Miriam sat in the passenger seat and Shel in the back as they drove through the evening.

Miriam suddenly spoke without turning. “So how come you’re working with Wolfe, Shel? I mean, no offense, but you appear utterly unsuited to the rigors of our world. Like, really unsuited for it. Naked for it, even.”

‘Our’ world, you sheltered kitten? “Now that you’re not making up stories about holding my leash, you got all cocky again, Miriam?”

Shel cut in. “I have a Divine and mortal mixed deck. I’m not helpless.”

Miriam laughed. “With Divine being effective against Infernal and Mortal weak to it. Interesting. But still, why follow our grumpy Wolfe around? Especially if you aren’t sleeping with him. We have more suitable replacements for him if he gets too old—and since he has a deck, we hardly need one now.”

Shel caught Wolfe’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and he briefly held his finger to his mouth.

“Um, just general training—I can’t talk about it much.”

Wolfe grimaced. General training, she could talk about. It’s an obvious lie.

Wolfe caught sight of someone walking down the sidewalk on the street they were on—Main—and slammed the brake pedal down hard. Miriam gasped as she was squeezed against her seatbelt and Shel gave a squeak.

“Wha-What?” Miriam asked.

“There!” Wolfe hissed, pointing at six men walking down the street in front of him. In the front was a man almost as tall as Wolfe’s own six-two, in a wife-beater that showed off his massive, tattooed arms—each of which had an extraordinarily detailed, ornate cobra wrapping around the bicep. Even from behind, he was recognizable.

“What?” Miriam repeated.

“That’s Nico, the Cobras’ head enforcer and their second strongest deckbearer! The guy that gave me my scar! Your dad asked me to take a Cobra deckbearer out, and he’s their best. I can just run up on the sidewalk at the right moment and turn him into a smear on your dad’s bumper!”

“Do it!” Miriam said with ghoulish enthusiasm. “I wanna see how it works!”

“You can’t!” Shel called out in a shrill voice.

Wolfe glanced into the rearview mirror to catch her mouthing “Kevin” at him, and she pointed to one of the practically carbon-copy Cobra thugs who trailed after Nico.

“What! Why not?!” Miriam asked, turning to face Shel. “That fucker is almost certainly the one who killed Uncle Heinrich!”

When did she start paying attention to the business? Wolfe thought.

Before he could analyze that, though, Miriam continued. “We have to take them out. The fuckers deserve it. My cousins, Ian especially, were absolutely beside themselves with rage and despair!”

Wolfe wondered how true that was—he supposed it probably was at some level, but Heinrich’s kids lived with their respective moms, who had most of the custody, and hadn’t seen their dad much in years. Except Ian, who was in the business and lived on his own.

“No, Shel’s right,” Wolfe said. “We do have to fight them, but better not to make it public. Let’s tail them and see where they go, and I’ll handle it from there.”

Miriam furrowed her brow and turned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “I think vehicular manslaughter would have been just fine for them, thank you. But you do you.”

Pretty sure it’s first-degree murder if I aim for them, Wolfe thought to himself. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t killed before. And no matter how much the punks he had ended might have deserved it, that wouldn’t fly in the courts if they ever caught up with him.

In his rearview mirror, Shel mouthed, “Thank you.”

Wolfe slowly tailed the group, which turned down a side street—Industrial Avenue. Wolfe checked the street and then pulled his phone up, switching to the directions he had gotten earlier.

Fuck, they’re going for the pound.

Wolfe wondered how they had found out, pissed that everything was happening at once.

Then he calmed a bit. Because on the other hand… At least three of my jobs are meeting in one place.

Wolfe drove past Industrial, then turned and drove down a different side street, slowly making a circle. He wanted to catch them right as they entered the building, but before they entered the dungeon.

“So, what’s your deck?” Shel asked Miriam as Wolfe circled.

She flushed. “My deck was paid for, and I’ve traded a bit to improve it. It’s composed of a lot of random cards, but I’ve managed to get three Dragon cards and three Fire cards into it. I was trying to go for ramping deck—two of my Dragon cards are dragon eggs from last season.”

Wolfe didn’t know what those did. “Why is that special?”

“Each dragon egg is technically a creature spell that costs one Dragon power. But if I have them out, I can have each count as one Dragon and one generic power to bring a Dragon card out and once the dragon card is summoned, it has no drawdown. Each dragon egg is a rare. My deck is pretty pathetic unless I can bring my last Dragon card out—but that is a five power card, two Dragon, one Fire, and two generic. It’s a pyroclastic wyrm, fifteen magic attack and ten in both defenses, and when it enters, it makes an immediate attack against one enemy creature or deckbearer and all within fifteen of that target.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Wolfe whistled. “Wow. Barbecue city.”

Although, giving someone ninety seconds to fight you before you have a true creature on the field is a terrible idea… and if those eggs are creatures, what’s the chance they stay out anyway?

Miriam nodded. “Yeah… if I can get it out. I know it’s not a good deck, but it’s better than the mishmash deck I had before of just tiny random creatures.”

Wolfe pulled back onto Industrial and saw that Nico and his entourage had busted the door to the pound and were just entering.

Perfect timing.

Wolfe pulled into the pound parking lot as the last one entered the building.

Shel is personally very weak, and Miriam’s deck isn’t that great. Plus, if anything happens to her, I’m a dead man anyway—and if she so much as sees Cereboo, I’m a dead man a second time over. I need to handle this myself.

