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“We’re powerful and mighty werewolves. How would they stop us?” Even as I asked the question, I eyed another puff of vapor in front of the eyes of a nearby bug. For a few seconds, I thought I caught a sweet odor that didn’t fit in with the pervasive floral, mushroom, and chemical scents.

“Maybe we should have brought your SCUBA equipment, so we wouldn’t have had to breathe the air in here,” I said.

“I did notice they’re emitting… something.” Duncan sniffed. “Abrams’s scent is down here, even stronger than above.”

I struggled to pick out the odor of a human above everything else but couldn’t and took his word for it. Not only did he have keener senses than I did, but he knew Abrams well.

Duncan took a few steps, trying to skirt the main horde of bugs—or would it be a swarm ?—to reach the door he’d indicated. Why he wanted to enter that one over the others, I didn’t know, but I could sense magic behind it.

The also-magical bugs shifted to block him.

He stopped. “Hm.”

“What do you think happens if you step on one?” I walked around the core of the mass. Maybe one of us could reach that door while the bugs were focused on the other.

“They look sturdy. It might take you for a ride.” Duncan walked around the other side of the mass, angling for the door.

A hint of whirring joined the tinks as the creatures shifted about. Several moved to block the door before Duncan reached it. They formed a distinct barrier, shifting together when he tried to step around them. A couple opened and closed their orifices, and that tinge of sweetness grew stronger.

The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I caught myself backing away. My instincts told me we didn’t want to inhale a lot of that vapor.

“They’ve got some intelligence about them, don’t they?” Duncan paused his advance again. He sounded like he’d reached the same conclusion about the vapor and was trying not to breathe deeply.

“For chunks of metal without heads, yeah.”

They hadn’t attacked yet, but the blood flowing through my veins was tingling as heat flushed my skin. My magic promised the wolf was available if I wanted to change.

Did I? In my lupine form, I couldn’t open doors, and the thought of gnashing down on metal carapaces held no appeal.

I rubbed my thumb over the grenade in my hand, thinking that might be the more appropriate weapon here.

But Duncan’s warning came to mind, and I eyed the barrels as well as the ceiling.

The visible metal support beams appeared sturdy, but there was a lot of weight in the cement walls on the floors above.

Duncan backed away from the swarm, circled a few barrels and vats, and walked toward another door. Looking over his shoulder, he watched the metal bugs. When he approached the door, they didn’t move.

“Good try.” I assumed he’d thought he might lure them away so I could get into the first door.

“There might not be anything important in this one.” It wasn’t locked, and Duncan opened it to peek in. “It’s a supply closet larger than my whole van.”

“Your van isn’t that large.”

“It’s a reasonably sized space.” He stepped into the closet and shined his light on shelves filled with canned and dehydrated food.

“You can’t tell me you don’t long for more room for your treasure-hunting equipment.”

“Well everyone longs for more room for that. Creamed corn? These look more like supplies for a fall-out shelter than ingredients for magical recipes.”

“You don’t think Rue puts that in her wart-infliction potion?”

“She doesn’t have any corn hanging in twists from her ceiling.” Again eyeing the bugs, Duncan walked to another door.

This time, a few moved, but they didn’t rush to block it. When Duncan opened it, out floated strong scents of dried herbs, flowers, and was that a hint of moss? He stood in the doorway, looking upon tables and counters.

“A laboratory?” he mused. “Abrams’s scent is even stronger in here.”

“You think it’s where he does his… what work is it exactly that he does? Besides cloning old-world werewolves?”

“Research. Or so he always told me.” Duncan walked inside.

A couple of bugs skittered after him.

“You’re being followed,” I warned him as he investigated the laboratory.

“I see that.” He disappeared from view. Thumps and clanks drifted out as he opened what sounded like metal drawers and cabinets.

The bugs trailed him around the room. Why did I have a feeling they had cameras and the ability to record?

With several of the swarm facing the laboratory, seemingly distracted by Duncan, I tried to get to the first door.

But the ones that had remained to guard it rotated toward me. The red eyes of one flared, and its orifice opened. A denser cloud of vapor than I’d yet seen wafted out.

I backed away, the sweet scent strong in the air. Too bad there weren’t windows down here that one could open.

