FSE

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David scowled as he sat on the library’s couch as Colin sat next to him. He ignored Colin as they droned on to him about the effects the copies of different national landmarks had on Las Vegas’ reflection in the Spirit World.

“Are you even listening?”

Normally, such talk about spirits would interest him. But today, of all days, he wasn’t interested in anything. Nor interested in talking to anyone.

“David, pay attention!” Colin hit David over the head with the book he was holding with a dull thunk.

David spun to face Colin and snarled in the wolf-blood’s face. He snatched the book from Colin and threw it at the door, putting a large hole in it when it collided.

Colin quickly backed up to the other side of the couch in shock and fear at David’s response. He fought to keep his breathing steady as the werewolf continued to snarl in his face. Any wrong move and David could fall into Wasu-Im. _The Soft Rage. The first stage of _Kuruth. The Death Rage.

Knowing how easy it would be to say the wrong thing, he kept quiet. He hesitantly put a hand on David’s, which was starting to grow claws. The claws receded at the wolf-blood’s touch.

David yanked his hand away like it was burned. He turned away from Colin.

Colin put a gentle hand on David’s shoulder, which stiffened but didn’t pull away. Colin risked asking, “What’s wrong?”

He waited patiently as David stayed silent for several moments. He rubbed David’s shoulder with his thumb and felt David’s shoulder start to gradually loosen.

“It’s Michael’s birthday today,” said David.

“How old would he have been?” Colin asked.

“Thirty three,” David answered softly.

Colin could tell that there was more to it than just that. So he waited for more from David, softly rubbing his shoulder with a thumb.

“He’s been dead longer now than he was alive,” David said after a time.

Colin noticed a slight shake in David’s voice. He knew he shouldn’t push while David was like that, but he was curious. He said, “You talk about your brother a lot. But rarely your parents. When you do, it’s always as a whole, never by themselves like you do Michael.”

David drew a sharp, shuddering breath. He was crying.

Colin knew he was on the right track to find out what he was curious about. To coax David into talking he said in an understanding tone, “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if it’s too hard on you.”

He stood up and picked up the thrown book from the ground. He put it back on the spot on the shelf it belonged to and added, “I can do the lesson another time.”

He went to leave but was stopped in the doorway, just as he knew he’d be, when David said under his breath, barely audible to Colin’s regular Mundane hearing, “Because I don’t remember them.”

Colin looked back at David confused. Daved was facing away from Colin wiping tears from his face.

“What?” asked Colin.

“I don’t remember them,” repeated David.

Colin was confused. David had mentioned his parents before, so he clearly remembered them. He said, “I don’t understand.”

David’s hands shook as he worked up the courage to tell Colin. He roughly wiped his eyes before he said, “I don’t remember what they look like. Every time I try, all I get is a blur. Michael’s the only one I remember.”

Colin rushed to David’s side when the tears started flowing again. He hugged David’s head to him as they sobbed into his chest, “All I remember are their screams.”

Colin said nothing and let David cry into his chest. They sat together on the couch until Morrison called them out to the dining table that had two guns on it and the rest of the pack sitting at it. David remembered from some of Lucas' rambling to him about guns back in the hotel, while David was nursing his head with a bag of ice after he shot himself in the head, that they were a fully automatic MP5 and M16.

When David sat down at the table, Morrison asked him, “Remember when we picked these up?”

“I think?” said David. It looked like the two guns that Morrison took for himself from the meth lab they blew up a couple weeks before.

“They’re from the meth heads from when you lot dealt with the lab,” answered Morrison.

David nodded. So he was right.

Morrison continued, “I noticed these were nice weapons, so I didn’t let them burn up.”

He then pointed to the top of the MP5, and the side of the M16’s mag well where there were strange rectangles of rough scratches, “However these are stolen. Their serial numbers have been filed off.”

He pulled out and placed on the table a heavily used composition notebook, “I was thinking about where these crackheads got this stolen hardware from, so I took their ledger.”

Lucas took the ledger and opened it. He blinked when he saw the contents, an illegible garble of seemingly random words and numbers.

Seeing Lucas’ reaction, Morrison said, “One of them must’ve been smarter than we thought. The whole thing’s written in code.”

He snatched it from Lucas and gestured at the guns and the pack with it, “This thing has a whole list of accounts with identities of people they were supplying. It wasn’t any big syndicate or anything. Mainly just local.”

“Anyone here?” asked Tsu’mara.

Morrison nodded, “There was one other notable part time dealer here. We pinched him last week.”

“Oh, that’s what that was about,” said David. There was talk in the department when he got back about a big arrest that he had missed while he was in Vegas with Kaiden and the others.

Morrison nodded in confirmation before adding, “There were also a few in Caliente, and the Moapa Indian Reservation. These made up only half of the supply of meth being distributed. The other half went to a biker gang called the Princes of the Phalt. A violent gun smuggling ring that operates here in Southern Nevada and as far west far west as Barstow and as far east as Cedar city.”

He gestured behind him with the ledger towards the direction of the lab they blew up, “It turns out that the lab you destroyed was being paid in cash and guns. A lot more than what we found. That lab was dealing with some serious bad dudes and were getting paid well.”

He finally set the notebook back down and said, “The problem is, that I only found out recently that the gang stops here once a month. We must’ve just missed their exchange by a couple hours. The money I found was just a single month’s pay, and this operation has been going for a couple years.”

Jesse spoke up, leaning his chair back precariously, “Hard to believe they blew through all that money if fifteen kay was just a month's pay.”

Morrison nodded, “By good estimation, there’s around a hundred kay unaccounted for.”

David asked, “Do you think we could get Ralph to squeal about its location? We found the lab by following him to one of the cooks.”

Morrison shook his head, “Nope, he was just a dealer. Not even a big time dealer like the one that was arrested last week was bigger than he was. He won’t know where the money’s at. The cooks would, but they’re all dead. The bikers are due any moment now and will realise that the lab is gone when they come to get a pick up.”

He then addressed the pack in a soft, caring tone that made the pack lean away from the elder in their chairs as they found the tone rather off putting, “Won’t it suck to have all that money in the hands of criminals? Won’t it be better if we got it?”

They were silent for a moment before David nervously asked, “To confiscate?”

“According to the department,” Morrison tapped the ledger, “This ledger doesn’t exist.”

Kaiden was silent for the entire pack meeting, watching in disbelief. He raised a hand and asked, “Uh, what the hell were you lot up to before I joined?”

“We blew up a meth lab,” answered Lucas.

Kaiden sighed, “Cause of course you did.”

Colin chuckled, “ He learns fast.”

Morrison let the pack tease their newest member for a few more moments before dragging them back on track, “I don’t know if the gang knows where the money is kept. But if they do, they’ll beeline for it.”

“What about the mages?” asked David. “They mentioned summoning the ghost of that person they tried to dig up. They owe us for letting them work in our territory.”

Morrison shook his head again, “Won’t work. Coroners already cremated the bodies and I don’t know where the ashes went.”

He waved them off, “You go take the truck and search homes of the cooks that were able to be identified for clues as to where the money could be. Only three of them had IDs, which were men named James, Allen, and Chris.”

