The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files: Special Edition Fantasy Bundle, Books 6 thru 10 (Smoke Special Edition Book 2)

by Craig Halloran

  The giants moved in.

  Smoke depressed the rubber triggers on the rockets.

  Sid shoved Samone aside, covered her ears, squeezed her eyes shut, and hunkered down.

  CHAPTER 27

  “Isn’t this a bit old fashioned, even for you?” Vormus said to Reginald.

  The shifters squared off.

  Reginald shrugged. “Even I need a challenge from time to time. It makes me feel alive. Isn’t that what you want, Vormus, to feel alive again? Now is your chance. You can be free to pursue your life as you want it.”

  Vormus held the detonator in his hand. His thumb toyed with the trigger. There was enough C4 to blow the entire roof off the building. It would end him, too.

  “Go ahead, Vormus. Squeeze the trigger. You stand about the same chance of surviving as you do in a fight with me.”

  “If it’s such a mismatch, why bother to fight at all?”

  “True,” Reginald replied. “But who knows, maybe you’ll get a lucky punch in.”

  “Reginald, you aren’t half as durable as you think.” He set down the trigger. “And I’m twice as strong as you realize.”

  “We’ll see about that.” The doppelganger spread his arms wide and wiggled his hands. “Let the games begin.” Reginald charged.

  Vormus caught the man’s bull rush in his chest. He tried to lock up the man’s arms.

  Reginald’s fists smacked hard into Vormus’s face with the jarring force of hammers. He overwhelmed Vormus with fists that swarmed him like bees. The superior fighter peppered him with blow after blow.

  Vormus’s body absorbed punishment that would have broken an ordinary man. He dropped to a knee.

  Reginald kicked him in the chest. The blow sent him flying into the chiller.

  Vormus shook it off. Something felt funny. He touched his nose, and it was out of place on his face. Shoving his nose back into its original position with a crunch, he said, “You’d think the nose would be tougher.” He pushed his way back up to his feet. “You’ve always been overaggressive. You can pummel me all night, but you still won’t break me.”

  “This is just a warm-up for when the real battle begins. Believe me, it’s coming. But you won’t be here to see it. Kane wants you dead once and for all.” Reginald picked up his cigarette and took a puff. Blowing the smoke through his teeth, he said, “Let’s keep dancing.” With the cigarette pinched between his fingers, he said, “Oh wait. A moment please.” Reginald reached behind the chiller.

  What is he up to now?

  The doppelganger withdrew a pair of Arabian swords. The majestically crafted steel blades’ curved edges caught the bright glow of the moonlight, giving them a lifelike quality of their own. Reginald tossed one of the blades.

  Vormus snatched it out of the air.

  “As I understand it, you’re a much better swordsman than you are a fighter.” Reginald cut his blade through the air a few more times. “At least you had better hope so.”

  Thumbing the keen edge of the Arabian steel, Vormus said, “Your mistake. I’m much better with steel than you are as a fighter. Big mistake, Reginald. An utter catastrophe.” The blade took off a sliver of his skin when he tested it. The steel wasn’t anything ordinary. No, it was the same metal as the knives Smoke and Sid used. It could cut just about anything, even a shifter’s skin.

  “They say a shifter is only as formidable as his parts, useless as an infant when those parts are missing.” Reginald bent his knees into a stance. “Eventually, one of us is going to lose his head over this.”

  Vormus approached with confidence. “The headless shifter won’t be me.” He struck.

  The well-honed blades clashed together. Using his size and length, Vormus pushed the smaller shifter backward. Steel battered steel.

  Reginald laughed. “You’re a horrible swordsman. I can’t believe it. I knew you wouldn’t be as good as me, but with all your divine skills, I never imagined you’d be this bad.” He put Vormus on the defensive with a display of lightning-quick chops and cuts. The Arabian sword slit the side of the vampire’s ribs. Reginald jumped back, pumping a fist and screaming, “Score!”

  “No need to gloat. The fight isn’t over yet,” Vormus remarked.

  But it was over. Reginald was twice the fighter he was. Vormus had been feasting on the weak for years, but Reginald had been the shifter who hunted down any threats to the Drake, including overzealous heroes like Sid and Smoke.

