Vengeance (Hybrid Book 3)

by Nick Stead

  “Mine,” I growled, struggling to form the words with vocal cords that were becoming more wolf than human.

  Zee glanced back at me, eyebrow raised.

  “Mine!” I snarled again.

  “As you wish,” he replied, backing off.

  The man cowered before me, another pitiful excuse for a human being. If the words had come easily enough I would have taunted him for being so weak that mutilating placid, helpless victims like the dog was all he was good for, lacking the strength or the courage to face a worthy opponent. I would have challenged him to try and take my ears and eyes. But speaking English was too much of an effort so I let my actions do all the talking. And just as humans spoke of ‘an eye for an eye’ when talking about revenge, I planned to visit the same torment on the man as he had on the dog.

  My hands were too close to paws to be able to grip properly but the human was already pressed up against the wall. I raised a claw to his eye and realising what I had planned, he turned his head to the side, murmuring “No.”

  I was able to pin his head there with one paw, placing it just above his ear. He could do nothing but scream as first I took that ear, slicing the flesh slowly and pulling so that it came away bit by bit, the tissue trying to hold onto it no match for my supernatural strength. Then I forced his head to the other side so I could take that ear as well. His screaming and his begging grew louder as I moved my claw back round to his eye, but I would have merely laughed if I’d been human enough to make the sound.

  My claw was the last thing he ever saw, wide eyes fixed on the point of it as I moved it gradually nearer until slowly the point pushed through the cornea, iris and pupil and deep into first his left eyeball and then his right, gouging the same holes in his face he’d left the dog with. I wanted him to suffer for as long as possible but I knew if I left him alive he might be rescued and given the chance of as good a quality life as humans could offer him without sight. So I dug my claws into his stomach and ripped his organs out as best I could with paws, gutting him like the animal he was and leaving him to die in a pool of his own blood and viscera.

  “Why that one?” Zee asked when I was done.

  “Promised,” I growled.

  We made our way back to the section where we’d left Selina and Lady Sarah. The two sisters were waiting for us outside the warlock’s room but the witch shook her head as we approached, indicating they hadn’t been successful.

  “I tried,” she said. “It might have been possible if the demon was close or if I knew its name, but there was no mention of a name in any of the warlock’s notes so there was nothing to focus the magic on.”

  Zee spoke for me since I was struggling and not all of them understood the wolven tongue. “We killed all those we could find but there weren’t many. Either most of them had the sense to flee or they’re waiting somewhere for us in force. Have any of you come across the exit yet?”

  We each shook our heads.

  “Then it must be down this way,” he replied, pointing along the corridor in the direction none of us had been in yet. “We should check the rest of the way is clear before we go back for Gwyn and Amy, then make our escape while we have the chance.”

  “No,” I snarled. “David!”

  “We understand your need for revenge, Nick. But it will have to wait. Do you really want to risk your sister’s life just to kill him tonight? Be patient. The time will come and when it does, I’ll personally help you get to him so you can repay him for our suffering.”

  I knew those were words of wisdom but I didn’t like the idea of letting David go, eager to taste his blood that very night. And if I could have spoken more than the odd word without any difficulty I might have argued. As it was, I found myself prowling down the corridor beside the two vampires and the witch, straining my senses for any hint of more prey.

  There was only one other human between us and the stairs leading up to the outside world. He knew he was doomed the instant he saw the four of us but unlike most of the others we’d found, he showed no fear, instead tossing aside his gun and standing strong.

  “Are you so eager to die?” Lady Sarah hissed at him.

  He laughed then. “Kill me, it don’t matter. Reinforcements are on the way. You ain’t leaving here with your lives either.”

  The medieval vampire responded with a bite to the neck, sinking her fangs into his jugular vein and feeding while the rest of us checked the stairs for any signs of a trap.

  “If he’s telling the truth, we need to hurry,” Zee said. “We vampires can go back for the other two; we’ll be faster if we go alone.”

  “I think we should stick together,” Selina replied. “If the reinforcements arrive our best hope is to meet them with our combined powers. I took some things I can use from the warlock so at least I won’t be completely useless, and I can summon Varin back to my side. He will be able to fight now he isn’t having to carry Amy on his back.”

  No sooner had she spoken than we heard the sound of vehicles outside. Zee cursed and answered “I guess that settles it then. We stick together for as long as possible. If we’re separated there will be little we can do; it will have to be everyone for themselves until we either fight through this or die trying.”

  Lady Sarah tossed the dried husk of the Slayer she’d just drained aside and we made a run back to the chamber of the dungeon that was supposed to have been our tomb. But when we reached the broken window in the control room it was to find Gwyn had been knocked unconscious and Amy was gone. A message had been daubed on the far wall in more blood and I didn’t need to pick up any scents to know who it was.

  Come get her, beast.

  Chapter Twenty Nine – Vengeance

  I jumped down from the control room with little regard for my safety, not caring if I broke any bones in the fall. My flesh was still slowly shifting and would soon repair the damage. But as it was, by some miracle I managed to land without doing myself any major injuries and I was bounding back through the dungeon before anyone could stop me. The force of Slayers heading for us no longer mattered. Reaching the exit no longer mattered. Even the lives of my allies no longer mattered, since they were strong enough to stand a fighting chance of coming out of this alive. The only thing that did matter to me then was reaching David so I could simultaneously save my sister and have my revenge.