“Was one of them the guy that we followed from Castleton?” asked David.

Tsu’mara shook her head, “From what I found out from working there as security, his name was William.”

Morrison nodded and told Tsu’mara, “Only the first three’s homes were searched by the department and even that was just a cursory look. There’s no legal way for them to know where that William man’s house is. So go get his address.”

He wrote down the addresses of the ID’d men and gave them to Lucas. He got up from the table and said, “I’m gonna go take the SUV and keep an eye out for the gang.”

After Morrison left, Lucas got up excitedly and cried out, “It’s a hunt then!”

He bolted around the house for components for the Siskur-dah as David scowled in his seat at the dining table.

“I know that look,” said Colin disapprovingly. “You’re hunting money, guns, and humans. Not spirits. So the Iron Masters’ Siskur-dah is the most fitting for this hunt.”

He added, “You’ll get to conduct the Bone Shadows’ Siskur-dah eventually.”

Kaiden suddenly shuddered at Colin’s words, making both David and Colin look at the Cahalith with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I did that either,” said Kaiden.

Lucas returned, giddy, with the components for the rite. A twenty dollar note, and a bullet. With some pliers he pried the bullet out of the shell and poured the smokeless gunpowder onto the note.

He looked at the note and gunpowder and rubbed his chin in thought, “Needs something else. Colin, can you give me your hand?”

Colin did as he was asked and didn’t react when Lucas jabbed one of his fingers with a pin to get a drop of his blood to drip onto the gunpowder. His reaction told David that it wasn’t the first time his blood had been used for a rite.

“A wolf-blood’s blood is closer to a human’s blood than mine is,” said Lucas as he let go of Colin's hand.

He rolled the note into a crude joint and lit it while chanting prayers to the Iron Masters patron spirit, Sagrim-Ur, Red Wolf. He offered the lit joint to David, who leaned back away from it with his face twisted in disgust.

David took the makeshift joint from his fellow Ithaeur and grimaced before he took a puff. The moment he breathed in the smoke, he retched. As did everyone else who smoked the horrendous concoction.

“The one time I’m thankful I’m not Uratha,” said Colin as he watched the entire pack throw up their breakfast.

David wiped his mouth and shuddered as he felt the effects of the sacred hunt. Goosebumps rose on his skin as invigorating adrenaline dumped into his bloodstream, and his eyes dilated as his already keen senses went into overdrive.

“Do NOT do the rite like that again,” snapped David, blinking as his eyes watered because of them flickering gold from the effects of the _Siskur-dah. _He ignored Colin’s slap on his shoulder for his language.

“It’s the best symbolism I could think of,” snapped back Lucas.

“Come on,” said Tsu’mara, spitting to get the taste of vomit out of her mouth. “Let’s go. I’ll get William’s address from work and the rest of you can check out the other three’s homes. I’ll call you when I find it.”

They started filing out of the house and David looked back. Colin was getting a mop and bucket to clean up the other’s mess.

“Colin, come on,” said David, waving the wolf-blood over.

“Okay,” Colin said excitedly. He dropped the bucket and mop and ran out of the house to meet up with the others at the truck. But not before grabbing his hide.

Colin’s quick agreement surprised David. He expected the wolf-blood to try and turn him down, citing his duties as a wolf-blood as reason not to participate in the sacred hunt. He knew that Colin always wanted to join their hunts, so he was even ready to try and convince Colin to join them by saying that there was no Old Man there to tell him no like last time. Even to drag him along if necessary.

But it wasn’t necessary, he watched Colin happily jump into the truck. Happily bouncing in the seat, impatient to leave.

Lucas drove them to the location where all three homes were, a trailer park. The trailer they were looking for turned out to be an old aluminium Airstream. Its door wasn’t locked, and with David leading as they entered none of the neighbours bothered to notice the pack nosing around. Thinking that it was just the department giving another search of the place before the bank repossessed the trailers.

The inside of the trailer was a complete pigsty. The floor was littered with take out containers, beer bottles, food wrappers, and all the surfaces were dusty and grimy.

“Ew, gross,” said Colin as he nudged a beer bottle away with his foot. “Where do we even start here?”

“It isn’t that big a place,” said David as he looked around the mess, unsure where to start himself. “Just look for anything that could be a clue.”

The pack sniffed around, sifting through piles of rubbish, checking between cushions. None of them were happy to be looking through the messy trailer, Colin most of all. He hesitated to use his hands to sift through the mess, mainly using his feet. When he did use his hands, he would gingerly pick things up to move them to check them over.

“Welcome to your first sacred hunt,” said Lucas, watching Colin’s distaste for over an hour. “Most of it is just boring, and gross, searching around.”

He opened the small fridge and immediately gagged at the smell. He slammed it closed and noticed, pinned to it by a magnet, a photo. It seemed to be the only thing in the trailer that was nice and cared for. The picture was of the three of the cooks they had killed at the lab standing in front of an old 70s el camino parked in the driveway of a house none of them recognised.

“Found this,” Lucas called out, showing the rest of the pack the picture. “Anyone find anything else?”

“Other than the fact that this guy was clearly single?” asked Jesse, holding a crusty porn magazine with two fingers, “Not really.”

“Okay, good. Let’s check the other trailers then,” Lucas said, pocketing the picture.

The second trailer, a regular fibreglass trailer wasn’t as much of a mess as the first one was but was rather old and dilapidated. It was fairly clean, if dusty, with only a sink full of dishes being the only significant mess.

“Should be easier to look this place over,” said Kaiden.

“Then you fucking lead the search then,” snapped David, shoving Kaiden forward.

With Kaiden leading the search in the second trailer, much to David’s annoyance, it was actually a faster search and only took an hour. Lucas was hesitant to search around, still sniffling from the smell of the fridge he was hit with. THough he did risk searching the fridge again. Just to find that there was no food in it, just cans of beer. Colin was happier to look around the trailer with there being much less garbage to sift through.

Kaiden found a phone while rooting through the couch in the main room that looked to be routinely slept on. On a whim, he checked to see if the battery was dead. It wasn’t.

“That was lucky,” he said.

He handed the phone to Jesse so they could unlock it.

Jesse’s eyes widened as he looked through the phone, “Oh wow. There’s a lot of porn on here.”

“Focus, Jesse,” said Lucas, David, and Colin in unison.

“Must happen often,” Kaiden said to himself.

“Porn, porn, spam, more porn. These people really needed to get laid,” said Jesse as he combed through the phone’s messages.

“Focus,” said Lucas, David, and Colin again.

“I am!” snapped Jesse. “Ah, here we go. A text from someone named Henry. ‘James, I miss my dad’s old car. Maybe we can use some of the cash we stashed in its trunk to fix it up. Does your uncle in Caliente still fixing cars for cheap?’ Then James replied, ‘_He is, but we can’t tow the clunker from the desert where we left it.’ _Must be that car from the photo.”

“Great. We just have to comb the entire fucking Mojave for it,” grumbled David, flinching when Colin slapped his shoulder.

