Page 54 of The Stone Initiation
“Become a monster yet?” Selas provides.
“Yes.” She looks up at us, and I notice the red veins in her eyes for the first time, the dark smudges that speak of lack of sleep and the tightness of her mouth that tells me she’s determined to keep her people safe.
Humanity, for all its sins, is a tenacious beast indeed.
“Mutts are unpredictable,” Willowman says. “But they don’t usually turn humans. They’re more about feeding, and more mutts, mean more competition for food, so this makes no sense.”
“Tell me about it,” Jude drawls. “But it’s happening so… Help me.”
I take a breath and speak for the first time. “We will.”
She glances at me and nods.
“Even beast born wouldn’t turn a whole group like this,” Orix mutters under his breath.
Beast born are selective about who they let into their packs. They prefer order and rules. We don’t know much about them because they keep to themselves, and we rarely have to deal with them. Most migrated to the city, into the wards, when the mageri offered sanctuary, and those that stayed in the Rim kept off the radar, hunting mainly game.
Mutts…well they’re a different breed. A hybrid bloodline, whose genetics are questionable. They sleep in the day and hunt at night, so they’ll be active now. We can take them down.
I focus on the woman. “How many?”
“Five hunters, and…I don’t know how many mutts,” she says.
Prasan shrugs. “Mutts aren’t an issue. Newly turned mutts, who were once hunters, might be a challenge.” He grins revealing jagged teeth.
And it’s a challenge I need. I match his grin and nod. “Let’s go smash some skulls.”
* * *
The curfewthe local sergeant has set means that the streets are empty, doors locked, curtains drawn. The people of this settlement are frightened, and rightly so.
But not for long.
Power fizzes through my veins as we fly over the streets searching for the fallen pylon which marks our location. There’s an old, abandoned stately home to the west of it. Mostly ruins, its roof partially missing. That’s where the creatures are holed up. Woodland borders the acres of land that once made up this estate.
People lived here at one time. A family. Noble bloods maybe. But it is now an empty shell holding no spark of its former glory.
We land silently on what was probably a landscaped lawn previously but is now an untamed garden of nature.
There are only four of us now, since Willowman remains at the station with Orix’s adopted cat. Although he sometimes accompanies us on missions, he isn’t cleared for combat and must stay back to provide arcanic assistance from afar if required.
So now, for the first time in two decades the elite team is missing a member. Our strength is diminished until that elite is replaced.
This time I take the lead. We make a circuit of the house noting boarded up windows and missing walls. The place is a step away from crumbling. There’s no way to pen the creatures in. If they want to escape, there are plenty of places to slip out, and we can’t cover them all.
I look to Orix and indicate the sky.
He nods and backs up, ready to launch himself into the air and keep an aerial watch. He’ll attack any mutt that runs out.
The rest of us climb into the building through a hole in the wall.
It’s quiet inside. Too quiet for a mutt den at this time of night. Moonlight dapples the cracked wooden floors and broken tile as we pick our way across the ground. It’s impossible not to make a sound. Our bodies are large, our feet built to grip and hold our weight. But our objective now isn’t stealth.
They’ll know we’re here. They’ll either attack or run.
Either way, we’ll hear them.
Prasan shoves a table out of the way, and Selas crunches over broken plates and glass.
