Alpha Blood Box Set(65)

We heard the pounding of the pads from our pursuers. Another minute and they’d be on top of us. “Well? Which is it?” she persisted. Luke continued to frown, but didn’t growl. She stepped forward and snatched pieces from each of our costumes. Then she jerked her head behind her. “Take the left route and I’ll take the right with these.” She held up our shreds. “That will give you a better chance, but the rest of it is your problem.”

Luke eyed her very carefully, and gave a nod. “Thank you,” he replied.

She scoffed. “I don’t want your thanks, I just want that Cranston taken down a notch. Now get out of here.”

Luke sprinted forward and I ran after him. The way ahead branched out like she said it would, and Luke took the right direction. “But she said the left!” I reminded him.

“She can take the left,” he told me.

We raced through the maze zig-zagging around corners and down short straights. Our path took us farther away from the house and I was relieved to neither smell nor hear any signs of being followed. After ten minutes of running we reached a dead end with freedom from the maze just on the other side. Luke stopped and looked at me. “We have to jump the wall,” he ordered me.

I cringed, but nodded. “I’ll try,” I replied.

“Don’t try, do,” he persisted. He focused his attention on the wall of shrubbery and hunkered down. His legs tensed, and in a blink of an eye he sprang upward and landed cleanly atop the bushes. He turned around and looked to me. “Hurry before we’re seen.”

“Don’t rush me,” I hissed. I hunched down so my belly touched the ground and my eyes zoomed in on the spot beside Luke. I rolled my eyes when my tail wagged, but I ignored it and tensed my leg muscles. With a great leap I jumped up and sailed over the top of the walls.

The only problem was I forgot to jump forward far enough to land beside Luke. My front paws hit the top, but my back legs scratched at air until my stomach hit the side of the bushes. I whimpered and tried to pull myself up, but my body was a little too heavy. Luke grabbed the rough of my neck and yanked me onto the top. We had a grand view of the grounds, but didn’t see our enemies nor our friends. Luke jumped off the wall, and I followed. He led us across the final twenty yards of grass to the rear fence.

I looked up at the eight-foot tall, spiked metal bars and cringed. “I don’t think you can pull me over that,” I commented.

“Don’t have to.” He nodded toward a nearby tree who’s branches stretched over the fence.

We jumped and clawed our way up the trunk and onto one of those limbs, then tiptoed across to jump the long distance to the ground on the other side of the fence. I breathed a sigh of relief, but only got that short break before Luke was off again. He led me through the nice streets and back into the less hygienic ones. I caught up to him and looked around.

“Where. . .now?” I gasped.

“Now we get back to the apartment,” he replied.

I skidded to a stop and my long jaw dropped open. “But Cranston already knows about that place. He sent that last message there, remember?” I argued.

Luke “Yes, and he probably ordered the place wrecked to keep us from returning, but he didn’t count on one thing,” Luke countered.

“What’s that?”

“Our desperation, now let’s go.” Luke loped away. I rolled my eyes, but followed him.





24





Without a taxi and with only our noses to guide us, the trip back to the dingy apartment building took an hour. We came to the last corner and Luke stopped there. I stopped against his hip and growled at him. “Quiet,” he warned me. He stuck his head around the corner and I heard his sniffer going. “It’s clear, but keep your ears and eyes open. They may have that de-scenter,” he reminded me.

We slunk around the corner and across the dark street to the apartment. The door hanging by its hinges wasn’t even hanging by its hinges anymore. Someone had bashed it in, and didn’t stop there. The crummy interior was now a wrecked crummy interior with fist holes in the walls, feet prints in the floor boards, and a couple of dead men around the front desk.

Wait, that wasn’t right.

I blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Yep, there really were three dead men around the front desk. They had shotgun pellets to the face and chests, and their clothes were torn. Well, except for the distinctive red armbands on their arms. Those matched the color of their blood that stained the floor around them.

“Um, I don’t think I’m that desperate to be here,” I quipped.

