I jumped as the metal doors slammed against the walls. Brendan prowled toward me, his eyes blazing through the spluttering darkness.
I sucked in a sharp breath as the awareness under my skin suddenly burned and stabbed at me like red-hot pokers. The ball that had lodged in my throat dropped to my chest and swelled. I clutched my chest. My blood suddenly ran cold as unexpected familiarity grabbed me by the throat.
“We need to get out of here. Now!”
He froze as all the heartbeats stopped in unison.
One long beep filled the room.
“Brendan?” I said quietly, inching toward him.
He scanned the room intensely.
“We have to go.”
His eyes locked on mine.
“Right now.”
The monitors went crazy. Each machine suddenly boomed erratically, the beeps now all out of sync. My heart hammered against my ribcage as I spun round and watched all the patients jolt up in their beds.
“Oh, fuck—”
A deafening wail stabbed at my ears. I turned to see one of the patients ripping the needles from her arms, her eyes blood red and hungry. Fangs exploded from her mouth.
The bastards must have turned the machines off.
The patient locked eyes with me.
Every muscle in my body tensed, knowing that she would attack. She jumped right on cue. I grabbed my sword with both hands and swung, catching her right in the neck. Her decapitated body flew into me, knocking me to the ground. My rib screamed as my head smashed against the cold stone floor. A wave of electric white light flashed behind my eyelids as fresh pain cracked through my skull. Heat spread along my face and neck and I tensed as the metallic scent of my blood filled my senses.
A hand clamped around my left wrist and pulled me to my feet.
Brendan growled, hitting a male patient and sending him flying into the group before us. My foggy sight adjusted just enough to see the red eyes burning in the flickering darkness as the patients advanced. I shook Brendan’s grip and flexed my right wrist, sending six of my small daggers toward the eyes and throats of our nearest threats. We continued stepping backward, edging toward the door. A deep growl rumbled in the pit of Brendan’s stomach. I looked up quickly to see his lips peeling back as he gave them all a good sight of his own fangs.
Three of the patients ripped pieces of flesh from the head of the one Brendan had wounded.
“They’re hungry,” I said. “Make them bleed. It will distract the others.”
And as if I had just shouted “eat me” at the top of my voice, they advanced. Brendan stepped in front of me, shoving the claws of both of his hands into the stomachs of two of the patients. With a snarl, he broke their spines and picked them up, throwing them into the crowd. At the smell of new blood, some of the Infecteds turned and leapt over each other to reach the bodies.
I charged at one of the patients, thrusting my sword through the male’s chest and pushing down. He screamed, blood oozing from the wound. My head clouded; my heart began to thump in my ears. Brendan roared somewhere behind me. Two hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me, but I could only watch the patients jump on to my freshly cut male. I had the strange impulse to join them.
The hands pushed me out into the smoky corridor and, for a moment, I couldn’t pull my gaze from the three Wolves who continued to wound and throw patients around while they inched out of the room. It seemed almost impossible to breathe, and it took me at least a minute to realize why. I blinked as my eyes started to water. The smell of something burning flooded my senses.
I slowly turned around to see nothing but grey smoke as it danced under the flickering overhead lights.
“Is this place on fire?” I coughed, looking back at the group. Two of the Werewolves placed a thick steel beam through the handles of the door and bent the metal. The doors rattled as the remaining patients began hammering against the old metal. It wouldn’t hold them, not for long.
“The place is on fire, isn’t it?” I asked, covering my mouth, thankful that my concentration had jumped back to the bigger problem at hand.
Brendan looked at me and nodded.
“Elevator?”
He shook his head.
“Another way out?”
He grunted and sent his right hand flying into the wall.
“I take that as a no.” I coughed. A fresh wave of pain pulsed through my skull. I touched the back of my head. Hot liquid trickled onto my fingers and a hiss left my mouth as a sharp jab of pain went through me. I looked at the blood on my fingertips, the scent causing my sight to sharpen slightly.
A hundred Infecteds are trying to break down a door to get to us and I am bleeding, like a tease.
I forced my focus off my hand and quickly wiped the blood on my jeans, well, Eve’s jeans. I doubted she would mind, since we all had more important things to worry about.
I pushed my sword back in its sheath and studied the corridor.
The lights continued spluttering above me, still fighting in some relentless attempt to come back on, even though it appeared hopeless.
It is hopeless. We’re trapped.
If nine huge Werewolves couldn’t find a way out, what the hell could I do?
Fresh waves of pain rippled around my skull and down my spine and side as I fought to see everything around me, but the thick grey smoke had already flooded the maze of corridors. I could feel it crawling down my throat; the taste and feel of ash coated my tongue thickly. The need to cough kept taking hold of me, while the ash blocked my nose and stung my eyes, causing them to water uncontrollably. My head continued to throb. The pressure in my skull tightened as I fought harder to keep my eyes open.
There has to be a way out.
As idiotic as these bastards seemed, I refused to believe they would be stupid enough not to have an escape route. The building was old. The elevator shaft had already started to fall to pieces. How could they not have another entrance? Unless it had been placed somewhere we couldn’t reach.
