FSE

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“I fucking hate coming here during the day,” winced David as he blocked the sun’s light with an outstretched hand.

“Yeah, no Uratha likes it,” said Lucas, squinting in the harsh light.

They were both in the Hisil during the day. A rarity for Uratha, as Apollo, unlike his sister Mother Luna, never forgave the Uratha for the murder of Father Wolf. As such, travelling to the Hisil during the day was more difficult and being in it was far more uncomfortable for them.

They had spent most of what little free time they had left the night prior in the library. Lucas had been teaching him how his warding magic worked so that David could recreate it in a fetish.

By the time they were finished, they were so tired it was all they could do not to fall asleep in the library.

“Why do you want the fear spirit at Ralph Baker’s house?” asked Lucas as they trudged towards the spiritual reflection of the now reclusive meth dealer’s house. “I learned the Shadow Gift from a coyote spirit. Wouldn’t it be better to find one of those?”

David shook his head, “The fetish needs to be able to be activated by non-Uratha. The wielder feeling intense fear would be the ideal way to do that. Especially since it’s only supposed to be used in an emergency.”

“The fear spirit’s gotten pretty strong feeding off Ralph,” said Lucas as they trudged along, sun beating down harshly on their backs. “Seems a bit overkill to shove him into a small fetish like that.”

David shook his head, “Dane’s books on fetish crafting mention being able to use portions of a spirit’s power instead of just shoving them in it. It can be unpleasant for them to do though. And it only creates talens.”

They arrived at Baker’s house. Despite the sun bearing down on them overhead, the ruined house was ice cold. It looked the same as it ever did. Windows smashed in, doors creaking on broken hinges. Drips of water, creaking wood, even faint malicious whispers could be heard.

It looked the same, but it felt different. The darkness that left the property in a perpetual gloom felt more oppressive, making a shiver of fear go up the two werewolves’ spines unbidden. The hairs on the backs of their necks stood on end.

The spirit feeding off Ralph was watching them.

A whispering voice in the First Tongue drifted from the darkness of the house’s darkened doorway, like a drop of ice water down their back.

“What is it that you want?” asked the fear spirit.

“I need some of your power to create a fetish,” said David in the First Tongue, thick and accented due to being in Hishu. “Not asking you to inhabit one. Just shed some of your power to fuel it.”

“And why would I do that?” asked the spirit.

“If you do this, next month’s tithe will be considered paid fully in advance,” answered David.

The darkness inside the house receded, but the sounds within intensified. Both David and Lucas heard a panicked scream as Ralph’s fearful paranoia got the best of him and his scream pierced from the Mundane into the Spirit World.

The darkness then returned to its normal envelopment of the house’s interior as the spirit replied, “Very well. We have an accord. Bring forth the fetish.”

David reached into the breast pocket of his flannel and brought out a ring. He had used what Lucas taught him to create it. It was a simple silver band with small carvings of the First Tongue on the inside of it.

He held the ring in his palm and offered it to the doorway.

A tendril of darkness, both tangible and intangible, stretched out from the doorway and touched the ring in David’s palm.

He suppressed a grimace of pain as the silver band became so cold that it burned his skin.

The tendril then snapped back into the house.

“It is done,” said the fear spirit in a strained, pained whisper.

David’s hand closed around the completed talen and held it close to his heart. He gave a bow and said, “Thank you.”

He and Lucas turned to leave, and after they were out of sight and earshot of Ralph’s house’s spiritual reflection, Lucas remarked, “I didn’t expect you to handle that negotiation so well.”

“Neither did I,” admitted David as he opened his hand and looked at the completed ring. The silver had gained a darkened patina, but the First Tongue inscriptions carved into its interior stood out in harsh contrast to the tarnished metal around it.

“It’s…” David started to say before trailing off. He gave the ring a sniff before finishing, “Stronger than I expected.”

He offered the ring to Lucas and the fellow Ithaeur took it and inspected it. He turned it over, smelled it, and held it up to the light.

“Huh,” said Lucas as he handed the ring back. “Looks like the spirit put more power into than necessary. I’d say enough to make the warding magic give you the precise location when activated.”

“Guess the spirit really wanted to make sure its next tithe is paid off,” said David as he slipped the ring into his breast pocket.

