Wolfen (15 page)

The leader twisted to look over at him. “Then you should’ve
got while the getting was good.”

Igme cocked his hip, lifted his chin, and said, “I did. Got
me the girl, didn’t I?” and Sinna wasn’t sure whether he was that arrogant or
that stupid.

The leader sighed as if wondering why he even bothered. He
raised two fingers and made a swirling motion, which Sinna guessed to be a
signal to move out. Alexis and another woman hauled Sinna to her feet, while
Aiden, with three guns pointed at him from various distances and angles, got
herded back to the road alongside her.

Bryce was more difficult. Sinna craned her neck as she was
being dragged away to catch sight of him. Someone had bound his arms at his
back and shackled his legs so tightly he could only take very small steps or
fall on his face. Two strong men held onto his arms, and it maddened Bryce that
he couldn’t shake them off. He thrashed, snarling like a wild beast, until one
of them slammed the butt of his gun into the back of Bryce’s head and dropped
him like a stone.

Sinna gasped when he hit the ground, silently willing him to
Get up, get up, get up!

He roused enough to mumble unintelligibly, but they had to
carry him out of the forest after the rest of them.

Sinna blinked back frightened tears and faced forward.
“Where are you taking us?” she demanded.

“Told you,” Frankie said, watching over everything from atop
a boulder. “Haven.”

“Why do I have a feeling that’s not as safe as it sounds?”
she muttered.

“Because it isn’t,” Aiden replied in kind.

“Not for the likes if you, anyway,” Alexis added with a
sneer. “And I’ll be getting that cuff,
chica
, just as soon as I get my
machete.”

First rule of the jungle: Never show fear to a larger
predator. It’ll make you prey.
Sinna looked Alexis dead in the eye. “Won’t
it hurt, pulling it out of your ass?”

Aiden grinned in approval. “Nice!”

The moment Sinna’s feet touched pavement, her brain went
into observation mode. This was now a hostage situation, which tuned her mind
into a lot of police jargon and murder mystery books. She paid closer attention
to who was around her—ten men and five women, excluding those who’d stayed
behind to loot the rest of the mule. A well-organized, trained and armed group,
but not military. Someone had taught them to survive, which meant they were
part of a much bigger community somewhere around here.

The leader, Frankie, had a tight hold on his people, but he
wasn’t top dog. A “boss” somewhere in Haven apparently had ways to ensure his
rules were followed. Sinna was sure of this because, although Igme kept
watching her, his confidence had waned. He was sullen and resentful of the
higher order that dictated what he could take and when.

They followed the road back to the bridge, and Sinna took
note of every detail. The basin used to hold a much bigger river—either the
area was in the middle of a drought, or the water had been diverted. The road
itself was well maintained, though who knew how, and now that she was more
aware, Sinna saw warning signs she’d missed before. The way the field of tree
stumps was cut at a precise height, the deep drag marks where wood had been
harvested, the hillocks which turned out to be cleverly disguised hiding places
for sentries and guards.

Aiden and Bryce had taken one look and they’d known
something was off. A couple of weeks ago, Sinna might have, too, but she hadn’t
noticed a thing when it counted.
Stupid. Just because converts can’t hurt
you, doesn’t mean other things won’t! Wake the hell up!

There wasn’t a man-made structure in sight anywhere on the
horizon at first, but when it became visible, a rusty uneven enclosure the size
of a small town, Sinna looked back to judge the distance. “Ten miles west,” she
whispered so she would remember.

Aiden cast her a glance, but said nothing.

Bryce was starting to come to, shaking himself off, and the
first thing he did was look up at Sinna with a wild, alarmed expression. She
sent him a half smile in assurance, and it seemed to calm him a little, but not
enough. He was still chained, and even though the humans made him walk on his
own, he couldn’t move fast enough to catch up to her and Aiden. One hard yank
would likely be enough to break those chains, but for some reason, that had
nothing to do with them being outnumbered or outgunned, he was holding himself
back.

He did, however, meet eyes with Aiden and give him a grim
nod, which his brother returned.

She’d have loved to know what that was about, but when she
raised an eyebrow at Aiden for an explanation, he pretended she didn’t exist.

It was a long walk to the colony, and the closer they got to
it, the more Sinna realized its sheer size and scope. Somebody had cleared the
land for miles in every direction; whoever was on guard would see an enemy
coming from a very long way off. The thirty-foot-high walls looked to be
nothing more than a lot of rusty corrugated sheet metal patched together, but
it had to be structurally strong enough to support a ten-foot-tall metal gate
and four watch towers. In a really messed up way, Sinna supposed this was the
New Era equivalent of a medieval castle.

