Wolf on the Road Read online

  The girls laughed. Mali nodded, shooting a glance at Jake as she did. “I don’t know about that,” Mali said. “He strikes me as...mmm...more about three ten?”

  A peal of laughter burst from the two, and then Jake and Erik stood closer together, as though in solidarity against some great, dangerous enemy they both had to face down. “How do we put up with this?” Erik asked his brother.

  “Because if we didn’t, they could whip our asses,” Jake said with a grin.

  Erik shrugged. “Yeah, must be. Also, we’re lucky we’re cute. If we were as ugly as we are stupid, we’d be in trouble.” Erik preened slightly, lifting his strong chin and flexing one of his arms. When Izzy and Mali both started cracking up again, he cocked his head to the side. “Wait, did I say... dumb and ugly... wait, no that’s not...”

  “You know what they say,” Jake added helpfully, “if you have small feet like us, you’ve also got a small—wait, no that’s not how it goes.”

  “Sure,” Izzy said. “And apparently, the horrible butchering of idioms is somehow hereditary. But as much fun as this little reunion is, we’ve got to deal with a pint-sized problem that is about to become much bigger.”

  Erik took a few steps away from Jake, then pulled his brother aside. “How did you get away?” Erik asked. “I had to pretend like it wasn’t a surprise, but that little bunny has caused more problems around here than I can tell you. She’s dangerous as all hell, which is strange to say but there it is.”

  Jake shrugged. “I ripped some chains out of the wall, Mali and the rabbit had a fight, then she threw her into her goons and we ran up the stairs, then locked the door with a broken chair.” He explained all of this in a perfectly matter-of-fact manner, completely nonplussed with the performance or the series of incredibly ridiculous events that led to their escape. Erik, on the other hand, was staring at his brother with his mouth so wide open that Jake pushed Erik’s chin up until it was shut.

  “Sorry, I thought you were going to eat one of the horseflies going around here. And remember, Mali can hear you, so you might as well not bother whispering.”

  Erik closed his eyes tightly. “It’s just so weird.” He shook his head and then stuck his index fingers in his temples, massaging his head. Mali, looking on, thought how funny it was that they were so similar, right down to the mannerisms they made when they were irritated. She said as much to Izzy, who laughed out loud and then clapped her hand over her mouth. “They’re like the same person,” Izzy said. “Except I think Jake is hotter.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Erik said as he turned away from his brother. “His hair’s all messy and he looks like he hasn’t shaved in two or three days. I, on the other hand?”

  “Have messy hair and look like you haven’t shaved in two or three days,” Jake answered. “And I have these cheekbones that look like—”

  “They’re chiseled out of marble. Just like mine,” Erik grinned broadly, looking like a kid who was very proud of a clever rank he’d just thrown at someone. “My eyes are kind of squinty though, and yours are a little farther apart. I hear that’s supposed to be more classically attractive.”

  “True,” Jake nodded in agreement. “And I think my eyes have better color. More intense. Your biceps, though, those are really impressive.”

  “Now, now, you’ve definitely got the better shoulders of the two of us,” Jake said thoughtfully. “And I think that—”

  Izzy cleared her throat. Both big, bad werewolves turned to face her at the same time. “What?” they asked in unison.

  “Okay well, the fact that you two apparently want to oil each other up and hit the gym, we do have some serious business to attend?”

  “We’ll finish this later,” Jake said.

  “I’m absolutely sure they will,” Mali added before she and Izzy broke up in another burst of laughter. “And I’ll be watching, you can bet your ass.”

  The sound of heavy footsteps either walking quickly or running slowly, echoed down the hallway. Izzy and Mali both turned toward the door, which led all the way into the city council chamber. “Professor Duggan?” Izzy asked, as a stumpy, rotund figure with a tremendously large moustache waddled into the hallway. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

  “Alpha! You need to come down here right now!” The little man was huffing and puffing so hard his entire head was beet red, like someone dumped a pitcher of Kool-Aid over him. Sweat ran down his round cheeks and soaked into the shirt of his white dress shirt, making a wet doughnut around his neck. “Something is happening, and I’m not sure I can explain it without having a coronary!”

