by Max Turner
Charlie accepted the katana. “I’m not leaving.”
“He’s trying to save your life, boy,” Tiptoft said.
“No, actually,” I said, “I was trying to save yours.”
He laughed.
“You forget how well I know you,” I said. “In your last life, you were killed by a werewolf. You knew you had to face him, and you knew you were going to die because you couldn’t see anything beyond that moment. Just the cold dark of the grave. You told the Changeling that you couldn’t see the end of this battle. We both know why, don’t we? It’s because you’re going to die down here.”
Bathory took another step back.
“I don’t believe in killing,” I said, “Charlie has a different opinion. And after what you’ve put us through, if he stays, I have no doubt that after we beat you down he’ll lop your head off.”
Tiptoft didn’t hesitate. His first blow fell so hard against my sword it nearly shattered my arms. I jumped back and circled towards the entrance of the garage. Charlie flanked him on the other side. Against two of us, Tiptoft had to be careful.
Famine slipped behind a pier. You will fail, she said. Then you and your friend will die.
I forced my voice into her mind. She winced as though I’d slapped her. I have already succeeded. Vlad has escaped with Ophelia.
He has escaped with a corpse.
He’s going to bring her back. What do you think they’re going to do to you when that happens? Run while you can, Bathory. Your voice has no power over me.
Her eyes flitted nervously from me to Charlie. Perhaps not over you …
Charlie’s face contorted in pain and he fell to his knees. The katana slipped from his fingers.
Tiptoft rushed him. I leaped between them and blocked an overhand stroke, then took the next one in the ribs. Even though I was wearing the best armour this side of an Abrams tank, the air shot from my lungs. I couldn’t let him know I was weak, so I went on the offensive. He deflected my blade away, then circled again, waiting.
Charlie pushed himself to one knee. Sweat dripped from his forehead. Another jolt of pain arched his back. I saw the fingers of the hand nearest me spread wide from the shock of it. The other hand was at his belt.
“What is the matter, child?” Famine mocked. “Have you no witty words for me now?”
He answered by swinging his hand forward. He was trying to throw something at her. Famine sent another blast of pain through his body. The shock of it arrested his arm in mid-swing. Instead of flying through the air, the object dropped at his feet.
“Oh no!” He looked at me. “Gas bomb!”
There was no bang, just the sound of a can bouncing on concrete. It spun in tight circles, filling the air with a yellow, chalky gas. Bathory coughed and disappeared behind the growing haze. Tiptoft ignored it and attacked me. His blows were so powerful, and the Dragon Blade so heavy, it was impossible to hold my ground. I got pushed back towards the exit ramp. The yellow cloud continued to thicken until my friend was completely obscured. I had to hope there was a gas mask on his utility belt, because with Tiptoft between us, there was no quick way to fish him out.
I faked an overhead and tried to circle around him, but Tiptoft sidestepped me easily, then started a barrage that backed me up even farther. I tried to get past his guard, but he parried all my attacks with a precision and fluidity that seemed supernatural. On technique alone, I realized I’d never beat him. It didn’t matter how empty my mind was, or how in sync I felt with the light of the tunnel entrenched in my mind’s eye, he was simply better. So instead of trying to hit him, I made the Dragon Blade my target and hammered at it again and again. Fast, hard strokes. The kind that sent shivers through your arms. His weapon was heavier. Slower. It was more difficult for him to keep it in place. He had to back up to buy himself time.
I didn’t let up. His breathing deepened, his chest heaved. He was surprised. So was Famine. She had crept up after us and was watching from behind the nearest pillar. The yellow cloud behind her was beginning to drift away. The canister had emptied. Charlie was going to be exposed in a matter of moments. I needed to draw them away, or he was going to be easy pickings.
I retreated several steps towards the exit. It was painfully bright. The light wasn’t direct, but the skin on the back of my neck began to tingle, then burn. Any closer and I risked a fatal suntan. It was there that I had to make my stand.
