buddies are already here. That’s one of their choppers behind you, and there’s another that’s about to go down further up the road.”
The battle in the distance was making its way to the downed chopper. The explosions he heard before had sounded like impacts, but the next ones were definitely grenades. Judging by the bellowing roars that followed each one, the soldiers weren’t making much of a dent. Considering everything going on at the moment, Cole knew he didn’t have time to question Rico thoroughly. Instead, he decided to make him prove himself the hard way and handed the big man an assault rifle. Then he picked up his spear, propped against the side of the helicopter, and smiled as his hands closed around the weapon’s familiar grip. Its weight was perfect. The largest spearhead gleamed with metallic varnish containing flakes of the Blood Blade. Even the thorns in the handle punctured his flesh in the spots marked by the very first scars he’d gotten as a Skinner. There was only one other homecoming he’d looked forward to this much.
“Do you know some skinny psychic dude and a Squam?” Rico asked as he started jogging toward the worst of the fighting.
“Yes! Do you know where they are?”
“The IRD picked them up in Colorado. Once I convinced them that I know you well enough to be trusted, they told us you and Jessup were headed here.”
“So that’s also how you found me,” Cole said. “Why didn’t you say that before?”
Rico looked over to him and admitted, “I wasn’t sure about you yet.”
Considering what had happened about a minute ago, Cole had to laugh.
“Your friends are locked up,” Rico said. “I’ll take you to them.”
Cole kept his eyes open for any trace of Jessup. He might not have known the other Skinner for long, but he’d be damned if he would lose a partner. An explosion rolled through the air like a boulder that had been dropped into a still pond. Both Skinners looked toward the hill where several black columns of smoke rose to smear the sky. As Rico checked the rifle he’d been given, Cole pulled on the harness that Rico must have rigged to hold the spear. It wasn’t much more than a large belt with two loops stitched into the leather, but it did the trick. Without another moment of hesitation, they ran toward the growing storm of gunfire and unearthly cries.
“Did you ever meet another Skinner named Jessup?” Cole asked while taking hold of the other assault rifle he’d taken from the helicopter and checked to make sure it was loaded. Now that he had more than a second to examine the weapon, he recognized it as a Heckler & Koch MP5A3 with some slight modifications made to the barrel and stock.
“Yeah, I know Jessup. Is he here?”
“Hopefully.” There were still about a hundred yards to cover before they crested the hill. “Do you know when the Breaking Moon rises?”
“About an hour ago.”
Cole looked up and found the moon hanging in a smoky, darkening sky, but there was nothing about it to catch his eye apart from a slight rusty hue cast upon its wide face. “Is that a Blood Moon? I’ve seen it redder. And the damn thing isn’t even full.”
“After all this time running with Paige, you still think a full moon has anything to do with werewolves?”
“No, but what’s so special about this one?”
“Nothing as far as we can tell,” Rico said. “But it don’t matter what we see or don’t see. The Breaking Moon has to do with Full Bloods, not tides.”
Cole felt a pain in his gut that caused him to stumble for a few steps. The tendrils inside him had picked that moment to give him a quick, jarring squeeze to let him know they were still there and hadn’t been fed for a while. Before Rico took notice, he regained his footing and came up with a quick bit of acting to try and make his stumble look natural. The sideways stepping movement was close to the one he used when trying to get a bunched-up pair of boxers out from where they’d been wedged. Unlike that awkward situation, this one had to be pulled off convincingly enough to make sure a trained killer didn’t have an excuse to stab him in the chest. At the moment, however, Rico seemed to be having problems of his own.
The big man was still moving, but just barely. He gritted his teeth, hung