“Toad Man, what is Kane up to?”
“He has plans. Big plans. That’s why he let them all out. He needs them. All of them. He wants to restore his disrupted operations. You know, the ones these two ruined.” Toad Man had a clear second set of lenses over his eyes when he blinked. “He says with them out of the picture, it will be business as usual.”
“Well, we aren’t out of the picture,” Sid commented. She sat down on one of the old wooden office chairs. The thought of all the shifters they’d captured run amok out there made her sick.
“No, clearly you aren’t out of the picture…yet.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said.
“Just wishful thinking. So are you going to take me out there with you? Please. I’ll try to control my tongue.” He flicked the long thing in and out of his mouth. “It just isn’t easy.”
“You haven’t told us anything useful,” Smoke said. “No names. No locations. No nothing. Just big plans. How gullible do you think we are? You’re delaying. I’m just wondering what for.”
Touching his chest, Eugene said, “Me? Delay? I’d never trifle with the likes of Vormus.”
Something scurried in the blackness on the edges of the enormous cavern.
Sid got up off her chair so quickly she knocked it over. “Vormus, did you see anything over there?”
“A large burrow-like tunnel. I didn’t have time to search it due to all the commotion.”
Something slunk in the darkness. The lights flickered. The effect was more like a strobe light. Sid pointed her laser at the black spot. The beam died in the dark light.
“They move,” Eugene said in a sinister whisper.
Backing toward Smoke, Sid said, “What moves?”
“The guardians. They wake from their slumber. They feast on the sweet marrow of mortals.” Eugene hopped into the nearest cell in a single leap and slammed the door shut. “Goodbye, mortals!”
Smoke nudged up alongside Sid. “Stay close.”
A centipede-like creature, thicker than a man’s leg and longer than two, snaked out from the darkness. The plum-colored monster moved on thousands of silent legs. Its face had huge green eyes filled with many smaller lenses. A sharp horn was on its head. Double sets of black pinchers guarded the monster’s mouth.
Smoke and Sid backed up. Sid said, “Vormus, have you seen one of these things before?”
“They call them the vorpeen. Extremely deadly. ”
“It looks like a tobacco hornworm,” Smoke remarked. “Just ten times uglier.”
The vorpeen came right at them.
Smoke and Sid fired. Bullets ripped through the beast’s body. It reared up on its thousands of back legs, squealing an ear-splitting shriek. “EeeEEEeeeeeEEeeeee!”
Covering his ears, Vormus yelled, “Don’t shoot it! It will only attract more. They aren’t easy to kill.”
Sid figured that out soon enough. The vorpeen advanced. Sid shot it in the face.
Blam! Blam!
Its bullet wounds oozed. It stopped coming. Its body twisted and writhed.
“I said not to shoot it,” Vormus said with disappointment. “They come.”
Three more vorpeens appeared from the darkness. The silent things crept right at them with their horns lowered. Their pinchers clacked.
Aiming from one vorpeen to the other, Sid said, “So how are we supposed to kill them?”
“You don’t. You run from them. They’ll just keep coming unless they’re fed.”
Sid and Smoke’s gunfire echoed in the chamber like the sound of a raging thunderstorm.
The vorpeens wriggled and squirmed. Their guts splashed the cavern floor.
“Looks like they die to me,” Smoke said. “And I’ve got plenty of bullets. How many can there be?”
With anger in his voice, Vormus said, “How many bees are in a hive?”
Three vorpeens became six.
Sid and Smoke looked at one another and said simultaneously, “Elevator!”
Backing away from the monstrous bugs, she took a glance over her shoulder. Eugene the Toad Man stood in the elevator with a broad smile on his face. He smiled and waved. “Goodbye, mortals!” The doors started to close.
“Wait!” Sid screamed.
Smoke turned just as the doors clicked shut. “That sucks.”
CHAPTER 8
Vormus floated up off the floor.
Still shooting the monsters, Sid said, “You get down here and fight!”
“I didn’t start this fight. Besides, I don’t want to get my sweater dirty.” He picked off a fragment of debris from his shoulder. “I’m rather fond of it.”
