Kiss Me Deadly

by R. Lee Moore

  “Can't risk it,” she said fixating on a small group of people darting off towards a cluster of buildings on the other side of the fence line. “If any of them are going to get away, I'll be damned if that bastard is going to be one of them.”

  She did a quick check of her weapons. Making sure all three she carried were loaded and ready to go before she bolted out from the faint cover of what remained of her vehicle. She took a quick look around her for threats, then sprinted after the small group of killers trying to make a break for it on the far end of the airfield.

  “Come on!,” she shouted over her shoulder.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  The three Tamina sprinted across the tarmac after were still armed, but fighting seemed to be the last thing on their minds. They were more focused on making it over the chain-link fence that surrounded the airfield, and escaping the intense fighting all around them with their lives than anything else.

  It became quickly apparent as soon as she started after them, that Tamina was never going to catch up to either the two men or the woman racing far out in front of them. They were werewolves, and their supernatural nature had given them too much of an advantage in speed and endurance for Tamina to overcome.

  Even if she could run as fast, she'd be out of breath and out of strength far sooner than they would be. The only way this was going to work was to slow them down and make them fight on her terms.

  Without even slowing, she snapped her shotgun up to her shoulder without taking the time to aim, and rapidly stroked the trigger in rapid succession sending out a spray of solid shot and burning pellets out towards her targets. The Wolfsbane slug didn't even come close, and most of the two incendiary blasts on either side of it that fanned out brightly in front of her missed the trio completely. They were far enough away that the white-hot phosphorous shot spread out too much and rained down ineffectively onto the pavement at their heels. A few fragments hit, but not enough to do any real damage. Not to werewolves. They were barely just enough to get their attention.

  When the two men realized they were being pursued, they stopped short and spun around weapons raised to engage their attackers.

  Tamina and Carson never gave them the chance to fire. As soon as the two men stopped moving, Tamina rapid-fired her weapon spraying out a torrent of barely aimed shots in their direction. A heavy 12 gauge Wolfsbane slug slammed into the first man's shoulder spinning and knocking him off balance. Then came the hail of white-hot incendiary shot that shredded his back and the side of his face setting him ablaze as he screamed and tumbled forward.

  Carson dropped the second with a tightly controlled burst of gunfire that stitched the man with bullets from his groin all the way up to his chest that sending him toppling backward like a rag-doll onto the pavement below.

  Neither of the werewolves were down for good. As Tamina and Carson rushed up to where they'd fallen, they could see both men still very much alive and still dangerous. The man on fire shrieked as he rolled desperately on the ground. His body twisting and writhing beneath the charred and burning flesh, the sheer agony forcing the change to begin to consume his body uncontrollably. Tamina didn't hesitate in firing off the last round in her magazine directly into the man's skull splattering blood and gore in a fountain all over the pavement.

  Carson didn't hesitate either. The man he'd downed was struggling to get back to his feet in spite of the rivers of blood pouring from his wounds. Carson calmly took aim and sent two rounds into the man's heart, and a third into the top of his head to finish him off. There was no such thing as wasting ammunition when it came to werewolves.

  As they both dropped their magazines and started reloading, an ear-splitting rage-filled howl ripped through the air. When they looked up, even with only the pale of the moon overhead to give them light, they could easily see those glowing amber eyes staring at them from out of the darkness.

  The woman had turned back at the deaths of her friends and was slowly stalking back towards them with predatory and murderous intent. She'd tossed her weapon aside and surged forward at a full run letting out a roaring howl that sent a shudder down through Tamina's spine.

  The woman body ripped and shredded itself apart as she charged forward. She wasn't just changing as she ran, she was forcing it. The beast inside her was being let loose without any control, and it was tearing itself free from the fleshy prison of humanity that held it with wild abandon. Her flesh ripped itself apart as she ran, dropping off shredded pieces of her body in a long bloody trail behind her as the wolf within clawed its way violently to the surface and tore itself free.

  By the time Tamina and Carson had reloaded their weapons, the werewolf charging them was this horrifying amalgamation of human and wolf. It ran at them with a staggering gait forced upon it by the breaking and reformation of its bones into different positions within itself. When the first rounds began to hit, the wolf inside the woman burst its way out from what remained of her body leaving splatters of gore in its wake. All that remained was the massive feral creature snarling and snapping jaws filled with razor sharp teeth coming straight for them.

  Tamina and Carson poured fire into the incoming beast with little apparent effect. Their aim was true, and shot after shot slammed into the monster's thick hide, but it wasn't even slowing the wolf down. Even the incendiary shells that scoured across the wolf's flanks opening her up and setting her fur ablaze were being shrugged off by a combination of the beasts natural fortitude and the fiery rage burning through her.

  They weren't going to stop her in time, and that was a problem. They might be able to kill the wolf, but the beast would kill them before they had a chance.

  Tamina acted on instinct and dove at Carson, driving her shoulder into his side knocking him out of the path of the werewolf. Her eyes locked on the beast charging towards her, and she tried to dive out of its way, but the wolf was too quick. It countered her movements faster than she could react, and caught her in mid-air.