“It’ll only be a single ping though,” warned Lucas. “It won’t give you the location at all times.”

“I guessed as much,” admitted David. “It’s only a talen. A proper fetish is harder to activate for non-Uratha.”

That made him wonder. It wasn’t impossible for non-Uratha to use regular fetishes, just harder. They could use them if the user were to perform some sort of ritual that resonated with the fetish’s nature. A doctor or nurse could use a healing fetish if they were to treat a patient with one present, and a police officer could probably use their tracking lantern if they were tracking a criminal. He wondered if he could create a fetish, that wasn’t a talen, easily usable by non-Uratha.

He was sure it was possible. He just needed to think of one. He couldn’t make it too easy to use, to prevent breaking the Oath of the Moon and risk having the Herd discover the Truth. Perhaps something occult in nature. Humans often misinterpreted, or saw what they wanted to believe, so a fetish of that nature could work.

He sighed to himself. Yet another fetish idea to add to his laundry list of ideas of fetishes to create. He hadn’t even been commissioned by anyone yet, packmember or Forsaken. Once he started making a name for himself as a fetish crafter, he was sure the Protectorate would come knocking for them. Especially since his master had died and they could no longer get them from him.

They travelled to the graveyard locus and out of the Spirit World. They were thankful to be out in the regular sun instead of Apollo’s furious gaze in the Spirit World.

When they reached the Den, they hadn’t even entered the house when they heard arguing.

“You still arguing about where to look?” asked David as he walked in.

Morrison, Jesse, Kaiden, and Tsu’mara were gathered around the dining table where several maps were spread out.

“And whether to kill the hostage or not,” groaned Kaiden, massaging his temples to soothe his headache.

David inhaled sharply, “Colin!”

“He should be killed!” shouted Colin from the kitchen.

“Oh, for the love of…” groaned David. He pulled the ring out of his breast pocket. “Can you get out here. I have something for you.”

Colin’s head popped around the wall, and said with an excited smile, “You do?”

He quickly jogged up to his mate and bounced on his feet, “What is it?”

David gently took Colin’s left hand on and put the ring on their ring finger.

Colin a small gasp of surprise and blushed, Jesse gave a teasing coo, and Lucas snickered.

“What?” snapped David. “It’s a talen. It’ll let me know if Colin’s ever kidnapped again. And because it’s a fetish, it’ll shift with him whenever he puts on his hide.”

“You put a ring on his finger, David,” said Kaiden.

“And?” asked David. “It’s unassuming. Easy to overlook.”

“Madhouse,” sighed Morrison, looking up from the maps. “What will everyone at the Nevada Club think when their bartender shows up with a simple band on his left ring finger?”

David’s face flushed and he stammered, “We’re already married though.”

“Did you tell the town that?” asked Morrison.

“They already know,” said David, confused.

Morrison looked to Colin, “Did you?”

Colin shook his head, “No. They thought we were brothers for a while. Saying we were actually husbands the whole time would’ve been too big a lie for them to swallow. So I only said we were boyfriends.”

Morrison shook his head and looked back down at the maps, “Well now they’ll know your husbands. So you better get a ring for yourself. You can turn it into a fetish some other time if you want.”

Jesse leaned forward on his chair with a mischievous smile, “So who’s taking whose name?”

“Shut up!” stammered David, his face beet red.

He turned to Lucas and snapped, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Lucas shrugged, “I was gonna see how long it’d take for you to realize by yourself.”

“Why do you have to be such an asshole?” asked David. Which made Colin slap him on the shoulder.

“He’s only an asshole to you,” said Tsu’mara.

“How come?” asked David.

“Cause you’re an asshole to him!” hissed Tsu’mara.

“On to more important matters,” said Morrison, interrupting Tsu’mara and waved David and Lucas to the dining table and had them sit down.

The maps on the table were of parts of Caliente and surrounding areas.

“These are maps of Talbot Pack’s church, house, and some farm property they own south of Caliente called Etna.”

He pointed to the map of the Church, “The church sounds the most logical place for them to stow the Wolf-Bloods. It’s their biggest and most fortified stronghold. The least likely to break into.”

“It’s the biggest location but it’s also too obvious. It’s the one they know we know,” said Jesse. He pointed at the map of Etna, “It’s too public. If I were them, I’d keep them in the farmhouse.”

