Night Angels (Beast & Beauty) (14 page)

As he patted her gently and stroked her, and she allowed it, moving closer to his side and putting her paw on his leg, a lump came to his throat. He could see a measure of acceptance in her eyes. Acceptance of what he'd become. An understanding. How he'd miss this animal. She'd been a true companion to him through those lonely years of self exile in his room.

He stood and approached Mrs Higgins and gave her a generous and tight hug.

“Thanks for everything Higgy. I'll miss you.”

She'd been with the family for fifteen years, since Mrs Jones retired.

“Make sure you send word, that yer all right, eh lad? Don't want me worrin' now do 'ya?”

“I'll do that, call and email, it's a promise.”

As he placed a kiss on her plump cheek, he noticed her eyes were watery.

“Awww don't cry. You'll set me off. I'm a real crybaby,” he said, choking back a sob.

“Off wiv yer, go on...” she said brusquely. “Can't abide men blubbering all over the place.” She returned to her pot scrubbing with a vengeance.

“Yeah, best I do. See you then.” He left, wiping away a tear.

This leaving home thing was turning out to be more of a wrench than he thought.

As they left the manor forecourt, he took one last look over his shoulder at his ancestral home. He and Chris would inherit this one day. He didn't know how that would work, and didn't care to think that far ahead. He raised his hand in a fond farewell to the people gathered outside. Roxy squeezed him tightly in understanding. Then he steeled himself, pushed his emotions to the back of his mind, and with a sudden rush of adrenaline, took off, speeding down the driveway with joy. His backpack of possessions was all he considered worthy of taking with him. A week’s worth of clothes, games, electrical bits and pieces...

It was a clean cut.  A new beginning.

Lincoln... A great place by the looks of it. A cathedral, shops... some old cobbled streets. The gang rumbled through the city on their bikes, drawing a lot of attention from the night crowd, out for boozing and pulling.  Kyle smiled to himself broadly. If only they knew. They passed through and out to the suburbs, finally stopping at the end of a quiet lane outside a small pink house.

“Welcome home babe,” Roxy said from his side. He looked at the pink bungalow with amusement. The nameplate 'Cosy Cot' was attached to the wall.

“Kinda cute, I suppose.” He managed not to laugh.

“It's basic with a capital B. Come on, lets get set up.”

Tank unlocked the door and they all decamped, spreading out and reclaiming their own familiar spaces. After twenty minutes, it almost felt like home with the buzz of activity and their possessions strewn all over the floor. He took a look around the kitchen and other rooms, and then sat down on the sofa. Mutt put some music on his radio CD player and Kat got some bottles of real ale out of the cupboard. Lynyrd Skynyrd filled the air with their Sweet Home Alabama classic.

“This is Mutt's favourite... it's a little ritual we have. Home sweet home, and a drink,” Roxy explained, sidling up to him. They all drank and chatted between themselves, swigging the beers down fast.

She got up and collected her guitar from their room, and came back slinging the strap around her neck…

“I don't know about you guys, but I need some heavier stimulation. Smoke on the Water please, Mutt.”

“That should get us going,” Tank agreed. “I'm feeling way too laid back. I need tension and some teeth grittin' sounds.”

Mutt put a Deep Purple CD in the player, and Roxy plugged in her guitar to a small amplifier at the side of the room.

The track started slowly and then it rocked off big time. She played along and they all sang the chorus, if you could call it singing... screaming was more of an apt description. The gang were definitely all in Hells Angel mode at the moment. Their air punching arms were revving him up big time. Roxy was revving him up too, her hair flailing everywhere as she sank into the rhythm just like badass gal Joan Jett. She was turning him on way too much, in a way he didn't need just now.

Kyle was nervous about what lay ahead, but despite that, still dying to get out there.

He smirked to himself.

A full moon followed by a gang war was a hard introduction to this life, but one he was determined to survive.

They approached Lincoln centre and their pre-arranged meet with Snipe. They lined up their bikes in a row alongside the west side of the Cathedral grounds, then made their way into the dark gardens and the integral churchyard, awash with trees and creepy pale grey gravestones. Normally places like this would make Kyle's hair stand on end after dark, but today, for some inexplicable reason, he felt comfortable here. It was probably the company he was keeping.  These awesome creatures of the night. Tank approached a cropped blonde guy, sitting on a raised tomb, a curvy blonde bombshell hanging off his arm. They all hung back, while they shook arms and spoke.

After a few minutes, Tank came back to tell them what was going on, as Snipe left.

