Chapter 18: Esme's Playground

Esme narrowed her eyes at the dark alleyway and started walking past Freddie's bar, pulling her hood up once more. Following the scent, she picked up her pace, glancing at the rooftops as she did so until the smell started curving towards another alley. She stopped and leaned up against the wall, moving her head around, so only her eyes were on display. Her muscles were tense in anticipation, but her heartbeat was steady.

It was clear; she stepped out and continued down the narrow alleyways until they opened out onto the high street once more, revealing the clean pavements and streetlights. She halted just before the lighting showed her features, sticking to the wall and observing the quiet street.

"They are trying to draw us out in the open," Isana said quietly, her focus was shifting onto what to do next. Esme agreed with her, and instead of going into the street like this werewolf probably wanted, she ran to the opposite wall, jumped and pushed off with her foot and grabbed at the metal staircase that seemed to stop mid-air.

So much for a fire exit.

Esme climbed the stairs and hopped onto the balcony next to an apartment's window, jumping up again before the tenant noticed her. She climbed the ladder from the last level of the building until she was atop the rooftop. She stared down at the streets below. The air was chillier there, the wind biting her face and pushing strands of her hair away from her eyes.

The she-wolf inhaled, smelling the faint smell of the other werewolf, it wasn't as strong because of where Esme was standing, but as she walked across the rooftop, she could still tell the direction it was going. She leaned her head over to look at the pavement. They walked down the high street, so they couldn't be in their wolf form.

"Hmm, it's growing fainter," Isana said quietly. Esme looked ahead at how the buildings started to grow taller but curved around, and she could see a route for her to get to the other side of the road while staying in the darkness of night.

She knew it was a lot of effort, but hey, she hadn't done any free running in a while. Might as well have some fun while locating this possible threat.

Esme sprinted towards the edge and leapt onto another building, not breaking her speed as she continued to smell the air and survey the area. She jumped off the building but misjudged the distance due to not looking ahead but at a shadow of a figure in an alley on the other side of the road. Luckily there were traffic lights on this new street, and she landed gracefully on top of them, balancing on one leg, her arms raised by her sides.

"So much for keeping to the shadows.." Isana murmured with a low growl at her frustrations.

Esme side flipped into the road, sprinted towards the side of a skyscraper, and started to climb up the side of it. Her fingers gripped onto the fiftieth-floor windowsill before pulling herself up and turning to look out at the city below her feet. Even though she was on a mission to find another rogue, she couldn't help but take in the view, the city's lights glowing like fireflies in a forest. There was a calmness to the quiet city night; it called to her, almost silencing the demons that she shouldered.

"Are you forgetting about that figure in the alley?" Isana barked, jolting Esme out of her moment of odd relaxation. She gripped the side of the building and clutched her chest, where her heart pounded rapidly. She wasn't one scared of heights, but even she could die from this distance to the ground if she fell.

"Stop being dramatic. We need to find that wolf!"

With her wolf's command, she climbed up to a rooftop terrace, ensuring her face was down and away from any possible CCTV cameras. She hopped up onto the glass balcony edge.

"Hey! Stop!" Esme turned her head slightly, avoiding the torchlight beaming on her shoulder. There running towards her, was a security guard. "Don't jump!"

Ah, if only he saw what she did two years ago..

With that thought, Esme faced the guard and raised her hands from her sides and let herself fall backwards, guiltily feeling bad for the human who reached out for her, his heart racing as she could only imagine his thought process. Her body flew back until she could see the approaching ground, her hands above her like she was about to dive into water.

But for a brief moment, everything seemed to pause mid-air, and she felt her body relax. The wind caressed her face, the exhilaration of falling from a height flourishing her body, welcoming her into a blissful state.

She felt free. Free from everything plaguing her mind.

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Flickers of her past flashed before her, and the moment she stepped off that cliff, it was the same euphoric feeling.

Esme released her breath and reached her hand out at the approaching wired rope. Clutching it, she swung forwards into a somersault, landing on the yellow crane next to the skyscraper. The force behind her sent her into a roly-poly before she pushed up to her feet again.

"Shitting hell, that was amazing… Bloody kids and their parkour! If I get a heart attack, it's on you, kid!" The security guard shouted thirty floors above her. No human would hear him, but with her senses, she could. "At least she wasn't a jumper."

"Poor guy," Isana and Esme muttered at the same time before she ran across the slightly slippery bars of the crane and leapt forwards onto another rooftop, sliding down the tiles on her bottom until she reached the end and jumped, landing on another building across an alley. Esme stopped and crouched down, searching her surroundings now that the smell was more potent.

Following the scent along the rooftops, she found herself getting further away from the city lights again and crossing into the dark alleys. At least being on high ground, she could see all angles of everything. Esme halted after something flashed out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned her head to look, there was nothing there. With narrowed eyes, she slowly turned her head back to the front after hearing the sounds of voices.

"Do you think that was a vampire?" Esme whispered to her wolf.

"Possibly. Maybe they're curious about the new wolves in town," Isana mused. It was strange they didn't feel threatened by the possible vampire nearby but the rogue or rogues.

Esme suddenly dropped onto her stomach and held her breath. There were four rogues in human form, three males and a small female gathered. She could clearly see two of the males and the female, but the last male kept his hood up and a scarf covering half his face.

".. the Hellhounds."

Esme missed the first part of what they said, but she tensed at the name Hellhounds. Why were they talking about the secret rogue organisation?

Two of the males started squaring up to each other, and the woman dashed off down the alley. Whereas the other male who kept his hood up dashed down another path. Well, they obviously weren't mates, and if she wasn't a strong wolf, it was better for her to find shelter than get in between two angry werewolves.

Although rogues were technically known as the weakest of all werewolves, it generally wasn't true. Unless you were born a rogue or thrown out of a pack for being a runt, the other werewolves used to belong in a pack. This meant they weren't weak. Some were even ex Alpha's and Beta's who lost their role, and instead of being killed, they were banished as rogues. But there was also something else rogues were known for, and that was-

"I told you not to lose her scent, brother." The larger of the two men swiped his black claws across his brother's neck, spurting blood down his throat.

Rogues were known as being callous and barbaric.

Esme pursed her lips as the man dropped to his knees, clasping at his throat. Esme didn't care too much about rogues having such a reputation. Rogues didn't have packs to help them survive, they didn't have luxuries, and if they weren't killed for sport by either hunters or some pack, then they were lucky.

A wolf's instinct becomes paramount to surviving. Along with fleeing areas, they also came across wolves wanting to kill them, and sometimes that meant the rogue brutally killing the pack member, leaving behind a gruesome horror story. But she wouldn't lie, there were rogues who went on killing sprees to packs and vampires, or if they were particularly skilful, then they would be taken in by the Hellhounds.

But sometimes, a rogue or a regular pack member would merge with their wolf and, in the end, lose control over their mind and body. These were type 1 rogues; they stayed in their wolf form 99% of the time; they would hunt animals, people, women and children; it didn't matter; all that mattered was surviving in the wild. Esme and the brutes in the alley were type 2 rogues, still healthy and not going feral.

Esme watched on as the kneeling man stood back up, then tensed and swivelled her head back at the sound of a phone ringing. It wasn't even her phone! What the hell!? She looked back at the alley, and the men were gone.

Shit!

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