“You okay?” asked Wes.
Avery snickered, and her lioness let out a small, tired purr. She was perched on the back of an ambulance. She had been checked out, but she was fine – or would be fine if given time to heal.
“Just bruised and scratched and beaten and in pain – but yeah, other than that, I’m peachy. Did you get Gretchen and Alfie?”
His expression flickered. “Both dead.”
“Shit.”
“The ah,” he paused considering what to call them, “shifters got them both.”
While tussling with the tiger, she missed quite a few things. Like the fact that Wayne shut off the power, allowing her to jump in the pit and help her wolf. She hadn’t questioned it when the power went off. Nope, her lion just dove straight in to save her honey. She figured the protective netting was electrified, but the fact is, her lion was considering throwing herself in there anyway – volts and all. Course, she’d been thinking clearly enough to send a message to Cutter telling him to storm the place – pronto.
Cutter hadn’t hesitated. He and the tactical agents flew straight on in there. The guests, already mildly spooked by the power outage, started to make a run for it, and when the caged shifters managed to escape – due to their bars no longer being electrified – the guests really started trying to make a run for it.
A few people had been hurt by the confused and drugged up shifters, though no SEA agents were injured, so, frankly, Avery wasn’t particularly concerned. Maybe it was cold, but the people who were injured were paying money to see the poor creatures rip each other to shreds. They deserved all they got!
The SEA had wisely armed themselves with tranq guns and managed to subdue all the rampaging beasts… eventually, anyway. Not before they had taken a little of their rage out on a few people.
“What about the shifters?” she asked. “Are they okay?”
It was strange seeing shifters caught half way between man and beast. Made her own animal shudder.
“We managed to subdue them. Rick’s taking a look at them now.”
“You should contact Dr. Morgan from LLU – he’s researching this. He may be able to help reverse whatever was done to them.”
Wes nodded. “We rounded up a lot of the spectators, but…”
“Let me guess – they had no idea what was going on, no idea it was illegal blah blah blah.”
“Yep, but we did manage to round up some of the security team and technicians working here – the ones that were still alive anyway. We’ll make them talk.”
“Hopefully the… shifters can answer a few questions when they’re back to their normal selves. I think they’ll be our missing homeless people. I think Alfie and Gretchen kidnapped them, gave them some of the serum to turn them into beasts and made them fight. They probably made a mint in bets.”
Wes blew out a long breath. “Why bother giving them the serum? Why not make them fight as themselves – they’re all shifters who can turn into animals.”
Avery stood up and stretched, making sure her borrowed shirt didn’t ride too high. “I doubt they would have fought one another without it, and the serum made them more aggressive. I guess it was something new and different for people. Made the fights more interesting,” she added bitterly.
“Jeez. I wonder how many died for this.”
“Too many,” she muttered.
Wes looked around. “What happened to Wolfman? I haven’t seen him since he was in the ring with you.”
Avery paused. Wayne had of course told everyone about Wolfman’s appearance. “Guess he managed to get away.”
“Hmmm, would have liked to find out who he really was.”
Avery shrugged. “Come on; I’m sure there’s a stack of paperwork with our names on it.”
They looked up as Cutter’s strident tone cut through all the sirens, growls and chatter.
“Lucie, I told you…” he yelled into his cell phone. His eyes widened. “Son of a goat! Snickerdoodle! Jiminy crickets! Sweetheart, I am on my way!”
He ended the call and started running. “Lucie’s in labor! Lucie’s in labor!”
They watched as he sprinted away from the crime scene.
“How long before he realizes and comes back for his car?”
Avery grinned and shook her head. This wasn’t even Cutter’s first child – he had done this all before. “I’m fairly certain he’s going to make it all the way home first.”
*
Aimee pulled up in front of his house.
Winston gave her an awkward look. His wolf was quiet and tired and feeling slightly silly at putting himself in danger. Thank goodness he had a kick-ass girlfriend to save him.
“Uh, thanks – for everything.”
After he passed out, Avery apparently carried him outside and called her sister to collect him. He wasn’t sure what he was more thankful for – his lovely lioness’ incredible strength in being able to lift him, or her sister for rushing to him and even bringing him some spare clothes. It was perhaps fortunate he did have a chauffeur to drive him home. When he shifted, his contacts popped out and now everything was just a little bit blurry. Winston needed corrective lenses, but his wolf’s vision was perfect.
“The clothes belong to Avery’s roommate, Wayne.” She blushed lightly. “You should probably give them back to Avery as soon as you can – before he misses them.”
Winston nodded and then winced. He had taken a few hard smacks and was feeling just a mite tenderized.
“Can you walk okay? Want me to come in with you?” offered Aimee.