“Yeah, a broken down car in the mojave isn’t an uncommon sight,” said Lucas.

“Not to mention that we have to find the most common car of the seventies in the desert,” said Kaiden.

“Yeah,” sighed Jesse. “I’m down for looking for needles in haystacks but this is a bit too big of a haystack.”

“Hopefully the last trailer has something,” said Lucas and led the group out to it.

The last trailer was another aluminium Airstream trailer. This one was missing its tires and had the worst mess out of the three trailers.

“Oh god,” groaned Colin as he saw the mess inside.

“Try to actually give a proper look through everything this time,” Lucas told him.

David wordlessly shoved Kaiden into the trailer. He knew his packmate did a better job of leading the search than he did, but didn’t want to admit it out loud. It took the same amount of time to search through as the last was. Which was a feat considering it was so much messier than the last two trailers combined. Jesse didn’t help, getting distracted by a Playgirl magazine he found hidden under the bed’s mattress.

“Most of this is just garbage,” complained Colin, throwing random bits of trash over his shoulder as he got frustrated with the task. “Medical bills, retirement home pamphlets, food wrappers.”

“Retirement home?” asked David. He snatched the pamphlet Colin was about to toss. None of the cooks they slaughtered were old, so he was confused as to why one of them would have a pamphlet for a retirement home.

The pamphlet had a handwritten sticky note on it, ‘Bill, found this place for your mom’. He read the pamphlet’s contents. It seemed like a nice facility for the elderly unable to care for themselves. In the nice part of Sumerlin too.

“Bill? Must be William,” he asked himself. He pocketed the pamphlet and said, “Where’d you throw those medical bills? I want to see their address.”

Colin pointed to a trash pile near the trailer’s door that had a few opened envelopes on top of it. David checked them and found them addressed to a Mrs Martha Conners, and a William Conners. They were for the treatment of an M. Conners at a neurology clinic in Las Vegas.

“You guys in there?” called out Tsu’mara from outside. “I finally got William’s address. Had to dig around in the dumpster to find his records cause management threw them out after he didn’t show up for three straight days.”

All five inside the trailer cringed. They all looked at each other, none of them wanting to be the one to inform the Rahu that they already found the address themselves.

“Shouldn’t they keep those?” asked David, “Not throw them out.”

“In theory,” said Kaiden.

“Uhhh, Tsu’mara?” Lucas nervously called out.

“What?” asked Tsu’mara, concerned about Lucas’ tone.

“We, uh, already found the address,” answered Lucas.

Tsu’mara didn’t respond and stayed silent for a long while.

“Tsu’mara?” asked Lucas.

A loud bang and the squeal of tearing metal shook the trailer and made the pack inside jump in shock. Another bang and squeal shook the trailer. They all slowly peeked their heads out of the door and saw Tsu’mara punching holes straight through the trailer’s aluminium sheeting. They slowly brought their heads back inside.

“Not it,” said David, Kaiden, and Lucas, followed soon after by Jesse.

Jesse looked at Colin expectantly who said, “Don’t look at me, I’m not calming down a Rahu without my hide on.”.

“Ugh, fine,” groaned Jesse and walked out to try and calm down the raging Rahu. It took him several minutes.

Lucas spoke up again after Tsu’mara finally stopped puncturing the trailer’s metal sheeting, “We were digging through trash too. We’re all filthy and disgusting. Up to our knees in refuse.”

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here,” growled Tsu’mara.

“Don’t,” said Lucas and David saw Colin open his mouth.

William’s address turned out to be a single-family house. The property was a mess of weeds out front, paint peeling, and the screen door out front was hanging off its hinges slightly. It looked like it would’ve been a nice property forty years ago, and could still be with some renovation and care.

“This isn’t the house, is it?” Colin asked Lucas.

Lucas shook his head as he looked at the photo, “No, not the same car either.”

The car Lucas was referring to was an early-2000s ford sedan that sat out front in the house’s driveway, covered in desert dust. It didn’t look like it had moved in years. When the pack looked it over, they found that its registration sticker was almost two decades out of date.

“Okay,” said David to get everyone’s attention as they walked up to the house. “The bills said there’s two people living here, so we’re gonna have to knock first.”

Kaiden shoved David forward, “You’re the deputy. Pretend it’s a welfare check.”

David growled at his packmate, “That was already the plan.”

David knocked on the door and called out, “Mrs Conners, it’s the Sheriff’s Department. We’re doing a welfare check.”

After a long moment with no response he knocked on the door and repeated himself. Still to no response.

After David repeated himself a third time Colin tried the front door and found it unlocked.

“Vampire rules. Means we’re allowed to enter,” he said cheerily.

He was yanked back away from the door by David who snarled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“That’s not even how vampires work,” said Lucas. “You know that.”

“Going in,” answered Colin. “No one’s home.”

“It’s a fucking crackhouse, Colin,” snapped David. “You don’t know if there’s any traps. Like a tripwire that’d send an axe flying into your face.”

“How would you even know that?” asked Kaiden.

“Cause I’ve slept in them before and seen traps like that,” snapped David. “When you live on the streets you’ll take any covered place to sleep that you can.”

“Now watch where you step,” he barked at them before he carefully opened the door and entered.

The smell inside the house was putrid, the smell of rancid urine and rotting faeces. It made everyone cover their nose. Even Colin with his regular Mundane sense of smell. There were trails of both fresh and old human urine and faces all over the ruined carpet of the house. A clattering, followed by frustrated muttering from the kitchen caught everyone’s attention.

A deep pit formed in David’s stomach and his heart skipped a beat as he remembered where the bills were from. He said, “Oh no.”

He bolted for the kitchen, with no regard for any possible traps that he warned everyone else about.

He stopped when he reached the kitchen, his heart stuck in his throat.

“Oh god,” said Kaiden when he saw what David did.

Martha Conners was wandering around the kitchen attempting to go through the motions of cooking herself food, it must’ve been over a month since someone has fed her a proper meal. In her occasional lucid moments, she’d managed to eat some scraps left out on the counter and gotten herself a glass of water. Though she seemed to have dropped a few, with shattered glass littering the kitchen floor. She was severely malnourished and dehydrated. She was barely able to stand, swaying as she tried to cook herself a meal.

She had cracked an egg on a filthy frying pan. It seemed like she had tried to several times, as there were eggshells, and spoiled raw eggs on the floor and kitchen stove. She was holding the pan over the stove, staring at it while repeatedly twisting the knob for the burner over and over. Thankfully, someone must have disabled the gas to the stove (or maybe the gas bill was never paid) so the poor woman couldn’t set herself on fire with the stove.

It’d been a long time since her addict son ever changed her diaper, so she’d been dressed in a floral gown with nothing underneath and been allowed to simply let everything fall where it may.

She didn’t notice the pack standing at the entrance to the kitchen, too focused on her attempts to cook food.

David slowly approached, careful not to frighten the dementia suffering woman. He gently took the frying pan off her and said with a dry mouth, “Mrs Conners, let me.”

