Davonyé
I wake up to Clarence literally barking orders at everyone. I know he’s in his ware form because it’s not words in English I’m hearing, it’s wolf.
‘Baby?’ I hear Ari.
‘What the fuck is goin’ on?’
‘Dad and grandad went out in the night and found Maximus’ camp. You’ll be leaving soon. Grab some meat that’s going around and then get to Jackson so she can coat you in resin.’
Shit… Clarisha…
I jump up to throw on a hoody to match my sweats, and then I make my way out of the makeshift shelter. Ari’s right, there are tree trunks with moose and bear meat set up everywhere, so I grab a couple pieces of both and start swallowing it down.
Clarence looks over at me quickly before turning back to his brothers. “Resin, now. Make sure Tinashe, Xara, and Cecile get some, too.”
I grab another handful of meat before making my way over to him.
“Where’s everyone else?” Dee asks him, still in human form. I stand beside him and crane my neck to look up at Clarence.
He is a beast.
“At the coordinates. I didn’t wanna leave without someone there to keep eyes on them. Victorio’s range is the next best after mine, so he stayed, and then the others went out when I got back.” He looks down at me. “You know what’s going on?”
I look around me at the hundreds of wares and people rushing around preparing to leave here. “Yeah.”
“Go with Dee to get coated. We leave in ten.” He howls loudly to tell everyone else the same, and the panic around us intensifies.
We leave Clarence and find Jackson in the centre of camp. My sister is already changed and so is Cecile, and they’re both covered in black stuff. It’s still setting, so there are some wet patches on their fur, but most of it is set hard, making it look a bit like black jagged icicles.
T looks down at me. “You good?” I ask her.
She nods her head and then barks a ‘yes’, but my arm is suddenly pulled by Quis and he pushes me over to Jackson.
‘Your turn,’ Ari says.
Jackson smiles quickly before taking a bottle of black liquid from Madna. There are hundreds behind her, ready to go. “Change and onto all fours, Davonyé.”
I don’t waste time doin’ what she says. I know for a fact we ain’t got time to waste.
“Damn, you’re a big boy, ain’t ya,” she comments.
I feel the hot liquid setting as soon as the freezing air mixes with my fur. She asks me to close my eyes so she can do my face, and then she makes me stand to finish my chest with another bottle. The resin allows you to move, but it feels weird to have it on me.
“You can’t change back now, or the resin will fall off you. Do you understand?”
I bark out a yes and she seems to relax at that. I got a feeling all this extra concern is because of me being mates with Ariella.
‘They better look after you.’
“Thank you,” I tell Jackson before following the others back over to Clarence. He gives me a look and nods. He ain’t got any resin on him, but then, he can’t hurt or die, so maybe he don’t need it.
‘He’ll get some on him before you all leave. Mom won’t let him go without it. Unkillable or not.’
I don’t blame her. I’d be the same over Ari. ‘What you all doin’ there?’
‘Mom’s expressing while telling Aunt Asha Amarey’s routine, and I’m trying to make sense of all these images I keep seeing. My magic is literally driving me crazy. It won’t calm the fuck down.’
‘Focus, Ari. Go somewhere quiet and filter through everything.’
‘That’s a good idea.’
Clarence leaves the group and soon reappears with resin on him. You can tell he rushed Jackson, though, cuz he has patches that ain’t covered.
All the wares gather around, and cuz I’m taller than everyone except Clarence, I can see the hundreds of wares. Some are covered and some ain’t, but I don’t know if that’s been their choice or not.
“As you know,” Clarence begins, in a mixture of growls and whines. “We have located Maximus’ hold. We have been made to look like the enemy, so the wares who support Maximus will have been trained to fight to the death. Take no prisoners. Defend yourselves and others. They will use tranquillisers, so try to avoid any close-range shots.”
“Sire,” everyone replies in acknowledgement.
“Good. Abriya and I wish to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued loyalty, and we want you all to know that the risks you take with your lives to protect our kind is not taken lightly by either of us. Now, let us end this, once and for all, so that we can return to the peaceful life we have grown accustomed to.”
All the wares howl and then as Clarence turns to run, we all run after him. Tinashe stays beside me as much as possible, only leaving my side when a tree separates us. My senses are on high alert and I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I push away my anxiety and focus on my other sister, though.
I’m just praying she’s still alive.
The ground trembles beneath the weight of all of us, and the tree’s shake, dropping snow in front of us so we can’t see that far ahead. I begin to smell Victorio and the others soon, though.
Clarence begins to slow, so we all do the same. Victorio and Junia come rushing over to us in human form, followed by Clarence’s parents.
Victorio looks up at Clarence. “They are still there. No one has come out as yet. I do not think they are aware we have found them.”
“Good, that gives us the element of surprise.”
“Exactly.”
“Get to Jackson. And be careful,” Clarence huffs to them.
