The Hybrid Series | Book 4 | Damned

by Stead, Nick

  “Perhaps,” Zee said. “But it’s too late to take it back now.”

  We fell quiet again. I hoped I was worrying needlessly, but I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that escaping the Elder’s clutches had been far too easy.

  The storm had died down by morning. The next day was a lot calmer, both outside the ship and within it. I was back in my human form to help keep my anger in check, but we’d run out of fresh clothes. Shredded material still clung to my skin, the remains of the outfit I’d shifted in. It didn’t add much in the way of warmth, but it was better than nothing.

  By night, some things had returned to what passed for normal on that voyage – Lady Sarah took to the skies the moment the sun went down and Zee relieved Brendan from his daytime duties at the wheel, so the human could try to sleep. But the night sky had grown too bright for Gwyn again, leaving him trapped on the ship in his human body with me and Selina. He could still have enjoyed some freedom beneath the waves, if it hadn’t been for the problem of getting back on board once he came up to the surface and the waxing moon made him human again. We could probably have pulled him out of the water, but it was an unnecessary risk none of us wanted to take. Losing him at sea for a while would mean the vampires going hungry, and they needed their strength if we were ever going to make it to Canada.

  I’d had precious little sleep aboard the ship and there’d been even less of it while the storm raged. Exhaustion caught up with me once the sea grew calmer, and I spent most of that next day and night in my bunk, dozing on and off. I only rose to eat and stretch my legs. While the sun was up, I braved going on deck to gaze out across the waves, wishing land would hurry up and appear on the horizon. It was now so cold it felt like the sea should already be frozen over, and I couldn’t stand it for long before I was forced to go back into the warmth of the cabin.

  Once the sun went down, I kept inside. There was even less to see under the cover of darkness so there was little point in shivering all night on deck. The only other option was to transform again, but I was almost out of meat as it was. I didn’t want to make the hunger worse by shifting when there was no real need to and end up running out of steaks as a result.

  Zee promised us we’d make it to Spitsbergen by about mid-afternoon the next day. We wouldn’t be able to stray far from the ship while the vampires lay vulnerable inside the cabin, but I was still excited at the prospect of finally being back on land. It had to be better than being stuck on the ship, and no doubt there’d be lots of amazing new sights to take in, as well as plenty of animals I was looking forward to hunting. Then, when the sun had once more dropped safely beneath the horizon, we could begin the next part of our journey.

  I looked to the sunrise with renewed hope. There was still no sign of land but I had no reason to doubt Zee’s promise of reaching the Spitsbergen coast within the next few hours. So I finished off the last of the steak for breakfast and took to pacing round the cabin.

  As we drew closer to midday, I went back out on deck to watch for the Arctic country appearing on the horizon. The minutes passed without any change – there was still only that endless expanse of rolling ocean, dull and grey beneath the cloudy winter skies. I soon grew bored and ventured into the wheelhouse. Gwyn was below deck with Selina, so it was just me and Brendan.

  “How far off are we now? I still can’t see an end to this bloody ocean,” I said.

  With a sigh, he stretched and got to his feet, turning to face me. There was anger burning in those green eyes, a sign he’d not forgiven me for causing Gwyn to go overboard, even though the knocker had survived. But the promise of returning to dry land helped keep my own anger at bay. I stayed calm, meeting his eyes with cool indifference.

  I wasn’t quite sure what happened next. One moment he was standing there, struggling with the dislike he’d developed for me, and the next his entire torso was exploding outwards in a thick spatter of blood and gore. The grisly spray splashed against my body, covering me from head to toe. I stood blinking the crimson from my eyes as Brendan fell to the floor, an almost empty shell of the man he’d been seconds ago. Almost, but not quite.

  His head was still intact, his brain very much alive and conscious, but not for long. He stared up at me in shock, as though he couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening to him. I watched his muscles spasm and his mouth moving in what looked to be an attempt to speak, then his eyes rolled up into his skull and he grew still.