Tsu’mara gently guided the elderly woman to a dirty couch while David cleaned off the pan. The water was thankfully still on. He cracked a fresh egg into the pan, and lit his lighter underneath it. He used his Shadow Gift to intensify the flame underneath in order to have the proper amount of heat for the egg to cook. He didn’t cook it very well, but its quality didn’t matter. Just that it was sufficiently cooked. The malnourished old woman needed anything she could eat.

He plated the egg, the edges of the white burned, and joined Tsu’mara and Mrs Conners on the filthy couch. When he sat down, Mrs Conners started to scream incoherently. He quickly set the plate aside so she wouldn’t knock aside and ruin the food. It wasn’t hard to keep her restrained, the struggle came from keeping the frail woman from hurting herself. It crushed David’s heart to see the woman in such a horrible, diminished state. Even Tsu’mara, the hardened soldier, was troubled by it.

“Go find where the camino is,” ordered Tsu’mara to the others as she and David fought to calm Mrs Conners down.

The other four got to searching the filthy and decrepit house. Colin tried to help the others but found himself constantly checking in on David and Tsu’mara who had managed to calm Mrs Conners and were helping her eat the egg.

With their number limited, and the house being much larger than the trailers, it took a while, two hours, for the others to search the entirety of the house. Eventually, Lucas found, under random bits of rubbish, an early 2000’s answering machine. He noticed on it a call from a local number.

“People still use these things?” he asked himself.

He played the call, “Yo, Bill, it’s your boy Bee Oh Bee. I wanted to congratulate you on your sweet new ride man. We fuckin earned this paper, bout right we spend it on nice shit,” Bob’s recording paused for a moment before continuing, “Hey, uh, one thing tho. It’s cool you brought the new wheels to el camino camp and all, but make sure you delete the location from the gps. Ya know, just to be safe and all that? Probably best not to bring it by the kitchen either, wouldn’t want to get any of the, uh, ingredients on that kick ass paint job, am I right? Anyway, fuckin grats man. There’s more where this came from, we’re gonna be set dude. Tell your old lady I said hey, later dude.”

Lucas groaned in disgust as the recording ended and said to Jesse, who he had correctly guessed was behind him, “This douchebag’s first purchase with the drug money was a damn car while it was his friend who was looking for retirement homes instead.”

“We should go and find that so-called ‘sweet ride’ of his,” said Jesse, “See if the douchebag remembered to actually delete the location from the GPS. Maybe he’ll lead us to it like he did the lab.”

He turned away and happened to see out the window a flame painted mustang parked in an alley down the street. “Oh, found it.”

“Oh, that’s disgustingly gaudy,” said Lucas when Jesse pointed it out to him.

He gathered the others to go to the car but was stopped when Tsu’mara said about Mrs Conners, “We can’t leave her here.”

David pulled out his phone and called Morrison, “Hey, Old Man.”

“Better be important,” growled Morrison.

“It is,” said David. “I was doing a welfare check at the Conners residence since Mrs Conners’ son disappeared and she’s not in a good state. She needs to be put in a home.”

“I’ll be right over,” replied Morrison.

“Also,” said David before Morrison could hang up, “I found evidence that her son may have been linked to the meth lab explosion. He might have been one of the unidentified bodies.”

“Anything else?” asked Morrison.

“A possible lead on the other two John Does,” answered David.

“Alright, follow that lead. I’ll be there in around half an hour,” said Morrison before hanging up.

“Can you keep an eye on her?” David asked Tsu’mara who nodded and stayed on the couch with the old woman as the others left the house.

As they got to the car, Jesse looked it, and the alley, over. “If anyone can find a long piece of wire, I can jimmy the door open.”

David smashed the driver side window with his elbow.

“Or you can just do that.”

“Won’t you get in trouble at work for doing that?” asked Kaiden.

“Nope,” said David as he leant into the car and tore the GPS off the dash. “Probable cause. Found evidence that the owner’s linked to illicit drug production.”

“So that’s why you were talking on the phone like that,” said Kaiden.

David looked the GPS over. Tech was far from his strong suit and was struggling to figure it out. “How the fuck do you turn this thing on?”

Jesse snatched it and easily turned it on. He combed through the travel history and swore, “Damn, he did delete it after all.”

“Anything of use?” asked Lucas.

Jesse read out different places from the GPS, “The dealership, fast food joints, and the house.”

He pointed back towards the rundown house. “Ah, here we go. There's a place in Panaca he went to.”

He checked google maps on his phone and said, “And it looks like it could be the house from the photo.”

A car horn blew outside the house they had just searched.

“Oh, good. Elder Morrison’s here,” said Colin.

Tsu’mara was already guiding Mrs Conners to the patrol SUV when they made their way back to their house. Morrison stayed in the SUV but rolled down the window when David approached.

Morrison said, “I can’t believe the neighbors never thought to check on her.”

“Neither can I. They’ll probably be beside themselves with guilt for like a week before memory holing it,” said David.

He gestured for Jesse to toss him the GPS. He caught it and showed Morrison, “Can you run this through the computer? This is the only other address of significance.”

Morrison nodded and input the address on the laptop mounted above the console.that he usually had David man when the two were on patrol. “Hmm, the place belongs to a Robert and Henry Davis. Seems they were reported missing around the same time as the meth lab blew up.”

“Does Robert go by ‘Bob’?” asked David, and he pointed to the house. “Cause the call on the answering machine was from someone who called himself Bob.”

“Don’t know, but you already found enough evidence to suggest that he does,” answered Morrison.

David nodded, “Okay, I’ll go over there and check the place out. Can you also give me the addresses of the three ID’d bodies? I want to give them another look to see if I can find more evidence of the Davis’ being linked to them.”

David shot a glare at Kaiden when he saw him look confused. He gave the newer packmate both a harsh cut it out gesture, and a zip it gesture when they went to speak as Morrison read out their addresses.

“Thanks, I’ll let you know what I find,” said David.

He went to leave but looked at Mrs Conners sitting confused in the back of the SUV. “What’s going to happen to her?”

“I’m gonna take her to the clinic to have her looked over,” answered Morrison. “If she doesn’t have any family to take her in, she’ll probably end up in the custody of the state who’ll just throw her in the cheapest retirement home they can find.”

David was uncomfortable at that prospect, and Morrison noticed. “Look, it's better than her staying here. She won’t last another few days on her own and nobody would know until the neighbors start complaining about the smell just to find her dead in a puddle of her own vomit. THAT is when they’d be beside themselves with guilt before memory holing it after a week.”

“You did good,” he said before driving off.

Kaiden gave David an accusatory look and said, “Care to explain what the hell that was about? We already had the addresses.”

“To explain to the department why we were snooping around the trailer park and why we have that photo,” said David.

“Why would we even have to explain that?” asked Kaiden.

“Dash cam,” David said curtly. “I’m pretty sure the Old Man doesn’t want to explain to Paxton why there’s a recording of us saying we’re searching for drug money to keep for ourselves or anything supernatural.”

“What about yesterday though?” asked Kaiden. “We were talking about fetishes, the Pure, and magic security systems.”

