I did not have this on my bingo card for this case. 

Titus’ mind went blank for about half a second, then rushed to fill again with all the things he knew about Garmr. Admittedly, it wasn’t much. They were incredibly rare, so very few studies had been done. About 1 in every 1000 individuals was born a Lyco, the result of genetic mutation and some other complicated factors that Titus didn’t entirely comprehend. But out of those born Lyco, about 1 in every 100,000 individuals expressed as a Garmr. So doing some really rough math, Titus realized Beau was one of only about 80 Garmr in the entire world. 

But it explained so much. His incredible senses of smell and hearing, for one. Not to mention his physical strength and speed. And the heightened allergy to silver, because Titus had never before today seen a Lyco that broke out in full body hives when exposed to the metal. Most often, they experienced a localized rash or reddening of the skin, and only when in direct, extended contact with it. Garmr were reportedly also able to assume a full lupine shape, though Titus had no idea if the moon had any effect on that. And the idea of it being a contractible disease had long since been discredited; the genetic component simply didn’t spread like that.

Some theorized the Garmr as the ubermensch of Lyco evolution, as they had many traits that seemed superior to their more common brethren. But Titus didn’t subscribe to that line of thought. To him, they felt more like a mythical beast of legend rather than the pinnacle of a genetic lottery. Except, they apparently were neither myth nor legend. Because there was one standing right in front of his eyes on the sidewalk, actively trying to contain a shapeshift.

“I have so many questions,” Titus muttered. “That’s going to have to wait, though, because there is entirely too much going on right now. As much as I’d love to have a full ass conversation with you about this, we’ve got more pressing matters to attend to. And the first of those is that I need you to get the fuck out of here, Beau. I know you want to go in after your sibling, but I can’t have you here as a civilian on the scene of a law enforcement raid. Please, Beau. Go back to your car and go home. I swear to you that I’ll stay here and help get Danni out of there. But I will catch so much hell if I turn a blind eye and let you go haring off on some vigilante crusade right now.”

Beau was so openly torn. His face, even contorted as it was by his attempts to not shift, clearly showed his distress. Titus didn’t blame him one bit, either. If it had been someone of Titus’ family in there, he’d be having just as much trouble staying back out of the line of fire. But maybe there was another way to convince Beau to leave.

“Does Ky know you’re Garmr?” The flinch Beau gave was answer enough. Titus dragged a hand down his face before speaking more. “Look. I get it. You don’t want people to know. I wouldn’t want it to get out, either; I’ve seen the news of what happens when a Garmr is exposed. You’d get no peace in the resulting media circus and every human within a hundred mile radius would wonder if you were going to go berserk every full moon. The bigotry and fear mongering would increase exponentially. But you’re already having trouble with the stress and the silver. If you go in there, are you honestly going to be able to control yourself?”

In that moment, Titus fucking hated himself. He absolutely hated that he was smashing Beau over the head with this. The misery on Beau’s face as he crumbled beneath the reality of the situation made Titus feel like absolute shit. “Just bring them home,” Beau croaked out, clearly holding himself back from bawling. “ Please. Bring Danni home. And then, I’ll answer whatever questions you have about this.”

“I swear to you on my badge,” Titus promised solemnly.

Beau stood there for a heartbeat more, and Titus could feel by the weight of his gaze that he was looking for any sign of deception. “Okay.” And then the Lyco - the Garmr, Titus mentally corrected - turned on his heel and fled.

And just in time, too. As Titus turned back to the warehouse, wondering where in the hell Ky was with the backup officers, a pea green sedan pulled up to the curb right next to him. “Get in!” Ky hollered from the driver’s seat. “I’ve got a spare vest for you in the back! The boys’ll be here in sixty!”

“Roger!” Titus acknowledged. Pulling open the rear passenger door, he threw himself into the vehicle and hastily strapped a Kevlar vest on over his clothes. 

“You been watching the group text?” Ky asked as he pulled away from the curb.

“No, been getting Beau out of here. Fill me in.”

