Lenny plopped down in the chair next to him, startling him out of his reverie. Ben watched as Lenny checked his phone... again... then slumped down in the chair, his gaze drifting back and forth between the nurses’ station and the security guard sitting near the E.R. entrance.
Funny... Every television show Ben had ever seen depicted security guards as never actually being in the E.R.; someone always seemed to be paging or calling for security when something was going on.
The silence was becoming awkward. Ben glanced at Lenny, then cleared his throat. “So... What are you thinking?” Ben regretted being the first to speak almost immediately as Lenny slowly turned, his face creased with a frown of confusion.
“About what?”
Ben shrugged, lowered his eyes and fiddled with the zipper on his coat. “Dunno. All of this.”
“All. Of. This.” Lenny pursed his lips, shook his head. “Jury’s out, Benny. But it’s Sam.”
Ben nodded. “Yeah. Sam. You think she’s all right up there. You know, with that guy?”
“Which one? The Doctor or the Dark Knight?”
Ben momentarily experienced “Geek Confusion” as his brain took those two monikers and immediately conjured images of an epic meeting that would make British sci-fi and comic book fans alike swoon with delight. “Uh... Both, I guess.”
“Well,” Lenny said, his gaze settling on the security guard, “The Doctor took care of her once. If he wanted to kill her, he could have done it a month ago. As for the Dark Knight...”
He sat up straight as the security guard rose and walked toward the nurses’ station. Lenny watched the security guard lean on the counter, watched as one of the nurses—a tall blonde—leaned on the counter close to the security guard. Her eyes flicked back and forth between Ben and himself as she spoke to the guard. Then she reached into the pocket of her scrub top and pulled out a small... pen of some kind... Lenny watched as the security guard took the pen, nodding his head deferentially to the nurse. The security guard turned around, his back now firmly against the counter, and he looked at Lenny. He held up the pen... no, it wasn’t a pen... Lenny squinted, trying to see the item more clearly. A syringe, a punch syringe, like the epinephrine pen his wife carried in her purse. The security guard looked askance at the syringe, smiled broadly, and quickly slammed it into his thigh, injecting the contents.
“Len?”
“What?” The blonde nurse looked directly at Lenny... And winked. Not a hey-sexy-what’s-up kind of wink... It was a sinister wink, if that made sense. What the hell, what the hell, what the hell? Lenny saw her quickly turn and exit, heading out the E.R. doors.
“What do you think?”
“I think,” said Lenny as he turned to look at Ben, then looked at something beyond him. “I think you should shut-up and get behind that counter.”
Ben looked behind him at the wall partition topped with artificial greenery, then back to Lenny. “What? Why?”
“Because there’s something wrong with that security guard.”
Lenny could feel every muscle in his body beginning to tense, adrenalin flowing freely as the body sensed the impending “fight-or-flight” situation that was emerging.
The security guard was bent over the counter, his head resting on the surface, his shoulders heaving up and down with each gasping breath. If you could call them breaths, that is. More like rasping growls.
“That sound... Why is he making that sound?”
Lenny glanced at Ben, mentally cursing him for not doing as he was told and getting out of sight behind the partition. Then he heard the sound Ben had been referring to: a slow, steady rumble emanating not from the throat of the security guard, but from somewhere deep within his chest.
Lenny could see the desk staff scrambling away as the security guard began to slowly turn around. Lenny’s breath caught in his throat as the security guard faced them. His eyes were black. Solid, cold black. Couple that with the sinister grin spreading across his face and Lenny knew that things were about to get “real.” Real. There was an ironic word when you found yourself facing down a werewolf.
The security guard’s growl made a quick crescendo into a yelp as his rib cage cracked and seemed to collapse. Lenny noticed one of the nurses moving to help, the instinct to heal overcame the sheer terror she should have been experiencing. Hell, maybe she was just that brave. Before she could move more than a step, the security guard sprung back, his abdomen reforming beneath his shirt, taking on a decidedly more cavernous shape, his waist cinching in. He snarled at her and she froze before stumbling backward in retreat.
