by Nick Stead
Zee – I’d almost forgotten about him in the chaos created by the accident with my sister, if you could call it that, and Gwyn’s sudden appearance. I didn’t hold much hope that he was still alive, or surely he’d have come through to this passage along with the Welsh man if he had somehow survived. Mentally I added it to my list of questions for Gwyn, as soon as he’d led me to Selina.
A voice crackled into life through speakers I hadn’t noticed as we passed into the next passage. It had been over a year since I’d last heard it and yet I recognised it instantly, confirming my suspicions as to who was the mastermind behind this elaborate kind of retribution they’d devised to punish me for Fiona. I had felt a sense of shock when I’d first realised who it must be, or maybe that was just the shock from finding out my sister was real and dying from mortal wounds, coupled with the sight of the shrine to the girl I’d once called friend, before my lupine half had named her prey. I shouldn’t have been surprised he’d go to such lengths to have his vengeance though, considering he’d been pointing a gun at me the last time I’d seen him. I’d thought that would be our final meeting but I should have known it would eventually come to this, given the depth of his love for Fiona. At the time I’d thought I’d talked him out of his thoughts on revenge, though I should have guessed I would eventually face him again. He’d already decided back then I was a monster in need of putting down not just as payback for the girl he’d loved, but to save more innocent lives. It was perhaps inevitable the Slayers would eventually find him, or perhaps he’d found them. I might never have predicted the way in which he’d seek revenge (though in a way it made sense given what he knew of my past), but I should have known he would come looking for it someday. And it would only end when one of us killed the other.
“No!” David’s voice screamed through the speakers. “I thought you said he wouldn’t be able to resist eating her if we starved him for long enough?”
He seemed to be talking to someone in the control room I imagined them to be in, hiding behind their computer monitors while their pawns attacked and tormented us. I got the impression he hadn’t meant to speak over the tannoy system, perhaps accidentally pressing the button to activate it in his anger.
“I said he’d probably lose control to his base instincts if he was hungry enough, especially after the temptation of human prey he wouldn’t dare touch for fear of some kind of a trap,” a second voice answered. “But even if he proves stronger than we expected and resists that temptation, she’s still going to die anyway.”
So Hannah had been brought in merely to add to our torment, just as the other Slayers seemed to have been when we’d been allowed to ‘escape’ into the base. Did that mean the human girl was safe to eat after all? Not that it mattered if she was dead which, like with Zee, I had to assume she was.
“She better die,” David said. “Or you’ll be joining them.”
It seemed my own darkness and rage had infected my old friend, festering away in the months since he’d last faced the monstrous side to my nature until his grief and anger had consumed him, and he’d fallen into that darkness just as I had. His words called out to the darkness in me, twin parasites seeking to manipulate their hosts into violence all so they could feed on the resulting bloodshed. I’d become so used to living in that darkness that I didn’t resist when it spilled into my mind, washing away all concern for my sister and leaving only aggression and murderous intent. Despite the promise I’d made to myself that I was done with killing in cold blood, I welcomed the feeling of falling back into the bloodlust. Everything became so much simpler in so brutal a mindset, my world narrowing down to the need to spill blood, and potential victims who might serve that purpose. Revenge was all.
“I already promised you death before I knew who was behind all this,” I snarled, stalking over to the nearest camera. “Don’t think any friendship we once had will save you, David. If my sister dies, I will have vengeance. I will take everyone you have ever loved from you until the pain you felt for Fiona is but a distant memory in the face of such fresh, raw wounds I will deal whatever’s left of your soul, and only when your heart is bleeding and broken beyond all repair, only then will I deal you your own death. A slow, agonising death, so you can feel the kind of physical pain you’ve put me through in this place. You can hide behind your cameras and your men, but it won’t save you. I will have vengeance, whether I make it out of here alive or not. Even the reaper won’t stop me if Amy dies.”