  The demon’s presence was still thick in the tunnels, even though the thing itself was no longer lurking in the dungeon. But I didn’t need to follow my nose to find the boy I’d once called friend, grown to be the young man I now called enemy. My instincts told me there was only one chamber he’d have taken her to. After all, I’d already sussed it out as the most likely place for there to be a secret door or passage linking that section to the main base, allowing the Slayers to safely slip in and out of the dungeon to create my red rag without them having to go anywhere near the enemies created for me to fight, or risk coming into contact with any of us prisoners. He’d probably entered the dungeon that way and would want to be back by his escape route to make a quick getaway when he was ready.

  My progress back through the dungeon was much quicker than it had been advancing towards the end of it, the doorways all left open in David’s wake. I raced through the chamber where the skeletal warriors had attacked, pieces of them still writhing on the floor in a futile attempt to attack as I passed. From there I took the lower tunnel Lady Sarah, Selina and Amy had originally passed through, sprinting down it and into the chamber where Hannah’s grisly remains still lay in the shadows. Fortunately her corpse hadn’t risen as another undead minion for the necromancer to set on me and I was able to run straight through and out into the next passage leading back to where Lady Sarah had been doused in holy water and beyond that the room where I’d been forced to fight Zee.

  The transformation ground onwards, another flash of agony searing through my flesh and tripping me up. I rolled across the floor with the momentum of my running, landing in a tangle of warped limbs caught somewhere b
etween human and wolf and voicing my pain and frustration in a fierce roar. My femurs were shortening and my spine was starting to lose its curve at the base. Moving was quickly becoming more awkward in this twisted shape I was currently trapped in, but as soon as the throbbing subsided into more of a steady ache I forced myself onwards, running as swiftly and as gracefully as I could manage with my body in a less than ideal mix of its two different forms.

  I made it out into the next tunnel and pushed on, veering down the side passage without stopping to check for signs David and Amy were definitely down there. I felt certain they would be and sure enough, my instincts were proved right as I finally slowed and stepped into the chamber built purely to feed my rage. The corpse of the female dog lay where I’d left it, renewing my anger at mankind’s cruelty in their treatment of all those they deemed lesser than themselves. And there stood the man responsible, the kill I needed to satiate my bloodlust and need for vengeance.

  Dark flames danced behind his blue eyes as that face I once knew so well regarded me with a hatred to rival my own. He looked slightly more muscular than I remembered and the stubble covering his jawline gave him the look of a young man rather than the boy I’d last seen, though he was still a child in many ways. Yet there was nothing child-like about that blackness I sensed in him which had started as only a shadow of my own, but it had grown stronger and matured into its own monster in the time since he’d last faced me and failed to take revenge for the girl he’d been convinced was the one true love for him. The darkness had been too weak in him back then to make him a killer, even with the grief filling his broken heart. It had needed time to develop and feed on the hatred he’d nurtured for me, the beast who had ripped his love from him and left only loathing and cruelty in its place. There was only one way this encounter would end this time and if David had his way, it would be with the deaths of both me and my sister. He wouldn’t shy away from killing me a second time.

  Amy’s eyes were wide with fear and tears ran down her cheeks, though Zee’s spell still shielded her from the worst of the emotions she should have been feeling. Her arm looked to be bruising beneath the iron tight grip David had her in, the muzzle of his gun resting against her forehead. She looked to be otherwise unharmed, for the time being. And after everything I’d been through already to try and save her, I couldn’t let it end there in that chamber wrought of mankind’s cruelty. All the evil David had caused since discovering my true nature was as much my doing as it was his, all the blood on his hands as much a stain on my own. The words were still there on the wall to make that message clear, and I knew there was more than just my sister’s life at stake and this was more than just revenge. I had to stop the monster I’d created. It was time to extinguish that dark fire I’d ignited in my old friend before it claimed any more lives. My own darkness already caused enough damage without allowing its spawn to continue on unchecked.

  There was one other set of familiar features waiting for me in that room. He looked exactly as I’d last seen him, the mortal counterpart to the face the reaper had chosen in the space between life and death. No emotion was evident in those grey eyes as they locked on me. The older Slayer was also armed, his gun trained on me as I entered the room.

  I stalked forward on all fours, my body more wolf than human. The rush of blood through the veins of the three humans sung to my dark desires, but I fought my lust as best I could, trying to keep a clear head. Charging forward may well be the death of me that time, or at the very least the death of my sister. David might show the same weakness so many other humans had against my supernatural might, but I suspected the other Slayer had been tried and tested in battle many times before and I’d seen enough evidence to know he’d long since mastered his fear. His aim would remain true.