  “I must say I’m disappointed. After all, you did give your brother quite the tussle back at the mansion. You actually shook him up. It makes me wonder.”

  “Perhaps you should lead the shifters,” Vormus suggested.

  “No, too much responsibility. I’m perfectly satisfied being the best at one thing.”

  “It’s good to know your limits.” Vormus eased forward with his free hand behind his back. “Shall we carry on?”

  “Eager for your own funeral, I see. Who knows, you might even wind up in the mausoleum. After all, you are Kane’s family.”

  “Do tell.” Vormus snaked in and stabbed at Reginald’s chest.

  The doppelganger swatted the blade aside. With a twist of his wrist, he disarmed Vormus. He held the steel tip on Vormus’s neck.

  Vormus felt the edge nicking his skin. “You’re quick. Well done.”

  “I’m the best.”

  “It’s a shame I’ll never get to see your trophy room.”

  “No, but I might just have your head mounted on the wall.”

  Vormus swallowed. He’d never been so close to death since the days before he became a shifter. Now, at the foothold of death, he realized he’d never see the light again. “I don’t suppose you’re open for negotiation.”

  “No, not with so many eyes watching, but I’m sure the elite have enjoyed this. Goodbye, Vormus.” Reginald cocked back to deliver the final swing.

  But just then, the entire building shook with the sound of a muffled thunderclap from way down below.

  The doppelganger teetered.

  Vormus shoved the man away. Moving with the speed of a frightened rabbit, he snatched up the detonator that lay nearby and leapt into the air. His body lifted from the rooftop at startling speed.

  Reginald looked up at him, gaping, and yelled, “Coward!”

  A drone whizzed in front of Vormus’s face. He noted the tiny camera lens staring at him like an eye. He held up the detonator. “Enjoy the show, assholes.” He squeezed the trigger.

  The chillers erupted in a series of blinding explosions. Wrecked steel and hunks of building showered the air. The rooftop became a smoking and burning crater.

  Reginald was nowhere to be found.

  Vormus snatched up the drone and looked into its lens. “See you soon, dear brother.” He ripped off the propellers and dropped the drone into the fire.

  CHAPTER 28

  Gunfire erupted around Smoke just as he squeezed the triggers. The first rocket smote the giant Thorgrim in the chest with a mighty kaboom! The second rocket did the same to Rexor. The explosive’s sound was deafening, its concussive force bone jarring. His entire body juddered from the impact. His ears rang like bells. Half the lights in the garage were out. The pea coat guards were on hands and knees. Several held their ears. Others were out cold. Smoke waded through the haze toward Sid. He found her balled up on the ground.

  Her dark eyes were alert and searching. She found his face. “You’re crazy!”

  “I thought that was what we planned on.”

  Fingers tapping her ears, she said, “What?” She started gearing up with whatever Smoke had hanging off him. She snapped a belt of ammo around her waist.

  “What?” he said back.

  She shook her head and took a strap from his shoulder. “Where’s Samone?”

  He caught a glimpse of the clone scuttling into the fire exit. She was accompanied by the shifters Venison and Titus.

  Gunfire cracked off.

  Smoke dropped to a knee.

  The pea coat forces had
gathered. A hail of semi-automatic gunfire spewed out of their muzzles.

  “Let’s waste them.”

  Smoke and Sid picked the men off one by one. The blue-tipped bullets ripped through the armor the pea coat guards wore underneath. They went down in cries and groans. Most of them went dead silent.

  Squeezing off round after round, Smoke didn’t care. It was war.

  It’s us or them.

  Sid marched right into the line of enemy fire like a gallant archangel. Every shot she fired hit the mark.

  Lance stepped out from behind one of the circular support columns.

  She unloaded a clip in his chest with a rapid budda-budda-budda sound.

  Lance dusted off his chest. “Your bullets might sting, but they won’t kill me. This suit is bulletproof.”

  Sid popped out the magazine and loaded the second clip taped to the first, quick as she could whistle. Without looking back at him, she said, “Smoke, no more center mass. It’s going to have to be head shots from now on. I like head shots.”

  Lance stepped forward. “Just try me.”