I had no way of knowing if he heard, but making that dark vow made me feel better. No response was forthcoming as I stood there with the rage blazing in my eyes, lips curled back to bare my bloodstained fangs in a snarl to back up my words. He had to know the meaning behind what I’d said at least, even if he hadn’t heard exactly what I’d just promised him.
“That’s quite the temper you’ve got there, mate,” Gwyn said. “Just be careful you don’t lose sight of what’s important.”
“Why, will you stand in my way?” I rounded on him. “Because I’ll kill you too, if I have to.”
“Oh, you werewolves. Gifted with an overabundance of claws and a lack of sense. The vampires are so full of themselves too. These people holding us captive have the means to see us dead, so perhaps we could stop our bitching and work together like SENSIBLE creatures of the night?”
“I’ve still to see any evidence that you really are one of us,” I retorted.
“Nick, your sister is dying. Calm the fuck down and let me take you to the witch, so we can avoid the need to go on this bloody quest for vengeance in the first place. Focus on what’s important.”
The darkness receded, the bloodlust fading back into the depths of my being and the rage burning down to a smaller flame of anger in place of the inferno it had grown to, his words successfully returning me to a more rational state of mind. I might find the Welsh man insufferable, but it seemed there was some wisdom hiding behind that deadpan sarcasm. He was right, I needed to concentrate on saving my sister before it was too late. I was too stubborn to admit that out loud though, so I merely nodded in reply and grunted “Lead on.”
We walked on in silence, my suspicions for Gwyn and hatred for David giving way to memories of my sister. All I could think of was the happiness our family had once known before my curse had snatched it from us, the way Amy’s dizzy nature would entertain us through a family dinner, and that cute face she’d often worn whenever she was trying to get her own way. Our family might not have been perfect, we might have had our fair share of demons between us, particularly Dad, and I might have argued with Amy more times than I cared to remember, but there had been plenty of good times as well, and we’d been there for each other when it really mattered. Of all the heinous acts I’d committed since my body had succumbed to lycanthropy, killing my own sister was the one thing I didn’t think I could ever truly recover from, accident or no. She had her whole life ahead of her, one that should be full of the happiness and laughter I remembered from our childhood, and I couldn’t forgive myself if she was denied that because of my sins.
I was barely aware of my surroundings as I prowled just behind Gwyn, carrying Amy’s limp body as carefully as I could manage. I almost crashed into the Welsh man when he came to a sudden halt. An irritable growl rumbled deep in my throat, the thunder signalling the coming storm of my rage building in the darkness of my being, until it was cut short by the realisation of why he’d stopped.
“Now, I know what you’re thinking. But in case you hadn’t noticed, this is bad. Remember it’s not just your life at stake this time.”
Gwyn’s words were for me but his eyes never once left the dozen or so men blocking our path. I’d been so lost in my memories that I’d failed to notice enemies getting into place ahead of us, and I assumed the Welsh man didn’t have the same enhanced senses to forewarn him of the threat we’d been unwittingly heading towards. David must have ordered a number of his men to enter the dungeon and slow us, to ensure Amy died before we could reach Sel
ina. But the men themselves were nothing special as far as I could see, each standing resolutely in the face of the grim fate they’d been sent to meet. Their guns were trained on us, held steady despite the liquid fear I could smell on them, pouring out as cold sweat. Hearts thundered in frail mortal chests, just begging for me to set them free and feed my rage with their pain, my bloodlust with their deaths, and my hunger with their warm flesh. They had to know of the brutal end that was coming, just as it had to their comrades in the section of the base I’d broken into with Zee. I’d faced much worse odds and emerged victorious before; I saw no reason why it should be any different this time.
I did find it strange that each of the Slayers had a torch on the end of his gun. If David planned to plunge us all into complete blackness and set that apparition loose to harry and slow us once more, then why bother sending the men in at all? I really wanted to charge into the men and rend flesh from bone until their blood decorated the passage and each breathed their last, my inner darkness still demanding retribution, but I was forced to accept that there might be more at work here than a mere force of mortal men. And Gwyn was right, it wasn’t just my life I’d be risking if we engaged them. Amy’s life hung in the balance, faint as it now was. If she was to stand any chance of being saved, we needed to keep moving and I needed to survive for her sake. If I threw myself into a battle where the odds were stacked against me for the sake of going down in a blaze of glory, it wouldn’t just be my own life which would be so recklessly forfeit.
