Arthur’s garage wasn’t really his garage. The previous owner had died, the building had been abandoned for some time, and then Arthur and a few other local miscreants had started using it as a spot to hang out at. That ended up turning into squatter’s rights, which turned into Arthur and his pals coming to legally own the building.

Unlike the rest of the state, real estate in Redding wasn’t exactly in high demand. Especially not run-down automotive real estate.

The door was a thin steel warehouse door, with a small, recently replaced window on the top half. Levi fumbled with the keys. His vision was hazy, and half of his hair was stuck to the side of his face after he had fallen asleep leaning against the window. The now dried blood hadn’t helped with that. His back had stopped hurting at some point on the drive over, and he had little doubt there would be some scarring for the next few days.

“Need a hand?” Derrick offered hesitantly.

“I’ve got it,” Levi huffed, finally slotting the key in. The door squeaked open and Levi pushed himself inside. He’d been here quite a few times. It had the curious scent of a small but familiar social circle. Arthur, pine trees and creek water. Darien, local mechanic, smelled of stale cigarettes and the churro he grabbed from a food truck on his way to the garage after work. Kyle, weird go-cart guy that had always wanted to get into real cars, who smelled like fried food and lavender perfume, his wife’s favorite.

The place felt so painfully empty now.

He pushed through the entryway, a frat-house style construct of couches and beanbags and two minifridges that they had actually bolted together to make one taller fridge. Levi thought it was absolutely ridiculous, but his protest had not stopped the boys, who loved nothing more than using power tools for things they were not meant for.

They weren’t really his friends. They were Arthur’s friends, and he tagged along. He missed them anyways.

Levi thought to Mark and Julia and his heart ached.

Derrick inspected the place, glancing around with a flashlight.

“Never been inside,” he mused. “Arthur said I was ‘too weird’ to hang out with his friends. Not that they were the most normal bunch. I did some minimal screening on them. Not too much, didn’t wanna invade their privacy if I didn’t have to, but they had interesting pastimes.”

“You woulda cramped their style. You and your rules,” Levi huffed.

“I know how to have fun,” Derrick protested. “I just... have a different idea of fun than most people.”

“Your ‘idea’ is either doing paperwork, or stalking people,” Levi grunted. “And I don’t know which would be more pathetic.”

Derrick grumbled as he peered through the gloom, looking at the assortment of personal possessions. There was a pizza box lying toppled over on one of the couches, ratty things they had pulled from roadsides and thrift stores to furnish the place.

Levi, meanwhile, maneuvered towards the back wall, where a large tarp sat over a vehicle. Rosa had entered the garage now, glancing around at dusty fixtures. She hummed softly, disapprovingly, as she looked at the layer of dust on everything.

“Men,” she sighed.

“It’s a man-cave,” Derrick nodded. “Could use a good cleaning.”

“How hard is it to dust once or twice a month?” she complained. “I feel like I’m breathing in about thirty years of history over here.”

“I think it’s probably closer to four or five. I don’t think they’ve owned the garage longer than that,” Derrick mused.

“I don’t know whether to be impressed or disgusted.”

“Probably a healthy mixture of both.”

Levi grabbed the tarp and pulled it loose.

The dust danced like flakes of starlight through the beams of artificial light, twisting as the tarp tore away. And, underneath, a 1968 Ford Mustang, in the original candy apple red. Arthur grinned next to him, running a single hand over the hood. It was polished and shined, every bit of chrome sparkling in the dim morning light.

“There she is,” Arthur purred. Levi rolled his eyes. He’d always been more of a Chevy guy.

Rosa let out a whistle.

“Damn, she’s pretty,” she said.

“I never understood his obsession with the thing,” Derrick admitted. “Never struck me as much of a ‘car guy,’ if you know what I mean.”

“He didn’t like cars. He liked this car. It was his grandfather’s,” Levi muttered.

Arthur chuckled.

“Bless his grumpy-ass soul. And his beautiful set of wheels.”

“I’m thinking this will be what gets us South,” Levi huffed, sitting against the side of the vehicle. “Rosa, we can take you home and then head out, that way-”

“Cut the bullshit,” Rosa barked. She crossed her arms and widened her stance. “I’m coming with. You aren’t scampering off into God knows where without me, and you know it. Don’t test me on this Levi, you know I’m stubborn as all hell.”

