by Nick Stead
Lady Sarah was thrown back down to her side, though she retained her hold on consciousness for the time being. Even so, she would be just as powerless to resist when the demon decided to switch back to her. But it hadn’t quite finished with Zee who I guessed must still be alive, though not for long. He lay unaware as the creature knelt beside him, for what foul purpose I wasn’t about to give it enough time to find out. I had a good idea of what it intended, thinking it would probably slice him open with one of those clawed fingers and use the pain to pull him back into the waking world, purely so it could bring him more suffering and a slow and agonising death.
“No!” I yelled, and before anyone could stop me I charged at the demon.
That nightmarish face turned to regard me and it stood back up to its full height, letting me get almost within range before dismissing me with a lazy flick of its wrist. The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air just as the vampires had done, my body reconnecting with the ground with enough force to set my wounds bleeding again and to open up new cuts and grazes on my bare skin. Even with my higher pain threshold, the screaming of my nerves was enough to want to make me stay down, but I couldn’t let it end like that. I had to keep fighting for the new friends and allies I’d made, and above all for my sister, who didn’t belong in our world but had been caught up in it anyway. So I forced my aching body up to its feet and grabbed my sword, only for the demon to make a sound far worse than its hideous shrieking. This was a malevolent, gravelly noise like its throat was a deep pit full of smaller demons clawing to get out, and one I’ll never forget. It was laughing at us as its true purpose was revealed.
I’d been flung back towards the entrance of the chamber. The terrible sound filled my ears as I started to run at the creature again. My three allies still standing, or sitting in Amy’s case, bent over to retch, and the barghest’s shadowy form suddenly dissolved into nothingness as it had when Death had dismissed it, pitching my sister forward, onto the hard stone. I could only watch in horror as each of their features settled into a look of pure agony and blood began to stream from their mouths. The sight spurred me to greater speeds, though I had no idea what more I could do when I reached the demon a second time.
Blood also began to trickle from the corner of Zee’s mouth. His eyes snapped open and his face twisted into the same pain-filled expression as the others, instincts driving him upright so he could heave up the precious crimson fluid as well. And Lady Sarah had also pulled herself back up onto her arms, suffering the same torment.
The demon didn’t permit me to come within range again. Something stabbed through my guts just as I was drawing level with Amy, Selina and Gwyn, sending me crashing to my knees. I couldn’t control the spasms racking my body, forcing me to give up more of my own liquid life force, even after all that had been spilled in the dungeon just to reach that point. At the rate I was losing blood, I thought it might be that which killed me rather than whatever internal damage the demon was causing. And I realised then that this had been David’s plan all along. This had always been the endgame he’d intended; for me to watch my friends and allies die, completely helpless and unable to do anything to save them just as he no doubt felt he had been in the event of Fiona’s death, even though he hadn’t actually been there to see her die. I was to suffer the heartache of losing the few companions I had left before I finally succumbed to the demon myself, while he watched from the safety of his control room and enjoyed my pain, both physical and emotional. We were always meant to reach that final chamber, that final fight, so after everything, after all the pain and torment already endured, I could die knowing it had all been for nothing. Our fates were sealed, and I was to be sent back into Death’s icy grasp with the terrible knowledge that there was nothing I could do.
Chapter Twenty Seven – Predatory Pact
All was lost, ever growing pools of blood spreading around our dying bodies and yet we kept on vomiting more of it. Amy was the first to collapse, her body already very weak. Selina followed next. I didn’t know if they were dead or unconscious, though I was under no illusion as to the nearness of the reaper, knowing full well they were still slipping away, if they hadn’t already.
I was given a brief respite between retches, presumably so there was no chance of me dying before any of the others. The demon had such control over our deaths that it might as well have been the reaper himself, but it shouldn’t really have been surprising, since the thing was probably ancient enough to have had centuries of practice. I raised my eyes to the heavens, in between spewing more of my blood than I had to give, looking up at the night sky through that hole in the roof as if to plead for some divine help to save us from our demonic tormentor. Not that I’d ever really believed in a god or come to expect anything from any higher powers that might exist, but I stared up there anyway. And it was then that the clouds began to drift apart, finally revealing the pale orb that fascinated and called to me so.
David had been so confident he could conquer my lycanthropy, so sure he could keep my lupine side caged even in the power of my lunar master’s light calling so strongly that he’d wanted to taunt me with the sight of it overhead. But that was exactly the kind of arrogance that got men killed. He’d chosen to meddle in forces he didn’t understand, underestimating the power of the moonlight shining down. And such a bright moon it was that night. The very edge of its beam touched my clammy skin and fresh sweat began to roll down my body as my eyes burned amber. A grim smile played on my lips as I swivelled my lupine eyes round to meet David’s wide, human ones. And seeing that the serum he’d hedged all his bets on had failed him in the end, realising that his grand scheme had just gone terribly wrong, he retreated from the window, no doubt panicking already. An alarm began to sound from within the base.