“So what would you have us do?” I growled. “We have to get past them somehow, unless you know another way that will take us to Selina.”
“Smash those lights just behind us,” he replied in a low whisper, too quiet for the mortal men to hear.
“What?”
“Just trust me, fluffy. Smash the lights.”
I couldn’t see how that would help us when the Slayers had torches on their weapons to see by, plus there were more flame effect bulbs further along the tunnel, beyond our enemies. Even if I broke the lights I didn’t have to fight my way through to reach, we wouldn’t be in pitch blackness like before. And the problem was, I didn’t trust him. If he was working with David then this could all be part of some grand scheme to further punish me for Fiona’s death. It would even explain why the Slayers had torches attached to their weapons. But what else could I do? If engaging our enemies wasn’t an option and there was no other way forward (as far as I could see, and it wasn’t like I had the time to search for an alternative route), it seemed I would have to go along with whatever Gwyn had planned and just hope he was sincere in his apparent efforts to help me.
Resigned to placing my trust in the man I still had so many suspicions about, I laid my sister down just behind us, along the left side of the passage where I hoped she’d be out of harm’s way if it did come to a fight. Then I did as he’d bid, feeling very exposed with my back turned to our foes while I rushed over to extinguish the fake flames. They’d already focussed their aim on me at the first sign of movement, and I felt their collective gaze following me while I ran back down the corridor to the nearest set of lights flickering away in their brackets.
There came shouts from behind when the men realised what I was doing and a hail of bullets pelted through the shadows, but I moved too quickly for any to find their mark. Nerves sparked as a handful of them grazed various parts of my body but they passed otherwise harmlessly into the walls, embedding themselves in the stone. I kept my thoughts on Amy to prevent giving into the temptation to let my anger take over, made all the stronger for the pain. If whatever Gwyn hoped to accomplish by taking out the lights failed, then I would unleash the full force of my rage and bloodlust on the men, and possibly my supposed ally as well, but I had to at least try things his way first.
The lights were dim enough that the shadows stretched around us the instant I broke the first bulb, and darkness washed over us when I broke the second. Two faint ‘flames’ remained further down the passage where we’d come from, so weak that they might as well have been distant stars, their light unable to touch us at any distance. The Slayers stood by the nearest bulbs ahead, but we were just outside of that small pool of flickering light, probably no more than shapes moving in the shadows to them then, if they hadn’t have had the torches on their weapons.
As one, the men turned their attention back to where Gwyn had stood, refocussing their lights on him. But there was just a pile of clothes there now. A hearty, jovial chuckling permeated the air around us, and I could just make out something moving in the darkness. Then I understood. The apparition had been with us all along, trapped in the weakness of human flesh by the light. And now he was free.
The men’s fear only grew in response to the danger lurking just on the edge of the light, made all the more potent by the presence of the nightmare creature waiting for us at the end of the dungeon. I could almost taste it on the air. Their hearts pounded faster still, calling to my predatory nature, summoning me to the hunt. I felt myself drowning in blood, my self-control sinking beneath it as primal instincts flooded my brain until all else was but a distant echo somewhere deep in my skull. Reality crumbled away until there was nothing left except for my hunger, and the prey in front of me. The rush of their blood through their veins and their frantically pumping hearts filled my ears until it was all I could hear, the scent of my sister’s blood filling my nose until it was all I could smell. Blood: the wine that accompanied a predator’s banquet. A feast awaited me, and all I had to do was lunge forward and take it, seize it with my great jaws as I had so many times before. It was in my nature and ultimately my nature would always win. The leopard can’t change its spots, the wolf can’t be one of the sheep, and hunger cannot be denied. The hunt called and I found myself powerless to resist, though I had just enough willpower left to steer my desires away from my sister’s prone form. And besides, the men might be prey but they were still a threat. So I charged them.
