"Give me your phones," Emily said to the others. Adelaide had a smart phone, but Brett's was just a flip phone. "Okay, you're going to have to use mine. Me and Adelaide will stick together." She drew a sigil on Adelaide's phone. It glowed blue for a second, then went out. Emily handed Adelaide's phone to Brett. "Me and Adelaide are going first. We have a... it's not exactly invisibility. It's more like a Don't Notice Me smell, so they can look right at us and think we're as important as trees. We'll go in and extract Levi from the cave where they've hidden him. I've downloaded an app so that you can track the movements of the monsters. It should be able to keep up with anything below a level 4, but be careful. Something bigger might be out there. And make sure they don't see the light on the phone."
"Can't you do the invisibility thing on me?" Brett asked.
"No, we need you to be a distraction. Don't run in though, they're waiting for you. See if you can circle around instead, take out the patrols on the edges. Get them worried about one spot and then run somewhere else. Don't stay too long though."
"I told you I can handle myself."
"Brett, pay attention." She flipped open her own phone. She clicked an icon like a shield made of the wings of two crows. A map of the park zoomed into view. Three little green specks sat huddled in the parking lot, while all around them red specks circled. Dozens of them. About three hundred yards into the forest, another little green dot flickered.
"There are 37 wolves. Can you handle 37 wolves by yourself?" Emily asked sarcastically.
Brett stared at the screen, mind blank. A cold chill shivered up his spine. I would have walked right into that, he thought. I wouldn't have stood a chance.
"Brett! Pay attention!" Emily snapped.
"All of those red dots are giant wolves?" Adelaide asked. She sounded remarkably calm about it. "But they can't see us, right?"
"They know where Brett is right now, but they won't as soon as he sprints away from the car. I set up an enchantment so that they'll sense three different Bretts running in different directions. That way he has a chance to draw them off. We'll already be heading to get Levi, and the wolves should be too preoccupied, and my enchantment should hold." Emily shook her head. "I'm not going to lie, this is insanely dangerous. I, ah, didn't expect..." she swallowed. "There are allot more fenrir than I expected." She glanced down at the screen, then outside. "Okay, looks like the wolves are getting antsy. Time for us to go. Count to 10 before you head out, or the wolves might trip over us, and they would definitely notice that."
Emily opened the car door a crack and slipped out into the still night, Adelaide close behind. "And Brett," Emily whispered. "I'd take off my shoes and socks if I were you. It'll help. Trust me."
Brett swore at the girl's retreating figures, quietly. Gritting his teeth, he shucked his shoes off, counting to ten as he did so. "One," he grimaced.
He hoped the girls would be okay. This was a horrible plan. "Two," he whispered quietly to himself.
Was that movement under that tree? "Three"
Both his shoes and now his socks were discarded onto the floor of the car. A rank, toe-like smell wafted up. "Four."
Definitely movement. Coming from two different directions. "Five."
He glanced down at the phone. Maybe eight of them were circling his car, just outside the parking lot. "Six."
His breath came faster. "Seven."
"Eight."
"Nine." One was running towards his car.
"Ten!" Brett launched himself out of the vehicle, slamming the car door into the wolf-creature's face as he did so. He rolled on the ground and pelted in the opposite direction of the girls. He felt a sensation like two shadows crossing over his shoulders, and a moment later out of the corner of his eyes he saw two mirror images of himself streaking in opposite directions. Laughing madly, Brett leaned into the run, sprinting through the cool night air.
Brett was probably the best football player on his team. He played varsity as a freshman. He knew how fast he was, how strong. He'd been getting into fights for years. He'd never lost once. This was his field. Brett knew it, he could feel the wolves coming for him, faster than linebackers, faster than startled deer, and still they seemed to move through molasses. This was his game.
He could feel one of the wolves closer than the rest, her breath- he could tell it was female somehow- damp-hot on his legs. He leaped towards a tree, kicking off just as the beast sailed below him, pulling out the nail and twisting in mid-air to avoid another wolf-monster's swiping claws.
A moment later he held a sword in his hand.
Brett didn't let them get close enough to grapple. One on one grappling was fine, but a death wish against so many. Brett slashed in a wide arc with his sword, directing it towards movement more felt than seen. The blade sang through the air, and a moment later monstrous howls of rage filled his ears.
He glanced down at the phone in his other hand. Ten more were headed in his direction to join these three. Brett ran again, bursting between the two in front of him with a quick jab into the ear of the right and a quick slice of the sword across the hind quarters of the left. They fell back a moment, disoriented, before hurtling like comets of fur and fury at his heels again.
Brett realized he was still laughing. He stopped abruptly. A short bluff loomed up ahead. Brett leaped, sword changed back to nail and in pocket, phone between teeth, leaped and scurried up the shear rock wall like a lizard. Down below the wolves scrabbled after him, but they weren't built to climb. The cool stone was welcoming beneath his feet. He reached the summit and kept running, grinning into the darkness.
They wanted to hunt him, did they? He would show them who was hunter, and who was hunted.
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