Skinners: Blood Blade
Page 30
Paige sat on the ground with her back against the bumper, Cole’s weapon across her lap. The werewolf carcass was still in the backseat, but had been covered with an old wool Army surplus blanket. Having retrieved something she’d cooked up back at the Lancroft estate, she was now adding another ingredient and swirling the mixture in a Tupperware bowl. She looked around and replied, “We’re in dairy country. Did you expect Mardi Gras?”
“No, but it’s not that late. So far, I’ve only seen a few cars and nobody out walking around. I don’t care where you are, there’s always someone out doing something.”
“It always gets like this when too many of them get together.”
“Them? You mean Nymar?”
“Nymar, shapeshifters, especially werewolves. People may not know about all of those things. They may not even believe in them. But when too many predators get too close, there’s something in the back of every animal’s head that tells them to stay where it’s safe.”
Looking into the bowl in Paige’s hand, he asked, “Is that blood?”
“Yep.”
“Blood from that Half Breed?”
She nodded. “Hand me a towel.”
The trunk was ajar, and Cole turned so he could reach into the gym bag at the top of the pile. The first towel he could find was a familiar white bundle of starched cotton.
“Not that one,” she said. “That’s got the invisible Mongrel stuff in it. Try one of the blue ones.”
There would have been a time, not too long ago, when hearing someone refer to an invisible anything would have raised his eyebrows. Now he simply dug around until he found the blue towel. Once he handed it over, he watched Paige dip it into the mixture and apply it to the thorns on his weapon as if the stuff was just another kind of dark red varnish.
“Is that what makes your weapons change shape?” he asked.
Without looking up from what she was doing, Paige said, “That’s right, but don’t get excited. It takes a lot more than one coat before you’ll see so much as a twitch.”
“Shouldn’t I be watching how you do that?”
“I’ll show you when we have more time. You’ll be doing this a lot. What you need to do, though, is hold this weapon so these thorns actually break those soft little computer boy hands of yours. You’ll need to get used to it. Don’t worry,” she added, gently rubbing his arm before handing over his weapon. “This is one of the oldest Skinner rituals there is. The kinks have been worked out over the last couple hundred years or so.”
Cole flipped the weapon around a few times. It seemed lighter and more balanced. He placed his hands over the thorns and thought about trying to drive them into his palms right then and there, just to get it over with. The first time had been an accident, but the thought of doing the deed on purpose hit a block in his head that prevented him from following through.
It was simple. All he needed to do was grab hold of that weapon and tighten his grip enough to drive sharp pieces of wood through his flesh.
Nothing to it.
The longer he kept his hands on top of those thorns, the sharper they felt. Before he could force himself to kick down that mental roadblock, another vehicle rolled up alongside Paige’s Cavalier. It was Walter’s van.
Walter pushed open his door, hopped out and walked over to them. Pointing toward the park, he announced, “There’s a bunch of Nymar gathering at an old parking garage off Palmer Drive. A few of them headed up north toward Ruger Avenue, but most of them are staying in the park. Misonyk and his bodyguards went inside the garage a while ago and haven’t come out yet. Some big freak that looked like a messed-up Full Blood jumped in all the way from the interstate. I’m guessing that’s your Henry.”
“Sounds like it. How do you know he’s part Full Blood?” Paige asked.
“I’ve tracked a few in my day,” Walter said. “This thing’s got the same build and the same power in his stride. Whatever he is, he sure as hell doesn’t have the smarts of a Full Blood.”
Nodding quickly to what Walter told her, Paige asked, “And you’re sure about the rest?”
“As sure as I could be, considering how much time I had to do the job. Janesville is a nice town, but not a very big one. Even if those pale kids move, it shouldn’t take long for you to pick up on them. So what’s the plan?”
“Real simple,” she replied. “We’re going in to pay Misonyk a visit before he can set Henry loose on the Nymar in this town as well as any humans who don’t clear Henry’s path. Misonyk seems to be controlling Henry through some sort of mental link, so killing Misonyk should cut that link.”
“What then?” Cole asked.
“If I can find a way to stuff enough antidote down Henry’s throat to kill anything Nymar inside of him, I should be able to take him down like any other shapeshifter.”
“Should?” Cole asked. “Have you ever fought a Full Blood without another experienced Skinner helping you out?”
Paige tightened the straps holding her body armor in place and then proceeded to check the rest of her equipment. “No, but unless you’ve got a better idea, that’s all I’ve got.” When the armor was situated, she removed a revolver from the trunk and handed it to Cole along with plenty of spare ammo. “These bullets were treated with Nymar antidote,” she said. “It’ll hurt them, but it won’t kill them unless you get a direct hit in the spot where the spore’s attached to their heart. You have the right ammunition for that rifle of yours, Prophet?”
Walter nodded.
“Good. These things look tough, Cole, but it all boils down to bringing the right tool for the job. We’ve got the right tools, now we just need to do the job.”