  Sid took aim. “One more step and I’m going to turn your brains into dog chow.” She charged the machinegun handle. “Try me. These rounds are explosive.”

  Focused on Sid, out of the corner of Smoke’s eyes, he saw Rexor and Thorgrim start to rise. “Sid, the tide’s rising.” He switched to the explosive rounds. “How many bullets is it going to take to put these suckers down?”

  ***

  With her senses, strength, and agility enhanced, Sid was ready for anything.

  Lance stared right at her, wary.

  She didn’t know whether she could stop the giant or not. She felt the presence of the bigger, more powerful giant fill the room.

  Lance bent at the knees. His oversized body leaned forward.

  Aw, Screw this!

  “Goodbye, Lance.” She squeezed the trigger, and a hail of bullets burst into Lance’s face like angry hornets. One small explosion after the other rocked the garage.

  Lance stumbled backward. His arms slapped at the air. Chunks of his head flew off. He screamed, “Noooooo!” He bounced off the column then fell hard on his back, crushing a crawling deader beneath him. He looked up at Sid with half his face missing. Somehow, he spoke.

  “Why?”

  Sid emptied the clip on the abomination. “I hope this keeps a bad man down.”

  “Sid!” Smoke cried out. He was firing round after round at the giants’ heads, but they were covering their faces with their forearms. His clip emptied. He started to reload.

  The bearded giant snatched up a dead pea coat’s body and hurled it at Smoke.

  Unable to avoid the colossal missile, he was sent sprawling.

  Both giants pounced.

  Sid loaded another clip of blue tips and fired them into the giant Thorgrim’s ear.

  “Eeeyargh!” the giant screamed. He swatted at Sid.

  She slipped from his clutches while peppering his face with bullets.

  He covered up again.

  She fired shot after shot, keeping the giant at bay. “Smoke, we have a big problem. We’re going to need bigger bullets to stop these things.”

  Slipping in and out of the giant’s grasp, he said, “Try negotiating.”

  “I don’t think they know what that means.”

  Every time the giant peeked through its forearms, Sid fired through them at him.

  It drew forth grunt after grunt, but the giant lumbered forward until he closed into point-blank range.

  Sid fired everything she had, marveling at how the sleeves of the suit the giant wore held up against bullets that ripped through stone and steel. “Damn chemical engineers. They can think up anything.”

  Thorgrim backed her into the corner and peeked through his forearms. “Boo!”

  Sid pulled the special knife from her utility belt. “Boohoo!” She jammed it into the giant’s foot. It sank through meat and bone.

  Thorgrim chuckled. The monstrous, hairy man’s limbs closed around her body.

  She dove between his legs.

  The giant turned and fell. His foot was pinned to the cement floor by the knife. He ripped it out with a grunt, rose back onto his feet, and chased after Sid, hurdling the dead bodies.

  “Any ideas, John?”

  Rexor had Smoke in a bear hug. Her husband’s face was red as a beet. He kept cracking the giant right between the eyes with the butt of his assault rifle and screaming, “Detonator! Detonator! It’s inside the container. Hurry!”

  She rushed into the huge steel box. There was a concealed panel compartment at the front where Smoke had hidden while they drove in. It was something they’d set up before they left. Inside was the entire weapons cache. Sid opened up an ammo box filled with C4. The detonation plugs were set. She grabbed the detonator and two blocks of C4 and raced outside.

  Smoke was hitting the giant in the face like he was trying to crack open a fortune cookie as he screamed, “What is the riddle steel? What is the riddle steel?”

  “Smoke!” Sid yelled.

  His head rolled her way. Eyes wide, he dropped the weapon.

  Sid tossed him one pack of C4.

  Without looking, he snatched it from the air and shoved it in the nine-footer’s mouth. He pinched Rexor’s nose with one hand and held his lower jaw shut with the other, saying, “Steel isn’t strong. Flesh is stronger.”

  Rexor swallowed. “Gulp!”

  Smoke looked at Sid and said in words he could hardly hear, “Detonate this infidel defiler!”

  CHAPTER 29

  “Anything to get you to stop quoting lines from Conan the Barbarian.” Sidney pressed the trigger on the detonator.

