Vengeance (Hybrid Book 3)
Page 33
My prey was already dead beneath me when I returned my attention back to her ruined body, her head all but severed from her once flawless neck. There was no revenge to be had there for the injection she’d just dared to give me, but I carried on ravaging her mortal remains anyway, lost in the primal ecstasy of the feeling of flesh ripping between my teeth and the splash of blood across my skin, still warm with the energy of life I’d stolen from my victim.
I don’t really remember what happened next. One moment I was tearing through Hannah’s remains, scattering slippery organs around our cell and shattering bones, freeing great chunks of meat from the sinew binding it until the corpse was unrecognisable as even human, let alone the girl she had been, and in the next I was crashing to the floor. Whatever had entered my bloodstream via the needle seized control, and my body succumbed to the unconsciousness it forced me into.
My head felt like it had been cleaved in two when I first opened my eyes to find I was still laid beside what was left of Hannah, but I appeared to have shifted back to human form while I was still unconscious, no doubt in an attempt to fight the injection I’d been given. A surge of nausea rushed up from my stomach, forcing me to lie still while I fought to keep my dinner down. Fortunately it was quick to pass and the ache in my head also began to ease off, and I was soon able to pick myself back up.
The bars locking me in with the bloody mess I’d created were still in place, much to my surprise. My companions stood just on the other side, even the vampires who seemed to have successfully wrestled their own hungers back into submission, at least for the time being. They seemed to be worried about me, though Amy was also struggling somewhat with the death of her apparent friend, despite the numbing effect Zee’s spell had on her. I was going to have to ask her more about how they knew each other and try to piece together why the Slayers would just happen to have captured them both, but first I needed to escape the cell I’d been trapped in.
“I’m okay,” I said, silently adding to myself I think. As far as I could tell everything felt normal, besides the headache and the nausea, but who knew what the injection had really been intended for. I felt certain the desired effect would have been much more than to simply knock me out, yet whatever else David had wanted it to do didn’t seem to have worked, unless it was supposed to be slow working like the poison I’d ingested earlier. Only time would tell on that front. “How come you haven’t broken me out of here yet?”
“That’s proving to be something of a problem,” Zee replied.
“The metal has been doused in holy water,” Lady Sarah informed me. “Neither I nor Zeerin can grip it for long enough to force our way through.”
“So why don’t you just use that same power you used on the door to Amy and Selina’s cell?”
“They can’t,” Selina answered. “There’s more warding around it similar to what they’d used in the cell which held me, but this protective spell prevents the use of any kind of telekinetic force, be it from witchcraft or vampiric in nature. The result remains the same.”
“You will have to break yourself out, now that you are awake,” Lady Sarah said.
I shrugged and wrapped my skinny fingers around the bars, my human form seemingly weak and unimpressive compared to the beast I’d been just moments before. Had I been human, I would never have stood a chance of prising the bars apart with my bare hands. But thanks to my lycanthropy, I would have no trouble freeing myself, or at least I shouldn’t have done with the superior strength I’d been granted as part of the curse. Maybe the injection had affected me in some way after all.
Veins bulged beneath my skin as my muscles strained against metal that should have offered little resistance to my supernaturally enhanced body. And yet, try as I might to pull the bars wide enough apart for me to squeeze through, they refused to budge, leaving me stuck behind them and panting from the effort once I finally gave up.
“Something’s wrong,” I admitted.
Gwyn spoke up then. “That there injection they just had Hannah give you. It’s weakened you, right?”
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “What do you know about it?”
“Nothing much. Only that your old friend David had a bunch of scientists down here at one point, working on some kind of serum. He tested it on a few other types of undead and they all seemed to be left weak afterwards. Those that it didn’t kill outright.”
“Killed them? How can it kill things like zombies when they’re already dead?”
“Well destroyed then. It dissolved them into gooey puddles until there was nothing left.”
“Oh, great. And those that survived? Did they recover?”
“Afraid not. Their bodies collapsed as well, eventually.”
“Great. As if we didn’t have enough problems to deal with.”
“Their guinea pigs were mostly zombies, and a few ghouls. I think that was pretty much all they could get their hands on in the time they had. Maybe it won’t kill you. I mean, werewolves are significantly different to zombies and ghouls, what with your living bodies an’ all.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, unconvinced. I wondered if another transformation might purge it from my system like it had the poison, but somehow I didn’t think that would work this time, since my body had already used the power of the change to fight its effects when it had first been introduced into my bloodstream, and that obviously hadn’t worked or I wouldn’t be struggling to free myself.
The others were quiet through that exchange with the knocker so I guessed Selina had already been filled in on what little we knew of the apparent game we were trapped in and who was behind it, or she’d surely have asked who this old friend was. Amy was too affected by Hannah’s death to notice the name she’d otherwise have recognised. It was Zee that spoke up next.
