Tasha sat silent for a moment. “So you were trying to protect me from the Fae then, not the danger?”
“Both Tasha. The Fae can be a hard and ruthless bunch, especially on humans. You will not find acceptance in many circles, even if you are officially ‘Accepted’.”
“I don’t know if I should feel flattered or insulted.”
“Try not to worry about it. I have accepted you, and I’m all that matters, right?” He gave her a wry smile.
“Right Jake, my life revolves around you,” she said dryly.
“I thought so,” he smiled again.
####
They drove for a few miles until the woods opened up onto farmland. Not large farms, but smallish, privately owned organic lots, which seemed to be all the rage to own nowadays. After the third such farm, Jake turned down a dirt road and slowed. A pretty, white, two story house, complete with dormers and gingerbread trim was situated on the right side of the road, with a large, red painted barn behind it. Though it was fall, the yard was clean of debris, the grass, though browning was neatly cut, the roses bordering the property pruned for winter. There were a number of large oaks in the front and side yards, and what looked like fruit or nut trees were planted in the back in organized rows. It was completely idyllic to Tasha’s mind.
They proceeded on past the farm house. Eventually, they came to another wooded area that was designated as a property of the National Park Service. It was a pretty little park, located next to a running stream. There were picnic tables and barbeque pits and trash bins that were caged up so the wildlife wouldn’t raid them. Jake drove through the picnic area to the furthest parking lot at the back area of the park, pulled into a slot and shut off the engine. Jake pulled a full backpack out from behind the seat and shut and locked the doors before leading Tasha towards a barbed wire fence. There were three strands of the wire running parallel to the ground, as far as the eyes could see. He stepped on the bottom most wire, pulled the top two strands up so Tasha could slip through, before slipping between the strands himself. They walked for about a couple of miles, her following his lead.
They followed a game trail that had begun back at the stream and broke off into different directions to who knew where. Jake followed a particular trail as it wound around a little rise. At that point, they left the path and crouching, they climbed until they finally topped the little hill.
“How convenient. This rise looks right over the back yard of that cute little farm house we passed,” Tasha murmured as she spread a small tarp out flat on the ground before lying on her stomach and propping herself up with her elbows.
“I know, right?” Jake replied as he fished a pair of binoculars out of the backpack and handed them to Tasha before he joined her on the tarp, imitating her prone position.
“Alright now, there have been all kinds of comings and goings day and night. Old Man Duggan is currently in the house. You can see him through the third window from the right. He’s got his Lieutenants in there with him. I counted two but there should be another one somewhere.”
Tasha focused on the house, then turned her attention over to the barn. “What’s in the barn?”
“He’s got five of his thugs in there. All of the vehicles except one are parked in there as well. I got a look in there last night, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, well, besides big guys playing cards and drinking coffee. The stall area has been converted into a barracks that could hold a lot more people than I’ve seen, but I don’t know if more will show up later, or what. The tack shed was locked up tight, so I’m guessing that’s being used as an armory.”
“Sure, nothing out of the ordinary there. What about the hay loft?”
“Empty.”
“Too bad.”
Jake sighed. “No sign of a hellhound, or a talisman or anything.” Jake rested his chin on the heel of his hand and looked over at Tasha. “So? Got anything?” he asked brightly.
“Will you give me a second? I just got here.” She could tell that Jake was tired. He was getting impatient, which almost never happened. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you lay back and take a little nap, and I’ll look around.”
“You’re not going down there.”
“I hadn’t planned on it. Just going to walk back towards the game trails and head in the direction of the highway a bit.”
“I didn’t find anything that way, but okay. Stay out of sight of the house and the barn.” Jake looked sternly, admonishing her with his eyes before he rolled over onto his back and was asleep in an instant. Even werewolves needed an occasional nap.
Tasha back-crawled down the hill and set off towards the direction of the highway, leaving the path when it veered off in a direction contrary to the route she intended to take. She wound around scrub brush and trees, pulling out a flashlight, as it got dark. The wind blew through the trees rustling the dried leaves and causing some to flutter to the ground. She stood still and looked and listened and smelled just as she had been taught to do. She focused on a faint scent, decided it was rotting vegetation and moved on. After a few yards, she stopped again, repeating the process. The wind brought her whiffs of pine and tilled soil and animal waste but nothing out of the ordinary, especially nothing that smelled like hellhound. She heard no sounds other than the wind whispering through brush and trees and dried grass.
She continued walking until she came upon a dirt road that would have run perpendicular to the road in which the Duggan farmhouse was located. Of course, the term dirt road was being generous. In actuality it was two parallel tracks with dead weeds and tall grass residing in the center. Tasha followed the dirt track to a dilapidated, single story house. It was falling in upon itself, and a tractor shed in back was leaning precariously to one side. Both looked as if a simple exhale of breath would be all it would take to knock either one over.
Tasha walked through the gateposts, noticed the busted up gate that was lying in the derelict driveway, and was about to investigate the property further, when a hand slid over her mouth, and another grabbed her upper arm. She screamed into the hand, but relaxed when Jake shushed in her ear. He released her when he was sure she wasn’t going to make any louder noise than a whisper.