Morrison shook his head, “No, the church makes sense. It has a large basement, a rarity here in Nevada. There’s a good chance they’re keeping them there. It’s the center of their operations, and possibly a Locus.”

“What about the house?” asked Tsu’mara as she pointed at the house map. “It’s connected to the road whereas the farm isn't. Though, the farmhouse was hard to dig for, not easy to find.”

“Can’t Cahalith track people in their dreams?” asked David.

“Yes,” nodded Morrison, “But, that only works in Siskurdah. We’ll only do that when we’re about to leave and get them. Any time before that and they might move them elsewhere.”

“We need more information than we currently have,” said Kaiden.

The argument that Lucas and David walked in on started up again. Everyone arguing their points on why to siege their choice location.

Fed up over the repetitive arguing, David stood and tapped Lucas on the shoulder.

“You said you’d help make the mirror,” he told Lucas.

“Yeah, I did,” said Lucas, standing up. “This isn’t going anywhere anyways.”

They made their way into the library where David started digging around in the closet for where he hid his stash of the perfected metals.

“How does your Gift of Shaping work anyways?” asked David. He grunted as slowly dragged the heavy gun safe aside to uncover a small hole he had carved into the house’s foundations to hide the precious, magical metals.

“The aspect’s called Sculpt,” said Lucas as he flicked through David’s fetish sketchbook that he left lying on the desk. “It lets me, for half an hour, make a material moldable like clay.”

“Do I have to have you sculpt it?” asked David as he pulled out a small, nondescript wooden box from the hole. “And only half an hour? I’ll need an extra half hour to get the details right, and to smooth and polish the face into a mirror.”

He shook his head at the contents. Only two five-pound ingots each of Lunargent, perfect silver, Orichalcum, perfect gold, and Siderite, perfect iron. He wished he was able to take more from the vault. He grabbed one of the lunargent ingots. He needed to find out how to get more.

“No, I just need to touch it. Someone else can do the shaping afterwards,” said Lucas. “I can also extend the time if needed. It’ll cost more essence each time though.”

He flicked through the fetish designs. A kukri, a mountain lion skull, and more. All the drawings had small notes around them, pointing at different parts of the design, or along the pages’ margins.

He smirked, the handwriting was horrible, practically chicken scratch. He thought someone who was such a skilled artist would have better handwriting.

“Say, David,” said Lucas.

“What?” asked David as he came out with an ingot of Lunargent.

“You think you’d be able to make me a fetish?” asked Lucas.

“Now?” asked David, confused. “We were supposed to work on the mirror.”

Lucas shook his head, “No, not now. Some other time.”

David thought for a moment, “I think so. But I can’t do anything without some sort of idea of what you want.”

“Could you make a rod or wand that could throw lightning bolts,” asked Lucas.

“Like what Cannon threw at you in the vault?” asked David.

Lucas clapped his hands in excitement and pointed a finger at David, “Exactly like that!”

“Okay then,” agreed David, setting the lunargent on the desk. “I’ll need time to figure something out. Preferably when we don't have the Pure breathing down our neck.”

“Fair enough,” said Lucas. He grabbed the small ingot of perfected silver. He spoke a few, growling words of First Tongue over the metal before handing it to David.

“That’s it?” asked David, turning the ingot over in his hands. When he held it by a corner, the ingot started to sag under its own weight as if it were wet clay instead of metal. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“It’s not a flashy Gift,” Lucas said, smiling at his pack mate’s reaction to his Shadow Gift.

David got to work. He set the softened ingot onto the desk. He grabbed his sketchbook, flipped to the mirror’s page, and started spreading the ingot out into the design’s rough shape.

He had gotten it into the shape he designed, and had just started on the designs on its back when Lucas suddenly jerked in his chair.

David snapped his head up from his work, “What is it?”

“Border crossing,” said Lucas shooting up from his chair. He bolted out of the library, with David close behind, “Single Uratha just over our border on the US93.”

“Could it be Jenny?” asked Gabby.

“When the hell did you get here?” asked David.

“Just got here a couple minutes ago. Doctor Ting sent me home when I tried to clock in today,” answered Gabby. “Said I should take a few days off after almost getting mauled by that ‘mountain lion’ and the front door is gonna take a week to repair and they’re only taking emergency visits until then anyway. I’m certainly not going to my house by myself after yesterday either.”

