The crowds parted mindlessly around me as I raced after her, in search of a means to keep the pace. When I reached the edge of the throng, I found plenty of police cars and motorcycles lined up in the roadway. I stopped and took a deep breath. I had driven a car once, and a real motorcycle not at all, but I knew which one was faster and more maneuverable. I had played ‘Hang-On’ at Coney Island when I was ten. How different could it be?

  I mounted the bike and tried to ignore the overwhelming number of switches and levers on the console. I found the key and turned it, bringing the bike to life, and then twisted the throttle. The machine started bucking out from under me until I focused, holding it in place until I was ready for it to move. I took another moment to test the clutch a few times, but decided to just put it in high gear and cheat my way through. I held the bike until I was sure I had enough wheel velocity, let go, and did a peel-out Evil Knievel would be proud of, taking off on my rocket.

  The landscape was a blur around me, and I kept the rest of the focus that wasn’t holding me on the bike holding my sense of the witch. I quickly found myself headed north towards Paris, following behind her but beginning to gain once again. As long as she was out of tricks, I would catch up well before we hit the city limits.

  She wasn’t out of tricks. I heard the screeching before I saw them; half a dozen small, bat-like demons with razor beaks and sharp claws. They swooped down on me en masse, buzzing my head and doing their best to knock me off the bike. I could focus on the witch and my stability, but it didn’t leave me any mind-share to do anything non-physical about the creatures. Instead, I used one hand to reach behind my back and wrench the sword through my jacket and swing it out at them.

  The first few slices were wild and ineffective, and my speed diminished as I put more of my energy into staying upright and gaining control of my attacks. The demons circled around me, swooping in to cut open my arms and legs with their claws, screeching in my ears, and trying to tip me off the bike. They almost did when I found myself only inches from an eighteen-wheeler and had to make an impossible left hook around the trailer before I slammed into it. The demons’ amused cackling renewed my focus, and I pushed the sword backward and through one of the hell spawn, and then swung it in an arc that caught two more.

  That still left three, and my quarry was getting away. I changed tactics, letting the sword fall to the roadway and putting my attention back on the chase. I revved the bike up to full throttle and slipped across to the other side of the road into the oncoming traffic. It worked in the movies, so why not now?

  Traffic was limited so early in the morning, but the oncoming obstacles still proved to be effective at forcing the demons to either drop away from the bike or get splattered on a windshield. I wound my way around the cars, using their natural tendency to subconsciously avoid me to my benefit. Soon enough I was outpacing the demons, and I was almost close enough to the witch to get her in my physical sight.

  I did get her in my sight as we pulled off of E50 onto Quai de la Rapee, the highway that ran into Paris along the Seine. As I had thought, she was on a police motorcycle of her own, her long brown hair flailing out behind her as we raced along the river. She turned her head to look back at me, and I could see the fear and anger on her face. She reached down into a pouch at her side, and I knew I had to end the chase.

  “Here goes nothing,” I said, focusing my will, pulling at the power being fed through my soul, and leaping off the bike. I propelled myself forward as if I had been shot from a cannon, launching straight towards the witch, wrapping my arms around her as my velocity carried me past. Her bike fell out from under her and went skidding along the roadway, as did mine. A moment later I followed suit, turning myself over to protect her from the impact, wincing in pain when the cement ripped right through my clothes and dug deep into my skin. I tumbled along the ground, fighting to keep my body absorbing all of the impact, feeling bones shattering, ribs breaking. It would heal, but it still hurt.

  We came to a stop a hundred yards ahead of the bikes. I heard the screaming brakes of cars behind us trying to avoid the abandoned motorcycles, coming to a stop and then slowly proceeding past as though such obstacles were ordinary. I held the witch tight while she struggled to break free of my grasp, even though every move from her petite frame was burning agony. Finally, I wrapped my hand around her throat.

  “Stop squirming, or I’ll pop your head like a grape,” I growled.

  She stopped struggling and instead started to laugh. “Ah, Landon,” she said. “You’re a fool.”