  “Sounds like you already did,” Erik said, walking over to the little man and crouching in front of him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Th-that-that rabbit! The one with the metal teeth! She’s in the council chambers with some uncouth in-in-in...uncouth persons and she’s being very rude!”

  Right before their eyes, Duggan began puffing up like a blowfish. “She... she’s threatening to call the law into Jamesburg, and you know what’ll happen if she does that!”

  “They’ll arrest me for being too sexy for my shirt?” Erik said, grinning proudly. When no one laughed, he cleared his throat. “Right, uh, don’t worry. We’ll take care of this. Right, Jake?”

  Jake nodded. “I’ll be damned if I let anything hurt her.”

  “Yeah, and I’ll be damned if—”

  Erik was cut off by a wild screech. It was followed by a scream so piercing that it caused physical pain to hear. A moment later, the courthouse’s old, terrible-sounding PA system fuzzed to life. “Get in here, Danniken! Both of you! All three... four? Whatever, however many there are of you, get in here now!”

  Jake and Erik glanced at Mali and Izzy. “Guess we don’t have a choice,” Mali said. “I can’t believe this is happening. It’s just so...”

  “Surreal?” the same screeching voice shouted. “Oh and I’ve got some extra insurance. Talk, pup!”

  “Mommy?” Erik and Izzy both stiffened.

  “I’ll kill that goddamn rabbit,” Izzy said before turning straight around and charging down the hall.

  “Leave some for me!” Erik yelled after her.

  10

  A new scent hit Mali’s nose as she and Jake tore down the hallway, weaving through the labyrinthine courthouse in pursuit of Erik, Izzy, and that damned rabbit who apparently had their son. It was coppery and astringent, and at first she couldn’t place it. It came along with a sense of foreboding she couldn’t shake.

  “I’m smelling fear,” she said aloud, not really meaning to do so.

  “Coppery smell, sorta like blood?” Jake asked as the two wheeled to a stop at an intersection of doors. “That’s fear all right. Can you tell where it’s coming from? I don’t have the slightest clue where to go, and I’m a little confused that there’s no noises from anywhere. How did they get so far ahead of us?”

  Jake was breathing heavily, his chest and shoulders rising and falling with each deep breath. Mali placed a hand on his shoulder and let it slide down to his thickly muscled forearm. She squeezed and tilted her head to smile at him. “It’s gonna be fine,” she said.

  “I’m trying to believe that,” he said. “I can’t help but think something’s going to come down, and soon. I don’t want to admit to myself how scared I am, much less you.”

  “Why?” she asked, sniffing the air. “If all that stuff about you wanting to be my mate is true, you’re gonna need to get used to trusting me.”

  Jake clenched his eyes shut. “I know,” he said. “Like I told you, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world for me to do, but I’m trying my damndest.”

  “It’s this way,” Mali said softly. “And I know you are.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed one last time. “We got each other, right? We’ll make it. As long as we have each other, we’ll make it through anything.”

  “You sure?” Jake asked, his eyes focusing on Mali’s. Before she could answer, he shook his head. “You’re sure. A
nd so am I. We’ll get through it, but right now, someone needs my help.” He paused for a moment, and then chuckled. “Our help.”

  “Our help,” Mali repeated. She poked the door with her toe. “Ladies first.”

  Jake curtsied, Mali snickered, and the big wolf took a step toward the door. As he grasped the handle, he turned back and opened his mouth, but paused and then shook his head. “No,” he whispered, “not yet. Gotta keep something up my sleeve.”

  Mali wasn’t listening though. Her adrenaline pumped heavily in her veins with each of her hearts dull thuds. Something was coming, something big and something dangerous, and she was at once terrified and exhilarated by the thought. “Wait,” she said just as Jake was starting to turn the knob. “Why is it quiet?”

  He shrugged. “Won’t know until we’re in there, I guess.”

  Mali’s senses were tingling though. “No,” she said, touching his hand in warning. “Something’s not right.” She pressed her head to the door, trying to get a hint of whatever was on the other side. There were sounds, but exceedingly faint ones, like someone nervously shuffling their feet while trying not to make any sound. She pulled back from the door and surveyed the surroundings. “Another way in,” she answered before Jake asked the question. “There has to be another way in. A vent, some air conditioner ducts, something...”

