were familiar. Somehow, even when facing things torn from legend, it made just a little more sense when he could put a voice to the face or a method to the madness. Esteban didn’t bother stating its motivations to the insects he trampled. When Cole looked into those eyes, he knew there was no explanation coming. No time wasted in thought. There was only death to be found as his head phased into a ghostly image that moved through the door as easily as a stone through a cloud.
One claw remained solid, which allowed the Full Blood to launch his smoky body into the cabin. Before he could get all the way inside, Cole reached for the spear strapped across his back and charged at him. In its compact form, the main portion of the spear was just as long as the curved Blood Blade that had recently been attached to it. The charmed metal sliced through the air as easily as it sliced through the hazy image of the werewolf. Esteban opened his mouth in a silent expression that could have either been a laugh or a howl.
“You can’t hurt anyone like that,” Cole shouted over the thumping of the overhead blades and the whining of the straining engine. “And you’re not scaring any of us, so you might as well fight or get the fuck out!”
Anger flashed in Esteban’s eyes as he swiped at Cole with a paw that solidified halfway along its journey toward his face. Cole leaned back and reflexively swatted at the incoming paw. When the blade made contact, he felt about three-quarters of the resistance he might feel if he’d parried a normal blow. Rather than slash at him again, Esteban slammed his paw against the floor, dug his claws into the steel and willed himself to take a physical form.
Paige had given the order as she freed herself from the harness holding her in her seat. Three of the IRD troops already facing the door pulled their triggers without bothering to get up. The soldiers on either side of her had more practice in disentangling themselves from the safety straps, so they were out and turned around much quicker. The gunfire exploding within the confines of the cabin was only eclipsed by Esteban’s bellowing roar.
The Full Blood materialized like a bad dream, shrinking down to his more compact four-legged form, which was still almost too large to maneuver within the confines of the cabin with any effectiveness. Unfortunately, he didn’t need to worry about being tripped up by posts bolted to the floor or structural elements within the aircraft itself. Steel, glass, and flesh alike all gave way as he lunged directly into the live rounds that thumped into his thickly muscled body.
The IRD troops closest to the door were knocked down with the first swipe of Esteban’s paw. One of them caught the blunt side of the appendage while another felt every one of the curved claws dig through his body armor, gouge into his chest, and then emerge out the other side amid a bloody spray. The beast’s victorious howl quickly turned into a pained cry as Cole drove the curved Blood Blade into his side. The impact seemed to surprise Esteban more than anything else, and he lost his footing in his haste to pull away from the charmed weapon.
Cole felt the blade carve through Esteban’s flesh, but found himself staggering to the floor as the Full Blood shifted into the form he’d acquired during the Breaking Moon. Like a picture being shifted out of focus, the werewolf went from solid to incorporeal in two seconds. The next few shots fired at him sparked against the interior of the cabin before the soldiers eased off their triggers, and the rounds snagged in Esteban’s fur clattered onto the floor.
Paige’s voice rang out once again. “Bank hard left!
The IRD pilot had enough field experience to keep his cool under any circumstances and more than enough training to follow through on Paige’s order. Everything in Cole’s immediate vicinity tilted crazily to the right, sending him and a few of the soldiers down and rolling clumsily toward the side hatch. Esteban had a similar reaction, but lacked the physical presence to bounce off something or grab anything else. Instead, he slid along the floor while also melting through it. When he should have hit the wall, his body simply kept going. His progress was only stopped when one of his paws became solid enough to grab the floor.
“One more!” Cole shouted as he crawled over to where Esteban was hanging on. “Hard right!”
It took a moment for the pilot to reach a spot where he could perform the maneuver, but he did so with even more sharpness than before. Not only did the bodies of the first two soldiers roll into the benches, but Esteban’s weight dragged the helicopter down as he shifted back into his normal body. Cole didn’t concern himself with that. The Full Blood’s paw was solid, and that was the only target he cared about. Having braced himself against the shredded hatch, Cole gripped his spear in both hands and willed it to stretch out to its full length. Then he swung it in a diagonal arc that brought sparks from the floor and dug into Esteban’s paw. Paige got to them by sliding on her knees across a floor that was tilting like a funhouse beneath her. The stake that grew from the sickle’s handle dug into the Full Blood’s paw, forcing him to let go. Esteban’s angry howl rolled through the air as his body plummeted to the ground.
“You want me to keep rockin’ and rollin’?” the pilot shouted back.
“No,” Paige said in what was one of the few times Cole had ever seen her get even vaguely queasy. “For the love of all that’s holy, level off.”
“That Class One impacted behind us. Should I circle back?”
“Yeah. Just make sure we’ve got backup.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Even after the helicopter had veered onto another course, Adderson’s gaze was still fixed on the sky. “Where did that thing land?” he asked.
Warren stood on top of the Humvee, sighting through her binoculars. “I’d say about two or three klicks from here, but couldn’t be much farther than that.”
“Can you get us to that impact site?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then go!”
He, Warren, and the other troops they’d collected along the way piled into their vehicles and rolled down the street. Adderson still didn’t have much of an idea about his location using any sort of civilian terminology. If he ever visited Shreveport again and someone gave him a street address, he’d probably get lost. But when someone referred to the grid that the IRD had set up that allowed them to navigate just about any urban environment, he’d know exactly what they were talking about.
“All Ravens,” he said into his radio. “Give me a location on the shifter that was just dropped.”
“This is Raven Two. Dropped that bastard into Sector Fourteen, but I couldn’t tell you if it’s still there or not. Swung over to have a look, but it was already up and moving.”
“Sector Fourteen,” Adderson said to the Humvee driver. That was all the driver needed to hear to get the vehicle moving in the proper direction. Adderson scanned the side of the street for movement as he spoke into the radio. “Do you still have those specialists, Raven Two?”
“Yes sir. They’re anxious to get back into the fight. Already told them you’d be joining the party. Was that speaking out of turn, sir?”
“Not at all. We engaged a large group of Class Twos in Sector Eight, but they were just wild and hungry. Most of the bigger ones are probably going to meet up with that Class One. All Ravens, deploy your troops and provide air support.”
“You’ll have it as long as we can stay in the air, sir,” another of the pilots said.
“Negative, Ravens,” Adderson snapped. “If the ground forces get overwhelmed, you are all ordered to bug out and regroup at the western rendezvous point. Those choppers are too damned expensive to be thrown away. Understood?”
One by one the pilots gave their affirmatives, but none of them seemed happy about it. Adderson tucked the radio away. No troops needed to be happy about their orders for them to be carried out. He knew the IRD soldiers were conditioned well enough to see them through before giving in to the panic that gnawed at all of them. If he thought about his current assignment for too long, he could still feel that panic creeping in at the edges. He shoved it back down and prepped his assault rifle. When the time came, that’s all he would need.
The warning sirens had been off for some time. Any civilians who hadn’t gotten into their
