“Time is of the essence,” she said through the open window.
I grabbed my guns and ran for the passenger’s door. The others climbed in the back and Julie took off. With an expert grace that would’ve made any racecar driver jealous, she drove through the crowded snowy streets at speeds that made the rest of us jump as we passed each car so fast there was no way to identify them. She never stopped for lights or traffic, simply just driving through or around regardless of the lanes or pedestrians. I had to wonder how in the world we all survived the drive, much less without hitting a single object on the way, or had the cops after us.
Julie drove the entire forty-minute stretch through traffic in under five. Only when we pulled up in front of Ash’s house did she slow down as she slid the Hummer sideways down the street for a perfect parallel parking job exactly in front of the house between the parked cars. I dove out of the door and fell to my knees debating whether to lose my lunch, or to kiss the solid ground. Ren didn’t have as many choices. She was getting sick before she got the door open all the way.
“No time. Ren with me through the front, Julie and Darcy one on each side. Kieran enter through the back. Don’t hesitate, shoot to kill,” Tanaka ordered.
“Shoot what? I don’t have any guns,” Darcy complained.
“In the back. There are spare guns next to the spare tire under the floor in the back.” I managed to speak without spewing my guts.
“You keep spare guns next to the spare tire in your cars?”
“Where else? The glove compartment?”
Everyone grabbed a Walther or two. I wasn’t worried about the fact that it was technically illegal for anyone but me to have the guns. Right then we needed all the firepower we could get. Once everyone was armed, we made our way around the house. Tanaka had decided that we would enter the house at the same time from different sides in an attempt to trap the creatures. We started counting to fifty in order to give everyone time to get into place. I ended up kneeling next to the patio doors in the back by the time I reached forty.
Forty-one. Damn I wish I had my armor. Forty-three. Or my assault rifle. Forty-five. Maybe a tank. Forty-six. At least a nuke. Forty-eight. Hell, I want the entire worlds armed forces! Fifty!
I threw up a hand to guide my shields into breaking the glass. Only after it didn’t work did I remember that my shields were gone. I did the next best thing. A single silent round left my gun to explode against the door, spraying the entire living room in a shower of glass. I stepped through and began working the room with the tactical maneuvers Tanaka and the others had taught me. Every little detail of the cozy living room passed by me as I moved through the living room into the doorway of the kitchen.
On the way I felt a pang of regret as I stepped over the smashed remains of DPN. It looked like someone had stomped on the doll until it was nothing but scrap.
I glanced around the corner into the kitchen. Lying across the island counter in the middle of the room was a naked female. An instant later I recognized Ash’s face hanging over the edge of the counter. With a fleeting glance around the room, I decided it was safe to approach. Her eyes were wide open with a look of absolute terror in them. I reached up to check her pulse. It was sluggish, like forcing gelatin through a straw. It moved in strange clumps so slowly I could barely feel it.
Screams and crashing filled the air from other rooms in the house. Explosions followed each scream as someone fired away at a target. I kept both guns ready as I inched my way around Ash.
Kill monsters first, save statues second.
I made it to her waist when I looked back down at her. Chunks of flesh had been cut away at random leaving her body looking like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. The memories of the flesh being cut away from my own body forced a scream from my throat. Then I saw her arm. The fingernails had been removed, and the skin had been systematically cut away from her body. Her hand lay there, bare muscle glistening in the harsh florescent lights.
I lost it. My stomach emptied all over the tile. I was on my knees staring into my own mess when I heard the footsteps. One of the immortals cleared the door on the other side of the kitchen. He had two large holes clear through his chest, and he still moved faster than an Olympic runner. Tanaka was on his heels followed by Ren. They both chased the monster through the kitchen and out the broken patio doors I had opened.
Great! I gave it an escape route!
I jumped to my feet determined to chase it down myself. Loud crashing along with more screaming and explosions filled the house as soon as I reached Ash’s head again. I turned back to look at her body lying there helpless and violated on the counter. With a newfound rage I spun for the backyard, only to walk head first into a puke-green cloud.