“Never mind that. We were gonna have you here anyways when we leave to get the others back.” said Morrison. “What makes you think it’s Jenny Talbot?”

Gabby took a moment to compose herself before saying, “The way she would hold herself around her father. The nervousness. Refusing to meet people’s eyes. The way she would flinch each time he would get angry. She’s an abuse victim. She may be seeking help.”

“It’s the Pure. They abuse each other all the time,” dismissed Morrison. He turned to Lucas, “Where along the 93 was-”

“Benjamin!” snapped Gabby.

Morrison glared at the nurse and the rest of the pack tensed. No one was allowed to call Morrison by his first name. Only his last name; Morrison, his deed-name; Howlmore, Elder, or Old Man. Never his first.

Gabby wasn’t intimidated by the elder werewolf’s glare. She said, “I know that you told me that Pure torture each other. But there’s something else here. Something more. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there.”

“Is that your professional opinion, Gabriella?” Morrison asked through clenched teeth.

“Yes, Benjamin,” said Gabby, staring Morrison down.

Morrison glared at the Wolf-blood, his jaw clenching and unclenching. He snorted, “Very well.”

He pointed at David and Lucas, “You two stay here and protect Martinez and Colin.”

“The rest of you, with me,” he told Tsu’mara, Kaiden, and Jesse.

The group left through the front door. Lucas and David were about to turn back to the library when they heard Morrison yell from outside.

“GET THE FUCK INSIDE!”

A moment later Colin came slinking in through the back dog door in Urhan with his ears folded and tail between his legs.

“Colin,” said David, taking a step forward to try and comfort his mate.

He stopped when the red wolf growled before they darted off into the bedroom.

“Let him have some space,” said Lucas. “Let’s get that mirror finished. Then we can start looking for a well spirit to shove in it.”

***

“Pay up,” said Jesse, holding his hand out to Tsu’mara. “Told you to trust Gabby’s gut.”

He had sided with Gabby during the ride to the pack’s border where they found Jenny Talbot standing just past the pack’s border with her hands up and was waving a white handkerchief in one of them.

Tsu’mara handed him a twenty dollar bill and then took the rifle Morrison handed her.

Jesse had already disappeared to skulk around out of sight. A feat since they were on a bare road in a scrubby desert.

“I want to talk with Kaiden!” called out Jenny, keeping her hands up.

Morrison looked to Kaiden who gave a small nod.

The elder let Kaiden walk forward by himself until he was within arms reach of Jenny.

She slowly lowered her arms, keeping a wary eye on the two rifles trained on her.

“You’re the wolf I was supposed to capture. During your First Change,” she said. “I have some questions to ask if that’s alright.”

Kaiden shrugged, “Shoot.”

“Are you happy with your pack?” she asked, “Are you glad that they got you instead of mine?”

“That’s an odd question,” said Kaiden, confused. “I don’t know you folk. But, yeah, I suppose I’m happy. As happy as I can be after having my life turned upside down.”

Jenny was silent for a moment in thought, “I never thought of it like that. The First Change was a blessing for me. My life was so bad before that.”

She hugged her arms, “I was wondering ever since your Old Wolf took you away from my father’s pack if you were actually happy.”

She then muttered under her breath, “If I would be happy if Morrison took me too.”

“Look,” she said, her voice gaining a slight panicked edge. “My dad told me that we were liberating Wolf-Bloods that you were abusing. I didn’t know we were taking hostages.”

“Well, we aren’t abusing them,” said Kaiden. “In fact, two of the people you took. One was the mother of one of our pack members, and the other the mate of one of our packmembers.”

“In fact,” he added. “That male wolfblood you tried to take, he took him as a mate. He’s the one that made the moves on him.”

Jenny cringed at the news. “I knew something was wrong. It was too much for me. Last night my father got drunk to celebrate a victory against your pack.”

Her breathing hitched as she fought to keep it under control. She was distraught over something. “He’s been looking at the younger one with the same eyes he used to look at me with.”

A sickening pit opened in Kaiden’s stomach as he realised what she meant. It wasn’t hard to figure out what it was.

“I, uh…” she trailed off as she lost her nerve. She found it again after a moment. “I was my father’s favorite until my First Change. My half sisters aren’t as lucky. They still get visits. Richard Warton borrows them when Dad isn’t around.”

