“So…,” Sam began, moving to the next cooker in line. “How are you even… here? I mean, you were attacked, right?”
“Yes.” Alice’s response was clipped, and she kept her eyes fixed on the cooker in front of her. Sam could see the tight set of her jaw and the tension in her body as she moved on to the net-to-the-last cooker. “All I know… is what John told me… that I was treated the same as Vincent. I don’t know anything else.”
Alice checked the final seal, then looked at her watch.“Good. Three minutes. Open those two containers there. I’m going to set the timer.”
Sam looked to the two large containers shoved under the tables. She popped the lids and was assailed with the noxious odors of chlorine and ammonia. This was not going to be a small fire… It was going to be a massive explosion… A meth lab explosion times a thousand.
“Jesus, it reeks in here!” Sam whirled around, though she recognized the voice immediately.
Prutzmann stood in the doorway, a smirk of a grin on his face as his eyes scanned the space, his gaze finally settling on Alice. “You ladies have been busy.”
Alice blew him a kiss. “Don’t be a condescending prat and grab that cooler. We don’t want any accidents.” She winked and returned to her wiring.
Sam stepped back as Prutzmann strode by, though he was still close enough to brush her arm. She sensed another presence in the hallway, though she couldn’t scent anything at all… Vincent.
Sam inched towards the door, and Vincent. He wasn’t looking at her, though, his gaze fixed on his little sister. Alice, for her part, seemed oblivious to his presence… Until she finished her little wiring project and turned around. The smile faded from her face, and her color drained away. She looked almost gray in the dim light, and a cold, hard glint had come into her eyes as she looked at Vincent. Sam shivered slightly… it was hard to tell whether Alice hated her brother, or simply didn’t care… Sam wondered which one would ultimately be better.
Vincent opened his mouth to speak – but was cut off as the lights came on throughout the storage warehouse. A loud bang echoed from the garage entry area and the sound of footsteps and men’s voices could be heard moving through the hallways.
The four all exchanged looks, then Prutzmann voiced what they were all thinking.
“Looks like we have company.”
Chapter 38
Marcy Avenue Subway Platform
Ben watched the lights of the train fade away. He should have gotten on… He promised Sam he would… But when the doors opened, and the chimes rang, and the voice spoke… He found himself vaulting out of the doorway back onto the platform, listening to the doors slide shut and the whir of the train as it started moving away.
Now he stood here at the railing, watching for… he wasn’t sure what. Ben was expecting there to be an explosion, had expected one long before this… I wonder what’s keeping them, he thought… I hope she’s alright… I hope THEY are alright…He was loathe to admit it, but Vincent was starting to grow on him a bit… He might even be able to be friends with the guy… Might.
The inbound train was pulling in across the platform and Ben turned briefly to glance as a lone figure got off the train. Tall, with a slim athletic build and dark hair, the man walked with purpose toward the stairs leading to the street below. There was something familiar about him, too… Something… He shrugged it off as the sounds of vehicles racing below caught his attention. He quickly turned back, watching several black sedans race to the corner and turn onto Roebling… in the direction of the storage warehouse.
Shit… Shit, shit, shit! Something was definitely going wrong. Ben fumbled with his phone, wrestling internally whether to call Sam or not… He could warn her, but the sound of her phone ringing could tip them off to her position if she was hiding. Ben took a deep breath, and decided to wait another minute. She may already be out, she may be on her way back…
And that’s when it hit him… Out of the blue, like lightning in a clear sky… The man who got off the train… was the same guy who had tipped him about the Bund Rally…
What the fuck was HE doing here?
Chapter 39
Storage Warehouse
“C’mon!” Prutzmann’s voice was harsh and deep as he held his hand out for Alice’s. She quickly popped the timer on the center pressure cooker and took his hand, running out of the space and into the hallway.
“Which way?” Sam looked between the two, waiting for an answer as to where they were going.
