FALSE FREEDOM

The air in the private lounge didn’t just turn cold. It turned lethal. The transition from the heat of the Claimed Alpha’s skin to the sudden  sharp scent of ozone and burning fur was enough to make my stomach turn. 

Jax was still standing in the doorway, his chest heaving, his beautiful, shimmering gold now smeared with the dark, copper reality of wild blood.

“ Roxy, move!!” Jax screamed again—his voice. Usually, a smooth tenor capable of charming the clothes off a straight Man was now a jagged edge of pure panic. 

A loud piercing whistle cut through the air, followed by the sound of silver-tipped bolts thudding into the walls outside. The “FULL MOON party was now a slaughterhouse. 

The man in front of me didn't flinch. He just kept his gaze on the door.

“It seems, your past caught up to you faster than I did. We leave Now. Or we both die in this hole.” he said commandingly.

He grabbed my arm and for the first time in my life, I realized the lace and heels won't save me.

“Stay behind me” he growled. 

“Like hell I will!” I snapped, my survival instinct finally kicking the lust out of my system.

I wrenched my arm back extended my claws  and tore through the lace gloves I'd spent 40 dollars on that morning.

“Jax, where are they? I asked 

“Front door and the service alley,” Jax gasped. Stepping into the room and slamming the broken door shut.

“They've got silver vapor grenades, Rox. The guys on the floor…. They didn't even have a chance to shift. They're just lying there.”

A muffled thump echoed from the main bar area, followed by a hiss like a thousand snakes. Then came the screaming of people being suffocated by the very air they breathed. Silver vapor doesn't kill instantly; it turns your lungs against you making it hard to breathe and unable to worry about the silver bolts being fired at your heart.

“Who are they?” I demanded, looking at the stranger. “Your people?”

“If they were my people, you'd already be dead,” the man said, pulling a heavy, matte black pistol from an ankle holster I hadn't noticed while I was busy grinding against his lap. 

“ Those are purifiers. Radicalized humans with more money than sense and a hard-on for genocide.”

“Gbooooom!!! , The wall to our left exploded. 

Dust and dry walls sprayed the room, blinding me for a second.

"Grawkh! Wheeze... hugh-ck!"A jagged, racking cough tore through my chest, leaving me doubled over and gasping for air.

Through the haze, I saw a silhouette, tall armored, and wearing a gas mask that made it look like a giant insect. They attempted to fire.

Immediately the stranger fired the gun at him sending the hunter back through the hole that was made in the wall.

“Go!” the stranger yelled, grabbing me by the waist and literally tossing me toward Jax.

“The kitchen exit. It's the only way that isn't a kill zone!”

We ran. My heels were a liability so I kicked them off. My bare feet hit the sticky beer-soaked carpet of the hallway. Jax was right beside me looking at me, holding my hands in trembling fear but his wolf was pushing through as his eyes were glowing a fierce protective amber.

We burst through the swinging doors into the kitchen, The fry cook, a portly Beta named Pete, was slumped over the prep table, a silver bolt protruding from the back of his neck. 

“Oh god, Pete” Jax whimpered, his voice breaking. 

“Don't look, Jax! Keep moving!!” I shouted, shoving him toward the heavy steel door of the walk-in freezer that led to the loading dock.

But we weren't fast enough.

Two more hunters dropped right through the skylight, shattering the glass in a rain of diamonds. Their boots clattering in the stainless steel counters. One of them leveled a canister at us.

“Hold your breath!!!” the stranger yelled from behind us.

He tackled Jax and me simultaneously, sending us sprawling onto the greasy floor and immediately a cloud of shimmering metallic mist erupted from the canister. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and clamped my mouth shut praying my skin wouldn't absorb enough of the silver to paralyze me. 

The strange man immediately moved with a speed that defied human limits grabbing a heavy cast iron skillet from the range and swinging it, the sound of metal hitting a helmet echoed through the room like a bell. 

He was a whirlwind of black cloth and blue-eyed rage, moving between the hunters with a terrifying efficiency. 

I scrambled up, grabbing a butcher knife from a magnetic strip. I was a dancer but also a fighter Nd the wolf in me was tired of hiding. I lunged at the second hunter who was trying to reload his crossbow. I didn't go for the heart, I went for the gap in the armor at the back of his knee.

I felt the blade sink in, as the hot spray of his blood covered my face. The hunter let out a muffled grunt and collapsed.

“Roxy, the dock!” Jax yelled. He had grabbed a heavy bag of flour and hurled it at the remaining hunter, creating a white cloud that gave us a three-second window. 

We burst out onto the loading dock. The night air was freezing, but it felt like heaven compared to the silver-tainted death inside. 

“My car is three blocks away”, Jax panted, his gold shimmer now completely gone, replaced by the grey ash of the silver vapor he'd inhaled. He kept coughing a wet rattling sound that terrified me. “We can make it.”

“You won't make it a block.” the stranger said, appearing behind us like a ghost. He wasn't even out of breath, though his charcoal suit was stained with soot. “They have drones in the air. If you run for the street, they'll pick you off from the rooftops.”

“Then what do we do, Mr. I-Have-All-The-Answers? We can't stay here!!”I snapped wiping blood from my cheek.

He looked at me, and for a moment that cold icy blue softened into something that looked almost like pity. “ We go down”.

He kicked a manhole sewer cover aside with a grunt of effort.

“The sewers?” Jax made a face. “ I'm wearing a leather harness and gold glitter, Man, have some respect”.

“Its the sewers or a morgue, glitter boy.” the stranger growled. “Pick one”.

Immediately, a red laser dot appeared on the brick wall next to Jax’s head. 

“Sewers it is!” Jax yelled, diving into the dark hole without further complaint.

I followed, the stranger came last, sliding the cover back into place just as a hail of silver bolts hissed through the air where we had been standing seconds before.

The tunnels were like a labyrinth of echoing drips and the distant rush of water. We walked for what felt like miles as the little light the stranger had began flickering due to a low battery. Jax was leaning on me now, his breathing becoming more labored.

“We need to stop, he's reacting to the silver vapor” I whispered, my voice echoing off the curved walls. “Jax needs a doctor. Or a shaman. He's turning grey, Silas….. Or whatever your name is.”

The stranger stopped.

He turned the light on me, and then on Jax. He cursed under his breath, a low guttural sound. 

“His name is Jax,” I said defiantly, stepping between the light and my friend. “And he's the only family I've got. If you're here to take me to some ’High Alpha’ or whatever bullshit you were talking about, he comes too. Or you can kill me right here.”

 The man sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“My name is Malakai. And I'm not here to kill you, Roxy. I'm the only reason you're still breathing.”