Monster Hunter Alpha-ARC (44 page)

“Fulfilling a destiny isn’t madness,” the Alpha corrected. There was no way he could be upset with her. Her pathetic senses couldn’t see what his could. Even her new god was less than what he was becoming. “We’ll leave in plenty of time, but there’s one last thing to do. He’s coming for me.”

“Who?” Lucinda asked, confused. “Who’s coming for you?”

The amulet had whispered that there was one last challenge to be faced before he was complete. It had become more aware as he’d fed it souls, until it had begun to communicate freely. The spirit of the forerunner was restless, but after being kept dormant by Koshei for so long, it had to know that he was worthy of all its gifts. “I don’t know,” he said simply. “But he’ll be here soon. I’ll prove myself worthy. Then we’ll go.”

“Worthy? Harbinger killed Petrov. You killed Harbinger. Who else is there? There are only a handful of other werewolves of their caliber, and none anywhere near here.”

“Petrov is alive. I can smell him. Maybe he’s the one, maybe not.” Despite the fact that his senses were ridiculously acute, the clues were more confusing about Harbinger. He would surely know if there was another Alpha out there, and he’d seen Harbinger die, the spirit ripped right out of his body, and used to feed the amulet.…Yet there was a strangeness in the air, almost like a shadow of Harbinger was lingering.

There was only one other werewolf in range that didn’t belong to the pack, but created by one of his line just this very night, an anomaly caused by the mad fluctuations of the amulet. A woman, and she had the blood of the thieving Finn, but also something else, something odd about her scent.
Could it be her?
The idea was absurd; she was too inexperienced to be a threat.

At this very moment the female was watching this place from the shelter of the forest, thinking that her presence was unknown. The Alpha had assumed that she had been driven by instinct to come begging for a place in the pack, but instead she’d just stayed there, observing. Perhaps she was frightened to come down. Maybe she understood how he’d fed on his own pack earlier, but he was satisfied now. With the bloodlust past, she would have been safe enough. He was feeling merciful. Yet, though there was a hint of fear on the mystery woman, there was far more resolve.

Lucinda continued to plead with him, but the witch could never hope to comprehend what the amulet wanted. Since putting it on, his understanding had continually increased. He knew now for sure that this was the item used to create the very first of his kind. It was not alive, it was not intelligent, but it had been programmed to search for someone worthy. Now it was telling him all that remained was to confirm he was truly the one. That meant facing one last unknown challenger.

The Alpha had learned about the amulet from intel gathered by the original Operation Unicorn during the Second World War. It had been far before his time, but he had read the OSS reports detailing the mysterious Koschei and his mysterious abilities. It wasn’t until archeologists had uncovered the bones of the forerunner that he’d come to understand his mission in life. The MCB had seized the forerunner’s remains, but not before word had spread to his own organization. The first time he’d touched the bones, he’d known. The spirit of the forerunner had filled his mind with images. The dreams had begun shortly after, and finding the lost amulet had become his sole purpose in life.

Of course it was fate. He was a werewolf, but he’d also started as so much more than a human. It was obvious why the forerunner had chosen him. It was still far beyond his comprehension how or why the amulet had been fashioned through human alchemy and the Old Ones’ lore, and then used to rip the spirit from the fiercest of all monsters to be bonded to a man, but he knew with all his heart that he was the one they had built it for. He was the true Alpha, the one who would prepare the way.

As the Alpha listened to the witch’s protests, the unknown female werewolf left the tree line and loped back toward town. Running her down would have been easy, but the amulet told him to let her go. Apparently, it thought she had some part to play.

Chapter 27

The good people of Copper Lake came out of the gym to check for survivors, then promptly took an ax to any
vulkodlak
that was still moving.

“I’ll be damned, Mr. Harbinger. I do believe you’ve made an unholy mess of things out here,” Nancy Randall said after she climbed through the barricade. She looked down at the organic slurry under her boots in disgust and then back at Earl with only slightly less disgust. Earl stood his ground. His armor was still dripping blood. She cracked a smile. “If you weren’t so damn gross, I’d give you a hug.”

“Thank you kindly, ma’am,” Earl said as Aino approached. “But the wood-chipper on wheels was Aino’s idea. I do believe the county owes him one hell of a Christmas bonus.”

