It was almost dawn.

  I had left Dominic and Gemini with more information than I thought I would get. I now had some names, and I had faces on another of those names. Dominic and Gemini hadn’t been that pleased with giving me the info without them having a hold on me. They had also tried to follow me. I lost them after about an hour of cat and mouse games. At least, I hoped so.

  Trying to make sense of things, I was just walking around trying to act normal and scanning the neighborhood for a tail or anyone paying too much attention.

  It had been fun running like hell through the dark alleys and sneaking thought the streets, trying to avoid Dominic and Gemini. They were good, and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I had lost them, but there was no sign of them for several minutes, so perhaps they had lost the trail. I didn’t sense Gemini’s or Dominic’s power echo, or whatever it was I felt, anywhere. Perhaps power imprint was a good way to explain it? Nah, not really, but it would have to do.

  I had followed the river south, from the coffee shop, going parallel with Kennedy. I switched direction after a couple of miles and was going along West Armitage. I would have to see if I could find a spot to sit tight and see if I still had a tail. No need to lead them to Dimitri. He wouldn’t thank me for blowing his cover.

  There was no honor among thieves, but there were rules. Those who broke the rules tended to wind up dead. Or they were out to kill you when they broke the rules. If you got away with it, you were brilliant, if you didn’t, you were dead. If you couldn’t pay in other ways than with your life.

  I hadn’t seen Wilson since meeting Gemini, and that was a blessing in and of itself, but I had a feeling that he was close by. Dimitri might get angry for leading some bad asses to his place, but he would become a raving lunatic if I showed up with the cops on my tail. And he wasn’t all that sane to begin with.

  I was going to need a diversion of some kind.

  There was a high probability that I would be dead in a week or two. It wasn’t really anything that made me feel sad or angry. It was just the way things had played out. The only thing that really kept me going was that I could not let Tony’s murder go unpunished.

  With a little luck Dimitri would still be up, and Sergei and the psycho-bunch would be in bed sleeping like good little psychos.

  I rarely had anything to do with the Russian Mafia. Unfortunately, there were times when I had to, and Dimitri tended to be the most stable of that bunch in Chicago. He was almost civilized, probably because he wasn’t former KGB, FSB, GRU, or Russian army; he was a former civil servant of the Soviet Health Department. Not the real department, but the branch that made biological and chemical weapons.

  Usually, the way to handle guys like Dimitri was to use superior something, like weapons, strength, backup, viciousness, violence, and so on. They respected force and power, but not much else. Before I had only dealt with them when Silvio or someone else high up needed someone to bring a message, one that was legal on the surface.

  I have walked the gray areas of the law before and doing jobs for the syndicates, but never any of the really illegal stuff. I have done nothing for the organizations that in itself would have gotten me brought up on charges. Well, that was lie. I had in my capacity as a bodyguard both beaten people up more than I should, and I had blackmailed a few to back off permanently. I had also stolen things and done some corporate espionage. For not being on being on the inside, I knew way more than enough about the workings of the Organizations. This was a world where I was known. Both by cops and crooks. If you move in the wrong circles, you would get burned. One way or another.

  I have never been lily-white. I never tried to portrait myself as that either. Not much point to it with my background. I had done enough things on my own account that would land me some jail-time if I ever was brought up on charges and convicted. Thought that would imply some proof, and there was none of that anywhere. I had made sure of that.

  I lost my “justice is enough” attitude as soon as I realized that justice had very little to do with law and order. Money walks, so to speak. I had seen enough people buying themselves out of justice many times, and that didn’t even include the mob connections I had.

  Going to Dimitri with no real back-up could be hazardous to one’s health. I needed to make sure he wasn’t taking my contract or holding it for some amateur. Dimitri happened to control about eighty percent of the freelancers around the great lakes. I needed him to put out the word that trying to cash my contract was a big no-no. That was if I could convince Dimitri.

  I would probably have to threaten him, his family, his horses, and his son’s hamster to get what I wanted. Then I would praise his wisdom and do some real sucking-up before I left. But if Sergei and his little psycho-ward were around I would probably have to do some serious damage to them before we got to negotiations, since they were on Dimitri’s pay-roll and they were his bodyguards.

  If I ever went over to the dark side the first thing I would do was to kill Sergei and his bunch straight off! Those guys were sociopaths, psychopaths and every other “paths” you can find in a dictionary. And they enjoyed it. No, they loved it. They killed and tortured with the same pleasure you would feel having sex. Come to think of it, sex didn’t even come close to what they say it felt like. They liked to brag, and I despised that.

