by Stead, Nick
“They’re on the edge of blind panic, I can feel it,” Zee said. “We’re just going to have to risk going back in and hitting harder. If we send Varin in first it will draw some of their fire, and we have Selina covering us.”
I closed my eyes and sighed, my voice growing heavy with resignation. “Is there really no other way?”
“None that I can see. Time is against us – the longer we leave them alone, the more chance they have to gather even greater forces. We don’t know what kind of supernatural means of communication they might have, but we do know they have people capable of more than just a few spells. We could find ourselves up against another demon, or more zombies if they call on their necromancer. If you want to seek sanctuary overseas, we have to do this.”
“Okay,” I said, and looked at Lady Sarah. “We can’t do this without you and Selina.”
“No, you cannot. I suppose I do not have a choice.”
“Should we let Selina know what’s happening?”
Lady Sarah shook her head. “My sister will cast spells as she sees fit. Once she has built a circle of power, it is merely a case of chanting the right incantations as a point of focus for her intent. Intent is the key to witchcraft. Without it, incantations are just words, and a circle is just a pattern laid out on the ground. She has all she needs to aid us.”
“Okay,” I repeated, and looked back at Zee. “Ready when you are then, I guess.”
“Varin,” Zee commanded, drawing his cutlass. “Get back in there and kill the bastards.”
The barghest looked at Zee like any mortal dog, his ears pricking at the sound of his name and his face attentive. He’d been ordered to follow the pirate’s commands and he would show Zee the same obedience as he did for his mistress. Those glowing eyes vanished from the patch of shadows we currently hid in, only to rematerialise in the midst of the frightened Slayers. Guns burst back into life and several cries could be heard, quickly followed by screams as more of them fell to his fangs.
The vampires tore a hole in the fence this time and charged in after him, relying on their speed to give them the element of surprise. I followed them through but held back, slinking round the edges of the fight as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to give them something to aim at before I’d even re-joined the battle.
Four more had already fallen, two to Varin and one each to the vampires. Zee’s sword was like an invisible force in the darkness, slicing through the air without warning and battering their bodies with devastating effect. The Slayers’ armour was designed to protect against our claws and blades, though there was nothing they could do to protect themselves from the full might of our sheer speed and strength. But the fact they were armoured and their reluctance to move away from the building made me think this base had to be of significant importance to them. Maybe it was worth risking our lives to put a stop to whatever was going on inside.
A fifth soldier went down to Varin’s jaws, the barghest biting through the man’s helmet as if it were no more than a woolly hat. Then it was my turn.
I re-entered the fray in a rush of bestial fury, pouncing on my next victim and ripping off another head. It wasn’t my preferred method of killing but it was the quickest way of getting round the armour.
There was more shouting and screaming in the darkness, flashes of gunfire giving glimpses of the carnage and driving the cold sword of terror a little deeper into our enemies’ hearts. But we were dangerously close to being gunned down, the Slayers still managing to keep their wits about them and co-ordinate their attacks.
Groups of them would fire a deadly spray while their comrades reloaded. They alternated their bursts so that they could cover each other, and they split their forces between the three flesh and blood targets me and the vampires presented. They were no longer wasting their bullets on Varin, unfortunately for us.
A collective scream went up and I smelled burning flesh moments before the clatter of guns falling to the ground. That had to be Selina’s doing, buying us time to slaughter more of them while they were temporarily disarmed. But something was wrong.
Varin vanished without warning. One moment the shadow hound was savaging another victim, fangs piercing armour and gouging deep, bloody trenches into the woman’s flesh, and the next he was simply gone. The woman stayed down, however. She was already on the brink of death, the interruption to Varin’s attack coming too late to save her.
The soldiers finally seemed to have reached their limit, several of them starting to flee back into the base, forsaking their dying comrades. It should have been a sight to set me howling in triumph and spur me into giving chase, but instinct made me hesitant, my gut telling me to hang back. Varin’s disappearance seemed more like a banishing than by choice, and the timing of it worried me.
More bullets tore through the darkness, only a handful of Slayers brave enough to stand their ground now. Whatever spell Selina had cast must have worn off already. The guns no longer seemed to be burning hot, and the Slayers had no trouble handling them.
Time seemed to slow again. I watched a lucky shot clip Lady Sarah on the shoulder as she grabbed another victim and ripped the armour from his throat, sinking her fangs into soft flesh and drinking deeply to heal the damage. One of the humans turned to aim at her, taking advantage of her moment of vulnerability while she fed. A shout of warning was passing through my jaws, but Zee had already seen the threat and was charging forwards, swinging his cutlass with such force that it rent the man’s armour in two and sliced through his lower back. The man’s legs buckled with the severing of his spinal column and he fell to the floor, a look of shock turning to horror with the realisation he could no longer feel his legs. Zee’s sword dripped with blood as he raised it a second time, stabbing it into the man’s heart and putting an end to his screams.
Only three remained on their feet and firing blindly into the shadows. Zee let out a roar of triumph and charged again, and it was then the Slayers made their move. But even with that heightened awareness brought on by the adrenaline and the battle itself, my scream of warning came too late.