When we re-engaged, I faked a low crosscut. Tiptoft dropped his blade to parry and I swung for his hilt. Every ounce of my strength was behind it. I thought if I knocked the Dragon Blade aside, maybe I could land a decisive blow to his person, but it didn’t play out that way. My sword shattered.
Tiptoft slammed the Dragon Blade across the side of my leg. When I dropped to a knee he bowled me over. I hit the concrete and rolled for the cool shadows beside the ramp. Tiptoft was right on me. He dropped his foot on my chest and stopped me dead. A heartbeat later, I felt the tip of his sword against my throat.
“I wasn’t lying, boy, when I said that I saw pain and loss and death for you. You should have taken the mark.”
CHAPTER 49
AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS
JOHN’S WEIGHT SHIFTED and his arm rose slightly.
Before he rammed the sword down, something stretched from the shadows and pulled the tip of the blade aside so it sparked against the asphalt. I was staring at a metal gauntlet. Ash coated its surface. A second gauntlet closed over the blade closer to the hilt. Vlad pulled himself from the darkness and wrenched the weapon from Tiptoft’s hand.
“And I wasn’t lying when I told you to accept my peace offering or be destroyed. I remain a man of my word.”
John took a step back. He was so focused on Vlad that he didn’t see me hook my foot around his ankle. He tripped backwards and sunlight hit him flush on the face. He screamed.
Vlad raised the Dragon Blade for the killing blow, but a pale, thin arm reached out of the shadows from exactly the same place he had appeared. Thin white fingers took hold of his breastplate and pulled him off balance. I turned and saw a toothy smile fade into the darkness. Vlad spun and thrust his sword into the shadows, but Pestilence was already gone. His gargling laughter echoed down the lot.
Meanwhile, Tiptoft had risen to his feet and was running up into the light, his cowl pulled over his face. That way was certain death, but it was the only path he could take that we wouldn’t follow.
I pointed to the thinning yellow cloud of gas ahead of us. “Charlie’s in there,” I said.
Vlad straightened up. His movements were slow. After self-immolating several times during our last battle, he must have been exhausted.
“I’m not as tired as you think,” he said. He held the Dragon Blade up in one hand and examined the perfect symmetry of it. “Its return is an omen.” He reached down and helped me to my feet. “You did much better than I expected.”
“You were watching?”
“From the shadows, yes. Just waiting for the right moment.” He shifted closer to Charlie, appearing first in one area of darkness, then another, until he was clear of the sunlight. I had to run through it. The back of my neck was blistering when I caught up to him.
“Is Luna safe?” I asked.
“Time will tell.”
“What about Ophelia?”
“I … I should have sent her back with Vincent and Luna before the Changeling appeared. I thought she would be safer with me. If I cannot bring her back …”
He waved his hand in front of his face. Charlie was a lump on the ground. I started coughing, my eyes watering from the tear gas. I had to close them and nearly missed Vlad’s transformation. His body turned to fog and his armour fell empty to the pavement. He began to swirl in a cyclone, pushing the yellow gas away. Once it was dispersed, the fog spun back inside his armour. The metal plates rose into the air and assumed their proper arrangement. Inside, Vlad became a man of vapour and shadow, then a solid being of blood and bone. He bent and picked up Cha
rlie.
“The crystals in the gas will have damaged his lungs. He will need rest and blood before he fights again.”
I looked around for my katana. It was on the ground where Charlie had dropped it. A thin film of yellow dust had settled on it. I tossed the broken grip of Charlie’s longsword away, then picked up the katana and wiped it clean.
Vlad’s eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. “I will take him to the others. You cannot follow me on the Shadow Road, so I will send Vincent to keep you safe. Not even a being as powerful as the Changeling would try to tackle a lycanthrope so close to the surface while the sun is up.”
He stepped into a shadow and disappeared. I stared at the cinder blocks for a few seconds, then put my hand against them, marvelling that something so solid could be used as a doorway.
The light was growing in intensity, enlivening the pain in my neck and hands. I sprinted back to the hole that led to the caves. The shadows within beckoned like a cool bath. When I stepped to the edge, something smashed against the back of my head. My knees buckled and I crumpled to the asphalt.