  I felt uneasy. Like someone was watching me or like I was followed. I felt it in my gut that there was someone close by. I started jogging and weaving through the narrow paths between the houses. If they wanted to catch me, they would have to work for it. Hard.

  I could hear a couple arguing some houses away, as I jogged down a street. Maybe not as much arguing as shouting, and none of PG either. The man seemed to be your regular asshole, threatening, slamming his hand in the wood-work and threatening to kill her. I hate guys like that. Men are the weaker sex. Just look how the talk about respect and what a man’s role is. Some feel like they must have someone they can control so that they don’t feel like they are the runt of the litter. There are idiots that need to feel that there is someone below them in the pecking order.

  I tried to block out the shouting. The woman was obviously a little drunk, slurring one dread comment after the other. She had exquisite weapons for cutting up the man’s ego in small pieces. Small dick, lousy in bed, poor, shitty car, drunken good-for-nothing bastard, unemployed, fat and lazy, bad smelling, and snoring on top of all that. Ouch!

  Then I heard a taser accompanied by the man’s shriek of pain.

  It looked like I wouldn’t have to interfere.

  The situation was quite funny. It almost made me forget. Almost, but not quite. I still felt like I had no direction.

  After meeting with Dominic and Gemini I had felt more lost than ever. I had stubbornly kept thinking that Freaky Fred was something odd and, well, freaky, but I realized that it wasn’t some isolated case. Perhaps not common, but not that rare either. There was so much I didn’t know and that there wasn’t just weres out there. I understood that reality included a bit more than I had previously believed.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  It made me angry. More than angry. Rage and hate boiled just under the surface. It made me want to kill something. Anything.

  Not a healthy outlook.

  The anger didn't feel wholly mine somehow. My new abilities and instincts fueled the rage. The rage wanted me to let go. It would be good to let go, or so my new instincts tried to tell me. I knew it would be a very bad idea.

  The problem was that my instincts were also right. I was cautious by nature, sometimes too cautious, and I hadn’t time to be cautious about anything. At the same time, I would hate to lose a real good chance to avenge Tony just because I did something stupid.

  Maybe it was time to just go with the flow and trust my intuition. Time to ignore all the death threats and try not to go around stating “I don’t give a shit!” when I really did. I did give I shit, I just didn’t think it would make a difference.

  Oh, what the hell, maybe it was time to loosen up and do some real damage.

  The feeling of being watched was getting stronger, so I started running, careful to only run like a fast human, scanning for a place to hide. I ran across some yards and over to another street. At the nearest corner stood a car wreck with all its windows broken. It was tagged and almost ripped to pieces.

  With a casual backward glance, I ran straight for it and dove into the backseat of the wreck. It smelled like garbage, but not as bad as it could have been. There was no smell of piss.

  Perhaps half a minute later a car came driving like mad down the street and behind the wheel was Wilson. With him were Alfa-Alfa and T-Bone looking scared. I had named them that after a long consideration, trying to find the movie or sitcom character that matched them the best. They did look like them somehow.

  Wilson would have to be Boris Karloff in the Mummy, but with less bandages. I laughed to myself as they disappeared down the street.

  Nice police, go away!

  With Wilson driving around actively looking for me, I decided not to go to Dimitri’s place. The man had a knack for finding me, so I thought it best to back off a bit. There were too many dogs on my tail. It would be stupid to let everyone see what I was doing. Too many interested parties. I had the cops, Dominic and Gemini, other crazy supernaturals, and amateur and professional hitters alike after me. And I was a hundred percent sure that Dimitri wanted to try and cash in as well. It was open season now, since the twenty-four-hour limit had run out. Silvio had bought me some time and good old Murphy had bought me even more, much to my surprise. But I couldn't continue to count on my enemies fucking up all the time.

  I didn’t feel like a happy camper. Maybe I had never been one, but this was getting ridiculous. I had just about everyone after me but the NSA and the CIA, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they were gunning after me as well.

  Most Wanted, here I come!

  I gave up on meeting Dimitri. Too many assholes too close to me for it to be practical. I was heading home. Time to get some sleep, and perhaps I would actually wake up early enough to see the sun for a change.

  I crawled into my apartment through the sewer entrance like a sack of potatoes. I really had to make that entrance bigger. It was positively undignified to slither through like this every time I used the entrance. Like some slug returning from the sewers.

  I thanked my lucky star that Freaky Fred hadn’t been a Zombie or something else revolting. I could just imagine myself running around with my arms outstretched gurgling “uuurrgghhhh” and dropping body parts all over the place.