The security guard reached awkwardly over the counter and swung back around. His hand was not empty.
“Gun!”
The word sounded through the room as if fired from the weapon itself. Staff and able-bodied patients screamed and scrambled to safety behind partitions and doors.
Lenny shoved Ben to the floor as he drew his own gun and, without hesitation, fired two shots into the chest of the security guard.
The security guard fell back against the counter, collapsed into a heap on the floor and was still. Then it was quiet.
Lenny kept his gun aimed at the crumpled man-creature on the floor as he slowly walked toward him. He could hear the whimpers of patients in the waiting area, saw Ben out of the corner of his eye. Everyone seemed to be all right.
Lenny stopped beside the body, his gun aimed at the back of his head. He pushed at the crumpled form with his toe once, twice, then stepped back a couple of steps.
“Lenny?”
“Yeah, I got him.” Lenny backed up a couple more steps, holstering his gun. Patients and staff alike began to peek out from their hiding places, some emerging slowly into view.
Ben looked over the partition, his gaze fixed on the body. “Um, Lenny? Why is the body still there?”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you’d shot him with the mercury, he’d be melting. You didn’t shoot him with the mercury, did you?” Ben waited for an answer... An answer that did not come. He looked away from the body and directly at Lenny. “Did you?”
Lenny winced. The question wasn’t a question or even an accusation. More of a verdict. He gritted his teeth, trying to resist the urge to simply tell Ben that he needed to shut-up, fuck-off and leave the police work to the real police. The kid was glaring at him with those black-lined eyes of his... Lenny sighed with irritation and turned back to the body.
Holy fuck! Lenny felt a cold chill run up his spine. They could joke about that sensation in commercials to try and sell candy, but the fact of the matter was that chills running up your spine hurt like hell. Lenny could feel his muscles begin to tense up again, his stomach tightening, the blood pounding steadily in his temples.
He heard a gasp behind him, the quick intake of air as Ben saw clearly what Lenny had already seen and realized what it meant for them and for everyone else in that E.R.
The body was gone.
Lenny’s eyes moved around anxiously, searching the perimeter for any sign of movement as he searched through his pockets and pulled out the magazine that the “Man in Black” had given him. Sam’s going to get pissed if you keep calling him that. Lenny snapped the magazine into his gun, the first bullet sliding into the chamber.
The glint of the silver contents, opalescent flashes in the harsh fluorescent lighting, caused Lenny’s stomach to churn again, but for a different reason. He really hoped these whack little homemade bullets weren’t going to mess up his gun. He immediately felt guilty for worrying about his piece when he should be worrying about where the hell that security guard, or whatever the hell he was now, had crawled off to so quietly.
Lenny moved forward, his body crouched as he crept along. As staff members and patients peeked around corners or popped their heads up from behind chairs and counters, he motioned for them to stay down, to stay put, as he made his way through the E.R.
Lenny pulled aside curtain after curtain, pushed open doors into t
rauma rooms, the pharmacy, the supply closet, the restroom. Nothing.
As Lenny neared the end of his circuit of the E.R., only one door remained: a windowed door a few steps away from the nurses’ station. He walked toward it slowly, his gun aimed at the door, his finger on the trigger. His muscles tensed in his arms, in his stomach, as he reached for the door handle.
Suddenly, Lenny froze and looked around for something... something... He smiled as his eyes fell on a large tape dispenser perched on the edge of the nurses’ station counter. He quickly grabbed it, keeping the gun raised and at the ready, and positioned himself so that he had a clear shot of the door. He felt his breath catch as he pulled his arm back and threw the tape dispenser at the window as hard as he could. The tape dispenser sailed through the air, hitting the window and shattering it thoroughly.
The sound of breaking glass was soon drowned out by an unearthly growl and a dark form sailed through the broken window, tumbling across the floor and into the wall before coming to a stop.
