by S T Branton
He stomped again and again as I kept rolling, then finally got into a position to roll another direction and create some space between us. I barely caught my breath and made it to my feet before the assassin was in front of me, his eyes glowing white and his sharp jaw sticking out from the long hair covering his face. The gloved fingers on his outstretched hand reached for my throat, but I dodged and caught him hard in the cheek with a fist.
It was enough to make him stumble. I took advantage of the moment by rushing him, then landed a few more shots to his ribs and finally, an uppercut that should have knocked him into next week.
Instead, he took the shot on his chin, which forced it to rock back, then rolled into place again as if a rubber band controlled it. His expression didn’t change. He still smiled like mad, and the grinning, terrible teeth—far too many teeth—shone in the random, dim light. His eyes glowed a bright white, like LED flashlights stuck in his skull, and there was silence for a moment.
“Well, this has been real, but I’m gonna…” I began, and turned to run. A powerful hand grabbed me by my back and tossed me over my head and careening to the ground.
“You will go nowhere. You will do nothing. Except die,” the slithering, grumbling voice of the assassin said.
“Anybody ever tell you that you talk like an anime character?” I got out before another fist smashed into my jaw and I flew back into a chain-link fence.
From where I was, I could see the bag I brought that contained a couple of goodies Archie had stashed for me. I grabbed my crossbow, which I had dropped when the action got hot. If I could get a bolt and load it, then if worse came to worst, I could fire it, and this might end up being a somewhat fair fight. I stood and turned to dive in the bag’s direction when I heard the assassin snap his fingers. I stopped cold.
In the distance, from where I buried the knife in his chest and emptied the goo that passed for his blood, the vampire goon sat up and turned his head toward me. His eyes now glowed orange. Beyond him, the Kentucky Fried goon also rose. His hair still stood on end, and his throat bore the marks from the glove.
My jaw dropped. I’d never seen anything I put down that hard get up. I’d also never seen anything I killed not only wake up, but also look stronger.
“Waste her,” the assassin grumbled, and the goons pulled out what looked like Uzi machine guns from their jackets. A spray of bullets lit up the ground in front of me, and I dove to grab the bag before high-tailing it back the way I came.
I reloaded the crossbow while thanking every deity I could think of that Archie had given me one with an easy mechanism, then pointed it behind me. I didn’t necessarily need it to hit anything, I only needed them to know I was firing back. I pulled the trigger, and a bolt shot out hard as the recoil jolted my arm.
The bolt exploded in a trash can behind me and sent it barreling through the air and into one of the now-charging vampires. It flung him backward and into the storage container, and he sizzled as the trash can conducted the arrow’s electricity, accidentally making it a larger weapon. I made a mental note that when I got through these guys, I still needed to help whoever was in there.
Dog was behind me, his feet pounding on the concrete as he kept pace while we sprinted back into the maze. I knew I could follow his senses and get back to the beginning, but he moved faster than me, and I quickly lost sight of him. Rather than wait for him to return, I took off on my own while trying to remember the maze, or at least find a way to create an advantage.
I headed deeper into the maze in a direction I didn’t recognize, dipping and diving through various turns as I listened for the sound of gunshots behind me. I skidded to a halt at another blind turn and waited while trying to listen above the sound of my heartbeat in my ears.
Something was on the other side of the large shipping container. A couple of somethings. I heard them whispering to one another in the hissing, vile sound the other vampire goons used. I pulled the bag off my shoulder and searched as silently as possible to see how many crossbow bolts I had left.
I knew I wanted to conserve as many as possible, but knocking out two of these guys at once might be worth the shot. I took a bolt out and placed it in the divot, then pulled it back so the wire went taut. I exhaled a long slow breath and prepared to round the corner and get the drop on them.
I didn’t get the chance.
As I got within feet of the corner, one of their heads popped out at me, surprising me so much I pulled the crossbow’s hair-trigger and fired before I’d truly aimed. The bolt struck him in the center of his forehead, and his skull exploded. Brain matter flew into the air and blood splattered the wall of the shipping container. A piece of his scalp seemed to float down and land at my feet as I stared blankly at the place where his head used to be.
His body took a second before falling like its head’s sudden removal shocked it, and when it landed on the ground, I noticed my jaw was moving. I had been screaming the letter U from the word “fuck” for several seconds. Eventually, the hard K sound tumbled from my lips, and I regained some measure of control over my mouth.
Another head popped out from behind the shipping container. This one was looking down at the last head to try that tactic and was still dumb enough not to avoid repeating the mistake. Thankfully for him, I was still so taken aback that I hadn’t reloaded the crossbow. The head turned to me and our eyes met, and we stared at one another for several seconds, both unsure of what to do next.
Then, with a sound like opening a soda bottle that someone had shaken for a few hours, the world returned to normal speed and normal thoughts. I scrambled for the next bolt, but he was already on me and tackled me before I could reach one.
We tumbled on the ground together, both jockeying for position before I planted my foot in his midsection and hoisted him up and over to land hard on his back. I rolled backward and pushed up until I was in a handstand, then crashed down knees first into his chest. I still had one weapon left I could use other than the bow, and I pulled it out while hoping it worked this time. I pulled the glove onto my hand and looked down into the gnashing face of the vampire.