  The insides of Rexor’s body made a poomf sound. The giant’s belly bulged, expanded within the seams of his jumpsuit, and collapsed.

  Smoke slipped free of the monster man’s clutches and landed on his knees, huffing for breath.

  Rexor’s eyes—which seemed to be the size of headlights—glazed over. His head and shoulders sank into his suit. A strange type of blood and guts seeped out of his pant legs.

  Sid had a sickening feeling the innards of the tremendous man had been obliterated. She couldn’t contain her gawking as the top of Rexor’s body collapsed one way and his legs went the other. The huge man groaned. His fingers clutched at the air as he fell and made a gross-sounding splat.

  Thorgrim rushed over to his brother’s side and scooped his mangled body up into his arms. Rexor’s eyes were closed. All signs of life were gone. Tears streamed down Thorgrim’s face. He let out a blood-curdling moan. “Aaaaauuuuuuuuuuugghhh!”

  Smoke rose to his feet and lumbered over to Sid. “You’ve really done it now.”

  “Me?”

  The color returned to the rangy bounty hunter’s face. “I’ll be back. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.” He hustled inside the container.

  Eyes fixed on the disturbing scene of one giant moaning over the other, she said, “John, where are you going?”

  Smoke emerged from the container with another L.A.W. rocket. He expanded the tube and prepared it to fire.

  “How many of those things did you bring?” she said.

  “I always carry more than one spare.” He rested the launcher on his shoulder. “Take cover.”

  Sid crouched behind Smoke.

  Smoke yelled at the giant, “Hey, Thorgrim! Sorry about your loss. Should we send flowers or make a donation to the local giant-sized urns and crematorium? I hear they’re running a two-for-one special.”

  Thorgrim looked up with eyes full of murder. His hands released Rexor’s body.

  Smoke fired.

  The rocket burst from the barrel in a sizzling stream of smoke and hit dead center in the giant’s gaping mouth. Boom! Thorgrim’s head blew up like a shotgun blast through a pumpkin. Tiny hunks of giant flesh and bone showered the air. The giant headless body fell over.

  Smoke discarded the rocket launching-cylinder. “Kinda cool. Kinda gross.�
��

  Standing behind him, Sid wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’ll take it.” Her knees buckled.

  Smoke held her steady. “What’s going on?”

  “I took a vitamin. It’s wearing off.”

  “Well, we aren’t going to have time to lie down and take a nap. Can you make it?”

  “I don’t have a choice. I’m just going to have to summon all the superhero powers I have left.”

  “Or take another pill.”

  “We’ll see.” She surveyed the carnage. The lights were busted and hanging from the ceiling. A filmy layer of smoke rolled through the room. Bodies lay piled up to the knees in carnage. “I don’t see Manson anywhere. Do you think they took him hostage?”

  “I lost track of him.” Smoke vanished into the container and came out with a weapons chest. He also had the Arabian sword sheathed behind his shoulders. “We’ll find him or he’ll find us. For now, we need to stick with the plan and disable the pyramid server. It sounded like Vormus did his part. Did you hear that explosion earlier?”

  Fingering her ears as she rolled her jaw, she said, “I’m pretty sure I heard everything. Man, there’s nothing worse than the sound of gunfire blasting away inside a hollow can.” She dug into the weapons chest and reloaded her clips. She packed C4 into a rucksack and shouldered it. “We need to get moving.”

  The parking garage door opened. Men were shouting and barking orders from the other side. Sid and Smoke stepped into full view of the gap that led out into the night.

  Stiff-legged deaders rushed down the ramp, followed by pea coat guards armed with guns.

  Smoke raised his assault rifle and fired. The bullets tore into the dual motors of the huge garage door. The steel door dropped, crushing a deader and a man beneath it.

  From one knee, Sid took aim with her rifle. She squeezed off short burst after short burst. The bullets ripped through the chests of two deaders. They dropped, flopped, and lay still. The next pair of bullets pierced the brains of the last two pea coats. “That’s the last of them,” she said. The barrel of her gun smoked. The enemy’s hands were at the bottom of the garage door, lifting it again. She sent a spray of bullets their way. The door dropped on the bodies. Painful howls came from the other side. “They’re going to keep coming. We need to get going. What are you doing?”