***
The gas worked fast, freezing my body in mid-stride. I struggled to move, but the gas had stopped me. I screamed in my head. Rage and fear overtaking my rational senses. Then I saw it. The pantry door swung open the rest of the way, and the old man stepped through with that skeleton like sneer on its face. It had hidden from me and I fell for it.
Stupid! I can’t go through this again! Not again!
I screamed in my mind as I tried to will my legs to move. Then it stepped up into my face with a look of confusion. The monster stared at me tilting its head back and forth. It raised its hands to my arm and tapped against it.
My arm! It knows they removed it last time! Will it try to take it again?
The fingers started to poke my face. Suddenly those fingers poked me right in the left eye. I winced in pain slamming my eye shut as I tried to will away the pain. A few blinks later I was able to see again without much pain. The creature pulled back from me with a strange face I couldn’t read.
BLINK?!? I CAN BLINK?!?
I tried it again. The left eye blinked the synthetic eyelids open and closed over and over. With the eye open and a few concentrated thoughts I amazingly moved the eye to focus on the room around me. The immortal let out a gasp as my eye rolled around in the socket taking in the room. The double vision effect was disorienting. My right eye was frozen in place, always looking straight ahead, but my left eye could look at anything I wanted it to.
If my eye works, what about my arm?
The amount of concentration it took was murder on my mind. The monster’s eyes flashed wide as my right hand twitched. I poured all my willpower into moving that hand. Slowly, as if I was moving through syrup, my arm lifted into my line of site. The way I was twisted I could only see the tip of my fingers with my left eye, but it was enough. Still lodged in my hand was the Walther.
I flipped on the targeting laser. The light purple-blue UV dot shone brightly on the tile floor. With a curious look, the immortal bent over to look at the light. I forced my arm to move, dragging the light closer to the beast. It stood there and watched as I moved the laser to point at his feet, then up his leg. He bent further as the light moved up the leg, until his head got in the way.
NOW!!!
I squeezed the trigger. The ripper round left the barrel in a silent movement of blue light. The instant before it hit the head of the monster, it stood up in the blink of an eye. The bullet went right past its face, lodging itself into the creature’s thigh. Abruptly the thigh bulged and detonated in a cloud of bloody debris.
It howled at me as it fell to the ground without the other limb to support it. Hands reached out slapping the gun out of my grip.
I balled up my fist with all my anger and pointed it at the monsters head. Unexpectedly my arm reacted faster than I had thought it would. The liquid tyluminum poured through from my knuckles, extending out instantly into a long sword.
The sword blade pierced straight through the skull of the beast and into the floor inches below, pinning it in place. With a final spasm the beast stopped moving. Its arms fell to the tile, then nothing.
I DID IT!!! I KILLED THE FUCKER!!!
***
I was afraid to move my arm as I waited for the gas to wear off. It was only
a few minutes later when I saw Darcy edge her way around the corner into the room. She kept her gun on the impaled immortal as she scanned the room.
“Christ! They got you again? Are you okay? Right, like you could answer me.”
I blinked my left eye a few times until she noticed it.
“You can blink? What, you didn’t freeze up all the way this time?”
I blinked at her two times slowly as I hoped she would catch on.
“One blink yes, two blinks no?”
I blinked once at her.
“Just the left eye though? Duh! The synthetics weren’t affected were they?”
I blinked once again.
She nodded at the body on the end of my sword, “Is it dead?”
I blinked three times at her.
“What’s that mean? Oh, I get it. You’re not sure that it’s dead are you?”
One blink.
“Vicki and her friend are frozen as well, but untouched. Julie is with them, keeping them company so they don’t freak out. Well, no more than they already have. I’m going to step behind you to check on the woman on the counter, alright? Is she Ash?”
Blink.
Vicki and her friend? She never mentioned any other friends to me. Not since her roommate kicked her out.