“Eat this, blood breath,” I shouted and flicked the glove on, then shoved it hard into his face. Electricity poured out of it, and soon the smell of burning flesh accompanied his screams.
I held it there, pushing hard down into him while moving my head away so I could try to escape being splattered by his blood, too. His arms thrashed and pushed, but my knees pinned him down at the shoulders, and he soon stopped moving. I took the glove away and looked down at the mangled mess I left.
His face was a puddle of goo and bones. A giant burning hole sat where his mouth had been, and where I had shoved the glove. Teeth, sharp as needles and broken into tiny pieces, scattered the ground around me. I sighed heavily as I sat back, turned the glove off, and thought I might get a second to rest.
A howl ripped through the air, and I snapped to my feet. It was Dog, and he was hurt—by the sound of it, badly.
Chapter Thirty
I tore off back the way I came. Another howl pierced the air, and I pushed myself to run faster, blindly turning through the maze in his direction. Every turn I made pushed me deeper into the confusion. I spun around to the sounds of footsteps pounding behind me, but no one was there. Panic settled in my stomach as I tried to make sense of where I was in relation to the sounds and where I had been. Nothing clicked. The more I turned around corners, the more lost I felt, and the more I felt like I was running in circles.
Then it hit me. I didn’t have to run through the maze if I could get on top of one of the large containers. I had practiced running up walls by bouncing along corners of concrete to climb up and away from dangerous monsters plenty of times in The Deep. If I could find a solid corner of walls, I could probably get to the top and see where I was and how to get to Dog. I rounded one more corner and found what I was looking for.
I pushed myself to my top running speed, kicked out with one foot, and threw my
body weight at one side of the metal wall, bouncing off and repeating it on the other. I had at least four good bounces before the momentum would drop, and I needed to get my fingers on the top of the large shipping container before that happened. The third bounce sent me lower than I thought it would. I cried out as I kicked one last time and moved away from the corner, but barely got the tips of my fingers on the top.
I hung there for a second, then shifted my hands so I had the palms over the edge. A swing toward the corner allowed me to run my feet up the wall, then flip over and land inches away from the edge on top of the container. I sat back and let my heart settle for a moment before checking the crossbow. There were three bolts left. It would have to do. Another howl rattled in my bones, and I could only imagine what the assassin and his goons were doing to Dog.
When I stood, the entire maze was visible from above. My container was one of the tallest, and I thanked whatever watched over me for that piece of luck. There were a few dead ends I could make out, and a clear path snaked back to the main container where the dim lights shone down on the one I hoped contained Cabot. Dog must have gone back there, because another sound, more like a whimper than a howl, came from that direction. I had to move, and quickly.
I took a running start and leapt from the top of one container down onto another. A small building like a security office was next, and I leapt up to grab its roof, then climbed over and ran across it to reach the next container.
It suddenly reminded me of all the crazy parkour videos Ally and I watched the summer before they took me to the Deep. I wished like hell Ally could see me do this in a non-emergency situation so she could freak out about how cool it was. I silently promised myself that if I could get Dog out of here alive, I’d show her a few tricks when I got back to them.
The sound Dog was making broke my heart, and worse, it pissed me off. Someone hurting an animal was bad enough, but this sounded like torture. Whatever was happening sounded like more than someone defending themselves, it was yet another person trying to hurt him because they thought he was ‘only an animal.’
I bounded across the top of another container and the clearing spread itself out below me. Dog huddled near the middle of the area. The assassin leaned over him with one long fingernail piercing his skin and turning it, so he ripped the open wound. My heart leapt into my throat at the thought of the pain Dog was in, but I had to steel myself. Another vampire stood at the entrance to the clearing below me. I judged the distance and jumped.
My knees hit the side of his head and neck as I torpedoed to the ground. It was enough to knock him down, and I scrambled on top of him, then repeatedly bashed him in the head with the butt of the crossbow until he gurgled his last breath. When he finally stopped moving, I turned toward the assassin. He still tortured Dog, not seeming to pay any attention to me. It gave me a second to load another bolt and aim. After adjusting for his methodical movements, I pulled the trigger.
The bolt flew with precision and hit directly in the center of the assassin’s back. At this distance, the concussive behavior of the arrows wasn’t nearly as explosive, but it knocked the crap out of him. It jammed into him with a whump sound, and he flew off his knees, then landed hard on his chest a few feet away. Dog quickly limped away while looking back at me with a pained face that made me all the madder. I loaded another bolt and waited.
The assassin stood and opened his mouth to say something as he turned, blood trickling down from his chin where it had scraped on the concrete. I fired. He barely got a sound out before the bolt hit him directly in the chest and he flew back, skidding on the ground while moaning in pain. That one got him good. I tore off after him, jumped, and landed knee-first on his stomach.
