“He’s just down this way. It’s fortunate really that I bumped into you. He’s a good friend of mine so I’m sure he’ll be happy to help two friendly strangers in a foreign land with a small favour,” she was saying, with just the faintest hint of a Russian accent.

That sounded hopeful, as if she was leading them somewhere, and to someone, who might actually be a Karzelek. I’d believe it when I saw it though. I waited a moment or two until their voices were further away, before skirting round and pressing myself against the rough wall as I moved down in their direction. The three of them then stopped abruptly up ahead. I halted too, right across from a trio of metal dustbins, which were filled to overflowing. A fleabitten looking rat was perched on top of one, blinking at me. I gave it a half-smile, as if in greeting. It twitched its nose in return, then delved inside the rubbish with only its tail still visible.

I cocked my head, trying to hear what was going on up ahead. I could only make out snatches of words here and there though. Unfortunately, there was a streetlight illuminating the area they were in, so I couldn’t move any nearer without potentially giving myself away. I leaned forward, straining my ears when suddenly, somewhere, a door banged and there was a long loud shout that sounded like ‘booooka’. I jumped about half a foot in the air, then a huge shape that seemed to be of the stuff of nightmares emerged from one of the buildings. Shit. Without any suggestion of preamble it reached out, picking Aubrey up by the scruff of his neck and threw him to one side as if he weighed next to nothing. Without waiting any longer, I pushed off from the wall and sprang forward, the familiar burn of bloodfire sparking up inside me. Yeah, this had just been too good to be true.

The woman half turned, realising that someone was coming. I yelled at Alex to get away, but he was trapped between the two of them. Pelting down the street, I sent down a plume of green fire. It caught on the woman’s white hair, instantly setting it alight. She shrieked, hands grabbing at her long locks in a vain effort to put out the flames. In that instant, I reached her and grabbed her arms and pulled back on the collar of her jacket. Then, I thrust her forward again and her head bounced off the wall. She fell, dazed. One down.

Pushing Alex behind me, I turned to the second nastie, then blinked as its features became clearer. It had vast gnarled horns on top of its head and, what appeared to be, four…five… no, six fucking legs. How in the hell were they all attached? I craned my neck upwards. It was about two freaking storeys high. Well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, I figured. I jetted out more flame towards it, aiming for what appeared to be a vulnerable section in its belly. The thing’s eyes seemed to narrow for a moment, as if in thought, then it huffed out and launched a kick towards me.

I only just managed to jump out of the way in time, feeling the air whooshing past my head as the creature’s leg almost connected. I crouched down, then sprang up with as much power and bounce as I could muster, kicking off the wall and reaching upwards. I’d been aiming to lock my hands around its neck, but unless I’d suddenly morphed into a red-headed version of Spiderman there was no way I was going to get up that high. Instead I managed to link one arm around its bicep. With the other, I lashed out and upwards trying to claw into its skin. What I hit was so leathery and hard, however, it was clear that was equally a non-starter. Pursing my lips slightly, I ran backwards to where the dustbins were and grabbed one of the metal lids. I snapped back my arm and then flung the lid out, just like a Frisbee. It soared into the air, heading straight for its target and caught the monster in between its nose and its lip. It snarled loudly. Finally.

Unfortunately for me, it was a fast learner. It picked up the dustbin lid where it had clattered on the ground and flung it back in my direction. The force and speed meant that, despite my best efforts to get out of the way, it still caught me on my upper arm. I yelled out at the burst of sudden pain. Okay. Now I was getting annoyed.

I twisted back round to face it. It really was a big bastard. I felt a ripple of trepidation, then made my decision. Picturing my little match in my head, I stared down at my hands, willing them to transform. My bones creaked and there was a snap of pain, and all of a sudden I looked like I had on two oversized red mittens. Well, red mittens with lethal talons at the end of them anyway. I lifted up my eyes to the creature and then leapt right at it, claws extended. I thrust into its flesh, gouging out a trail that ripped through its lower belly. It bellowed in pain and clumsily turned around, its legs getting tangled up before, somehow, untwisting itself and galloping away into the night.

I watched it go, wondering how this fight would have worked out had I been confident enough to fully transform. At least it meant I felt more in control of my Draco Wyr nature, if nothing else, and that I was more desperate to learn how to fully transform with that same control firmly in place. It was a relief to not feel terrified at the prospect of giving myself over to the dragon. I darted over to Aubrey and checked on him, although his groans had already indicated that he wasn’t in any real danger, and helped him up to his feet.