  I saw the glint of metal and watched her stab herself in the heart with a small blessed dagger. She turned to dust in my broken arms.

  Chapter 8

  I picked myself up, climbing slowly to my feet. My energy was sapped, and it had left me more tired than I remembered being in years. Throwing myself like that hadn’t quite been flying, but it was close enough to wear me down. If the circumstances had been different, I might have been able to savor the moment, because I really needed a bed.

  She had called me a fool, right before she killed herself. What kind of fool? For walking right into a trap? For wasting my energy chasing her down? For leaving Izak behind? I was certain I was a fool, because no matter how much I had tried to make myself not feel, to make myself immune, I was still part human. I could lie to myself and deny it, but in the end it didn’t really make it hurt any less.

  I looked around, trying to get my bearings. I could see the Arc De Triomphe lit up down the road, and even though my knowledge of Paris was limited, I knew the Arc was near the Louvre, and that meant there were bound to be hotels nearby. I spent a little energy to adjust my style to a more respectable pair of dark jeans and tweed jacket, and then reached inside my pocket to check my cell.

  The hardened device had fared well, its rubberized outer shell keeping it intact. I turned it on and opened up Google Maps, and then asked it for the closest hotel. It pointed me at the Mandarin Oriental, north past the Louvre and then hang a right on the Rue de Rivoli. I took a deep breath and started walking.

  Paris was an old city, and I could feel currents of Divine power coursing along the streets like a weird radioactive mist of good and evil. I reached the end of the Place du Carrousel and turned right, my sight feasting on the impressiveness of the neoclassical architecture, my Sight blurred by the thrumming of ancient power. My head was aching, and my eyes were heavy, my soul begging me for a respite amidst the chaos. It was only a few minutes walk before I could make out the sign for the Mandarin, lit up in the night. I never made it.

  I didn’t sense the weres coming, completely missing them in between the cover of the mist and my fatigue. I smelled them too late, and they turned the corner in front of me a dozen strong, shifted into animal form and coming on fast. I reached around to my back for my sword before remembering I had dropped it on the highway, and then crouched in a martial fighting position. I could feel Ulnyx’s power flowing through my soul. I prepared myself to use it.

  The weres pulled up to a stop in front of me, teeth bared but keeping their distance. Behind them, a dark silhouette of a woman made itself known, stepping out of the shadows and framing herself under the streetlights. I couldn’t make out her features, but I did pick up her scent, wafting over to me in the night air. It was familiar; a flowery, earthy smell that some part of me knew. I felt a stirring in my soul, and the world around me grew fuzzy. I dropped to one knee and closed my eyes, trying to shake the oncoming memory.

  I see her from the corner of my eye. Lylyx. I can smell her fear, but also her desire. She’s unsure if I can win this fight, and the trepidation is an aphrodisiac. I share in the excitement, my senses heightened, my heart pounding. She’s unbelievable in her tight doeskin pants and vest, her cleavage heaving beneath it. Her skin is almost as silky as her raven black hair, glistening under a layer of sweat, and it’s enough to distract any man with a taste for perfection in flesh. It’s worse for a were in the heat of battle.

  The claws that rake across my cheek remind me that I’ll only get the spoils if I’m the victor. I growl in anger, ignoring the burning pain and putting my attention back on my opponent. Tiberas, a hulking, scarred, soon to be dead werewolf, the current leader of the Mekong pack, and my brother.

  The had been a time when we were close. A time when we were the only survivors of the assault on our pack, when staying together meant staying alive. Even as we had been taken in by the Mekong pack, and gone through the trials to adulthood, that closeness had remained. Maybe we would be close even now, if he had stayed in his place. Instead he had challenged and killed her father to take over the pack, and claimed her as his prize. That was the day he decided this fate. I had always intended to be alpha, and he knew it.

  “You’ve always been a conceited welp,” he says to me, his voice weak and tired.

  His bait is as pathetic as he is. There’s only way one to die as the head of a pack, and I’m enjoying knowing how much it must be rankling him to know he’s going to be giving the entire bunch up to me.

