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Chapter 34 - Urban Jungle

-H-

Once more I was perched on the back of a werewolf, clinging to him as best as I could and letting him run and leap through the brush and sparse trees littering the sides of the roadways. I probably could have taken my car into the city.. I had a feeling that the cat hadn't strolled down the side of the freeway and called it quits. More than likely he had gone all the way downtown.. but we had to follow the trail and make sure he wasn't hiding out anywhere. My wolf couldn't do that from the car.

So we were darting through the bushes and brambles.. or at least he was darting along like a bloodhound while I was whipped and lashed by branches. He was good at keeping to the shadows, ducking down along the edge of the freeway and not letting the passing headlights shine on us. He could see effortlessly in the dark, I was little to no help and blind at night.

The city was much further away than I had initially thought. Though my frame of reference had always been driving there on the main road.. not running alongside it on wolf back. We were moving faster than I ever could on foot, even if we had been running on a flat road, but it was still taking time we didn't have. Who knew how far the cat had gotten while we were sitting around doing nothing all day. Did I make the right call waiting until night? I didn't know.

We were on the edge of the city itself by the time my wolf slowed down, contending with highway exits and underpasses. We couldn't stick to the run down edges that were overgrown with shrubs anymore. He sniffed along the ground slowly, methodically, following that unseen trail the beast had left. I smelled something too, I didn't need a fancy dog nose to catch the scent.

Blood.

It was faint to me, but I knew the smell. My wolf knew it too, he followed the trail of it to one of the alcoves beneath a concrete freeway exit. I had to squint in the dark, trying to make out the shapes as we saw a mound of something. I hopped off my wolf's back, my poor legs and arms burned and felt like jelly from holding on for so long.

"Careful bud.. he might still be here" I warned softly, keeping my voice low as I took out my phone and turned the flashlight on. Sweeping it across the ground lit up a mess of trash and papers, and more specifically a bundle of jackets and a sleeping bag. Someone had been sleeping under here. There was blood on the ground… Had that cat hurt whoever was here? Killed them?

My wolf crept closer and sniffed around, sensing my concern as he searched for the source of the blood. His claws caught the wrinkled sleeping bag and tore it aside.. revealing bones. They weren't human, thank God, but they were picked clean. They looked chewed on, like they were an idle snack. The bones were small, maybe some small dog or a big rat of some sort. My eyes met my wolf's own and he tapped his claw to his nose a couple of times, pointing to the bedding arrangement.

"You smell him here?"

He nodded, those golden eyes glinting from my phone flashlight as he studied the little alcove.

"Think he took a break and slept here?.. If he did, maybe he hung around long enough for us to catch up. Hope he didn't hurt anyone.. He's probably up and awake now that it's dark. Might have had the same idea we did about exploring at night and keeping hidden. He's smart enough not to be seen, I think."

That wolven nose was twitching away as he nodded in response, crawling around and following different trails that seemed to loop back on eachother. The cat must have spent some time hiding out here.. now my wolf just needed to find the end of the trail.

The two of us began to walk under the concrete ramp, hearing cars passing over us and seeing flashes of headlights. It didn't take long to make it into the city. There were nicer parts of the city.. this wasn't one of them. This district was mostly for drinking and partying, lots of night clubs and live music, a bar on every block. Drunk college kids were the native population.

I let my furry companion lead the way, but I urged him to stick to some of the dark alleys between buildings. There were plenty of them, most had trash cans, dumpsters and boxes. Things to hide a werewolf behind if needed. Normally I wouldn't be stepping down any dark alleys at night, not here, not anywhere. These were odd times and odd circumstances. Let someone try to rob me, I had a werewolf.

The cat must have stuck to the alleyways too, smart kitty, it made our job easier as we followed his scent out of sight. That was until my wolf stopped and craned his head up, sniffing into the air. I lifted a brow at him as he stood up tall and tilted his blanket hood back.

"What, did he sprout wings and fly?... Please tell me that's not a thing you guys can do."

He ignored me and pointed up above us with his snout. A fire escape. The rickety iron thing was too far up to reach, but if a housecat could jump like ten times their own height I was betting that our furless fucker could probably manage the leap. If he was up on the rooftops we had no way of following. I groaned out in frustration, lightly headbutting and leaning my head into the wolf's chest.

"Alright, I'm not dressed up like a bat.. so we aren't going roof hopping. Hanging around in dark alleys is already gonna get us shot. Maybe my non existent son will take up the mantle after my untimely murder outside the theater."

My poor wolf had no idea what I was talking about, so I just patted his chest and tried to think more constructively and less sarcastically. We weren't following a perfect trail anymore, it could go anywhere. He could stay up on the rooftops and move halfway through the city without having to come down. All we could hope for was that he came down somewhere so we could pick up his scent again. That wasn't something I was going to be very helpful with.

There was something I could be helpful with though. I could walk freely out in the streets and try to watch for the cat creature. If my wolf stuck to the alleys and tried to find his scent, I could walk around and hope I caught sight of him. Downtown was large.. it would take all night walking around and we wouldn't cover a third of it.. but I didn't have any other ideas. If nothing else I was not being useful at all hanging back in the alleys with my wolf.. I needed to help in some way.