At that moment a figure arose from behind the desk and leveled a shotgun at our faces. “Not another step, ya dogs,” Rick growled.

“Rick, it’s us!” I yelped.

“We’re Stacy’s friends,” Luke reminded him.

The man peered closely at us and furrowed his brow. “Prove it by getting out of those skins.”

With that barrel aimed at us I barely wanted to breathe, much less de-transform. “Can’t you just smell us?” I asked him.

“I’m a human, not a hairball, now get back to your human selves,” he demanded.

“Did you go to the station like I asked?” Luke spoke up. “I asked you to pick up something for Smithton. Was there anything there?”

Rick paused, and he slowly lowered the gun. “Ah guess you’re who ya say ya are, but why didn’t ya ask me that sooner?” he scolded.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled. “It’s hard to think with that shotgun aimed at us and the evidence of your work on the floor.” He nodded at the bodies. “What happened here?”

Rick sneered at the corpses. “These guys came in here after you left and tried to mess the place up. Guess they weren’t expecting me to have silver in my shotgun because they dropped without a fight.”

“Did you find out what they wanted?” Luke asked him.

Rick pointed the barrel of his gun at the ceiling. “There’s only one thing they’d want in this place, and it wasn’t the termites.” He glanced past us at the door. “Speaking of which, where is she? And what about the other two with you?”

“We were hoping they’d be here already,” I chimed in.

“You get into trouble somewhere?” Rick guessed.

“They almost pinned an assassination on us,” Luke replied. He stretched himself and changed back into his human form. Underneath his baggy costume he wore the spandex suit. I followed his lead and showed off my own stretchy suit. It still fit comfortably as advertised, but my tender feet wished the material stretched over the soles.

Rick pursed his lips and shook his head. “That sounds like a mess. So you got separated on the run-out and haven’t seen them since?”

“Exactly. Is there a place you can hide us until we hear from our friends?” Luke wondered.

Rick leaned over the desk and looked past us. “Ya might not need to do that. Here comes a messenger.” We turned around and saw a young boy of sixteen hurry up the stoop and into the lobby. He noticed the bodies and stopped dead in his tracks. “It’s all right, Steve, they were attacking me,” Rick comforted him.

Steve’s eyes narrowed when he noticed the armbands. “The reds?” he guessed.

“Yep, but have you got anything for me?” Rick asked him.

“Oh, right. This just came.” Steve fished out a crumpled note and handed it to Rick. “And I’ve got another one. It’s for some Luke guy who’s supposed to be here,” Steve replied. He glanced at Luke. “You Luke?”

“Yes, but who’s it from?” Luke questioned the young boy.

“Miss Stacy,” he told us.

I frowned and turned to Luke, who had a small smile on his lips. “How’d she know we’d be here?” I asked him.

Luke shrugged. “We’ve been friends for a long time. I’m sure she thought I would outsmart-”

“She said you’d be the only one stubborn enough to come back here,” Steve interrupted.

I barked out a laugh. “Well, we don’t have to doubt it’s from her,” I quipped.

Steve held out a note, and Luke took it and read the contents. I glanced over his shoulder and read it myself.



* * *



Luke - We left our troubles behind and regrouped outside the maze. Callean and Leonor are going into hiding, but will provide financial support for the greens and try to free my father. Meet us at the plant in two weeks. - Stacy



* * *



P.S. To prove this is really from me, Baker sends his regards and says you two attract trouble.



* * *



“That sounds like Baker,” I commented.

“And like trouble,” Luke added.

“Then you might not want to read this,” Rick spoke up. He pulled a crumpled letter from his pocket and held it out. “I got this from the station like you asked.”

Luke took that letter, but this time he summarized the note. “It’s from Brier. He says there is a Protector missing and Baker is wanted for questioning. Simpling is blaming the Green Party. He’s agitating for a ban on the party, and Burnbaum has already left Wolverton to avoid arrest on charges of treason.” Luke crumpled the letter and ground his teeth together. “They’re closing the trap on all of us.”