The Hybrid Series | Book 3 | Vengeance

by Stead, Nick

  “The vote to replace him was unanimous and we marooned him on a small island where he could do no more harm. But that meant a new captain had to be voted in.”

  “So that was you,” I said.

  “Aye, the majority favoured me. I had the skills for it and the charisma to hold the crew together, so with that one vote I suddenly found myself captain of our ship. And I was a good captain. Things were better than they’d ever been as I steered us towards new riches, but power is the ultimate corrupter, and I must confess that I started to let it go to my head.

  “I was no longer satisfied with the gold we plundered or the women I surrounded myself with every time we made port. I hungered for more, though what it is I truly sought I don’t think even I could have said back then. But whatever it was, it eluded me.

  “It was during this time that I met the Lady Charlotte, and in her I found something I never thought to discover for myself. I meant to capture her as a hostage to ransom, but instead she captured my heart with her tender kisses and gentle nature, so different to the many women I’d lain with over the years. There was a strength to her too, which I admired, and the bravery she faced me with was the rival of my own. From that first encounter I wanted her.

  “We met in secret a few times and my love for her grew. Yet it couldn’t last, for she was a lady and I was but a humble pirate, captain or no.”

  He paused again, his eyes downcast. I shifted impatiently and had to bite my tongue to keep from interrupting a second time. A sigh passed through him and his gaze strengthened, meeting my own once more.

  “Then came the second moment in my life that would change everything, one night in Port Royal. The harbour was still a safe haven for pirates at the time and there was beer and women aplenty. I was just looking for some female company to console myself with, but instead I found him. Or perhaps he found me; I’m still not sure, even now. All I know is, when I saw him drinking alone our eyes met, and something drew me over to him.

  “The last thing I expected was for him to address me by name. He told me I shouldn’t be so surprised, that my deeds were not going unnoticed and I was becoming infamous across the Caribbean. It was exactly what I wanted to hear, my ego rising up like some great feline rubbing against his honeyed words, and sealing my fate. Maybe if I hadn’t allowed myself to be so taken in by his praise, I would have considered his offer more carefully. But in my arrogance, I only wanted to see the gifts in this power he promised, not the curse that came with it. I wouldn’t hear of the price I would have to pay, thirsting only for the immortality and greater strength he said he could grant me.

  “There was something I would have to do for him in return, of course. Such a blessing did not come freely, and it was no surprise he’d want something from me. I learnt about the Slayers that very night, and how they’d been on his trail for some time. They were closing in and he needed safe passage to new lands, believing there to be places overseas which were still free from the Slayers’ grasp. But he was wary of allowing a human crew to take him, even with them all placed under his spell, so he’d been looking for a skilled seaman worthy enough to turn and strike a bargain with.

  “The threat of the Slayers was nothing to me. Every pirate lived under the hangman’s shadow, knowing someday they’d face the noose. What were the Slayers but another type of executioner? At least as a vampire I had a chance at immortality, if I could just stay ahead of my enemies. And did so great a man as I believed myself to be not deserve such a chance? So we struck what you might call a devil’s deal.

  “He wouldn’t give me his cursed blood until we’d taken him safely across the sea, confident the promise of vampirism would drive me to uphold my end of the bargain. And he was right. I had just the right level of ambition, pride and ego he’d been looking for, and the skill needed to navigate the seas. All that remained was to convince the crew to go along with this venture, but with the vampire’s power at our disposal that was easy enough.

  “The voyage was successful of course, else I would have faded into the pages of history like all the mortal pirates of the time. I had to give up my crew while the vampirism took hold, but I was lucky my sire watched over me, until the night I rose as one of the undead, never to walk in sunlight again. He taught me to adapt to my cursed existence but once I’d learnt to manage my hunger, I left him to return to the waves of my mistress, who called to me as powerfully as ever. I raised a new crew and enjoyed a few more years as a pirate, before piracy died out and a new age began.

  “Those years were better than ever, and I dared to dream that what could not be as mortals might be possible for the immortal creature I’d become, and so I returned to Lady Charlotte one last time. But I should have known she would never make the same choice I had. She couldn’t live as a monster, feeding on the blood of innocents for all eternity. For that was what I had become, even if I couldn’t see it myself – until she made me see the truth. And she still couldn’t be with me as a human. I could have forced vampirism on her anyway, but I cared too deeply for her to turn her against her will, and I respected her too much for that.”

  His hand wandered to his pendant. “It was on the night we parted that she gave me this gem as a gift, and I have worn it to remember her by ever since. For a while I continued to hope we’d find a way to be together, but as the years stretched on my hope began to fade, though my longing still burns as strong as ever.

  “There are times when I think it might have been better to remain mortal and embrace my inevitable end at the hangman’s noose, after everything I’ve done over the centuries. But it’s too late to go back now.”

  Silence fell, Zee’s eyes taking on a faraway look as if he’d fallen into the past he was recounting for me. My mind was full of pirates, imagining I’d travelled back with him to that age humans continued to be fascinated by centuries later. I’d certainly spent my fair share of days playing pirate in my human life. But my hunger would not be ignored for long and it brought me back to reality with that unpleasant, nauseating sensation of an empty stomach.

