Howling Legion

enemies to one place and then doing whatever I can to tear that place to fucking pieces!”

For the first time since he’d arrived, Randolph grinned. The movement not only gave his fresh scar a curl, but displayed some of the rounded teeth that had extended halfway out from where they’d lain dormant beneath his gums. “Sounds like a hell of a war. Too bad you’re too gutless to fight it on your own.”

Although Liam shook his head and waggled a finger at the other man, the hand he’d pressed against the wall tore chunks of it away as if the structure was made from cheap plaster and balsa wood. “Don’t try baiting me. You know damn well we work better together instead of when we butt heads.”

“We haven’t worked together for a very long time.”

“Back then, you knew I had things to teach you. At the very least, you listened to me. Do you even know that these two Skinners have claimed Chicago as their home? Wasn’t that your territory at one time?”

“Most of this continent is my territory,” Randolph growled. “If you truly are this crazy, maybe it’s time I claimed the rest.”

“More blood will be spilled, but all for a good cause,” Liam replied with an offhanded wave. “And with your help, the fight will be that much shorter. You may not believe me, but the Skinners cannot be allowed to run loose. Listen to the Mind Singer. Lord only knows where he is, but when he dreams, he shows everyone what horrors the Skinners are capable of. He’s seen them firsthand. He was there at the start of their so-called science. He’s a product of it!”

“There’s no way you’ll convince me to stand aside while your wretches fight our battle,” Randolph said as he nodded toward the pit as though he was regarding a crudely dug latrine. “You’ll dispose of them, as well as any others you’ve buried around this city.”

“Don’t get hasty. Wait until you’ve heard what else Henry has to say.”

Randolph’s nostrils flared and the seams of his suit were tested by the bulky mass of his growing torso. Thick brown fur sprung up from beneath his collar and slid out from his sleeves, but not enough to completely shred the cheap fabric. “I’m putting an end to this,” he snarled through a mouthful of daggerlike teeth.

“You like chewing up Skinners so much, I thought I’d just—”

Leaping up the stairs, Randolph grabbed Liam by the face and slammed him against the closest wall. “You didn’t think,” Randolph barked. “You never think. You didn’t think when you threw London into a panic by eviscerating those women and you’re not thinking now.”

“To be fair, we were both a little out of control in London,” Liam mused as he dusted himself off.

When Randolph swiped at Liam, his claws slashed through empty air and dug a row of trenches through the wall. The skinny man with the greasy hair landed on all fours and had already replaced his sweats with a thick black coat.

“I don’t care about your reasons for doing any of this,” Randolph said. “Just clean up the damned mess you’ve made. I’m through dealing with you, and I’m through treating the Skinners like respected enemies. Either one of you pushes me again and I’ll scatter your remains from one coast to another!”

“That’s more like it! There’s the wild fellow who stumbled in from the forests all those years ago!”

After letting out a snarl that quickly rose to a frustrated growl, Randolph eased back into a human form. He lowered his head, stomped away, and left through the front door.

“Welcome back, friend,” Liam sighed. “I truly missed you.”

Chapter 21

Paige twitched a few times, rolled onto her back, stretched her arms, and then peeled her eyelids open just enough to get a look at the outside world. Although her face instinctively drifted toward the sunlight, she snapped it right back to the crooked table where Cole was hunched over his laptop. “What are you doing?” she asked as she swung her legs over the side of the mattress and tried not to fall off.

“Nothing. Working.”

“How long have you been sitting there?”

“You’re so cute when you flop around like that. I mean, most people are a little groggy when they wake up, but you border on disabled.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get back to your game before that computer gets wedged up your ass.”

“Aaaand she’s back,” Cole announced. “Try not to walk into any walls on your way to the shower.”

“If you’re hoping to wash my back, you can forget it. That train has sailed.”

“I don’t care how the soap gets on you anymore, just so long as it does. You’re stinking up the room.” Cole looked up just in time to catch the dirty gesture Paige flipped in his direction. After that came the slam of the bathroom door and the running of shower water.

It was just past ten o’clock, and Cole had been sitting in his chair long enough to mold the cheap foam cushion into the shape of his butt. His back was stooped and he squinted at his glowing screen while scribbling his finger over the mouse pad of his laptop. It was the closest thing to a reunion with his normal life that he could get.

In the hours since he got up, he had done plenty of work. But instead of tweaking the Hammer Strike multiplayer maps, he’d used his graphics and shading programs to touch up the pictures that had become such a recent Internet phenomena. Before he looked up again, the shower had been turned off and Paige was dressed and drying her hair.

“What’s that?” she asked.

Cole proudly turned his laptop around so she could see the screen. “Little bit of work on some pictures you may or may not recognize.”

“Are those Half Breeds?”

“Yep. They’re all over the Internet and more are popping up every couple of minutes. Most of ’em are copies or forwards, but the bunch we saw the other night must have torn right past a whole lot of people with a whole lot of camera phones. There’s even one video on HomeBrewTV.com that’s pretty damn cool.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re putting more pics on the Internet. I’d at least like to get some breakfast before I smack the living hell out of you.”

“No, no, no. Look closer.” Standing up and reaching over the screen, Cole tapped a spot on the current picture where a pair of Half Breeds raced past a light pole. “Right there. See anything weird?”

Paige stared at the screen, glanced up at Cole, stared some more and then scowled.

“Look at the part of the pole above the Half Breed compared to the part below it,” he urged.

After studying it, Paige said, “It’s a little blurry, but I think there’s a sign on there. Is that an ad?”

“No! They don’t line up! Can’t you see that?”

“Ohhhh…uhhh…sure. So?”

A vein started to rise on Cole’s forehead as he rushed around to look at the monitor from Paige’s side. “Check out the tail of this one here,” he said in a rush. “See how it doesn’t reflect any light being cast onto it from the store?” He flipped to another picture of werewolves running in a blur of motion. “What about this one?”

“Oh yeah! That’s one of the gas stations we baited.”

“No! Look at the placement of their feet. Can’t you tell they’re just a little too high?”

“No.”

Cole took a deep breath and started flipping through several more pictures. “You may not notice all of this, but people who scour websites for this kind of stuff will. They’ll see that the shading on some of the fur was the wrong shade of gray or a reflection doesn’t show up in a window quite the way it’s supposed to. When they pick out little flaws like that, they’ll be tripping all over themselves to claim this whole thing was a hoax or some sort of stunt.”

“People are dead, Cole. Some doctored pictures won’t change that.”

“I know, but it’ll cool off the talk about monsters racing through Kansas City. Isn’t that a good thing? You know, to avoid panic or plague or whatever you were talking about before?”

Turning on the balls of her feet, Paige dried behind her ears and walked back to the sink. Just because she’d started brushing her teeth didn’t mean she was through with the conversation. “Sho, you get a few pictures out