Lycanthropic (Book 4): Moon Rise [The Age of the Werewolf]

by Morris, Steve

  They were still in human form, even though the moon was rising. Like her, they had learned to master the transformation. They could use moonlight to power their change, but were not in thrall to it.

  Major Hall raised an eyebrow and smiled. ‘Vampires? Is that what you think we are? Well, I suppose that if those creatures out there are werewolves, then you might call us vampires. But I prefer to think of us more like guardian angels. Our need to feed is a small price to pay for my men protecting the camp from werewolves, and maintaining law and order.’

  ‘You sick bastard,’ said Kevin. ‘You’re no angels. You’re devils. You’re as bad as the werewolves, perhaps worse.’

  The Major’s face hardened. ‘You couldn’t be more wrong. Without us, this camp would have fallen weeks ago. How many civilians have been killed by werewolves under my protection? I’ll tell you – not a single one. In fact, we’ve largely driven back the werewolves from a wide area around this camp. We’re not devils, we’re God-damn heroes.’

  Liz’s hand edged toward the Glock in her holster, but Major Hall’s men had already drawn their guns.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ said Major Hall. ‘That goes for you too,’ he said to Jones and Evans, who were holding their rifles. ‘You are vastly outnumbered.’

  Fourteen men, Liz had counted. Fourteen vampires. All of them armed with semi-automatic pistols. Too many for Jones and Evans to take on. Far too many for her to handle. And anyway, she couldn’t risk the kids getting killed in the crossfire.

  ‘Place your weapons on the ground,’ ordered Major Hall. ‘Move slowly.’

  ‘Don’t do it, Liz,’ urged Kevin. ‘Don’t listen to him.’

  ‘Why should we?’ Liz asked the Major.

  ‘I’ll make you a promise,’ he said. ‘You may not like it. But once you consider it, you’ll realize that it’s the best I can offer. A clean kill. An execution. We’re not going to hang you up with the others to have your blood drained. Nor will I feed you to those beasts outside the gates. You deserve better than that.’

  Liz’s hand was on the Glock. She knew she would never be able to draw it out quickly enough. If she even tried, they would all go down in a hail of bullets, and she wouldn’t allow that to happen, especially not to Mihai and the others.

  She licked her dry lips with her tongue. ‘You have to let the children go free,’ she said. ‘Promise me that.’

  Major Hall nodded crisply. ‘You have my word.’

  ‘Liz?’ said Kevin. ‘You can’t let him do this.’

  ‘What choice do we have?’

  ‘We go down fighting!’

  ‘They’ll kill us all. And what will happen to the kids then?’

  Kevin had no answer to that. ‘You trust this Major Hall?’ he asked.

  Liz studied the face of the Major. She still hadn’t seen his eyes behind the aviator sunglasses, but she felt that he was a man of his word. ‘I trust him.’

  ‘Blimey,’ said Kevin. ‘I’ll tell you this, love. I ain’t never trusted no man less.’

  ‘We have no choice.’

  She turned slowly to see what Corporal Jones and Evans made of the exchange. Jones stood motionless, seemingly frozen in place. There was a strange faraway look in his eyes, as if he was somewhere else entirely. He didn’t return her questioning gaze. Evans stood beside him, his rifle in his hands, obviously uncertain. After a moment he nodded at Liz.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. If another person could accept her decision, she could persuade herself she hadn’t totally lost all reason. She looked to Llewelyn again for confirmation, but he was still gazing into the distance, seeming almost oblivious to what was happening.

  She turned back to Major Hall. ‘All right. It’s a deal. We lay down our weapons and you allow the children to go free and unharmed.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘No,’ protested Vijay. ‘You can’t let them, Liz.’

  ‘No way,’ said Drake. ‘We ain’t gonna let them kill you.’

  ‘You have to,’ said Liz. ‘Look after the others. Take care of Samantha and the baby. They’re going to need you now.’

  Mihai was almost in tears, his eyes shining in the twilight. He shook his head angrily and refused to meet her look.

  But there was nothing more that Liz could do. She could go down fighting in a blaze of glory, like Kevin wanted, and lose everything. Or she could choose to save the lives of Mihai, Vijay, Aasha and Drake. If that was the choice, it was an easy one to make. She raised her hands in surrender.