For one of the soldiers had already begun to retreat towards the entrance to their base, stopping in the doorway just long enough to pull something from his belt. He held it in his hand and took aim, then dived through the doors. Seconds later the night exploded into flame and the fury of man, brought forth in the booming voice of a grenade. And we were given a new meaning of Hell.
CHAPTER TEN
Man’s Fury
The explosion hit me like a giant fist of fire, throwing me off my feet and through the air, only to come crashing back to earth in a heap of ravaged nerves and seared flesh. Heat and fragments stripped fur and skin and mangled the muscles beneath, reducing me to a quivering mess. But I was alive.
Lady Sarah was already picking herself back up. The man she’d been feeding on had acted as a partial shield and the damage she’d taken was minimal. Draining the rest of his blood would soon heal her.
Zee had not been so lucky. I could make out three bodies lying nearby – the pirate and the two Slayers he’d been about to engage. Had they sacrificed themselves willingly I wondered, deliberately continuing to fight and keep us busy so we were more likely to be caught in the explosion? Or had they been as unaware of their comrade’s actions as we were? I could believe either of our enemies, after the lengths I’d seen them go to in their quest to wipe us out.
The pain was excruciating. There was little wonder Will had taken the deal offered to him if he and Ed had faced hours of this torment. It was the kind of agony that stripped a being of their identity, leaving nothing but the throbbing of ruined flesh. Reality was fading away. Soon my existence would be reduced to that persistent ache, pulsing with more and more urgency as each moment passed. There would be nothing outside of the damaged shell my spirit was now trapped in, lingering on the edge of life and death. Not unless death freed me, or new life. Or the power of my lycanthropy.
Cells began to alter, replicating
in the process and spreading across the bloody holes in my pelt. New skin stretched across the sores, the angry looking circles growing smaller and smaller until it was as if they’d never been. Hairs grew until my fur was no longer patchy but covered the entirety of my body once again. But there was no extensive internal damage to heal this time and no need to take the transformation all the way to becoming fully wolf. I picked myself back up a moment later, still in my hybrid form and restored to my former glory.
Zee was still not moving. Lady Sarah knelt beside him, checking his injuries for evidence of anything that would prove fatal to a vampire. I hurried over to them, fearing the worst.
“How bad is it?” I asked, wincing when I saw the hideous visage Zee now presented. He looked like a burnt corpse.
“He was lucky,” she answered. “Any closer to the blast and it would surely have blown his body into too many pieces even for a vampire to heal, but this is mostly skin damage. His heart is still whole beneath all this dead tissue.”
As if on cue, Zee’s eyes opened and in much the same way a human might have croaked for water, he said “Blood.”
Mocking laughter sounded from the edge of the perimeter. I bounded over to find one of the Slayers still alive, though his body was far too broken to make him a threat.
“What’s so funny?” I snarled.
“You think you’ve won, wolf? Blood and flesh will not save you, not this time. Feed me to the vampire if you want but you’re only prolonging the inevitable.”
“Brave words for a doomed man,” I answered, grabbing his leg and dragging him back over to Zee and Lady Sarah. The Slayer laughed all the while and a little voice somewhere deep inside began to nag that it was more than just a threat. But I ignored it as I ripped off his armour and bared his throat. He was just trying to undermine our confidence in the same way we’d preyed on their fears, and we didn’t have time for such games now. We needed Zee back in action before the Slayers attacked again.
The pirate latched onto the offering I’d brought him and savaged the exposed flesh, more like I would have done than a vampire. But the blood gushed faster from the gaping wound than it did from a clean bite, and he gulped that rich liquid down in much the same fashion as a starving man gobbles his food. And like a transfusion of life, every drop that he stole revitalised him and restored the perfection that characterised the vampire race.
Despite the fresh pain Zee must have been causing, the Slayer continued to laugh. It grew weaker as his life ebbed, then unconsciousness took him and the Reaper wasn’t far behind. His heart beat its last and Zee stood, rising up like a phoenix from the ashes. I imagined his eyes would have been gleaming if there’d been any moonlight, his fighting spirit not even dampened by the ordeal.
“Let’s finish them,” he said, turning and stalking closer to the base, cutlass back in hand.
The door standing between us and the bloodbath awaiting within would usually have needed a code to unlock it, and possibly key cards or some other kind of security feature. But Selina’s spell had disabled that as well. Zee was able to open the door without resorting to force and peer inside.
I expected Lady Sarah to argue but she just stepped up beside him, apparently committed to seeing this through now. My gut was still insistent our enemies were setting another trap of some description. I was about to voice my doubts when a scent wafted out through the doorway, summoning my bloodlust back to the surface and igniting my rage once again. He was in there. The same man whose scent I’d caught during the daylight hours while Selina shopped, the one I’d sworn to kill before the night was through. He was in there, and he was mine.
“Let’s go,” I snarled, slipping under Zee’s outstretched arm and prowling inside.