The Countess stood over me, a wedge of concrete in her hands. I’d forgotten about her. A wicked smile spread up her cheeks. She reached down and pried the sword from my deadened fingers. I told you that you would fail. That you would die.
She had. And I had laughed her off.
Not this time, she said.
CHAPTER 50
OUTLAWS
MY HEAD WAS REELING. I tried to lift my arms to protect myself but they weren’t responding.
Famine raised the katana, a smug look of triumph on her face. It quickly turned to alarm when a dark shape rose up behind her. She glanced back to see the dark-haired vampire with the luminescent green eyes standing in her shadow. The woman’s arms were bare. The black sleeve I’d used to bind her neck was tied around her forehead, the bloodstain dead centre, like a crimson star in a night sky. The other sleeve had been torn off and was wrapped around her knuckles so that it hid the Changeling’s mark. When Famine saw this, surprise, then panic danced across her gaunt features.
The woman hammered Famine in the stomach. She crumpled. As she fell, the woman twisted the katana from her hands.
I tried to stand but I was too dizzy. A goose egg throbbed on the back of my head. I touched it gingerly, and my fingertips came away bloody. Then someone took hold of me under the shoulders. I looked up into a pair of purple eyes. The bounty hunter had climbed from the hole and was pulling me to my feet. His hat was gone, and he was covered, head to toe, in rock dust. One of the lapels of his jumpsuit had been torn off and was wrapped around his hand so that the Changeling’s mark was covered, just like the woman’s.
“Can you stand?” he asked, guiding me carefully from the edge of the hole. His eyes fell to Famine, who was curled up on the asphalt, her thin arms crossed in front of her face. “Kill her, Min,” he said to the green-eyed woman.
She pointed the katana up the ramp. Dust swirled in a column of sunlight shining down from the level above. “We have killed enough on her account. Let the sun have her.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Famine said. “I am the voice of the New Order. You must obey.”
“Must I?” Min said. She took the Countess by the arm and yanked her to her feet. “You are gravely mistaken.”
“Both of you swore loyalty to the Changeling. To betray him is death.”
“Better to die free than live enslaved.”
“Please,” Famine said. Her eyes closed and her voice echoed deeply through the recesses of my mind. Have mercy.
“You shall have mercy,” Min said, “in the same measure you would give us.”
“This is a mistake,” I said.
Min wasn’t budging. “We have been badly used. Justice must be served.”
The bounty hunter grabbed Famine’s other arm and the two dragged her towards the light. Her pleas became threats. Threats became offers. Offers became one long, depressing wail. Then they cast her into the sunlight. I was stunned by how suddenly it happened. There was no trial, no verdict or last words of appeal. Just a piercing scream. Famine’s hair caught fire. She scuttled back towards the darkness, but Min was there waiting and kicked her back. Soon her skin was burned black and riddled with blood-red cracks. Flames spurted from her clothes.
“Enough,” I said, stumbling past the edge of the darkness. I couldn’t watch a person die that way, regardless of what they’d done.
The back of my neck was already burnt. In the strong sunlight, it felt as though someone was pouring boiling water on it. I snarled as it smoked and cracked. Famine had stopped screaming. Most of her skin had crumbled away. When I picked her up, my fingertips hissed. She weighed nothing. I quickly scrambled back to the shadows.
Min raised the katana. “She must be destroyed.”
The bounty hunter drew a pistol. “Min is right. If she’s raised up … well, I can’t have anyone messin’ with my mind like that again.”
“You broke her hold once,” I said. “After that, she can’t make you do anything.”
“It was you who broke her hold,” Min said. The way her eyes held mine, I wasn’t certain if this was a question.
“I tried to remove your mark,” I said, “but it wouldn’t come off.”
“The mark is the Changeling’s,” she said. “Famine’s voice is a separate matter. She speaks for him when he wills it, but the power to compel is hers alone. You broke that power in the caves.”