"Alright Scoob, it's time we split up. I don't want to, but we have a whole city to search.. All I can hope is that he didn't go too deep into it. We know he's here.. You gotta try to get his scent again and stick to the alleys. I'm gonna go just out there and walk around the streets a bit, but we're gonna stick close to each other okay? A street apart at most. If that damn cat skydives down onto me, I want you close enough to save me. If you find him first, I'll be just around the corner ready to rush in and restrain him. This is all a horrible, horrible plan. I can't come up with anything better. We are a small step above a cartoonishly large net."

Once more he was staring at me blankly, but he nodded and pretended he understood all of what I'd said, when realistically I was lucky if he understood half of it. I checked his shoulder before leaving, it looked way better than I could have thought a day ago. There wasn't much else to do besides help adjust his safety blanket, his invisibility cloak, his mastercraft disguise. He was just a hunched old man roaming the back alleys looking for his cat, yeah.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the alley and into the sidewalk, looking around nervously like I was going to be caught. Caught doing what exactly? I was a normal, young guy out at night. Just the same as half a dozen others I could see walking up and down the streets with their friends or partners. It was perfectly normal to be walking around. Still I felt like a criminal scoping out the place. My eyes scanned the ledges and rooftops, looking around and hoping to catch movement. Hoping I'd see a shape perched in the shadows or lit up by a neon sign.

My wolf moved somewhat in time with me, each time there was an alley I peeked down it and saw his dark shape moving behind the buildings. It was comforting, if nerve wracking. He could be seen out here.. but he was our best bet at finding the beast. My heart was thumping in my chest, my hands sweating. I nearly ran into someone half a dozen times as I watched the rooftops instead of where I was going.

"Connor?.. Hey, yo! Connor! What're you doing out here? Didn't know you were coming out tonight, would have invited you with us."

James.

I recognized his voice as easily as he recognized the back of my head apparently. For a brief second I debated pretending that it wasn't me, or that I hadn't heard him.. maybe I could keep walking and lose him. No, that was stupid and the most suspicious thing I could possibly do, besides bolting down an alley like some compromised Agent.

Slowly I turned and forced a smile as my best friend walked up to me, his arm slung around his girlfriend. Normally I'd be happy and eager to run into the two of them. Normally I wasn't on some secret monster hunting mission with my secret werewolf sidekick.

"Hey James, hey Joelle. I was just uh.. You know, walking. It's a nice night"

Joelle was one of the cheeriest, most bubbly people I knew. Always smiling and laughing, her cheeks surely had to hurt at the end of every day. She wrapped me up in a hug, and I picked her up because she was short, it was how our greetings always went. When I returned her to her boyfriend and gave him a hug too.. she started lifting and prodding at my arm.

"What did you do?.. You're all cut up.. get in a fight with a cactus?" Joelle looked over all the scrapes from being dragged through bushes and brambles on my wolf's back.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine I just fell in a bush.." It didn't help that I still had my hand bandaged up, I was a mess, I doubted my hair looked like I was going for a night out on the town.. probably looked more like I was foraging in the wilderness and under bridges.

"Well hold still, you're bleeding, I got some wipes in my purse.. Hey, stop fidgeting and let me love you"

I sighed and resigned myself to Momma Joelle's nursing, thanking her and leaning away from getting smothered by her huge and curly, crimped forest of hair. I just watched as she gently dabbed and rubbed a wet wipe along my little scratches, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I needed an excuse to get away.

"Well if you've got time for jumping in bushes and wandering around staring at the sky, you've got time to hang with us. No excuses."

Fuck.

James flashed me his cocky smile as he spoke, looking me in the eyes like he knew I was going to try to worm my way out of hanging out. We've known each other for forever, he reads me like a book. He's my best friend. I wanted to smack him.

"I'm kinda tired.. Didn't plan on staying out long, just needed to get away and clear my head is all. I'm gonna head home, I think."

Joelle frowned and gave me a half hug with her arm, squeezing me and shaking her head.

"Aww are you sure?.. We know you've been going through a tough time. I know it's hard sweetie.. Let us walk you back to your car at least."

Why, why was she the sweetest woman ever? I didn't drive here.. there was no car to walk me back to! I had a monster loose on the rooftops above us and a werewolf in the alley nearby probably listening in on us.

"I uhh.. didn't drive here."

That caught both of them off guard. An exchanged glance between them told me I was already digging myself into a deeper hole.

"What do you mean you didn't drive dude..? How did you get here then?"

On the werewolf express.

"Oh I umm.. Took the bus."

"Not once have you ever taken a bus." James was having none of it.

"That's not true, I've taken the bus at the airport. Or when we took that trip to Atlanta."

"What's going on Connor? It's okay, you can tell us.." Joelle touched my shoulder as I began to panic.

"Nothing, nothing.. I'm fine I just uhh.."

James cut me off, moving in next to his girlfriend to pat at my arm, "We're worried about you man, you're grieving right now but.. every time I have seen you in the past couple days you're hurt. Like.. bleeding hurt."

Joelle was rubbing my back and holding onto me, I realized I wasn't getting out of this.. Woe is me, I had friends who cared. And I was shit at lying on the spot. I couldn't tell them the truth, they'd think I was crazy. Both of them had me in a hug now as I stood there at a loss for words. My eyes were wet, it took me a minute to realize.. but having them truly worried and caring, trying to make sure I was okay during a rough time got me a bit emotional. Even as I tried to clear my head and think of a way out. James looked me in the eyes.. but then his gaze slid past me, looking behind my head.

"What.. is that?"