Enough of this! Using the knife she still held in her hand, she gored its heart.
The rabbit man’s foot thumped the ground several times. Its long ears sagged as it died.
Catching her breath, she said, “Wascally wabbit.” She shoved the stiffening thing off her.
Cort was up on one knee rubbing his face. His eyes fell on her. He pointed over her.
She looked around. Smoke was on his back. AV was on top of him, choking the life from his body. “No!”
CHAPTER 17
“You’ve got a weakness, Mister Smoke. You deny what you are. You hold back,” AV said. “Unlike me, you haven’t embraced your savage nature. It leaves you weak.” Saliva dripped down AV’s teeth and over his gums. “It strengthens me! It’s amplified my hatred without limits!” His biceps bulged. His efforts magnified. “What a waste.”
Smoke fought against the stormy sea that raged in his bowels. Self-control was the only way to win. He needed his wits. If he lost them to his inner bestial passions, Kane would win. He locked his fingers on AV’s wrists. He strained to pry the iron limbs apart.
The wolfman laughed.
Sid appeared over the back of AV’s shoulder. She dug a knife behind his ribs. “Fool!” AV unlocked one hand. He balled it up into a fist and struck. The fierce blow spun Sid in a three-sixty. Her athletic form slumped to the ground. Her eyelids fluttered.
A spark fired inside Smoke the moment she fell. It ignited. The dam that held back the dark waters within crumbled. The gloating stare of AV hung over him like a red bull’s-eye. Smoke cranked back a fist and lashed out. The punch rocked AV’s chin.
“That’s more like it! I felt that! Good, Smoke! Good!” Still straddling Smoke, AV fought to fasten his grip again. “But you are still weak, rodent! I’m a wolf, and you’re a bat. Pathetic!”
Smoke kept punching. He alternated fist for fist, pounding AV’s jaw from side to side. It was like hitting a block of cement mounted on a neck of iron.
AV absorbed the first several blows. His brows lifted. His iron chin weakened. Fingers once stronger than steel slipped. With rage filling him from head to toe, Smoke did a reversal. He pinned AV underneath him.
AV’s eyes changed. The confident look of the predator faded. He’d crossed the line. The beast he had goaded was out of the gate. He fought against the river of regret that was about to drown him whole.
Smoke beat AV’s face like a speed bag. Bone loosened in the skull. The boundless strength of the wolfman’s extremities turned to noodles. Smoke sank a blade deep into AV’s heart and twisted.
AV let out a long, bloody, ragged sigh.
With instincts flaring, Smoke sprang away toward an approaching enemy. Cort stood a few feet away with a gun on him. The eyes in his battered face were narrowed.
“Whose side are you on, Smoke?” Cort said. He increased the distance between them. “You don’t look like yourself. You need to show me some control. What’s my name, Smoke? What’s my name?”
The man was speaking, but the words weren’t registering. The language was gibberish. All Smoke saw was a threat. A weapon that could cause pain. The dark blood of AV dripped from his fingers. The splatters on the floor echoed in his ears. The man pointed at something on the floor. There was a woman sprawled out on the floor. The heartbeat was strong and the breathing ragged. A fragment of humanity slowed the currents that fed the beast.
Sid.
As he took a knee, he cradled her up in his arms. He brushed the hair from her face. Slowly, the lids covering her eyes opened.
“Smoke?” she said.
The language was still fuzzy. The tide continued to rise.
The intercom clicked on. “That was entertaining. The viewers are happy,” Kane said. “Oh, the savagery! Time is ticking, Mister Smoke. You’re only moments away from fully embracing it. As for the rabbit men, well, that was a special request from a deviant old friend from England. A notorious Monty Python fan. So, dear champions, are you out of bullets yet? Those little jump skippers made you drop a lot of pellets.”
“We really need to put an end to him,” Sid said to Smoke. Her eyes were searching his. “Are you okay? You don’t look right. Stay with me, John. For the love of Christ, stay with me.”
Smoke set her down. Standing tall, he stared up at the ceiling. His thoughts raced. He caught a branch that swiftly floated through the river of his jangled thoughts. It read, “When the rules aren’t working, change the rules.”
