Chapter 23
2221 Words
The female werepigeon was still on her knees in front of Adira, cautiously observing her reaction. The wolf didn’t exactly look friendly, snarling at her quietly. Why would she want to help the cats? She was a bird, their sworn enemy, there were hundreds of years of an ancient conflict between them.
The woman noticed their hesitation. “Look, this… this has gone too far. The girl, that’s just… that’s too much. There are many who disagree with Ralo, many who would wish this endless struggle to end, even if it means we stay like this.”
Nick pushed against Adira, forcing his way forward. “Let me speak to her.”
“Are you crazy? You’d be defenseless!” She blocked his way, refusing to relinquish control.
“Exactly. Just like she is now. We’ll be fine.”
Adira shook her head in disbelief but let him step forward and force their body to shift back into the human form. “Seriously, man, do you have some sort of a death wish? Or some wild masochistic tendencies? Do you love to be chained somewhere and suffer immensely? I mean, if you have some special s****l fantasies, fine, go ahead, I’m sure Fatim would be thrilled to whip you with a silver chain while biting into your c**k, but dammit! These are our lives you are risking here!”
“Don’t be so melodramatic,” Nick waved her off, “we’re just talking. There’s no danger.”
“By the f*****g Goddess, you are so stupid!” Adira barked and retreated into the back of their mind, growling at him quietly.
It didn’t really surprise him that the pigeon lady seemed relieved to see Nick instead of a huge wolf. His gangly figure hardly seemed intimidating. “Hi,” he waved his hand, trying to look friendly, trying to ignore the weirdness caused by two naked people meeting in the middle of the night on a dirt road surrounded by cornfields. “I’m Nick.”
“I’m Julia.” The old lady blushed a bit as her eyes slid down Nick’s body, pausing on his p***s for a few moments.
Alright, now it was beyond weird. Nick quickly covered his crotch with his hands. “Well, I wish I could say it’s nice to meet you, Julia, but given the situation…” with a shrug he trailed off, waving his arms to point out the absurdity of their situation before quickly returning them to cover himself. “Why would you want to help the cats?”
“I don’t want to help the f*****g cats,” the woman grumbled, “most of them are just as bad as Ralo. But the child… she’s a sweet and innocent soul and doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this nonsense.”
Did Zoe really make such an impression on Julia that the old lady decided to put her hatred towards cats aside and help? Or was it just a trick, a way to lure them into a trap? “You stayed because of Zoe. In a place where you’ve been tortured. With the people who tortured you. I’d say the kid is pretty convincing,” Adira pointed out. “I’m not saying we should trust the bird but we should at least hear her out.”
Nick had to suppress an eye roll. Now she was saying that. Just a few minutes ago she wanted to eat Julia. But he happened to agree with the wolf so he kept his remarks to himself. “Where is she?”
“Ralo is keeping her in one of the main buildings to make sure the cats don’t do something stupid like blow the place up before he is finished with his research.” Julia shuddered and this time it wasn’t caused by the cold. No, the fear and disgust that ran through her expression gave Nick more information than he needed. “Which won’t be long now,” she added with a resigned sigh.
Great. “I don’t suppose he’s just going to let her go when he is ‘finished’?”
“No. He hates the cats with his entire soul. The only reason the kitten is still alive is because he knows the others won’t attack him while he has her. And once he has perfected the serum… it won’t matter anymore. His army will be unstoppable.” Julia didn’t seem to be too happy even though she was basically describing her side winning the war.
His army? An army of some creepy mutants. Awesome. “You don’t seem to agree with his methods, you said there were many like you. Why don’t you stop him?”
“Stop him?” Julia raised an eyebrow and looked at Nick as if he was insane. “Nobody can stop him, he’s already too powerful. He has taken one of the earlier versions of the serum and it affected his mind as well as his body. He was determined and remorseless before but now… evil. Deranged. Many of us got killed in a gruesome way just for showing the slightest sign of disobedience. And since he has results, the council supports him.”
She sighed and lowered her head, rubbing her forehead. “Look, this town is lost. This country is lost. I will help you get the child out and you convince the cats to run and hide somewhere, as far away from here as you can. If you are fast enough, you might get to live out the rest of your lives in peace before he takes over the entire f*****g world.”
Was everyone in this city totally nuts? “Julia, I hate to break it to you, but you are pigeons.” No matter how much he tried to keep a straight face, a smirk still pushed itself onto his lips. “You can take whatever f*****g serum you want, you still can’t possibly be delusional enough to believe that a bunch of pigeons could ever take control over the world!”
For an old lady, Julia was surprisingly agile. She jumped up and strode right towards Nick. “Listen to me, young man!” Her finger poked the center of his chest. “I don’t have time for this stupid bickering. What I said is true, and the fact that you don’t believe me is just one of the reasons why Ralo will be successful. Now, do you want to save the girl or not?!”
“Uh…” Nick gulped, surprised by her sudden outburst. “Yes, ma’am.”