At first the building seemed to be similar to the one I’d attacked with Leon. There were corridors with office type rooms, all empty, a canteen and a large hall for meetings which seemed to double as a training area, judging from the punching bags and the like. But none containing operating tables where undead victims lay helpless while the humans conducted their horrific experiments, which seemed odd. As we approached the hall, I half expected to find another force of Slayers waiting to take us down the moment we charged inside, but that room was also empty. So where were they?
“They can’t have just vanished,” I growled, frustrated.
“Listen,” Lady Sarah said, her head tilted slightly.
I did as she bid and caught the sound of metal clattering on metal. It was faint, but it was there.
“They’re below us!” Zee hissed. He whirled around and glared at the empty corridor as if he expected the building to just submit to his will and reveal its secrets.
“Come,” Lady Sarah said, “let us work our way back through and look for anything we might have missed. They probably carry out their experiments on the lower level. It is likely it was built as much for defence as secrecy, so I suggest we proceed with caution. Expect a trap.”
“And you’re okay with walking into it?” I asked.
“What other choice do we have? The time to walk away has passed. I do not think the Slayers will let this challenge go unanswered; if we retreat now they are likely to double their efforts to hunt us down again. We will never make it out of the country with all eyes turned on us.”
“We could do with Varin coming back to even the odds,” I said. “I think they must have a spellcaster down there or why else would he have disappeared? Maybe we’d be as well going back for Selina.”
“She’s safer out of the line of fire,” Zee answered. “The Slayers bringing their spellcasters into the thick of battle is one thing – they can protect themselves from our powers to a degree and since most of us dislike firearms, they aren’t at risk of ranged attacks. Even with our supernatural speed, in a melee fight witches and warlocks can fare quite well if they’re competent enough at their craft. But to pit a witch against dozens of guns? There is no spell powerful enough to keep her from getting shot. She would be a liability down here. We have enough to worry about without having to look out for her as well.”
“My sister knows what she is doing,” Lady Sarah assured me. “I am sure she will have picked up the tools for scrying when she gathered her supplies earlier, so she can see this next battle unfolding without having to physically come down herself. Selina will watch over us and provide magical aid as much as she can. If they do have a witch or warlock of their own, she can still counter their magic from outside.”
“Okay,” I said, not entirely convinced. I would have preferred to go in together, though I supposed their argument made sense. Mostly I wanted Varin back since he was immune to bullets. “Time to find the way down then, I guess.”
I dropped to all fours and put my nose to the floor, breathing deeply. From down there I could make out so many different smells, it was like the corridor had become packed full of ghosts. It wasn’t just the scents of the Slayers stationed at that base, but also traces of animals and vegetation picked up from walking through the countryside. Each shoe to pass these corridors told a story of where its owner had been, imprinting it in the building for my nose to detect and my brain to interpret. To the wolf in me it was fascinating, but I didn’t have time for being curious. I tried to focus on the scents of the Slayers and followed the corridor along, exploring each of the rooms as I went.
Lady Sarah also took her wolf form and went the other way, so we could cover every inch of the building in half the time. Zee went with her to provide the use of his opposable thumbs. From what I’d seen, a vampire’s ability to shapeshift didn’t allow for a partial change like mine. It was either full wolf (or bat) or nothing.
It stood to reason that we were looking for a hidden trapdoor or surely if it were as simple as taking a lift or a flight of stairs we’d have seen where we needed to go already. And if we were looking for a trapdoor, there was a good chance we’d find it by sniffing it out. The scent of the Slayers ought to be stronger around such a door if they were pulling it open a
nd closed with their bare hands. Unless it was operated by a button or something, but with Selina’s spell interfering with such things they had to have a way of opening it manually as well.
I wasn’t finding much of interest in the many office rooms. One of the doors had nothing but storage space behind it, filled with the kind of cleaning supplies you might expect to see in any large, professionally run building. The chemical smells made me growl with distaste, but beneath the thick odours were the same scents dominating the corridors and offices. And sure enough, here was what I’d been searching for.
Hidden amongst the mops and bottles of cleaning solution, there was a handle to pull the section of flooring up which concealed the passage leading down below. It would have been obvious to anyone looking for the door as I was, but if you didn’t know it was there you’d never have noticed it with everything else scattered about. There was little wonder we’d missed it first time round.
I howled to let the others know I’d found it, eager to follow that passage to my intended prey. They re-joined me in a matter of minutes. Zee pulled the torch out of his pocket and switched it on, and down we went.
I’d thought the base was big from what could be seen on the surface, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The underground part was huge.
We prowled through entire sections dedicated to unlocking the biological secrets of undeath. Some contained body parts suspended in fluid like I’d seen before; others had vampires or ghouls strapped to operating tables so they could be taken apart piece by piece. Except these victims no longer endured, each and every one of them impaled through the heart or brain, or both. But the Slayers had never bothered to kill their captives in the bases I’d attacked before. What secrets had these undead learnt? I shivered. There must be more going on in this complex than the others I’d been in. Something about that unnerved me.
