Gabriel walked into Declan’s apartment with the cell phone they’d found. He explained it was Megan’s, but that she’d deleted all the messages, so the cell was basically bricked.

“Do you know how to get the info back?” he asked Kelvin.

“I don’t but one of Ren's pack is into all this sort of techie crap, he’ll be able to retrieve it. We might even be able to find the number she was messaging. I might be wrong, but if we can retrieve that info, we might be able to locate the other cell too.”

“I get the feeling there’s only one other number, and that it’s for Sanders,” Gabriel replied. “Where’s Maria?”

Sascha walked into the apartment. She explained that Maria was in a dream state again and would be missing the night's hunt for the vlads. It wasn’t too much of a problem now that they had Abigail and Garrett in their ranks.

“Did you see the news?” Kelvin asked Gabriel.

He shook his head and said he didn’t have a chance to. He had his hands full, and from the flushed look on Sascha’s face, Kelvin knew what his hands had been full of.

“What was on there?” asked Gabriel.

“It’s Cripple Creek. Some weird gas is escaping from the mine. It’s sending everyone schizoid, that’s why Noelle’s parents are here. They’ve done a runner out of harm’s way.” Kelvin explained it the best he could about what they’d seen on the TV. It translated into an action movie, and everything was glamorized to the extent of being somewhat over the top.

“Do you know anyone back in the Creek?” asked Kelvin.

“Only the ones in the bar and the bike club.”

“No one has ties to the Creek so there’s really no one to warn. Maria only has her friend who’s managing the Towers. She’s contacted him already.”

“Didn’t you spend some time in the mine?” Gabriel asked.

“Ah, for fuck's sake. I had all this earlier. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

Gabriel laughed as he raised his eyes to look at Dustin who was also giggling loudly.

Kelvin frowned and shoved the cell Gabriel had handed him into his pocket. “I’ll go and see Renegade, and we can check this cell out. I’ll see you all at the club.”

“Be careful,” Dustin said.

Kelvin wobbled his legs as if he’d fall over. He laughed. “Who’d mess with me? I’m fucking crazy!”

The door closed behind Kelvin, and everyone else pulled up a chair around the table. Gabriel noticed that without Kelvin and Maria it was one…two…three….

“We’re like the magnificent seven,” he jokingly commented.

The seven sat while Declan pulled out a map of Miami and showed them the area they’d target next. It wasn’t far from the zone they’d attacked last time, and Dustin could still make quick runs to the club to dump the unconscious vlads.

“There’s only one difference this time,” Declan pointed out. “There won’t be any questioning. This is purely to decrease their numbers. Noelle’s contacted the Miami coalition of hunters, and they’re going to regroup and carry on when we’ve left Miami.”

Gabriel pricked up his ears. For some strange reason, he hadn’t contemplated Declan and Noelle leaving. It was stupid for him not to realize something so blatantly obvious though, because it was their son who’d been kidnapped. His path to getting his wolf back now intertwined with rescuing Drake as well. He knew it; he just hadn’t run it through his mind until now.

Garrett finally asked why they were tranquilizing the beasts and not just killing them, because in truth, it’d save a lot of trouble. Declan ran through the idea and explained that it was a little more effort, but it was much faster, and they could gather up a lot more. There was also the fact that they didn’t run out of ammo. Pull the crossbow bolt, and it was good for another shot.

Garrett was impressed at the logic. Why he hadn’t thought of the same thing when they were hunting wolves? He refrained from mentioning the thought because there were four of them sat either side of him, and those days were well and truly over.

“We’d better get to the club and do a weapons check,” Declan said as he stood and reached for his jacket.

“Just like the old days,” Garrett said. Noelle gave him a shut your mouth kind of glare.

Declan shrugged off the comment. He was never the type to bear grudges, and now he had something more important to worry about. Where the hell was Sanders going with Drake? That was the all-important question.

Ariana’s girls opened the yard gate as Dustin pulled the van up. Garrett spotted the charred outlines on the cobbles, and he surmised they’d been busy the previous night.

Declan led everyone into the club and explained the situation. This was a cleanup operation, so no worries about killing or tranquilizing. “Shoot on sight, and remember to watch your team’s back, and they’ll watch yours too.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and seemed to be full of excitement. If nothing else, it was a hell of a change from TV or working in the club for the girls. Kelvin walked in with Renegade and a young kid who looked about fifteen or sixteen. Declan looked at him with a blank expression. The kid wore black-rimmed spectacles with a backpack over his shoulder. It was apparent to Declan that the kid was underage.

“Who’s this, and what’s he doing here?”

“Declan, meet Wong,” Kelvin replied, and began to chuckle. “Wong’s gonna make it work.”

Kelvin pulled Wong closer to the bar. It was evident he didn’t frequent people very often because he bowed his head and mumbled when he spoke. Kelvin's hand squeezed Wong’s shoulder.

“Tell him, explain about the cell.”

