giles took me to the warehouse where the timberwolves were keeping eric and henry. there were only two other timberwolves there, and i recognized both of them: melanie hector and rainer kavinsky. they were each sitting on chairs in opposite corners. there were two men, presumably henry and eric, tied up in chairs at the center of the room.
melanie stood when she saw the two of us. "giles," she said, "who might this be?"
"oh, just a friend of mine." he took out a knife and advanced forward.
her eyes narrowed. "well, rainer, it seems we've finally gotten the chance for a proper fight."
rainer stood up and threw a punch at giles. he sidestepped and stabbed the knife into rainer's shoulder. giles drew the knife out, and rainer stumbled back and pressed up against the wall.
"so," melanie said to me, a knife in her hand, "you are asher lyall."
"what gave you that impression?" i asked, circling her with a knife of my own.
"call it an educated guess."
she extended a leg and tried to sweep mine out from under me, but i dodged backwards and threw the knife at her. it landed in her leg. i'd been aiming for her chest, but the leg was fine too.
i heard laughter from behind and felt something like a punch hit me in the back. it was only when i felt blood trickle down my spine that i realized i'd been stabbed.
"i suppose you must find it less than agreeable to be on the other end of deception," melanie's voice said from behind me. she placed what must have been her boot on my back and shoved, sending me sprawling forward onto the floor.
and in an instant she was standing in front of me once again. i looked to see how giles was doing. he was bleeding from the nose and exchanging blows with rainer.
i tried to get up and help giles, but melanie placed her boot firmly on the back of my head.
"not this time, little fox," she said. "this is the traitor's fight, not yours."
i heard ropes snapping. melanie's boot lifted from my head, and as i looked up at her, i saw that she was running towards the center of the room. while melanie had been taunting me, giles had gotten rainer on the floor long enough to cut henry's ropes.
giles handed the knife to henry. as henry cut eric's ropes, giles turned to melanie and punched her square in the nose.
melanie wiped the blood from her face with the sleeve of her jacket and backed up next to rainer, who had stood up again.
henry and eric fought with melanie and rainer, but i wasn't paying a lot of attention. i was too busy watching giles run to my side and outstretch his hand, lifting me to my feet. i tried to run to melanie and try to stab her, but my back wound was bleeding out, and i was starting to get lightheaded.
"you got any bandages?" i asked giles as i sat down in one of the chairs in the middle of the room.
he knelt down in front of me and cut away several pieces of my shirt with his knife, removing enough to give him access to my wound and using another piece of fabric as a makeshift bandage to keep it from bleeding out once he'd cleaned it with some water he'd had in a canteen specifically for this purpose (boy scout).
i didn't see much of what happened to melanie and rainer after that. i was too busy focusing on not falling unconscious. i caught snatches, though- rainer punching henry, eric punching rainer, melanie starting to walk towards giles and me with a knife in her hand before eric threw her to the ground.
from what i did see, henry and eric fought well. eric, as noted, restrained melanie, and that left henry to dodge rainer's punches and keep his attention on himself while giles treated me. after that, we rejoined the fray.
as you can probably tell from the fact that i'm still alive, we won in the end. we didn't kill rainer or melanie- henry was very insistent on that point- but we did tie them up the same way they'd tied up henry and eric. just as a little bit of poetry, i suppose, before the timberwolves inevitably find them and realize what happened.
i don't know what will happen now. all i know is that giles and i are finally together again, and for now, at least, we're okay.