I turned my attention back to the demon and met its gaze.
“Release me and my companions and I will free you from their control,” I growled through the pain, pausing to spit more blood. “I can offer you far more souls than just the six of us, if you let us live.”
The demon considered me but gave no response. I realised even if it understood, it probably wasn’t possible for it to simply let us go while it was still bound to the will of whoever was controlling it. And even with the moonlight beginning to restore my strength, it wouldn’t be enough. The creature would kill me long before I could heal the damage and I would still be helpless to save myself, let alone the others. But with the full moon giving me strength I found I was no longer afraid and I looked into those glowing red eyes as an equal, a fellow predator born to slaughter without mercy.
Blood continued to trickle from the corner of my mouth as we regarded each other and for a brief moment I imagined us there frozen in time, two great hunters locked in each other’s gaze. Then the moment was broken. The demon still didn’t speak, instead unleashing another blast of telekinetic energy in my direction and sending me flying through the air a second time. My body was flung higher up than before and seconds later I crashed through the window we’d been so desperate to reach, shards of glass raining down around me as I landed in the control room. Fresh pain flooded my aching bone and flesh. I was still bleeding from both existing wounds and new, my guts still feeling like a knife twisted through them. Whatever internal damage the demon had caused, it wouldn’t heal until the transformation went far enough to repair it, though at least the creature seemed to have stopped whatever it was doing inside of me and I was no longer actively spewing blood. I tried to embrace the change as I had so many times before but even with the moon’s power calling to it, the serum was still fighting to suppress my lupine nature. My flesh was shifting but much slower than it should have been, so that only my eyes remained visibly wolfish for the time being.
Realising I would have to battle on through the pain, I forced my protesting body back to its feet once more. And as I stood and began to take in my surroundings, noting several computer monitors with live feeds which showed every part of the dungeon I’
d passed through from the very first room I’d woken up in (where there must have been a hidden camera since there’d been no lights in the darkness to indicate the presence of one) to the passageway just outside the final chamber, I heard a voice in my head. It was so full of malice that there was no question as to where it came from and an involuntary shudder ran through me.
“Free me, and I will release the others.”
That was all it said and I didn’t bother to reply, unsure whether it’d even hear me if I did. I was well aware that it had made no promise to let them live but it seemed as good as I was going to get. And for all I knew, Amy and Selina were already dead, lying there in pools of their own blood, but there was no time for grief then so I focussed on my next course of action, which was to kill the Slayer who’d summoned the demon and bound it to their will, just the same as we’d originally planned to do once we were through to the main part of the Slayers’ base. Indeed, I let the thought that they might be dead feed the darkness surging up on the tidal wave of primal fury rising with the moon’s call, climbing ever higher the longer it was denied release by the serum continuing on in its futile fight to keep my bestial side at bay. My blood was already boiling with the feral rage coursing through my veins and I knew it was only a matter of time before my flesh broke free of the cage David had sought to keep it in, and when that time came and the fury crashed over me I would be unstoppable by all but Death himself.
The control room was already empty, David’s minions apparently fleeing with him when they’d seen my eyes change. Such pitiful creatures. I was going to enjoy crushing each of them one by one as I sought revenge for all I’d been put through in my short time as their captive and also for the innocents they’d harmed to get to me. The unnamed dog whose life would go unmourned and unremembered by humanity, Hannah and her family, and above all Amy, my sister who I’d thought would be safe if I left her and Mum to continue on in their human lives while I endured as the unnatural thing I’d become, struggling on in a world which had no place for me. The Slayers were going to pay for each and every one of those deaths before the night was through until the walls were painted red with their blood and gore and their heads decorated the desks where they’d sat playing their game, making us fight and suffer in the dungeon they’d created. They were going to suffer far worse than anything they’d put us through, just as I’d promised them partway through the dungeon. And I was going to enjoy torturing them to the music of their screams.
The demon’s fear inducing stink was already beginning to seep in through the broken window but it was not yet as overwhelming as it had been through most of the dungeon, the air still feeling much fresher than it had while we’d been locked in the chamber with the thing. I breathed deeply, taking in the scents of the men who’d been sat watching the blood sport they’d been making of my death. Within seconds I had everything I needed. The room had no more to offer me and my prey lay beyond its door. Time to move on.
David had possessed enough sense to close the door on his way out and either he or his men had barred it to try and keep me from moving any further through their base. It was metal but with the moon’s hold over me as strong as ever and rage lending me even greater strength than my aching flesh should have been able to muster with the damage that had been done to it, I soon broke through, using my body as a battering ram. The metal was not as thick as it might have been if the humans had really wanted to take full precautions against any of us escaping, which suggested they’d been utterly confident we would each die to the demon’s onslaught. They didn’t seem to have thought it possible that any of us would survive long enough to find a way through to them.