“Look,” she said, changing the subject. “I don’t want any of the women harmed. But I don’t want you to kill any more of my pack. The Hawthornes were assholes but they were still our pack.”

Kaiden shook his head, David was an asshole too. But he felt that it wasn’t to the degree the Hawthornes would have been. “We didn’t want any problems with your pack. David and Morrison only go in your territory because it’s their job as deputies, and they always try to avoid it if they can. This all started because an asshole fucked with both of us and your father jumped to conclusions.”

Jenny sighed, “If you swear to the moon that you’ll keep from hurting more of my pack, then I’ll give you information.”

“We can only guarantee that, if you give us this information, if we can avoid them,” said Kaiden. He pointed at himself. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t want to fight, they want to fight us.”

“No one should be in the area,” said Jenny.

“Then we have a deal,” said Kaiden. “We just want the hostages safe back home.”

“Then swear to your god,” demanded Jenny.

“I swear to Mother Luna that we won’t hurt anyone if it can be avoided,” swore Kaiden.

Jenny looked around, as if she expected something to happen when Luna’s name was invoked.

She shook her head and sighed, “Dad’s keeping the hostages in a cave near the farm house. It’s hidden with an illusion.”

She reached for her pocket but froze when Morrison and Tsu’mara snapped their rifles towards her, fingers on the triggers.

She raised a single hand above her head and continued to reach into her pocket, slowly. She pulled out a small charm carved into the likeness of a snake. She showed it to Kaiden, “This will turn it off and make it visible. They’re kept in a cage near the ritual chamber.”

“The pack will be guarding the house,” she added. “I don’t know where our pack totem spirit will be. Might be in the den. It might be patrolling the territory. Dad can only give it suggestions, not orders.”

“Please don’t hurt my pack,” she begged, “I’m giving you this as a token of goodwill. I really hope you’re not a bunch of liars like Dad says.”

Kaiden’s first thought was that Colin was exactly that. But he bit his tongue.

Jenny held out the charm, which Kaiden took.

A look of shame passed over her face. “I’ll do as much as I can do. I won’t tell, but if he asks, I can’t lie about being here.”

“Tell the truth,” Kaiden said with a shrug, “Tell him you were recon-ing our territory.”

She smiled, “I think I can do that.”

She then shifted to Urhan and ran off over the territory border back into her own.

Kaiden returned to the others and said, “Let’s leave and tell the others this info.”

Morrison shook his head, “I knew they were into fucked up shit, but I didn’t know it was this fucked up.”

***

“It’s definitely connected to illusion magic,” said Lucas at the dining table as he looked the snake charm over. The table was once again littered with maps and the air above the table shimmered with a heat haze as Fireball watched the proceedings.

He handed the charm to Morrison who said, “We have a location and a way in. But it might be a trap.”

“We always assume a trap,” said Kaiden. “We saw before that they can’t lie but they can be deceitful.”

“And it was definitely Jenny Talbot who told you this?” asked Colin.

Kiaden nodded which made Colin sit back in his chair. He was silent in thought for several moments before lips cracked in a slight smirk. But just as fast as it appeared, it was gone.

“Why won’t you fucking help?!” David yelled from the library.

Kaiden shook his head, “He does know the owl will help if he asks it kindly, right?”

“I’ve long since given up trying to tell him that,” sighed Lucas.

They had finished shaping the mirror just before the others returned. It was just like how David designed it. A plain hand mirror with the only details being the phases of the moon on its back and the word ‘Truth’ in the First Tongue carved into its back.

What David’s design didn’t capture was the appearance of the perfected silver itself. Lunargent had a bluish hue to it, but for some reason, the face of the mirror, after it was polished to a mirrored surface, no longer had that bluish hue. The image the mirror reflected was perfect. With no glare, or distortion of the image or colour. It was uncanny to look at. It was too perfect.

Morrison rolled out a topographic map of the farmhouse.

“It’s really well defended,” said Morrison as he looked over the map. “I can see why they picked it as their home.”

Tsu’mara pointed at ridges that bordered the Eastern and Western parts of the small valley the farmhouse lay in. “These ridges provide a natural wall but it’d be possible to get through in Urhan. But it will take a while.”