The last of the looters who’d gone ahead of them passed
through the gate, which closed with a deep, tired groan, leaving the brothers,
Sinna, and their fifteen guards out in the cold.

“Ho!” a watchman called from the west tower.

“Celery!” Frankie bellowed back.

“Are the leaves turning already?”

“Winter will be here before you know it.”

A pause. “Wait here, I have to report this.”

“Take your time,” Frankie retorted, unamused.

They waited.

Sinna looked at Aiden, and then Bryce. They weren’t talking,
or even looking at each other, or her. She wanted to stomp her feet in
frustration. They had to have some sort of plan, right? Of course they had a
plan. They’d know better than she what they were getting into, and as soon as
it was safe, they’d tell her what the plan was. She hoped.

Sinna hated being left in the dark. “Aiden,” she whispered,
knowing he would hear.

“Remember when I told you animals aren’t the only ones with
claws anymore?” he murmured back.

“Yeah?”

With a slow, deliberate nod, he indicated the huge gate, and
a cold shiver ran up her spine.

“Shit,” she said.

“Just keep calm, little bit. You’ll be fine.” No jokes, no
wicked quirks of his lip; this was a side of Aiden she hadn’t seen before. When
the gate groaned open again, he didn’t just walk in, he prowled. His face was
hard, eyes sharp, hands loose at his sides, and with every move, every step,
every look, he stood out among this ragged community like a panther on the
hunt.

“Move,” Alexis snapped, shoving her forward.

Sinna swallowed hard and put one foot in front of the other.
The moment she stepped into the shadow of the gate, a cold fist closed around
her heart. The wall was a hollow structure several feet thick, held up on each
side by a metal skeleton. Between, gear wheels and cranks enabled the gate to
move, operated by miserable looking people, pasty pale and dressed in rags, as
if they’d been sent there as a form of punishment.

But that was far from the worst this place had to offer.

Once the gate closed, Sinna tried to shake off her
apprehension and look around. The inner side of the wall was curved like a
ship’s bulwark, flowing down into a courtyard that ran the perimeter around
another shorter wall made of concrete slabs. Several guards walked around with
whips strapped to their belts, keeping watch over…

Oh, sweet God.

Sinna fought down a wave of nausea.

Women. Dozens of women and girls, collared and chained to
the concrete wall, nearly naked with scraps covering their breasts and
privates, and so thin, their cheeks were hollow and their ribs stood out in
stark relief. Most of them seemed oblivious to everything happening around
them, eyes glazed over or closed completely. Those who saw them shied away,
huddling and ducking their heads as if they expected to be beaten. Their fears
were not unfounded, as evidenced by their bruises and lash marks.

But the one by the inner gate really broke Sinna’s heart. As
soon as it opened, creating a cross breeze, her chin lifted and she breathed in
deeply, as if she’d caught a scent from memory. Then her reddened eyes opened
and she picked Sinna and the brothers out of the crowd in an instant. Her eyes
widened and her mouth opened on a silent cry, and she reached out to them, desperate
for help, salvation—anything.

Aiden walked right past her without sparing her a glance,
but his steps were wooden, his expression set. Sinna slowed, unable to take her
eyes off of the woman. She reached out to her, let the woman grasp her hand
with both of hers. The woman dragged her down and her mouth worked soundlessly.

Sinna fought back tears when she saw someone had cut out her
tongue. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

The woman wearing silver chains that cut into her delicate
skin moaned a harsh sound from long-dormant vocal cords. “
Ouu.
”

Sinna frowned. “What?”

The woman squeezed her hand so tightly, Sinna’s knuckles
scraped together. “
Ouu! Ouu awaa!
”

The whip cracked in front of Sinna’s face, making her flinch
back, and the woman let go, feeble, bony arms shielding her head and neck. “
Ouuuu!
”
she wailed.

Alexis caught Sinna by her hair and yanked hard. “Keep
moving!”

Sinna heard a vicious snarl, a metallic
snap
, and she
staggered sideways as Alexis abruptly released her. The Latina’s scream was cut
short by a sickening crunch of bone. When Sinna regained her balance and looked
down, Alexis’ body lay on the ground, head turned two hundred degrees to look
over the wrong shoulder.

