The Hybrid Series | Book 4 | Damned

by Stead, Nick

  Those bodies I left untouched. Unconscious they had little to offer, and I knew from my own experience at the vets the horror of waking mid-operation. That would be suffering enough, without any added damage from my teeth and claws.

  I was still on the first floor, crouching over another unfortunate straggler in the corridors, when the sound of more footsteps caught my attention. These were heading toward me rather than away and I could think of only one explanation for it.

  “That’s enough, you sadistic fuck,” a male voice said. The man stepped into view, still dressed in his hospital scrubs. The gun in his hands looked out of place. Such weapons could only ever be tools for killing and yet his uniform marked him as a modern day healer, a man of medicine sworn to save lives, not end them.

  “Now this is a rare sight,” I growled, rearing up to my full height. “A Slayer who gives a damn about all those defenceless, ignorant humans you’re supposed to protect from us. Most of your people only ever seem to be concerned with revenge, no matter the cost.”

  “We’re not all monsters.” His face twisted in disgust, his eyes roaming over the gore matting my fur. “Slaughtering a hospital full of the weak and the helpless; this is a new low even for you.”

  “Believe it or not, it wasn’t my idea.”

  His eyes hardened and he raised the pistol in line with my head. “Maybe it wasn’t, but you’re the one who’s going to pay for it.”

  “Brave words for one man with one little gun,” I snarled, advancing towards him.

  “But I’m not alone,” he said. His courage seemed to be wavering with each step I took, yet he stood his ground, showing a strength most men lacked. “Kill me if you must, but you’ll only be buying the others more time. I’m sure you’re aware of the force being sent to put an end to your evil once and for all. They’re almost here, and every moment you waste murdering these innocent people is another moment they have to get into position. You’d do well to run.”

  “If that’s true, why are you warning me?” I asked, coming to a stop and eyeing him with suspicion. “Why not just take a shot and hope you’re the one to get lucky? Clearly you’re prepared to sacrifice yourself to save others. Either you get to be the hero who finally put an end to the last werewolf on Earth, or you die a hero’s death which buys your people even more time to set up a trap. So why are you not shooting?”

  The Slayer shrugged. “My concern is for my patients. If I can persuade you to leave, there’s going to be less lives lost than engaging you in a fight I probably can’t win. It’s your choice, monster. Kill me and continue through the building, only to find yourself trapped and facing certain death. Or flee while you still have a chance.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. If he truly cared about his patients then his argument made sense, but if his warning did allow me to escape it would ultimately lead to more deaths over the years. If he really wanted to save human lives then surely it was in his best interests to do everything in his power to make sure his people succeeded in killing me, especially when this was probably the best chance they’d had in a while. They knew where I was and they’d been able to gather a large enough force to do something about it. So why would he jeopardise that?

  The sound of more footsteps made my mind up for me. They had to be another group of Slayers. Who else would have a reason to approach the monster terrorising the building? I only sensed three of them but if they were in contact with their reinforcements, then this could be part of whatever plan they were putting into motion. And whatever this man’s motives for warning me of what was coming, he was right about letting myself get trapped in the building. If I let them corner me and spray the room with enough bullets, even supernatural speed wouldn’t save me. Staying to fight was too big a risk.

  “I’m not running only to be shot in the back. Drop the gun and I’ll leave without hurting anyone else, except in self-defence,” I growled.

  The Slayer surprised me by doing as I asked. Maybe his intentions really were pure. Maybe he’d chosen a career in medicine because he genuinely did want to save lives, and those same ethics carried into his role with the Slayers, regardless of his motives for joining their cause. Maybe he’d never wanted to be a Slayer at all and they’d bullied him into it because of the value to them of someone in his profession. I would never know for certain, but I took his actions as a good sign that I was making the right choice. I just hoped all the pain and suffering I’d caused would be enough for Will to lure Dhaer. If not, I was going to be seriously outmatched when the fighting started.

  I ran back to the stairs and down to the ground floor, only to find I was too late – the Slayers had begun to move in and their gunfire kept me from retreating through the same doors as before. The scent of fresh air was coming from further along the corridor so I ran on, only to find more men blocking that exit. Roaring in frustration, I fled before the hail of bullets and made it to a doorway out the back. The way seemed clear at first but more gunshots thundered down as I burst outside. They already had people on the surrounding rooftops, and there was little in the way of cover to help me escape. I was either going to have to make a run for it and hope I was too fast a moving target to hit, or fight my way through. Neither seemed like a particularly good option but I couldn’t stay there in the doorway, so I ducked back inside and kept on running.

  An idea came to me as I found my way to another set of stairs leading to the upper levels. I ran all the way to the top and emerged on the third floor. It didn’t take me long to find a window and break through it, taking a few scratches to my skin as I climbed out. The cuts stung and wept tears of blood, but they were no more than a minor annoyance. I ignored the discomfort and climbed up to the roof. Luckily the snipers didn’t seem to notice until I was almost to the top. Shouts went up and they opened fire, bullets thundering around my vulnerable body. Somehow I avoided being hit as I clambered up and over, but my luck was short lived. The drone of helicopters was back.

