No. Werewolf, one he hadn’t scented before, coming over the mountain range… Female. Young.In heat.
Fuck.
Inside, his wolf soul sat up and howled.
Eli
The creature camefrom his left and behind. Despite his training and experience, if Eli hadn’t received so much vamp blood in the last months, he wouldn’t have heard the body falling from a tree. That barely-heard whisper of sound.
Battle reflexes kicked in.
He dove to the side, rolled up to one knee.
Sighted his weapon.
The creature landed where he had been standing.
Rose to its feet. Roaring in rage and frustration.
Took a step toward him.
Eli fired. Fired. Fired. Fired. The bismuth and zinc shot took the Dwayyo mid-chest. Face. Mid-chest. Mid-abdomen.
When it fell, its torso was ground burger. Its face and part of its head had been shredded.
The air was wet with blood and thick with the stench of his fired weapon. Eli pulled his shirt up over his face to keep from breathing in so many microscopic blood particles. Reloaded. He checked the trees above. The rock wall to his side. No more Dwayyo. He took two steps to the creature. It was still breathing. Clawed hands reaching. Opening and closing. He fired point blank into the thing’s head. Three more shots.
It was no longer breathing. No longer had a nose, mouth, or throat to breathe through.
It had been male. Probably young. The Dwayyo version of a teenager. He’d just killed a kid.Fuck. Had there been another way?No,his battle reflexes said.But.
Guilt was a huge part of his soul. Had been since Afghanistan. It wasn’t an earned guilt, but guilt isn’t logical. Unearned guilt was something he and Jane shared. He shoved this fresh guilt and horror down deep. Out of the way. He’d deal with it later.
Reloaded.
He checked the trees again. His hearing would take a while to come back online, even with the buds to protect his ears. He had shifted into hyperalert mode at the top of the mountain, and yet he had still been ambushed. His eyes took in everything, every leaf movement, every odd little smell.
Satisfied he was safe, he checked his cell and found he had a signal. He retrieved Chewy’s GPS and sent that first. The signal sucked. It took forever. He pinned the dead Dwayyo’s location and sent it to Alex. Once it was clear, he texted:1. First set of coordinates for medic helo evacuation. One human male for delivery to nearest trauma center. 2. Get Gee DiMercy on hand for were-taint treatment. 3. Dwayyo-werewolf with transmissible prion-based disease at second location. Cleanup required, deep burial.
Alex replied,On it.
Eli moved away, following the blood trail, which was much heavier now.
He had made his way to the trail that was not much more than rock wall on one side and a nearly sheer cliff on the other, when he found the body. The female Dwayyo was headless, the head having rolled against the rock wall, stump side up. The two fully Dwayyo pups were dead and headless too. The position of the bodies suggested they had been fighting each other when their heads were removed.
He didn’t see the half-human pup.
Sitting a little way from the pile of headless bodies was the grindylow. Its neon green fur was covered in blood; it was licking the blood from its claws. He hadn’t remembered its tongue being so weird colored. Sorta olive green.
And…
It was weeping. He had no idea they could weep. Orwouldweep.
Beside the Grindy was a lump of flesh. It was the pup creature that had looked more human. Its head was still in place but parts of it were missing. Its abdomen and chest were a single gaping cavity. Teeth marks were everywhere. Tiny little pup teeth marks. As if it had been killed and partially eaten by its siblings.
Eli checked overhead again for another Dwayyo, before sliding his weapon out of the way on its strap. He knelt and removed a bottle of water, opened it and held it to the grindy. “Hey little buddy,” he murmured. “I can pour this on you and you can get a nice rinse. Okay? But the deal is, you don’t kill me.”
The grindy hooted soft, like an owl in distress, before scooting close and holding up its hands. Eli poured water over its head, body, and claws. It turned and adjusted so the flow washed away most of the blood.
