Blood for blood Read online

  “I’d get someone else to test it,” he laughed. “But seriously? I don’t know either. It’s pretty tempting if it works… not that I’d… after… everything… But you’re right, you have no idea what it actually is. I mean, why not just use the herbs? Why add it with whatever he’s added to it? Probably safer just to ditch the shit.”

  “Yeah good point…” she peered at him closely, his eyes looked… sad. Shit. “Hey, wanna go back to mine? I kinda wanna see if Janice is home…”

  Dameon nodded and they began walking back to her place. The rain started up again and they both legged it, Dameon giving her a playful shove before they reached the building, slamming into her front door with laughter.

  “Alright, door feel safe?” Lupa asked, holding her key an inch away from the keyhole.

  “Yeah, I don’t feel anything.”

  She took a nervous breath and stuck the key in. No pain. Good, Brianna hadn’t… oh fuck. Janice was collapsed on the stairs. Lupa knelt beside her and felt for a pulse. Fuck, it was there but not very strong.

  “Can you carry her up to mine?”

  Dameon grabbed the frail woman as though she weighed nothing, which probably wasn’t far off, and Lupa ran up to unlock her door, flicking the lights on. “Quick, chuck her on my couch,” Lupa grabbed a cup of water and sat down next to Janice. “Janice? Can you hear me? Janice?” She shook the bony woman, her purple tinged eyelids fluttered open but she wasn’t responding. Her eyes rolled back. Fuck. “Janice! Stay with me, what have you taken? Janice!”

  No response. Shit. What was she supposed to do? She looked to Dameon who was pulling things out of the herb tin on her kitchen counter. Did he know what to do? She looked back down to Janice, shit she was turning blue, Lupa felt for a pulse. Fuck. Nothing.

  “Shit, she’s stopped breathing! Do you know-”

  Dameon pushed her out the way, pulled Janice onto the floor and started chest compressions. Lupa stood waiting. Watching. Hoping he’d tell her to do something. Dameon stopped, listening to see if Janice was breathing. Giving her mouth to mouth and more chest compressions. He felt for her pulse…

  “Little Red… I don’t think I can save her.” Dameon’s voice sounded dark. Lupa reached out to touch him, but pulled her hand away quickly. He was hot. Burning. Fuck.

  “Dameon… are you ok?”

  He seemed to snap out of it, looking over to her, his eyes still holding the darkness. “Yeah. I’m… I’m sorry about your friend. Fuck.” He put a shaking hand to his forehead.

  Lupa nodded and stared down at Janice’s thin body lying on her floor, just another dead junkie in the eyes of the world. Dead in the blink of an eye. But another friend lost to Lupa. Another… ah shit, she hadn’t even thought about the fact Dameon’s mother had… she shifted her gaze to him, but the darkness had left his eyes, replaced with sadness.

  “I better call Clean-up,” Dameon said, standing and resting his hand on Lupa’s shoulder, “Are you ok?”

  Lupa nodded and Dameon pulled out his phone. While he called Clean-up, Lupa sat down next to Janice’s body, stroking her stiffening clenched hand. Was this her fault? Should she have made Janice come back with her? Did she… did she have something in her hand? Lupa pulled at the corner of something in Janice’s clenched fingers. A note? She wiggled it out and opened it up, her breath catching hard.

  Watch your step, little witch, or you’re next.

  “You alright?” Dameon asked.

  Lupa’s eyes were wide as she looked up at him, she couldn’t breathe. What the fuck? Who… had someone murdered Janice? Given her too much on purpose? Because of her? She held the note out to Dameon, not trusting her voice. Fuck shit fuck.

  “Ah shit. Fuck! Brianna?” Dameon picked her up off the floor, pulling her away from Janice’s body.

  “No… well… I don’t know,” Lupa tipped her bag on the bench, searching for her cigarettes frantically, “Why the fuck would she kill Janice? What if… if it’s the person or wolfblood that killed her boyfriend? Shit. What if they were watching me there?”

  “Could be. Wanna go wait outside for Clean-up? You don’t need to be in here…”

  Lupa nodded as Dameon grabbed her keys and led her out, they opened the building’s front door but sat on the inside stairs out of the rain. “Shit, Dameon, everything has been getting fucked up lately…” Lupa took a long drag of her smoke, feeling a catch in her throat. “I don’t know what to do…”

  “It’s ok. I’m here with you, we will figure this out. I’ll stay tonight if you want me to?”