Now Wong was in his world and so he lifted his head. He explained he could retrieve the messages because the phone never really deleted them, it only put a space or a different letter in front of the data so when he...

“Whoa! Steady on there. That’s a lot to take in. You can do it, or you can’t?”

“I can. With some luck I might be able to locate the phones which the messages were sent to,” Wong added.

“Stay here. Make sure nothing comes toward you with extra-large teeth.”

“What do you mean by extra-large?” he asked, confused.

Declan sighed. These techie kids only dealt in black and white. He called on his inner wolf and held his open jaw close to Wong’s spectacles. “Bigger than these,” he snarled.

Wong pushed his glasses up his nose and sensed what large teeth meant. Bigger than his pinkie finger to be exact.

As the teams grabbed their bows they got their minds ready. Garrett would lead Maria’s team as she was deep in her dream state, and so he walked to the yard. Declan explained there might be a difference to the vlads, he had a feeling in his gut.

Dustin beeped the horn and the gates opened. The drive was an extra five minutes further out than the first region they’d cleaned up. The van ground to a halt at the edge of Little Haiti. The first thing they spotted was the number of graffiti murals which adorned most of the buildings. It was street art, although none of it was tagged and it wasn’t gang related either.

“Is everyone ready?” Declan asked while he pulled back his bow one-handed. “We’ll circle around and drive them to the soccer park.”

The teams split up. Noelle backed up Garrett while Abigail stuck close to Declan.

Abigail commented while they all ambled in a line down Seventy-First Street. “I’m a little rusty at this.”

Declan turned to her. “It’s like riding a bike, you never forget,” he replied. “Just remember, these darts are only tranquilizers.”

Abigail nodded and readied her bow. Declan clenched his fist as a signal. The team stopped.

Two streams of vlads approached from different directions. “Battle formation,” he whispered. “Shit! This time it looks like they mean business,” he muttered. “Take my bow.” He handed it to Abigail who slung the strap over her shoulder.

“What’re you doing?” she asked.

“I’m going to show them the power of...” he replied, flexing his shoulders.

“The power of what?”

“The power of a pack.”

He called into his radio for wolf assistance. The radio crackled when Noelle and Kelvin replied.

Declan turned to Sascha to see if she was ready. She smiled, and her eyes flashed. She was ready. He looked down into Abigail’s eyes. “Pick off the strays, and be careful not to shoot any of us,” he explained.

Abigail laughed and lifted the bow to her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I was shooting bows before you were out of diapers.”

Maria’s body lay on the couch with only the table lamp casting an amber glow over her body. She panted wildly the deeper she slipped into her dream state. Her inner mind’s eyes opened, and she found herself on familiar ground.

The Creek was very different. The sky above her cast an eerie glow. The streets were silent and it seemed deserted. Her footsteps were silent too while her boots left prints in the layers of ash which fell. A gray blanket covered the Creek and muffled out life as much as it had the sound.

Maria expected to see the witch. But now she seemed to be making this dream trip on her own.

“Hello,” she yelled. No echo or answer came.

She started to jog in the direction of the mine. A spiral of light rose from the crest of the hill and vanished into the green clouds. Police and fire crews kept a safe distance. A thin strand of yellow tape was their defense. Maria called to the sheriff, but she might as well be invisible. She giggled. It seemed she was invisible.

Bodies strolled around in the area of the mine. Their arms hung by their sides as they lolled in never-ending circles. She ducked underneath the tape and walked deeper inside.

She headed to the old warehouse where Sanders had started his game of cat and mouse with the pack. The door was ajar, so she slithered through the gap. The sound of her footsteps was silent while she walked toward the office stairs. Maria opened the office door and saw an empty chair and a bed with tubes hanging at its side. She looked up and spotted the hole in the skylight. This must be where Kelvin was held before he escaped, she surmised.

The second office door creaked when she pushed it open with her foot. Silver canisters sat on the desk. Maria inspected them and saw that they were air tanks. A scurrying sound startled her. She turned and peered into the dark corner and spotted the hole in the floor. The jagged edges of the old rotten floorboards lay close to her feet. The ventilation shaft prized open and a thin plume of green gas rose upward. Maria looked back at the air tanks and back to the hole.

“Sanders, he’s using the gas,” she mumbled under her breath. “What does it do for him?”

Maria shook her head and made her way back into the yard. She walked past the somewhat zombified bodies which walked around the yard. They held no expression, and their eyes were as dead as night. She pushed one on the shoulder. It stepped sideways and moved back to the original path.

“Is there anything here which can help?” a voice said.

Maria jumped and turned. The witch smiled at her and cast her glance toward the half-open tunnel and the stream of green gas.

“Nothing, apart from some gas canisters upstairs. I think Sanders is breathing it in,” she replied.

“Come child. There’s no more to see here. We need to pay a visit to my three sisters.”

The witch and Maria walked past the gate to the mine. The police were no longer there, and no one was watching it. Her brow furrowed and she turned her head to see fields and pastures behind her.