His hands reached up and grabbed me around the throat. I saw purple spots in my vision and knew I wouldn’t last long with him choking me. I let go of the crossbow, jammed my fist into his face, and felt the bones in his cheek crunch under the force of the blow. His head rocked back and blood and spit flew out of his mouth, and his eyes dimmed a little. The grip on my throat lessened, and I reared back for another haymaker. It landed on his jaw, and I felt him loosen more. I was winning, and I had no intention of stopping.
“Nobody,” I growled while slamming another shot into the side of his face, “hits,” an elbow on the ear, “my friends!”
I raised both my hands and clasped them together, then brought them down hard on the bridge of his nose with an axe handle smash. The grip on my throat—once so vice-like I thought he would choke me out in a manner of seconds—disappeared, and his arm hit the ground weakly. He was prone and hurt, and I could get any information out of him I wanted. But I wasn’t ready for that.
The sound of Dog being hurt still rang in my ears. The image of the assassin bending over him and digging his nails into a wound with that terrible grin with all its teeth smiling down as he tortured him was too much. With a roar of frustration, anger, and exhaustion all piled up together, I rained down blows with both fists. I pounded him until I felt like my knuckles would break and his flesh tore off the bone.
His eyebrow was cut and bleeding, the plasma dripping down to meet the river running from his nose and the corner of his mouth. Finally, my blows slowed down, and I realized they were getting weaker. I grabbed him by the hair and yanked him up to look at me. The light in his eyes had almost completely faded, but red glowed in the center of them like an ember in a fire. He was still there. He could still talk.
“Now,” I wiped the blood from my mouth with the back of my free hand, then clenched my fist once more, “I have some questions. And you will give me answers.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“Die wanting,” the assassin spat at me, and I laid another elbow into his jaw. Nobody got snippy with me.
“I didn’t say anything about wanting. I said I have some questions and you will give me answers. I didn’t leave room for debate in that,” I spat at him. “Who sent you after me?”
“Get fucked,” he sputtered.
I reared back to lay another fist on him when I noticed Dog standing beside me. He was obviously hurt, but I could tell he felt better. More bitey. I nodded at him. Without a moment’s hesitation, he clamped his jaw around the assassin’s leg. The assassin shook it as hard as he could, but I adjusted my knee so it shoved down on his thigh. The assassin howled in pain.
I held up my hand to stop him. “Hold on, Dog. I think he has something to say.”
“Get that damned dog off me,” he yelled.
“Oh, you like to play rough?” I grabbed the last bolt from my bag, then picked up the crossbow, loaded it, and pointed it directly at his crotch. “I wonder how rough you like it.”
The assassin’s eyes bulged as he looked down at the crossbow hanging above his precious dangly bits. He might be imbued with otherworldly powers and abilities, but having his crotch explode into a million pieces wasn’t likely something he could simply shake off.
“You know these bolts go pop? Magic is badass.”
“You wouldn’t,” he pleaded, but one look in my eyes told him all he needed to know. Not only would I, but I wanted to.
“Oh, no?” I asked.
The assassin nodded weakly.
I looked the weapon up and down. “What exactly do you think this does at close range?”
There was a moment where the calculation set in, and I could almost imagine the terror going through his mind at the thought of his balls exploding. He swallowed hard, and the light in those glowing eyes dimmed further and deepened in red. I grinned.
“Fine.” He gave up, his voice almost a croak as he forced the words out. “Fine. Hobbes hired me.”
“That figures.” I pushed the crossbow bolt into his crotch a little, which elicited a whimper. Even the undead had this weakness, it seemed. “Who the hell is Hobbes?”
There was another moment of silence as the assassin seemed to wrack his brain. Whether it was for an accurate description to tell me, or an elaborate lie, I didn’t
know. But hopefully I was giving him enough of the crazy eye that he wouldn’t lie if he valued having all of his parts later in the day.
“I don’t know,” he pleaded.
I dug the crossbow bolt a little harder and Dog shook his leg a little more vigorously.
“I swear, I don’t know,” the assassin continued. “I never met him directly. I got communications from someone else who got it from someone else and so on. No one I know has seen Hobbes’ face. We all do what he asks and get paid for it.”
“Just so you know, I have no issue splattering every inch of your reproductive organs all over this place and leaving you that way.”
“I don’t want that at all,” he half-croaked. Something about his voice was pitiful now. Almost human-like. I figured it was some kind of glamour vampires used to be less intimidating to people they planned on using. I wasn’t falling for it.
“I think you’re lying,” I informed him as I jammed the bolt down hard. He clenched in pain, then stared back up at me again. The gleam in his eyes was gone. No more white, no more red, only a cold and distant silver, like whatever possessed his body was now leaving.
A crackle in my pocket startled me and I realized I had left the headset in there the whole time. I reached in, fished it out, and placed it in my ear.
“Hello? Hello?” I said into it to nothing but static.
Suddenly, the assassin violently rolled to his side, knocking me off and onto my back. His fist was in the air before I processed what happened and he caught me once on the jaw, hard. Dog barked behind him, and there was shuffling as the assassin tried to kick him away to no avail. The assassin looked back at me, his mouth widening and exposing rows of sharp, terrible teeth.
