Web Master (#8 Shifter Squad)

by J. C. Diem

  “I think you’re forgetting one thing,” my father rasped, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

  “What’s that?” Kendricks asked indulgently.

  “Me,” my dad said and exploded into action. He was the best sniper the US army had ever seen, but he had other skills as well. Taller and stronger than the two men holding him, he yanked his arms free. He knocked Kendricks’ gun away then elbowed one man in the face, breaking his nose. He then punched the second man in the jaw. Both men dropped to the ground in an unconscious heap.

  Kendricks levelled his gun again and Zeus lurched forward to bite him on the back of his thigh. Mark lurched forward, freeing himself from the O Squad leader. With a shout of pain, Kendricks twisted around and smashed the butt of his gun on Zeus’ head. Growling savagely, my guardian refused to let go. My dad stripped the downed agents of their weapons and tossed an assault rifle to Mark.

  My attention was drawn back to the fiery circle when flames abruptly shot several feet into the air. Wincing at the brightness, I blinked a few times and focused again. The flames were gone and a malevolent darkness filled the circle. I was too far away to see how deep the hole was, but I had the impression that it was very deep indeed. I heard a babble of harsh, grating voices coming from somewhere unimaginably far away as a door seemed to open for a second. Then the noise was cut off and I heard only labored breathing coming from the pit.

  Gunfire sounded as my dad and Mark began shooting at the O Squad and the other agents who had been posing as EERI guards. Kendricks was still occupied with trying to tear Zeus off his leg.

  Unnoticed by everyone but me, clawed hands appeared on the edge of the pit and something began to climb out. It hauled itself out of the hole and collapsed onto its side. Its skin was hairless and slick with sweat. It was as black as the night sky and was dark enough to blend in with the shadows. It wore a loincloth made of black fabric, but nothing else.

  More of the agents fell beneath my father’s onslaught. Mark swore when a bullet scored his side. He hunched against the pain and fired at the men who had pinned us down. My dad didn’t stand still long enough to become a target. In ten precise shots, he thinned their numbers down even further. Their body armor and helmets weren’t enough protection against someone who had the skill to shoot them through the eye.

  Behind them, the creature stirred then rolled over onto all fours and pushed itself to its feet.

  Kendricks finally managed to force Zeus to let go of his leg. He staggered back a step when Mark swung his rifle towards him. Instead of firing, Mark’s eyes shifted behind the agent and widened. “Holy mother of…” he trailed off as words failed him when he saw the unholy fiend.

  Kendricks spun around. He was six foot two, but he had to tilt his head back to see the black skinned being. Towering nearly a foot above him, the thing opened its eyes and scarlet light blazed out. It grinned, revealing razor sharp black teeth. Chortling in glee, it drew a hand back and punched its long claws into Kendricks’ chest.

  “What the hell is it?” my dad asked. The gunfight was forgotten and the few remaining agents began backing away. We were the ones who dealt with the worst horrors. They weren’t used to being face to face with the monsters. They broke and ran for the hole in the fence. They preferred to take their chances with the Board’s disapproval rather than to stay and fight whatever this was.

  “I think it’s a demon,” Mark said. The red eyes focused on him and he gulped in terror.

  Mortally wounded, the leader of the O Squad shakily lifted his pistol and emptied the clip of silver bullets into the imp. Flinching, it held up its free hand to shield its eyes. When the gun went silent, it brought the writhing human in close and bit into his face. It tore his bottom jaw off, spat it out then tossed him aside.

  Kendricks hit the ground with a garbled scream. Blood fountained out from the gaping hole where his jaw used to be. Screaming inarticulately, he vainly tried to stem the blood with his hands, but it was a losing battle. Weakening rapidly, he managed to roll his head to see that his team was either dead or had fled. There was no one left to rescue him. His eyes locked on me accusingly as he took a final breath and expired.

  “Well, Kendricks is dead,” Kala said matter-of-factly. Her voice was strained and full of pain from the silver mesh that was holding her down. We were all trying not to move, as if that would somehow ease our agony.

