The Night Beat

wolves leapt off the monster and ran into the woods. “Follow me.” He turned and ran.
    Eudora did as she was told, the hunger told her she had to do what Black Wolf said. But she was running strangely. She looked down. She was on all fours, running on paws, not hands and feet. She didn’t stop to ask how or why, she sped up. She was faster this way. As she followed the pack she heard the monster screaming obscenities, its voice getting farther and father away until she could hear it no more.

Chapter 39
     
    “I changed my name as soon as our pack reached a larger group of undeads.”
    “I’d have gotten rid of Eudora as fast as I could, too, girl,” Sexy Cindy said.
    “I wanted to get rid of Harp more. Besides, Black Wolf named me Victoria.” For victory, my victory over the Prince. My throat felt tight. Black Wolf had been more of a father to me than anyone else. He’d made me a werewolf, he’d taught me how to be a good one, and he’d loved me. While Wolfe was sort of obvious, I’d taken that as my last name to honor him, not so much to species-identify.
    “Lucky for you his werewolf pack was nearby,” Jack said.
    “Black Wolf’s pack was assigned to, in that sense, outpost duty. Their job was to find new undeads formed or created too far from Necropolis and bring them back safely.”
    “Was?” Freddy asked. “What do they do now?”
    I looked away. “They’re all…gone. The Adversary marked them and found them…one by one.”
    “They live on in memory,” the Count said gently. “Now,” he added more briskly, “since we’re all up on history, we need to determine our next steps.”
    “Where are all our angels?” I hoped they were following leads, not at the hospital already. I chose not to think about any worse possibilities.
    “They couldn’t take the smell, literally,” the Count said. “Once the Adversary was run off they had to move as well.”
    “So, what interfered with Vic’s wrist-com?” Jack asked.
    “The Adversary,” Clyde answered. “He has much power.”
    “Power to disrupt isn’t all that big a deal, either,” I added. “Just mess up something here at headquarters and all of a sudden, we can’t talk to each other any more.” I tried not to growl but didn’t manage all that well. “So, how many of us were ‘here’ as dupes?”
    “You, Mister Wagner, Miss Cindy, and Frederick,” H.P. answered. “We arrived as the altercation was dying down.”
    “It was good timing that you’d checked in when you did,” the Count said to me. I didn’t preen -- luck was great but it wasn’t something to brag about. “Because I knew where you were and who you were with, I was quite clear that I was dealing with doppelgängers.”
    “How’d they get in?” Jack asked, back to full on cop. He even had his pad and pen out. “From what I’ve seen, there are a variety of beings who could’ve and should’ve smelled the Adversary.”
    “The minions don’t give off much of an odor unless they want to or have been injured in some way,” the Count explained. “Even a werewolf would have to be up close to one in order to spot the differences in smell.”
    “Which is why we look so great,” Gretel said. “The three of us got here first. For some reason, the Adversary didn’t focus a lot of attention on Ralph. Can’t say the same for me and Hansel.”
    “That seems odd,” Jack offered. “I would think the Adversary would view every werewolf as a reminder of…Eudora.” He said the last word carefully.
    “Me. You mean dear old Dad would want to kill all werewolves because I’m one. And, yes, you’re right.”
    Ralph gave me a hurt look. “I fought as hard as the others. I’m not a turncoat, either.”
    “We know, Ralphie,” Maurice said. He grimaced at me. “I’d assume your not-so-dearly suspects you and Ralph are an item. In which case, leave him alone until he can be destroyed or turned in front of you.”
    “Supreme punishment for disobedience or annoyance. Yep, sounds like my family.” I examined Ralph. He was the best of the lot, but it didn’t look like he’d been sitting it out, hiding in the doghouse somewhere. “Saying Ralph looks the least hurt is sort of damning with faint praise. If I didn’t have the rest of you to compare him to, we’d be rushing him over to the hospital right now.”
    “Speaking of which,” Edgar said, “let’s get all of us over there now. The sooner the better.”
    Internal communications had been