“You two go out the back,” Prutzmann answered. “There’s a small glass door that leads through the back onto Havemeyer. Break the glass if you need to, it may have been locked down.” He paused, his gaze shifting to Vincent. “Good luck.”
Vincent nodded, his eyes dark as he replied. “You, too, John.” Alice seemed startled by the familiarity between the two and was about to speak when Prutzmann pulled her hand and started down the hallway. “C’mon, baby, we have to run.” And run they did, disappearing down the hallway and around the corner.
Vincent watched after them for several seconds before Sam pulled on his arm.
“Vincent… ticking clock here.” The sound of Sam’s voice shook him out of his thoughts, and Vincent quickly grabbed her hand and they started running for the end of the hallway.
“John said it was at the back… And Havemeyer would be in this direction.”
“You guys talk while you fight, huh?”
Vincent chuckled as they reached the end of the hallway and the glass door Prutzmann had spoken of. “As I recall, the last time we fought, we talked a lot, too.” He pushed and pulled at the door, trying to get it to open.
“Yeah, and then we made out. Please tell me you guys didn’t do that, too.” Sam tried to maintain a serious face as Vincent glared at her, but it was no use.
“No. We did not.”
Sam chuckled, her gaze falling on the fire extinguisher attached to the wall nearby. They were running out of time to get away from the building… “Vincent?” He looked up and she jerked her chin towards the fire extinguisher. “I think that’s the key for the door, don’t you?”
Vincent glanced at the fire extinguisher and realization quickly dawned. He stepped over and pulled it from the wall. He went to the door and slammed the base against the glass once… twice… on the third time it cracked, and by the fourth slam it shattered. Using the fire extinguisher, he swung it along the inside, breaking out the pieces and clearing a space for them to get through. There was shouting coming from the hallway behind them… alarms starting to go off… and for a moment as she followed Vincent through the doorway, Sam wondered if Alice and Prutzmann had made it out… and as they ran away from the building toward Havemeyer and the church, and as the first booms of the explosion began to echo behind them, Sam found herself hoping that they had.
Chapter 40
Marcy Avenue Subway Platform
Ben’s head whipped around as the first sounds of explosion began to echo toward him. He couldn’t see anything after the first boom, or the second… but the third was massive, and an almost greenish fireball rushed up from the warehouse, pluming into a eerie mushroom-like cloud above the building. Several more booms were echoing in the background, and Ben began to wonder just what kind of explosives Sam and Vincent had had at their disposal in there, especially since they’d gone in empty handed.
Fire station sirens started going off, one not far away, and moments later Ben could hear the distant sounds of fire trucks approaching. Soon their flashing lights would begin illuminating the night, their harsh sirens waking those who hadn’t already been awoken by the massive explosions. Ben started praying that the next train would be there soon, that it wouldn’t be diverted away by an overcautious driver or a barely-informed MTA dispatcher. He really wanted to get out of there, and even kicked himself a couple of times for not taking that previous train.
If Sam and Vincent had made it out, they would be coming soon… running up those stairs to this platf
orm… and the train –
Suddenly, the din of the sirens was overwhelmed by a sound that Ben had thought he would never hear again… had prayed he would never hear… For a moment, he thought he’d heard wrong… until it pierced the night again and he felt the hair on his body stand on end… He looked up at the full moon and gulped as more howls joined the first… and he found himself fervently praying for three things… that Sam and Vincent would get here quickly… that the train would get here shortly thereafter… and that the pack of werewolves obviously gathering in the area right now wouldn’t catch his scent and join him before the other two things happened.
He was really, really praying for that last one.
Chapter 41
Havemeyer Street
Sam could feel the heat on her back as they ran from the explosions. She didn’t dare look back, though the reflection of the third blast was visible in the windows of the buildings ahead of them. Sam could hear the sirens going off at the area fire houses, and the fire trucks and police vehicles making their way to the area at top speed. The glow of the fire was illuminating the front of the church and she hoped that whatever happened with the fire didn’t spread in that direction...