  “Good riddance,” Flynn muttered.

  Examining the blood that coated its fist, the demon licked it off with relish. By mutual agreement, Mark and my father opened fire on it. Shrieking in rage, the creature lashed out with its hands and sent both men flying. My dad landed, rolled a couple of times and was up and firing again almost instantly. Mark landed awkwardly with a crunch. Unlike my father, he didn’t get up. He just lay there with his eyes open, staring at nothing.

  “No!” Reece shouted in anguish and heaved himself a couple of inches off the ground. The silver nets held. The metal pegs had been driven deep into the ground. Weakened by the deadly silver, none of us had the strength to break free.

  The demon turned towards my father and Zeus leaped to his defense. With a contemptuous flick of its wrist, the demon punched a hole in Zeus’ chest. I watched in numb horror as he was casually flicked aside. I screamed hard enough to tear something in my throat at the sight of his broken body hitting the ground.

  My father had picked up another assault rifle and was firing with both hands. The silver bullets didn’t inflict much damage on the hell spawn, but they were enough to give it pause.

  Zeus tried to drag himself over to me to come to my rescue, but he couldn’t muster the strength. Blood coated the grass and sank into the soil, pumping from his wound. He was too shocked to be in pain and he didn’t yet realize that he was dying.

  Reece’s rage spilled over onto me, feeding my own. My wolf howled in misery and even my vampire was furious, but it was the necromancer who took over this time. The silver nets were holding me prisoner and I had no way to free myself. Mark was dead, Zeus was dying and my father would be next if I didn’t do something right now.

  Listening to the dark voice in my head, I didn’t hesitate to follow its command. Drawing on the death magic that I’d been born with, I finally succumbed to the darkness.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Unlike my biological father, I hadn’t grown up with the knowledge that I would one day be able to raise corpses. No one had given me a manual that told me what was and wasn’t possible. All I knew was what I’d read in the PIA archives and what I’d gleaned from my own limited experience. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what I couldn’t do, so as far as I knew, anything was possible.

  I didn’t have time to resurrect a zombie to help me. I would have to escape from the net on my own. Being part-vampire meant I had something in common with zombies; I wasn’t completely alive. They had a trick that was unique to both them and to ghouls. If I could somehow replicate their method of moving beneath the ground, I would be able to free myself.

  In order to do this, I was going to have to concentrate. My necromancer threw a mental blanket over my emotions, enabling my mind to become still. Instead of fighting to free myself from the net, I embraced the ground. The moment I surrendered to the earth, I sank into it like it was water. For a short moment in time, I felt at peace. An instant later, I emerged to stand on my feet several yards away.

  Mark stirred, blinked and sat up. He was dazed, but alive. He must have just been stunned by the demon. My relief that he was okay was short lived. Zeus wasn’t going to have a miraculous recovery. I dropped to my knees beside him and put my hand on the gaping wound in his chest. His heart was intact, but he’d lost a lot of blood. My brief moment of peace shattered as my emotions came boiling back.

  Barely conscious, Zeus rolled his eyes up to my face and licked my hand. His shock was wearing off and agony was setting in. His wound was catastrophic, but he had faith that I would fix this, that I woul
d somehow make him whole again. I knew without doubt that this time there would be no rescue. No one on Earth had the skill to repair a wound this bad.

  Mark staggered over to the rifle he’d dropped and shot the demon in the back. It was toying with my father, but it would soon tire of the game and tear us all apart.

  My link to Zeus was weakening by the second. Tears spilled over, blurring my vision. I pulled him onto my lap and held him tightly. His broken chest moved once, twice then his heart stopped beating.

  The link between us disappeared the moment he died. I howled in pain and misery and my pack mourned with me. Reece, Kala and Flynn added their screams of loss and rage to mine. For a few moments, we became linked more strongly than ever before. Our combined strength was enough for them to burst free from captivity. The silver nets went flying as the pegs popped free. They staggered to their feet to join in the battle. The wounds that had been made by the mesh would take hours to heal, but the pain barely registered. The anguish I felt over losing Zeus was far worse.