“He probably had it turned off,” said Jesse and pointed at David and Lucas. “Cause he knew you two were gonna be in the same car. Didn’t want to explain to Sheriff Paxton why you were growling and snapping at each other like dogs. And any random mention of The Pure can just be explained away as talking about ‘that crazy Mormon cult’ in Caliente.”

“We don’t fight that much,” growled David.

Colin grimaced and said, “No, you do.”

“Let’s just go to the fucking house,” scowled David before storming off to the truck.

“What about body cams?” asked Kaiden during the drive. “You’re still a rookie. So that’s why you don’t have one.”

“No, I’d have a body cam,” said David. “The department just doesn’t have the budget for them in general.”

“Yet they could afford to hire you?” asked Kaiden.

“They couldn’t actually,” said David. “The Sheriff was actually doing the Old Man a big favor by hiring me, and on the condition that he took a pay cut.”

It was night time by the time the pack got to the house in Panaca. Unlike the Conners house in Pioche, the Davis’ house was actually in very good condition. The driveway was definitely the one from the picture on the fridge, the el camino though was nowhere to be found.

“Damn, guess it was too much to hope for for it to be here,” said Colin.

“The phone did say it was wrecked in the desert,” said Jesse as he knelt by the front door and started picking the lock.

David kicked it open.

Jesse gave an annoyed sigh.

The inside was rather orderly, with a well kept office, two bedrooms that were only moderately messy and recently lived in, and a master that didn’t seem to have been touched in a few years. The musk of an older male still lingered in the master. The bathrooms smelled of male urine, toilet seats set upright and stuck there.

“Place is clearly a bachelor’s pad,” said Jesse as he picked up a paper plate from the overly full bin in the kitchen. “Though it’s unusually clean for one.”

“I’m guessing that smell you guys noticed in the master bedroom was of their father and they kept the place tidy out of respect for him,” said Colin.

“They were doing him so proud,” said David sarcastically.

“I don’t know how much time we have left. So we should get to searching” said Kaiden.

“And this place is bigger than the last house,” noted David. “We need to narrow the search. Look for places that’d logically have clues.”

“We can probably rule out the bathrooms and the master bedroom,” said Colin. “Everything else should be easy enough to search through since it’s so clean.”

They all left to search different areas of the house. David stayed to search the kitchen, Lucas and Jesse searched the lived-in bedrooms, Tsu’mara the living room, and Kaiden the office.

There weren’t any dishes in the kitchen, all the plates and cups were paper, and the bin was the only messy place in the kitchen. It was also completely devoid of any proper food. Just bags of chips and bottles of beer. When he passed by the oven, he couldn’t help but see Martha Conners trying to use it. He could hear the constant clicking of the electric starter trying to ignite the gas that wasn’t flowing.

He closed his eyes and took slow steady breaths as his hands started to shake. They stopped when a hand gently took hold of one and squeezed it. David squeezed it back before wrenching it back from surprise.

Colin was looking at him with concern. He asked, “Are you okay?”

David looked at the oven again before he sighed, “Mrs Conners.”

“You did the right thing. You shouldn’t beat yourself up over it,” said Colin.

“Asides,” said Colin, taking David’s hand with both of his who didn’t take it away this time. “Doing what you did followed the Oath of the Moon.”

“Uratha Safal Thil Lu'u,” he said in the heavily accented First Tongue. The Uratha Shall Cleave to the Human.

“I guess. I just-” David said before a supernaturally high pitched, shrill whistle made him clap his hands over his ears and yell out in pain. Even Colin covered his ears, but he wasn’t in pain though he was extremely uncomfortable.

“Sounded like it came from the office,” said Colin, rubbing his ear. “I really hope that ringing goes away.”

Everyone rushed to the office and saw a surprising sight. Kaiden sat at the desk, casually scrolling on his phone as the office was in complete pandemonium. The filing cabinet’s drawers would slam open and paper would flutter out, the computer cracked with electricity, and books hurtled off the shelves as spirits hurtled around the room.

“The hell’s going on?” demanded Lucas.

“Sift the Sands,” answered Kaiden. Sift the Sand was the Shadow Gift Kaiden got during the task he was sent on for his initiation into the Bone Shadows. What he did to get it, David didn’t know since he and the others weren’t there for it.

“This is what happens when you use that?” asked David.

“Yeah, makes searching for information a lot easier,” said Kaiden.

“Doesn’t look like it,” said David as he looked at the mess being made of the office.

The office then went quiet, the computer stopped crackling, books remained where they dropped, and a single folder marked ‘B+H Business Idea’ flew out of the filing cabinet and landed on the desk in front of Kaiden.

“Looks it to me,” said Kaiden as he picked up the folder and started looking through the paperwork in it.

“Just don’t do that in the Den’s library,” said Colin. “Elder Morrison will skin you if you do.”

Kaiden passed some leaves of paper to Lucas, “There seems to be a land deed to a plot of land in the desert.”

“This looks like a survey map,” said Lucas as he looked over the paper he was given. “And there’s a sketch of what looks like a race track circuit?”

“Yeah,” agreed Kaiden and he held up assorted bills. “Looks like Bob and Henry had a pet project for a desert off-road racing site. There’s property taxes and, eight years ago, an estimate from a towing company on the recovery of a 1983 El Camino from a remote desert location.”

“That has to be it,” said Tsu’mara.

Kaiden nodded and continued reading the estimate, “And it’s still there guessing from this. The price for it is insane, and their father seemed to agree.”

He showed the pack the price and they all cringed at the long string of numbers. There was a large “WTF?!?” written in red pen next to it.

He picked up another document from the folder, “There’s also an insurance payout for the car. Says it’s ‘an unrecoverable wreck’ and they did not get much for it.”

The pack left for the property out in the desert, not bothering to clean up after themselves. It was late at night by the time they got there.

It was unrecognisable as a race track, any effort made to remove vegetation and clear a track had since been reclaimed by nature. There were a number of beer bottles and cans strewn everywhere. A pair of barrels that were used for fire pits by a large cluster of cacti, where the roof of a car was visible from within.

“Over there,” said David, pointing at the car, “In the cactuses.”

“Cacti,” corrected Lucas.

“Oh, shut up, you damn nerd,” David growled back as he stomped over to the car with the others following.

The insurance payout was correct in its assessment, the rear axle was completely shattered, both tires cocked up at nearly 45 degree angles and the frame was bent into the ground. Because of the cacti growing around it, and the solid bed cover, made it that only the rear of the el camino accessible.

“Okay,” said Jesse, “If someone’s willing to try and get into the car, we might be able to find a long enough piece of metal or wire to jimmy-”

Tsu’mara wrenched the back open with a loud crack.

“Why do I even bother?”

Inside the el camino’s bed was a large duffle bag, a smaller backpack, and at the very back was a toolbox.

The duffel bag was stuffed full of stacks of small denominations of money. No more than twenty dollars. A cursory look confirmed that it was around one hundred thousand dollars. The backpack had large bricks of meth that David estimated was worth around forty thousand. The toolbox surprised them, it contained antivenom syrettes, snake shot shotgun shells, and a revolver that chambered shotgun shells.