I looked up at the ceiling.
“Brendan?” I coughed. “What about the ceiling?”
The wolves dispersed. Five disappeared down the corridors, their heads up as they tapped the ceiling panels with their hands. The other three stood by the shaking double doors.
There is a way out. There has to be.
I pulled any image I could think of from my trips around the maze of corridors. The last time I had been conscious, Lance had brought me down this particular corridor. I could remember seeing the double doors ahead of me and feeling strange, like I had already been down here, which at the time, I hadn’t. We had passed a random door; it looked new, compared to the rest of the facility. It was wooden with a long titanium handle, which meant it stood out on this long, empty wall. I placed my hand against the wall and let my fingertips play across the smooth surface, waiting to feel wood instead of metal panelling.
My fingers left the wall and wandered in the air; I stopped and extended my left arm until my hand lay flat against the wooden door. I slid my hand lower until I felt the cool metal handle. I pushed down and opened the door. A hand came to rest on my shoulder.
“Brendan?” I sensed him behind me. “I think there is a way out. I know that sounds mad, but I can’t explain it. I’ve done this before.” I coughed. “It’s a dream I’ve had ever since my Gran died.”
The patients continued to fight against the door; their wails stabbed at my ears along with the wheezing and grunting of the three Wolves. I had to get them out.
“Trust me?” I turned to look up at him.
His golden eyes studied me for a moment, then he nodded and allowed me to walk into the darkness of the new corridor.
I took a deep breath; the smoke, thankfully, hadn’t invaded the area just yet.
I walked down the hallway; the fingertips of my left hand pressed against the rough stonewall.
Stonewall, in a metal facility?
I held my right arm out in front of me. The metal
of my slingshot pressed into my arm and the feel of it somehow steadied my growing panic, as did the weight of my sword and crossbow as they rested against my back.
I jerked as my fingers tripped across fabric and then landed back on the wall. My eyesight had clouded from the smoke. My nose burnt with it and my mouth tasted like ash. I could rely only on my hearing. I had no idea if anything lurked in the corridor with me.
The awareness under my skin blazed as hot as the fire that currently threatened to bring the entire structure down on our heads, but I just knew I had to walk down here. Every impulse in my body forced me forward. I had no idea what I hoped to find, but I knew deep in my gut we could get out; there had to be some way out.
My right hand hit the uneven wall before me. My heart sank as I stood before the dead end.
I won’t die down here. I am not supposed to die down here.
Gran would have warned me. She would have made me do something different. She wouldn’t let me come back down here just to die. Not when there was so much to do. Not now I was closer to getting Marko. Not after everything I had to go through. After everything Brendan had gone through. He had saved me once, twice, probably a dozen times. I had to get us out.
Brendan’s footfalls stopped behind me. The sound of his ragged panting filled my ears as he struggled to catch his breath. I crouched down, placing both my palms against the jagged rocks and moved them all over the small uneven wall, working my way up.
“They will get out of that room. They are too strong.”
He grunted.
I stopped as cold air tickled the fingertips of my right hand…. Bingo.
“You lot coming or not?” I shouted, knowing they would hear me. I pressed my ear against the wall and concentrated; the faintest sound of trickling water sounded from behind the rocks.
“I think we might be in a cave that they have sealed off.”
Brendan stood beside me.
“I can hear water, and if you move your hand over the rock, there is a breeze coming from somewhere.”
Footfalls echoed through the small corridor, along with the thud of the door shutting, and screeching metal. Brendan’s growl rumbled through his entire body. I could feel it vibrating through my own bones as his left arm brushed against my right. My sight adjusted just enough for me to see Solomon’s crimson eyes burning in the darkness as he stopped on Brendan’s right. He placed his hands on the rock next to Brendan’s and began pushing. I heard a faint crack before something small and heavy hit my foot; I backed away from the wall and stood with the others. Brendan and Solomon’s grunts filled the darkness, along with the distinct sound of crumbling rock.
The urge to cough took hold once more, the taste of ash coating my throat. The smoke had finally found its way into the corridor.
Brendan stumbled forward as a chunk of rock fell on the other side of the wall. The smell and sound of water greeted us.
A thud sounded from the other side of the single door.
“You might want to hurry that up a bit.” I coughed.
An ash-coloured Wolf and a white one began to help Brendan and Solomon.
Brendan growled and sent his fists flying into the rock. The others copied. Another thud echoed, and the wall I rested against trembled.
My head had grown fuzzy and my eyes had started watering like crazy as the smoke continued to fill the tight corridor. I kept them tightly shut, listening to the falling rocks as they smashed against the ground. I held my left hand firmly to my mouth and tried to breathe through my nose. Not that it helped; my throat and nostrils burned regardless. My legs felt heavy as I pressed my back firmly against the wall, attempting to stay upright.
The entire corridor shook.
A roar echoed within the confined space, followed by the sound of splashing water.
“Any luck?” I gasped, trying not to pull any more smoke into my lungs. Each coughing fit just hurt my ribcage even more.
Arms wrapped around me, and I found myself being lifted off the ground.
