Ambushed (12 page)

I
spun around, my jaws still anchored on the enforcer's neck even as my
back legs slipped over his shoulders and slid down his left arm.
Hybrid necks are incredibly well-muscled and those muscles are full
of the same kind of unnatural vitality that makes me so strong and
fast, but any physical construct has its limits and I'd exceeded
those limits.

The
hybrid's neck cracked and he dropped bonelessly to the ground.

I'd
achieved the perfect kill, something that some wolves said wasn't
even possible, but then again it might not have been possible without
the special advantages that my bloodline bestowed upon me.

The
entire attack had taken barely more than a second. I let go of the
hybrid's neck, hit the ground, rolled through two full revolutions to
bleed off the rest of my momentum, and scrambled back to my feet just
in time to see Alec change forms and throw himself at the enforcer on
the far side of the fight.

"Jess,
James, help the runners!"

Alec's
command cut through the air a split second before he collided with
the other hybrid. The impact was nothing less than titanic. The
enforcer saw him coming and tried to sink his claws into Alec's
chest, but Alec knocked the deadly claws high and to the left as he
dropped his shoulder and hit the other hybrid with enough force to
knock both of them off their feet.

The
wolves who had been harrying at the hybrid's flanks, dodged out of
the way with yelps of surprise and then spun back around and latched
onto the enforcer's wrists before he'd even had a chance to come back
down from his first bounce.

The
second enforcer was as good as dead. Alec was no slouch in a fight
and probably could have given any of the hybrids a run for their
money even without help, but with a pair of wolves in the mix it was
just a matter of time before Alec came out on top.

Jack
and the third hybrid were still trading blows. They were both
bleeding from half a dozen different places, but he seemed to be
holding his own, so I charged after James and Jess.

The
gray wolf I'd figured for a goner had been bleeding profusely, but
he'd still been walking under his own power. Even if he couldn't help
Jack out, the other wolf who had been fighting the hybrid I'd just
killed should be enough to tip the balance. Besides, I wanted those
other two hybrids and I was faster than Jess and James.

The
air had a cold, mechanical smell to it and the huge fans that kept
carbon monoxide from killing everyone made it harder to follow the
scent trail, but my nose was so sensitive that it didn't matter.
Nothing less than a torrential downpour could have eliminated the
scent markers left by six moonborn in full flight.

I
had a lot of ground to make up, but my earlier jitters were so far
gone that they might as well have never even occurred. Nobody else
was as well-suited to chasing down a fleeing hybrid as I was. The
trail unsurprisingly led back up towards the surface rather than
deeper underground, but I'd half expected for the two of them to
split up.

One
of them could have retraced the route we'd used originally to get
down here. They would have been going against the flow of traffic,
but it would have doubled their chances of getting away.

I
came around a corner a second later and saw why they'd chosen to
stick together. One of the enforcers had shifted into hybrid form and
stayed behind to deal with Jack's wolves. It was too bad that one of
the wolves hadn't been able to slip by and continue after the other
enforcer, but the hybrid had picked his spot well. He had the ramp
pretty much blocked off.

James
and Jess were only a dozen yards ahead of me. I had a second to hope
that James would be smart enough to make a hole for me and then he
shifted forms and crashed into the hybrid.

Alec's
attack had been dangerous. He'd charged full-speed into another
hybrid from the side and if his timing had been even a little off he
would have missed his block and been killed. James' attack was
nothing short of reckless. He didn't charge in from the side, he
charged the enforcer from the front. It was virtually guaranteed that
he wouldn't be able to block attacks from both of the other hybrid's
hands at that speed, but it was exactly what I needed.

One
of Jack's wolves grabbed the enforcer's right wrist in her jaws at
the same time that the other locked onto the hybrid's left leg, and
then James barreled into him, sending all four of them skidding
across the concrete.