“Can you change back to your wolf man form?” he asked, apparently thinking along the same lines as I had.
I nodded and started to focus, but Gwyn said “Save your energy, fluffy. There’s an easier way out of here.”
“What? Why didn’t you say?”
“I’m saying now, aren’t I?”
I took a deep breath, fighting to keep my anger in check. “Go on then, show us this easier way out.”
“You probably didn’t notice, being so focussed on the smell of fresh meat an’ all, but this room has a higher ceiling than the others. Well, there’s a reason for that.”
The knocker strode over to the wall and took a moment to study it, before pushing another hidden button just on the other side of the bars of my cage. Right at the top of the wall, a panel slid across to reveal an opening which was presumably the mouth to another passage, one which was wide enough that it gaped either side of the metal currently separating us, allowing any of us to enter it who had the means to get up high enough. A second doorway opened up just to the side of where Gwyn was stood, allowing the others to simply walk out if they wanted to. The wall in front of me also transformed, sections of stone sliding outwards until a series of handholds formed. The wall on the other side of the bars remained the same smooth and uneven rock face as the rest of the dungeon, however, making it impossible for anyone on that side to simply climb up without the aid of claws or tools to grip the stone.
Eyeing the handholds in front of me, I found myself reluctant to ascend them. I thought it ominous that David was making it so easy for me to reach the one and only exit from my cell, like he wanted me to take that route without finding some other way to break through the metal cutting me off from my allies and the other doorway. If he really wanted me to go up there, I felt certain nothing good could be waiting for me at the top. Not that I wasn’t expecting more challenges through the rest of the dungeon, but I had a feeling this was another torment he’d designed for me especially, something else that was really personal somehow. Though I found it curious that the entrance to that passage had been designed in such a way that the bars of my cage would intersect the middle of it so that my allies could join me if they wished. T
hen again, he couldn’t have been sure that I’d be trapped alone with Hannah. One of the vampires could have easily lost control first. He’d probably dropped the bars of the cage manually, waiting to make sure I was caught in the trap before springing it, but he’d have had to consider the possibility that the other predators would also give in to the temptation of the meal he’d left for us. So maybe whatever awaited up there wasn’t something he necessarily wanted me to face alone, but it seemed he did want me to suffer whatever torment was in store, one way or another. Or maybe it wasn’t all about me and he merely wanted whoever was suffering the effects of the injection up there, since he couldn’t have known for sure that Hannah would successfully be able to deliver it to me as, again, it could easily have been one of the vampires who lost control first and killed her. If that had been the case, maybe he wanted me to go up and witness their suffering. He’d either get the satisfaction of things playing out as he’d hoped and it being me who was the one to suffer personally, or he’d still get to punish me through tormenting my friends as consolation, if it hadn’t quite gone to plan. Or maybe he’d never really expected the two vampires to survive this far. My head started to ache again from trying to fathom what game David was playing in this particular room, and I had to wonder if I was even thinking along the right lines or if there was something I was missing. None of those possibilities seemed satisfactory enough as concrete explanations for what was going on – there were too many variables for the way things could have played out which would surely have had to be accounted for when designing that chamber. And the planning that had gone into it couldn’t have come from David alone. He’d never been that intelligent to come up with so many different variables and find solutions to them, so he must have had a considerable amount of help from greater minds than he.
“Now, if one of you would be so kind as to smash the lights for me,” Gwyn said, interrupting my train of thought. “Then I can accompany our young werewolf and see he makes it through safely. If you want my company that is, Nick.”
“Why, what’s up there?” I asked, fixing my eyes on his.
“Again, the plans were kind of vague on this section. I don’t know if the Slayers had already become wise to my presence or not but from here on out I only really got to see the layout of the place, with little to no notes on what exactly was going into the remaining passages or chambers. But whatever it is, makes sense for you to have some back up, no?”
“How much further do we have to go?”
“We’re not far off reaching the end now, but I should warn you that I saw nothing of how to get out of that final chamber. I mean, we are being held by your enemies. Why would they provide a handy escape route for you to just waltz on out of after beating the final challenge?”
“I’ll come up with you as well, if you’d like,” Zee said.
“I can also lend my aid if we are expecting trouble up there,” Lady Sarah added.
“No,” I answered. “Not all of you. There’s no way Selina can get up there, let alone Amy. Even if Varin can somehow climb up or leap high enough, it’s too dangerous for her – she could easily slip off and fall to her death. They’re going to have to take the passage at ground level, and I’d rather at least one of you vampires went with them. No offence Selina, but it seems you’re all but powerless without the tools of your craft, and your familiar probably can’t fight with Amy on his back, or at least not without risk of her falling off.”
“None taken. You are correct in your assumptions,” she answered.
“Then I will go with our sisters,” Lady Sarah said.
