Chapter Twenty-Nine

There were voices yelling as we approached. Men and women shouting questions, answers, and orders, breaking through the ambient silence of the wilderness. We heard them from a good distance, able to discern what they were talking about long before they had a chance to know we were getting close. As the voices grew louder, we moved slower, and through the trees, we saw the two-story cabin that must have been their base for whatever they had been doing here, like murdering a couple of people.

"Stay low," Niko whispered, putting on his silver claws, designed and crafted for him by Davor. I wondered how Davor felt seeing them, felt about making them for Niko, who clearly liked to fight in his human form more than his werecat form. "Jacky, find another angle and report on what else you can learn about what's going on while we get into a good position to attack from our own angle."

I turned, looking at what we could already see.

"They're going to be here soon," a man snapped at someone carrying a large box. "Move faster!"

"I'm trying, but you know we're not going to get everything out!" The other man was struggling with the box, and I noted the papers threatening to fall out or get taken by the wind. "It took three trips to get everyone and everything here. We weren't supposed to leave for another week!"

"Then you better move and hope you can get a spot on the plane!"

They were frantic, and whatever exit they were attempting was rushed. I crept low, knowing my brothers could see these two, and was able to follow the tree line around the cabin, staying safely tucked behind it by ten or so feet. I reached the end of the trees and saw a large clearing. What I would have guessed was a dirt road had no vehicles on it. There was a small plane, much like the one my brothers and I had taken to the reserve to get to the campsite, which started all of this. It struck me as a little odd that they didn't just drive into the region, instead flying in when there was a perfectly good dirt road.

Since that was a good distance off, I shifted my attention to the cabin once again, seeing silhouettes in the window. I listened, hearing people running around inside, furniture scraping across wooden floors, heavy things getting dropped. After a minute, a woman came running out with a briefcase, heading toward the plane.

"Damn werecats," she muttered. "Ruined everything, the flea-bitten monsters. I can't believe they got to us so fast. They even killed the guard dogs."

"They have a small plane over here, and that's what they're loading,"I said quickly as the woman muttered her tirade, looking back toward my brothers to make sure they would hear the words and only them. "I think we need to pounce now."

I wanted the woman running for the plane with the briefcase with such ferocity, I was having a difficult time holding back and waiting on Niko's signal. Thankfully, my brother didn't make me wait long. After only three long, terrible seconds, he gave me what I wanted.

"Go!" Niko roared.

I leapt out of my cover, and it was over for the woman before she had a chance to understand what was happening. I landed on her from behind, and she was dead when she impacted the ground, my claws in her back. For good measure, I broke her neck before I jumped off her, heading for the plane. It was rolling now, clearly having been ready for take-off when she was heading for it. She might have been the person it was waiting on. I ran, but I didn't catch it. Its precarious take-off meant it was out of my reach.

So, I turned around again for the cabin, hearing people screaming. I hadn't looked back to see what my brothers were doing, but now I could see Niko over a man, silver claws buried into the chest of a dead witch. I ran for the back door of the cabin, slamming my shoulder into it at full speed to the sounds of shouting from the inside. When it didn't go down on the first hit, I ran back and threw myself at it a second time. It cracked but didn't open, the scent of magic flooding my nose suddenly, and I knew I was going to need to take a different approach.

As I backed up to try to find a weakness in the cabin, gunfire began. A silver bullet grazed my shoulder, another scar to the many others, and an iron bullet hit my flank, sinking into the thick muscle of my back leg. It would get pushed out when I healed after I Changed later, so I pressed on, running fast to try to throw off the aim of the ones shooting. I saw Niko and Davor smartly tucked under a window where it was harder for the ones shooting to get a good aim without exposing themselves.

"Let me see how they're doing this and find a weakness,"I said, not pausing by them, continuing my sprint around the cabin, circling like a predator trying to find a way into the herd.

I saw how they were firing, waiting for me to show up, barely exposing themselves as they peeked out to take a few shots, then they ducked back in. None of them were firing from the first floor, all trying to stay safe on the second.

On my next round, Niko gave a thumbs up, an awkward gesture with those silver claws. By then, I had a plan, so I doubled back instead of making another loop.

