Mara slid down a steeply sloped sandy incline, Mingan’s body tumbling with her. It took some effort to right herself in the small tunnel, barely allowing her to reach a crouch before shooting out into empty space. She couldn’t see the floor below her as she started falling, she twisted to grab Mingan’s body and put it between her and the ground. Not the most respectful way to say goodbye to someone she once had considered a friend but the impact with the ground would hurt him way less than it would her.

Mara hit the ground with the body absorbing most of the impact but not enough, her knees crumbled as she threw herself into a roll to bleed the rest off. She shot across the floor like a bullet, brushing by someone’s form and barely stopping inches before a set of silver spikes set into the wall. She could almost feel the malice resonating in the cold metal, almost feeling like it wanted to kill her. She stood, carefully to avoid touching any of the silver lining the pit. She backed up a step and saw the entire wall was covered in irregular foot-long silver spikes at least ten feet up on the walls. The vamps had put a lot of effort into a very clever werewolf trap.

A series of wet crunching sounds came from the shadows behind her and she turned to see the form of a woman with a dirty, tangled mess of hair hanging unkempt down her back, eating what was left of Mingan’s corpse. She was dressed in rags that clung to an emaciated form beneath, but the thin form didn’t mean weakness as she tore Mingan’s arm from his body and bit into it like a cob of corn. Mara took a tentative step forward, not wanting to unduly aggravate the woman but she had barely moved when the woman spun on her.

“Mine! You stay away!”

To Mara’s shock, she recognized the woman underneath what may well have been a year’s worth of dirt and grime.

“Claudia?! Is that you?” Since she had fled Thorne’s compound over a year before no one had seen the Alpha’s former mate. He had sent out investigations to find her but with much of the state still convinced he was complicit in the attacks there were more pressing matters. Now she was here, an apparent prisoner of the people she was working with, maybe she had been judged too harshly for her part. The woman in rags turned slowly around, her eyes focusing on Mara more intently than before.

“You! I know you!” She stalked Mara, circling her just outside her range, hands twisted into claws. “You are why I am here… strong enough that could be Alpha… show that we are strong enough… Thorn watches but can’t challenge… won’t challenge.” Claudia laughed the laugh of a truly broken mind.

“Claudia, we can get you out of here… take you home. People are worried about you, they won’t turn you away while you’re ill.” One of the rules the Alpha’s considered most important to distinguish themselves from their animal side was never to abandon someone due to age or illness. It seemed like common sense since even in nature you never would abandon pack members but having it in writing mollified many norms.

“Yes, Thorne and his precious… outdated… pathetic rules! He’ll doom us all to make humans happy and you… his grateful little lap-dog, performing tricks for scraps!” Her snarl grew stretching her face unnaturally as she leapt through the air. She was a blur of kicks and claws, swiping at Mara with a speed that shocked her. Mara blocked, letting herself be driven backward until she saw the opening she was waiting for and drove her elbow right into Claudia’s face. The older woman blinked, stunned a moment.

“All this energy could be put to better use against the bloodsuckers that put you here! You can have your hissy–fit once we’re safe!”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, vampires keep me safe here. Death waits outside, other wolves think I’m evil… kill me if they see me. Don’t… want… to…die!” Claudia’s body shook with spasms as her body began to shift. She screamed in agony as her bones violently ripped themselves into pieces to be reformed again. Muscles bubbled under her skin like they were boiling. Claudia’s body was cannibalizing itself to complete the change. The energy needed for the process was immense and it had to come from somewhere, it was why were’s ate more than most to keep an energy store but Claudia was near starved for god knows how long. The pain must be unbearable.

As Mara watched the screams subsided in time, Claudia’s body lay unmoving on the ground. Her bones showed visibly through her skin, much of which was missing in large bleeding patches. Somehow, though, she was still alive… her head snapped towards Mara, one eye milky and leaking down her cheek she let out a howl. The wolf’s lips were charred and torn leaving a set of hugely deformed teeth showing in a perpetual grimace.

She charged at Mara, grabbing her by the arm and spinning her through the air at the spiked walls. Mara twisted her body desperately trying to avoid being impaled on the sharp blades. She was only moderately successful, one of the razor-sharp spikes cutting into her side. The effects of the silver were immediate; she could feel the strength leaching from her body as the poison entered her bloodstream. Silver wasn’t necessarily a death sentence anymore but she would need to be treated before the effects completed their work.