Nancy looked over Aino, who wasn’t much cleaner than Earl. “I’ll make sure he gets a parade and the keys to the city.”

“Forget the keys. I’ll take paid vacation,” Aino said. “Someplace with no werewolves.”

There was cheering and shouting from inside the gym as word spread about the
vulkodlak
. “Don’t get too excited just yet,” Earl warned. “They’ll be back. This isn’t enough to account for every dead body in town. The ones I hurt ran, but they’ll be back. The tractor’s toast, but we can use it to shore up your barricade, which should make it tougher to break in. But we’ve still got bigger problems.”

“You’ve got no idea,” Nancy muttered as a large figure ducked under the barricade to join them outside.

Earl frowned. “Agent Stork?”

“Stark,” the MCB man corrected automatically before launching into a spittle-flecked tirade. “Damn you, Harbinger. The only reason I don’t shoot you on the spot is because of all the rednecks with guns in there who think you’re some sort of…” He searched for the word.

“Hero?” Earl pointedly looked at the splattered walls and spread his hands. “Well…duh.”

Stark’s face was flushed and angry. “Let me tell you something. When we get back to civilization, you’re going down. I’ll make sure—”

“Cram it, fatty,” Nancy said. “Come on inside, boys. It really stinks out here.” She led the way back through the hole.

It was obvious Stark wasn’t used to being told what to do by civilians. He just glared as Earl casually bumped into him, staining Stark’s armor red, but the agent held his tongue. The original doors had been torn to splinters and then replaced with the boards from the bleachers, bathroom stalls, and everything short of the kitchen sink. Judging from the looks of things, they’d gotten there just in the nick of time.

It was much warmer inside, so warm in fact that Earl’s frozen face began to tingle like it was being stabbed with dozens of tiny needles. Despite the blood on his clothing, complete strangers manning the barricade slapped him on the back. Earl was not used to so many people looking at him like that. MHI tried to keep a much lower profile. Frankly, the attention made him uncomfortable. Someone passed him a gym towel, and he used it to scrub his face clean.

“Shoo! Give these men some room.” Nancy ordered. The crowd drew back automatically. She’d obviously established herself as the leader during the night. “You said we’ve got more problems. What else can go wrong?”

There was enough background noise that he wasn’t worried about anyone overhearing anything they shouldn’t. “The man that started this is still out there. I need to find him. If I don’t, he’ll just do this again someplace else.”

“I can send some people with you,” Nancy said. “You’ll need—”

Earl raised his hand. He was going after an Alpha; a mob would just get in his way, and most of them would probably get killed in the process. These people had guts, but they didn’t have training. He needed Hunters. “It’s not safe yet. There will be more
vulkodlak
coming, and they’re fast and tough to kill. Plus, he’s still got some other critters he could throw your way. You need every shooter you’ve got here.”

“I’m coming,” Aino stated. “There’s nobody to miss me.”

Earl didn’t know how to respond to that. Aino was a sturdy fellow in a fight, that was for sure, but he had to be about the age of Earl’s kids, as in too damn old to be fighting monsters. “You did real good back there, but you—”

Aino raised his voice. “Just mulched half the people I know.”

“No doubting that, my friend. We’ll talk about it, but I need you to translate Aksel’s journal for me first.”

The curmudgeon obviously didn’t like it, but he understood. Aino nodded his blood-matted head once and walked off, determined to get to work.

Stark had to butt in again. “I don’t think you’re going after anybody. I think you’re the one behind this, and I think you’re going to run off to cover your ass. How do I know you’re not going to go destroy the evidence?”

Despite the sheer stupidity of that assertion and the sudden desire to slug Stark in the mouth, Earl just smiled and said, “Well, then, Agent. How about you come along to keep an eye on me? You are, after all, a highly trained professional.”

That caught Stark by surprise. “Well…I …I’m needed here for…command and control.”

“Not really,” Nancy pointed out. “We had that handled just fine before you showed up.”

“But…somebody needs to get in contact with MCB headquarters…in case the lines open up.”

Nancy put her hands on her hips. “Don’t forget your phone then. You’ll get better reception outside anyway. I’ll be sure, when the rest of your people show up, to tell them how brave you were to try and protect us
poor
defenseless types from all those horrible monsters. That sounds much nicer than me telling them about how you were basically useless and spent your time trying to boss yourself into a spot in the basement.”