Lenny could feel his nerves twitching in his arms and hands as the form stood up and turned into full view. Any doubts that he had had about this, about what Sam had told him, about what his gut had been telling him, they all faded away as he found himself face-to-face with an actual live werewolf. The movies had gotten a lot right in their depictions, but no CGI or make-up artist could have imagined something quite like this.
The creature’s every muscle was perfectly cut, the power and strength of the body clearly visible on the surface of its skin. There was hair, to be sure, but it was quite short with the longest and fullest areas of hair around the head and shoulders, sort of like a lion’s mane. The head was wolf-like in some ways – the power of the jaw area, the width of the facial area – but it was slenderer than a wolf’s head would be.
It reminded Lenny of the hieroglyphic images of Anubis he’d seen in his history textbooks in high school. Like a jackal. The eyes were the most intense and frightening feature. Empty black eyes, without a speck of color or even white in them to break-up the vacuum of blackness.
It looked at him, this creature that had once been a man... And its lip curled in what could only be described as a smile.
Lenny fired a single round into the creature’s chest. It cocked its head, its expression almost puzzled. Lenny quickly slid another round into the chamber with a click. At the sound, the puzzlement faded from the creature’s face, replaced by a horrifying snarl of rage. It growled and started toward Lenny.
Lenny fired four more rounds in quick succession, hitting the creature in the chest and abdomen. It collapsed to the floor with a thud and was still.
Lenny could hear the murmur starting among the people in the room and many began to peek out in hopes of catching a glimpse of the creature. “Everybody stay where you are!” He hadn’t really meant to yell it, but the tension in his body was releasing, causing his muscles to quake. He knew that if he didn’t say it loud and firm, his voice would be quaking, too. Last thing these people needed was to think that he was as frightened as they were.
Lenny crossed the space between himself and the body warily, stopping beside the fallen form, his gun trained on its forehead. It had a sheen to it, as if the mercury had permeated the skin and was glistening through it, catching the light and giving the whole body a sort of metallic cast. Lenny carefully poked at the form, pushing the toe of his shoe against its ribcage. The body wobbled, almost like gelatin, and he took a step back as the parts touching the floor began to liquefy.
“Is he melted?” Lenny started and turned to glare at Ben. He gestured to the melting body in reply and checked his ammunition. Still eleven rounds left in the gun and a second magazine in his pocket.
“What now? Do we go look for Sam?”
“We aren’t doing anything. You are going to stay right here. I am going to find Sam.” He put up a hand as Ben opened his mouth to speak. “Don’t argue with me. You don’t have a gun yet, Benny. And, let’s face it, Sam will kill me if something happens to you.” Ben closed his mouth with a snap and nodded reluctantly.
“Okay,” Lenny said, clapping Ben on the shoulder briefly before jogging away through the E.R. and disappearing through the entrance into the main hospital.
Ben watched him go, watched the doors close and then promptly turned and wove his way through the anxious staff and patients as security officers began to arrive from the main hospital. He ducked his head, trying to look inconspicuous, and exited the E.R.
Dawn was approaching, though the height of the buildings would prevent it from reaching the ground where Ben was standing alongside the hospital. He could hear the distant whine of the police sirens approaching.
Lenny be damned... He was not going to sit down here and be interrogated, not if there was even a remote chance that he could help Sam. Ben quickly turned and headed for the nearby parking garage.
26
THE STAIRWELL DOOR opened slowly, and Vincent peeked around the corner. His eyes moved quickly, noting the main lobby’s emptiness before he pushed the door open more fully and stepped into the room.
Not only was it empty, it was quiet. Unusually quiet.
Vincent moved slowly along the perimeter, his steps silenced by the plush carpet runners on the floor. Yes, the quiet was unusually intense, especially for a hospital. No murmured voices of visitors waiting for news about patients upstairs; no voices over the paging system seeking this doctor or that doctor to go here or there; just the quiet.