“Geez, this is going to take some getting used to.”

They chatted as they walked up the stony path. The green sky was fading and merging to a golden orange. The top of the hill was only a few minutes away and Maria spotted the crop of trees where the other witches sat. The climb steepened much more than before. Large boulders lay at the foot of the trees, and the witch and Maria clambered up the cold stone.

“Does it always change?” Maria asked.

The witch giggled and replied it was a continually evolving world, and not always for the better. The general location was much the same; however, reaching it was a challenge on most occasions.

“Why can’t we just fly up? We are in a dream after all,” Maria asked.

“Who said I couldn’t fly?” asked the witch.

“What the hell are you struggling with me for?” Maria rolled her eyes.

“Who said I’m struggling!” the witch said, now chuckling to herself.

Maria gave up and focused on climbing the stone staircase which now magically appeared before them. It couldn’t be far now because she started to smell the incense and could hear the crackling of wood burning. She reached the top and sat to catch her breath. The witch stood with her arms tucked up her large sleeves.

Maria stood as the witch led her through the opening to the campfire which burned. There, a large pot bubbled away, the bottom was charred, and covered in black tar which formed from the never-ending flames.

“Back so soon we see,” the witch at the end commented.

“It comes and goes like you rightly said.”

“You must have worries or questions, that’s why you’ve returned,” the blind witch remarked.

Maria and her journey witch sat across the fire. The warmth flooded into Maria’s body which she never realized was cold to the touch.

“I thought I was only allowed one question to ask? Forever.”

All the witches giggled. The witch in the center replied. “You don’t think we’d tell you questions were unlimited on your first visit, do you?” she asked. “We say the same thing to everyone when they come for the first time.”

“I can ask as many questions as I like?”

“In moderation, it gets boring after a while. Knowing everything isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Maria thought for a moment. She looked up when the witch on the end of the log ladled some liquid into an earthenware mug.

“I only have two questions. The first is about this green gas from the mine. Why is Sanders breathing the gas? And secondly, is the location in Mexico? There’s more than one Vera Cruz in the world.”

“Ah! You’ve come up against a brick wall I see. Vera Cruz is high up in the Cordoba Mountains. We have acquaintances in that very region.”

Maria sipped from her mug and the strong taste of tea and aniseed numbed the back of her throat. Her mind cleared while a relaxing feeling fell over her.

“You’re linked to the shaman?” she asked, curiously.

The blind witch stamped her walking stick into the earth. “No. They delve into the black arts for some of their magic. This; you’ll see when you get there. Us witches are all white-hat.”

“No shit,” Maria replied. “Sorry about the language.”

The witch on the far end of the log explained. She told Maria that the witches who were acquaintances weren’t like them. They were earth dwellers and were in a state of flux now that bad times had been cast over them.

“The entire village is doomed, maybe not in the next couple of years, but sometime in the future. So, their numbers will lessen, and they’ll die.”

“That sounds terrible,” Maria replied.

“We all have our own fate. Gabriel has a massive role to play in theirs… as well as his own.”

“Gabriel and the witches?” Maria asked.

“We see a coming together, in what way though, we aren’t sure yet.”

“What about the gas from the mine? Where does that fit in?” Maria asked.

The witches huddled together. Maria heard mutters before they broke apart and faced her.

“We came up with conflicting theories on this and were unprepared for your question. Now we have a consensus of opinion,” the head witch replied. “You might’ve noticed these beasts (or the male ones) which are increasing in numbers. They aren’t the most intelligent.”

Maria smiled. “We did notice some were lacking up-top.”

“All we can guess is; that this gas prevents him from falling under the same affliction.”

Maria pondered over their comment. It appeared Sanders would become a little dumb if he ran out of gas. Did he take enough for the trip to Mexico? That was sprung on all of them at the last moment.

“And there’s nowhere else to find this gas?” Maria asked.

The witches shook their heads. The Creek was the only place (at the moment) where the gas could be found. Maria needed to (hopefully) wake up from her dream state. It was a significant update and could affect the entire outcome.

“What’re you thinking?” the blind witch asked of Maria’s silence.

“I was thinking Sanders has a delay on his hands. We can get in front of him,” Maria explained. “Second to that, how the hell’s he going to stock up on a fresh supply of gas?”

The witches smiled. The lines around their eyes deepened. Maria never waited for an answer, after all, they were witches and not gods. They really didn’t know everything.

She stood with her journey witch who remained silent through the entire conversation. They parted through the clearing in the trees, and now fresh pastures were laid out in front of them. These, rather than the stone steps and the boulders.

Maria turned and noticed she was alone. “You were a figment of my imagination?” she mumbled while she walked toward the start of the path. The one which would lead her back to her body.

“Who said I was a figment of your imagination?” a voice asked as it whispered into her ear. Maria smiled, loving the magic of it all.

“Midnight memories come and go like tree tops blowing to and fro.”