Shayuri said:
"Right," Ari said, more to herself than the retreating detective. "Home."
The word didn't have the comfort it used to. How safe was home against giant phantoms that changed into ten year old children? How safe was home when the fear and doubt was directed inside, not out?
She drove the patrol car back to the station. It felt weird, sitting in the spot Richards had been in. As she drove past that strip joint, she remembered the weirdness with the radio and the blood. She'd never thought that would be the -least- weird, the least worrying incidents of the night.
From the station, she drove her own little subcompact home.
Home seemed cold and sterile. Maybe it was the weird events of the night maybe it was the look of the boy before he pulled the trigger, so serene so at peace, yet so ruthless and brutal all at once. But it was home and there was some comfort in that.
If only mild comfort.
But at least one could dream…
Ariella isn’t sure when she fell asleep, or maybe she isn’t sleeping. But she finds herself lying in the sand. A powerful silence raging all around her, yet she feels not a bit of heat against her skin. A shadow looms over her, when she turns Ariella finds a wolf of massive size at least as large an elephant. Its fur is white with flecks of gray and black in it; but the eyes are piercing and blue. This wolf walks alone.
The massive wolf speaks although no English she understands it nonetheless,
“You have questions?” The voice is feminine and powerful,
“I know because I have questions, and I have answers. You are like me. Will you run with me?”
Piotr and Drake
“Why thank you,” the woman replies, she cocks her head slowly as if something else has gotten her notice. The men follow her look to an approaching group of young people. Lead by a young man, with long slick back hair shades, at night, and a swagger that says he owns this joint… or at least is trying to give that impression.
She looks at Drake, and then turns to the young man, “Friends of yours?” she directs the question back to Drake.
Camera
Camera’s father listens and looks at the sketches. He then speaks after looking at the pictures in silence, “You need to listen to me boy, what you see here… you see something that your mother, your brothers, and most people can never experience. Oh they feel it, but you… you are like me… although you have not fully come to grips with what you are. You ain’t human… you need to know that now. You are remembering what you were… your body is remembering the wolf within.”
Faith
Candace scowls, “We don’t have time to bring you up to speed at this very moment, so some of these questions need to wait. I am the Beta, which means what I say goes unless the Alpha is here, I make sure things run smooth in the pack… and you ain’t my pack so I don’t owe you anything.”
Duncan shrugs, “The beta has spoken… so what we doing boss?” he adds in a dopy tone.
Candace growls, and Duncan’s look melts. He gulps visibly as Candace drinks down her beer, “I ain’t watching a new cub, and I will be damned if we have to care for her. We got too much going on already and if we got an azlu on the lose, our jobs just got harder.”
“So the plan is?” Duncan questions.
Candace pauses, “Quiet… someone is outside…”