A numbness crept up from the ends of my fingers and into my arms. And did my eyelids feel heavy? Or was that my imagination? That vapor could be something that would knock us out.

“There are some magical tools in here,” Duncan called.

“Any swords?”

“Not that I’ve seen. It might not be here.”

“That would be annoying. I didn’t come all the way up here just to see the sights. The bizarre multi-legged, robot-bug sights.”

More tinks sounded as they shuffled around.

“I thought you came to find a way to lift my curse,” Duncan said.

“I did. Have you found it yet?” I eyed the blocked door.

Though there were probably some artifacts in the laboratory, the greatest concentration of magic that I sensed came from beyond this door.

Something back there even felt familiar, though I couldn’t identify the aura with any certainty.

Still, the memory of being in Radomir and Abrams’s office with numerous artifacts lined up on the desk came to me.

“I haven’t.” Duncan stepped into view in the doorway. “These magical needle-nosed pliers are somewhat intriguing though.” He held up the tool, the tips glowing a slight blue.

“I could use a new pair,” I said, “but I suppose we should only take what’s been taken from us.”

“Your tenants might be alarmed if you came to repair their faucets with glowing tools.”

“That is true. Though the ghost hunters might be delighted.”

Duncan walked toward the back of the swarm, again eyeing the one door we’d been denied access to. He rubbed the tips of his fingers together.

“Are they numb?” I asked.

He lowered his hand. “Tingling, yes.”

“I think it’s that gas or vapor or whatever you’d call it. I don’t advise breathing it.”

“I think you’re right.” Duncan withdrew a grenade. “I’m aching to see what’s in that room.”

“You advised me against hurling explosives in a basement.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“If the bugs have reservoirs of that gas in their bellies, blowing them up might not be a good idea either.”

“That’s a good point. Maybe I can get them to chase me, and you can check out that room.”

“They’re not dogs, and you don’t have a raw steak in your back pocket.”

“No, but, oh!” Duncan snapped his fingers and jogged back into the laboratory.

Soon, the roar of a jet engine came from within, and I raised my eyebrows.

“Ventilation fan,” he called.

“You think it’s powerful enough to suck vapors all the way from in here?”

“We’ll punt the bugs in there if we have to. I know there’s something worth seeing in that other room.” Jaw firm, he reappeared and pointed his chin at the door that had been denied to us, then strode toward it.

Once more, the bugs shifted about, clumping together to block his path. He picked one up, looking like he intended to hurl it into the laboratory, but it flashed white, and he dropped it.

“Bloody hell. They’re electrified.”

Numerous orifices opened, and a great puff of vapor clouded the air. Duncan and I were the ones to jog into the laboratory, closing the door behind us. We huddled in front of the noisy industrial fan he’d turned on. The air soon smelled clearer.

“There aren’t any protective suits in here, are there?” I asked.

“Something like your oven mitt but full body?”

I snorted, reminded of all the times I’d used the mitt to pick up the wolf case. “Something more effective than that I’d hope. Like a hazmat suit.”

“I haven’t seen any yet.” Duncan poked into closets and looked in a refrigerator filled with racks of vials with different colored liquids in them.

A couple of the metal bugs clinked around outside the laboratory.

“Obnoxious things.” I looked at the time on my phone, pondering how long it might take for Radomir to send hordes of his thugs up here to check on a breach in the security.

“Quite.” Duncan leaned his hands against a flat section of wall without any cabinets or counters blocking it. It appeared to be made from metal, similar to the door. Sturdy metal. “The room the bugs are denying us access to should be on the other side of this wall.”

“Did you bring a blowtorch?”

“I was hoping you did.”

“I only brought important supplies.” I delved into my pocket and held up an unopened bar of dark chocolate laced with sea salt and dried huckleberries.

“That is important, but it sadly won’t get us through such a sturdy wall.” Duncan thumped the side of his fist on it. It didn’t sound like it was as thick and solid as the exterior walls of the building, but the metal wouldn’t be easily destroyed.

“Could a bipedfuris rip through it?”

“Maybe, but…” Duncan looked grimly at me.

“What?”

“I’ve tried to change a couple of times now, thinking I might be able to destroy those beasties out there faster than they could gas us.”

“And?”

“The power is eluding me. I’m… stuck as a man.”