Levi blinked at her, then gave her a dumb nod.

“Yes ma’am,” Derrick chuckled. “You know how to pick ‘em Levi, I will give you that much.”

Rosa let out a huff and blew a stray strand of her hair out of her face. “Damn right...”

She paused, looking over the vehicle.

“So, what, we hop in this testosterone-fueled monstrosity and high-tail it south to... where? Some government safehouse or something?”

Derrick snorted.

“Something like that.”

“Driving this thing we’d be lucky to make it half-way,” Levi began testily. “You know what Ford stands for right? Found on-”

"Levi,” Rosa groaned.

Levi put his hands up. “I’m just saying. Anyways, I’m going to rinse off. I feel... gross.”

Arthur chuffed softly. “Yeah, don’t get blood on my seats jackass.”

Levi snorted at that.

“There’s a shop shower in the back, don’t break anything until I get back.”

“You,” mused Rosa, “don’t get to talk. Go shower. You don’t just feel gross, you look gross too.”

“Hey,” he pouted, already headed for the bathroom. He really did feel gross. He must have been quite a sight, coated in blood, clothes torn, shirt a tattered mess hanging off of him. Come to think of it, they all could use a change of clothes. Levi worked over how hard it would be to swing by his apartment in his head as he undressed.

The shop shower was a simple thing, a fairly narrow stall with a tiled bottom. The grout desperately needed to be cleaned, if not replaced entirely. When he started the water it was cold, and he grunted as it hit his bare skin. The water slowly turned pink, and he watched it swirl into the drain, leaning heavily against the wall. A single beam of moonlight, intense and blue-white, shone through a small rectangular window at the top of the room.

Levi finally allowed himself to cry.

His tears mixed with the blood and the water rolling off his skin. His body was sore and bruised, and his head was still a little fuzzy from being knocked out. He didn’t sob, he had done enough of that when he had made his little confession. No, he didn’t sob. He cried, though. Soft, silent tears, secret things that no one else would ever know about. He realized with a start that he wanted to call his dad. He hadn’t had that thought in years. He thought of that slender golden chain hanging around his father’s neck, the messiah neither of them really believed in. He wanted to call Mark too, and Julia. He wanted to listen to Mark talk about how annoying his customers were. He wanted to hear Julia go on and on about Bubs the dog, the dog and its mortal enemy the couch cushions, and how the little rat needed a special coat to keep him calm.

His whole world was unraveling.

Everything he’d made for himself.

Sure, it wasn’t much, but it was comfortable. And it was his. Something he’d built all his own, without his father’s vision for him pushing things into place.

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A cushy job. A quiet place to live. A cat he never saw. Friends that knew him just enough. A girlfriend.

Well, he still had a girlfriend, he supposed. He didn’t seem to be able to get rid of her. His heart ached and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was grateful she hadn’t left him, or anxious about what might happen to her.

The thunk thunk thunk of cans hitting the trashcan at the end of the day.

The crunch of the cinnamon raisin bagel at the beginning of it.

To most people, it wouldn’t have been much to lose, but it was everything he’d ever had.

Gone now, in one night. One miserable, sordid night.

Rosa told him there were no such things as monsters. He looked at his hands, the thin white scars running across the knuckles where they had never quite healed. What else did he call himself? What else could he possibly be?

He certainly wasn’t normal.

Certainly wasn’t quite sane.

Levi wondered how much of that was the Call and how much of that was just... what had happened to him. What he was and what he’d done. To Arthur. To the man in the warehouse. To tens of people just like him.

He turned the water off and the pipes groaned at the change in pressure, aging metal clattering in the wall. Stepping out onto the bare tile of the little bathroom felt unpleasant. From the chill on his already cold skin, to the grit of the ground against his wet feet, it made him feel like he was already getting dirty again. At least the blood was gone. He ran his fingers through his hair, which shone nearly black now that it was saturated. The morning light, pale and blue, glistened on his wet skin.

He looked in the mirror. He saw his face, gaunt and haunted, with deep lines under his eyes. The harsh light deepened the shadows on his face, making his features look sunken and his skin pallid.

