The Preternatural Chronicles: Books 0-3

by Hunter Blain

  “I know, I know! Watch out!”

  The driver’s side back door was pinned open, allowing a front-row view of my sitting ass. One of the hit men was casually sticking his gun out of the passenger window, with only his hand exposed now. Everything we could see of the piggybacking van was bulletproof, leaving us like fish in a barrel. Depweg turned and hid behind the closed door, leaving me as the lone fish.

  From the rearview mirror, I saw, as if in slow motion, the gun barrel pointing in my direction. It appeared to be the size of a cannon as I looked down its length, and it ended in the black nothingness of my oblivion. He squeezed the trigger.

  Blinding strobe lights broke the darkness, and someone punched me in my left shoulder, hard. It threw me forward and to the right, making me let go of the wheel. The silver burned white-hot, stealing my breath and making my arm hang lifeless at my side. I felt warmth slowly spread over my jeans. Looking down, I could see blood streaming from my fingertips and onto my leg, creating a blossoming crimson circle. What concerned me was that I couldn’t feel the blood passing over my arm.

  “John! Are you still with me, man?” Depweg asked, panic growing in his voice.

  Slurring my words, I said, “Bastards ruined my pants.” With my good hand, I touched where the impact had been and felt the mess of flesh and torn leather. “And my coat!”

  I pulled myself into the passenger seat, letting the caboose van blindly steer for us. Perplexed that the sting of the silver was dwindling so quickly, I looked down to the front of my shoulder and noticed an even bigger hole. My eyes shifted to the driver’s side of the van, where a Jackson Pollock painting coated the van’s white interior and windshield.

  Black bugs swam in my vision like flies on a carcass. I was losing a lot of blood, and with it, my life force.

  “Dep…weg,” I managed.

  From behind, another volley of gunfire ripped through the interior, ricocheting off the bench and shredding the driver’s seat. One bounced a few times and decided my leg was a good place to call it a day.

  I gasped in pain, the black bugs being replaced with solid darkness encompassing my vision at the periphery.

  Looking down at where the bullet was stuck halfway out of my leg, I said, “Damn…it.” I moved my good hand to where it sat like an unwanted wart mocking me.

  Grasping it with my fingers, I pulled, but didn’t have the strength to hold on and my fingers slipped with all the blood pooling around the wound.

  “Little help?” I cried while fighting to stay conscious. The pain crept up my leg toward my core.

  Depweg quickly, and carefully, made his way up the right side of the van and leaned around the seat. He saw what I was doing and reached down and flicked the bullet out of my leg. The ache that was growing up my body slowly ceased its progress and dulled.

  “The bullets…are coated,” I told Depweg.

  “I can’t stop them, John,” Depweg said, concern evident in his voice.

  “There’s a way, but you’re not gonna like it,” I drawled.

  “If it means getting out of this alive, I’m game.”

  I started whispering at a barely audible level, forcing his ear down closer to my mouth. I whirled on him, grabbing the other side of his head with my good hand, and sank my teeth into his neck. He struggled for a moment before relaxing, realizing what I was doing.

  The blood was rich and powerful, like drinking an entire busload of humans at once. His ancient blood flowed, bringing with it power I hadn’t felt since Ulric had let me feed on him for the very first time.

  I could feel my wounds start to close, but they didn’t heal all the way. My left arm was still just for cosmetic purposes. Would probably have to clean the silver traces out completely before it would heal all the way. Everything else felt powerful. The white insides of the van became bright and glowing. The lights passing overhead had the aura of little suns. I could smell the cordite in the air from the spent ammunition.

  Depweg’s heart fluttered, and I grabbed my mental wheel again, throwing Depweg backward into the van.

  With my good arm, I effortlessly smashed out the bulletproof passenger window, which fell away in a single mass covered in spiderweb cracks. I crawled outside and to the roof. I walked the length of the van, eyes almost glowing red and teeth elongated into surgical fangs.

  The passenger had reloaded and was sticking his hand out the window again as the driver frantically pointed inside to where Depweg lay still.

