Skinners: Blood Blade

by Marcus Pelegrimas

  “We will no longer be hunted by lesser animals,” the Full Blood declared as he lifted Henry up to set him carefully upon his feet. Although the wound was still gaping open in Henry’s side, it was already smaller than it had been a few moments ago. The Full Blood with the charcoal fur stepped in front of Henry, making it known that Paige or Cole would have to go through him if they wanted to finish what Brad’s charmed blade had started.

  “Henry comes with me and will tell us everything he’s learned,” the Full Blood said. “No longer will we step back and kindly let you infest our territories. We will reclaim all of our lands, even if that means cleaning out all of your cities. As a courtesy, I give you this warning to spread amongst your kind: when we arrive, you’d be wise to clear our path and find new lands to sully.”

  With that, the Full Blood’s body exploded outward into a mass of muscled flesh and a full coat of thick black fur. Massive paws clawed at the ground and a large, wet nose stole Paige’s and Cole’s scent in much the same way as the creature Cole had met so many nights ago in the middle of a stark, Canadian nowhere. When the Full Blood bared its fangs, it let out a roar that melted into a howl as the creature lifted its face to the sky. Henry loped away, and the other Full Blood dashed ahead of him to blaze a trail that quickly took both werewolves out of Cole’s sight.

  Walter drove his van toward the parking garage. He hadn’t even come to a complete stop before leaning out and saying, “We’ve got to get out of here. Those cops are ready for war. If this town has a SWAT team, they’re probably on the way too.”

  Cole held onto his weapon, feeling very much like a child wielding a plastic bat. Paige cursed under her breath and jumped into the van. Once Cole was inside, she slammed the door and hung on as Walter burned through a few layers of tire rubber in his haste to get back to where the used Cavalier was parked. Paige kept quiet as Cole looked her over. The body armor was gone, but it had protected her from everything other than a whole lot of bumps and scratches.

  The moment they got back to the car, Cole slid in behind the wheel and Paige dropped into the passenger seat. She had injected herself with some of the Nymar antidote before Cole even hit the gas. “You all right?” he asked as he followed Walter’s van toward the highway.

  She nodded.

  “I don’t feel that burning in my hands anymore. Does that mean those Full Bloods are gone?”

  Paige chuckled. “That just means they’re at least sixty or seventy yards away. Of course, they could also be halfway to Chicago by now.”

  Once the park was behind them, Cole could see several sets of flashing lights clustered near the area where all the bodies had been left behind. There were plenty of cops on the street as well, but they were more concerned with the newly discovered carnage to worry about chasing down every set of taillights moving through the opposite end of town. Walter navigated the Janesville streets and led the way onto southbound I–90. After they’d made it to the open road, Paige’s phone rang. She flipped it open and held it up so they could both listen through the speaker.

  “You all right, Paige?” Walter asked.

  “I’ll be sore for a year or two, but I’ll live.”

  “Good to hear. The police band is jumping,” Walter announced. “They’re saying armed men with matching black tattoos were posted on the streets to shoot at anyone who came too close to the park.”

  “Misonyk’s idea of crowd control,” Paige said in a weary voice. “I’m glad you guys killed that asshole. Are the cops looking for us or our vehicles?”

  “Not from what I’ve been hearing. From the sound of it, they’re so busy with the mess we left them that we should be able to get out of here without a problem. I know a good route to Chicago using back roads that should get us there in plenty of time for a late night snack.”

  “Good. That means we can find a nice spot to stop and do some digging. There’s a Half Breed I’ve got to bury.”

  “What? We made it out of there fairly easily, but we don’t need to push our luck!” Walter snapped.

  “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for that Half Breed,” Paige replied with even more of an edge in her voice. “The least we can do is put it to rest. You can go on without us if you want.”

  After a brief pause, Walter said, “The job’ll go quicker if more of us are digging, but let’s at least wait until we’re farther away from here.”

  “Agreed.” With that, Paige snapped the phone shut and smiled. “I knew he’d come around.”

  But Cole didn’t have it in him to smile. Every inch of his body hurt. His hands were torn open. Another monster had his scent. Come to think of it, he didn’t think he’d be able to smile for the rest of his life. Then Paige leaned over and placed her mouth so close to his ear that he could feel the warmth of her breath as she spoke.

  “You did great, Cole,” she told him. “I owe you, big-time.”

  And then, somehow, he smiled.

  Epilogue

  Chicago

  Two days later

  The bar was a bright, popular place on Michigan Avenue that was filled with televisions, video trivia games, and, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, karaoke machines. The beer came from microbreweries that spiked perfectly good bottles with flavors like pumpkin spice and strawberry. It was crowded almost any time after business hours, which made it the perfect place to speak without truly being heard.

  One of the few televisions bolted to the walls that wasn’t showing a sporting event of some kind displayed the headline that had been splashed across TVs and newspapers for the last few days: MASSACRE IN JANESVILLE. Cole didn’t need to hear what the newscaster was saying. It was probably the same as what had been printed in the papers and displayed on the Internet, which was just a longer version of the report Walter had given on their way out of Janesville: police had stumbled across a bunch of armed men that had similar black marks on their necks and wrists. Shots were fired. A chase ensued and a whole lot of bodies were found near an old parking garage in Palmer Park.

  “I got a message from Prophet,” Paige said as she sipped her Amber Winter Brew.

  Cole chuckled and swallowed some of the Jack’s Pumpkin Ale he’d been talked into ordering. As he lifted the bottle to his mouth, he couldn’t help but notice the light dusting of scar tissue upon his palm. The wounds had healed quickly, but still itched whenever he drove through certain parts of town. “Another dream?” he asked.