  Lupa nodded as he put his arm gently around her shoulders. Why the fuck were people coming after her? Wasn’t it enough that she had already lost Karl? Was… was someone else next?

  ⃝

  Lupa woke up gasping for air. She’d been drowning. She’d been drowning and someone was trying to save her. Fuck. Just like Gran… Whatever. She rolled over and glanced at the time. Three forty-five am. She groaned and hopped out of bed, going into the bathroom. Turning on the light, she shut the door so Dameon didn’t wake up. She peered at herself in the mirror, fuck, she was looking pale. But then again, she always looked a bit too pale. She washed her face slowly and dried it.

  “My hair…” she touched the hacked ends.

  Right. She picked up the scissors and cut her fringe short again, then snipped at her ends, cutting her hair evenly to her shoulders and layering it as best she could. Much better. She could control this. She might not be able to control the chaos spreading around her right now, but this she could. A stupid rationalisation but it did make her feel a little bit better.

  Lupa undressed and stepped into the shower, washing the pieces of hair off her skin. She felt her eyes stinging, tears welling in them as she slid to the floor of the shower. She rested her head against her knees and let the sadness pour out of her. Crying for Janice. Crying for Karl. Crying for all the dead people she’d ever met in her life that she hadn’t been able to save… crying for the lies that were invading her life…

  After twenty minutes she managed to calm herself down and stepped out of the shower. She washed the cut off hair down the sink and opened the door. Dameon was still snoring and sprawled all over her bed, she half smiled to herself, when the fuck had she gotten used to this?

  Grabbing a black sweater, her long skirt and some underwear, she ducked back into the bathroom to dress. Hanging her towel up she turned out the light and went to leave. Lupa could hear her phone ringing in the kitchen. Shit.

  “Hello?” She shut the bedroom door so she wouldn’t wake Dameon and picked up her smokes.

  “Gotten a problem,” Sledge’s voice, “Needin’ you come with me. I waitin’ outside.”

  He hung up. Dammit. She quickly wrote a note for Dameon asking him to wait for her in case she was gone long, slipped her boots on and shoved everything on the bench back inside her bag.

  “Hey, Sledge, what’s the go?”

  He opened the door for her, closed it and climbed in the other side of the car. “Hammer’s wantin’ to see you. Wolfbloods.”

  Shit. Had they noticed their guy missing and moved? Or was there another attack at Sable Towers? Or was there something more… shit. “Is this to do with the nest? Or…”

  “Thinkin’ so. There bein’ guys at the warehouse across the street been attacked, one got away, Hammer’s with him now. Wantin’ you come and talk to him.”

  Double shit. She lit a smoke and offered Sledge one, he took it and she lit it for him. “How many attacked?”

  “’Bout ten from what I know. Could be more. Hammer sent me straight to come’n get you. He’s pretty fuckin’ angry.”

  No shit. Lupa didn’t know what the warehouse was used for, but whatever it was she was sure Hammer wouldn’t want anyone nosing around in there, and if the wolfbloods had attacked his men… fuck, they could be anywhere now. And they wouldn’t be able to use it securely for their hunt the next night either. Fuck shit fuck. Would there even be a fucking hunt now?

>   They made it to Blackwater in fifteen minutes, somewhere between Hammer’s crib and the outskirts from what she could gather. Sledge opened the door for her then led her through an alley way to a rusted metal door. Lupa tried not to look at the filthy ground as she stepped into a deep ass puddle that soaked her shoe and foot. Disgusting.

  “Little Red wolf witch, come on in, I apologise for the early morning pick up, but we have a situation on our hands that I thought you may need to hear. This man here is Freddie, he was at the warehouse earlier this morning,” Hammer talked as he led her over to a skinny, shaking man hunched over in an armchair, “My men were attacked by wolfbloods, Freddie has managed to escape, but he has something of importance to tell you. Freddie, this is Little Red, tell her what you told me please.”

  Lupa sat on the dirty coffee table in front of Freddie and tried to give him an encouraging smile. “Hi, Freddie, you want to tell me what happened?”