She pointed the Glock at him. “Get down here and fight, or I’m gonna shoot you!”
A knot of centipedes stormed her feet, at least a hundred pounds of them. It made her skin crawl. She sent two bullets through one’s face. The blue-tipped rounds ripped the back of its head out. The second vorpeen devoured the first. The third one kept coming.
“Crap! Smoke, I’m down to the red tip!” She popped out one clip and exchanged it for another. Suddenly, a sea of vorpeens appeared by the dozens, snapping at her legs with pinchers. She blasted off round after round. “I’m going to run out of ammo.”
“I knew I should have brought a machine gun.” Firing with two hands, Smoke cracked off shot after shot. The bugs piled up in heaps.
It wasn’t enough. Within seconds, they were surrounded by the vermin again. Pinchers fastened on Sid’s leg and held her tight. She screamed, “Aaaaaaarrgh!” She fired. Blam!
The entire chamber became a bug bath. The wriggling masses devoured their own dead, filling their mouths with their brethren’s flesh. The insects came en masse at Smoke and Sid.
Covered in gore and sweat, she fought the masses. They tangled her ankles and crawled up her spine. She grabbed one by the neck, slung it through the air, and shot it.
Out of nowhere, Smoke appeared. He ripped the bugs away from her ankles, tearing them apart with his hands. “They squish,” he said. A bug crawled up his shoulder. He grabbed its pinchers and ripped them apart. “I bet these would make great bait for really big fish.”
“Too bad we aren’t hunting whale today,” she said.
“Maybe tomorrow.”
“Ugh!” She kicked another vorpeen free, then stomped its head under her heel. “Can’t you regurgitate some bug repellent or something?” She sprinted by the next wave of bugs and jumped up on a desk. “Vormus! Get the elevator back!”
The vorpeens didn’t chase after Vormus. He had a clear path to the elevator. He floated over and pushed the button. “You see? I helped, but I don’t think anything is coming. You know, it’s the blood they so enjoy. If you were immortal like me, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Shut up!” Sid shot another and another.
Fighting at her side, Smoke said, “I have an idea. Vormus, did you say they were coming out of a cave back there?”
“I don’t see them coming from anywhere else.”
Smoke snatched Sid’s clip that held one red bullet. He winked at her. “I’ll be back.” He ran through the field of centipedes.
Fighting the centipedes, she watched him disappear. Within moments, gunfire cracked off in the blackness, followed by loud booms. The floor shook. A billowing dust cloud spilled out of the darkness.
“Smoke!” she screamed as she fought.
The rangy man emerged from the hazy mist. He killed everything crawly in sight, working his way back to Sid. “I think a cave-in might hold them.”
At a furious pace, they fought off every last vorpeen until they were all dead. No more came. Coated in bug splatter, he said to Sid, “Did you use a vitamin?”
“No. You?”
He shook his head. Surveying all the mutilated bugs, he said, “That was awesome.”
Sid turned. “Vormus, is the elevator back?”
“No.” He applauded them with a gentle clap. “Marvelous work, but I think we have another problem.”
“What’s that?”
The block walls cracked. Water squirted through. The lights quavered again.
“This place is going to collapse at any moment.”
CHAPTER 9
“They’ve been in there too long,” Sam said to Guppy. They stood outside, leaning on Guppy’s truck. He held some binoculars to his eyes. A fog had covered Fort Carroll in a hazy mist. The outline of the island could barely be seen. “I knew we should have brought a boat.”
“It’s barely been an hour,” Guppy said. “They’re usually gone much longer than that.”
Looking down at her husband, the high-heeled woman took away his binoculars. “Excuse me, honey?”
“Er…I can swim over and check on them if you like.”
“I might just have you do that.” Her long nails dug into her hands. “Aw, I’m sorry, hon. You know I hate waiting. I have a bad feeling, too. Something just doesn’t seem right.”
“The fog and the moon don’t help much either. They bring the stink of the supernatural. They’ll be back soon. I’m sure of it.”
Sam sent a text to Sid. Her painted eyes were intent on the screen. “They’ve gone dark, all right.”
The ground shook under her feet.