*-*-*
Kate wished they let her do something. Anything. Anything would be better than just standing around, knowing the other cats, and even Nick, were out doing their best to find and save Zoe. She had never felt so powerless and useless. But Grams was right, Kate was hardly in the right state of mind to go sneaking around the research facility. And she was too stupid to be of any use to Victoria with her computer stuff or to Izzy with the science research.
So she made coffee for everyone. Lots and lots of coffee. She would bake some f*****g pastry too if she had any idea how. But since cooking was yet another thing she was totally hopeless in, she just stuck with coffee. And even that was hardly a task that could occupy her for long since all she had to do was press a few buttons on the coffee machine.
All the laundry from her room and other places in her apartment got stuffed into laundry baskets and she dragged it to the laundry room downstairs. She barely even knew how to turn the stupid thing on but with lots of cursing and kicking and screaming and a quick Google search on how to operate a f*****g washing machine, she managed to do it. What a shitty adult she was.
There were some of Nick’s clothes among her own as well, the set he left behind when he was heading out for his scouting mission earlier tonight. Kate couldn’t resist but to raise his sweatshirt to her nose, burying her face in it, taking a deep breath to revel in his scent. Was it really just some mysterious magic of the werewolf goddess that made her so attracted to him? That was Kate’s greatest worry in regard to her relationship with him. That her feelings weren’t real, that her decisions weren’t her own. That the only reason she liked him was because some stupid deity said so.
If she caught a whiff of such scent under normal circumstances, she’d be scared or angry, ready to fight or run for her life. Nick was an apex predator and smelled just like one, a sharp, earthy musk that screamed danger. Except Kate didn’t feel threatened, she felt relaxed, comforted. Safe. Was that real? Or just a magic trick some bored divine being played on Kate to mess up with her already complicated life?
Something rustled in one of the pockets and Kate pulled it out, vaguely aware of the fact that paper didn’t really fare well when stuck into a washing machine. She didn’t mean to snoop in on Nick’s stuff but the paper unfolded in her hand and it was pretty obvious what it was. A bus ticket. Purchased earlier that day.
She sat down on the ground, her back resting against the quietly rumbling machine. To her surprise, there still were some tears left in her eyes and despite her fighting against them, they managed to escape her tightly shut eyes. He was going to leave. Of course he was, after everything she said to him, why would he stay? Why did he stay? The bus should have left around the time Kate found out about Zoe being kidnapped. Was that the reason he didn’t leave? Because he felt Kate’s pain through that stupid bond and went back to comfort her?
Was that even a good thing? Kate didn’t know anymore. Yes, he came back, he stayed, he was helping them find Zoe. But… if the girl didn’t disappear, he would be halfway across the country right now. Did that even count as staying there for Kate? Or was it just staying there because the kid next door went missing and he felt bad about leaving at such a moment?
Ugh. This was all so horribly complicated. Why the hell was she even thinking about him? She should be focused on Zoe now, that was all that mattered. Not some stupid, unimportant werewolf.
Kate knew he was back even before Grams told her through the mind link. Silly mate bond made her heart flutter upon sensing him nearby. Seriously, she was like a dumb love-smitten teenager. When did she get so damn emotional?
She rushed to the office on the upper levels. Not because she couldn’t wait to see him, of course not, but to see whether he found out something new about Zoe. His face lit up when Kate walked through the door, the smile that could melt damn icebergs settling on his face. Why the hell did he have to be so cute?
He was sitting in an office chair next to Grams’ desk, swiveling back and forth, dressed just in shorts and a T-shirt. With a picture of Spiderman on it. Zoe would love that.
Kate barely even noticed Grams giving her a strange look, her eyes not really seeing anyone else in the room but Nick. But when she took a step forward, one of the figures standing behind Nick suddenly leaped towards him, grabbing his neck and shoving a needle into it. Kate froze, seeing that the syringe was filled with wolfsbane.
“Mel, what the f**k are you doing?!” The woman didn’t press on the plunger yet, just held her thumb over it. If she moved just a bit, all of that s**t would go straight into Nick’s system. His eyes widened with fear but he managed to stay still, no doubt convinced it was some kind of a misunderstanding. Which it must have been. “Let him go!” Kate tried to move but a strong hand grabbed her arm. Emmet?
Grams had her arms crossed in front of her body, a worried frown on her face. “There has been some new information, Catherine. Regarding the wolf.”
Nick’s brows furrowed. “What kind of in-”
“Try to move again,” Mel’s fingers turned into long claws and she dug them deep into his neck, causing blood to trickle down his skin in thin streams, soaking into the Spiderman T-shirt. “Please, do. I’d be so happy to hear you scream in pain from this shit.” Her other hand still seemed mostly normal and her thumb caressed the flat top of the syringe plunger, making Nick shiver.
His eyes found Kate’s and the amount of fear and disappointment she saw in them was devastating. Mate or not, she was not going to let them put him through that again. “I don’t care what information you found out about him, you are not going to put that poison in him, Melanie. Let him-”
“He works for the birds!”
***
Next update: Wednesday
- Writer
