Stronger Together chapter 136 (Patreon)

The drive to Kirby and Andi's place went by in a blur. I was in  shock. I'd known Kirby we'd done game night with Harry and the Alphas.  He was a good guy. I thought I'd saved him, thought I'd changed his  fate, but I'd made it worse. Shagnasty had killed Kirby in battle in the  books, but it hadn't tortured him. Not for information. Whatever had  killed him in this timeline had worked on him for a while it sounded  like. He'd died afraid and in pain and it was my fault. I remembered the  lanky dark haired guy with the sneaky quiet sense of humor who had  played a rogue in our game sessions.

Andi would be  devastated too. She had been in the books sure, but I knew Andi for real  now. She mattered to me. She was my friend. She and Barb got on like a  house on fire, ganging up on all us non redheads. She's come over to our  house dozens of times and got along great with everyone of our  roommates and she'd dragged Kirby along a few times. Having another male  around that was close to my age had been...nice. Deep down I'd known I  couldn't save all of my friends, that someone would die, but this was  too soon, too horrible, too much. Part of me had still been treating  this like a game deep down, like a story where the hero beats the bad  guys. Even with the damage we'd taken and how close we had come to  death.

I couldn't fix what happened to Kirby. Couldn't go  back and save him. But I could damn sure make sure whatever got him paid  for it. When we finally made it to their apartment Barb was out of the  car before I was. Raven had stayed behind with the others because when  Rumor saw how upset we were the brilliant little puppy had gotten  frantic trying to help us feel better and Raven was the only one who  could calm the poor little guy down when he got worked up. He was very  protective of us all and very perceptive, seeing the heartbreak and  guilt and anger I was feeling and the sorrow Barb was going through had  agitated him. Raven had much more practice at suppressing her emotions. I  knew she would be sad, but she would wait until we were alone to  express it.

Andi was outside sobbing and when she saw Barb  she barreled toward her friend and crushed her in a hug. They clutched  each other as they cried, and I shed a few tears myself for my dead  friend. Harry approached and said something to her before coming back  over to me. "Barb is going to stay with her, you sure you want to do  this? I know you guys were buddies, I could handle it myself this time?"  I gave him a steely look which he returned with a sad smile "I kind of  assumed you would respond that way. Do you want to take a minute at  least? I know you've seen bodies before but this....this will be  different. Trust me. It's always different when they're friends."

I  paused for a minute then nodded. I took a minute to center myself,  meditating on the power inside me to find focus and peace. He was right,  I hadn't seen a dead friend before, especially not one that died like  this. Over the past year I had learned so much about my body and the  godsteel in it. I'd been able to avoid expanding the mesh any more and  I'd come to some kind of equilibrium with the changes. I'd learned to be  myself again, to move past the ways the metal altered how I felt and  thought. Which in a way made this worse.

I wasn't easily  distracted and emotionally distant anymore. I'd spent the year getting  back in touch with myself, and myself was in serious fucking pain. This  was going to suck. We stepped into the apartment. I knew the place. We'd  come over for dinner once or twice. Kirby had a playstation two and we  would play Tekken while Barb showed Andi actual martial arts moves in  their spare room. It had been fun, they had a small balcony that was  just big enough for a grill and Kirby would make ribeye's for us. He had  this secret marinade he used that was amazing. He never shared it with  anyone. Now it was gone forever.

The smell hit me first.  It wasn't blood. I wish it had been blood. It was meat. It smelled like  the steaks Kirby would make, but it wasn't a ribeye. It was Kirby. He  was in the living room, tied to a chair with extension chords. His eyes  were red from burst blood vessels with red tears running down his face.  There were burns all over him, tiny spots where the pair of small chords  pulled from the lamp had been touched to his skin. Dozens of spaces.  His mouth was bloody from clenching his teeth so hard some of them  cracked and biting his own tongue from the pain. My friend had suffered.

I  was glad we hadn't brought Raven. I didn't want to hear how the  emotions that lingered in this room felt. I didn't want to know what my  friend was thinking and feeling when he finally died. Didn't want to  know if he was angry or scared or just relieved it was finally over. I  swallowed hard, barely keeping down my vomit. Harry put a hand on my  shoulder then stepped forward. I knew what he was doing and I felt so  bad for him. He was opening his third eye, his private eye. He was using  the Sight.