I
sailed over the entire mess in one giant leap and reacquired the
scent trail of the last enforcer. My lungs were burning now. The
ground was blurring away underneath me, but that was only part of the
problem. I wasn't just racing across level ground, I was going up at
a rate that would have left a professional marathoner sobbing on the
side of the road.

Under
normal circumstances I would have just cut back my speed, but that
wasn't an option right now. I had to catch the enforcer ahead of me
or Jack's people were all in just as much trouble as we were. At
least the hybrid I was chasing had to be suffering as much as I was.

I
jumped over a curb and leaned over hard so that I could make the next
corner without slowing down. The real problem was that this kind of
chase didn't play to my strengths. I was fast, but speed wasn't just
about strength and endurance, it was also about agility. In a normal
run there was plenty of dodging around trees and the like. It was
avoiding the obstacles that tended to slow down the hybrids in wolf
form so much, but that was exactly what was missing right now. This
had turned into a brutal competition to see whose endurance gave out
first.

The
scent trail had seemed like it was getting closer for the last few
seconds, but I wasn't sure it was anything more than wishful thinking
until I hit the third floor and was able to hear him up ahead of me.
Someone, probably Jess, was behind me too, but they were losing
ground on us; if—no, when—I ran the enforcer down I was
going to have at least several seconds where I'd be by myself,
seconds where he would push the engagement and try to kill me before
help could arrive.

Lactic
acid buildup was becoming a problem. Not only was I gasping for air
now, my muscles were burning. I didn't have much more time before my
body simply refused to continue moving.

We'd
made it nearly back up to ground level without anyone seeing us, but
our luck ran out on the second floor. I arrived just as a red Mazda
bounced off of the enforcer's massive hybrid body before the driver
slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a screeching halt.

The
only thing I could come up with was that the car had taken my
opponent by surprise and he'd been too far off balance already to
avoid it so he'd just shifted forms to at least give himself the
benefit of being hit while he was in the form best suited to take
that kind of punishment.

The
driver must have nearly had a heart attack, but she seemed to have
only clipped him. Most of his injuries seemed to be from colliding
with the concrete wall before he went cartwheeling away and back into
the car a second time.

I
didn't need to kill the hybrid I was facing, I just needed to keep
him occupied long enough for James and the others to arrive. I slowed
down, stopping a few feet outside of attack range as the Mazda's
driver started screaming.

I
couldn't blame her, I would have been just as freaked out in her
position, but it was the wrong thing to do. The enforcer was already
back on his feet and it was no effort at all for him to drive his
fist through the driver-side window and impale her with his claws.

My
hackles pulled back as a deep growl worked its way out of my chest.
The woman had been a problem, but she could have been dealt with. The
Coun'hij had special teams specifically tasked with making sure
witnesses didn't make any waves for us shape shifters. She hadn't
needed to die, Oblivion could have been brought in to wipe her mind,
but the enforcer was having a bad day and wanted to take some of his
frustration out on someone else, someone who couldn't fight back.

We
stood there for one impossibly long second, both growling at each
other, and then he attacked. I'd been expecting his move, and while I
was tired and slower than usual, the same was true of him. I dodged
to the right and moved into his attack, ripping a chunk of flesh out
of his leg as I went past.

It
was a small victory. More than anything I wanted to go for another
kill shot like I'd done to the hybrid I'd taken down just minutes
before. Every instinct inside of me screamed that fighting on the
hybrid's terms was suicide, but I forced all of that to one side and
leaped over the next attack, a claw swipe that was moving so fast
that I almost couldn't even see where his claws ended.

I
didn't try to bite him this time, I was just relieved not to be
opened up from muzzle to tail. It was a close thing, he was exhausted
and banged up, but he was faster with his hands than I expected. I
jumped over his claws, but then he reversed his hand and tried to tag
me while I was still in the air and unable to change direction. He
would have succeeded, but his collision with the wall seemed to have
messed up his shoulder.