The guards descended on Bryce with a fury of cracking whips
and flying projectiles. Sinna dropped to a crouch and covered her head. The
guards who’d gone past the concrete wall, now poured back out to subdue Bryce,
and he was letting them, taking vicious beatings without throwing a single
punch in return.

From the corner of her eye, Sinna saw a blur of pale and
chanced a look. Aiden had crouched down in front of the whipped woman and
gently cupped her face. She was weeping, looking up into his eyes as if he were
an angel flown down from heaven just for her. Whatever he told her made her
nod. Then Aiden shoved to his feet, walked tall over to Sinna, and pulled her
to her feet. “We do not separate,” he said at her ear. “You hear? You stay with
us, no matter what. Even if you think you can make it out on your own.”

“I don’t,” she said, painfully aware of how much she could
not
make it out on her own.

Aiden squeezed her shoulders before several guards wrenched
them apart. “Chin up, little bit. We’re going to walk out of this. Wait and
see.”

With so many gunmen around them, Sinna didn’t get an
opportunity to study the inside, and what she saw told her little. Haven looked
like a small town, with people just going about their business or following the
action, as if this sort of thing rarely happened around here. Then her handlers
shoved her head down and pushed her through a doorway into a passage slanting
lower.

They were going underground.

Sinna broke into a cold sweat, heart racing and feet
tripping over each other. The deeper they went, the darker it got, and when the
air turned cold and wet, and sounds became muffled, she couldn’t bite back a
broken sob. Her knees weakened.

I can’t do this.

The black maw stretched into eternity before her, reaching
out to swallow her whole, and she knew, as surely as her own name, that if she
took one more step, she would never come back out again. Her throat closed up,
and she choked on a plea, shaking her head. Her legs weren’t working, but her
handlers had picked her up enough to drag her forward.

Then something snapped.

Sinna yanked free and shoved people aside to run back up.
There were too many. At least three dozen stood between her and the way out; a
human wall she couldn’t break through, no matter how hard she threw her weight
against them, and she panicked. Wild screams echoed through the passageway.
Someone shouted her name. Hands grabbed hold of her. She shook them off, but
more clamped on, shackling her arms, her legs, squeezing her throat, pulling
her hair. She couldn’t break free; the darkness had grown tentacles to drag her
into its depths.

Sinna thrashed, snapping her teeth, trying with every ounce
of her strength to cause damage. It was all useless. Hot tears burned down her
cheeks as a voice whispered broken, pleading litanies in her head.

She prayed.

The darkness laughed.

When they dumped her on the ground, Sinna curled up in a
tight ball, eyes squeezed shut, ears covered. She never heard the door slam
shut. They left her completely alone in a pitch-black room, where the walls
swallowed her voice and never gave it back. And then the silence grew fangs
that tore into her, and she passed out.

~

“…wake up. Wake up, Sinna!”

The sound of her name dragged her out of nothingness.

See the light, your guiding star. The dark is where the monsters
are.

She clawed her way back to consciousness, following that
echoing voice.

“…Sinna, can you hear me?”

The dark is where the monsters are.

“Goddamn it, girl, talk to me.”

Sinna flinched at the gong of fists striking metal.
The
dark is where the monsters are.
She was awake and it was still dark, and
they were all around her; hissing, drooling creatures with poisoned claws.

“Sinna…” A different voice. Harder. Rougher. It scraped
across her mind like sandpaper.

Her arms were cramped around her up-drawn knees, she’d lost
feeling in her hands and feet, and her face hurt from crying. She didn’t want
to open her eyes, terrified she’d still see absolutely nothing.

But the voice persisted. “Are you hurt?”

See the light, your guiding star.

Sinna opened her eyes, and wailed her despair. There was no
light—none!

A harsh string of curses rose up, then the voice softened.
“Can you stand up? Reach the door?”

Door?

“There’s a keyhole. You can see through it into the hall.
Can you reach it?”

“Come on, little bit, we’re right here. You’re not alone.”

There were others?

A surge of hope made her scramble up. She felt along the
floor, disoriented in the darkness, until she reached a wall. She followed it
three small half-steps to a corner, and then another one. It was like tracing
the inside of a coffin. Then her hand moved from moist earth and stone to cold
metal. She found the hinges, the rivets where it held together, and—
there!
Sinna sank to her knees in front of the keyhole. There was her light—several
torches mounted on the walls, barely enough to illuminate the passage, but she
saw it so clearly, her panic began to ease. “Aiden?” Her voice was reedy,
unsure.

A sigh. “We’re here.” He knocked on his door, right across
from hers.

