Burning

Chapter FIFTEEN

"Don't. Don't tell me to sit down." It would be the fourth time someone suggested it within the hour. Matthew lowered his head and stepped back when Chris shrugged off his hand.

"Pacing won't help, you need to try and relax."

He looked around the chaotic lobby. "Like they are?"

Chris was too new to know any of the roamers but the ones that did seemed to have split into two camps- those whose grief immobilized them and those enraged by it. Sheira, flanked by three other high-ranking pack members, had stopped in the lobby long enough to tell them to stay within the lodge and that no details about what happened or who was affected were available yet. It seemed a weird thing to say until he remembered that only apprentices were not allowed leave the lodge grounds in general. Other pack members however might be considering going out to the apartments themselves.

He paused by two pack members, Jun and Walter were openly crying. He knew both of them had struggled to get over leaving a human life. Jun had an infant son when he left, Walter a wife of thirty years. Now it was loss on top of loss. That was true for all of them. Including you. He swallowed. They only had one confirmed name so far. She might be ok. Mariah had always seemed too tough to worry about. There was a devastation on their faces painful to look at. He felt repulsed somehow, a prickling on the back of his neck. He moved on.

Louise was holding court next to the fireplace, her face gone distinctly feral although her tone remained cool. "-just a few years ago. That's why they were trying to set this up. Damned human filth killed six of us that day. It's why we can't live alone anymore."

"The... Defenders of Angels? How have I never heard of them?" Annie's eyes were puffy, her knees pulled up to her chin.

"Because no one ever calls them what they want to be called, we call them what they are." Angela had her hands together and looked down at the carpet. "Right? cult of monsters, church of murders... those work well enough to describe the church built from Mary Demetriou."

At that Annie sat upright.

"Good. I'd hope you'd at least know that name." Louise crossed her arms, disappointed in everyone surrounding her.

"She's... she's the one that killed one of the first alphas outside the lodge, Angelos."

"Her own husband, right?"

Santi was opening and closing his hand around the arm rest. Small tuffs of stuffing clung to his claws. "And their three children. Don't forget them. One of them wasn't even three years old. Cow then turned around and named her cult after him claiming she saved them all from demons."

"She's the reason we break all ties with our caged-lives. You can never trust humans." For some reason Sanjay looked directly at Chris when he said it. He flexed his fingers and turned his attention to Annie again. "I'd eat my own ears if they weren't behind this."

"I don't understand why we can't just kill them at this point."

Chris looked at Santiago in surprise. He'd never heard such venom from him before.

"I'm sure its not from lack of trying. They probably multiple like fleas."

"What about The Flora? What's the point of even having all those specially trained killers if they can't take out a couple humans."

Louise snorted. "None of you would be around to ask those dumb questions without them. Those barbaric canine-borns would have chewed through us all. The Lily had to go toe-to-toe with their Alpha to get Hannah you know."

"So why can't they just let The Lily loose on the humans?"

Louise shrugged. "I'm just a mentor. They don't consult me on these things."