“Are you sure that vest will hold up?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she said as she knocked her fist against the reinforced section of the harness. “This is where we honor the spirit of the person who was killed when they were turned into a Half Breed. This is where we take the power from one monster and shove it right down the throat of another.”
Just when Cole thought he’d seen the extent of how twisted his world had become, another layer had been stripped away.
“Crazy but effective,” Walter said with a shake of his head. “That’s a Skinner for ya.”
Chapter 25
The parking garage looked like something that had been built on a whim and then left to be used for graffiti practice. It was three levels of weathered concrete, covered with more than enough spray paint to keep anyone from thinking they’d ever get their car back after being stupid enough to park it there.
Poorly lit and closed in by metal grates over the main entrance, it was situated in the middle of Palmer Park, which was about 150 yards from the tree Walter had picked for his perch. During the warmer months, it would have been next to impossible to watch the garage from that spot. But since the branches were bare and the moon was full, Walter had a pretty good view once he climbed into a tree. There was nobody else in that section of the park at the moment, lending credence to the theory that the locals were following their natural instinct to give the predators some room. Cole knew that instinct was very real, because it currently screamed inside his head like a maladjusted car alarm.
“I don’t like Paige going in alone like this,” he said as he paced back and forth beneath Walter’s tree. “I should be with her. I’m her partner.”
Walter sat no more than six feet off the ground, which was more than high enough since there were only dead branches to obstruct his view of the garage. Most of his weight was supported by a thick branch, and he sat with one leg dangling against the trunk. “She knows what she’s doing,” he said as he peered through the scope of the Brown Precision Tactical Rifle.
“I know she does, but I should still be there to help.”
“You are helping.” Walter kept glancing over his scope and through it again so he could make minor adjustments to the lenses and the angle of the sights. “By covering me, I don’t need to look away from this scope, which means I’ll be
able to cover her. I’m sure she’d rather have it this way than needing to worry about you.”
The whole town seemed to be asleep. When he looked around the park, Cole saw nothing but frosted grass, bare branches, a few benches, and a locked public restroom.
Staring through the scope, Walter asked, “Do you see Paige yet?”
Cole focused his attention on the road leading up to the parking structure. Although he’d seen her heading that way a while ago, there was no trace of her now. He told Walter as much and continued pacing around the tree.
“Just let me know the minute she shows. I’ll keep an eye on the garage. It doesn’t look like there’s much of anything going on there either. I count at least four Nymar inside. Possibly five. There’s more than that sneaking around, though.”
“What are they doing?” Cole asked. “Is it some kind of meeting?”
Walter shook his head without moving it more than a centimeter in either direction. “I just track ’em and point you guys in the right direction.”
“Why even do that much?” Cole asked.
This time Walter did look away from his scope, to fix his eyes on Cole. “Excuse me?”
“I kind of got pulled into this, but nobody forced me to stay. If you don’t want any part of it, why don’t you just leave?”
Slowly, Walter shifted his eyes back to the scope. “I spent a good amount of time in law enforcement, so maybe I’m no stranger to seeing hopeless situations. A man’s gotta do what he can.”
“So why not be a Skinner?” Cole asked.
Walter shifted against his branch. “I’ve also seen plenty of men think they could save the world and only wind up getting chewed up and spit out by it. If a man gets lucky a few times and survives a few bad calls, he gets cocky. Once he gets cocky, he gets killed. Think whatever you want about me, but you Skinners must be awfully cocky to keep going against these creatures. Learning about them is one thing. Pissing them off on purpose is another.”
“Yeah? Well…” Cole tried to put together a good comeback but could only grumble, “That actually makes sense.”
After a few quiet seconds, Walter asked, “What about you? From what I’ve heard, you were there to see what happened to Gerald and Brad. If it was a Full Blood, it couldn’t have been a pretty sight.”
“It wasn’t, but I survived because of them. Gerald asked me to do him a favor and I wasn’t about to refuse. After that…I don’t know. Things just sort of fell into place.”
Walter smirked and nestled his cheek against the side of his rifle. “See what I mean? I’ve seen it with Skinners just as much as I’ve seen it with cops. They luck out of a few bad situations and they think they’re untouchable.”
“Lucky?” Cole asked. “If I was lucky, I’d be back home, playing my games, secure in the knowledge that werewolves and vampires were just cool characters in them. I’ve already seen enough to blow that to hell, so now I’ve got to do something about it.”
“You do, huh?”
“Yeah,” Cole said reflexively. He took a moment to think it over and then nodded again. “I do. If I left now, I’d only feel guilty every time I heard about some wild animal attack or bizarre murder on the news. I’d wonder if it was one of those creatures that did it, and then I’d wonder if I could’ve kept it from happening.”
“You won’t be able to prevent all the killing, you know.”
“Sure, but I can try.”
Shifting to get more comfortable in his spot, Walter said, “I suppose we all just gotta do what we can. Right now you gotta keep your eyes open because one of the Nymar is talking to a few others inside that garage.”