  She offered him a smoke and he took it, lighting it and glancing over to Hammer then back to her. His eyes bulging. “They fuckin’ ate everyone. They eatin’ up all their insides…” he shuddered, “Aint seein’ wolfbloods so big like dat before, they eatin’ everyone up like they fuckin’ starvin’, blood fuckin’ everywhere… they howlin’ like it fuckin’ funny…”

  The guy started shaking again. Lupa didn’t want to even start imagining the horror he had experienced. She had enough of her own images. “I’m sorry you had to see that, was there something else you needed to tell me?”

  “Yeah… yeah, I fuckin’ hearin’ somethin’ as I runnin’. I fuckin’ hearin’ a big one sayin’ they ready for Friday night. Sayin’ they have another pack comin’ from ‘cross the river. Comin’ to fuck them witches up real good.”

  Freddie sucked on his smoke, eyes darting around the filthy room. Fuck. Over the river was Serum City, if wolfbloods were coming from there… how many would be fucking coming? And… why? Shit. They knew about Friday, how the fuck had they found out? Fuck shit shit.

  “Thanks, Freddie,” Lupa stood up, walking over to Hammer and Sledge. “What’s the situation at the warehouse?”

  “It is in disarray, I have men there now cleaning it up, the wolfbloods seem to have dispersed for the night, one brave soul checked the abattoir out and found nothing. Twelve loyal men are dead, wolf witch, and I intend to send a message to the wolfbloods that they cannot fuck with Hammer!”

  Both Lupa and Sledge startled, Lupa hadn’t heard him swear, except that once when repeating her, and it seems as though Sledge was not used to it either, that or he knew what it meant. Shit was serious.

  “Right. I’m going to have to call Slasher about this, we may have to move the hunt forward, if they know that we are coming, they must have a fucking spy somewhere…” Whoops. Wrong thing to say. Hammer’s eyes narrowed and he took a step towards her.

  “I do hope you are not insinuating that I have a wolfblood spy amongst my trusted men, Little Red,” his voice was low and far too fucking calm, “For I can assure you I would know if there was. I have not informed all of my people about our plans, only those close to me… and none of them would betray me.”

  “I wasn’t fucking insinuating anything, ok, it might not be a spy specifically, but someone could have followed us, someone could have overheard something… fuck. This is a right fucking mess. I need to call Slasher now.”

  She pulled out her phone and pulled up Slasher’s number moving away from Hammer. Slasher was not going to be fucking happy about this, this could fuck everything up. Lupa sighed and started calling. She quickly briefed Slasher on what Freddie and Hammer had informed her of, Slasher told her to come meet her at HQ in three hours. Sighing, she turned back to Hammer and Sledge, surely there was a fucking joke there somewhere?

  “Alright. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “I’ll be asking the questions, wolf witch, what does Slasher Commander say? Is she believing that it is I who would have a spy?”

  Lupa rubbed her head, she didn’t have time for Hammer’s macho control issues. “She didn’t say anything like that, I’m going to go meet her at nine at headquarters, and hopefully we will have more information by then.”

  “Very well, I would appreciate it if you to come back to my place afterwards, I do not wish to be left out of the loop on this one, it is my men who have been murdered after all. Sledge will drive you and bring you back later.”

  And with that, Hammer left. Two men Lupa hadn’t noticed when she first came in followed him out. Shit. Now she’d offended him, she really didn’t need that. Fuck. She looked over to Freddie, who was staring at the wall with a haunted look in his eyes. What exactly was Hammer going to do about that?

  “You ok, Freddie?”

  “Aint fuckin’ ok… they was fuckin’ eating them… eatin’ them…” Shit. This guy didn’t look like he’d be coming back from this. Images of her own threatened to fill her head, but now really wasn’t the fucking time.

  “What are we supposed to do about him?” she asked Sledge.

  Sledge shrugged and looked away. Right. Not his fucking problem. His job was to babysit her until he brought her back to Hammer’s later. She sighed.

  “Fine. Best get back to mine then, hey?”

  ⃝

  Sledge looked extremely uncomfortable sitting on Lupa’s couch with a half-naked Dameon sitting next to him, Lupa couldn’t help but grin to herself. They still had an hour and a half to kill before going down to HQ.

  “So, you’ll be with us til Lupa-Little Red needs to go back to Hammer’s?” Dameon asked, yawning and pulling out a smoke. Sledge nodded, not looking at him, but staring intently at the wall. “Want one?” he offered the packet to Sledge.