  “And you’ve always been a bitch,” I reply. He comes at me with his claws again, but I’m only paying half as much attention to her as I was before. I catch his swipe in my human hand, notice how much bigger it has grown than the his claw, and then twist, breaking the limb at the wrist.

  I’d waited to long to put an end to him, and to claim my prize as the youngest to ever rise to leader. It had been Lylyx who had asked me to wait, and in my youth I had thought I loved her, so I waited. She was as weak as her father had been, but her body was perfect for breeding. I would exult in taking her, and then I would cast her aside.

  Tiberas backs up a step, casts his eyes to her. I see his weakness in them, his wasteful concern for others when he should only be thinking of himself. It’s the reason he is Tiberas, soon to be dead werewolf, and I am Ulnyx, the youngest, the strongest, the most powerful. I don’t even need my demon form to take this one, and so I kill him as a human, to embarrass him as he has embarrassed himself.

  He sees it coming. His face registers fear, and to my surprise acceptance. I expect him to whine like a bitch in heat, but when I maneuver in and wrap my hands around his neck he looks at me with indignation. Even as the breath drains from him and his eyes begin to bulge he looks at me. I squeeze harder, and he uses his last bit of air to laugh.

  I howl in fury, shift to my were form and rend his flesh from his skeleton even as it begins to turn to dust. The black cloud of his soul rises from him, and I open my mouth to accept it, gaining his strength and power while I continue to molest his physical form. I only stop when there is nothing more to rip, to tear, to destroy. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I turn with my claw raised to see Lylyx standing there, a hungry, feral smile on her face. I regain my human form, lift her to me, and put my lips to hers, claiming my first taste. It won’t be the last.

  When I regained myself, she was standing in front of the pack, looking down on me with a mixture of disdain and concern. Lylyx. She didn’t look a day older than she had in the memory, though her sharp business suit was a stark contrast to the revealing deerskins she had sported in her past. How long ago had that been?

  “Ulnyx,” she said in a whisper. I could smell her surprise. “I heard you were killed by the diuscrucis.”

  I hesitated to reply. She thought I was the Great Were, and only the Great Were. In my tired state my link to Purgatory must have been weak enough that her Sight was only reading his power. Had his stirring overpowered Josette too?

  “Lylyx,” I said at last, bringing myself to my feet and pulling on Ulnyx’s power to enhance the illusion of my identity, making sure to match my golden eye to the demon’s. I was grateful to have the were’s memories to guide me. “It’s been a long time.”

  She smiled and stepped forward. “Too long,” she said, reaching up and pulling my head down to hers. Her kiss was strong and sloppy, and I could feel the Great Were’s soul howling at her call. I went along for the ride, not wanting to give anything away. Finally, she broke the kiss and took a step back.

  “So the rumors aren’t true? Nobody’s heard from you in years.”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” I asked, trying to say as little about that as possible. “You’re a bit far from home yourself.”

  She smiled and looked at me with big, round eyes, eyes that I could recall from other memories that weren’t so clandestine. Ulnyx had tried to pretend he didn’t love her. I had his soul, I knew the truth. The creature standing in front of me was the only thing the demon cared for other than domination and power.

  “The master sent me here with my strongest. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye out for the diuscrucis. We aren’t supposed to engage if we see him, just distract him a little bit.” She shrugged her shoulders, and then squinted her eyes and cocked her head. “You know what he looks like, don’t you?”

  I let out a rough growl. “Whatever you heard, it’s wrong. I wasn’t with Reyzl in New York. We split months before. He became infatuated with this vampire girl, and was ready to supplant me in the chain.” I was proud of myself. It was a good lie.

  “Vampire girl?” she asked. She spit on the ground. “You’re better off without him, and it looks like you dodged a bullet getting out of town before he showed up.”

  I laughed. “You think I’m afraid of some crossbreed?”

  She reached out and touched my face. “Of course not Ullie.” Ullie? “You’ve always been the strongest, and with the power Reyzl gave you...”

