"Two punctures and no way was that a fucking accident. Someone did this. I'm not sure if any kids messed around, or if it was, well, you know what I mean," Dustin remarked as he kicked the rear tire again, just to confirm it was like the front tire, and as flat as a pancake.

"You got spares?" Megan asked, trying to act normal as if she’d had absolutely nothing to do with it. The text on her cell phone would tell a different story.

Dustin shook his head as his foot dug into the flat rubber. "Nah, even if I did, it'd only be one spare. I'm going to need to call a breakdown place and see if I can get them both repaired, or at least replacements," he said, exhaling and looking at his watch. "There's no point us all waiting here. You get off and have a hunt like you said. I'll be fine here. No one is gonna attack me on my lonesome."

Kelvin jumped up and down and in a circle. He threw his fists in front of himself like a sparring partner would. "One-two, one-two. Watch your back old man." Kelvin sprinted to the far side of the parking lot. "Yeehaw." His faint voice flowed through the trees and back to the diner.

"Follow me," Megan said as she headed in the opposite direction to Kelvin. "He doesn't know shit. I stayed around these parts once. We're a little outside Wichita Falls."

Kelvin bounded from the trees in his wolf form and shot past Dustin who was busy on his cell, now calling about their breakdown. He reached Megan, Maria, and then Gabriel, and quickly changed back to his human form. He panted as his chest rose and then fell, sucking in large, deep breaths.

"What's that about waterfalls?" he asked.

"I said you didn't know shit about where you are going," Megan replied.

Gabriel looked over to Kelvin and pushed his finger against his lips for him to be quiet. Past experience led Gabriel to know that Kelvin stood no chance in an argument against Megan. Foul-mouthed, narcissistic; but smart enough to have Kelvin tied up in knots before he knew it.

Megan walked over the grass and the sound of babbling water filled the night in front of them. They stepped forward and stood in a line and looked where the sound of the water came from.

"It sure isn't Niagara. I can pee higher than that," Kelvin remarked as they all laughed.

He wasn't overly supportive of the falls that the people of Wichita built to replace the natural ones. He was right, they weren’t the highest falls in the land, and a midnight shower at the bottom was way out of the question.

"Now where?" Maria asked Megan as she pointed across the freeway to a small crop of trees that ran a few hundred yards either side of the river (which conveniently ran under the freeway).

They walked into the darkness as the hum of the freeway grew louder. The path stopped as the river narrowed and ran under the freeway. "We can't get under," said Gabriel.

Kelvin pushed his chest against the cold concrete and raised his hands, now grabbing hold of the pipe which ran above his head. His toes shimmied across the ledge.

"Never say never," he said as he reached the other side of the bridge.

They all walked into the thicket of the trees. Old cans and bottles littered the side of the freeway. Carrier bags blew in the rush of air from the road and flattened themselves against the trees.

"At least the Creek never had this problem," Maria said, shaking her head. She cocked her ear to the side. She heard something through the trees. Her eyes closed and she raised her nose and faced into the wind. "Kelvin, feel like a juicy steak?" His head tilted back. The smell of cattle filled his nose. His tongue flicked over his hungry lips.

"Do you want to change first, or shall I?" he asked.

"Do it together," Maria replied. "On three. One—two—three!"

Together, their backs arched. Sinew and bones rippled under their skin. Kelvin's shoulders contorted as Maria's jaw pushed itself from the front of her face. Her jaws widened as she snarled and snapped her head level, like magic. She stood on her hind legs. Her back hunched as her claws stretched and razor sharp nails dug and pushed out on the ends of her paws. She glanced at Kelvin as he whipped his head to the side. His dark-brown fur waved, just as the rush of the traffic flooded down the bank from the freeway.

"What about you two?" asked Maria.

"Very freaking funny," Gabriel said.

"I'll hang back, go and enjoy yourselves," Megan quipped, and the two wolves vanished into the night together.

Megan now wondered if a vlad possessed any distinguishing features, apart from internally combusting during daylight hours. She didn't want to take the risk and decided to still use the chronic migraines as an excuse. It was her only excuse, for now.

She wrapped her arm around Gabriel's as they walked along the path. The smell of fresh blood filled the air and teased Megan. She smiled as she turned to Gabriel.

Fuck, I'd love to sink my teeth into your neck.

