We returned to the car without a word. Both of us knowing that anything we said to each other would likely just get reported back to the prince. He had made it clear this was his building and everything in it belonged to him, likely he believed that ownership even extended to conversations.
“He was lying the whole time we were up there.” Mara exploded as soon as we were back out on the streets. “Why even have us come over if he wasn’t really interested in talking?”
“Could be any number of reasons… size us up, see if we were worth killing, maybe he even hoped we would let ourselves be bought off.” The streets were fairly empty this time of night for blocks around the building. It was as if people instinctively knew to give it a wide berth.
“And the best was him trying to get us to believe they were making this serum of theirs for humanitarian reasons. The bloodsuckers and we haven’t gotten along just about since we learned about each other.” Mara looked in the mirror, staring at the Crowley building as it vanished into the tangle of buildings that the city was. “The only reason he would make more werewolves would be so he could kill them.”
“Well, so far he seems content letting everyone else take the shots at you while he watches. Claudia seemed to think she had better chances of surviving with him rather than Thorne.” My head hurt a little at all the various politics going on behind the scenes while normal people who had no involvement were the ones getting killed.
“Not surprising,” Mara looked at me in complete seriousness. “Thorne takes pack unity very seriously. If he judged that her actions were a move against the pack he would have been fully within his rights as Alpha to execute her.”
“Remind me never to get on his bad side in the future. I don’t think I would like being in any court where he was presiding.” I let out a small laugh, I was probably already on Thorne’s shitlist as it was.
“He’d completely flip if he knew I told you this but since you’re not pack he wouldn’t dare do anything to you.” She grinned happily, a somewhat disturbing image with the front of her shirt still covered in her own blood. “The backlash from taking pack law to a human would undo the years of making poster boys of our guys in the army and police. That’s not to say he wouldn’t shred you like paper in a rage, but he would never consciously do anything.”
“Somehow I am less than filled with confidence at our next meeting.” I drove a block or two in silence before getting up the nerve to ask. “Is that what you are? Good PR, proving the wolves to defend humans?”
“You want to trade back stories? Seems very early in the relationship to me, what about you?”
“I-I um…yeah. Was just curious is all.” If I dared take my hands off the wheel I might have slapped myself.
“I’m kidding, Hunter. I was a cop before the change so anything I could prove would be incidental.” She shrugged. “Never much liked the limelight anyway.”
“You could always show how you are the same person even after the bite, no?”
“Shhh!” she wheeled on me suddenly. “Don’t let Thorne hear that or he just might do it!” She smiled brightly at me in a way that simply lit up her face. I imagined Mara in some strange sort of PSA on werewolf awareness a laughed. There was going to have to be a huge amount of work to combat all the negative portrayal this last week got them… That thought seemed to sober the both of us at the same time and we rode on in silence.
“Sorry to interrupt, Hunter but I thought you would want to know. ARC is under attack.”
My foot slammed down on the gas pedal almost before she finished her sentence.
~ * ~
Under normal circumstances, I would expect an attack at ARC to mean something had escaped. We had a ten-story facility near the water on the outskirts of the city. The structure itself was two stories above ground, the other eight were carved meticulously through the earth. The level of threat a capture posed determined how deep they were kept. The theory was, that the farther they would have to fight their way through the tougher it would be to escape. The above-ground floors were lightly secured at best. Most of the higher-ups laughed off any assault from outside, saying no one knew they existed. Toussard’s claim that he would be taking care of ARC made me wonder how wise they were to do so.
“Holly, we’re almost there. What is attacking and where are you.” Maybe I could get a little information about our mystery woman in all the action. “I’ll figure a way to get you out.” I skidded the car to a stop in front of the building.
“Uh…yeah, don’t worry about me, Hunter, I’m off-site. Looks like the office is being assaulted by an unknown number of weres. Tough to get a complete count with them moving so fast but I’d say at least three, likely more on the subfloors.” All right, Holly, keep your secrets. The detective and I both sprung from the car to see a pair of security guards standing out front of the building. As we exited one of the guards stepped forward.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we’re closed right now. Perhaps if you could come back tomorrow.” As we began pulling weapons out of the car the guard’s eyes bulged out of his skull. “What the fu…?”