  I forced a whip out of my hand with a blade at the end and cracked the air at the gun. It tumbled to the asphalt below with a hand still attached. I saw eyes grow wide in the balaclava as a spurting stump was pulled back from the window. The other men froze while staring at the geyser of blood as it smeared the interior.

  I commanded the whip to straighten into a spear and hefted it above my head.

  “Hey, assholes!”

  The driver turned his head and leaned forward to get a better view, and I slammed the spear through the glass and into his top shoulder, right at the neckline. It went deep into his torso, and I willed his blood into me. I put all my effort into sucking every last drop before he finally died, which made his body shrivel into a husk right in front of his buddies. I yanked the spear out of the man and broke dried bones as I did, like pasta being broken before being thrown into the boiling pot. I laughed maniacally with a wide, tooth-filled mouth.

  Screams erupted as the professionals lost their composure. Both vans began to decelerate at a noticeable pace.

  I leaped on top of the attached van, willing my spear into a sword, and cut right down the middle of the roof like a kitchen knife on an empty soda can. With the blade still inside, I forced it apart like a pair of crowbars, forcing the roof to peel open like a surgeon operating on a patient. Once open, the men sprayed gunfire. I had anticipated this and had already moved to the back of the van.

  Both vans had slowed and veered off the side of the road into the grass. Once the gunfire had started, the vans had stopped. I jumped off the side of the van and turned to the doors.

  Using my stolen supernatural life force, I focused on my good hand, bending my body slightly like a pitcher about to throw the fastest ball of his life.

  The back doors flung open in unison as I dropped to one knee and threw my hand forward, willing a gargantuan bloodserpent to erupt from my hand and into the van. The tail tapered off and ended at my hand, while its enormous mouth swallowed men whole, one at a time. Screams of terror reverberated throughout the metal van and escaped into the night.

  Shots were fired into the beast, and it sent electric currents up my arm, forcing me to clench my teeth to the point where I thought they were about to shatter into pebbles.

  Two of the three remaining men were swallowed, and the third pointed an empty submachine gun at the serpent, as if maybe the gun had forgotten it still had unspent rounds left.

  The serpent snapped its jaws at the man’s kicking feet and caught one. As it began to slide up his leg, he placed his other foot on the beast’s snout and pushed. The snake quickly opened its jaws wide and let the other foot slip into its mouth. The man, having dropped the gun, pounded on the nose with his fists and gulped in air with wheezing panic.

  I commanded the serpent to stop at his waist, and then walked up to him.

  “How did you find us?” I asked.

  The assassin, still in panic mode, only looked at me with wide eyes.

  “I don’t have time for this shit,” I said to myself and tried to lift my other arm to take control of his synapses. At that moment, I was reminded of my lifeless arm and rolled my eyes. There would be no mind-diving on this night.

  “The hard way it is,” I said with annoyance while rolling my eyes.

  I forced the digesting bodies of his buddies, who were in the girth of the animal, to pass beside him and onto the ground on either side of the man. I had already sucked all their juices and had no use for the remaining meat.

  The man whimpered at
the sight of the bodies, which were now dry husks of man-jerky. I felt him relieve himself in the snake’s mouth.

  “Aw man, gross,” I said. I had to focus on the foreign liquid and separate it from the blood. I let it drop to the grass below.

  “I’m going to ask you one more time, and then I’m going to eat you. Then, if I’m not happy with your answers, I’ll find your family and eat them too. Aunts, uncles, parents, your spouse, and even children. Heck, I’ll eat your family dog if you piss me off,” I said with authority.

  “Now, how the fuck did you find us?” I demanded.

  “Trackers, on the vans,” the man said through sobs.

  “Thank you. Was that so hard?” I said as I willed the snake to suck him in with one quick movement. The man held his breath with cheeks puffed through the balaclava and sent his hands and feet in all directions, desperate to find an escape. I closed my eyes and willed my blood to enter through his skin, freeing the prisoner that was his own hemoglobin. The life force seeped out of him from every pore, and within seconds, the man went still, letting out his last bubbles of air.

