"It h'aint boasting," Opal said, her words bursting out of her, "We's capable and all that."
"Ope, shush!" said the other one.
"Well, that would make you two unique would it not?" said the alpha wolf, "From the dawning of the race of werewolves, you alone of all Galgallin's children can follow the trail of the undead where any other wolf stops short with a trail gone cold in a matter of minutes?
"I admire your audacity, but I do not believe you."
The female shifter named Opal closed her mouth and her lips drew tight, then she said, "Wanna bet?"
The other female kicked her companion in the shin.
"Ope, no. This smells like a trap if ever I smelled one."
"Don't much care, Aggie. Fucker's going to learn not to mess wid us."
There was a low rumble from across the room and neither of the female wolves could tell if it had been a chuckle or a growl.
"That is where you are very wrong, for I shall mess with you. I will teach you the meaning of your place and you will find it is far lower than you believe it to be. But first, a wager requires terms.
"You will track a vampire for me. Right now...this very instant. The lieu of his departure is known, but the remnants of his trail have certainly disappeared since. At least, for any of us average wolves.
"When you fail, you shall bow to me and swear fealty to my authority as alpha of the urban wolves in this city. If you do this with sincerity and honest remorse, I shall be merciful and the punishment you deserve shall be brief...."
Full lips drew back over bright teeth in a pair of snarls.
"Punishment! What in the hell is this?" Agate said to the man calmly standing across the room, while it seemed as if he somehow towered over them.
This time it was Opal's turn to kick her companion in the shin.
"And if we h'aint lying, what then? What's the flip-side of the coin you's a tossing?"
"Should you prove yourselves? How unlikely.
"Nevertheless, I see hunger in both your regards. There is heat there, a wet, raw heat you would assuage with a male worthy of you both.
"I am that male.
"Should you prove yourselves true, then I will put myself at your disposal for however long you wish."
With a sigh that came in unison, both women opened their mouths to lick their lips in exactly the same way, but only one of them spoke.
"For as long we want?" Agate asked.
"Ha, I doan' believe it, Agate. No wolf can go as long as we want him to go."
"That is where you are wrong, my pale beauty. I am capable of going to extremes that no other can manage.
"Prove yourselves and then I shall prove myself. Otherwise, fail and suffer the consequences."
"Oh," Agate began.
"This is goin' to be good," Opal finished.
The man across the room nodded very slightly and if anyone other than wolves had been there to see, they would have remarked how the moon glinted in his eyes. This despite the fact that the moon had forsaken them this night, her dark side turned to them as if to say she would have none of what would follow.
"Then it is agreed."
~~~
Flair took the Twins down to Braze's personal limousine while alpha wolf himself had stayed behind. He had said he would join them there where the vampire's trail had been lost.
To Flair, it had seemed like hesitation and that worried him. The Brazier Abraxis he had always known never hesitated. Only, he had not even waited for them to leave.
The alpha wolf had stalked past them all and Flair knew where he meant to go. He had heard about it, but had never seen it. Braze had a private garden, or more correctly, a private forest at the top of Abraxis Industries Tower.
As he had passed him, Braze said, "I require a moment's reflection. You have the address of where contact was lost with the blood drinker. Take these two there and I will join you shortly."
What would make Braze hesitate? Flair asked himself as his boss's private elevator opened its doors at the parking garage level. An array of foreign make cars sprawled in orderly rows, their sheer number representing a staggeringly large sum of money parked and collecting dust.
"Whoooeeee...." Opal said and whistled as Flair led them to Braze's most recent acquisition. It was as sleek as all the rest but with far more horses than was reasonable under the hood.
"Pile in, girls," Flair said with a smile, "And buckle up. This is going to be a rough ride."
~~~
Brazier Abraxis went home. And then he went up to the sole place that felt more like home than any fashioned by the hand of man.