  The beast's jaws closed around the front of her vest, biting down through the Kevlar and into the ceramic plates, and jerked her backwards up off her feet flinging her through the air. When Tamina landed, she landed hard. Hard enough to loosen the weapon from her grip and send it skittering across the ground away from her. Hard enough for her to hear an audible pop from her shoulder, and a crunch of bone that sent a sharp stabbing pain into her chest because of it.

  As Tamina choked in pain and struggled to breathe, she could see the werewolf turn its attention to her partner and begin circling around him like he was prey. When she'd knocked Carson out of the wolf's path, Tamina had sent him stumbling down to the ground where he lay on his back in a daze with his glasses dangling off the side of his face.

  Even half blind Carson couldn't miss the monstrous shape of the werewolf bearing down on him. He searched around him for his weapon in a panic. Tamina called out a warning to him just as he found and scooped his sidearm up from the ground. Carson began rapidly firing rounds off blindly out in front of him in a tightly controlled group until his weapon clicked empty.

  Even in the state he was in, Carson was still able to drill enough shots into the beast to slow its attack. He'd blasted away at the creatures face taking an eye and a good portion of its lower jaw that now hung open and loose. The rest of the shots had struck it in various places along the mass of its body, but the werewolf's supernatural ability to soak damage and its pure unadulterated rage helped it shrug off the assault and continue on. It may still have been enough to kill the thing, but it wouldn't succumb to its wounds until long after it had killed the both of them.

  Tamina fought through the pain wracking the entirety of her body, and drew her sidearm from where she'd shoved it into her pocket. She could barely breathe without it feeling like she was inhaling shards of glass, it made it difficult if not near impossible to be accurate. She tried anyway.

  The weapon bucked in her hand with each shot strong enough to near jar the pistol from her grasp each time sh
e stroked the trigger. Maybe one in three shots actually hit, but it was enough to gain the beast's attention.

  The werewolf snarled viciously, and rapidly stalked towards her with its mangled jaws wide open to make the kill. Without warning the wolf suddenly skidded to a stop mid-step with a gargling snarl, and its paws scrabbled for purchase on the pavement to halt it in place. The wolf had seen something. Something had grabbed its attention away from the two downed agents.

  At first Tamina thought the thing was still staring at her. The way its ears and nose twitched though, the way it lifted its ruined face up into the air to scent at the air told her it was looking not at her, but beyond her. When she heard the twin howls from behind her, she knew what had distracted the thing.

  The wolf was frozen in place, and Tamina wasn't about to waste the opportunity she'd been given. A stationary target was a hell of a lot easier to hit than a moving one. With the wolf distracted she lifted her weapon and fought to keep her aim steady and straight. She began firing into the thing sending round after round penetrating deep into the mass of its flesh. The beast shrieked with each impact and scrambled to pull itself away from her line of fire. Even if it had been successful, it wouldn't have mattered.

  Two blurs of fur, one gray and one red, vaulted over Tamina and took the beast off its feet. Tamina held her fire and started backing furiously away from the fight as she desperately struggled up to her knees. What was in front of her was a mass of fangs flashing in moonlight, and blood drenched claws slashing and carving deep gaping wounds into fur covered flesh. Tamina had to back away. She didn't want to get caught up in the middle of the savagery of the three werewolves in front of her, and she couldn't risk hitting the two werewolves who'd saved her. They didn't look like they'd needed her help anyways.

  The gray lunged for the enemy wolf's throat, but found itself easily batted away and put on the defensive almost immediately by a ferocious counterattack. Tamina might have been worried if she hadn't seen the Department's werewolves use that exact same tactic many times before. The gray had feinted and purposely exposed itself. It drew its opponents attention away, and let the red wolf leap onto its back and sink her teeth into the back of it's neck with a bloodthirsty howl.

  That was when the enemy werewolf realized its mistake. It began twisting and turning to dislodge the red wolf from its back, which only served to open itself up to the jaws of the gray wolf. It soon found a second set of jaws clamped around its exposed throat and borne down to the ground where the two werewolves in armored vests worked in tandem tearing it apart piece by bloody piece.

  “Carson,” Tamina called out painfully, leaving the two wolves to their bloody work. She couldn't watch.

  “Alive,” Carson said unsteadily as he righted his glasses back over his eyes. “I don't think it got me. You?”

  Tamina winced as she slid a hand beneath her vest. The jolt of pain that lanced through her body at the tentative light touch nearly dropped her back onto the ground. She could feel a sharp jagged edge of bone just below the surface, but it hadn't poked through the skin. Not yet. No blood or open wounds though, that was good. The wolf hadn't managed to land a bite that drew blood. The ceramic plate in her vest was what saved her from the possibility of infection, and it was completely shattered. She could feel the shards floating around in the pocket of her plate carrier. Moving shifted them into uncomfortable positions, but she could deal with that. Better a shattered plate than nothing at all.

  “Broken ribs. I've got to stop getting the shit kicked out of me. It's getting real old,” Tamina breathed out painfully. “No bites. I'm clean.”