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Planting her boots on the wall Mara pushed her way off the spike, Claudia pacing angrily but keeping a good distance from the silver herself. Mara landed with less grace than she would have liked on the ground, her wound bleeding into the dirt. Another snarl from Claudine and she brought her guns out and trained them on the were, again looking at what had become of the once vain wolf gave her pause. What little humanity had been behind those furious eyes had faded with the change but she was still the mate of an Alpha, she didn’t deserve the indignity of a bullet, that was how prey left this world. Reluctantly, Mara put her guns on the dirt in front of her, deserving of the honor of not she would let the Alpha’s mate leave this world a warrior.

Wincing she pulled two long silver blades from her belt and placed them before her. Some time ago she had witnessed the ritual of bidding farewell to a pack member, she said the words she heard on that day. She used the blood and sand from the ground to paint her face in the symbols used to ferry the dead spirits and took up her blades once more. For a long time, she had not understood what Fenris had meant when he spoke of the dignity in death but she knew now. After a certain point it was the only dignity left that you could offer. With a scream, she ran from the relative safety of the bladed area and charged Claudine.

~ * ~

Lisa saw the cannon as the door opened in front of her and she grabbed at her belt for her aquamarine. Its protection wasn’t needed quite yet as a burst of air, strong enough to tip a car on two wheels hit her straight in the chest. Her back slammed against a wall, sending shocks of pain through her body. She could see Hunter barely even starting to move towards her as the wall slid shut in front of her, leaving her in darkness. She felt around in the darkness in the confines that had trapped her, there had to be a way out. She twisted around feeling the bruising the air blast had left in her ribs; at least it was taking attention from the other injuries for now. Finally, she found what felt like a switch high above her head. With a silent prayer to anyone listening she flipped it.

The panel in front of her tilted violently pitching her into ice-cold water beyond it. She struggled in the current as it dragged her down beneath its surface. The current whipped her through a series of tunnels, slamming her into walls and corners, knocking what little air she had out of her lungs. She clawed upwards, desperate for breath as she surfaced in a small wooden room. She was trying to gulp down air and cough out water at the same time making her lungs strain in the effort.

“She looks like she still has some fight in her.” Lisa looked up to see Nyx, the bald vampire from the reservoir staring at her with a brand new eye where Hunter had stabbed him. “Let’s send her through again.”

Kicking her in the face, Nyx shoved her hard underneath the water once again. Lisa struggled and grabbed onto his foot trying not to get swept away in the current again but her limbs ached and her brain was on fire from the lack of air. Another kick and she flowed down the water spout once more, crashing into darkness once again.

~ * ~

There weren’t any more surprises after Toussard had sprung his trap, just empty hallways leading through the heart of his nest. It less resembled a nest and more what I imagined an ant colony would be like. Random rooms and hallways were added on at the whim of anyone willing to do the work. I made my way through the maze-like sections of the underground until I came upon Toussard’s den? Lair? Execution site.

I walked into a large stone room that looked like it could have been featured in a movie. Whitestone pillars held the rough cave ceiling up and several fancy couches lined the outer wall. Gaudy tapestries and rugs covered almost every surface between heavily laden shelves filled with scrolls and books by the hundreds. There was even a hooded fireplace off to one side, extinguished, but whoever had designed the space felt it necessary to include it for the whole picture to be accurate. The only thing that looked out of place, besides the absence of a dozen Romans in togas lounging around, was a metal catwalk high above the room crossing from a doorway into the rough stone across from it.

Toussard, sitting behind a desk at the far end of the room from the doorway by which I entered, gestured to some seats around a table with some wine resting atop it.

“I will be with you in just a moment, Hunter, help yourself to some wine, I won’t be long.” He then returned his attention to the papers on the desk before him, reading and signing several. I lifted my weapon, sighting down the barrel of the assault rifle, lining it up on Toussard’s head. He did not look up. “I doubt either one of us has any allusions as to where this meeting will end but I am sure you are tired, are you truly so eager to rush into a final confrontation this second? I will indulge you if you wish but I had hoped to tell you something about myself before your untimely demise.”

He still hadn’t looked up from his papers, lowered his pen, or given even the slightest indication of worry at my presence. He wasn’t even nervous that I had come with the simple intent of murdering him. I was definitely the underdog in this fight but I patted my coat to reassure myself that my little surprise was still there. Maybe, just maybe, that would give me a chance of getting out of here alive. I went over to the chairs and poured myself a glass of wine, whatever game Toussard was playing at this time, I had all day.