Sam’s body straightened. “Did you feel that?”
“I sure did.” Guppy glanced at the ground. “That was weird.”
“What the hell was it?”
He shrugged his brawny shoulders.
“They don’t have earthquakes in DC, do they?” she asked.
“Not that I remember.” He scanned the traffic zooming by on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “I don’t see or hear any big trucks that could have moved the ground like that. It felt like the ground farted.”
Sam pinched her nose. “Or maybe you did? You didn’t, did you?”
“No, no, honey, it wasn’t me.”
She eyed him.
“I swear.”
“At least we’re outside.” In the corner of her eye, she saw someone moving through the fog. She hit guppy in the arm and pointed.
A man approached, dripping from head to toe. He wore nothing but a pair of jeans. The rest of the stocky figure was difficult to see in the fog and darkness. His attention was elsewhere when he noticed Sid’s car. He stopped and looked.
Guppy reached inside his truck and grabbed a shotgun then eased in front of Sam. She drew her nickel-plated 1911 semi-auto from her belt. It had pink pearl grips. Together, they approached. Guppy charged the pump on the shotgun. It caught the man’s attention. He stepped full into the light.
Sam made a face like she had swallowed a bug. The squat, dripping-wet guy hunkered down on his thick legs. His skin was toady. His hands and feet were webbed. His huge eyes bulged from the sockets.
“Good evening,” he said. His long tongue licked out, snatching a bug. He sucked it back in between his thin lips. “Is this your car? It’s a fine machine.”
Nerves tingling and skin crawling, Sam said, “Get away from the car, frog lips.” She charged the slide on her weapon. Trembling a little, she pointed the weapon at him. “Or I’ll blow your warts off.”
“Heh.” The Toad Man lifted his webbed hands. There were pronounced claws on them. A sliver of a smile crossed his fat face. “I’m not a frog but a toad. Toad Man, they call me. Humph. I suppose you’re with those other clowns who sought to detain me. How humorous.” His bulging eyes blinked. “They are dead.”
“You’re lying,” Sam said.
“No. They’re finished. Soon, you will be too.” Toad Man gave Sam a lusty once-over. “I might keep you alive for a bit. You are a feast for the eyes. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve shared company with a woman.” He took a step forward.
“That’s not going to happen, tadpole,” Guppy said. “One more step and I’ll scatter your guts all over this place.”
“Hah. Your friends’ weapons didn’t work on me. Your weapons can’t harm me either, mortals. What’s your name, pretty lady? I’m Eugene ‘Toad Man’ Green. And you are?”
“Not interested.” Sam squeezed the trigger.
Toad Man sprang over both of them.
She turned. Toad Man was gone. “Where’d he go?”
“Not sure,” Guppy said.
Hands beat on the hood of Guppy’s truck. It was Toad Man. He laughed.
Sam and Guppy took aim.
Toad Man vanished. His laughter carried in the night. From out in the darkness, he said, “I hate mortals. I enjoy killing them one at a time.”
“Stay close, Sam,” Guppy said.
“I will.” Her heart pounded in her chest. She stood back to back with Guppy. Together they turned slowly, searching all around. Something bounded across her path and vanished. “He’s so fast.”
Toad Man cackled. “You have no idea, dear.”
A rock skipped over the pavement. It cracked Sam in the ankle. “Gah!” She fell to the ground, clutching her leg. Tears watered her eyes. “Man, that hurt!”
Shotgun low and eyes wary, Guppy crouched over her. “I’ll find him. Hang in there.”
Sam didn’t see any sign of the man anywhere. She looked in all directions. “I don’t see him.”
With a wild-eyed look, Toad Man dropped out of the darkness right behind Guppy. His clawed hands locked on Guppy’s shoulders. He slung the burly man aside like a small child, smashing Guppy into the truck’s quarter panel.
Guppy lay still.
Sam took aim.
Toad Man swatted the gun from her hand with alarming force. He licked his lips. “You’re mine now, pretty lady.”
