The Aftermath ✔

15 THE WAKE

Slade fought to keep her balance. "Rig pause!" The next sharp turned sent her slamming into the window. "Rig. Stop!"

Oh, you're fucking useless. Just shut up and let me drive it. Eli must have been shot by now.

Colorful lights flashed before her. On her right, another truck zipped by. They nearly collided.

Sooner or later these tunnels of light would reach a destination. More than likely right into a wall to stop any runaway vehicle whose driver had become...compromised.

The imagery wasn't pretty. Slade slid back into the driver's seat and scanned all the dials. She had no idea what any of them meant. All she knew was that this bitch—Legion—used a vocal spell to get this rig in motion.

"Rig....cease," Slade tried again.

Nothing. The steady speed worried her but not as much as the glowing sign up ahead that read München . They'd miss it. Her only alternative was to surrender to Legion and let it take it from here.

Your pride or your werewolf? Which is it, bitch?

Slade let out a sigh and closed her eyes. It was Eli. It would always be Eli.

A force sucked Slade back and she stared up at a clouded window. Whatever her body was doing, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that her lips moved and words came out. Moments later, the bright lights zipping by faded to white and they tore out of the Gateway, got airborne, and flopped down into the parking lot with a crash.

Fuck, she thought.

Legion slipped out of the cabin and hit the ground running. Countless creatures surrounded Eli, patting him down and searching his collar for runes.

"Get away from him, you morons," Legion bellowed.

Vampires. And not the lucid kind. While Slade was in awe of their animalistic movement in this much sunlight, she became aware of her own.

We're in the sun. Hey. You. We're in the g'damn sun!

And it didn't hurt. Maybe she simply could feel no pain in this state but it didn't hurt, not even slightly. Was the ape's blood really this powerful?

Legion reached Eli and turned him over. She tapped his face. "E? E, wake up. Pup, wake up."

He was naked save for his kilt, the one thing no one could steal from a werewolf as it was enchanted. All the small pockets were empty, however. All his runes were gone.

"Shit," Legion pronounced. "We need him. We need him alive."

Slade wanted to see, willed the thing to focus on Eli's gut to see what condition he was in.

What are those? But in a flash, Slade knew. She gasped. Silver.

"It's a wide spread," Legion told her, yanking Eli up into a sitting position. "It didn't pierce all the way through his skin. But it's hurting him."

Don't move him! What are you doing? We've gotta take them out. Each and every pellet.

"What we need to do is get him out of the open. And we don't know anyone friendly in München; keep that in mind."

A thought rushed to Slade before she could stop herself. The soothsayer. We can pay her in promises. We've still got Eli's phone. This dumbass probably got this rando on Craigslist.

Sitting with Eli breathing shallow in her lap, Legion fished through Slade's dress pocket, pulled out the cellphone, and typed the passcode in. Slade was taken aback. Even she didn't know it.