  I reached out, wrapping an enlarged claw around her small throat. “Gave me?“ I shouted. “I take what I want. I’m given nothing!”

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t struggle. After a moment I put her down. Playing the part of the Were was a little too easy for my own comfort.

  "You're still the strongest," she said. "Help me keep an eye out for this diuscrucis, and I'll make it worth your while." She licked her bottom lip for emphasis, but I didn't need it to know what she was getting at.

  “If I want you, I’ll have you,” I replied. My memories told me I had before, and she preferred it that way. She was goading Ulnyx because she knew it would get him all hot and bothered. Hot and bothered was the way to get what she wanted. “Save your innuendo.”

  I took a good look at her pack. They had shifted back to human form, and were standing behind her looking nervous. “Your pack is pathetic,” I said.

  They may have taken offense, but there was no way they were going to try to do anything about it. Instead, each one of them dropped their heads and looked straight at the ground.

  “What did you expect?” Lylyx asked. “Our best stud gone off to try to become an archwere, instead of staying with the pack and breeding?”

  Ulnyx’s soul was a fire in my gut. I closed my eyes to contain the burn. He had tried to breed, man he had tried. It was the Great Were’s secret shame, the reason he had become a servant to anyone. He was sterile.

  I opened my eyes, looked at Lylyx and laughed. “Look at us now,” I said. “I’m here because your master asked me to come. He promised to bring me to the archwere so I could rip his throat out.”

  Lylyx looked confused. “He?” she asked. “Which master are you speaking of?”

  My inhale caught on my throat. I had just assumed she was referring to Gervais – the only female I knew who this one could call master was Charis. “Gervais,” I said.

  A murmur rippled through the pack, and the weres around Lylyx perked up. I had the sinking feeling I had dropped the wrong name.

  Time seemed to stop while Lylyx stared at me, her body motionless, her breathing escalating from calm and even, to shallow and quick. She was deciding what she was going to do with the information I had just given her, and the physical signs weren’t positive.

  “When I heard about Reyzl, I hoped you had made it out okay,” she said. “When I didn’t get any news about you at all, I feared the worst.” She stepped back and put her hands out to her sides. “At least, I thought I had feared the worst.”

  Her hands began to turn into claws, and her body began to grow, shifting and elongating. Around her, the other weres began to shift as well.

  “I name you, diuscrucis,” she said. “I hear your lies, and I see through your deceptions. Ulnyx deserves a better fate than to have his power usurped by a crossbreed.”

  I felt Ulnyx recoil at the sight of her. Whatever had happened since they had last seen one another, he didn’t know that Lylyx had been promoted. Standing in front of me was another Great Were.

  Her attack was blazingly fast, and it was all I could do to step back out of the way and take hold of the fullness of Ulnyx’s power, transforming myself into a bigger, stronger version of the female opposite me.

  “Let me tell you,” I said, blocking her next attack and landing a punch that sent her tumbling down the street. “Ullie is an asshole.”

  I heard the snarls, and a moment later I had a dozen weres circled around me, trying to get past my defenses. I imagined I probably looked ridiculous standing there, this huge beast of a demon crouched into one of Josette’s martial stances, lashing out with chops and kicks like a big ugly Jackie Chan. I sent the weres sprawling, slamming them with feet and claws, leaving deep gashes in faces and abdomens. They howled and rolled back to their feet, growled and yelped and came in again, giving their leader the time she needed to regain her feet and get back into the fray.

  I didn’t see her return punch coming, and it knocked me to the ground. She didn’t waste any time pouncing on me, trying to pin my arms at my sides, hoping that because I wasn’t Ulnyx, I didn’t have his raw strength. And I didn’t have his raw strength. I could draw a lot of power from him, but it was like AC to DC, and I lost something in the conversion. Lucky for me, I had Josette’s intimate knowledge of more complex hand-to-hand fighting to back me up. I used Lylyx’s leverage against her, and tossed her backward over my head. Somehow she landed on her feet, and I had a dozen weres back at me before I could stand.