be white with kisses of charcoal, but now they were a definitive blood red…soaked in it. Her hair was the same; matted, sooty, and catching the wind coming off the Hudson. Her eyes glowed blood red even from a distance. All that was missing was the crack of thunder and flash of lighting for me to feel that God just dropped the angel of destruction at our feet.

There was a series of growls, echoing from all direction as the sound bounced off the high rises on this side of the river. I pressed myself to the building as several werewolves bumped by me, many of them were singed or burned from the fires Cassie was obviously causing in their establishments. Some of them even had the remains of broken handcuffs on their paws. No human cop was going to stop them from getting their revenge.

A few of them eyed me, but I waited until I saw one that looked mostly humanoid save for a severe overbite and yellow wolf eyes. It wasn't that I couldn't communicate with those on four legs or close enough to such, it was just quicker to speak in my current tongue. I caught the wolf by the crook of his elbow, of which he didn't appreciate especially when I followed the obstruction with, "You don't want to fight her. Walk away."

"Kin don't walk away," he snarled at me. He knew I wasn't Kin, knew in a heartbeat, and usually that in and of itself would start a fight since I was on their territory. Their focus was on a bigger much more dangerous fish.

"She is half Auphe and she's lost her mind. Stand down—"

The wolf shoved me up against the building, narrowing his eyes so his bushy eyebrows almost curved around to the tear duct. "That creature has burned four of our businesses to the ground and killed dozens—"

"I'm guessing it's more like hundreds at this point," I interrupted. I shot a glance across the street to the waterfront. Cassie's gaze wasn't even on the wolves as they approached. She was facing the water, wings stretched to their full span, blood dripping from the pinion feathers. "It will be hundreds more if you don't leave her be and let me talk to her."

He backhanded me like a pup in their lowest order and I growled, but let it go. If he wanted to die that badly I had no qualms in standing back and letting it happen. I hated the Kin and everything they stood for, brethren in race or no. I stayed against the building; just at the edge so could see her. I would have called out, but I was pretty sure it would be useless. It wasn't willing to try when twenty bastards that probably smelled similar to me were circling her.

When the first wolf stepped within leaping distance of her, he did just that. All it took was a swift pivot and a slashing of those horrifying black claws and the creature was disemboweled on the concrete. With blood in the air, the others launched. Usually I would be fearful. That was a lot of enemies for her to fight at once and wolves were notorious for hunting cooperatively and efficiently. But when an Auphe was cornered and pissed off… I doubted an army could stop her now.

She hurdled into the air from the railing, before the next werewolf could collide. It caught my breath as she rose. Her wings were so ridged they looked to be tearing through the fabric of space themselves. Two gates trailed after her, not the vaguely irregular decagon or the human shaped ones that wrapped around them –the ones that I'd see Cal produce. These trailed after her like a glowstick's afterglow in an overexposed photo. A severe gray and electric white crackling in a pattern like jeans being ripped apart. The fiber of reality as I knew it was torn. It followed her every movement from the air to the ground and every single twist and turn. The werewolves had no chance, as they tried to avoid the…well, voids, that would sever their limbs off, and a few times their bodies in half, if knocked into them.

I saw them start ripping farther when they began looking like a roller coaster around her, complete with loops and dips that were starting to bleed into each other. My heart started picking up speed when I saw two of them touch and snap open at least five inches more than their width combined. Soon they would all form together, it would be a barrier around her…a huge uncontrolled rippling dome that would either explode or implode and take her away from here. And I didn't think she was in the right mind to notice this.

"Cassie!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I could only imagine the light show this was displaying to the high rises around us. The Vigil had their cleanup work cut out for them…if Manhattan even survived this. "Cassie, stop!" Deaf ears, but I knew it would be like that. I had to try. Jumping into the fray didn't seem like a viable option before, but now it was more than just a few asshole wolves on the line.

I edged forward as she finished off three more werewolves with little more than a skin-shaving bite mark on her forearm. The fight was becoming more and more obscured as the gates pieced together. If I waited too long I wouldn't even be able to get in there. "Cassie!" The final wolf, or at least the last one willing to fight (many of them had slunk back in fear of the monster they were beholding), caught her claws across his face and went stumbling back in to a very large portion of gate. The majority of him disappeared, leaving a thigh and a bit of flesh connecting his tail, the rest was history. Could have been worse though; he could technically survive with one leg gone, as long as she didn't open the gates into Tumulus. The other werewolves skirted around the area, onto trash cans, prowling around behind think-trunked trees. All of them were growling nervously, wanting to avenge the deaths of many, too frightened to engage, but too stubborn to turn tail.

Another ribbon of gate crackled into another. Damn, it was like watching storm cells collide, no, more like watching a match touching a photograph, peeling away reality with every angle the flame rushed. "Cassie!" I tried again, now that the immediate threat was gone, I'd hoped she would reel in the gates, but she wasn't. She wasn't even moving. She stood in the center horrifying red eyes now trained on me. I could barely even see her face with the gate as thick as it was now. I pushed off the building and started toward her, but something caught my eye from the parking garage behind me. A red beam of light. A sniper laser. My heart stopped in my chest when a little red dot appeared right over Cassie's heart.

She was still staring at me. "Cassie, GO!"

Then, boom, everything fell apart.