  Both of them crawled and drug themselves up to their feet, and worked to steady and calm themselves as they regarded the pile of twitching meat and fur that the two wolves had reduced their prey too. They may have gone a little overboard, Tamina thought, but she wasn't going to hold it against them. They were werewolves, it was bound to happen.

  She hobbled over to collect her shotgun and recheck both of the men her and Carson had gunned down before they could change. Considering the state both of them were in, it was hard to tell who they were, but she was reasonably certain neither one of them was the one she was looking for. Vanya was still out there, so her mission wasn't over. Not yet. Not until he was dead like these two were.

  “Red,” she called out over her shoulder.

  The red wolf perked its ears up and started stalking towards her. Siobhan had been a busy wolf, Tamina noted. Her fur had been coated in blood, the custom fit armored vest she wore was barely hanging on. It'd been shredded by teeth and claws a lot worse than Tamina's had. There was so much blood that Tamina had a hard time telling which was her natural coloring, and what was another werewolf's life painted all over her body.

  “Vanya. The man I shot that was laying there in front of the car when you were killing that other wolf,” Tamina said when the red wolf looked up at her expectantly. “Can you get his scent? Track him? He's the wolf that killed all those people in the movies. He's the one we're after. That one doesn't make it out of here alive, no matter what. He's the maneater.”

  Tamina had to add that last part. The she-wolf's rage-filled snarl told her that much. Siobhan would have tracked him down without the added motivation, but now she wouldn't stop until she found him, and that was what Tamina wanted. He wasn't getting away. Not if she had anything to say about it.

  She watched Siobhan and the gray wolf bolt off back to what remained of their cars to pick up the scent. Tamina took the time to scan the surrounding area. From what she could see, the fence-line had already been breached. By what or how many, she didn't know, but it was likely that at least one of the killer werewolves had gotten through. Maybe more.

  The Strike Teams were still busy behind her. The gunfire had lessened to a large degree, but they were still taking down pockets of resistance. She could see from the way the spotlights on the Bearcats were sweeping all over the area, that they were still hunting for the last remnants of the enemy force. The two Blackhawks were orbiting in slow circles overhead, their lights shining down and illuminating the ground beneath them as they moved. Every so often their miniguns would go off, but it seemed sporadic.

  She tapped her ear-piece experimentally. She hadn't heard any traffic since the wolf had knocked her on her ass. To her annoyance, the thing came apart the moment she touched it. Being out of comms was never good.

  “Carson, my comms are down,” she called out, flinging the useless thing onto the ground. “Let Harris know there's a breach in the fence. When Siobhan and her friend get back we're going in to investigate.”

  “Without backup?” Carson said looking meaningfully at the carcass of the wolf that near killed them. He saw the look he got in return and shook his head in disapproval. “On it.”

  Tamina started towards the fence-line and began examining the breach critically while she waited for the two wolves to return. There was a large gap in the fence. It hadn't been cut. The links hadn't been separated. The hole had been torn apart like someone or something had grabbed two handfuls of the fencing and ripped it to pieces with sheer brute strength.

  She could see footprints and drops of blood smearing at the sharp exposed edges. Whoever went through here had been wounded. That was both good and bad. It didn't matter how many of them there were, they'd be easy to track wounded.

  Werewolves like Siobhan and her friend could follow a trail to the ends of the earth. There'd be no escaping them. On the other hand, a wounded werewolf was like any other wounded animal. Dangerous and unpredictable. With nothing to lose and nowhere to run, it'd fight to the death. The thing might not even wait until it was cornered either.

  When Siobhan and the gray wolf ran up behind her, she could tell they'd gotten the scent. From the looks in both sets of inhuman amber eyes, they were out for blood.

  “Right behind ya Red,” Tamina said hefting her shotgun to her shoulder. “Let's go get him.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

&nbs
p; The two werewolves led the way out from the airfield. They ghosted silently out through the darkness in front of Tamina and Carson with their muzzles low to the ground tracking the scent laid out before them. Every so often the wolves would pause and lift their noses up into the wind sniffing at the air all around them. Each time they did, they'd change course ever so slightly and start moving in a new direction chasing some new scent they picked up.

  They crept across the dying grass and pavement on the other side of the breach wary and alert. The trail of blood and the scent of murderous werewolves was easy enough for the two werewolves to follow. It was fresh in the air, and there were signs everywhere. Footprints, streaks of blood on the tops of rocks, foliage bent and broken from rapid passage.

  There was a long line of small commercial and industrial building on the side of the road nearest to the airfield butted right up against the fence line. Across the street, a church, and the beginnings of a sprawl of residential housing that stretched out beyond the horizon. Both sides were eerily quiet. Aside from the sporadic gunfire off in the distance behind them, there was nothing. No cars racing down the streets, no people along the sidewalks. Nothing.

  It was late at night, so that was a factor, but Tamina thought the raging firefight on the other side of the fence had a bit more to do with it than the time of day. There was no way the people in the housing projects she was looking at didn't know what was going on, but they were staying inside and out of sight. It made things easier.