Morrison drummed his fingers on the table before replying, “If we go in that way, we won’t be able to use it to get out. Once we get the women, we need a fast way out. Can’t climb them easily in Hishu, and the women will need as much protection as possible.”

Tsu’mara then pointed at a trainline that followed along the Western ridge, which went into a tunnel where the trainline turned into the ridge. “We can follow the trainlines. But the Northern and Southern entrances into the valley would be watched.”

“How often does the train pass through,” asked Lucas.

“Once every few hours,” answered Morrison. “What are you thinking?”

“If we bribe a train spirit, we can hitch a ride and get into the center of their territory,” said Lucas, pointing at the centre of the trainline. A point that showed a direct route to the farmhouse and Western ridge where the cave would be.”

“But then we won’t have an easy escape route,” said Tsu’mara.

“If we have more time to get in, we can have someone waiting outside with a car that can swing in once we have the girls to escape,” said Lucas, pointing at the 317 that ran through the valley. “Get out of their territory fast.”

“Using a vehicle to exfiltrate will be preferable,” said Tsu’mara with a nod. “Once we get there and start rescuing, we’ll have to run like hell to get out anyways. Which is why Morrison said we can’t take the ridges in.”

“Who’ll drive,” asked Kaiden. “David?”

Lucas shook his head. “No. We don’t know what magic will be protecting their territory. We’ll need as much Ithaeur help as we can get. And I’m certainly not sitting on the sidelines when it comes to my mother.”

“We also need the muscle of a Rahu, and my help sneaking through their territory,” said Jesse.

“I’ll drive,” said Morrison. “If you get killed in there, I’ll call in the rest of the departments and tell them to bring in the FBI. In between your corpses and mine, the rest of the Talbot’s will get their asses Waco’d. Take them down with us if it goes horribly.”

“Let’s try and avoid that,” said Kaiden. “Who’s gonna guard Ed in the garage’s pit? I’m not gonna stay here while you all go in there.”

“I will guard the hostage,” said Fireball from the heat haze hanging above them.

Morrison nodded, “Good. Blow him up if we don’t return by sunrise.”

***

The sound of rumbling was all they heard from inside the boxcar as they waited for the train spirit to give them the signal.

Lucas and Tsu’mara were in Dalu checking, double checking, and triple checking their guns. Tsu’mara was checking that the M2 Browning she had extensively modified to be able to be shoulder fired.

Lucas was loading four special bullets of .44 magnum into the Lemat revolver that was modified to take modern cartridges. David made the bullets as they prepared to siege the cave. They were fetishes made using the power of snake spirits’ bites. David tried to make more than four, and he technically did. But due to the nature of snake bites, only four of the rounds he made would have any additional effect. The rest were ‘dry bites’.

“They’re only talens,” growled David, who was in Urshal from beside Kaiden, who was in Urhan, as the two waited by the boxcar’s door. “They’ll only last a few seconds. And use them sparingly. They were expensive, I would’ve been completely tapped of Essence had the Old Man not spent some of his own.”

Jesse checked Lucas’ and Tsu’mara’s backpacks. Adjusting them so they’d make as little sound as possible. Tsu’mara’s was full of ammunition for her M2.

When he checked Lucas’, he noticed a lot of metallic rattling on the inside. He opened it to stuff cloth inside to mitigate the rattling.

“Oh, fun,” he said when he noticed what was causing the sound. He then zipped the bag up and joined David in Urshal.

The pack’s ears perked up when they heard the sound of the wind outside change. They had entered the tunnel at the Talbot pack’s border. If the train spirit they bribed held up its side of the bargain, it should be any minute that the signal came.

The sound outside changed again as they exited the tunnel. They were in the Talbot’s territory.

They all gathered at the boxcar’s door, ready for the signal.

The door then slid open on its own and they all jumped out, rolling as they landed to control their falls.

They picked themselves up, checked their belongings to make sure they were still secure.

“I’ll lead from here,” Jesse said in a growling whisper and walked silently ahead. He stopped when the gravel crunched underneath Kaiden’s, David’s, and Lucas’ feet.

He shot a glare at them and they suddenly felt their feet move more lightly, and stepping exactly where Jesse did as he used a Shadow Gift to force them to be more stealthy.

“Sorry,” mouthed Lucas as Jesse looked ahead and walked carefully away.

