“Terrific. Who’s our witness?”
“A ten year-old called Tommy Wilkes. He lives in the corner house on Amley Street, backing right onto Cray’s Lane.”
Better than nothing.
“Go on,” I said.
“When all the yelling started, Tommy hunkered down and stayed put, just like he’d been taught. Except he was in his tree house, with a clear view of the street.”
He’d been outdoors, then. Maybe that explained why he had noticed, unlike all the other people nearby. I was listening carefully. And … might we really find out what was happening through the eyes of a child?
“He was pretty scared,” Cass went on, “but in a ten year-old sort of way. Kept bobbing around and peeking. And, just as the screams began dying down, he caught sight of a figure moving away. A man, only in silhouette. But he was tall and pretty gangly.”
She stopped at that point, blinking, something coming to her. And me too. I got up, started moving to the window.
When I looked down, though, the old vagrant with his placard was no longer in sight.
“Well?” Cass asked.
I shook my head.
“He’s wandered off. Probably nothing.”
If he’d been our guy, wouldn’t he do something more than stand there shouting and then disappear? Both of us forgot about him.
“I’ve got something else,” Cassie said.
She was leaning back a little on my desk, with the beginning of a smug smile playing across her features.
“Am I going to have to wait all week to hear about it?”
“As this guy was leaving, well, he left behind a souvenir. Tommy saw an object fall from his hand to the verge. So – being ten years old – once he was certain that the coast was clear, he shimmied down and got it.”
She reached into her pocket. Pulled out something the size of a matchbox, wrapped up in a handkerchief.
I went across, lifted it from her palm, unwrapped it. It seemed to glint very dully in the light above my desk.
My skin started prickling.
I emptied it into my palm. It felt very cool against my skin, far more than was natural. You generally only saw these in the museum over on Fairweather. It was a crude arrowhead, carved out of a lump of flint. The thing had to be hundreds of years old.
What was this about? I held it up between my thumb and forefinger. Its edges were still razor sharp, despite its age. And there were stains on it that looked like they might be blood, except that they were deep black, with the slightest hint of green to it.
I turned it over. Something on its surface winked. So I peered at it a little harder, adjusting its angle in the daylight from my window.
Lettering had been scratched into one of its flatter sides, so lightly I could barely read it. It looked like somebody had done it with a pin, or perhaps a fingernail. Block capital letters. I struggled to make them out.
SARUAK.
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. A name? An invocation of some kind? But there was one thing I was pretty certain of, the more I stared. They were pretty recent, fresh.
“What is it?” Cassie asked me.
“What it looks like, I’d guess.”
“Why would he have left it behind?”
A new void had begun to open up inside me. A bewildered hollowness. Because this – it answered none of our questions. It merely posed new ones. If someone was playing a game with us, then I didn’t understand the rules at all.
“Beats me,” I muttered.
Though that wasn’t entirely the case. Maybe he’d dropped it there for us to find. As to why – that was the real puzzle, wasn’t it?
Extremely gently, I brushed the pad of my thumb against one of the sharpened edges.
And to my astonishment, it cut me. A bead of blood sprang up.
A cold draft moved through my whole office at the self-same time.
The air in front of my desk began to waver gently. Only one thing could make that happen – some kind of sorcery. I held myself in readiness. Wrapped the arrowhead back up, although I held onto it.
Cass, alarmed, got up and went back several paces. Her right hand dropped to one of her Glocks. But the fact was, we could only stand there, waiting to see what was going to happen. And we’d both been in that impasse before.
The wavering grew heavier, like ripples on a pond. It didn’t spread throughout the room, however. It was confined to a single area in front of me. A vaguely rectangular patch of air, its edges uneven but some five foot wide and rising eight feet off the floor. And that shape suggested …
Well, a doorway of some kind.
A drop of perspiration trickled down my brow. This was magic, I was certain. But a kind I’d never seen before.
A glance at Cassie told me she was equally dumbfounded. The bridge of her nose got all creased when she was like that, as if she was annoyed.
“Hey!” she blurted. “What is this?”
The rippling began to slow. As it diminished, something else began to take its place. Merely a vague outline, at first. Then it quickly coalesced into a solid shape.
The air became completely flat and still again. But not empty.
Something was now standing in my office.
EIGHT
It stood several inches taller than I did and was considerably broader.
But, despite the fact that it had all the usual requirements – two arms, two legs, a head – it wasn’t even remotely human. So maybe this was the ‘something’ that Raine had warned me of.
Its shoulders were as wide as one side of my desk. It was superbly muscled, with a great barrel chest. At first, I thought it might have fur. But then I saw that that was a mistake. It was smooth. An even, pale gray hue all over, a murky color that seemed a little indistinct, like the creature was made partly out of dust. That was not the case, though. It was definitely solid. Its weight was making the worn parquet floor creak underneath it slightly. And I could smell its rank, meaty breath from here.
Its legs were bowed slightly, the feet massive. And its arms were unnaturally long. It had hands rather than paws – as large as catcher’s mitts – but there were no nails at the ends of the fingers. There appeared to be something unusual about the tips of them, although I couldn’t tell quite what.