“What the hell was that?” she whispered angrily, “You scared the bejeebers outta me!”
“You were gone too long. I came to make sure you hadn’t found any trouble.”
“I’ve only been gone for thirty minutes!”
“Which was too long.”
Tasha stared daggers at her boss, but for just a moment. “Did you investigate here?”
“Yes ma’am. If you look over that way, you will observe the footprints I left behind. See?” Jake shone his light on the prints just beyond Tasha’s feet. “Didn’t see, smell or hear anything.”
Tasha danced her own light around and about Jake’s footprints before she proceeded to follow them. “This place is sure run down. I wonder why no one’s bought it. Wouldn’t take anything at all to knock down these old buildings and put up new ones.”
“You could always put a down payment on it with the bonus you got from the Murphy case.”
“Yes, but I couldn’t afford to live after that. I don’t make enough money for both a car payment and a property loan payment.”
“Your boss must be such an ass.”
“You have no idea.”
“Did you see these tire tracks?”
Jake walked up behind her and shone his light. “They weren’t here last night.” Tasha heard a popping/cracking sound and deliberately averted her eyes away from Jake’s face and stood very, very still. He was letting his snout sprout, as she liked to say, allowing his nose and mouth to morph into the wolf form. She heard him sniff and taste the air. She saw him crouch and do the same over the ground. Another sound of cracking bone and Jake stood up, shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face, totally human again. “Fresh tracks. Within the last hour.”
“I
f you hadn’t come to get me…”
“Yeah, I know, but this may work out yet. Where do the tracks begin I wonder?”
The pair rushed forward, excitement urging them on.
Their search ended at the back of the old house, in front of a newly repaired cellar door.
Jake snorted a little, “Well, this wasn’t here before.”
“You suppose it was hidden by a glamour?”
“More than likely,” Jake said absently. He gave the door a tug. Nothing happened. It did not even budge.
“Is it locked?”
“No, it’s got a glamour on it. Can’t you tell?”
Tasha shook her head, then, cautiously, laid her hand on the door. She pulled it back quickly, as if she’d received a static shock. “Okay, now I can.” Gingerly she touched the door again, and as she did so, the hair along her arm and neck rose. “Look,” she ran the light beam across her forearm to show Jake that the tiny hairs were erect.
They stood and Jake moved away from Tasha. As he did so, she asked, “So what’s the plan?”
“I’m going to change, and follow the scent. It’s new enough, so if I get right on it, I shouldn’t lose it.”
“What about once you get on the highway?”
Jake shook his head, “Not a problem. This highway isn’t well traveled at night, so it shouldn’t make a difference. Now once I hit town, that may be a different tale.”
Tasha thought for a moment. “Can you trace the smell of the beast itself? Or is the glamour too strong to get a scent?”
“I may be able to get one, but not until after I change. You take my clothes, get to the truck and get into town. Call Avery and tell him what’s going on and have him call Burly. Do not go home, I don’t want to take a chance of that ass who followed you to pick you up again.”
“Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“Uh, I’ve never been around when you’ve changed before.”
“I know. You gonna be okay with that? It can be pretty disturbing.”
“I’ll manage, but what about you? I mean, you won’t loose control or anything will you?”
He smiled and rubbed her arm reassuringly. “Nah, maybe if I where a berserker or something, then there’d be trouble. If there was a full moon I might get a little, I don’t know, testy but that’s it. You are safe. I wouldn’t do this if I thought you’d be in danger.”
“Okay,” she managed, but she couldn’t deny the slight tremble in her limbs. She stepped away from him and turned around.
“What, you don’t want to watch?” Jake teased.
“Oh, no thank you,” she laughed weakly.
Jake shucked his clothing and set them neatly aside. He gave a quiet groan of pain, followed by the crackle and pop of bones breaking and then rejoining in a different configuration.
It didn’t take as long as Tasha had imagined. But then again, while she didn’t know exactly how old Jake was, she did know that he was an experienced wolf and had learned to control himself. She heard a long sigh, silence, then a large black wolf stocked up next to her. He looked up at her, gave his fur a vigorous shake, then moved on, stopping to get a good whiff of first the door, then the tire tracks. The wolf looked back at Tasha, then like a shot he was off.
Quickly, Tasha gathered Jake’s things and then quietly and as swiftly as she could manage in the dark, ran back to the truck.
Chapter 8
Jake ran by the Duggan farm before he left for the city. He sniffed around the entrance of the farm and picked up the familiar tire scent there as well. So, whoever had been in the vehicle at the derelict farm house had stopped here as well, Jake thought.
He noticed that the inhabitants inside the Duggan home had settled down, as there were fewer lights on than before. He noticed the same at the barn as well. He spun around and loped back down the way he had come, turning towards the highway.
He cautiously approached the highway, but no one was coming or going. He got the scent of what the tires smelled like with the mingling scent of the asphalt. He rechecked that scent again as the tires had had opportunity to heat from the friction of moving along the road and took on yet another aspect of smell.