  Major Hall nodded to his men and they began to move out across the rooftop to take the weapons from Liz and the Welsh Guards.

  The cat spat at them as they advanced, shifting in Drake’s arms, struggling to break free.

  ‘Easy, Shadow,’ said Drake.

  ‘Get rid of that odious creature,’ snarled Major Hall. One of his officers, a captain, stepped forward, reaching out to take the cat.

  ‘You’re the one,’ said Drake to the captain. ‘You’re the vampire I saw in the terminal building.’

  The captain grinned, revealing a pair of sharp teeth.

  Shadow hissed louder than ever. The cat flew from Drake’s grasp and landed squarely on the captain’s face with all four paws, digging deep with its claws. The man gave a howl of pain.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, full moon

  The door to Helen’s office swung open and Melanie looked inside. A small group of people was huddled in the room. Sarah and James, together with Doctor Helen Eastgate and Chanita Allen, the camp leader.

  ‘Oh, thank God!’ said Melanie. She dashed forward and embraced Sarah, hugging her sister tightly in her arms. Sarah hugged her back, somewhat reluctantly.

  ‘You’re safe,’ said Melanie. ‘Buy why are you crying?’

  Dark tear tracks stained Sarah’s face, and her eyes were red. ‘It’s all gone wrong. The patients turned into wolves.’

  ‘Yeah. We noticed.’

  ‘This should never have happened,’ said Chanita. ‘We were careful to keep the patients indoors, away from the moonlight.’

  ‘They changed before the moonrise,’ said Ben.

  ‘They shouldn’t have changed at all,’ insisted Chanita. ‘They should have been like James, able to choose whether to become werewolves, or to remain human.’

  ‘They did,’ said Melanie. ‘They chose to become wolves.’

  Helen Eastgate stood to one side of the others, her face pale. ‘This is all my fault. I underestimated the risks. I assumed that the patients would be like James and would make the same choice that he has made. But James is the exception.’

  Melanie bit her lip. I told you so, was on the tip of her tongue, but she kept it there, not giving voice to the thought. This was no time to start a row. There would be plenty of time for that later.

  ‘I think this must somehow have been planned together with the werewolves outside the gates,’ said Ben. ‘The camp is under a coordinated attack from the patients within, and from armed werewolves outside too. We heard explosions coming from near the main entrance. The army is fighting back, but I don’t know if they can cope.’

  Sarah dissolved into fresh tears. ‘I’m to blame. I convinced you to do it.’

  ‘No,’ said Helen, putting an arm around her. ‘We did it together.’

  ‘You certainly did,’ said Melanie. ‘But there’s no time now for wallowing in self-pity.’

  Chanita spoke then. ‘We must trust Lieutenant Colonel Sharman to keep us safe. He and his men are well armed, and prepared for the worst.’

  ‘But we don’t know what size of enemy they’re facing,’ said Ben.

  ‘There’s no point in us worrying about that,’ said Chanita. ‘Even if the soldiers can’t win, they will hold the werewolves off for as long as they can. We need to get out of here and join the other civilians in the camp. Someone needs to keep them in order and stop them from running scared. We may
need to organize an evacuation.’

  ‘No,’ said Melanie firmly. She stepped into the middle of the room. It was time to put a stop to this nonsense, and talk sense into people. ‘The wolves are everywhere. The soldiers don’t stand a chance. If we join the others, we’ll be like a flock of sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Our only chance of survival is to look after ourselves and get away from the camp as quickly as we can.’

  Chanita met her gaze steadily. ‘You must do as you wish, but I am responsible for the people of this camp. I won’t leave them to die.’

  ‘Whatever,’ said Melanie. ‘What about you others? Are you coming with me and Ben?’

  Sarah gave a quick nod of her head. ‘Of course. And James will come too. Helen?’

  Helen looked undecided. ‘I should stay with Chanita …’

  A huge explosion blasted close by, shaking the walls of the building, and making plaster dust fall from the ceiling.

  ‘We need to get out,’ said Ben. ‘Right now.’

