“There’s a Full Blood perched on a building a few blocks ahead,” Ben reported. “He started howling, and Half Breeds sprouted up all over town. From what we could see, they all seem to be heading in this direction.”
“Then we might as well meet them there!” Paige shouted.
“We’ll do our part, Skinner,” Ben said in a surprisingly calm tone. “When this is over, be sure to hold up your end. This city is ours.”
“I remember the deal!” she shouted. “But if we don’t stop chatting, we’ll both lose a whole lot more than this city!”
Ben nodded, lowered his head, and ran in earnest. Seeing him pull in front of the Cav and tear down the street, Cole didn’t have any trouble believing the Mongrels had gotten all the way to Kansas City from Omaha in record time.
Paige sped down East Eleventh Street but was forced to slow down due to the growing amount of police traffic clogging the road. Some uniforms were posted to divert the night owl civilians, and others jumped out of their cars to get a look at a tall building a bit farther down the block. Cole’s window was still open, so he could hear the deep, rumbling howl that shook the particles in the air. Until now he’d thought that sound was just a mix of sirens, engines, and music blasting from a club somewhere. As more howls joined in, he reflexively reached for the glove compartment.
Several police cars were parked around a single fire engine that had pulled up to a spot where two civilian cars had crashed into each other. Although he couldn’t see details amid the flashing lights and four-legged creatures darting from one live body to another, Cole spotted plenty of figures sprawled in pools of gore. At least a few of those figures were still in one piece.
“What do we do about all these cops?” he asked as he checked the .44.
“I don’t think they’ll object to a little help with these things. They may have enough guns to take down a few of the Half Breeds, but we’ll have to take the rest.”
“And what about the Full Blood?”
Paige slammed her foot against the brake hard enough to make Cole kiss the dashboard. A couple police officers held their ground in the street and waved at her to turn around and clear the area. They walked toward the Cav but didn’t even make it to Paige’s window before being taken down by a pair of Half Breeds. Bones snapped loudly enough for Cole to hear them as one of the cops was knocked off his feet. The other officer near the Cav was bitten at waist level and pulled down like an unsuspecting gazelle in a nature documentary. She pulled her gun but was overpowered by the gangly werewolf.
Cole kicked open his door and jumped outside as his hands tightened around the thorns set into his weapon’s handle. The pain barely registered, and the blood trickling from his palms felt warm and comforting. When he jabbed the end of his spear into the closest Half Breed’s side, it nearly tore straight through the creature. He attempted to lift the thing up and off the female cop but wasn’t able to divert it from its meal. The attempt did cause the werewolf to lift its head and twist it 180 degrees around, to urgently gnaw upon the spear.
Cole pushed the Half Breed down against the pavement so the cop could drag herself away. The creature flopped and contorted to try and get at him. Its teeth were bared in a gruesome display, and bony claws tore at the pavement until a gunshot cracked through the air. The Half Breed’s head snapped to one side and then twisted back around to face the cop. Cole twisted his spear within it, holding it down just long enough for the cop to empty the rest of her rounds into its body. The creature let out one last grunt before dying. Before the cop could say a word, she and Cole spotted more werewolves attacking another group of officers.
Paige had freed the female cop’s partner by sticking a curved sickle blade behind the creature’s shoulders like a meat hook. As she pulled it closer, she drove her other weapon down through its back. Her right arm wasn’t moving quickly, but she was able to drop that weapon straight down and impale the Half Breed through its spine with enough force for the end of the machete to crack against pavement. Just to be sure, she pulled her sickle blade free and drove it an inch or two through the top of the creature’s skull.
The cop watched Paige with wide, disbelieving eyes. Suddenly, he pulled his trigger again and again. Paige jumped, but quickly realized he was firing at a Half Breed running toward them. Unfortunately, the creature didn’t seem too distracted by the bullets chipping away at its chest and body. The moment it got close enough, Paige swung her right weapon straight across, connecting with the creature’s jaw and lifting the front half of its body off the ground.
Trembling as he reloaded, the cop asked, “What the fuck are these things? Who the fuck are you?”
All Paige said to that was, “Behind you.”
The cop was reluctant to take his eyes off her, but turned around when he heard the sound of claws raking against the cement. Then he added to a chorus of gunfire that dropped one of the smaller creatures charging a police cruiser. When the cop turned around again, Paige had moved on to fight somewhere else.
A few yards down the street, Cole pinned another Half Breed to the pavement. The wretch clawed at the cement, tearing up chunks of concrete while snapping at both him and the female officer he’d already saved. She’d taken a bad bite to the hip but was able to stay upright thanks to another policeman who’d come to lend her some support. The creature’s head twisted around to angles that should have killed any living creature. Since the Half Breed didn’t have a bone that wasn’t already broken, it frantically knotted itself up until enough of the cops’ bullets hit something vital.
But even after it stopped moving, Cole was reluctant to pull the spear loose. When he noticed that there were only three gaping wounds, despite all the shots that had hit, he braced his foot on the creature and freed his weapon. “Nice grouping,” he said to the closest officer.
The policeman, sweaty, scraped up, and shell-shocked, muttered, “Wh-What the hell?”
Cole looked over to Paige just as she swatted at one creature with her left hand and then knocked it into oblivion with her right. When he looked back again, the flummoxed cop had disappeared in a blood-soaked flurry of teeth and claws. From then on, none of the remaining cops were about to stop shooting long enough to ask the Skinners another question.
More Half Breeds raced in from all angles. They knocked over mailboxes and scrambled over patrol cars in their haste to get to the buffet of fresh meat. Some were sent tumbling due to gunfire from the officers on the scene, while others darted around to flank the shooters from a different angle. Every last one of the creatures howled and barked with enough unfocused energy to rend their throats in the same way their claws tore up their prey.
Cole waded through the Half Breeds to help as many cops as he could. One creature dragged a screaming man toward a police cruiser, so he aimed his .44 in that direction. Before he could fire a shot, however, another pair of creatures reached out from beneath the car to grab the Half Breed’s legs. Even with that quick glance, Cole recognized the curved claws and shorter legs of burrowing Mongrels.
At first the Half Breed twisted around to snarl at whatever was interrupting its feast. The surprise it felt when it saw what had snagged it by the hindquarters was enough to show up on even its mangled face. The werewolf barked frantically before yelping in pain as the Mongrels dragged it under the car.
“Can you walk?” Cole asked as he helped the surprised cop back up.
The officer winced, but nodded. “It pulled me a ways, but I can keep going.”
Suddenly, the gunfire rose to a frantic level. Cops screamed at each other and through their radios as stray rounds shattered glass and tore into one of the nearby buildings. More specifically, they fired at the hulking Full Blood that had sunk its claws into the building and was climbing down. Once the coal-black monster made it to the twelfth floor, he pushed away from the structure and dropped into the chaos he’d started.
Chapter 29
Liam’s feet slammed against the pavement with enough force for Cole to feel it through the bottom of his hiking boots. The Full Blood flattened for a moment and then arose in his full upright form. Unlike the twitching attempt in the hotel room, this transformation was a nightmare firing on all cylinders. It stood just over seven feet tall, was covered in pure black fur, and had muscles that looked twice as solid and unforgiving as the steel of the cars surrounding it. A patch of gray fur marked the spot where Cole’s spear had wounded Liam earlier that night.
Gunfire continued to go off, but Liam barely reacted to the constant pecking of bullets against his coat. The