Another knock, one door down. That had to be Bryce.

“Bryce! Are you okay?” They’d beaten him so badly, she
couldn’t imagine how he was still alive.

“I’m fine.” There was pain in his voice. “Just a couple
broken bones. Maybe a concussion. Give me a minute and I’ll be right as rain.
How are you doing?”

Sinna was still shaking too much to make her voice
believable. “Peachy keen.”

“We’re gonna get out of here,” Aiden said. “You believe
that, right?”

“Sure. Yeah.” Of course they’d get out of here. Maybe not
alive, and they probably wouldn’t get far, but sooner or later, someone would
drag their rotting corpses out to burn. “Just, um, keep talking to me, okay?”
She couldn’t stand darkness
and
silence.

“These people are settled,” Aiden said. “They’ve got this place
tricked out to survive an apocalypse. I mean, you know. Another one.”

“You got the layout?” Bryce asked with a groan, and Sinna
flinched at the sickening sound of a joint popping into alignment.

“I thought I did. Up top, it’s pretty straightforward. Two
walls, defensive and offensive lines, and dwellings inside. But with these
tunnels, I don’t know. They could be all over. Probably an emergency exit
strategy, which means they might lead out somewhere far from here.”

“Pass,” Bryce said, grunting through a wet crack, like he’d
just shoved an exposed bone back into place.

“Yeah. Agreed.”

That made no sense. “What are you talking about? That could
be our way out of here!” As much as she wanted out of these catacombs—and she
did, desperately—she would trek through them for days if it meant getting away.
Every time she closed her eyes she saw the women outside that concrete wall.
She could end up being one of them.

The thought made Sinna scratch at the ground as if she could
dig her way out by sheer force of will.

“Yeah,” Aiden said, “or it could spit us out in the middle
of Convertlandia, miles away from the mule and all of our supplies. Goddamn it,
I want my bling back!”

“Will you let it go?” Bryce growled.

“
You
let it go. I feel naked, okay? It’s unsettling.”

It helped to focus on something. If she was thinking through
their escape, she wasn’t paying attention to the metric tons of dirt overhead
that could cave in on her, or the walls that seemed to creep closer each time
she remembered how small the room was. “Keep talking,” Sinna prompted. “If not
the tunnels, then how do we get out?”

“There’s one building bigger than the others,” Aiden
begrudged. “I’m thinking that’s where the boss will be, along with any ammo and
supplies. Theoretically, it
could
be elsewhere, like down in these
tunnels. But I doubt it.”

“Why?”

“Too much fire power around that place. They’re guarding
something
.
Which means it’ll be valuable enough to take. Our stuff got picked over. Unless
we wanna go hunting down each individual fuck who took something, we gotta find
a new stash. One hit, take what we can, and make a run for it.”

“The mule is pinned,” she pointed out.

“We get it
un
pinned,” Aiden returned easily. “It’s
doable.”

“And if they catch up to us?”

“Then we’ll have no choice but to unleash the Brycen.” His
voice dropped an octave. “I’m sorry, bro.”

“Don’t be,” Bryce said. “Just get Sinna to safety.”

“What do I do?” she asked.

The brothers shushed her. Footsteps were coming down the
corridor. Seven armed men spread out as an eighth opened Aiden’s cell. They
aimed at his head—a guaranteed kill shot—to make sure he complied. Someone
outfitted him with a demonic-looking spiked collar, spikes pointing
in
,
and secured his hands behind his back with rope
and
metal cuffs.

Four of them led him out before the rest outfitted Bryce in
the same way. Sinna bit her lip at the sight of him—covered in dirt and dried
blood, favoring his left side and limping. For all of his superhealing
abilities, he still hadn’t mended. The guards tried to force him out after
Aiden, but Bryce rooted his feet, staring hard at Sinna’s door. The one with
the keys jerked on Bryce’s collar, forcing the spikes into his skin, but Bryce
showed no reaction, even as blood trickled down his neck.

He refused to take a single step, and he was too big for
them to physically force him.

Four had taken Aiden, four were left to handle Bryce. None
of the guards even looked at Sinna’s door, and it dawned on her: Bryce wouldn’t
go, because he didn’t want to leave her down here alone.

“Move!”

He didn’t.

Sinna flattened her hands against the door. “G-go, B.”
Don’t
make them hurt you any more.

The closest guard kicked her door, making her cower away.
“Shut up!”