Vincent glanced at the reception area... Empty. He felt for his gun, reassuring himself that it was loaded and ready for whatever might come. He flinched slightly as a bubbling sound pierced the silence, but almost immediately relaxed as he realized what the source had been: the saltwater fish tank along a nearby wall.
Vincent stared at the tank, as one always does when faced with a bubbling tank full of fish busy doing their collective living thing. The clown fish stared back at him from their cozy homes among the anemones and coral. “Hey, fish,” Vincent whispered and gently tapped the glass as he passed by. He’d always liked fish, liked the peaceful way they went about their little lives, but keeping even a goldfish was an impossibility under the circumstances. To have a fish, you had to have a home first, and Vincent was not any closer to that happening than he had been ten years before. Only difference was that now the possibility had moved into the realm of things-we-never-seriously-think-about, unless, of course, one wants to be seriously depressed.
Click.
Vincent froze, his body immediately tensing as he flattened himself up against the wall. He inched forward quickly, moving towards the corner up ahead. Most definitely, that click had been a door, probably the door that led to the emergency room and ambulance bay. He held his breath, straining to listen as acutely as possible.
It could be Sam... He hoped it was Sam. Vincent swallowed hard, then opened his mouth slightly and inhaled through his nose. He braced himself for her scent to hit him, the heady, intoxicating smell of her perfume and her skin and her musk all blended together. But the scent was not Sam. It wasn’t even female. It was a man. Vincent raised his gun up, stepped around the corner and aimed his gun at–
“Lenny?” Vincent quickly lowered his gun. “You okay?”
Lenny lowered his weapon slowly, giving Vincent an appraising look. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. You?”
“Good.” Vincent’s eyes darted toward the door behind Lenny. “Where’s the kid? Um... Ben?”
“Still in the E.R., well hopefully. We had a bit of... trouble. Security guard.” Lenny’s jaw tensed, and he shook his head. “Should have known something was up with him. I mean, when is there ever a security guard in the E.R.?”
Vincent chuckled. “Good point. You put him down?”
Lenny nodded. “Neatly, neatly. Where’s Sam?”
“We got separated upstairs. I was hoping maybe you’d seen her down here.” Vincent watched Lenny’s expressive face as anger, frustration, concern and then anger again f
lashed over it. “We have to find her... before they do.”
“Well, yes, of course,” Lenny snapped. He paused for a moment before continuing, his voice more controlled. “What is your plan?”
Vincent glanced at the door to the E.R., then back around the main lobby. It was too difficult to scent Sam in this place. He needed fresh air to clear his head. His eyes scanned the room, stopping on a door across the courtyard. Parking... “C’mon.” Vincent started toward the door, with Lenny steps behind him.
“Where are we going?”
“The parking ramp.” Vincent glanced back at Lenny. “I can’t... smell her... with so many people around. I need to get some fresh air. Then I can... Then I can find her.”
They reached the door and Vincent rested his hands on the metal bar, ready to push the door open.
Suddenly, Lenny grabbed him. “I want to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth.”
Vincent tensed under the other man’s grip but resisted the immediate urge to put him through the nearest wall. He slowly raised his eyes, looking sidelong at Lenny as the other man continued.
“Was it you? Were you the one that did this to her? The one that got her into all of this shit?”
Vincent relaxed slightly. “No. I tried to stop it. I was too late.” He inhaled deeply... And froze. That scent... He knew that scent. Ten years hadn’t changed it... and it...HE... was close. Very close. “We have to go now. Now!” He quickly pushed open the door to the parking ramp, hoping Lenny was right behind him. He was.
As the parking ramp door closed behind them with an echoing clang, Vincent hoped that HE was also close behind them. He could feel his stomach knotting up, his breath becoming hurried.
“What about Sam?”
Good question, thought Vincent. What about Sam? He reached down to check his weapon and started to jog up the parking ramp. I hope she’s not in the parking garage... If he finds her, even if it’s before the heat sets in...Vincent felt his stomach churn. He would fight to the death to protect her, but if HE caught her scent...
The Bloodline Series Box Set Page 18
