Time seemed to slow down as she spun the rifle around and tried to bring it to bear once more, knowing she was going to be too late. The hunchbacked man atop Derek pulled back, yanking his arm free from his opponent’s grasp.
He raised the knife high for a killing blow.
Julia aimed the rifle from her hip, praying her aim was true.
She pulled the trigger just as the knife came down.
CHAPTER 47
“Mitch! Are you okay?” Danni lowered her gun, relieved beyond belief that she hadn’t pulled the trigger. “Come on, wake up. I need your help. Arthur’s...”
A wheezing cough came from behind her. “D-don’t worry ‘bout them, Sssarah.”
She froze in place, one knee on the ground and with her weapon in a bad position. There was no mistaking that voice. Slowly, so as to not provoke him, she glanced over her shoulder.
Noah Lesterfield, the Jersey Devil himself, and a monster far worse than any urban legend, stood no more than ten feet away. His misshapen bulk was terrifying enough, but she saw that he was now armed, holding the stolen rifle she’d left behind while she checked on things. It lay awkwardly in his inhuman hands, but there was little doubt he had her right where he wanted her.
He let out the breath he’d no doubt been holding so as to sneak up on her. It came out in a wet cough. But despite the thick gasps which escaped his body, he held the gun true, offering her no quarter with which to open fire before he got off a shot.
“T-throw it away and ssstep back,” he said, in between sucking greedy gulps of air. “Over there.”
“My friend...”
“Ain’t no helping the dead. Now do as I say.”
Danni stood up. Noah growled and tightened his grip on the rifle. Rather than tempt fate, she threw the shotgun into the bushes and raised her hands in surrender, risking a glance down at where her teammate still lay unmoving.
As much as it killed her to admit it, Arthur was most likely beyond help thanks to this son of a bitch and his family, but Mitchell wasn’t. Though she wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive herself for making this choice, she realized neither of her friends would survive if she couldn’t keep Noah’s attention firmly locked on her. I’m so sorry.
The devil opened his mouth in a grotesque semblance of a smile, coughed again, and then spat out a mouthful of viscous phlegm. “M-my Sssarah.”
“I’m not your anything.”
A sliver of drool fell from his scaly lips and again he took a large, shuddering gulp of air. “Yes, y-you are. “G-god’s gift to me. My wife.”
Danni lowered her arms and took a step to the side, away from Mitchell. “No.”
“You’ll bear fine ch-children.”
She took another step. “I’d sooner die.”
Noah let loose with a wheezing chuckle. “You k-killed my kin. Need to m-make more. The c-clan must continue.”
“No,” she repeated, her hand coming to rest on the hilt of Francis’s knife, still sheathed at her side. “It’s time for you and your clan to die out. To join the myths and legends of this forest. Nothing more.”
He tensed. “D-don’t. N-nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.”
“I beg to differ,” she said with a grimace. “I don’t think you’re going to do it. And I know these woods now. Maybe not as well as you, but enough to get away.”
“No.”
“Get away and never see your disgusting face again.”
“N-no,” he sputtered. His breath was coming hard now, making his words difficult to understand.
A volley of gunshots sounded from somewhere close by – back in the direction where she’d left Ezekiel to rot, if she had her bearings straight. She had no way of knowing who was firing or what they were shooting at, other than that neither she nor Noah appeared to be the target.
Noah spared a quick glance that way, then focused on her again. “My kin are coming.”
“You don’t know that.” She took another step.
“D-don’t matter. You’re mine. SSSTOP!”
“You won’t...”
“D-don’t need to kill you.” Noah smiled, more thick drool dripping from his mouth. “D-don’t need to chase you either.”
He shifted his aim lower and pulled the trigger.
The barrel of the rifle exploded and Noah cried out as he dropped the weapon and clutched his face.
Now it was Danni’s turn to smile. She’d been using that old rifle all night as a walking stick, to look for traps and for testing the depth of any bogs she came across. The barrel had become good and clogged by a combination of dirt and drying mud.
Not as useless as I thought.
That was all the time she allowed herself to celebrate. Though in pain from the shrapnel of the backfire, she didn’t fool herself into thinking Noah was injured enough to no longer be a threat.