“Stay here,” Wolfe said, opening the door to the large SUV and stepping out. He quickly checked his gun—everything appeared in working order.

“Wait, I want to help,” Shel said.

“Me too,” Miriam responded.

Wolfe shook his head. “I work better alone.”

“Didn’t you literally tell me your street name wasn’t Lone Wolf?” Shel asked acerbically.

I need to get moving before they figure out the dungeon! Wolfe thought, glancing at the sky. No moon yet, but the sun wasn’t visible, just a few rays of light keeping the sky slightly red. “Shel, you can’t even use a gun, and Miriam… your parents would murder me if you got hurt, and you’ve had no fighting training at all.”

“That you know about,” Miriam said.

Wolfe growled out, “I’m going. Stay here.”

Then he turned and jogged to the pound door, gun out, and peeked around the corner of the door into the interior of the building. A normal front lobby, with a receptionist area and door into the next section, which was open. Nico was through the next door with one of his lackeys, and the other four were waiting to follow.

Fuck. This would be a fantastic place to unload my gun, but I want Cereboo out to help me, and I can’t let Miriam see him. Also, one of those guys is Kevin, and I can’t tell them apart from the back.

Wolfe waited until his enemies had all moved in past the second door, then entered the pound himself and rushed up to the door into the next room, a mere few feet from the back thug. Wolfe immediately put his hand to his chest and summoned his cards. He got his ‘soul hunter’ mantle, a ‘rescue pup,’ and his tier-two ‘escaped damned.’

Before he could act, however, Nico whirled, pulling his gun and putting his hand to his own chest.

Fuck! The warning system about deckbearers pulling cards in range—I should have pulled Cereboo way earlier. Damnit, Miriam!

Wolfe didn’t waste time, however, dropping back behind the door edge as gunfire exploded. A chorus of dogs barking and howling immediately followed from deeper in the pound.

Wolfe grabbed his fourth card, his companion Cereboo. The giant, three-headed red boxer companion appeared with a slight puff of brimstone-scented fire.

“That you, Wolfe?” Nico cried out over the dog sounds, his voice oddly happy but just a hair off. “They bringing the fossils to fight us now?”

Nico’s voice set Wolfe’s teeth on edge—like something was wrong with the man upstairs.

He also didn’t answer, instead ducking and putting his hand around the corner, firing off a bullet and then popping his head around the corner.

Everyone had dodged behind something except Nico, who was grinning and staring at the door. Wolfe fired another bullet at Nico but missed, and Nico’s return fire went over Wolfe’s head close enough his hair shifted position.

Wolfe pulled back, but just as he did, he saw a huge, fat demon materialize, like a bipedal clawed frog with tiny wings.

Wrathful Frog Demon (Uncommon, Tier-2)

1 Infernal power, 3 generic power

A common frog demon with a deep connection to the sin of wrath.

Infernal

Creature[Infernal]

Attack

13

Magical Attack

8

Defense

10

Magical Defense

9

Health

25

Special: Every combat turn it attacks something and that something doesn’t die, Wrathful Frog Demon gets an additional 1 attack.

Special: All positive modifiers from any rage or berserk effect is doubled on Wrathful Frog Demon.

Well, fuck, a four-power creature right out the door. I should have used ‘return to the pit.’

Gunfire splattered the door for a moment, and the wrathful demon slammed through, punching at Cereboo rapidly. Cereboo rose to the challenge, however, his insane stat increase against other Infernals allowing him to fight back against the stronger demon to a degree. The two were tearing each other to pieces.

A grenade rolled through the door.

Wolfe was moving before his conscious mind could think, crossing the path of gunfire and somehow not getting hit as he flung himself behind the reception counter on the other side of the door.

A fucking grenade?!

The grenade went off, and Wolfe dismissed the notification of Cereboo being eliminated. He hadn’t known this before, but his companion cycled back into his deck rather than immediately being available.

Wolfe couldn’t hear anything besides ringing and dogs barking, but he figured he knew what was coming. He popped up from the reception deck already firing. The first thug through the door—fortunately not Kevin—took two to the chest and one to the arm, going down hard in a shower of blood.

Wolfe pulled his soul hunter mantle as soon as the thirty seconds were up, and felt himself powering as a red aura played across him—he felt two tiny horns poke from his head and his skin shifted red as well.

Soul Hunter

(Uncommon Tier-1)

1 Infernal Power

Sometimes, the Infernal realm wants its own back. They send a soul hunter to retrieve them.

Infernal

Persistent (Mantle)

Gain 2 Attack and Defense. Gain +25% total Attack and Defense against Infernal and Undead creature cards and anyone with those cards in their decks.

Before he could appreciate his newfound strength, however, Nico popped around the corner of the door into the lobby, firing at Wolfe. He tried to drop, but one bullet struck him in the arm, and he slammed into the ground behind the counter. His arm hurt but wasn’t clean blown through like it ought to have been, thanks to the ‘soul hunter’ aura and its bonuses against Nico.

He emptied his gun through the counter at Nico, but after his second shot, the gun clicked on empty. He grabbed his gun and threw it just as Nico came over the counter. It smacked the Cobra enforcer’s face and blood squirted from his nose despite the red aura now over his features as well. Nico yelled, “Fuck!” as the empty gun fell back to Wolfe’s side, but then Nico leaned over the counter, gun pointed down. “Game over, you outdated poser.”

Even the dogs were barely audible over the sound of the gunshot.