They did not beeline straight for the Eastern ridge. Instead, Jesse led them on a meandering path that only became straight when they sprinted across the 317. After that the path, that only Jesse could see, became meandering again. All the while not making a single sound.

As they approached the Eastern ridge, the snake talisman started to vibrate in Lucas’ pocket. He took it out and held it towards the cliff face, following it like a dowsing rod.

When they reached a small greenery lined pond, all of a sudden, the talisman stopped and a part of the cliff face in front of them faded until it became transparent, revealing a depression in the rock.

Jesse took the lead again, followed by Tsu’mara who had her M2 Browning pointed ahead, above her packmate. Kaiden, David, and Lucas followed behind her.

The tunnel they entered was cramped, only allowing them in single-file. Impossible for them to shift in Gauru if things went south in their infiltration mission.

The tunnel was manually carved but they noted a lack of wooden reinforcement.

“Magically carved,” whispered Lucas.

“Probably from an earth spirit,” added David in a similar, growling whisper.

The path then split three-ways in front of them. The path leading directly to their right led to a small storage room. Full of food, and what seemed to be camping equipment.

“I don’t know which way,” whispered Tsu’mara. “Split up?”

David shook his head, “No. Too dangerous to split up in hostile territory.”

“I don’t like it either,” said Lucas. He looked at the other two passages. One a few feet ahead and to the left, and the other straight ahead before turning to the right. “But we need to make sure we don’t have anyone sneak up on us.”

Tsu’mara looked at Jesse and Kaiden, who nodded in agreement. She then silently motioned for her and Jesse to advance forward down the passageway directly in front of them.

Kaiden, Lucas, and David took the left passage.

Halfway down Lucas sniffed loudly and said, excitedly. “I can smell them.”

The passageway opened up into a large cavern, in the centre there was a large stone slab. It was six feet long and three feet wide. Like a sarcophagus if it wasn’t a single piece of rough cut stone.

Directly to their left, carved three feet deep into the stone wall was a several alcoves that served as bookshelves. Instead of regular bound books. There were hides rolled up like scrolls which carried the strong smell of donkeys. Alongside them were several boxes containing ritual ingredients.

The most striking feature of the chamber was a large circle of crimson to the side of the stone slab. From the deep, sanguine colour, and the strong metallic smell, it was clear that it was blood. Fresh too.

In the centre of the circle was a large puddle of blood.

Lucas snapped his head towards a sound to his right which came from a hallway on the far side of the chamber.

“It’s them!” he said and darted towards the hallway.

He skidded to a stop when another sound emerged from another hallway on the opposite side from where Jessica and Catherine were being kept. A sound that made his heart leap into his throat.

A snake’s rattle. Several of them.

Out of the Twilight a monstrous spirit emerged. A rattle snake of gargantuan size rattling a tail adorned with several rattles. It bared sabre long fangs dripping with a toxic venom, hissing in the First Tongue, “Intruders. I will devour your corpses. I will enjoy feasting on your degenerate Forsaken flesh.”

All three of them froze in absolute terror and awe. It was the Talbot pack’s pack totem.

David bared his teeth, his ears pinned back. He gave the powerful spirit a deep snarl as he tried to stare it down. In his terror, he did more than stare it down. He saw with more than just eyes. He saw into the very nature of the serpent’s being. He saw how, as it moved, it took deliberate care not to have any of its own venom fall on itself. How it would avoid having its fangs from scraping upon any part of itself. And saw so much more.

It did not notice David’s revelation. It reared back and snapped at Kaiden.

Frozen in fear, like the rest of the pack who were cowed by the spirit, he couldn’t bring himself to dodge out of the way. Rooted in spot by fear as he was.

But the snake never struck.

In an act of great bravery, and even greater stupidity, David had spear tackled the spirit to save his packmate. With his maw and handpaws, he grabbed onto one of its fangs and refused to let go.

With its head held down by David’s unconventional pin, it left it open to be blindsided by a silent shadow that speared out from the hallway the three entered from. Jesse bit deep into the scales at the base of the serpent’s neck.

Deafening gunfire then erupted from the hallway. Tsu’mara came in, bracing herself as she unloaded the M2 Browning on the spirit.

But its scales were as thick as armour, and all the bullets ricocheted.