“John!” Sid said, holding onto his leg. “John, I know that look. Don’t!”
Letting out a loud bat-like screech, Smoke jumped to the ceiling. His fists punched holes in it. He ripped the tile and plaster out.
He left Sid and Cort behind, staring up at the gaping hole.
CHAPTER 18
Sid turned her attention to Cort. “You’re hurt!”
“No, I just feel like I went fifteen rounds with George Foreman. Probably look like it too. Those rabbit punchers beat the snot out of me.”
Kane was still on the intercom. “Where did he go?” He spoke as if he wasn’t aware that his microphone was still on. “Frank, do you have eyes on him?”
The name rang a bell with Sid. She recalled the gaunt, hollow-eyed giant of a man with whom she’d had a nasty encounter in Las Vegas.
“Who’s this Frank guy anyway?” Cort said, rubbing his jaw with his good hand. “Aw man, I bet I’m too ugly for a casket. Close my coffin if you survive and I don’t.”
“One of the creeps that turns men into shifters, I believe.” She made her way around the room, spotting the cameras on the walls. The room was huge, and there were more than she could make a quick count of. For some reason though, she got the feeling they weren’t the most entertaining part of the story. Over the intercom, glass smashed into a wall. She could see Kane’s enraged face perfectly in her mind.
Over the loudspeaker he said, “Find him, Frank! Find him now!”
There was a click. The cafeteria became oddly silent.
“What just happened?” Cort moved about the room with a limp, his head swiveling on his shoulders. “I feel I just lost my date to the dance and I’ll be dancing all alone.”
“And you’re complaining?” Sid stared up into the hole Smoke had made. It wasn’t too high for her to reach if she stood on Cort’s shoulders. “Boost me up.”
“Excuse me? You’re going after him?”
“Yep.”
“We need to stick together, Sid. I might be able to get you up, but with my arm”—he lifted his busted arm—“I’m stuck. We’d best go at this together.”
“He needs me.”
“I understand where your heart is, but I need you too. Besides, I’m not boosting you up. Where you go, I go, and vice versa. It’s not my fault your husband abandoned you. What did you expect? He’s a wild man.”
“Don’t talk about him like that, you know better. He needs me. He needs us. Come on.” There were other exits out of the cafeteria posted on all four walls. She checked them all one at a time with fierce tugs. The door they came through had now locked as well. She kicked it. “Morning Glory!”
“They’ve got us where they want us, I suppose.” Using one hand, Cort managed to load in a fresh magazine of ammo. “I can’t wait to see what comes after us next. What do you think? A unicorn? Giant teddy bears? I wonder if they have any robots. I always wanted to fight a robot.”
She pointed her gun up at the hole in the ceiling. “That’s the only exit they don’t control. Cort, you have to help me. We can’t just sit here.”
“Okay, okay, I see your point. But before you go up, you have to promise that you’ll come back for me.”
“I can’t unlock those doors from the other side. I can’t unlock them at all.”
Shaking his head, he replied, “No can do then. Tell you what. You know something is coming. When it comes, we blow it to kingdom come and shoot through the doors.”
“They’re watching,” she said, looking at the cameras. “Th
ey come in the direction opposite … oh, never mind!” Sid marched over to one of the storage shelves. She scooted it over with a grinding screech.
Cort covered his ears. “Woman, what are you doing?”
Sid shoved the shelves under the hole. She climbed. Standing on the top shelf, she looked down at Cort. “I’ll be back.”
“Shut up.”
“Sid, Smoke, can you hear me?” Guppy was speaking into Sid’s earpiece.
She’d completely forgotten about the device. She saw in Cort’s eyes that he heard it too. Her fingers fumbled for the communication link in her wristband. “Guppy! Guppy, I’m here.” She lowered her voice. She wasn’t sure if the cameras had microphones or not. She made it look like she was having a conversation with Cort. He had a puzzled look at first, but caught on.