  The demon turned, sensing a threat then laughed when it saw us. “Four little shape shifters and two pathetic humans,” it said in a gravelly voice. “Hardly a challenge.”

  Laying Zeus down gently, I stared at the blood that covered my hands and clothes. I was beyond mere grief and was in a state that defied description. He’d been more than my friend and guardian. He’d been a part of me. He’d trusted me to keep him safe and I’d failed him utterly.

  “I’m going to rip you men apart then rape your women to death,” the demon said in glee. I guessed that meant he was male.

  “Over my dead body,” my father said and shot him in the eye.

  The imp roared in rage and leaped forward. Reece moved even faster and shoved my father out of the way. “Let us handle this,” he said to Mark and my dad. Then he, Kala and Flynn attacked the demon together. Firing their guns until they were empty, they reloaded rapidly. I knew their actions were futile. Bullets couldn’t kill something that had clawed its way out of hell itself. It would take evil to destroy evil and there was only one creature who could do it; me.

  Leaning down, I kissed Zeus goodbye then closed my eyes and called on the darkest part of my soul. Finally unleashed from captivity, the necromancer took control. Casting about, there were over thirty corpses in the immediate vicinity. The deceased O Squad and other PIA agents wouldn’t be enough to help me. But I could sense something else that I could call on for assistance. Something that had the capacity to be even more deadly than zombies.

  Unlocking a talent that I’d never used before and hadn’t known existed, something shifted inside me. When I opened my eyes, I saw that we weren’t alone. Hovering a few inches above the ground, six ghosts drifted aimlessly around the base. They were as unaware of us as we were of them. They were on a slightly different plane of existence from us where they couldn’t interact with the living.

  Previously, I’d only been able to see ghosts that had been trapped here by magic. I now had the ability to see spirts who had chosen to remain behind rather than moving on. Just being able to see them wasn’t going to help. I had to find a way to reach them. The only way I could do that was to somehow travel to the same plane as them. My necromancer had a solution, but the thought filled me with unease. It was the only way, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to reverse it if I followed her instructions.

  My father cursed as the demon came close to swiping his claws across his face. If I delayed any longer, everyone that I loved would die. In order to save them, I was going to have to take drastic action.

  As a necromancer, I had control of the undead, including my very own vampire. As the most vital part of me, my wolf would only get in the way. She was reluctant, but she knew what had to be done. She sank deep inside my head until I could barely feel her.

  When practicing at the range with my father in our base in Colorado, I’d managed to slow my heart beat down to the point where I wasn’t breathing while I’d been concentrating on the shot. For a short while, I’d been technically dead. I would have to repeat that act now, but this time it would be for longer.

  My necromancer called my vampire forward. Together, they slowed my breathing down and my heart slowed with it. After a few seconds, I stopped breathing altogether and darkness filled my eyes. My soul stirred, poised on the edge of leaving my body. My necromancer caught it before it could escape. Tethered inside my unbreathing body, it fought to free itself, but my necromancer and vampire wouldn’t let it escape.

  I pushed my consciousness into my soul, hoping that my desperate plan would work. I opened my soul’s eyes and the night became as clear as day to me. It seemed that spirits had different vision to the living. There was no black or white or color of any kind. I now saw purely in shades of gray.

  My soul was no longer embedded inside my body, but it was still connected to me by a thread. I lifted a hand and my physical body didn’t respond. Only my insubstantial ghost hand moved.

  One of the phantoms saw the movement and became more alert. As he drifted over to me, I saw that he’d died at least a century ago, going by his clothes. The others grew curious as well and came to investigate. When they were all together, it became obvious that they were a family. The mother and father floated with their four teenage children between them. All were wispy and insubstantial.