“The hellhounds we're after were seen a little earlier, circling the old pedestrian backstreets. There's at least eight of them. All males. We're splittin’ up. Snipe's gang are taking off, closing in from the east, and we'll work from here. We need to wolf up guys. It's pretty late, so the clubbers are gone now, and those that aren't will be in for a shocking surprise.” They all laughed.

Was Tank actually being funny? Maybe all wasn't lost after all.

Roxy took his hand and led him to a discrete dark corner of the churchyard.

“Babe, kiss me...” she said, pulling him close.

“Roxy, don't start getting me all excited now, please!”

“That's not what I'm doing... it's just in case something bad happens. I want you to have something fresh in your mind to remember me by.”

“No... Don’t say that. Don't even think it. We'll be fine.”

“Just in case... Kiss me, please...”

He took her face in his hands and pulled her mouth to his, and they had a long, lingering kiss. And it did excite him, more than ever... but as he pulled away, he didn't care. Their eyes met in the light of the moon and they couldn't look away.

“I love you,” she said simply.

His heart exploded with love for her.

“I love you too.”

Her body shuddered with a deep sigh and she hugged herself to his chest.

“Be careful tonight, won't you?... Promise me?”

“I will... And make sure you're careful as well, right?”

They had another far too sweet, and love drunk kiss as they pulled apart and dropped to the grassy ground for their change. As they forced their wolves out, she spoke to him in his head...

“Love you... forever.”

They combed the streets for a while, looking for any sign of the 'Hellhounds' as Tank had aptly described them. A sudden howl hit their ears. A long drawn out baying howl for help. They headed towards it rapidly, their wolf hearts pounding with growing anxiety. She hung behind him and Mutt, as he'd asked her to.

There at the centre of town, under the clock in the square, were a dozen wolves, snarling at each other. Snipe bounded over, in wolf form, to Tank's side, followed by three others as soon as they arrived. They moved forward, in rank, growling deeply as they approached the hellhounds.

Roxy suddenly spoke again, to his mind... but it was an anguished, desperate wail of appeal... “Noooo....Chester gang... Carnage 666...”

He looked at her in shock. She yelped to Tank... trying to explain... but the battle had begun and he was too occupied to listen. Not that it mattered who they were, in truth, but it fuelled Kyle's rage, which helped him at least. All they needed to do was to win this battle and destroy them.

Tank sprang bravely at the leader of the enemy pack, who was standing at the front, taunting him. He was another big wolf, and the two massive creatures battled ferociously, biting and rolling around the ground. Ryder paced nervously behind him, ready to step in and assist, but not looking at all confident. One of the other wolves sprang at him, and he began battling it out too. Kyle pushed his way forward, snarling at the remaining six wolves... Snipe and another two stood at his sides. They surged at three of the wolves and let rip. Kyle tasted blood in his mouth as he bit and shook his head in a frenzy. He felt teeth sinking into his shoulder.

He fought like a maniac, feeling no pain, only a fevered need to kill.

These bastards had hurt his girlfriend many times and murdered indiscriminately. They were going to pay. Killing for fun and terrorising innocent folk was at an end as from tonight.

Mutt, Roxy, and Max sprang into the mix, followed by Angel and the rest of Snipe's pack. The two women attacked one male wolf together, setting upon him purposefully, biting his back and head.

The square was full of snarling, battling wolves as they clashed hard. Kyle had never been in any mass fight before, apart from a rugby scrum that had got outta hand, and this was nothing like that. It was brutal, primal, and so heated. The air was thick with the scent of blood, fear, and anger.

Suddenly a wild howl of triumph echoed around them as Tank stood proudly above his dead alpha victim. The others began to retreat, but not before Kyle brought his scumbag to the ground with a rip of his throat, and Mutt finished off his in the same way. There were four dead wolves littering the bloodstained cobblestones as they cleared the battle zone, retreating to the shadows to lick their wounds of victory.

Tank howled again and they all joined in with a wild cheering whoop of a howl, then he bounded off, in a run, back towards the Cathedral, which was lit up brightly ahead of them, in the Lincoln night. Snipe ran off with his gang, veering in the opposite direction. They all followed Tank back. And finally they returned to the churchyard, circling restlessly and calming down before they began their transformation. Kyle went over to their special spot. Then dropped and began his change fast, wanting to hug his new love as soon as he could get his human arms around her. She joined him at his side, and they transformed in a few short and desperate minutes.