Vincent started to slow as they neared the steps leading to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church, coming to a stop and sitting down quickly on the stairs. “We can only stop for a moment, love.” He pulled her hand, bringing Sam down to sit beside him and pulling her close. “We have to get to the train.”
“Are you okay? Seeing your sister and everything.”
Vincent nodded. “I’m fine.”
“Liar.” Sam nudged him with her elbow. “You can’t possibly be fine… I can see the lines of angst forming on your forehead already.”
Vincent chuckled lightly, then winced, his nose scrunching up. “That smell is awful. What did you ladies blow up?”
“Uh, meth chemicals, ammonia, bleach, God only knows what else,” Sam replied, scrunching her own nose up as she did. “I didn’t mix it up, your sister did. Presumably.” The wind picked up briefly and Sam sensed that the air was clearer and took a deep breath, her tongue tasting the night air… and an all-too familiar scent. “Vincent…”
“Yeah, I smell it, too.” Vincent’s demeanor had changed radically. His muscles were tense and ready to spring, his forehead creased in concentration. “How many do you smell?”
“Depends.” Sam was slowly getting to her feet, her eyes scanning the street up and down, searching for any sign of movement. “Do you want the total number, or just the ones that have already changed into evening wear, so to speak?”
Vincent smirked. “Yeah, I smell those ones…” A howl echoed from several streets over. “And hear them.”
“Benny…” Sam whispered, her gaze turning in the direction of Marcy Avenue and the platform.
“I’m sure he’s already well on his way back to Manhattan.” Vincent was busy checking that his H&Ks were fully armed and ready.
Sam scoffed at that. “Clearly, you do not know Ben Lewis well enough yet. We need to get to that platform.” Another howl joined the first… then another, and another… and they were coming closer. Sam could feel her heart pounding in her ears even as the sound of their howling began to stir something in her. They were all males… their pheromones were drifting to her on the wind along with their scent… Sam could feel the pulling inside of her, the churning feeling in her stomach, the sharp feelings in her joints…
“Sam… Control it, love…” Vincent was watching her closely, even as he finished with his weapons and handed one to her. She nodded, swallowing hard, and took the gun firmly, her hand hefting the weight and quickly adjusting to the feeling. She worked the kinks out of her neck, looking left, then right, and finally putting her head back to look up… at the full moon…
Blood on the moon… That’s what her grandmother had called it… what her grandfather had feared most… the shadows crossing the face of the darkened orb, a harbinger of bad things on the way.
The gnawing, gripping feeling in the pit of her stomach intensified, spreading it up into her spine. It felt like someone was pulling her spine out slowly, one vertebrae at a time.
And this time… this time she wasn’t sure if she could control it… This time, the call of the moon and the pull of the change might be too strong to be contained.
Mo Anam Cara… Sam blinked, the feeling in her body fading slightly as she looked at Vincent. He wasn’t even looking at her, but his voice was crystal clear in her mind… Fight it, my love… Stay with me, and fight it!
“How did you --” Her question was cut short as a howl pierced the night air, followed by another, as two werewolves, fully changed, came around the corner onto Havemeyer.
Sam was transfixed… In the six months she’d actually been a werewolf, and even after all those she had seen put down… She had never actually seen one fully transformed. It was kind of breath-taking… the muscles moving beneath the fur… The mane of hair-like fur around the shoulders and back of the head… the athletic stance, semi-crouched, as they ran up the street… She heard the gunshots, two in rapid succession, and both werewolves reared back, stumbling to the pavement and began to convulse immediately. Sam felt her stomach heave as she watched the creatures struggle, and the sheen of glistening silver began to overtake them, seeping from their pores as their bodies disintegrated into nothing.
There was no time to throw up, though. Sam quickly swallowed and focused her attention on their surroundings. More were in the area, and more were coming.
“Get off the steps! Move back toward the church doors, get the wall behind you!” Vincent handed her a package of extra bullets. Sam fought the heave of her stomach as she looked at the silver liquid moving inside the translucent tips of the bullets. She swallowed hard, taking the box from his hand. Looking up, she found Vincent’s eyes staring back into hers.