“Holy shit, it’s a Thunder 5,” said Lucas, grabbing it.

He, Jesse, and Tsu’mara ogled the revolver while David grabbed the antivenom syrettes. He asked, “Isn’t antivenom supposed to be kept refrigerated?”

“You’re shocked a bunch of methheads didn’t know how that?” asked Colin.

“Regardless,” said Lucas, pocketing the revolver. “We should head out before the bikers get here.”

“No, we should deal with them,” said David, “Getting rid of them will cripple not just drug and gun running here in Vegas, but also half of Nevada and parts of Utah.”

“Okay, fine,” said Lucas. “How would we go about doing it? We don’t know how many there are.”

David thought for a moment, looking at the random beer bottles and cans strewn around, “Hm, there’s nothing in the trunk we could use to make a firebomb and intensify the flame of, and I don’t think they drank anything that was high proof that I could use.”

“They’re all empty anyways,” said Tsu’mara as she picked up a broken bottle. She gave it a sniff and made a disgusted face, “Ugh, cheap piss. Not even a soldier would drink this.”

David then got an idea. He snapped his fingers and told Lucas, “Give me the revolver we found.”

Lucas’ eyes widened as he quickly caught onto what David was thinking, “No! You have any idea how rare Thunder 5s are?”

“Fine,” snapped David, “Then give me yours.”

“No! Fuck you!,” snapped Lucas. “Use your Glock.”

“I need it for work,” snarled David. “I get paid fuck all, so I can’t afford a new one.”

“Then grab one from the library’s safe,” Lucas snarled in David’s face. “They’re the legal ones.”

“Oh for,” groaned Tsu’mara. She shoved herself in between the fighting Ithaeur. She pulled the Thunder 5 from Lucas and roughly shoved it into David’s chest. The force slammed him into the back of the ruined El Camino.

David scoffed and climbed up on top of the El Camino’s tray cover. “Help me find some wire or something so I can make a tension trap.”

Jesse inhaled sharply and clenched his fists. He slowly breathed out and muttered to himself, “Just take what you can get.”

He and Kaiden helped David look around the car’s interior, and Kaiden helped David rig the larger revolver with some cables they found so that it’d fire when the tailgate was opened.

“Okay,” said David as he carefully put the tray cover back on, “Now we just have to wait for the gang to get here.”

“Colin and I can keep a lookout in Urhan,” said Kaiden. “They won’t question a couple coyotes walking around.”

“Good idea. Just don’t be together when you do,” said Lucas. “You two might be able to pretend to be coyotes by yourselves, but together they’ll be able to tell you’re not coyotes.”

“I’ll go Dalu so I can still use my revolver,” said Lucas.

“I will too so I can still use my lighter,” said David. “I need the flame to make using my Gift easier.”

“Jesse and I will go Gauru when the trap is sprung,” said Tsu’mara.

So they waited, David and Lucas in Dalu, Kaiden and Colin in Urhan, and Jesse and Tsu’mara in Hishu. They waited a few hours, the pack members with hands tried to use their phones to pass the time but found they were out of data reception.

Luckily they were still in call reception, because near midnight Lucas got a call from Morrison. “The bikers are here. Blondie knew I was on the lookout for them and called them in. They’re heading South on the highway towards Panaca. They’ll probably be there in like half an hour.”

“Thanks Morrison, we’re already set up to ambush them. We’ll call you after they’re dealt with,” said Lucas. He hung up and told the others, “Good thing we found the cash first, cause they definitely knew where it was.”

Half an hour on the dot, there was a yelping bark off in the distance, a signal from Colin that the bikers were there. The roar of bike engines, a lot of them, followed soon after. Everyone took their hiding spots, hidden among cacti and desert shrubs. David made sure he had line of sight to the Camino’s rear and had his lighter on the ready, his hand in front of it to hide the light of the flame when he lit it.

The gang roared into sight, there were twelve of them. All with their own chopper, three had side cars. All twelve were heavily armed, with rifles, shot guns, sidearms, and machetes. They all dismounted but left their bikes idling.

Two bikers approached the wrecked El Camino.

David shook with anticipation, and his blood ran hot as the two bikers stopped at the tailgate. He wanted to ignite his lighter then and there. He wanted his prey now. But remembering his first lesson with Colin, he stayed his hand and remained patient. Waited for the perfect moment as they reached for the tailgate.

The moment stretched on for an eternity as he waited. He had to ignite his lighter at the perfect moment.

The bikers opened the tailgate and David ignited the lighter. His chest burned redhot, and the flame of the lighter went from a red and yellow, to a yellow and white. The revolver trap was triggered, and the powder in the fired shell burned with an intensity it should not have had. It burned hot enough that it cooked off the other four rounds in the cylinder.

The revolver detonated with a loud, fiery boom.

Snake shot, shrapnel, and fire launched right into the faces and chests of the two bikers. They folded like puppets with cut strings and dropped, unmoving, to the ground.

Before the remaining ten bikers could react, David turned his attention to the idling choppers. The flame of his lighter intensified to a vibrant yellow and white again, his chest burned with a familiar fire, and one of the choppers with a sidecar ignited, erupting up into the night sky in a mushroom of roaring flame.

Distracted by the slaying of two of their comrades, and the detonation of one of their choppers, they failed to see Jesse launch his attack.

A tall (Jesse gauru description) loomed over one of the bikers at the edge of the group. He slashed his claws along his chest. The biker screamed in pain and shock and brought his rifle up and shot at Jesse, but the bullets only grazed the thick hide of the Uratha’s War Form.

Another biker fired at Jesse, but the fear and shock of seeing a monster from myth and legend right in front of him made his shots go wide and miss.

Lucas made himself known and fired his revolver at one of the bikers further away from Jesse, striking the man in the shoulder.

The snap of a twig alerted another biker, he trained his rifle on the sound and saw what appeared to be a coyote trying to sneak up on him. He stumbled back in fear as it stood up on its hind legs and grew until Kaiden stood 7 feet tall over him. He swiped at the retreating biker, missing their flesh but shredding their leather jacket.

The bikers, recovering from their shock somewhat, started shooting at the two gauru who had their full attention. Three fired full auto into Jesse, and four at Kaiden, riddling them with bullets. But it will take more than a single volley of mundane rifle bullets to put down two Uratha in their war form.

Another Gauru joined the battle, the largest yet. Tsu’mara burst out from her hiding spot and charged the bikers. She tore off the arm of one of the men who shot Jesse and caved in their skull.

One of the bikers yelled out in horror at the sight of his friend’s slaughter. He fired his shotgun straight into Tsu’mara’s chest, who simply snarled at him. Her next target made clear.

Colin darted out of the darkness and leaped for the biker Lucas shot as they aimed to fire at the Dalu. The red wolf’s jaw clamped down on the rifle, pulling it down and making the biker fire into the dirt.

The biker, surprised to see a wolf in Nevada, pointed his rifle at Colin.