I listened to Darcy shuffling around behind me. She spoke soft and hopeful to Ash, reassuring her that we were helping her, and not going to leave her like that. Tanaka and Ren jogged back through the shattered glass breathless from their chase.
“Got . . . away. . . . Too . . . fast. . . . Can’t . . . keep . . . up. . . . Hello? . . . What . . . happened . . . here? . . .” Ren managed between gasps.
I caught their attention with my blinking eye since I was afraid to move my arm yet.
“They froze your body, but not your synthetics?” Tanaka asked looking at my moving eye.
I blinked.
“One blink is yes, two blinks for no. We’re not sure if that thing is dead or not. What do you think?” Darcy asked Tanaka as she stepped back into view.
“We already called in for medical and containment teams. Maybe we should wait for them,” Ren suggested.
“No. It will only put more people in danger of being killed if it wakes up. We need to destroy it before they get here. Can you pull out the sword?” Tanaka asked me as he stared at my eye.
I blinked once. He nodded and aimed his gun. It only took a light flex and a thought this time. The sword shrunk back into my hand as fast of a blur as it had first appeared. There was a wet PLOP noise when the blade cleared the skull. Before the head could bounce on the tile the eyes of the beast flew open.
***
The roar escaped the immortal’s lips in a deafening rumble as it rose. Tanaka fired. The round exploded the upper chest and shoulder. After jerking back from the impact the immortal started to raise again. This time I flicked my wrist as I flexed out the liquid metal. The sword blade extended from my knuckles to slice cleanly through the neck of the beast, just as Tanaka fired again blasting another hole in the chest.
Once the head was removed, the body fell limp.
Oddly enough the head didn’t. It rolled around on the floor snapping and snarling. Ren and Darcy both screamed at the disembodied head as it tried to force itself to roll towards them. I stabbed at it with my sword, skewering it on the end of my blade. The jaws continued to snap as I lifted the head up from the ground where I had pierced it through the eye. It was still very much alive.
Tanaka reached back under my coat and drew out one of my straight blades. The knife was as long as my forearm, and as sharp as all my blades. Tanaka used it to spear the head through the first hole I had made. As soon as the metal slid clear through to poke out the other side of the skull, the jaws stopped. The face went slack and stopped moving.
Darcy held out a large cooking pot under the speared head. A few shakes of my sword, and the head slid off my blade into the pot. The other knife still stuck out of its forehead, and it still didn’t move. Tanaka placed the pot in the sink and stared at it with a look of intense concentration on his face. Then he reached in and started to pull the blade out. Before the knife had been clearly removed the jaws started snapping again and he slammed the blade back in. The head fell silent once more.
“I think you found a weak spot. As long as the knife stays in that wound it’s like the thing is dead. Let’s leave it like this until we can get it back to the Archives. Maybe we can find out what caused it to stop fighting.”
No one argued with Tanaka.
I sure in the hell don’t plan on taking it out. Even if I could move.
* * *
Ash, Vicki, her redheaded friend I’d never seen before, and myself were all moved into the living room in the back of the house and placed on the couch. Julie went from one of us to the next injecting us with the antidote to the paralyzing monster gas. From the couch we could watch the entire room as the crews showed up to deal with the scene. There was nothing for us to do but sit there and wait for our bodies to become ours again.
Julie appeared before me with what looked like a bolt in her hand.
“This is a remote access enabler. With it you will be able to move, see, and speak through me. Do you wish to try it?”
I blinked once at her. She reached behind my left ear and pressed against the skin. The skin popped open exposing the cybernetic data port. Then she placed the bolt into the port in my neck. The world swam with images and sensations for a few seconds. I closed my eye as I tried to sort it all out. Once my eyes were closed I was left with the clear vision of the room, of myself through the android’s eyes.