"I have a plan, but you need to stay safe out here. Scream if the werecat shows up."

Niko flashed those silver claws, sliding the blades together. He was ready for anything, and I had to trust his skills while I broke down the defenses of the witches. I wasn't in the mood for a siege.

Moving farther from the cabin, I gathered speed in my circle, knowing I had one chance to do this. A second attempt would get me shot in places I would have a difficult time recovering from.

I saw the gun poke out of the second-story window, and it took two shots before disappearing again. I turned sharply while dodging, aiming directly for the cabin. Hoping I judged the distance, height, and power necessary for it, I leapt straight for that open window. It was one of two that would actually fit me, and I had to get it right. If I flailed in the window, they could put a bullet through my head.

I went through, hitting the shooter hard as I entered the cabin, crash-landing into the bedroom he'd been shooting at me from. I could only smell blood, death, and magic, and those three scents told me what I needed to know. He, like the woman I had caught trying to get to the plane, was dead thanks to my landing. His skull was cracked open, blood covering the floor.

"No!" a woman screamed. For a second, I was dazed from my crash landing, but it wore off before the woman's grief did. She was moving toward him, and as I went for her, she went for the gun. For all the power witches could have, they were human, which was how they, like all other humans, could be turned into something else, like a werecat, which removed many of the weaknesses they had as humans.

One of the many strengths of being a werecat was that I was faster than any human hoped to be. A single swipe of my paw broke her neck and stopped her from fighting permanently.

Once she was dead, I heard the stomping and moving of others in the cabin, the screaming and shouting louder now, but I didn't care to register what they were saying. How loud it really was had me wondering if there had been some dampening magic to attempt to cover so much noise from the outside. I broke the door down, hitting someone in the hall and sending them down the nearby stairs from the force of the impact. With a snarl, I followed down the stairs, knowing the other shooters upstairs would either follow or I would go get them. First, I needed to open the doors for my brothers.

I reached the door where we had seen the two men outside trying to carry that heavy box, arguing with each other. I tried to slam into it and could smell magic in response again.

"The doors have some sort of magic!"I yelled in my head to my brothers. "Like they're reinforced, but not with anything I can see."

"You think you can stop what's coming," someone said casually behind me. Recognizing the voice, I turned around to see the witch who had hit me in the head when they had attacked with the werecat. He was sitting in a chair, not nearly so afraid as the witches upstairs stomping around.

I lunged for him but only hit the chair, the scent of magic filling my nose.

"Ha ha! I'm not here, Jacky Leon," the witch said, standing up and moving across the room toward the door I had tried to open. He moved through me, but he looked solid. "I'm on the plane you tried to catch. I really had hoped for more time for my sister to get on board, but…" He shrugged. "She was moving a little too slow, it seemed."

I didn't know how to respond, or if I even could, so I went through him and started hitting the door again.

"You just don't know when to quit. Soon enough, the cowards upstairs will come back down here and try to kill you. Your brothers will be killed by the monster outside, already on its way. A pity I didn't have enough time to secure such a valuable resource, but more can be obtained. I warned everyone that we needed to keep it on a shorter leash, but the one holding that leash didn't agree. It was harder to deal with it when we tried to micromanage it."

I snarled, throwing myself at the door all while he spoke.

"Niko, Davor, I can't get this damn thing open! Plus, I've got some sort of astral projection or something talking to me. The guy from the attack, but I tried killing him and went right through him. He seems confident that the werecat is on the way back."

"Clear the building so they stop shooting at us, then jump back out here and help us!" Davor sounded muffled, just as I had figured. Something was dampening the sound in an unnatural way. Even though this cabin was made out of wood and stone, he shouldn't have sounded the way he did, not with a werecat's hearing. "We can hold it off once it shows up!"

I turned and ran up the stairs, having ignored the footsteps above me for a little too long. At the top, I was immediately bombarded with attacks, but the door I had knocked down provided just enough cover to cause them to miss many. I went over it and entered the first room to my right, the one across the hall from the one I had landed in. I grabbed the arm of the one shooting as something hit my side. The witch in my mouth screamed in pain because the force of whatever hit me also hit them, and it really did a number. I was holding onto a broken arm that probably had every joint dislocated, and that kept the witch from being sent into a wall thanks to the other occupant in the room.