  But the fear and shock of his death didn’t fade with him. I’d been the cause of equally disturbing sights in my time as a werewolf, yet something about the suddenness of this one infected me with the victim’s terror. We were under attack, but from what?

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Under Attack

  I backed away from Brendan’s corpse and ran to find Gwyn and Selina, my mind racing. He had to have been killed by either magic or some being with telekinetic abilities, but I’d no idea how to determine which. Did Ulfarr have the power needed to kill us over such a long distance? Most vampires would be in the same corpse-like state as Lady Sarah and Zee during the daylight hours, though I suspected they didn’t have to sleep every day as long as they were out of the sun’s rays. Had the Elder found a way to strike at us from across the sea?

  Blood and chunks of flesh and organs dripped from me as I ran. I might have licked the mess off my skin if it hadn’t been for the threat of ending up the same way. But tasting such gruesome delights was the last thing on my mind then. I’d have my fill of a fresh kill soon enough, once we’d reached the safety these new lands promised.

  “Gwyn, Selina!” I yelled, running into the galley.

  “Don’t tell me, you fucked up again,” Gwyn said, eyeing the gunk falling from my body. “Now who’s going to steer the ship?”

  “It wasn’t me,” I growled. “He just exploded.”

  “What do you mean he exploded?” Selina asked.

  “I mean he fucking exploded! Like a bomb, but messier and less damaging to everything caught in the blast. Some of the equipment might not have taken so kindly to being drenched in Brendan though.”

  “Gwyn, you’ve spent the most time in the wheelhouse,” Selina said. “Can you drive us the rest of the way to the coast?”

  “Will do, chummers. But if we hit an iceberg or something, I just want you to remember this is my first time at the wheel. Don’t go blaming me if we sink.”

  “Just do your best,” she said. “It’s safer than leaving the ship to drift along aimlessly.”

  “And what about you?” I asked her, as Gwyn made his way upstairs. “Do you know some kind of spell that can help find out what killed Brendan?”

  “There might be something I can try, but I’d rather work on the defences round the ship. I’ll do what I can to strengthen them and hopefully shield the rest of us from meeting the same fate, then maybe we’ll make it to shore in one piece.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  “No. You could try helping Gwyn figure out the controls if he needs it.”

  She was already placing the bones she’d gathered in a circle on the table. I turned to go when something knocked against the side of the ship, sending the bones and Selina flying. My heart had just started to slow to its usual pace, but it instantly quickened again as I threw out a hand to steady myself against the wall.

  “What was that?” I said.

  “I think something hit the ship,” Selina answered, sounding shaken. She pulled herself up to her hands and knees and rushed after her bones on all fours, the need to build a better magical defence greater than ever.

  I left her to it and ran for the cabin door. If there was something out there I wanted to know what we were dealing with, and there was more to see on deck than there was from the wheelhouse. So I ventured back out, pausing only to shift into my hybrid form once more. Claws and fangs wouldn’t help me against telekinesis or magic, but I wanted to be ready for any physical attacks, and there was the added bonus of the protection from the cold.
I didn’t think I’d be shifting again for a while since I’d need my pelt on the icy tundra we were headed for, so I also ripped off the rest of the clothes still clinging to my body. I felt a lot freer for being rid of them.

  My gaze was drawn to the horizon on my way out, in the hopes of finally getting a glimpse of land. But I was disappointed once again. Sighing, I took up position on the same side of the deck where the impact had come from, and looked down at the waves splashing against our vessel.

  It took me a moment to realise I could see something down there. I hadn’t really expected to, especially after so many days on the water without so much as a glimpse of any sea creatures near the surface. But there was definitely something swimming beside the ship. It was too far down to see much, other than a vague grey shape moving beneath the waves, and as the moments passed with no further attacks, I realised it must be a whale or something. I was fairly certain there were whales in the seas around Svalbard, and what else could it be?

