Page 95 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse
For an instant, I wondered what would happen to the hybrids without their master. Would they sit mindlessly waiting for orders? Then I remembered the story Ulfen had told us about their origin. The mage who’d created the first hybrids was killed by them, and afterward, the creatures had carried on with their violence. That was when ancestors of present-day packs hunted them down, killed them, and hid the Unholy Vessel.
My anger surged. Would all those werewolf lives be lost because of that insane witch?! Maybe someone could figure out a way to free them from the curse. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be a lost cause like vampires on rhabo.
Eric stepped in front of us, scenting the air.
“Got something?” I asked.
He shook his tawny wolf head.“Some help?”his alpha voice asked.
Also catching the message, Jake nodded.
A second later our clothes lay in tatters on the sidewalk. Jake’s immense wolf towered over Eric and me. I couldn’t help but admire his massive shoulders and compare the size of his paws to mine. His were larger than softballs while mine didn’t even get to tennis balls. He lifted his head up and sniffed the air.
“All I smell is smoke,”he said. “You try it, Toni. Your sense of smell has always been better.”
I did as he said and took a deep whiff. The acrid smoke hit me like a load of bricks. I held back a sneeze and tried to focus, to sense other things under the overpowering stench. Small hints of other scents were there too, though. I closed my eyes, and just like I did during my tracking trances, I started parsing the different smells. I gave a huge check mark to the sharp, overpowering smoke, acknowledging it, then pushed it aside and moved on to the next. With the tons of weapons being discharged, gunpowder was another strong one. Sweat was also there, and of course, the metallic tang of blood.
I pushed all of them aside and went deeper, riffling through my mental catalog. I discarded ten, twenty, thirty of them until finally, I caught the scent of strong magic. Though its sharpness was everywhere, I could detect different levels of concentration.
“I got it!” My eyes sprang open, and I moved forward, following my nose.
Rosalina walked behind me while Jake and Eric flanked her at either side. We moved cautiously as we approached the rim of the battle. If we were to get to Mekare, we had to do our best to avoid getting pulled into the melee. But that was easier said than done, considering the clusterfuck we had to wade through.
I shot a quick glance backward to check on my friends. Rosalina had two handguns at the ready, and her expression was as intent and confident as that of a professional killer. I doubted if we could find another brave Stale like her on the streets.
We crossed the street and prowled alongside the buildings. A few yards ahead a group of vampires surrounded a gigantic hybrid, bigger than any I had seen so far. One of the vampires had a sword in hand and kept going in and out, slicing, dicing, and chopping at the speed of light. Wounds appeared on the hybrid’s body while it batted its huge arms around fast enough to avoid serious injury. The other vampires also went in and out attacking with their claws and fangs, trying to distract the beast, but even five of them didn’t seem enough to put a dent in the monster. Good thing it was cloudy or the vamps would also be fighting mother nature and her beams of sunlight.
“They need weapons,”Jake said.
They sure did. If they all had guns or at least swords, they would be doing much better. But many of these people were not warriors. They just worked here, one of them was wearing an apron, for Pete’s sake. He’d probably been serving blood pints at some bar before all of this started. Good thing most of those fightingwereprepared. The werewolves, at least, had been getting regular marching orders.
A few feet away, there was a similar situation. Though, instead of vampires, this hybrid was surrounded by a group of my kind—some in their wolf forms and others in their human form. I could tell they were all werewolves by their scent. They were doing better since those with opposable thumbs held guns and swords. They discharged a barrage of bullets on the beasts, then the ones with swords and sharp claws swarmed in to finish the job. As they were busy attacking, a second hybrid charged in. I was about to scream a warning when there was a loudpop, and a bullet hit it between the eyes.
“Sharpshooter!” Rosalina said, pointing toward the top of a nearby building.
The hybrid toppled to the ground like a heavy boulder. A man with a samurai sword was immediately on it, chopping at its head. It took several whacks before he separated the ugly mug from the massive body, but he managed. Then the group of them hurried to help the vampires.
More shots rang out. Hybrids growled in pain, a black wolf’s body flew as if swatted like a fly and crashed against the façade of a building, leaving a blood trail on the wall as it slid down.
“It’s a damn massacre,”Eric said.“I still don’t understand how she can command so many hybrids at once. She’s no alpha.”
I clenched my teeth as we pressed forward.Our goal is more important. If we stop Mekare, we stop all of this.It wasn’t easy to convince my legs to keep moving, but I did it. A few yards ahead, the scene changed, and we encountered groups of vampires much better prepared for battle.
They fought with swords, guns, and axes. I even saw someone with a flail, its ball and chain twirling about her head. Surprisingly, werewolves and vampires fought together, helping each other. More surprisingly, they fought alongside uniformed Skews and Stales, which were never allowed in ThelawlessScourge.
Unheard of!
We weaved around the battle as I followed the magical scent. It was getting stronger.
“We’re getting closer,”I said.
As we tried to pass through an area tight with bodies—some fallen and some still fighting—a hybrid with a chunk of patchy blond hair on top of its head noticed us and charged in our direction.
With practiced ease, Rosalina discharged her weapon.
Pop.
Her bullets grazed the beast’s cheek as she tried to strike between the eyes. She squeezed the trigger again and again. A volley hit the hybrid’s chest, bullet after bullet, fractions of a second part. The creature slowed. We prepared to jump it, but a leather-clad Fae female wielding a sword half her size came at the beast from behind and cut it down mercilessly.