  There was no time to catch my breath – I had to keep moving. With one mighty leap, I landed on the roof of the nearest building, the Slayer positioned there firing wildly and missing her mark. Maybe she’d thought being stationed on the roof would be a relatively safe role to play, out of the danger of the front lines but still in a position that offered a chance at the revenge she probably sought, like so many of the others. Oh how wrong she’d been. The realisation of that terrified her.

  The Slayers they’d sent in had been given more armour to protect from the worst of the damage, but it still wasn’t enough. Her gun clicked empty as I pounced on her, pinning her to the ground while I ripped her head off. Then I was back up and moving, a spray of bullets ricocheting off the concrete in my wake.

  More snipers rode in the helicopters. One of the aerial vehicles came into firing range and I skidded to a stop at the edge of the building, looking for a quicker way down than climbing. Luck was back on my side, a commercial waste container visible on the street below, its lid thrown open due to the number of bin bags stuffed inside. It was going to have to be enough to cushion my landing because I couldn’t afford to be slowed by any broken bones, not even for the minute or so it would take to heal them.

  I couldn’t have been standing at the roof’s edge for more than a moment, but that was all it took for another bullet to come dangerously close to its mark, grazing the side of my neck just as I was lining myself up with the rubbish below. If I’d been a fraction of a second slower it would probably have burrowed its way through my skull and into my brain, and my tale would be over. There was nothing else for it, I was going to have to jump. So I jumped. Or to be more precise, I stepped off the edge and into mid-air, and gravity did the rest.

  I landed well, my feet hitting the bin bags as intended which cushioned the impact as hoped. Moments later I was up and running again, harried by my human hunters with every step.

  The bullets continued to chase me as I ran. I raced round every corner I came to, trying to make it harder fo
r the snipers to get a clear shot, but it seemed like they were everywhere. And it wasn’t just the danger above – they had people on the ground as well. I was reminded of that time I was almost caught in a similar trap, when they’d shepherded me into an alley with the aim of gunning me down once I had nowhere to run. My human form had saved me that night, the woman who’d had me cornered reluctant to shoot a creature who looked like a teenage boy. But I couldn’t count on the same thing happening twice.

  I’d lost track of whereabouts in the town I was with all the twisting and turning down unfamiliar streets, but the smell of more carnage was probably where I wanted to be. If I followed my nose in that direction, I hoped I’d find myself back on the high street where I’d started, and from there I ought to be able to find my way to the backstreet we’d parked up on. Will should be there already, attempting to summon Dhaer, and with his help we might be able to take some of the pressure off while we waited for the demon to show up. Assuming the ritual even worked. It looked like my best chance at surviving this fight though, so I pushed myself onwards, only to be frustrated at every turn by more of my enemies.

  My attempts to run in the direction I wanted failed miserably. They seemed to be driving me further from the town centre, and before I knew it I found myself in a park surrounded by Slayers, both on ground level and on more of the rooftops above. There was no way I was going to avoid all those bullets. I was doomed and I knew it.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Enemy of My Enemy

  Once again I prepared to die, sure that it was inevitable this time. The Slayers were taking aim, a lethal storm about to rain down on me. But once again fate had other plans.

  An unearthly cry rang out from the heart of the town, and I found myself plunged back into that icy sea of terror only Dhaer could bring. The demon was close and its roar brought fresh despair, the warning it had given replaying in my mind. If I escaped the Slayers I was only going to die at the terror demon’s hands. What hope was there left for me?

  Gradually my mind began to piece itself back together and I was able to open my eyes and uncover my ears. I looked around and saw every single human had dropped his or her gun, each one on the floor with their own hands clapped to the sides of their heads while they shivered and whimpered. Even the people in the helicopters were suffering, the aircraft no longer hovering under the control of the pilot but at the mercy of the air currents now. It was exactly the distraction I needed to escape, and I was off and running before they could pick themselves back up and start firing again.

  I had enough of a head start to find my way back to the town centre without any more close calls. Will was waiting for me by the car, his sword on his back again and his rifle in his arms.

  “Where’s the demon?” I asked. There was evidence he’d performed some kind of a ritual – chicken bones lay in a circle with incense and a bowl of blood at its centre, and five candles had been arranged into a rough pentagram round the outside. It was the same set up I’d seen the warlock who’d originally summoned Dhaer using. But there was no sign of the demon on the street with him and I’d not seen it pass me by. “Didn’t the ritual bring it here, straight to you?”

  “Not exactly. It was drawn to the offerings you made for it.”

  “Great. There’s a fuck load of Slayers out to kill me so whatever you’re planning next, we better get on with it. I left them cowering under the effects of Dhaer’s roar, but I’m guessing they’ll have recovered by now.”