“Danni reported the building’s full of alter-humans, locked in cages. Armed perps. They sent a partial live feed, but were attacked; we think the phone hit the concrete and broke.”

Titus let fly a curse laden rant for solid ten seconds. “Beau’s really worried,” he finally informed Ky. “I had a hell of a time getting him out of here.”

“Not surprised. Glad you did, though.” Ky was mostly concentrating on the chatter coming over his radio and watching for the rest of the officers as he circled a nearby city block, so his replies were understandably clipped. “Called in some favors, and got half a dozen black & whites coming in. They’ll take out the fence and we’ll follow them in. We’re running this like a fugitive situation; we’ll have a pair of snipers on a roof, but not much more for cover. Hard as hell to get anyone to care because it’s alter-humans at risk.” Titus heard the frustration layered thickly in Ky’s voice and immediately sympathized.

“Hey, it’s more resources and personnel than I would have gotten back home,” Titus admitted. 

Then the other officers arrived on the scene and everything started happening at once. Two vehicles crashed through the fence from two separate directions, sirens blaring. Ky swung their car in behind the breaching vehicle to the right of the gates. A section of the razor wire scraped along the top of the sedan with a scream of metal on metal that set Titus’ teeth on edge. Seven vehicles screeched to a halt and a dozen officers plus Titus and Ky boiled out like hornets from a kicked nest. Someone punched open the door with a portable ram.

And the officer was immediately mowed down by gunfire.

Titus ducked down behind the open sedan door and watched Ky do the same as bullets pinged off vehicles around them. Two officers managed to advance far enough to flank the door into the warehouse, and one dragged the downed officer clear while the other laid down covering fire. Screams echoed out from inside, making Titus worry for an instant about innocents within getting caught in the crossfire. 

“GO, GO!” someone yelled, and another four officers advanced with their weapons at the ready. 

Titus couldn’t keep up with the chaos. Gunfire chattered and coughed from ahead of his position. He didn’t remember drawing his service pistol, but it was there in his hands all the same. Poking his head around the side of the car door for a moment, he identified that the firefight had moved to just inside the doorway. Nothing about this was safe. But it was safe enough to crouch and sprint for cover behind the next closest vehicle. 

Shouting from up ahead alerted him to another officer down. The light on the outside of the building was more a hindrance to them, so Titus took careful aim and shot it out. A second shot put a bullet into a perp that was framed in the backlit doorway. Return fire had him ducking back behind the vehicle, his heart racing. Another lull in the gunfire, and Titus darted forward to shelter behind the closest vehicle to the warehouse.

He found Ky taking cover behind the same car. “What’s our status?” Titus shouted, trying to get his voice to carry over the noise of the firefight. 

“Three down! Another two wounded! We’re badly outnumbered, about to be overrun!”

Titus felt his eyes go wide. It was really going that badly? He chanced a look over the trunk of the sedan and had to pull back immediately as a bullet skipped off the paint inches from his head. “Dammit! We can’t leave Danni! Beau’ll go nuts!”

“We don’t have a choice! Either we pull back now, or we get slaughtered here!”

This is all my fault, Titus realized. If he hadn’t involved Danni…or asked for Ky's assistance…hell, if he simply hadn’t taken the case in the first place, none of this would have happened. “Okay. Fall back. Get everyone out of here! We’ll regroup and come back with more manpower.” I wonder if I can call in the National Guard or something on this? It was wishful thinking; that wasn’t how any of that worked. But desperation had Titus firmly in its coils.

“Fall back!” Ky screamed, trying to make himself heard. “Get the fuck out of there!”

The world exploded.

Titus found himself lifted into the air and hurled across the parking lot to ragdoll against the asphalt, tumbling and sliding. Metal shrapnel rained down in literal flaming chunks. His ears rang loud even as every other sound was muted into incoherence. Something landed on his leg with a crunch that he felt all the way into his hip and he screamed at the pain of it, curling into himself. Then something else skipped off the ground and slammed into the back of his head, and Titus’ world went dark.