Levi sighed, pulled on his underwear and his jeans, and stepped back out into the garage.

Derrick had the hood of the Mustang popped and was prodding around inside of it.

“Hey!” Levi and Arthur both cried at once. Their voices reverberated in Levi’s head and made it ache. “Get out of there!”

Derrick looked up, curious.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“That,” began Levi and Arthur, “is a finely tuned machine. Your big brutish hands should not be touching it!”

Derrick gave him a rather flat look, that customary dead glare of his. Oh no Derrick, it's not that easy. After a few moments of pause he grunted and explained himself.

“I was just checking the fluids, I don’t know how long it’s been sitting in here, not running. All it takes is an oil leak and suddenly we’re taking the SUV, and that thing isn’t exactly a speed demon.”

“You can’t just go digging around inside of her! She’s a precise machine that requires a precise hand, you neanderthal!”

Levi didn’t really know who was arguing with Derrick, him or Arthur, but it didn’t matter much.

“Checking the fluids,” said Derrick firmly, “is not going to hurt the car in any way, Levi. Not checking the fluids and ending up on the side of the road could get us all killed, though.”

“It’s a matter of principle,” Levi protested. “You can’t just go digging around in someone else’s car. It’s like digging through his underwear!”

“It’s not your car.”

“So, you would dig around in Arthur’s underwear drawer?”

Derrick pondered that.

“Probably not, but that’s a bad analogy.”

Rosa let out a loud, obviously exaggerated sigh and shook her head.

“I am going to take a shower, you two have fun bickering. I need a nap.”

The woman swished her hair and then made her way to the same shop bathroom Levi had just emerged from.

Levi scratched at the back of his head, feeling a bit chastened by Rosa’s response. He supposed he was a little... irritable. And Arthur WAS rather protective of the car. He grumbled and tilted his head to Derrick as his apology. Derrick shrugged and waved Levi away, taking one last look at the vehicle’s coolant levels before slamming the hood shut with a loud metallic thud.

“So...” Levi began awkwardly.

Derrick cocked a brow at him.

“Did you have a particular destination in mind? Or are we just going South and worrying about the specifics afterwards?”

Derrick gave an amused little chuckle.

“We’re going to San Francisco to start. From there we’ll be at a bit of a crossroads, but the Golden Gate pack is stable and old, and they’re friends of the Bureau for the most part.”

“Derrick, will they even let me into the city limits? I mean, I... I killed a Lycan. I killed two Lycans. Sure, one wasn’t their pack, but word spreads.”

Derrick shrugged and made his way towards what passed as a fridge in this place. He dug around and was dismayed to find cheap beer. But beer was beer, and he took one despite the quality, cracking the lid off the bottle with his belt buckle.

“The packs don’t always get along. Redding has always been a bit of an ostracized group and Santa Cruz isn’t likely to hold it against you considering what actually happened. I think once you get out of Redding you’ll be fine.”

The man leaned against the fridge and swished the bottle around, watching the beverage fizz. The soft sounds of birds greeting the morning made the space feel a touch less confined, and for the first time in the past 48 hours, Levi felt like he was existing in the real world and not some miserable nightmare.

He looked at Derrick, studied him.

“You slept at all?”

Derrick glanced at him, but continued his train of thought.

“Now that it’s daytime we should be okay, for the most part. They won’t be willing to expose themselves over one trespasser, and it’ll be a while still before they know you killed any of theirs. The trip out of town will be the dangerous part, doesn’t matter much what time of the day we do it. A group of regular people can be plenty dangerous on their own, and odd stuff happens on backroads and highways all the time.”

Levi cleared his throat.

“Derrick. You slept at all in the past two days?”

The man scowled and shook his head. He sipped from his beer can.

“No. I’m fine. Just a bit more, then I can-”

“I don’t care what kind of back-alley magic the Bureau gives you, you’re not meant to go two days without any sleep,” Levi grunted.

Derrick threw his free hand in the air.

“So, what, I sleep and let you run off? No, no dice. You’re a danger to yourself and to others. I know it’s not your fault, I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose, but I have to keep an eye on you. I’m responsible for you.”

Levi shook his head softly. Because, despite everything, despite his cageyness and his hatred of Derrick’s watchful eye, he wasn’t thinking about running away...