It growled, a noise like rocks coming apart. My gaze went to its face. It was densely ridged and oval. There seemed to be something rather lupine about it. A suggestion of sharpness to the muzzle. A savagery to the heavy brow. Its ears were long, went to sharp tips, and were pressed back flat against its skull. Its eyes shone an iridescent green, and studied us both threateningly.
But it was its mouth that was the worst thing, for the moment anyhow. Curving fangs protruded across the lips, distorting them. The beast was drooling gently, and it grunted as it breathed.
What was this? I took a step backward, becoming aware of something else. It had materialized between ourselves and the only doorway out of here.
I tried to edge round it a little. Cassie, very gingerly, did the same It responded by lifting those great hands of its a little higher. And, where I‘d noticed something odd about the fingertips …
Retractable claws – about six inches long and sharp-looking as scalpels – all came snicking out.
It snarled again, hunched forward, and its mouth gaped open. There were several rows of fangs in there. I realized, in the dull shock of that moment, that at least we now knew what had been in Garnerstown last night.
I had a brief thought. Who created this?
And then my hand was reaching for the Smith & Wesson in my coat.
Cass, as usual, beat me to it. Her gaze became cold, her features set like stone. And one of her Glocks came snaking up.
Her first round, fired almost at point-blank range, hit the creature, making it snarl again, but then bounced off it. It left a small, dull mark against the thing’s gray hide, but that was all. I heard her curse.
But Ms. Mallory doesn’t ever give
up on the first attempt. She simply drew her other handgun, started emptying both clips into the beast.
The creature stumbled back under the onslaught, but then started to fight against it, rapidly recovering.
I had my revolver out, was firing as well. But to an equal lack of real effect. The thing just took our heat, wincing with discomfort. And kept on pressing forward, trying to snatch the guns from both our hands. Its claws made a whistling noise, splitting the very air. We were the ones going back by this time, and I didn’t like that. You can’t fight properly if you have to keep retreating.
It couldn’t disarm both of us if we separated. So I stepped sideways, behind my desk. Gun smoke had already filled the room, my eyes were stinging gently. I was shaking slightly, wondering how to beat this thing.
The creature paused a moment, trying to decide which of us to follow. Its head went even lower and its green eyes blinked. And then its shining gaze pinioned me. I’m not quite sure why. Cassie was the greater threat. But perhaps it had noticed that I still had the arrowhead in my left hand.
The beast suddenly lurched forward, ramming so hard into my desk it overturned it. My chair flipped over savagely, forcing me to jump back. I dodged across to one side, tried to fire again.
The hammer came down on an empty chamber. And the creature was stepping up onto my capsized desk by this time. I glanced desperately at Cass.
One of her slim eyebrows arched. She tossed me her second Glock. She uses the extended clips, so she had plenty of shots to spare. The creature swiped at me with its long talons, missing me by barely an inch. I put three rounds straight into the center of its chest. It staggered back again and let out something that I reckon might have been a moan. But then it just recovered, like the last time.
I could see there was no stopping it this way. We might as well be taking potshots at the side of a barn door. There was another handgun in the top drawer of my desk, a Magnum. Except my desk was lying on its side. And the creature had climbed on top of it once more.
I snatched up my fallen chair and hurled it at it, acting out of desperation. One of those huge arms simply batted it away.
Cass, though, had a clear run at the door by this time. I’d at least succeeded in drawing it away from her. She took the chance that she’d been given, yelling back over her shoulder, “I’ll be as quick as I can! Just hold it off!”
Thanks. I’d already figured that one out. I tried shooting at the creature’s temples. That got me a slightly better result. It pawed at them and stopped for a few seconds. But it wasn’t backing off from me, now. Not even a little bit.
I could hear Cass’ boots hammering down the stairwell, and I knew where she was headed. I just wasn’t sure what kind of condition I would be in by the time that she got back.
Perhaps it wanted the arrowhead. But that was the only solid lead we had. I wasn’t about to give it up. I dropped it into one of my pockets, freeing up both of my hands.
I put another slug into the creature’s face. Hit the corner of its mouth this time. It groaned again. Spat out a few flecks of darker gray liquid that I guessed was blood. But I’d already noticed something else. Those faint marks we’d managed to graze its hide with were already fading. This beast was not only hard to damage. When you did hurt it, it healed up quickly.
I barely pulled my head away as its claws went singing past my face.
I was backing off again, moving crabwise. Being forced into a corner. The chair I’d thrown was lying nearby, so I snatched that up as well.
By this stage, the creature wasn’t even flinching when the 9mms struck it. It seemed to have grown used to them. Determination shone in those peculiar, glittering eyes.
A click.
The Glock was empty. I dropped it, then held the chair out at full stretch in front of me. Where the hell was Cass?
The talons came whizzing downward. The chair fell to pieces like balsawood. A second set of claws came swiping at me but I ducked underneath the blow, dropping to the floor, rolling away. Then I lunged for my desk and scrabbled round behind it.