“I couldn’t have,” I said. “I did nothing … I just held your hand. Maybe something happened when you went unconscious, or maybe it was the pain. But it wasn’t me.”
Min and the bounty hunter looked at each other for a few seconds, then she handed me the katana. “That’s not how we see it.”
The bounty hunter holstered his pistol. His eyes fell to Famine’s corpse. “What will you do with her?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She might have information we can use against the Changeling.”
“Please use it quickly,” Min said. “We still bear his mark.” She held up her hand. The rune was covered, but it bled through the cloth so that the strange symbol was visible once more. “When he finds us, he will kill us.”
“Then we’d better make sure he doesn’t find you.”
Min smiled, then stepped back and hissed. The bounty hunter drew both guns and pointed them past my shoulder. I turned. Vincent was standing behind me. He looked ferocious. There was still blood on his pants and under his nails from his fight with Tamerlane.
“It’s all right,” I said. “He won’t harm you.”
The vampires retreated to the edge of the hole. I understood. Fear of the werewolf was in our blood.
Min took a step back and dropped out of sight.
The bounty hunter hesitated. “We’ll be fugitives now. Outlaws with no rights.”
“Not for long,” I promised.
He flashed me a quick military salute, then stepped back into the darkness.
Vincent growled. “Why did you let them go? We’ve got to kill those freaks.”
“Not those two.”
“What’s so special about them?”
“They just saved my life,” I said.
His eyes fell to the corpse in my arms. “Who’s that?”
“Elizabeth Bathory.”
His upper lip quivered, exposing a long canine. “She’s the worst of them. We should toss her in the sunlight.”
“We can’t. She has information we’re going to need.”
I shifted Famine in my arms. My fingers were burnt and blistered. I was all but useless. When I tried to move, a wave of nausea nearly floored me.
“You okay?”
I wasn’t, but I had other things to worry about. “What about Luna? Is she all right?”
“Vlad says she’ll be fine once we get more blood.”
“Where is she?”
“With the others. They’re on the Pest side under a pub. It smells bad there. The others
don’t mind, but I don’t like it.”
“Is Charlie there?”
“Yeah. Vlad brought him through the shadows. His lungs and throat are a mess, but he’ll be okay.”
“And the Baptist?”
Vinny shrugged. “Nobody saw him. Hopefully, he’s not dead.” He stood on the lip of the hole and looked in. “We should go. Someone might come down here to park.”
“Which way?”
“Not down there.” He walked over to a pile of I-beams and tore the tarpaulin off them. “We’ve got to go up into the sun.”
CHAPTER 51
A VALUABLE DISCOVERY
VINCENT SPREAD THE tarp over me, then slipped under the front edge so he could hold it in place. “There’s a hole outside that leads to another bunch of tunnels. They’re safer. It’s not too far.”
I felt a moment’s apprehension. Perhaps Vlad’s paranoia was rubbing off on me, but the fear that Vincent might tear the tarp away once we were in the sun was suddenly very real. He was very close to Vlad, who wasn’t exactly the president of my fan club, and his feelings for Luna were obvious.
“You sure you want to take her?” His eyes fell to Famine’s scorched body. “If you get sun-shock and drop her, I’m not pickin’ her up.”
I’d never heard the term sun-shock, but it was easy to guess the meaning. “I’ll manage,” I said. “Lead away.”
He took off at an easy run. I did fine until we got outside in the full light. It was like having my skin scrubbed with sandpaper. I thought I was going to combust. At the edge of the lot was a short concrete wall we had to jump. The tarp rose like a parachute and my hair caught fire. I landed on a well-groomed lawn. One of the Countess’s hands snapped off and vanished in a flash of flame. Just ahead, a section of earth had collapsed into one of the caves. The shade was like a magnet. I jumped down and bolted from the light. My hands were black, cracked and bleeding.
I laid Famine down against the cold stone. Her skin and outer tissue had all burned away. A trickle of water dribbled down one of the jagged walls. My skin hissed when I filled my hands and doused my face. The same thing happened when I splashed it over her. Moaning, I collapsed against the wall.
