Daniel and Tina moved quickly to stand back-to-back, lashing about them with undiminished strength and speed. The wolves were moving so quickly now they were just a gray blur in the moonlight, changing direction so suddenly the Hydes were never sure where the snapping teeth and tearing claws were coming from, and it took everything Daniel and Tina had, just to keep up with them.
Daniel plunged his silver blade deep into gray-furred sides, searching for the heart, while Tina’s blade flashed fiercely as it cut the throats of wolves that got too close. Werewolves fell dying to the blood-soaked grass in a sprawl of gray fur and clawed paws, but were pitifully human by the time they lay still. The last of the wolves gave up all thought of tactics and threw themselves bodily at the Hydes, desperate to drag them down and finish them.
Huge fangs tore through Daniel’s jacket and savaged the flesh beneath, while terrible claws raked bloody furrows in Tina’s bare arms. The Hydes laughed in the wolves’ faces and kept on fighting. Hate and stubbornness kept them going, long after strength and courage might have failed them. Hyde blood rained down onto the grass, to mingle with that of the wolves, and sometimes Daniel or Tina would cry out from shock or pain, but their silver knives never slowed or faltered as they killed one alpha wolf after another. This was their last fight, the end of their war against the monster Clans, and they were damned if they’d lose now after having come so far.
In the end the wolves lost because they were all attack and no defense. They were too used to surviving whatever wounds they took, as long as that brought them to the kill. It had been a really long time since they’d had to face silver knives in the hands of those who knew how to use them and had the guts to go head to head with werewolves. And it did help that the Hydes’ wounds closed and healed when the wolves’ didn’t. The werewolves threw themselves at Daniel and Tina again and again with increasing desperation, a raging storm of teeth and claws—but the Hydes stood firm and met them with cold silver and colder determination. They were beyond hot blood; they were in the killing place now. And for all the wolves’ strength and speed and fury, they were the ones who died, while the Hydes didn’t.
One last wolf finally got close enough to hit Daniel square in the chest and bowl him over. The two of them went sprawling on the blood-soaked grass, and the werewolf locked its jaws on Daniel’s shoulder and shook him like a dog shakes a rat. Daniel gritted his teeth and plunged his knife into the werewolf’s ribs again and again, until finally he pierced its heart and a dead human body collapsed on top of him. Daniel heaved it off and lurched to his feet, blood streaming down from his savaged shoulder. He looked round just in time to see Tina thrust her silver knife deep into a werewolf’s throat, almost cutting its head off before it finally collapsed.
And that was the end of the alpha wolves. Daniel saw the blood dripping from Tina’s many wounds and stumbled over to hold her; it was a sign of how exhausted she was that she let him. They leaned heavily on each other, breathing hard. Blood from their injuries dripped down onto the trampled grass, but already the wounds were closing and their heads were clearing. Tina pushed Daniel away and checked him over carefully, searching for any wound that hadn’t closed, any sign that the werewolves might have infected him with their change . . . but all the wounds were gone, even the deep bite on Daniel’s shoulder. He looked Tina over too, and then they both smiled and relaxed, as it became clear they felt no fire in their blood, no fury in the soul, and that the moonlight was just moonlight. Daniel sighed, and stretched slowly.
“It seems Hydes are immune.”
“Well,” said Tina. “That’s good to know.”
They looked at the human bodies piled up around them. The last alphas of the werewolf clan, come to a very final end on the blood-soaked grass. Daniel and Tina looked at each other, and laughed out loud.
It sounded like the howling of wolves in the night.
Chapter Nine
IT’S IN THE BLOOD
In the cold and quiet of the early morning, Daniel and Tina headed back to the Jekyll & Hyde Inc. building. There was no traffic and no one about to see them return in triumph from a mission that should have killed them. It occurred to Daniel that this was probably a good thing, given that the werewolves had made a real mess of their clothes. He looked at the ragged remains of his jacket, and then glanced sideways at Tina and winced. She caught Daniel looking at her, and raised an eyebrow.
“What’s the matter? See something you don’t like?”
“We look like we’ve been dragged through a threshing machine backward,” Daniel said solemnly. “And then beaten with sticks by people who really didn’t like us. Of course, on you, it looks good.”
“Nice save,” said Tina. “You, on the other hand, look like crap.”
Daniel checked himself out. The alpha werewolves had savaged him from head to foot, but as far as he could tell all his wounds had healed.
“No,” said Tina. “I mean, you look tired.”
“We’ve done a lot, and been through a lot,” said Daniel. “And it isn’t over yet.”
“I know,” said Tina. “Edward will be waiting to see if we survived the trap he set for us.”
Daniel looked down the empty street to their destination. “Do we have a plan, as such?”
“March straight into his office and tell him the game is over,” said Tina. “And that we’ve come back to deal with the worst monster of them all.”
Daniel frowned. “You’re still set on killing him?”
“He deserves it,” said Tina.
“Of course he does. But . . . we do owe him a lot. Think what our lives were like before we drank the Elixir. He gave us hope and new purpose.”
“But he didn’t do it for us,” said Tina. “He just needed pawns to do his dirty work. And once we’d won his war for him, he threw us to the wolves. We don’t owe that man a thing.”
Daniel nodded at the Jekyll & Hyde Inc. building. A few lights were showing, here and there.
“Looks like someone’s still up . . . What makes you so sure Edward will be in his office? Why wouldn’t he have gone home?”
“Because he doesn’t have one,” said Tina. “Think about it: Can you really see Edward Hyde taking it easy in a comfy chair, watching television with his feet up? You’ve seen what he does for fun; I don’t think that man ever relaxes. I’m not even sure he sleeps anymore. It’s hard to think of him doing anything that weak—or vulnerable.”
“But why would he choose to live here?” said Daniel.
“Because it’s the only place he feels safe,” said Tina. “He doesn’t fear his enemies; I think he glories in them. But he knows only major layers of protection can keep him secure.” She smiled briefly. “From anyone but us.”
“Can we kill him?” said Daniel. “I mean, do you think it’s physically possible? We haven’t been Hydes long, and we just survived a mauling by a whole pack of werewolves. He is the original Mr. Hyde, the embodiment of evil, and he’s grown impossibly strong down the years. It could be there isn’t a weapon that can kill him.”
“We can take him if we work together,” said Tina. “All we have to do is knock him down, rip his head off, and throw it out the window. Let’s see him survive that.”
“But—”
“I don’t want to hear any buts!”
“We can’t kill him until we’ve got some answers,” said Daniel.
“We know all we need to know,” Tina said bluntly. “We were played! We should have known. He told us, right to our faces, that we were just part of a scheme he’d been working on for years.”
“But what’s his endgame?” said Daniel. “Would control of the criminal underworld be enough, for someone like him?”
“Why not?” said Tina. “This way, he has his revenge on the monsters who never respected him and gets to keep everything that was theirs.”