  He shouldered the rifle, fearless as ever. “If we play this right, we can get Dhaer and the Slayers to fight each other, then one of us can run in to strike the killing blow while the demon’s distracted. Come on.”

  I wasn’t so sure it would be that easy, but I followed him anyway. There didn’t seem to be much other option and I reminded myself Gwyn’s life was still on the line.

  It turned out Dhaer had gone to the hospital, which made sense I guessed. Most of my victims in the centre had to have bled out by then, but there were probably plenty of people in the hospital still trapped in the slow, agonising death I’d dealt them. The demon would no doubt be all too happy to finish what I’d started.

  We could sense its dread presence long before we saw it. I growled a warning to Will about the snipers covering the area, but I needn’t have bothered. No shots were fired as we approached and no voices could be heard radioing their allies. They’d met the same fate as every other human to cross paths with the demon, their deaths almost lost in the smell of carnage coiled so tightly around my nostrils. We had nothing more to fear from those enemies.

  That didn’t mean the Slayers were out of the fight completely. I could hear sounds of them on the move, all those humans who’d had me surrounded in the park. They still had the numbers to pose a serious threat.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “Now we need it out here, before the rest of our enemies arrive.”

  “How, with more bait? I don’t see anyone else around for it to torture, other than the two of us.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I growled. But he was. I could see it in his face.

  “It will already suspect we called it back here. I want you to go in there and tell it I double-crossed you. Tell it my master commanded your death, but you got away before I could finish the job so I called all these Slayers in to help. Then tell it you were the one who summoned it here, to ask for its aid.”

  “Do you really think it’s going to believe all that? If you really wanted me dead, I’m sure you’re more than capable of doing it yourself, without having to call in a small army to help take me down. So why would you need the help of a load of humans who are nowhere near the same league as you?”

  “I tried to kill you in your sleep but you sensed me coming and woke before I could put a bullet in your brain. You moved just in time, the shot missed its mark and you fled before I could line up another. My master did not wish to cause any more direct interference in the affairs of mortals, and without His aid I needed the help of other humans to lure you into a trap. Tell it that.”

  I frowned at how quick he managed to pull that story out of thin air. Was it something he’d been plotting, even if Jaken’s hold on him wouldn’t allow it? “I don’t know, it still seems like a tall tale we’re trying to get it to fall for.”

  “You’re right,” he said, drawing his blade in his offhand. “You already healed from the gunshot but I came close to killing you a second time with the help of the other Slayers. You barely got away this time.”

  The sword slashed at my upper arm but I was too slow to grasp what was going on. We were supposed to be allies after all. My skin split under the blade’s edge, a red gash gaping like a second mouth. The stinging hit me seconds before the realisation of what he’d done.

  I was about to voice my rage but for a brief moment Will’s face became that of his master again, and he spoke with His voice once more.

  “Quiet, or it will hear you,” Jaken growled.

  And it was as though a muzzle had suddenly been clamped around my jaws, preventing me from opening them wide enough to give a full-throated roar. The anger didn’t even escape in a growl. In many ways it was akin to being placed under a vampire’s spell, except there was no hypnosis involved, or none that I was aware of.

  The possession was over so quickly, it was like Will’s face flickered into his master’s for a brief moment, and then reverted to his normal human features. If I hadn’t already seen his face change, I might have questioned whether I’d seen it at all.

  “Now get in there and sell it your story. Add whatever details you have to; just make sure you get it out here before the Slayers arrive. They’ll know what their facing after the effects of its cry, and they’ll know the time for setting traps is over. They’ve already decided against any kind of discreet response and with the amount of damage done to the town, they’re not going to be worried about causing more at this point. Any survivors from your init
ial attack will have died to the demon. So they’ll be marching back over here to hit the both of you with everything they’ve got, and that includes bombs as well as bullets. They may even have a spellcaster with them, kept in reserve in case their technology fails. Your only hope is to get the demon on side.”

  “My only hope?” I growled, but I started making my way through the carpark.

  “It’s you they’re after. I’m still one of them as far as they know, if I stick to my story of being controlled by the vampires.”

  I didn’t turn round to see his face as he said that but I had a feeling there was a smugness about it. I had a feeling this was all a game to him at this point. Being enslaved to a demon had to have twisted him over the years, and it wasn’t like he had much else to look forward to from what little he’d told me. Serving his master was the sole reason for his continued existence as a flesh and blood human. With nothing else to live for, it was easy to imagine him beginning to find a dark pleasure in carrying out his master’s bidding, and finding ways to do things how he wanted. He might not be able to disobey a direct order, but that didn’t stop him working around it. And I fancied he’d deliberately backed me into the corner I was now in, purely for his own enjoyment as he watched me struggle to fight my way back out.

  “We’ll see about that,” I muttered to myself, stalking back through the hospital’s main entrance.

  The interior was exactly as I’d left it. Blood stained the walls and floor and bodies decorated every part of the building like fleshy monuments to commemorate my visit. The demon crouched amidst the carnage, unable to rise to its full height without breaking through the ceiling.