  I had noticed that my normally pretty glum outlook on life had changed. I wasn’t so pessimistic anymore. To tell the truth, I was downright yuckily optimistic nowadays – and that really wasn’t me. It wasn’t me at all.

  I realized that what happened hadn’t just changed my body, but my mental outlook as well. Things that I was particular about before, like safety and not becoming injured, was just unimportant now. Maybe not unimportant, but to ignore those things was fun.

  Well, if I have to go, I might as well have fun. Right?

  I didn’t answer myself. There was no need. I already knew that I was going to have a lot of “fun” for the rest of my life, as short as it would be.

  I gathered my thoughts and tried to calm down. Running and jumping around all over the city had released some tension, but I still had to get some real leads and do some research. How the hell did you kill werewolves? I got lucky the first time, that was certain, because Freaky Fred got sloppy. And now I was all that Freaky Fred once had been. Minus the personality deficiency, of course. I mean I just couldn’t go around with long leather coats, clucking to myself and killing people for fun. I had some standards after all.

  As I calmed down, I noticed Gemini’s presence on the upper floor. In my home! Inside the walls of my fucking home!

  The rage came back with a vengeance. This was my place! No one –and I meant no one! – entered my home without permission.

  I ran flat out, jumped over the workbenches and almost flew up the spiral staircase. I flung myself at her – and I knew exactly where she was.

  My kick connected and sent her into the wall with enough force that made pieces of the wall fall to the floor. I followed through with vicious right hook that sent her into another wall. I wasn’t afraid that I would kill her. She was much too tough for that.

  If I thought that would keep her down, I was dead wrong. She flew at me. And I really mean flew, with a speed that more than matched mine, and I managed to block the first punch. But the kick that followed was a good payback for both my hits and it hurt like a bitch, but there was no way I was giving up. She had kicked me straight across the room. I managed to land in a crouch I was running as soon as I hit the floor.

  If she thought she could sneak up on me in my own place, I’d nail her to the wall. Gemini came at me again. Her face was blank and she showed no emotions. I knew she was good, but I hadn’t really realized how good. But I was no novice either.

  Her small frame produced incredible speed and power, but I had trained with people faster and stronger than me and knew that bulk could rob speed and power of its advantages in close contact. Even strength and skill could be overcome by a good lock.

  I closed the distance between us and locked Gemini’s arms. Then I head-butted her as hard as I could. I heard her nose crunch. The impact hurt me as well, but she didn’t even grunt. “You think you can come here and sneak up on me?” I growled, anger rising like a volcano. “If you ever want to talk to me again, you get the fuck out of here and knock on the door. I will not have you popping in whenever you like. This is my place! My place!”

  I threw Gemini into another wall.

  “You’d throw away your only source of information for this?” She spat. The scent of her blood almost drove me mad.

  “I could kill you for this!” I growled and showed teeth. ”Get the fuck out! And knock if you want to visit, or never come back again!” I knew I was a bit irrational, but it the anger I felt was burning inside me. This was my place! Mine! Everything inside me demanded that I held fast.

  “My god, you’re an alpha, aren’t you?” Gemini asked and spat some more blood on the floor.

  The sight and smell of the blood exited me. It coursed through my body like electricity. I got some very disturbed signals from my body after the fight. It exited me more than I cared to admit.

  I pointed at the door and growled low. I tried to convey that I would go for a kill if she stayed without an invitation. It felt right. This was something that must be inviolate in every way. For me this was life or death.

  Funny how things can change. Going from glum moody quiet person to a raving lunatic that wanted to fight to the death over small things. But this just felt important, life-and-death important, and that was good enough for me right now.

  Gemini floated outside. There’s no other way I can describe how she moved. The smooth harnessed power showed in every movement. She was showing me that she was more dangerous than I knew, not that she had to of course. I was well aware of how lethal she was. The problem was I had no idea what she was.

  Deadly? Certainly.

  Gorgeous? Oh God, yes!

  A killer? Most definitely.

  Did it matter? Not one damn bit!

  But even though I understood and sensed these things, I couldn’t say what kind of supernatural she was. I was going from skeptic to believer very fast. I just couldn’t tell myself that I was crazy anymore.

  After perhaps a minute, there was a knock on the door. I grinned to myself; she had probably changed her mind from leaving without talking to me. I was sure she had decided to leave at first, but something made her come back. Whatever it was, it wasn’t my charm.

  “Come in,” I called pleasantly. No need to be rude, right?