David saw it and was enraged. The flame of his lighter burned bright and the biker’s rifle, and the three other bikers next to them, detonated. Mangling and burning the arms of the three, and killing the one who aimed at Colin.

Jesse growled at the bikers who shot him, bullets fell out of his body as he healed. He slashed the chest of the closest biker, crippling them.

One of the bikers injured by David, unholstered their sidearm. Lucas saw it and immediately fired at them, shooting them in the chest and dropping them to their knees.

Kaiden growled, his body pushing out the bullets he was shot with. The Cahalith looked up and unleashed a singing howl to the half moon above, inspiring his packmates to rip and tear their prey apart.

Realising that they were surrounded, the bikers unleashed another volley of bullets and buckshot at the werewolves that they could see. One of them was Colin.

Colin’s howl of pain and subsequent whimpering seized David’s heart. He looked at the biker who shot him with a snarl. The skin of his palm peeled and blistered as the flame of his lighter burned a deep blue.

The biker’s shotgun who had shot Colin, and his alone, detonated with such fiery force that it fatally wounded not just him, but the biker next to him as well. The biker who shot Colin dropped to the ground and rolled in a vain attempt to extinguish the flame that stuck to him like napalm. He clutched at his throat with mangled hands. He tried to scream in agony but all that came out was blood that sputtered from his mouth, throat, and chest.

Tsu’mara ignored the biker thrashing on the ground, letting David have his kill, and grabbed one of the few remaining uninjured ones by the head. He screamed and thrashed in pain before falling limp in her grip with a wet crunch.

Jesse tore the throat from the biker he was attacking. He could have killed him earlier but wanted to play with his prey first. To see the lunatic terror in their eyes.

An injured biker, disarmed by David, pulled out his sidearm and shot at Jesse who snapped their head up and snarled at the shooter.

Lucas shot the biker shooting at his packmate directly in the head.

Kaiden slashed one of the few remaining bikers across the gut, who clutched it to keep his intestines in.

The few remaining all focused on the largest threat. Tsu’mara. They unloaded on her, but the bullets did little against the thick hide of her war form.

Colin groaned as his body pushed out the buckshot as he healed. He got up from the ground and leapt for one of the bikers who fired at Tsu’mara. The wolf grabbed onto their arm, but couldn’t bite through the thick leather of their jacket.

The biker back handed the small wolf with his free hand. He aimed his rifle at Colin, but the wolf-blood’s distraction was enough. Thebiker let out a harsh gasp as a large clawed fist covered in a patchwork coloured fur punched through their back and erupted out their chest.

David detonated more guns. Killing the one that Kaiden crippled, and one other, leaving just a single solitary biker left.

The lone survivor sobbed in fear, aiming to and fro each of the pack. He screamed and hollered at them in a desperate hope to scare them off. But he lost track of one of them, and he realised it. His eyes darted everywhere but couldn’t find them.

Jesse appeared behind him without a sound and backhanded him, sending the biker flying into a cacti surrounding the ruined El Camino. He screamed in pain as he landed, both from Jesse’s blow and from landing on the cacti. But none of that compared to the pain that came after.

Jesse pounced on him with a feral grin, razor sharp claws digging into his ribs. He slowly dragged them down, tearing skin, and flesh and breaking and snapping ribs. The biker shrieked in pain as Jesse took his time, wanting the biker to see their insides before they died.

Silence hung in the air after the final biker finally perished. It was broken by Colin who had shifted back to Hishu. He asked, “Didn’t the Iron Masters teach you not to play with your prey?”

Jesse shifted back to Hishu and said while shaking blood and viscera from his hands, “Is having fun a crime for Bone Shadows?”

Everyone else shifted back to Hishu and started going through the bikers’ remains. Lucas drove the truck up to the slaughter and asked out from the window, “What guns survived David’s pyrotechnics?”

“Eleven Glock17s,” said David, dumped a large pile of handguns into the back of the truck. All of them had their magazines removed, and their chambers cleared. David didn’t want a repeat of the gun range.

“What generation?” asked Lucas, staying in the truck.

“Uhhh,” said David. He grabbed one of the handguns and looked it over. “Gen 5 I think.”

Lucas gave a disappointed groan.

Tsu’mara and Colin, who had recovered his clothes from the truck, walked up to the truck and dumped the rest of the recovered intact guns in the back. Tsu’mara said, “Two Winchester twelve gauge shotguns, a Benelli M4 shotgun, two HK MP5s, an HK UMP, an M16A2, and a Desert Eagle.”

“Oh, a Desert Eagle?” asked Jesse, snatching the large handgun from the back of the truck.

“Ohh, ahh, a Desert Eagle,” Lucas said sarcastically before mumbling, “Jamming pieces of shit.”

“Hang on,” said David as he noticed something about the Desert Eagle. He snatched it from Jesse and gave it a closer look. He grabbed one of the Glocks from the truck and looked it over, and then grabbed one of the Winchester shotguns, giving that a look over as well. “All the serial numbers have been filed off. It’s a felony for us to keep these.”

“Oh no! A felony!” cried out Jesse, and dramatically put a hand against his forehead and trust fell into Colin.

“What are we ever going to do?” cried Colin, quickly playing along with Jesse.

“Take us away, Mister Lawman!” they cried in unison, extending their arms towards David so he could cuff them.

David scowled at the pair who started laughing at his reaction.

“Ghost guns are far from the worst illegal guns we have,” said Lucas. He poked his head out of the truck and asked Tsu’mara, “Didn’t you find an M2 hidden behind the fridge while we were in Vegas?”

“Yeah, the Blood Talons Rahu and I took it out to the desert and had fun with it after the Pure’s counter attack.” Confirmed Tsumara. She looked at David and said, “If you’re so hung up about them missing their serial numbers. We could ask the Protectorate to re-serialize them.”

“That’d put us on the hook for a pretty big favor in the future,” said Colin.

“David’s the one hung up about them being unserialized,” said Kaiden. “So I think it’d just be him on the hook for it.”

“Why the hell would it just be me?” snapped David.

Kaiden shrugged, “Don’t know. Just a feeling.”

Lucas got out of the to help the others loot the bikes. The nine choppers without side cars had uninteresting personal effects that they discarded soon after finding them, and had jewellery and cash that they guessed was worth up to two thousand dollars. The two with side cars though had stocks of ammo for every weapon the bikers used, a five ounce gold bullion from the Scottsdale mint, a quadcopter drone still in its box and store plastic that was clearly shoplifted because it still had the security device on it that’s supposed to be removed on purchase.

“Oh, I’m keeping this,” said Jesse.

“Oh, Jesus,” said David as he looked through the drugs they found in the side cars. A bag of black tar heroin, a large sandwich bag of meth that looked to be the same product from the lab they blew up, and several boxes of commercially packaged joints from a dispensary in Las Vegas. “This is gotta be like thirty kay worth of drugs. The only legal ones we can own is the marijuana.”

“We could invest-” Lucas started to say, but David interrupted him.

“We are not getting involved with drugs, Lucas,” growled David.

Lucas threw up his hands and said, “Fine, we’ll just give them to the Protectorate and they’ll get rid of them. I’m keeping the reefer though.”