  I let him drop next to his friends and willed the serpent back into my being. Snake back in its home, I went to check on Depweg. As I walked past the passenger side of the rear van, something flailed through the night and struck me in the back of the skull, knocking me flat on my face.

  Pulling my good hand up to where I had been hit, I could feel a massive, hot piece of metal imbedded in my skin. I pried it off, losing only a bit of blood before the skin knitted itself back together.

  Still holding the nonsilver bullet, I got up and turned to see the one-armed man holding a smoking, chrome-plated hand cannon revolver through the passenger side window. It was bigger than his own head and pointed directly at me.

  I flicked the bullet at his remaining hand, which exploded in a mass of bone and tissue.

  With a devilish smile, I walked up to him and said, “Guess they let you bring your own handguns, didn’t they? Didn’t spring for the silver rounds, huh?”

  I grabbed the door and ripped it off its hinges, throwing it onto the grass behind me. I reached over him and undid his seat belt and dragged him out of the seat. In his shock at losing both his penis grabbers, he didn’t fight back. Letting him drop to the ground where he lay barely conscious, I walked to where the vans were connecting and kicked the rear van backward.

  “Give me a hand, will ya?” I asked of the downed man. “Oops, never mind.”

  Using my body as a brace, our van stayed put as the rear one rolled backward a few yards, crushing one of the jerky boys I had left behind.

  I climbed into the van and stood over Depweg, who looked pale. Terror gripped my heart as I realized I had drained more than I had intended.

  Leaning down, I lightly slapped his cheeks and said, “Stay with me, man. I got some fresh food for you.”

  His eyes fluttered open and his mouth opened a little. I got the signal immediately. He was too weak to change, so I would have to feed him.

  I jumped out the back and walked to where the no-armed man was, grabbed him, and walked back to the van. I tossed him on the countertop and started removing his gear. From the waist up. He barely protested as his wide, glazed eyes searched for focus all around him, finding none.

  Taking out his own blade, a standard issue military knife with half serrations and a razor edge, I hastily began cutting strips of flesh off his body.

  After a few had been cut, I leaned down and carefully dropped the thin strips into Depweg’s mouth. He closed it and started to chew. After several seconds of chewing, he swallowed, and then opened his eager mouth again. I dropped another strip and he half opened his eyes.

  Blood dripped down from the countertop and striped the cabinets. I cut the man’s bicep completely off and handed it to Depweg, who grasped it with both hands before taking greedy bites. Color was starting to come back to his features.

  The man on the countertop took one last breath and slowly let it go.

  I helped Depweg up on the bench and handed him the knife. He got to work on the once assassin as I reached for the cabinet with the red cross on it. Inside I found iodine solution in a squeeze bottle. I took a deep breath and jammed it into the front hole on my left shoulder and squeezed, hard. The cleansing fluid rushed through the entire wound and out the back, taking with it most of the silver dust that had coated the rounds. I squeezed again and almost emptied the bottle before pulling it out and sticking the tip in the broken skin on my leg, repeating the process.

  After a few moments, my leg started to stitch itself up. I looked at my shoulder and could see it starting to slowly rebuild itself as well.

  Within five minutes, Depweg had eaten almost every muscle on the man’s upper body and started on the lower half. Feeling returned to my fingertips in the torturous form of pins and needles. I sighed a breath of relief, and let my head rest on the van’s wall.

  “We need to go soon,” I said. “It won’t take long before they realize something is wrong, and I don’t want any more of Locke’s fucking fireballs coming our way.”

  Depweg nodded and quickly cut both the man’s quadricep muscles off with practiced precision. “For the road,” he said as I looked at him.

  We started walking down the highway, just on the outskirts of the woods, and I said, “Forgot weres could eat people with their pretty faces on. Pretty neat.”

  “To be honest, I hadn’t had to do it since we first met. Usually shifting to wolf when injured gives us a better chance at survival.” He looked at me and continued, “Never had my blood drained before. Didn’t know vamps could drain supes.”