  ‘You’d be crazy to stay here,’ Melanie told Helen and Chanita, ‘but we don’t have time to argue. Come with us, or stay, it’s your choice.’ She raised her gun and turned back through the door. The corridor was empty and she set off along it, not waiting to see who would follow. She knew that Ben and Sarah would come, and James too. What the others did was up to them. After all, they were responsible for getting them into this mess.

  Ben caught up with her after a few seconds and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Stop. I know the quickest way out of this building. Hold this for a second.’ He passed her his pistol and she held it while he unlocked a window and slid it open. He stuck his head outside and looked left and right. ‘It’s clear. Follow me.’ He swung his legs through the open sash window and out.

  Melanie waited for the others to climb out too. She was pleased to see that all four of them had come. As soon as they had climbed through, she joined them.

  Outside all was chaotic. Fires and floodlights lit up the sky, and the full moon shone down over the scene too. She glanced nervously at James, but the moon seemed to have no effect on him. Crowds of people were rushing in all directions, not to mention army vehicles, soldiers on foot, and the silhouetted figures of wolves running between them. Automatic gunfire bursts and single shots rang out almost continually, punctuated by occasional explosions from the direction of the camp boundary. It sounded like a minor war was in progress.

  She turned to Ben. ‘Which way?’

  His face was creased in a deep frown. ‘Stay right here for now,’ he warned.

  She turned where he was looking. A gang of men and women were coming toward them, shouting belligerently. They looked like a lynch mob. ‘What the –’ began Melanie, but the crowd quickly surrounded them, blocking any exit.

  Chanita stepped forward to address them. ‘What is the meaning of this?’

  Voices from the crowd called out. ‘You did this!’ shouted one. ‘This was your fault!’ yelled another. They were pointing at Chanita and Helen. ‘Werewolf lovers!’ shouted a third voice.

  A hand reached out and seized hold of Chanita by the hair, dragging her onto the ground.

  Ben raised his gun into the air and fired a warning shot. ‘Stop this! Get back!’

  The crowd drew back a step and Chanita pulled herself free. But the baying mob was going nowhere. They quickly regathered their courage and began to shuffle forward again. ‘There he is!’ shouted a man, pointing at James. ‘He’s the one who started it.’

  Melanie pushed her way in front of James and raised her own gun into the air. She fired off a shot, but this one had little effect on the crowd. If anything, it seemed to provoke them to greater fury.

  A woman’s voice cried out. ‘Get them!’ She looked perfectly normal, the kind of woman you’d see choosing organic coffee beans at the local wholefood store, or waiting for her kids outside their suburban school. But her features were contorted into rage. Her eyes blazed with violence.

  There was nothing for it. Melanie aimed the pistol between the eyes of organic coffee woman and squeezed the trigger.

  Nothing happened. She tried again, but she must have run out of ammo.

  The woman’s expression turned to triumph. She lunged forward and slapped Melanie’s face.

  Melanie fell back, more in shock than pain.

  No one does that to me.

  She dropped the useless gun and rushed her opponent, fingers ready to gouge, manicured nails eager to scratch. Organic coffee woman fell to the ground.

  The invisible line that had kept the two sides apart vanished in an instant.

  Everyone now was shouting and yelling; everyone was kicking and punching and wrestling. The opposing groups clashed with each other in a tangle of limbs and fists.

  A shot went off behind her. Ben was shooting into the air again in a futile attempt to break up the fight. But both sides were well past that stage. The fighting moved up a gear.

  Melanie dug her fingers into organic coffee woman’s face, drawing blood as red as any nail varnish she had ever worn. The woman struggled to throw her off, but Melanie poked her in the eye and yanked at her hair to subdue her.

  A sudden roar cut through the chaos. A roar like that of a lion. Melanie looked up as a flash of pale fur leapt into the melee.

  James. He had turned.

  He landed on his first victim and bit deep into their neck. A man, or a woman, Melanie couldn’t see. But their body crumpled to the ground a second later.