“Thank the Lord! I’ve got eyes inside again. I got the laptop, started configuring, and even though it took some time — you know, those firewalls — I cracked in. It really took some doing though, seeing how they knew I was looking, but I think they lost sight of the fact that we’re out here and you’re—”
“I don’t need the rundown, Guppy. We’re locked inside the storage room where the backup generators are located. Can you unlock the doors? We need a route out.”
“Give me a second.”
“Guppy, if you have access to their screens, look for Smoke. He’s gone.”
“No sign of him. I’m searching though. It’s pretty easy because it looks like they’re searching every camera they have in a frantic wave. Heh-heh. Smoke really knows how to give people fits, doesn’t he?”
“He’s giving me one right now. He’s run off again, and Guppy, he’s not himself, he’s…scary.”
“I see. We’ll find him, assuming I don’t get cut off again.” Guppy groaned. “Darn, this is a little harder than it looks.”
Cort gave Sid a worried look.
“He’ll get it.”
A subtle pop caught her ears. A pair of double doors adjacent to the top of the room wobbled a bit. She and Cort had their guns fixed on it. “Or not.”
“I got it,” Guppy said. “You should be able to head out whatever door you want. There’s a lot of square footage, Sid. I’ve got eyes in the halls, but I can’t see them all at once, plus, there’s no telling what’s in the rooms. Anything could ambush you.”
“I know. I just want to find Smoke before Kane gets to him. I’ve got an awful feeling about this.”
“My suggestion is that you go for the main communication room. That’s the nerve center. That will be the fastest way to find Smoke, or anyone else.”
She climbed off the shelf. “Good idea, where is it?”
“Hold on, I’m looking.”
CHAPTER 19
Sid and Cort eased through the double doors. Without a lot of ammo, the two of them crept down the hall, waiting for Guppy to give them a little more guidance. Sid’s patience had run out. She was determined to find Smoke, with or without the use of the control room. She just wished she could have left Cort behind. She didn’t want to abandon the man, but he was slowing her down, and Smoke’s trail was long gone unless the cameras picked him back up.
Cort caught her elbow. He pointed his chin at one of the hallway doors on the right. At the bottom, a shadow moved behind the gap. She responded with a nod of her own. The office had a glass window, but there was a vinyl blind that blocked the view inside. The blind quavered.
On cat’s feet, Sid darted by. She hugged the wall on the other side of the door, between it and the next door beside it. She gave Cort a nod. He moved by the door with the finesse of a hunting grizzly bear. She exhaled. She didn’t want to draw any attention to them. She didn’t want to waste any ammo either. They’d only be able to fight for so long, then it would be over.
“Sid, it’s Guppy. Good news. I’ve found the control room, and it’s on the first floor.”
“And the bad news is?”
“That corridor is chock-full of deaders. Don’t worry about them until you get there. I’m running loops through the security feeds again. Whoever’s watching doesn’t know where you are, I think.”
“That’s not very reassuring.” Sid bounced the back of her head against the wall. “How many deaders are we talking about?”
“Mmmm, twenty or so, I’d say. Redcoats. What’s the deal with the redcoats?”
Sid shook her head. “It makes no difference. Which way do we go? We’ll just have to figure out something when we get there.”
The sweat from Cort’s chin started to make a puddle on the floor. “Man, I’m getting hungry.” He wiped his chin on the forearm of his suit. “Starving like a pregnant lady.”
“It’s the suit. You won’t get used to it. Where are we going, Guppy?”
“Stay south toward the river. Pass the elevators. Corridor bends right, then left. The command center is in the southwestern corner of the building. But again, it’s packed with deaders, and I’m just talking about the ones I can see.”
“Let’s go.”
Sid led. It didn’t take long before she caught the stench of eroding flesh and musty uniforms. She held off from covering her nose. Not a priority. She squatted down and peeked around the corner where the T-intersection started. The redcoat deaders were crammed at the end of the hall like sardines. The brass buttons on their uniforms clinked against one another. Old sabers in scabbards rattled on hips. It was an undead army with dark fires burning in their hollow eyes. She pulled back.