I moved around glancing at my surroundings. Everything was the same but different. I lifted my hands up only to realize that the hands weren’t mine when I saw the painted nails. My left hand still didn’t have fingernails yet, and I never had French tips before. I took advantage of the situation and took a good look at my scarred body sitting limply on the couch. Seeing it through another’s eyes made the wounds look that much worse.
“Julie can you help us with this? Julie? Julie!” Tanaka yelled as he spun me around by the shoulder.
He stared at me for a second, and then he suddenly understood what was going on.
“Kieran?! You’re in there aren’t you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, but the voice was strangely Julie’s, not mine.
“Oh. Well sorry to ruin your fun, but we need some of Julie’s diagnostics right now. And, well, you can’t access them for her. I hate to ask, but could you wait in your own body for a bit?”
So much for freedom.
“How do I get back?” I groaned.
“Just pull out the remote enabler.”
I nodded and moved Julie’s body back to mine. The enabler stuck out of my neck like a bolt, reminding me of Frankenstein’s monster.
And don’t I just look the part of its bride with all my nice big scars.
I grabbed the bolt and pulled it out of my neck. As soon as it was out the vision and sensations were gone. I was left in darkness. My left eye flew open to see Julie smiling back at me.
“I will return as soon as I am able,” she said.
And then we were all left on the couch like a child’s outgrown toy, discarded and forgotten.
Chapter 18
Even with the antidote, it took two hours to “thaw” out our bodies. As soon as Ash started to move again, so did the blood. The dressings the medics had put on her soaked through as her blood uncongealed. There was a slight panic about her bleeding to death until she started to shift. Everyone gawked at her as she stood there and slipped her skin to become a seven-foot-tall weretigress. The stripped fur of her bangle tigress form stood out completely void of the missing parts of flesh her other body had.
“We heal when we shift,” she explained to the room with a growl.
“Lucky,” I cursed her under my breath with thoughts of my scars flooding my mind.
She glared daggers at me.
<
br /> Shit! Shifters can hear just as good as vamps. I gotta learn to just keep my mouth shut.
Ash took a step towards me and started to speak when she was interrupted by the ruckus coming from the front of the house.
“Get your hands off me! What’s going on! Where is she! Ash!?! Ash?!?” a male voice screamed into the house followed by an earsplitting shriek that left everyone covering their ears.
“Here! I’m here Scott!” Ash cried out with a growl.
Sounds of a fight replaced the shriek as a single man burst through the wall of police and GCP agents. He never stopped moving as he punched and clawed his way through them all, ignoring the threats of guns pointed in his face and the orders to stop. As soon as he tore clear he dove into Ash’s furry arms. He kissed her muzzle over and over like a parent greeting their child after a terrible scare.
“Fine. I’m fine. We’re all fine,” she reassured him as her voice slipped from a growl to a comforting purr while she held him.
“Boyfriend?” I managed to croak out through my incredibly dry throat as I finally started to move again.
“And more.” Ash smiled at me and gave Scott an affectionate lick on his cheek.
She always carried herself like a warrior. In human form Ash was muscular, but in cat form her definition seemed to triple. Seven feet of muscle, teeth, and claws, it all made her seem that much more dangerous. Maybe that was why Scott seemed so fragile in her arms.
His dress shirt hung from his shoulder in shreds, torn by the cops at the door that had tried to restrain him. Between the strips of the rags resided a chest of chiseled glory that raised visions of Adonis in my mind. He was handsome. Even my male mind would admit that. His strong jaw covered by the manly 5'oclock shadow blended well with the ordered chaos that was his curly hair. Even in tattered rags he looked like a Greek god. He was one of those people that you could dress in a burlap sack and make you feel underdressed even in the most expensive of tailored clothes.
I forced myself to stand up from the couch in slow movements. It was like coming off of really good anesthetic, I was groggy but mobile. I stood there and watched Scott rubbing his cheeks against Ash like a cat sent marking its territory. It looked silly and at the same time very loving.
Immortal Death (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter Book 3) Page 17
