Efraim rejoined them soon after the wolves appeared. He strode with a casual gait that belied his deadly focus. William knew that this man was ready for the upcoming battle, should there be one. There was something in his eyes and his stride that said he had made peace with whatever God he prayed to. He couldn’t help but wonder if his resolve was half as strong as this man’s. Efraim casually sat down next to Billy.
As soon as the sun had been swallowed by the horizon, Lethe, as well as the other two wolves, stood and started running west. This didn’t seem to faze the other pack members who joined their Alpha immediately. William and Nicolas looked at each other and back at the rapidly disappearing group of Shape Shifters. William shrugged and forced himself into a full run to try and catch the other pack as Nicolas was, for once, keeping pace with William.
They sprinted ahead only to find the other pack waiting for them just behind a small drop in the desert floor, with the rise covered with a sparse collection of shrubbery. Lethe stepped forward and the cool desert wind disappeared. The dunes and scents around them were gone. Below him was a mist shrouded level ground that felt neither earth nor stone. The brilliant reds and oranges of the sunset were replaced with washed out shades of white and gray, which swirled with mist. He was back in the Whyte Plain.
Lethe stalked forward in his werewolf form, the other two wolves had shifted as well. They moved with a silent trot. Efraim looked in all directions at once. His concentration was focused on the mist around them. Ryan and Billy mirrored him on their respective sides of the group.
Before William had any real time to wonder what would happen to them should they run into any Shadows, the three werewolves shifted back to wolf form and the eight of them were standing in the same small copse of trees that William and Nicolas had escaped to just a few days earlier. What had taken a full day’s travel for the two of them on foot had taken no more than a minute or two in the Whyte Plain.
Lethe nodded forward and Efraim took the lead. Once they stepped out of the brief natural environment onto the concrete of the city Lethe moved over to the right with Paregoros and Billy. William looked at Nicolas as he moved off with the Alpha and his group. William didn’t have any real idea what they would face at the farm. He hoped that they would all make it out ok. Efraim nodded to Lethe who let out a small bark and trotted down the street. William watched as the two wolves and two men walked around the corner and were gone.
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Efraim moved silently up the street. There was no talking between them. Efraim’s six-foot-high frame was bent forward but his head moved in all directions, a quick shift of the neck, a cocking of the ears was all William needed to know that Efraim was intensely aware of everything that was happening around him.
The wolf, Pepromene was directly behind him and Ryan walked at William’s shoulder. The wolf was calm and relaxed as she walked in between them all. Ryan on the other hand was a ball of tightly spun wire. Instead of trying to put on airs, he reverted back to how he behaved when he first came to his forest. He focused his breathing and had his head on a swivel. William tried not to fixate on anything in the city, opting instead, to take it all in. As they walked, he opened his senses to really smell the city around him.
It wasn’t as pleasant as he had hoped. The stagnant air from the day was cooling slowly and it seemed that whatever sewage system nearby had decided to vent itself by disgorging clouds of acrid vapor that burned his nose hairs. The city was dirty and noisy and soon he pulled himself back in and did everything he could to not use his heightened senses to perceive this mass of humanity that was sprawled around him.
His near gag at the stench must have caught Ryan’s attention. “You don’t need to try so hard. Believe me, where we’re going, you won’t need to try to smell anything. It’ll be really hard to miss.”
William wasn’t sure if the man was trying to make a joke or not. Ryan wasn’t smiling. Guess not.
The group walked for a long time. The sun had set a while ago and William had to admit that he was getting a little hungry. No one else was mentioning anything about food so he wasn’t going to bring it up. Besides he was sure that was just his brain going into some hyper activity over that last few miles walk.
He had never been to a club, so he had no idea what to expect. The movies he had seen led him to conjure dark rooms with black lights, strobe lights, girls dancing half naked in cages, bizarre neon lights thrown up against walls highlighting strange makeup. He imagined people on a crowded dance floor, waving glow sticks in time with the thumping music. The thought came unbidden to him mind, of his other, breaking free from his control, plowing through the thick throng of people ripping people’s arms and legs from shattered torsos. Spattering black blood on the walls as it ran down in rivulets amidst orange and green lights.
A shoulder collided with his. “You alright, pal? This is no time to fall asleep.”
William shook his head to clear it. “No, I’m good. Sorry just started thinking... about something.”
“Well, put your game face on, the party’s right in front of us,” Ryan said as he nodded to the building in front of them.
The image that met William was exactly what he had imagined the building to have looked like. Industrial poles were running along the height of the brick building’s outer facade. The double door entrance to the place, on the corner, was awash of bodies, some trying to get in, other’s buying beer or alcohol, others on phones yelling, so as to be heard by whoever was on the other end.