“It’s okay, kid, I work here,” I said pulling my favorite shotgun out of the trunk. The Pacer may have been a relic but it had some decent storage. The guard didn’t look any more relaxed as the larger weapons started to appear.
He was on the short side for certain, even compared to Mara, and he had a friendly roundish Asian face. I would guess Chinese but for all I know he could be Russian. The other guard walked over to back his buddy up but his eyes went wide as soon as he got a good look at me.
“George!” He said tensely as he drew his weapon. “Don’t you know who that is?” The first guard, George, looked me over for another second before nearly leaping backward and pointing his gun at me.
“You-You’re under arrest!”
“Good job, kids. You watch the eight o‘clock news.” It was all I could do not to laugh at the guns shaking in their hands. “Now move aside and let the grown-ups through.”
“But you’re behind the attacks!” The guard near the door took a few more steps back as if the solidarity of the building would somehow aid them.
“Think it through, fellas, If I were behind this would I show up this long past the fireworks, loading up to fight the wolves inside?” I could see them thinking it through in their minds. “If that doesn’t convince you then try this one. If I was the one attacking, why are you two even still alive?”
I think that one got through to them since they reluctantly lowered their weapons.
“Now, what happened inside? How did they get in?” I nodded to Mara to keep grabbing what she could from the car.
“That’s the strange part, they didn’t get in and they didn’t escape from the lower levels. Just suddenly there were a dozen pissed-off wolf-things ripping people into shreds.” George seemed to be doing a better job keeping his head than his partner was. “The majority of them got caught in the lower levels for an extermination team to deal with later but some of them were still loose among the civilians in the above-ground offices. Our unit went in to try and get them out and we get the shit assignment to keep anyone from wandering inside when we could have been helping.”
An obviously underused resource I thought to myself sarcastically. Mara and I were about to head in when the four of us, guards included, were drawn to the sound of an approaching motorcycle. The ARC building wasn’t near a lot of main roads and was difficult to find by accident but the biker drove straight towards us. The guards’ guns came back out as the rider pulled to a stop beside us and pulled off her helmet.
“Whatcha all doin starin’ at me for? Me unc’s inside and needs our help.” Lisa hopped off her bike, taking a second to steady herself. She was wearing a ripped T-shirt and shorts with a half a dozen or more bandages showing.
“Who the hell let you out of the hospital looking like that?” Mara exclaimed.
“They, uh… don’t exactly know I’m gone yet.” She walked over to us with a grin nearly splitting her face and grabbed a gun from the car. “’Sides, with my rocks I can heal myself much faster than them could in any case. Now are we going inside or just staying here all night roasting marshmallows?”
“All right,” I sighed. “Let’s go in.”
“Grown-ups, my ass.” George looked angry all of a sudden. “She’s younger than me! If she’s going then I’m coming too.”
“Great!” Lisa piped up with sheer delight. “More guns means more fun. Mr…” I would say that was the point when I had officially lost control of the situation but that would imply I ever actually had it.
“George Kun.” The guard grabbed a weapon at random. Just about anything would have been better than the security guard special he waved at us earlier.
“Ooh! You can call me Lisa-chan then.” She was way too happy to be just out of the ER, maybe she was still medicated. I couldn’t be sure if that made things better or worse. “This is Mara and the big-sour-puss is Hunter.”
“Kun is my last name. And I’m Chinese, not Japanese.” I could see a rage ignite behind his eyes. This wasn’t the first time he had encountered this mistake and it did nothing to help his mood. “Show people a couple of episodes of Sailor Moon and suddenly they think that they have mastered communication with the whole fucking continent of Asia.”
With that, he double-checked the ammo in his weapon and headed towards the door. His partner stood off to the side trying to look as small as he could, as if hoping no one would notice him. I followed George towards the building with the rest of the cast of my own personal sitcom. His partner remained, looking frightened and confused.