  The sound of gunfire from further down the dungeon reached my ears, which probably meant my allies were locked in their own fight. I couldn’t rely on any of them coming to my aid, the Slayers presumably bringing in enough reinforcements to even the odds and keep them busy long enough for David’s personal vendetta to reach its bloody conclusion. The odds of me rescuing Amy and killing the two Slayers were looking slim. I tried to think quickly about what my next move should be, but I had no idea how I was going to win this one.

  “Here he is,” David said. He seemed to be enjoying this latest turn of events, even though his original grand scheme hadn’t quite gone to plan. “See what a monster your brother’s turned into?”

  “Why are you doing this? You’ve known us for years. Nick’s been your best friend for years. Please, just let us go.”

  “That thing is not my friend! Haven’t you told her about everything you’ve done, beast?” he asked me.

  I growled in response. Trying to talk my way out of the situation wasn’t an option since my vocal cords were too far gone to form more than the odd recognisable word, with ever increasing difficulty.

  “He can’t even speak up for himself,” David sneered. “Shall I fill her in then? We both know Amy’s too stupid to put two and two together herself. She probably hasn’t figured out yet that all those half eaten bodies were down to you.”

  “I’m not stupid, I know he’s killed people. I don’t care, he’s still my brother and he doesn’t deserve to die!”

  “Doesn’t he? Even after he killed your new friend Hannah? Or how about Melissa, did he tell you that was him?”

  “He wasn’t in control, it’s not his fault,” Amy insisted, but she sounded less sure of herself. David knew full well it would hurt me more if she died believing me to be the monster he saw me as, angry and hating me for everything I’d done.

  “What about your dad, did he tell you that was him?”

  “Stop lying, he wouldn’t hurt Dad! Why do you care about any of them anyway?”

  “I don’t. The one I cared about was Fiona. Our friend; you remember her don’t you, beast? She was our friend, and you hunted her down and ate her like she was just another piece of meat. How could you?”

  “Well he obviously can’t control it or he wouldn’t have killed anyone,” Amy argued for me. “It doesn’t mean you have to kill him. He needs help. Please David, just let us go and we can find some way to lock him up at full moon and stop him hurting anyone else.”

  “You really are stupid if you think that will work. He’s got a taste for humans now. Haven’t you, beast? Why don’t you tell her about all the hunting you’ve been doing in broad daylight and on the nights that weren’t a full moon? Oh that’s right, I forgot for a moment there you can’t tell us anything while you’re like that.”

  “And what about me; I haven’t done anything. Aren’t you a murderer if you kill me?”

  “It’s not murder when the thing you’re killing isn’t human,” he answered her.

  “What?”

  Another throb of complaint stabbed through my body, making me growl again. David turned his attention back to me, ignoring her question. His crazed brain probably hadn’t even registered the fact his response had made no sense, probably hearing my sister’s question in his head as if she was still talking about me and not herself.

  “I believe you’ve already met my friend here,” he said, gesturing to the older man. “I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong this time and he’s probably the best marksman the Slayers have got. If I’d had my way I’d have filled the entire base with their most highly trained recruits, instead of all those fools I’ve been stuck with. But trying to convince the more competent members to join our cause was taking too long, so we’ve had to make do. It already feels like I’ve been waiting too many years for this; there’s no way I’m letting you escape now. I will have my revenge, beast.”

  David’s finger twitched on the trigger and I started forward with a growled “No!”

  “Shoot to maim,” he commanded the other Slayer, probably wanting to keep to his vision of me watching helplessly while someone I cared about died as much as possible.

  The older man did as instructed, firing a
cruelly calculated shot intended to cause a world of pain without doing any mortal damage. My sensitive ears rang with the explosive sound of that single gunshot reverberating around the chamber, the lump of lead thudded through flesh and shattered bone, and David fell to the floor, screaming and clutching his ruined shoulder.

  Amy added her voice to the ensuing chaos, the gun David had been pointing at her clattering harmlessly to the ground. I bounded forward, unsure why the older Slayer had betrayed his current leader or why he hadn’t take the opportunity to put another bullet through my heart and finish what he’d started out on the moors that day I should have died. But for reasons I couldn’t even begin to guess at, he lowered his gun and slipped away before I could attack him, retreating through the hidden door into the main part of the base. He must have known the temptation to take revenge on David would be too great for me to resist, keeping me from going after him. But I couldn’t fathom why he wouldn’t just kill me while they’d had me at their mercy and be done with it.

  My sister also realised what I wanted as I charged towards my prey, screaming “Nick, no!”

  I ignored her and grabbed his leg, savaging it with such ferocity that the tissue was reduced to bloody strips within seconds, hanging as uselessly off the bone as the shredded material of his jeans.

  “Nick, you don’t have to do this,” Amy pleaded with me. “Let the police deal with him. You don’t have to be the monster he says you are.”

  Turning to look at her, I managed to growl another “No.”

  “Please, Nick. You don’t have to kill him. Prove you’re better than he is.”

  If speaking had been easier I might have tried to explain to her why we couldn’t go to the police. I might even have tried to justify the decision to kill him as being for our own good, since he was a danger to anyone I cared about if I risked letting him live – he’d only come back to haunt me again somewhere down the line. Instead I just growled “Vengeance.”