I released the witch and spun to the other attacker, making quick work of him. The blast he had done had been strong, but he couldn't knock me down. The other one was whimpering in pain and screamed as I finished the fight in the room.

"JACKY! It's here!" Davor screamed.

It was unadulterated violence as I ran back into the hall and found three more hiding in the last room, brutally proving they shouldn't have messed with werecats. While keeping one alive would have been a great idea for future intel, I knew what Niko and Davor would say about it and agreed with the line of thought. If I left one or two alive, they would try to continue to attack us while we dealt with the werecat outside. That could get one of us killed.

"See… this is the sort of power I had wanted to see from my pet," the man said, standing in the doorway of the room as I panted, preparing for the blind jump I had to make out the window. He'd followed me, and the glint of perverse curiosity and joy in his eyes was bone-chilling. "The moon cursed?—"

"Shut up,"I snarled mentally as I snapped my teeth at him, unable to contain the urge even though I believed he wouldn't hear me.

How wrong I was.

His eyes went wide, and for a second, there was silence until he gave a mad laugh.

"Even that rumor! Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, you are so full of surprises and yet, none at all. All the rumors, no matter how unbelievable, seem to be true."

"That's Jacky, daughter of Subira, asshole,"I growled before jumping out of the window, not caring to see or hear his response. My brothers needed me.

I landed with a definitive thud and looked around wildly for where Davor and Niko could be. It didn't take me long to see Niko trying once again to fend off the werecat, and I ran for the combatants. I couldn't see Davor, but I trusted he was still alive as I slammed into the werecat while Niko had its attention.

"My turn."

With a snarl, I scratched and tried to sink my teeth into it. With almost stunning ease, it reached back and grabbed me, its claws sinking into my skin and pulling me over its shoulder. Pain screamed from my back, the impact knocking the air from my lungs. It held me hard, lifting me only a second after the slam, certainly going to slam me again. That grip was broken thanks to Niko as he slashed it with the silver claws. A second later, I heard a gun go off as I scrambled to get to my feet and recover from the ferocity of the blow. Trying to find the source of the fire, I looked up to see that Davor had taken my place, now sitting in a window, a stolen gun in his hands, looking down the scope, waiting for another shot. The first had skimmed the werecat's back.

I lingered for only a second on Davor, and that was a painful mistake as I was backhanded by the werecat as it tried to deal with Niko. The blow taught me something important, though, as it only shook me a bit but didn't take me down.

Fenris was stronger. That wolf would have knocked me out with that.

I lunged, going back into the fight, that knowledge fueling me as I snapped at its legs, looking for a good grip. If I could immobilize it, this would be over. Realizing what I was doing, it turned to attack me to force some space, but I fought relentlessly. So did Niko, continuously getting close and hitting it only once or twice. When it tried to get him, I would go back in while Niko backed off.

In tandem, we fought to slow it down by tiring it out as Davor continued to try to hit it in any vulnerable spot that he could safely aim for. I knew he was trying not to hit Niko and me, and I was grateful for how careful he was being.

It slipped as it tried to turn for me again. Davor got a clean shot into its left shoulder, so well-aimed that its left arm went limp. Niko sent both of his claws under its ribs, puncturing its lungs from behind. It screamed, a terrible mix of human and feline, as Niko yanked those claws back out, blood staining the earth. I jumped, knocking it to the ground. As it tried to fight, I went for a killing bite, Niko disabling its right arm to stop it from injuring me as it died.

I held on, knowing my bite wasn't strong enough to get my fangs through anything important. I couldn't shake it and end it quickly. I held on, focused only on the weakening rise and fall of its chest and the slowing of its struggle.

After close to a minute, unable to properly fight me off it, it stopped breathing entirely. I released it once its heart stopped under my paws.

Stepping off it, Niko moved and sank claws down into its heart, making sure nothing could get it to restart.

"AHHHHHHH—"

A woman's scream ended as suddenly as it had started inside the cabin. A second later, two gunshots went off.