“Fine,” snapped David and threw one of the boxes at Lucas' head who easily caught it.

Lucas set aside the box of marijuana and started counting out the extra cash they found in the side cars, which added up to just over two thousand dollars. He looked confused, and dug through the side cars. “Where’s the rest of it?”

“That’s all that was there,” said Tsu’mara.

“I know,” said Lucas. “That’s the problem.”

The pack looked at Lucas like he went insane, even David.

Lucas explained, “The gang came through here every month to buy meth off the cooks we killed, and they were due now. So they should-”

He cut himself off as he realised. His head snapped to the still burning chopper that David blew up. He screamed, “SHIT!”

He bolted for the ruined chopper and its side car. He screamed, “David! Put it out!”

David put the fire out by clenching his fist, and Lucas furiously dug into the side car’s interior. But all he found was unusable burned cash.

“FUCK!” swore Lucas and he slammed his fists into the chopper, which deformed like clay under his strikes. “David, you fucking idiot! First the Thunder 5 and now this!”

“I blew the bike up to knock the bikers off balance and make the fight easier for us!” yelled David. “They outnumbered us two to one!”

“We are werewolves!” snarled Lucas. “Two to one in their favor doesn’t even come close to making it fair for them. Even if it did, why the hell did you blow up this one?”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that the ONE bike I blew up just so happened to have the fifteen kay in it?” yelled David.

Kaiden watched the two Ithaeur quarrel, Colin had jumped in between, chastised them for their language and tried to keep the pair from coming to physical blows. Kaiden turned to Tsu’mara, who was watching the fight with a tired and fed up expression, he asked her, “Why do they fight this often?”

“Cause this is what happens when a pack has more than one of the same auspice. They’re either thick as thieves or,” Tsu’mara sighed and she pointed at the two snarling Ithaeur, “This.”

“We tried to warn him that this could happen,” said Jesse. “But he was just so excited to have another Ithaeur after he had that vision.”

“I don’t fight with Morrison,” pointed out Kaiden.

“And thank god for that,” said Tsu’mara. “That could be because Morrison claims to not be a part of our pack-”

Jesse laughed.

“-Or you just haven’t started fighting yet, or you two actually get along.”

The three watched Colin continue to chastise them, who snapped at Lucas, “We already got over a hundred kay. Don’t get greedy.”

Jesse butted in, “That’s real rich coming from you, bloodbag.”

Colin shot a glare at Jesse, “You promised to not bring that up.”

“Bring up what?” asked David and Lucas in unison.

“It doesn’t concern you two,” said Colin.

“No,” said Lucas and David finished his sentence. “We think it does.”

“Regardless of what concerns you,” said Tsu’mara. She pointed to the bikers' remains. “We gotta figure out what to do with the bodies.”

“No one but us knows about this place now,” said David. “Just leave them for the scavengers.”

“Scavengers are the very reason we have to deal with the bodies,” said Lucas. “A coyote rocking up in a town with a human hand in its mouth have always set off alarm bells to do a search. And because of how far scavengers spread body parts, they end up searching most of the desert. So they’d find this eventually if they’re prompted to search.”

“We can just blame it on mountain lions,” said David.

Colin shook his head, “Not this many bodies, and the blown up bike will get them to start asking questions. The Herd must not know.”

“We could burn the bodies,” suggested Kaiden.

“Wouldn’t a massive pyre of burning bodies be like a smoke signal for people?” asked David.

“Bonfires in the desert are nothing new,” said Lucas. “We should keep the bikes at least. Sell them for parts.”

He turned to Jesse and asked, “Where was the chop shop that the cooks wanted to take the Camino to get repaired?”

“Caliente,” answered Jesse

“Okay,” said Lucas. “Not selling them for parts.”

“We can just leave them in the desert to rot. No one will question a bunch of rusted out wrecks,” said David. “Put a tarp over the ones we want to keep to protect them from the elements.”

They got to work piling the bodies into a pile, and using gas siphoned out the bikes without side cars that they were going to let rot in the desert, and set them alight. They hastened burning the bodies by having David intensify the flames.

After what was left of the burnt corpses were buried, Lucas gathered all the money into the dufflebag from the El Camino and counted it all out. “Okay, we have one hundred and four kay in cash, fifty-one kay in drugs, and however much the gold and quadcopter are worth. We should invest-”

“We’re spending it on Mrs Conners,” said David. “We’re doing what her son should have done and are putting her in that expensive home.”

“I think you should too,” said Colin. “Doing so will be following the Oath of the Moon.”

Lucas tried to complain, but Kaiden came to David’s and Colin’s defence, “It’s not up for discussion. We’re spending it on her.”

Lucas turned to Jesse and Tsu’mara. Jesse just shrugged, “Colin isn’t wrong. Asides, it won’t be spending all of it. We’d have like seventy kay left over if her house is sold and the money from that used to offset the cost. We can invest the rest of it with the protectorate.”

“Fine,” snapped Lucas, and growled to himself as he harshly zipped the duffel bag closed as the decision on how to spend the money was made final.

***

Kaiden found himself in a nice room. It would have looked like a regular, if fancy bedroom, if it wasn’t for the hospital bed that was in the place of a regular bed. Sleeping in it was Martha Conners.

Kaiden walked up to her bedside. She was sleeping peacefully, looked much more well fed and hydrated than she looked four years prior.

A door opened behind him and he turned to see a white female nurse walk in, wheeling in a food trolley. It had a box of milk, a single banana, and a bowl of porridge that smelled strongly of honey and cinnamon.

“Good morning, Mrs Conners,” said the nurse cheerily.

She wheeled the trolley to the side of the bed and then walked over to the window. She didn’t notice Kaiden standing by the bed as she walked past him.

She opened the curtain to let in the morning light, which made Mrs Conners stir awake.

Mrs Conners woke and said, “Morning, Margaret. It’s always so nice to see you each morning.”

“Pardon?” asked the nurse, shocked and concerned at unusual lucidity from her elderly patient.

Mrs Conners didn’t respond, having gone back to sleep.

“Mrs Conners?” asked the nurse. She returned to Mrs Conner’s bedside where she gently shook the elderly woman’s shoulder. After she didn’t wake, the nurse gently took her wrist and checked her pulse.

After a moment, the nurse lowered her head solemnly. She put Mrs Conners’ hand back down and pulled the bed sheet up and over her, covering her completely.

***

Kaiden jerked awake in the bed. The jackal looked around his surroundings, he was in bed with all the others. It was morning in the Den and everyone was stirring, sluggish, as they woke up for the morning.

At least until they realised it was morning and all climbed over each other, fighting to be first in the Den’s two bathrooms.

Kaiden took his time getting up. He didn’t need to rush like Lucas and David, who had managed to claw their way into being the first into the two bathrooms, leaving Tsu’mara banging on the ensuite door and yelling at David to hurry up.

He found himself stuck thinking about his dream of Mrs Conners. It was a dream, he knew that, but he also knew it was so much more. He’d have to bring it up to Elder Morrison during breakfast that morning.