Once the metal had caved in around the area I’d been slamming myself against, it was weak enough that I was able to punch a hole through it. I wrapped my fingers around the edges of that hole and pulled the steel apart until it widened enough for me to step through, taking another breath as I entered the corridor. The smell of my prey was still thick in my nostrils and I set off in pursuit of my vengeance. The hunt was on.
I had just begun to prowl down the corridor, my every move watched by more cameras overhead just as in the dungeon, when David’s voice crackled to life through speakers overhead, as if the alarm wasn’t enough to spur his men into action.
“The werewolf’s loose. Get every gun we have on him, now!”
My lips curled into a snarl, teeth growing slightly pointier but still a long way from becoming fangs and my nails darkening and starting to lengthen into claws. The bastard couldn’t even bring himself to say my name. I hoped my body could overcome the effects of the injection before I reached him, so I could rip him apart in my usual, brutal fashion.
Footsteps pounding across the PVC flooring sounded from nearby, a group of Slayers rushing to obey David’s command. If they’d been smart enough they’d have waited to fight me in force but as so many had foolishly done before them, they placed too much faith in their guns and their ability to put a bullet through my heart or my brain. There were only a handful of them, far too few to douse the fires of my rage.
Roaring my defiance at my would-be killers, I charged before they even had time to aim and crashed into the weak humans, knocking them all to the ground. It was such an easy thing then to kill or maim them. Ideally I would have liked to have taken my time with each of them but I wasn’t as reckless as I once was and I knew such dark pleasures would have to wait for those I really wanted to make suffer. So I delivered their deaths much quicker than I really wanted to, before any of them could fire off a single shot. I couldn’t risk taking any more wounds while my body was so bruised and battered, and still unable to heal itself instantly.
Skulls caved in as I smashed them into the floor, creating gory halos of blood, bone and brain around the heads of my enemies. Bones snapped as I broke wrists and ripped off limbs, blood spurting across the walls and floors and showering my skin in its glorious warmth, which only empowered that darker side of me. Once the majority of them lay dead and dying, that left me free to take a little longer with the man unlucky enough to be the last, though some part of me knew I didn’t have the luxury of drawing it out too long when the demon still held my friends and allies in its clutches. I settled for digging the sharpening claws of my right hand into the flesh of his forehead and tracing grisly lines across his skin until his face was marred by a series of red rivulets. I took his eyes and continued downwards until my fingers hooked on the inside of his mouth. The human was tough and stopped screaming long enough to try and close his teeth around my filthy digits, each one soaked in the blood of his comrades. But he was no match for my supernatural strength and I dug my fingers under his tongue, pulling his lower jaw back down into a scream and forcing it downwards until bone and tissue gave way to my lupine might, cracking and tearing with a meaty sound until the bone came away in my hand, leaving ripped tendons and ligaments hanging down like grisly threads. Then I snapped the lower section of his spine, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
I left him to die alone and helpless, surrounded by the corpses of his allies. Blindly he tried to crawl away with broken hands, tongue hanging down loosely and trailing across the floor whenever he failed to lift his head high enough to keep it from licking across the pools of gore. He probably wasn’t enjoying the taste as much as I did though.
None of their scents had been the ones I’d picked up in either the control room or the chamber with the abused dog, but I soon found one I recognised. I followed it down another corridor and into a room, the rapid beat of a heart gripped by terror telling me my quarry was in there long before I forced my way in and set eyes on my prey. This man was unarmed, cowering beneath a table. He’d probably been hoping to hide while his allies fought and died to my teeth and claws, waiting for the chance to slip away amidst the carnage. It might have worked if I’d been attacked by enough of them to keep me busy, but unfortunately for him the other Slayers still seemed too busy scrambling to gather their forces, since more
of them had yet to appear.
I grabbed a leg and pulled, the coward sliding out from the illusion of cover the table had granted him. It did have a sheet across it which had concealed his shaking form but he couldn’t hide from my other senses and I would not be denied my kill. First I needed to know where I might find the spellcaster responsible for summoning the demon though, since that was my priority.
“Mercy! Don’t kill me, I have a family,” he pleaded.
“So did Hannah but you seemed happy enough to sacrifice her,” I growled.
“Please, I’ll do anything.”
“The demon. Who summoned it here and whereabouts in this godforsaken place are they likely to be?”
“He calls himself Aeshma, after the demon from mythology. Likes to think he’s their master, you see.”
“Where can I find him?”
“That’s all I know, I swear!”
“Don’t make me ask again,” I snarled, my canines almost fully grown into the shape of those of my wolf form and my claws becoming equally as impressive.
“Okay! Okay, I might know where he is. David gave him a room specifically for working his dark magic. That’s where he was when you entered the last chamber, so he could control his pet demon.”