Another gunshot rang out. A singular one. But this one struck true. The ephemeral blood that flowed gunshot was tainted with a festering, toxic pus, and branches of sickly black veins flowered around the gunshot wound.

Smoke still trailed from Lucas’ Lemat revolver as he beheld the effect of the talens David crafted for him. His fellow Ithaeur had recreated the Shadow Gift that Alyssa Hawthorne had used on Elder Morrison the day before that briefly kept him from healing.

Its eyes snapped to the Rahu who was still unloading their M2 into it, and a maddening essence resonated in the air as it tried to direct at Tsu’mara.

It whipped its head around to try and shake David off so it could focus the effect on Tsu’mara.But it screeched in pain when, with a sickening snap, David wrenched his head and snapped off the fang he was biting down on.

David was flung free and hit the floor, rolling. The sabre length fang was still in his mouth, dripping venom.

The serpent hiss with seething fury at the Ithaeur, blood spraying from its mouth from the snapped fang. It shrieked in more pain as Tsu’mara’s firepower finally wore its armour down and started hitting true.

Its shriek was cut off with an agonised gasp as it was struck by another gunshot from Lucas, a spiderweb of sickly black veins growing from the gunshot wound.

It looked at David again, not with fury, but this time with terror. He had picked himself up from the ground and was approaching, the spirit’s fang still in his maw.

It turned and slithered away back through the hallway it emerged from with David in close pursuit. It flew across the ground in its terror, increasing the gap between it and David, who pursued with all his might. Then, in a rush of air, it slipped between the cracks of the world and escaped into the Spirit World.

With the serpent gone, Lucas turned and ran down the tunnel he heard the wolfbloods down. At the end, sitting on a blue sleeping bag in a cramped metal chain link cage was Catherine and Jessica.

“Lucas!” cried out Catherine.

She grabbed the chain links and said, her voice desperate, “The fat one, he took Colin.”

“We already got him back,” he aimed his Lemat at the cage’s padlock. “Now stand back.”

She did as she was told, pulling Jessica with her who was tightly hugging her knees, to the furthest corner of the cage.

Lucas fired the underbarrel of the Lemat, modified to take a single modern shotgun round, and the padlock was destroyed.

He quickly got the two out and ran back out the hallway with them into the main chamber.

“Take them,” he said, pushing them towards the pack and shucking off his pack. “I’ll be right behind you. Go!”

The pack quickly formed around them, keeping the two wolf-bloods in the centre as they quickly left the chamber. Tsu’mara took the lead and David took the rear, the serpent’s fang still in his mouth in case the serpent returned.

They ran down the tunnel towards the exit, and only stopped when a great boom shook the cave’s interior.

They looked back and saw the red glow of fire coming from the passage leading to the chamber and Lucas tearing around the corner shoving a bundle of donkey hides into the now empty backpack.

“I threw a bagful of grenades down the snake’s tunnel, and set fire to their hides,” he said, zipping up the bag, now full of hides that he didn’t burn, and threw it on his back.

As they exited the tunnel, Tsu’mara pulled out a flare gun and fired it into the air.

“Go! Go!” yelled Tsu’mara and they all broke out into a sprint, making a mad dash for the road.

Morrison came screaming down the road in the truck the moment they arrived. Catherine, Jessica, Lucas, and Kaiden piled in, and David and Tsu’mara leaped into the back.

Tsu’mara slammed her palm on the truck’s roof and Morrison tore away back down the road from where he came.

She looked back from where they came and saw, coming out of the darkness, several Uratha in close pursuit in Urshal and were gaining on them. She quickly set the M2 on the truck’s tailgate and laid down suppressing fire, forcing the Talbot’s pack to fall back and call off their chase.

Once they were safe out of the Talbot’s pack, she sat back and set the M2 down to her side on the truck’s bed.

She looked at David, who had shifted to Hishu, who was still holding the serpent spirit’s fang.

“Why do you still have that thing?” she asked.

He ran his finger tips lightly along the length of the fang. He rubbed his finger tips together, feeling the thin, syrupy venom that still dripped from its tip.

“I know its Ban and Bane,” said David, wiping the venom off on his shirt.

“Does that mean…?” asked Tsu’mara.

David gave his packmate a predatory grin, “I know how to destroy it in a single strike.”