Earl looked between them. He didn’t know what had transpired, but apparently it was making Stark uncomfortable, and therefore Earl approved. Stark spoke very slowly. “You wouldn’t…”

“Whatever you are, you’re still a government employee. And I know government employees, since I myself am a politician. From the way you’re used to throwing your weight around, I’m guessing you’ve got a pretty high-level job, but I’m also assuming a tragedy like this will bring out some even higher-level scrutiny. Regardless of who you work for, I bet they won’t like the fact that you were trying to throw some children out of the bomb shelter to get murdered to make space for your ugly ass.”

“I…well, I…I mean…” Stark looked at Earl and sighed. “Shit.” He’d just been deftly outmaneuvered. “I’ll go round up some cold-weather gear.” Dejected, Stark stomped off.

“You know, I didn’t really want him along,” Earl pointed out as he watched the agent retreat. “I was just trying to shut him up.”

“Better you than me. If he gives you any lip, maybe you could
accidentally
push him into the snow-cutter?”

“Tempting. Well, at least MCB are usually handy in a fight. I could use some real Hunters.”

A very deep voice intruded on their conversation. “Mr. Harbinger?”

Earl turned, and then had to look up.
Way
up. The man was huge, bigger than Pitt or Gregorius, bigger than his largest Hunters. The man had to be nearly seven feet tall and was built like an NFL lineman. His enormous shaved head was wrapped in a bandage. He had one lazy eye and the facial scarring of someone who’d once suffered a severe cranial injury. Despite the fact that he was an extremely memorable specimen, and Earl was positive they’d never spoken, there was something oddly familiar about the man. “Do I know you?”

“I believe I hit you in the back with an ax earlier. Just wanted to say sorry about that.”

Earl nodded.
The other Hunters.
“Briarwood, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, sir. I’m the last, though. Name’s Jason Lococo. Most people just call me Loco.”

“Most people are stupid, too. What do you prefer?”

“I…Well, Jason would be fine, sir.”

There was no sign of the other Briarwood men that had shot up Heather’s house earlier. “What happened to Horst?”

“Gone.” Jason gave a grim little smile, leaving the impression that it was
gone
as in
dead,
as opposed to
gone
as in
left
. “Turns out he wasn’t as clever as he thought he was. Is MHI hiring?”

“MHI is always hiring.”

“I don’t have a resume handy, but I can provide references.”

“You managed to hit me with an
ax
,” Earl said. “I’ve got to say, that’s a decent resume builder. You’re injured, though.”

Jason gestured at the bandage. “Just a flesh wound. Ryan shot me in the head on account of me not wanting to murder you.”

“He sure had a way with people, didn’t he?”

“Yes, sir. I do okay at fighting monsters, and I’ve got a family to support. I can help.”

Earl thought about it for a moment. There was no doubt the man was a Hunter, even if he was from a shoddy outfit. He’d do. “All right. You’re hired, but let’s call this a probationary period. If we don’t die shortly, we’ll discuss salary and benefits. Gather what equipment you can and meet me back here in ten minutes. Move out.”

Jason seemed honestly relieved. “Thank you, sir. You won’t regret this.”

Nancy waited for the big man to get out of earshot. “When we were bandaging him up, he was covered in prison tats.”

Earl shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d hired a Hunter with a felony record. “I trust him more than Stark already. I’m not hiring him to lead a church choir. I’ll pull his records when I get a chance. If he did something particularly vile, like murdering without a good excuse or hurting women or kids, then I could probably get that snow-blower going again.”

“You’re a man of strange sensibilities, Harbinger. But back to what you were saying. I’ll feel better when the trash behind this is put away. How do you intend to find him?”

There was a sudden banging on the barricade. Men rushed over to peer through the holes. “Where’d he come from?” someone shouted.

“I didn’t see anyone coming!” responded the rifleman guarding the front window. “He came out of nowhere.”

There was more commotion around the barricade. Earl confirmed that his Thompson was ready, then waited. Twenty seconds later, a teenage boy ran over to Earl and Nancy. “Mr. Harbinger, there’s somebody here to speak with you. Says his name is Nikolai.”