A moonless sky stretched overhead as he walked along a familiar path. Dark leaves rendered darker brushed him as he passed by until he reached a small clearing within the dense growth of plants and trees.
His tower top sanctuary. That place where his most secret of secrets could come undone and his mastery was most complete.
Only now, he desired guidance and hoped that the voice of his father would not disappoint him in this time of need. There was far too much at stake.
Braze turned upon his heel, his head craned back and his eyes closed.
Yet silence was the only response in that deserted place.
"Will you not speak to me?" he said at last.
But the voice that answered him was that of a stranger who spoke with the dust of millennia in its tone.
"I had not considered that you would expect me. How unsettling."
The sound was like boulders grumbling as time wore them inexorably down into grains of sand meant to be washed to the seas before rising up in cataclysm so that the earth might throw them down once again.
"I do not know you," Braze said, "Yet, I believe I know who you are."
The owner of the voice did not respond immediately, nor did he show himself.
"You have heard the tale of the Messenger and the woman who saved him, then," said the voice at last.
"I have," Braze replied, "And you should know that the forest wolves have spoken to me of the giant who came from the trees and fought at their sides against Kabiel, dark angel and maker of vampires."
There was a heavy sigh from the shadows.
"Kabiel...yes. My father and his loathsome offspring. I could not have done otherwise just as I found myself without choice in coming to you this night, wolf."
Braze nodded even if he was unsure whether the voice's owner could see him or not.
"Then step free of the shadows, Nephilim, for I would welcome an ally such as you."
There was no sound of movement. Rather, there was a low grumble that was strangely similar to the growl of an angry wolf. A sound of warning.
"I am no ally. Not to anyone or anything. I do not choose sides unless it be the side that pits itself against my adversary and the vampires in his sway.
"You, the sons and daughters of Galgallin are as deserving of destruction as any blood drinker. This world is a world of men and we have no place in it."
Braze heard honesty in the Nephilim's voice...brutal, cruel honesty that said more about him than his own words.
"For the moment, my most pressing concern is an enemy against whom I am forbade any direct action. But, the vampires must not be allowed to gain the upper hand, and it appears that a grievous error has been made, first by the vampires themselves, then by you and your wolves. If I have scaled this glass tower it is because I would see the matter resolved and not in a way that favors the spawn of my father."
Braze considered the Nephilim's words. But he did so quickly and made his decision. There was not enough time to do otherwise, if he well understood the Nephilim's intention.
"You say that one day we will likely stand against one another, as enemies rather than friends. Yet you tender a collaboration I would be ill advised to not accept. As to that, I say let us be allies if but for a single night."
There was low laughter that sounded as if it echoed from deep caverns.
"Pragmatic and expedient," the Nephilim said, "You do well to agree, wolf. Now listen closely...."
~~~
They roared down dark streets. The nondescript sedan cornered even better than Flair had ever dreamed it would as he brought it hard around and into an alleyway that was darker than the streets down which they had just come.
The city at night, or more truly in the deathly quiet hours just before first light, was nothing like what he usually saw. It was a wild, abandoned place where laws could be set aside there where there were none to see.
He grinned as he brought the car to screeching halt. In unison, his two passengers let out their breaths and his smile grew larger as he considered that for just a short time, the Twins had been entirely in his power. They had been his to do with as he willed.
However, the race to the vampire's last known location was done and the passenger doors of the sedan flew open and his ephemeral power over the Twins with it.
Flair sighed, then got out to join the two women who stood very closely together. Their position was a strange one. They stood facing one another, toe to toe, with their foreheads touching and their eyes closed.
He was about to ask them if it was really the best moment to take a nap standing up when a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder.
Flair wheeled about, his hackles rising, only to see the familiar face of a wolf he knew in passing.
"These the boss's trackers?" the wolf asked. It took a moment for Flair to place his name, then he had it. Griff was one the most highly regarded hunters among the urban wolves. He and his three associates were the ones to call in times of need. Only this time, they had not been enough.