  She crept around, trying to channel every single spy thriller and action movie she’d ever seen into her brain at the same time. Vents, ducts, crawlspace she repeated the words over and over again as she carefully examined the room. It was an old place, the sort of architecture she expected from the turn of the 20th century with all sorts of fancy baseboards and crown moulding on the ceiling. The only problem was that the other facet of that design—lots of floor-level vents—didn’t seem to have been done when the place was built.

  Jake cleared his throat, but Mali was so absorbed in her search for a secret passage into the room, that she didn’t bother looking up. He did it again, and she waved him off. When he did it a third time, she shushed him. “Mali,” he finally said. “I’m clearing my throat to get your attention.”

  She stood up from where she was crouched and stuck her fists into her hips. “I’m trying to—”

  Jake cleared his throat again, only this time, Mali saw he was poking the ceiling, and lifting a tile. “You even said ceiling before you started looking,” he said. “No one ever seems to look up unless a bird shits on their head.”

  “You’re either a genius or an idiot,” Mali said. “This time I’m tending to think genius, but the next time you get pigeon shit in your eye, I’ll go with idiot.”

  “Idiot, huh?” he asked with a grin. “How about you climb up into that ceiling and let’s this over with and go home?”

  “We have a home?”

  For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, and then Jake took Mali’s hand. “If we’re together somewhere, then as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter if it’s a five bedroom house in the ‘burbs, or a Motel 6.”

  “I like that,” she said. “How about a boost?”

  “Be careful. Keep your feet on the ceiling braces. If you step on a tile, you’ll go straight through. While that might be funny, I doubt it’s the best way to sneak up on anyone.”

  He lifted her onto his shoulder almost effortlessly. Mali stuck her hand up in the air and prodded the old, pitted foam ceiling tile. She stood up after sliding it to one side, and then climbed up into the structure as carefully as she could. Quickly, she disappeared upwards. Jake grabbed a bench, and managed to work his way up into the ceiling.

  Shafts of light came in from around some of the looser fit of the older tiles, and as they made their way through, more noises started trickling up as well. Individual sounds were difficult to discern, but there was a general feeling of tension below them. With every step, every lifting and lowering of her knee, Mali slowly made progress. “One problem,” she whispered. “How do we know when to drop?”

  With her head turned back in Jake’s direction, she lifted her knee again and brought it down. This time, instead of cold steel her leg came down on something that crackled. “Oh shit,” she squeaked, in the split second before the tile cracked and she tumbled through. “That’s how.”

  Jake lunged, but his outstretched fingers grabbed only empty air. Mali crashed through the ceiling, hit the floor and yelped in pain as she jumped to her feet. Jake followed her, but had the good sense to go feet first. Instead of landing square on his face, he hit with his feet, but it didn’t help much; as soon as he hit the ground, one of Petunia’s slack-jawed biker enforcers charged and nailed Jake square in the stomach with a shoulder block.

  “This is the last time I screw with you!” Petunia screeched. “I should’ve killed you back at the house, but you locked me in the basement and now I’m really pissed! I hate both of you! But I’m not gonna let you ruin this for me. No one’s gonna ruin this! I’m so close!”

  “Now just calm down, Petunia,” Erik was pleading from across the small conference room. His face was running with sweat. “Just stay calm. Nothing’s ruining your plan. Nothing’s keeping you from getting this money and getting out of here. Don’t be an idiot and don’t do anything crazy.”

  Petunia was, of course, fuming. She was breathing hard, and almost frothing at the mouth, but she also had an almost frightening calm to her. Two bikers had Erik’s cub, who was unhurt, but very plainly not happy about being held. He struggled against them, and seemed to be challenging their strength with his wiggling. “Nobody’s gettin’ hurt as long as I get my money! And, you know, the car.”

  “It’s coming Petunia,” Izzy said. “We told you that a half hour ago. It takes some effort to get a million dollars in unmarked bills. You have to be patient. Duggan’s coming back with the money, you know that.”