  I soon lost the creature. Another few minutes went by of nothing else happening, and I was just thinking of going back in to see if Gwyn needed any help as Selina had suggested. But then I caught another glimpse of movement. The grey shape was back and it was becoming more distinct by the second, rising up from the deeps. Yet I still couldn’t tell what it was.

  The creature had almost reached the surface when two red lights burst into life in its eye sockets. Fear shot through me an instant before it leapt out of the waves, unfurling its wings in a similarly impressive display to a great white breaching. Droplets of seawater rained down as the thing hung there, hovering in the air so it was level with the top of the ship. Our eyes locked and my fear became terror. Dhaer was alive, and back for revenge.

  I tore my gaze from the awesomely terrifying sight and ran back into the cabin, though I knew full well the demon could have stopped me at any moment. But it didn’t and I made it inside with my chest intact.

  I ran for the wheelhouse, to do what I didn’t know. Did I really think we could outrun it? No, but I was going to tell Gwyn to turn us around anyway, if he wasn’t working on it already. What else could we do? I’d been up against this thing three times already and barely survived the encounters, and each of those times had been with powerful allies at my sides. But it had chosen to strike when we were most vulnerable. There was only Selina who’d have anything to bring to the battle while the sun was up, and I was doubtful her witchcraft would rival the demonic power Dhaer had at its disposal.

  Gwyn was at the wheel, but his attention wasn’t on the various monitors and things designed to help him navigate safely through the treacherous waters. His gaze was fixed on the demon, his expression the same mix of fear and awe I’d probably worn out on deck. And I could hear his heart hammering as fast as my own. The inside of the ship might protect from the elements, but it was no shield from the terror the thing inspired.

  “I thought you said you and Will killed that thing,” Gwyn said, without looking round.

  “I saw Will stab it in the emptiness where its heart should be and it burst into flames, then took flight. There was an explosion high above us and Will’s sword fell back to Earth. If that wasn’t the thing dying then I don’t know what it was. God knows how it’s back.”

  “Go tell Selina what we’re dealing with. Banishing it is probably going to be easier and less likely to end with us all dead.”

  “Killing it would be so much more permanent though,” I growled, but turned to go back down below deck anyway.

  “Apparently not,” Gwyn said.

  I returned to the galley to find Selina still working her protective spells. She’d placed a small stone with a crude likeness of the ship etched into it in the centre of her circle of bones, a look of deep concentration on her face as she recited the incantation. I waited for her to finish before saying anything.

  “What’s wrong, Nick? I haven’t finished working on our protection yet.”

  “Forget the protective spells. Do you remember any of the warlock’s notes from the main base part of David’s dungeon?”

  “Why?”

  “The demon – it’s back. Our best bet is probably banishing it, if you’re up for taking another shot at that banishment spell.”

  “So that’s what broke through our warding. No wonder my spells didn’t hold. They weren’t designed to withstand a demon’s power.”

  “Yeah, and if you can’t banish it we’re probably all going to end up with our insides splattered across the ship. You have your tools and a name to work with this time. Dhaer – send it back to Hell.”

  She nodded. “Pass me a bowl and a knife, then I need to concentrate. If you can keep it focused on you, the spell is more likely to succeed.”

  “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be too difficult.” I handed her the items. “Will was the one to stab it but I had my part to play in driving it out of the human world. It’s probably looking for payback.”

  As if on cue, I heard the demon’s voice speaking telepathically in my head, like it had in the dungeon. But this time it seemed to project itself into the minds of the others as well.

  “You can’t hide from me, little wolf,” it said. “You were warned what would happen if you and Will came hunting me a second time, and yet you did it anyway. You denied me the suffering of the countless living souls I could have claimed by now, had you not interfered. Now you must pay the price.”

  “Gee, Nick, I think it’s pissed at you,” Gwyn called down. “Just how many enemies can one werewolf make?”

  I didn’t answer either of them. Going back out on deck went against all my survival instincts, but I forced myself to do it anyway.