A thrill ran through me to see my prey scatter in panicked retreat, their nerve failing them at the sight of a large predator running towards them, spurring me on. One man turned to fire off a shot as I crossed into the pool of dim light they’d thought to hide behind, just out of reach of the darkness. But it was too rushed to ever stand a chance of finding its mark, even without fear affecting his aim, and the bulb on my left exploded in a shower of glass, creating a path of shadows around the small patch of light that remained on the right. The way was open for Gwyn to join the chase.
I only pushed myself harder, not even flinching at the shot. Seconds later I was on the nearest of them, sinking fangs into flesh and revelling in the divine taste of fresh, bloody meat. Then the darkness attacked, and the chorus of screams began.
Chapter Eleven – Death Takes Her
I looked up from my meal, my ears pulled back and flattened against the sides of my head as my bloodied muzzle twisted into a snarl, hackles raised. I remained crouched but my posture became instinctively defensive in the presence of a potentially rival predator of greater strength and might. Time and again I was being forced to accept that there were far more powerful things in the world than werewolves. I was not top of the food chain in the supernatural world, so it paid to be wary. Even if I had felt more inclined to trust Gwyn, he made me uneasy on a primal level.
It was impossible to see much of what was happening but the men’s cries rang in my ears, a sound which was the very definition of terror and pain. This was the kind of darkness that extinguished all light; a shadowy death to snuff out all life. There was no running from it, no hiding. Without a light to drive it back, there was only that final blackness of the void.
The men still had the lights on the end of their guns of course, but no matter how hard they tried to fend off the darkness, it seemed Gwyn was always one step ahead of them, twisting and turning to avoid their torches and striking from the safety of the shadows that granted him such power. If he did turn on me, I didn’t fancy my chances in a fair fight.
I could just make him out as a patch of darkness more complete than the shadows he swam in, descending on the men one by one and drawing more cries from his prey. I couldn’t see what was happening to the humans but when he withdrew, his victims lay still, blood trickling from mouths still frozen in now silent screams. Worst of all were their empty sockets, eyes put out as if to ensure they remained in eternal darkness beyond the grave, regardless of what the afterlife held for them. Inwardly I shuddered, unable to think of much worse fates.
Failing to track Gwyn’s every movement, it wasn’t until he chose to step back into the light and return to his human form that I realised it was over. A couple of the bodies twitched in a pretence at life but they were all very much dead, though how long they remained so depended on the necromancer working for the Slayers. It wouldn’t do to linger too long, especially with Amy’s life hanging in the balance.
Whatever the Welsh man was, he’d moved silently in his ethereal form, but once he returned to his fleshy prison there came the sounds of his physical body on the stone just as there had for the living humans right up until the moment he’d doused that spark of life and made inanimate objects of them. But it was his humming that caught my attention. I turned to find him doing up his trousers, a seemingly harmless human once more, and only then did I begin to relax. If he’d meant to hurt me he could have kept to the shadows, but since he’d willingly entered back into the light and his weaker, corporeal form, I reasoned that it was unlikely I was in any immediate danger.
Gwyn grinned at me, a crimson smear at his bare feet where one of us must have splashed some blood whilst indulging our dark desires. “Was it as good for you as it was for me?”
His sense of humour seemed so at odds with the true nature he’d now revealed to me that I just stared at him. Some part of my mind was probably still trying to make sense of all these recent developments because suddenly it clicked into place why one of the corpses we’d encountered just after finding Gwyn in human form had been naked – like any of the vampires with the ability to shift forms and as with my own shapeshifting abilities, clothes did not come included. The Slayers had kept him locked in a dark chamber in his spirit form and with the passage beyond in darkness when we’d first gone through, he must have swept past us, only for the dull light in the passage to return and force him back into his mortal guise. He’d needed clothes for his human form and he’d taken them from that corpse. Or at least, I assumed that was what had happened.