  Mali shook her head and climbed to her feet. She opened her mouth to say something, perhaps confused about how Duggan was apparently supposed to be getting a sack full of money, but was also the one who came to tell them about Petunia’s absurd plan and her kidnapping, but Jake silenced her with a quick glance. He shoved one of the bikers back, and popped him in the jaw with a quick jab that sent the biker reeling. Jake started to pursue, hoping to take care of a few of them before he got swarmed, but Petunia’s squawking stopped him in his tracks.

  “I don’t want to hurt this kid, but I will! I’m desperate! You ever seen a cornered bunny fight?”

  Jake scrunched up his forehead. “Well, no I don’t think so. Is it more like a badger, or more like a ‘possum? I’d imagine ‘possum, since badgers are, you know, scary and bunnies just make a lot of noise and hiss and spit and try to puff themselves up.”

  Petunia’s fuming slid one step further into pure rage. Her cheeks, red with anger, puffed out and in with every breath she took. “Get them!” she shouted. “Get the damn wolves! Keep Danniken alive because I’m still getting my damned money and I don’t care what happens!”

  “Wait,” the biker named Jimmy started, “ain’t they both Dannikens? Or I mean there’s three of ‘em if you count Izzy. Right?”

  “Oh my God!” Petunia waddled up to the big, dumb-eyed biker, stuck her metal teeth in her mouth, grabbed his arm, and bit down. “Any questions?” she screeched as Jimmy yelped. “Leave the one alive whose getting my money!”

  In all the furor, Erik managed to slowly slide over to where the bikers held his cub, grabbed their heads, and thudded them together with a sickening clunk before they fell to the ground, limp. “Come on, Freddie!” he shouted, grabbing his son and running back to where Izzy stood. “Get him out of here,” he said. “I’ve got something to take care of.” Izzy grabbed the cub and shuffled out the room with him, and everyone else from the council in tow. None of them made much of an effort to not go, probably all thinking about the apocalypse that was about to unfold, and wanting absolutely no part at all of it. Izzy shot one last glance back to Erik, who winked in a way that would have been supremely dor
ky from anyone but him. When he did it, somehow, he made winking cool.

  The coppery smell of fear once again flooded Mali’s nose, but this time she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Was it from the bikers, who all seemed, if she was being honest, too simple-minded to be afraid of anything? Or was it somehow coming from her? Her heart pounded and her mouth was dry as a sun bleached skeleton buried in the Mojave. “If this is fear, then I can deal with it,” she said under her breath.

  “What the hell are you waiting for?” Petunia squealed. “Kill these dumb sons of bitches! Kill those two and keep Erik alive! Hurry up!”

  For a moment, the five bikers and Jimmy Dutch stood in place, frozen in the middle of the wood-paneled conference room as though it took them longer to process instructions than normal people. Petunia was starting to get cranked up again, but before she could ratchet back up to Maximum Petunia, her biker mercenaries launched into action. Jimmy Dutch with his droopy moustache and gnarly, patchy beard, dove head first at Erik and Jake. Mali recoiled instantly, but the two big wolves caught big ugly with simultaneous gut punches. Jimmy pitched backward, stumbling into two of his compatriots, who grabbed him and tossed him forward.

  “Erik! Your left!” Jake shouted. He lashed out a punch that cracked one of the goons on the jaw and set him sprawling to the floor. Erik wheeled around and stuck out an arm, catching another of the bikers with a clothesline across the throat. He made sort of a croaking, gasping sound as he sputtered and reeled. The big, leather-clad werewolf stumbled backward and almost took out a confused Petunia, but at the last second, she sidestepped and let the big wolf trip bang into the conference table and then sprawled out on the floor.

  “Mali, duck!” Erik shouted, raising a knee into the jaw of a lunging biker as he sailed over Mali’s head. Suddenly, the adrenaline coursing through her body seemed to erupt like a lupine volcano. She threw her head back and roared as fur and claws grew longer and sharper. Her muscles hardened, her limbs stretched and when the transformation ended, she was breathing hard, and feeling every shred of energy in her body flare at once.