“Nah, better not my mom is… odd. I’m not really up to facing one of her interrogations tonight.”
Aimee gave him a sympathetic look. “I totally understand.”
“About me being…”
“Wolfman?” Her eyes flashed excitedly.
The tatters of his costume were now in a bag he was clutching on his lap. Aimee had seen them and jumped to the correct conclusion that he was indeed Wolfman.
“Uh, yeah, that.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome… Wolfman.”
He shuffled into the house, and flopped on his bed. Oh, he was going to sleep for a freaking week. Though, he should probably retrieve his mom’s car before she missed it…
*
Gretchen’s sister identified her body. Greta sighed and nodded her head as Rick uncovered her.
Avery regretted they wouldn’t get any answers out of Gretchen, but the other people working at the fight club had been pretty forthcoming in their hopes of getting reduced sentences. They figured Gretchen got the idea for the fight club after seeing Dr. Morgan’s research. She must have stolen samples of the serum they used to trap shifters in their in-between state. Then, with Alfie’s help, she recruited and kidnapped people to reproduce the serum and administer it to people Alfie abducted. All so they could make them rip each other apart for people’s amusement. It was sickening.
“Poor Gretchen,” Greta murmured.
Avery nodded for Rick to recover her and she led Greta back up to an interview room. They called Greta because she was officially Gretchen’s next of kin and because their father was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he had been worried that Gretchen’s actions would be blamed on him, but it appeared that he had skipped town.
Truth be told, Avery was a little surprised that Greta got there so fast. Last anyone heard, Greta had scarpered because her dad thought she had tried to kill him, and, well, to put it mildly, was kind of mad.
“When did you get back into town?” asked Avery.
She tapped her fingers on the cup of tepid coffee an agent had given her on her arrival. “After my dad called yesterday. After he realized I never tried to kill him. It was definitely Gretchen who tried to poison him, right?”
“We’re not certain about that.” Though it didn’t seem an out of the way conclusion. “About Gretchen…”
Greta gave her a wan smile. “I know, the agent already told me.”
Avery frowned. “This doesn’t surprise you?”
“Not as much as it probably should. She used to be such a shy girl – I mean, she had a bit of a mean streak but nothing like this. But when she was sixteen, someone took her, demanding a ransom. Dad refused to pay. We had different mothers, and while dad’s a hippo shifter, I took after my mom in that I’m a hyena shifter. But Gretchen’s mom was human and so was Gretchen. Dad was always disappointed about that, and I don’t think he considered her worth paying the money.”
Her face tightened, and she paused to take a sip of coffee, which she managed to swallow without either gagging or trying to spit it out.
“Thankfully, she managed to get away from them, and came home, but… well, she really wasn’t the same after that, and she really didn’t forgive my dad. Funny really, they were more alike than either of them realized.”
“Why’d she try and blame you for murdering your dad?”
She laughed mirthlessly. “Probably because I was convenient. Because like everyone close to the bastard I had a motive – my childhood was no picnic either. But also, I saw her and Alfie together.
“Alfie was a piece of work, but he wasn’t capable of thinking up plans. I think she was just using him to do whatever she wanted, and also because it was kind of a way to get back at dad. I think she liked the fact that Alfie was secretly loyal to her. Dad would have flipped if he knew. Alfie knew us both since we were kids, and was always kind of soft on us. I think she had him wrapped round her little finger. When I confronted her about what she was doing with him, she said she was going to prove to dad just what she was capable of. Then all of a sudden dad got sick, and he was convinced that I tried to poison him. Frankly, I was running for my life after that.”
“Ah, sorry for your loss,” said Avery.
Her lioness sneered, but Gretchen had been her sister. In spite of everything, Greta was entitled to grieve for her.
“Honestly, I lost my sister years ago.”
*
Kay watched as Marlowe’s sister happily munched on a burger, completely oblivious to all the turmoil both Kay and her brother had been through over the past few months.
After she freed the test subjects, Marlowe grabbed her and they ran, only stopping to pick up Marlowe’s little sister. Alfie had been using the girl to threaten Marlowe into working for him, but enough was enough.
Kay flinched as Marlowe sat down in the seat next to her. She was jumping at every single noise, expecting Alfie to come thundering towards them at any given moment. They hadn’t stopped moving since they got away from that awful hellhole. She was exhausted and smelly and…
Marlowe placed his hand on hers and gently squeezed it.
“We can go and do whatever we want,” he murmured in a low voice. “I promise, I won’t ever let anything happen to you ever again.”
Kay gave him a watery smile. She’d never forget what happened, could never forget all the victims who had needlessly lost their lives, and would probably always have nightmares about it, but at least they had each other.