  “Brave wolf,” Dhaer hissed. “Have you come to surrender yourself to me?”

  “What makes you so confident you’ll kill me this time? I’ve got witchcraft on my side, as well as Jaken.”

  “The witch’s spells won’t protect you. I already broke through once; I can do it again. Then you will all die. But if you give your life freely to me, I might let your companions live.”

  “Might? I’m not diving overboard for anything less than a guarantee they won’t be harmed.”

  The demon laughed. It made no gestures to direct its power as I’d seen Ulfarr do, but I got the impression it was smashing the invisible shield round the ship with a kind of mental battering ram. The vessel began to shake beneath my feet, proof I was right. Selina’s banishment spell better work this time or we were doomed.

  I racked my brains for some way of buying us more time. But with no power of my own other than physical strength, I was at a loss for what I could do, other than standing there like bait. I tried calling to Jaken telepathically, for all the good it did. If He heard, He didn’t deign to answer. Clearly we were on our own this time.

  There didn’t seem to be much on deck that I could use as a weapon without ripping chunks off the ship, forcing me to retreat inside once more. The galley was stocked with plenty of cooking knives. I grabbed them all, as well as the two pistols from Zee’s comatose body. I had no idea how to work the guns but I was desperate enough to try. Any ranged weapon that might pierce the demon’s empty chest and cause the same damage I’d seen before when Will stabbed it, even if it was only temporary.

  Facing the demon once more, I took aim and threw the first of the knives. The blade flew in the general direction of Dhaer’s chest cavity but it never had a chance of hitting its target. I guess the demon used its powers to swat the weapon aside, the knife veering off course and falling into the sea with a loud plop. The same thing happened with the other knives I threw, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it had at least distracted Dhaer from its assault on the ship’s shield. But the shaking beneath my feet didn’t even slow.

  It looked like the pistols were my last hope. I had an idea about safety locks from the movies and as far as I could remember, the hammer had to be pulled back, towards me and away from the thing it had to strike to cause it to fire. But I wasn’t
a hundred percent on that. I couldn’t even be sure the guns were loaded. The only way I knew of finding out was to pull the trigger, see what happened, and just hope for the best.

  I’d just started to take aim when the shaking finally stopped. The demon let out its terrible cry and the pistols fell from my trembling fingers. I dropped to my knees, covering my ears and cowering in the same state of terror as before. When the scream ended I expected to see Dhaer standing over me and then for the torment to begin, but to my surprise the demon was still in mid-air, suspended over the water. Except it wasn’t so much hovering now as writhing and struggling against a new force.

  Chains of fire had appeared in the air around it. They wrapped themselves around its wrists and ankles, and slithered along its limbs. The demon fought to free itself but the fetters proved too strong. Selina’s banishment ritual appeared to be working, at last, and it looked like it was going to be more effective than the failed attempt the Slayer spellcasters had made.

  I stayed on my hands and knees while the spell was in effect, not trusting my legs to support me yet. Dhaer’s fear inducing power was as strong as ever and my heart was still pounding at an unhealthy rate. But I felt a sense of triumph creeping through the fear. Finally we’d beaten this dread thing. Now we’d have one less enemy to worry about and it hadn’t even cost any lives. Except Brendan, but what was the life of one mortal man with no more than a few decades left to live? I had no grief for him. There was only relief that this fight was finally over. Maybe now we could reach the end of our journey in peace, and I’d get my fresh start without any further bloodshed. Or so I hoped.

  I could hear Selina’s chanting reaching new heights, and as her voice grew louder the power seemed to grow with it. A vortex opened up in the sea beneath the demon, and more of the fiery chains leapt out to pull it back into Hell where it belonged. Yet Dhaer continued to strain against the magic binding it and it didn’t immediately start to sink into the (literal) Hellhole the ritual had opened up. Had my sense of victory been premature? It screamed again and I kept my hands over my ears, watching it struggle with bated breath.