  I touched their minds and found them to be too weak to communicate with me. Operating on pure instinct, I poured my death magic into them. Power seeped into them and they absorbed it like sponges. Now linked to me, I drew them from their limbo back to our world. In moments, they were restored to full strength. Instead of being wispy, they now looked as if they’d just died yesterday. Unfortunately, I was now drained of energy to the point where my vision grayed even further. I didn’t have the strength to help fight the demon. If they failed to do what I asked, we would all be doomed.

  “Necromancer,” the father said. “What do you wish of us?” My necromancer smiled when she realized that I held power that no other corpse raiser had ever had before. I could do far more than just raise the dead. I could now compel phantoms to do my bidding.

  Kala screeched in pain, snapping my attention back to the battle. Her left arm had been half torn off. It hung uselessly at her side, but she continued to fire with her right hand. Flynn tackled the demon to the ground and was immediately thrown off. He spun through the air, landed on his back and bounced to his feet again.

  Reece’s rage finally overwhelmed him. His clothes were torn to shreds as he transformed into a werewolf. Mark and my father watched on in awe as he ripped into the demon with fangs and claws. Even his ferocity wasn’t enough. The hell spawn punched his hand through Reece’s stomach. It exited from his back, dripping with gore. To my spectral eyes, his blood was gray rather than red.

  I snarled in fury at seeing my mate wounded. “Kill that demon,” my necromancer said with my voice and the dead obeyed. Turning on the imp, the ghosts began to become vengeful. Their clothes turned into tattered shrouds and their hair grew long and matted. Howling and moaning, they flew at the demon.

  They weren’t visible to anyone else, but Reece saw them coming through me. Yanking free of the imp, he grabbed hold of Kala and Flynn and drew them aside. His wound healed, leaving no trace of a scar behind. Kala’s arm was also already intact again. She’d healed far faster than normal. My grief swelled again and I wished that Zeus had the same ability to heal himself.

  The demon’s glee turned to confusion when he felt something invisible brush against him. Spinning around, he couldn’t see the ghosts that rushed past. The father was the first to swoop down and pass through him. He became solid at the last moment and the demon howled in pain as rank, black blood burst from his chest. Like us, he healed the wound almost instantly.

  Now that they had his measure, the ghosts went on the attack. The demon roared when one of his arms was torn off. The limb started to grow back, but one of the teenage ghosts threw herself at him. She passed th
rough his flesh, tearing the nub from his body again.

  With relish, they dived at the hell spawn’s chest. Linked to their minds, I experienced the sensation each time they passed through him. His flesh was hot and smelled like sulphur. Each of the six spirits turned solid a moment before they burst from his body. He screamed in agony, but his wounds continued to heal instantly. They’d never finish him off this way.

  Reaching out to my minions with my mind, I directed them to form a circle. I didn’t need to speak to get my intentions across. They read the thought directly from me. As one, they went into motion. In a choreographed move, the four kids each targeted a limb. The mother aimed for his torso and the father aimed for his head.

  On my signal, they passed through him and solidified at the same time. His screech was cut off as his head was ripped loose and his body fell to the ground in seven pieces. He tried to piece himself back together, but now that his head was no longer attached, he couldn’t heal.

  “You can’t kill me,” he grated. “Any damage you cause this body will just heal.”

  My necromancer took command of my body and spoke through my lips. “Try healing this.” She sent a command to the ghost father. Opening his mouth wide, his teeth grew and multiplied until his mouth was full of razor sharp rows of fangs. Plucking the head off the ground, he bit down. The demon shrieked when the teeth sheared into his face. Blood and other fluids squirted and bones crunched when my minion began to chew. Wailing in terrified horror, the imp’s body began to dissipate as his head was consumed.

  Everyone had gathered around the dismembered body in curiosity. They started backwards when it suddenly dissipated and a misshapen gray soul rose from where it had lain. The soul drifted over to the pit and was sucked inside. A distinct pop sounded as the hole that led to hell disappeared. A perfect circle of scorched grass was all that remained.