I
landed and sprang away again, trying to lure him deeper into the
parking garage, praying the whole time that there weren't any other
humans where they could see us. Two giant wolves fighting were
conspicuous enough, once you threw a hybrid into the mix nobody was
going to believe that they'd seen anything but what they'd actually
seen.

He
took two steps after me and almost tagged me again. His talons got
better traction, cutting into the concrete like they did, but that
was only good for short bursts of speed. His claws missed my tail by
less than an inch and then he stopped chasing me.

I
spun back around and moved towards him, thinking that he was going to
turn and make a run for it, but he simply picked up a heavy metal
sign and threw it at me. He threw it like a boomerang, end over end,
which made it even harder to dodge.

I
darted to the right, but it ricocheted off of a wall and grazed my
left side. Breathing was agony. He'd cracked at least a couple of
ribs and I was bleeding for the first time in the fight so far.

If
he took off now I was screwed. I couldn't possibly hope to catch up,
and while our fight hadn't been exactly restful, he wasn't gasping
for air anymore, which meant that he'd be able to outrun Jess and
whoever else I could hear approaching.

I
was so outmatched at this point that it wasn't funny, but I didn't
think about that. Instead I bluffed. I started creeping towards him,
growling the whole way and doing my best not to let him see the
stabbing pain that made me want to flinch with each breath.

I
must have been more convincing than I thought, that or he was just
too caught up in the fight to realize he was going to kill me but
lose the war. He moved towards me, and while there was a slight hitch
to his stride from the chunk of muscle that I'd ripped off of him, he
was obviously in a lot better shape than I was.

I
put a concrete pillar between the two of us, ducking behind it to
avoid his first attack, and then tried to dart in and savage his legs
again. I almost succeeded. I came within inches of landing another
bite, but he connected with a backfist at the last second that sent
me flying.

My
ears were ringing and I was seeing stars when I landed, but I
staggered gamely back to my feet and saw the most beautiful sight I'd
seen since Jack and his people had climbed out of their van. Jess
came sliding around the corner. She was gasping and soaked in sweat,
but she was here, which meant that there was a chance I wasn't going
to die after all.

I
expected the enforcer to turn and run. He had to know how badly I was
hurt after I'd failed to get away from his last attack, but he
didn't. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that he'd knocked
me towards the direction of the exit. I was now between him and
freedom.

He
couldn't risk turning his back on Jess to rush me as a hybrid, but if
he shifted back to wolf form he would be fighting me on my home turf.
I might be bruised, broken and bloody, but I'd still put money on
myself against some arrogant jerk of a hybrid who probably hadn't
fought in his wolf form since he'd manifested a third shape.

Even
better, I could hear more feet running our direction. James or the
other wolves were now only seconds away. I'd done it, I'd stalled him
for long enough, now I just needed to keep myself alive long enough
for everyone else to pull him down.

He
correctly fingered me as the weak link, so he came for me. I should
have moved to meet him, or barring that at least tried to put some
more distance between us. My own blood made the floor extra slippery.

I
tried to dodge again, but I just didn't have the traction. He would
have ripped me in half, but Jess threw herself into the fight at
precisely the right time and latched onto his right wrist. She threw
his aim off just enough that I escaped with three inch-deep slices in
my left side rather than being killed.

Even
a hundred-and-eighty pound wolf hanging from their wrist doesn't do
much more than slow most hybrids down. The hybrid tried to spin back
the other direction and catch me with his left hand, but by then I'd
moved far enough away from the pool of blood that I was able to
dodge.

As
soon as his claws had sliced past me I reversed direction and got my
own piece of his left arm. I wasn't much of an impediment, and I
dropped away after just a second, but it was enough to let Jess get
away from him without getting disemboweled.

Jess
and I spread out, circling our foe, daring him to commit to one of us
so that the other could go for something more vulnerable, but we
never got a chance to start into him because one of Jack's wolves
arrived a second later. By the time that James and the last wolf
finally arrived, there wasn't much left to do but wait for the hybrid
to finish bleeding out.