They cleared the trees. The flat pastures were spread out before them. The moon sat low in the sky. Gabriel and Megan saw the silhouette of Maria and Kelvin in their wolf forms against the silver dome of the moon. Kelvin's head tilted back as he howled. He raised his arm, and the outline of meat and organs hung from his hand as he sunk his teeth into the flesh of it. His hand was pulling against his clamped teeth as the beef finally tore. Maria was crouched down and fed herself far less wildly than her partner in crime did. Her razor sharp teeth still ripped and tugged at the cow’s carcass, although she never advertised the fact that they’d made a fresh kill in the silvery glow of the bright moonlight.

"I think you’d better save Dustin some. He's looking a little flaky lately," Gabriel said. "You'll have to take it over the road, though. There's no way under the bridge from this section."

Kelvin walked over to the path. His brown fur was stained by the lashings of spilled blood. Small bits of meat clung to the sides of his mouth. Maria stood, and Gabriel saw it was her who’d killed the steer. Halfway to her elbows were red. Her white fur replaced by redness, as if she wore gloves; red gloves.

"You feeling better after that?" Gabriel asked. Kelvin faced across the field. He crouched and picked up a small round rock. He clasped it in his wolf-like grip. "What's wrong?"

Kelvin ran forward a couple of steps. His arm pulled back tightly as he snapped his hand forward. He let go of the rock. He watched as the stone vanished into the night sky. He peered into the darkness as a couple of seconds turned into what appeared to be an eternity. A faint thud was followed by a soft crack and a sigh. The rock hit the target. How well, only daylight would tell that, but he had hit it, and whoever it hit would be sorry they stood and watched in such an open place.

"You don't think that was a vlad, do you?" Megan asked, curiously.

Kelvin changed back to his human form and wiped his mouth on the palm of his hand. "If it was, it means one of two things. Either we are being followed, which would explain the flat tires on Dustin's van. Or, they can spread much quicker than we thought," he said, still looking into the darkness like a hawk.

Megan looked across the grass. She peered much further than Kelvin did. Her senses had become much stronger, especially now that Sanders had turned her into a vlad. Megan saw the black car that was parked in the laneway. She also saw the dim light of his blue eyes that looked back in her direction. She smiled through pulled-back lips, straight into the darkness.

If this lot only knew who they were dealing with, and just how much trouble they’re in…

The breakdown guy finally arrived and had been in the parking lot with Dustin for around twenty minutes. He’d explained that the fastest and easiest way he could fix the problem was to shove the rear tires on the front, and tow the van back to his shop and fit two new tires. By the time the tire guy had jacked the van up and removed two wheels and swapped them, he could hear Kelvin and the others approaching through the trees.

"Hey Dust, you should see the falls. They are the crappiest thing you could ever see," Kelvin belted out, from halfway across the parking lot. They reached the van and Dustin cuffed him around the back of the ear.

"Shush, this helpful guy's grandpa built those falls, along with a few friends," Dustin replied.

"Ah, I see. So they don't have lofty aspirations in Wichita?"

"What's he saying?" Greg, the tire guy yelled out.

"Ignore him," Dustin yelled. Kelvin laughed.

"What do you think the problem was?" Kelvin shouted, missing out every second word.

Greg, the tire guy, looked as if he’d stashed a couple of spares up his shirt, and inside his dungarees.

"What did you say?" he yelled, tapping his hearing aid.

"Pack it in, will you," Dustin said to Kelvin, in a very stern, serious voice.

"Sorry dude, just having some fun," Kelvin said, apologetically.

Greg called Kelvin over. "Don't assume a person with something in their ear is deaf. That's my wife I was speaking to. The reception is crap in this area, and I was tapping my earpiece in case it was broken."

Kelvin realized in the flash of an eyelash that he’d been as humiliated as much as he could be; he’d read the situation completely wrong. Greg appeared to be much smarter than he looked. Maybe, he used that look on clients who felt sorry for him, and so they slipped him an extra twenty for his trouble. Yep, straight into his pocket, missing the books altogether. Breakdown guys had to have some perks, being up all night and away from their loved ones. Greg, over time, had perfected his look, and the good folks around Wichita Falls (and those on the freeway when they broke down) usually added a little extra when they settled the bill. Greg would never complain because he owned a six-bedroom home that was built on the back of a dumb look. And the bank manager knew it too. He was one person in Wichita who knew Glen was very far from stupid in any way, whatsoever. Glen always got the VIP treatment when he went to deposit his shoebox full of notes. If that was done only monthly, he could have joined the queue like the rest of the Wichita folk, but one time per week soon mounted up to a nice little nest egg.

