The street Weres surrounding them exploded in anger. I backpedaled as they rushed me.
'No!' Brett shouted, red-faced as he gestured. 'Get out of the way!'
Jenks was a blur of motion, the thuds of the bar meeting flesh sickening. The occasional chime of metal on metal rang out as someone threw a chain into the mix. My first thought, that we were going to die, turned into an ironic relief. As long as the street Weres were surrounding us, the military faction couldn't shoot.
One of the Weres broke through Jenks's defenses, and I sprang forward. Grabbing the hairy arm someone conveniently gave me, I twisted and shoved. The Were stumbled away, howling in pain as I dislocated his shoulder. A nasty grin came over me. He had felt that. The bond was breaking. They were acting independently, and the round was falling apart!
A sharp crack shocked through me and I jumped. They were shooting anyway!
A closer burst of gunfire brought me spinning around. The Weres fell back, their aggression flaking to nothing as the packs divided. Heart in my throat, I found Jenks, weapon aimed at the sky and a savage expression on his face. The more disciplined military faction held their ground, but the street Weres panicked. In an instant they were gone, streaking past Jenks and me and dragging their downed companions, whether in fur, leather, or polyester.
'Hold together!' Walter shouted from behind a row of men, but it was too late. 'Damn you!' he swore. 'Hold together! He's not going to shoot you!'
Faint on the cool spring air was the sound of sirens.
'Tink's diaphragm, it's about time,' Jenks swore. The Weres who were left heard it too, and they began to exchange looks as they panted. The crowd watching started to break up, their steps fast and their faces pale as they realized that was real blood on the pavement.
'You know who I am?' Jenks shouted, bloody but un-bowed. 'I'm Jenks!' He took a breath, grinning. 'Boo!'
Several of the well-dressed Weres jumped, and a few of the military Weres touched their tattoos as if for luck or strength.
Walter shoved himself to the front. 'Hold together!' he shouted as his control over the second pack slipped away. 'You swore an oath to me. You swore, damn it!'
The alpha male in a suit gave him an ugly look. Saying nothing more, he turned and walked away. His wife slipped an arm in his, seamlessly snagging a store bag and heading for the top of the wide alley. There were no more bystanders watching now, and they melted seamlessly into the tourist traffic.
Hunched and panting, I watched unbelieving as the ring of business Weres dispersed. I smiled sweetly at Walter, hefting my splat gun. It was empty, but he didn't know that. The sirens grew closer. If they had held together for five minutes more, they would have had us. It hadn't been the sirens, it had been their inability to stay together. Without the focus, they couldn't hold together when things got sticky.
Choleric, Walter gestured to Brett.
'Rache!' Jenks shouted.
At least a dozen weapons turned to us. There was only one thing to do, and I did it.
Grunting, I leapt at Brett. It surprised him, and though he was by far the better military person, I got him down, attacking not like a professional, but like a sissy girl with my arms around his knees. We hit the pavement together and I scrambled for a better hold.
My arm went around his neck and I wrenched an arm painfully. And while he would have felt no pain had they still been in a round, he certainly felt it now. 'Tell them to back off!' I shouted.
Brett started to laugh, the sound choking off when I pulled.
'Ow,' he said, as if I was simply bending back a finger, not ready to dislocate his shoulder. 'Ms. Morgan. What the hell do you think you're doing, ma'am?'
I could hear Nick's truck. 'Getting the hell out of here,' I said, stumbling as Jenks helped me stand upright without losing my grip. It was as awkward as all get-out, but we managed. A ring of weapons pointed at us. Jenks took my place, his face ugly as he bent his arm and pressed a knife to Brett's throat.
'You ever see a pixy battlefield?' he whispered in the Were's ear, and Brett lost the vestiges of humor. White-faced, he went passive. Which was really scary in itself.
The flash of a blue truck sped past.
'Too far, Ivy!' Jenks shouted, and there was the squeal of brakes quickly followed by the horns and the gunning of an engine.
I looked at my waistband and the phone. An insane need to giggle rose through me. I sure hoped we weren't roaming.
Another squeal of tires, and Nick's blue truck rocked to a stop at the end of the alley.
'Mom's here to pick us up, Jenks,' I quipped, limping to the curb. 'I'll get the bags.'
I scooped up one of our bags, seeing as it was on the way and it sort of added to the travesty. My empty splat gun never shifted from Walter, though he was behind two rows of men. Coward.
'Hi, Ivy,' I said tiredly, tossing the bag into the truck bed and lurching in after it. Yeah, it was illegal to ride in the back, but seeing that we had just somehow beaten up three Were packs, I wasn't going to worry about it. 'Thanks for the ride.'
Nick was in the front seat, and pale. He handed a pair of bolt cutters through the window.
'Hey, thanks!' I said, then started when Brett came thumping in beside me like a sack of potatoes. The Were was unconscious, and I looked at Jenks in question when he followed him in, admittedly a hell of a lot more gracefully. 'I don't want a hostage,' I said. Then wondered when Jenks had knocked him out. He wasn't dead, was he?
Grim-faced, Jenks shouted, 'What are you waiting for, Ivy? God to say go?'
The truck lurched, and I steadied myself against the long silver locker Nick had bolted to the truck bed. My sweat went cold in the new breeze, and thinking we had done it, I pulled the hair from my eyes and smiled at Jenks. My smile faded.
As we jostled into traffic, he was using a plastic cord to truss Brett up with a painful savagery. I thought back to seeing his kids tearing apart the fairy nest in his garden. This was a side to him I'd never truly seen before, since the difference of our sizes had insulated me from it.
From inside the truck came Nick's petrified voice, 'Go faster, Ivy! They're behind us!'
Wedging myself into the corner, I held my hair out of the way and blinked. I had expected to see Jeeps or Hummers. What I found were three Weres in wolf skin, tearing down the street after us. And they were fast. Really fast. And they didn't stop for red lights either.
'Son of a Disney whore,' Jenks swore. 'Rache, you got any more charms in that gun?'
I shook my head, scrambling for a way out of this. My eyes darted to my ankle. 'Jenks, get this thing off me.'
Brett was coming around, and when he tried to get upright, Jenks lashed out, savagely connecting with his head right behind his ear. Brett's eyes rolled back and he passed out.
'Hold on!' Nick shouted. 'Right turn!'
Tossing my splat gun into the front, I gripped the side of the truck. The wheels skittered and hopped, but Ivy kept it on the road. Nick yelled an obscenity, and a motor home flashed by, tires squealing. I didn't want to know how close we had come to becoming a hood ornament.
My heart pounded and my gaze shot to my foot at the feel of cold steel against my skin. Jenks's shoulder muscles bunched, and as we hit a pothole, the charmed silver band snapped.
Frantic, I sent my gaze behind us. Holy crap, they were right there!
'Ivy!' I shouted, stomach clenching. 'When I say, hit the breaks.'
'Are you crazy!' she shouted, glancing back at me, her short black hair framing her face and getting into her eyes.
'Just do it!' I demanded, tapping a line. Line energy filled me, warm and golden. I didn't care that it was tainted black, it was mine. I took a breath. This was going to hurt if I didn't do it right. Big circle. Big circle. 'Now!' I shouted.
The breaks screamed. I lurched, shocked to find Jenks's arm between my head and the metal cabinet. Brett slid forward and groaned.
'Rhombus!' I shouted, the word raging from me hard enough to hurt my throat.
