Page 23 of Under Dark Skies

The wolf continued laughing in sputters of blood. Rafe knew that it was pointless. He had decided himself to the cause, and already hated humans too much to help one. Rafe lifted him with one hand, and threw him into the road. Cars honked and managed to avoid his large body.

Rafe’s eyes scanned the road, then began sprinting in the direction that it had headed.

Twenty-One

Layla

Layla came to slowly. First her eyes blinked, and her surroundings seemed to blur together. She then tried to move her body and found that she was unable to. She was shaken awake by the feeling of rope on her skin. Hey eyes darted around and she realized she was tied to a chair in a large room with high ceilings.

A warehouse maybe?

She remembered that the cab driver had betrayed her. She knew that the person who she spoke to outside was a PEACE agent. He must have been. He didn’t have many wolf features, and spoke like an authority figure. She started breathing rapidly.

She looked around and saw the driver, plus two more large men. They were all wearing black suits.

“What the fuck is going on!” Layla screamed. She heard a door close behind her. The familiar voice of the man who had drugged her filled the echoey room.

“Well, it looks like someone is finally awake. You must be exhausted! Its been a hectic few days for you.”

Layla was terrified. She tried to grip her fists together and shake the ropes loose that were tied behind her. It wasn’t the smartest thing, but it was all she could think of to do in the moment.

“There’s no point in doing that.” The man who called himself Ian Stork said.

“Even if you got out there’s five of us here. You stand no chance, I’m afraid.”

Layla’s mind went to Rafe. Rafe was fighting that wolf out there. Maybe more. Are PEACE and these wolves working together? What the fuck was going on?

“Where’s Rafe? What did you do with him?”

Ian was standing with his fingers curled together against his chest. He laughed when Layla inquired about her new found partner.

“Who knows really? There’s a reason they call those things animals you know. Because that’s what they are, animals.”

Ian grabbed a chair next to him and dragged it across the floors with no attempt to halt the screeching. Layla cringed, enhancing her discomfort.

He placed the chair in front of her and sat down, crossing his legs and folding his hands onto his lap. The man was incredibly formal, almost elegant in his methods of questioning. There was probably some world in his mind where he thought he was doing the right thing.

“So we already know who you are. Layla Lovett. Sister of Darla, former PEACE agent.”

So that was what this was all about. Darla. Fucking gone rouge Darla.

“As you probably know we haven’t heard from her in quite some time. But we know that she sent you a letter.”

Layla shook her head. It was an impulse to lie.

Ian raised his hand, shaking his own head.

“That wasn’t a question. We already know you have it. We’ve read it. What we want to know is what else you know.”

Layla’s eyes began to fill with tears. She didn’t want to look like the damsel in distress, but fuck, this world was entirely new for her, and she was just getting the hang of it.

“I have no idea where she is. I don’t know anything you already know. We’ve barely spoken the past few years since she’s been an agent.”

Ian smiled widely with a single finger in front of his lip. His teeth were all disturbingly straight. “You know, I find it interesting that after all these years of living on your own, finding your own feet, working, making friends, you suddenly fall into contact with a wolf. Is that correct?”

Layla nodded, unsure what kind of point Ian was heading to.

“If you held a mirror to you and your sister’s life, it would look astonishingly similar, no?”

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