That didn’t surprise me. “Yeah, makes most sense. I’m trusting you two to keep my sister safe. Swear to me you’ll see her through the rest of this place safely if I don’t make it.”
“We will guard her with our lives,” Selina answered solemnly.
“Thank you. Give me a moment to talk to her before we do this.”
My companions retreated a little to give some semblance of privacy, though in reality the vampires would easily hear every word. The black shadow dog moved in closer by some apparent silent command from his mistress, and Amy spoke for the first time since I’d killed Hannah.
“She was my friend. Why did you have to kill her?”
I couldn’t meet her eyes as I answered “Now you know why I had to leave.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m cursed, Amy. When the werewolf bit me that night, something changed in me, something more than just the ability to turn into a wolf myself. A part of me craves human meat and when I come across someone weak and badly injured like Hannah, I can’t control myself.”
“Even if it was me? Or Mum?”
I hesitated before I replied “Even if it was you or Mum.”
Part of me hated having to admit that to her. If she hadn’t started to see me as a monster already, she surely did then. I was just grateful I wasn’t having to face the full force of her emotions for as long as she remained under Zee’s spell. I also still wanted to know how she knew Hannah and why they would both be imprisoned as part of David’s sick game, but I didn’t want to get into it just then. Those questions would wait a little longer, if I lived long enough to ask them.
My sister seemed to be beyond words then, so I said “Go with Selina and Lady Sarah now. They’ll take care of you till we’re able to meet back up again.”
“It’s not like I have a choice.”
“You’re safer with them, trust me. I don’t know what I’m about to get into, but I’m sure my path will be much harder than yours. If we don’t see each other again… I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”
She still didn’t seem to know what to say and she refused to look at me as Varin backed off. She was probably starting to blame me for everything that had happened since I’d first been bitten, and who could fault her? Sure, I could have argued that I was as much a victim as all the poor souls I’d dragged into death’s embrace, that I’d never wanted to hurt friends or family, or that I’d never wanted her to have to deal with any of this which was partly why I’d left home in the first place, to try and prevent any further damage to my family that might arise from my curse, but in the end it was because of me that she’d suffered, and was suffering still. And there was nothing I could do to atone for that.
All too aware it might be the last time I ever saw her, my gaze remained fixed on Amy, but I had a sense of Zee moving towards one of the lights. Some part of me still mourned the human life I’d been forced to leave behind and seeing my sister again only heightened that sense of loss, her presence serving as a cruel reminder for everything I’d had to sacrifice to protect my surviving loved ones. Knowing she was going in the presence of two powerful beings was only a small comfort, part of me loathe to leave her side again. But for as long as the serum I’d been injected with remained in my system and kept me weak, I was forced to accept I wouldn’t be much help to her anyway, unless the transformation could beat its effects. And short of transforming, there was little I could do while I was stuck behind bars so there was nothing else for it but to climb up to the passageway I had easy access to and just hope I would be able to reunite with Amy at the end of it.
“Are you ready?” Zee asked, looking at me.
With a heavy heart, I answered “Yeah. Let me climb up first. It’ll be easier if I can see what I’m doing.”
Hannah’s blood had all but dried on my skin by that point, and I was able to grip the stone fairly well as I wrapped my fingers round the two handholds nearest my head and placed my feet on the lowest two. Even weakened by the injection I’d been given, my ascent was a fairly easy one. I made it to the top without slipping and pulled myself up into the darkness of the passage. One solitary light shone faintly up ahead but I couldn’t see much of what we might be about to walk into.
“Okay,” I shouted down to my friends and allies. “I’m up. Can’t see much though.”
“We’re coming,” Zee called back.
Chapter Twenty Two – Danger Below
Unseen in the blackness, Gwyn rose up to the passage we were having to pass through to reach the next part of the dungeon. Again, with the aid of the light further down the tunnel I had the sense of something moving in the shadows as he drew level with me, but I couldn’t make out what exactly his spirit form was, other than a patch of darkness independent of the surrounding blackness. The knocker remained in spirit form, seemingly enjoying his freedom while it lasted. He was probably all too aware of the light up ahead and the fact that he would soon be trapped in his human skin once more.
Then there came the sound of great wings flapping, and I guessed Zee had also taken flight, marking him as one of the vampires with the power to shapeshift. I imagined a giant vampire bat like the one Lady Sarah had become in the battle for my hometown flitting through the air, carrying his sword and his clothes in his claws as he sought to climb high enough to reach the passage. It wasn’t long before I could feel the air buffeted from his wings, his dark form appearing beside me. Shadows melded together and the outline of him changed from bat to man, and even though I couldn’t really see much in the darkness, I turned away while he dressed to give him some added privacy. I might have long since lost any inhibitions I’d had around being naked in public, but I doubted the vampires were as comfortable with their own nudity since they still chose to wear clothes even centuries after losing their humanity. So I looked away out of respect for my friend, indifferent to it all though I was.