“Love you,” she murmured against his mouth, over and over, and he lapped it up like it was the food of life, feeding her in return with a large helping of his own.

They lay there hugging and kissing like it was going out of fashion, oblivious to their scratches and his shoulder which was still bleeding badly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kyle noticed a dark shape weave its way through the gravestones. He jumped up shouting a warning, but before he could act it struck at Tank, lying helpless and semi transformed on the ground. With a heavy sinking of its jaws, and a rapid shake of its head, it took off his strong 'Wild' tattooed arm, just below the elbow as he tried to protect himself. He screamed a half-human cry of pain that speared through all their hearts. Kyle and Roxy rushed naked to his side.

“Shit... hold on pal... hold on, we're gonna do our best for ya',” he encouraged.

Tank shook his head at them... Kyle didn't understand and didn't have time to think about it.

He sent Roxy to grab their clothes quickly, and using his t-shirt, he wound it tourniquet-style ‘round the stub of his arm, which was gushing blood with a vengeance.  He placed Roxy's hands on it and she held fast and tight, stroking his brow gently as he faded in and out of consciousness. He stood and put on his jeans quickly.

“Get dressed somehow. I'm going after him.”

“You can't, you're human. You won't win against a wolf... Please don't go...” she pleaded with him not to leave...

“I can and I will. I'm gonna get the bastard.” He shot off in the direction he'd seen the wolf run, his injured shoulder aching like fuck as he pounded the cobbled streets. Blood ran like a dozen little rivers down his bare chest. A few minutes later he found him, in transformation in a darkened shop doorway, with Tank's dismembered arm lying like a sick trophy at his side. Without a thought, he jumped astride him and broke his neck with a quick sickening crunch, twisting his half transformed head fast to one side.

He returned to the scene of the carnage, carrying the bloodied arm, to be met by Mutt running out to meet him stark naked.

“We tried to stop 'em but they grabbed 'er... our Roxy... Two hellhound guys bundled her on a bike and took her... they've got her... My lil' gel...” The guy was in tears.  Kyle suddenly went into a blind panic... Unsure what to do... His heart pounding like a drum...

“Fuck no... NO! They're NOT having her...  Ryder, come on, let's go...” Kyle tugged at his arm urgently as he lay on the ground..

“Can't... injured...” He pointed at a bloody leg that Angel was tending to. “Anyway, how do we know where they are? We'll have to hope she can get away. She's smart,” he said with a pained expression.

“You and your fucking injuries...” Kyle said unsympathetically. “We're all hurt, look...” He motioned to his bloody shoulder. “If you can stand, I can help you get on your bike and we can find them... Come on pal? NOW,” Kyle insisted in an angry tone.

“Cool it boy,” Ryder said, a little too calmly for Kyle's liking.

“Don't you fucking 'boy' me, you asshole...” he dropped to the ground and spat at him through gritted teeth.

Then he stood up and shouted at them all in disgust.

“Are you telling me you're all gonna go home and leave Roxy to be tortured and God knows what by the evil bastards who used to beat her up when she was just a young girl? I don't believe you could...”

“No, we're not.” Max stepped forward. “Angel, Kat... come on. Ryder can keep Tank company.”

“I ain't leaving Tank,” Kat snarled nastily, as he groaned in agony, in a pool of bloody grass.

“You got me...” A fully clothed Mutt appeared at Kyle’s side.

“Of course we have. Who'd stop you, eh?” Kyle said gratefully.

“Honey, you're not to go,” Ryder ordered.

“Nothing you can say will stop me going after her. She's my sister. And yours too...” Angel stood up and regarded him unpleasantly. The four of them stood together, a small joined force, and looked down at the three they were leaving behind in the churchyard.

“Be sure Tank gets to hospital fast, this goes way beyond a few stitches,” Kyle said to Kat as he left. “And you might wanna get a plaster for that scratch,” he said sarcastically to Ryder, who was shamefully tending to his excuse of a bloody gash. He did have to admit it looked pretty bad, and probably was quite painful, but even so...

They were reversing out their bikes and preparing to take off when Snipe and his guys arrived.

“Hey what's up man?... Leavin' already?” he asked Kyle.

“One of ours has been taken. Roxy, my girl.  Tank's lost an arm and another's down, but not serious...” He gestured towards the churchyard.

“Sin, Liz... see to them, we'll see you later,” Snipe barked out the orders to a couple of the women. “You in charge boy?” he asked Kyle, eyeing his bloody bite and handing him a fistful of tissues from his vest pocket.