Cort took a look. His body stiffened. He turned back to Sid and said, “Damn.” He took a deep breath through his flaring nostrils. “I should have known it would come to this. It’s got to be done, Cort. Got to do it, Cort. Got to go.”
“Who are you talking to, yourself?”
“Listen, pretty lady, you’re sweet and all, but if I survive this, you owe me one!” She caught a crazy look in his eye as if someone turned on a switch that lit up a wild light.
“Slow down, Cort. Cort?”
Cort stepped out into the hallway. He walked right toward the shambling soldiers. With his gun pointed straight at the nearest deader, he fired. The bullet punched through the deader’s chest and into another. “Listen up, rednecks! Which one of you bony bastards can tell me where the commissary is?”
At the same time, all of the deaders turned toward him. All together, they charged.
Cort let loose a couple more shots, then turned and ran with a speed that belied his size. He ran down the straight line of the corridor.
Sid slid back into one of the offices. It was just her. Through a crack in the door, she watched the deaders rush after Cort in their startling stiff gait. “Guppy, you have to help him.”
“I am. You just do what you need to do.”
She moved out of the office. The end of the hallway leading into the control room was empty. There was an alcove entrance with a sign that hung above the opening. It read Command Central. Sid snuck up to the opening with her back to the wall. She could make out the edge of some steps that led down. Back sliding against the wall, she peeked around the corner. A strong bony hand locked around her throat. The fingers dug into her flesh and squeezed with unforgiving strength that wasn’t human.
Sid gasped then stuck a gun in the bony ribs of a redcoat deader and pumped two rounds into its heart. The grip of the monster loosened. A second deader tucked in the shadows of the alcove rammed a bayonet at her side. “Gah!”
The rusting metal blade poked at her ribs, but the sweetheart suit saved her. The force of the impact knocked her into the wall, though. The deader continued to stab. Sid planted the barrel of her gun in its chest and fired.
The deader collapsed.
“Sid, are you okay?” Guppy said.
Panting for breath, she said, “Yes.” She tugged on the handles of the double doors. “I’m going to shoot my way into the command center.”
“No, I can open it, hold on.”
Sid’s breath became raspy. Her lungs started to burn. Sh
e wheezed. Not now. Of all the times, not now. Wiping her hair from her eyes, she turned to take a peek down the corridor.
Click.
Before she could turn, something grabbed her by the hair and jerked her clean off her feet and inside.
CHAPTER 20
Smoke burrowed his way between the joists in the ceiling and the second-level flooring. Blood rushed through his ears. His savage nature was coming out. He had to run. Hide. Calm himself. Cort had looked like a pork chop to him moments earlier. He’d wanted to kill the man for blinking. He wanted to kill everything that pumped with warm blood.
Fight the hunger.
His fist smashed through the subflooring above his head. He punched until there was a hole big enough to squeeze through. He was inside an office. The bookshelves and desks were metal. An old computer monitor was on the desk. The chair sat on four casters. The place dated back to the late eighties. It was possibly the last time anyone worked there for a living until the Drake took over. Smoke ventured to the door and listened. It was quiet in the hallway.
Get it together, Smoke. You can’t give in.
Whatever Kane had done to him was taking a toll. He thirsted for a taste of innocent blood. It wasn’t like he was a blood-sucking vampire. But for some reason the urge to kill was inviting. Spilling the blood of the living was a sweet desire to him. He could smell it. Sense it. Something different. It was like seeing life from two different dimensions. In one realm were the living, some good, some not so much, and there was a hue about them. In another realm were the shifters, with an aura as cold as stone. They had no soul. No nothing. Just a living existence full of regret. Smoke clenched his fists.
Just find Kane. Kill him.
Smoke’s own regrets began to fill him. When he’d been posing as Mack Brown, he’d had Kane right in the crosshairs. He should have tried to kill the monster then, but hadn’t. For some reason, Kane had a hold on him. Perhaps it was the strange injection he was infused with. A mixture of blood perhaps, or strange chemicals. Whatever it was, it was otherworldly, or ancient, from civilizations long forgotten. Smoke’s limbs trembled.
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 123