  Someone’s knee caught Melanie in the side. She flailed out in response, drawing a long crimson scratch down a bare arm. A man screamed as James lunged at him, tearing him open with a savage bite. Helen gave a war cry and rushed into the fight, stabbing a man in the chest with some kind of medical implement. Even Chanita joined the battle, wrestling a young woman to the ground, and pinning her arms in place where they could do no harm.

  Still the mob fought on, and others from nearby came to join them.

  Ben fired his gun again, and this time the bullet found a target. A man dropped to the ground, dead. The gun blasted again, and again, and more people fell. But the next time, the gun clicked. Ben was also out of rounds.

  The crowd began to thin as James jumped from one victim to the next, driving them back with tooth and claw, biting when necessary, slashing with his huge paws, roaring with deafening power. His paws and jaws were slick with blood.

  Organic coffee woman broke suddenly free and punched Melanie square in the face. With a shriek, Melanie wrapped her hands around the woman’s throat. She locked them together with all her strength, squeezing desperately as the woman choked, not caring what happened next. She was so past caring.

  A hand grabbed her arm and hauled her roughly to her feet. Ben. ‘Come on,’ he shouted. ‘We’ve bought some time. Let’s get out of here.’

  She nodded and followed him.

  And then, as she began to move toward safety, she heard a deep roar from behind. A werewolf had appeared from nowhere – dark brown fur, flashing yellow eyes, and a jaw filled with deadly teeth. The creature ran toward Helen and leapt at her, reaching out in flight with its twisted talons to gouge at her. She faced it with a sharp weapon in one hand, and a look of calm on her face.

  ‘No!’ cried Chanita.

  James turned and ran toward the brown wolf, rushing to intercept it, and Ben too lunged forward to save her.

  They were both too late.

  The huge wolf crashed into Helen, slicing her slim body open with razor sharp claws. It landed full square on her chest and bit through her neck in a single ferocious bite.

  Sarah screamed and Ben cried out in fury.

  James fell on the creature, sinking his claws into its back and tearing its flanks from behind. He brought it to the ground, making deep cuts in the beast’s flesh. The brown wolf raised its head and James dealt it a savage blow with his front paws. Still he was not done. With a roar of anger he ripped the wolf’s carcass down the middle, splitting it into two bloody halve
s, and began to savage the remains, ripping chunks from the body with his teeth and spitting them out.

  Melanie raised her voice. ‘James! Stop that!’ But he had lost himself in rage.

  Ben edged closer to him. ‘James. Come away now.’ He reached out a hand.

  James lurched sideways, away from the butchered wolf, rivers of tears streaming from his golden eyes. He staggered and landed against Ben, flailing out with his front legs.

  Melanie gasped as they tumbled to the ground together.

  In a second James sprang upright, shocked by what he had done. ‘I’m sorry,’ he growled.

  Ben rose to his feet too and grabbed Melanie’s hand again. ‘I’m all right,’ he said. ‘Now run!’

  They ran together, James too, watching their back as they left the remaining mob behind. They fled from the fight, and away from the hotel building, heading across open ground toward safety. The battle was behind them now, and the way ahead seemed clear.

  At Melanie’s side, Ben began to pant. He slowed.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, gripping his arm to support him.

  He came to a halt, breathless. ‘Can’t … run … anymore …’ he wheezed.

  His sleeve was torn and a single red stripe along his arm marked where James’ claw had caught him.

  ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Please, no.’

  Ben sank to his knees, gasping for breath.

  ‘He can’t breathe!’ screamed Melanie. ‘Somebody help him!’

  Chanita dashed to his side, producing a syringe from out of her medical bag. She crouched next to him, and jabbed it into his arm. ‘An adrenaline shot,’ she explained. ‘It’ll suppress the anaphylactic reaction.’

  ‘Will he live?’ gasped Melanie.

  ‘He’ll live. But –’

  James lumbered over, still in wolf form, his eyes bright with grief in the darkness. ‘He’ll become like me,’ he said mournfully. ‘Worse than me. Like them.’ He gestured back at the camp, now largely in flames. Occasional gunfire still rang out between the tents, but the howling of the wolves and the screaming of their victims dominated now.

  Chanita was staring back toward the main building. ‘Lieutenant Colonel Sharman and his men will –’