“When I was a vampire, these kinds of things didn’t happen,” he grumbled, rubbing his head where it had smashed against the wall. He sent me a look filled with malevolence. “Being around you should carry a health warning.”

I felt a wave of relief. I could deal with this kind of attitude much better than I could with abject sadness.

“Really? Because last time I checked you were begging to be allowed to stick around so that I could protect you,” I scoffed. “And besides this one’s all on you. I wasn’t the one following strange women out of dodgy bars.”

He glared at me. I grinned in return.

“You should have told me, Mack. I would have a kept it a secret.”

“I know.” I reached out and squeezed him on the shoulder.

He gave me a half smile in return. The lack of hysterics from him was reassuring. I held his eyes for a moment, then turned around to check to see whether Alex was anywhere within the vicinity. He was standing over the crumpled body of the woman, frowning. I strolled over and joined him.

“So what actually happened?” I asked. “You reek of alcohol.”

“I spilled some vodka down my shirt,” he commented. “I was trying to look as if I was drinking without really drinking, if you see what I mean.”

“And her?” I jerked my head down.

He rubbed his forehead. “We asked around. Nobody knew of any Karzeleks, apart from her. She said she was mates with one and would take us to meet him.”

“You know you just fell for the oldest trick in the book, right?”

“Why do you think I made sure you were following? It did occur to me that she might be leading us astray, Mack. I’m not a complete idiot.” The stress in his voice was palpable, making me feel instantly guilty.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Alex. You knew it was always going to be a long shot though.”

He looked at me dolefully for a moment, then back down at the woman. “The monster that jumped out. What kind of freaky Otherworld thing was that?”

I opened my mouth to tell him I had no idea, when a deep voice from within the shadows several feet away suddenly interrupted. “Buka. They normally hang around in lakes, waiting to drown unsuspecting victims. Goodness only knows what it’s doing in the city. You did well to get rid of it.”

The voice’s owner stepped out into a patch of moonlight. Interesting. He was clearly a shifter, but he appeared unfeasibly large, even when compared to Corrigan. He had coarse dark hair and glittering black eyes, along with a moustache. Usually, I found facial hair a bit of a turn off but, somehow, on this guy, it was rather appealing. His whole image was rather debonair, in a swashbuckling kind of way. He kept his distance from us, sensing that I certainly wasn’t in the mood for any surprises, and looked down at the woman.

“She’s a Shishiga. Known for generally bringing misfortune to drunks. I have to apologise. If I’d been aware that she was in the bar, I’d have thrown her out long before. I was in the back, dealing with some business.”

“Oh yeah?” blustered Aubrey, “and who the hell are you?”

It was a fucking good question.

The man smiled disarmingly. “I’m Cherniy Volk. The Black Wolf. I hear you’re looking for a Karzelek and I think I may just be able to help.”

Chapter Fifteen

Volk took us back to his bar, allowing us to enter through a discreet back entrance that led into a private area. Aubrey and Tom carried the woman between them, taking an arm each and looking for all the world as if they were merely helping out a friend who’d had one too many vodkas. At Volk’s behest, they left her locked in the bar’s small cellar area. I had to admit I was slightly suspicious as to his intentions with her. Not that I cared that much about the well-being of someone who preyed on vulnerable victims in order to strip them of their cash and valuables – or worse – but I wasn’t quite prepared to leave her entirely to the wolves, so to speak. However, he dug out a mobile phone and spoke low guttural Russian into it, then hung up and grimaced at us.

“Bratstvo. I believe you would call them the Brethren? They will come and collect her and take her far out of the city where she will not bother anyone for a long time. Russia is a very large country. There are many places on the outer edges that are…difficult.”

“They’re going to take her to some kind of prison camp?” I asked, appalled.

He laughed. “Oh no. We may have done that in our past, but certainly not nowadays. They will simply leave her in a frozen wood somewhere. She won’t die. She’ll just be very cold. And very far away.”

“What about the Buka?”

“They are simple minded creatures. Without her around to lead him, he will return to whichever lake he came from.”

“You sound very confident about that.”

“I know my country and my countrymen,” he replied, simply.

Alex twitched, clearly wanting to cut to the chase. “So, dude, you can find us a Karzelek?”