At least, not yet.

No, right now he needed Derrick. Levi could handle one Lycan, just about. Even that was pushing things.

He shivered.

“Look, Derrick, I’ve handled myself okay thus far, and you know full well Rosa won’t let me leave,” he argued. “Get some sleep, you’ll-”

“I am not that gullible!”

Derrick’s voice was suddenly harsh, snappy. Levi gave the man a bit of a look, waited for the man to settle back down. Derrick sipped his beer, and Levi was reminded of that conversation on the patio of a particular seafood restaurant. Who was acting like a child now?

“Derrick, you are no use to anyone when you can’t think clearly. You lay down, Rosa and I will go to my apartment and grab some things for the trip south. I don’t exactly blend in, wearing this tattered mess.”

Derrick eyed him suspiciously but didn’t cut him off.

“I’ll even let you have the keys to the Mustang. You keep it, we’ll take the SUV. You’ve got our ride out of town.”

“You could head South just fine in the SUV.”

Levi snorted.

“What, and get nabbed by a couple grouchy werewolves in a hatchback?”

Derrick considered his proposition for a time. His thumb traced the label on the beer bottle, looking down at the ground as the little plastic label crackled under his touch.

“Besides, you could catch us in Arthur’s car, even if we did make a break for it. Derrick, you’re no use to any of us if you’re not on top of your game. Please.”

The man grunted angrily, like a bear poked with a stick. But he nodded.

“Keep your eyes up while you’re out there,” Derrick said firmly. “Don’t get yourself caught or killed, stay out in open, public roads. No side streets, no alleyways, nothing like that. And, if you don’t show up by 2pm, I’m coming after you. And you know I’m persistent. If you get nabbed, for God’s sake, stall. Don’t let them tie you to that damned rail line.”

Derrick looked up and looked Levi in the eye for a few moments. For just an instant Levi saw the glare of red eyes, eyes that weren’t Derrick’s. He cringed back, and Derrick took that as a sign that Levi was suitably cowed. When Levi looked again, they were the deep eyes of the handler Levi knew.

“We’ll be careful.”

“Good. You dying would mean a lot more paperwork for me. And uh... Well, you know,” he shrugged.

Levi didn’t know, but he played along.

Rosa stepped out of the little shop bathroom, hair wrapped in a towel but otherwise clothed normally. Steam billowed from the room. Levi always marveled at how hot women seemed to like their showers. It was like they were trying to burn away their skin... Not that he could judge after the shower he had just taken.

“You two look like you’re out here plotting,” she mused as she stepped towards them.

“Oh, just planning a bit of a daytrip, you know how it is,” Levi said with a little yawn. So maybe he could use a bit of sleep himself. He figured he could sleep on the way south. It was about a four-hour drive from here to San Francisco.

“Daytrip?” Rosa questioned.

“Mm, Derrick is going to take a nap, you and I are going to my apartment to pick up some clothes.”

Rosa scowled suspiciously at him.

“Is that a good idea?”

“Derrick gave it the thumbs up, we’re not gonna get smoke bombed again. Probably.”

“I didn’t say it was a good idea,” Derrick said. “I just think it’s probably necessary. Never thought I would be agreeing with a Levi plan but-”

“Hey!” Levi barked. “I have good ideas! Sometimes.”

Rosa nodded.

“It’s true. He does sometimes have good ideas. I’ll vouch for him.”

Derrick gave them a weary smile.

“I am going to close my eyes for a couple hours. Leave now before I change my mind.”

Levi tugged Rosa towards the door, even as she complained that her hair hadn’t dried yet. He had an odd thrumming energy thrumming through him at the thought of going home. He didn’t even check the street before he stepped outside, which was probably a poor sign considering he looked like he’d been... Well, mauled by a werewolf.

Still, Rosa let out a dancing laugh as she followed him. He opened Rosa’s door for her and she climbed inside the SUV. A quick hop over the hood and they were thrumming down the industrial side street towards Levi’s apartment.

Rosa held her hand out across the center console. Levi studied it for a moment, then put his hand in the offered cradle.

Rosa’s thumb drew over those thin white scars that, for some reason, refused to fade.