Sinna went right back to the keyhole. Bryce’s eyes had
turned feral. He somehow stood taller, muscles bulging thicker. His upper lip
pulled back in a savage snarl, and Sinna gasped at the sharp fangs that filled
his mouth.

More footsteps. “What’s the holdup?”

“He won’t move.”

“Are we asking his opinion now?”

A gunshot rang out.

Fresh blood seeped from Bryce’s shoulder. He didn’t even
flinch.

“The next one goes through your brain.”

Nothing. And he still hadn’t looked away from her.

Following his gaze, the newcomer changed tactics. “Or I can
shoot her instead.”

That got a reaction. Bryce lunged, nasty spikes embedding
into his neck, but it was enough to get his point across. Five armed men jumped
away, weapons up and ready to fire. Bryce didn’t seem to give a shit. Even as
he bared his teeth, blood trickled from his mouth. He must have punctured his
trachea. It had no effect on him.

“B, just go!”

“Get her out here,” the new guy ordered.

A key shoved into the lock, blocking her view, then the door
opened. Sinna was pulled out by her hair. The new guy pointed his gun barrel at
her temple. “You want to see her brains all over the floor?”

Bryce growled so hard, he vibrated in place.

“Then move,” the new guy said, dragging Sinna along the
floor like bait for Bryce to follow. The guard deliberately held her low enough
to keep her off balance. Her hair tore out, her eyes watered, but she didn’t
dare look away from Bryce. He was dangerously close to the edge. His eyes bore
into hers, focusing with such intensity, Sinna was afraid of what would happen
if she blinked.

When they emerged into the light, the new guy drag-tossed
her to the ground at Aiden’s feet. “You okay, little bit?” he asked, but his
hard gaze was fixed on Bryce coming up behind her.

Sinna sniffed, and pushed to her feet. “Yeah.” She wiped at
her wet face. Each brother was flanked by a team of commandos who looked all
too willing to turn them into minced meat. Sinna ignored them, their guns, and
their orders to stay back, and went up on her toes in front of Bryce to
carefully pull the collar spikes free of his neck. She could only move them a
little. If she pulled too hard at the front, the spikes would embed in the
back.

Bryce showed off his fangs when she reached for him, but he
didn’t bite her. Sinna was more than a little relieved by that.

Someone clapped in applause, and Sinna turned, unwittingly
showing Bryce her back to face the newest threat. “Ach, ya, the nurturing soul
of the Wolfen. A remarkable genetic glitch no one had ever intended.”

Next to her, Aiden shuddered. “God, it’s like Ah-nold come
back to life.”

A white-haired, bespectacled man in surprisingly good shape
for his apparent age, chuckled and gestured for them to follow. As one unit,
the gunmen forced Sinna and the brothers forward. But somehow, no matter which
way they pulled her, Sinna always felt Bryce at her back. “Yes, you will
forgive me. Even after decades of careful integration, I fos never able to shed
this ax-cent.”

He led them into a walled-off section of the camp, much like
a courtyard reserved for VIPs. Sinna noted the green, manicured lawn, and the
flowers in the window boxes, and wondered if she’d somehow entered an alternate
universe. “Welcome to my home. I am most happy to see there are still some of
you alive out there.”

Sinna frowned. “You know what we are?” Did everyone know
about Wolfen, except her?

“But of course. The first generashons are unmistakable. I
did not believe my men when they told me about you. I had to see you all for
myself, und now that I have…” He turned to face them and bowed. “I am honored
to make your acquaintance.”

“Yeah, the pretty neckwear is a real nice touch,” Aiden
retorted. “Really makes us feel like part of the family.”

Again, the old man chuckled. “My boy, I may be old, but my
memory still serves. I know quite well how you little rascals liked to bite.”

Aiden frowned. “Do I know you?”

The old man shrugged easily, and settled onto a bench.
“Perhaps you might have recognized me years ago. But much has changed since
then, ya?”

Clearly not the answer Aiden wanted to hear. “Who are you?”

Their creepy host smiled. “In nineteen seventy-seven, the
first human-animal hybrid child fos born. It fos a historical breaksru, but the
child, sadly, fos not complete, forever frozen in a shape neither human, nor
beast, und incapable of living on its own. An invested lab technician looked at
this poor creature with its tail und paws und human head, but canine nose, und
called it ‘wolfen.’ That technician fos me, Klaus Koch. I named you all. I
brought you into this world und handed you over into the care of your den
orderlies.” He smiled wider and raised bushy eyebrows expectantly.