He ran on into the night, towards the burning lights of the city.
####
Tasha made it to the truck with no trouble, other than falling when she tripped over a bush. The barbed wire fence had given her a bit of trouble. Jake was much stronger than she was and therefore had no problem separating the strands of wire that was lined at regular intervals with sharp barbs. But she finally managed, having gotten only a few strands of her hair tangled in a barb. She hopped she had collected all of the strands. According to Jake, you never left pieces of your DNA behind when on a job, which sounded like good advice to her. Especially with a hellhound around.
When she finally reached the safety of the truck, she cautiously set off towards town but only after she had called Avery to explain all that had happened. They decided to meet at Burly’s Pub, a middle distance between Avery’s location as well as Tasha’s. At least she would be occupied while she waited for Jake to find the hellhound.
####
Jake made it to the city limits without being seen. No wolves roamed these parts anymore, and only a few coyotes, so he was pretty sure he’d stand out if he were observed by a passerby. He kept to the shadows. He'd lost the scent a few times, each time having to backtrack and take the chance to go out into the street to do a more thorough search with his nose. It cost him time, which frustrated him to no end.
At one point he had to dodge a semi that had turned a corner and almost hit him, as he had been in the middle of the street checking the scent he had followed into town. He ran back into the shadows to take stock of his situation. He needed to clear his head before his single mindedness got him killed, or worse, captured. He’d never solve this case if he were stuck in the dog pound.
He had been able to detect the faint scent of the hellhound, but he didn’t know if it was enough to pinpoint the exact location of the thing. He looked about him. He was nearing a warehouse district, but not the same area Tasha and Avery had met the initial hound. This one was older, a little run down and next to the river.
This was in Quick territory, as in Gregory Quick, notorious black marketeer.
To Jake’s way of thinking, it appeared that Old Man Duggan was going to use the hellhound to collect a debt, and that debt belonged to Quick. The hellhound was that supernatural debt collector.
Jake sighed a giant wolf sigh. If that hellhound decided it wasn’t going to be content with just Greg Quick and his gang’s souls, this was going to be a long night indeed.
Jake followed the scent as long as he could before the tire scent he was tracking merged with the smell of many other tires from the other traffic exiting and entering this particular locality. The direction left little doubt in Jake’s mind that the vehicle was headed towards the Quick headquarters. He wasn’t sure exactly where that was, but he knew the general area. He looked for a payphone.
When he finally found one that was in a poorly lit, mostly empty street and in working order, he made a collect call to Avery, who, of course, accepted his call.
After he confirmed Tasha was safe, he told him where he was, gave Avery the details of where he was headed.
“Just hold on for a sec,” Avery implored Jake. “I can get a friend of mine from Bunko on the line. He may be able to narrow down Quick’s location a little.”
Jake held on the line with more than a little impatience. He was stark naked in a public place, and he did not want the police getting involved. He didn’t need a public indecency charge on his record. It was bad for business.
He could hear Avery’s conversation as well as if he were in the same room with them. As soon as he heard the location, he interrupted Avery with a “Meet me there,” and hung up, quickly changing back into wolf form and charging off for the dock area.
####
/> The docking area was a small, natural bay set in from the river. Since it was not a large river, neither was the docking bay.
The dock warehouses tended to be large and old, throwbacks from a more thriving river trade era. Most were made out of stone with metal rooftops, sturdy enough to stand up to the ravages of time. Many of the old business in town maintained their original warehouses that they had owned for decades whether they got their goods by river or not.
The Quicks had a longstanding tradition of being in the construction trade. Great, great grandfather Quick had been a hard working man who had built a thriving construction empire that spanned three states. As each generation was born into the Quick empire, that generation pissed more and more of the empire away, until Greg took over and had an epiphany; use Great Granddad’s business as a means to traffic black market goods. Then boom, just like that, the Quick name was a name of significance once again.
Only you didn’t want your kid hanging around with the Quicks, nor did you want your daughter to be married to one. They were mean and ruthless and no good. Except at staying out of law enforcement’s web.
Many times the police had tried to nail Greg Quick for various nefarious dealings, and every time he managed to walk away clean. Evidently, Greg Quick was involved in enough legitimate business ventures for the Quicks to hide behind that even the Feds couldn’t get at him.
His underworld dealings gave him a well-earned reputation of being vicious. He was hard on his associates and merciless on his rivals.
And Bernard Duggan was the main competition.
The two men had struggled with each other to be Lord of the Underworld for nearly twenty years.
Until five years ago when, allegedly, the Quicks decided to shut down Duggan for good. Quick tried to massacre everyone in Duggan’s organization. Duggan had gotten out, but many of his men, including his son whom he was grooming to take over when the old man retired, were killed.
Now, it appeared that Big Jim Thompson, procurer of hard to find objects, had located some hellhounds for Old Man Duggan. And Duggan was about to set those hounds loose to collect a debt from Quick.