Tried to yank it upright, which was not an easy job. It was big, and built of stout New England oak. Difficult for just one man. But I kept on heaving, managing to get its top edge a few inches off the ground. The drawers slid partly open. I could hear the Magnum rattling around.
The creature – out of pique, perhaps – kicked the far end of it, sending it slamming into me. I found myself skidding across the floor, till I finally wound up against the far wall. I was bruised and dazed, but squinted back in the direction that I’d come.
The creature wasn’t climbing over the desk, this time. It was wading right through it with those massive hind legs, trampling it to get at me. It made huffing noises as it progressed, spittle flying through the air, like it was filled with pressured steam and it was going to explode.
I thought of the arrowhead again. When I reached inside my pocket, though … it wasn’t there. I tried the right one, with no better result. Maybe it had fallen out. I stared across the floor.
Too late. The beast was above me, like a storm cloud that had gathered. One of its hands was coming down again. I scrabbled to get out of its way.
Air rushed across my neck. I felt a tug, the back of my coat being torn. But otherwise, I got away unscathed. Except for how much longer?
In the ruin that had been my desk, I could see my other handgun, glinting dully in the wreckage. Still on my hands and knees, I went toward it breathlessly. And was just about to grab it when a vicious pain ran through my leg.
The creature had simply turned around, stepped forward. And – as casually as stepping on a bug – had planted a foot on my lower calf.
The muscles flared with pain. My leg was pinned in place like it had been nailed to the floor. Although the creature wasn’t trying to crush it, merely stopping me from going anywhere. When I tried to wriggle loose, it increased the pressure slightly. When I reached out for the gun, it did the same.
I took the discomfort, stretching out my arm until the fingertips were shaking. They got almost to within an inch of the Magnum, but no closer than that.
I twisted around to see what was happening.
Its right arm had come up once more. Its talons caught the light. This time, it wasn’t going to miss.
The claws were sweeping down next instant. I was raising both my arms to shield my face, as if that would make the slightest difference.
When a loud explosion made the entire office rock.
The gray creature was almost lifted off its feet. It went back practically two yards, slamming against a cabinet and then nearly losing its balance altogether. So it could be injured. Its jaws split open as wide as they could, and it let out a shriek that nearly burst my eardrums.
Breathing hard, I hauled myself half upright and then glanced toward the doorway. Cass was standing in it, triumph dancing in her gaze, the Mossberg smoking in her grasp. She didn’t load the thing with ordinary cartridges, either. She used BRI ‘saboted’ slugs, capable of blowing holes right through a concrete wall. And from the range that she had fired …
I looked back at the creature she had hit.
The round had penetrated slightly, leaving a dent in its stomach from which dark gray was leaking. A bruise the color of lead was becoming apparent round it. That looked more permanent than the other marks. I didn’t think that it would heal real soon.
But the thing wasn’t anywhere near dead. Obviously stunned and in genuine pain. It remained to be proven, though, if we could finish it for good.
Cass seemed eager to try. Her eyes narrowed and she bit her lower lip. She worked the pump, then stepped in closer, aiming for the head at nearly point-blank range.
The creature looked up, understood what she was doing. Its contorted features grew alarmed. I expected it to try and move away. Instead of which …
The air around it started rippling again, much faster than before.
And between one moment and the next, it h
ad completely disappeared.
A long and breathless pause, as we stared at the empty space it had left, was finally broken by an aggravated “Damn!” from Cassie. She looked furious.
Not that I didn’t sympathize. But – for my own part – I was just pleased the thing was gone. It wasn’t her leg that had gotten stamped on, after all.
I doubled over and massaged my calf. Cass, still holding the shotgun, came and stood beside me, panting gently.
“You okay?” she asked.
“There’s probably nothing broken. That’s the up side. It still hurts.”
“Sorry about leaving you like that.”
She’d forgotten her annoyance. Her face was apologetic.
“No – you did the right thing. Thanks.”
I stared rather numbly at the wreckage strewn around my office.
“Ever see anything like that before?” I asked.
“I’m sure I’d remember.”
“Yuh.”
But I started to wonder. I hadn’t even told Cass about my conversation at the Manor yet, but … if this was the ‘visitor’ Raine had talked about?
There was something missing. Whatever that creature had been, it seemed merely an animal and nothing more, with no guiding intelligence. Why would it leave an arrowhead for us to find? It didn’t even answer Tommy Wilkes’ description.
And if it was doing someone else’s bidding, then what kind of lunatic would conjure up a sheer monstrosity like that?
Cassie murmured ‘damn’ again. Walked across to where the beast had last been, then stooped down and picked something up. Displayed it to me in her open palm. It was the saboted slug she’d fired, flattened to a pancake. It had caused some damage, certainly. But had not even penetrated fully. All the victory had melted from her eyes by this time, and they glimmered with a quiet dismay.
This was definitely something quite out of the ordinary we were facing.
I edged across and finally picked up my Magnum. Then I stood up properly, carefully distributing my weight. My leg was aching badly. That would be the case for quite a while. But at least I was mobile.
Dark Rain Page 7