The more times I saw Harry use the Sight the  more glad I was I didn't have it. The ability seriously messed him up  every time. Seeing something like this...I didn't envy him but it needed  to be done. We needed the lead to find Kirby's killer. We owed him this  much. Despite not wanting to even think about it if I had possessed the  Sight I would have done it. Harry stared at Kirby's body, his face  paling. I saw him close his eyes and mutter to himself. Unlike with  Shagnasty he still had Lash this time, and I think she was helping him  manage the impact.

He swallowed  hard. "It wasn't personal. The torture was for information gathering  purposes. The killer tracked Kirby back here by scent. He could tell  what Kirby was and he was looking for something. The killer was...I  don't know. Animal? Human? I would say werewolf but that isn't right,  he's old, like vampire old, but he feels like a wolf. He's evil Cam, not  because of the wolf or because he's a monster, because he enjoys it. He  tortured Kirby to get information but he kept going after he had to  because he thought it was fun."

My  fists were clenched so tight I could feel my nails digging into my  palms. This asshole was going to pay, werewolf or not. I didn't know  what he could have wanted from the Alphas but I didn't care. Harry was  starting to get past the mental trauma of seeing the truth of a vicious  killer and was looking just as enraged as I was. I fought to keep my  voice even as I asked him "Can you track him from here? You're still way  better with tracking magic than any of us. If you can find him we can  take him. My magic eye aspect is great for breaching concealment but it  can't track for shit." I'd learned a few new aspects and a couple spells  over the last year but nothing that would help with this.

Harry's  frustrated growl was more than answer enough but he responded anyway  "No. He didn't leave anything behind and I can't track just from psychic  impressions. But someone this old should have a rep, we can put out  feelers and see if anyone like this is in town. He obviously doesn't  care too much about being quiet, no way he hasn't left a trail of bodies  behind him. I'll check my sources in the Nevernever, you were going to  visit Dalton to ask about Tera's thing anyway..." He stopped, his eyes  widening at the same time as mine did. He'd clearly come to the same  extremely unpleasant conclusion I had. We hadn't gotten there  immediately but the whole wolf thing kind of made it obvious, or at  least extremely likely.

My  blood was running cold. When I finally spoke my voice was shaky "If  this was a werewolf...they could be the ones looking for Conner. Or at  least one of them if Tera's friend is to be believed. Why the hell would  they hurt Kirby though? The Alphas never go to the island, hell they  don't even know where it is." I knew they had known Tera but that had  been years ago, before Conner was even born, they weren't a reliable  source for information, I didn't even know if Kirby knew Tera was in  town. We tried not to talk about her on the mainland for safety.

Harry  rubbed his temples "Because she trained them. Tera taught the Alphas  their magic. Their transformation would still have traces of her magic  in it. Symbolically you could consider her a parent to their wolf sides  and that would be enough to track for some things. If there was a  magical wolf tracking her he might follow the scent back to the Alphas,  depending on how the scent and magic aspects interact." Our eyes met and  he cursed "We need to get Billy and Georgia and the rest of the Alphas  to the island with Tera immediately. They'll be safe there until we  figure all this out."

Left  unspoken was the fact that figuring this out wouldn't end with catching  this one werewolf. Somehow Tera's location had been leaked and more  than one group was in town searching for her. They might need to be  there for a while. Regardless one problem at a time. I nodded along with  his point though, either way we had to get them safe. "I'll talk to  Andi, she can stay with us if she wants. She and Barb are tight and with  Kara and Raven and I around, not to mention the vampires and the  angelic guards on the neighborhood no werewolf is putting hands on her."

He  grimaced at that but he couldn't deny the point, our house was one of  the safest places on earth most likely "Fair, the others won't all fit  though. Georgia is going to be pissed about having to take time off her  classes. With Kirby dying though she might be able to get some of the  work in advance to take with her. Play it off as a grieving process  thing. I'll go ahead and call them, then we need to head back to my  place. We need to talk to Bob about whatever this is." The Alphas were a  decent sized group by the Bordens were the leaders and they could get  everyone else settled. After Kirby they would take this seriously.

Luckily  he wouldn't need to wait until he got home to do that. I held up my  cell phone, integrated with scroll tech. We had our network up and  running at this point but it was still pretty small. We couldn't  advertise exactly since the main feature was magic resistance so were  relying on word of mouth. Harry wasn't used to them so he usually left  his at home without meaning to, honestly if his staff wasn't six feet  long I swear he'd forget the thing. He took my cell with a grateful  smile and I headed outside to talk to Andi. Whether she wanted to go to  the island with the others or come to our place we were her for her.