  Sledge shook his head and pulled out his own very fascinating packet and lit one. Continuing to inspect it in his large hands.

  “Ok, any ideas how someone could have found out?” Dameon asked Lupa.

  Lupa flicked the kettle on, pulled out three chipped mugs and leaned back against the bench. “I’ve been thinking about that. First I thought maybe someone could have followed us, or overheard us on Tuesday when we went down there, but then I realised they still wouldn’t know when we were going to be heading in for the fight. So it can’t just be that. If it’s that at all… then I was thinking maybe someone overheard you and me. But surely one of us would have noticed someone watching us or some shit. Which leaves the other Hunters that are involved. Slasher and Tank are way too careful, and most Hunters are supposed to be, but what if it was one of them that was overheard… or even a Protector who’s a lookout… shit, there’s just too many fucking people involved. Coffee anyone? I don’t have milk though…”

  They both nodded, watching her. She dumped coffee and sugar into the cups and filled them up, not bothering to ask what they wanted; her mind was too preoccupied. Handing them each a cup she leaned her back against the bench. There really wasn’t room on the couch for her too.

  “Ok, so we’ll have to ask Slasher who’s involved… fuck. She’ll probably have to contact the Commander over in Serum as well, see if they’ve heard anything…. We might have to cancel the whole fucking thing.”

  “Aint thinkin’ so.” Sledge said, “Hammer gonna be wantin’ blood for blood now. If you aint doing it with The Organization, you be doin’ it with him.”

  Fuck. Of course. The other fucking factor involved.

  “Hold on! That’s not fucking fair,” Dameon said, “She can’t fucking take on a nest by herself, she’d die! Hammer can’t be that fucking stupid to try and get her to do it alone.”

  “Aint sayin’ by herself,” Sledge turned slowly to glare at Dameon, a hard, mean look in his eyes, “We aint fuckin’ stupid, Protector Hawk. Hammer got plenty of men that can fuckin’ fight. Aint thinkin’ you wanna keep sayin’ stupid shit yourself.”

  “If you think your fucking men are any match for a nest of wolfbloods, you’re a fucking idiot!”

  Sledge looked like he wanted to put his fist th
rough Dameon, “Aint no fuckin’ idiot. We dun knowin’ how to fuck them up well enough-”

  “It’s ok,” Lupa interjected, seeing that both men were getting more and more hostile, “We need to get them, and if we have to call the thing off, Slasher won't let us go alone. Her and Tank at the very least would come with us on another occasion. Besides, it might not be, I’m just thinking out loud. We don’t know shit yet.”

  Sledge and Dameon glared at each other for a tense moment, and then both turned away. Fuck. Still an hour to go. She ran her fingers through her newly cut hair, this was going to feel like forever…

  “I’m going to go,” Dameon said, standing up, “I’ll meet you there, I gotta go and get changed anyway…”

  “Ok. See you later then.” Lupa responded, distracted by her thoughts.

  Dameon pulled on his jeans and shirt, picking his shoes up and shooting Sledge a dirty look as he passed him. “See ya, Little Red, love the haircut by the way.” He patted her shoulder and left. Lupa sighed and took his spot on the couch next to Sledge.

  “Think Hammer wants to kill me for the spy comment?” she asked him, putting her now bare feet on the table.

  “Nah, he aint fuckin’ mad at you for reals. You’d know if he was. Woulda not been so polite. He pissed, you heard him. But he aint gonna take it out on you. Got bigger fish to fry.”

  Well, that was something. She guessed Sledge would know what he was talking about. Looking at her feet she noticed that the bottom of her skirt was covered in filth. Gross. “Uh, I’m just going to go get changed.”

  She rushed into her room and stripped the skirt off. Ew. She pulled the sweat shirt off as well, feeling dirty all over now. She went to the bathroom and rinsed her feet and legs, then went back to her room. She pulled clothes out of her wash basket, looking for something else to wear.

  “Little Red? Oh, shit.”

  Lupa turned to see Sledge looking at the roof, standing in her doorway. “It’s ok, I do have underwear on, what’s up?” She turned her back and continued riffling through the basket, spotting a black crochet dress and pulling it over her head. Then searching for her shorts to wear under it.