Drawing Francis’s knife, she raced at him, looking to change that status quo once and for all.
♦ ♦ ♦
Julia wasn’t sure what had just happened. She knew the second she pulled the trigger that her shot had gone wide. The knife had come down and she’d heard the sickening sound of it striking flesh. But then, before she could fire again, three more deafening gunshots rang out from close range.
Her breath caught in her throat, certain for a moment that more of the Lesterfields had found them, but instead the one straddling Derek fell slack atop him. She approached and saw three ragged exit wounds in the man’s hunched back.
“A ... little help ... here.”
Derek’s voice was weak and ragged, but he was alive.
Julia quickly stepped in and realized his attacker, on the other hand, was quite dead.
She spared a glance back at the one she’d knocked out, still on the ground where she’d left him. He could wait. Julia grabbed hold of the dead man and shoved with everything she had. He was a lot heavier than he looked and even in death seemed reluctant to release his prey.
“Come on!” With one more heave, she pushed him off.
Her breath caught as she laid eyes on Derek. He was holding a large revolver in his right hand, one with a very short muzzle. But drawing it had come at a cost. The hunchback’s knife was buried deep in his other arm. “Oh my God!”
“Don’t,” Derek warned when she moved to grab it.
“But you’re bleeding.”
“I’m ... going to be ... bleeding a lot worse ... if you pull it out.” He threw her a weak smile. “Not to mention, I think ... it’s stuck in the bone.”
Julia looked down at him, feeling helpless. “What do we do?”
“I just need a breather.”
“A breather?!”
“We’re not ... done yet.” He fumbled with his gun before finally getting it back in its holster.
“You are.”
“Not yet,” Derek replied tiredly before slowly sitting up. He glanced past her. “The other two?”
“One dead, one not going anywhere.”
He pointed. “Help me over to that tree and then go get your backpack. There’s rope in there. Tie up the survivor, then go find Mitch.”
“What about you?”
“It’s a nice night for guard duty.”
“Oh?” she asked with a laugh. “So you get the easy...”
She was interrupted by a loud report from the direction they’d been headed. It sounded to her like a muffled gunshot. “What the?”
“Crap,” Derek growled. “Forgot all about whatever passed us earlier. Change ... of plans.” He held out his good hand so Julia could help him up. “Let’s go.”
“You’re in no shape to...”
“That wasn’t a request.”
She was tempted to clock him upside the head with her rifle, but instead asked, “Can you make it?”
“No idea, but ... going to try.”
Julia saw there was no arguing with the man, and doing so was just wasting time anyway. She helped him up, offering her shoulder for him to lean on.
“Thank
s.”
“Save it, you stubborn bastard,” she replied. “You ready?”
“Yeah. Just do me a favor?”
“What now?”
Derek glanced down at the knife sticking out of his arm. “Try not to brush up against anything. Oh, and watch your step this time.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Danni changed tactics at the last moment. In her rage, she’d raced right at the devil, intent on tackling him and burying her knife as deeply into his chest as she could. She realized mid-stride though, that strategy was little more than suicide. Even if she managed to gravely wound him, he was still much larger, stronger, and durable than she. There was little chance of winning that way without Noah taking her with him. If anything, she’d just end up dying badly, leaving this bastard to finish off Mitch and then return to his compound to start the cycle anew.
Her advantage was in her smaller size and agility. She needed to use that.
She veered hard left and raced past him as he continued to claw at his face, ducking low and raking the blade across his thigh.
As she feared, his skin was tough, as if he were more alligator than man, but Francis had kept his knife razor sharp. It drew a furrow of blood before she stepped out of his reach.
Noah, still breathing hard, snarled and dropped his hands so as to follow where Danni was circling him. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but she was pretty sure his face was scraped to hell from the gun blowback. He shook his head, blinked, and wiped at his eyes once more before facing her again.
He was in pain and likely at least partially blinded. That was good. Served the fucker right and also gave her a fighting chance, however slim. She knew her best bet was to double back, find her gun, and use it to blow some proper holes in this abomination. But that would leave her flank vulnerable, and she didn’t trust in her ability to do so without him closing the distance.
“G-gonna, learn you good ... Sssarah.” He put his hands on his knees and bent over to cough.