“Is it Misonyk?” Cole asked anxiously.
“Big bald guy with black marks running up to the top of his head?”
“Yeah,” Walter said. “And it looks like he’s about to step outside.”
“Shit,” Cole snapped. “I can see a bunch of them walking toward the front of the garage. Paige is approaching from the other side of the building.”
Already shifting his aim to the wide entrance of the parking structure, Walter nestled the rifle’s stock against his shoulder and adjusted his cheek in its spot beside the scope. “I see them.”
“What should I do?”
“You know what to do! Paige can take care of herself. Just keep your eyes open for anyone coming at us and I’ll let you know when I hear from her.”
Although he wasn’t the one who got to use the sniper rifle, Cole wasn’t completely overlooked in the firearms department. The revolver he’d been given was a .44 loaded with rounds that had dark streaks running through them, making them strangely similar to their intended targets. He checked again to make sure the revolver was loaded, then dropped the .44 back into the holster under his arm. He then picked up his wooden weapon, which had been leaning against a tree, and held it like a spear. There was nobody close enough to be of much concern to him or Walter, so he held the spear with his fingers around the barbs. There would be plenty of time to bleed later.
Paige walked up to the parking structure and immediately spotted the reception committee that was headed toward the front entrance. From within the garage, several men and a few women pushed on the metal grate so they could slip through a gap where it had fallen off the track built into the cement doorway.
The men and women who swarmed toward the garage were extremely pale, which meant they were hungry. Their markings were gray, skinny threads stretching beneath their flesh and extending all the way to their hands and up to their chins. The Nymar were definitely fresh kills. Their spores had settled in, but were still stretching out to probe theirs new hosts.
“Here they come,” Paige said just loud enough for her voice to be picked up by her earpiece. “They’re freshly infected. Looks like Misonyk has been expecting trouble.”
“I got ’em,” he replied. “Just try to draw them out into the open so I can get a clear shot.”
The shotgun in her hands was a pump action that could hold half a dozen specially packed shells. She pumped the first round into the chamber, put the shotgun to her shoulder and aimed at the closest target.
“Where’s Misonyk?” she shouted. “He and Henry are all we want.”
The Nymar approaching the garage stopped and looked at Paige while flashing fangs that were still bloody from cutting through their gums for the first time. Despite their tough act, they were obviously taken aback by the fact that she wasn’t scared by their display. The first woman to crawl through the grate was a bit taller than Paige and had skin the color of ash. She looked at Paige with wild, hungry eyes and opened her mouth to hiss and show the set of thinner upper fangs next to her primary ones. Her markings were darker and thicker, which meant she’d been infected a lot longer than most of the others in the vicinity.
“Misonyk is beyond your reach!” the ashen woman screeched. “He controls the Full Bloods and soon he’ll control the Nymar.”
“Where is he?”
“Protecting us. Teaching us.”
“You think so?” Paige asked. “Maybe you should ask the Chicago Nymar about how much bullshit Misonyk’s feeding you.”
The ashen woman scowled defiantly. “We have all seen the power from drinking souls. We will spread from this city and bring true unity to all of our kind!”
Although Paige listened to what the Nymar woman was saying, she was distracted by what was just inside the garage. Stacked up against a booth where parking fees had once been collected, there was a pile of bodies in clothing ranging from uniforms to mismatched coats and boots. Since the bodies weren’t much more than dried husks, she knew these Nymar had been making good on Misonyk’s threats.
“Misonyk has shared his memories of you with us,” the ashen woman said. As she spoke, the other Nymar grinned as if they were all in on a private joke. “If you start running now, you might just get away before we catch you. I still don’t know if you’ll ever be able to outrun the Full Bloods when he calls them down like a—”
Paige ejected the spent round and pumped in another. More Nymar sped through the break in the entrance grate and then scattered to flank her. The new arrivals who’d been approaching the garage from the outside moved erratically rather than coming at her head-on. Instead of wasting a round in trying to catch another head shot, Paige lowered her aim and fired into the middle of the crowd streaming from the garage. The shotgun pellets tore through two of the closest Nymar and then spread out to rip into a few more behind them. The pale faces constricted with shock and pain as antidote-infused lead shredded them, but their bodies were already knitting back together.
Nymar rushed at Paige from both sides as she managed to fire two more shells at them. The first one missed completely, but the second knocked one man down. The color of his skin was a bit darker, but that was merely a remnant of his living visage. As the Nymar healed, his skin paled and he became hungrier. When he caught sight of Paige, he ran at her twice as fast, and was dropped by a high-powered round that had been fired from an entirely different section of the park.
“Thanks, Walter,” Paige said as she swung the shotgun so its stock caught a Nymar in the side of the head. The undead man recovered quickly and lunged forward to bite her neck. She dropped to one knee, pulled her clubs from the sides of her boots and rolled backward before anyone got close.