CHAPTER 10
Water poured through the wall of the cavern like it would through a huge crack in the Hoover Dam. It was up to Sid’s knees and rising fast. The vorpeen floated among the inner tide, splashing in the surge. The ones that still lived wrestled with their fate. Sid was glad. It appeared the vorpeen couldn’t swim. It was a small victory.
“Smoke, how are we going to get out of here?” she demanded.
The rangy man’s hands were digging into the slit between the elevator doors. His face filled with strain. “Man, these doors are stubborn!”
Sid sloshed through the waters. She grabbed hold from the other side. The doors wouldn’t move. The lights quavered in and out. The darkness came and went like the door of a coffin opening and closing. She glanced up at Vormus, who floated just beneath the ceiling. “A little help?”
Frowning, he said, “I’m not fond of getting wet.”
“You’re going to get wet one way or the other. Now get your ass down here!”
Vormus complied, sinking in the air and landing beside Sid. She stepped aside. The shifter sank his nails into the crack between the doors. He eyed Smoke.
“On three,” Smoke said. “Three!” Putting all his muscle into it, he grunted. His face filled with strain.
A notable amount of concentration formed on Vormus’s pale face.
The elevator doors parted a foot with a groan, revealing emptiness. No elevator.
Sid jumped into action. She wedged her body inside the seam and pushed with her knee. While water spilled into the elevator shaft, she pushed with all her strength. There was a pop. The metal doors gave way. “We need to climb,” she said.
Smoke nodded.
Vormus slipped inside the shaft and floated up, saying, “I’d carry you if I could, but my power is limited. Good luck.” He vanished up into the pitch-black shaft.
“Over here,” Smoke said. The water was up to his chest. His hand locked on an emergency ladder built into the shaft. He grabbed Sid by the hand and pulled her over. “You go first.”
Hand over hand, she raced up the ladder. In the black, she could no longer see a thing. It was like climbing inside a tunnel with no end. The water rose under them, trying to swallow them whole. Sid felt like the entire island was sinking.
“Hurry, Sid,” Smoke said.
Fueled by adrenaline, she climbed. It seemed to never end. One rung after anothe
r, she hoped to see a glimmer of light. She hollered up the shaft, “Vormus?”
There was no reply.
Panic set in. She didn’t have any idea how deep the shaft was to begin with. The elevator ride had been so long. Her limbs grew tired. They’d just battled countless vorpeen to the point of exhaustion. Now she was fighting for her life again. And at the top, she knew the elevator would be blocking their way out. Another enemy to fight in the pitch black. “Smoke, how deep are we?”
“I don’t know, but the water is almost on my toes. Keep moving!”
She stopped. “I’m not going out like this without a fight.” She dug out her supervitamin pill, stuck it in her mouth, bit down, and swallowed. She resumed the climb. The higher she went, the more her shoulders ached. At last, the pill kicked in and the throbbing eased. She climbed faster. “Vormus, where are you?”
The shifter shouted back, “Under this albatross of an elevator.”
Sid practically ran up the ladder. Her head smote a metal beam. She shook it off. She could sense Vormus. The vitamin enhanced her sight just enough to make out an outline of the shifter above. “Get out of the way.”
Vormus drifted aside.
Holding onto the rung by one hand, she leaned over and punched the bottom of the elevator with the other.
“Heavens, what are you doing?” Vormus asked.
“I’m getting us out of here!” She cocked back and punched again. Wham! Hitting the metal over and over, she found a soft spot in the floor. She punched several times. It wouldn’t give.
“Sid, the water’s rising fast,” Smoke said.
“I know that!” She laid into it with everything she had. The water was still flooding the shaft. She took a breath. They were all underwater now. She lost the force she needed to put behind her swing. Her fingers found the edge of the metal panel.
Please, Jesus, don’t let us die like this!
She began peeling it back. More strong fingers joined hers. With a wrench and a heave, the panel peeled away. Sid shoved herself up and burst through the elevator’s flooring. She grabbed Smoke’s arm and pulled him through. Smoke did the same for Vormus. All together, they pulled open the elevator doors. The three of them spilled out into the tunnel under the forest. The water spilled out, too, and vanished through a grate in the floor. Sid coughed and gasped for air. Smoke and Vormus did the same.
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 95