“We will,” they all reply, and then they rush past us through the wares behind.
Clarence looks at me and then to his brothers. “You ready?”
We bark our yeses.
He looks back to me. “No running off. We’ll find the three of them, together.”
I nod, but I know if I sense her when we get there, I’m gonna want to go straight to her.
His eyes narrow slightly and I wonder if he knows, but he soon turns and we all start running again.
‘Don’t run off,’ I hear Ari. ‘At least until we know what we’re dealing with.’
‘Aight.’
‘Ugh… I know you ain’t gonna be able to help that shit… Just be careful.’
‘I will.’
We run for a few more miles and then I smell the scent of a hell of a lot more wares. It makes my fur wanna stand up.
A feeling of dread settles in my gut.
We near closer and the trembling in the ground becomes more violent. I see Clarence duck and then I do, just as some kinda dart whips past overhead.
“Darts,” Clarence barks. “Prepare to disperse.”
More darts come and I feel them bouncing off my fur. I duck out of the way of a few that come in quick succession, and then I look up and see a sea of wares running straight at us.
Oh, fuck…
Clarence howls. “Now!”
The wares behind me growl as the sound of a sudden explosion shakes the ground ahead of us, and then the white sky peppers with what looks like grenades, coming at us like rain.
Clarence’s men begin to jump, catching the grenades in the air to throw them back before they explode. Jackson armed a lot of Clarence’s wares with bombs, too, and they begin to appear overhead as they throw them.
T and I run faster to stay with Clarence, dodging the explosions ahead of us, but everyone else begins to move so we’re more spread to take on the wave of wares that approaches.
I see wares flying through the air as they’re hit with the bombs and grenades, and then the sounds of whines as they’re injured or killed soon follow.
Smoke makes it hard to see where we’re going, and the smell of fur and skin burning makes my stomach turn as I’m forced to breathe it in. This shit is seriously fucked up. I can’t believe this kinda shit can go on without humans knowing about it.
I ignore the sounds of death and prepare myself to fight, cuz the opposing wares are almost upon us now…
‘Baby, I’m gonna block you from hearing me, but I’ll still be able to hear you, okay? I ain’t leaving you, but you need to concentrate.’
‘Alright, Bae.’
‘Don’t hesitate to rip those hearts out, Baby. They’d take yours without so much of a second thought.’
‘I won’t.’
Ari’s thoughts of worry fade and then the wares in front of us begin to jump. Clarence does, too, and then so do the rest of us. Clarence hits into two wares, pulling both their heads off mid-flight before crashing into another.
I hone in on one, a male; his eyes are dark, wild, and he bares his teeth as he growls. He reaches out his claws to my neck, but I manage to grab hold of him with my longer reach. I pull him down to the ground with me. He snarls as he tries to struggle free, but I pull his head from his body while being trampled on by other wares.
I stand back up to be almost punched in the face by a ware charging at me. She suddenly arches her back and then a fist with her heart appears through her chest. She falls to the ground and Tinashe drops her heart before turning to another one beside her.
I defend myself against dozens more as they come thick and fast at us. There must be at least a thousand wares here in total, and the repetitive howls and whimpers of death are fuckin’ eerie.
Clarence is still close by, ripping heads and hearts from wares like they’re Play-Doh.
Shit is fucked up.
“Keep moving forward,” he barks, rushing forward and killing three more wares in quick succession. He’s so fast that you can’t really see him when he moves from one ware to another.
The man is an animal.
Tinashe whimpers beside me as I throw another heartless ware to the ground. She’s being pinned to the snow by two wares. I grab their heads in turn, twisting and pulling them off their bodies so I can help her to her feet.
“You okay?” I bark, quickly looking over her body for any wounds.
She nods. “Can you smell her yet?”
I inhale deeply but get knocked forwards. I spin to fight off another ware while Tinashe fights another. I think I can smell Clarisha close, but the scent is weak. I kill the female in my grip and then grab T’s arm to drag her closer to where Clarence is. “I smell her.”
Clarence picks me out through the mayhem and barks for us to get to him.
It takes a minute, but we finally reach him. He’s with his brothers, Cecile, and Dante.
“Where?” Clarence barks.
I motion my head behind him. “That way.”
He turns, and we slowly, while fighting, make our way closer to the scent, picking up Victorio and Junia on the way. We see Gamba and the others as we make our way through the madness, but we soon get separated again.
More explosions come and I almost get hit by a few. I hate to think how Ari feels right now, watching this shit and not being able to do a damned thing about it. It’s probably a good thing she stopped me from hearing her.
The fighting seems endless and I start to think we ain’t ever gonna reach my sister, but then finally we stop when we find a random hole in the ground.
An underground tunnel?
“I don’t like this shit,” Quis barks, and the others agree with him.
“I’ll go first,” Victorio whines, jumping inside.
Clarence looks at me. “Stay close.”