Greg knew that Kelvin would never give him a tip, and much of that was down to what was about to come out of his mouth once he'd hitched up the van.

"I got space for three in the crew-cab, apart from Dustin who can sit up front with me, so one of you has got to hitch a ride on the back in the open air," Greg mumbled, in his slight Texan twang; although clear enough for Kelvin to understand that he was talking about him.

Kelvin climbed on the back and tapped the roof to signal he was hanging on and ready to rock and roll. Things might not have been so bad for Kelvin if the weather didn't do what it hadn't done for quite a while.

It rained.

Greg flicked on the heater. He didn't want that windshield “a mistin’ up,” as he’d put it, because “…he wouldn't see where he was a goin’ properly. No sirree.”

The wipers flicked back and forth and were flicking the rain off either side of the windshield as fast as they could hit the glass. The eeeeeehuh-eeeeeehuh of the wipers was slow and methodical to start with. When the rain hit the glass and stayed there, Glen’s vehicle went into overdrive. He flicked the switch. A blur appeared in front of Dustin's eyes. The eeeeeehuh was replaced by a much faster eehuh-eehuh-eehuh. The glass cleared and Glen could see the clear road ahead that led back to his shop.

It rained more. Heavily.

They approached the shop. Glen hit the remote, and a large shutter door opened. He waited till it had reached far above his tow truck before he peered upward from his windscreen toward the rafters. A large steel grate filled the floor under his truck and Dustin's van. As the shutter door closed he stepped from his vehicle as a cold Kelvin sat and gripped the winch. His hair sat flat against his head and rainwater dripped from the end of his nose.

"N-n-nice place you-you-you have here," Kelvin mumbled through his lips, which slowly started to go blue. Maria looked at the back of the pickup vehicle and wondered if Dustin's trick for a wolf to keep warm would work for this much rain. Probably not. It’s a tad heavy.

"I got a warm shower in the back, and some spare clothes. You can warm yourself while I fix this van."

Kelvin nodded because he looked like a total dick when he stuttered. He walked into the back and did exactly what Glen said he should do. Dustin sat on a spare tire as Megan and Maria walked into the back office and switched on the TV, making themselves feel at home there.

Dustin pulled up his boots and rested them on a tire with no wheel. "Do you have any problem with wolves around here?" Dustin asked. Wolves were becoming common knowledge, these days.

"You mean me personally, or in this region?"

"Is there a difference in the answer?"

Glen looked over his shoulder and turned back to face Dustin. He smiled in a way that now appeared to be a Glen-type smile.

"Now; that depends. There wasn't a problem with wolves since that little girl held a meeting in Fort Worth and set the hunting congregation straight. I was mighty glad of that, but now.” He paused a moment, mid-sentence. "Things are beginning to go down the pan again, and in a very different way. For me, personally, I have no problems with wolves."

"You’re broad-minded?"

"Hell no. It's because I'm a huge fuck off grizzly-shifter," Glen replied. "You don't think you wolves are the only ones, do you?"

"I had heard, but I've never seen one."

Maria walked back to Dustin. She looked around as he sat on the tires smiling. "Where's Glen?" she asked as she crouched, looking under the van.

"He's behind you," Dustin remarked.

Maria turned, and her gaze fell onto the belly of a bear, a huge grizzly bear. She craned her head upward as she watched Glen's lips ripple as he growled quietly. His colossal paws with big black claws rested on her shoulder. He made a small roar and changed back into his human form in an instant.

"I'm lost for words," Maria said. "No wonder you feel safe at all hours of the night."

"You could say that, but Dustin here has been a-tellin’ me that I should be worried."

Maria nodded. "He's right. We’re all worried. If these vlads get a foothold in society then wolves, humans (and now bears) all face a rough time."

Maria glanced over Glen's shoulder and saw Megan still watching TV. "I'm not sure how I am able to help," Glen muttered. "Where are you headed exactly?"

"New Orleans. Kelvin, the one who half froze to death, he might have family down there who know of a shaman," Maria explained.

"What about if that doesn't work out?" Glen asked.

"Glen, we don't know. Anywhere there is a shaman who is able to help is a good start, at least it is for right now," Maria added.

They heard a spanner hit the concrete floor on the opposite side of the van. Maria saw that Megan wasn't there. Glen turned his back to Dustin and started to sing under his breath.

"Forget about your worries and your strife, I mean the bare necessities, that's why a bear can rest at ease, with just the bare necessities of life..."

"All join forces, rule through an iron hand, and prove to all the world, friendship rules the land."