  “So what’s your story, Hannah? Where are you from?”

  She didn’t seem to have been paying much attention to Zee’s tale, and she jumped at the sound of her name. Her eyes met mine with a measure of surprise, as though she hadn’t expected us to take any interest in her. “Tamworth. It’s near Birmingham.”

  “I wonder if that’s where we are now; somewhere near Birmingham.”

  She shrugged. “How long have you been a werewolf?”

  “Not that long, believe it or not. It’s not even been two full years yet, though I don’t think I’m far off the second anniversary of the night I was bitten. I’ve lost track of time.”

  “What’s it like?”

  I paused, wondering how to put it into words for a human. “Lonely.”

  “Don’t you have family? Aren’t there others like you?”

  “I had to leave my family. There’s no other werewolves; I’m the last as far as we know. Other than vampires like Zee, I haven’t had much in the way of companionship since being bitten.”

  “I don’t think I could choose to leave home; I’d miss my family too much.” Another tear rolled down her cheek.

  “It was the only way I knew how to keep them safe.”

  “Vampires and werewolves exist, and these people you keep calling Slayers. Are any of us safe?”

  “There aren’t so many vampires left now either and the Slayers aren’t usually interested in other humans. I guess you must have just been unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to end up down here with us, if you’re sure you can’t think of any other reason why they’d want to capture you.”

  “I’ve no idea what these people want with me. Like I told you, I was on my way home from college and then I don’t know what happened, I just woke up here in this crazy horror game. I don’t even like horror all that much.”

  “You must just be unlucky then. What do you like?”

  “I
prefer fantasy. Mum and Dad have taken us on some awesome adventures to castles and renaissance festivals, and I love archery whenever I get the chance. I was supposed to be going to a folk festival this weekend but I guess I won’t make it now, will I?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered, trying to see her as a person like my human self once did, instead of the prey my hunger was fixating on. As always, my hunger won out. Maybe there was the stirring of pity somewhere deep within the dark chasm of my being, but if there was it was weak, no matter how I attempted to sympathise with her plight. I reminded myself she was just an innocent girl, feeling lost and afraid (as much as Zee’s spell allowed). There was a good chance she was doomed to die here, so far away from home. It didn’t matter whether we were geographically close to Tamworth or not; in that cursed place, we might as well have been in another world. She was further from everything she’d ever known and everyone she’d ever loved than she’d ever been.

  I really tried to focus on those thoughts and find some shred of empathy left within myself. But my desire to rip into that warm, living flesh, so much more appetising than the rotting corpses I’d been offered up to that point, was just too strong. To my predatory instincts she was just another faceless human, no different to any of the others I’d slaughtered.

  “I love Disney too. Why couldn’t life turn out to be a Disney movie, instead of a horror?”

  For the briefest of moments I was reminded of my sister. But memories of my human life and thoughts of what might have been were the last thing I needed, so I pushed such feelings aside. Silence fell once more.

  My companions took little notice of me after that, even when I took to pacing. The need to hunt was rising and I was struggling to keep control of my bloodlust. Its demands for the kill were every bit as strong as my belly’s demands for food, and I had to force myself to look at anything but Hannah, my self-control hanging by a thread.

  My eyes fell on the dead ghouls and my lip curled, baring fangs. I couldn’t feed on them, their bodies in too advanced a state of decay to provide the sustenance my body craved. And Zee was too powerful a predator to ever become prey. That left Hannah, my lupine eyes wandering back to her succulent flesh as drool spilled from my maw.

  A voice at the back of my mind continued to nag that she couldn’t be the kill I so sorely needed. It grew fainter by the minute. My instincts swept away my reason as if it were no more than cobwebs; an annoyance but no real obstacle.

  Zee was still too lost in his memories to pay me much attention. I could have the girl’s throat in my jaws before he was even aware of what had happened. There was no one to stop me indulging my need to tear into that soft flesh, so tender and juicy at such a young age. Her blood was mine to spill, and the vampire was not going to interfere as I satisfied both the hunger in my belly and the hunger for the kill.

  A noise from somewhere beyond the room caught my attention, just as I was readying to lunge at my prey. Something was moving around nearby, but the sounds were coming from the other side of the stone wall, rather than back down the tunnel we’d already explored. Ears pricked, I strained my hearing to try and determine whether it was more prey closer than I’d hoped, or whether it was another rival to be slaughtered.

  It was coming from the wall on the left side of the chamber. This one seemed to be thinner than the others, judging from the noise leaking through. And I determined there was not one thing moving on the other side, but several.

  Excitement filled me at the prospect of an entire group of humans to rip into. I bounded over, trying to find a way through. Some part of me knew they could be more zombies or ghouls, but they at least sounded to be human sized, unlike the much larger creature that had chased us at the start of the level.

  “What is it?” Zee asked, finally returning to the present. He stalked over, his hand on his hilt.