The heat of the small corridor got swept away within an instant and cool air embraced me. Sharp movements jerked me from side to side as the sound of heavy footfalls, soft panting, and water echoed around me in the moist cavern. Brendan’s scent invaded my nose, cancelling out the taste of ash on my tongue as I sucked in a lungful of cold, smoke-free air and choked my guts up.
His grip tightened as his large body bounced quickly through the cold and damp cave. His fur rubbed against my cheek as the night’s breeze wrapped around us.
Chapter Nineteen
~ Brendan ~
Despite the fact that I currently felt like a chimney—so flooded with smoke I was pretty sure if I opened my mouth, I would start puffing out neat little circles—I didn’t miss the scent of Leeches floating in the air as we drew nearer to Carter’s house. And from the increased pace of the others, neither had they. For some reason, the parasites’ scent was strong, and although their being here meant we could get their research and kill them, the fact they appeared to be close to the house—to our Alpha—wasn’t good.
We had spent ten minutes sealing back up our emergency exit; half an hour combing the forest near the bunker to find...nothing. The last hour or so, we had been heading back to Carter’s. Despite Heather’s protest that I put her down and allow her to run with us, we all felt strangely anxious and since we could run quicker than she could, I thought it best that I carry her. Especially since her head bled and her ribs were still in the process of healing.
In the last ten minutes, our anxiety had burst into anger. Anger that wasn’t our own. Within that moment, we knew that Carter and the others needed us.
Even though we expected something, well, I wasn’t entirely sure what grabbed our attention first as we ran across the large fields neighbouring Carter’s house. It could have been the sound of roaring fire echoing across the large space, or the fierce glow of flames reaching higher so they could lick the night sky.
Heather shifted in my firm grasp. “Jesus Christ.”
Eve! Joey! Scott roared, sprinting off before us.
Those bastards, Solomon snarled.
Dad!
John, be careful, May shouted as she tried to keep up with him.
I wanted to choke up my guts. I didn’t know if it was the earlier smoke still trying to kill me, or if Carter or one of the others struggled to breathe inside the house. My heart hammered in my chest with every step that I took closer to the manor that had been a home to me for the last sixteen years of my life.
Carter? Owen?
No reply.
Jesus! Dabria gasped as we leapt over the fence into Carter’s flower garden.
The manor house stood locked in a cage of flames which ate their way up the brickwork and danced along the roof. The fire roared like a starved lion. Each flame curled like a claw that reached out in an attempt to snatch anything to feed its hunger, casting its angry orange light onto everything it longed to touch, but couldn’t.
I placed Heather on the ground beside me and stood looking at the house.
May, where’s Scott and John?
Scott threw one of the patio chairs through the veranda doors and followed it through. John was right behind him.
Scott? Can you hear me? Have you found them?
Owen is in the hall, John said. The left front window has been smashed, there is glass everywhere. He has some weird looking dagger embedded in the left side of his neck and one under his left ribcage. He has lost a lot of blood.
Don’t touch the dagger, I warned, jogging round to the front of the house.
He can’t heal if—
Once those daggers are embedded, small prongs eject and latch onto the muscles and veins. You pull that dagger and the prongs will rip open his veins and he will die. I stopped in front of the open doorway. My focus landed on the trail of blood staining the path leading from the door. My gut twisted.
This is ridiculous. We need to get in there, Solomon snarled, pacing backward a
nd forward behind me.
Have you found Carter or your father?
Not yet.
Go find them. We will get Owen out. John ran through the hall. Solomon, Thomas, find a way in and get Owen out.
Solomon and Thomas slipped around the right side of the house. Tension pulled harshly at my muscles. The overwhelming need to break anything and everything consumed me. I wanted to scream and howl and.... I took a deep breath. It was my job, my responsibility, to get everyone out safely.
My focus travelled the length of the blood trail. Al, Chris, I want you to follow that trail of blood.
You think it’s one of ours? Alcander asked.
I gave a stiff nod. Leeches bleed black, which can only mean—
The sound of multiple car engines starting caught all our attention.
They are on the east side of the wall— Heather ran into my line of view. Heather! I roared, forgetting that she couldn’t hear me.
Brendan? Scott’s voice filled my head.
The sound of rubber screaming along concrete sounded in the near distance.
Heather ran up the wall, using one of the trees as a boost.
I suddenly felt like I had been torn in half.
Brendan! Scott screamed in my mind.
Al, Chris, go with her. Don’t lose sight of her.
We won’t, Chris promised as they ran toward the manor gates.
It took every ounce of strength I had not to run after her, to stand still and watch as she chased along the wall, firing arrows at the four vans that rolled past the gates. Alcander and Christopher leapt on to one of them; the sound of breaking metal met my ears.
Brendan!
Scott, where are you? I asked, watching as Heather jumped off the wall and ran after the other vans.
Joey’s room. I’m going to break his window. I have to throw him; I need you to catch—
The whining of wood snapped my attention. My head shot up just in time to see the left side of the roof cave in.
Scott, are you okay?
Hurry, Brendan. I need to find Eve.
I ran around the left side of the house and across the lawn, past the small patio area.
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