“I’m okay. Really.” Sam forced a smile, but Vincent wasn’t buying it. His own expression darkened a bit and he leaned in, his forehead resting on hers.
“Shoot to kill. And no matter what happens, don’t let them take you. Do you understand?”
Sam flinched, but nodded. Yes, she knew… Knew what would happen if they caught her… What they would do to her… Knew what Vincent was saying to her… No matter how many I kill, I have to save one bullet… for me… Such an awful thought, and yet in the seconds that passed after that thought completed itself in her mind, a feeling of overwhelming peace flowed through her body and her mind. She took a deep breath. “I understand, but… The mercury won’t kill me.”
“No… But a bullet to the head still will.”
Sam nodded again. “And you --”
“Always.” Vincent gently touched the left side of his duster, a spot right over the heart where Sam knew there was an inside pocket. He reached up, brushing her cheek gently and flashing a roguish grin. “Ready?”
Sam smiled back, her own adrenalin responding as she sensed the rush in his. Then she heard the growls, and they both turned to look.
Two were coming from the West onto Havemeyer, two from the East, and in the road in front of the church were a handful of unchanged werewolves, most likely the security team Alice had spoken of. They were dressed too well, and for a moment Sam wondered if they were Prutzmann’s guys and why his own guys would be a threat to he and Alice and why –
She stopped her thoughts, mainly because everybody was starting to move. Vincent rushed forward, stopping at the top of the steps with his weapon trained on the changed werewolves to the East. He fired once, hitting one full in the head and it dropped quickly. The second shot missed its mark and the werewolf lunged at him, the pair tumbling to the ground and rolling down the steps to the street. The suited men started forward and Sam acted quickly, raising her gun, aiming quickly but carefully at the rolling mass of Vincent and wolf. One… more… turn… Sam reached out for him, saying the words in her head… Vincent! Push it off you!
Before Sam could eve
n wonder if it had worked, if he had heard her, Vincent was on his back and pushing the werewolf away with all his strength, lifting it above him even as Vincent’s teeth gritted with the effort. Sam took the shot, hitting the werewolf in the side and watching it start to shudder about him. The security team stopped moving, transfixed with wonder, and nausea perhaps, as the werewolf melted before their very eyes. Sam didn’t linger, however, turning quickly and shooting down the third changed werewolf as it lunged for Vincent, who was still supine on the ground beneath the disintegrating werewolf. He wriggled free as the carcass deflated into a pile of fur, silvery sheen creeping through it as the hair also melted into the ground. Hopping over the third carcass, he leaped onto the steps and took a moment to gasp for breath.
“Well that… was bloody disgusting…”
“Yeah, I’ve been there, remember?” Sam looked at him pointedly, recalling an occasion six months ago when he was responsible for a werewolf melting over her. Vincent chuckled, clearly recalling the moment himself.
The last remnants of the dead werewolves were spreading across the pavement, and the security team once again turned their attention to Sam and Vincent.
“Remember what I told you.” Vincent spoke low, barely audible, but Sam heard him nonetheless. She nodded and the pair stepped apart, Vincent descending the stairs once again and positioning himself closer to four of the security team members. Sam watched as he raised his gun, hitting two of the team before the other two tackled him. The gun skittered across the pavement into the gutter.
She felt the impact against her back like the proverbial ton of bricks and she stumbled to the ground as the pressure of massive paws bore down on her back and the back of her thigh. She struggled to get her arm free, the weight of the gun tantalizing in her palm. Sam grimaced as the changed werewolf leaned forward, sniffing her hair and neck, the moisture from its nose leaving a trail along her hairline. She couldn’t breath, the pressure from the werewolf’s weight on her driving her chest against the pavement, giving her lungs barely enough room to take small gaspy breaths.
Quicksilver (The Bloodline Series Book 2) Page 21