A possible course of action began to form in her mind. “Wrong on both counts!”
She stepped in slashing with the knife, but he countered with his claws. Bone clinked off metal and she almost lost her grip on the weapon from the sheer strength of his attack.
He lunged for her, faster than she was expecting, but the mud covering her body made her too slippery for him to easily grab hold of. She pulled away and backed off, sporting three wicked furrows on her arm for her troubles.
Danni drew in a sharp breath of pain and backpedaled. Noah was quicker than she gave him credit for. She couldn’t afford to be sloppy like that again. No. She had to fight this battle smarter than that. “Your dad died badly – choking on his own blood with his pants around his ankles.”
A thick snarl escaped Noah’s lips and he leapt at her.
She sidestepped and threw a punch to the side of his head, immediately regretting it. It was like hitting a wall. Danni considered herself to be in good shape, but she might as well have smacked him with a flyswatter.
What she lost in actual damage, though, she made up for in angering this monster who called himself a man. Noah let loose with another angry growl which again dissolved into thick coughs.
It gave her a chance to step around to his flank where she raised the knife high and brought it down into his back with everything she had.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
He shifted at the last possible second and, in her haste to strike a killing blow, she instead hit one of the many protrusions covering his torso. Despite putting her all into the blow, the blade sank in less than an inch, becoming stuck tight in his thick hide.
Before she could pull the weapon free, Noah spun, throwing a wild backhand that caught Danni in the side and sent her flying.
She tried to roll with the blow but was too dazed and went tumbling end over end ... finally skidding to a halt at the edge of the clearing.
Sadly, there were no timeouts in this duel against the devil. She’d barely stopped moving when she heard him coming for her again.
Danni pushed herself to her knees, doing her best to ignore the stinging pain in her side. It would be a near miracle if she didn’t have at least a couple cracked ribs.
Praying she didn’t immediately collapse onto the ground in agony, she gritted her teeth, pushed off with her foot, and sprinted into the darkness of the forest, moving as fast as her injuries would allow.
If this son of a bitch wanted her, he’d have to catch her first – even if deep down she feared this was a race she couldn’t win.
CHAPTER 48
It took an agonizingly long time to return to the clearing where they’d left Mitch to care for Arthur.
Fortunately, they weren’t too far away when they’d gotten waylaid by the Lesterfields. Derek just hoped it was close enough. Something else had passed them in the woods before they’d been forced to battle the trio of mutants. What that something else was, he wasn’t sure. Likewise, he had no way of knowing if it was friendly, but it seemed a smart precaution to assume it wasn’t.
Still, whoever or whatever it was hadn’t turned back and tried to flank them when the first warning shot was fired, something near impossible to miss in the stifling darkness.
Derek supposed it could have been an animal looking to escape the battlefield, but it hadn’t sounded like one to him. There had been purpose to its steps, not blind panic.
One of Zeist’s men maybe? It was possible. But if so, who had fired the weapon?
Since that single shot, the woods had seemingly grown quiet again. Not that he could tell much of anything the way his head was swimming. Between blood loss and his other injuries, Derek felt like a deflated balloon.
Truth be told, he was done. It was a near miracle he was still on his feet, even with Julia’s help.
Unfortunately, their mission wasn’t finished, so that meant he couldn’t afford to be either. Not yet anyway. They still had to find Danni and Frank and then get out of this place alive. Quite the daunting tasks for a man as tired as he was.
The Colt felt heavy in his hand, but he refused to holster it as Julia helped him forward. They might well stumble into another ambush, but whoever lay in wait for them would at least learn they were anything but easy prey.
There, at last, the clearing they’d been seeking loomed ahead through a break in the trees.
“Just a little more,” Julia whispered to him.
“Promises, promises,” he wheezed back, surprised by how weak his voice sounded.
They stepped through the tree line and into the clearing.
Almost immediately, a dark shape rose up near the other side, seemingly in challenge to their presence, and called out in a groggy voice, “Whoever’s out there, that’s far enough.”
As it turned out, those were apt words indeed, for when Derek pulled away from Julia, to raise his weapon in response, he promptly passed out before his finger could even touch the trigger.
Devil Hunters (Tales of the Crypto-Hunter Book 2) Page 36
