Free Souljacker by Kodilynn Calhoun

abandoned rail station, where the
majority of the large Rogan City Pack is gathered, little blue dots
on a map.
    Raziel and Sariel greet me with slight tail
wags. I drop my head as Lylan stares at me, reminding me of the
chip embedded deep inside my neck. Warning me to tread lightly
while he’s still angry. I drop back and watch in silence as he
changes and addresses the Pack with his human voice, bold and
strong, just like always. His hands are clasped behind his back as
he paces back and forth.
    “Our queen wants us to investigate another
power surge in East Loren. She gave the warning that the creature
we’re after might be dangerous. We need to be alert and ready. If
we find the creature, we’re to detain it and bring it back to our
queen, unharmed. Understood?”
    The Pack breaks into a chorus of howls and
yips. I stay silent—I’ve only ever heard tales of hunts like these
from the older hounds. Raziel and I are just now past our
initiation. I glance over to Raz to find he’s grinning like a
maniac. He’s been waiting all of his life for this moment. But I
feel a coil of nerves.
    Lylan grins, the flicker of his hound form
taking over. He throws his head back with a yowl and takes off
thundering across the gravel, headed east. Excitement bubbles
through the Pack, zinging off their pelts as they race after him,
bumping shoulders and nipping at each other. I pull up the rear at
a quick trot, dread welling in my stomach. I just have a bad gut
feeling about all of this and my gut is typically right.
    We slide through the forest, the only sounds
being our footfalls and pants as we careen down the hill and
through a field. The grasses tickle the backs of my legs and I want
to stop and roll for a minute, to ease the painful fist around my
heart. Normally, Lylan’s so wrapped up in duty that he wouldn’t
notice if one of his lesser hounds was MIA, but I have the feeling
that with the circumstances, he’d kick my ass just for the fun of
it.
    Sariel swings around, bumping against my
flank. I growl at him, but it peters out in a moment. His too-blue
eye is knowing. He sympathizes with me, about the Shockchip, about
Lucy. I drop my head and turn away from him.
    I can’t think about her right now, but it’s
so hard not to. She really is a virus, burned deep inside of me. I
hear her laugh, low and sultry, without even thinking about it. I
pin my ears and push harder.
    The Pack moves in unison, our legs pumping,
tongues lolling out of our mouths as we run. Loren is a massive
city of steel and magic, but we move right through it. The people
of Loren look nervous, as if we’re reapers coming to end their
lives, big black hounds with gleaming metal parts.
    I hear a woman give a small whimper, cradling
her toddler close to her. The toddler looks at me—straight into my
soul, an angel sent from heaven—and I wish I could stop and
reassure her that everything is fine.
    But it’s not fine. I don’t even know what
fine is anymore.
    Lylan stops, his body rigid. I ease to the
edge of the Pack, taking in our surroundings: Brick buildings with
graffiti tags scrawled across their faces, bullet-hole windows and
doors boarded up. A homeless man with ebony skin is leaning against
a building, watching us with a look of wonder on his face as his
cigar burns slowly into the clouds.
    But what catches my eye is the girl. She
stands in the street, young and bony. Her knees and elbows seem
especially pointy, and so does her expression. She’s wearing a
monster’s snarl, lips peeled away from flat human teeth, her eyes
so winter pale that I don’t see a pupil in their depths. Her hair
is tangled around her face in brown snarls.
    The transmission beeps in my head and I hear
Lylan’s voice, low and ready. “This is it. This is the creature our
queen wants.”
    What? My stomach sinks. That little girl? She
can’t be more than thirteen. What about her parents? How can she
possibly be dangerous? I glance to Sariel, but his expression