Page 78 of Triumph of the Wolf
“What?” Izzy asked.
“We’ll go that way.” I pointed my sword at the ladder.
From the catwalk, we ought to be able to see much more—maybe even Duncan and Lykos.
Izzy paused to look into a couple of cabinets and grab a white lab coat.
When I reached the top of the ladder, that portion of the catwalk deep in shadow, I crouched and peered about, hoping to spot Duncan. Though the view wasmore open than below, some of the vats and machinery rose higher than the railing, so I couldn’t see the whole building.
A soft clank sounded, the rifle bumping the metal ladder as Izzy climbed.
“That’s quite a look,” I noted as she joined me, her borrowed white lab coat cinched about her waist, her feet and most of her legs bare, and the rifle in her hands.
“No need to take a photo. My daughter would be highly embarrassed if it appeared on social media.”
“Isn’t embarrassing one’s children a staple of parenthood?”
“Well, yes, butImight be embarrassed about this too.”
“Fair.” Staying low, my instincts promising that more danger lurked up here, I crept toward a perpendicular catwalk, one that looked like it might run the length of the building. It had railings on both sides, but there were gaps in places, with tiny platforms sticking out to allow access to the open vats.
Another grunt came from the same direction we’d heard one from before. Athudfollowed. It sounded like a fight, and I thought I detected Jasmine’s aura, but the magic all around us continued to make it hard to trust my senses.
As we crept along the catwalk, the area—the entirebuilding—fell silent. Even the gurgling from the various vats seemed to soften.
I reached the intersection and peered around a crane at the corner, cables and mechanical arms partially but not entirely blocking the view. I froze to stare.
Halfway down the long building, on a platform with several catwalks attached to it, Duncan crouched as the bipedfuris. Faint light from below cast eerie shadows over his furry, muscular form, making him appear devilish and scary. Not far behind him, his clothes were draped over a railing along with a rope dangling down with a cylinder attached. One of his magnets.
Across the platform from him, Lykos also crouched. He was in his wolf form, hackles up and fangs on display as he looked at Duncan. But he also threw glances backward, toward someone egging him on.
Abrams.
24
Abrams wasn’t alone.He stood at the back edge of the platform with two of his armed men, all three of them sheltered by a control panel that probably activated the machinery around the building. If he’d been more exposed, I might have grabbed the rifle from Izzy and fired at him. As it was, my grip tightened on the hilt of my sword. I wanted to put an end to Abrams. After all the torment he’d inflicted on young Duncan, and probably on young Lykos too, he deserved to have his stay on Earth—or wherever the hell we were—ended.
That platform would be a hell of a place for a confrontation. With gurgling vats on multiple sides and gaps in the railing, it looked far from safe. Not that Abrams was likely worried about anyone’ssafety.
Unlike his hired thugs, he wasn’t armed with a weapon, but he gripped a flask in one hand, his thumb on the stopper. A dark liquid sloshed inside as he swirled it in agitation.
Izzy tapped my shoulder and pointed to something else. On a catwalk attached to ours and halfway between us and Duncan and Lykos, two more men with rifles stood, aiming their weapons at Duncan. They had a clear shot and could have fired.Were they waiting for a command from Abrams? What, did he wantLykosto be the one to kill Duncan? To fight it out in some kind of test? Maybe the men were only there to protect Abrams if things got out of hand, if Lykos couldn’t best his older brother.
Lykos hadn’t even been a match for me, so I didn’t know how Abrams expected that to happen, at least not in a fair fight.
But… maybe Abrams didn’t intend for this tobea fair fight. Indeed, Lykos appeared larger than he had moments before. It was hard to tell from a distance, but his aura also seemed to have power that matched Duncan’s. Had Abrams given him a potion? Tiger Blood or something else to enhance his abilities?
Though I didn’t take my gaze from the standoff between Lykos and Duncan, I pointed at the gunmen nearest us and crept in that direction. Duncan hadn’t attacked yet, and I didn’t know what he planned, but it would be easier for him to win the confrontation without people taking shots at him from the side.
“Endhim,” Abrams urged, his voice just audible across the distance and over the gurgling vats. “I gave you the power to do so.” He lifted the flask in his hand. “Drakon has declared himself an enemy once more, and you’ll never become the leader of a pack withhimin the world.”
What the heck did that mean? What lies had Abrams been telling the kid?
He took a step toward Lykos, and the greenish light of a glowing and gurgling vat to the side of the platform turned his face a dreadful shade.
Jaw clenched with irritation on Duncan’s behalf, I continued toward the gunmen. With the butts of their weapons pressed into their shoulders and their cheeks to the stocks as they sighted down the barrels, they weren’t looking at us. Their backs were almost entirely to us.
I picked up the pace, judging from Lykos’s posture that he might give in to Abrams and attack Duncan at any second. Thelast thing I wanted to see was the kid killed. I sure as hell didn’t want to seeDuncankilled either.