  The words were enough to cut through to the more rational part of my mind, and with an effort of will, I forced my primal urges back down, into the dark pit where the rage lived.

  “I hear movement on the other side of this wall,” I growled.

  “A hidden door we’ve missed?”

  “Or a weak point in the dungeon. What if the Slayers are just on the other side of it, and freedom just beyond the room they’re in?”

  “It’s possible,” Zee conceded. “But they’ve been so careful to control our every movement through this place so far – do you really think they’d overlook the possibility that we’d find such a weak point? I think it more likely this is another trap.”

  “Maybe, but what else can we do? We’ve nowhere else to go, unless there’s something we’ve missed. But we already gave the place a pretty thorough search. If they hadn’t started moving around behind there, we wouldn’t have realised there was anything different about this section of the dungeon.”

  “True enough.”

  Zee raised his leg and smashed his boot against the stone in one powerful kick. It crumbled beneath his foot, and a long crack appeared like a scar running across the hole. As he did so, the cameras in the room folded in on themselves, crushed as if by an invisible hand. That had to be his doing as well. He wasn’t the first vampire I’d met with telekinetic abilities.

  I briefly wondered why he hadn’t used his telekinesis to defeat some of the enemies we’d faced. It was probably the lack of blood needed to fully restore his strength, I decided. Then there came sounds of alarm from the other side of the stone, and such thoughts were pushed from my mind as I prepared myself for yet another fight.

  The welcome scent of human flesh drifted tantalisingly across the breach we’d created. No more would our hungers go unsatisfied: it was time to unleash our bloodlust on our enemies and feast until our bellies were full with meat and blood.

  Zee took a step back and motioned for me to finish off breaking down the wall. I threw my weight against it, trusting him to keep me covered in the moments I’d be vulnerable while I crashed through. Surprisingly, we only detected three of them behind the stone, but they’d no doubt have their guns trained on us the instant the barrier collapsed.

  Stone smashed in an explosion of rubble. Fortunately it didn’t offer enough resistance to break more of my bones, but my flesh ached with fresh bruising. I let the pain drive the rage as I allowed it to take hold once more, ready to face the Slayers and any stray bullets Zee couldn’t stop.

  The attack never came, the three humans already fleeing as I rose up from the wreckage. I took that to mean the weak wall was an oversight on their part, or surely they’d have been waiting in force for us to come through. My hunger was taking over again with new prey so close by, and I dropped to all fours, intending to give chase.

  “Wait,” came Zee’s voice from behind, so commanding that I did as instructed. To Hannah he said “Come.”

  The girl had no choice but to obey, getting to her feet and following just behind as Zee made his way into the room.

  “Let’s hunt,” I growled, my heart singing with excitement now. I was done running and cowering like a lowly prey animal. The Slayers would soon be regretting not killing me when they’d had the chance.

  Zee shook his head. “There’s no sense to go blindly running after them. We should continue with caution, in case this is all leading to another trap.”

  I met his gaze with a snarl of defiance. His hunger was still swimming close to the surface – I could see it in his eyes. So why did he not share in my eagerness for the kill? He’d been happy enough to feed on Hannah before. Maybe it was the promise of freedom giving his self-control a boost. Some part of me even knew he was right, but that only made his change of heart all the more infuriating.

  Zee bared his own fangs in a feral hiss. My hackles rose and I let the rage rise up, bringing new fire to my eyes. Zee didn’t so much as flinch. It would take far more than my empty threats to make him back down.

  I let my face relax and bowed my head in submission. Zee’s features calmed as well and he stalked forward, towards the door
the humans had fled through. I fell into step beside him and we continued at the same wary pace as we’d kept to in the dungeon. Hannah trailed behind again.

  The sound of running prey was still very much calling me, their footsteps echoing through the building and their hearts thumping in their chests. It took all my willpower not to drop to all fours and give chase. Zee’s presence helped. I contented myself with the thought that they would likely make a stand eventually. And when they did, all bets were off. I’d be free to slaughter and feed to my heart’s content, and no one but Death would stop me.

  We made our way out of the room. There wasn’t much to see, other than boxes of spare computer parts and paperwork and even cleaning products. A storage room then. That was a little disappointing. I’d been imagining them in a space surrounded by monitors featuring live feeds, with computers to operate any remote controls they’d rigged in the dungeon’s doors and things. They had to have that kind of a set up somewhere, or why bother with the cameras? Maybe it was where the three we’d seen had fled to.

  A flight of stairs waited through the doorway. We began to climb them, the smell of humans heavy on the air. And not just the scents of the people manning the place. There was the stench of the chemicals they were all so fond of, and a fainter smell of cooked food and spices, calling to my hunger with renewed force. Some lucky human was about to be served roast beef. I whined with longing and dropped to all fours again. Zee shot me a warning look. My whines turned to growls, but I continued my slow prowl.

  Stone gave way to more modernised flooring. It was PVC, like the kind they’d had in school – easy to clean I supposed. My nostrils were soon stinging from those fumes their bleach and other such things gave off. The smell was unbearable after living in the natural world for so long.