  “Then we are both learning new things about ourselves tonight,” I said, remembering the rush of power and life I’d felt.

  “This is taking too long. Can you shift yet?” I asked.

  “I think so,” he said while starting to strip off his clothes.

  I walked to the edge of the tree line and stared down one side of the highway, and then the other, keeping a lookout for work vans at this late hour. Or early, depending on whom you might ask.

  A few minutes passed as I stood watch, letting the events of the evening replay in my mind. There was a chuff from behind and I turned to see the giant wolf staring at me with yellow eyes. His tail wagged in delight at his successful transformation and resulting energy. He dropped his front paws and extended them, leaving his rear legs straight. His tongue stuck out the side of his mouth, and he barked in excitement.

  “What?” I asked. “Wanna play fetch or somethen?”

  He cocked his head to the side, tongue pulling back into his closing mouth, and growled at me with half sincerity.

  “Whoa, boy. That’s a bad boy,” I scolded.

  He stood up tall on all fours and walked to me. His eyes the same height as my own.

  “Just kidding!” I said with a high pitch while throwing my hands up in placation.

  He stopped, his snout less than an inch from my face. I could smell the woods on his fur and the meat still on his breath.

  He stood there for a moment, with me all but pulling a Michael Jackson by leaning so far back I thought my ass was going to touch ground. He licked my face and chuffed at me before bounding off into the woods, heading in the direction of Houston. I leaned down and grabbed his clothes, stashing them in the duffle bag. I thought about leaving his pants behind, but the joke would be on me; I’d be the one who would have to look at him later.

  There was a distinctive car beep in the road. My jaw dropped open as I looked and saw the Fae, Lily, standing next to a hot-pink Rolls-Royce. She was applying makeup from a handheld mirror while she leaned against the driver’s side door, which had the window down.

  I turned to where Depweg last was and whistled, loud but short. As I started seductively walking toward Lily, I heard romping in the distance, which quickly grew louder until Depweg was right next to me, staring at Lily.

  “Looks like we got a ride after all, buddy,” I sai
d as I scratched him between the ears. He responded by pushing at my lower back with one of his massive paws, causing me to stumble forward and almost fall on my face.

  “Hey! Bad dog!” I said as I righted myself and turned to face Depweg with a scowl. He ignored me and, instead, sniffed the air in the direction of Lily. He snorted and started sneezing, rubbing his nose into the grass as if something had invaded his nostrils.

  After a few more sneezes, he jerked his head sharply to stare at Lily. I pieced the puzzle together.

  “Lily,” I said with authority, “cut it out. He’s a friend.”

  “Oh, I know,” she purred. “I simply wished to greet him, in my way.” She paused, considering. “Curious. His reaction was not what I was expecting for a man-beast. How intriguing.”

  After a few moments, the new info settled in and was filed for later use, snapping Lily from her train of thought.

  “Time to go,” she said, opening the driver’s door and getting in.

  Depweg and I looked at each other.

  “It’s in her best interest that we stop Locke, and that’s good enough for me,” I reassured Depweg.

  After a few heartbeats, Depweg nodded ever so slightly. I pulled his clothes back out and laid them on the ground. He picked them up in his jaws and sauntered to the tree line. Once he was out of sight, I could hear the transformation taking place.

  Lily looked at me from the visor mirror that she had lowered to finish her makeup and did a “what’s taking so long” gesture with her face and free hand. I lifted my index finger, indicating it would only be a moment longer.

  A minute later, Depweg came out of the woods, pulling down his black band shirt. This one said “Tool” on it.

  “Hey,” I said while pointing at his shirt once he got close, “aren’t they the ‘Barbie Girl’ group? Catchy song.”

  He rolled his eyes so hard that they almost did a complete revolution around their sockets. He continued past me to the passenger side of the Rolls.

  “Shotgun,” he said.

  “Ah, man!” I cried out in legitimate disappointment.

  “He did call it, Jonathan,” Lily gloated.