Inked

my breath out, and then he was on me.
    The guy—young, greasy brown hair, angular face, baggy pants—was one of the Weres I’d fought in the first drain, the one who had taken a bullet in the leg. Only the wound didn’t appear to be slowing him down much. He hadn’t changed, which limited his strength, but then, he was doing fine without it. He picked me up by the legs and began bouncing me back and forth between the floor and the low, rocky ceiling, trying to pop my shields.
    It wasn’t exactly a textbook maneuver, but it was doing a hell of a job anyway. I’d have flung a spell, but the commotion had brought people running out of their booths, clogging the walkway. A Were would shrug off anything safe enough to use around the vendors, and the ricochet effect in here meant no guns.
    I was trying to get a hand on my potion belt when he slung me into a column. My shields collapsed, my head struck rock and everything whited out for a second. I blinked back to consciousness in time to see a blur of motion streaking down the corridor, about the same moment I realized that the wolf wards were gone. Damn it!
    I got up and then went back down to one knee, as a stab of agony ran through my temple and spread over my skull. My head was spinning, my wrist had almost been wrenched off and whatever had been done to my chest was making it hard to breathe. That was okay. I wasn’t planning any heroics in a cavern full of civilians. I just wanted to get close enough to get a tag in place.
    By the time I got to my less-than-steady feet, the screaming had reached earsplitting decibels. That seemed a little odd for a group used to Weres acting badly. And then a crowd of people almost ran over me, headed for the back of the cavern. One of them was the Were.
    He blew past me like lightning, and close on his heels was a huge, malodorous beast with small curled horns, a large shaggy body and an evil glint in its eye. Someone had let the bonnacon out, and it seemed to have a grudge against Weres, or at least against this one. It let out a bellow worthy of an enraged ox and plowed past me at a full gallop. The fumes in its wake were almost suffocating, but even worse, everywhere the creature went a trail of destruction followed. And not merely because it weighed a couple tons and didn’t bother sticking to the paths. But because—
    “Oh, my God!”
    “Cool, huh?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Dieter. He’d acquired some jeans and a pair of sandals, courtesy of one of the abandoned shops, I assumed. He also appeared to have found some backbone. Instead of shaking, he was bouncing on his toes, looking pleased with himself.
    “It shits napalm ?”
    “I said you didn’t want to know.”
    “I assume you let it out?”
    “Yep.”
    “Why?”
    “’Cause this is why everybody pitched in and bought the thing. Bonnacons hate wolves; it’s like they’re natural enemies or something.”
    “I meant, why help me?”
    “I wasn’t. That fucker was one of those who burnt me out this morning.”
    “He’s a Predator? You’re sure?”
    “Damn right I’m sure! I woke up to see my tent burning over my head and that bastard holding a torch. I lost everything because they decided they didn’t need the competition.” He grinned as the Were ran past screaming, with his hair on fire. “Let’s see how he likes it!”
    The Were didn’t seem to be liking it. It also distracted him enough that he ran full tilt into the large cocktails sign, which crashed to the floor, sending bulbs bouncing and then shattering against the hard-packed ground. A second later, he changed, leapt over a counter and was gone—impossibly fast for so huge a beast.
    “You said you were staying off Decatur, right?” I asked Dieter.
    “Yeah.”
    I smiled. I hadn’t managed to tag the Were, but it didn’t worry me too much. You don’t need a tag when you have an address.
    “So, we going back to jail now?” Dieter asked hopefully.
    “Naw. They’d just process and release you.”
    “Yeah, but sometimes they feed us first.”
    I tucked a fifty in his jeans. “Lunch is on me.”

    IT took me precious minutes to get out of Tartarus. The old man weighed maybe a hundred and fifty pounds, and no way was I in any shape to carry him out of there. But leaving him behind wasn’t an option, either. Not with a ten-thousand-dollar tat on his arm and a hungry Aswang in the vicinity.
    I would have normally used magic, but right then I didn’t have any to spare.