  “Just a message.” Paige held up her cell phone to show him the glowing, three-word text message: TOLD YOU SO.

  “Not one for grace in victory, is he?”

  Paige shook her head and put her phone away. “Who would expect that from a guy who lives in strip bars? Have you heard the latest about Janesville?”

  “No. Is there anything new?”

  “The police are blaming it all on the poor bastard who was knocked out of that park like a foul ball. He was the one carrying the most guns, so they figure he was the one who planned the whole thing and then ‘killed himself by running into traffic.’” She framed the last part in finger quotes. “Oh, and those are sprouting up too.”

  Glancing at the television Paige was looking at, Cole saw shaky footage of the dried husks that were the remains of dead Nymar, bordered by the words, CULT SUSPECTED IN JANESVILLE SLAYINGS.

  He couldn’t help but flinch when he saw a police cruiser drive down the street outside the bar’s front window. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Shouldn’t we be—”

  “What?” Paige asked in a booming voice that completely destroyed the privacy Cole had been trying to maintain.

  “Shouldn’t we be worried?” Cole shouted over the noise in the bar.

  She shrugged and took another sip of beer. “If the cops can find us when we’re doing good enough to keep away from Nymar and Full Bloods and everything else out there,” she said as she raised her glass, “then here’s to the cops.”

  Seeing no reason to argue with that point, he said, “So, I’m treating myself to a few nigh
ts in the Fairmont with my cut of that bounty money. Care to join me?”

  “You’d better hit a bank first,” Paige replied. “That’s a real fancy hotel, and I get the feeling Ace and Stephanie will try to steal that money back even before Prophet comes along to collect his share.”

  “You said you owe me. I was thinking…maybe we could continue what we started when you showed me how to polish my stick.”

  Paige finished her beer and got up from the little round table that was pressed up against a wall covered with framed pictures of celebrities who’d supposedly visited the bar. She slipped her hand beneath Cole’s chin, kissed him on the cheek and said, “We could have both died that night. The blood was racing. Don’t get yourself all worked up.” A cute yet naughty smile drifted onto her face as she parted her lips to say something else. Before she could let any of those words fly, however, she straightened up and looked at another one of the televisions.

  The screen was filled with a commercial for a local interest segment hosted by a boyish news anchor in a dark suit. Although his voice was lost amid all the chatter and music in the bar, the hazy picture on the screen behind him was impossible to miss. Two animals that could easily be mistaken for two large dogs were running down an alley The black dog had bright, glittering eyes, and the tan dog held its head down at an awkward angle so it lolled back and forth as he ran. The tagline beneath the video read: WOLVES IN THE WINDY CITY?

  Shrugging, Paige said, “I guess I’ll have to take a pass on tonight, Cole. There’s a lot to do. Call me tomorrow and get plenty of rest. You’re going to need it.”

  He would have liked to think she was referring to a certain kind of strenuous activity that would put smiles on both their faces, but he knew she was probably alluding to another round of training. After using some of her cut of Ace and Steph’s money to pay the tab, Paige waved to him and left. No matter what he’d been through or what kind of hell was starting to trickle down upon the world, he still took the time to admire the motion of her rounded hips and firm backside as she walked away.

  Cheap thrills. That was the secret to a happy life, after all.

  Rather than go to his hotel right away after finishing his beer, Cole stopped at a liquor store so he could get some snacks and check on the lottery ticket he’d bought. Things were looking up. A fresh batch of beef jerky had just been put on the shelves, and a few of Prophet’s numbers hit.

  It was the easiest $23.75 he had ever made.

  About the Author

  Marcus Pelegrimas plays too many video games and spends too much time watching crappy movies when he should be hard at work on his next novel. Good thing his beautiful and very patient wife, Megan, is there to knock him off the couch when the deadlines creep in. Visit Marcus on the web at www.marcuspelegrimas.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Praise

  “Blood Blade peels you right down to the nerve. A must-read for vampire hunter fans.”

  —E. E. Knight, author of the Vampire Earth series

  Cole Warnecki used to think werewolves feared silver bullets and vampires were sexy party animals allergic to holy water. Real life is never that simple.

  Once Cole gets a look at what’s really out there, he cannot escape it. Shapeshifters have tracked his scent over thousands of miles to reclaim a legendary weapon. A killer named Misonyk has whipped a growing number of blood suckers into a frenzy. A fiery brunette named Paige seems like a welcome distraction, but she only wants to teach Cole how to fight. And then there’s the rampaging beast called Henry. Skinners are the most experienced monster killers out there and even they don’t know what to make of Henry.

  “A hell of a lot of fun. Marcus Pelegrimas hits one out of the park with Blood Blade, the lead-off to the Skinners series. The heroes are tough, the villains are very nasty, and the action is nonstop. Fans of Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton will definitely want a bite of this!”

  —Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Zombie CSU

  “Marcus Pelegrimas has done the impossible—come up with a fresh and exciting twist on vampire lore. Blood Blade is packed with menace, mood and memorable characters. I really enjoyed it!”

  —Ed Gorman, co-author of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: City of Night

  “An action-packed, blood-soaked ripsnorter of a monster-hunter series, Skinners will appease any bloodsucker fan’s appetite.”

  —Tom Piccirilli, Thriller Award-winning author of The Midnight Road

  By Marcus Pelegrimas

  Skinners

  BLOOD BLADE

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  BLOOD BLADE (SKINNERS, BOOK 1). Copyright © 2009 by Marcus Pelegrimas. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Microsoft Reader December 2008 ISBN 978-0-06-172269-1

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